Environment and Industry News
Cracking down on illegal dumping
This fall, Alberta’s government plans to introduce legislation to strengthen penalties for illegal dumping and increase oversight of large waste facilities. The proposed amendments to the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act would significantly increase fines, with individual offenders facing penalties of $10,000 to $100,000 and corporations facing fines of $100,000 to $1 million. Courts would also have the authority to impose jail sentences of a minimum of 30 days to a maximum of six months.
Illegal dumping continues to create serious problems across Alberta, with garbage and construction debris left along roadsides, on farmland, private property and public lands. When waste is dumped illegally, communities, landowners and taxpayers are often left to deal with the clean-up costs and environmental damage. Strengthening penalties will hold offenders accountable, protect private property and public lands, and deter illegal dumping.
“Albertans work hard to keep their communities, farms and public lands clean. Illegal dumping damages our environment, violates private property and leaves Albertans paying for someone else’s mess. Waste must be disposed of responsibly. We’re cracking down so those who choose to break the law face tougher penalties and serious consequences.”
Danielle Smith, Premier
“With stronger oversight of higher-risk waste and storage facilities and tougher penalties for illegal dumping, Alberta is protecting our environment, strengthening communities and standing up for private property owners.”
Grant Hunter, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas
In addition to increasing penalties for illegal dumping, Alberta’s government will strengthen oversight of higher-risk waste transfer and storage facilities. Lower-risk facilities could continue under the existing streamlined notification process, while higher-risk facilities handling larger volumes or storing waste for longer periods would be required to obtain provincial registration and meet additional operating requirements. This would focus stronger oversight where it is needed most without adding unnecessary requirements for lower-risk facilities.
“Illegal dumping is not a victimless act. These proposed changes will make Alberta’s penalties the most severe in the country and send a clear message that those who break the law should bear the costs of their actions.”
Mickey Amery, Minister of Justice
“These proposed changes would strengthen enforcement, increase penalties and help ensure those who dump waste illegally face meaningful consequences for their actions. By giving officers stronger tools to investigate and enforce the law, we are sending a clear message that illegal dumping will not be tolerated in Alberta.”
Mike Ellis, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services
“Alberta communities invest in waste and recycling facilities so residents have responsible options to dispose of unwanted materials. These tougher penalties are about respect: respect for property, respect for the taxpayers who shouldn’t foot the bill, and respect for the neighbours who work hard to keep our communities clean.”
Dan Williams, Minister of Municipal Affairs
Alberta’s government will continue working with municipalities, agricultural organizations, industry and enforcement partners to strengthen compliance, improve public reporting and raise awareness about the impacts of illegal dumping.
Alberta and Canada advance high-speed rail plan
Alberta’s government is preparing to launch a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) process this fall, inviting private-sector proponents to submit proposals for a downtown Calgary-Red Deer-downtown Edmonton high-speed rail project that also includes service to Alberta’s two largest airports and the City of Airdrie. The successful proponent’s project proposal will be expected to include minimal financial investment by the provincial government and be integrated into existing passenger rail systems in Calgary and Edmonton. Alberta’s government plans to select a proponent by April 2027.
The Government of Canada also committed today that the Calgary-Red Deer-Edmonton High-Speed Rail corridor will be referred to the federal Major Projects Office as a transformative strategy and will work with Alberta to advance the project once a private proponent has been selected by the Government of Alberta. The two governments will work collaboratively to support planning and the advancement of the project, including exploring financing options.
“Connecting Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton with high-speed rail would be a generational investment in Alberta’s future. As our province continues to grow, we need to build the infrastructure that keeps people, businesses and our economy moving. By working with the federal government, we are taking the next steps toward a project that could strengthen one of Canada’s fastest-growing economic corridors and support Alberta’s growth for decades to come.”
Danielle Smith, Premier
“Throughout the development of Alberta’s Passenger Rail Master Plan, we heard that a high-speed passenger rail connection between Calgary and Edmonton via Red Deer is a priority for Albertans. We are excited to move forward with this project, which will transform the way Albertans travel.”
Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors
The Calgary-Red Deer-Edmonton corridor is home to about 80 per cent of Alberta’s population and is one of Canada’s fastest-growing economic regions. High-speed rail would provide another transportation option for the corridor while helping reduce pressure on the QEII Highway.
Alberta’s Passenger Rail Master Plan identifies a high-speed regional service between Calgary and Edmonton as part of a phased 30-year network focused on the passenger rail connections with the greatest potential demand and economic benefit.
“High-speed rail has great potential to reshape the way people move in Canada, and supports Alberta’s economic growth, productivity and regional connectivity. Today’s collaboration demonstrates our shared commitment to exploring opportunities that could deliver lasting benefits for Albertans and Canadians.”
Steven MacKinnon, Minister of Transport, Government of Canada
High-speed rail connecting Calgary and Edmonton would offer Albertans the option of taking safe, reliable, frequent and fast trains between Alberta’s two largest cities in less than two hours and make it easier to work and do business in the Edmonton-Red Deer-Calgary corridor.
Severe dust pollution blowing into Alberta community downwind of the oilsands, study warns
When Jean L’Hommecourt looks out over her home in Fort McKay towards the banks of the Athabasca River, thick dust often clouds the horizon.
Sheets of blowing grit tint the sky a dull brown. The community, located in the heart of the oilsands, roughly 55 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, Alta., is surrounded by surface mines and industrial development.
“Looking north, the sky is discoloured,” said L’Hommecourt, a former environmental manager for the Fort McKay First Nation and a long-time traditional land use researcher.
“You can see it drifting up from the mines,” she said. “The wind, you can’t escape it.”
New peer-reviewed research published in Atmospheric Pollution Research shows that Fort Mckay faces disproportionately high levels of dust pollution, with levels frequently exceeding regulatory guidelines for air quality.
Researchers found that the Indigenous community is plagued by severe dustfall events driven by large particles of dust— thick, coarse grit that settles over the community in short-lived but intense peaks that are missed by conventional monitoring.
Led by University of Toronto PhD candidate Kristin Iorio, alongside independent researchers in Alberta, the study warns that continuing to rely on standard air monitoring measures will leave the true impact of dustfall pollution on Fort McKay — and other communities downwind of intensive resource development — uncertain.
Iorio said most of the grit that blows into the northeastern Alberta community comes from large particles of dust that are overlooked by Alberta’s ambient air quality guidelines.
“We don’t know and that is a very dangerous place to be,” she said. “And what we don’t know can very well hurt us.”
The study found monthly dustfall volumes were higher compared to other communities across the Wood Buffalo region.
During 24 months of sampling, Fort McKay’s monthly dustfall exceeded Alberta Ambient Air Quality Guidelines 17 times, and more than doubled the acceptable threshold nearly 20 percent of the time.
Dustfall buckets and ambient sampling
To evaluate the extent of dust exposure, researchers analyzed data collected between late 2022 and mid-2025 by the Wood Buffalo Environmental Association and the Fort McKay Sustainability Department.
Much of the data was gathered using open plastic buckets that captured dust as it fell to the earth. Samples were also collected using ambient air quality tools — optical air monitors and 24-hour Teflon filter samplers — to measure particulate matter pollution drifting across the region.
Researchers conducted sampling in five communities: Fort McKay, Fort McMurray, Anzac, Janvier, and Conklin. The dustfall buckets were also placed at additional sites throughout Fort McKay, including backyard fences and the local industrial park.
Fort McKay received the highest amount of dustfall among all studied locations — about double the next-highest site in Conklin, which is more than 150 kilometres south of Fort McMurray.
“Communities that are more impacted by larger particles are falling through the cracks because there is no monitoring of these larger particles,” Iorio said.
The regulatory gap
When it comes to particulate matter pollution in Alberta, the province regulates and monitors PM2.5 levels — tiny dust particles that are 2.5 micrometres or smaller. This fine particulate matter, which includes pollution from smoke and exhaust fumes, is small enough to penetrate deep into a person’s lungs and enter their bloodstream.
However, the province doesn’t have specific rules for particles larger than 10 micrometres (PM10), coarse particulate matter that can get trapped in the nose or throat.
This coarser dust pollution often comes from industrial sites, construction work and mining operations, Iorio said. Other local sources in the oilsands include land clearing, haul road traffic, limestone quarrying and tailings ponds — a problem expected to grow more severe, as mines continue to expand their footprint and climate change dries the local landscape, she said.
“Without regulation of these larger particles, it creates a situation where there’s no real oversight,” Iorio said.
“Even those large particles can have a health impact, because you don’t know what’s in those particles.”
Dust collectors, equipped with bird deterrent spikes, were deployed across Fort McKay and neighbouring communities throughout the Wood Buffalo region. (Submitted by Kristin Iorio)
To address these regulatory gaps, the study’s authors recommend major changes in the way Alberta manages and monitors industrial dust.
Iorio said the province needs to establish a formal hourly Alberta Ambient Air Quality Objective for PM10 contamination to capture short-lived, high-intensity dust events that currently go untracked. She noted that Alberta’s existing air quality thresholds for dustfall and airborne particles have not been updated since 1975.
In Fort McKay, she said additional monitoring is needed, including ongoing dustfall collection paired with real-time tracking to determine where exactly the dust is coming from and warn residents when the situation becomes severe.
‘A mismatch’
Ke Du is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary. He specializes in air quality, atmospheric emissions, and particulate matter research.
He said his research echoes the study authors’ calls for expanded continuous monitoring and new ambient air guidelines.
He said industrial pollution, including dust and greenhouse gas emissions, can be highly episodic — events that Alberta’s ambient monitoring guidelines do not capture.
“There is a mismatch between the dust pollution and conventional monitoring practices,” he said.
“Beyond dust, other pollutants can have these same issues. So if we want to design a monitoring program, continuous monitoring is the key.”
He said the level of contamination measured in Fort McKay is concerning. Further research in the region is needed to investigate the community’s dust problem and the potential implications on local health.
The Alberta Energy Regulator and the Fort McKay First Nation declined to comment on the paper.
Alberta Environment officials say the findings will be considered alongside the “broader body of scientific evidence as Alberta evaluates whether changes to monitoring approaches, ambient air quality objectives or guidelines may be warranted.”
Ministry officials said Alberta relies on multiple indicators and programs to assess dust-related conditions and air quality in the region, and is also supporting Fort McKay’s community-led dust-monitoring program.
For longtime residents like L’Hommecourt, the research confirms what Fort McKay residents have reported for decades.
Community leaders and researchers have long questioned whether current systems to track air quality in Fort McKay are adequate and previous studies have raised the alarm over air quality.
“I am very worried for the health of my community,” L’Hommecourt said.
This is how fast Swiss glaciers, the ‘water tower of Europe,’ are melting away
Glaciers in Switzerland — the home to the most in the Alps — lost 5.5 per cent of their ice volume this year, the second-biggest percentage drop on record due to heat waves and low winter snowfall, experts report.
“Alpine glaciers have no chance of surviving in the long term under such conditions,” the GLAMOS Swiss glacier monitoring service and Swiss Academy of Sciences said in a statement Thursday.
The trend has worsened in recent years. Over the past five years alone, the volume of ice in Switzerland has declined by nearly a fifth, the experts say.
The report testifies to the latest concerns that global warming is wreaking havoc on Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent.
“The warming that we are experiencing now can be attributed 100 per cent to anthropogenic climate change. It’s as simple as that,” said Matthias Huss, who heads GLAMOS. “Without human emissions or fossil fuels we wouldn’t have any warming at the moment.”
Why low snowfall was a big problem
The record retreat of glacier ice in Switzerland came in 2022, when summer heat, low winter snowfall and an unusual smattering of reddish dust blown in from the Sahara darkened the glaciers and caused them to absorb more heat.
Huss said the snow cover in winter was important for two reasons.
Matthias Huss, of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and glacier monitoring group GLAMOS, and Monica Ursina Jaeger drill holes into the Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (Matthias Schrader/The Associated Press)
“On the one hand, it protects the bare ice from melting. The longer you have snow, the longer you avoid the loss of old ice,” said Huss in an interview at the Federal Polytechnic Institute ETHZ, where he is a glaciology professor.
“On the other hand, the snow is important also for generating new food for the glacier. The more snow you have, the higher the potential to keep some of the snow at high elevation and to form new ice.”
The great thaw in Europe’s legendary Alps is not alone: Experts say global warming helped to destabilize a Himalayan slope that collapsed in August and unleashed catastrophic and deadly flooding across Nepal. Satellites have shown vast shrinkage of glaciers in places like Greenland and Antarctica over the last half-century or so.
In Switzerland, in absolute terms, volume lost has been less than that in 2003, but the percentage decline this year is greater. That’s because the total volume today is roughly a third of that 23 years ago. Back then, the relative loss was 3.5 per cent of total ice volume in Swiss glaciers.
Such accelerated ice melt has had an impact in Switzerland — the loss of 2.2 trillion litres from July to September amounts to four times the annual consumption of water in the country of about 9.1 million people. Switzerland gets more than half of its electricity from hydropower.
But the impact of accelerated glacier melt ripples far beyond: Switzerland is the water tower of Europe, and feeds some of the continent’s most important rivers: the Danube, Po, Rhine and Rhone.
The experts say the “extreme melting” faced by Switzerland’s glaciers this year included a decline in the average thickness of individual glaciers between two and half and four metres — and a reduction of up to 10 metres on the tongue of some glaciers.
Which glaciers saw the biggest melt
The expert teams have fanned out to assess runoff and crevices caused by the running water through the glaciers, in part by dumping red dye into the streams to track the water flows.
The Allalin, Clarident, Rhone and Aletsch glaciers — Aletsch being the largest in the Alps — were among the glaciers to experience their biggest melt on record this year.
“We just need to stabilize the climate by reducing CO2 emissions and this will help the glaciers,” said Huss, of GLAMOS, though he added that it is “almost too late” to save those in the Swiss Alps.
“For the ice in the polar regions like the ice sheets, there it’s not yet too late,” he said. “There, we can make a difference and we need to make a difference in order to limit sea level rise, for example, a factor that is a fundamental threat to billions of people living along the coast.”
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