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An Alberta judge has dismissed a First Nation’s application for a judicial review targeting the program tasked with making sure coal mine and oilsands operators have the money to clean up their operations.
In his decision Wednesday, Justice Shannon Davis of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta said he was dismissing the application for a review because the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) did not serve legal notice to all parties considered directly affected within the required six-month window.
The ACFN said it had only served the Alberta government because its lawyers considered the dispute to be over the Crown’s duty to consult. Canadian Natural Resources, Suncor Energy and Imperial Oil argued they should have also been served because they would have been directly affected by any changes to the program.
Davis agreed with the companies as he gave his decision in a Fort McMurray courtroom. He called the rule requiring a six-month timeline to be “strict, harsh and inflexible.”
“A six-month time limit to both file and serve an originating application cannot be extended or varied,” he said. “Failure to either file or serve within the limitation period is fatal.”
The ACFN was challenging Alberta’s Mine Financial Security Program (MFSP), which requires oilsands and coal mine operators to have the financial ability to cover reclamation costs once their operations close.
The courthouse in downtown Fort McMurray, Alta. on Feb. 14, 2026. (Vincent McDermott/CBC)
Instead of collecting the full cleanup costs upfront, the program allows oilsands operators to use an “asset-to-liability” approach. This means company assets can be used as collateral against future closure costs if the assets are three times greater than their liability.
The Alberta Energy Regulator said as of June 30, 2025, liabilities were $52.7 billion while the MFSP has collected $2.6 billion in securities since the program started in 2011. The MFSP asset value was reported to be $683 billion.
The province began a review of the program in 2022. During consultations, the ACFN argued the MFSP was poorly run and pointed to past reports from the auditor general that were critical of the program.
A tailings pond at an oilsands facility is seen from a helicopter near Fort McMurray, Alta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
The ACFN’s concerns included allegations the program underestimates operators’ liabilities, does not consider changes to global oil markets that could hasten shutdowns and fails to incentivize reclamation throughout a mine’s life.
The MFSP was reissued in October 2024 and updated later that December. The ACFN said it believed its concerns were not reflected or considered, and filed for a judicial review in April 2025.
Environmental law organization Ecojustice represented the ACFN. Ecojustice lawyer Susanne Calabrese said in a statement that the court’s dismissal was “disappointing” and that the organization is considering its legal options. Calabrese also said the court did not address the ACFN’s concerns.
“ACFN maintains their position that Alberta has failed to uphold its constitutional obligations to ensure the oilsands mines on ACFN’s traditional territories are properly reclaimed, and that Alberta’s Mine Financial Security Program is grossly inadequate to ensure ACFN’s lands can ultimately be restored,” she said.
“Proper reclamation is not just an environmental issue — it’s an Albertan taxpayer issue, a human issue and an Indigenous rights issue. This should concern all Albertans.”
A spokesperson for Alberta’s Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas said the province is reviewing the decision. Lawyers for Suncor, Canadian Natural Resources and Imperial Oil did not respond to requests for comment.