The Athabasca River Basin — one of Canada’s great northern watersheds — is under mounting pressure from decades of oil sands extraction. In 2024, Ecojustice, the Alberta Wilderness Association, and Keepers of the Water took an unprecedented step: they filed a statement of concern asking the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) to recognize the Athabasca River Basin as a legal person with the right to participate in decisions that affect its health.
The request came in response to an application by Canadian Natural Upgrading Ltd. (CNUL) to renew its permits for the Jackpine Mine, an open-pit oil sands project north of Fort McMurray that withdraws nearly 50 million litres of water a day from the watershed. CNUL’s application sought AER approval to continue operating the Mine for another decade — despite crucial information gaps about water quality, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and the Mine’s long-term effects on the Basin.
The groups argued that recognizing the Athabasca River Basin as a “directly and adversely affected person” and accepting its statement of concern is both legally possible and urgently needed. The Basin, they noted, is being directly impacted by water withdrawals, air and water contamination, and habitat destruction from the Mine. The AER has broad authority under Alberta law to interpret “person” in a way that includes non-human entities — just as courts and governments in Canada and worldwide have recognized rivers as legal persons, including Quebec’s Magpie River and New Zealand’s Whanganui River.
After the AER dismissed the Basin’s concerns and declined to rule on the Basin’s legal personhood, Ecojustice filed a regulatory appeal in 2025 on behalf of the Athabasca River Basin. The appeal challenges the AER’s decision to renew the Jackpine Mine permits without an adequate assessment, despite evidence that CNUL’s application failed to meet mandatory information requirements.
