Supposedly this tragedy happened because Syncrude had not yet deployed “noise cannons ” around the lake to scare off the birds. I dunno — when I first saw similar cannons a few years ago, they were loud and obnoxious, but many birds simply ignored them and came and went as they pleased. I suspect that the tar sands tailing ponds, positioned in the middle of a migratory bird flyway are bound to attract and cause the death of hundreds, if not thousands of birds every year. The Federation of Alberta Naturalists has complained about the tailing ponds for years.

What’s troubling (though not surprising) is that Baird is comfortable talking about open lakes of toxic sludge and environmentally friendly “economic activity” in the same breath. No wonder six Alberta conservation groups are suing Baird for failing to protect endangered bird habitat.

When will this “New” free-market, Conservative government start to encourage sustainable energy development and cancel all oil and gas subsidies.  It’s tragic and immoral that tar sands development is causing the death of so much wildlife. The fact that Canadian taxpayers are helping to fund this carnage through billion-dollar subsidies is just plain stupid.