Hand-wringing over tailing-pond bird deaths must end

Let’s close this file for good, writes W. Brett Wilson

A few months back, the latest story of bird deaths in the oilsands went national. More than 100 birds had died at Suncor’s Fort Hills oilsands mine.

The Huffington Post reported that although the mine was not yet operating, bird deterrent systems (including cannons, radar scanners and scarecrows) were functioning.

Mystified by the event, Suncor began its own investigation. The Alberta Energy Regulator jumped up to advise it would send an inspector to the site. Likewise, the provincial government promised to carefully consider the report to see if additional actions would be needed to prevent further incidents. The premier herself chose to comment on the story.

To all of which I say, “Oh, puuuleeese. Stop.” Indeed, let’s put this story into perspective. According to online data, in the U.S. alone, somewhere between one billion and three billion birds are killed every year by feral cats.

That doesn’t include deaths by wind turbines, windows, vehicles, power lines, communication towers or agricultural chemicals. This fall, an unlucky peacock from the Calgary Zoo earned headlines after bolting from a winter roundup and flying into the lion enclosure, thereby meeting an untimely end-of-life experience.

It’s not news that billions of birds are killed annually in a wide variety of ways. But it is national news when 100 birds die in a tailings pond in northern Alberta.

Of course, no one wants to see these or any birds die unnecessarily. Companies work diligently to protect them, which costs tens of millions of dollars in terms of compliance every year. But mistakes and accidents will happen. And when they do, companies and regulators investigate, and do their best to ensure these events don’t happen again.

But that’s not enough. Why? Because some environmentalists want to conflate the deaths of these birds into something much greater. I con- sider myself an environmentalist and I respect others who have different views about how best to protect the environment we all share.

However, unless we are going to do a daily count of bird deaths across North America, I don’t need to hear about a few birds that are dying in remote tailings ponds. And neither do you.

Yes, we’re empathetic as a society. As is our energy industry. No, we don’t want to kill innocent birds (except a few for sport and food). But it’s just crazy to let social media and the “I-hateoilsands” activists frame our national agenda based on an immaterial number of bird deaths.

These deaths in no way impugn the Canadian energy industry’s exemplary environmental stewardship record. Yet these stories get inflammatory national headlines and undue political attention. It’s time for it to stop.

It’s occurred to me that one of the easy solutions to the tailings pond/ bird death controversies is to encourage the province to simply hire summer students armed with hunting licences and suitable shotguns to just kill the birds when they fly near tailings ponds. That way, their deaths will be deemed sport and the energy companies can’t be blamed. Yes, I am drizzling sarcasm all over this issue. But that’s how ridiculous this situation has become.

Imagine how far the tens of millions of dollars wasted on legal wrangling over tailing ponds and birds could go in alleviating our issues of homelessness and mental wellness.

As the world becomes more polarized with increasingly onerous standards of care on Canada’s energy companies, here are a few suggestions. Let’s be willing to listen to the issues around resource development respectfully, and rationally respond to concerns based on the facts — while assessing their relative severity, and refusing to get derailed by extremist positions.

Let’s give due credit to Canada’s energy and other industries — which have for years developed our most valuable resources responsibly, sustainably and safely, and afforded us a standard of living and opportunity that draws people here from all over the world.

And let’s close the bird file for good, and get on with a fair, responsible, and collaborative national energy strategy that reflects the interests of Canadians. Anything less is for the birds.

I don’t need to hear about a few birds that are dying in remote tailings ponds.