[Questioning] Is it time for legislation yet?

It's truly amazing. The day Syncrude is fined $3 million for failing to prevent the deaths of 1600 migrating ducks that landed in one of the company's tailings ponds, CBC reports that more dead ducks have been found in other Syncrude, Shell and Suncor facilitites! See the CBC story here (or copy and paste this URL: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2010/10/26/edmonton-more-ducks-tailings-pond.html)

This just goes to show that fines are totally fucking meaningless in Alberta's oil patch. They are especially joke-worthy when we consider who's paying the fine - the richest goddam companies in the country! These 'fines' are not deterrents in any way, shape or form. They have hardly, if at all, influenced the behaviour of oil sands operators, nor caused any major change in operations. Most importantly, the ducks (and other animals) are still dying. What do the fines do, other than raise money for the very governments that are currently working to protect the tar sands? How many dead ducks does it take for Fisheries and Oceans Canada to wake up and realize that they are completely and utterly failing to enforce legislation for which they are responsible? How many times does Stelmach's government need to mess up before Albertans revolt?

It's time to take this issue seriously. It's time for legislation and regulation of this industry, and a reevaluation on the real costs of this endeavor. It's time to ditch meaningless fines and start thinking about prosecuting the useless fuckheads who run these companies and the moron politicians who claim that they're "frustrated and disappointed" but have nothing to show for it. If anything, Renner and Stelmach should be frustrated and disappointed that clodpate, excrement-spewing, Big-Oil-apologist imbeciles like themselves have the political power to do something about this and yet fail do to so.