Whether you agree or not with the manner in which this whole process has evolved, the end game here is rather telling as to the importance of making sure that your regulatory process and status is in line with the requirements and expectations of the agencies.
UPDATE: Judge accepts sentencing deal; Syncrude Canada to pay $3 million in penalties for the deaths of 1,600 ducks in its oilsands tailings pond
Lawyers suggest $3 M fine for Syncrude over 1,600 duck deaths
Two dead mallard drakes floating in a bitumen mat in the Syncrude Aurora Tailings Pond in April 2008 near Ft. Mc Murray, Alberta.
Photograph by: Todd Powell, Handout
ST. ALBERT, Alta. — An Alberta judge will decide Friday if he'll impose a $3-million creative sentence on Syncrude Canada over federal and provincial charges stemming from the deaths of more than 1,600 ducks on one of its oilsands tailings pond two years ago.
The sentence — suggested by both Crown and Syncrude attorneys — will also include a research program, a conservation program and a collaboration with Keyano College, all funded by the Syncrude, in a bid to make amends for a case that made international headlines, as photos of oil-drenched waterfowl fuelled opposition to oilsands development and calls for bans on synthetic crude.
Syncrude could have faced fines of up to $500,000 under provincial legislation and $300,000 under federal legislation, as well as a maximum jail term of six months.
Federal Crown lawyer Kent Brown said he didn't intend to seek a jail sentence for company executives, but he suggested after Syncrude's June 25 conviction that he could ask for the maximum fine for each one of the 1,600 birds that perished.
Crown and defence lawyers instead presented the joint submission to Judge Ken Tjosvold in St. Albert provincial court Friday morning.
Syncrude lawyer Robert White contended throughout the trial that the oilsands giant did nothing unlawful.
White said his client cannot be convicted for failing to prevent the deaths of the ducks because it can't be convicted of failing to do the impossible.
Syncrude argued at a trial that stretched more than eight weeks that it couldn't have foreseen that the region would be hit by the second heaviest snowfall in 60 years. It claimed its employees could not have been reasonably expected to deploy duck deterrents around the toxic tailings basin.
But prosecutors argued Syncrude failed to prevent birds from landing on its 12-kilometre settling basin, north of Fort McMurray, on April 28, 2008, because it didn't put out bird-deterrent canons and effigies in advance of the spring migration — even though company employees warned that ducks had started to arrive.
Tjosvold had found in June that Syncrude's bird deterrent team was understaffed and ill-equipped to place the cannons around and on the settling basin. Other oilsands companies had bird-deterrent systems operating even before Syncrude called in its seasonal bird and ecology team.
Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert was slammed by opposition parties for downplaying the significance of the verdict during a visit to the Middle East in July.
"This particular case has been highly over-publicized by the media and special-interest groups," Liepert said in Doha, Qatar. "We've got bigger issues to deal with globally."
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach called the remarks "unfortunate" and said Liepert was not speaking for his government.
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