Oilsands giant Suncor has been fined $5,000 for burying known habitat for bank swallows during mining operations in northern Alberta three years ago.

Also: Suncor’s 2023 revenue was $53 billion CAD

Yeah. That fine is nothing. It should have been $5 billion instead.

Bury the CEOs.

That fine is so small that it’s not even a slap on the wrist. It’s not even a rounding error. It’s like a grain of sand at the bottom of the ocean. It probably cost more in worker time just to issue the fine.

God dammit this pisses me off. Ecological regulations need sharp, razor teeth.

These worms just look at it like operating costs. Same with SEC fines. A tickle on the wrist and a blow job.

The silver lining to stuff like this is that it’s now trivial to show examples of how the system works in favour of the 1%. In cases like this, the differential between profits and fines is so huge that anyone would understand how the fine is completely ineffective, and therefore regulation relying on such fines.

Needs to be % based. Years ago the TV show top gear was racing across Europe, they didn’t speed in Finland as speeding tickets are based off income. Every other country they would speed and break whatever laws they want as it’s small fines. Finland they drove proper because the speeding tickets would be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It works. Put a fine based off profit, and all of a sudden you’ll have complete compliance. Good luck getting that law passed when the billionaire class rules both parties and has us fighting over washrooms.

Put % on revenue, not profits. Make sure that a fine of that magnitude is a bankruptcy threat.

Suspend the site’s permit until the organization shows that it takes its obligations seriously.