Rocker Neil Young’s oilsands comments missing the facts: Saskatchewan premier

Photo: Facebook Page of Neil Young

REGINA—Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says musician Neil Young’s comparison of the oilsands to Hiroshima is insensitive and ignorant of the facts.

Wall says he believes Young lost a lot of credibility by making the comments before a concert in Toronto on Sunday.

Young held a news conference during which he compared the landscape at a Fort McMurray industrial site to the devastation caused by the atomic bomb in Japan.

Wall says he disagrees with how Young is characterizing the industry, but adds it’s a free country and Young is welcome to speak his mind.

The premier acknowledges more needs to be done for the environment, but he also suggests that Canada’s record is better than any other oil-exporting country in the world.

Young is doing a four-city concert tour to raise money for an Alberta First Nation living downstream of the oilsands and is to perform Friday in Regina.