Natural Environmental

Back in the 1990s, young people like myself were leaving B.C. in great numbers and heading to places like Alberta where the economic conditions and opportunities were much better. That’s a sad situation to be in. Alberta may not have any provincial sales tax, and it may not have any debt thanks to its diligent debt-busting during the 1990s, but it’s not home either.

Fortunately the tide has now changed and B.C. is once again a province of opportunity and a far more attractive place for those of us who want to stay here. All of the economic indicators for B.C. have been pointing in the right direction and in most areas we’re leading the country.

The one area where we’re falling behind, however, is in the critically important renewable energy and clean technology sector. Ontario recently stole the clean energy lead from B.C. and that represents jobs and opportunities that could have been ours here in B.C. If this province wants to keep its young people and keep the vigour and energy we bring to the mix then the province is going to have to redouble its efforts and regain the lead position in clean energy and technology that is rightfully ours. If we can do that then there is nothing that can stop us at all.

Christian Albanese

Coquitlam BC

This summer, thousands of people heading to and from the BC interior and Lower Mainland will pass the famous Hope slide on Highway 3.

Many will stop to view the massive environmental devastation this natural event caused 45 years ago when 46 million cubic meters of pulverized rock, mud, and debris came down the mountainside with a force so great it completely displaced the water and mud in the lake below and scraped away trees and vegetation on the opposite side of the valley.

In the natural history of BC, the Hope slide is probably just one such natural environmental disaster and it dwarfs any damage that past logging, mining and other resource extraction activities have done at the hands of man.

Fortunately for the BC environment, environmental awareness has increased greatly over the past several decades and the requirements for industrial activities such as logging, mining and road-building that could impinge on the environment have tightened considerably.

In many cases, the rules and regulations in place for new resource extraction activities like wind energy and run-of-river projects are actually leading to the reversal of human-caused damage from the past through the rehabilitation of abandoned logging roads and the restoration and enhancement of lost fish and wildlife habitats.

But as the Hope slide reminds us all, there is nothing that we humans can do to the environment that can match the devastating power of nature itself. When it comes to causing environmental damage we are complete amateurs compared to Mother Nature.

Sandra Robinson

Maple Ridge

In celebrating the International Day of UN Peacekeeping (May 29), we unfortunately cannot congratulate ourselves very much for helping the United Nations because Canada has almost completely abandoned UN peace operations. We used to be a leading troop contributor before 1992, but we currently supply fewer than 200 out of 124,000 UN civilian and military peacekeeping personnel. Our pending troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011 gives us a new opportunity to re-engage in UN peacekeeping and by doing so, we can help save tens of thousands of lives.

Larry Kazdan

Someone really needs to write an “HST for Dummies” book for all the gullible people who’ve been conned into believing the HST is a new tax that will cost them more money than they’re paying right now. P.T. Barnum really knew what he was talking about when he said there’s a sucker born every minute, and BC seems to be full of them these days.

There are layers and layers of hidden provincial sales tax embedded in the things you buy right now. And it works out to far more than the 7% PST you currently see on your receipts. Do people in BC really want to go on blindly paying these hidden, very costly layers of PST? I don’t.

The PST is an antiquated, costly, uncompetitive tax. BC is one of the last places in the country to do away with it and replace it with a value added HST. People need to open their eyes and start doing the math instead of running after fools and charlatans like lemmings heading for the cliff. This is definitely a case where ignorance is not bliss.

Michael McBratney

Port Moody, B.C.

The most recent salvo of misinformation aimed at run-of-river projects in B.C. comes from the pen of SFU’s Marjorie Griffin Cohen, and once again the salvo tracks back to the BC Citizens for Public Power group she helped found and the group’s strong ties to the COPE 378 union representing BC Hydro workers.

Cohen’s salvos are embedded in an editorial in which she endorses the Site C project—conditional, of course, on the project being 100% public sector.

Given the strong ties between COPE 378 and the “Public Power” group, Cohen’s endorsement of the Site C project isn’t much of a surprise. A public sector project like Site C is right up COPE 378’s alley.

But in rationalizing her newfound love for Site C (which she once opposed), Cohen spares no opportunity to toss misinformation at independent run-of-river projects and suggests that they do not undergo proper environmental scrutiny which is pure nonsense.

All energy projects in B.C., big or small, undergo intense environmental scrutiny. In the case of run-of-river projects, more than 50 approvals, permits, licenses and reviews from 14 government regulatory bodies are typically required before they can proceed.

Even NDP party president Moe Sihota recently said on CBC Radio’s Early Edition: “We should trust the environmental assessment process…. I helped craft the environmental assessment legislation [as an NDP cabinet minister in the 1990s] and I think you have to give the system some credit for the way it has worked in the past.”

And for every renewable energy project that manages to reach the final stages of the multi-year review and approval process, dozens of others are withdrawn or cancelled along the way due to insurmountable environmental issues.

In disparaging independent run-of-river projects, Cohen even attempts to anoint mega dams with saintly healing powers that allow them to rebuild rivers after they’ve been dammed while denying these same healing powers to run-of-river projects.

You can’t have it both ways, Marjorie. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, and if rivers can rebuild themselves and establish new states of equilibrium following the construction of a mega dam project then the same must apply to run-of-river projects—and even more so considering their much smaller footprint.

Cohen’s disingenuous remarks about the proposed Bute Inlet run-of-river project, which she claims will be “much more environmentally damaging” than Site C, are particularly unsupportable. What evidence can she provide to back up her sweeping claim? Neither project has undergone an environmental assessment yet so how can she know the outcome of the review process?

Sadly, Marjorie Griffin Cohen’s disparagement of run-of-river projects is all too typical of the misinformation that’s been aimed at independent run-of-river projects in B.C. over the past few years. Will it ever cease? Will reason and facts triumph over irrationality and falsehoods? We seriously doubt it based on what we’ve seen over the past few years.

Venom from Cohen and others will no doubt flow on this issue for decades (Moe Sihota notwithstanding), just as the endless flow of water in our rivers drains out to sea every day.

Previous generations in this province understood the value and the benefits of harvesting the power and renewable energy from our endlessly flowing rivers and today we laud them for their foresight and vision. It’s time for our generation to step up to the plate and build on the past by safely harvesting the power and renewable energy our rivers present to us for the benefit of all British Columbians.

Salvos, venom and self-serving misinformation be damned!

Bruce Sanderson, Co-spokesperson

B.C. Citizens for Green Energy

We applaud the federal government for banning the sale and manufacture of flavoured tobacco products, and for setting minimum size packaging requirements for cigarillos and blunt wraps. The announcement was made in the spring of 2009 and the manufacturing ban and minimum packaging requirements came into effect April 6, 2010. We look forward to the completion of the implementation of the legislation with the retail sales ban coming into effect July 5, 2010.

Previous to the ban, tobacco companies manufactured and sold products in flavours such as cherry and chocolate in an obvious attempt to get kids to start smoking. This kind of flavoured tobacco product often served as a “starter” tobacco product for young people, and since they were sold individually or in “kiddie packs”, they were also affordable to price-sensitive youth.They are as addictive and dangerous to one’s health as cigarettes.

We applaud the efforts of the federal government in protecting the health and welfare of the nation’s young people by closing these tobacco loopholes and urge for the hasty completion of the mechanisms to do so.

Sincerely,

R.F. Bobbe Wood, MA President & CEO Heart and Stroke Foundation of B.C. & Yukon

Scott McDonald Executive Director  BC Lung Association

For more information, contact:  Jack Boomer Director, Clean Air Coalition of BC
www.cleanaircoalitionbc.com

Reports of an abnormally low snowpack across British Columbia mean we’re probably looking at another devastatingly dry forest fire season this summer. That’s not good news. But it also means the province’s dams and reservoirs are going to see dangerously low water levels this year. And that means BC Hydro’s ability to generate electricity is going to be impaired again this year just like it has been in most recent years over the past decade.

We certainly can’t control the weather, but it has not helped the situation that no money was spent to maintain or improve BC Hydro’s dams and facilities during the 1990s. As a result, we’re now having to catch up all at once and BC Hydro is having to spend billions and billions of dollars in a short span of time to bring their dams and power stations up to current standards.

Yes, the billions of dollars that BC Hydro is spending to refurbish their mega dams and install new generators (ones that can extract more power from less water) is causing our hydro bills to go up. But what we’re really paying for is the lack of maintenance and investment on these mega dams and facilities during the 1990s; neglect that’s now left us having to take the hit all at once.

The good news (because there has to be some good news) is that, even with BC Hydro’s multi-billion reinvestment in its hydro dams and facilities, British Columbia still has one of the lowest electricity rates in North America. And as the global economy starts to reconnect, our low electricity rates and clean hydro power will help attract new investment and jobs to our province.

 Kevin Lee