LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
- November 7, 2006
To The Editor; Re: NDPs media release, October 30: Towns for tomorrow leaves small towns behind - Wyse
The story of the boy who cried wolf made me shudder as a boy growing up in rural B.C.
The knee-jerk negativity of NDP critics often reminds me of that story, especially on Halloween.
Maybe Charlie Wyse wasn't at the UBCM to see municipal leaders from across B.C. leap to their feet in a standing ovation when Premier Campbell announced Towns for Tomorrow. I was. Urban councillors and Mayors seemed just as pleased as Regional District Directors. Everyone likes to see their neighbours prosper, and all knew the heartache that rural B.C. suffered in the dark decade of the 90s. We spent much of our time trying to keep the wolf from the door.
The announcements that Premier Campbell made at the UBCM Convention are part of a long progression of improvements for small communities in British Columbia since the B.C. Liberals formed government.
There's a new post-secondary campus at Williams Lake; a huge infusion of capital to build, restore and maintain resource roads and Heartlands highways and the highest employment levels in decades. Small communities all over B.C. are connected to high speed Internet, brimming with optimism about the future, paying the lowest income taxes in Canada and seeing industries like mining return, bringing jobs and opportunities with them.
It's a far cry from the NDP days of B.C.s biggest export being it's young people, a shriveled mining industry, a forest industry on it's knees seeking to sell at a B.C. (NDP) discount, and an NDP Premier so desperate as to enact legislation to suspend workers meager pensions if they found a job to supplement them.
It must be scary for the NDP; the wolf in their mirror is them.
- Kevin Krueger, MLA, Kamloops-North Thompson (Premier Gordon Campbell's Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development).
The Honourable Barry Penner
Minister of the Environment
Legislative Buildings
Victoria, B.C.
Dear Mr. Penner:
The members of the Vermilion Forks Field Naturalist Society have asked that I convey to you their concerns about the proposed coal-fired generator to be installed by Compliance Energy at the old Similco Mine site in the Similkameen Valley near Princeton, B.C. Our concerns are as follows:
1. Assay - So far as we understand it, Compliance has refused to make public any information it has on the proportions of contaminants, especially mercury, contained in the coal it proposes to use. All we get from the company are bland assurances that the most recently developed technology will be used to remove a large proportion of the contaminants. This is hardly reassuring.
We respectively suggest that your ministry commission an independent agent to provide a thorough assay of the coal to be used, and an analysis of the state of the technology to be used to remove contaminants. And we certainly do not look forward to having even small amounts of mercury befouling our valley.
2. Water - We are advised that copious amounts of water from the Similkameen River will be used as a coolant for the generator. During the current drought (caused by global warming, caused in turn by excessive consumption of fossil fuels) water levels in the river are already at record lows. We are concerned that any water returned to the river, or the groundwater, from the generator will inevitably contain contaminants from the coal, and will be warmer than is the natural flow of the river, causing harm to wildlife. We would appreciate knowing what the company proposes to do to ensure that the water returned to the river is as pure and as cool as it was when it was taken out of it.
3. Carbon dioxide - It is clear that, of all methods used to produce electricity, coal-fired generators are the dirtiest that is, they are the most productive of CO2, mercury, nitrous oxide, etc. Other jurisdictions, such as Ontario and California, are phasing out coal-fired generators, because they are claimed to be far and away the most significant contributors to the green-house gases which affect our atmosphere, and which are causing the changes to our global climate. Such change is obvious in B.C. in the alarming retreat of our glaciers, in the drought lowering our water tables, in the shortage of water in our rivers, and in the plagues of bark beetle and budworm now ravishing our forests. We are informed that a partial answer to the production of CO2 by coal-fired generators is to sequester' it in the ground for awhile. We regard even this promise as inadequate in the light of the impending crisis of global warming.
All these concerns have prompted our members to request that your government halt the proposal by Compliance Energy which promises to disrupt the air and water quality of the Similkameen Valley. We now enjoy a remarkably clear and clean environment. Until Compliance can assure us that it will remain so, we ask for a stay of proceedings.
Mr. Minister, we are aware that you campaigned vigorously to defeat the proposal for a gas-fired generator in the U.S. near Sumas, which would have befouled the atmosphere of the lower Fraser Valley, where your riding is located. We are confident that you will not countenance a proposal for the construction of a far dirtier coal generator in another riding not far from your own. Our valley is very beautiful. We want to keep it that way.
Sincerely,
M. Burbidge, President,
Vermilion Forks Field Naturalists,
Box 1395, Princeton, B.C.
V0X 1W0
mburbidge@telus.net
Cc: Premier Gordon Campbell.
Cc: Mr. R. Neufeld, Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources
Cc: Mr. H. Lali, Member of Legislature for Yale Lillooet.
