Campbell Shafts British Columbians

B.C. Legislature opens for only a single day this fall

Wake up, British Columbia. Why oh why are you all sleeping? My informal straw poll of regular citizens in our fair city tells me that fewer than 2 in 10 people even know that the Campbell government refused to call a fall session for the B.C. legislatures.

Campbell’s excuse? He said that there’s nothing to talk about, that he didn’t want to engage in busy work.

Imagine that. Nothing to talk about.

Of course, that’s far from the truth, in fact, the reality is quite the opposite. There are plenty of issues that demand urgent debate right now.

Under Campbell’s leadership, BC Hydro is being privatized through the backdoor process of contracting out new generation projects. Its sneaky, and not responsible for B.C. electricity payers nor for taxpayers. What’s worse, in this age of climate change reckoning, is that some of the first projects on the block are coal fired plants, two of which, if they go ahead, will double B.C.‘s greenhouse gas output in one sickening move.

Not enough to talk about?

How about the Gateway project – one of David Emerson’s pet efforts too. Its all about adding huge new road projects so that trucks can move to and from the newly expanding Port of Vancouver/Delta Port. There’s a climate change component to this which almost nobody talks about – outsourcing manufacturing to China and Asia where greenhouse gas controls are far laxer than even our pitiful efforts simply moves the problem out of the United States and Canada to some other jurisdiction which we can not control.

What does B.C. get out of this? A few jobs. Big deal. The goods are mostly going to end up elsewhere.

Or then there’s the recently approved expansion of Deltaport, thanks to the Minister Responsible for Raping the Environment, Rona Ambrose. Despite Canadian government scientists own reports suggesting a signficant environmental impact, Ambrose’s office a couple weeks ago approved the project, citing “no significant environmental impact”.

Wait, there’s more. Numerous provincial and federal politicians have been agitating for a lifting of the offshore oil and gas moratorium. Now that Harper’s in the saddle, folks like Gary Lund, and simpatico’s like Rona Ambrose (who used to help Ralph Klein with his oil sands expansion policies), can assist the Campbell government in breaking the age-old moratorium.

Or how about the bitumen pipeline that Enbridge wants to build across the whole of British Columbia, a pipeline that would see tankers in our inside waters loading up with the foul stuff to cart off to China.

There’s a whole raft of attacks on B.C.‘s energy production system and our environment happening right now.

And Gordon Campbell has the gall to say there is nothing to talk about? Talk about arrogant, the legislature is to open for a single day on November 22 to appoint a new child and youth representative.

Fancy that. Opening for a single day to appoint someone to head up a department which has had a sorry record under Campbell’s leadership so far. No, its not too cynical to say its all about optics, while the government continues to screw the citizens of British Columbia, and our future generations.