Dear editor,
The BC Liberal environmental record is dreadful. Oversight was cut through deregulation.
Industry paid millions to the Liberals. In return, corporations had free license to exploit our resources, contaminate our land and pollute our water. Liberals changed laws, eliminated sawmills, log exports increased, and 30,000 well-paying jobs were lost. BC profits purchased sawmills in the United States to benefit U.S. workers.
BC Parks now allows drilling, roads and pipelines. Donations were made and the grizzly bear trophy killing continues. A government wolf slaughter gives hunters greater opportunities to kill deer, elk and moose. The excuse of salvaging caribou is nonsense. Biologists say numbers suffered with habitat loss from logging.
The Kinder Morgan expansion is rejected by Vancouver, Burnaby, Victoria and most BC citizens. A donation of $771,000 ensured the pipeline was approved. Fracking continues despite methane releases and groundwater pollution Gas is sent to the tar sands for bitumen production, escalating emissions.
Farmland destruction continues at Site C, rammed through with no approval from the BC Utilities Commission. Likely costing $15 billion, it may generate expensive power that is unneeded, with increases for BC ratepayers. Ex-Hydro CEO Marc Elieson confirms that Site C never made sense. His recommendation was that it should never be built.
Christy Clark refused prosecution of Imperial Metals, a donor, for the massive Mt. Polley disaster. Taxpayers will pay the $40 million cleanup bill. The mine has government approval to dump more wastes into Quesnel Lake.
The province’s environment will not withstand four more years of Christy Clark and the Liberals. The irresponsible liquidation of our resources, benefitting the elite and a few wealthy corporations, cannot be allowed to continue. BC voters must vote for change on May 9.
Jim Cooper
Courtenay