Good Sunday Morning!
A bit of a shock realizing July has sped by without a break. Ah well, we do have a family vacation planned soon! From August 17-27 I will down tools and with John, my daughter, and her partner, we will be on a BC Ferries vacation package to Haida Gwaii. It is my first 10 days off in a row since 2014. Not a happy realization, but I am very happy to be able to share one of the most amazing places on earth with John, who has never been, and with Cate’s partner. Cate and I have been very lucky to have visited thanks to a dear and generous friend aboard one of the Maple Leaf Adventure trips in summer 2018. I can’t wait. We will be doing a campaign stop in Duncan on August 16 for Cammy Lockwood, BC Green and then a series of events for federal Green Jessica Wegg for North Island Powell River; back in Port Hardy and Alert Bay as our vacation winds down
Two important developments in fighting pipelines and supporting the We’tsuwe’ten land defenders have emerged in the last few days. Firstly, Amnesty International has declared that hereditary Chief Dsta’hyl is Canada’s first “prisoner of conscience” and has called for his release.
Hereditary Chief Dsta’hyl is human rights group’s first ‘prisoner of conscience’ in Canada
The next development in fighting the Prince Rupert gas pipeline may be real, or, more likely, another pre-election BC NDP trick. The action update from brilliant Kai Nagata of Dogwood is accurate and encouraging, so please forgive my skepticism. The following excerpt is from Dogwood’s action alert quoting BC NDP Minister Nathan Cullen speaking Tuesday night at the community hall in Kispiox Village:
“There is new ownership of this pipeline, a new destination for this pipeline and a new route in many places,” Cullen said. “So the question the proponents have to answer: is this the same project they were permitted for back in 2014?
“And if it is not, should it not be better for it to receive a new Environmental Assessment under new laws that are current, that are DRIPA compliant, with informed consultations?”
I would feel encouraged except that Cullen confirmed the BC government would not be making any decision on these questions until after the October election and also after allowing the Prince Rupert pipeline contractor Ledcor a three month construction blitz in the Nass Valley.
And the BC government under NDP premier John Horgan had promised to use “every tool in the tool box” to stop the TMX pipeline. Then when the Federal Court quashed the permits in August 2018, permits granted without any BC environmental assessment, thanks to a little hand shake deal between Christie Clark and Stephen Harper; we all wrote BC NDP Environment Minister George Heyman to demand that he insist on a BC environmental assessment before issuing new permits. Heyman decided not to open that toolbox. The new owner, new route and lack of provincial EA arguments all applied to TMX, but BC New Democrats never want to offend Alberta New Democrats, and Trudeau and the federal Liberals have some deluded notion that if they build pipelines eventually more Liberals might win seats in Alberta. And so it goes.
But Dogwood’s point is right on. Make fossil fuels and the NDP boosterism for them a provincial election issue for the BC election in October. Let’s try to get media coverage to focus on the reality that only BC Greens stand for climate action. I am just back from campaigning on Bowen Island, part of the West Vancouver Sea to Sky riding where BC Green Jeremy Valeriote has an excellent chance of being the next MLA. We need to ramp up donations to BC Greens and encourage activists to help going door to door.
Our North Saanich and the Islands Green candidate will be nominated by August 6th. If you are a BC Greens member in our area watch for your emailed ballot. Voting for one of the three is open now. I will do all I can to elect whoever is nominated.
This week marked a FIRST for your writing duo of John and me – we both had letters published in the Globe and Mail!
Published July 31:
John was replying to a completely ill-informed letter from former Alberta minister of environment, Gary Mar. John’s original had a better zinger last line “if you are, at last, going to adopt science as the basis for policy, it’s best to start with facts.”
“Contributor Gary Mar writes that “in the 1990s, mountain pine beetles were first discovered in a park in British Columbia.” Pine beetles are endemic to forests in B.C., infesting thousands of hectares in the Chilcotin by the 1970s. On rare occasions, tens or hundreds of beetles damage a tree, but large numbers are usual.
He also writes that, “if the cause of the fires were primarily climate change, we would expect diseased forests and large wildfires in Sweden and Finland.” Beetles have always been here, but cold winters killed most of them. That’s no longer the case.
Fewer cold winters mean more beetles. The rising population was recognized as an early sign of global warming.
Poor forest management has not helped: Thinning and prescribed burnings should have been more aggressively pursued. But climate change made beetles a problem in the first place.
John Kidder Ashcroft, B.C.
And mine, published on August 1, Globe and Mail
Power down
Re “Point Lepreau station is among North America’s worst-performing nuclear power plants. Can NB Power turn it around?” (Report on Business, July 29):
Back in 2002, the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board ruled that refurbishing the Point Lepreau reactor was not in the public interest. The provincial government approved it anyway, thus wasting hundreds of millions of dollars.
On top of that waste and debt for New Brunswick residents, Point Lepreau is now part of an experimental so-called small modular reactor that has received millions of dollars in government subsidies. Who manages to get such clout and lobbying power? In 2011, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.’s reactor business was sold to the corporation formerly known as SNC-Lavalin, now AtkinsRéalis.
The extent of the nuclear lobby’s political power may have something to do with that historically corrupt corporation and its deeply rooted tentacles in the status-quo parties.
Elizabeth May OC; MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands; Leader, Green Party of Canada; Sidney, B.C.
Hope to see many Greens today in the Vancouver Pride Parade. Be careful and stay hydrated! And if you are nearby please come to the Saanich-Gulf Islands Green picnic on August 10 at Centennial Park on Wallace Drive. We will have lots of yummy things to eat and drink, but please remember to bring your own plate, travel cup and cutlery. It is always a great event. I am so pleased that my dear Deputy leader Rainbow Eyes will be attending!!! Please RSVP for our planning purposes at https://vote.greenparty.ca/rsvp/eve_801b79141 Thanks.
Thanks as ever for your notes and emails and keeping me feeling supported!!
Love from John and me- until next week!!
Love,
Elizabeth