What the hell is in it for us?
I hate to sound ungracious towards our friends and neighbours by asking that question but it’s occurred to me quite often and I, for one, would like an answer.
With fish farms, what the hell is in it for us with them?
Over 90% of the farms are foreign owned and none of them is owned in BC. The license fees we collect are like a handful of sand is to Vancouver’s beaches. Our wild salmon are destroyed, the environment desecrated and the loot all goes to big companies and their shareholders, mostly in Norway. Furthermore, because these companies are from out of province they don’t give a fiddler’s fart how much damage they do.
Jobs?
A few caretakers and that’s it.
We take all the risks, we take the certain environmental losses and they get all the money!
Whoops, I forgot that there is a BC beneficiary – the Liberal Party of BC, G. (Pinocchio) Campbell, prop.
With pipelines shipping oil from the Tar Sands through pipelines to Kitimat for passage through our waters – what the hell is in it for us?
The oil comes from Alberta so that only the Alberta and Federal governments get any royalties and other taxes. We run the many real risks in taking this filthy stuff over our province, through our delicate habitat, then shipping it down the most treacherous part of our coast and get nothing for it!
We have to do the policing for sabotage, terrorist attack or plain misadventure since Enbridge sure isn’t going to. And on their track record, who would want them to be our watchdogs?
When the damage is done – and it will happen – we’ll have to bear the cost since Enbridge sure isn’t BP and a big loss would probably bankrupt them.
These questions apply to the oil presently being piped down to tankers in Burrard Inlet putting not only Vancouver Harbour at risk but all the BC coastline they sail past.
Moreover, as with fish farms, these companies are from out of province and don’t give a damn for our environment.
What’s in that for us?
Some rent for the right-of-way?
Jobs?
Sure there will be employment to build the line but that’s short term and most of those jobs will be from out of province.
We take all the risks and they get the dough!
Whoops! I forgot Pinocchio and his trained seals (See “whoops” above for details.)
Independent Power Producers (IPPs) are building their dams (they prefer we call them weirs) on rivers all over the province to make electricity.
What the hell’s in it for us?
These are all large offshore companies that take the profits while we inherit buggered up rivers. But it’s worse, Not only do we lose our rivers, we pay for these dams because our provincial company, BC Hydro, owned by me and thee, is forced to pay these IPPs double what their power can be sold for. Since IPPs don’t make electricity unless their river is flowing quickly, as in the run-off when BC Hydro doesn’t need it, Hydro must export it at a huge loss! Our loss as citizen/shareholders!
We don’t need their power, indeed can’t even use it, we finance their plants by making Hydro give them sweetheart deals, we get a fast bankrupting BC Hydro and the money all goes to non BC shareholders like Warren Buffett and General Electric!
What’s in it for us?
Whoops again! (See above re Pinocchio and his lickspittles).
We’re chumps! Marks! Rubes playing Three Card Monte at the fair! We’re being robbed blind then we beg for more!
Think on this, gentle readers – we’re taking a three way financial hit and a huge three pronged attack on our environment, be it our salmon, our rivers, our harbours, our coastline and our wild habitat and, through our government, we’re begging for more!
But I predict a change, an awakening of the people. When the Premier and the Attorney-General instructed Crown Counsel to ask for a life sentence for Betty Krawczyk for disobeying a court order to cease demonstrating, using two violent pedophile cases to back it up, it touched a lot of nerves. A life sentence for an 82 year old for protesting an environmental desecration? Likening it to sexual violation of kids? What has this government come to?
There will be civil disobedience in BC and it won’t be pretty. We’ve been lied to enough. Our heritage is bring ripped apart not with government consent but at its request.
I’m not calling for civil disobedience – I’m saying it will come because this disgraceful government has asked, no begged for it.
That is one of the problems with ventures such as the pipeline, IPPs etc. The environmental concerns get silenced by overstated job impact and financial rewards.
We are constantly told how many man years of jobs a project will produce, which is probably overstated in the first place, but underplays the fact that these jobs are short term. A couple of years down the road, the jobs are gone and the unemployment spikes.
As for the financial benefits to the province, I think that you are bang on, Raif. The BC Liberal Party probably gains more than the citizens, but the citizens will be the ones on the hook for rectifying any mishaps.
yes, I think campbell & crew trying to send Betty K. to jail for life maybe the last straw for a lot of people. However, I have yet to see it covered in any of the MSMs. Some one might have to take out ads in local papers.
When I tell people about it they are flabergasted; they look at me like I’m not telling the truth, but I suggest they check it out.
People such as Betty K. are a real threat to cambpell & crew. They can’t scare her, they can’t buy her, etc. but they can certainly try to scare younger people. I would suggest, from Campbell’s point of view Ms. K. has to go because she impedes the financial interest of his friends.
Speaking of money and friends, last night the CBC covered some entertaining news. A man who worked for HSBC, in Switzerland, downloaded the “private/secret” accounts of many. He is currently in France and the French government has the information from his computer. The French government has announced they have the records and if their citizens pay before their revenue dept. has to come calling, all they have to do is pay up. To date the French government has collected a very large amount of money.
Some Canadians are on the list also but it would appear Canada hasn’t done as much as France. I wonder why. I wonder why people want to destroy our enviornment and what they get out of it. Maybe we should have a look at those records.
The fish farms do nothing to enhance the enviornemnt. It is all about the bottom line. Fire longer term workers, who make more money and have experience, and hire younger, lower paid workers. (Can anyone say Marine Harvest). These companies don’t care about our enviornmnet. They live elsewhere. The few jobs they create are not worth what we loose.
When we had a thriving fishing industry people made money, the fishermen, their crews, the canneries, the buyers, etc. Now that was making real money compared to what people who work on fish farms now make.
Running the pipeline through the north to Kitimat is just plain stupid. When there is a spill, we the citizens will pay for it. What makes it worse is no one here really benefits. They destroy the Alberta enviornment and B.C.’s to send oil to another country. The short term benefits are not enough.
If we are to believe the world is running out of oil, then why doesn’t Canada simply keep what we have for our own future instead of selling it now for less than what we will gain from it in the future, if necessary.
We simply destroy our enviornment so other countries can benefit. Doesn’t work for me.
Big oil = bad for your health
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Health/2010/09/30/GulfCoast/