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A response to Resource Works

Jun 11th, 2015 by

The following was presented to the Vancouver Province on June 7 in response to an article by Stewart Muir who heads Resources Works, a group actively supporting the proposed Woodfibre LNG plant. The Province printed a much abbreviated version on June 12 and I feel obliged to let you get the full picture of the nonsene Muir peddled, so very consistent with the general accuracy of his statements.

Stewart Muir and his Resource Works which, under a flimsy disguise of independence, shill for the proposed Woodfibre LNG plant, are masters of the half truth.

Muir alleges that the proposed Woodfibre LNG at Squamish is a “long way from any residents”.

Obviously that’s nonsense and anyone living on Howe Sound along the proposed LNG Tanker route knows that that route is unsafe. International rules say the danger zone around LNG tankers is 3,500 to 4,200 metres. Howe Sound is so narrow that its shores are well within the danger zone. Looking at a map based upon proper standards demonstrates beyond question that Gambier, Keats, Bowen, the Sea to Sky Highway, Lions Bay, Horseshoe Bay and West Vancouver would be at serious risk. Proposed LNG Tanker traffic even runs afoul of the standards of the industry’s international trade organization, the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators (SIGTTO).

Muir continues to mislead by declaring that in 50 years there has “never been a major shipping incident worldwide”. What Muir forgets to add are these rather critical words, “on the high seas”.

In case Mr. Muir hasn’t looked around him carefully, The Fraser River and Howe Sound scarcely qualify as the “high seas”.

Resource Works, headed by Muir, steadfastly refuses to deal with these and other questions raised by those of us who live along the shores of Howe Sound and who will not be satisfied with self-serving twaddle put out by the LNG industry.

Stewart Muir knows that the owner, convicted big time tax evader Sukarto Tanoto, and Woodfibre LNG are in the fight of their lives and that they’re going to lose to the people who are firmly and steadfastly opposed.

Sincerely,

Rafe Mair,
Howe Sound Protector
Lions Bay, BC

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Civil disobedience against LNG plans is a must

Jun 11th, 2015 by

Citizens line the Sea to Sky Highway to protest Woodfibre LNG (My Sea to Sky)

Citizens line the Sea to Sky Highway to protest Woodfibre LNG (My Sea to Sky)

It’s time to fish or cut bait, folks.

We’ve learned that some 200 LNG tankers and barges are slated to use the lower Fraser River and the company, WesPac, doesn’t even feel the public deserves a say through a proper environmental assessment.

We’re told by the company that LNG tankers have a 50 year safety record so there is naught to worry about. You should know, however, that the company lies through its teeth by leaving out four rather important words “on the high seas“.

The Fraser River is not the “high seas”?

Bear in mind, as reported in The Common Sense Canadian, the recommended distances between the tanker and shore, set out by Scandia Laboratories as well as the industry’s own organization, the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators (SIGTTO), makes it clear that both the Fraser River and Howe Sound are totally inappropriate for LNG tankers. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | No Comments »

Hastings Park and horse racing in the Lower Mainland

Jun 8th, 2015 by

"American Pharoah" by Maryland GovPics - 2015 Preakness Stakes. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:American_Pharoah.jpg#/media/File:American_Pharoah.jpg

American Pharoah by Maryland GovPics – 2015 Preakness Stakes.

On June 7, Wendy and I were guests at Hastings Park and privileged to decorate the winner of the $50,000 Sir Winston Churchill Stakes. It was a wonderful afternoon and thanks to Greg Douglas, my old friend and our host, we felt very welcome indeed.

My involvement with horse-racing goes back to when I was very young indeed. For some reason, in my very early teens, I took an interest in the sport and started to follow it assiduously. I cut out all of the form charts and race results and religiously listened to Jack Short’s racing highlights on CJOR every evening after the races.

The first Kentucky Derby I remember listening to was in 1945 won by Hoop Jr. I read everything I could including histories of Man-O-War, Seabiscuit, Whirlaway and other great heroes. I knew about the great jockeys going back to Earl Sande, “Never a handy guy like Sande, bootin’ them babies in!” Damon Runyon).

In those days there were three tracks in the Vancouver area, Lansdowne and Brighouse in Richmond, and Hastings Park at the exhibition in Vancouver. The racing days were allotted amongst the tracks by the government with the final lot going to Sandown in Victoria. Continue Reading »

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What Tom Mulcair must do to become Prime Minister

Jun 3rd, 2015 by

Tom MulcairCan Tom Mulcair become the next prime minister of Canada?

Barely 6 months ago that question would have brought loud guffaws but the Alberta election and recent polls showing the NDP slightly ahead of its two main rivals have reduced the guffaws to nervous coughs.

I think Mulcair can do it but he needs BC to do it.

A mug’s game

Let’s back up a bit. If one had all of the up-to-date polls from every constituency in Canada with expert analysis on each, it would still be a mug’s game to pick the winner of the next election. One can only really go on a “tummy feel” from information gained from a media which is none too bright and considerably less than politically independent.

The polls aren’t always helpful for the obvious reason that they are only snapshots of the moment the poll is taken, along with the fact that people may not always tell the truth. Continue Reading »

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A Modest Proposal: Scrap environmental assessments

May 25th, 2015 by

The 3-member NEB Joint Review Panel for the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline (Damien Gillis)

The 3-member NEB Joint Review Panel for the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline (Damien Gillis)

Do you enjoy being a raw hypocrite?

Well, if you’re a taxpayer in Canada that’s what you are because you support raw hypocrisy every day in the various hearings on environmental matters that take place.

I’ve written in the past, from personal experience, about environmental assessments of independent power projects (IPPs), the environmental disgraces of British Columbia, and how they are so biased in favour of industry that it defies all but spluttering language of anger.

Let’s call the whole thing off

Why don’t we just abolish the National Energy Board and all other boards like it and allow environmental projects to be judged strictly by the industry itself, with the customary pat on the corporate head from the prime minister?

At least this would make honest men and women of us. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

Two new books in the works, Vancouver Observer, party discipline

May 20th, 2015 by

It’s been a while I know since I gaI Remember Horsebuns coverve you a personal blog rather than one for general consumption. I truly have been pretty busy editing my new book coming out this fall.

The book is called I Remember Horse Buns and below you’ll see a facsimile of what it will look like. It’s the story of growing up in and around Vancouver, the best place in the world. I can talk a lot about Howe Sound and the North Arm of Burrard Inlet (Indian Arm), Stanley Park, streams to fish, chestnut trees to climb, places to skinny dip and mountains to climb.

I deal a lot with what it was like to be a kid back during World War II, the standards we were expected to meet and what happened to us when we didn’t meet them. The comic books we read, the slogans we heard, the radio shows, are all part of it.

I also talk about some of the things that occurred on the national and international scene when I was a kid such as the now conveniently forgotten Gouzenko case in Ottawa which actually started the Cold War. Continue Reading »

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In absence of political leadership, public and First Nations stepping up

May 19th, 2015 by

Citizens line the Sea to Sky Highway to protest Woodfibre LNG (My Sea to Sky)

Citizens line the Sea to Sky Highway to protest Woodfibre LNG (My Sea to Sky)

Dr. David Suzuki, in a recent column well worth reading, talks about a change in attitude across the country – changes with First Nations, increasing environmentalism, a new government in Alberta. Big changes are happening everywhere.

I wonder how many British Columbians have thought about the disgraceful attitude of industry and government towards our environment and the contempt they show for those who disagree with them?

Dr. Suzuki covers a number of these areas and I’ll just deal with one or two of my own.

Private power play

Let’s go back to the Independent Power Projects (IPPs) of the Campbell government which have destroyed our rivers and continue to cost BC Hydro huge amounts of money that we cannot afford. They are nothing more than Liberal slush. They are economic disasters for Hydro and any doubts on that score are dispelled by economist Erik Andersen, who no stranger to these pages. Continue Reading »

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Premier Kathleen Wynne’s leadership highlights Harper’s lack of it

May 15th, 2015 by

Wynne's cap and trade policy trumps Harper's lame moves

Wynne’s cap and trade policy trumps Harper’s lame moves

The Globe and Mail story is short and simple  – “Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is preparing to bring in a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions, an ambitious move that could amount to the nation’s single largest salvo in the battle against global warming”.

Ah, but it gets more complicated. There’s more than one way to skin a cat, the most prominent being “cap and trade”, or a “carbon tax”. In British Columbia we’ve feebly chosen a halfhearted carbon tax.

Cap and trade is a bit complicated as it requires the government to set emission standards, police them, give certificates of performance, and collect the money. Industry that does better then required is able to trade its success to other companies who can use it to offset their own requirements. A carbon tax is simply a tax with all the traditional massive complications that come with simple taxes that only armies of accountants and lawyers can figure out. Continue Reading »

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Notley should change electoral system following Alberta NDP win…no, seriously

May 6th, 2015 by

Alberta Premier Elect Rachel Notley celebrates a shocking victory (Alberta NDP facebook page)

Alberta Premier Elect Rachel Notley celebrates a shocking victory (Alberta NDP facebook page)

Somehow, the day after it happened, the election of the NDP in Alberta doesn’t seem quite as astonishing as it would have say, a year ago. Back then, one would have been in danger of certification as mad to predict that the Tories, after some 43 years, would be turfed out of what had become a political fiefdom. They reigned supreme with no contenders in sight, the Wildrose Party having apparently disintegrated. The Liberals had never been much of a force, although, from time to time, they would pop up hopefully as Liberals are wont to – and the NDP, well, they were just the NDP, a hopeless island of the left in a sea of the right.

A good part of the NDP victory is, of course, simple exhaustion with a very old government. It’s also due to some bad luck for the Tories – the same sort of bad luck that has hit every government relying upon fossil fuels for their day-to-day livelihood. Continue Reading »

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First Nations wisdom bests feds’ ignoble herring policy

May 3rd, 2015 by

Heiltsuk herring fishery victory in Bella Bella. Photo by Mychaylo Prystupa

Heiltsuk herring fishery victory in Bella Bella. Photo by Mychaylo Prystupa

The recent victory of the Heiltsuk band in Bella Bella over the herring fishery is not only heartwarming, it is significant. It has once again demonstrated that the history and experience of the First Nations can trump the conclusions of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

In 1978, I became Environment Minister for British Columbia and thus had the limited jurisdiction over fisheries permitted under the Constitution Act. Because I had always been interested in the Pacific fishery, born and raised here, I asked for and read, the voluminous reports and documents the ministry had collected over the decades.

Even the most avid federalist would’ve had to conclude that since B.C. joined Confederation in 1871, the Pacific fishery has been a gigantic pain in the ass to the federal government. Consequently, the politicians have seldom taken the time to understand the fishery, and I am prepared to bet a shilling that not one in five federal ministers could have stated the seven PacifIc salmon species. As a matter of interest, they are the chinook, chum, coho, sockeye, pink, rainbow trout (steelhead) and cutthroat trout. The latter two are a recent addition to the list. Continue Reading »

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