BC Liberals Real Record on the Environment

Things are getting nasty in the environmental and political realms, with three very misguided "environmental" groups, the Pembina Institute, David Suzuki Foundation and ForestEthics upstaging the NDP by holding their own press conference just before the launch of the NDP election campaign. That is dirty pool and it just reeks of BC Liberals to pull something like that. I hope people strongly consider where to send their charitable donations in the future, because I could never in good conscience support organizations that lay down with Liberals with their real environmental record so apparent. One has to ask, just what are those groups getting out of their unholy alliance with the Liberals? Whatever it is, they've fallen on their own swords and they've sold out BC to one of the biggest polluting governments.

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James defends climate plan against enviro criticism

By Garrett Zehr April 14, 2009 08:15 am

“We certainly agree to disagree with the environmental movement around the government’s carbon tax,” James told reporters. “We believe a bad tax is a bad tax and it’s very clear that the carbon tax isn’t working.”

BCLS Comments:

And please people, remember, the Gas tax is scheduled to increase by 50% in July 2009. It's applied at the gas station & to every gigajoule we need to heat our homes.
As one person, who actually has a decent job and pay, that will literally wipe me out and put my budget into the red every single month. What about our seniors on fixed incomes, our low income people, all of our people who are losing their jobs, 23,000 in BC just in March alone.

I find it fascinating that these environmental groups have struck a deal with the Devil. For such smart folks, how could they not see the Campbell regime for the BS they've put out on environmental issues for the past 8 years. A quick recap of the BC Liberals real record on the environment:

-Strongly encouraged the increase in farmed salmon, with scientific evidence of the sea lice harm being done to wild salmon.
-Removing vast chunks of protected land from Agricultural Land Reserves to developer buddies and family members.
-Ever-increasing privatization and approval of Run of River projects with little environmental oversight, with all profits going to corporations, not to BC.
-Increasing interest in coalbed methane mining and extraction in salmon sensitive areas.
-No real plan other than to keep upping our taxes to decrease carbon emissions AND they didn't go after the real polluters, their buddies in industry.
-Gateway South Delta Perimeter project that will destroy valuable farming areas and spew vast amounts of toxic chemicals.
-Twinning the Port Mann, more cars, more pollution.
-Private power companies are being granted license to build power plants on streams and rivers of BC in ecologically sensitive areas.
- Tripling the size of Deltaport, at the estuary of the Fraser River threatens endangered resident orca whales and could very likely break the link in the chain of the Pacific Flyway for migratory birds.
-Installation of high voltage power lines through the backyards of residents of Tsawassen.

So with the real record easy to see, just what are those "environmental" groups getting for their support of Gordon Campbell & the BC Liberals.

I think this says it all and shows what a leader Ms. James really is for BC:

"We disagree with the environmental movement.... We believe a bad tax is a bad tax." — NDP Leader Carole James

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Environmental groups renounce support for B.C. NDP

Provincial election campaign officially starts Tuesday

Monday, April 13, 2009. CBC News

Three environmental organizations, traditional allies of the NDP, mounted a pre-election attack Monday on the party and its campaign promise to drop the provincial carbon tax.

Last Thursday, as she unveiled her party's platform for the May 12 election, James said the Liberals' carbon tax was unfair, would not work and came at the worst possible time for the province's economy.

British Columbians currently pay a carbon tax of about 2.4 cents per litre on fossil fuels, including gasoline. The tax is set to rise 50 per cent in July. Environmental groups cheered the carbon tax, saying it puts a price on pollution and starts the economic fight against climate change.

Scrapping the carbon tax will mean "a lot of money... when you're an individual who's having difficulty with your budget," she added.
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Water expert raises alarm about coal-bed mining in salmon rivers

MARK HUME, July 1, 2008. Globe and Mail

Dr. Stockner is now raising alarms about the threat coal-bed methane mining holds for salmon rivers in northern B.C.

Dr. Stockner raised his concerns recently in an e-mail letter to Premier Gordon Campbell.

"I strongly object to this province even contemplating the extraction of methane and allowing a multi-national company to enter a pristine region of B.C. - wherein lies the birthing-place [source] of three of B.C.'s major northern rivers. To use a medical analogy, the environmental damage from coal-bed methane extraction operations are not as some would like to believe - 'benign,' rather they are 'malignant' and of long-term duration. Effluents once in the ground then entering groundwater and eventually surface flows can severely impact the physico-chemical balances of rivers and streams for several decades!"

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Save Our Rivers Society

River Privatization Just Produces Power That We Don't Need

Saturday, 11 April 2009

New Video! Must-See Interview with Corky Evans on Taking Back Our Rivers and Province

Monday, 06 April 2009

What is your government doing for wild salmon?

Thursday, 09 April 2009

Patrick Kinsella Was Involved With River Privatization, Too

Saturday, 04 April 2009

Patrick Kinsella, who has recently gotten some unwelcome publicity from the $300,000 "fee" he received from BC Rail during the effort to give BC Rail to CN, has also done lobbying work for Plutonic Power Corp. Here's a hard-hitting article by Sean Holman and Mark Hume in the Globe and Mail: Kinsella(d): How to persuade and influence people Although Kinsella was not registered as a lobbyist, the resume of his company states that they have "helped win major government benefits and contracts...

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