Campbell's Secrecy...why?

I have been browsing through Sean Holman's January postings over at the 'Public Eye Online' (see link in right column) and there are some real gems. Did you know that the Campbell government failed to inform the province's major news organizations that the Premier was delivering a keynote address at that Ottawa conference on climate change last week? Holman was the first to break the news in his posting "The price of Information" on January 22. Vaughn Palmer followed up on that news with this Vancouver Sun story the next day (the day Campbell was delivering his speech).

Palmer says this is just another example of provincial government's "systematic withholding of details on the climate change plan." Palmer says the media aren't the only affected, "On the "climate action plan," members of the premier's own caucus of MLAs have begun to complain quietly (and not so quietly) about being left out of the loop." A major reason for this secrecy according to Palmer is "Campbell displays increasing impatience for involving in decision-making anyone other than those who are ready to carry out his instructions without serious challenge."

Another gem by Holman posted that same day was "More Power to Plutonic" describing the number of Liberal aides who have recently gone to work for Plutonic Power Corporation Inc. I decided to check out that company's website and got an eyeful. Look at what is happening and proposed for the BC's hinterland just north of us.

The green lines are existing BC Hydro power lines. That dotted line from East Toba to Saltery Bay is according to the map the "proposed new 230 kV transmission line." The Saltery Bay substation will be the "point of interconnection." Here's a close-up of the map.

It looks like this new proposed transmission line will hook into the line that already runs the length of the Sunshine Coast.

So, we have Liberal aides who know first hand the workings of the Campbell government moving over to work for this private company that plans to tap numerous rivers to deliver "green" power. Well, would they be leaving a government job unless they were certain of the company's success? Yes, I am sure this company fits in quite nicely with Campbell's water management plans and how those plans can be linked quite nicely to climate change.

As for the Sunshine Coast, I would say the writing is on the wall. Not long ago, I looked out the window at the land across the Skookumchuck Narrows and thought to myself, "That will be our North Shore." So, it is good-bye coastal rainforest, hello pavement. Unless... say let's take a closer look at that map of the shishalh Nation Traditional Territory.