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.

More on Gordon Campbell and water...

The two-day summit has now wrapped up in Vancouver. The CBC offers this:

"B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said that while Ontario and Quebec will remain observers of the cap-and-trade initiative for now, they may decide to move in a similar direction down the road.

"We're really basically sharing information as we go through," he said during a news conference at the end of the Council of the Federation conference in Vancouver.

In addition, premiers and territorial leaders agreed Tuesday to establish a forest review, water agenda and flood-management program in their respective regions. Campbell said leaders will regroup to discuss their plans at their next session, scheduled for July in Quebec City.

"I felt like today was an important day. We recognized there are broad issues of national agreement that we have across the country," Campbell said."

A forest review? A water agenda? A flood-management programme? What are we to expect from these initiatives based on Campbell's comments posted below?

(Read the full CBC story here)

Gordon Cambell's Climate Speech...

Folks, I can't leave this one alone. I am truly bedazzled by this one line in that excerpt from Campbell's speech posted below:

"You know there’s an awful lot of water in places that it’s not needed and not enough water in places where it is needed"

Can you believe that a provincial leader would make such a blatantly simplistic comment such as this at a national conference on climate? Can you give me one example of where water is not needed? I live in a coastal rainforest. In a rainforest there is an abundance of water, an extraordinary abundance of water which is why it is a rainforest! However, it would appear at least in Campbell's eyes that some of this water may not needed. Perhaps, if you plan on cutting down that rainforest and developing it you no longer need this abundance of water.

There is only one reason why a national leader (our provincial leader!) would reduce the issue of water to such a simplistic level: you plan to sell it. Or, perhaps, exchange it for future guarantees on oil and gas. (See this Vancouver Sun news article)

Water Initiative with Alberta???

What is Gordon Campbell up to? I quote from an article in today's Globe & Mail:

"While the premiers made little progress on how to stem rising greenhouse gas emissions, Mr. Campbell's proposal was to focus on the results of global warming, such as extreme weather patterns that can lead to floods, fire and drought.

"“I would hope that we can move ahead and British Columbia will be moving ahead certainly with a water initiative with Alberta. We hope Saskatchewan and other provinces will join us,” he said moments before the closed-door session began,”"

Here is the link to that news article at the Globe & Mail.

I thought I would check the BC government website to see if there might be some details on this "initiative" buried there and in a speech at the Climate Adaptation Conference in Ottawa last week, Campbell had this to say...

"We take our water for granted in Canada. You know there’s an awful lot of water in places that it’s not needed and not enough water in places where it is needed. We’ve all watched as the flood-drought syndrome that’s starting to take place, certainly in western Canada. It’s important for us to look at how we deal with that, with those issues.

And it’s important for us to deal with it in concert. So next week as the Premiers come to Vancouver, I’m going to be encouraging them to work at least an inter-provincial and, hopefully, a national water conservation strategy. I believe we should have a national water security strategy, a national flood mitigation strategy. I think we should be looking at our forests across our country and saying how do we make sure that we know the kind of forests we should be replanting, how can we stop the level of deforestation we’ve had and move closer and closer to net deforestation across the country. All of those things are going to require all of us, all of us. It requires the forest industry, the federal government, the provincial governments of New Brunswick and British Columbia. It requires all of us. We can all learn from one another."

Hmmm, BC has a lot of water and southern Alberta needs water. Are you thinking what I am thinking? Does this water security strategy include transportation?

Oh, lordy, I just grabbed this (dorky) pic off the BC Government website.

This gives me so much more confidence knowing that these provincial leaders are dealing with such pressing issues. Hey, wait, they're all men! They're all dressed the same! They're clones! We're doomed.

North Carolina Visitors...

This blog has been getting quite a few visits from North Carolina in the last few days. People there are searching watershed issues. Perhaps, someone could satisfy our curiosity and post a comment telling us why the search.

On the Shishalh Nation Statement...

Well, what to make of this? If I were a Starbucks-sodden business pundit at a national newspaper today, I might write:

"The shishalh Nation is undertaking a robust approach to Aboriginal Title and Rights within its claimed Nation Territory. What we may be witnessing here is a paradigm shift..."

If I were Winston Churchill, I might write:

"Never have so many on the Sunshine Coast, been so annoyed by so few."

If I were I were Karl Marx, I might write:

"This is a perfect example of the dialectic at work. We have had the thesis and now we are to experience the anti-thesis. We wait for the synthesis of this materialistic struggle."

If I were Plato, I might write:

"The shadows we see reflected on the cave wall...oops, sorry, they're petroglyphs. My mistake."

Yes, I am having a bit of fun here and no, I do not take the shishalh Nation Statement lightly. In fact, I am trying to understand it and the Band's decision to release it in light of the political theories I have studied and by putting it into an historical context. I am actually quite excited by this Statement and must lean towards Marx by saying there is an opportunity here for an extraordinary synthesis if all sides in this issue are willing to set aside historical prejudices and differences and envision the possibilities.

Shishalh Nation Title & Rights...

shishalh Band Councillors Garry Feschuck and Tom Paul elaborated on the Band's announcement regarding its title and rights in the January 18, 2008 edition of the 'Coast Reporter.' You can read that follow-up article by Staff Writer Stephanie Douglas here.