Dear Editor
Once again, like clockwork, Tom Fletcher takes exception to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM). This year, his exception leans towards all the local opposition to Pipelines and Oil Production (“Oil a slippery slope for cities, The Journal, Oct. 9, 2014).
It is true that these issues are outside the mandate of Municipal jurisdiction and under the Federal control of the National Energy Board (NEB) and the Conservative Harper Government.
Tom Fletcher, a well known supporter of these projects, believes that BC MLA Andrew Weaver, alone can provide all the opposition needed to combat the NEB, even though it’s outside his jurisdiction as well.
Though Andrew Weaver is doing a miraculous job alongside Federal Green Party leader, Elizabeth May, the two of them alone are kept buried by the propaganda, and the literally, hundreds of millions of dollars of large multi-national oil companies, and paid journalists, like Tom Fletcher.
How dare local politicians stand for clean air, water, and peoples health. How dare local politicians stand against the 61 million tons of greenhouse gas produced from the oil sands? How dare local politicians stand against the 185 billion liters of clean water used in Bitumen production? So what if Kinder Morgan’s 60 year old pipeline leaks like a sieve, and is jokingly referred to as the “great soaker hose”, by its own employees?
Let’s give all our local politicians a big pat on the back for standing outside their realm, and doing the job that our Federal politicians are suppose to, but fail too, because their own personal agendas are better represented by the economy, rather than the health of our Nation, our children’s future, and our environment.
Maybe, Tom Fletcher, should stick to his jurisdiction, as a journalist, instead of a paid fiction writer.
Art Green
Hope