Tony Eberts

The latest blows to B.C.'s environment budget by the power-tripping Liberal government add up to a drop of more than 60 per cent in the last 10 years in our ability to ensure clean air and water and protect fish and wildlife.

Gordon Campbell is creating a sterile, poisonous world in which nothing matters but more money in the hands of wealthy corporations and individuals. He puts ocean-fouling net-cage salmon farms ahead of the once splendid wild salmon runs. He is making a mockery of the already toothless Forest Practices Code. He is selling out our parks and inviting a coastal oil-drilling disaster.

Because he's in bed with the ruthless power of Big Business and the mainstream media, we are being blanketed with propaganda, and there are enough greedy, short-sighted voters out there to provide support--partly because they don't want to admit they made a huge mistake in bringing in Campbell's vengeful agenda.

Too few pause to realize that there is something bordering the criminally insane about the proposition that making the rich richer is far more important than protecting the elements we must have to stay alive.

Recently Ontario's budget-slashing Mike Harris accepted blame for the Walkerton water tragedy, which took seven lives, sickened thousands and cost hundreds millions of dollars. Campbell clearly betrays his power-blinded drive to impose his will on all British Columbians by deliberately following Harris's disastrous moves.

The "Fact Sheets" of the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection are a combination of fiction and wish lists, not facts. The outlines set out shiny, praiseworthy goals under the heading of "Roles and Responsibilities," yet the crass cuts in budget and staffing make fulfilling them impossible. They might as well say that it's all in the hands of the Glenda, the Good Witch of the East.

How about these "mission" statements:

"To provide leadership and services that support a culture of continuous learning and improvement and strategically position the ministry for ongoing success." Wow! All that with a 40 per cent budget cut to services already cut to the bone by the NDP. Another "mission" tips the Campbell hand, though: "To protect and enhance the quality of B.C.'s water, land and air IN A WAY THAT CONTRIBUTES TO THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROVINCE."

In other words, a little something just might be done--as long as there's money in it to help Campbell get re-elected. Sell out park services. Let industry police itself in resource development. Let the cat guard the pigeons.

There are some good aims, such as bargaining over protection of Burns Bog, but we have recently seen that Campbell promises and agreements are always subject to breaking if there's money to be made for the Campbell kitty.

In this issue of Steelheader News is an excellent review of the situation by environmental expert David R. Boyd. Read it carefully and then tell your MLA that you want to see an end to the deadly, false economy of starving the programs that support our quality of life--and life itself.