British Columbians have always come to the defense of the natural environment when it is threatened

Joe Foy
WCWC
It's a dirty trick. The wide ranging and deep-to-the-bone Liberal staff and service cuts have caused so much panic across BC as to prevent citizens from focusing on any one area of damage. Perhaps it was planned that way.
I mean, when you are worrying about coping with increased day care charges, longer waits for medical service or the impending loss of your job it’s hard to focus on much else. Some might say this hard and fast turn to the right is needed and is in fact good planning. I say the Liberals have done it to disorient and isolate us in our homes, too preoccupied with our own private trials and tribulations to deal with much else. And there is plenty we all need to deal with.
Like the Liberal assault on the environment. The Honourable Joyce Murray, our MLA, is the minister responsible -- or at least was responsible for the environment prior to the cuts.
Now the timber companies are in charge of the forests. Ms. Murray's wildlife biologists will no longer be allowed to provide written comments on proposed logging plans. We'll just have to trust the nice people at Weyerhauser and Interfor to protect our endangered species. That should save a lot of money - until the US and European buyers refuse to purchase timber products from us because of our lousy environmental record!
In fact the Libs have said that they intend to take 1% of forest revenues and divert them to Europe and the USA to advertise how great our forests are being managed. Frankly I don't care how many millions the Liberals burn up trying to pedal that lie - it ain't going to work. It's too hard to sweep those pesky dead endangered species under the rug.
Ms. Murray says her ministry is focusing on protecting our drinking water. Hmmm. So how come there's increasing pressure to log drinking water source watersheds on the Sunshine Coast and in Chilliwack? "Let them drink dirt" could well become the new BC government motto.
And - I hate to be the one to break the news, but the Agricultural Land Reserve--the one that conserves our green space from Boundary Bay to Chilliwack--is as good as dead. The sound of land developers smacking their lips at the prospect of replicating several Richmonds on our remaining farmland is getting downright deafening.
Like a little peace and quiet? Forget about heading down to your favourite Provincial Park for a little quiet camping. The Libs are just a-slashing and a-burning here too. In spite of a report done for them in September 2001 that shows that for every one dollar spent on our park system we get ten dollars back in economic activity, Minister Murray is shutting down BC campgrounds across the province and turning others over to private companies.
If it sounds bad . . . it is. However, I believe that the Liberal strategists will eventually be proven wrong. British Columbians have always come to the defense of the natural environment when it is threatened.
Minister Murray has presided over changing her ministry from a public guard dog role to a corporate lap dog role . . . and that is the dirty trick played on all of us.
(Joe Foy lives in New Westminster and is Campaign Director for the 26,000-member Western Canada Wilderness Committee.) Photo Courtesy of Purple Hayes Kyack School, Chilliwack, BC Canada.