Dismantling the future

Tony Eberts
  British Columbia's future is being dismantled by a provincial government desperately trying to slash its way out of the economic jungle it created while appeasing its industrial sponsors.
  The Campbell formula of shrinking government, discarding regulations and cutting and privatizing services might be justified in some circumstances, but it spells disaster for the natural wonders that make life in this province rich and special.
  When this formula was applied in Ontario it became a major cause of the Walkerton water tragedy that took seven lives, sickened thousands and cost millions of dollars. Yet with all the sensitivity of a bulldozer, Gordon Campbell drives ahead with the same agenda here.
  Even though the NDP administration reduced the environment protection budget by some 35 per cent, further cuts ranging as high as 40 per cent are now being made. More than 1,000 jobs will go. The ministries have issued fine sounding aims and goals to achieve environmental paradise--while their finances are hacked so drastically that some kind of hell is almost guaranteed.
  As part of the sellout to industry, the dirty and dangerous netcage salmon operations on our coast are being allowed to expand. Campbell has ignored opposition by the federal auditor general, the Senate Fisheries Committee, the recent Leggatt inquiry, the governors of Alaska and Washington, First Nations and virtually all environmental groups. He also ignores outbreaks of disease among the farmed fish and massive escapes from the cages of alien Atlantic salmon.
  Campbell presides over the final crippling of the Forest Practices Code and the elimination of government reviews of the environmental impacts of plans for logging, mining and oil and gas exploration--again, giving all the high cards to his friends in industry.
  Increased damage to fish, wildlife and endangered species habitat not only erodes the quality of life for British Columbians but lowers the province's appeal to visitors. As the timber industry devours itself and scars our landscapes, hopes that tourism will expand to improve the economy diminish.
  One possible bright spot was a promise to legislate better protection for drinking water sources--but at the same time the door is opening wider to allow logging in domestic supply watersheds in such areas as the Sunshine Coast and Chilliwack. And precious, shrinking farmland and green spaces in the Lower Mainland are to be more vulnerable to urban sprawl as Campbell takes aim on the Agricultural Land Reserve.
  Over and over, the "New Era" agenda puts the cat among the pigeons in relying on resource industries and developers to "do the right thing" by minimizing damage to fish and wildlife habitat--about as realistic as planning your retirement by buying a lottery ticket.
  Despite the great popularity of provincial parks with the more than $500 million in revenues and 9,000 jobs they provide, many campgrounds and day-use areas are to be closed. Adding insult to injury, private concerns will be invited in to commercialize what's left. The parks branch faces a 31 per cent reduction in staff, even as reports show that parks generate $10 for every dollar invested in them.
  The Campbell government is spending and wasting all the things bright and beautiful that should be the heritage of our children. We must hammer away at the MLAs and ministers with letters, Emails, phone calls and demonstrations, in the belief that we (and an aroused public) can change this money-mad drive to destruction.