Region doesn’t need another pollution legacy

Victoria oceanographer Chris Garrett in his opinion says we don’t need sewage treatment. It is too bad his community can not get over this question.

Two years ago we spent $600,000 for a panel of international experts to review all the available reports and they concluded that we could not rely on dilution in Juan de Fuca as a long term solution.

They told us that science was incapable of predicting when we would reach a major environmental tipping point but we could not continue to grow our community without this great risk. They told us to start planning for treatment right away.

The Minister of Environment agreed and ordered us to start planning.

My question to Chris is when? When will we reach the tipping point? When will we know we have reached it? When will we stop polluting? When should we start planning? When should we look at the opportunities? When will we move on from this question?

I’m sure Chris has answers but I’m more likely to believe the international panel. We just don’t know when we’ll reach the major tipping point. Do we move on and plan for the inevitable, or do we leave this legacy for our children to take care of?

I for one am not in favour of leaving another pollution legacy for our children.

Jim McIsaac

Victoria

Priority to ditch provincial gas tax

Re: Heart of Heartlands not easy to win, B.C. Views, Oct. 8, 2008.

Tom Fletcher’s recent article is correct that Carole James and the NDP have committed to axing the gas tax the first chance we get, and that we have committed to maintaining the 2009/10 tax cuts for low and middle income British Columbians.

Mr. Fletcher asks “Where will that money come from?”

Here’s the answer:

The total cost of that tax cut is $622 million. According to the Campbell government’s own first quarterly budget update released in September, there is a projected budget surplus of $1.02 billion for this year, plus an additional forecast allowance of $750 million, due in large part to oil and gas revenues.

As we all know, budgets are all about setting priorities. The NDP thinks it is a priority to get rid of Gordon Campbell’s unfair and ineffective gas tax.

We think it is a priority to give a tax break to those that really need it in an effort to keep more money in people’s pockets.

And we think it is a priority to start making real inroads in the fight against climate change, instead of just a punitive tax that will do little to reduce our collective carbon footprint.

It seems like Gordon Campbell’s only priority is to stage fancy photo ops and leave working families struggling to make ends meet. That is not leadership.

Bruce Ralston, MLA

NDP Finance &

Economic

Development Critic

Ferries’ mgmt. costs beyond appropriate

I would guess that the total yearly cost for the BC Ferry Commissioner’s office, BC Ferries’ nine-person board of directors and the senior working management of the corporation is near $10 million per year.

B.C. Ferries is a routine business and doesn’t need a large number of costly management types.

Paying board members $1,500 each time they attend a meeting is an example of a corporation that is out of control. It is time that our B.C. Auditor General looked into this matter.

Bob Ritchie

Qualicum Beach

Premier’s Olympic ad poor acknowledgment

I was pleased to see the recent advertisement applauding British Columbia’s Olympic athletes.

 A very well deserved acknowledgment of their skill, dedication and prowess.

 But looking at it more carefully, I saw that the mosaic of all their photographs had been carelessly trimmed so that 25 or 30 of them were cropped to the point of being unrecognizable.

 The point and focus of the page was — or should have been — to honour the athletes by listing the names and by showing the photos of all those great women and men, British Columbians, who had worked so hard and achieved so much.

 By scribing the compass through so many faces, the publicists were showing a shameful disdain.

They saved a centimetre of diameter for no purpose. Not even an aesthetic one.

 Clearly, the advertisement was paid for by British Columbians. The Hon. Gordon Campbell, who was also mentioned in the advertisement, should apologize to the athletes and change his advertising agency.

 Otherwise, who knows, perhaps next time it could be the face of a cabinet minister or a premier that gets  clipped.

 A.G. Beck

North Saanich

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