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Wednesday, December 12, 2012 Similkameen Spotlight
SpotlightOPINION An incredible gift Lisa Carleton lisa@similkameenspotlight.com
I have met many people in my life, especially during my tenure here at the Spotlight. Many have touched my life in different ways and many have gained a permanent place in my heart. Recently I had the great pleasure of meeting a gentleman in town whom I had not met before. His name is Mat Deutschmann. Mat is a 73 year old retired carpenter. For the past two years he has endured immense trauma to his body and brain following a fall off a roof that almost lead to his death. Doctors had told his wife Margarete, he would not survive. A year after the accident he suffered heart failure. I visited the Deutschmann home. Margarete (whom I had met before) explained Mats condition to me and showed me work he had done before the accident and then some of the work he has created over the last four months. It was amazing! I could see that Mat had always had a talent with wood, but the difference in the art style and detail was just incredible. From beautiful wooden boxes and carvings to life sized detailed replicas.... created from just looking at a photo! Margarete then took me to the workshop to meet Mat. He welcomed me with the biggest, warmest smile. When I asked if he would tell me about his work, he was thrilled to do so. Although he has some trouble with his speech and hearing, we had quite the conversations. During the hours I spent with Mat and Margarete that day, I received one of the greatest gifts ever. Not once did Mat complain or utter a negative word about what he had been through. In fact it was the exact opposite. This gentleman is so happy and content—it just amazed me! He is grateful, purely and simply for what he has, what he can accomplish and especially for his wife Margarete for taking such good care of him. This incredible couple proved something to me that I had heard many times, but didn’t really realize to be true. “That no matter how bad or dark things seem... There is always hope.” You’ve just got to have faith. See Mats story on page 8 of this edition.
Mystery Persons; Who are they? Check next week’s Spotlight for the answer. This picture was taken during a Snooshing event in 1984/85. Last weeks Mystery People were Trixie Bartlett, Ethy Hanick and Grace Lawrence PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY Annual subscription: $30 locally, $45 elsewhere in Canada. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities.
Clean LNG can be done
VICTORIA – On Friday, as the federal government BC Hydro has 600 megawatts available from its dams, was giving the green light to a Malaysian investment of which would require new transmission capacity up to billions more into northern B.C.’s liquefied natural gas Kitimat to help run the first two LNG plants proposed megaproject, Coastal First Nations chiefs held their in partnership with the Haisla. quarterly board meeting in Vancouver. Then the play got bigger. The B.C. government transThese are now the most powerful aboriginal leaders ferred Crown land on Douglas Channel to the Haisla in North America, bankrolled by U.S. environmental for an LNG project planned by Shell, PetroChina and groups and their wealthy charity foundation backers as Korea Gas. And Sterritt said he started getting signals guardians of the Great Bear Rainforest. from Victoria that the industry doesn’t want to buy TOM FLETCHER A major topic was the Haisla Nation, the Kitimat power from outside producers to drive LNG cooling partner that abruptly quit its voluntary association and compression. Instead they wanted to power it with the Haida, Gitga’at and other communities directly with gas, using equipment called “mechanical over its plans to develop LNG exports. drives” rather than electrical drives. This discord comes at a bad time. Premier Christy In a letter to Haisla members explaining why he Clark has bet heavily on LNG, not just for her government’s future, quit the Coastal First Nations, Ross said he was insulted by Sterritt’s but the industrial and economic direction of the province for decades comments that the Haisla were choosing “the dirtiest way possible” to come. to ship LNG. Ross noted that emissions would be about the same if Initial press reports were misleading. One had it that Haisla gas is burned in the LNG plant or in a power plant nearby. Chief Councillor Ellis Ross, the B.C. government’s key ally on LNG, That’s true, but Sterritt points out a critical difference. If LNG was “buddying up” with the Harper government on the Enbridge producers are allowed to use single-purpose mechanical drives, no oil pipeline proposed to go to Kitimat, in the heart of Coastal First renewable energy can ever be added. And as more LNG producers Nations territory. rush into B.C., reserves that would have lasted 75 to 100 years could Not so. Both Ross and Coastal First Nations executive direc- be depleted in 30. tor Art Sterritt confirmed to me that they remain solidly against And when the gas is gone? the Enbridge proposal. The disagreement is over how to power the “These big, hulking plants that are going to be in Kitimat are just processing of LNG, which the Haisla are pioneering with provincial going to be sitting there, rotting,” Sterritt said. “It happens all over assistance. the world.” Sterritt said the Haisla and the rest of the group were in agreeB.C.’s clean energy plan envisions extending the BC Hydro grid, ment until a few weeks ago. The plan was to follow Clark’s solemn developing run-of-river and wind farms such as the big offshore provow to make B.C. LNG the “greenest” in the world. posal off Haida Gwaii, and ultimately a future beyond oil and gas. All parties acknowledge that some of B.C.’s shale gas will have Now, in their rush to develop LNG, Clark and Energy Minister to be burned to process and ship LNG to Asia. The initial idea was Rich Coleman seem poised to abandon that strategy. that one or two natural gas-fired power plants would be built, evenTom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black tually backing up wind, small hydro and other renewable supplies. Press
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