View Point
Salmon Arm Observer Wednesday, November 27, 2013
www.saobserver.net A7
The Observer asked: What do you think of the plan to build an underpass at Ross Street?
Colleen Stevenson It’s a no brainer. It’s needed for a whole variety of reasons.”
Cynthia Stubbins “They really do need access for emergency vehicles to both sides.”
Fabienne Mathis “First they need to do something about traffic lights in the downtown area and rerouting vehicles.”
Paul Cancade “With development comes the need for vehicles to cross the tracks. It’s that simple.”
Ted Bocking “How are they going to keep the water out?”
Carbon neutral Highway bypass promoted scheme’s sinking BC VIEWS
Tom Fletcher VICTORIA – Two days after Energy Minister Bill Bennett announced the demise of the Pacific Carbon Trust, the public accounts committee convened at the legislature to pound a few more nails into its carbon-sequestering coffin. Assistant Auditor General Morris Sydor was there to defend his report from last March that concluded the B.C. government was not “carbon neutral” in 2010, because the trust paid $6 million for hastily arranged offset projects that were not valid. An Encana Corp. gas flaring reduction project at Fort Nelson and a forest preserve in the Kootenays would have proceeded without assistance from a $25 a tonne carbon fee imposed on hospitals, universities, colleges and, until last year, school districts. In fact they did proceed without this subsidy. The government continues to deny this, but not many people believe them. The Pacific Carbon Trust’s functions will continue, Bennett said. Instead of a board of directors and 18 staff, five people headed by an assistant deputy minister will evaluate projects and bestow millions taken from college, university and health authority budgets each year. B.C.’s school districts are still paying $5 million a year to offset such nefarious activities as heating their schools. But now the money goes into a “Carbon Neutral Capital Program,” and districts apply to get their money back for emission-reducing projects. This is going so well, according to Bennett, that post-secondary institutions and health authorities will be converted to a similar program in the years ahead. How is that school program going?
Here are some examples. The Coast Mountains School District around Terrace paid $66,452 for carbon offsets last year. It got back most of its three years of offset payments as a grant to complete a boiler upgrade for its Kitimat high school. Abbotsford and Nanaimo school districts each have to pay about $100,000 a year. They got money back for boiler upgrades as well, although officials say that would not have been the top priority for spending, if it hadn’t been for the program that forces districts to spend grants immediately on emission reduction. Leaving aside the distortion of spending priorities caused by this restrictive tax-and-spend scheme, what happens when they run out of boilers to upgrade? And has it occurred to the government’s “carbon neutral” braintrust that those new boilers are still burning natural gas? This program is about to be foisted onto universities and hospitals. Does anyone actually believe that heating hospitals and college classrooms is a key driver of global warming? Presumably our carbon czars know that 40 per cent of B.C.’s human-generated greenhouse gas emissions are from transportation, and a few electric cars for school district staff aren’t going to change that. In hindsight, this “carbon neutral government” scheme is perhaps the worst single idea implemented in 12 years of B.C. Liberal government. Gordon Campbell’s grand vision of a province where government sets the green standard and the private sector economy follows has not worked. The NDP presented a motion in April 2012 to relieve hospitals, colleges and universities of their carbon offset obligation. The idea was supported by a B.C. Liberal backbencher, who argued that B.C. should also scrap the carbon tax and quit pretending it can change the climate. His name? Bill Bennett.
Forget the Salmon River Bridge – we need to think a little bigger. As a community we need to begin discussion and planning for a bypass route for the TransCanada Highway through or around Salmon Arm. I cannot believe there are still people in this community who want the highway or, as I call it, the “TransCanada Trail,” to pass through the downtown area. This creates major unnecessary congestion in the downtown area. Currently the downtown core is
surrounded by the highway on the south side and the railway on the north side, restricting its expansion. Why do we need to funnel at least 1,300 vehicles through the downtown when these vehicles have no intention of stopping and do not want to stop as they travel through to their destination? We now have the distinction of having almost twice as many highway traffic lights when travelling through Salmon Arm (eight signal lights out of a total of 19) on the entire major route from
the Alberta border to Vancouver. This has to be very frustrating for long-distance travellers. I have yet to see a city or community in North America lose business because a ring road or bypass route has been built. Examples within our own province such as Chilliwack, Hope and Chase are still thriving after a bypass has been constructed. Let’s get organized and press some buttons to make this a reality. Doug Hlina
Harper makes lame-duck excuses Rob Ford admitted to smoking crack. Justin Trudeau admitted to smoking pot. Stephen Harper can’t admit he has become a Conservative crackpot. Canadians suspected Mister Harper was blowing smoke when he first denied having any involvement in the Senate scandal.
When his strategy of deny-deny-deny started to crack from all the political heat, our sanctimonious Prime Minister crucified Nigel Wright. Day by day Stephen Harper’s duplicitous duck-and-weave defence is being stripped away. Someone once said “those without moral principles usually
wrap a flag around themselves.” Before Mister Harper is totally exposed (or perhaps deposed), he will probably wrap himself in our flag and proclaim he was only doing what was best for Canada. Yeah, Wright … I mean, right! Lloyd Atkins
Partnership threatens Internet freedom Canadian government officials are working with those from 11 other nations to finalize the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). I am very concerned about the TPP, which is currently being negotiated without public input. We know from documents revealed by Wikileaks that the TPP includes an Internet censorship plan that would make the Internet more policed, expensive and censored. Experts have pointed out that under the TPP, “kids could be sent to jail for downloading” and whole families could be kicked off the Internet. It would force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to become Internet
police and monitor my Internet use, censor website content, and remove entire websites from my view. It would also hinder our ability to access information and criminalize our everday use of the Internet. As a concerned citizen, I am speaking out for a free and open Internet. The TPP would also limit accessibility for disabled people. Visually impaired or deaf people would be criminalized for circumventing digital locks on any digital materials they have purchased. This means they would be unable to convert them to braille, audio, or other accessible formats. In addition, the TPP’s proposal to force ISPs to install costly
and invasive surveillance equipment into their networks gravely worries me. These added costs would drive up everyone’s Internet bills and could force smaller independent Internet providers out of business. I believe that Internet access is a right and should be kept open and affordable for everyone. Already over 120,000 have signed the Say No to Internet Censorship petition. I encourage everyone to learn more about TPP Internet Censorship before it’s too late at this website: https://OpenMedia.org/Censorship. John Milne