100 Mile Free Press Wednesday, February 5, 2014
www.100milefreepress.net
Opinion
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Trudeau leads Senate reform To the editor: Canadians expect their leaders to be open and honest with them, and they expect us to come forward with practical solutions that address problems directly. The Senate, through extreme patronage and partisanship, has become an institution that poorly serves the interests of Canadians. Paired with patronage, the pervasive issue of partisanship and control in the Senate is a deeply negative
force. We need immediate action to address this. That is why the National Liberal Caucus will only include elected members of Parliament, and not senators. This action will immediately mean that each of the 32 current Liberal senators will become independent of the Liberal Caucus. This is about doing the right thing for Canadians and our institutions. I believe Canadians are rightly seeking an effective institution that
Kinder Morgan input sought? On Jan. 15, the National Energy Board (NEB) started taking applications for British Columbia residents to participate in the review process for Kinder Morgan’s proposed new Trans Mountain pipeline and tankers. The daunting application process seems to be set up to deter people from participating. Anyone who wants to submit a letter of comment has to fill out a lengthy online application form within a short window of time (before Feb. 12), and even then the NEB may not let concerned British Columbians participate. Submissions will only be accepted if the NEB deems an applicant is “directly affected,” or has “relevant expertise.” Aren’t we all directly affected by development that threatens B.C.’s lands, waters and climate, and, therefore, don’t we all deserve to
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have a say in whether this project is approved or not? This environmental review process has blinders on. The NEB will not be considering the impacts of tar sands expansion linked to the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline, or the greenhouse gas emissions produced by burning the heavy crude oil it transports. What doesn’t spill into salmon rivers or the ocean will spill into the atmosphere as carbon pollution, causing global warming. In a world where extreme weather events, droughts and acidifying oceans have become our daily reality, we are all directly affected. Will concerned British Columbians be excluded from this process? Caitlyn Vernon Sierra Club BC
debates the difficult issues they are facing today. Equally, I believe that Canadians have no desire to re-open the Constitution. I am taking action today with these reforms, and I hope to earn the opportunity to go further as prime minister. That is why I am also announcing that if I am elected Prime Minister, I will put in place an open, transparent and non-partisan appointment process for senators. This process will be
developed by working with experts and informed by other non-partisan appointment processes, such as that of the Supreme Court Justices and Order of Canada recipients. Further, as the majority party in the Senate, immediate and comprehensive change is in Conservative hands. I’m calling on the prime minister to do the right thing and join us in ending patronage and partisanship in the Senate. All he needs is the judgment and will to get it done.
Taken together, these steps represent the most significant and concrete actions to reform the Senate in its history. At our best, Liberals are relentless reformers. When public institutions fail to serve the public interest, we take bold steps to change them. These proposals will bring real, positive change for Canadians.
To the editor: This is an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and my Oxford, Ontario MP David MacKenzie. I am totally appalled by your treatment of our Veterans. Even I did not believe our government could sink so low. You recently gave millions of our tax dollars to foreign countries, while our Veterans, who have been used and abused by our country to attack other countries and have been forced see horrific actions around the world, are now abandoned by the very government that used them in the first place. I read in the Globe and Mail that millions of dollars are being used for ministers’ offices around Canada. This while the offices that are supposed to help our Veterans
are being shut down. You make me ashamed to be a Canadian. That our government could abandon those in need is an indication the people of Canada are all cannon fodder to be used and abused as long as they can pay
taxes, but after that, they are to be tossed aside. Shame on you and your government.
Justin Trudeau, Leader Liberal Party of Canada
Reader: Veterans being abused
Rebecca Gingrich Princeton, Ont.
RCMP can protect prime minister To the editor: I am writing about the RCMP whisking away a couple of climatechange protesters who walked on stage when Prime Minister Stephen Harper was addressing a Vancouver Board of Trade event on Jan. 3. The RCMP takes the matter of protest very seriously because a security breach could put the prime minister in grave danger. The protestors take the Enbridge
pipeline very seriously because a pipeline breach could put the residents of British Columbia in grave danger. Perhaps the RCMP can tighten their security and protect the prime minister, but how will they protect B.C. residents from an earthquake that ruptures the pipeline?
End this bloody B.C. school war teachers for earnings they gave up. This week’s ruling, joining calls for an apology retroactive lump would be on top of the from Clark. That would be for what ongoing costs, running to hundreds of Justice Griffin characterized as deliberately millions more as 60 school districts try to provoking a strike to build public support reassemble the world of 2002. for the latest of a long line of settlements This union victory began when the imposed on teachers. Supreme Court of Canada invented a Within minutes, Dix received this caustic constitutional right to collective response from Tara Ehrcke, bargaining in 2007, based president of the Greater Victoria on “freedom of association” teachers’ union. in the Charter of Rights and “But where was the NDP during Freedoms. the election campaign?” Ehrcke The BCTF is piggy-backing asked Dix. “You committed a on that landmark decision, measly $100 million – a third of in favour of the Hospital what it will take to restore class Employees’ Union, after Gordon sizes and less than the [NDP] Campbell ran roughshod over platform in 2009, and only pocket Tom their sweetheart contract from change more than the Liberals’ the Glen Clark years. That one Learning Improvement Fund of Fletcher was settled for $85 million, $75 million.” including retroactive payments. Note the mindset of this In case there are parents and taxpayers prominent member of the radical fringe who still believe that all would be calm that controls the BCTF. “A measly $100 had the NDP won the 2013 election, allow million.” An extra $25 million? “Pocket me to put that to rest. change.” This is the same union boss who NDP Leader Adrian Dix took to his demanded that hundreds of teachers be Facebook page a couple of days after last hired this week, to reorganize current
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here are two reasons why the B.C. Liberal government must appeal the latest court ruling that damns its conduct, assesses damages of $2 million plus lawyer bills and appears to hand the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) the keys to the treasury. The first is practical politics. The legislature reopens Feb. 11 – ironically right after Family Day. An appeal will give rookie Education Minister Peter Fassbender the cover he will need during the daily 30 minutes of sniper fire that is Question Period. Rise. “It’s before the courts, Madam Speaker.” Sit. Even the trigger-happy Premier Christy Clark will be staying in her trench, after the bleeding wound she received from Justice Susan Griffin last week. The second reason is practical economics. The 2014 budget has gone to press. Government lawyers told the court that retroactively returning to 2001 classroom rules could cost $500 million, an estimate Griffin dismissed as “speculative.” It could include compensation to retired
Larry Kazdan Vancouver
classes in the middle of the school year to make them smaller by one or two students. Parents and students would endure yet another major disruption of the public school system. And who needs an increase in rural ambulance service or drug-and-alcohol treatment for street kids. Let’s get those teacher-librarians back in schools, and slightly reduce class sizes to offset declining enrolment. No government, B.C. Liberal, NDP or Green Party, can let its unions control their own payroll, just as no private company can. That goes double for this union, which had its own obvious role in provoking an illegal strike in 2012. It made outrageous benefit demands and cancelled extracurricular programs for months before it even specified its wage demand. Bargaining, if you can call it that, resumes this week. Both sides need to cease fire. Tom Fletcher is legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Twitter: @ tomfletcherbc Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca