The Editor,
This letter is neither an endorsement nor a condemnation of the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline twinning but an attempt to point out the glaring hypocrisy of our government, the protestors and even our prime minister.
While we myopically focus on this pipeline project, there are a couple of other industries in our province that have the potential or have already caused some environmental disasters.
Roberts Bank, the seventh largest coal terminal in the world, ships out 21 million tonnes of coal annually. Depending on the source, each tonne of coal produces 1,000 to 1,500 lb. of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. You do the math. Because these pollutants are killing or destroying the health of millions of Asians instead of British Columbians, who really cares, right?
This coal reaches Roberts Bank by rail lines that traverse or parallel many of our major rivers. These same lines also transport millions of tons of chemicals and dangerous goods. You don’t think a derailment into one of our rivers wouldn’t have a catastrophic effect on our environment? Why doesn’t Premier John Horgan slap a carbon tax on this coal? He seems to have no problem onerously taxing every aspect of the lives of the hard-working people of our province.
And how soon we seem to have forgotten the Mount Polley debacle, which poisoned the drinking water of thousands of people and caused irreparable damage to the environment when a tailings pond burst.
Consider, also, the fact that there are at least 93 major tailings ponds located in our province that contain millions upon millions of gallons of toxic sludge. It’s so much more cost effective for these mining companies to use tailings ponds instead of dealing with this waste in an immediate and responsible manner.
These ponds need to be dealt with or they are going to eventually poison our ecosystem. I guess we’ll leave this problem to our children and grandchildren.
And yet again we have our wishy-washy, enigmatic PM pulling another outrageous stunt. While doing his best impression of a leader committed to a project, the Trans Mountain pipeline, his government is actually paying for summer jobs to protest the pipeline. What planet is this man from? Could he be anymore ridiculous? How bad do you feel about voting this man in? I know I do.
Neil Swanson, Coquitlam
