B.C. saving us from bad oil
British Columbia is standing up for all of us.
If the Kinder Morgan Pipeline gets expanded, oil tanker traffic will increase by seven times in the waters off Vancouver in the Georgia Strait and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
That beautiful coastal area and its waters will be placed at risk of ruin with pollution in no time at all, even without an oil tanker rupture.
If the pipeline leaks or breaks along its route through the rugged and earthquake prone B.C. mountains, the damage to the environment will be an unrepairable catastrophe.
But Alberta doesn’t care because it has no environmental risk. Their money-making oil will go into the pipeline in Alberta, travel through mountain ranges and hopefully come out the other end at Burnaby. Any oil spill will be somewhere else, but not in Alberta.
It’s the same selfish mentality Alberta has with the tar sands. The air pollution created by the tar sands blows eastward to somewhere else. The pollution of the Athabasca River and Lake Athabasca, again by the tar sands, has killed most of the fish, and any that are left are covered with scabs and sores. But those waters flow northward to somewhere else.
On a similar note, Alberta allowed oil drillers to just walk away from tens of thousands of drilling sites across its province, leaving the land at those sites polluted and rendered unusable for agriculture and the local land owners on the hook for any clean-up costs.
It appears that Alberta is being totally self-centered and irresponsible, as usual — actually immoral.
Robert Hall
Saskatoon
Grain delays not all railroads’ fault
For a considerable period of time this winter the railroads have taken a great portion of the blame regarding grain movement, particularly to the ports.
They are 100 percent responsible for that grain movement. However, there are other factors everyone should take into consideration when laying blame for the port movement of grain. Let us take a look. During winter and spring weather, conditions have a major voice in grain movement. This is not only from elevator to port but also from farm to elevator.
Another avenue in this scenario is the type of grain in the elevator and the corresponding type of grain required at port to fill the present ships. This is leading towards a central authority to make certain the correct grain is present or in transport to the port at the correct time schedule. If memory serves me right, the Canadian Wheat Board had a division looking after that.
Some politician promised a producer vote regarding the CWB existence. I did not see a vote. Politicians get a portion of the poor port grain movement, particularly because a transport authority was not in place after the CWB.
To the same degree, everyone has a portion to some percentage responsibility for the reduced grain flow.
This happens to all things. A certain segment bears responsibility but there are always smaller avenues.
Delwyn J. J. Jansen
Humboldt, Sask.
Bill C-71 targets lawful gun owners
Re: Liberal gun control Bill C-71. Justin Trudeau promised he would fix the crime problem during the election campaign of 2015. Unfortunately, lawful gun owners of Canada make easy targets for an easy Liberal crime control fix. Bill C-71 targets the lawful firearm owner, leaving out the criminal use of firearms. Not a single line in the act refers to violent criminals or their illegal misuse of firearms. The $2 billion Liberal gun registry has taught the Liberal party absolutely nothing.
Bill C-71 repeats the Liberals’ logic on gun control: leave violent criminals alone, irritate the lawful firearm owner and pretend they have fulfilled the Liberal election promise.
A very undemocratic move by this bill is giving the RCMP total authority to ban firearms without any legislative or committee oversight. Our elected members of Parliament will have no say, even if the RCMP mistakenly prohibit or restrict firearms.
We all know that violent crimes have steadily fallen to its lowest point over the last 20 years. Criminal gang use of firearms has steadily increased over the same period. Yet when the Liberals come up with new crime legislation, they always attack the millions of lawful firearm owners. Canada’s lawful firearm community has proven to be a very low risk when it come to misuse. Over the last 30 years governments have wasted many billions on trying to solve a problem that isn’t there. Maybe it’s time to attack the real problem, which is the criminal misuse of firearms, and leave the lawful firearm owner alone.
I close by asking lawful firearm owners to call your MP, write letters, sign petitions opposing this unnecessary Bill C-71.
Inky Mark
Dauphin, Man.
