Am I Paranoid?

Tell me I'm not paranoid when I conclude that the corporate media in Vancouver will not cover any issue I'm deeply involved with.

But, as they say, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone isn't following you."

During the Meech Lake/Charlottetown Accord issue of the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was in determined opposition to what I saw as terrible constitutional amendments that would work against my province. The Vancouver Sun and the Vancouver Province assumed that B.C. would be delighted to support the Mulroney government and were overwhelmed with disbelief when British Columbians voted almost 70 per cent No! The editor of the Sun at the time felt obliged to apologize to the readers for so misconstruing the mood of the public.

In the mid '90s, I was heavily involved in fighting the Kemano Completion Project. For the mainstream media, the fighting just wasn't happening! Yet, this billion dollar plus project was killed by the B.C. government.

Again in the '90s, I vocally and vigorously allied myself with an environmental group called PRAWN who wanted to prevent the development of a gravel pit on the Pitt River. The corporate media were silent on the matter and once again the efforts were successful when the government stepped in and settled the matter.

Starting in 2001, I've been consistently involved in the fish farm issue and have, based on the courageous work of Alexandra Morton supported by a host of scientists, demonstrated beyond any doubt that pink salmon smolts are being slaughtered by sea lice from Atlantic salmon fish farms. While Mark Hume (the Globe and Mail) and his brother Stephen (The Sun) have written occasional articles, where is the investigative reporting we saw when Vaughn Palmer was attacking the Glen Clark government over the "fast ferries" issue?

Where are the muckrakers (an honourable term) so necessary to holding the establishment's feet to the fire on the fish farms sea lice issue?

I'll tell you, in The Tyee and just a few other independent publications, including Opinion 250 and the Georgia Straight.

Ignored yet again

Now I am official spokesperson for the Save Our Rivers Society fighting the calamitous energy policy of the Campbell government.

The corporate media don't even rate this as an issue.

I'll let you decide how important this is.

First, BC Hydro, because of the government's policy of having all power generated privately, is terminally ill and here is why.

1. Its bureaucracy has been "contracted out" out to Accenture, an American Company.

2. It has been forbidden by Mr. Neufeld's government to bring on new sources of energy with that privilege now given exclusively to the private sector.

3. Its transmission lines have been taken from them and given to a new Crown corporation, British Columbia Transmission Corporation (BCTC). In view of the Campbell government's policy that power will be created and sold through the private sector, I predict that as sure as God made little green apples, the government will, if re-elected, sell it to a private corporation.

4. This leaves BC Hydro with its present dams and Burrard Thermal, all of which must be maintained, from which it must pay the juicy new contracts negotiated by the Campbell government with their friends, the General Electric et al., as well as service nearly $7 billion dollars capital debt, most of which is held or guaranteed by the taxpayers of B.C.

Can BC Hydro survive this? We don't think so and we are supported by expert opinion provided by Dr. John Calvert and Dr. Marvin Shaffer, both professors at Simon Fraser University. I urge you to read Dr. Shaffer's response to Dr. Mark Jaccard's support of the B.C. government's position. It can be found on the website of PublicPowerBC.ca or here.

Neufeld's dam notions

The minister, Richard Neufeld, makes the amazing statement that BC Hydro is protected by legislation "in perpetuity!" Gadfrey Daniel! Doesn't Neufeld know that there is no such thing as perpetual legislation and that parliament (the legislature) is supreme? If he doesn't understand the elementary workings of parliamentary democracy any better than this, he ought not to be an MLA much less a minister.

One might ask Neufeld this. If damming and diverting the rivers and streams in British Columbia is such a good idea (and it isn't) why isn't BC Hydro doing it so British Columbians make the money instead of giving it all to shareholders in large corporations like Ledcor and General Electric?

The answer is ideology. Following the preachings of the ultra-conservative Fraser Institute, the Campbell government believes that there is no place in our economy for Crown Corporations because he believes that private companies can always do the job better. BC Hydro, which has been in the power business for 40 years, providing either the cheapest or second cheapest power in North America must therefore be replaced by private companies. This means huge increases in the power bills for consumers and industry alike, with all the profits going into the pockets of mom and pop operations like Ledcor and General Electric!

Why give it all away?

What is the essence of the Campbell government's policy?

BC Hydro is forbidden to bring on new power. All new power will be created by private companies. This will create huge environmental damage as one can easily see by going to www.saveourrivers.ca and looking at the award winning Damien Gillis' Powerplay videos.

Until this insane policy, we the people of B.C. have owned our system of public power so that all profits (often approaching $1 billion a year) go into the B.C. treasury for schools and hospitals; under the Campbell government policy, all profits will go to the shareholders of large U.S. corporations.

To use a phrase the government will understand, the bottom line is this: henceforth we will be exporting our environment, our power, our water and all profits out of province!

600 project applications

Is this is how we want our resources managed?

There are, at present, more than 600 applications to dam and otherwise divert the water from our rivers and streams. The minister of energy disingenuously says that these applications must meet a host of standards. This is eyewash.

The only thing standing between an application and a license is a woeful environmental assessment exercise which need not take place at all if the Campbell government doesn't want it to. As every British Columbian who cares about fisheries knows, federal Fisheries and Oceans is a bad joke, and one only has to look at their record on fish farms to know what a pathetic watchdog they are.

Readers should note with horror that Mr. Neufeld doesn't even deal with the implications of NAFTA! Here's what Wendy R. Holm, one of Canada's leading agrologists has to say: "Private sector firms issued water licenses by government -- be it for hydroelectric generation or for snowmaking -- hold NAFTA rights far superior to any rights held by Canadians if those firms are American or have American investors."

"Investor rights -- which trump conflicting provincial legislation -- include the right to national treatment and compensation for losses to investment, profits, markets and goodwill if those rights are expropriated by the Government of Canada or any province."

A left wing cabal?

Finally, Neufeld is on record claiming that opposition is all left wing, NDP, trade unions flap, flap, flap. He evidently thinks that the public must reject ideas and philosophies that don't spring from the BC Liberal party or the Fraser Institute and that if an idea comes from his notion of "the left" that it must therefore be rejected.

The minister is hung in a political time warp of long ago. This debate is not a left/right debate but rather about what sort of a province we will have.

I, too, was a B.C. cabinet minister. I considered that my obligation was to the people of British Columbia and the assets that are their birthright, not large out-of-province corporations that wished to exploit those assets for the benefit of their shareholders.

I leave the matter with our readers with two questions. Have we raised a serious issue of public policy and, if so, where the hell is the "mainstream" media?

Not for the first time have I been involved in issues our papers and TV have ignored, and I'm bold enough to say that after election day, May 12, 2009, they'll learn just how important this issue is to British Columbians.

Related Tyee stories:

• A 'Green' Threat to B.C.'s Rivers?
  Tyee was among the very first to report on critics of run-of-river projects.
• Private River Power Draws Diverse Foes
  'Green' claims disputed.
• Another Side to Private Power
  First Nations, municipalities explore controversial energy source.