Premier Horgan has announced a public inquiry. But it was British Columbians who sounded the alarm until he had no choice. There I stood, face-to-face with the beast. Do you know that feeling? When you don’t want to see what’s staring right at you? I couldn’t shut my eyes and make it go away. The […]
Jason Kenney is building a “war room”. B.C. needs a wartime mindset of its own During World War II motor fuels were strictly rationed across North America. Everyone pitched in to save precious gasoline and diesel for the fight against fascism. Governments lowered speed limits. Local businesses delivered by bicycle. Citizens took to public transit […]
Will Big Oil’s lobby succeed in reversing Trudeau’s North Coast tanker ban? At first it was refreshing, uplifting and hopeful. The come-from behind election campaign which caught pollsters and pundits by surprise. The warm embraces, locked-eyes and inspiring mandate letters as action-oriented cabinet members took charge of their files in the spirit of progress, openness, […]
Outdated laws, weak enforcement leave the public on the hook for cleanup The scale of the Mount Polley mine disaster is difficult to comprehend. We’ve read that Imperial Metals dumped 25 billion litres of contaminated slurry into Quesnel Lake, most of which they never recovered. That mud was laced with chemicals including arsenic, mercury, selenium […]
SNC-Lavalin held 89 meetings with government. Guess how often oil companies lobby Trudeau? I, like many Canadians, sat in awe during the testimony of former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould last week. I was impressed by her courage, her commitment to ethics, her attention to detail and her perseverance. I was not, […]
Banned internationally, jailed in Quebec, controversial in Ottawa — but it’s business as usual in B.C. It isn’t a surprise to anyone familiar with the company that SNC-Lavalin is back in the news again. The allegations coming out of Ottawa against the engineering giant are fascinating, but not shocking. SNC-Lavalin featured prominently in Quebec’s Charbonneau […]
The Harper-Trudeau NEB is about to issue another oil tanker approval. Here’s what I won’t do. They say there are only two sure things in life: death and taxes. I’ll add one more. This week the National Energy Board will once again rubber stamp the Trans Mountain pipeline and oil tanker project. The Prime Minister’s […]
Reeling from the impacts of money-laundering, cities look to the Premier for real action This week city councils in Richmond, Vancouver and Victoria unanimously passed motions of support for a public inquiry into money laundering. This sends a clear and significant message to the provincial government about its priorities for 2019. Together the three cities […]