Editor:
Re: Will LNG become the enviro-villain of 2013, Jan. 2 Prince Rupert Northern View.
At first reading of reporter Tom Fletcher’s confused missive sent to us from the smoggy confines of downtown Victoria, published in The Northern View under an attention grabber header, I felt angry but probably not for the reasons for which Mr.Fletcher was fishing.
He casts about taking shots at First Nations for wanting to develop sustainable industries that will benefit coastal communities and then from out of the wild blue yonder, misaligns the Yellowstone to Yukon conservation initiative over in the Rockies. The following terrifying mission statement from their website has Mr. Fletcher quaking in his slippers, “People working together to maintain and restore the unique heritage of the Yellowstone to Yukon region.”
Then he gets up on his high horse and condemns Canadian organizations who accept money from American outfits to help fund a broader discussion into the activities of American and the other foreign investors who are lined up at our door ready to pour in billions of dollars, so that presumably they will take out of the country billions and billions of dollars in profit by reselling our resources. One gets the impression that Mr. Fletcher thinks foreign companies invest billions out of the goodness of the heart and that those who might have a question or two about these massive projects are suspect and in his words “eco-propagandists”.
British Columbians, as stewards of our lands and waters are currently writing the history of how we manage our resources. We are deciding how much foreign investment is appropriate, what type of projects are environmentally sound or not, where the risks are or not, what our benefits will be or not? I have no problem with an in depth discussion around these critical and far reaching questions and it does not frighten nor upset me if outsiders, proponent or otherwise fund our discussions about our resources. So they should as long as there is disclosure and it’s all taxable income. That said we need to be aware that foreign ideological battles follow their
money.
Mr. Fletcher’s lazy journalism, if you can call it journalism, is easy enough to sort out, also that he writes like a shill. But I do take exception to his cynical and high-handed attitude where he belittles local people’s interests and to his methods, which are to manipulate emotions and peddle mischief. We need intelligent and considered journalism so that good decision-making is supported, not this petty nonsense.
Peter Christensen
Oona River, B.C.