Editor:
Necessary for John Weston to toe the party line, although he claims they were necessary to “move forward; to follow the road map that the C-38 budget bill laid for MPs to follow” (Coast Reporter, Nov. 30).
Nothing to do with the healthy preservation of the sockeye salmon run. If the government went to the extent of commissioning a report, spending $26 million to have it done, the very least they could do would be to wait for it before altering the fisheries act. Why spend all that money then throw out critical environmental legislation before the report is released?
To look like this government is “moving forward” to “continue the momentum of having created 800,000 jobs since 2009, following that road map budget.”
To balance this picture, we need figures they’ll never release, on the number of jobs they’ve cut thanks to this budget: environmental assessment teams, fisheries officers, wheat board, Coast Guard, researchers, CBC personnel, anti-pollution scientific unit … you name it, they’ve cut it. So where are these 800,000 jobs they claim to have created? Mucking about in the oil sands? Increasing the ruination of the land, lakes and waters?
For starters, Harper’s personal body guard/security team: 120 full-time staff which, at $20 million this year, is twice the 2006 cost, or the military staff involved in air-lifting two of Harper’s armored limos to India in military transports at a cost to taxpayers of $750,000. Ah yes, all jobs that benefit the people, the environment of Canada in ways that the Fisheries Act couldn’t possibly.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Anna Banana, Roberts Creek
