Editor:
I am pleased that we finally have a Prime Minister with economic plans for Canada expounded at Davos that extend beyond the next election and are not solely concerned with the winning of the next election.
In particular, I strongly support efforts to find other foreign customers for our natural resources, other than the U.S. that, at times, has been an extremely difficult customer with which to deal - note the softwood lumber trade conflicts which resulted in Canadian lumber producers paying the U.S. for the "privilege" of selling lumber to them by way of import duties that should have been paid by the U.S. consumer. The "salt in the wound" of this payment was that it went to U.S. lumber producers as a subsidy to compete with Canadian lumber producers.
However, the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline is facing years of opposition because of: environmental concerns and unresolved Aboriginal land claims.
The major environmental concerns over this pipeline could be resolved if the pipeline were terminated in Prince Rupert instead of Kitimat. Oil tankers then would be accessing our western terminus on the edge of the Pacific Ocean and not at the end of the narrow and tortuous Douglas Channel.
Unresolved Aboriginal land claims are a much larger problem and cannot be eliminated so readily. Just witness the last century of inaction on this file. As long as this problem hangs over our heads, the further development of our natural resources will be heading into more and more stalls and roadblocks and I see no simple solution except to expedite the job.
Until these two objectives are achieved, we will continue to have a racially-divided, two-tier society in Canada, where the Aboriginal lower tier continues to rely on government handouts for bare (or less than bare) subsistence.
Gordon Catherwood
Gibsons
