Environmental propaganda is hurting resource development in BC and Canada according to the MLA for Skeena who was in Williams Lake Thursday afternoon.
Official Opposition critic for natural gas and petroleum resources Ellis Ross told the Williams Lake and District Chamber of Commerce that the perfect storm is brewing.
“If there’s a lobbyist that’s really working hard to improve the standards in BC and Canada that’s great. But a lot of these lobbyists have admitted themselves their objective is to stop resources going to Asia from Canada; they’re not willing to talk about improving the standards; that’s not their goal. They want to shut it down,” he says.
“If this goes the way it’s going Canada, BC is going to turn into one big welfare state because there will be no economic development, and the biggest economic development drivers and the biggest revenues are coming from Alberta, Saskatchewan-gas and oil, and we’re all using gas and oil products.”
Ross says although unemployment has always been in his community like very other aboriginal community, he saw the reverse when economic development came to town under the modernization of the smelter plant as well as when LNG came down to clear the groundwork for their plants.
“If I had to take my choice because I believe in people, I’d much rather see everyone working or at least training for an opportunity and having some purpose in life other than being on welfare and in poverty,” he says adding that the environmental assessment already has high standards.
“For those people that are cheering that the environmental assessment is going to be revamped with higher standards, I have never seen any of those people at environmental assessment tables and that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 13 years. It’s a massive amount of money to get through an environmental assessment in BC and Canada nowadays. You’ve got to have at least a million dollars if not two or three so if you’re going to revamp that and make it even more difficult, that means only that the major corporations with millions and millions of dollars at their disposal are going to be able to go through that.”
Ross also met with the CRD Board Thursday afternoon before flying to Vancouver to go home.
“When we’re in Victoria in the legislature we spend hours talking about the same issues and how are going to move forward,” said Cariboo Chilcotin MLA Barnett at the Chamber meeting.
“As Ellis said I will never forget his last comment when he was giving me a bit of a lecture. He said these lobbyists and these environmentalists they come to our communities and they win and when they come we got nothing, but we had hope and when they leave, we got even less.”
Mayor of Williams Lake Walt Cobb who was in attendance at last week’s Natural Resources Forum in Prince George said the session on energy, oil. and gas relayed how important the industry was and the
need to push for LNG if we are to assist in cleaning up the environment by making sure this clean energy gets to the polluting markets.
“Once again environmentalist and urbanites who do not understand the dynamics are beginning to affect our competitiveness economically and standard of living,” he said.