THE NORTH, STRONG, FREE AND FORGOTTEN
- Details
-
Hits: 1958
VICTORIA – For as long as I can remember, I have lambasted B.C. politicians from the south for not having the faintest clue what’s going on north of Hope.
Proof came again a few days ago, when Premier Glen Clark and Liberal opposition leader Gordon Campbell were given an impromptu test on facts concerning the north. The result? They both flunked miserably, getting only one out of five right.
Mind you, I got only three right, not very impressive either, but three times as good as the premier and the guy who wants to take the job away from him.
So much for our southern politicians. The southern media aren’t any better. They don’t so much get things wrong when it comes to the province’s north; they ignore it. All of which has Tex Enemark so steamed up that he delivered a blistering attack on the media in a speech last week to the Prince George Rotary Club.
Aside from being an old friend of mine, Tex is a northerner, who proudly points out that his grandfather came to Prince George in 1908, driving a herd of cattle. Ever since then, the Enemarks have been involved in all kinds of business and developments in the north. Tex himself was a deputy minister for years in the Bill Bennett government.
Thoughtfully, Tex provided me with a copy of his broadside, entitled "Northern Development, the Media Black Hole, and the Decline of the British Columbia Community."
What prompted him to go on his rant was the fact that the southern mass media have totally ignored a conference, chaired by the premier, on Northern Development and Employment Opportunities to be held in Prince George October 27-29.
"It will be an important event here in Prince George. It should be an important event everywhere in British Columbia. Given the state of economic uncertainty in north central British Columbia, such and event should be the subject of plenty pre-conference media coverage and discussion. Sadly, it is not," Tex said.
"The major media of metropolitan British Columbia do not report on events important to the rest of the province. Perhaps they feel they have no responsibility. Perhaps their metropolitan news consumers have set high hurdles of self-absorption that block the view beyond Chilliwack.
"Whatever the reason, the effect is that our metropolitan media have thrown a shroud of indifference over much of the province, a shroud whose fabric may suffocate our sense of community in British Columbia."
In preparation for the speech, Tex carefully scanned the Vancouver newspapers for a couple of weeks in search of any story about north central B.C. There was none. Ditto for television.
"In the two weeks, there was not a single story relating to what’s going on in about 90 per cent of the area of British Columbia, an area that represents about a quarter of the seats in the legislature, about half the Gross Provincial Product, and about a quarter of its population." It wasn’t always like that, Tex said.
"When I grew up here in the Forties and Fifties, … the major newspapers had B.C. editors, editors with responsibility for gathering news from around the province and getting it into the public record.
"The Lower Mainland newspapers defined themselves as reflecting upon, and reporting upon, a community that was province-wide, and actively sought out subscribers in the hinterland.
"Today, strangely enough, as far as our metropolitan media are concerned, British Columbia doesn’t go from the 49th to the 60th parallels, but forms a small triangle from Chilliwack to Whistler to Victoria. All else is terra incognita."
What to do about it? Tex has an idea or two. Northern and central British Columbia, he suggested, should re-establish the Northern development Council, made up of mayors, regional district chairs, and economic development officers. That body should have an office in Vancouver, from where it could pressure the media to stop ignoring the north.
"If the media won’t come to you, you have to go to the media." Tex, I think the idea has potential.
BUSINESS SHOULD LISTEN TO THIS GUY
- Details
-
Hits: 1738
VICTORIA – "We are increasingly becoming a society of haves and have-nots. We have a country where 52 per cent of individuals and 13 per cent of families earn less than $20,000 a year. A country where, despite our apparent economic success, unemployment rates remain stubbornly high.
"Food banks are accepted as a necessity. And in our streets the plight of the extreme have-nots is increasingly visible to us all. We are not used to seeing so many people living in the streets, so many people asking for money.
"If you are like me, you find it profoundly disturbing. The real danger is that we become used to seeing these people, accept it as a fact of life, and we stop being disturbed."
A social activist? An NDP MLA or MP railing against government cutbacks? Guess again.
The man so disturbed by the signs of poverty all around us is Courtney Pratt, president and CEO of Noranda Inc., one of Canada’s largest resource companies. And the hard-hitting quotes are from a speech he gave to the Canadian Club of Toronto a week ago.
Pratt stunned his well-heeled audience with his brutally frank assessment of society and the place business occupies or rather should occupy in it. Even though some companies are doing their share to make the society that sustains them a better and kinder place, it’s not enough, according to Pratt.
The Canadian Club isn’t used to hearing such words from one of their own. Nor is the public. Business has, in the past decade, acquired a reputation for being mean and lean and not giving a damn about the community at large.
The bottom line has ruled the world of business. Its prime responsibility has been to its shareholders. Downsizing has left tens of thousands of people in despair. The business community has also been quick to take credit for having pressured governments into addressing the problems of debt and deficits.
And then, along comes a guy like Pratt and tells business it had better change and assume an active role in the affairs of the community and start taking responsibility for society’s weakest and most vulnerable. Not bad for a representative of our much and often rightfully-maligned capitalist system
"All businesses must do their share. We must find ways to support and work with the voluntary and charitable organizations that are struggling to meet community needs as governments cut back. And an important part of this contribution must be financial," Pratt said.
"As a total business sector, we have to give more money. A recent Goldfarb poll found that 10 per cent of Canadians believe that corporations are currently most responsible for community service charities. In fact, business contributes less than two per cent of the total expenditures in this sector."
Aside from his duties at Noranda, Pratt serves as chairman of the Imagine campaign of the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy. That campaign’s aim is to get business to take a more active role in the nation’s charitable work.
The Imagine program has set a target of a minimum of one per cent of pre-tax profits as the benchmark for corporate giving. To date, 436 Canadian companies have committed themselves to this target.
"While w3e can be proud of this progress, the reality remains that the majority f Canadian companies have yet to reach this modest benchmark. That’s just not good enough," he said.
The speech that so rattled his audience, Pratt said, was not written by Noranda’s public relations department. "It came from the heart." And he summed up his hopes this way:
"My fundamental hypothesis is that if the Canadian business community can come together in a commitment to making a difference in building the society of the next millennium, then Canadian corporations will be able to make a meaningful difference in shaping a society that is better for all of us – business, employees, the environment, our communities."
The Canadian business tycoons should listen to this guy.
B.C. GETS LARGEST PARK EVER
- Details
-
Hits: 7965
VICTORIA – At he time of writing, Premier Glen Clark was poised to unveil British Columbia’s newest and biggest park.
About the size of Nova Scotia, the 4.4 million-hectare remote wilderness area in northeastern B.C. would provide wildlife protection on an unprecedented scale.
The huge park, comprising one million hectares in park land and 3.4 million hectares in "special management areas," would be home to an estimated 27,000 moose, 15,000 elk, 9,000 stone’s sheep, 5,000 mountain goats, 1,000 wolves, 500 grizzly bears and 500 black bears.
Plans for the park have been in the works for more than four years. About six months ago, all parties involved n the discussion stage agreed unanimously on a final proposal which was sent to cabinet.
When even opposition MLAs are in favor of a government initiative, you know it’s got to be good. And Richard Neufeld, the former Reform and now Liberal MLA for Peace River North has nothing but praise for the scheme, provided the premier sticks to the proposal that was sent to cabinet.
"The message is if you start changing it because by some miracle in Victoria you think you know better, that won’t fly," he said. At the time of writing the announcement was still two days away, but Clark was expected to approve exactly what had been proposed.
Environmental purists will probably balk at the special management areas, preferring the whole thing to be protected from any commercial activity, which may range from mining and oil exploration to logging and hunting.
A brief look at the jobless rate, however, should be enough to convince anyone that a compromise is called for, particularly if commercial enterprises in the special management areas are subject t strict rules and regulations.
Industry representatives welcome a chance to prove that they can work in an environmentally sensitive area without upsetting the ecological balance.
"We know there are ways to work collectively to develop plans and procedures that alow us to continue to develop the resource in a way in harmony with the environmental interests," says Wayne Soper of Westcoast Energy, a major investor n the area.
The new park would also fit perfectly into the fabric of another major international scheme that envisions connecting all parks strutting the Rockies from the Yukon to Yellowstone Park in the U.S. to provide wildlife corridors through which animals can travel safely and unhindered from park to park
When the American and Canadian parks systems were created, we knew little about wildlife migration, and as a result, most wildlife species are confined to ghetto-like parks and have no chance to move as far afield as they should.
The proposed corridors, connecting all major parks along a stretch of thousands of miles, would give wildlife a new chance at survival in the long run.
Banff National Park with its teeming urban environment and out-of-control tourism is probably the worst example of what a parks and wildlife habitat shouldn’t be like.
The new park I northeastern British Columbia will be something to cherish for future generations. It gives us a chance to do it right.
But before Clark grabs all the credit, some of which he undoubtedly deserves, it is prudent to remember that it was his predecessor, Mike Harcourt, who set in motion the process of increasing British Columbia’s protected areas to 12 per cent from six per cent of the province’s land mass.
In the contiguous U.S., wilderness parks are far and few between. What once was wilderness has been swallowed by the habitat needed for its 300 million people. Canada in general and British Columbia in particular are in the fortunate position to have wilderness areas left.
Our children and grandchildren will thank us for having protected some of British Columbia’s awesome wilderness before it was goo late.
CANADA IS NOT AN INVESTMENT CLUB
- Details
-
Hits: 1478
VICTORIA -- What would we do without Pat Carney? Well, for starters, the news media would have been able to devote some space to real problems instead of chasing down an army of politicians and constitutional experts to comment on some rather dumb remarks by the weighty senator from British Columbia.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that during negotiations, all options are on the table. Therefore, should British Columbia renegotiate the terms of its membership in confederation, separation is one of the options.
The question is: is there going to be a poker game at which those options are on the table? I should think not. Aside from Quebec’s possible separation, the chances of which are also becoming more and more remote, any changes in the makeup of our country will be derived at without major controversy. Separation, although a theoretical option, will simply not be a consideration.
Why then did Carney allude to the possibility of British Columbia packing up its marbles and going home? Because like so many Canadian politicians, she confuses the concept of nationhood with that of an investment club.
Premiers of this province have habitually complained that British Columbia puts more into confederation than it gets out of it. From W.A.C. Bennett to Glen Clark, I have personally witnessed our fearless leaders compare population figures to transfer payments and conclude that we are getting screwed.
Bennett built his political career on bashing Ottawa, and Clark has taken several pages out of the Old Man’s book. His salmon war strategy is very reminiscent of W.A.C’s way of dealing with Ottawa.
Clark tells Ottawa he’ll kick the Yankees out of Nanoose Bay, unless there’s progress in negotiating a new salmon treaty; Bennett once removed all Trans-Canada Highway 1 signs and replaced them with B.C. 1 signs to get more money out of the feds.
While such strategies may be valid and even successful to achieve specific goals, they will be destructive if applied on a large scale in negotiations with Ottawa, and almost certainly so if we threaten the rest of Canada with separation.
Ideally, the concept of nationhood implies that all stand for one and one for all. If every province insists on getting its "fair share" out of confederation, as some do, the economic disparities between provinces would become ever greater.
British Columbia wouldn’t give a damn about unemployment in the Maritimes. Ontario wouldn’t care what happens to our forests. Alberta wouldn’t care about anything except its oil. That’s not what a nation is about. That’s not what Canada is about.
In the wake of dealing with Carney’s remarks, some observers compared British Columbia’s problems with Ottawa to those of Quebec. Now there’s a reach.
Quebec’s demands are based exclusively on its fear of losing its culture, language and identity to the homogeneity of an English-speaking continent. The true separatists in Quebec would gladly accept reduced economic benefits and a lower standard of living in exchange for having their own nation.
British Columbia’s bitching, on the other hand, is largely rooted in economics. With the recent exception of the war over salmon and Ottawa’s perceived indifference to the problem, almost every demand voiced by current and previous politicians had to do with money.
What is wrong with Canadians?
Canada is the envy of the world. We enjoy one of the highest standards of living. Our country is blessed with a beauty that makes the heart ache, and a bounty of natural resources. We have room to grow and prosper.
Yet, whining and complaining is threatening to push hockey to the number two spot as our national sport.
Carney would be well-advised to rethink her idea of Canada and British Columbia’s place in it. And the rest of us would be even better advised to ignore the good senator.
Find out what Beyer had to say
Election are always a hot topic
When is the Budget not a hot search