On the heels of two visits by B.C. Liberal Party ministers, Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald, speaks out on how the Liberals have become arrogant and out of touch with the public interest.
Macdonald says the Liberals have insulated themselves from public accountability by not meeting with the public to answer concerns regarding their energy policy, as well as forcing through legislation without scrutiny and working in secrecy.
When Environment Minister Barry Penner visited Golden, Macdonald says that Penner was very careful to avoid any sort of interaction with the people he is supposed to be serving.
There was a lot of people that needed to meet with him, but Minister Penner chose a small group of invited people and used that venue to present his views.
“This is how the Liberals operate and this is part of the reason why they have lost their way. Most see them as arrogant and out of touch as a government.”
Regarding the Liberal’s energy plan, including the carbon tax, cap and trade, and independent power projects Macdonald had a number of concerns.
“People here in Golden have strong views on the gas tax. People see it as unfair. People see it as ineffective, and they’re looking for a climate change plan that is going to include us–rural people–in its development.”
“The responsible thing for a minister to do would have been to meet with people and actually hear from us about our views on climate change and what we see as answers.”
He says the government is spending more than $10 million on telling us what we should be thinking, and for the minister to come here and just give the same line is a waste of time.
“Properly the minister should be here listening to us on this issue, and answering questions.”
He says the impact of the carbon tax is far reaching and shortsighted.
“The gas tax is going to have an impact on the education school budgets, that’s going to come straight out of classroom services. Over the years it’s going to increase. How is the government going to deal with that?”
He says that the Liberals have limited discussion on many topics by pushing through legislation and ending the sitting of the legislature.
“There’s all sorts of questions, legitimate questions people have.”
“In the legislature we weren’t able to ask those questions about the legislation because they used closure on it.”
The issue of cap and trade, and the way the Liberals have structured it leaves room for an abuse of the system.
“Cap and trade is a general term, and it means essentially that you get some sort of measurement of emissions and you try to set a level of emissions that you are not going to go above, and then you set a price on it. But within that general concept there are many decisions that the government has to make about how they’re going to do it.”
“If they make the right decisions then it could be effective. If they don’t do it properly then they can end up only benefiting certain individuals.”
This he says is a great concern because done improperly you can end up with people becoming very wealthy and not really addressing the problem.
“The cap and trade legislation they put in front of us was like every other piece of environmental legislation they’re doing. It was wrapped in secrecy, essentially it was an enabling act that would allow the cabinet without scrutiny to make decisions on how cap and trade was going to work.”
“To be successful, what the NDP is saying, is that likely you would have to go to an auction process for these credits rather than simply giving thecarbon credits away.”
“It is the lack of detail and secrecy of their legislation that made it impossible for it to be supported.”
“With this and every other piece of their environmental initiative it has been elitist, and it has been exclusionary, and it hasn’t included us, and by us I mean it hasn’t included ordinary people. Its been imposed on us. Cap and trade in particular is open to abuse. If it’s not done in the open, you create the opportunity for that abuse, and the public doesn’t accept that.”
He says the Opposition's debate in the legislature was clear, “and what I said in the debate was clear, and if you saw the legislation it’s basically, ‘we are going to set up a cap and trade system it’s going to be done in secret by the cabinet’...well no way.”
“That’s not in the public interest, and I don’t think that the minister could argue that it is in the public interest.”
“There were three pieces of legislation the Liberals brought forward that related to environmental issues, and the fact that they are not going to include us in these decision, certainly with the gas tax, means it’s going to be ineffective and unfair.”
“The initiative has to include the public, you have to get it right, and the fatal flaw with the Liberal approach is it is top down. It shows an arrogance, and quite frankly after seven years is just out of touch with people.”
Macdonald says that the assertions Minister Penner made concerning run-of river power projects while here in Golden would not stand up to being challenged.
“There has been millions of dollars spent by the government, and by the proponents of the BC energy plan to give their line on what the BC energy plan is about. And for the Minister to come again, and simply repeat those, and repeat them in a place that can’t be challenged is not acceptable. Each one of the assertions he made I don’t think he could easily make in front of the people of Golden.”
“They would be challenged, and I don’t think what he’s asserting would stand up to that challenge.”
Macdonald says that he made it clear to Minister Penner in person that Golden and area residents were deeply concerned about the private power projects in the area.
“He knew we had a public meeting in April, and more than 200 people attended.”
“I told him about that meeting, I told him in person, and I let the Minister know the deep concern that people had expressed about this policy.”
“I presented a 1,000 name petition to him, from the people of Golden, asking to stop these projects and return our ability to make decisions on the projects.”
“I informed the Minister that the Golden town council had passed a motion asking for a moratorium.”
“So given all of that he would know that there were deep concerns. I think that was the reason he sort of snuck into town.”
“But properly a minister should have taken time to meet with tourism operators, and other concerned citizens so that he could understand what we think about the B.C. energy plan.”
“As Minister, you come to Golden once in your term. Do something more than go to the top of the hill and do some political tirade. Go and meet people and understand what’s going on here.”
“It was a perfect opportunity, and it was a opportunity missed, and it points to the bigger problem that the government has become so arrogant and secretive and they’ve forgotten that they are here to serve the public.”
“You have to meet with people, and you have to get a good sense of what they are thinking. With local government you can’t avoid that. You make a decision and you have to deal with the consequences of your decision right away.”
“Provincial and federal governments are able to insulate themselves but they shouldn’t. It’s a mistake to do that.”
Macdonald says that the majority of British Columbians will pay the price environmentally and economically for these projects, while a small handful of private interests will be the net benefactors.
“If there was ever an economic and environmental issue for people to stop and have a close look at it’s this one.”
“What people in Golden have concluded is that before they proceed with private power projects in our area, and in this province, there needs to be a very thorough study.
“This is not me saying private power is a problem. It’s me saying that my community is telling me that they have serious issues with private power.”
With private power Macdonald says it is not in the public's interest, but in the private interest.
“The main weakness that I would assert with the B.C. energy plan is that it is not being done for the public interest, that there is a very narrow private interest that will benefit from it at the expense of the wider public, and that’s just wrong.”
“Many of these projects on their own don’t make sense. They don’t make economic sense unless BC Hydro and the public subsidize them.
“So essentially, BC Hydro is entering into these contracts, which are ridiculously expensive, and the public is putting up the money for the project.”
He says if it were really in the public’s interest it would be carried out in a different way.
“If it made sense why not just have BC Hydro do it?”
“The biggest test, if these made sense, would be the abiltiy to sell it to a room of people in Golden, and yet what they found is that they couldn’t. They couldn’t come in and explain to people in an area why it was a reasonable thing to do. So what they did is they changed the law and thats what Bill-30 did.”
Responding to Minister Penner’s remarks to the Golden Star last week about removing local zoning powers as something that is standard where BC Hydro is concerned.
“But BC Hydro is a public entity. These are private companies. So why would you remove the ability of local government to make decisions on this?”
“These are private entities, and it makes no sense to remove us from a zoning decision. As I say if it was in the public interest, and it made sense, the Minister should be able to come to Golden and explain to us why we need to go ahead.”
“It doesn’t make economic sense. It’s an environmental problem. It is done over the opposition of rural people, giving us no say what goes on in our back yard. All of those reasons point to why people in Golden reject what’s going on. The council unanimously asked for a stop to this, the NDP is demanding a stop to it, and that comes from people in Golden being loud and clear to me to their elected officials, that they have a big problem with it.”