Cabinet minister loses credibility

Dear Editor: Re: “B.C. joins legal battle against pipeline,” (Herald, Aug. 11).

The behaviour of Environment Minister George Heyman in the interview was an example of politics at its shabbiest. While not coming out clearly against the pipeline expansion, he seems determined to stall it to death, knowing that as an interprovincial project, it falls ultimately under federal jurisdiction.

Heyman obviously hopes that eventually Kinder Morgan will abandon the project, so he can wash his hands and say: “We didn’t make them leave; they chose to.”

He talked fulsomely about the alternative jobs he would create. Perhaps Minister Heyman might ask his new consultant, Thomas Berger, how many new jobs were created in the Northwest Territories after that pipeline was postponed to death.

The most egregious part of his performance was to deliberately choose the BP Gulf of Mexico well disaster as a suitable comparison for the risks B.C. might face. The amount of oil released by that spill was about five million barrels, equivalent to almost 20 Exxon Valdez disasters. Is he seriously saying that there will be 20 tanker sinkings?

In my opinion, he has lost any credibility he might have had.

There is clearly no reason to trust anything he might have to say about the environment in the future. John Sutherland

Victoria