Politicians should work together against climate change
There is no credible evidence that the Kinder Morgan Pipeline Expansion Project is in the national interest or that the benefits of the project outweigh the risks. What is certain is that if this project goes ahead Canada will not be able to meet the climate-change goals it agreed to in the Paris Agreement.
What we need is a civil conversation about how to transition to a low-carbon economy. The Columbia Institute and Canada’s Building Trades Unions report that 17 million direct and indirect jobs could be generated in Canada by 2050 if we started making concerted efforts to meet our climate-action objectives.
That seems to be a worthy goal to work toward, rather than political leaders spewing juvenile taunts. Michael Jessen, Nelson
Pandering to the minority?
Most media coverage about the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion is about the anti-pipeline activists — Aboriginal protesters beating their drums, painting their faces and trying to intimidate with veiled threats of violence, bored seniors with nothing
better to do or soccer moms who drive to the site in gas-guzzling SUVs, then brag about being socially active.
Why is no one talking to factory workers, truck drivers or office workers, whose taxes pay the wages of protesting MPs, pensions for seniors or payments to native bands? These people can’t afford to take time off work to demonstrate for the pipeline.
Is Premier John Horgan speaking for the majority in B.C. or just pandering to a vocal minority to save his political skin?
Dave Yarrow, Langley
Vacation in Fort McMurray
I had to laugh when I read Marshall Maron’s letter-to-the-editor Wednesday about how he isn’t going to visit B.C. to visit his Alberta friends who live here in protest of B.C.’s opposition to the Kinder Morgan pipeline project.
Has Maron ever thought why his friends live in B.C. and how many of them would move here if there was a bitumen spill? Stay home, Maron. We will make it through the summer without you. You can vacation in Fort McMurray.
Elizabeth Jones, North Vancouver
Don’t have kids if you’re poor
Youths contending with mental illness and addiction and resorting to criminal activity to relieve boredom is problematic enough. Youths resorting to criminal activity to relieve boredom while contending with homelessness, however, is the result of people living in poverty having children beyond the means to support them.
People living in poverty should realize how irresponsible it is to have kids who they can’t properly support. Carl Johnson, Delta
Hospital parking too pricey
It costs a little over $3 to park all day at the SkyTrain station across from Coquitlam City Hall. I was shocked, however, when I took my wife to Saint Paul’s Hospital and had to park in the hospital’s outdoor parking lot for what we thought would be a one-hour exam that ended up being over three hours. It cost over $17.
The parking rates at Eagle Ridge and Royal Columbian hospitals are equally insane. Who is it that profits from such outrageous hospital parking rates? Is it the private parking company, the B.C. government or the hospitals?
Am I the only one who suffers because hospital visits are more frequent than SkyTrain rides? George Elgstrand, Port Moody