Environment warrants urgent response

Re: “‘It is dire:’ Study finds B.C. logging continues on critical caribou habitat,” May 29.

The B.C. government is managing the coronavirus, the housing crisis and many other issues in a way that deserves our confidence and admiration.

However, this report and others remind us that the very positive handling of these social and health issues is not matched on environmental and resource development files.

The B.C. government has permitted logging on more than 900 square kilometres of endangered southern mountain caribou habitat.

B.C. is one of four provinces without an equivalent to the federal Species at Risk Act.

B.C. does not require provincial agencies that issue permits for forestry or energy development to conform to the federal act.

The researcher says: “It is dire. They’re going extinct and it is happening now.”

On May 12, the Times Colonist reported that the U.S. is increasingly concerned over pollution from B.C. mines. The EPA is demanding to know why Teck Resources coal mines in southeastern B.C. are being allowed to exceed guidelines for selenium, a toxic heavy metal.

Monitoring stations near Teck’s mines report levels 50 times what’s recommended for aquatic health. The water flows into the cross-border Kootenai Reservoir and river.

Other examples include continued logging of old growth forests on Vancouver Island.

I don’t want to take anything away from the government’s handling of health and social issues. It is exemplary. However, I believe most British Columbians yearn for a similar urgent, focused, well-planned approach to the environmental crisis, which seems to be confined to back pages these days.

Jocelyn Gifford Sidney