Harper should follow wise advice in Cohen fish report
Now that the three-year, $26-million Cohen Report has been released, we are finally told the science shows salmon farms spread disease and parasites that decimate wild salmon populations.
( Not to mention that salmon farmers kill thousands of sea lions and seals that protect wild stocks by eating sharks, mackerel and other species that prey on salmon or compete with them for habitat.)
These are obvious actions from an industry that see wild salmon stocks as competition, and should have been obvious to the government when these Norwegian corporations were allowed here. They had already trashed wild stocks in Norway and Scotland, and are destroying those of Chile and Peru.
They should be outlawed and removed from any waters used by wild salmon for migration to the ocean and return. Will the NDP do this or are they still as enamoured of Norwegian ecocide as the B.C. Liberals are?
Jim Erkiletian, Nanaimo
Time for PM to act
Well, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, I hope you’re familiar with the expression “fish or cut bait.” Now that Justice Bruce Cohen has laid out 75 recommendations to help protect the Fraser River sockeye, what are you going to do? Are you going to acton his recommendations or fritter away more time hoping the problem will solve itself?
The first thing you should do, assuming you are interested in saving wild salmon stocks, is get the Department of Fisheries and Oceans out of the business of promoting fish farms. In case you are not familiar with the term “conflict of interest,” it means a situation in which a person has a duty to more than one person or organization, but cannot do justice to the actual or potentially adverse interests of both parties.
If you cut fewer DFO jobs, maybe you’ll be able to expedite Cohen’s recommendations.
Lloyd Atkins, Vernon
Parking revenue gone
In all of the discussions about the outrageous transportation plan announced by city hall, I am amazed that no one seems to be at all concerned about the loss of parking revenue the city is experiencing due to the installation of the bike lanes.
As taxpayers, we should all be alarmed at what is going on because in the end every property owner or property renter has to pick up the tab for bike lanes that cater to a very small minority.
If you travel Burrard Street downtown you can quickly realize the hard-core cyclists don’t use the bike lane on Horn by Street. With the new secretive accounting policy at city hall, I understand even some of our elected officials can’t see where our tax dollars are being spent.
Gerry Mazzei, Vancouver
Don’t count on Langley
Good for you, Mayor Moonbeam, you go right ahead and build another TransLink SkyTrain along Broadway. But don’t you even think about asking us out here in Langley to pay for it.
I’m tired of paying for services north of the Fraser River. If any one of the mayors south of the Fraser support your cockamamie plan so that it will cost us, they can kiss their mayoral jobs goodbye.
Debbie Atkinson, Langley
Make driving easier
Whether the city is waging a “war” on cars is a moot point since traffic continues to increase unabated as the city grows by leaps and bounds.
We really ought to be looking at ways of making driving around town easier and less congested.
For example, rather than talking about tearing down the Georgia viaduct, perhaps it could be twinned by adding an upper level.
Also, the way the Cambie corridor is being densified, widening that boulevard to accommodate thousands more commuters might be in order.
But I suppose the first step would be to get some competent urban planners working for Vancouver’s future.
Charles Leduc, Vancouver
Suzuki’s timing curious
Suddenly, David Suzuki has an opinion on “ironing the oceans” because the name Nelson Skalbania (businessman equals bad) is forefront?
Where was his opinion when it was learned that the “stewards of the Earth,” coastal First Nations, had done so without consulting anyone?
Harry Shardlow, Chilliwack
Veteran shortchanged
Some ask, what is the price of freedom?
Apparently the federal government says it’s $87,000. That is the sum they gave soldier Kevin Berry who defended with his life the freedom we all take for granted.
Berry came home crippled for life from Afghanistan and was given a one-time lump sum of $87,000.
These very same politicians bloat their million-dollar pensions by putting in $1 and receiving $23 in return from taxpayers. I think it’s time we sent them packing with a one-time lump sum of $87,000 upon retirement.
On behalf of all Canadians, Mr. Berry, I salute you, sir, and it’s not with the one-fingered salute you got from the feds.
John Houghton, Cloverdale