Monday, November 05, 2012

Vernon-Monashee Conservatives want oil pipeline

By Staff Writer - Vernon Morning Star Published: November 05, 2012 8:00 AM

There are calls for a controversial oil pipeline project to proceed as a way of creating jobs. Scott Anderson, the B.C. Conservative candidate in Vernon-Monashee, says that with careful environmental protections in place, the Northern Gateway Pipeline should go ahead. “Both the Liberals and the NDP have to stop playing games with the lives of British Columbians.  It’s time to stop saying no to economic growth and start saying yes to carefully managed projects that will bring highly paid, highly skilled jobs back to B.C.,” said Anderson. Anderson is upset with a recent study that shows food bank use has climbed 23 per cent in B.C. since 2008. “It’s not enough for the NDP to harp about more food bank use - what’s their solution?  Raise taxes and drag out more expensive government programs?” he said. “As for the Liberals, raising the minimum wage is not the solution. Is the Liberal vision to have a province full of minimum wage earners? Neither party is willing to address the real problem, a lack of high-paying jobs for British Columbians.  “ Anderson said the Northern Gateway pipeline will supply 4,100 person-years of direct, on-site work and a total of 35,000 person-years of work throughout the province. “With the proper environmental controls in place we would be fools not to go ahead with the pipeline.” Anderson recently launched a food drive for the Vernon food bank. “It helps a little, and it’s better than flinging insults at each other like the two tax-and-spend parties are doing,” he said.
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 Cummins reaffirms position in support of Northern Gateway

3 comments:

Coldstreamer said...

Good luck with that policy!

Frank said...

I'm not here to do the most popular thing, I'm here to do the best thing for British Columbians. I think a huge number of people are aware that this is not a closed sum game, and that we need jobs badly.

I think we have to draw a balance between protecting the environment and allowing British Columbians to secure high-paying jobs so they don't face the choice of either moving to Alberta or using our food banks. That's simply not an acceptable choice.

This is not the first pipeline to cross BC, nor will it be the last, but it is the first one to use the latest environmental safeguard technology and be subject to strict environmental regulations. Obviously that doesn't eliminate all of the risk, but environmental risk exists every time we start up our car or even get out of bed in the morning. If the risk is minimized to the best of our ability, the payoff is thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars that will stay in BC.

Frank said...

Oh, by the way, for some reason google uses "Frank." My name is Scott!