Enbridge promises too glossy
Regarding Enbridge Vice-President Janet Holder’s speech to the Chamber of Commerce recently, one could write a tome on the holes in her argument, glossing-over of problems, and various other bits of spin going on. I shall confine myself to two.
Her comments about the benefits that First Nations will gain from the pipeline sound quite astoundingly arrogant and patronizing given the almost total opposition of the bands from all parts of B.C. to both the pipeline and the tanker traffic necessary to ship the dilbit; which, not incidentally, is not just bitumen as she called it, which would be bad enough, but a mixture to make the bitumen more liquid and which contains other substances that are equally and in some cases more damaging than the bitumen itself.
The attitude of the company and the federal government appears to be that the First Nations aren’t really serious about the opposition and ultimately can be bought.
The scientific evidence presented at the National Energy Board hearings as well as the long experience of residents of the areas show without question that there will be leaks and spills along the pipeline route and there will be tanker mishaps at some point that would cause very long-term, possibly permanent, havoc to the land, freshwater streams, and ocean and the creatures that live there: and that includes people.
My one wish is that those who are touting the wonders of industrial growth live long enough to suffer from the results of their actions.
Their children and grandchildren most certainly will.
Eva Durance
Penticton
*****
Trash dumped in wrong place
The words appalling and disgusting are just two of many words I could use to describe the mess that people leave in the forest off Carmi Rd., just passed the first cattle guard.
This has been going on for years but just recently someone dumped a whole trampoline which could have been dropped off for free at the salvage yard. Then we’ve had someone dump lots of wood products which, of course, have sharp nails and pieces of metal sticking out of them.
This creates a hazard to local wildlife and anyone else who might want to enjoy the outdoors, not to mention how ugly and disappointing it is when you come across these atrocities. All of this junk could have been taken to the landfill for free
Not long ago we had some enterprising person dump an entire camper with all the glass and sharp material there within, and of course others also bent on destroying the beautiful landscape came up and shot the camper to even more pieces making yet another hazard.
In addition to these things, electrical equipment such as large-screen TVs, computers and countless other pieces of household items that could easily be recycled free of charge at any number of places in town.
Why would you drive all the way out into the bush to dump this refuse when there are places here in town that will take it at no cost.
It makes no sense and it makes the rest of us sick and ashamed to share the same city and surrounding landscape. You don’t appreciate it, you don’t deserve it and you have no morals or brains in your heads and it’s just sad.
Brian Shepherd and seven others
Penticton
*****
Alternative to deer cull
I was watching a show on Knowledge network today (Nov. 23/) and the show was Animals At Work and it showed Banff’s solution to their problem with elk coming into the town. They used a pair of border collies to herd/scare the elk out of town (the dogs are feared as they seem wolf-like). I suggest this as a solution to our deer problem here in Penticton as it would not pose the threat of someone being shot if we were to have a cull, which is the solution most people seem to want.
Dana Dyck
Penticton
*****
More important issues than brown apples
I recently saw on the local news about a new breed of apple that will not turn brown once it has been cut into. This apple apparently was developed here in Summerland.
I wonder if the person/organization was given a government grant to come up with this genetically modified apple. Was it done at one’s own expense or was this some of our tax dollars?
I believe we have the right to know the answer to this question.
Secondly, could not that money/time have been spent on something more beneficial to human kind than the ‘browning’ of our apples.
Do we need this?
Have we not lived for centuries and no one has really been too much concerned about whether ones apple goes brown or not. We’re still eating them and generally speaking, they’re usually consumed before we have time to worry about the changing of colour.
J. Johnson
Penticton