Opinion

Oil in Saanich Inlet:
Waiting for if To happen

Seeing the result of preventative measures is sometimes
difficult.

But looking back after an accident happens is an
unfortunate, and costly, way to leam a lesson.

The recent Alaskan oil spill is the most talked about
example of how even a corporate giant like Exxon can spend
millions of dollars in clean-up costs and still be faced with oil
washed up on the shore. All because Exxon was too
cost-conscious to insist on double-wall oil tankers.

Our friends across Saanich Inlet hardly have the resources
Exxon has. Yet, the owners of the Bamberton site are
allowing a cavalier industrialist to place the delicate
environment of the Saanich Inlet at risk.

No one in our area will benefit from bunker oil becoming
available right next door but because the property is privately
owned and industrially zoned the storage plan may very well
go ahead.

It seems the hands of Canadian regulatory officials are tied
until something does happen. That’s like having someone
shoot a rifle wildly in a field and only arresting the person if
someone is harmed.

The Saanich Inlet Protection Society suggested the
Utilities Commission Act may be used under these circum-
stances, to require a full assessment of the situation.

An Enyironment Canada official told a reporter he agrees
with resident’s concems but “‘that is free enterprise.”

“We don’t have a reason right now why we should try to
stop it.” He went on to speculate that perhaps the facility is
good enough to handle the oil shipment.

_ Perhaps the facility is good enough. But accidents aren't
- called accidents for nothing.

If the facility is used, safety measures based on a

worst-case scenario must be in place.

Candidate Couvelier:

Too much, Too soon

Someone should have told Mel Couvelier that a general
election has yet to be called.

Saturday’s Social Credit candidate selection meeting was a
virtual free enterprise love-in.

Balloons, a jazz band, pickets signs, Mel buttons and
color-coordinated campaign workers filled Sanscha Hall.

Rallying the troops in such a manner is great. It’s
politically smart and if an election was called tomorrow the
Couyelier campaign could have a two-step jump out of the
Starting gate.

But attacking individuals went too far. Let’s wait until the
election is called so the real fight can begin — and those
being attacked can respond.

Volume 76 Issue No.20

TheReview Wednesday, May 16, 1990 se AG

7

AFTER YOu'VE FINISHED HEE...
HOW ABOUT BOING A DYE TEST
FOR. LEAKAGE ON THE
BAMBEZTON OIL TANS...

Letters to the editor must be
signed and contain the writer's
address and telephone number.
Letters should not exceed 500
words in length and may be edit-
ed for clarity, legality or taste.

TheReview

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Since 1912
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or RO. Box 2070
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Publisher: Vic Swan Editor: Glenn Werkman

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VERIFIED

CIRCULATION

CONTROLLED

Spring clean-up

subile recycling

Editor:

Jane Bant’s letter (Spring clean-
up being abused, The Review, May
9) suggests we re-think the North
Saanich clean-up program.

I have done so and do think we
should make one change: it should
be re-named the “North Saanich
Spring Recycling and Clean-up-
what’s-left-over Program.” This
year I am delighted to say three-
quarters of our pile was taken
before the official pick-up.

From previous years’ experi-
ence, I know that people take the
damdest things for the strangest
reasons. Someone once took our
old hot-water tank.

I would far rather give it a try
this way than see this kind of stuff
fill up Heal Lake or be dumped in
the bushes on an isolate road.
Anyone with toxic materials can
phone the municipal hall for
instructions on how to dispose of
them.

I was also pleased this year to
see District staff picking up litter
along the roadside.

Keep up the good programs,
North Saanich. I would not like to
be deprived of my annual cruise
around the District to see what I
can glean.

J. Doman
North Saanich

Double your
deserve befier

Editor:

I was surprised to read the views
of the Minister of Finance regard-
ing the contents of one of my
quarterly household mailings in
the last week’s Review, (MP
Report wrong, May 9).

With respect to Mr. Couvelier’s
comments on the assertion that the
Vander Zalm government asked
for federal cuts in transfer pay-
ments, I refer him to the Premier’s
remarks at the Union of B.C.
Municipalities meeting last Sep-
tember when he stated: “If the
federal government will cut back
on its expenditures, then we simi-
larly will have to give, not only on
equalization payments, but transfer
payments as well.” This invitation
was clear to Michael Wilson and

British Columbia is the poorer for
It.

Mr. Couvelier’s concern over
the morality of providing const-
tuents with factual information is
startling when one considers the
dubious nature of the B.S. fund
and Socred claims of a balanced
budget which, according to the
Auditor-General and the President
of the Certified General Account-
ants Association, fly in the face of
all known accounting principles.

Qne also wonders where the
facts are in the pure propaganda
distributed by the Social Credit
government in the form of news
bulletin style television commer-
cials and newsprint leaflets.

There is something wrong when
we have a government in Victoria
that sells off our public assets,
raises Our taxes and passes on the
benefits to its friends.

There is something wrong when
our government in Ottawa insti-
tutes what it calls tax reform and
allows 94,000 profitable corpora-
tions to pay not a single cent in
tax. Rather than address the imbal-
ance in corporate and individual
income tax the Conservatives have
opted for the GST. So much for tax
reform.

In light of the confused state of
our Province’s finances, it should
not be alarming to learn that the
Minister recently stated that B.C. is
not doing well in dollar terms
within Confederation, “although I
can’t prove it.”

Little wonder that we are in
trouble if the man watching the
books can not prove if we are
doing well in “dollar terms.”

As Mr. Couvelier said, we
deserve better.

Lynn Hunter, M_P.
Saanich-Gulf Islands

Aboriginal
rights ignored

Editor:

The Meech Lake Accord has not
given aboriginal rights the priority
it deserves. Passed in 1982, the
Constitution Act wanted further
action on the “constitutional mat-
ters that directly affect the aborig-
inal peoples of Canada, including
the identification and definition of
the rights of those peoples to be
included in the Constitution of
Canada.”

What happened on the way to
Meech Lake? Nothing. Absolutely
nothing. The Meech Lake Accord
has vitiated the rights and claims
of Canada’s Aboriginal People
and their descendants. Quebec did
not even participate in the First
Ministers Conferences between
1983 and 1987.

What will happen to abonginal
consent for amendments to the
constitution and to aboriginal rep-
resentation in federal and provin-
cial institutions?

The Conservatives and those
elements of the other major parties
who blithely support the Accord
had better waken up.

Elmer G. Wiens
Victoria

Hospice kudos

Editor:

Recently we saw a splendid
turnout for the Annual Hospice
Swimathon at the Panorama Pool.
May we take this opportunity to
publicly thank ali those people
who took part to raise money for
Hospice Victoria.

First of all the swimmers for all
their efforts, Linda Mabee and her
staff at the pool, Thrifty Foods of
Sidney for donating the drinks, and
Oakcrest Foods in Saanichton for
the doughnuts.

Again many thanks to you all.

Christine Richards
Valerie Kellond
of Friends of Hospice

Couvelier cartoon
was supreme irony

Editor:

Your May 9th cartoon featuring
the mighty mouth Honorable Mel
Couvelier coupled with his foot-
in-mouth letter castigating the
lowly NDP was supreme irony.

Hardly has the ink dried on
recent press accounts detailing
Mel’s uncouth outburst against the
Auditor General than he charges ©
like a bull in a china shop into
your letter column with this spar-
kling gem that “it is irresponsible
to use taxpayers’ money to distort
the facts!’’ (MP Report wrong,
The Review, May 9)

As for his unctuous observation
that the NDP are not noted for

Continued on Page A8

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