by Larry Powell
Below is a copy of an e-mail I just sent to Chris Hall, host of the CBC Radio program, "The House." It concerns an interview he did this morning with Manitoba's Premier, Brian Pallister on the Premier's move to withdraw from the federal carbon tax plan. If you didn't hear it, Pallister announced to the world that a carbon tax is not needed in Manitoba because both he and his government are already green!
Hi Chris!
I'm a native Manitoban who has, as a journalist, researcher and citizen, long been immersed in the politics of this province. I could hear the lies dripping from Premier Pallister's mouth as you interviewed him on the carbon tax this morning.
His assertion that both he and Manitoba are already green, comes less than a year after his government slashed important legislation. It once provided us with a measure of health and environmental protection from the mass pollution created by this province's already large "factory hog" industry.
And, despite a wealth of science that shows the harm this industry has, for years, inflicted on our water, soil and air, countless new mega-barns are going up as we speak. Predictably, this is also being accompanied by a growing swell of complaints from rural residents whose solitude, privacy and property values are being invaded, not only by the stench from the barns and the disease-carrying manure being spread widely on food crops, but from dust and noise from huge semi-trailers rumbling along, nearby.
Don't forget, animal agriculture is a significant contributor to the climate crisis, which was, after all, the topic at hand. It produces copious amounts of methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than the most common one, carbon dioxide.
Not surprisingly, under the guise of "investments" or "loans" (which may not be loans at all, but outright grants), this expanding industry is being "helped along" with generous dollops of our tax dollars. In what alternate universe could this possibly be considered a "polluter pay" policy?
Pallister's hidebound ideology - that we must have growth at all costs - and that most regulations amount to nothing more than "red tape" - amounts to contempt for his own citizens and an insult to our intelligence.
Lake Winnipeg and other important waterways in this province have, for years, been so overgrown with algae (much of it the toxic "blue-green" kind), they can be seen from space! Does anyone in her right mind believe that massive industry expansion will make these problems anything but worse?
If Pallister had boasted that his province was not really green but "blue-green" he would have been closer to the truth!
Larry Powell
Shoal Lk. MB!
5 comments:
The only thing more astounding than the Premier's statement, itself, is that so few seem prepared to challenge or correct him. Remember this? "All that remains for evil to triumph is for good men to say nothing." Why are YOU remaining silent? Here's one place you can comment! WHY NOT?
Great write up Larry.
Initially, Bacon One was Quebec….Manitoba is now, Bacon Two!
Bad ideas and poor operating principles are very costly.
The lessons are; We must learn from Filmon's Conservative government, past mistakes.
s this pointless rhetoric from a long time ago? Hardly! We should all benefit and learn from the past. Who initiated and spread out the welcome mat? That is the fact. The Filmon regime of government, in the 1990's must bear that imprudent act alone, for it was done without the benefit of any studies whatsoever and literally double crossed every farmer who used to raise hogs for a living and sale; as Premier Filmon also eliminated the competitive “Single Desk Selling” for the sole benefit, as he promised Maple Leaf Foods president Michael McCain. Our NDP government however, was not virtuous in this business of meat for export, for they also allowed and encouraged the rampant growth of producing hogs to continue. This hog industry is a meat-exporting business. Manitobans consume about six per cent of their production. The rest is shipped away, leaving us and our water sources to deal with all the waste and pollution that is produced and left behind, producing the blue /green plan that Premier Pallister boastfully proclaims. Adding just one more value-added concept, as initially proclaimed by the Filmon/ and now Pallister Conservative government.
"So Pallister shoots himself in the foot. His so-called ‘green plan’ exempted from the carbon tax stuff his agricultural support base uses (farm fuels, pig barn heating, etc) and deferred the tax for the largest emitters in Manitoba, his buddies. Now that he has dropped the made in Manitoba carbon tax in a fit of pique, the feds will apply their carbon tax -- to everyone. No exemptions. Oops...But then, it could just be a ‘sneaky’ strategy to nail the Liberal Party in front of the next federal election...”
letter by Larry Powell; Pallister isn't telling the whole story. 11 Oct.
Bill 46 contained 3 actions for keeping phosphorus out of Lake Winnipeg:(1)a crackdown on hog manure,(2) upgrades for city of Winnipeg's sewage system and (3)protection for Manitoba wetlands.
What is disturbing and yes, hypocritical, is the fact that Bill 46 was unanimously adopted by all members of the Manitoba legislature which became The Save Lake Winnipeg Act, established in 2011.
Yet, upon becoming government many of the regulations in the Act were abolished.
Any integrity in Pallister's government has vanished.
Some years ago, Bill 46 contained 3 actions for keeping phosphorus out of Lake Winnipeg:(1)a crackdown on hog manure,(2) upgrades for Lake Winnipeg's sewage system and (3)protection for Manitoba wetlands.
What is disturbing and yes, hypocritical, is the fact that Bill 46 was unanimously adopted by all members of the Manitoba legislature which became The Save Lake Winnipeg Act, established in 2011.
Yet, upon becoming government many of the regulations in the Act were abolished.
Any integrity in Pallister's government has vanished.
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