Dear Editor:
B.C. governments, both the NDP and the B.C. Liberals before it, have been devastating on environmental issues such as mining, open net salmon farms, and logging, to mention a few.
We elected the NDP for its social programs, but also to protect our natural habitat. The NDP should show that it is not like our previous Liberal government.
Remember: The motto of British Columbia is “Splendour without diminishment.” A price can’t be put on the environment and its invaluable ecosystems, biodiversity, and balanced sustainability. Without these assets we no longer have a supernatural B.C.!
The recent Fairy Creek controversy over logging of old-growth rainforest is just the latest.
If corporations like Teal-Jones and Western Forest Products Ltd., and others, have rights to the logging and profit, our questions to you are basic and simple: What will happen to those profits when there is no more old growth to log, and what will happen with those jobs?
I suppose the answer would be: They can’t log, profit, and employ workers in that field anymore!
In short, the ecological value of the old growth forests far exceeds the short-term profits of any corporate venture. The benefits for the B.C. taxpayer, citizen, and voter are greater than those to the economic interests of a sector.
The main thrust of corporate logic is that corporations have a "right to a profit." In reality, corporations merely have a “right to attempt to make a profit."
Capitalism was built on the principle that you succeed on merit – a sort of economic Darwinism. Don't change the rules when you lose.
Therefore, we request that you consider the practice of logging old-growth forests as off-limits to corporate greed.
Byron Bona
A concerned B.C. resident and taxpayer
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