You do remember that the price of lumber took a nose dive. There was and still is all the beetle kill. Its not like there has not been any forestry jobs in this region, lumber is still being produced in mills along highway 16 and trucked to Rupert. There has been plenty of work for loggers, graders, truckers, longshoremen and for those who work in the mills that are operating along the highway 16 corridor.
We would have LNG but politics got in the way (Federal and Provincial governments and First Nations). No major hold ups for the LPG terminals because it comes by rail and not a pipeline.
Despite evidence that site c is uneconomic Clark plans to forge ahead on the project if elected. My children will be paying for this mess for years.
What alternate reality d you live in? Dimensional lumber’s up $120-$150 over last year.
You’ll also pass a dozen closed mills along the highway to Prince George, God knows how many off the main road. Over 350 loads a day on Hwy27 wrecked the road so bad they redid it in 2005 and our new MLA gave us a lame-ass sealcote job. And guess what, traffic’s down so much they probably won’t need to do it again until 2100.
Look at all the closed gas stations, schools, shops, diners, supermarkets along Hwy16. It’s not because people are ordering lunch, underwear and groceries on Ebay - it cuz so many of them are just GONE.
Flapping gums and meeting over the beetle kill for decades, congratulating themselves as if they were DOING something about it.
Don’t get your panties in a twist, I was not talking about the price of lumber now. Yes lumber has rebounded, I never said it didn’t. You will never see all those small mills that closed reopen even if the NDP were to win.
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what policies have the NDP put forward to reverse that situation? are they pro resource? pro environment? combination of both? what have they said during the election that will help the resource sector?
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I’ll throw this unscientific poll thing out there just for kicks.
Who would you vote for if the provincial elections were held today?
- Jennifer Rice - NDP
- Herb Pond - Liberal
- Hondo Arendt - Green
- Undecided
0 voters
Edit: Found out you can change your selection if you click “hide results”.
Hondo’s feeling unloved by HTMF according to the poll.
Poor Hondo.
A campaign donation from the US United Steelworkers Union, the largest donation ever to any party.
I’m pretty steamed right now.
You see, I come from a forestry dependent community where my friends, neighbours, and family members count on forestry jobs.
For decades, the BC NDP have told us they stand up for workers. But as we face serious challenges from U.S. trade action against our softwood lumber industry, we’re learning now just how hollow the NDP’s words really are.
At the start of this election campaign, John Horgan had this to say about getting a fair softwood deal with the United States: “good luck with that”.
Many of us were shocked to see the BC NDP leader throwing in the towel instead of pledging to fight for BC jobs. But now we know why.
Just a few days later, Leo Gerard, president of the Pittsburgh-based United Steelworkers union, stood next to President Donald Trump and endorsed the president’s attack on BC forestry workers. Gerard even accepted the pen Trump used to sign his executive order as a gift. And John Horgan didn’t even question it – he went out of his way to defend Gerard’s actions.
Well, guess what: Leo Gerard and the United Steelworkers gave John Horgan and the BC NDP almost $700,000 in 2016 — the biggest political donation in BC history. And yesterday, it was revealed that the Steelworkers are directly paying the salaries of the BC NDP’s top campaign officials.
It was the Steelworkers that helped launch a U.S. trade action against B.C.-based Catalyst Paper in 2015 – the same year that Horgan made Gerard an honourary life member of the BC NDP.
And it was the Steelworkers that petitioned the U.S. government last year to slap a 50% tariff on Canadian aluminum – a move that would have killed 1,000 B.C. jobs at RioTintoAlcan in Kitimat.
The bottom line is the John Horgan BC NDP is bought and paid for by a big American union that’s fighting for U.S. jobs at the expense of B.C. workers.
No wonder Horgan is refusing to stand up for B.C. jobs.
The choice in this election is crystal clear. Only Premier Christy Clark and Today’s BC Liberals will have the backs of B.C. workers in these challenging and uncertain times. Since the launch of the BC Jobs Plan in 2011, B.C. has led the country by gaining 9,825 new forest sector jobs – an increase of 17%.
We need to keep going – creating and protecting jobs that support healthy families and strong communities. You can’t trust John Horgan or the BC NDP to do that – not with the U.S. Steelworkers pulling their strings.
Thanks for your support,
Dallas Smith
BC Liberal Candidate
North Island
Okay. Fair enough. The NDP accepted $700,000. So what? The NDP has accepted far less cash than the Liberals. The Liberals are bought and paid for by big business.
This is not just about the campaign donation its about who its from and what’s their intention. I think the NDP and the Liberals are no different. The NDP are bought and paid for by union executives. and the Liberals by big business, the thing they have in common is that they both employ British Columbians. A big difference though is those in unions see their dues being donated even if they don’t support the NDP.
I will respectfully disagree there. The Liberals are noticeably more corrupt. Just recently Clark demonstrated Trump-like behaviour by accusing the NDP of hacking their website. The allegation was false. There are many more scandals I can list. Clark will say anything to get elected.
I think there is a difference. Several.
- As per the article from hitest, the Liberals receive at least twice as much from corporate donors than the NDP do from unions,
- As the governing party, Liberal policy can be/has been influenced by those donations while we can only speculate on the influence of union donations to the NDP.
- It is laughable to suggest that the NDP are bought and sold by the Steelworkers to harm BC jobs when the Liberals have had 16 years to make a difference and haven’t.
BC NDP - Christy Clark has failed to stand up for BC's forestry jobs. How can British Columbians believe she'll suddenly fight for our forestry industry now? | Facebook
4.And perhaps the most significant difference: the NDP actually want to end corporate and union donations but the Liberals have been and still are unwilling to do so.
so the United Steelworkers support the NDP while their leader attacks BC products, meanwhile the ppl that build our infrastructures support the Liberals why because the NDP are against the main projects the Liberals are promoting
Well it wasn’t unanimous.
What I found interesting about the article you linked was the comment by the union representative saying
“That’s our bridge.”
No. That bridge does not belong to the union. If built it belongs to the people of BC.
I don’t pretend to know a whole lot about transportation in the Lower Mainland, but I don’t think the majority of mayors down there support the bridge. There are other options.
The same can be said about Site C. Expert opinion says that the dam is not only too expensive but unnecessary as well. The NDP want the project to go through the BC Utilities Commission. The Liberals are trying to push through to the point of no return.
Some have likened Site C to a similar project in Newfoundland and Labrador that didn’t turn out well.
KInder Morgan? Environmental concerns aplenty. While it has been given approval both federally and provincially, if it does go ahead which party do you want overseeing those concerns? Mt Polley as an example.
Sure we want jobs and nobody or at least nobody I know is unhappy with Altagas and Pembina coming to Rupert for example, but some of these massive projects might not be in the interest of the entire province. Site C - BC Hydro is a prime example.
Nothing is ever simple.
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What is your point with that?? Its more than 10 years old. Life wasn’t all that rosie back in the late 90’s, or do you not remember that?
Not to speak for hitest but the point might be that the '90’s were not quite as bad as some would lead us to believe, especially when Liberal ads on TV keep bringing back the “horrible 90’s”.
We all have our opinions and biases but I just wonder what people would be saying if the NDP had been in power for the past 16 years and were running up massive debt despite campaigning last time and this time on a debt free BC.
If they had just lost a 15 year legal battle with teachers in which schools had been underfunded for an entire generation of students.
If one of their ministries had been involved in some questionable firings that led to the suicide of an innocent man and nobody has been held accountable.
If budgets had been “balanced” while premiums, fees, and rates had been raised considerably. (ICBC, BC Hydro, MSP)
If they had promised thousands of jobs on an LNG industry that has so far resulted in nothing, and now they claim to be the ones to bring jobs.
If they were pushing large questionable mega projects that opponents were saying were too expensive or unnecessary.
If they claimed that the economy is doing the best in Canada yet the poverty rate is close to the worst in Canada and the jobs are mainly centred in the larger urban areas not in the north or interior.
If that were the NDP record, I am guessing that most here including myself would be saying - yeh time for a change. In 2001 I didn’t support the NDP because I didn’t think they deserved a third term.
I am trying to figure out why the Liberals deserve a fifth term.
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Prince Rupert was on a downward spiral in the late '90’s, much better today. Maybe not for all but definitely for many. If the NDP win good on them, I don’t believe we in the North will benefit, but that’s my opinion. For BC to fully prosper we need a party that can balance big business and social responsibility, I don’t believe either party can manage both. Change can be good but it can also be terrible.