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Thursday, January 24, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

Horgan bullish on Site C, LNG Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca Premier John Horgan did not inspire a standing ovation upon entry, nor did he illicit any booing. He did not speak with evangelical fervor, nor did he lose anyone’s attention. For this, his second consecutive year as a luncheon keynote speaker at the BC Natural Resource Forum, he and the crowd showed a casual comfort with one another. His speech was calm, businesslike, funny at times and thought-provoking at others. He took time to run the list of his government’s challenges, and some of the key accomplishments in his view. It was an opportunity to throw the previous B.C. Liberal government under the bus to paint his NDPGreen coalition government in a campaign light, but he sidestepped such rhetoric. Most of the challenges, he said, were outside of government control like recordbreaking forest fires, harsh floods, and the bite of China and the United States in global affairs. Horgan also noted that some of the things done by the current government might seem surprising to an industrialist/business crowd. He was bullish on developing liquefied natural gas. After careful review, he supported Site C Dam construction which he described as a “very controversial but fundamental project.” He also stressed that two sub-topics of government were actually keystone enablers of natural resource development. He said all the investment a government could make in the burgeoning tech sector was tantamount to investment in mining, forestry, oil and gas, agriculture and so forth because contrary to mental image, the tech sector did not mean making better video games, but rather making better tools for the natural resource sectors to use. That might mean software, but it also might mean the 18-storey all-wood skyscraper now standing on the campus of UBC in Vancouver. He complimented the industrialists of British Columbia for being longtime backers of the carbon tax, a system pioneered by B.C. in the North American context. The carbon tax’s effects were examined

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Premier John Horgan speaks with an attendee at the Northern Resource Forum on Wednesday. by the auditor general who determined it was pumping air into the tires of the B.C. economy at the same time as it offered its disincentive to pollute. While other provinces are openly warring over the crossCanada implementation, B.C. is carrying on with business as usual. He also referenced the impasse at a small bridge on a small river by a small segment of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation acting in opposition to a natural gas pipeline. This

was a complex situation, Horgan outlined, that called on all sides working under the natural resources umbrella to be respectful of each other, for all sides have a degree of righteousness, and no side has overarching power. “I’m hopeful that you’ll all agree with me that no one wants British Columbia to have a black eye on the international stage, when it comes to reconciliation, because we in British Columbia, successive governments,

have been working hard to try and get our heads around what is a complicated issue – an issue of profound human rights and also of economic liberation,” he said, referencing the generational, systemic habit prior to recent days of natural resources and other economic development being unilaterally imposed on the traditional (and unsurrendered) territories of First Nations “for my benefit and your benefit but not their benefit.”

Rally draws pro-resource crowd to Civic Centre Liberals own legislature scandal, Horgan says

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca Preceded by a convoy of trucks parading through the city’s downtown, a rally in support of resource communities was held outside the Civic Centre on Wednesday. About 50 people from across Northern B.C., most wearing blue overalls with reflective trim, showed up, many of them holding up signs saying “I ‘heart’ LNG,” “Resource Jobs = Schools” and “Yes to Jobs.” A civil tone was maintained as they heard speeches, kicked off with a bit of cheerleading from the main organizer, David Johnston of the Kitimat-based group TheNorthMatters. “If we look at the history of our great province and great country, what is it that the country’s built on?” he asked while standing in the box of a pickup truck. “Resources,” the onlookers replied. “Resources are the most important thing in our communities right now for creating opportunities for our families, for our kids and their kids,” Johnston said. “It’s something that we need more of and something we will continue to fight for.” Speakers in favour of pipelines and related development followed. Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad was among them. “I’m proud of the fact that this country and this province was built on our resources,” he said. “The benefits we have, the life we have are all based on the fact that we have been blessed with abundant resources. “We have to make sure that we take care of the environment, we have to make sure that we’re respectful... but at the end of the day, it’s you guys, it’s our families, it’s our communities. That’s why this is important.”

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Katie DEROSA Victoria Times Colonist

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People wave signs in support of resource communities in Canada Games Plaza during a rally outside of the Civic Centre on Wednesday. Haisla Village elected chief Crystal Smith also spoke. She referred to the benefits the Coastal GasLink pipeline and the LNG Canada liquified natural gas project near Kitimat will bring to the 20 First Nations along the pipeline’s corridor. “The communication needs to be about people,” she added. “Forget systems, forget governments, we need to come back to what we are doing for our people.” The rally was being held as hundreds of business people and politicians had gathered at the Civic Centre for the start of the three-day B.C. Natural Resource Forum and just before B.C. Premier John Horgan was to deliver a speech to the delegates.

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Johnston, who makes a living as an electrician, maintained TheNorthMatters movement he helped start is completely non-political. “We don’t have any political messaging, we just care about families,” he said. “So these opportunities that are available, when the government sees that there is a mass movement pushing for it, whatever government it is, we’re hoping that it will listen to that mass movement of the majority of people and go ahead with projects.” A handful of local members of the ardently anti-Trudeau yellow vest movement showed up in support but remained muted. And on the steps of the library stood one person bearing a sign saying “Wet’suwet’en Strong, No LNG.”

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AG left in dark over spending scandal

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Premier John Horgan tried to place the legislative assembly expense scandal squarely at the feet of the B.C. Liberals, harkening back to 2011 when the then-Liberal government unilaterally appointed Craig James as clerk of the house. At a press conference Wednesday in Prince George, Horgan was asked to comment on sections of Speaker Darryl Plecas’s report that suggested James is not politically impartial, as his role requires, but closely aligned with the B.C. Liberal Party. James and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz have been suspended with pay since Nov. 20, when they were marched out of the legislature under police escort amid a criminal investigation. Plecas on Monday released a report accusing James and Lenz of “flagrant overspending” of taxpayer dollars. The two men have said the allegations are “false and untrue.” Horgan said James was “appointed arbitrarily, at the whim of (then-house leader) Rich Coleman” and that it was “absolutely unprecedented in British Columbian history.” “At the time in 2011, I spoke passionately in the legislature, as did Adrian Dix, about how just plain wrong it was for the B.C. Liberals to assume that they can dictate how our institutions run,” Horgan said. “It’s not supposed to be that way.” The clerk acts as the chief executive officer of the legislature, overseeing rules and procedures and the legislature’s $70-million budget. Following the retirement of longtime clerk George MacMinn, the Liberal government under then-premier Christy Clark installed James as clerk without the endorsement of all MLAs. The position is a lifetime appointment in order to ensure the clerk is free from political influence. The Opposition NDP wanted the clerk’s job posted publicly so applicants could be selected by a bipartisan committee. — see ‘WE HAVE MORE WORK, page 3

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