VICTORIA — New Democrat leader John Horgan released the following statement in advance of the B.C. Natural Resource Forum being held in Prince George next week:
“The B.C. Natural Resource Forum in Prince George is a timely opportunity to remind ourselves of British Columbia’s tremendous economic strengths and the duty of its leaders to help realize our potential for B.C.’s families and communities.
“We are hardworking and innovative people living in a strategically important part of the world that is blessed with plentiful natural resources. Unfortunately, the government’s marquee economic initiative is in tatters and Premier’s Clark job creation promises remain entirely unfulfilled. As a result, too many British Columbians are living paycheque to paycheque – worried about their jobs, worried about whether they can afford to retire and believing their kids are in B.C’s first generation to be left worse off economically than their parents.
“Premier Clark has spent the last three years putting all of BC’s eggs in one basket, “centrally preoccupied” with LNG. She has ignored other communities and the vital and historically important industries like forestry and mining and the innovative technologies and industries that will bring us the jobs of tomorrow.
“While BC needs a leader committed to jobs and training, particularly for young people, the Premier’s focus has been on temporary foreign worker agreements with the federal government, China and India. It’s not by accident that her favoured LNG proponent says it will build with up to 70 per cent foreign workers and the only people mining coal in northeast BC are temporary foreign workers. BC needs a Premier centrally preoccupied with putting sustainable jobs for British Columbians ahead of everything else.
“At a time when BC families need the good-paying jobs that can come from proven investments in sustainable energy, the Premier is pushing Site C through without independent economic analysis against the advice of her own experts. She should instead direct BC Hydro to assess renewable energy and conservation on the same footing as a new dam and let British Columbians see which path would create the most jobs across the province.
“British Columbians want sustainable economic development that benefits all communities and protects our air, land and water. The Premier has been putting potentially important projects at risk by antagonizing First Nation communities, rather than making them partners in BC’s potential. She gave up significant control over our environment by letting Stephen Harper and his cabinet decide project approvals on Enbridge and Kinder Morgan. It’s well past time to negotiate reconciliation of aboriginal title – on the ground and across BC – and to take control over BC projects back from Stephen Harper.
“I have no doubt that next week in Prince George and in the upcoming throne speech Premier Clark will try to distract attention from her failure on LNG and show she “gets it”, by making more and new promises about jobs and the economy. But after everything she has said and the very little she has done, it is hard see that the Premier can achieve our potential or be taken at her word. That’s a shame, because we as British Columbians have such great economic potential and we can do better”.