News
Close to two hundred people packed into Roberts Creek Hall when local federal Liberal candidate Dan Veniez hosted Bob Rae, past Liberal leader contestant and premier of Ontario on Monday, August 9th.
Rae expressed huge dissatisfaction with the current Conservative government of Steven Harper, saying that he is leading like he has a majority and that it is up to us to restore the integrity of democracy.There will be reports about the meeting elsewhere but sustainablecoast.ca was there to find out what the two men had to say about energy sustainability and the state of the environment. Rae said that Harper “will not lead on the environment” and that now many other countries, he named China and Germany specifically, are taking the lead in developing sustainable industry, while our government recently removed subsidies for alternate energy. (Note: this at a time when $1 billion in subsidies are going to oil companies)
Rae mentioned that he has worked in the forest industry and said that the industry wants leadership. He added that most reputable companies feel there’s a need for strong regulations to keep their industry healthy. "Some of the best environmentalists I've met have come from the forest/logging industry".
Regarding global warming, Rae said that there must be realistic targets – targets for 1 or 2 years down the road, not for the year 2050 or 2060. Veniez stated that there is no dichotomy between the environment and the economy – one supports the other. On a question about streamlining the environmental assessment process, Veniez told the questioner that we can’t compromise; the regulations are there for a purpose.
Someone wanted to know their opinions on salmon farming. Rae said that even though he doesn’t know much about the issue, he would prefer to wait on the results of the judicial review to make a decision on this, but that in theory salmon farming could be beneficial, given the depletion of fish stocks in the ocean. Due to the number of questioners waiting, Veniez was not given a chance to respond to this question although he emailed me back directly when I sent him the question: He said that open-net fish farms pose too great a risk and he supports closed-containment systems.