Saturday, August 25, 2007
Sale of BC Rail a direct kick in the teeth
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Comments by Peter Ewart of 250NEWS in Prince George:
Hi Mary:
In my previous email, I just sent a brief note thanking you for the info on BC Rail.
As you are aware, there is still a lot of secrecy involved regarding the BC Rail / CN sale, so the more info that we can bring to light the better. In that respect, the info that you have been getting out about the Basi / Virk trial, etc. has been great.
The sale of the railway was a direct kick in the teeth to the people in the Interior and North whom Campbell had promised not to sell the railway. Now we have a railway that has a monopoly over rail transportation in the Interior and North and that is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, probably even worse than the Cheakamus River or Wabumum Lake disasters.
I wrote an article several years ago about CN's operations, saying that we could end up as some kind of major disaster story on CNN. In any case, all of this was predicted at the time by our Committee to Save BC Rail and others.
On top of the railway problem, there is the pine beetle issue and the free fall of the American housing market which will have a big impact on lumber production and mill closures over the next few years. Now the Electoral Boundaries Commission is proposing to reduce the number of MLAs in the Interior and North. However, I'm happy to say that a rally is being organized in Prince George by the mayor and city council to protest this reduction of MLAs, and there should be a good turnout.
Thus, as a region, we are facing some big challenges ahead. In any case, let's keep in touch, especially on the rail issue.
Peter
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Comments by Peter Ewart of 250NEWS in Prince George:
Hi Mary:
In my previous email, I just sent a brief note thanking you for the info on BC Rail.
As you are aware, there is still a lot of secrecy involved regarding the BC Rail / CN sale, so the more info that we can bring to light the better. In that respect, the info that you have been getting out about the Basi / Virk trial, etc. has been great.
The sale of the railway was a direct kick in the teeth to the people in the Interior and North whom Campbell had promised not to sell the railway. Now we have a railway that has a monopoly over rail transportation in the Interior and North and that is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, probably even worse than the Cheakamus River or Wabumum Lake disasters.
I wrote an article several years ago about CN's operations, saying that we could end up as some kind of major disaster story on CNN. In any case, all of this was predicted at the time by our Committee to Save BC Rail and others.
On top of the railway problem, there is the pine beetle issue and the free fall of the American housing market which will have a big impact on lumber production and mill closures over the next few years. Now the Electoral Boundaries Commission is proposing to reduce the number of MLAs in the Interior and North. However, I'm happy to say that a rally is being organized in Prince George by the mayor and city council to protest this reduction of MLAs, and there should be a good turnout.
Thus, as a region, we are facing some big challenges ahead. In any case, let's keep in touch, especially on the rail issue.
Peter
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