Image Credit: The Canadian Press

By Cariboo-Chilctoin MLA Donna Barnett

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Horgan’s northern tour avoids a minefield of issues

Jan 17, 2020 | 1:26 PM

AFTER TWO AND A HALF YEARS OF BEING IN GOVERNMENT, Premier John Horgan is set to take his very first official tour of northern British Columbia starting this week.

But don’t expect the B.C. Premier in your neighbourhood if you live anywhere near a proposed pipeline or a community dependent on forestry.

Horgan received a rather frosty reception when he addressed the annual gathering of the Truck Loggers Association in Vancouver on Wednesday (Jan. 15).

Mill workers, logging contractors and truck drivers were really hoping the leader of our province would do something to help the forest industry get back on its feet.

Aside from a tiny $5 million fund to help prevent logging trucks from being re-possessed on Vancouver Island (while the seven-month strike at Western Forest Products drags on), Horgan offered no hope to any forest worker in the Interior or the rest of the province.

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As a matter of fact, Horgan pointed the finger at everyone except himself when he told the audience that a convoy of 200 logging trucks that descended on the annual UBCM meeting of municipalities last September was a “wake-up call for the Lower Mainland” rather than for his own government.

Clearly neither Horgan nor the NDP consider rural British Columbia a priority in their quest to win a majority in the next provincial election.

It’s clear that anything related to Metro Vancouver is the NDP’s primary focus. Everything else is secondary, and it shows.

Horgan is also staying as far away as possible from the Wet’suwet’en protest against the Coastal GasLink pipeline that will supply the LNG Canada export facility currently under construction in Kitimat.

The NDP took great pride in passing legislation in December that will bring into force the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

The legislation is now provoking further questions from First Nations as just this week, the premier came out and said UNDRIP does not apply retroactively to the Wet’suwet’en.

Horgan’s pipeline woes also continued this week when his crusade against the Trans Mountain project amounted to a colossal waste of money when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against him.

This is a tremendous defeat for the NDP who promised to use every tool in the toolbox to oppose Trans Mountain.

The fact is the majority of British Columbians support this project. It’s now time for the NDP to quit this blatant obstruction and get behind this important project that will create jobs and prosperity for British Columbians.

Maybe Premier Horgan should visit all the parts of the province that are hurting the most? At least then he will get out from under the bubble in the Lower Mainland and discover how much resource jobs mean to working British Columbians.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.