POT, HYDRO AND THE ECONOMY

Editor:

In the Observer, March 23, 2011 are three articles that caught my
attention.

The article by Mary Glassford "Where do we go from here" Tom
Fletcher's "Don't play politics with B.C. Hydro" and Paul Drescher's
"Consequences of legalizing marijuana".

I can go along with Mary Glassford's article until she writes "to move
the economy forward we need resource jobs, which include mining, oil,
gas, forestry and agriculture."

Not too long ago I heard a statement by an economist who came up with
the following explanation of our economy. He compared the existing
economy as having taken all the fruit from the lower and most easy
accessible branches of a tree and now we are faced with a steady
increase of effort and cost to get at the rest of the fruit.

I like to add that since oil is still the main energy factor in our
economy and oil itself is a finite resource, to look at the oil
industry as a long range source to maintain a resource based economy
is like looking for a way out at the end of a dead end street.

With the cost of oil production rising and the easy to get oil
disappearing, every other resource will become more scarce and
expensive. In other words a growing resource-based economy is a
shortcut to resource depletion and economic disaster.

One only has to fly over the mountains to Vancouver to see the maze of
forest roads and clear cuts right up to the snow line. Forests are
disappearing at an alarming rate and not just in B.C. but the world
over.

The tar sands are an example of an expensive and environmentally
deplorable way to get oil. The Grand Banks are just one example of
fish depletion in the world's oceans. The list goes on.

I hope that you and I will stand together some day soon and fight for
a world that will give our children and grandchildren a chance of
survival so we don't have to ask where do we go from here.

Mr Fletcher's statement a B.C. Hydro spokesman advised him that no,
the utility is not considering breaking itself up into three entities,
or greatly expanding its outsourcing.

Is Accenture now looking after B.C, Hydro's customer service, finance,
information technology and back office functions not outsourcing? Is
the seven river dams development given to private corporations not
outsourcing? How could private corporations with their expensive
executives and profit sharing with stakeholders be less expensive than
working with an already existing staff that does not demand high profits.

B.C. Hydro is already playing politics big time with its customers.
The maintenance of old dams etc. is one thing but a new large power
line going into north east B.C. is a cost that the large mining
operations should carry not the people of this province. It is a scam
because the cost of that power line is put on the shoulders of the
hydro rate payers who have no interest in a mine development.

I would like to see the cost of that power line removed from the
already steep rate increase. Did you miss that aspect Mr. Fletcher?

In his article Mr. Drescher writes "If the use of marijuana is
decriminalized, it stands to reason that the use of it will
accelerate. This is opposite of what has happened in Holland where
marijuana has been legalized for a long time. Pot is available in
drugstores, coffee shops etc. But the use has declined at least with
the Dutch citizens.

The same was true with the prohibition when liquor became legal again,
the use of it declined. Since it is not any harder to grow pot than
tomato plants the only reason it is so expensive is because of the
risk factor of growing it.

That risk factor is taken by the criminal element in our society,
hence the high price. I have never heard of a man smoking pot and then
beating the snot out of his wife or children while the opposite is
true with alcohol. There is no pot anonymous, but there is alcohol
anonymous.

I am not advocating the use of pot, but I hate to see the crime
involved and the time and court costs only to see the criminals walk
away and start all over again. It keeps the police busy while there
are so many more important things to deal with such as carnage on our
highways, child pornography and missing woman.

Bert deVink

Quesnel