Dear Editor:
I always knew the Port of Vancouver was important to the Canadian and British Columbian economies, but I was astounded to read that it enables $184 billion in trade in goods and natural resources annually. Back in the days of the gold rush, when it all began, who could have imagined that astounding figure. A century later, our provincial economy still relies heavily on natural resources and in particular the mining industry.
The mining industry is one of the foundations of our economy and a valuable contributor to the bottom line of the provincial government and even many municipality bottom lines. Unfortunately, there are some who want to kick the foundations of our economy out from underneath us. They want to shut down our port and shut down our mines, which would shut down our province and severely hobble our economy.
These misguided souls seem to the think that an economy can run on thin air and green vibrations alone. Well, it can't. An economy needs something real to hang its hat on. And in British Columbia it is our natural resources like gold, copper and even coal that pay the bills. These misguided people are living in a dream world: Without the tangible goods and resources produced through the hard work and enterprise of others they would not be living the comfortable, relatively easy lives they live.
All British Columbians depend on the resources of our province, urban and rural alike, and making the most of those resources requires that we have a port through which these valuable products can be shipped to global markets.
So, let this be a reality check and a wake-up call to all those who feel we can risk shutting down our resource industries. We can't.
Erik Nummela, Burnaby
