Dear Editor Re: Burnaby cleanup company proposing new oil spill station, Burnaby NOW online, Sept. 7. It is most welcome news that concrete plans have been completed for a new oil spill station in Vancouver Harbour. However, those many naysayers who flood the media with tides of misinformation will no doubt come up with more ridiculous complaints to try and block the progress of getting oil resources to tidewater and into the global marketplace.
Having spent many semesters at the University of Life Experience, which includes decades of sailing to just about every corner of the globe while both working on many different types of deep-sea vessels including tankers, my wife and I have a few simple observations, as follows:
Please note that oil is a Canadian resource, and Vancouver Harbour is a major Canadian port. We’ve heard fictitious stories about pipelines and tankers being the all-time riskiest mode of transportation; we’ve heard the absolute nonsense of how the Strait of Georgia will become too cluttered with excess tanker traffic; we’ve heard the fantasies about the B.C. coast having the most treacherous weather conditions imaginable.
Alas, there’s not enough paper in the Burnaby NOW printing press to list all the untruths that the nattering nabobs of negativism have spread about tanker safety.
The constant “drip, drip, drip” of mendacious fairy-tales, falsehoods and tarradiddles have become nothing short of totally ridiculous; especially ludicrous claims that a huge Exxon Valdez-type of oil spill is “inevitable.” A few political and environmental leaders – to use that “L” word loosely – will say just about anything to try and convince the masses that it’s their way or the highway. Up to now they have succeeded in brainwashing those who have become the most vocal; after all, we are talking about oil which is measured in barrels, and the old adage has never been more true: “Empty barrels make the most noise.” Thankfully, there is a silent majority who have long realized that there will be all kinds of alternative energy coming online in the years ahead, and the planet has to be treated kindly for survival, there is still a huge need for oil for the foreseeable future. Let’s not cut off our nose to spite our face in B.C.
Bernie Smith, Parksville
