It was a whirlwind trip and tour for the official leader of the federal opposition, Thomas Mulcair, in his one-day tour of the Northwest on Aug. 18.
Mulcair talked to reporters briefly at the Northwest Regional Airport before heading to Kitamaat Village, followed by Kitimat, Hartley Bay and back to Terrace that evening for a community reception at the sportsplex.
He said he wants to talk to the local people and see Douglas Channel, which has garnered much attention due to Enbridge’s plans to build a pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat to transfer bitumen, which would then be put on tankers to go overseas and which there is much public opposition to.
“I’m categorically opposed to super tankers in the Douglas Channel,” he said.
The recent spill of the Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley tailings pond does not mean that new laws and regulations need to be set up, but the ones we have need to be enforced he said. However, Mulcair said the Conservative government has scaled back and is not following up on the laws and regulations in place.
It was not an act of God, which some have claimed, rather it’s due to a mining company that doesn’t care and that has put human health and the economy at risk, said Mulcair.
The NDP would “enforce the law and apply it equally to everyone,” he said.
“The laws are there to be enforced because we have an obligation to future generations to give them the right to live in a clean country,” said Mulcair.
