Dear Editor,
Hat’s off! to Michael Sawyer for taking citizens’ action in requesting a sober second look at this project. There’s mounting evidence that the decision to approve the LNG Canada multi-billion dollar gas project may have been flawed or made too quickly and that investing heavily in LNG may not be as financially beneficial to our northern communities as we’ve been continually told by those who stand to benefit from the project far more than those of us who live here. There are many intelligent, informed citizens in all of the communities represented by the mayors’ letter who have doubts about whether the LNG project, with it’s environmental and jurisdictional concerns and financial predictions about the unprofitable price of LNG by the time it’s completed, will bring long-term prosperity our way.
We’ve all seen and heard of the environmental devastation created by LNG extraction at the other end of the pipeline. I want a prosperous northwest as much as the mayors do. I don’t want it at the possible cost of much that we value about living here.
If the project rationale and approval process is sound, a review will confirm it, and now or later, investors will be there if there’s a profit to be made. If it’s not sound development, a review now may well save us (the taxpayers and citizens the mayors purport to speak for) from disastrous and expensive financial and environmental outcomes of not heeding cautionary factors.
There are serious arguments to be made on both sides of this debate. I say, “Thank you, Michael Sawyer!” for asking for a review so that we’ve got a chance to hear and debate them. We didn’t when the decision for this project was made.
Brenda Sissons
Terrace, B.C.
