Port Alberni resident Sean Sutton has a rare ability.
An oil-and-gas sector truck driver, Sutton sees both sides of the business-versus-environment argument.
Sutton, who has lived in Port Alberni since August, has worked in northern B.C. for more than a year. The resource-extraction sector remains vital to our economy.
He responded last week to a Facebook post by former B.C. MLA Judi Tyabji about the B.C. government formally opposing the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion.
The government contends Kinder Morgan has not provided the NEB with an adequate plan to prevent or respond to an oil spill, one of five conditions Victoria demands for all oil pipeline projects.
“I don’t think the government wanted to say no to Kinder Morgan; I think they wanted them to be compliant so they could find a ‘yes,’ but that didn’t happen,’ ” Tyabji astutely analyzed.
The B.C. Liberals enthusiastically support the resource sector, which the government projects will provide $1.456 billion to the treasury in the 2015-16 fiscal year.
Victoria’s support, which obviously includes job creation, pits it against people concerned about the global environment.
Enter Sutton, and his ability to see both sides of the coin.
“First of all, it is time for us, from government to local baristas to find alternatives to fossil fuels, etc.,” he contended.
We need options, he added, after seeing how oil and gas is extracted from the earth and the noxious byproducts he carries in his truck up to 40,000 litres at a time.
That’s music to the ears of environ-mentalists who are properly alarmed at humankind’s role in climate change. Through November, record high global temperatures were recorded for seven consecutive months, reported the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information.
Then Sutton flips the coin.
“I am a blue-collar worker to the core. That is all I have ever done and it’s really all I know.”
Like many other joes and janes toiling in oil-patch jobs, he has bills to pay. “Because of our choices and jobs, we would make up to 50 per cent less at home … so here we are.”
He’s miffed, he said, at the bad press the “patch” gets.
“Remember that most of us up here are providing stuff that you all need and use every day.”
As much as we need to save our planet for future generations, we need to provide for our families now. The resource sector provides many paycheques.
The Alberni Valley is only one region of B.C. that already has high unemployment.
Replacing fossil fuels with something easier on the planet will take time, and the transition will be painful.
Regrettably, a four- or five-year election cycle is not conducive to long-range planning.
We need visionaries in government to guide us through a difficult transition. We must communicate our expectations and hold our politicians to them.
Mark Allan has been a journalist for more than 30 years, the past 14 on Vancouver Island. His column about B.C. and federal politics runs every two weeks in the Alberni Valley News.
