Pubdate: Thu, 31 Mar 2011 Source: Quesnel Cariboo Observer (CN BC) Copyright: 2011 Quesnel Cariboo Observer Contact: http://www.quesnelobserver.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1260 Author: Bert deVink Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n195/a04.html POT, HYDRO AND THE ECONOMY Editor: In the Observer, March 23, 2011 are three articles that caught my attention. The article by Mary Glassford "Where do we go from here" Tom Fletcher's "Don't play politics with B.C. Hydro" and Paul Drescher's "Consequences of legalizing marijuana". I can go along with Mary Glassford's article until she writes "to move the economy forward we need resource jobs, which include mining, oil, gas, forestry and agriculture." Not too long ago I heard a statement by an economist who came up with the following explanation of our economy. He compared the existing economy as having taken all the fruit from the lower and most easy accessible branches of a tree and now we are faced with a steady increase of effort and cost to get at the rest of the fruit. I like to add that since oil is still the main energy factor in our economy and oil itself is a finite resource, to look at the oil industry as a long range source to maintain a resource based economy is like looking for a way out at the end of a dead end street. With the cost of oil production rising and the easy to get oil disappearing, every other resource will become more scarce and expensive. In other words a growing resource-based economy is a shortcut to resource depletion and economic disaster. One only has to fly over the mountains to Vancouver to see the maze of forest roads and clear cuts right up to the snow line. Forests are disappearing at an alarming rate and not just in B.C. but the world over. The tar sands are an example of an expensive and environmentally deplorable way to get oil. The Grand Banks are just one example of fish depletion in the world's oceans. The list goes on. I hope that you and I will stand together some day soon and fight for a world that will give our children and grandchildren a chance of survival so we don't have to ask where do we go from here. Mr Fletcher's statement a B.C. Hydro spokesman advised him that no, the utility is not considering breaking itself up into three entities, or greatly expanding its outsourcing. Is Accenture now looking after B.C, Hydro's customer service, finance, information technology and back office functions not outsourcing? Is the seven river dams development given to private corporations not outsourcing? How could private corporations with their expensive executives and profit sharing with stakeholders be less expensive than working with an already existing staff that does not demand high profits. B.C. Hydro is already playing politics big time with its customers. The maintenance of old dams etc. is one thing but a new large power line going into north east B.C. is a cost that the large mining operations should carry not the people of this province. It is a scam because the cost of that power line is put on the shoulders of the hydro rate payers who have no interest in a mine development. I would like to see the cost of that power line removed from the already steep rate increase. Did you miss that aspect Mr. Fletcher? In his article Mr. Drescher writes "If the use of marijuana is decriminalized, it stands to reason that the use of it will accelerate. This is opposite of what has happened in Holland where marijuana has been legalized for a long time. Pot is available in drugstores, coffee shops etc. But the use has declined at least with the Dutch citizens. The same was true with the prohibition when liquor became legal again, the use of it declined. Since it is not any harder to grow pot than tomato plants the only reason it is so expensive is because of the risk factor of growing it. That risk factor is taken by the criminal element in our society, hence the high price. I have never heard of a man smoking pot and then beating the snot out of his wife or children while the opposite is true with alcohol. There is no pot anonymous, but there is alcohol anonymous. I am not advocating the use of pot, but I hate to see the crime involved and the time and court costs only to see the criminals walk away and start all over again. It keeps the police busy while there are so many more important things to deal with such as carnage on our highways, child pornography and missing woman. Bert deVink Quesnel - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.