Just What IS OBAC Doing? One Man's Opinion

By Ben Meisner

            
It is hard to understand all of the griping going on with respect to the $11.2 million dollars of unused Federal beetle money.

Was it not the responsibility of the Omineca Beetle Action Coalition to have some programs that they wanted put into place, put before the Federal Government and the fund?

Prince George Mayor Colin Kinsley says he was dumfounded the money was clawed back after he says he had met with federal government officials to obtain funding for the UNBC sports center. He was blaming the “feds” for the problem.

Well if there was a request for funding for UNBC out of the Beetle money, I for one would like to see that application. I’m told on good authority from Ottawa there wasn’t one, and perhaps rightfully so, funding the sports center out of beetle money is a bit of a stretch.

Kinsley and crew were told to apply for money for the facility from the Feds "Infrastructure priority funding" plan. That is where the request sits at this very moment and it is no secret that MP Jay Hill has been working on trying to obtain that grant.

OBAC was given $800,000 dollars to work on the beetle problem.  Were the lights out and they couldn’t put together some proposals for beetle projects that didn’t involve pet projects for the City of Prince George?

Normally we know how much money is left in the bank, in this case $11.2 million, but bear in mind when OBAC was holding its meetings before the public, it wasn’t exactly getting the whole town out to come up with ideas. Ten people in Prince George (including OBAC officials) 10 in Ft. St James. 

OBAC says the poor turn out was because the citizens of Prince George were not interested at this time in the Beetle issue.

Well the Active Voice got 120 people out to its meetings and has not been sitting around on its hands.  It is trying to keep the issue in discussion front and center.

Meantime at this week’s Prince George Council meeting Kinsley was saying The Active Voice Coalition’s "Stand up for the North" Conference was a duplication of the OBAC efforts.

OBAC has burned up about $300,000 of taxpayer’s money so far and are crowing about what they have been able to accomplish.

One thing is certain, OBAC needs someone in their group who knows how to count money, who knows the difference between a program to offset the effects of the loss of our forests  and a grant for a Sports Center , and they also need to know that 20 people at a couple of meetings is not "input from the community".

I’m Meisner and that is one man’s opinion.

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