Air Quality Lots Of Talk No Action: One Man's Opinion

By Ben Meisner

   There are times that I miss doing a talk show.

Those are the times when a politician sits across from you and makes statements that should be challenged.  I heard a number of those statements  at the  Chamber of Commerce  sponsored meeting on  Air Quality last night.

Councilor Don Zurowski told the gathering the City cannot regulate industry, only make decisions on land use and zoning when it comes to the matter of air quality in the city.

Now wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that the city had the head of CN in western Canada appear before them to spell out safety improvements so that another derailment like the one  in August  did not re occur?  Hmmm, what does that have to do with land zoning?

For example,  could the city not call upon CANFOR to appear before Council to explain what they are doing to reduce the odour of  the effluent from their mills? Could they not call on Husky to appear before them to ask the question of what they are doing to improve air quality?

Then there was the statement that, "The Nechako group had caused some things to happen" in dealing with the quality of air  they were living with because of the  Asphalt plants across the river.

Gee, is that a suggestion that when it comes to getting things done in this city a good strong opposition group is how it is accomplished?  

Is it the job of that group or for that matter PACHA to ensure that the residents of the city have good quality air to breath?

You must be assured that if we didn’t have PACHA there would be less effort to clean up the air in the city.

In the old days people used to say, never mind the odour, "It’s the smell of money”.  Oh it may still be the smell of money , but now its the smell of dollars that won't be invested in Prince George because  people worry about  raising a family in this "fragile" and  "stressed" air shed.

People also don't buy  the idea that  they are  the ones  to blame for the air  quality issues.

You may remember when the City took a swing at the bad air by passing an Air Quality By-law. It legislated grammas from making pies over a wood stove, stopped those people who burn wood in their home to heat it, and also stopped those pesky people who like to have a back yard burn in a fire pit.

Did it improve air quality?  Of course not, but it looked like the city was doing something and the real culprits of our air quality must have laughed themselves to sleep on that one.

So when I hear a politician talk about what they have done and are doing, I always think I would like to have them behind a mike to enable me to get them to eat those words.

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

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