Letter: Give Mungall a Chance
By Letters to the editor
To The Editor:
Before we paint Michelle Mungall as the Scott Pruit of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, we need some context.
If we recall from our Grade 8 Science, all things are connected (the web). Although government portfolios are organized as specialized compartments for administrative convenience, there still needs to be communication between all of them (the web). You can’t, for example, have one portfolio talking about reducing carbon emissions while another talks of developing infrastructure that will increase those same emissions.
If you missed it, globally there is a significant shift away from carbon based energy sources. This is reflected in the international investment in energy projects – it’s moving to renewables.
Within the petroleum industry, innovations are happening to help reduce emissions and allow for a smoother transition away from carbon-based energy. The mining sector is seeing those implied subsidies of not putting a price on environmental degradation beginning to disappear. British Columbia is not on track to meet its legislated emission reduction targets. The game has changed big time. It’s no longer just a matter of creating jobs in resource extraction, its developing policies that will encourage investment in sustainable industries.
Minister Mungall has a huge task to manage a portfolio that is in serious need of adapting to the reality of climate change. Policies coming out of that portfolio will need to compliment other policies from other portfolios – they are all inter-connected (the web).
As citizens, we may need our prescription changed so we can better see the big picture that is changing as we blink.
Ron Robinson, Nelson, BC
