(PDF) Salmon Arm Observer, April 23, 2014

IndexOpinion ....................... A6View Point .................. A7Life & Times ............... A8Sports................A19-A21Arts & Events ... A22-A25Time Out ................... A26Vol. 107, No. 17, 48 pages

This weekBechara Saab participates in a simulation of what it might be like to live on Mars. See A8.

It’s a sure sign of spring. Golfers dig out their clubs and return to local links. See A21.

WednesdayApril 23, 2014

www.saobserver.net$1.25 GST Included

Bonnet in bloomSienna Janzen eagerly waits to hear if she has taken first place in the Easter bonnet contest at the annual Sorrento Lions Easter Egg Hunt held Sunday morning at the Sorrento/Blind Bay Community Park. For more images of Easter activities in the Shuswap, turn to page A18 or check out the free photo gallery at www.saobserver.net.

Astronaut thrills kidsSalmon Arm West: Chris Hadfield answers students’ questions via Skype.

Innovative canadian astronaut chris Had-field has spoken to one of the widest audiences possible – the planet earth – but he narrowed that focus considerably last Thursday.

Hadfield, former commander of the In-ternational Space Sta-tion and well-known for his down-to-earth space talks and Tweets, agreed to a Skype meet-ing with teacher Holly Kallie’s Grade 4/5 class at Salmon Arm West el-ementary school.

This was thanks to Kallie’s enthusiasm about space as well as the help of Salmon Arm resident Bruce Ai-kenhead, former aero-space engineer who

was director-general of the canadian Astronaut Program and instru-mental in such projects as the Avro Arrow and the nASA space shut-tle’s canadarm.

With his characteris-tic affable style, Had-

field answered the first question posed to him by explaining he had brought along a hel-met simulator – and popped a lampshade

Explanation: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield responds to a question from Salmon Arm West student Eve Maxwell.

By Martha WickettOBSeRVeR STAFF

District cancels recess due to job action

JAMES MurrAy/OBSeRVeR

School district #83 students will return to class today to the news that they won’t have a recess break, but will be getting out of school 15 minutes early.

due to job action by the Bc Teachers Fed-

eration, teachers will be initiating phase one of strike action which includes withdrawing supervision duties.

School district #83 superintendent Glenn Borthistle says to en-sure student safety without teacher super-vision, the school dis-trict made a decision

to cancel recess for elementary and middle school students.

High school students do not have scheduled recess breaks and won’t be affected.

Students will be dis-missed from class 15 minutes earlier and bus

MArthA WickEtt/OBSeRVeR

See Students on A2

By tracy hughesOBSeRVeR STAFF

See All on page A3

next to him onto his head.

This brought gales of laughter from his ex-cited audience.

The question student Emily Thomas had asked was, although she knows it wouldn’t be possible to breathe if astronauts took off their helmets, does space have a smell?

Hadfield explained that after they go out-side for a space walk, astronauts return to a room where a valve is opened, letting in the air from the space sta-tion. It’s there, between the space ship and space, “when you can smell sort of the linger-ing smell of space.”

He said it smells like a trace of gun powder or cordite, something you might smell if you were to go to a police shooting range. Or if you were cooking on a barbecue, “maybe a wisp of something caught on the coals, a sharp, lingering smell.”

Other questions the students had prepared included: • Are you able to tell what sea-son it is in a country from space? • While you were on the Inter-national Space Station, was it ever hit with meteorites? • What’s the most amazing thing that humans can do in space? • Was there anything in space you weren’t prepared for? • Would you ever want to

go to the Earth’s low-est point, the Mariana Trench? • What do you think is your most sig-nificant contribution to Canada so far?

Hadfield said be-cause he was on the space station for half a year, he went halfway around the sun, so was able to see all the sea-sons change around the world.

The space station was, indeed, hit by meteorites, he said –constantly. It has al-most “an umbrella of armour” on it, however.

“The meteorites are going 30 kilometres a second. As soon as they hit the umbrella, they vaporize. It’s like a bug hitting your wind-shield.”

He added that the Earth gets hit by about 100 tons of meteorites every day, but most burn up in the atmo-sphere. He also said that’s where the world came from – planets are formed by pulling in hundreds of tons of meteorites.

Hadfield said his ex-perience and training prior to heading into space meant there was nothing he wasn’t pre-pared for.

“Nothing that was a complete surprise, more like a puzzle we had to solve.”

The most amazing thing humans do in space, Hadfield said, is they’ve moved to space, they’re living there, and have done so for the past 13-and-a-

half years. “To me that’s a really

big step,” he said, tell-ing Tristan Wood who asked the question, that, he, too, has the op-portunity to live on the space station. “You as a Canadian.”

Hadfield answered all the questions with kindness and support for the children, en-couraging them to pur-sue their own dreams.

When student Dylan Bland asked if Hadfield has ever wanted to go the Mariana Trench, Earth’s lowest spot, Hadfield said he would love to go down as far as James Cameron did.

“You have to decide what you want to do, Dylan, where you want

to stretch your mind and your life…”

Asked about his most significant contribution to Canada, Hadfield said he thinks it was be-ing one of the first Ca-nadians to fly in space,

doing things that hadn’t been done before.

“Opening the door to people like you, Brayden,” he said to student Brayden Priebe who asked the ques-tion.

“I think one of the best ways to be signifi-cant is to open doors for other people… Now because you’ve done it, other people can do it more easily.”

Afterwards, the stu-dents expressed their delight with Hadfield’s visit.

“He was really fun-

ny, he was nice. I can’t believe he’d do it with a small school like us,” said Emily Thomas.

“I’m thinking about space more now,” said Rod May.

“I think it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportu-nity…,” said Ethan El-som. “We’ll remember it over and over again.”

Students laugh and learn about space travelContinued from front

Cosmic creation: Grade 4 student at Salmon Arm West, Abby May, shows her model of the International Space Station to astro-naut Chris Hadfield Thursday via Skype.

Martha WiCkett/OBSERvER

A2 www.saobserver.net Wednesday, April 23, 2014 Salmon Arm Observer

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A Salmon Arm man charged after being linked to the November 2008 murder of Tyler Myers has had the case against him dropped by the Crown.

Justin James Doussept, 22, was accused of ac-cessory after the fact to murder and obstructing justice related to the death of Myers, whose body was found on a trail adjacent to Bastion Elemen-tary School.

Twenty two-year-old Myers was shot on a trail adjacent to the school yard.

Doussept was scheduled to appear in Salmon Arm Court on April 17, but at that time, the charg-es against Doussept were stayed.

Doussept was the only person named in con-nection with the case, as he was an adult at the time the alleged offence was to have taken place.

A man and woman are facing first-degree mur-der charges in connection with Myers’ death, but they cannot be identified because they were juve-niles at the time of the killing.

The pair were arrested in 2012, with police say-ing they believe it was a planned murder.

The male suspect recently appealed a decision to deny his bail application; however, the appeal was not granted and he remains in custody pend-ing a trial.

The female suspect was released on bail and is living in Salmon Arm under a series of court-imposed conditions.

A hearing to set a trial date is scheduled for May 28.

Headed for hospitalA BC Air Ambulance emergency transport was required for a woman who attempted to cross the Trans-Canada Highway on April 16 and was hit by an oncoming car on the highway at 50th Street SW. Witnesses told RCMP the woman walked into the path of traffic. The woman sustained severe injuries and was taken to Royal Inland Hospital for treatment. Information about her condition is not being released.

Crown drops charges in murder caseBy Tracy HughesOBSERVER STAFF

lacHlan laBere/OBSERVER

Maureen Mosie, 33, was last seen in Salmon Arm in 1981 and was later found murdered in Kamloops.

Her killer has never been found.

RCMP are hop-ing some additional public attention to the case might bring new information to light to help find and arrest her killer.

Mosie lived in Ed-son, Alta., but was last seen alive in Salmon

Arm apparently hitch-hiking on May 8, 1981. The next day her body

was located south of the intersection of High-way 97 and the Trans-Canada Highway.

Multiple tracks were found in the area, but one set in particular is believed to belong to the killer.

A witness helped po-lice create a sketch of Mosie getting into a car in Salmon Arm a day before her body was discovered. The man in the car was described as late 20s or early 30s

with black or brown hair and a beard.

At the time of her death, Mosie was wear-ing beaded moccasins and she was carrying a tan-coloured canvas handbag.

If you know any de-tails about this case or remember seeing Mosie in 1981, call po-lice.

If you wish to remain anonymous, visit bc-crimstoppers.com or call 1-800-222-8477.

Murder victim last seen in city

Maureen MosieVictim of Homicide

Boy’s 911 call prompts rescue effort

It was not the ending that Shuswap Search and Rescue members were hoping for.

The team was called out Saturday afternoon in response to a 911 call from a 10-year-old boy who reported he and his grandfather were snowmobiling in the Fly Hills area, when the grandfather suffered

a medical emergency and was unconscious. Four Shuswap Search and Rescue (SAR) members responded including search man-ager Rob Udy, who brought in the team’s rapid response base RV unit, and volunteers Gordon Bose, Michael Thomson and Hiapo Poirier who participat-ed in the effort, taking their snowmobiles into the site.

An air ambulance was also dispatched to the scene. Due to the terrain, the helicopter had to land some dis-tance away; however, paramedics were able to hike in to the scene.

When the paramed-ics and SAR members arrived, the grandfather was deceased.

“It was really sad for the boy, it’s a pretty traumatic experience,” says John Schut of

Shuswap Search and Rescue.

SAR members were then able to escort the boy’s father to the scene to pick up his son, as well as RCMP officers and the coro-ner.

RCMP are conduct-ing an investigation; however, there is no indication of anything suspicious.

A cause of death is still to be determined.

By Tracy HughesOBSERVER STAFF

schedules will be ad-justed accordingly.

All schools will con-tinue to be open with regular classes operat-ing during this phase of job action and in-struction will proceed as usual. Buses will be running their normal routes.

Borthistle says school-based admin-

istrators will be as-sisted by district-based administration, man-agement and staff to provide before- and af-ter-school supervision.

“It is our information that teachers will con-tinue to participate in voluntary extracurricu-lar activities they are currently involved in,” he added.

Negotiations be-tween the BCTF and the government are

continuing, and union representatives say a decision to move to phase two of the job action will depend on progress at the bargain-ing table. Phase two would involve one-day rotating strikes. Should the situation escalate to a point where a full walk out is being con-sidered, another vote of the teachers union members would be nec-essary.

All schools remain openContinued from front

Salmon Arm Observer Wednesday, April 23, 2014 www.saobserver.net A3

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A Shuswap Indian Band chief said the B.C. Liberal govern-ment’s embarrassing about-face on remov-ing ski resorts and nearly all natural-gas plants from environ-mental review is an-other example of its failure on environmen-tal issues.

Late Wednesday, April 17, B.C. Min-ister of Environment Mary Polak said her government would re-scind orders-in-council exempting destination resorts and the major-ity of gas plants from review by the environ-mental assessment of-� ce.

The changes were done quietly and with-out consultation, an-gering First Nations and environmental groups.

“Our government is committed to a strong, respectful and produc-tive relationship with First Nations,” Polak said in a statement.

“That’s why we will rescind the amend-ment that would have removed the require-ment for an environ-mental assessment for sweet-gas facilities and destination resorts, un-til we have undertaken discussions with First Nations.”

Neskonlith Indian Band Chief Judy Wil-son said the move so

angered chiefs meet-ing during a summit on liquid-natural gas that they kicked out provin-cial representatives.

Wilson is part of the executive of the B.C. Union of Indian Chiefs.

“They said it really jeopardized discus-sions with First Na-tions on LNG,” she said.

NDP Leader Adrian Dix called the � ip-� op “not just embarrassing, but incompetent.

“And it’s the pre-mier’s personal incom-petence here.”

Dix said the failed removal of ski resorts and gas plants from review was an attempt to do a backroom deal

with industry.“You can make these

kind of deals in a back-room, which the pre-mier wants to do, and not defend them pub-licly.”

Wilson said the epi-sode is the latest in a number of failures by both government and industry to properly consult with First Na-tions, something it is legally required to do.

She noted a recent announcement by Sun Peaks Resort it will ex-pand its skiing area this winter was done with-out consultation.

The Neskonlith and Adams Lake Indian bands have long op-posed development of the ski resort and cre-ation of a resort mu-nicipality.

“We’re looking at what the resort is talk-ing about,” she said.

“We haven’t been consulted on further expansion... People wonder why there’s tension there. Proper processes aren’t being followed.”

Wilson also said government acknowl-edged several years ago bands were not consulted when the ski resort was taken over by a Japanese corpora-tion and expanded to a modern operation with real estate develop-ment in the mid-1990s.

Chief critical of B.C.’s environmental � ip-� op

...People wonder why there’s tension

there. Proper processes

aren’t being followed.

Judy WilsonNESKONLITH

CHIEF

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For Diana Altschul, the issue of small me-dicinal marijuana grow-ers possibly being shut down is not a theoreti-cal one – it’s one that would affect her life in a big way.

Altschul acquired a licence to grow mari-juana in 2008, when her spouse was dealing with the effects of can-cer and she was living with chronic pain from a hit and run that broke her back and shattered her foot.

The licence was re-newed each year and, after her partner died and she had to move to low-cost housing, it was transferred to a desig-nated grower.

“To legitimately find a legitimate honourable person to cultivate your number of plants is very hard to come by,” she says, noting she grew about 25 plants per year that produced about four pounds of pot.

“I make a lot of it into a butter; it’s quite eco-nomical,” Altschul says, noting it allows her to eat, sleep and fight de-pression.

“I am a certified herb-alist, I didn’t want to associate with the black market,” she says, not-ing that she had devel-oped designer strains to knock out chronic pain and nausea, and was working on depression.

Altschul competed

in the 2013 Launch-A-Preneur program where her plan for a business, Trans-Herbalcooks, which would produce hemp and cannabis products for medici-nal uses, earned fourth place out of 17 teams.

“I have tried to cul-tivate my own medical cannabis because it’s so beneficial to me. I’m resentful and tak-ing this quite person-ally,” she said in March of the federal govern-ment’s new Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, initially set to come into effect April 1, that would have allowed only large commercial operations, and no personal-use production licences, to grow medicinal mari-juana. Small growers who didn’t destroy their plants and seeds and dismantle their grow-ops would be breaking the law.

Since then there has been an about-face, due to a legal challenge to the regulation. A Fed-eral Court judge ruled on March 21 that any-one already licensed to grow marijuana may continue to do so, until a legal challenge goes to trial. Altschul is part of that class-action suit.

Altschul noticed room for improvement in the application pro-cess from day one.

She thinks small growers of medicinal pot should have been required to have the au-thorization of a special-ist, not simply a general practitioner, before be-ing provided a licence, a stipulation she believes would have eliminated those who were doing it for monetary gain.

“That would have ruled out a lot of the gangs and criminal ele-ment… That’s what ru-ined it,” she says.

She’s concerned she won’t be able to afford marijuana produced by large operations.

When the Observer asked Health Canada about the proposed change to allow only large growers, a return email stated that the previous system was open to abuse.

“The risks of diver-sion to the illegal mar-ket will be significantly reduced,” it stated, add-ing that mould and elec-trical hazards would also decrease.

It emphasized that Health Canada doesn’t support marijuana as medicine.

“Marijuana has not gone through the scien-tific and safety review process required for pharmaceutical drugs. Smoking marijuana has not been approved or endorsed by Health Canada as a medical treatment.”

Pot growers in limboMedicinal marijuana: New federal regs challenged.

Economical remedy: Diana Altschul is fighting for the ability to produce the herb which she says makes her life more bearable.

JAMES MURRAY/OBSERVER

By Martha WickettOBSERVER STAFF

Salmon Arm Observer Wednesday, April 23, 2014 www.saobserver.net A5

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City News and Public Notices

PUBLIC NOTICE: HUDSON PARKING LOTEffective May 15, 2014, the Hudson Avenue NW (Salmar Theatre) Parking Lot will become a pay parking lot. Fees of .25 cents/hour for a maximum of 10 hours Monday to Friday will apply. Pay parking will not be applicable for the months of July and August to accommodate summer theatre hours and tourist parking.

Limited reserved parking will be available. For more information, please call City Hall at 250-803-4004.

CITY OF SALMON ARM NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGNotice is hereby given that the Council of the City of Salmon Arm will hold a Public Hearing in the Council Chamber of the City Hall, 500 - 2 Avenue NE, Salmon Arm, BC, on Monday, April 28, 2014, at 7:00 p.m.1. Proposed Rezoning of Lot B, Section 25, Township 20, Range 10, W6M, KDYD, Plan 16426, from R-1 (Single Family Residential Zone) to R-8 (Residential Suite Zone).Civic Address: 4051 Lakeshore Road NELocation: west side of Lakeshore Road NE between Appleyard and Raven Subdivisions Present Use: Undeveloped Proposed Use: Single Family Dwelling with Detached SuiteOwner / Applicant: A. & W. GageReference: ZON.1003/Bylaw No. 4034The file for the proposed bylaw is available for inspection between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays from April 15 to April 28, 2014, both inclusive, in the office of the Deputy Corporate Officer at the City of Salmon Arm, 500 - 2 Avenue NE. THOSE WHO DEEM THEIR INTEREST AFFECTED BY THE PROPOSED BYLAW ARE URGED TO REVIEW THE FILE AVAILABLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT (OR TELEPHONE 803-4000) TO OBTAIN THE FACTS OF THE PROPOSAL PRIOR TO THE PUBLIC HEARING.Carl Bannister, Deputy Corporate Officer

PUBLIC NOTICE LEASE AND OPERATING AGREEMENTNotice is hereby given that it is the intention of the City of Salmon Arm to extend the City of Salmon Arm Multi-Purpose Recreation Facility Lease and Operating Agreement for the Shaw Centre with the Shuswap Recreation Society.Legal: Lot A, Section 13, Township 20, Range 10, Plan KAP62641Civic: 2600 – 10 Avenue (TCH) NE (Shaw Centre)Summary of Amendments:Term: May 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015Persons who have an interest in this matter are requested to contact the office of the undersigned.

Carl Bannister, Chief Administrative Officer

OpiniOn

SALMON ARM OBSERVER

Editorial

It’s about time we put a price on fires. The Shuswap has been inundated over the past

few weeks with citizens who are all too pleased to be getting out the matches and gas cans in an effort to clean up their properties by burning grass or other wood and garden waste. Unfortunately, some of these people have also conducted these fires without having the proper equipment on site or taking the proper precautions. And that has ended up in calls to 911 when the fires get out of control.

This results in dispatching fire trucks and emer-gency personnel, many of whom operate on a volunteer basis and must take time away from their regular jobs, to head out to extinguish a blaze that was primarily caused by a lack of common sense.

Proponents of open burning argue that alterna-tive costs of getting rid of organic waste are pro-

hibitive, even though residential garden waste can be taken to the landfill and disposed of for free at certain times of the year. Yes, there can be a cost to getting rid of this waste, but it’s high time there be a cost to burn waste as well.

If someone requires an emergency call out due to an out-of-control bonfire or grass burn, that prop-erty owner should be forced to pony up the costs of the fire call. Maybe citizens would think twice about taking the proper precautions if they knew a bill would be coming directly back to them. Maybe it might make people think twice about burning willy-nilly at all, and instead look at options other than burning, which can cause air quality concerns for many Shuswap residents.

If you burn, you should be prepared to take financial responsibility for your actions.

Time to put a price on open burning

Aren’t there other options?Listening to David Black speak in Kelowna this week, it was

hard not to get behind his idea of a made-in-B.C. oil refinery that would create thousands of jobs for the hard-done-by communities of Kitimat and Terrace, sparking the B.C. economy and bringing in millions, if not billions of dollars from China.

Black, who owns this newspaper and hundreds of others in communities around B.C., spoke about the differences between refined oil and crude oil. He said refined oil and its products of gas, and diesel, would evaporate in an ocean spill, while crude oil would sink and damage coastal ecosystems beyond repair.

He spoke of the money ($32 billion) that it would cost to build a refinery and its related pipeline and the tanker fleet needed to ship the oil to China. He said if we don’t build a refinery, China will, adding his refinery would use Canadian technology and would produce half the greenhouse gasses as a Chinese-built refinery.

He said China will loan us all of the money to build our made-in-B.C. refinery and the workers there would make great wages, as much as $80,000 to $90,000 a year and our kids wouldn’t have to go to the tar sands in Alberta to make big money. He said so much money would be coming in, the loans from China would be paid back in as little as six years. And he spoke of building such a refinery for B.C. as a newspaperman, as opposed to one of the major oil companies – conglomerates without B.C. ownership and little care for our environment. A made-in-BC solution, he said, is much better. And to that end, I agree.

But what he didn’t mention were any of the impacts of con-tinuing to rely on an oil-based economy. There was no mention of global warming and its disastrous effects on the world. There was no talk about alternative energies or a need to find new ways of doing things. The choice that Black laid out to a pro-business crowd at the Kelowna chamber (you could hear the ‘wows’) came down to two things: Oil or oil.

But is it the only way to go? The answer is no.There are other options. There are innovative ideas, new ways

of moving forward, new technologies that can take us away from the oil-based economy the United Nation’s top scientist are warn-ing against. Canada should be leading the way in this regard, not following the all-powerful dollar.

Our reliance on oil and the dangerous emissions it puts into the air have put us on a collision course with disaster.

As a newspaper reporter in Black’s stable of papers, it’s my duty to ask questions, raise concerns and let the public decide for themselves. I believe in this paper and its ability to tell people’s stories and provide more depth to the news than what is currently being generated in this age of what could be called surface-jour-nalism. And there are no bigger, no more important questions that need to be raised: Is this the way to go? Can we stop global warm-ing? Can we stand up and make a difference?

The answers aren’t as easy to find. But we all need to start ask-ing these questions.

-Kevin Parnell is a reporter with the Kelowna Capital News.

The Salmon Arm Observer is a member of the British Columbia Press Council, a self-regulatory body governing the province’s newspaper industry. The council considers complaints from the public about the conduct of member newspapers. Directors oversee the mediation of complaints, with input from both the newspaper and the complaint holder. If talking with the editor or publisher does not resolve your complaint about coverage or story treatment, you may contact the B.C. Press Council. Your written concern, with documentation, should be sent to B.C. Press Council, 201 Selby St., Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 2R2. For information, phone 888-687-2213 or go to www.bcpresscouncil.org 2007

Tracy HughesEDITOR PRODUCTION MANAGER

Jennifer Bertram2010 WINNER

2010

Copyright subsists in all display advertising and editorial material appearing in the Salmon Arm Observer. Permission to reproduce in any form must be obtained in writing from the publisher. Annual subscription $44.50; Seniors $39 including GST.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

www.saobserver.net • [emailprotected] • [emailprotected] • 250-832-2131 • Fax 250-832-5140 • 171 Shuswap St. NW, Box 550, Salmon Arm, BC V1E 4N7

Rick ProznickPUBLISHER

GUEST SHOT

Kevin Parnell

A6 www.saobserver.net Wednesday, April 23, 2014 Salmon Arm Observer

My name is David Black. I am the majority owner of Black Press, the company that owns this newspaper. This is the first of two columns addressing what I see as the greatest threat to the B.C. environment in our lifetime. I am a reasonably sensible and conservative business-man, not an alarmist. All of the information in this column can be confirmed from public sources.

The oil industry wants to export Alberta bitu-men to Asia via tankers. Under no circumstanc-es should we allow that to happen. A bitumen spill at sea could destroy our coastline, together with the fish and wildlife that depend on it, for hundreds of years.

Bitumen, even if it is diluted, does not float in sea water if there is sediment present. This has been proven many times, most recently in a thorough Environment Canada study published on Nov, 30 2013. Page 51 of the study provides graphic evidence of sunken bitumen. Given that there is an abundance of sediment along the B.C. coast, the bitumen will sink rapidly and there will be little chance of recovering any of it if there is a spill. By Northern Gateway’s own admission, the likelihood of a bitumen spill at sea is over 10 per cent over the next 50 years.Others say that it is much higher. We are in agreement with the position taken by the Coastal First Nations thateven the slightestrisk of a spill of bitumen at sea is unacceptable.

The grounding of the Exxon Valdez in Alas-ka in 1989 is often held up as an example of how bad an oil spill at sea can be. However, a spill of bitumen at sea would be much worse. The Exxon Valdez carried light crude and lost 250,000 barrels, one eighth of a tanker load. The light oil floated and could be removed from the beaches. Even so, after four years of work with up to 11,000 workers and 1,400 boats in-volved, less than 10 per cent of it was recov-ered. Roughly 200,000 birds and many kinds of other wildlife were killed. Approximately 1,300 miles of shoreline were affected and the fishery has yet to fully recover. Bitumen is very different. It would harden up on shore and much of it would sink to the bottom, making it

unrecoverable and killing virtually everything with which it came in contact. Imagine if we lost a full tanker load.

Some say that, with GPS-based navigation and double hulls, spills such as Exxon Valdez are not possible today. They are wrong. Dou-ble hulls do not prevent hull fracture if there is a collision at speed, only if there is a gentle scrape. As for the GPS claim, most marine ac-cidents are caused by human inattention, not by a lack of knowledge about position. All ships carried systems to indicate their location be-fore GPS came along. The Exxon Valdez crew could have glanced at their instruments to de-termine their location but they didn’t, neither did the crew on the Queen of the North. Marine disasters regularly occur and a quick search of the Internet shows human error is most often the problem. Undoubtedly there will be many more marine accidents in future. Our grand-children will not thank us if we willingly risk the destruction of the B.C. coast on our watch.

Fortunately there is a solution that is benefi-cial for all concerned: all we have to do is build a refinery at Kitimat. The refinery will convert the bitumen to gasoline, diesel and jet fuel which float and evaporate if they are spilled. Often little or no spill remediation is required. These refined fuels simply do not cause the habitat destruction of conventional or synthetic crude oil, or anywhere near the devastation caused by bitumen.

The second part will run in the next issue. It will discuss the enormous value-added benefits and environmental advantages of a modern green refinery. The pipeline from Alberta and the tanker fleet to export the refined fuels will also be considered.

Let me declare my biases. I am for creating thousands of good permanent jobs in B.C. I am for creating billions of new tax dollars for gov-ernment coffers. I am for reducing the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions. I am for building an oil pipeline that will never leak. I am for build-ing a modern tanker fleet that carries only re-fined fuels that float and evaporate if spilled. I am against shipping bitumen in tankers.

If you agree that we should not put bitumen in tankers, please contact your local MP and say so. The Canadian government makes a de-cision on this next month.

View PointThe Observer asked: What’s the worst spring chore you have to do?

Corrie Stalker“Cleaning out all the debris from our fish ponds.”

Gary Fretenburg“All of them – that’s why we live in a condo.”

Ian Blackstock“Cutting the grass.”

Lori SmithRaking all of last year’s leaves ... that have blown in from the neighbours’ yards.”

Sara Greenwood“Trimming the hedges and doing the yard work.”

BC VIEWS

Tom Fletcher

OP-ED

David Black

Refinery would alleviate threat from tanker transport

Some inconvenient truths for Earth Day

VICTORIA – Earth Day 2014 will likely go down in B.C. history as less exciting than last year’s event.

That was the day when, in the heat of the election campaign, NDP leader Adrian Dix announced in Kamloops that he doesn’t support the expansion of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline to its Burnaby terminal, because Vancouver shouldn’t become a “major oil port.”

As of this Earth Day, it has been an oil port for exactly a century, since Im-perial Oil began work on B.C.’s first refinery in 1914, in what is now Port Moody. There were no pipelines then, so crude was moved by rail or tanker.

For 60 years, Trans Mountain has supplied the Chevron refinery in Burna-by that is southern B.C.’s last source of fuel. Some of the Alberta crude is piped south to be refined into fuelsand some of that product is barged back up to B.C. to keep our traffic moving.

Today the proposal to expand and upgrade that pipeline, and to build new oil and natural gas pipelines across the north, dominate B.C.’s political scene.

In keeping with the educational as-pect of Earth Day, here are some things you may not know about energy and the environment.

• A recent National Geographic re-port summarizes the main sources of oil in the oceans around North America. Media coverage focuses on tanker and pipeline spills, but they only account for eight per cent of the total.

Fully 60 per cent of the oil load in North American waters is from natu-ral seeps, where oil leaks from seafloor rock. One of the world’s largest is off Santa Barbara, California, where 20 to 25 tons flows out each day. It’s mostly consumed by oil-eating bacteria that have adapted and proliferated.

The next biggest source is leakage

from cars and trucks, which collects on pavement and is flushed to sea when it rains.

• Earth Day is now preceded by Earth Hour, during which we are encouraged to turn out our lights to join a world-wide gesture of conservation. Many people use the occasion for a candle-light dinner.

Given that B.C.’s power is nearly all from renewable hydroelectric sources, and the paraffin used to make candles is derived from petroleum or coal, this feel-good ritual produces an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

David Suzuki is now promoting the idea of Earth Month, an expansion of the symbolic effort designed to “raise awareness.” This is a popular notion in the climate change industry, which to date consists mostly of government officials and activists flying around the world to conferences in exotic locations to sign agreements that lead to, well, not much so far.

• Unlike Earth Hour, B.C.’s carbon tax on fuels actually appears to be help-ing to reduce emissions.

An update to provincial data is due this year, but what we have shows a 5.7 per cent decrease in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases between 2007 and 2011.

Environment ministers have conced-ed that some of this is due to the reces-sion that struck in 2008-2009. But since the economy has recovered and begun to grow again, emissions have contin-ued to decline.

• There are simple things anyone can do, without gimmicks or govern-ment programs. One would be to stop protesting increased housing density in your community.

By far the largest source of green-house gas emissions in B.C., not to mention old-fashioned pollution, is transportation. By living closer to where we work, shop and play, we can exercise our legs instead of just our gas pedal foot to get around.

Salmon Arm Observer Wednesday, April 23, 2014 www.saobserver.net A7

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BUSINESS

Journal

Charity grillOn Saturday, May 10, M&M Meat Shops and Crohn’s and Colitis Canada are inviting Salmon Arm residents to pay a little and eat a lot for the 26th annual Charity BBQ Day, which raises funds to help find a cure for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.Supporters will receive a hamburger or hot dog, a drink and a bag of chips for a minimum donation of $3. Proceeds raised from the event help fund Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis medical research, and the event hopes to raise $1 million in a single day.

Mason moves onCommunity Futures Shuswap is bidding Joanne Mason farewell as she departs from her position as executive director. Mason and her family will be relocating to Eastern Canada as they take on new challenges The board will be seeking a replacement shortly who can continue the positive direction of Community Futures while working closely with many community partners.Mason was also the former manager of Down-town Salmon Arm.

Sip, nibble and networkIn partnership with the Salmon Arm Chamber of Commerce and Shuswap Tourism, Down-town Salmon Arm will be hosting an After 5 Business Mixer on Tuesday, May 13 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. This is a relaxed evening of business networking at the Salmon Arm Arts Centre, where participants can enjoy discussions and meet other business owners and managers.An assortment of delicious appetizers prepared by local businesses and a sampling of locally brewed beers and wines will be offered.

[emailprotected] a business tip? Write to us at:

Free hazardous waste disposal

The Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) will be conducting a Household Hazard-ous Waste Round-up event in Salmon Arm on Sat-urday, April 26 to collect a backlog of hazardous household material.

“This is an opportunity for residents to get rid of materials that are toxic, corrosive, reactive or ignitable,” says waste reduction facilitator Car-men Fennell. “There are so many items that pose potential hazard to human health, such as anti-freeze and adhesives, glues and pool chemicals.”

The regional district offers residents the oppor-tunity to dispose of materials that cannot go into the landfill free of charge on this specific day.

The Salmon Arm Hazardous Waste Recycling Fair will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Bill’s Bottle Depot.

For more information on this event, visit www.csrd.bc.ca, or send an email to [emailprotected].

A14 www.saobserver.net Wednesday, April 23, 2014 Salmon Arm Observer