I believe government, always care more about "face" than they do about people. Phrases such as 'how do we handle this' and 'collateral damage' come to mind after 45 years of constant observation. It must be a shock to the patriotic when they notice the laxity of quick, effective, response in matters of great calamity, especially when the calamity is of an environmental nature. The words Clark fed the media regarding who pays the clean-up costs and her choice to show up several days past the initial breach at a First Nations prayer ceremony support this contention. Of note on the issue of self-regulation is the marginal amount of insurance and bond in place to effect containment. This alone points to a lack of real pre-planning for the inevitability of a crises.
The scramble to rectify the political support current governments have given industries which, in a major disaster created by the same industry, falls to their jurisdiction or the successive government is rarely capable of claiming full ability to effectively deal with the crisis. If one reviews Hurricane Katrina against Mount Polley and considers percentages of population the end result of such comparisons point directly to the fact that governments are little more than pawns concerned with status and stature than governance. It exemplifies the nature of "industrialist-conditioning" in that most governance is driven by profit motifs rather than constituent consideration.
These very real and very dangerous habits of governance are the reasons many refuse to accept any level of trust where industry, government, and ecology meet.
Dennis Ouellette
Cultural Director
Prince George Metis Community Association
