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Letter to the editor: Globalization and privatization ‘crazy and really stupid’

Many firms which were once publicly-run, and were real financial assets for BC citizens, don’t belong to us anymore. Now we hire private, more costly firms, and tax dollars go to private pockets.
Canfor Leisure Pool construction
Construction of the Canfor Leisure Pool in 2022.

James Steidle is right to question it why we built a pool designed by a Nebraska firm with pine siding from New Zealand and Chile. Why did naming rights allow the pool to become the "Canfor Pool" if wood from far away covers the building? Could that money not be used better?

As Steidle pointed out, until 2004, BC Government Employees Union members managed our the B.C. Building Corporation (BCBC) and it could easily have handled many aspects of this. It was no slouch. The corporation did a tremendous job.

Around 2004, the B.C. Liberal Party, now the B.C. United Party, privatized every publicly owned Crown corporation they could, for a private enterprise dream. Many firms which were once publicly-run, and were real financial assets for BC citizens, don’t belong to us anymore. Now we hire private, more costly firms, and tax dollars go to private pockets. With less coming in, we have less to invest… and so on.

While Via Rail runs hundreds of passenger trains in Ontario every day, we no longer own B.C.’s iconic CN railroad, and don't have that revenue either. B.C.’s previous government sold that to a private company too, immediately after saying they would not. What incredible assets would British Columbians have if the railway still belonged to us? Meanwhile, we have no provincial passenger bus and no passenger trains to move around. Today, the need for public transportation is huge.

Our forests are gobbled up by foreign companies. Design contracts are outsourced. Building contracts and maintenance contracts go to American firms. We even sell our forest floors, and whole trees, to make pellets for overseas buyers to burn. Meanwhile, our forest floors become empty of nutrients to grow new trees.

It’s crazy and really stupid.

We have manpower, brainpower, experience and raw materials. The drive to innovate sits right here. We know the climate (even as it changes), the landscape and the wildlife. We can provide local materials and know how to maintain nature as it must be maintained here, to stay alive. What we don't know, we can learn.

It's on us, and city hall and city council, to stop the cycle and give our own community a leg up.

Jan Manning

Prince George