That the Mayor, on behalf of Council, sign the Op- Ed prepared by Counterpoint Communications Inc. calling for advocacy for development of BC’s natural resources.
one that I'd request to be put on the list. You've got a copy of the draft off Ed Sea correspondence for Mr. Rosenhardt. The principal consultant for Counterpoint communications. Re endorsement of an off ED piece on advocacy for development of BC's natural resources. That's been prepared by Mera panel in Victoria on these issues generally at UBCM. Mayor Dahl has been leading a bit of a charge, and there'll be a panel discussion. He's asking for support for his op ed piece. I appreciate there will be differences of opinion on this, but basically the thrust of it is to suggest that the province needs to move forward. With natural resource extraction, including, where appropriate, faster approvals of responsible natural resource projects, increasing the momentum for First nations economic participation in resource development. Stronger can do advocacy from all levels of government. Active involvement of local government and First nations from the beginning and not as an afterthought. I don't intend to spend a long evening talking about
this for me. The message from this op ed piece is quite simply a way to address the divide that exists in our province between urban and rural British Columbia. All of the things that are mentioned in terms of copper, lng, lumber, salmon, et cetera. Are all produced in rural British Columbia, often on lands that are the subject now. Of first Nations. Legal claims that provide employment in remote communities. And are indeed, practically speaking, the only option for any reasonable level of employment. It's for that reason that I'm happy to see these matters debated in public and at the UBCM. Which is obviously a place where local politicians. In particularly rural british columbian politics. Rural british columbian politicians will have an opportunity to speak to it.
over for discussion. Councilor Gesselbrook, thank you. I'm not in support of supporting this op ed. I do think it's a no brainer that we need to improve economic development in our province. And there's a grave need also to look towards the future and develop an economy that's one, is environmentally sustainable and provides jobs that are future proof. And I think there seems to. Be an effort under the current economic concerns. I think. By traditional industries that may be struggling in forestry around LNG to kind of go back to how things were and. I think that given where this is coming from, I think this is part of it, and I don't think we have any business to be supporting this. I think that there's lots of ways that we can tell the provincial government to move. Forward. With different economic development opportunities. But I think a lot of this is also trying to roll back. Certain regulations that have been long. And fought for that are moving us towards more environmentally sustainable community. So there's many aspects of this letter that I do support, but there's also other ones that are just, I feel that. It's part of the same old same old and not
Armstrong and Brown. Yeah. Thank you. I'm disappointed. It doesn't mention anything about raw log exports. We've exported 2.7 million raw logs from the east coast of Vancouver island. We saw a ship leave. Here last week. We have a ship outside here being loaded right now. Raw logs. Those are jobs leaving our community. It's not about more resource extraction. It's. About using our resources responsibly. I also see the bc government. Approving projects for trump cronies. The pr gt pipeline for more lng. Exports owned by. Supporters of Donald Trump. This is not how we deal. With. A president who is undermining our economy. We need to be using those resources to maximize industry in this province by maximizing our resources and ensuring that we get good paying jobs for the resources that we have and stop shipping off for our resources. I'm not going to support this
Thank you. I'll be supporting. I think the government does need to start engaging with first nations, and I have the utmost faith that the First nations will be looking at the environmental concerns that others at this table are concerned about. I also want to look at the fact that. The provincial debt is over $155,000,000,000. And if we don't? Start doing something to grow our economy, it's going to continue to grow. And it's going to be the kids of people at this table who are not going to be finding jobs or even struggle to survive. So I think it's something that can be looked at. It's not committing us to anything other than open discussions with First nations. And I'm sure environmental groups will be part
of that. Thank you. Thank you, councilor. Brown. Thanks, you, worship. Thanks for bringing it forward. Always appreciate when someone brings something forward. And happy to get that on the floor. However, I won't be supporting it. I think probably everyone can make 1.1 way or the other. I just think that this is the kind of stuff, and this is not a criticism of your worship, that makes UBCM watered down and it's not the appropriate venue. And every year. There's so many resolutions and panels that have nothing to do with our core business as municipalities or local governments, so I won't be supporting it for that reason.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Councilor Thorpe. I will be supporting this. I think in the past. My impression is that this council, at times has given lip service to the idea of supporting natural. Resources. But when it comes time to do something even remotely concrete, like send a letter, we back. Away from doing that. This calls for advocacy from all levels of government. And the responsible development of natural resources with the active involvement of local government and first Nations. I don't see anything wrong in that, and I'm happy to support it. Thank you. Very
much, Councilor Hemmens. Thank you, worship. I always struggle with putting my name on something that someone else has written about. A topic that I'm not actually mandated to have an opinion on, which is this letter. So when I read through it, The sentence that really struck me that is going to cause me to not vote in support. Is the 6th bullet point. And it says we cannot put up our own barriers in front of strengthening our economy. When the world needs our copper, our lng, our lumber, our salmon, and many many other exports that flow through our Pacific gateways. I agree with all of that. Just that. Council, Gasoprock said. But I don't know exactly what they mean by. Our salmon. Is this an advocacy piece for open net pens? Is this like, what are we actually weighing in on. And so I appreciate you bringing it forward. I struggle with these in general. And this one, based on that bullet point, I can't. Support.