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Kitimat is supposedly a key to Canada's future, the gateway to Asia. You wouldn't know it from the attitude the federal cabinet has to the town and the District of Kitimat.Jason Kenney, Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism, came to town on Sunday, and like his colleague before him, Minister of Natural Resources, Joe Oliver, Kenney ignored the District of Kitimat, its Council and the town residents, while touting Kitimat's industrial development as the wave of the future.This sort of thing, flying in and out and celebrating Kitimat as a boom town, is typical for both federal and BC provincial cabinet members who prefer to look the other way at all the problems "the boom" (which hasn't really happened yet and may never happen) is causing here–including a housing crisis for low and fixed income residents.Kenney is tweeting his current tour of northern British Columbia, so it is easy to see that the minister met with the Mayor of Prince George and with community leaders in nearby Terrace. So if Kenney can meet with the Mayor of Prince George and have a meeting Terrace, what's wrong with Kitimat?In Kitimat, Kenney met with the Haisla Nation and toured the Rio Tinto Alcan modernization project and the Shell LNG Canada facility. Apart from the officials who set up the tours, no one in town knew he was here until Kenney tweeted about his visit to the RTA modernization project. After his initial tweet, at least one member of the local media, tweeted Kenney asking for an interview, but was told there was no time.The same thing happened in July 2013, when Joe Oliver came to Kitimat and met, as Kenney did, with Haisla Chief Counsellor Ellis Ross and the Haisla Nation Council. In that case, Kitimat Council member Mary Murphy was tipped off about Oliver being in the Village, and Mayor Joanne Monaghan had to lobby Oliver's Ottawa office to even get a fifteen minute photo op with the minister. In July, Oliver did arrange for an interview with the Northern Sentinel while ignoring other local media.In March 2013, Oliver flew in to Terrace for a photo op when he announced the appointment of Douglas Eyford to speak to First Nations about the Northern Gateway pipeline. Since this was a full federal photo op, the local media was invited and the national medial listened in on a conference call. Oliver was asked if he would drive the 40 minutes to Kitimat from Terrace to see the town and meet people. His answer was that he was too busy and had to get back to Ottawa for the 2013 federal budget.
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Had excellent meeting on range of issues w/ Prince George, BC’s impressive Mayor Shari Green. Local economy v strong. pic.twitter.com/vFU10PVz4G -
When District of Kitimat Council had its regular meeting on February 17, 2104, I asked Mayor Joanne Monaghan and Council if they knew Kenney was in town, had met with the Haisla and toured the industrial sites. The reaction was shock. No one on Council knew that a federal cabinet minister had come to Kitimat. (It was quite clear that they didn't follow #Kitimat on Twitter and this time no one got a trip from a friend). "We just don't count," Mayor Monaghan said.
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Great to meet aboriginal folks who have good jobs thanks to Pacific Trails Pipeline trades training & ESDC funding. pic.twitter.com/I5L7q4xS78 -
LNG Canada is just 1 of more than a dozen proposed LNG West Coast export facilities, which represent potential for tens of thousands of jobs
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Toured site of proposed LNG Canada Kitimat port facility, part of a potential $14 billion investment that would employ thousands of people.
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Excellent meeting w/ Haisla Chief Councillor Ellis Ross in Kitimat, BC, re: cooperating on skills development & job training for 1st nations
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The Rio Tinto Alcan project is employing ~2500 employees, is fully engaging local Haisla 1st Nation, & will massively reduce GHG emissions.
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Got eye-opening briefing & tour of the $3.8 billion Rio Tinto Alcan Kitimat Modernization Project, BC’s largest capital project in 65 years.
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So what's going on?It is fairly clear that the Harper government sees Kitimat as nothing more than a "gateway" which Alberta bitumen and northeast BC liquefied natural gas will go to China while the people of Kitimat sit and watch and and a few pick up the handful of permanent jobs from these projects. In the meantime, the stress in Kitimat is growing, while government ignores what is going on.Just one example is the continuing refusal by the Harper government to upgrade Canadian Border Services at the Northwest Regional (Terrace Kitimat) Airport, which causes great inconvenience to the private jets from all over the world that bring both executives and workers to build up these projects which supposedly the future of the Canadian economy depend.The biggest example of the Harper government's arrogant refusal to consider local issues was when the government unilaterally declared the Port of Kitimat, a private port since its founding in 1950, would be converted to a public port, without consulting either Rio Tinto Alcan or the District of Kitimat.The politicians who cheer about the Kitimat "boom" are unwilling to even discuss the negative fallout from what's happening now, land and building speculation, the fact that the work camps are sucking business out of the town, the ongoing problem of balancing industrial development with environment in a way that the northwest wants, not what those far away in Ottawa and Calgary want.
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Fantastic discussion w/ business & community leaders in Terrace, BC on the skills agenda & the Northwest BC economy. pic.twitter.com/y0kvVVv3tx -
So why do Conservative politicians avoid Kitimat?One reason is that ever since Stephen Harper became prime minister in 2006, he and his colleagues have always worked to avoid uncomfortable and tough questions about their policies, whether those questions are from the media, from local officials who really know what is going on or–heaven forbid–the general public. It's easier for the Harper government to stay on message about Canada being an "energy superpower" for its base in Alberta and suburbia and to talk about economics in the abstract, spreadsheets in a Matrix, rather than reality.If a cabinet minister actually sat down with the members of the District of Kitimat Council, they would have to deal with reality and answer specific questions about the problems in the Kitimat Valley rather than tweeting how great things are.The second is likely partisan politics and the Conservative policy of the continuous, never ending and nasty campaign. Although Skeena Bulkley Valley has gone Conservative in the past, at this point it may be that the Conservative Party has written off Skeena Bulkley Valley and so it doesn't count. Checking the Elections Canada website, adding up the Kitimat polls, NDP incumbent Nathan Cullen had 1678 votes, with Clay Harmon, the Conservative, a distant second at 946 votes. (Across the entire riding, Cullen had 19,431 votes to Harmon's 12,117).The tragedy is that if Stephen Harper, the cabinet and the Conservatives wanted to promote Kitimat as a gateway to Asia, they would pay attention to the Valley. If Harper and the Conservatives cared about the environment and actually embraced science rather than using "science" as an Orwellian newspeak phrase, they would probably have found that there would be more enthusiastic support and less skepticism about pipelines, LNG terminals and yes, even Northern Gateway.And what about the veterans? When Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino showed up at that the last minute in January for what was likely to be an awkward meeting with vets angry at the closing of offices across the country, the Ottawa press gallery treated it as a blunder by the egomaniacal Fantino. As I was watching the live news conference by the bemedalled veterans expressing their anger at Fantino's attitude, I couldn't help wondering if this hasn't played out other times across the country, far from the view of the Ottawa press gallery and unnoticed by a Canadian media devastated by cutbacks. If Joe Oliver shows up at the last minute to meet District of Kitimat Council with just enough time for a photo op but no time for discussion, how many times has this happened elsewhere? It could be that the last minute show Is just another form of spin.
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