While Tuesday’s throne speech committed the government pursuing an Asia Pacific Gateway Authority with the Federal Government to “open up the critical Northern Corridor”, North Coast MLA Gary Coons and Skeena Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen both say people in the region shouldn’t count on it.

“For the past three years I have been saying the northern corridor is where we need provincial government investment not the ill-advised investments in Delta…For those of us in the North the ‘once again’ commitment to the northern corridor from Prince George to Prince Rupert is one of the most significant items to come out of today’s throne speech. It must be noted that last year’s Throne speech also announced that the province was committing to increase the capacity of the Port of Prince Rupert to two million containers a year from the current 500,000. This second phase was expected to be completed by 2010 followed by a third phase for an additional two million containers by 2013. We all must remember this is a throne speech a week before the huge deficit budget and although we are hopeful, I would not bet the house on it,” said Coons, adding that the concerns of the Coast Tsimshian remain unaddressed.

“There have been rumours about how to best set this up, but my concern is that there is Northwest representation on the groups or committees. Often it gets so heavily weighted in Vancouver when all the opportunities are up here…The idea of Gordon Campbell and Stephen Harper working together to make something I support isn’t impossible, but I have my doubts,” added Cullen.

And while the Throne Speech also included defending the HST and talked about the unpredictability of the current economic crisis, both Cullen and Coons said they had a hard time believing that.

“The Throne Speech in general makes the last campaign feel deceitful. The government knew how bad the budget was, but acted like it was just sprung on them,” said Cullen.

“The government does not have a mandate to bring in this tax, and people from all walks of life right across the province are joining to call on the government to put a stop to the HST. The B.C. Liberals’ Throne Speech tries to say the economic downturn was ‘brutally deceiving’, but it is British Columbians who were deceived by the B.C. Liberals,” added Coons.

MLA, MP speak out against Throne Speech

By Shaun Thomas

The Northern View

September 01, 2009

Media links on Recent Ferry Issues

• November 18
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• January 13
• January 15
• January 19

Read the full brochure online.

When the Liberals “restructured” B.C. Ferries in 2002, they trumpetted the new-look corporation would improve service.

What the Liberals didn’t trumpet was a provision in the Coastal Ferries Act which requires B.C. Ferries to look for alternate service providers for its routes. Section 69 (1) of the Act mandated B.C. Ferries to find someone to compete with them.

A cynic might suggest that’s why there have been so many service problems lately or why fares — despite the Liberal promise that they would be “stable” — just keep going up; perhaps the company is being mismanaged to help fill that mandate for a competitor.

Let’s keep this in context. To British Columbians who live along the coast and on the islands, the ferry service is not simply a frill. It is our marine highway system; it’s how we get from point A to point B.

We’ve already seen British Columbians react quite strongly against the proposed privatization of the Coquihalla. Each of the ferry routes is as important to the people who live along the coast as the Coquihalla is to the residents of the southern Interior.

A reliable, safe, affordable ferry system is just as crucial to the long-term health of the coastal and island regions as a reliable, safe, accessible highway system is to the rest of British Columbia. We need less privatization of the ferry system, not more.