Opinion

EDITORIAL Out and active

Spring time brings forth better weather outdoors, not quite warm enough to be walking around with shorts and a tank top but it still excites you with the possiIZAIAH REYES HERALD EDITOR bilities of what you would be doing as it gets warmer and warmer.

There are a wide variety of activities we could do as the weather improves. Off the top of my head, we can go for a hike to the nearest trails or bike around town. There are also the possibilities of camping, fishing, or going for a long drive.

Personally, around this time of year, I get inspired to do two types of shooting; shooting videos, and shooting hoops. Back in Calgary last year, I had the pleasure of roaming the city in search of the best outdoor basketball courts. My girlfriend, brother, and I were able to play in 10 locations spanning across the city. We played basketball and I shot pictures and videos of our adventure.

Unfortunately, since I am away for work, we are unable to do that again. However, as a consolation, I will be meeting up with my girlfriend and my family down at the coast for a weekend at the end of April.

I’m looking forward to us exploring Vancouver and finding things to do there. I have seen some pictures on social media of people going boating there with a pedal boat so that’s definitely something I would want to do. Another activity I came across was the BMO marathon. If we are unable to do it this time, then I would definitely make sure we do it next year.

There are plenty of great activities to do outdoors when the weather is nice. I urge people to pick any that gets you out and active so that stress can be relieved and great memories could be had.

VIEWPOINT

Season Blachford, Grade 7

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OPINION

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LETTERS to the editor

The electric vehicle is not our green silver bullet

Editor,

If one compares the full cycle of electric vehicles (EVs) from manufacture, use and destruction/recycling they aren’t much better than internal combustion engine (ICE) alternatives. They maybe worse. Electric car engines and batteries require lots of high quality metals such as copper, cobalt, nickel and lithium. Some require “rare earth” metals that are not overly abundant. Mining and refining all of these is energy intensive, environmentally damaging, and some must be sourced from countries with abysmal human rights records.

Recycling all of this could also prove to be a huge, energy intense effort.

Some Provinces and States are blessed with renewable hydro, solar and wind power to generate the electricity needed to power EVs. British Columbia is one of them. So, on balance EVs maybe better than ICEs if sourcing, manufacturing and recycling are optimum. Currently they are not.

Other jurisdictions are not so lucky. They generate their electricity by burning coal, oil or gas. They create greenhouses gases to produce the electricity that EVs need. In effect, we are transferring pollution from the cities to more remote locations where the electricity is being generated (out of sight, out of mind?). In distributing electricity from source to use there is also loss, typically in the 10-15% range depending on infrastructure and distance. City dwellers may be happy with less pollution but the environment will not have benefited.

Governments in the US and Canada have embraced EVs in a big way. They are funding charging stations and offer subsidies for people to buy these pricier vehicles. Many see this as the green silver bullet. Change over to EVs and our global warming problems are solved so we can continue polluting on virtually every other front.

Beware of green silver bullets.

Steve Burke West Kelowna

ALBAS: Playing politics with military procurement

DAN ALBAS

VIEW FROM THE HILL

Prime Minister Trudeau has long held a firm position on the Lockheed Martin F-35 multi-role jet fighter aircraft. In 2015 his promise to Canadians was clear “we will not buy the F-35 stealth fighter bomber”. PM Trudeau further stated the F-35 “did not work” and that “It no longer makes sense, if it ever did, to have a stealth, first-strike capacity fifth-generation fighter,”.

Things changed this week as the Trudeau Liberal Government announced that it has now decided that the F-35 will be the preferred replacement aircraft for the CF-18.

Negotiations will now begin to purchase 88 new F-35 fighter jets at a currently estimated cost of around $19 billion.

What was also very interesting about this Liberal decision was that recently released documents obtained under ‘Access to Information’ revealed the Liberal Government communication strategy to justify purchasing the F-35 was developed two years ago, in 2020.

Why was a “communications strategy” required?

As reported by the Ottawa Citizen it was to: “justify how the federal government could purchase the F-35 even though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claimed Canada wouldn’t buy the stealth fighter and had no use for it”.

What was in this communication strategy?

Advice to avoid “dealing with the direct statements from the Liberals that the F-35 would not be purchased. Instead, the focus was on the procurement process itself.”

This is largely what Procurement Minister Filomena Tassi did at the announcement that PM Trudeau did not attend.

This is not the first time the Liberals have played politics when it comes to replacing aging equipment required by our forces.

Many may recall that in 1992 the Liberals also campaigned to cancel the EH-101 helicopter replacement for the aging Sea-King helicopter.

This cancellation cost taxpayers $478 million in penalties when the Liberals cancelled the $4.8 billion EH-101 helicopter order that was to replace the aging Sea-Kings.

Cancelling the replacement for the Sea-King did not negate the need to replace this aging helicopter, it only delayed it further, and at a much greater cost to taxpayers.

In fact when the same Liberal government, only a few years later announced the replacement of the Sea-King, the new helicopters came at an increased cost said to be $6.2 billion.

When that contract was finally signed for 28 new CH-148 Cyclone helicopters the total cost had increased more to $7.6 billion.

Because of the many delays created by this Liberal cancellation, an additional $495 million maintenance contract was required to keep the 55-year-old Sea-King helicopters safely in the air.

I mention all of this because playing politics with military procurement does little more than leave our forces with aging, less effective aircraft that is very costly to fly.

It also drives up the eventual replacement costs to taxpayers.

My question this week:

Do you support the purchase of the 88 Lockheed-Martin F-35 jet fighters?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711. From the Herald archives: April, 1998

Merritt local wins $14 million

Merritt local, Betty Richards wins $14 million with a $2 Quick Pick lottery ticket.

Richards bought the ticket at the Merritt Petro Canada gas station and said that she had only bought it because the store clerk had asked.

A total of three tickets were bought and Richards had given two to her daughters with her eldest Katt, receiving the winning ticket.

LETTERS POLICY

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