I have not made a decision yet whether to run for the federal NDP nomination. It would be a huge change in my life, I love wilderness and quiet, but last year I met hundreds of people on Vancouver Island in the North Island riding who are suffering from the same policies as the salmon.
It is my perception that government is doing deals over our heads no longer considering us. I hear bureaucrats say we are not worth the paperwork. I spent 26 years in Echo Bay, a town so small it was possible to see exactly what went wrong. We were 100% employed, virtually no crime, happily generating economic activity through tourism, commercial fishing, logging, building our own homes and raising our children into responsible citizens.
Logs that were hazards to marine navigation were salvaged, milled and turned into houses. Government received taxes from stumpage on the logs, sale of the lumber, purchase of building supplies, the houses themselves and the tourism many of these houses attracted. We bought thousands in groceries and supplies every two weeks year round from Port McNeill. We were thriving and contributed to the economy. But government was not interested in us, nor the money we brought to neighbouring communities or even our taxes.
with no consultation, government abolished foreshore leases for residential use and ended 100 years of this floathouse community, while granting leases to the industrial salmon feedlots all around us. Today the town is gone, the feedlots do not hire local people, provide very little income to Port McNeill and are operating with government’s sanction on expired leases. The local people were turned into squatters with no rights and First Nation’s ignored.
This has hurt the people, the whales, the bears, the local economy and the salmon. People in the North Vancouver Island towns are telling me the same story. The politics that are killing our salmon are also killing our communities. All I want to do is see my home come back to life ecologically and socially. I have raised my children with the First Nation families and I am horrified at how their wishes for their territories are ignored.
The only decision for me is whether I can do more to achieve my goal from the inside of government or the outside. To date I have given my life to this issue yet my community has vanished. I have to consider this extraordinary opportunity and the note of confidence from one of Canada’s leading parties and the voice of the hundreds of people contacting me in the past 24 hours.
