All work and no play…

Being otherwise engaged, I was unable to attend last night’s torch festivities, but I knew I’d be missing something good. Kamloops is especially accomplished at putting on a show.

By all accounts, and especially reading today’s Daily News, a great time was had by all.

This whole torch thing is hype, of course, designed to get people involved in supporting the Games, but there’s nothing wrong with that. At the same time, it provides an occasion for people to get together, enjoy themselves, and feel good about where they live. (As Rex Murphy said the night before, Canada is defined by the way we treat each other, and it’s worth celebrating.)

I’m constantly annoyed at all the Scrooges who have made it their mission to ruin the Winter Olympics for everyone else. These complainers are of the mind that life is all about one thing — whatever their thing happens to be. They’re the same ones in our own community who carp about too much money being spent on the arts.

In their view, everything we do should be about the less fortunate, about social issues, health care, poverty, housing, drug addictions — and never about the joy of life for our citizenry as a whole. Kamloops has nothing to apologize for in that regard — we are one of the most caring, giving communities on this earth, and the same could be said about B.C. and Canada.

There’s nothing wrong, and everything right, about pausing every now and then just to celebrate and enjoy, and celebrating and enjoying athletic excellence is as good a reason as any. Regardless of the Games, or the arts, or any other form of entertainment, all those very important social causes will still be waiting for us the next morning, and we’ll still fight to do something about them.

How dull life would be without time to play.

Rex Murphy reminded us of something important

Last night’s speech by CBC commentator Rex Murphy was one of the most entertaining, inspiring even, that I’ve heard in a long time. Murphy was sponsored and hosted, in the main, by the local branch of the Canadian Home Builders Association, and I’ve never seen more people packed into the Campus Activity Centre.

Murphy is known for his sharp wit and clever turn of phrase, and he could easily have turned them against the nation’s political and cultural foibles, for there’s much to criticize. Instead, he talked about what is right with this country. If only our city’s angry people — those who constantly carp about our failures, about not getting enough — could have been there. They would have been ashamed.

Not that Murphy didn’t touch on some notable and not-so-notable mistakes of history, but he didn’t dwell on them. For the first half hour, he kept the crowd in stitches with a constant barrage of one-liners, beginning with the likes of, “I work for the CBC so I’m unaccustomed to speaking to a large audience,” and “I don’t get out much, especially by invitation.”

The Cross Country Checkup host professed not to consider himself a journalist, comparing his connection to journalism to that of a street walker with the department of highways.

But it was his characterization of Canada that was truly uplifting. Murphy’s charming Newfoundland lilt, combined with his natural way with words and his obvious passion for his country reminded the room of how blessed we are in comparison to most of the world.

Due to history, accidents of geography, and by construction, “we have build an entire nation centered on certain cardinal understandings of each other,” he said. “Everyone in this entire country is my neighbour,” where “a certain kind of social and civic code” governs how we treat each other.

With a mixture of anecdotes, jokes and examples, Murphy made everyone there realize once again that we live in the best of countries and the most caring of communities.

If anyone else had been at the podium delivering the same message, it might have come off as corny or even insincere, but Murphy is a gifted messenger who is anything but insincere. He spoke for well over an hour, and it seemed like five minutes. At the end, everyone left feeling a little better about our place in the world than when they arrived.

An evening at the Mayor’s Gala

Syd and I attended the Mayor’s Gala For The Arts with Al and Leslie Guthro on Saturday night. Nice event — low-brow and casual compared to the other annual galas despite being billed as “elegant.” This one was actually supposed to be the 2009 gala but the mayor had a scheduling conflict last fall.

All the politicians were there. . . .can you imagine Cathy McLeod, Terry Lake, Kevin Krueger, and Peter Milobar (plus councillors Tina Lange, John O’Fee, John DeCicco, Denis Walsh and Pat Wallace) all in the same room and railway ties not being mentioned even once?

Other than the arts, the main topic for the evening was cowboy hats. Right off the bat, emcee Alan Corbishley, who’s still relatively new in these parts, innocently slighted a big part of our local heritage, economy and lifestyle by telling the audience how nice they all looked — and how great it was that nobody was wearing a cowboy hat.

When it came MLA Kevin Krueger’s turn to speak, he gently pointed out Corbishley’s faux pas, informing him that the reason the brims of cowboy hats curl up is so three cowboys can fit in a pickup truck.

Back at the mike, Corbishley desperately tried to attone, falling all over himself apologizing and professing to actually like cowboy hats. If he’d back-peddled any harder he’d have landed in the kitchen. A show of hands indicated at least half the people in the room own a cowboy hat. Corbishley’s apologies were so sincere and comical that he was forgiven; and I’m certain that if he gets a return gig at next year’s gala he’ll be wearing a Stetson.

A little later, there were some groans when he complained about the increasing lack of support from government for the arts. Krueger, of course, is the provincial minister in charge of arts funding. Thus began another apology. It was taken in good fun and, all in all, Corbishley  was the entertainment highlight of the evening.

Receiving the Mayor’s Award For the Arts was educator Rhona Armes; runners up were artist Trish Sellmer and drama teacher Sheda Petersen, who once suggested high school student Milobar should forget drama and focus on shop.

Milobar noted that there’s talk of a brand new theatre within the next seven to 10 years, a notion that is getting some support from the arts community. It would be great if that’s the case, because only a few years ago, when I proposed putting the $2.5 million cost of renovating the Sagebrush toward construction of a new theatre, the late David Ross of Western Canada Theatre, and symphony president Ray Zacharias were adamantly opposed.

But that’s a story for another day, perhaps in the City Hall series.

Confessions of a hoarder

Hello, my name is Mel. I am a hoarder.

This rather shocking realization came to me as I stared into a big box of stuff this weekend and wondered what to do about it. Some people go to Maui for vacation, I go to the basement and unpack a few more boxes still waiting to reveal their contents after our last move.

So there I was, looking into this rather large box, at my phone book collection. My first thought was, Whereinhell am I going to put all these phone books? As I contemplated this challenge, I began idly thumbing through a few of them. I’ve kept every Kamloops phone book since 1981. Some years, two copies, three if you count the InfoTel directories.

I’ve kept those books because I’m a bit of a fanatic when it comes to local history, and old phone books are a great source of information. Then I asked myself a fundamental question: how many times have you actually used one of those old phone books in the name of research or even curiosity? Not ever.

Therefore, they are a waste of space, therefore, toss ‘em. But as this prospect shot a sharp pang of discomfort through me, I realized at that moment: Mel, you are a hoarder of information. The TV shows on hoarding show houses full of garbage, toys, bottles, junk and cats. You, however, hoard information on the expectation that you will some day have a use for it.

The next box I came across was packed with file folders of old newspaper clippings, neatly categorized by subject: crime, politics, water quality, social issues, even one called Breasts. In 1996, you see, there was a court ruling affirming the right of women to go topless in public. This made for quite a good Mel Rothenburger Live, the old radio show I used to do on CFJC. Public toplessness never took hold, though.

In fairness to myself, I collected all those clippings (there are several more boxes just like that one) because my job is to research issues and express opinions on them. But it’s been more than 10 years since I was on regular radio, and research for newspaper editorials is a few key strokes away on the Internet.

In this modern information age, there’s no need for old phone books and newspaper clippings, so they’re now stuffed in the back of my pickup and will be heading for recycling tomorrow. Except for the 1981 phone book, of course. And a couple of file folders of clippings on political issues that might come in handy some day.

Baby steps.

Where is Kim Sigurdson?

I’m wondering, as I read the headline in our own Daily News today (when on vacation I become just another reader), what Kim Sigurdson is thinking. He doesn’t seem like an arrogant man, yet his refusal to engage the Kamloops public smacks of it.

As frustrated as I get with all the hysterical fear-mongering, exaggeration and politicking from opponents of Sigurdson’s cogeneration project, I’m getting equally frustrated by his refusal to come forward.

I wonder if he’s getting bad advice. I wonder if someone is telling him that the best, the safest thing to do, is to sit tight, go by the rules. Maybe the distance between Winnipeg and Kamloops is insulating him from the situation. Maybe the Winnipeg winter is frosting his instincts.

I can’t recall another example when someone who so strongly believes in what he is doing — as Sigurdson clearly does — has been so unwilling to fight for it in the theatre of public opinion, or even to talk much about it.

Today’s headline, MLAs Turn On Railway Tie Plant, isn’t really what’s happening, at least the way Terry Lake explained it to me when he called yesterday. He’s simply frustrated by Sigurdson’s refusal to talk to the public, and is putting on some pressure via the provincial Innovative Clean Energy Fund. 

Not once did Lake say he opposes the project per se. He just wants Sigurdson to open up. Meanwhile, Sigurdson continues to insist he’s followed all the rules, though thankfully hasn’t yet absolutely ruled out some sort of public meeting.

This isn’t just about a gasification plant on Mission Flats. At stake is the entire issue of millions of creosote-treated railway ties and the need to get rid of them. If he and his Aboriginal Cogeneration Corp. have the answer to that, shouldn’t he want to share it, to tell it on the mountain, to spread the good news?

Outrageous interference by our MP

MP Cathy McLeod’s interference in the railway-tie issue may seem the politically wise thing to do, but it amounts to an outrageous political interference in provincial affairs.

The decision to grant a permit to Aboriginal Cogeneration Corp. was a provincial decision within provincial jurisdiction. The federal government has no place in this issue. To be fair, McLeod is an inexperienced MP, but there’s no excuse for this. The depth of that lack of knowhow is firmly illustrated by the fact she calls this the biggest issue she’s faced since she was elected.

What does she base this upon? One hundred people have told her they don’t want a railway-tie disposal plant in Kamloops. Wow, it apparently doesn’t take much pressure to get her on your side. She could actually have done something positive, by putting her resources into shedding some light on the whole situation rather than making political hay.

Bending like a reed in the wind is a safe way to be a politician, and now both our MP and our City council are taking the safe way. That doesn’t take a lot of courage. An interesting sub-plot here is that this issue pits McLeod and Mayor Milobar squarely against Terry Lake and Kevin Krueger, who have no choice but to defend the MOE.

I doubt McLeod knows much about the technology behind the project (she says she’s not particularly interested in the science of it), and she has apparently not considered what gave rise to it in the first place — a need to find a safe, environmentally friendly method of disposing of railway ties. The same, it would seem, can be said for mayor and council.

If ACC president Kim Sigurdson was interested in countering some of this fear mongering, he’d challenge our MP and our mayor to take a trip (at his expense) to the North Dakota research centre where the technology was developed, and get a lesson in it. Then he’d stand on the stage of the Clock Tower Theatre and let the public have at him with any questions they want, and he’d stay there until every last one was answered.

Some guts will have to be shown on this thing, and maybe he’s the best one to take the lead on that score.

The final straw, or not

I don’t intend to get hung up on discussing railway ties each and every day, but here’s an example of some comments that I think raise questions. They were sent to me anonymously so I can’t identify the source. Here is the email I received yesterday, following by my questions to the sender:
                             THE FINAL STRAW!
 
What is the driving incentive for the Ministry of Environmentto go against the wishes of the city council and the people in Kamloops, to give a permit to install a gasification plant on Mission Flats?
 
 How can 25 native jobs of this plant benefit the city, when there is a big question mark when it comes to the health risk of 80,000 + people?
 
Why do other cities not want this plant and the same with the previous experimental cleaning of radioactive filters?  Why do we let Domtar get away with blackmail and not live up to their responsibility to clean up their act, which they signed a contract to do.  Let us say that 5,000 people benefit from the mill and it has a negative health effect on 85,000. Where is the logic in this?  
 
Experimental, after the dictionary, means unknown effect, so how come that all these people are coming out and stating all of these facts that are unknown, one way or another?
 
The question in today‚s corrupt society always comes down to,what is the driving incentive?  I know, money for a few is more important than the long time negative health effect of many.
 
I, for one would gladly contribute some hard earned money towards a class action lawsuit to really find out what is behind all of this.
 
More and more people are talking about moving from Kamloops, if this complete disregard for the quality of life and health of its citizens continues.  
 
We live in a beautiful city with wonderful weather and lots of sunshine, so why do we want to make a toxic dump of it.  We could follow the rest of the world and try to clean up the mess we created.
 
Here is a thought.  We have many hills around Kamloops and quite a bit of wind.  Why not install wind generators and even solar farms.  There you have clean energy.  Lets us stop being the dumping ground for unproven and dirty industry that no one else wants.
 
Clean air and clean water should be the basic right of every human being.  The big question should be, what kind of world would we like to pass on to our children? 

And my response:

The MOE grants permits based on whether it believes there will be any negative environmental consequences, not by referendum, vote of council or political pressure. Such decisions can be appealed and the aggrieved parties can challenge the decision. That is what appears likely to take place.

The benefit is intended to be a “green” process for disposing of waste railway ties rather than burning them in open fire, burying them or stockpiling them.

I’m not aware of other cities rejecting this plant. The situation would be identical to here, with the decision being made by MOE. Can you provide an example? Also, could you elaborate on your reference to radioactive filters?

Aboriginal Cogeneration is the company involved in the gasification plant, not Domtar.

“Experimental.” I’ve heard this before but the specific technology has been tested at the U.S. centre, and other types of gasifiers are in widespread use elsewhere. At least that’s what I read and what I am told. Is there evidence of failures at other gasifiers that have created environmental or health issues?

The driving incentive is that there is a need to find a clean way to dispose of waste railway ties. The issue with many people is that they don’t believe this is a clean way, but that doesn’t mean there’s something evil about a company wanting to provide a solution for a profit.

Class action lawsuit: on what grounds? Is someone breaking the law? I’m not being critical here, I’m just wondering what the basis would be.

“Complete disregard for the quality of life” etc. The folks at IHA and MOE have kids and care about our community, too. They obviously believe in this project.

Wind generators won’t rid us of the pollution problem presented by railway ties. Energy is a bonus.

Your final question could just as well be asked by anyone who is concerned about the proliferation of creosote-treated railway ties with no environmentally friendly way of getting rid of them. Again, the issue is whether this method is a good one. Can we not focus on that without attempting to bring into disrepute anyone who disagrees with the opponents of this project?

Cheers, Mel.

The rhetoric of exaggeration begins

Everyone knows about truth being the first casualty of war. And of environmental battles, it would seem.

So far, there are at least four identifiable forces in the debate over the gasification plant. One is Save Kamloops. Another is Aboriginal Cogeneration Corp. the proponent. A third is that large mass of people who realize they aren’t scientists, never will be scientists, and are waiting to be convinced one way or another. A fourth would be those who believe the project is environmentally safe and that it will, in fact, be good for the environment.

I count myself as a member of the third — I want evidence, not just speeches. Because I’ve declared that to be so, I’m now being accused of, horror of horrors, being a supporter. I don’t know yet whether I’m a supporter, but I really want to come to an opinion on my own, based on facts, not on the rhetoric of opposition.

That rhetoric, by the way, includes suggestions the plant should be built beside my home. Really smart. It also compares this gasification plant with Bhophal and Chernobyl and other major catastrophies in which tens of thousands died or were sickened. And this opposition is supposed to be putting up a credible argument?

Let me give you another example of how things become exaggerated. Early on, the number 2.5 million was being used as the number of excess railway ties in need of disposal. In the excitement that has come with the granting of the MOE permit, that number has grown to 28 million, and even 100 million, and every single one of them seems to be heading for Kamloops.

I think it’s just fine that Save Kamloops is going to bring a UBC prof. to town to talk about the airshed, but you and I and they know full well they’ve picked him because he’s on their side of the argument. It’s like choosing an expert witness in a trial. You find somebody who agrees with you. Why not sponsor someone from the other side, like maybe the engineer who designed the gasifier, to speak the same night?

Better that fear-mongering, but the rhetoric of mud-slinging and exaggeration, I fear, may be just beginning.

Rallies OK, but action is at appeal board

Armchair Mayor column, The Daily News, Jan. 16, 2010

The anti-cogen troops will rally in front of City Hall on Jan. 30, then march across the bridge to Terry Lake’s office.

Since neither the City nor the MLA has anything to do with the decision to grant a permit to Aboriginal Cogeneration Corp. to operate a plant that will gasify old railway ties, the choice of locations is curious.

I suppose the front steps of City Hall are a good place for a protest rally, and why not add an MLA’s office, but the only place environmentalists are going to find satisfaction is from the Environmental Appeal Board.

That board is an independent body that hears appeals on decisions made by government officials relating to our environment. Protest rallies make for a good show and are, no doubt, a good way to vent. Beyond that, their value is somewhat limited.

A protest of another kind, the one that came from City council, holds no authority either. Council voted this week to write to Lake and his fellow MLA Kevin Krueger, as well as MP Cathy McLeod, asking why a federal enviro report wasn’t done.

In addition, they want Krueger, Lake and McLeod to encourage the Ministry of Environment to hear the appeal planned by Save Kamloops.

It’s more window dressing. The federal environmental report wasn’t done because it wasn’t called for within the guidelines under which such reports are done.

And, Krueger, Lake and McLeod don’t call the shots on whether or not appeals are heard. They’re heard based on a bunch of rules that are already in place.

I doubt the rally will leave the public any more informed than it was, but if any of this makes even one person feel better, it’s fine with me. After all, we live in a democracy and free speech is something we feel strongly about.

Nevertheless, it helps to know how things actually work.

It goes something like this. Within 30 days of being informed of the permit decision, an “aggrieved party” can file an appeal under the Environmental Management Act, for a $25 fee.

Assuming an appeal is filed, Aboriginal Cogeneration would be notified. As long as the appellant qualifies, and there’s at least a shred of legitimacy to it (“I don’t like it” probably wouldn’t be a good enough reason), the appeal will be considered.

The appeal can be handled either through written submissions, or through a verbal-testimony process that’s said to be very similar to a courthouse trial. I’m guessing Save Kamloops will want the full-meal-deal open argument option, and I’m guessing the appeal board will grant that wish.

That means Save Kamloops, the MOE and ACC will present arguments and testimony on why the permit was granted, why it should be upheld, and why it should be overturned.

Lawyers don’t always get involved, but if the parties want to spend money on lawyers, they can. Witnesses can be cross-examined just like in court.

This is going to make for high drama. More importantly, it will provide a means for people to get answers to questions about this project that so far haven’t been met through the somewhat limited consultation process conducted by the MOE before the permit was granted, or via all the hyperbole flying around right now.

At the end of it all, the three-member appeal board can confirm the permit, overturn it, or ask that it be amended. The latter may be the most Save Kamloops can hope for, something that will tighten the screws a little more on ACC.

Those screws are already torqued pretty tight, according to Jason Bourgeois, the MOE guy who signed off on the permit. “It’s the strictest by far of the other permits we’ve done,” he told me this week.

On the fears being expressed about air quality, he said: “Emissions (from the ACC gasifier) are so incredibly low they will not be able to be measured within a very short distance from the stack. There’s very little there.”

But, of course, the appeal board could see things differently. In the meantime, appealing the permit at the least causes ACC some inconvenience and potentially quite a bit of money.

While ACC president Kim Sigurdson told me this week he’s not going to wait for the appeal before moving ahead, he also admitted, “It will cause huge problems for us. There’s a lot of lost time here.”

AROUND TOWN: Despite all the talk from City Hall that the law is the law and it can’t be changed for one Golden Retriever, word is that bylaws officers have been chastened and aren’t likely to be harassing Abbey for at least a while. . . . Torch Run route for Jan. 27 has been posted and it looks like it goes west down Valleyview Drive to Victoria Street, turns up First Avenue to Columbia and from there on McGill to the Tournament Capital Centre.

The man people love to hate

I spent some time with Kim Sigurdson yesterday. He’s the guy people love to hate right now. That is, those who know his name.

Those who don’t just hate some nameless company they think wants to poison our children and ruin our city. He’s the president of Aboriginal Cogeneration Corp., which has a permit to build a gasification plant that will use old railway ties as fuel for creating energy.

Sigurdson is from Winnipeg so he’s not seen much in these parts. He doesn’t come across as somebody who wants to do bad things in Kamloops. Sure, he expects to make some money, but he’s a man with technology he’s positive will do something good about the massive stockpile of creosote-treated ties that are in need of disposal. He’s sure it’s a system that will do it in an environmentally friendly way.

I don’t know if he’s right — I’m still feeling my way through this thing, learning about how it all works. I do wish, though, that somebody could put Kim Sigurdson and his engineers and consultants in a room with Save Kamloops and have a sincere, calm discussion and raise all the issues that are on people’s minds.

That would be a much more useful thing than everybody slinging arrows and mud at each other.