I mean, really?
More and more people are moving into the city. The rural areas are emptying. Why is this? Some people think it is a conspiracy. They think there is a plan afoot to get everyone into little boxes like rats in a big central laboratory. The Matrix Reloaded. THAT makes no sense to me but I must admit that there seems to be some supporting evidence.
Consider the BC ferry system. The costs to use the ferry have more than doubled at a time when other costs have dropped. Admittedly, fuel is a big factor in transportation but the conspiracy theorists point out that imported goods have dropped in price despite the fuel used to deliver them. As have air fares (relatively). Notable exception: flying to Haida Gwaii – costs twice what it costs to fly to Toronto. And there is no doubt that higher ferry prices have damaged island life on the BC coast.
But here’s the latest example. We have barge service out here. We pay for it when we need it. We pay a lot. But, having said that, they deliver a lot and they are an excellent service. In fact, they are, along with the post office, the ONLY service remote islanders enjoy. I pay $1.50 or more a liter for gasoline and almost twice the going rate for propane but the option is to burn a lot of gasoline to go get a small amount (the amount I can carry) of almost-as-high-cost fuel from the neighbouring island to put in my boat so that I can go get more. It makes financial and environmental sense to pay for the little I need if I don’t have to go get it. Seriously, I would burn as much as I use in a month just going by boat to the next island to get it.
The barge service is great. It has been operating safely for over thirty years.
Recently our government mandated all such barges be double-hulled. As if our government was concerned for the environment or something. Which they most assuredly are NOT. Anyway, our barge guys went and spent millions doubling up their hull as per instructions. Now they are awaiting approval. It has not been forthcoming. It has been 14 months. They are now officially ‘overdue’ for their ‘inspection’ by several months. They can be closed down. Even though they have contacted the ministry countless times to indicate compliance, they have not been certified. They are worried. BIG government cannot be trusted.
So, they get closed down. So another little guy gets squished by government once again. So what? Injustice happens. Get over it. Do what the rest of the sheep do – move to town. Stop doing that ‘remote thing’ and comply. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
Well, that is the conspiracy theory summarized, anyway. Little by little, step by encroaching step, they are making living rural and remote harder and harder.
I don’t subscribe to that theory. Too Machiavellian to be plausible, I think. But there is one point made that makes sense….the fewer people living remote, the less oversight and witness there is to increasing natural resource exploitation. Now THAT is simply just true. It’s a fact. No people = no witnesses.
Consider the recent oil spill in English Bay (now reported to maybe being larger than first thought)…..that spill was in the heart of town, so to speak. Took 12 hours to respond. How many oil spills or bilge pumping pollution happens OUT OF SIGHT? How many clear-cuts are NOT seen? How many Mount Pollys go unreported simply because there is no one to see? Who is served by such lack of oversight?
The bible exhorts people to ‘bear witness’ as a means to thwart evil. Maybe the conspiracy theorists are right. Maybe they are trying to get rid of us. Maybe they don’t want us as lab rats so much as simply not being out here to see the crimes being committed.
Camping fees in parks have gone way, way up. Canada Post keeps trying to close the post office. Conservation officers and in-the environment jobs have been cut (NOT the office jobs in Ottawa, tho). The Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans have no boats. They are closing down some more Coast Guard stations. Lighthouse keepers have been axed. Rural people are more vulnerable to fuel price hikes.
Doesn’t matter if there is a conspiracy or not, the bottom line is that there are fewer and fewer witnesses out here.
And there seems to be more and more evil……………..
Our Off the Grid Home 
I think your perceptions are correct and it is ironic that the government seems to be intent on making rural life harder give that many rural people support the Conservatives, ineffect being bitten for voting for the Conservatives. When will they learn?
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A ‘rural’ person told me yesterday that ” I am not likely to vote Conservative again.” I was stunned. What could possibly have prompted them in the first place? When asked, I got a shrug. He then said slowly (as it just dawned on him) “Well, I am pretty conservative myself, ya know? I believe in family values and keeping the economy good.”
“Unh, Jed! Conservative is just a name. It does not denote their philosophy. It is branding, dude! Marketing. They can’t very well call themselves the fascist pigs or the canucks or the Pillsburry Doughboys now, can they? So, they picked a name. It’s just a name!”
“Yeah. I guess……………..”
Can’t expect the system to change very much, now can ya?
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Seven deficits in a row is what they call managing the economy. Those deficits are padding corporate bottom lines. Tax breaks for the entitled. Ain’t that grand.
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I am hardly an economist but it takes no brains at all to see bad business practices inherent in what are touted as pro-business parties. ALL the time! They sell assets cheap to friends (seems the BC govt. got caught out selling a property for $40M less than market). They sell our resources even cheaper. And they always run deficits while choking the economy to a standstill. EVERY pro-business move is for corporations – and then those corps reap a quick harvest and cut and run. We should be encouraging small, local business to produce what is imported but needed.
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You are correct! Sadly the corporations know that they need not invest much in Canada to get the breaks. In Canada the corporate tax rate is about 26% whereas in the USA it’s 40% but where do they invest and where do they pad the bottom line with tax breaks? Corporate welfare!
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Now that they’ve conceded that the oil spill was larger than reported, does that mean it is still “80% cleaned up”?
If they didn’t know the original size, how can they determine the magnitude of the cleanup?
Yup, I’m still following.
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Spill is now estimated to be 2,700 litres or about 714 American gallons. Will be a while before they know for sure.
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The head of the CG union said that the Kits station had the best oil-spill equipment (now mothballed) and would have been all over that spill within minutes. It has also been reported that 80% of what they could see as estimated by aircraft has been cleaned up. ESTIMATED BY AIRCRAFT!!!
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Newfoundland closed the outports in the name of efficiency.
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I wonder what the Nfld folks say now about that?
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Many of them regret it.
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NFLD outports.
Subsistant fishermen …….
And there is STILL no more Cod.
But they head out into the ever thinning ice flow to hunt seal for furs.
A dying industry that the Feds dont have the guts to stop. It would cost them votes.
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The people never learn. Ever. They eventually go ballistic and revolt but, until then it seems, it is business as usual. I am NOT convinced of the eventual coming of the great enlightenment that changes the system from within. I think the system serves well enough until it is deemed no longer fit and then we all throw a collective tantrum. That has been our history. THAT seems to be the extent of our evolution-to-date. God, I hope I am wrong.
My only hope? I have been wrong so many times before.
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You gotta admit though, for a Leader with no formal education, she is doing a bang up job! The Mount Polley spill? Gone, done with. The English Bay oil spill? 17 barrels of toxin suddenly ‘cleaned up’ by a magic doubling of the quantity. Quick sale of Burke Mountain? Done – likely by negotiating the realtor fee. That sudden influx of cash will go a long way to financing the first phase of Site C construction (already tendered, but has it been awarded?)
These transactions are rarely understood by the common taxpayer and shouldn’t be condemned UNTIL they’re understood.
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Understanding is the booby prize. The experience of being hit in the face with a fish is the gold. Yeah, you can quote me.
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I was being ‘fishiscis’.
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“…the fewer people living remote, the less oversight,…”
Exactly. Canada, under Harpo, has a bad case of “dutch disease,” economic growth and development based off of the resource sector and a decline in manufacturing. The Economist and Pembina Institute have pointed out the significant down sides to resource based economics and the extensive damage such policies create here in Canada: ( http://www.pembina.org/op-ed/the-true-price-of-a-resource-economy-in-canadas-north )
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Well in a world where we have access to more information in one hour than the King of Britain in the 1800’s could recieve in a year…..What do we, as the most informed populace history has ever known do?
Watch Big Brother.
As much as I loathe politics, as much as I loathe the Reform Party under a different name (Conservative). As much as I hate the way these craven opportunists lie cheat and steal taxpayers money
A majority of people voted that control freak prick Harper into power. ( Personally I think Ignateff wasnt much of a choice and Trudeau JR is LESS of a choice…..as much as I hate to admit it. I voted for Harper last election).
Uninformed voters that rely on 30 second sound bites to make a decision on the next PM of the country. Deserve what they get.
As for BC Ferries rising costs. One only needs to take a wander down to the Fleet Maintenance Unit in Richmond in the middle of the summer ( when ALL ferries are in the water). The parking lot is full.
I dont think its a conspiracy to “empty the wildernesss” as it is make painful cuts to finally attempt to balance budgets where the least amount of voters will be affected.(ie pissed off).
But then again these “fiscal conservatives” couldnt run an f-ing lemonade stand without a help from a ‘backhander” from big business.
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