To the Editor,
Only in Nova Scotia is it head-line news that environmental groups have succeeded to upset an exploration plan to find oil and gas off the Nova Scotia coast. The Government and too many people are opposed to gas extraction onshore as well. Coal mining is bad. Gold mining is worse. Trees are beautiful, therefore too many people, mostly urban dwellers, have no appreciation of the importance of the forest industry. Farming is o.k., but only if it does not produce any smell.
Tidal power met so many opposition hurdles that it became bankrupt. Recycling of tires is opposed, even before a test run proves that it is harmful. Pumping salt into a salty tidal river is opposed. The fear of increased truck traffic is enough of a scare tactic to oppose gas extraction and rock quarries.
Government jobs and the service industry cannot sustain an economy. All wealth originates from the ground or the water; it does not start with a Walmart or a call centre. Our economy cannot be sustained by the savings or pension of the comfortably retired, who no longer depend on employment or wealth creation and, therefore, are prone to "care for the environment."
What does anyone think of someone in the neighbourhood who is capable of working and has the training to be employed, but somehow manages to stay home, does nothing and lives off social assistance?
That is what our province is becoming or is already. We rely on handouts (equalization payments) generated by the economies of provinces which believe in basic work and are not afraid to benefit from their natural resources. And they are not wrong. After all, everybody wants to eat and cover all basic needs. As well, everyone expects to share in the ever increasing, and ever costlier, array of government services.
Morris J. Haugg QC, Amherst
