3/28/2010

Banned By Tskaumis

 Oh me,oh my, what will I do?

"to refute the incredible lies which pass for “truth” or “news” in the blogosphere, that often never receive a well-earned rebuttal (and in some cases a well-deserved beating).”AGT

Translation: to make up his own truths and make sure the NDP are alluded to in any wrogdoing. Gary E

The self righteous wannabe blogger AGT has banned me from his sight.
This pompous ass seems to want to use the threat of lawsuits against people who have a different opinion than he does.
He reminds me a the typical little boy who owns the football and syas "it's my ball and we'll play by my rules or I'll take away the ball. Wah, wah.

But before I was banned, and I knew it would happen, I asked him a simple question about his name being on any deeds for Britannia Minesite Properties. Following is his reply:

 3) My former ownership of Britannia Beach is a matter of public record. I was President of Copper Beach Estates and owned every share until I partnered up with the now late Ian Hagemoen–then he became President and I was soon thereafter bought out (happily!). As for the ‘Millenium Plug’, we did it with the equal partnership of Dr. John Meech (a wonderful guy!) and Dr. Brennan Lang (another wonderful guy!) from CERM 3 at my old alma mater UBC )+(who were fabulously co-operative). It was HIGHLY effective, but the enviro-fascists in the Ministry of Water, Land and Air thought we were in the parks business and made unreasonable demands, eventually saddling the taxpayer with a bill for over $100M for remediation. We, on the other hand, offered to pay the govt $20M of a reasonably estimated $28.5M dollar bill (we actually hired AMEC and they did the study just after cleaning up the World Trade Center Towers site, post-bin Laden). But the bureaucrats, as they are want to do, went OVERBOARD on clean-up proposals and screwed the taxpayer, all through our objections as owners.

 So I decided to actually look up some records in the public domain. Some of which I already had the answers
 On Dec.7 2001 Agt lost control of his company

Letter to the Editor The Chief Sep 8, 2004

....[snip]"At the same time these projects began, Copper Beach Estates had emerged from
receivership, but still carried considerable debt. The company could not be considered
viable and sustainable by any reasonable measure. It continued to operate the town, but
on a caretaker basis only, with little regard for the long-term needs of its tenants. CBEL
had been in default on its mortgage since 1992 and the stability of any remediation
agreement between CBEL and the government was uncertain. Past experience with the
company regarding site remediation did not provide much trust or hope. There was need
for this situation to change should the remediation be implemented with confidence"....[snip]

From UBC Urban Studio Fall 2003
.
Running From Responsibility - An estimated 1.2 billion dollars has been extracted from the land
and mine. Following closure of the mines, ownership flipped from Anaconda to ARCO to Copper
Beach Estates. Previous owners of the mine were sent remediation orders from the provincial
government, yet they continued to evade responsibility. In 1990, Copper Beach Estates sold an
uncontaminated portion of the land for $14.8 million, none of which went towards remediation.
However, several years later Copper Beach proposed to cover remediation costs by charging fees
to dump contaminated soil into the open pits. It was hoped that filling the open mines would
reduce exposure to air and water, and mitigate the toxic discharge leaching through the mines. In
1999, the developer proposed to Britannia residents that he would give them clear title to the land
their homes rested on in exchange for their consent to the proposal. This was attractive to the
residents, since the land has always been company-owned and many were otherwise unable to
afford property. However, the community strongly voiced their distrust of the developer’s
intentions and wanted to be involved in a democratic process. Copper Beach Estates then went
bankrupt and the land became the subject of court battles. In the meantime, UBC Engineering
installed the ‘Millennium Plug’ to block toxic effluent from entering Howe Sound. In 2001 the
provincial government released all former owners of liability in exchange for $30 million, in an out
of court settlement. Remediation costs have been estimated at $75 million or more. Ownership
reverted to Rob Macdonald when Copper Beach Estates defaulted on their mortgage, owing him
over $17 million. Macdonald then decided to donate all but 202 ha of the land to the province, 162
ha of which he intends to develop. A portion of profits from the development will be spent on
remediation. The provincial government is also seeking remediation funds from Ottawa, since the
mines operated as federal crown corporation during WWI and WWII.
Community Strength – The estimated 400 residents of Britannia share a love of the landscape,
and know all of their neighbours, and their neighbours’ pets. Doors are left unlocked. Due to the
circumstances of ownership, they do not have any political representation, but they want to be
involved in a democratic process of determining the future of Britannia.
 
On Aug. 18, Macdonald's numbered company, 400091 British Columbia Ltd., was granted an order by B.C. Supreme Court Justice John Sigurdson, awarding the firm ownership of the Britannia lands.
The court had pronounced an order of foreclosure on the private property after the former owners, Copper Beach Estates Ltd., defaulted on a first mortgage held by Macdonald, who was owed more than $17 million.
Excluding mineral rights, the 4,047 hectares of land had an appraised value of $10.2 million.
While signing over title to most of the property to the B.C. government -- the deal closed Tuesday -- Macdonald indicated he intends to redevelop about 162 hectares, probably for residential uses.

So we see Mr Meech has a different take on this. Hegemoen sued. And MacDonald forclosed on a defaulted mortgage being owed 17 Million And the people of Britannia Beach couldn't trust Mr. Wonderful.


I wonder if Alex knows the law about dumping toxic waster on or near a waterway?

All this from the public record that Tsakumis is so proud of. 


Too bad I can't debate Alex on this. Because as long as he is banning me from his sight I am banning him from mine. Fair is fair Alex.


ps: there is a heck of a lot more information out in the public domain pertaining to Britannia's remediation, the townsight, and the trials and tribulations of the residents.

3/26/2010

Wake Up Taseko And Campbell

There is a young man living in my area who blogs about the Prosperity mine. His blogging is very thoughtful and today he has written something so profound that it puts the Campbell Cabal and Taseko in their place.

Read about it here:

http://prosperity-mine-vs-fish-lake.blogspot.com/

3/20/2010

DFO And MAL Playing A Game With Our Wild Salmon In BC

     The Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans along with the Provincial Ministry of Agriculture and Lands are playing a dangerous game with our wild salmon.

    Alexandra Morton has a horror story Here. And this news needs to get out to the public. You can bet your ass that the mainstream media will not cover this story. Pass the info to your friends.

3/16/2010

Teztan Biny, Propaganda and Prosperity

     There appears to be a big propaganda blitz sponsored by Taseko Mines in the South Cariboo. Could all this activity be connected to the impending Federal meetings to begin in Williams Lake on March 22,2010? Probably.

     Radio stations and newspapers are carrying the message that this huge mining company will add 700 jobs for construction over two years and five hundred jobs over the life of the mine , twenty to twenty five years. And it will add millions to the local community.

     What I haven't heard is how much in taxes are going into the local coffers. Just what is the dollar figure. Oops we have a new HST ready to be sprung on us and a whole bunch of tax write offs for mining. Can you say that Campbell is screwing us further? I can.

     One of the adds , as I posted in another column states that they are "Protecting Fish and Water Quality"
     Now I ask How in hell can they make up such an outrageous bald faced lie and then of all things advertise it.
You see the problem with their lying is this. They plan to turn a pristine lake, native fishing hole, non native fishing hole, and part of a traditional native territory into a tailings pond. A goddam tailings pond. Displace 85000 native rainbow trout with m a mixture of acid and rock waste.

     Oh but wait. They have promised to replace the lake in another location. WTF?. Replace a whole lake? Flood habitat for countless fowl and  other animals? Give me a break here. Why would they move a lake instead of finding a place to store their tailings? What's going on? Is this not double jeopardy? Actually it may not be. It may be triple jeopardy. You see the lake waters flow to the Nechako River and that in turn flows into the Fraser. The mighty Fraser. The largest salmon bearing river in the province. Do ponds flood and dams burst?

     Well on that subject I think we have the answer. Bottom line for the investors. It's cheaper for them to destroy the environment twice than find a place to pump their waste.That's right folks, damn the environment we want money. And how do they cover their asses? Why tell the folks in the area there will be Jobs, and money. Bullshit.

     Is this the price they put on destroying the environment? A few million bucks. What a utter load of bullshit.

     I started to connect some dots on the environment and guess what. If the salmon farms are allowed to run amok as they have been under this (liberal) government then there will be no wild salmon in our rivers and streams. None. So now the big mining companies can say " well there are no fish to destroy if a tailings dam breaks". When you connect some dots you can see their logic in destroying the freshwater system in our province.

     There is a 40 minute low budget film Called Blue Gold: The Tsilquot'in Fight for Teztan Biny (Fish Lake).
This film will be viewed at an unspecified location as yet, in Williams Lake on March 21.2010. And it will be shown to the federal panel on March 22,2010.

3/14/2010

Alexandra Morton to Start a Protest Walk

Alexandra Morton is fed up with the stalling of governments on the wild salmon situation.And I should say here, so am I. She will begin a protest march on April 22,2010 from Sointula after traveling by boat from the Broughton Archipalego The march will culminate in Victoria May 9 (Mothers Day). She has suggested others join her and maybe even start their own Marches from other parts of the province. It's a huge undertaking on her part to Save the Salmon. Read about it here

3/13/2010

Anti HST Rally in 100 Mile House Deemed a Success

At 1 PM Saturday the Rally began right on time. I had arrived at 12:45 and there were already people with signs on the sidewalk along Highway 97. At that point there were about 40 people there. All Mad as Hell at how we were being manipulated. There was plenty of horn honking on the highway from Ranchers, citizens and quite a few truckers.

By the time the rally started the numbers had almost doubled to over 70 folks. And that didn't include some youngsters who saw that their future was affected. There were about 10 of them.
The numbers may seem a bit small but for a small community like 100 Mile House they are significant. And all these small communities in the Cariboo Chilcotin add up.

The co-ordinator for the Cariboo Chilcotin arm of the Anti HST rallies, Eric Freeston,  started the process at 1PM. The theme appeared to be "Wake up Donna Barnett, stand up for your constituents and vote against this draconian tax grab.

Speakers included a pensioner, a labour leader, a physician (retired), and others. All had different things to say but the common theme was WAKE UP DONNA.
 .

All in all it was pretty upbeat. After the rally I had an opportunity to speak with a young man who is a tree planter. He related a couple of stories to me one of which was on the aftermath of the Queen of the North sinking. I'm going to try to write down what I remember of what he said. But hopefully he will contact this blog and relate the story. I found it significant because it was about the arrogant attitude of some MLA's and Campbell toward a seemingly simple question he had asked.

3/11/2010

Anti HST Ralley In 100 Mile House

      An anti HST Ralley  is being planned in 100 Mile House at the A&W Parking lot on Highway 97 for 1 PM  on Saturday March 13, 2010.

From David Schreck

Before committing to the HST, BC had the opportunity to study the consequences of eliminating the provincial sales tax on production machinery and equipment. Instead of commissioning Mintz to produce his paper, the Campbell government might have attempted to analyze its own tax experiment. The Campbell government eliminated the PST on "production machinery and equipment" in 2001. I submitted a freedom of information request asking how much tax revenue was foregone for each year since that exemption and for any documents that discuss estimates of changes in investment as a result of the exemption. On October 30, 2009 I received an answer saying: "Pleased be advised that the Ministry has no records responsive to your request. Budget 2001 estimated the cost of the exemption when first introduced but the cost has not been estimated since because it is not part of the Tax Expenditure Survey." Before embarking on one of the largest tax shifts in BC history, one might think that the government would have analyzed whether its initial experiment in stimulating investment worked or not, instead they hired Mintz to write a propaganda sheet.
     This is a very important issue and will affect your quality of life in BC.

     The sitting Provincial Government does not have a mandate to assist in imposing this tax. There I submit it is not a done deal. Anyone who thinks this is a ripoff and should not be implemented is encouraged to attend.
I'll be there. Will you?

     Take a half hour out of your day and show these governments that you will not stand for this added tax burden

3/09/2010

Canadian premiere screening! Teztan Biny (Fish Lake)

Thursday, March 11, 2010  7pm
David Lam Auditorium, MacLaurin Building, University of Victoria

Admission: by donation

Information and Panel discussion to follow:
Stop Canada's lakes from becoming toxic dumps!

Blue Gold: The Tsilhqot'in Fight for Teztan Biny expresses the Tsilhqot'in
people's unanimous rejection of Taseko Mines Ltd.'s proposal to drain
Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) in order to stockpile mining waste.

Sponsored by:  R.A.V.E.N., Friends of the Nemaiah Valley, and LandKeepers.

If you can't come to the screening, check it out online at
http://www.protectfishlake.ca/video-bluegold.php

3/05/2010

Anti HST Rally in Williams Lake

For all my friends and readers in the South Cariboo there will be a Anti HST rally in Williams Lake tomorrow Saturday March 6,  1PM at the Herb Gardner  Park (City Hall Lawn).

In fact if anyone reading this has friends near The Puddle let them know what's happening.
And if you haven't confirmed your voter registration Please do it now.

Let's get this show on the road folks. It's time to stand up for yourselves and take action..