Vancouver B.C. – In a speech to delegates at the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities Conference, B.C. Green Party Interim Leader Adam Olsen called on the provincial government to take far bigger steps to address the long term needs of local communities. This means ensuring that natural resource development provides far greater value to the communities in which the resources come from.
“Andrew Weaver and I have heard from dozens of municipal government officials over the course of this week, and the one thing keeps getting reiterated is that the Provincial Government isn’t showing the long term leadership required to ensure our local communities are resilient to a changing economy,” said Adam Olsen. “The B.C. Green Party is committed to taking this challenge head on, ensuring that local governments have the resources they need to manage the increasing number of responsibilities placed on them, and that natural resource development does a better job in returning local benefits over the long term.
“We have seen how the provincial government promises effective relationships with First Nations, yet fails to act. We have seen those same promises with local governments, school boards and regional districts with the same results.That must change.” said Adam Olsen.
Quotes from the speech:
“For too many years only two parties have been represented in the BC Legislature, and we can see what the cost of that has been. Decision making has become highly polarized. The B.C. Greens are proud to provide you and your communities another channel into the provincial policy making and we are here to listen to your opportunities and challenges and to work with you to move them forward.”
“We are now 15 years into the 21st century and we are falling behind. British Columbia should be leaders in North America and the world. While we will never abandon our resource economy, we will never put our province into a situation where we have sacrificed negotiating position for the sake of political promises, such as the current government has done with LNG. We have an incredible opportunity to diversify our economy. Nowhere else in the world has access to water, fibre and renewable energy like we do! Our businesses have access to an educated workforce and there is no better place in the world to live than British Columbia.”