Ever since the U.S., under both Democrat and Republican party administrations, began applying tariffs on British Columbia softwood lumber imports in (I believe) the early 1990s, the international trade tribunal has consistently ruled that there are no grounds for the tariffs under the trade agreement between the U.S. and Canada (albeit not much of it is now still intact). Yet, U.S. governments have to this day disregarded those rulings, perhaps in large part due to the formidable lobbyist influence of the American big lumber industry.
At the same time, however, we allow bulk, raw and unprocessed natural resource export lobbyists way too much influential access to governmental decision-makers — all without a truly independent news-media willing to investigative and expose corporate lobbyists’ corrupting overreach.
After almost four decades of consuming mainstream news-media, I cannot recall a serious discussion on why our national and provincial governments will not insist upon processing all of our own oil (and lumber) here at home in Canada, instead of exporting it bulk raw abroad and purchasing it back processed at a notably higher price (as we do with the U.S., for example). That is, without the topic discussion strongly seeming to have already been parameterized thus the outcome predetermined. And I’m not talking about just on the one and same day, open and closed topic, as I’ve witnessed two or three of those insufficient efforts.
Our governments consistently refuse to alter this practice, which undoubtedly is the most profitable for the corporations extracting and exporting en masse our natural resources.
Frank Sterle Jr.
White Rock, B.C.
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