Editor, The Times:
Re: “Tree-spikers cling to Lelu Island” in the July 21 issue.
That the proposed liquified natural gas (LNG) plant is to be built right in the heart of the Skeena, one of the best sockeye producing rivers (only the Fraser is better), is the final insult in the long, long list of insults and calumny heaped upon the commercial gill-netters – myself being one of them – who fished that area for years.
Thirty minute sets (down to 15 minutes at times), half nets, restricted fishing times ... and now just forget that whole thing about protecting the fish run, just plant a LNG facility right in the middle of it.
If it wasn't enough to put up with an incompetent Department of Fisheries and Oceans for years and years, now Christie Clark's LNG fairy tale has to compound things further.
Tom Fletcher has presented that distorted picture that big energy and its government backers use all the time – it's all “foreign agitators.” Oh horrors!
I won't go into the complexities of the First Nations people in the Skeena area. I feel my comments would not be appropriate at this time.
The building of an LNG plant on Lelu Island would be an insult to all fishermen, past and present, as well as to all those who want an orderly development of LNG that doesn't impact the health of the salmon runs on the Skeena. Need I say more?
Dennis Peacock
Clearwater, B.C.