Pubdate: Sat, 04 Jan 2014
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 The Vancouver Sun
Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Daphne Bramham

POT, PIPELINES, PROSTITUTION, POVERTY AND OTHER POLICY CHALLENGES

Issues for 2014: B. C. Has Some Difficult and Potentially 
Transformative Problems to Deal With

With the holidays over, my grandmother would say, it's back to old 
clothes and porridge. To that, we can also add that we're back to 
dealing with a raft of hangover issues that could be, will be or 
ought to be dealt with this year.

Here's a short list of some of the most contentious, difficult and 
even potentially transformative issues - all of which rather 
conveniently seem to start with P.

1) Pipelines. So much has been written about Keystone, Enbridge and 
Kinder Morgan, it would be nice to just leave it at that.

But with a federal decision on the Northern Gateway due later this 
year and the provincial Liberal government's focus on developing 
liquefied natural gas, we won't be able to ignore questions like: How 
long can we continue to rely on carbon-based fuels and ignore the 
costs of climate change? Can we maintain our standard of living 
without development? Further, we need to ask: How much longer will 
the needs, claims and rights of First Nations be left unresolved?

2) Pot legalization. In B. C., a 2013 drive to have a vote on 
marijuana legalization faltered. But with state-licensed, retail pot 
stores opening this week in Colorado and more set to open later this 
year in Washington, tax-hungry politicians may consider this an 
economic opportunity more palatable to voters than pipelines - at 
least initially.

Colorado estimates it will earn $ 587 million this year, while 
Washington expects $ 2 billion in the first five years from pot sales.

There are estimates that the illegal pot industry currently 
contributes about $ 4 billion to the provincial economy, which is 
about half the value of B. C.' s mining sector .

On the flip side, we've only recently cleared the public air space of 
cigarette smoke and there are questions about the effects of long- 
term marijuana use that can include impaired thinking, memory 
problems, panic attacks, lung damage and a weakened immune system.

There's also the troublesome issue of impaired driving. The best 
tests use saliva, blood or urine, which are all more complicated to 
administer than a breathalyzer, and there's little scientific 
consensus on what level constitutes impairment.

3) Prostitution. In the final days of 2013, the Supreme Court of 
Canada declared key sections of the Criminal Code's prostitution laws 
unconstitutional. The federal government has 12 months to either pass 
new laws or accept legalized brothels, living off the avails of 
prostitution and street solicitation.

4) Poverty. British Columbia has the highest child poverty rate in 
Canada, while Canada is one of the only countries in the developed 
world that doesn't have a strategy to address it.

As many as one in seven B. C. kids are unlikely to have a decent 
home, proper food or clothing and face a future of poorer than 
average health and income.

Among the key components of successful poverty reduction programs are 
access to good quality child care to allow parents ( especially 
single mothers) to work, livable wages and tax incentives for lower 
paid workers, skills training and available jobs.

Premier Christy Clark promised family-friendly policies. This year, 
her government needs to deliver.

5) Polygamy. It's been nearly a decade since Winston Blackmore held a 
polygamy summit in Creston and declared himself to have taken 
"several underaged girls" as his so-called brides. A few months 
later, then- attorney general Wally Oppal declared the situation in 
the polygamous community of Bountiful "intolerable."

Three years ago, the B. C. Supreme Court declared Canada's law 
banning the practice is constitutional because of the inherent harms 
of polygamy itself after a lengthy hearing that included evidence 
about 31 teenage girls - some as young as 12 - having been taken by 
their fathers to the United States to become child "brides" and, on 
occasion, being swapped so their fathers could get under-aged brides 
of their own.

There's still no word about charges from Peter Wilson, who was 
appointed two years ago, and received the RCMP's final report nearly 
seven months ago. Attorney General Suzanne Anton ought to be asking 
what's taking so long.

6) Political reform. I'll leave the Senate and Rob Ford to others, 
and concentrate on the crying need for limiting municipal election spending.

A Local Elections Reform Bill will be introduced during the B. C. 
legislature's spring sitting. But what it will not contain is any 
change to civic election spending, even though a task force 
recommended spending limits and a 2010 survey indicated that 85 per 
cent of British Columbians wanted limits.

Yet, here we are four years later with the provincial government 
continuing to balk at limiting what candidates and parties can spend, 
preferring to drag on consultations and ensuring that it will be at 
least 2017 before unfettered municipal election spending is reined in.

Meantime, members of the public have until Jan. 31 to respond to the 
government's discussion paper on municipal election expenses.

As Grandma might say, that's pretty thin gruel.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom