Politicians of all stripes have resorted to the same tactic: When environmentalists oppose resource development, accuse them of trying to kill jobs for good working folk.
In 1997, conservationists launched a global boycott of B.C. forest products in order to preserve old-growth forest on British Columbia's coast. The New Democratic Party premier of the day, Glen Clark, called it an outrageous Greenpeace fundraising tactic, and said supporters were "clearly enemies of British Columbia" who would use "economic extortion to put 10,000 or more people out of work."
In 2012, with opposition growing to the proposed Northern Gateway crude-oil pipeline, the federal Conservative natural resources minister at that time, Joe Oliver, warned that "radical groups" were trying to undermine Canada's economy. "Their goal is to stop any major project, no matter what the cost to Canadian families in lost jobs and economic growth. No forestry. No mining. No oil. No gas. No more hydroelectric dams."
B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark put a fresh spin on the theme recently when an alliance of hereditary chiefs, ecologists and NDP politicians came out against the proposed development of a liquefied-natural-gas plant on Lelu Island at the Port of Prince Rupert. "The world is being divided into two – the people that will say no to everything and the people who want to find a way to get to yes," she told a news conference. "I'm not sure what science the forces of no bring together up there, except that it's not really about the science. It's not really about the fish. It's just about trying to say no."
That jobs-versus-environment theme is easy wedge politics. It is, however, not what produces solutions.
When the Premier signed the final agreement last week to create the Great Bear Rainforest, the forest industry was part of the celebrations because they had achieved a rare degree of certainty over land use in a significant portion of the province that will allow companies to reinvest in the communities where they operate.
Glen Clark's vitriolic attacks on the enemies of British Columbia were directed at the campaign for the Great Bear Rainforest when it was launched in 1997. The sentiment played well in some constituencies, but it took grown-up negotiations between environmentalists and forestry executives to end the war and map out a pact that demonstrates this province can meld conservation and economic value. A significant amount of ancient forests will be protected, First Nations communities will gain economic development and industry gets to market the Cadillac of sustainable forest products.
Mr. Oliver's rant against pipeline critics reflected his Conservative government's determination to get the Northern Gateway pipeline built from Alberta to the B.C. coast. But somewhere between 2012 and the 2015 federal election campaign, the project lost its political currency and voters in British Columbia played a role in kicking the Conservatives out of office. The new Liberal government made a campaign commitment to a moratorium on crude-oil tanker traffic on British Columbia's North Coast, effectively killing the project.
Now, Ms. Clark says the "forces of no" have no science to justify concerns about the impact of building an LNG facility and export terminal at Prince Rupert. That is an ungenerous assessment.
The Skeena River supports the second-largest run of salmon in Canada, and in 1973, the federal fisheries department studied port development in the shallow estuary at the mouth of the Skeena River – around Lelu Island – and found "high biological significance as a fish (especially juvenile salmon) rearing habitat." More recently, Simon Fraser University's chair of coastal science and management, Jon Moore, published his findings in the peer-reviewed science journal PLOS ONE, confirming the island's surrounding aquatic habitat provides some of the area's most abundant shelter for juvenile sockeye salmon. His conclusion: "The LNG terminal proposed for the Flora Bank region poses risks to fish and First Nations fisheries throughout the Skeena Watershed."
During a visit to the Great Bear Rainforest late in January, Ms. Clark said the conservation agreement is a global model for achieving the balance between jobs and the economy: "Collaborating is the way we need to do business in British Columbia. … We want to maintain economic growth and we want to preserve these natural gifts. This is proof that we can."
Collaboration requires respect, trust and a commitment to finding common goals. Name-calling has no constructive role.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed statements by Glen Clark. This is a corrected version.
Justine Hunter