B.C. Liberal Cuts Risk Air Quality, Public Health
VICTORIA— B.C. Liberal cuts to environmental monitoring and enforcement have reduced the government's capacity to monitor air quality, something that raises questions for Kamloops residents concerned about a proposed plant that would burn creosote-soaked railway ties, says New Democrat environment critic Rob Fleming . The plant has already received permit approvals from the Ministry.
Rob Fleming
"It's been 18 months since formaldehyde levels almost 20 times the provincial limit were detected in the air near a popular playground and a neighbourhood daycare in Prince George, and residents still have no answers," said Fleming. "When this toxic chemical was detected no warnings were issued, and no follow-up tests were ordered."
According to the Ministry of Environment website: "An air quality advisory is issued when pollutant concentrations approach or exceed predetermined limits." However, the B.C. Liberal government made no effort to inform the residents of Prince George of dangerously high levels of formaldehyde, a carcinogenic substance, in parks and family neighbourhoods when they were first detected in the summer of 2008.
A ministry spokesperson told the media yesterday that no follow-up investigation was ordered because there wasn’t enough money to re-order tests. The B.C. Liberal government has cut the Ministry’s environmental monitoring and enforcement budget by 34 per cent since 2008.
"Formaldehyde is a potent carcinogen," said Fleming. "Yet the B.C. Liberal government did nothing in response to alarming levels of this toxic chemical detected in the air around a playground, a daycare and a children's science museum. Kamloops residents are watching revelations from Prince George and asking themselves if they trust the B.C. Liberal government to put air quality ahead of their agenda of cuts to the Environment Ministry."
The B.C. Liberal government announced they would do follow-up tests after New Democrats raised the issue in question period on Thursday, but Fleming says their credibility has been damaged.
“This is just one incident we know about. And it took 18 months and a media uproar for the B.C. Liberal government to take this threat to the health of children in Prince George seriously," said Fleming. “The B.C. Liberal government is playing politics with people’s health. An air quality advisory should have been issued when these results came back, and the government should have promptly double-checked the tests. What other test results are being hidden from communities?”
Fleming will be presenting at a public forum on the proposal to burn creosote-soaked railway ties in Kamloops this Sunday, March 7th at 2 pm at the Thompson Rivers University Alumni Theatre, Clock Tower Building.
Carole James and the New Democrats are advocating for positive environmental solutions, including restricting the use of toxic, non-essential pesticides.
