Re: “Balance of power falls to the Greens,” column, May 10.
A coalition of the Greens and NDP would be an unmitigated financial catastrophe for the province. The cancellation of the Site C dam and the Kinder Morgan pipeline, while not building the replacement for the Massey tunnel, would cost thousands of jobs.
Both parties combined put forth tens of billions of dollars of unfunded promises, which alone would downgrade our current triple-A credit rating.
The major consequence of such a coalition would be the termination of oil, gas and coal extraction, along with the required pipeline and infrastructure construction to transport the products to foreign markets. This would cause the loss of tens of billions of investment dollars to our treasury, but also that of Alberta.
First Nations that support resource extraction and pipelines would be the first feel the financial pain. And all this in the face of the U.S. administration’s actions against our forest industry.
One could see the departure of many energy-related corporations and high-tech companies because of high taxes, and with those departures, the hundreds of thousands of jobs dependent on resource extraction and export.
So thanks mainly to the voters of the Greater Victoria and Vancouver regions, and their massive votes supporting the Green left, such a coalition of the Greens and NDP is possible. Massive debts, deficits and unemployment will be the order of the day. You can bank on it.
H.J. Rice
Victoria
