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LETTER: Accountability model flawed

The actions of the BC Liberals since 2002 prove that Greg Kyllo’s polished statements on environmental integrity are dishonest and misleading.
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Alex Atamanenko pens Letter to the Editor in response to a Trail Times article published Nov. 2.

The actions of the BC Liberals since 2002 prove that Greg Kyllo’s polished statements on environmental integrity are dishonest and misleading.

In the early 2000s, Gordon Campbell’s Liberals introduced an American import called the professional reliance model (PRM); a dark experiment in environmental stewardship.

The professional reliance model asks that corporations and other business interests hire their own independent “qualified professional” (QP) to ensure that government regulations are addressed. However, if by following government regulations the QP interferes with their client’s plans (conflict of interest), the business-friendly PRM guarantees the client always has the upper hand (who pays the piper, calls the tune). The client is free to fire the QP. Conveniently, the QP is sworn to secrecy and silence by her/his professional code of ethics. When the word gets out, that QP may never find employment in B.C. again.

How’s that for incentive to follow environmental regulations?

Meanwhile, the client is free to locate a conditioned QP who has learned how to behave.

To mention only a few PRM outcomes:

• Slope stability and landslide problems due to forest industry activities in the Shuswap in the past 10-15 years.

• The inevitable pollution of the Hullcar Aquifer by industrial-scale dairy operations. In advance of the May 9th election, Mr. Kyllo announced $950,000 of your tax dollars to apparently help.

• Canada’s largest mining disaster, the breach of the Mount Polley (Imperial Metals Corp.) tailings pond into Quesnel Lake. We’re paying the $40 million reclamation bill for Imperial Metals.

• Continued logging of endangered Southern Mountain Caribou critical habitat.

Is there a made in B.C. solution for this corrupt American PRM? Yes.

Alex E. Inselberg, M.Sc.