Sunday, February 21, 2010

Stop Gateway

...The Gateway Project would drastically increase the Lower Mainland’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and pollution levels. Emission Levels would increase due to the tripling of shipping vessels and heavy truck traffic off Deltaport that will feed new traffic onto proposed roadways such as the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR), the twinned Port Mann Bridge, the widened Highway 1, and then into the heart of the Lower Mainland. To make matters worse, the Gateway Project would create car dependent suburban sprawl, which starves public transit by monopolizing billions of dollars in public transportation funding. In a public opinion poll released last May, 69% of Lower Mainland residents said they would like to see money currently designated for highway construction to be re-directed to public transit in light of concerns about global warming. It is important to note that the B.C. Treasury Board stated that 3 times as many jobs could be created by investing in public transit compared to investing the same amount in highway construction....Read More at Western Canada Wilderness Committee

Monday, February 15, 2010

Bailouts for banks - fare hikes for us.

...And that’s the key. Instead of funding services for working people, provincial and federal governments have chosen to use taxpayer money to bail out big industries and banks. The auto industry got $4-billion loans so that they would not collapse—but the loans did not include provisions for preserving jobs. A $12-billion fund was created to encourage car sales—inefficient, polluting cars that few people want to buy...Noaman Ali BasicsNews