 This was the scene yesterday during rally at the Cape Mudge lighthouse. Province photo by Elizabeth Hargreaves |
That was the message to Ottawa by an angry crowd of about 60 people yesterday who rallied around the flag-draped light tower here to protest the coast guard's push to automate another 12 of B.C.'s 27 remaining light stations.
Their message was aimed at federal Fisheries Minister David Anderson, who is expected to rule before Christmas on the coast guard's proposal.
Eric Tamm, executive director of the Coastal Community Network, which organized the rally, said the de-staffing debate has moved beyond the technical merits of the automated equipment designed to replace human keepers -- and into the political arena.
"This fight is drawing to a close -- we have two months and it's all over," Tamm said.
"At the end of the day, is David Anderson going to listen to the will of the people or the will of the bureaucracy?"
New Democrat MLA Glen Robertson (North Island) was more blunt.
"Ottawa has been consistent -- they have consistently not listened," Robertson said.
Ottawa's actions have been "elitist and capricious and arbitrary and unsatisfactory for British Columbians," he said.
As the sun broke briefly through threatening clouds, the MLA called for the rally to "consolidate support for lighthouses up and down the coast. These lighthouses are what our coast, our coastal peoples, are about."
Port Hardy Mayor Russ Hellberg urged the crowd to honor the spirit of "our patron saint, Pat Carney," the B.C. senator who has led the fight against cuts to light-station services.
Carney spoke out angrily last week against Ottawa's refusal to listen to the public, whose polled support for manned light
stations hit an unprecedented high of 80 per cent this summer.
Beneath a flyover by a trio of floatplanes -- whose pilots have argued they depend on human observations at the stations -- the coastal community leaders also presented a report on a "made-in-B.C. alternative" to the coast guard's de-staffing program.
The coast guard has suggested as much as $3.5 million can eventually be saved yearly by fully automating B.C.'s light stations.
A Coastal Community Network report suggests that the coast guard instead:
- Trim administrative costs.
- Charge other government departments fees in keeping with their reliance on light-station services.
- Explore a range of user fees including taxes on marine and aviation fuels, a head tax on coastal airline passengers and fee increases for commercial fishing vessels, pleasure craft and personal sportfishing.
The network's report was to be forwarded to Anderson today.
The group wants to meet Anderson after the coast guard approaches him with its official request for the next 12 de-staffings and its own report justifying the request.
WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT
The issue: Coast guard plans to pull the keepers from another 12 of B.C.'s 27 remaining staffed light stations by March 1998 and replace them with a combination of automated data collectors and weather reports filed by volunteers.
The objection: Pilots and mariners navigating the treacherous coastline argue they need accurate, up-to-date weather reports and insist the automated equipment is inaccurate and unreliable. They also predict the volunteer system will be similarly flawed.
What's next: A report is due in Ottawa in the next two weeks for federal Fisheries Minister David Anderson on the coast guard's summer-long tests of the automated system. If he gives the nod, de-staffings are due for next spring.
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