Elaine Hughes' Letters

Elaine Hughes' Letters

Postby Oscar » Sat Aug 19, 2006 9:44 am

Published in the Northeast SUN, Melfort & Nipawin, SK
- August 18, 2006

To the Editor:

…the next nuclear bomb

The August 4th Press Release from the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce (SCC) declaring the “overwhelming positive response” to their recent survey for a uranium facility begs closer inspection.

It states that, “the survey, sent out to all First Nations, Tribal Councils, and all levels of municipal governments, from cities to resort villages…”, asked the question: “would your community be receptive to an added value uranium facility in your area, such as a refinery or upgrader?” It further states, that “from the responses received, over 95% were highly in favour of such a facility…”

There are 297 rural municipalities, 468 urban municipalities, 74 First Nations, and 10 Tribal Councils - - 850 governing bodies - - in the province.

It seems that some cannot recall even seeing the survey!

Also, it seems that there were only about 65 responses (62 or 95% positives) received. Thus, 62 communities out of a possible 850 indicated that they are in favour of such a facility - - - 7.3% - - - NOT the 95% that the press release leads one to believe represents the entire province!

Tragically, the timing of this so-called survey, with its misleading results, is especially poignant. August 6th marked the 61st anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – bombs which, as products of the Manhattan Project, used uranium from northern Canada.

Will the Saskatchewan government, building its case on results from similar surveys, cave in to the industry’s pressure to claw even more of this lethal material out of the ground?

Will the next nuclear bombs use Saskatchewan uranium?

Just asking…

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK
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SPP: Cease & Desist!

Postby Oscar » Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:41 pm

Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 10:45 AM
Subject: SPP: Letter to Prime Minister - Cease & Desist

July 13, 2007

Prime Minister Harper,

I am outraged to read that a public forum near Montebello, with writers, academics and parliamentarians wanting to speak on this issue, was blocked because the police and U.S. army wanted the community centre it was to be held at as a base of operations for the SPP summit security.

I am opposed to the SPP – the corporate-friendly, behind-closed-doors, unlegislated backroom deal - which includes, among many other insults to the Canadian public, such issues as:

- the no-fly list (the SPP states, "Develop comparable standards and procedures…for passenger screening");

- pesticide residues (it says, "Work to resolve differences in pesticide maximum residue limits that may be barriers to trade…");

- the tar sands (it calls for, "Greater economic production from the oil sands");

civil rights (it calls for, "sharing of terrorist watch list data and the establishment of appropriate linkages between Canada, the United States and Mexico.")

I also believe that the North American Competitiveness Council should be disbanded. Corporations such as Manulife Financial, Home Depot and Wal-Mart should not be shaping economic policy between Canada and the United States.

I urge you to keep the promise you made in your Throne Speech that "significant international treaties will be submitted for votes in Parliament." I believe that the Security and Prosperity Partnership should be subject to public hearings, as well as brought to the House of Commons for a full debate and vote.

In a democracy, elected representatives run the country – NOT big business….

As a member of the Council of Canadians, I am calling on you to stop talks on the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, including the upcoming leaders summit this August 20-21 in Montebello, and to consult with Canadians on this critical issue.

I look forward to your response indicating that common sense will rule, and that you will cease and desist further activities to push the SPP into deeper integration with the USA and Mexico.

Sincerely,

Elaine Hughes
Box 23, Archerwill, SK S0E 0B0
Telephone: 306-323-4938
Email: tybach@sasktel.net

Cc:

G. Breitkreuz, MP
S. Dion, Leader of the Official Opposition
E. May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada
J. Layton, Leader of the NDP of Canada
C. Fogal, Leader of the Canadian Action Party
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…are we losing Canada?

Postby Oscar » Tue Sep 11, 2007 4:56 pm

Published in Wadena News on August 22, 2007

Dear Editor

…are we losing Canada?

While we doze away the lazy days of summer, the ‘three amigos’ – President Bush, Mexico’s President Calderon, and Prime Minister Harper - are getting ready for their big meeting at Montebello, Quebec on August 20 – with the RCMP and (already) the US Army making sure the public doesn’t get any closer than 5 miles!

There, under its veil of secrecy, the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) will be ratified, putting in place a ‘partnership’ which was declared via a simple press release from Bush, then Prime Minister Martin and Mexico’s then President Fox in 2005 in Waco, Texas – all behind closed doors, intentionally avoiding the democratic process.

Driving this outrage is the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) and the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) - CEOs (10 from each country) representing 150 of the continent’s wealthiest corporations: Wal-Mart, Lockheed Martin, Home Depot, Manulife Financial, Chevron, Suncor, UPS, General Motors, and many others.

Unless it is stopped, the SPP will result in integration of the three countries into the North American Union – Canada will be ‘erased’. The three countries will become one big free-trade family with one currency (the Amero), eager to give away our oil, and ultimately our water, to make sure wealth continues to accumulate at the top of this growing heap…all amidst a deafening silence!

(Removed when published: "Why hasn’t the media been all over this, telling us that we are about to lose our country to corporate America?")

Smells like front page stuff to me!

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK
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Private health care no solution to waiting lists

Postby Oscar » Sat Oct 06, 2007 9:20 pm

Published in the Wadena News on September 19, 2007 and in the Outlook on August 7, 2007

Dear Editor

Private health care no solution to waiting lists

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) is looking at the wrong remedy for fixing wait times. The Association’s proposal to use private health care in Canada to “improve” access to services will take much-needed doctors and health care professionals out of the public system and use public, taxpayer money to pay private shareholder profits. Worse, it will not improve wait times.

The recommendations set out in the CMA’s policy document released July 30 fail the most basic tests based on evidence. Other countries have tried – and are now moving away from – private health care, finding it actually increases wait times.

New Zealand and the United Kingdom both had Canadian-style health care systems until they were opened up to the private sector in an attempt to decrease wait times. Not only did the poaching of health professionals by the private sector lead to a loss of capacity in the public system in both countries, but according to University of Toronto health policy researcher, Colleen Flood, specialists “may even have an incentive to maintain long waiting lists in the public sector to generate demand for services on a private basis.”

As a result, the injection of private health care in New Zealand was deemed a failure. While New Zealand has had some success in constraining health costs, elective surgery waiting lists have grown. Changes are now being made to increase public health care capacity in the country.

As for the United Kingdom, the problem was addressed in 2001 with the hiring of 45,000 health professionals by the public system. It was a necessary move since market-based reforms had lengthened the wait times. Recently, the British government announced it is abandoning the use of private health care, and will no longer contract out surgeries to private clinics.

How many examples can we find of countries that have decreased wait times after moving to a two-tier system?

Zero.

I have no doubt that the vast majority of doctors care first and foremost for the well-being of their. This does not mean that the public policies which their delegates support will adequately address issues of waiting times, access and of fairness.

In this case, the prescription is wrong - and profit is not the cure.


Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK
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Women - protectors of life?

Postby Oscar » Fri Nov 30, 2007 9:48 am

Published in Wadena News on December 5, 2007

Dear Editor

Women - protectors of life?

We note that women now head up the Sask Party’s Environment Department, Minister Nancy Heppner and Deputy Minister Liz Qaurshie.

In a recent radio interview, Ms Heppner indicated that she and her Department would review the previous NDP study on building a nuclear reactor for this province; they would even do their own study if they felt it was necessary.

Will these two women understand that nuclear power is NOT the answer to climate change, global warming, CO2 emissions? That it is a foolish and dangerous myth - a kind of irresponsible madness, fed by pure greed? That clean and safe alternatives exist for the taking?

Will they bring courage, wisdom and common sense into this tiresome discussion and recommend that no nuclear power plant be built in Saskatchewan, that we do not store anyone else’s nuclear waste, and that uranium mining be halted and mine workers be assisted to retrain for safe work?

Women give life to our human world - they have been known to sacrifice their own lives to protect, nurture and care for their young.

Can we dare hope that these two women will carry out their duties in ways that reflect their natural instincts – to protect life rather than destroy it?

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK
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Down and dirty in Sask.

Postby Oscar » Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:51 am

Down and dirty in Sask.

The StarPhoenix Published: Saturday, April 19, 2008

Things are really hopping in this province.

Cameco has yellow snow at the leaky (but apparently safe) uranium mine at Rabbit Lake. Never, ever eat yellow snow.

Oilsands Quest is doing its own environmental study on its tarsands site at La Loche. The Saskatchewan Party government's Resource Minister Bill Boyd is confident that the public can take comfort in those first-ever studies.

And, now the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against Urban Casavant, the CEO of CMKM Diamond Co. at Fort a la Corne, accusing the former junior explorationist of fraud in a $64 million scheme -- 40,000 backers actually believed the astonishing mineral claims made by Casavant.

Hmmm .... then there's that swampland down in Florida!

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill

© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008
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No nukes here

Postby Oscar » Thu May 29, 2008 8:30 pm

No nukes here

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/ ... babd15a3a7

The Leader-Post Published: Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Wall Street investors, including Warren Buffet, one of the world's greatest stock market investors, think that nuclear power is a risky investment.

Unlike our Canadian banks and financial institutions, they refuse to finance nuclear power plants or uranium mining, including Cameco, the world's largest uranium mining company.

Yet, Crown Corporations Minister Ken Cheveldayoff tells us that Bruce Power, one of Cameco's partners, will bring "private money" in to build a nuclear power plant -- an aberration we don't need anywhere in the province.

No surprise, then, that the Candu reactor for this plant would be built by the federal Crown corporation Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) -- using billions of taxpayers' dollars.

And, to ensure that this all stays in the family, Cameco would provide that reactor with uranium from its many nearby mines to produce the electricity -- lots of electricity for Alberta's tar sands, but especially, as its ultimate goal, lots of electricity for Oregon, Washington, and California -- to even light the streets of Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, we and future generations will be forced into long-term indebtedness and left to deal with the deadly pollution and health risks of uranium and nuclear waste for hundreds of thousands of years to come, while someone else gets the electricity.

One must wonder, when the future is calling for forward-thinking, truly safe and readily available energy alternatives, why the premier and the Saskatchewan Party continue to pursue this 1950s technology?

What absolute and utter nonsense!

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill
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...courting the season's Belle of the Ball!

Postby Oscar » Thu Jun 19, 2008 9:51 am

Published in the Wadena News on April 14 and April 21, 2008

Dear Editor

…courting the season’s Belle of the Ball!

It is no coincidence that Premier Stelmach came to town recently, waving the TILMA flag, to ask Mr. Wall to sign on. TILMA, the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement which Alberta signed in secret in April 2006 with BC - without the knowledge or consultation of residents or legislative debate – to remove all those nasty trade barriers between provinces. “Facing the Facts about TILMA” Council of Canadians, February 2007.

Also visiting last week were Mr. Wall’s good buddies from the Pacific North West Economic Region (PNWER or Cascadia) – government and big business from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, BC, Alberta, Montana, and Idaho – invited in to discuss Saskatchewan’s role on their ‘resource-taker, money-maker’ bandwagon.

Meanwhile, the leaders of Mexico, the United States, and Canada will gather at the Three Amigos Summit in New Orleans on April 21 and 22 to advance the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) – big business telling our governments what they want. “Canadian senior officials said the agenda will include product and food safety, sustainable energy development, emergency preparedness and easing rules for border crossing while maintaining security." (Globe & Mail, Apr. 19, 2008)

In fact, this is what’s going on: TILMA, along with Cascadia in western Canada (and Atlantica in eastern Canada), is softening-up of Canadians and setting the stage, bit by bit, region by region, to the idea of the North American Union (NAU). One World mentality – one big happy family with one currency, harmonized regulations on labour, investment, environment, etc. – dumbing-down of our regulations and weaker protection for the safety of the Canadian food supply, loss of more Canadian manufacturing jobs, giving away more Canadian resources (including water), inviting American soldiers onto Canadian soil to put down ‘civil unrest’ – NAFTA stuff - the list is long!

And there, in the spotlight, is the Belle of the Ball; Saskatchewan – with all its lovely, tempting resources!

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK
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Pressure is on to sign TILMA!

Postby Oscar » Thu Jun 19, 2008 9:57 am

Published in the Wadena News on June 4, 2008

To the Editor:

Pressure is on to sign TILMA!

From its “Public Agenda”, one sees that Wyoming Governor Fruendthal and US Ambassador to Canada Wilkins will be special guests at the Western Premiers’ Conference (WPC) in Prince Albert on May 28-30, and will join in discussions on “the border and energy security and supply”.

In April, 2008, a delegation, including Ambassador Wilkins, representing the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER), was in Saskatchewan (and Alberta) for two days of meetings with elected representatives and senior officials of the provincial government. PNWER, consisting of Yukon, Alberta, BC, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Alaska and Idaho, has a trading base of some 20 million people and a GNP of $700 billion.

Then, on May 21, 2008, Premier Wall went looking for funds from his ‘big oil’ friends in Alberta, bringing home pockets full of money and promises to keep the royalties on our oil low. Did he also bring marching orders to sign on to TILMA – that secret Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement signed by BC and Alberta on April Fool’s Day, 2006 – an agreement that’s so good that no one, including the media, is talking about it?

TILMA’s goal in life is to ‘grease the skids’ of the next stage of NAFTA, the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), and the ultimate loss of our sovereignty through integration into the one-currency, one-flag, one-world mentality of the North American Union (NAU). Once signed, TILMA forces local governments to bring provincial regulations down to the lowest common denominator, region by region, bringing the entire country into compliance with Canada’s international trade agreements. . . all dictated by the blind need of huge corporations for continued wealth.

Through public consultations in June, 2006, Saskatchewan people told the government that TILMA was a bad deal and then-Premier Calvert declined to sign on to this unconstitutional ‘integration by stealth’. Even Mr. Wall announced that the Sask Party would not sign onto TILMA “in its current form”, (incorrectly) thinking that the terms of TILMA can be negotiated.

So, does Premier Wall now have the courage, wisdom and leadership to honour the wishes of the people of Saskatchewan and say “No to TILMA”…or will he cave in to PNWER?

Any bets?

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK
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Clean coal: Another ostrich with its head in the sand

Postby Oscar » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:04 am

Published in the Wadena News on April 9, 2008

To the Editor

Clean coal …another ostrich – with its head in the sand!

One must wonder about Saskatchewan Premier Wall’s pie-in-the-sky plan to bury (hide?) the emissions from the mythical ‘clean coal’ technology in a hole in the ground.

Does sweeping this dust under the carpet show any genuine concern for the environment and the health and well being of future generations…squandering millions more on yet another industry-friendly, unsustainable project?

Who will be saddled with the expense of cleaning up the sequestered emissions? Mr. Wall’s grandchildren? Mr. Harper’s?

Looks like more of the same lack of wisdom, political will and vision: the frenzy for the money today – no worries about tomorrow.

Someone, someday, is going to have to deal with our failure to care for the natural system that supports life on this planet.

There is no free lunch!

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK
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TILMA laying foundation for North American Union

Postby Oscar » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:15 am

Published June 07, 2007 in Saskatoon Star Phoenix and on June 10, 2007 in Global Research at:

http://www.globalresearch.ca:80/index.p ... a&aid=5924

Dear Editor:

TILMA laying foundation for North American Union

Most folks by now have heard about TILMA – the corporate-friendly Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement between Alberta and British Columbia that came into effect this April Fool’s Day. Its mandate is to ‘harmonize’ regulations and standards between the two provinces, removing so-called barriers to economic development. The Opposition currently is pressuring the Saskatchewan government to sign on, too.

Meanwhile, Agrivision’s plans continue for Saskatchewan’s Smart Inland Port – where trucks and containers will be dispatched, loaded with our raw materials via Vancouver or Prince Rupert to factories in Asia that has plentiful and cheap labour.

They will also move on the NAFTA Corridor that connects non-unionized ports in Mexico, through another inland port in Kansas City, to Winnipeg and other crossings, to deliver to Canadian stores finished goods from China and India. A similar scheme, ATLANTICA, is in progress, using ports at Montreal and Halifax.

The next step in the underground process of Canada’s ‘deep integration’ with the United States is another closed-door meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), this time in August near Montreal.

Driven by the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), an un-elected group of CEOs from Wal-Mart, Lockheed Martin, Manulife Financial, Chevron and Suncor Energy, to name just a few, SPP’s job is to decide the future of Canada and to draft government policy towards the final step in NAFTA – the North American Union.

That’s the ultimate goal for a seamless, borderless free-trade entity that joins Canada, Mexico and the US in a common economic body, so that the aforementioned ‘stakeholders’ continue to accumulate wealth. By using TILMA, they hope to ‘harmonize’ provincial regulations and soften up Canadians before this final move.

Want to save Canada? Tell Premier Calvert to reject TILMA.

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK
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Temptation was too great

Postby Oscar » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:35 am

Published in Saskatoon Star Phoenix on May 15, 2007 and in Wadena news on May 16, 2007

Dear Editor,

Temptation was too great . . .

Starting in August 2007, (according to a recent Government Press Release New Regulations for Oil Sands and Oil Shale Resources), the Crown oil sands, oil shale rights, and work commitment bid process will be available for purchase, along with more land sales.

According to Minister Cline, after consultation with the industry and other jurisdictions, the new regulations are “…what we consider a careful yet moderate approach to development of this resource.”

Is that how the current environmental nightmare taking place in Fort McMurray started out, ….as a moderate development? Today, thanks to NAFTA and human greed, not only is this so-called ‘development’ out of control, it is Canada’s biggest polluter, and will, under continued pressure from our oil-thirsty neighbour to the south, only get worse. And, while a few people make the money, other people and nature for miles around will continue to be harmed from dirty air, dirty water, with sick and dying lakes and forests, and sick and dying people …

What areas in our own beautiful province will this latest feeding frenzy affect?

We can say goodbye to the clean air, clean water, and clean environment of the as-yet pristine area in the Clearwater River Provincial Park (that’s right - IN the park!) north of La Loche. . .and of the as-yet pristine Hudson Bay area of northeastern Saskatchewan!

The temptation was too great…it was just a matter of time!

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK
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More to TILMA than meets the eye

Postby Oscar » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:38 am

Published in Wadena News on June 6, 2007

Dear Editor

….more to TILMA than meets the eye

Several months ago, when we first became aware of TILMA, that corporate-friendly, backroom Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement secretly signed by the BC and Alberta premiers in 2006, it looked like a fairly innocent bit of ‘politics’.

Of course, the Sask Party, in lock-step with the Bush and Harper governments, is pressuring the Saskatchewan NDP Government to also sign on to TILMA - because it will be so good for all of us!

However, we have learned more about the potential negative impact on our important social policies and programs, and it is increasingly worrisome, if not downright scary.

For instance, when TILMA is initially signed, it has an impressive list of exceptions, so there is ‘nothing for us to worry about’.

Keeping in mind that a ‘measure’ is any legislation, regulation, standard, directive, requirement, guideline, program, policy, administrative practice or other procedure, some of these exceptions are: measures relating to Aboriginal peoples; our water; our social policies including labour standards and codes, social assistance benefits, and workers compensation; and the management or conservation of forests, fish and wildlife.

We now know that Article 17 of TILMA requires a committee to “review annually the exceptions listed…with a view to reducing their scope” and that “ongoing efforts will continue to reduce exceptions”. Over time, the list of exceptions will shrink, eventually bringing them all into the full Agreement!

We also know that “if a measure is not clearly identified as an exception, it is subject to the rules of the Agreement”, and since health and education measures are not included in the list of exceptions, does this not put them at tremendous risk?

There’s more to TILMA than meets the eye . . . to save our country, we must tell Premier Calvert to say “NO” to TILMA!

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK
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Saskatchewan under seige!

Postby Oscar » Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:29 am

Published in the Wadena News on June 26, 2008

Saskatchewan under seige!

While most of us are preoccupied with the shock and disbelief of this government’s recent musings on where they’ll build their nuclear power plant, at least three mining companies have quietly received permits to explore more than a million acres of beautiful parkland in northeastern Saskatchewan to get at the coal underneath.

The claims of just one company, the North American Gem Inc., total over 950,000 acres lying some 50 kilometers north of Hudson Bay, and include Wapawekka Lake as well as the Narrow Hills and Pasquai Hills region…a unique and fragile ecological area noted for its fishing, canoeing, tenting and bird-watching. Imagine! Coal mining, with all its inherent waste and destruction!!

Across the province, the relentless, rapacious corporate exploitation continues, without regard for the environment, people, animals, or communities. Coal mining in the northeast, stripping the land of its trees, meadows, and wetlands; oil and gas extraction everywhere to keep the war machines working in Iraq and Afghanistan; uranium mining across the entire north to supply the world with fuel for nuclear power plants and Depleted Uranium weaponry; and now, a nuclear power plant in Saskatchewan, close to tarsands at La Loche and Fort McMurray, the emissions from which are already destroying our lakes and forests.

Kids of the future: forget camping in our wilderness, drinking water from our rivers, swimming in or eating fish from our lakes. Everything – the soil, the water, the air, the wildlife - will be contaminated and ravaged for thousands of years.

This is our gift to future generations – a wasteland unfit for life!

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK
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Postby Oscar » Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:35 pm

Published in the Wadena News on July 16, 2008

OP-ED

Bigger is not better…but bigger runs the show!

In the article, Bigger Is Not Better published in the News Review Extra on June 21, 2008, Courtney Vaudner, Chairman of the South Parkland Regional Economic Development Authority (SPREDA), voiced his concerns about the disadvantages to Melville due to the amalgamation (for ‘administration’ purposes only) of 27 REDAs into 13 regions.

This is one more step towards fulfilling the Saskatchewan NDP government’s Blueprint for Action which was set in motion in 2000 by Clay Serby, then the NDP Minister of Rural Development. Returning from meetings in Washington, DC with BIG American corporate ‘drivers’, he acted on their marching orders by creating SARM’s Clearing the Pathway project: to standardize rules and regulations across the province.

Then came the Action Committee on the Rural Economy (ACRE) with its subcommittee members carefully chosen from Saskatchewan’s BIG Business community: oil and gas, intensive livestock operations (ILOs), forestry, mining, transportation (trucking companies) and manufacturing – all interested stakeholders – whose task it was to identify and recommend ways to encourage economic development in rural Saskatchewan…how to best exploit our resources and make more money!

As Mr. Vaudner pointed out, one of the most contentious recommendations was the formation of what Agrivision likes to call ‘clusters’ across the province – rural areas formed into groups with a sizable town in each, as well as some form of promising economic development (another pig factory, oil well, feedlot, slaughterhouse, etc.). And, to ensure their success, these chosen clusters would receive government funding for infrastructure and start-up expenses. Those areas which declined to join a group were left on their own, responsible for finding their own money to maintain roads, etc. Although Mr. Serby denied that this was their intent, many at the public meetings ACRE conducted saw this as the death knell for smaller communities.

Now, we see these 27 ‘clusters’ forming into 13 regions with the financial support to make sure they succeed. Only this time, the areas are much larger, and, as Mr. Vaudner stated, communities will be competing against each other for future enterprises and the accompanying funds for infrastructure and operating budgets. The next step will likely see further amalgamation of these 13 regions under one centralized administration (aka ‘control of the money’), putting the final nail into the coffin of local autonomy, local government, or any local control taxpayers may have had in the running of their RMs.

When we look at the larger picture, we see the world of David Rockefeller and his One World Order, of secret meetings of the Bilderberg Group whose members, past and present, include international government officials. We see the world of NAFTA, including its SuperCorridor, and the no-longer secret Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), an ‘agreement’ signed by the US, Canada and Mexico into ‘law’ without legislation or public knowledge or input. Welcome, also, to the world of the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) made up of the CEOs of America’s biggest corporations (Ford, General Motors, Chevron, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Campbell’s Soup, etc.). And, finally, welcome to the world of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) whose members are the CEOs of Canada’s biggest corporations (Manulife Financial, Bell Canada, Home Depot, Scotiabank, CN, Suncor Energy, etc.).

The sole task of these groups is no less than the deep integration of the Canadian, Mexican and U.S. economic and security policies: energy integration, regulatory harmonization, and workforce mobility - into the North American Union. One flag, one currency, one government run by the corporate elite.… driven by the insatiable need to make more money!

What’s happening in Mr. Vaudner’s world and ours is simply part of the process to soften up the public towards acceptance of this scheme and to harmonize regulations in order to facilitate it. Forget the people, forget the environment, forget longterm civil or social planning, forget local control over our land use and our resources (including our precious water), forget meaningful local elections of rural governments with the mandate to protect the health and welfare of their people ….there is only THE money. And, to get the money, the corporations need control of our resources.

Every level of government will do what it’s told by the corporate ‘stakeholders’ ….the rest of us will be the serfs!

Yes, Mr. Vaudner, your concern is validated.

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK
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