LETTERS: My view on Canada's wildfire crisis

I’m writing this to you as I just took off my mask,  which I now must wear to do anything in my garden these days.  It has been more than 10 years of me dreading rather than welcoming summer.  Our community was impacted heavily by the 2024 Slocan Valley wildfires.  Our highway south was closed for months and our air was foul for a long time.  We left at one point because we found it hard to breathe any time outside.

While communities battle floods, heat waves, and wildfire smoke this summer, oil and gas companies are posting record profits. That is not a coincidence. It is the business model.

Rather than taxing this windfall or holding polluters accountable, the federal government is handing the industry billions in public support for new pipeline projects. That is money that could fund healthcare, wildfire response, or a genuine transition to renewable energy.

Canadians should not be asked to subsidize the same industry that is driving the disasters we are living through. We need leaders willing to make polluters pay, not underwrite their expansion.

The time for half-measures is over. We need real action. No pipelines on a burning planet.

Sincerely,

Helen Davis
New Denver, BC