Editor:
Optimist reporter Phil Melnychuk recently interviewed Delta MP Carla Qualtrough asking what she had been up to in 2023.
You might have expected her answer to his first question, “What has been your most challenging issue” - to have focused on one or more important local issues, but that didn’t happen.
In fact, not once did she mention the most important issue in Delta in 2023, being the controversial approval of the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project.
With the City of Delta having opposed the approval of this project, along with the cities of Richmond and White Rock, would you not expect this topic to have been top of mind in answering this first question?
This issue did not even garner a mention by Qualtrough in the whole Q&A, underlining the fact that as MP for Delta she has been consistently silent on the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project throughout the lengthy approval process.
Is this not surprising, given that one of her roles as MP is represent the interests of the community she represents? Would you not expect this topic to have come up, especially since the project has been roundly condemned, as being environmentally disastrous for Canada’s top ecosystem, by Canadian and international scientists and experts in wetlands ecology, and widely recognized for its biodiversity and providing critical overwintering grounds for the highest number of waterfowl and shorebirds found anywhere in Canada?
Roger Emsley
