To the Editor:
Re: Editorial cartoon, May 28.
Your cartoon showing Prime Minister Stephen Harper driving an emissions-spewing auto belching clouds of smoke with the notation “no regulations for oil and gas industry” may indeed be amusing, but it suffers from one fatal flaw. It is pure hogwash.
Harper has been prime minister for almost 10 years, so if he desired to dismantle regulations and laws relating to the oil and gas industry, we should have seen some real evidence by now, but there is none. In fact, a strong case could be made that the industry is hamstrung by massive over-regulation.
The industry groans under no less than 24 categories of laws under titles such as the Canada Oil and Gas Operations Act, Department of Natural Resources Act, National Energy Board Act, etc. These categories of law are sub-divided into 118 different bodies of detailed regulations. I have yet to discover one single act relating to the oil and gas industry which has been abolished or even substantially reduced over the past 10 years.
In other words, your cartoon represents nothing other than an attempt at political reputation sabotage without any substantial basis in fact.
Leonard MelmanNanoose Bay