New York Daily News on the pot Olympics

You knew it was coming....

Progressive laws in Vancouver make next month's Winter games the Pot Olympics

BY NATHANIEL VINTON
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Saturday, January 30th 2010, 4:52 PM

AP

Ross Rebagliati is best known as the Canadian snowboarder who won a gold medal at the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, then tested positive for marijuana.

Gold, silver, bronze � green?

The Winter Games commence Feb. 12 in Vancouver, British Columbia, the most marijuana-friendly host city in Olympic history, a place where restrictions on pot are loose enough to allow "consumption lounges," some of which are extending their hours to accommodate a wave of jet-lagged international visitors.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2010/01/30/2010-01-30_end_zone_smoke_rings.html#ixzz0e8rAEUVu

Bureaucrats bungled privacy breach, review finds

The first reviews into a major privacy breach last year paint a picture of government bumbling that's so bizarre it's literally had to believe.
Imagine the police show up at your workplace and arrest an employee. That's what happened in the Ministry of Children and Families in Victoria last April 7.
They took him away and, armed with a search warrant, went through his house. The next day, the RCMP told the ministry they had found government files with names, addresses, social insurance numbers and other personal information in his house - everything needed for identity theft.
Anywhere I've worked, that would be a big deal. For sure, the bosses all the way up the chain would be told about it by the line managers.
Not in government. His bosses told him to stay home for a few days and then he was sick for a couple of weeks. His manager met with an HR person and talked about the kind of files found in his home. They never noticed, apparently, that the files were actually from the Housing Ministry, which the employee had transferred from 18 months earlier.
So they concluded he had just taken some work home. He was back on the job April 27.
They weren't the only ones to know about the investigation. The Finance Ministry risk management officers had been told in February. They never took the issue anywhere near senior management either.
That's baffling. Either those involved were incompetent, government bureaucracy is incredibly rigid or people have decided its best, for whatever reason, to keep the senior managers in the dark. Or they were hoping to cover up the problem. (The last assumption is supported by the fact that even though managers were advised to report the breach to the privacy commissioner in July, they didn't.)
Three weeks after the employee returned to work, his managers and the HR people got around to a meeting to talk about why police had arrested him.
The issue wasn't just about the files. The government had hired the man as Richard Ernest Wainwright. But the RCMP found had two drivers' licences, the other in the name of Richard Perran.
At the May meeting, he was asked about that. He wanted to distance himself from his past, Wainright said. But the stunningly incurious managers didn't ask him why. They didn't ask why he had the files at home. They seem, based on the review, quite useless.
By July, the managers knew more. As Perran, he had a criminal record from 2006 for fraud and identity theft.
Again, most managers might have considered that, those files and the RCMP investigation and, even if they didn't do anything, alerted more senior managers - probably the deputy minister, the top manager in the ministry.
But they didn't. Wainwright was a good employee so they decided to support him.
Finally, in August, an assistant deputy minister in the housing ministry was briefed on everything - the criminal record, the files, the fact there was no reason for him to have them. The ADM did nothing and didn't act on a recommendation that he notify the Ministry of Children and Families.
On Oct. 16, finally, the employee was suspended without pay.
On Oct. 20, Citizens Services Ben Stewart - and the Public Affairs Bureau - were notified. The employee was fired. So was his wife, who also had a sensitive job.
But the public wasn't told about any of this.
And it took until Dec. 4 - and a lot of pressure - before the government announced reviews of all this.
They found, unsurprisingly, that had been a big mess.
"The entire course of events is illustrative of a series of missed opportunities and inaction, related to gaps in information, mistaken assumptions, limited knowledge and insufficient awareness," the review found.
There were lots of meetings, but departments didn't share information, managers didn't seek answers to obvious questions and no one acted. No one would be fired, because no one did anything glaringly wrong, the government says.
Read the reviews on the citizens' services ministry website. You'll feel much more nervous about government's competence.
Footnote: These were internal reviews. A more useful report could come from the province's privacy commissioner. But that has been delayed, in part because the government hired commissioner David Loukidelis as deputy attorney general but failed to have a replacement acting commissioner in place immediately.

Your chance to take the influence of big money out of municipal politics (and maybe provincial politics)

The writing is truly atrocious, but the municipal election task force has a consultation website up and anyone who cares about the political process in B.C. should take the chance to provide comments.

The task force, headed by Community Development Minister Bill Bennett, is looking at possible reforms to the municipal election process.

A lot needs to be done. As I set out here, there are now no limits on campaign donations or spending. It would be easy, not that expensive and cost-effective to install a loyal council if you had special interests, as a developer or public sector union or anything else.

Visit the site. Do some research. Make a submission. If you like, e-mail me a copy and I�ll post it here.

Municipal election reform is desperately needed. But it will also be hard for the government to continue allowing unlimited donations to provincial parties by individuals, lobbyists, unions and corporations if it concludes they are corrupting influence on politics.

The writing on the site is inexcusable though.

I ran a random section, on campaign donation limits, through the standard Flesch-Kincaid readability test. It indicates the grade level a person will have to have reached to comprehend the text and scores the reading ease.

�A high score implies an easy text,� the guide notes. �In comparison comics typically score around 90 while legalese can get score below 10.�

The section scored -1 for reading ease.

And the test found people needed a university degree plus four years of postgrad education to comprehend it.

There is no excuse for that in a public consultation document in a province where about one-third of the adults have a high school education. (My last column was at Grade 11 and 41 per cent reading ease; still not great.)

The government should get its money back from whoever wrote the consultation document.

Good news: Johns are just normal guys

"A new study out of Simon Fraser University concludes that people who buy sex are no more prone to violence than anyone else.

Fewer than two per cent of the 1,000 respondents who took part in SFU sociologist Chris Atchison's study reported ever having hit, hurt, raped or robbed the person they bought sex from."

That's the start of a column in the Times Colonist on the sex trade by Jody Paterson. Definitely worth a read here.

The comments are also great. The range of attitudes toward prostitution is enormous. And the generally civil tone is impressive.

Olympic fever? More like a collective headache

Until now, I've figured that once the Olympics started British Columbians would probably get caught up in the whole experience.

All the excitement would outweigh the doubts about costs and benefits. We'd cheer the athletes and be dazzled by the venues and maybe even head down to one of those Spirit Squares.

Now I'm not so sure.

It could still happen. I lived in Montreal in 1976 and wasn't much interested in the Games - until they started. Then I lined up for tickets to European handball, watched the bicycle racers flash by on the highway and was amazed at city streets crowded with thousands of people from around the world.

But that was then.

Now the Games are about ridiculous security and huge prices for tickets and protecting sponsors' commercial interests.

And they are arriving in a recession, as government cuts support for children and seniors.

The latest polls suggest British Columbians aren't keen. Angus Reid Public Opinion found that 73 per cent of Canadians thought the Games would be good for British Columbia. But only 50 per cent of British Columbians thought the Games would be good for the province. And almost one-third thought the impact would be "mostly negative."

British Columbians were twice as likely to support organized protests against the Games. Again, almost one-third supported the demonstrations against the Games.

An earlier Ekos poll suggested one reason. It found 48 per cent of Canadians thought too much taxpayers' money had been spent on the Games.

In B.C., 68 per cent thought they were paying too high a price.

There are political repercussions to all this. Federally, Stephen Harper is hoping that Canadians will forget about his decision to shut down Parliament and feel great about Canada's medals.

Provincially, Gordon Campbell and the Liberals have promised great benefits - billions and billions - to communities throughout the province.

People, based on the polls, aren't buying it. Which could make for a grumpy public at an inopportune time. The gold medal hockey game and the closing ceremonies will be held Feb. 28, a Sunday about five weeks away. And two days later, the provincial government will present a very nasty budget.

The government limited most spending in its September "update" budget.

But the big cuts start this year. Spending reductions are planned in 13 of 20 ministries.

Education spending is slated to go up less than one per cent, Support for children and families is frozen. Agencies and non-profits in communities across B.C. are being told provincial funding is being cut or eliminated.

And while the health budget is to rise 4.7 per cent, the actual increase will be $216 million less than it was this year. (And cuts could be deeper than planned, based on the gloomy tone being taken by Finance Minister Colin Hansen.)

The nature of British Columbia society is being changed significantly and the role of government rewritten.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing. But it is a bad thing that the change is being made by stealth, without public support or even discussion.

Campbell denied the need for any change in the election campaign. B.C. would run a small deficit and wouldn't cut health or education services, he promised. But the deficit went from $495 million to $2.8 billion. And now the cuts are coming.

The Games were supposed to make it a little easier for people to take the cuts. Optimism about better times ahead, pride about our role and all that.

It doesn't look that way right now. Instead, they might make people more riled about all that Olympic spending followed immediately by cuts to services.

I hope we get into the Games. We've spent the money; why not enjoy the party, be good hosts, hope governments make the most of the economic opportunity and sort things out once the athletes have gone home.

Footnote: Perhaps part of the problem is that there was so little real public discussion about the Games bid. Then-premier Glen Clark set it all in motion on May 1, 1998, committing $150,000 to an effort to win the right to be the Canadian bidder. The process has just rolled on since then.

Lots of words, little action on family violence

The government's lame response to domestic violence this week offered two lessons.

First, despite all the rhetoric about considering the issue of critical importance, it's not a priority.

Second, the spending constraints are so tight right now that even supposedly important issues can't win anything beyond a token funding commitment.

Solicitor General Kash Heed promised action on domestic violence last year, after a coroner's inquiry heard evidence of stumbles, miscommunication and policy shortcomings that led to five deaths in Oak Bay. Peter Lee killed his son, spouse and her parents before taking his own life.

The press release this week said Heed was "taking immediate action to protect victims of domestic violence." It was headlined "Domestic violence action plan launched."

But there wasn't much action. The government will provide some $25,000 and push for the creation of a domestic violence unit in the capital region. That's useful, but Victoria police urged the measure in 2007, in the weeks after the deaths. That's hardly "immediate action."

Heed promised to "establish a uniform policy" for domestic violence investigations. It's surprising that was not already in place and more surprising that work is only starting now.

And he said the government will "take steps" to ensure domestic violence cases are reported properly in police databases so service providers with access to the files will have the information. Again, surely that should have been done years ago.

As well, Heed promised studies.

The coroner's service will review all the domestic violence deaths since 1994 - likely about 150 - to see what can be learned.

The Solicitor General's Ministry will work on a checklist of factors that might indicate a domestic violence suspect is at high risk of causing harm. It will also come up with a standard set of bail conditions for high-risk offenders.

And a committee with representatives from several ministries will "develop cross-agency domestic violence policies" that set out roles of everyone involved.

All very nice.

But five people, including a little boy, died in September 2007. Peter Lee killed them.

Within weeks, it was clear that the tragedy might have been prevented. The system for dealing with domestic violence was inadequate in a number of fundamental ways.

By last September, Representative for Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond had completed her review and made "urgent" recommendations for action. (Four months later, the Ministry of Children and Families has not even responded to the report.)

And in December the inquest jury made 14 recommendations aimed at preventing similar cases and improving support and protection for victims.

The government's response - including this week's announcements by Heed - failed to address at least half of the recommendations.

No government is going to prevent every case of family violence. People do bad things.

But that's not what this is about.

These deaths were preventable. And the failures and breakdowns weren't the result of human error or a one-off series of unfortunate events. The system for dealing with domestic violence is deeply flawed.

Lee's wife, Sunny Park, had warned police that he would kill her and her son after he crashed their car into a tree in what she said was an effort to hurt or kill her. She described past abuse. Lee had a history of violence; police had urged that he not be released on bail. But he was.

Park, a Korean immigrant with limited English skills, received no effective help or support. Measures to help keep her safe weren't in place.

And they all died.

Concerns about the province's inadequate programs to deal with domestic violence have been expressed for years.

And while the government has expressed great sympathy for victims, when faced with the opportunity to make changes, it failed to act.

Five deaths, two reports and Heed came up with $25,000, promises of future policy changes and studies.

It's not much of a legacy for Christian Lee, just six years old when he was stabbed to death.

Footnote: Why the inaction? At the inquest, Robert Gillen, an assistant deputy minister in the Attorney General's Ministry, testified the government could do a better job of keeping people safe. But domestic violence is not a funding priority, he said. "There's no sense pretending we can afford a Cadillac when we're lucky to get a used Ford," he told the jury.

Why parents should support FSA tests

The great FSA test battle is on again as the B.C. Teachers' Federation continues its campaign to kill the school tests.

That would be a great loss.

Coincidentally, a study has confirmed the usefulness of the Foundation Skills Assessment tests, which measure the performance of Grade 4 and 7 students in math, reading and writing.

The tests are a limited tool. But they let parents see how their children are doing compared with other students across the province. Teachers can see how their classes are performing in these basic skills areas compared with others. Perhaps there is something to learn from a counterpart in a similar school across town.

Administrators, school districts and the Education Ministry can look at the results and judge how they are doing. Again, they can assess where lessons can be learned or more effort is needed.

And researchers have a unique source of data that lets them look at ways of improving student performance.

A just-released study from the University of B.C.'s Human Early Learning Partnership offers a timely example. The study used FSA data to look at the link between where children lived and how they did in school.

Partly, the answer is obvious. Children from affluent neighbourhoods do better across the board than children from poor communities. That's expected. They have a range of advantages, from attending preschool programs to the benefits of having parents not struggling to scrape by to better nutrition.

But the study, which tracked 2,648 students from kindergarten to Grade 7, also found just how crucial the formative years are. Even if students moved to a more affluent neighbourhood after starting school, their performance in basic skills continue to lag.

That's important to know. It means that if improving educational performance for all children is the goal, then a large part of the focus has to be on support for families with young children before they enter the school system.

And according to the researchers, the study would not have been possible without the universal FSA tests.

Critics - mostly teachers and their union, but also some administrators - have a largely unconvincing list of complaints. It's true that the tests measure only part of schools' performance and don't reflect successes in developing good citizens or critical thinkers. But that's not an argument against assessing performance in a critical area.

Some teachers have complained about the stress on students and time spent preparing for and administering the tests. But two sets of tests in nine years of elementary school isn't a huge burden. And teachers should not be spending time specially preparing students; the tests measure long-term progress.

The teachers' union is particularly rankled by the Fraser Institute's annual report ranking school performance on the tests. The results fall to consider socio-economic factors and favour private schools, they say.

That's to some extent true. But parents and other readers aren't stupid. They can consider those factors. And there is nothing preventing the BCTF or the Education Ministry from preparing its own reports.

A more compelling argument concerns the response to the reports. Some parents transfer their children from poorly performing schools, which further weakens them.

But the notion that parents should be denied information about how well their child and the school is doing because they might make use it is unacceptable.

The strongest argument against FSA tests might be that there is little point in spending the time and money if they don't result in any action.

A 2008 study by a Simon Fraser University professor used the FSA scores to identify districts where much greater progress had been made in closing the achievement gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students. The study then looked at what strategies were working. Unless the lessons are applied - and funded - the value is lost.

But the tests remain an extremely useful tool to learn what is working and what isn't and improve educational opportunity for all students.

Footnote: The teachers' union is urging parents to refuse to let their children write the tests. That's a destructive form of sabotage which leaves the test program in place, but reduces its effectiveness for researchers.

Jody Paterson: Seniors face huge care cost increases

It isn't often that a landlord can quietly order up a 30 per cent rent increase for more than 2,000 people without anybody making a public fuss about it.

But maybe that's what happens when your tenants are elderly, frail seniors living in B.C.'s long-term care facilities.

As of Jan. 31, "rents" will go up for most of the 26,000 people living in government-subsidized residential-care facilities, in some cases jumping as much as $672 a month.

Read the rest here.

Giving to Haiti

I might be overly sensitive, but while the $500,000 provincial contribution is useful, I'm not sure the Haitian earthquake is really a marketing opportunity for B.C. forest products.

If you are moved to help, Don Cayo of the Vancouver Sun offers some excellent suggestions here. Cayo is one of the arguments for daily newspapers; his columns are valuable and it's hard to see how they could be supported without papers like the Vancouver Sun.

NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release 2010

PREM0008-000031 Jan. 14, 2010

Office of the Premier

B.C. ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR HAITI EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS VANCOUVER - Premier Gordon Campbell announced the Province will provide $500,000 to the Red Cross to support victims of the January 12 earthquake in Haiti.

The Province will also work with the federal government to offer assistance to help Haiti rebuild.

"The $500,000 will go to the Red Cross for immediate medical and emergency support and we are also encouraging all British Columbians to consider reaching out through aid agencies like the Red Cross," said Premier Campbell. "We will also co-ordinate with the federal government to explore the possibility of helping Haitians rebuild their homes, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure." Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell is working with the federal government to co-ordinate an effort to provide wood products for rebuilding as well as construction expertise, just as British Columbia did after the 2008 Sichuan, China earthquake.

The January 12 earthquake measured 7.0 on the Richter scale and caused immense destruction, leaving millions of Haitians without homes.

"Everyone's priority right now is to put forth a co-ordinated support effort to save lives and treat as many victims as possible," said Premier Campbell. "Right now our hearts and thoughts are with the victims and their families of this terrible tragedy."

-30-

Seniors� care recommendations snubbed by government

I doubt that growing old has ever been much fun.

But the latest report on seniors� care in B.C. � and the government�s reaction to it � should alarm people looking into residential care for themselves or a family member.

Maybe my generation, the Baby Boom crowd, expects too much.

But it�s hard to escape the sense that once you can�t make it in your own home these days, you diminish. You become more problem than person.

Consider a basic challenge � finding and then living in residential care when you no longer live on our own.

Ombudsperson Kim Carter heard more and more complaints and concerns about seniors� care in B.C. The office launched a provincewide investigation and delivered its first report just before Christmas.

It was grim. And the government�s response was discouraging.

Carter found the government hasn�t identified what it is prepared to do for seniors in residential care or told residents what rights they have.

It has failed to ensure families can get adequate information about residential care facilities, so they can plan and make informed decisions.

And although resident and family councils are important in ensuring the well-being of people in care, the government hasn�t supported them.

Carter said the public response to the investigation was �unparalled� in the history of the ombudsperson�s office. (That�s the official name now.)

About 900 people presented concerns; 200 individual complaint files were opened. The investigators went to 50 residential care and assisted living facilities, public and private, around the province.

The complaints covered a range of issues, from poor food to long waits for help with basic tasks like going to the bathroom to medication errors to neglect of residents� needs. Many will be dealt with in a subsequent report.

A lot of the concerns centered around the huge difficulty in figuring out what care is available, what it costs and what�s covered.

Families and individuals looking for care want to make the best decisions. But there is now way to get useful information on the private and public care facilities available in different communities without visiting each one. Responsibility for residential care is split between two ministries � the Health Ministry and the Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport � and the health authorities.

Families reported being panicked by the challenge of making snap decisions critical to a senior�s future with no real useful information. Standards are unclear and information about past problems sketchy.

Once seniors have landed in a home, it�s unclear to them and their families what rights they have or what they should do if they believe care is substandard. They�re reluctant to raise concerns, in case that brings reprisals.

And there is no effective process that lets the government monitor legitimate complaints and ensure they are being addressed.

Carter�s first report made 10 recommendations, all common sense and none obviously expensive.

The government committed to acting on four of the 10. It had already passed legislation on a residents� bill of rights, one of the recommendations.

But on six of the 10 recommendations, including some of the most critical, Carter found the government�s proposed efforts �fall short of what is needed� to remedy the problems her office had identified.

The government wouldn�t commit to monitoring and reporting on whether residents� rights were respected by operators.

It waffled on the recommendation that single website that allowed people to get the basic facts on every care facility � the costs, the services, the standards of care � be in place by Sept. 30.

And the government wouldn�t commit to prompt action to set out a clear role for resident and family councils.

The outpouring of concern to the ombudsperson�s review indicates significant concerns. The challenges are certain to increase with each year � by 2038, the number of people 80 or older in B.C. will have more than doubled, to 460,000.

And not enough is being done to face the challenges.

Footnote: The report is available online at ombudsman.bc.ca. Expect to hear a great deal about the findings and the fee increases for three-quarters of those in residential care when the legislature finally resumes regular sittings in March, after a three-month break.

Harper paying a price for shutting down Parliament

Stephen Harper has been widely thrashed for shutting down Parliament. Here's why you should be mad too.

Prorogation, it's called. MPs were scheduled to be sitting now. There were 36 bills, including crime bills the Conservatives had said were essential for public safety, waiting to be passed. They're dead now and will have to start their path through Parliament and the Senate at square one.

MPs had questions about the Afghan detainee issue, the economy and jobs, deficits, climate change, airport security. Those are all silenced.

It's convenient to get rid of elected oversight if you're the head of the party in power.

It's also undemocratic.

Harper didn't defend the decision when it was announced. His communications manager said the Conservatives wanted time think about the economy and watch the Olympics. They apparently could not do those things while doing their main job. (That's kind of disappointing, since MPs just got a raise taking their base pay to $158,000.)

Anyway, it's common practice, say the Conservatives. Which is not really true, as we'll say.

Some of the sharpest criticism came from The Economist, a London-based global newsmagazine for smart people. Its editorial position has much in common with Harper's platform - support for free markets, globalization and private enterprise. (Though it is also socially progressive, seeing no conflict between the two positions.)

An editorial in the weekly suggested Harper must think his cabinet ministers too dim to cope with the business of Parliament and watching the Olympics.

And it rejected the claim that past prime ministers had frequently done the same thing. "In almost every case, they did so only once the government had got through the bulk of its legislative business," the editorial noted. Past prorogations were brief; this time Parliament will be shut down for more than two months.

The shutdown shields the government from democratic scrutiny and looks like "naked self-interest," The Economist wrote. Canadians might soon decide their government is not in good hands, the editorial concluded.

A group of more than 150 Canadian academics with "expertise in the principles of democracy." also weighed in.

They noted our system rests on a responsible government overseen by an elected opposition.

Harper was undermining democracy for partisan gain, they wrote. If the Conservatives a break, they could have adjourned the session until a later date, the academics added. Parliamentary committees would have then kept working and the bills wouldn't have died.

So why not adjournment, if the government needed to "recalibrate"?

Despite the bluster and attack tactics, the Harper Conservatives were facing tough questions on the treatment of Afghan detainees. The issue was not the actions of Canadian troops, who were doing their job. The focus was on whether the government failed to take reasonable measures to ensure prisoners handed over to the Afghans weren't tortured. And, as critically, whether the government had been honest with Canadians.

And adjournment would not have triggered the appointment of five senators to fill vacant seats; that can only happen when Parliament is prorogued. Appointing five loyalists would mean Conservatives would outnumber Liberals in the Senate. (Though not hold a majority.)

That's on top of the questions about Canada's role in the Copenhagen climate talks, joblessness and the claim that the budget can be balanced without tax increases or deep spending cuts.

It might not have seemed much of a gamble for the Harper tacticians, who could have concluded Canadians don't pay much attention to Parliament and how democracy does - or doesn't - work.

But an Ekos Research poll found a majority of Canadians were aware of the decision to prorogue Parliament and 58 per cent were opposed. Opposition was strongest outside the prairie provinces; undecided voters also disapproved.

For the latter group, the action raises the kind of questions Harper should not have wanted in the forefront in what could be an election year.

For example, if the Conservatives don't accept democratic oversight now, what would they do with a majority?

Footnote: The decision looks much like a blunder. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, who was floundering badly, has seized the issue and, helped by the Conservatives' lame rationale for shutting down Parliament, captured some positive attention.

Forest carbon credits complex

I wrote recently about carbon credits from forests. I didn't mean to suggest it was a scam, just complex.

In any case, this e-mail in response from someone much more knowledgeable is worth reading.

Regarding your post Paying not to cut down trees�, it is an interesting topic, but unfortunately you did not accurately describe the carbon credit opportunity and made it sound like a ridiculous situation. It is a very complicated thing.

Some information for you: First, a single tree would not weigh 1,000 tons. The largest on the B.C. coast may be about 25 tons, on average about two tons.

Secondly, the carbon is about one-half the weight of the tree. The carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e, the units sold) is 3.67 times that.

Third you have to own the tree and the carbon in order to sell it; this is not at all clear in the case of Crown land.

Next, you don�t get $18 per tonne of CO2e per year, the price for a CC would be for a long-term commitment � 100 years according to the California protocol, but this aspect is not universally defined.

The trees have to represent a positive business case for harvesting, so the carbon credit money is paid in exchange for not cutting the forest as you stated, but, not if you just go cut trees somewhere else to make up for your lost harvest (that is referred to as leakage).

So a company would have to reduce its allowable annual cut to demonstrate this.

Next, you have to find someone who will pay you for it and convince them that this carbon credit is worth as much as a carbon credit paid for installing a wind turbine for example. Risk of loss has to be accounted for as well, perhaps as much as 25 per cent of forest has to be set aside in case of loss due to fire, etc.

Then you need to have someone verify your project and have it registered, another cost. Then there�s legislation in Alberta that prevents and Alberta-based companies from purchasing carbon credits outside Alberta, and the U.S. is considering that as well.

Selling carbon credits for not cutting trees on Crown land, besides the carbon ownership aspect, is tricky because the Crown accepts stumpage for the right to cut the trees and presumably the Crown would collect some portion of the CC money as well, affecting the business case.

Also, as the Crown considers the socio-economic value of a tree being harvested, providing employment as it is harvested, processed, used and exported, with a stream of tax revenue along the line, the Crown would have to take this socio-economic loss of opportunity into account.

The out-of-work harvesters and processors would also have a claim to the value of trees not being harvested because they would argue that by not harvesting it, it is not being put to best use for the province.

Private land forests are valuable to the owner because stumpage does not have to be paid, administrative costs are less and export markets are available. The net CC value per m3 is a lot less than average log market value for private lands, so don�t expect them all to be conserved for CCs.

You can see that the forest conservation CC opportunity shrinks considerable from these considerations. The huge money opportunity you describe is not reality. It is another value to consider, and in some situations it may work.

You state that there are a lot of questions � I suggest that you should have asked a professional forester who is involved in this area to answer them for you before writing your article.

The Association of BC Forest Professionals could get you in touch with one. There are already many answers available. It is not right to give the public the impression that this is just a big scam to allow companies to continue to pollute.

Brian R. Smart, RPF, RPBio.

Halfmoon Bay

Application of electromagnets – Electric Bell (Radioactivity-Nuclear)

ELECTRIC BELLS

The push button is pressed. Electromagnet is switched on. The spring is attracted by the electromagnet.

The hammer hits the gong and sound is produced. The contact is broken. Electromagnet is switched off.

The spring moves back to original position. The contact is closed. The process repeats.

ELECTRIC BELLS

Nuclear Reactor (Radioactivity-Nuclear)

RADIOACTIVITY NUCLEAR

A nuclear reactor produces tremendous amount of energy through nuclear fission. The energy liberated from the fusion of nuclear fuel heats the surrounding water. As a result, steam is generated to drive turbines which in turn drive the electrical generators. In the nuclear reactor, the neutrons released through a nuclear fission move with very high speeds and are slowed down to increase the chances of colliding with the Uranium-235.

General Structure of a Nuclear Reactor

Graphite Moderator
Fast moving neutrons are slowed down by collisions with nuclei in the moderator so that they can cause further fissions. In some nuclear power plant, the moderator is water.

Uranium Rod
Fission reactions occur in the uranium rod to produce nuclear energy. The uranium used is often enriched by increasing the proportion of the isotope uranium-235 above the natural value of 0.7% to 3%.

Control Rod
The rate of the fission reaction is controlled by inserting or withdrawing these rods. The nuclei in the rods absorb neutrons without undergoing any reaction. Sometimes the rod is made of cadmium.

Coolant
Coolant is used to take away the heat from the nuclear reactor. Substances with high specific heat capacity such as heavy water and carbon dioxide are used.

Thick Concrete Wall
Thick concrete wall prevent the escape of harmful radiations.

Steam Generator
Water in the generator is heated and changed into steam. The steam then drives the turbines.

Turbine
Turbine is used to turn the dynamo in the electrical generator to produce electricity.

To prevent any damage to the plant which causes serious environment pollution, normally the site of a nuclear power plant is far away from the zones of volcanic eruption. The nuclear power plant is normally built near the sea or the river to ensure that there is enough water supplies to cool the plant in an emergency.