The Gloves are Off

Special to the Globe and Mail
September 15, 2007

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell yesterday sent a toughly worded letter to Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer declining his offer of a December meeting on cross-border environmental issues and challenging the state's environmental performance.

Stung by a letter from Mr. Schweitzer three weeks ago that takes B.C.'s performance to task, Mr. Campbell took his own gloves off and offered up a detailed defence of the province's environmental assessment program while casting aspersions, in diplomatic language, on the Montana record.

The two leaders are sparring over potential resource development in the Flathead River area of southeastern B.C. and the possible impact on that river as it flows into Montana. Festering for years, the issue has exploded into a war of words in the past three weeks.

The Premier suggests that the main reason Mr. Schweitzer wants to preserve the Flathead is because the rest of Montana has been turned over to industrial use.

"We recognize in particular that Montana's land-use and resource-development decisions elsewhere in the state mean the Flathead Basin is the only remaining major protected area in Montana," Mr. Campbell says.

Mr. Campbell then takes Mr. Schweitzer to task for negative comments about potential coal-bed methane development, pointing out that while B.C. will not allow energy companies to discharge wastewater from coal-bed methane wells on the surface, Montana does. "I understand Montana has 807 producing coal-bed gas wells," the letter states. (Read full article)