Business, garbage and war - a difficult balance

There are things that I just have to address - business, Environment Minister Mark Parent's new position and, of course, the war.

No, I'm not just griping about a list of things because I don't have a solid topic to write about this week.

Letting business be

I'm glad this Sunday shopping issue has come to an end. I'm one of those people who likes to shop - all week long. Being Marg Fox's eldest grandson, I like bargains. In fact, I suspect I've spent a small fortune saving money. Not being able to shop for groceries on Sunday had been an encumbrance. When there is a holiday Monday, everyone won't be tearing toward New Minas Saturdays as if there is going to be a famine or drought.

The business of doing business in Kings County, Nova Scotia and Canada is business. This includes agriculture, making tires, retail, construction and scads of other things. We can never have too many businesses, large or small. They are good for employment, the economy and keeping folks out of trouble.

I grew up within sight and sound of a rail car plant, steel works, power plant and downwind from a kraft pulp mill. I get nervous when I can't look and hear something not to do with industry. It doesn't have to belch smoke or vile pulp fumes - but it has to be there. If it's nice and green like a farm or a garden centre, all the better. If not, oh well.

Businesses aren't generally that charming. Sometimes they can be unpleasant to some tastes - and not necessarily delicate ones, either. I get steamed when businesses are driven out of the county, or not allowed to expand because of esthetic reasons. The situations of Centreville Truck Repair and EFR are cases in point. The issues are complex, but either or both cases were not rocket science. Suffice it to say, there have to be spots for such businesses to locate and operate efficiently. If the lots are already zoned for such enterprises; well, unless there are some glaring issues, that's where they should be.

On top of that, there has to be a safe, secure industrial park for those operators who wish to be there. Again, that's if they wish to be there - not forced to. The Annapolis Valley Industrial Park in Kentville now has restrictions because of well-field protection requirements. There has to be another alternative. Soil processor Mark-Lynn Construction has been through all of that, and taken severe flack concerning its soil harvesting in a nearby bog. How it survived is beyond me.

We have to be concerned about protecting farmland, but we also have to help farmers make the most of their property - though not to the point of opening up a steel plant, of course. Though I wouldn't be upset of we could actually - as unlikely as it would be - accommodate one somewhere around here.

Farmers have to be able to direct sell, open their operations to the public and provide value-added products.

That aside, with new buffering and environmental technology, business should have a bit more slack in finding a place from which to operate, as well as in what they have to do to keep going.

What’s Mark up to?

Speaking of things environmental: just as I thought, Kings North MLA Mark Parent has been spry in his new Environment and Labour portfolio. The glue wasn't dry on the sign on his door when he had to address legislation to protect Sunday retail workers. Now he's hit the road to sell Nova Scotia environmental and waste management technology in the Caribbean, just attending a conference in Trinidad and Tobago where the province's delegation was a great hit (at least that's what the photos show). Then Parent was off to Ottawa and elsewhere in the country concerning environmental issues.

His portfolio, though it always has been important, has been enhanced, and he is certainly the person to meet the demands.

Then there’s the war

Noted military writer and publisher Scott Taylor was in Wolfville last week to talk about Canada's Afghan mission.

He noted the bizarre road to the current situation the army and the country find themselves. Between the Taliban, warlords and drug lords, the NATO mission is up against a lot.

My take is, there is no good news at this stage. Things are worse than publicly perceived.

As Taylor pointed out, though, we can't just haul arse out of there. No one would trust us again, and it would leave a lot of bad blood with our allies.

It all depends on what the Afghans want and what we want to do about it. Taylor correctly said we can beat the enemy, but it won't make the Afghans love us.

At the meeting, I wouldn't have been surprised if an NDP meeting had broken out during a slow point in the lecture.

But there was neither.

And I don't think the crowd heard what they had hoped to. I certainly didn't. Something has to change. As Taylor said, in the mean time, we have to support the troops. Hope for and work toward the best, for the army and the country.