Sopuck speaks to Neepawa Rotary Club
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- Published on Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Photo by Kate Jackman-Atkinson. Federal Conservative candidate Robert Sopuck spoke to the Neepawa Rotary about his life outside of politics.
By Kate Jackman-Atkinson
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
On Oct. 2, federal Conservative candidate Robert Sopuck spoke to the Neepawa Rotary Club. During the election, the club has tried to have each of the candidates speak about their personal lives and experiences. Sopuck talked about his work as a biologist, his family and his love of nature and rural living.
The club is non-political and the candidates addressed no political questions during the official portion of the presentation. However, Sopuck did take some time after the meeting to address some questions with the media.
Sopuck began by talking about the size of riding, which is as big as Nova Scotia. The riding stretches from Rossendale in the south east to Barrows in the north west. When it comes to getting signs out, he said, 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to sign Nova Scotia.鈥�
In response to comments that the environment has suffered while the Conservatives have been in government, Sopuck said, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a false statement鈥�. He pointed to some indicators, including a reduction in SO2 and NO2 gasses, as well as two of the best sockeye runs all taking place while they have been in government. 鈥淚n 2010, [Canada was] rated by the UN as having the second best water quality in the world. I utterly reject [environmental abuse claims], because they never back it up with fact,鈥� he said.
On the issue of climate change and emissions, Sopuck talked about Canada relative to other countries, 鈥淜eep in mind that Canada is 1.6 per cent of the global emissions, China is 23 per cent, India is 18 per cent...California [emits] more than we do in terms of CO2.鈥�
Sopuck continued, talking about the Canadian economy, 鈥淭hese people who talk about climate change, advocate the destruction of our economy. When you put numbers to what they鈥檙e asking for, you end up with a severely weakened economy, we are a natural resource based economy. The 575,000 families that are supported by the oil sands are extremely important. The callousness with which the Elizabeth Mays and the Tom Mulcairs will cast them aside is appalling.鈥�
Sopuck also responded to claims that scientists have been muzzled by the Conservative government, 鈥淕overnment scientist publish some 3,000 papers a year that are freely available anywhere. It鈥檚 another myth.鈥� He added, 鈥淭here are all kinds of scientists with tenure in the universities, they鈥檙e not being muzzled by anybody. Tenured professors, they can speak their mind.鈥�
He then cautioned that those scientists are very different from the scientists employed by the government, 鈥淲hen you are a civil servant, it is unconscionable for a civil servant to publicly question government policy. [As an MP] I鈥檓 accountable for government policy, I鈥檓 accountable for what I say. People can vote for or against me based on what I say. What if a civil servant came out and railed against a policy that was wildly popular among the citizens? The first question is, 鈥榃ho are you? We didn鈥檛 elect you.鈥欌��
He added that civil servants have privileged access to decision makers not available to members of the public, 鈥淐ivil servants can鈥檛 have it both ways. They can鈥檛 be sending position papers up with recommendations to ministers and at the same time, go outside the chain of command and comment on policy. Restraints on public servants commenting on public policy is normal for all governments.鈥�
The topic of Mincome, a set minimum income study undertaken in Dauphin the 1970s, also came up and Sopuck said, 鈥淚鈥檓 very intrigued by the idea of a guaranteed annual income. This is me as an academic talking, I鈥檇 like to do the math, I鈥檇 like to see the math. If you add up every single social program and all the bureaucrats, you never know. I think it鈥檚 an intriguing idea, but it鈥檚 all math.鈥�
