Dear Editor,

What a pleasure to pick up a copy of the TIMES and read the editorial [Pay today, or lose tomorrow, April 19 Opinion] pointing out that maintaining the environment today will save us not just money in the future, but that very future itself.

At a time when Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives are gutting federal environmental protection on everything from pipeline projects to the Fisheries Act, scientific research and monitoring will be disappearing from Environment Canada.

And we can't count on our provincial government to protect B.C.'s environment.

We've seen huge cuts to the Ministry of Environment that will affect everything from our rivers and streams to clean drinking water to at-risk species.

B.C.'s economic prosperity and environmental sustainability are not mutually exclusive, despite what our federal and provincial governments tell us.

Thank you to the TIMES for pointing this out.

Diane Thorne, MLA, Coquitlam-Maillardville