HOME | TRASHIN' THE BOG | TRASHIN' YOUR HOOD | PULLING THE WOOL OVER YOUR EYES | F.A.Q.

Falcon Attacks Gateway Critics - irony wasted on no one?

The Now paper published a strongly pro-Gateway piece where they told us, in no uncertain terms that Gateway is happening, and it is just exactly the way Kevin has it planned! But lets have a more critical look at a few of Kevin's Statements.

"Twenty years ago they stopped buses because they couldn't keep a schedule..." True, but a bit ironic coming from just another guy who drives his Suburban-Super-Single-Occupant Gas Guzzler to work down-town. Or maybe, the "New" sky train, which also emerged just about twenty years ago was the real reason buses stopped - Hmmm coincidence?

"All the people who tell you we don't listen, they're wrong... more than 10000 attended the meetings and the majority loved the concept." It is interesting that the meeting I went to with my neighbors saw a full audience angry mob, that had Mike Proudfoot looking afraid for his life before the meeting was half over. It also prompted a complete turn-around in how Gateway did public consultations: Smaller meetings with large numbers of content specialists to answer questions, sequenced high price poster boards "selling" benefits like improved traffic flow, shorter commute time and resulting decrease in pollution. Any one who attended a meeting will tell you that none of the impacts were presented fully or honestly if at all. Every one loves the concept of improved traffic flow and if it is a victimless crime - all the better!

"We have to be bold, aggressive and ambitious." From a guy not bold enough to show his face and make his arguments to his opponents. From a guy who uses the news paper to vent his aggression and has ambitions only for his own advancement? Hmm?

"Even that little protest in Delta - they sent out, what, 75,000 fliers or something like this and were beating the bushes on their email networks and everything else to pull together folks from Vancouver and all over the lower mainland, and frankly, I wasn't particularly impressed." It is easy to forget when you have unlimited cash resources for your marketing plan, (such that includes your own income while you travel from luncheon to luncheon telling every person you see all the benefits, and none of the costs), just how difficult it is to mobilize any disparate group of people for any cause. In actual fact, we paid for the fliers with personal money. We promote our ideas in our spare time as we are all employable and have jobs, and so many people want some relief from the congestion that any one who says they have the answer is the only voice they hear unless we personally explain every detail.

So Kevin, what we're not particularly impressed by is how your massive marketing campaign so utterly fails to sway our belief that there are better solutions - oh, right because it's a lie!

SFPR hasn't even started and already Gateway has lost control of costs!

The new budget for the SFPR is $1 Billion, up from $800 Million.

Expropriation costs are taking 40% of the budget.  Falcon is not concerned because they have a $300 million contingency fund.  Well, they haven’t even begun building and he has already committed 2/3rd of the fund to one project?  I bet Carole Taylor – Minister of Finance – is concerned.

Not unlike every other Government project, costs are spiraling beyond the budget figures. While most people know this is a common tactic of government spending, this one seems even more rancid because Gateway continues to use old budget figures to undermine support for the obvious alternatives.

Given the high value of properties in the lower mainland, We suspect that the entire $300 Million contingency will be consumed long before any real mitigation costs start mounting around aboriginal rights, environment and heritage preservation. A Tunnel with only a handfull of expropriations, and work in an area beyond the regions of aboriginal interest and away from communities, the tunnel route is clearly better in every way - But Kevin still pretends that costs are the reason a tunnel is impossible - an argument fast losing credibility!

Carbon in Green Clothes? Tolls are good business.

While Minister Falcon runs around telling us the toll on the proposed twinned Port Mann Bridge is intended to ease congestion and slow the growth of traffic, one of the prominent public companies interested in getting into a P3 partnership with the Province, Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG), is telling investors on the other end of the planet that tolling as a great, stable, high growth investment. Suggesting 19.4% annual compounded growth, one wonders where this money is coming from. Simply stated in Macquarie's investor fact sheet it is: increasing traffic, reduced resistance to increased tolls caused by growing congestion on untolled alternate routes (Like SFPR), and legal enforcement of mandatory volume targets and concession agreements! Check out the fact sheet!

So the infrastructure businesses demand higher traffic volumes, worse congestion and higher tolls to ever insure the benefit of their Investors. In the mean time, we pay the price.

If you think that new Highways will help your commute - think again. Experienced infrastructure planners and engineers know the reality of bigger roads: more congestion. And now they've figured out another way to profit from destroying communities and the environment ('nuthin new there.)

What Kevin is telling us doesn't seem to be right. Makes you wonder if he's not being completely up front about Gateway. Well... if he's lying, I'm sure that while he is living on some island paradise after wise investment in infrasturcture, he'll go mad from guilt. But just in case he doesn't, maybe we should act now and try to stop this fiasco from ever darkening our door!

Send email, mail, call - just be in the face of every politician you come across - and you'll come across a few on our Politicians email page...

Interested in even more info on this: check out the article on the Tyee

Gateway's reply shows contempt for Delta Council:

On January 26th, Gateway replied to Delta Council's submission to the Environmental Assessment Office.  Their responses relied on a familiar pattern:

1. Deny the obvious impacts:
   1. "The SFPR does not impact the protected areas of Burns Bog"!!??
      1. Because they don't plan to put any asphalt on actual protected areas, they claim that the SFPR does not impact the Bog.  How ridiculous is that?
      2. "SFPR has minimal impact on heritage properties.
         
         
2. Distract from the actual information in the report:
   1. Council asks Gateway to address the impact of increased levels of dangerous diesel particulates in neighbourhoods next to the SFPR.  Gateway's response? "... emissions in the SFPR corridor are expected to decrease between 2003 and 2021" These projections rely entirely on estimates of the rate of modernization of the trucking fleet and changes in diesel fuel composition.  The neighbourhoods that have a new four lane truck route in their back yards will see a significant spike in carcinogenic diesel particulates amongst other pollutants, and will have to rely on truckers to upgrade their trucks at great expense to the trucker. - Sure.
      
      
3. Rely on Mitigation over Alternatives:
   1. Agricultural land loss - we are exploring mitigation.
   2. Burns Bog impacts - we are exploring mitigation.
   3. Noise pollution - we are exploring mitigation.
      
      
4. Claim that the suggestion is too expensive: Delta requests a snow shed style cover over the North Delta portion of the highway to provide protection from noise, light, and air pollution.  Gateway's response: ...preliminary investigation of a 2 km ... cover ... would cost up to $200 Million... and would double the construction costs."

Even Delta's administrators were not satisfied with Gateway's response: "Gateway's response to Delta's submission is an ambiguous reply that provides vague commitments regarding a number of  Delta's specific requests and does not address a number of issues highlighted by Delta."