HOME | TRASHIN' THE BOG | TRASHIN' YOUR HOOD | PULLING THE WOOL OVER YOUR EYES | F.A.Q.
January 10, 2010 - Town Hall Meeting - 1pm to 4pm - The True Costs of the SFPR
July 25, 2008 - Sign the Petition to Protect Burns Bog
July 25, 2008 - Society appeals for international help to protect Burns Bog
July 25, 2008 - Province Grants Environmental Certificate to SFPR
For more info on EA approval...
July 14, 2008 - SFPR - Delta to Explore Judicial Review - On July 14th, 2008, Delta Council received reports from the Environment Committee and Heritage Committee and voted to get municipal lawyers to explore the possibility of filing for a judicial review of the Environmental Assessment process for the South Fraser Perimeter Road
Save Burns Bog - Burns Bog Society appeals to MP's and MLA's to understand the impacts of the South Fraser Perimeter Road on Burns Bog.
When the Federal Government, Provincial Government, Regional District and Municipality of Delta pooled their resources to purchase a large portion of Burns Bog, A Conservation Covenant was created and signed by all four levels of government. Burns Bog is now at significant risk and the two senior levels of government will be receiving an Environmental Assessment that outlines those risks. Read more...
Nov 3, 2007 - Surrey Now - Ministers to get report soon
Jody Shimkus of the Environmental Assessment Office estimates that the Ministers of Environment will receive their completed Environmental Assessment of the Impacts of the South Fraser Perimeter Road. The Ministers then have 45 days to accept or reject the report, possibly asking for further information.
Environmental Assessment Update - SFPR Application Suspended until satisfactory answers given by MoT
The Ministry of Transportation had wanted the Application to be certified by June of this year, but public pressure and unanswered concerns forced a third public comment period and an expected date of mid to late September for the application to go through.
Gateway then said that the application has been suspended until the late fall… and now we understand that it has been pushed further and may not be addressed until January.
The reason for the delay is your comments, questions and letters to the politicians and the media that they are unable to find a way around.
The major stumbling blocks are:
Burn’s Bog: The Experimental approach they have put forth is being rejected by the scientific community. The Damage that they admit to in the application goes against the protective covenant that prevents negative impacts. They are unable to come up with adequate mitigation or compensation for the many species at risk that would be impacted.
Fisheries: The impacts to the Fraser River and its fish populations from pollution and habitat loss are too great and although they have tried to find mitigation and compensation to make up for these losses they are unable to satisfy the Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans.
Species at risk: The impacts to the many threatened and endangered species is contrary to the enhancement strategies that they have implemented for environmental stewardship.
Air Quality: Air quality impacts and increases to Greenhouse Gasses undo the reductions that the Government has committed to.
Public Comments: The public comments were based on an Environmental Application that was full of misleading and erroneous information and as the SNA pointed out at each comment period, this means that the public, (and the Working Groups) were basing they're comments on incorrect data and therefore the process was pointless.
The Environmental Application, (E.A.), contradicts itself from one paragraph to the next and mitigation measures are not properly outlined which means that the actual environmental impacts of the S.F.P.R. remain unknown. At the federal level it is being called the worst E.A. in history and it is your letters that have stopped the Ministry of Transportation from rushing through this damaging and costly project.
Keep up the pressure by writing to the Minister responsible for signing-off this E.A… Mr. Barry Penner, Minister of the Environment, (with copies to his fellow politicians), and insist that they scrap this environmental nightmare and review the many alternatives that would facilitate the movement of goods and people without the impacts on our livability.
A long wait - my apologies
I'd like to apologize to my regular visitors for not updating the site for the past three weeks. Being a regular working Joe, in a company that has been enjoying huge sales in the current boom, but not so much success on getting new people to help, the hours are long.
We've been looking into the details on the Various discussion papers, and it just isn't satisfactory!
The discussion papers were prepared by the Environmental assessment office, not Gateway. They are a summary of the various issues raised in the first public consultation and all issues from various governing agencies from Federal to Municipal. Unfortunately, the documents have an eerie feeling of being pro-gateway despite the fact that Gateway has offered only half hearted or half-assed answers. From "Promises" to work with communities to reports with data that is neither confirmed by a third party, nor provided for scrutiny to the public or any third party.
Kevin likes to say the project has been studied to death, "lets just get on with it. " What he repeatedly fails to tell us is that every study tells us the plan will indeed lead to death. Your children. Your environment. Your community.
We're working on some very brief summary comments for you to see the issues and respond directly to the EAO. This is the last week, and time is short. So please again accept my apology for the late hour I've started to deliver this to you, but understand, I'm just one of you - busy in the day-to-day. So stand up with me, stand up now and speak out against the current plan, it will save your Home!
Cheers,
Paul The SaveDelta Web guy. Click here to see and send responses
The Bog: New species found. Ministry of transport: Same old species spouts spin.
This week, while Bog researchers uncover evidence of a new, rare species of shrew in Burns Bog, Kevin Falcon continues to advocate his path of destruction unabated by any form of common sense showing all the ranting eloquence of a five-year-old demanding that mom shut-up and get out of his way. Sadly, this five-year-old has the power to have his way unless every one of us stands up and tells every person we know to stand with us and say stop this spiteful rampage!
Environmental Assessment Office Announces Another Round of Public Consultations
The EAO is reopening the Assessment for the South Fraser Perimeter Road (read:Truck Highway) for Public Comment on Gateway's current round of back-peddling. Due to the excessive costs of Expropriation, SFPR had to be re-aligned slightly by Gateway to avoid paying residents of Delta for the right to hack and destroy their community. Kevin Falcon has already begun the spin on "Saving the Bog" as the reasoning for the realignment but in actual fact this change in the location of the Highway 99 interchange will HAVE NO BENEFICIAL CHANGE OF IMPACT to Burns Bog.
This reassessment has also given Gateway a chance to correct the glaring errors and misinformation that Sunbury Neighborhood Association and many other diligent members of the public unearthed in the first assessment application. Thus far, the various communiques between Environment Canada, Environment BC and Gateway have show a terrible lack of effort in correcting the errors or answering the questions. Even in the responses from Gateway to Specific concerns about the project from EC and EBC there is rhetorical spin-doctoring. Who do they think their fooling?!
On or Before April 20th, the Environmental Assessment office will Post Gateway's official response documents on the ePic website. You can expect to find (according to officials at the EAO) discussion papers of approximately 15 pages for Agriculture, Noise, Air Quality and Socio-Community issues, and a more lengthy response paper for Burns Bog.
As noted in the Invitation to comment, "Form letters" will be disregarded. As a result, SaveDelta's pre written email campaign will be prepared differently. I will post a link to a page for each area of concern in the assessment with specific matters from both the original and from the current submissions. You may select any of the information presented to include and comment on in your email to the EAO. The email form will only include the correct address and a common salutation (which you should feel free to edit). You should create a personalized subject line so no subject is included on the email form.
If ever you wondered if our public consultation on environment works, this is the time to truly test democracy. Pull together every one you know, ask them to SaveDelta.ca and send an email for every issue they are concerned about.
We must exercise our democratic right - if it fails we are caught in a system that must be changed, and you can contribute to that too!
New Alignment for SFPR announced by Ministry of Transport.
Announced in the Saturday Now (April 7) Gateway has submitted a realignment of the highway to avoid some critical areas of Burns Bog and the St. Mungo's Site near Alex Fraser Bridge. This after a number of questions raised by the Ministry of Environment of both federal and provincial level. It seems a small victory, and Delta Municipality is pleased to see the change. But it is a change to placate Bureaucracy and make Gateway appear to be "listening to the people" which will be the undoubtable spin they will give this change.
Fortunately, the modified alignment requires that the public be given an additional comment period for this project - 30 more days will be offered for public comment, the date is yet to be set.
IF you want to Stop or Reroute the SFPR, this is a golden opportunity for additional pressure on the application. We at Sunbury Association have it on good authority that, numbers are the only thing that count in the assessment. Well stated and eloquent arguments are wasted as they only want to count your concern and gain a 'vote' for your efforts.
On the Opening Date I will post email links to Jody Shimkas of the Environmental Assessment Office with pre written content that you are free to use, modify or overwrite as you wish to get your opinion added to the Assessment - test your email software by clicking the test below:
Send an email with prewritten content to SaveDelta.ca
Stop Gateway Rally, where to go from here.
Again, a Big thanks to Donna Passmore and Company for pulling together the Stop Gateway media event. Judging by the Response here on SaveDelta.ca the word has spread. Some good questions are out and Min. Falcon is hiding his head in the sand - or rather behind his usual rhetoric.
So, you may ask what now? As you have seen here, contact your local political representatives. And involve your neighbors and friends.
Not every one may think Stopping Gateway as right. The "Common sense" response I get from my friends who commute is "Even if transit was better, I couldn't use it, there needs to be some kind of expansion of the roads"
The answer is simple: "In two years or less, you'll be back where you started. Just parked amongst 4 Cars instead of two. Choking on more fumes, and wondering why you haven't seen the North Shore Mountains for the past two years."
For example, Alex Fraser Bridge originally had only 2 lanes open each direction, and was planned to be that way for 5 years. In six months, the traffic load had expanded to the point where the third lane in each direction needed to be opened. And sitting on 72Ave in morning rush, you can see that was effective.
Bigger Roads invariably lead to bigger traffic, and larger urban sprawl. Urban Densification, Telecommuting, a truly 21st Century Transit system and Cycling infrastructure are collectively a more permanent Solution.
So What Now? Tell everyone. Gateway is the road to Ruin. And the spiraling costs and mismanagement will surely make this project the Liberal Version of the Fast Ferries - but when it's time to scrap this ship, Burns Bog will be dead, Cancer will be rampant in local children and shipping containers will be the only view from any point in Delta.
S.N.A. Impact Summary Report - Click here
(1.5MB PDF Download) - Get a Look at the Big Offenders in Gatway's Application for Environmental Assessment. All the Misdirection, All the Mistakes, All the Misplanning Your hard earned money is being spent on!
Sunbury Association has done the digging you don't have time to do, and we've uncovered some horrifying information in Gateway's plans. Dig in, its a great quick read compared to the disaster that Gateway produced, and if it doesn't get your blood boiling, I'll buy you a beer! (All you have to do is listen to my rant while you drink it!)
Mayor Jackson Sticks it to Gateway at the Senate Committee Meetings
Much to our delight and satisfaction, Delta Mayor Lois Jackson gave a sobering point of view of the great Gateway plan to the visiting Senators. She also pointed out in great detail the sham of public consultation and the absolute lack of democratic process.
Using some very pointed accusations about the port expansion and the brides paid to the Tswassen First Nations Band for use (and trashing) of their land in the recent treaty agreement, Mayor Jackson pulls no punches in making clear that this program from beginning to end has been about self serving business expansion, without regard for people or environment.
Check out the full text of Mayor Jackson's Presentation.
We here at SaveDelta.ca are certainly clear where Mayor Jackson's optinion lies now, and we're glad she's on our side! Kudos Mayor!
Don't Give Up!
In a recent meeting held by Delta City Council at Brooke Elementary School, many of the residents who attended had already "lost hope" that a reasonable solution to traffic on River Rd., and through Delta generally, is a possibility. However, Hon. Kevin Falcon's "Done Deal" is anything but done.
There is every reason to believe that the environmental assessment application could be the first ever rejected due to unmanageable levels of risk associated with construction near Burns Bog. Gateway's own reports state specifically that there are too many unknowns about the bog:
Environmental Application Main document, p. 127, 6.1.3.3
‘Likelihood of significant adverse environmental impacts’.
"There are generally too many unknown factors, particularly outside the control of the MOT or unrelated to the project, to undertake statistical assessments (confidence limits) of probability, so qualitative statements were used to assess the likelihood of occurrence instead."
The Proponent is guessing, and with sensitive environs like Burns Bog, it would be unacceptable risk management with too many unknowns to build a Highway through this areas.
Gateway Quote of the Week:
"Once destroyed, natures beauty cannot be repurchased at any price."
Ansel Adams
Occasionally, we humans must expand our space to suit our needs, but no matter how we try to minimize the impact, time and again Ansel Adam's comment is proven and re-proven.
Our day-to-day behavior drives this need to expand. But it does not demand that we sacrifice everything beautiful for penny wise economies.
Build a tunnel,
Pave South of Burns Bog
Maximize Transit
"Spending two thirds of a billion dollar 40-km project's budget on four kilometers doesn't make sense to me."
Kevin Falcon to 'the Now' after a key note to the Surrey Board of Trade (more on this article)
What should have followed: "but I don't want to mention the half a billion dollars we're spending on expropriations and destruction of the environment."
I'll admit, that spinning the tunnel this way sure makes it sound expensive. But put it in context: They are already spending nearly half a billion on expropriation and destruction that can otherwise be spared. The added cost to health care as a result of toxic air amounts to Billions of dollars by 2021. This doesn't even begin to answer the mitigation costs for old contaminated sites that are poorly identified by Gateway in the environmental assessment , which could easily cost in excess of 100 million for stabilization or removal for construction. And burns Bog - construction mitigation costs are a complete unknown!
What doesn't make sense to me is killing people, habitat and communities for cheaper T-shirts.
"It's exactly why we have an extraordinary contingency"
Kevin Falcon in response to questions on SFPR Budget raised by NDP MLA Guy Gentner.
It certainly seems to be sound reasoning, except when you put into perspective the fact that the "Extraordinary contingency" is $300-Million for the Entire Gateway slate of projects (SFPR, NFPR and Twinning Port Mann), and when you consider that the entire overrun of $200-Million taken from the extraordinary contingency has been use on expropriation costs for SFPR Only, and that costs associated to environmental mitigation for the Bog destruction are not even guessed at in Gateway's application for Environmental Assessment, suddenly the sound reasoning falls short of reality.
Sunbury Neighbourhood suggested to Falcon that the costs of his "pet" alignment were underestimated when we met with him personally to advocate the tunnel option. He was confident that he was in the right. Now who has egg on their face - again.
“80% of the economic activity at Vancouver Port is incoming. Only 20% is outgoing. Is that trade deficit sustainable? The United States doesn't think it is. They have the same trade imbalance there, and they are getting understandably, and vocally, worried. And so should we. It is unsustainable.”
Delta Mayor Lois Jackson, Chair of the GVRD, in a presentation to the Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications. March 13, 2007
If you don't live in Delta, or work here, you may never comprehend the impact this trade deficit has already had. Beginning a road trip near Patullo bridge on South Fraser Way you will find a yard of containers stacked 5 high nearly filled, As you progress along River road, you will see stacks lingering behind the homes on the north side of the road. Visitors to the Great Pacific forum will tell you that behind the arena is yet another yard fast stacking up. Throughout the Tilbury area, larger and larger yards are now stacked 8 containers high.
The reality is, most of these containers have been abandoned as too expensive to return to the port of origin - China or India. So there they sit, rusting. Even the steel value is insufficient to salvage these wastrels. So we will become a peninsula for container storage until the global economy balances our trade by outside means. Needless to say every family in Delta will have lost their nest egg and been driven out by then.
"With increased air pollution there can possibly be increased employment (e.g., in the health sector) because of the economic activity associated with correcting the results of its impacts.”
(Technical Volume 16, pg. 39, 4.3.5 Employment)
Lets leave out the inhumane dispassion of the statement given regarding our health in the quote above and focus on the fact that it is blatantly wrong!
Last time I checked, Health Care costs were anticipated to increase due to increased demand of our aging population, meanwhile the Budgets of all hospital regions in BC are being slashed to the bone.
Obviously, the expenditure on health care has absolutely nothing to do with demand - therefore the quote above has no basis for substantiation. It is clearly an attempt to downplay the severity of what is proposed by Gateway.
Gateway should stop pretending that this highway project is anything less than absolutely destructive to Delta in every way. Say it like it is or better yet, DO THE JOB RIGHT in the FIRST PLACE.
If you think SFPR should be done right - email Kevin Falcon and Gordon Campbell
March 14th Quote
“The Gateway Program is responsible for about 42% of the projected total net increase in economic impacts from Global Warming.”
Technical Volume 16, pg. 60, paragraph 1
Wether you believe in Global Warming or not, the fact is, money is about to be spent on coming up with solutions. Given the regional goals set forth by the Premier it is clear that this one Highway project is the single largest contributor to these expendatures.
Add any projections of this cost to the already monumental costs to Delta that the Delta Engineering department has determined, plus the mitigation cost estimates that Gateway is absolutely petrified to publish accurately, and the Tunnel cost argument becomes totally ludicris.
Given that Gateway funding from the Fed's appears to be stalling, it may not be too difficult to nail the coffin of the SFPR shut. Contact your local reps. and let them know you have no desire to vote for any candidate that will not speak out against the current poor plans for SFPR or Gateway in General.
March 9th Quote:
"I think it's sad and unfortunate that they try and peddle facts like that, that are not true..."
Hon. Kevin Falcon - Article in the Now Paper: "Gateway to Cancer: Groups"
This in response to Sunbury Neighbourhood Association Leader, Don Hunt's reporting to the media the details of Gateway's Application for Environmental Assessment Certificate Report.
You can see for yourself, by following the links on our site to the volumes cited by the article, the data reported is what Gateway has admitted they will be doing to us.
Kevin: time to pull your head out of the sand and have a look at the work you are responsible for authorizing. Or maybe you are incompetent and should be moved out of the Transport Minister role.