Join the South Fraser Action Network for a townhall meeting focusing on the effects of the South Fraser Perimeter Road. There will be a group of speakers followed by a chance to ask questions and voice your concerns.

Saturday, January 16

1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Sundance Banquet Hall

6574 Ladner Trunk Road, Delta BC (served by the C76 and C87 buses)

Speakers include:

Harold Steves, co-founder of the Agricultural Land Reserve and the Farmland Defence League.

Stephen Rees, transportation economist and planner (ret.), blogger.

Eric Doherty, transportation planning consultant

Alexandria Mitchell, high school student and Copenhagen Climate Change Conference delegate.

Graeme Drew will be moderating.

Topics will include the social, environmental and economic impacts of the road, as well as actions you can take to help save Delta from the SFPR.

Have Concerns? Come Have Your Say!

All of Delta’s elected officials have been invited, come let them hear your opinion.

It is not a done deal. This road can be stopped.

For more information call Anita den Dikken at 604 948 0139

The B.C. Government is bringing in fill to dump on unique Burns Bog habitat after sending a landfill operator to jail for the same offence.  During the 1990s, the B.C. Government charged a Delta landfill owner with placing waste on 7 acres of Burns Bog.  In 2004, the landfill owner was fined $715,000 and sentenced to jail for 21 days.  Subsequently, the landfill owner lost land and business worth several million dollars.  The court erroneously claimed the area of landfill was the location where the rare and endangered sub-species of the Southern Red-backed Vole was found in B.C. for the first time since 1948.  In fact, the endangered voles were found in the area where the B.C. Government is now dumping fill for construction of the South Fraser Perimeter Road.

In 1999, the endangered voles were found near the 80^th Street SPCA shelter in Delta where trucks are now unloading fill for the new freeway through unprotected areas of Burns Bog.  The area is also critical habitat for 2 other endangered species, the Pacific Water Shrew and the Trowbridge’s Shrew.  These were also cited in the landfill court case.  Referring to the 7-acre parcel and the testimony of a government expert, Judge R.D. Miller stated:

“… He told me how it was home to at least three endangered mammal species, including one species (the red-backed vole) that was thought to be extinct until it was found in this area.”

While the landfill owner has been denied justice, the B.C. Government feels free to dump on several unprotected parcels of Burns Bog despite warnings from government and independent scientists.  The Scientific Advisory Panel to Burns Bog has advised that the South Fraser Perimeter Road should not be built on the unprotected properties of Burns Bog that are adjacent to the protected lands.  Their concerns have been echoed by federal and provincial scientists who warn that changes to Burns Bog are expected to be significant and irreversible causing ecological effects that cannot be adaptively managed.  In August 2007, the B.C. Ministry of Environment wrote:

“The Southern Red-backed Vole, occidentalis subspecies is provincially red-listed and is a candidate for listing as Endangered or Threatened under the BC Wildlife Act.  Five individuals of this red-listed sub-species have been captured at three locations….  Impacts from habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation will likely be significant given the sub-species’ limited range.”

During the Environmental Assessment of the new freeway, Environment Canada wrote:

“ Environment Canada concludes that the management objectives for restoration of Burns Bog, to which the Province of BC, GVRD and Corporation of Delta committed to Canada in the Conservation Covenant, and further articulated in the Burns Bog Management Plan, are likely not attainable should the project proceed as proposed.” (EC Technical Appendix, Nov.19, 2007, page 33)

“EC advises that the effects associated with building a road adjacent to Burns Bog will result in certain, permanent, irreversible impacts of a high magnitude that EC considers to be significant.”(Nov.19, page 27)

Delta owns environmentally-sensitive properties on both sides of 80^th Street as well as two other properties.  Instead of protecting these properties and adding them to the protected lands, Delta is paving the way for the B.C. Government to dump fill for the SFPR.  Construction of the road is just beginning and permanent irreversible damage is already taking place.

Ironically, the $1-billion freeway is not needed as the container business is not growing as predicted.  Supporters of the freeway are deluded into believing the propaganda that the freeway will help local traffic issues while research proves that freeways bring more traffic congestion over time. 

Sources of Information

1.     Delta Optimist: Highway Work Near Animals, January 14, 2009

     http://www.canada.com/deltaoptimist/news/story.html?id=fba96cde-f456-442b-ae54-d2fb31e8026a 

2.     Court Case:  Provincial Court of B.C., Reasons for Sentence; Miller, R.D. June 2, 2004 AB. Vol. 12. p.p. 2366-2388:

     Page 15: “Clearly the subject property here (Burns Bog) is a unique ecological area supporting rare flora and fauna as well as an essential wildlife habitat, and therefore this offence should be severely condemned…

     ‘If the damage is irreparable, extensive, persistent, or has numerous consequential adverse effects, the penalty must be severe.’

     This description of damage again clearly fits the case before me, and therefore I must consider a severe penalty.”

     Pages 21-22:  sentence of 21 days and 2 fines totaling $715,000

     Quote in text above:

“… He told me how it was home to at least three endangered mammal species, including one species (the red-backed vole) that was thought to be extinct until it was found in this area.”

Pages 6 & 7, Statement (20)

3.     Burns Bog Ecosystem Review: Small Mammals, December, 1999, Mark Fraker, Claudio Bianchini, and Ian Robertson, Robertson Environmental Services Ltd. and TerraMar Environmental Research.

4.     Reference to voles at 80^th Street in Delta: Environmental Assessment Application for the SFPR, Vegetation and Wildlife Impact Assessment, Technical Volume 12, Robertson Environmental Services Ltd. September 2006; pages 30, 85 and 93.  The reference is also found in the actual study cited in #2 above.

5.     Burns Bog Ecosystem Review Study: Status of Wildlife in Burns Bog, Delta – 1999, Martin Gebauer

6.     Letter from B.C. Ministry of Environment, Environmental Stewardship to Environmental Assessment Office, Re: The South Fraser Perimeter Road Development Application, August 21, 2007.

7.     Technical Appendix, Environment Canada Comments on South Fraser Perimeter Road, Environmental Assessment, November 19, 2007, pages 27 and 33.

8.     Will More Freeways Bring More Traffic?

http://articles.latimes.com/2002/apr/10/local/me-freeway10 

9.     Common Myths: Freeways Relieve Traffic Congestion

http://www.ptua.org.au/myths/congestion.shtml  

<<a bulletin from www.gatewaysucks.org >>

HEADS UP! PLEASE POST AND FORWARD FAR & WIDE:

Tomorrow — Monday Jan. 12, 2pm — Gordon Campbell, Kevin Falcon, and Federal reps will be making an “announcement about the South Fraser Perimeter Road” at the Surrey Fraser Docks.This announcement may concern new Federal funding for the SFPR.

MAJOR MEDIA WILL BE THERE. Let’s greet them with a large outside presence, and let them know that the people of the Lower Mainland demand TRANSIT NOT FREEWAYS — GREEN WAYS, NOT GATEWAY!

The announcement will be behind the fence on Port property, so public access will be controlled (interesting, that they need to control access for a public announcement…what are they afraid of?).

Please  join us there between 1 and 2 pm, with signs, drums and banners if you got em! (we will have some extra to share).

The announcement site is at the Surrey Fraser Docks on Elevator Road. Google map
To get to the site: you can take the #640 bus from Scott Road Station. (bus schedule) Ask the driver to let you off at River Rd & Elevator Rd. OR take the #312 from Scott Road Station to Townline Divers

Thanks all! We look forward to seeing you tomorrow, as we continue to demand better solutions than Gateway and, in the leadup to the Provincial election, let our leaders know what the public wants.

Here’s the unofficial vote counts as posted by the Corporation of Delta.

Burns Bog Ecological Conservancy Area (ECA)
Management Plan Overview

Metro Vancouver invites you to a presentation of the recently approved Burns Bog ECA Management Plan. Learn about current research, planning and field management activities being conducted by both the Corporation of Delta and Metro Vancouver.

Date: Thursday, December 4th, 2008
Time: 6:30 – 9 pm
Venue: Delta Town & Country Inn
6005 Highway 17 (at Highway 99), Delta
The Reifel Salon

The meeting includes general discussion and displays (6:30pm) and presentations (7:00pm):

• • Overview of the management plan
  • Hydrological & vegetation monitoring
  • Fire management
  • Field operations

For more information call: Metro Vancouver Regional Parks, West Area Office at 604-224-5739

PDF Version – Print and Share

Lyster said residents who live in the Silverdale neighbourhood fear wildlife will be threatened, including bald eagles, deer, black bear, bobcats and several species of owls, some which are already endangered.

Its members are also worried the development will contaminate streams and ground water that provide residents’ only current source of fresh water.

“The entire hillside functions as a watershed, and that water feeds the shallow wells of about 3,000 Mission residents,” said Lyster.

It’s relevant to Delta because it will have damaging effects on the Fraser River.  Scientist Dr. Marvin Roseneau has a presentation which shows that the stretch of River from Hope to Mission is the “heart of the Fraser River” because of the gravel reaches.

He is the scientist who was removed from the Mission job because the Fraser Valley MLAs don’t like him.  This is on the tape.   “This is what the assistant deputy minister [of environment] said when I got pushed out the door,  ’Marvin, there’s nothing wrong with your science. It’s just that the eastern Fraser Valley MLAs don’t like you. You’re gone. We’re going to give you what’s called a time-out until the next election’.”

Not only that, the provincial government has passed legislation making PDAs (phased developments agreements) a  legally-binding process.  They can be 10 year agreements and, if signed by the Inspector of Municipalities, they can be 20 year binding agreements.

“The provincial government is not listening to people in Delta about the negative impacts this road will have,” he says.

While it’s a provincial project, Cummins says there is a federal-funding component involved here.

Consequently, he suggests Ottawa needs to play a larger role and this is something Cummins promises to push for in the coming parliamentary term.

“Because of a slowing world economy and the growth of the port in Prince Rupert, there’s no longer a pressing need to race ahead with the SFPR,” he warns.

“So let’s step back and reassess the situation. But this time let’s also look at it from a community perspective, rather than only from a trade-and-business perspective,” he notes.

“Unfortunately, when folks criticize the B.C. government on where it’s going with projects like the SFPR, it just digs in firmer instead of listening to what voters are saying. This, I think, will hurt it significantly in next May’s election,” Cummins predicts.

This determination to listen and stand up for constituents is what we are looking for in politicians who would like to represent us.