Seven Oaks Magazine.

Hundreds protest "Gateway" road/port expansions in Vancouver
April 15, 2007
Roger Annis

Vancouver BC--More than five hundred angry people crowded the East Delta Community Center on March 31 to protest plans by the federal and provincial governments for a vast expansion of highways, bridges and port infrastructure throughout the greater Vancouver region. The noisy and boisterous crowd cheered as speaker after speaker condemned the plans, dubbed "Gateway" projects and pegged at more than $7 billion.

Delta is a mixed residential/agricultural district in the Vancouver region.

Called "Gateway to Global Warming" by opponents, the projects would see the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge, the busiest of Vancouver's eleven traffic bridges and tunnels; a new bridge over the Pitt River; new roadways to serve truck traffic; and further expansions of Vancouver's ports and related rail network. A brochure by the Vancouver-based Wilderness Committee explains that the Gateway project will, "…service a three-fold expansion of port facilities to accommodate three times more trucks to move container goods through the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) and across Canada…"

The committee's brochure warns of massive increases in air pollution caused by increases in the number of ships moving in and out of Vancouver ports. "Gateway would triple container business and ensure 24-hour unrestricted movement of trucks, which would send even more of these deadly toxins into the GVRD airshed."

A growing number of environmental organizations are raising their voices against the projects and are supported by some political figures, including the municipal government of Delta. The March 31 rally heard more than ten speakers outline the different consequences of "Gateway".

Several speakers pointed to the erosion of the democratic process that these huge projects have spurred on. Public hearings have been largely token, with the outcomes more or less pre-ordained. Meanwhile, the courts are increasingly being used to stamp out community protests. Green Party national deputy leader Adriane Carr drew wide applause and somber reflection when she paid tribute to two environmental activists, Betty Krawczyk and Harriet Nahanee.

Krawczyk is a 78 year old activist currently in jail for opposing highway expansion. Harriet Nahanee died in prison last month following her arrest for the same "crime". She was 65.

The speakers who drew the loudest applause at the rally were those who said the Gateway projects should be stopped in their tracks. These included Adriane Carr and Delta city councilor Vicki Huntington. A less enthused response was given to New Democratic Party member of the provincial legislature David Chudnovsky. He told the rally that highway and bridge expansion was inevitable; what is needed is to limit the worst consequences.

Local media personality Rafe Mair was repeatedly cheered when he described Gateway as symptomatic of a growing problem in the world--economic projects are divorced from human and environmental needs. He likened the use of courts to suppress environmental protest to the way in which courts are used to break or limit trade union organization.

Member of Parliament John Cummins received big applause when he spoke to the crowd. He has made a career of opposing the right of aboriginal people along the Fraser River to regain a share of the huge salmon fishery that was lost due to racist government policy in the past.

Vicki Huntington also spoke about aboriginal issues. She opposes the tentative economic and political agreement between the provincial government and the Tsawassen indigenous local government. That agreement provides for cash and land to the community, which numbers some 500 people and is located adjacent to Delta and one of Vancouver's shipping ports. In exchange, the community would renounce its historic aboriginal title. Implicit to the deal is that the local government will permit port expansion on the land it receives.

The land to be received is part of an agricultural land reserve, and this is the rallying cry of non-aboriginal protest against the deal. The land in the reserve is supposed to be preserved for agricultural use, though this has not prevented a constant eating away for industrial or residential use, and for quasi-agricultural industrial use such a large-scale greenhouses.

Municipal affairs researcher Phil Legood gave a talk in which he outlined the principles of public participation that should guide all government/industry projects. He argued for improved railways as an alternative to heavy reliance on trucks, and expanded roadways, to move commodities.

Other megaprojects are underway in Vancouver. Several billion dollars of public funds are being thrown into the sinkhole of the 2010 Winter Olympics, a two-week sport and tourism boondoggle coming to Vancouver that year. There is a growing nervousness in ruling class circles about growing protests against the Olympics spending. Poverty, homelessness, drug addiction, and crowded public transit are on the rise in Vancouver, while clean air and water are in decline.