“Come January, we’ll start to focus pressure on the province,” Kevin Washbrook, a spokesman for the group Voters Taking Action on Climate Change, said in a recent e-mail.
“They [the provincial government] have so far been silent on this, even though they have complete power to spike the Texada end of this proposal by refusing a permit to expand the coal-handling facilities there. The port [Port Metro Vancouver] has no say in that decision. No Texada terminal, no barging coal from Surrey, and the project is dead.”
Port Metro Vancouver could make a decision at any time on the application by Fraser Surrey Docks to export up to four million tonnes a year of coal, which would come by train through White Rock, Surrey and Delta, and go by barge down the Fraser River and north to a transshipment terminal at Texada Island.
Critics staged a silent vigil at the port authority offices Tuesday afternoon as the deadline passed for comments on an environmental impact assessment, which has been widely criticized as inadequate.
Depending on your perspective, either the downtown offices of Port Metro Vancouver were invaded Monday morning by “masked protesters carrying bags containing an unknown substance” or six Santas who tried to deliver bags of coal to port officials and got thrown out.
Vancouver and Coast Salish Territories, British Columbia — No less than 80% of Canada’s coal exports are shipped through British Columbia, and export terminals in the Lower Mainland received over $1 billion earlier this year to improve transport efficiency and capacity. Now, a new proposal for coal export from the Fraser Surrey Docks (FSD) terminal has raised the alarm bells for local residents.
VANCOUVER, COAST SALISH TERRITORIES – This morning, activists with Rising Tide-Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories dropped a banner reading “Coal, Oil, Gas: None Shall Pass” outside Port Metro Vancouver’s head office at Canada Place, in opposition to the proposed Fraser Surrey Docks coal terminal. “This coal export project is part of a push to make BC a gateway to profits for the fossil fuel industry.
We appreciate the chance to respond to the union members’ op-ed on coal exports from Nov. 27, (Critics of coal exports are misinformed) as it provides an opportunity to clear up misunderstandings circulated by the coal lobby. As the members pointed out, they are responsible for mining and transporting B.C.’s metallurgical coal to markets overseas. The key word here is metallurgical. We are opposed to Fraser Surrey Docks’ proposal to export U.S. thermal coal.
Our unions’ members are responsible for mining and transporting metallurgical coal from British Columbia to markets overseas. So we welcome the positive Environmental Impact Assessment released Nov. 18 by Port Metro Vancouver on the proposed Fraser Surrey Docks expansion. The study, by experts such as Dr. Leonard Ritter, Professor Emeritus of Toxicology at the University of Guelph’s School of Environmental Sciences, shows that many complaints by environmental groups and others are misinformed or exaggerated.
The city councils of Surrey and White Rock say they are keenly interested in a relocation inland of the railway line that runs along their ocean shorelines. That message was welcomed by most of the 400-plus people attending a public forum on the topic that the two councils hosted at the Pacific Inn in south Surrey on Nov 26. The forum featured Surrey mayor Dianne Watts and White Rock mayor Wayne Baldwin. Each was given much applause when they declared that it’s time to move the line inland. The case for relocation of the BNSF line has long been compelling.
On November 23, Alliance 4 Democracy Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast Conservation Association and Sunshine Coast Senior Citizens sponsored the Coal Hard Facts Forum in Sechelt. The speakers were as follows: Jef Keighley - Introduction - Alliance 4 Democracy; Eoghan Moriarty - 10 minute presentation on background of coal export proposal from Fraser-Surrey Docks, organization of Port Metro Vancouver and Real Port Hearings.org; Dr. Frank James - 20 min.
