Vancouver Courier
On Friday of this week, Metro Vancouver council will meet to very likely ask the federal government to submit Premier Christy Clark’s proposal to replace the Massey Tunnel with a 10-lane bridge to a Canadian Environmental Assessment Review Panel.
It is likely to approve that motion because two weeks ago the Metro Vancouver Intergovernmental Committee passed a similar resolution.
It is a resolution that found its genesis at Richmond city council after it received a report from longtime councillor Harold Steves.
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie told me earlier this week that the Port Mann Bridge replacement was “just a bridge.”
What Clark is planning to replace the Massey Tunnel with is much more than that. Which is why the feds should be in the picture.
Part of the plan is to dredge out the river so much larger ships can make it all the way up to the Fraser Surrey Docks across from New Westminster.
Steves puts the impact this way: by “removing the tunnel to allow dredging to 15.5 meters” — which is four metres deeper than the river is now — “this will convert the Fraser to an industrial river. It will have a dramatic effect on the fishing industry, habitat and farmland and even impact dykes.” …