The Now Newspaper: Hundreds protest Gateway
Sandor Gyarmati
NowContributor
published on 04/04/2007
A united opposition to the provincial Gateway program can make a difference, according to those determined to stop the mega highways and bridge plan.
That's the message that was delivered Saturday at the East Delta Hall where close to 400 people packed a rally.
Several groups - ranging from APE (Against Port Expansion), Greenpeace and even the Marxist Leninists - told Victoria that ordinary British Columbians don't want the many different aspects of Gateway, including the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge to the current alignment of the South Fraser Perimeter Road.
After an opening song by the Raging Grannies, among several guest speakers to tear a strip off government was radio personality Rafe Mair, who used colourful and salty language to tell the enthusiastic crowd that Lower Mainland residents don't care to become the gigantic trade portal for the east.
"Who says we want to give up what we have to make people in other parts of Canada and the world rich?" asked Mair.
The broadcaster said he's been a facilitator at several Greater Vancouver Regional District sustainable region sessions, and the question he keeps asking, when it comes to traffic and transportation, is where will it all end?
"Don't these idiots understand that roads beget less farm acreage, more development, which begets more road and more acreage and more development, and on and on and on it goes," he said. "Some of the most sensitive environment in the world is to be sacrificed for the developers and the developers' hired politicians." He called the environmental process a sham. "It's worse than no process whatsoever."
Mair demanded that no major project proceed without full consultation through an independent third party - either a tribunal or judge - who has no interests in the outcome.
Among the other guest speakers was Delta Coun. Vicki Huntington, who said government and corporate interests have clearly colluded to push aside the democratic process.
She pointed out how the massive expansion plans at Deltaport were deliberately taken apart to subvert proper consultation, assessments and process.
"The Gateway Council itself, which is a group of private, industrial interests, have redefined the transportation corridors in the Lower Mainland with no reference to the people and their local governments," said Huntington.
Delta-Richmond East MP John Cummins agreed with Huntington's observations, saying there's been some "legislative sleight-of-hand" taking place.
He also noted there's been no attempt to consult communities about impacts of various projects, including what's going to happen to East Ladner once there's port and rail yard expansion.
Dr. Larry Frank, part of the University of B.C.'s School of Community and Regional Planning, told the crowd how community opposition decades ago stopped a highway from going through Vancouver, and that kind of united opposition can have the same effect now.
That view was shared by former Vancouver councillor Gordon Price, also a UBC professor and founder of the Livable Region Coalition, who urged the audience to stick together to speak with one strong voice.
In the audience, Fred Bass, another former Vancouver councillor, said he agrees a grassroots opposition campaign can yield results.
"This is the same kind of thing that stopped the freeway from entering Vancouver back in the '70s. It would be more economical to burn money than to go ahead with this program as it's now designed," said Bass.
Susan Jones, a member of APE, believes once enough people find out about the various aspects of Gateway, they will add their voice to the growing opposition.
"I believe every drop in the bucket counts. Unless we try to get the word out and spread it around, people don't know what's coming down the pike," said Jones.
"So, yes, I think it can make a difference and people need to know. Don't forget, we are up against paid lobbyists who do nothing but lobby the government full time, so what hope does the public got? We have to get up and voice our opinion."
Outside the hall, Greg Hoover, one of the creators of the Hoover/Naas proposal for the South Fraser Perimeter Road, was showing people a map of his proposed alignment that was rejected outright by government. He agreed the opposition to Gateway and SFPR would intensify once the public finds out more information.