Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon says Gateway is "a done deal". Don't believe the hype. The tide is turning fast.
The project is on very shaky ground. We have powerful allies in many places, and we can stop it in its tracks if we start NOW.
Citizen action has stopped freeways in Vancouver before. We can do it again.
The Province has not raised adequate funding for the Project. None of the environmental assessments have been completed. A proper public consultation process has not been done. No contracts have been tendered.
The Provincial government is up for renewal in 2009.
Opposition to Gateway is massive. The GVRD – that is, the association of our 21 municipalities – is "strongly opposed" to PM2 and Hwy 1 expansion. Greenpeace, David Suzuki, SPEC, the Green Party, BEST, many Provincial MLA's, and even some Federal representatives are actively campaigning against Gateway. This project is still a greedy gleam in the Province's eye, and public awareness is growing fast. Gateway is anything but "a done deal."
The most important thing you can do RIGHT NOW is talk to your friends, your neighbours, your community, and your political representatives. Let them know that Gateway SUCKS, and we, the people, have the power to stop it.
Not really convinced
I personally don't have an issue with twinning the Patullo. That bridge is a death trap and a horrific traffic chokepoint. Twinning it will allow for lane widening and eliminate counterflowing traffic to be right next to each other. This will lower the fatality rate significantly.
The issues with highway widening causing more congestion is an interesting one, and it may be true. But one thing I can tell you is that I will personally never EVER take transit again. I spent 3 years doing it, and unless the government takes significant steps to increase the level of their bus system, I will never subject myself to that hell again.
I think you all live in a
I think you all live in a "magical land". I live in surrey and i take the bus and skytrain to work everyday. It takes me 1.5 hrs to get downtown in a overcrowded , stinky bus and train. Even if you improve the transit system with more buses and WAY more trains,i rather be in my own car driving home , than in a train that smells like BO without ac and squished like a can of sardines.
Better be prepared to pay more and more each and every year.....
All for that vehicular convenience which in the end will not make economic sense and will not help us when the fuel shortages arrive.
Two words- peak oil- do some research on it and you might think differently about things.
Try moving closer to where you work
Your lifestyle is not helping, along with so many others live out your way, you want it all...
Why not ditch your car, and move closer to downtown? I really don't have much sympathy, I did the same thing. Now its 20 minutes to work, 10 of that is walking.
I am opposed to Gateway, and supporting the lifestyle of suburbia... It's the scourge of the lower mainland, and the source of many traffic problems through surrey and Langley...
Even if they twin the port mann, there will still be traffic chaos all the way to 264th, all the time. I see this every weekend I have to drive on hwy 1 through the area. Rewarding people for driving cars is completely backwards. There is a better way.
The problem is the people, density is the future... I personally don't ever want Onterrible style highways in BC.
what about people who can't afford to live in the city?
Density may be the answer, but generally people move away from the downtown because they cant afford to live there. Vancouver is the most expensive city to live in the country. Come on, why should everyone who lives in the suburbs be subject to criticism just because we can't afford to live in the city?
In the meantime, we need better transit systems to get from our cheaper homes in the burbs to the city centres where we work and go to school. Gateway does suck, its just more money on roads and less money for transit.
I think we should divert some of the gateway money to public transportation and stop picking on the less well - to - do, who have no choice but to move out of the city.
Maybe if we could take a skytrain or a bus to work we could eventually afford to move back, and stop wasting time and money on atmosphere polluting vehicular beasts. The government needs to help the people who can't afford to live in the city and can't take 4 hours on 8 different community shuttles to get to work.
Vancouver Sun article on Kevin Falcon
Did anyone else write a response to the Vancouver Sun's article "BC's Own Road Warrior", August 11, 2007 (Weekend Review cover story)?
This self promotional piece surely stimulated some folks to write a letter to the editor. I wrote a fairly contructive letter regarding the SFPR fiasco and I figured I would see at least 1 person's letter to the editor regarding Falcon's article. Perhaps some higher powers are at work with Van Sun.
Write in! Lower Mainlanders know nothing about the Gateway project.
Also, I am curious where all the extra trucks will go once the port expansion is completed BEFORE the SFPR is completed.
Martine, a River Road resident
Gateway
The Gateway Project is more than just new roads/bridge it is an all encompassing policy that will affect every Canadian. This started with Mulrooneys NAFTA and continued with Cretein not abrogating it and then Martin signing a deal NORTHAMERICAN UNION,then harper making a committee called Security and Prosperity,when one reads what the federal government has in store for Canadians like having the same monies (Amero).Industry is now making laws and policies in this country,it has nothing whatsoever to do with politicians whose hands are tied,and now with B.C./Alta. having a deal TILM that goes into effect April 1,2007 we citizens of this great country are in for a hell of a rocky road. There is not one mainstream political party that is against this.
the NDP
The NDP is against both TIMLA and the SPP
Saskachewan and Manitoba both voted against joining TILMA. Both have provincial NDP governments.
http://www.ndp.ca/page/5614
Falcon Spinning Gateway as Green Project
Gateway Program will improve air quality
Kevin goes on to say “When you get traffic moving it is actually a lot better than having traffic sitting and idling for 13 hours a day pumping emissions out in the atmosphere,” Talk about trying to ramrod through a self fulfilling prophecy, I guess it never occurred to him that there are alternatives such as transit and better allocation of work to residence.
Speaking of transit, Kevin states that the twinning will allow the use of transit buses across the bridge for the first time in twenty years; but if eighteen wheel trucks and Greyhounds can get across the bridge wouldn't city buses be able to as well, and if it's simply a matter of stringing a few trolley lines I'm sure that modification could be made to the existing bridge for a lot less than three billion dollars.
Journal of Commerce - Serving Western Canada's Construction Industry Since 1911 blares out from the header in my browser window. That's a long distance charged 911 and we should never forget where Kevin's loyalties lie, despite the fact that he's supposed to be the people's transportation representative.
"Falcon also reminded the audience that the crossing will be tolled." A few paragraphs down is this related bit of juicyness.
I know that the public is going to be paying, but I wonder which private is going to be collecting the tolls. Not to mention who is going to be sending out all those construction invoices. Some of which have already been guaranteed with the start of the North Frazer perimeter road.
I can only assume this doesn't include inflation and cost overruns. Reminds me of that childhood ditty. Kevin and Kiewit sitting in a tree, S-U-C-K-I-N-G, first goes our money, then goes our air, and nobody asked us if we cared.
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We could avoid the extinction of the human race but unfortunately it wouldn't be economically viable.
Economic Feasibility
This Gateway project is a great investment. The
cost / benefit analysis indicates 3 billion to build
with a benefit of 8 billion.
More From Journal of Commerce
A special Road Building Supplement for JoC came out in Feb 12th. The following quotes are from an article on page 6.
Keep that in mind the next time we are told that there isn't any room in the budget for new buses or other social improvements. Nice little scam, low ball the cost for the budget so that people don't complain too much, then double the cost without telling anybody, and being very selective on which projects get more cash and which are told that there is no more in the budget. The icing on the cake is that since this will be a PPP project all the financial details are confidential so the public has no proof of crime and the crooks have no accountability.
Stating what many of us have always suspected, that the only opportunities here are for those that build roads and promote urban sprawl.
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We could avoid the extinction of the human race but unfortunately it wouldn't be economically viable.
sucking indeed
ha ha! Falcon is grasping at straws. The edifice is trembling...I can smell his p.r. people sweating from here.
Gateways Project
It may not be a done deal, but one of the reasons for this transportation overkill are the ports out here in Delta. And Delta Port has already started construction on their next phase. The Federal Gov't silenced DOE and claims to have done an "Environmental Assessment", what happened to 'due process'? The last meeting of the local group out here, had the organizers conceding that maybe some civil disruption is now in the cards. The Mayor was at the meeting as well and is completely frustrated by the so called process. People in this farming, fishing, conservative community are worried and since the latest global warming studies 2 weeks ago, they seem a little closer to actually taking some concrete actions! Like blocking Hwy. 17 and Ladner Trunk (Hwy 10)where all traffic to the Port has to go. This would block local traffic too, should they instead only block the Port Road? Awwh heck, why not block the Massey Tunnel where Hwy 17 passes over Hwy 99, that would definitely get the most media coverage.
If this kind of civil disobidience happens, some legal representation may be required, any takers out there or any suggestions?
Criminal Contempt and Injunctions
BC is Contempt Capital, a Georgia Straight article from Sept 6th, 2006 gives a quick introduction to the way that courts are collaborating with corporations to cuckold citizens. Corporations get the courts to file an injunction saying that citizens can't protest, and then when they do they are arrested for criminal contempt, and can be thrown in jail without parole for a year or more, and you aren't eligible for a jury trial. All of this is an end run on both the criminal code of Canada and the Constitution, but you can't use this as your defense because the judge classifies it as illegitimate collateral damage that threatens the credibility of the courts; notice how the truth of whether the courts are credible is made mute by this point.
This is currently being played out in the supreme court with the case of Betty Krawczyk, which is getting minimal coverage by main stream media, but has some information on her blog. The reason this is being kangarooed through the supremes is because otherwise it would set a precedent that would put a damper on the whole end run the public so we can destroy the environment for quick profits, and a flashy olympics, which ironically we only got because we were so green and sustainable.
If we engage in public protest to stop this travesty, and that's what we will have to do, then we have to find some way to enforce due process to end-run the end-run of injunctions and criminal contempt. A worthy battle that our grandchildren will tell stories about. Plus for the lucky few that engage there will be free rent, three meals a day, and more sex than you could ever want, at the crow-bar hotel. But heh, that's all part of the story.
Civil Disobedience Handbook prepared by the law students over at UVIC might be some help and/or provide some needed leads. And from the other side, Some Guidelines On The Use Of Contempt Powers by the Canadian Judicial Council, May 2001.
I'm just a gadfly, I don't know that much about the law, but I have a moral compass that is more reliable than our current crop of cretins with wiggs. Man the barricades, the corporate fascists need to have their charters restored which we the public can then revoke.
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We could avoid the extinction of the human race but unfortunately it wouldn't be economically viable.
Done Deal?
I fail to understand how something can be a "done deal" when it isn't even started yet. I'm just not in the mood to whine and wait around to say I told you so when we can stop this before it even starts.
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We could avoid the extinction of the human race but unfortunately it wouldn't be economically viable.
Land Expropriation has begun--- believe it or not!
Hi ov,
With NIL funding in place, nothing really commenced so to speak, other than those ridiculous "public hearings" last year, and zero environmental reviews completed to date, I, too felt like you. I did, that is, until I caught a recent column by Joey Thompson in The Province a couple weeks back, where she makes reference to a family currently being faced with land expropriation in the Bridgeview area already underway by the "Gateway property agents". I could not believe it and was fairly shocked to read this stage had already begun when, as I just said, this government has absolutely NO FUNDING in place yet from any level of government, and other than some slick plans, even slicker full-page adverts that the Min. of Transportation continues to unnecessarily spend our public funds on, this is the entire substance of this dinosaur project. So - go figure. More is going on than mere wordplay, I fear.
- Aurora
Arbitrary Budgets
Greetings Aurora
A few weeks back I noticed the arbitrary use of budgets. (Article has gone down the memory hole, too bad it wasn't listed on the Falcon Watch page - big hint here to the senorita in the fruit basket head gear) The announcement was about how additional funds were granted for the budget to pay for some aspect of Gateway even though it wasn't in the original budget. How convenient, if it's not in the budget you can use that as an open and shut excuse for why the government can't do anything, BUT if it's something that the government wants, like Gateway, and which would get criticized if it was in the budget, then don't include it but later add it in behind closed doors. And they keep getting away with it because all this information keeps sliding down the memory hole.
From Friday's South Delta Leader:
Falcon goes on to say how more than 200 homes in North Delta will lose some or all of their land for the road. Compare this position to an article in last Monday's Vancouver Sun on why Peak Oil, and climate change, are the two biggest reasons for why we should be preserving our agricultural land.
Without a doubt there is a backlog of fiduciary responsibility that needs to be addressed here.
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We could avoid the extinction of the human race but unfortunately it wouldn't be economically viable.
Gateway/South Fraser Perimeter Hwy Opponents Should Join Forces!
Hi!
Just signed onto your website. Thanks for the forum! The time to co-ordinate all efforts AGAINST this horribly misguided and completely WRONG project for the region is sure now.
I read in the papers last week-end (Feb 10/11) that different opponent groups of the South Fraser Perimeter Highway (the other proposed half of this crazed and demented project)out in Delta recently met to start co-ordinating their efforts. I got to thinking, perhaps ALL opponents of both the proposed twinning of the Port Mann Bridge AND the South Fraser Perimeter Highway should meet and start jointly co-ordinating opposition activities against this multi-pronged proposal. It becomes quite complex when you consider it at the multiregional level, but really, at the end of the day, there truly are MANY opponents to all aspects of the proposed project and perhaps it's time to start getting everyone together. Nothing else seems to have fazed the 'Kevin-monster' and his Master up to now!
Open your EYES!
Anonymous said: "I believe this would require two things to happen, the reversal of worldwide population growth and a major change in the thinking and functioning of our entire western society. I see very few signs of either."
Well dammit you better come to the party tomorrow and you'll see the signs for sure!
That or look at the headlines of every newspaper for the past 2 weeks....
sheesh...
ha!
ha ha!
Gateway Project
I agree that this type of project is entirely inappropriate, designed on out-of-date thinking and adds to the momentum towards the black hole of non-sustainability.
Unfortunately, it seems that some of the genetic coding which was thought to have ceased to exist with the demise of the dinosaurs lives on in all of us. In order to stop this type of 'development', the demand needs to be eliminated or substantially reduced.
I believe this would require two things to happen, the reversal of worldwide population growth and a major change in the thinking and functioning of our entire western society. I see very few signs of either.