Mayor Derek Corrigan, hit the nail on the head when he said Port Metro Vancouver is run by big businesses of the port "(that) are soley engaged in the benefit of those businesses."
The city has just delivered a report to the port authority (see page one) detailing its opposition to expanding petroleum exports.
Corrigan will no doubt be painted as an anti-economy leftist for the city's position. But he is dead on with his appraisal and criticism of the authority. Take, for example, the recent proposal to have Fraser Surrey Docks export thermal coal from the U.S. Citizens in New Westminster rallied to oppose the proposal because - guess what? - they didn't want to be covered in coal dust when the wind blows the wrong way. Fraser Surrey Docks has prepared, naturally, a comprehensive plan to keep down the dust. But, as anyone knows, dust has a way of moving, despite our best attempts to control it. In a townhall forum New West citizens soon discovered that appealing to the port authority to deny the land use was a bit like asking the fox to take care of the chickens.
The port authority has a website filled with community consultation platitudes, but has not even held one public hearing on the proposal theyve left it to Fraser Surrey Docks to do that.
At the New West townhall meeting on May 30 audience members were baffled that no single provincial government department or government authority of any kind seemed to be in charge of the process and the port authority. It appeared like the coal proposal was a done deal. Although a representative from Fraser Health said he wanted a "comprehensive health impact assessment undertaken for this project" - we suspect such assessment will, like the plan to contain the dust, support it.
Oh, and the number of jobs created in this massive, environmentally-backward project - 50. Yes, 50.
