Re: Time to speak up as pressure mounting on Delta farmland, Community
Comment, Aug. 10
Thank you, Ian Robertson for providing an excellent reality check on this issue. Thanks also to Sandor Gyarmati for a well-researched summary of the history. Given the serious drought conditions in Ontario, USA and other countries from which food is imported, it is clearly insane to think of paving one more inch of our own farmland.
The journey of the Gateway project through environmental assessment and Agricultural Land Commission applications has been controversial at best. We saw a deal made with Tsawwassen First Nation before port expansion was approved. We witnessed the withdrawal of the proposed Terminal 2 from the assessment process for the Third Berth project, thus preventing a more rigorous environmental assessment. T2 didn't take long to re-emerge, did it?
We saw the South Fraser Perimeter Road pushed through, despite the assertion of port authority officials that it would not be necessary without Terminal
2. On that project we heard that the ALC had 'reluctantly' approved exclusions of farmland needed for this blight on the landscape of our community.
Does that sound like the decision of a body free to make arms-length rulings independent of government?
So the question remains: will there be a full, independent and comprehensive assessment of the cumulative effects of all projects past and future on this fragile ecosystem in the estuary of a major river? Since environmental assessment has been further gutted by the infamous omnibus budget bill, we should not expect that it will. And so I agree with Mr. Robertson. It is up to us.
