Dear Editor:
Re: “Tunnel not about transit,” Letters, Jan. 27.
On one point, I have good news for Peter van der Velden, the writer from Tsawwassen. Even if his MP did not take action to get a federal environmental assessment of the tunnel-bridge project, our MP for Steveston-Richmond East did act, and he seems to have got results.
MP Joe Peschisolido says he spoke with Hon. Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. The minister has now directed the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to recommend whether to proceed with an assessment.
That’s a good step.
On the writer’s main point, he is simply right. The project aims to remove the Massey Tunnel as an obstacle to dredging the navigation channel much deeper for larger ships, enabling even further industrialization of the Fraser River. Documents from Port Metro Vancouver and Fraser Surrey Docks make that obvious.
The scope of a federal assessment would include proposals for activities “that may be a source of cumulative effects.”
Although the B.C. Minister of Transport and his surrogates claim there are “no plans to dredge,” records show that the port has assertively sought removal of the tunnel for that purpose.
Jim Wright
Richmond
