Editor:
Re: New tunnel name (Optimist, March 28)
There was an amazing deduction by Coun. Dylan Kruger, that the new name for the George Massey Tunnel should be that of Delta South BC United MLA Ian Paton.
BC United has promoted the building of a bridge over a tunnel over the Fraser River starting on Sept 23, 2023. Let me remind you, that the present leader of the B.C. United party Kevin Falcon as Minister of Transportation for the then B.C. Liberal party, on Feb. 16, 2006, some 18 years ago announced that the George Massey Tunnel was good for another 50 years. He was immediately replaced by a new Minister of Transportation who after considerable lobbying by bridge building interests announced some four years later, on Sept. 23, 2013, that the George Massey Tunnel would be replaced with a 10-lane bridge instead of a tunnel.
My point being is that the whole idea that a crossing of the Fraser River should be a tunnel over a bridge crossing was proven and advocated by my late father George Massey starting in 1939 and after 20 years of research to prove that point the George Massey Tunnel was built in 1959 and is still a viable crossing 65 years later and is to be replaced by another tunnel in 2030.
My question being should not the new tunnel name reflect the history of the man George Massey who initiated and proved that any crossing of the Fraser River should a tunnel over a bridge?
Douglas George Massey
