The Burnaby-New Westminster MP vows to ask some tough questions about Port Metro Vancouver’s handling of the Fraser Surrey Docks coal project when the House of Commons resumes sitting on Oct. 16.
Peter Julian said he and his fellow NDP MPs will raise the lack of public input into Port Metro Vancouver’s decision-making process and absence of a full-scale environmental review of the proposed coal terminal expansion project.
“I will raise this in Parliament when it resumes,” Julian told The Record.
“The communities want and deserve a full review of this project. New Westminster and Burnaby aren’t the only communities affected by the refusal to have any meaningful input into decisions – lots of people are upset.”
Julian said he and fellow B.C. MPs like Jasbir Sandhu (Surrey North) will call for more accountability from the port authority, which has been criticized for its handling of the approval process for the Fraser Surrey Docks coal project application.
“I have spoken with Jasbir and others in caucus about the immense disrespect this lack of consultation shows to the community,” said Julian.
“This idea of denying consultation whether it be about coal in B.C. or an energy project on the Prairies is just a no-go. The government must be responsive to the public.”
Sandhu says his constituents are concerned about the health and ecological impacts of between four million and eight million metric tonnes of coal per year going through Fraser Surrey Docks if the project is approved.
“Port Metro Vancouver needs to answer these concerns before we move forward,” said Sandhu.
“Port Metro Vancouver is accountable to the people – we must balance the interests of the people with economic growth.”
The Fraser Surrey Docks proposal would see a $15 million coal transfer station built on the Surrey-Delta border that would handle between four million and eight million metric tonnes of coal per year.
The thermal coal will come from the Powder River Basin, straddling the Montana-Wyoming border. It will be shipped by rail cars to barges at the proposed facility in Surrey.
It would ultimately be sent to markets in China.
Critics of the project have raised concerns about the potential health hazards of coal dust on communities along the line and across from the terminal, among other issues.
They also believe Port Metro Vancouver and Fraser Surrey Docks enjoy a very close relationship, putting the independence of the approval process in question.
Julian says Port Metro’s indifference to public opinion is part of a larger picture of stifled public debate under Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
He says voters are being shut out of the decision-making process by a prime minister who “sees himself as a despot rather than a democratically elected leader.”
And Port Metro is not the only federal agency turning its back on the public, he said.
“All other federal agencies appear to have an attitude that the community doesn’t seem to count a wit and it shows immense disrespect to the people who pay their salaries and all of our (MPs’) salaries,” said Julian.
Port Metro Vancouver could not be reached for comment by press time.
