New Westminster Secondary’s Fiana Liu and Grace Ji are only 17-years-old, but they are already seasoned activists.
The Grade 11 students are on a mission to stop the proposed $15-million Fraser Surrey Docks coal transfer facility because of concerns that coal dust will impact New Westminster.
The girls worked with the Dogwood Initiative last year and gathered approximately 400 signatures for the environmental group’s Beyond Coal campaign. Now they have paired with Kids for Climate Action and are planning a Ride for Our Future in August.
They will rally support from youth in New Westminster and surrounding communities over the summer and then ride their bicycles to Victoria to meet with MLAs and present them with a petition opposing the Fraser Surrey Docks expansion.
The girls were previously involved in a No Tankers campaign, opposing Enbridge’s proposed increase in tankers carrying oil off the B.C. coast, but when they learned about the Fraser Surrey Docks proposal, which would mean one more train and two more cargo ships travelling through New Westminster each day, they switched gears.
For both girls, the dock proposal hits very close to home. Liu can see the Fraser River from her house and Ji lives in Queensborough, directly across from the Docks.
Liu said she opposes coal for health, economic and environmental reasons.
“It touches upon the fact that I am an immigrant who came from China,” she said.
“When I went back [to China] when I was in Grade 4, I remember distinctly noticing that everywhere I went there was dust. …. Later I learned it was from the incredible amount of pollution because of coal, among other things.”
Liu said it is her parents’ apathy about the dangers of thermal coal coming through New Westminster, even though they saw the damage coal caused in China first hand, that has been a catalyst for her to act.
“They aren’t against me doing this, but they aren’t particularly supportive either,” she said.
In addition to concerns over airborne coal dust particulates Liu is concerned the increase in coal traffic through New Westminster will give her city a bad reputation and lower housing prices. She also worries the Fraser River, which she can see from her house, will be compromised by the exposure to thermal coal and its dust.
Alan Fryer of the Coal Alliance, which represents various coal industry stakeholders, said environmentalists’ concerns about coal are largely unfounded.
“As an industry, I think we have done a really good job over the years of mitigating any coal dust. These coal trains are sprayed twice at the mine site and at about the half way point to the terminal and that does a pretty effective job of keeping the coal dust where it belongs, which is in the rail car,” he said, adding the number of complaints from communities where coal is currently shipped through are minimal.
In terms of a decrease in housing prices, Fryer said he has never seen any evidence of that happening.
For her part, Ji shares Liu’s environmental and health concerns but is also worried about the larger political ramifications of the expansion. She said it frightens her that more high-level politicians aren’t speaking out about the project.
“It is a corporation that isn’t really giving citizens much of a say,” she said.
Ji said that, while she and others involved in the anti-coal youth campaign can’t vote yet, they are mobilizing and will be eligible voters soon.
“We will support politicians who join us in this campaign against coal.”
The communications departments of both the Surrey Fraser Docks, and the Port Metro Vancouver said the port authority is still reviewing the expansion permit application and project details. There is no set date for when the review will be complete.
