A New Westminster man hopes an e-petition will douse plans for a coal facility at Fraser Surrey Docks.
Kyle Routledge, who ran as a Green Party candidate in New Westminster in the 2015 federal election, has initiated an e-petition calling on the federal government to have an urgent meeting with Port Metro Vancouver to require comprehensive, independent, health and environmental impact assessments before considering new coal shipping projects and to implement a credible, inclusive, broad and open consultation process. The petition also asks the federal government to acknowledge that assisting in the transport of thermal coal undermines efforts to cut global greenhouse gas emissions.
“One of my big things is sustainable future,” said Routledge, a wildlife biologist. “During the election campaign, I didn’t meet a single person in New West that thought this (coal plan) was a good idea.”
Routledge said there are a lot of issues with the environmental impact assessment process. He’s emailed Canada’s environment and natural resources ministers about changes he’d like to see to the process but hasn’t received a reply.
“With this, I really want the government to have a second thought about facilitating the export of a fossil fuel that we know is very detrimental to the environment,” he said of his e-petition. “I want them to revamp the EA (environmental assessment) process so that there is more accountability and there is more involvement from people who could be directly impacted, and they are not just given lip service.”
The petition, available online since Feb. 16, will be closed for signatures on June 15. New Westminster MP Peter Julian is sponsoring the e-petition and will present it in the House of Commons – if it gets enough support.
“There’s less than a month left and I need to get 500 signatures. As of last night it was at 441. We are getting close. I think it will make it,” Routledge told the Record Tuesday. “That’s what it needs to get to the floor of the House of Commons. If it doesn’t get that, then it just dies.”
To read the full petition go to www.peterjulian.ca and search for Fraser coal facility e-petition.
Port Metro Vancouver has given Fraser Surrey Docks permission to amend its existing permit so it can build and operate a direct-transfer coal facility that would provide a port for shipping U.S.-mined thermal coal to China. The initial plan was to load coal, which had been transported from the United States to Surrey on trains, onto barges but Fraser Surrey Docks later decided the coal would be loaded directly onto ocean-going vessels at its terminal in Surrey.
A spokesperson for Fraser Surrey Docks could not be reached for comment before the Record’s deadline.
While China has expressed a desire to wean itself off of coal, Routledge said Canada is “enabling” China by agreeing to ship U.S. coal.
“They want to get off it, just as we want to get off oil. That’s not something you transition to in a short amount of time. With their population, they do need coal in the short-term to transition away. They want to get away from it – they have made that clear,” he said. “If we are shipping the States’ coal over to China and encouraging it, we are not really helping them to speed that process up.”
In related news, environmental groups hope they’re back on track to having their case against a coal port facility heard in court.
In September 2014, Ecojustice submitted an application for a judicial review of the permit approval on behalf of Voters Taking Action on Climate Change, Communities and Coal and two individual citizens, alleging that Port Metro Vancouver was biased in its decision-making and failed to consider the climate impacts that would be generated by the export and burning of this U.S. coal. The City of New Westminster later filed intervenor status in support of the court challenge.
The original proposal was for thermal coal mined in the United States to be sent to Canada via open rail cars, loaded onto open barges at Fraser Surrey Docks, shipped down the Fraser River and across the Strait of Georgia to Texada Island and transferred to ocean-going vessels for shipment to Asia. That plan was later amended to have the coal loaded directly onto ocean-going vessels at the Surrey site, located across the river from the Quayside and Queensborough neighbourhoods.
Last month, a B.C. Supreme Court judge dismissed motions by Port Metro Vancouver and Fraser Surrey Docks to dismiss the case.
“The port and (Fraser Surrey Docks) can still argue when the case goes to court that our challenge is moot because the amended permit replaced the original permit, and our challenge is against the original permit. If they do so, we’ll have to fight this issue all over again,” said Kevin Washbrook of Voters Taking Action on Climate Change. “But bottom line, it looks like we are back on track for our case to be heard in court. We’re pretty confident that the case will go forward in the public interest.”
The environmental groups believe the case raises important issues about Port Metro Vancouver’s decision-making, as well as the issue of climate change.
