LETTERS: Let's not complicate the NWSS project

Dear Editor:

Re: Cemetery back to haunt new school?

Let's get over this and just do the right thing.

I've watched (and in the past participated as a parent of two children that went to school in New West) as the school district administration, parents, the city and various consultants have wasted almost 20 years trying to build a new high school on an old cemetery site.  Millions of dollars have been spent trying to determine the presence and extent of these cemeteries and then developing various designs that contort a new school building around where the bodies are supposedly buried.  As soon as a possible solution appears to be in reach, folks with an interest in the buried spring out of the woodwork to protest the disrespect and cultural insensitivity that would be caused by the potential encroachment of structures and children on the ancient bones - now buried more than 100 years ago.

Everyone says how "complicated" this project is:  "The most complicated project that the Ministry of Education has ever faced," etc. etc. etc. But the reality is that this is not complicated at all.  We have an old abandoned cemetery on a large piece of land and we have an old school that needs to be demolished and replaced.  Tearing down and replacing an old school is not difficult - we have plenty of excellent engineers and contractors who have extensive experience in doing exactly this sort of thing (the same as was done at Burnaby Central Secondary only a few short years ago). And decommissioning a cemetery is not difficult either - we have more than a sufficient number of archaeologists and other experts in the Lower Mainland who could carry this out as well.

So why hasn't this been dealt with many years ago?  Well it seems that the only reason for the holdup is that the Province of B.C. has taken the position that the New Westminster School District is 100 per cent responsible for the cemetery - as if they were the ones who buried the bodies there.  As there is no way for the school district to come up with the estimated $30 to $40 million to decommission the cemeteries, nothing has been done.

The school district apparently now has a plan that allows for the new school to be built without encroaching on any of the cemeteries.  But the continued presence of the cemeteries continues to lurk in the background - creating a huge risk of stalling the new school project all over again.  However, there is a bigger issue.  Although the history of First Nations in B.C. is thousands of years old, the history of British Columbia is very much more recent.  Whether we are First Nations or naturalized British Columbians, cultural awareness, sensitivity and respect are vitally important values for us.  Canada rightly spent huge sums of money to find, identify and properly bury fallen soldiers after the First and Second World Wars.  The people buried in our cemeteries at NWSS similarly deserve our respect and a proper burial as well.  They were a part of the making of British Columbia.  They are a part of this province's history.

We live in one of the wealthiest places on the earth.  Surely we can insist that our province find the required money to face this one-time, completely unique, never to occur again situation that is a relic of our province's short history.  And since the proposed new school will not be built on top of these cemeteries, surely the decommissioning can be completed without delaying the construction of the new school.

Let's do the right thing - and do it now.

Ron Unger