The Livable Blog

Photo - Stephen Hui, Georgia Straight

GATEWAYSUCKS.ORG and the COUNCIL OF CANADIANS (Delta/Richmond chapter)

MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release
March 1, 2010

Post-Olympic budget crunch may benefit environment

As the Olympic euphoria fades and attention shifts to the provincial budget, local environmental and social justice groups are calling attention to the billions British Columbia's government plans to spend on freeway building.

“We can't just stand and watch as billions are wasted on these destructive freeways while transit service and essential social programs are cut” says Cathy Wilander, chair of the Delta/Richmond chapter of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy organization. “And the post-Olympic budget crunch will make it much easier to stop this freeway building binge.”

The provincial government kicked off a massive plan to add over 1,000 km of new highway lanes when they expanded the Sea-to-Sky Highway for the Olympics. The plan includes the controversial “Gateway” Program, linked to the federal government's Pacific Gateway Strategy, now estimated to cost $21 billion in freeway and port expansion on BC's west coast.

The expansion of the Port Mann/Highway 1 freeway from Vancouver to Langley was suspended during the Olympics, but is set to resume. The new Port Mann Bridge is planned to be the widest in Canada.

Eviction and demolition of historic riverside homes to make way for the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) in nearby Delta proceeded throughout the Games. As many as 300 homes in Delta and Surrey could be demolished for this new freeway.

“These were not the 'Greenest Games', they were the Freeway Olympics,” says transportation planner and GatewaySucks.org organizer Eric Doherty. “The BC government has been attempting to brand itself as a 'Green Leader' during these games, yet their own studies show that provincial greenhouse gas emission targets are being undermined by their massive freeway expansion scheme.” Doherty also points to the thousands of acres of productive farmland under threat from the freeways. “There is nothing green about paving farmland,” he states.

The Gateway program has been met with an ongoing grassroots campaign of civil disobedience. In December, 50 people including University of British Columbia Professor Patrick Condon, occupied a Highway 1 expansion site in East Vancouver. Demolition of homes on the SFPR route has been disrupted by similar action on two occasions.

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