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Government ‘hands-off’ on T2: Delta South MLA

Huntington wants province to take a more active role in environmental review
Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington is criticizing B.C.’s environment minister for a “hands-off approach” to the environmental assessment of Terminal 2, but Mary Polak insists that’s not the case.
 
Earlier this year, Port Metro Vancouver submitted a comprehensive environmental document to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, which will trigger a lengthy review of the proposed three-berth container terminal at Roberts Bank.
 
The document summarizes the results of several dozen studies undertaken over four years for the proposed terminal. 
 
Huntington said this week she “grilled” Polak for publicly declining to ask the port authority for additional information on matters of provincial jurisdiction. The object of the comment phase of the assessment process is to ensure the scope of information provided is as complete as possible for the review panel, she said.
 
“The minister said again today her ministry will step in to address gaps in the environmental assessment process for T2, but they have failed to fulfill that promise to date,” said the independent MLA. “7,663 pages were submitted in the port’s EIS (environmental impact statement), and despite the shortcomings of those documents, the EAO (provincial Environmental Assessment Office) didn’t have one comment. Instead, it was left to individuals, organizations and federal agencies like Health Canada to point out provincial issues missing from the report.”
 
In July, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency released a list of additional information the port was still required to include in its application. Many of those requirements are areas of provincial concern, including issues related to air quality, originally identified by Health Canada, Huntington said. 
 
She added the province’s failure to notice the port had not considered standards set by its own ministry raises serious concerns.
 
Polak told the Optimist Huntington doesn’t understand the process going on, saying the province participated in the screening of the environmental document with the feds. 
 
“Insofar as her saying we have a hands-off approach, we’ve been working with CEEA from the beginning on this. The point is, early on, we identified which issues were under federal jurisdiction and the vast majority are. So, the approach we have taken is that we will observe their process and evaluate as they proceed. If there are areas we don’t think they have covered sufficiently that are important to British Columbia’s interests, then we will proceed to have those assessed,” she explained.
 
“So it’s far from a hand-off approach. Our office is working very closely with the Canadian Environmental Assessment (Agency) office.”
 
Meanwhile, the clock is about to start ticking again on the T2 application. Ottawa asked the port authority for additional information before the review could proceed, effectively stopping the clock until the environmental document was deemed complete.
 
In an early October letter to the government, Cliff Stuart, the port’s vice-president of infrastructure, advised they were gathering that information and expected everything to be ready for submission by the end of the month. 
 
Once all the additional information is in the hands of the CEAA, the review process, which includes public and stakeholder input, will begin once again.
 
The project is subject to an independent review panel under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, but will also undergo an assessment under the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Act. It also requires other permits and authorizations. 
 
The port has estimated construction of the project would commence sometime in 2018 and would take approximately five-and-a-half years to complete.
 
The Corporation of Delta is also reviewing the environmental document and has requested the scope of the assessment be expanded to include road and rail impacts.