Port Metro Vancouver's new land use plan and its warnings of a shrinking industrial land supply are nothing more than schemes designed to strip the Agricultural Land Reserve.
That's the warning from Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington and Richmond councillor and ALR advocate Harold Steves. "When you look at industrial land for high density uses, they've got Boundary Bay (airport) as a major industrial park, which it was never intended to be, and they own a lot of land themselves near the Alex Fraser Bridge - the South Fraser Perimeter Road actually went around the land they own there - but it's never enough for them," Huntington told the Optimist.
"They want to industrialize the entire Fraser delta and unless we say no, unless the province steps in and says no, unless the federal government steps in, who's going to stop it? Certainly our politicians don't have the guts to protect the environment." Steves agreed, saying the port is clearly eyeing land despite it being in the ALR.
"He (Port Metro Vancouver president and CEO Robin Silvester) has his eyes on 3,000 acres of farmland, and it's mostly in Richmond and Delta and Branston Island, the best farmland in all of Canada," said Steves.
Meanwhile, the graphics in the port's latest Land Use Plan depict a potential widening of the causeway. Prior to reaching the current container terminal, both sides of the causeway are now just water, previously designated as "Port Marine/Port Water." The new designation changes that to "Special Study Area."
According to the port, having areas with special study designations means additional study, consultation and planning are required to determine their future. Huntington said she believes there's no doubt the port plans to fill in the site.
Steves noted the port also has a so-called "study area" in a Richmond agricultural
area that is certain to become warehouses if it gets its way.
"We've been objecting to it and, as a matter of fact, when we had the so-called (ALR review) consultation with the minister of agriculture at the end of August, we (Richmond council) put in an official complaint requesting the provincial government prohibit the port from converting farmland to port industrial uses," Steves said.
"Whether it's a study area in Richmond or Delta, it's to put in a door for the port. If they are successful and claim they have the right to develop those lands whenever they feel like, and if provincial designations mean nothing to them, then Delta is gone."
