Editor:
Though my pen has been silent for several months as I moved to the “big island” across the Salish Sea, I feel a need to comment on some recent information which I believe is quite significant — the deliberate withholding of information about the George Massey Tunnel Replacement Project.
With a change in government, a new freedom of information request was filed this past fall for information about a report from a world class tunnel consulting/construction firm that met with the provincial government in 2013.
Up to this date the response to what happened in the meeting(s) was “no information found.” Now, four years later, a 190-page report and some 200 pages of emails have surfaced. Suppose this sat beside someone’s desk?
No, sadly, it seems it was a deliberate effort to suppress information. Why? Was the former government afraid the reasons for the premier’s decision — with “no information found” — to announce the bridge would replace the tunnel would be challenged? What was wrong with getting the real facts out? What were they scared of?
I think our MLA has some explaining to do and some apologizing for the BC Liberal Party. I think our mayor and council had better get a copy of this report and read it. The report makes sense, and says a tunnel “fix up” plus another tunnel is not only possible, it may be better.
Ian Robertson
