Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington says the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office is failing to protect B.C.'s interests in the ongoing environmental assessment of Port Metro Vancouver's proposed Terminal 2 project.
"I was profoundly disappointed that the EAO said the port's environmental impact statement was 'complete' and that they had no comments," said Huntington. "It's their responsibility to protect areas of provincial jurisdiction and they are failing miserably in that duty to the people of B.C. "Light, noise, air quality, agriculture, provincially owned and designated lands and ecologically protected areas are all directly affected by this project, yet the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office had no comment on the thoroughness of the port's impact statement."
Dozens of individuals and organizations submitted comments on the completeness of the environmental impact statement as part of the federal environmental assessment process. Huntington said her office provided a multi-page submission, as did Health Canada, Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"B.C. alone decided the Port of Vancouver did a thorough job, which is ludicrous," said the independent
MLA. "There were significant omissions in the data and it is the job of the B.C. EAO to demand the information be part of the impact statement. I am stunned that in thousands of pages the EAO couldn't find one subject where it wanted more detail.
"Federal bodies and even a U.S. agency had no trouble asking for more information and my office found multiple provincial issues where information was lacking."
Huntington said the Environmental Assessment Office's position is consistent with the government's approach to port development in the Fraser River estuary.
"From day one the province has given this project the green light," she said. "When the Roberts Bank Wildlife Management Area was created in 2011, huge swaths of habitat were excluded in order to support the future development of T2."
