All four Delta candidates in next month’s federal election squared off for the first time Saturday afternoon at a forum in North Delta.
Organized by the Burns Bog Conservation Society and Delta Residents’ Association, the meeting at the North Delta Evangelical Free Church was standing room-only with more than 200 people in attendance to hear what incumbent Kerry-Lynne Findlay, the Green’s Anthony Devellano, Liberal Carla Qualtrough and New Democrat Jeremy Leveque had to say on a range of questions from the controversial Bill C-51 to how the government can better support non-profit organizations. The forum saw each candidate answer the same question but the session was not a debate as the format didn’t include rebuttals, although some managed to slip in a few. Several times, supporters for some of the candidates made their presence known with boisterous applause or jeers, especially on the hot button Delta issues including port expansion and the Fraser Surrey Docks contentious thermal coal handling plan.
Asked what they would do to protect environmentally sensitive peatlands, Devellano admitted he doesn’t have much knowledge on the subject, but his party is dedicated to doing whatever it can to protecting the environment including Burns Bog.
Leveque said the NDP would reverse gutted environmental oversight processes.
“By making sure that the cuts to funding that were levied on Environment Canada by the Liberals were reversed and by bringing in a credible science-based, rigorous consultation process and environmental review process that ensures that every project that comes through Delta, including the coal trains, including Terminal 2 expansion, including the radio towers, including any of these projects that would put the bog or any other of our natural spaces at risk, would be credibly reviewed,” he said.
Leveque echoed similar statements on the other questions regarding Delta’s environment.
Qualtrough noted her government would ensure a robust environmental review process was restored, while Findlay noted her government recognizes the bog’s significance and she supported the international Ramsar designation of the wetlands.
Asked what they would do to stop Port Metro Vancouver’s planned T2 project at Roberts Bank, Qualtrough described it as a disaster waiting to happen and that there’s no compelling business case for the project.
“We need a robust environmental assessment process in Canada that wouldn’t even let this kind of discussion start happening. Under a Liberal government, we would look at the cumulative effects of all these different things and that’s not happening now,” she said.
Saying some people have made up their minds on the subject before a rigorous environmental review is about to begin, Findlay explained the federal process is even stricter than provincial process and that any application would have to adhere to the higher standard.
“When we merge those processes, when we say, ‘Ok, provincial government, you can take the lead on this.’ We make sure they have to meet the higher standards of the federal process, and there is a fairness factor when any project goes forward of letting the proponents know within a certain timeline whether that’s going to go ahead or not,” Findlay said.
“As you know, this Conservative government has turned down projects that didn’t meet an environmental assessment and approved some. The ones we have approved have often been with a huge number of conditions. Unless the proponents meet those conditions, those are not going ahead, whether it’s T2 or any other project. They have to prove they are not negative effects on the environment or they can mitigate them to a standard that would be acceptable to the community…these are rigorous processes and we stand behind those independent evaluations.”
Devellano said T2 is simply a bad idea and that Deltans need to vote for an MP who would represent their concerns on such local issues, not having a representative forced to toe the line for their party.
As far as LNG facility expansion along the banks of the Fraser, Findlay again said a robust review process is in place. She also noted she personally asked the provincial government to not expropriate land from over two dozen Delta farm properties for FortisBC to run a new power line through to the Tilbury expansion project, another example of her taking action on behalf of Delta.
Devellano expressed opposition to the plan, saying the need to build such an expansion is going away.
Asked how the port authority’s board can better reflect local input, Findlay said it’s important for the community to continue to voice its concerns, while Leveque said the structure of the board needs to change because it’s stacked with cronies.
Regarding the Fraser Surrey Docks project, Findlay’s opponents all conveyed opposition with Qualtrough noting Findlay’s absence at an all-candidates meeting earlier this month organized by the project’s opponents and other environmental groups. Findlay noted air quality is a serious issue and that she has her own concerns about the project. She also said a collaborative effort to review such projects is needed among all levels of government.
The four candidates are scheduled to square off at a meeting organized by the Delta Chamber of Commerce at North Delta Secondary this Wednesday evening. Another meeting will be held Wednesday evening, Oct. 7 at South Delta Secondary, a session sponsored by the Delta Optimist and organized by the chamber.
