Here are just some of the news stories that the Optimist covered in 2023:
April
* April 3 marked the 14th year anniversary of the Tsawwassen First Nation Treaty effective date of April 3, 2009. Chief Laura Cassidy remarked that it has been a remarkable journey through the negotiation, ratification, and on-going implementation.
*A popular clothing store closed its doors for good after a nearly three decades serving customers in the heart of Ladner Village. South Coast Casuals closed after 28 years.
The store’s long successful run included expanding after five years when the adjacent hair salon vacated, and an extensive renovation followed to create double the floor space.
*Delta council voted in favour of giving themselves a pay raise, their first renumeration adjustment in four years. The mayor’s base salary went from $154,264 to $175,264, while councillor salaries went from $62,788 to $74,399. A staff report explained that the city sets remuneration rates based on a comparison to Coquitlam, Richmond, Township of Langley and the District of North Vancouver, four Metro Vancouver municipalities with similar populations or localized issues. A review found that the remuneration had fallen below the average of the comparators.
*Delta announced that its Street FUN-iture Program would be back again this summer
The FUN-iture Program would comprise four pop-up parks: an “Outdoor Arcade” at the Chisolm Street/ Seven Seas Wharf, a “Music Room” at the Elliott Street Wharf featuring a piano, a “Games Room” at Sungod Recreation Centre and a “Rec Room” at Tsawwassen Town Centre Mall. The pop-up parks would include a variety of games including mini golf, bocce, foosball, ping pong, mini golf, cornhole, Kan-Jam, Spikeball, Connect4 and Jenga.
*Delta Police officers received praise on social media after coming to the aid of some horses in a trailer stuck in an accident scene on Highway 17 Thursday.
*Metro Vancouver was hoping measures can protect the bat colony living in an historic Delta house from a threat that’s been detected in B.C. for the first time. Located at Deas Island Regional Park, the Burvilla House, also known as the Burr Heritage House, is home to around 3,000 bats, mostly Yuma bats and little brown bats, the largest nursery colony of bats in B.C. They rely on the habitat at the regional park and the surrounding area for food, mainly insects and thousands of mosquitoes.
*Mayor George Harvie didn’t hold back when describing the appearance of Ladner Village and the need to revitalize as council voted in favour of moving the Dunbar Lumber site redevelopment a step closer to reality. Council voted 6-1 to grant third reading for the project at the corner of Bridge and Elliott streets, with Alicia Guichon the lone councillor to vote in opposition.
*The Roberts Bank Terminal 2 (RBT2) megaproject in Delta was approved. The Minister of Transport, Omar Alghabra, and Minister of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, hosted a virtual announcement to announce that the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority’s (VFPA) major container port expansion application has been given the green light after a “long and thorough review.”
May
* Southpointe Academy in Tsawwassen was planning a major expansion of its campus.
Delta council at its Committee of the Whole meeting heard an enthusiastic presentation from representatives for the private school on a proposal to add a new building at the facility at 1900-56th Street.
* The Delta School Board approved the district’s operating budget for 2023/24, which has few significant cuts while aiming to move away from a reliance on using reserves.
Trustee Nick Kanakos described it as a good budget, saying several challenges had to be faced including funding labour settlements, higher benefit costs, higher illness costs, technology replacements, inflationary costs and the lingering costs of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said major cuts were avoided, trying to address concerns raised, but addressing them all is never possible.
* The mighty volunteers from the Delta Hospital Auxiliary Society came through again.
The Auxiliary Society presented a record $700,000 donation to the Delta Hospital and Community Health Foundation. The funding will go towards the purchase of critical equipment needs at the hospital.
* Students at a pair of Ladner elementary schools had brand new playground equipment to enjoy. The Delta School District held playground openings at Ladner and Port Guichon elementary schools. The playgrounds were built thanks to funding from the City of Delta and fundraising efforts of the Parent Advisory Councils (PACs) from both schools.
* The City of Delta issued a request for bids to construct a new washroom facility at Memorial Park in Ladner. The existing washroom building is to be demolished, with a new modern building built in its place. A condition assessment was carried out by a consultant in 2020 for 33 city park washrooms and fieldhouses.
* The Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (OWL) used one of the highlighted events of its annual open house to pay tribute to a popular former employee.
Linda Easdown lost her battle with cancer in March. A raptor release was done in honour of Easdown.
* Another Delta resident made a significant and lasting contribution towards supporting health care in the community. The Delta Hospital and Community Health Foundation announced that retired school teacher Mary Lou Owen, donated $501,450 to towards the purchase of a state-of-the-art 3D Mammography system for Delta Hospital.
* Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced a major drug seizure in a joint operation with New Zealand Police and New Zealand Customs Service. In a news release, the CBSA announced the seizure of 140 kg of methamphetamine at the Tsawwassen Container Examination Facility.
* A controversial port expansion project at Roberts Bank south of Vancouver faced a judicial review after three environment groups claimed its operations will jeopardize the survival and recovery of the already endangered southern resident killer whale population.
The Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project — proposed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and approved by the federal government last month — is part of the Canada Pacific Gateway area, the country's most important trade corridor and a shipping nexus where more than $275 billion in goods transit every year.
* Ladner Rotarians once again stepped up to help create a significant project for the betterment of the community. Rotarians met with the City of Delta in front of the construction on a new plaza at the entrance to Ladner Village. The project involves infrastructure and electrical upgrades to support new landscaping, seating, and lighting, including the construction of a new beacon sign for the village.
June
* Residents and visitor be able to enjoy a cold beer or other alcoholic beverage at more Delta parks, and now year-round as council gave the thumbs-up to a staff recommendation to expand the number of parks that can have designated areas for public consumption of alcohol. Now, 21 park sites in the community will allow drinking.
*It’s been steady progress on the eventual closure of the Vancouver Landfill in Delta.
According to a 2022 annual report on the landfill’s operations, released by the City of Vancouver, which owns and operates the 72nd Avenue dump adjacent to Burns Bog, four hectares with an engineered cover system were closed in what’s known as Phase 4.
To date, a total of 126.8 hectares have been closed, representing 73 per cent of the 173-hectare waste footprint.
* Recent vandalism of Ladner United Church was being investigated as a hate crime. An unknown person(s) threw black paint, with a specific concentration of paint on the windows directly in front of displayed Progress and Pride flags.
* Delta’s voice was loud and strong in support of the 2SLGTBQ+ community as Pride Month kicked off with the raising of the Progress Pride Flag at city hall. In a show of solidarity, city council members, leaders, first responders and staff members looked on as city manager Sean McGill and Mayor George Harvie welcomed representatives from the Delta Pride Society, Ladner United Church and Sher Vancouver.
* A scoreboard in memory of Thomas Haydon was installed in the new Ladner Sport Court.
The $22,000 scoreboard was gifted by the Thomas Haydon Memorial Award committee to the City of Delta and the local lacrosse community for the now covered Ladner outdoor box that re-opened last summer for year-round play following a $2.1 million transformation.
Haydon was a lifetime Ladner resident and Delta firefighter who lost a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer in the fall of 2018 at the age of 36.
*The City of Delta was one of the first municipalities that was singled-out for a provincial housing target. North MLA Ravi Kahlon, the provincial housing minister, named 10 municipalities that will have targets.
* It was significant day for long-term care in Delta. The provincial government announced funding for a new long-term care facility on the Delta Hospital Campus of Care. Fraser Health will construct and operate the long-term care community on vacant land at the hospital site. The new care homes will replace the 92 beds at Mountain View Manor, which is 46 years old, and add 108 new beds.
* It secured a federal government green light earlier this year after persevering through a decade-long planning and approval process, but the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority’s ambitious $3.5 billion container cargo handling expansion project at Roberts Bank continues to draw fire from environmentalists, organized labour and other critics.
The latest anti-Terminal 2 rally, organized and endorsed by 14 organizations including the BC General Employees' Union, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (Canada), the Georgia Strait Alliance and the Wilderness Committee, was staged June 14 at the Port of Vancouver’s Crab Park at Portside.
* The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) was very busy, including at its Tsawwassen inspection facility, with four significant seizures of methamphetamine. The seizures amounted to more than 6,330 kg of methamphetamine and were all discovered within jugs labeled as canola oil destined for export to Australia.
* The Ladner Village Market will have new operators starting in 2024. The City of Delta announced that it has entered into an agreement with Ladner Village Market Ltd. to assume the assets and operation of the Ladner Village Market during the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
* The BC Supreme Court ruled in favour of an application by the Director of Civil Forfeiture regarding a pair of Ladner rural properties that had illegal large-scale marijuana grow operations. In reasons for judgment, Justice Anita Chan agreed the properties were both used for proceeds and instruments of unlawful activity pursuant to the Civil Forfeiture Act.
The marijuana grow operations were found at two properties in 2021, in excess of the number of plants allowed by licences attached to those properties, owned by Tiantian Liu, Qin Wu and Bin Wu.
