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Letters: Honesty is lacking

If the business case were honest, it would say that the new crossing is ill planned and at the wrong location and that a further crossing is needed to cross the North Arm of the Fraser into South Surrey/Vancouver
massey tunnel replacement business case
The transportation ministry says the new crossing could be an immersed tunnel or bridge, but they would be smaller than the previous Liberal government’s bridge project. Graphic: Ministry of Transportation

Editor:

I had a very good laugh at the story that a 'Business Case' has been submitted for a new bridge/tunnel crossing of the Fraser because in B.C. business cases are political documents, with claims based on sparkle pony and pixie dust calculations. Most business cases in B.C. would never survive an independent review.

When American transportation engineer and transit expert, Gerald Fox, reviewed the business case for the Evergreen Line his opening paragraph was damning.

“The Evergreen Line Report made me curious as to how TransLink could justify continuing to expand SkyTrain, when the rest of the world is building LRT. So I went back and read the alleged Business Case (BC) report in a little more detail. I found several instances where the analysis had made assumptions that were inaccurate, or had been manipulated to make the case for SkyTrain. If the underlying assumptions are inaccurate, the conclusions may be so too.”

Just about every major government of B.C. project in B.C. is based on inaccurate or manipulated assumptions.

The reason to replace the Massey Tunnel has gone as the Vancouver Port Authority would not pay to maintain the river to a deeper depth which would be needed to allow Cape Max colliers and tankers up the Fraser to load American coal, oi, and natural gas from Surrey Fraser Docks.

If the business case were honest, it would say that the new crossing is ill planned and at the wrong location and that a further crossing is needed to cross the North Arm of the Fraser into South Surrey/Vancouver.

Sadly, honesty is not in the lexicon of B.C. bureaucrats and politicians today.

D. M. Johnston