Editor:
One of the key issues in the upcoming provincial election campaign is how effective an independent MLA can be within our current party system of B.C. politics. Vicki Huntington points to her purported accomplishments as being evidence that an independent MLA, and Huntington in particular, can get things accomplished.
Huntington recently said one of the biggest accomplishments was "securing funding for the dredging of Ladner Harbour."
Huntington's website contains the following misinformation: "DREDGING ACTION: Vicki secured a $3 million commitment from the Minister of Transportation to contribute to the desperate need to dredge Ladner Harbour and the surrounding reaches. The dredging will start this summer."
At its very best this statement grossly overstates Huntington's role in securing funding for the dredging of Ladner Harbour. In fact, it is just not true.
I would like to lay out for you the facts. I was there and I personally know them. What follows is the relevant chronology of the events:
Prior to August 2012, Port Metro Vancouver and Delta had committed funding for the dredging project but the provincial and federal governments had not so the project could not proceed.
On Aug. 31, 2012, John Roscoe, chair of the Ladner Sediment Group, wrote to John Appleby, vice-president of the B.C. Liberal riding association, requesting his assistance. The desperation of Roscoe is demonstrated by the following paragraph taken from Roscoe's email:
"We have been working with Port Metro Vancouver, The Corp. of Delta, The City of Richmond, DFO and others for the past three plus years, to promote action on this issue and although we are seeing some small headway we fear that if action is not forthcoming very soon that these channels will become unnavigable..."
Appleby and I arranged a meeting between the Ladner Sediment Group and Minister of Transportation Mary Polak, which occurred on Oct. 22, 2012.
Appleby and I attended that meeting. Polak agreed to try to find a solution to this important issue.
Polak and Delta-Richmond East MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay put their heads together and jointly figured out how to access very scarce funding resources to make the dredging project a reality. The joint announcement of funding was made on Dec. 17, 2012 by Findlay, Polak and Delta Mayor Lois Jackson.
The credit for this success story belongs to the people who actually got the job done: Findlay, Polak, Jackson and the hard-working executive of the Ladner Sediment Group and not Huntington, who was unable to get the job done.
Those are the facts that relate to how, when and by whom funding for the dredging of Ladner Harbour was "secured."
What are the takeaways from this sequence of events?
. A team effort is sometimes required to "get it done."
. Sniping from outside often does not get it done.
. We should look with a skeptical eye at Huntington's self-proclaimed "achievements."
David G. Fredricksen Bruce McDonald Campaign Team
