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Your Comments  Send in a Comment
March 4, 2008 Dear Mr Falcon,
Wilma Haig
See Kevin Falcon's email and the full response by Ms Haig.
more Feb 13, 2008 I came across an article in the Guardian yesterday which I posted to my blog Then it occurred to me that you may not read that so I left a comment on your web site too Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help your campaign. I have put your site on my blog roll and I would be very happy to see more comments or information added on my blog Another day, another revelation that knocks the Gateway. Stephen Rees
Dear Stan Hagen: Thank you for your email. Respectfully I have to advise you that you are misinformed. The figures that we quote are not ours - they come from researched sources. Please take a look at the following Vancouver Sun Article As the report says this is probably a conservative estimate. Bunker fuel - basically a waste product from the oil refinery industry - is a very dirty fuel. There are numerous other sources that suggest that shipping industry emissions are indeed responsible for thousands of deaths a year. Marine pollution is at its highest on the water surrounding major ports and in the ports themselves. All this pollution then blows ashore. Not only that but new evidence is showing that ultrafine particulates - present in the ship emissions - are much more harmful to human health that previously thought. You may wish to check this out via the Keck School of Medicine in California. As far as Deltaport creating jobs for hardworking Canadians - yes the logistics industry does create jobs. However these are at the expense of much better paying manufacturing jobs that have been lost. Economists estimate that in the USA the bottom quartile of jobs in the logistics industry only pay $18,000.00 per year. And very few of these jobs are created around the ports. In Los Angeles for example between 2001 - 2008 despite goods movement expansion the job market has not expanded. The same is going to hold true for Canada. In fact of course over 60 percent of the goods arriving at Deltaport are for Eastern markets. Seattle is unlikely to benefit. There is even more of a focus on ports and port pollution in the USA than there is here. For example in California Senator Boxer has introduced legislation that will require the marine industry to clean up its emissions. Bottom line - we have done our research and you may wish to do yours. Best regards, Roger Emsley Executive Director Against Port Expansion Community Group ------------------------------- Original Email You would far more credible if you were honest. There is no concrete evidence that 105,000 lives a year are taken through ship emissions. Delta Port expansion creates jobs for hard working Canadians. Seattle must love your group. They stand to beefit from your left wing thinking. Stan Hagen
November 21, 2007 I live in Kamloops and have been concerned about this project for many years, but felt helpless to do anything about it. The 4-page insert in the Globe and Mail on Saturday gave me the impetus to write to Anne Murray and Bev Ramey (BC Nature) to find out who was doing something about this travesty. I feel much better knowing I'm far from alone in my concern. You've clarified most of my concerns in your Issues page, but the one that bothers me just as much as those is the fact that this expansion is to provide a route for containers to the mid-west USA, not for BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan or anywhere else in Canada. CP Rail has already started buying up private railway crossings east of Kamloops to build new track so the container trains can get uninterrupted right of way to their destination in the US. The stuff isn't even being delivered in BC!! I will send you web address to as many people as I can - the word just hasn't got out to those who care about this destruction of habitat and peoples' lives. There's been no public discussion in the media about it - which I guess is all part of the "plot". Thanks for letting me rant - and keep up the good work. I'd like to help get the number of signatures up into the 1000s, where it might have some impact. Frances Vyse
November 20, 2007 I recently was in Australia and took a ferry cruise down a river through Sydney. The container port that was on this river was one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. It towered into the skyline. No one would want to live anywhere near it. Eleanor Hill
October 31, 2007 A resident's frustrated plea for government officials to HELP citizens of Delta Read my comments
Rob Johnson
August 21, 2007 I attended the recent Port open house. It's quite different being there & seeing first hand the mammoth size of the port and the development of third berth. The containers are huge. Very ugly. I spoke to port staff members (all from Vancouver) and, of course, they praised their employer and told me they are doing what they can to mitigate damage to the environment. I asked more than one person where Terminal 2 would go (if environmental approval obtained--and making sure they knew my opposition). I was told "we don't know if that will ever go ahead!" I suspect there is a hidden agenda in place. I wrote a letter some time ago to Prime Minister(by snail mail-no postage required) voicing my concern about and opposition to Gateway, including port expansion. I was very surprised to receive a reply this past week. Reply didn't say too much but at least my letter was read! If everyone in this community who is opposed to Gateway and Terminal 2 etc. could write Mr. Harper and flood his desk with letters, say several thousand, he would have to take notice. The decisions about the industrialization of South Delta are being made at the federal level and that's where energy should be directed, I suggest. Do appreciate all being done by local groups. Jean Wightman
June 5, 2007 You are fighting for exactly the same issues we are. We are the Westernport Action Group ( www.westernportactiongroup.com ) and I will add your site to our links. Maybe we should start an international organisation for like minded groups like ours? There is a massive trend to make everytthing bigger and busier and with no regard as to who it affects and what it affects. Businesses seem to run politics nowadays and we need to reign this trend in a bit to maintain sensible growth and development. We need to remain operating within the boundries that nature will allow. Matthew Ridgeway
June 5, 2007 I like your website and wish you luck. Keep us up to date as ideas develop. There seem to be a lot of issues and a lot oif people reacting. We have to establish a means to communicate with government to restore democratic process. We need an intervention. The question is what does that look like? Have a look at the Google Earth Map on hydrofactsbc.ca and you will see hundreds of rivers being taken from all of us while our entire public electric system is being changed to make us renters instead of owners. Since 2001 our BC government has made laws to keep the transfers secret and the changes to BC Hydro confidential. Where changes are obvious they deny the motive or lie about the reasons. Tom Rankin
June 4, 2007 We in the North Vancouver/Seymour NDP Constituency are appalled at what is happening in Delta and at the entire Gateway Project. What we need in the Lower Mainland is good transportation for people - not trucks spouting foul emissions and we certainly don't need a Gateway Project. Of course it would be good for business - but there comes a point when people have to come first. The whole thing makes a mockery of any supposed plans the government (provincial or federal) claims to have to prevent further global warming or reduce pollution.. It also makes a mockery of democracy and this in the end may be the worst aspect. We have to fight this - as you are doing - but it will be necessary to mobilize people throughout the Lower Mainland; it cannot just be left to those who are immediately affected. For one thing, it will ultimately affect us all, even those of us on the North Shore. We must be in this together. Jean R. Macintyre
May 21, 2007 If any readers think that increased trade with China will not impact them, may I suggest you read "An Export Boom Suddenly Facing a Quality Crisis", www.nytimes.com, Mayl8/07 by David Barboza (writing from Shanghai for New York Times;also appeared in May l9th National Post) It's not only pet food that is at risk;food for humans is too. also in New York Times--a poisoned toothpaste from China found in South America). Is this scary, or what? The above article has photo of piles of containers. This is even more scary! Keep those letters to politicians. Delta has had enough! Jean Wightman
April 25, 2007 I am not sure if you are aware of this, but I thought I should bring it to your attention. Deltaport was owned by OOCL up until early this year when OOCL sold it Terminal Operations to Ontario Teachers Pension Fund. TSI is lsited by OOCL as a "sister company." In other words, prior to the sale, all of the efforts by our governments and the expenditure of billions of tax dollars on the Gateway projects was to benefit an Asian multinational, multibillion company. Now, the port is owned by OTPP through a spin-off called Global Container Terminals Inc(GCT). OTPP is a $106 billion fund serving about 271,000 Ontario teachers. It may be useful to devise a strategy of influencing OTPP, first by inviting its fund managers to meet with APE, and in the likely event that the invitation is refused, to appeal directly to the shareholders of OTPP, namely the teachers, to act in a morally and environmentally responsible manner. Warren W
Thanks for the email, and the great suggestions. We have been working on an info kit to send to Ontario Teachers Federation. We are trying to focus on the fact that from an environment standpoint, there is too much at risk to expand Deltaport. Naturally, that leads to bad publicity for OTF. April 4, 2007 Thanks to all who organized and helped with the Mar. 3l rally. Great speakers and a lot of good information. Perhaps there is hope yet--we can stop the SPFR! If this can be stopped, we don't need a second terminal with three more berths. We need to write letters (by fax or mail preferable), make phone calls, pass the word on to others a.s.a.p. Many in Tsw. recall the Southlands proposal that got voted down! Things can happen. Jean Wightman
April 2, 2007 Would like to thank members of A.P,E. for the well presented rally of Mar 31st. I was thinking of ordering a bunch of the Gateway reports and myself and Bernice could distribute them outside of London Drugs, to passers by, do you think this is a good idea? Please let me know , also if you have any more cards on Farm it or Pave it, we could also give them out too. Regards Denise Kobilan.
April 2, 2007 When we were faced with a development issue in our area (a constant re-occuring one) we set up a committee, put together a complete layout of the catchment area, (as the municipality referred to it) we then broke the area down into manageable segments and assigned those segments to individual on our team with time frames around contacting each and everyone of the homeowners in their respective segment. Once contacted they were to share the information (not pressure them or debate with them, merely to give them the information) and ask for their support or not, everything was logged, all "for" as well as all "against". When this overwhelming dossier of information was presented to the municipality the development was cancelled. This task was miniscule compared with the daunting task of this port expansion challenge, However, and it is a huge However, we need to have a similar set of data to present the case of what the "public" wants, we need to be able to show just what percentage of the area Ladner, Tsawwassen, Delta (for starters) is against this. There can be no mixed messages and absolutely no doubt what the people want. Just some thoughts. Stephen Knight
April 2, 2007 love the site, over due. I would like to see a link to either Microsoft's Virtual Earth Site and\or Google Earth with the recommendation that visitors looks at Long Beach, California; Elizabeth, New Jersey; Seattle\Tacoma and the surrounding areas. Lots of warehouses, garages and other related industry. Not what we want for our area I think. Iain Scott
The Google earth links have been added to the site for these three locations - click here |
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