Donations and volunteers required – please call 778-867-6115 to contribute.

- Bridgeview Community Centre’s Flea Market – “FORCED TO MOVE” sale

- No Tanks Flotilla at Second Beach in Vancouver

October 10, 2010 – 2pm at Scott Road SkyTrain Station.

This year as part of the 350.org 10/10/10 Global Work Party (Oct 10, 2010), we will get to work stopping a deliberate climate crime – the South Fraser Perimeter ‘Road’ freeway which is part of the Gateway Program. The estimated $2 billion proposed freeway would greatly increase greenhouse gas emissions, pave over some of BC’s best farmland, scar the delicate banks of the Fraser River, and pollute elementary school playgrounds.

Featuring the Carnival Band, Solidarity Notes Choir, special guest Rex Weyler (co-founder
of Greenpeace) and Sand for Shirley.

Dear Friends,

Is the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) a “done deal”?

Well, there’s lots of sand piled up all along the proposed route.  What would it take to undo what’s been done?  A fair amount of digging sand, moving it to a better place.

So what are we waiting for?

I’ve been reading lately about the impact of diesel exhaust, especially the ultra fine particulate, on children in schools within 100 meters of the proposed truck freeway.

It’s not a pretty picture.  If the SFPR is built, we must try to eliminate diesel container trucks from using it.  The impact on the kids at Bridgeview Elementary (to say nothing of the lungs of birds, and the flora and fauna of Burns Bog) will be devastating.  And that’s only one of 12 schools near the proposed truckin’ freeway.

Please come to this Forum at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver (UCV), 949 W. 49th at Oak St, in the Fireside Room at 12:30 on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2010.  Eric Doherty will have a Powerpoint presentation.

And on 10/10/10 be sure to come to “Dig in for Climate Justice” and dig the SFPR.  This is one part of the Global Work Party organized by Greenpeace and 350.org

See http://www.350.org/node/17206

or http://www.350.org/dig-climate-justice

This local event is sponsored by the Council of Canadians local chapters, and GatewaySucks.org

Here’s the blurb:

FORUM Sunday, Sept.5 at 12:30, Fireside Room “Dig In for Climate Justice”

On Sunday, 10/10/10, at 2pm take direct action against climate crime. The South Fraser Freeway would greatly increase carbon emissions, and trash BC’s best farmland. We can stop it, if you dig in and help! This work party is sponsored by The Council of Canadians and GatewaySucks.org. Presenter Eric Doherty has been an anti- Gateway writer and activist since 2006. Join the Global Work Party on 10/10/10 sponsored by 350.org

All the best, Karl Perrin (Chair, Enviro C’tee, UCV and Co-chair, Pilgrimage to Burns Bog)

Re: Artificial Reef Project Runs aground

Saturday, August 28th.

It surprises me that Environmental Stewardship Manager Jennifer McGuire would prevent the sinking of an artificial reef in Halkett bay, since it would bring life to an otherwise barren and muddy area and would boost its biodiversity. Someone very powerful must own property in Halkett Bay to be able to convince the Ministry of the Environment to stop a project that would enhance the amount and types of species in the area with a project that has been a year and a half in the making at a cost of nearly half a million dollars. I suspect that they don’t want divers and other boaters to be using their bay and would like to keep it for their own personal use.

Ms. McGuire was of no help when we asked her to protect the Norum Place Park Environmental Reserve that is not only home to many species at risk but is made up of plant and animal species that are said to be the last of their kind in the Province. This small park on the banks of the Fraser River in North Delta will be totally wiped out by the construction of the South Fraser Perimeter Road, along with a critical section of nearby Collings Way Ravine Environmental Park Reserve, separating it from the Fraser River and the wildlife corridor that connects it to other important green spaces.

These two parks are part of a 2 1/2 km. long wildlife corridor that connect six other environmentally sensitive ravine parks with Burns Bog, the Fraser Heights Wetlands, Surrey Bend Regional Park and the upper Fraser River, an essential wildlife corridor that would be replaced with a highway.

Despite the fact that these reserves are Red- and Blue-listed habitat, home to threatened and endangered species, and are made up of habitat that are some of the last of its kind in the province, we were told there was no protection. Well now it seams there is a protection rule, and both of these parks qualify.

The Artificial Reef Society will no doubt find another location to sink their Warship to improve some other area of Howe sound, but we could never replace the loss of habitat nor the species at risk that would be lost by the construction of the South Fraser Perimeter Road through this section.

The Mission statement of the Ministry of the Environment, Environmental Stewardship Division is to “maintain and restore the natural diversity of provincial ecosystems and fish and wildlife species and their habitat”  So what about it, Ms. McGuire?

Don Hunt
Sunbury Neighbourhood Association
Delta BC
this letter published In the Vancouver Sun Sept 1, 2010

We would rather have real beach party on the Fraser River. But if Shirley Bond builds that Trucking Hwy, we will lose our access to the beach.

Monday, August 30, 2010 – 5pm to 11:30pm
One block north of Bridgeview Hall on SFPR Pre-load sand

Highlights:
…
Live Radio Broadcast – Vancouver CO-OP Radio CFRO 102.7 FM

For more info, check the facebook event page!

“Even when I was on Delta council a few years ago, we knew the proposed SFPR wasn’t going to do much for traffic congestion at the tunnel,” says Guy Gentner, the NDP MLA for Delta North, who was a Delta councillor between 1999 and 2005.

“That’s why, instead of building the SFPR, we had suggested adding a truck lane on Highway 17 from Deltaport and adding another tube through the George Massey Tunnel. This would have been a far better way to spend that kind of money and I still see the SFPR today as nothing more than a big, white elephant.”

Gentner says container traffic at Deltaport could also have been accommodated on the Fraser River itself by using short-sea shipping, common in Europe, whereby containers are moved via barge between ports and truck-transfer points.

This freeway project has many negative impacts – from paving farmland, damaging Burns Bog, eliminating wildlife habitat, stripping Fraser River shorelines and using vital public funds for pavement instead of transit, healthcare and education.

You can help us stop this project by signing our petition and sending Preload Sand back to the Minister of Transportation, Shirley Bond.

Three large sand stockpiles were dredged – on 80th Street near the Delta Animal Shelter, on River Road near Nordel Way and in Surrey near Tannery Road.

As well, they are digging up more farmland in the Fraser Valley to supply sand and gravel for Gateway road construction:
See the STOP GATEWAY post on Farmland in Chilliwack being destroyed for gravel extraction.
See this Youtube Video of a South Surrey Tree Farm destroyed for gravel extraction.

Delta council candidate Silvia Bishop helped kick off a new campaign against the South Fraser Perimeter Road project.

Attending International Bog Day at the Delta Nature Reserve Sunday, Bishop filled an envelope of sand taken from the pre-load from the South Fraser Perimeter Road, saying she’ll mail it to Transportation Minister Shirley Bond as part of the “Sand for Shirley” campaign.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/news/99474414.html