| |
|
|
June, 2002
Dear Citygate 1 Resident:
Saturday June 8th a workshop called “Thinking About False Creek” was held at Simon Fraser – Harbour Centre.
The session was organized by Fred Mah, Chairperson of the Friends of False Creek. Citygate does not presently have representation with this
group.
Participants at the session were drawn from a wide range of interested parties including the Dragon Boat
Assoc, Environment Canada, False Creek Community Center, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Friends of False Creek, Greater Vancouver Floating Home Assoc,
Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection, Spruce Harbour Marina, Squamish Nation, Vancouver 2010 Bid Corp, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority plus
several business owners. Missing was representation from the City of Vancouver and the GVRD. Apparently some rift developed around turf
protection. The workshop was seen to be meddling in someone else jurisdiction. From the onset, this raised one of the primary issues –
jurisdictional control.
The morning session consisted of presentations and the afternoon the was divided into 4 break off groups to
look at 3 issues, long term vision, environmental issues and next steps.
Following are some of the discussion points.
MORNING
Mike Harcourt – Keynote speaker – Vice-Chair International Centre for Sustainable Cities
Mike set the tone stating cities are artificial and choices we make in how we build them has consequences. We live in a challenging geographic
area with population explosion problems. Doubled in the past 25 years and will double again to 4,000,000 by 2050.
Chief Bill Williams – Squamish Nation
Bill reviewed the history of the Squamish Nation. They had a village where Vanier point is and used to reach it from the north shore via False
Creek at high tide when water connected Burrard inlet to the Creek via channel approximately where Carrall Street is today. In 1872, the government
formally recognized Vanier point as dedicated Indian land. In 1873, 80 acres were dedicated for Indian use in what is Kitsalno today. They had
6 or 7 long house at Vanier Point. Through court action (Mathias vs the Queen), the Squamish will regain title to about 10 acres under and
around the south end of the Burrard bridge. Bill said, “we are here, we have a history, we will develop our 10 acres and we will remain as
contributors to society”. Bill was asked to recount an incident that happened in 1913. The government of the day decided they were going
take over the Indian land at Kits. A barge was pulled up to the shore, kegs of whiskey were unloaded and government officials proceeded to get the
resident Indian population drunk. The residents were then given money for their land ($100.00 each) and put on the barge. The barge was then
set adrift and the log homes were torched. Eventually, a Cates tug rescued the barge and pulled to the Capilano reserve.
Denise Savoie – Chair Capital Regional District Roundtable on the Environment
Victoria residents are on a similar initiative to protect the waters of the inner harbour. Denise reviewed her experiences and offered
suggestion on how to proceed. A Roundtable model works but is only one model. She advised having benchmarks, targets, as few indicators as
possible, easy to understand condensed reports, the right mix of expertise and link the output to a work plan with good feedback loops.
Rider Cooey & Fred Mah - Friends of False Creek
Rider presented a slide show of historical photos of the creek. Evident was the loss of water surface over the years.
Fred identified the FOFC slogan “A Healthy Creek for a Healthy Community”. He pointed out the big difference between the east and west of
the creek (dividing line approximately the Cambie Bridge) as being the difference in aquatic plant and animal life in the two areas. The west is
doing OK but the east end is in poor shape due to the pollution. Problems contributing to the poor water quality come from transportation,
recreation, moorage (legal and illegal – over 50 illegal), floating homes/offices, 9 storm water outlets, 5 combined (storm/sewer that place 136,000,000
litres of raw sewage in the creek annually), Pleasure craft (under 20 tons do not need holding tanks and this includes the booze cruise trade), industrial
discharge near the Plaza of Nations.
Dave Walker – Georgia Basin Ecosystem Initiative – Environment Canada
Dave is responsible for the Georgia Basin ecosystem and stated the Basin is a jewel in need of polishing. Consists of the area from Campbell
River around to Sooke. At present there is 110,000 acres closed to shell fishing due to high fecal counts. They are looking at no dump zones
for boats. Currently there are 75 sites under consideration and 25 more to be added. There are only 14 no dump zones at present. 8 new
pump out stations have been added to the area. False Creek is not designated for no dumping. In Nov-Dec last year fecal counts were collected
from the Creek at 30 sites with assistance by the Friends of False Creek. All samples failed to met federal standards for shellfish habitat of 14
parts per 100 ml of water. Dave would like to see in the long term, edible shellfish in False Creek.
Domenic Losito – Regional Director, Health Protection, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority
Domenic primarily deals with recreational water guidelines for the creek and 12 city beaches. Since 1986 the only beach that has been closed is
Sunset. Prior to 1986, the outflow from the Iona sewage plant would flow around into English Bay causing excessive coli form counts. In 1986,
the Iona outflow was extended further into Georgia Straight. Today’s guideline for beach use is a level of less than 200. The samples
are averaged over 30 days with more samples taken in the summer. One number is provided for the east end of the creek and one for the west. The
results are posted on the Health Authority web site. The posting for May 28 indicated the east end creek reading was 400 and the west end 53.
AFTERNOON
The afternoon break off groups took the morning session information and developed a group consensus for a vision, issues and next steps. At
the end of the day, the main group reconvened and combined the output from the 4 groups into one. Here are the results.
1. Long-term visions for False Creek.
- A common Board of Governance is required.
- The creek must be sustainable.
- Use the creek as a model community and classroom.
- The creek should be clean, green with high water quality.
- The creek should have diverse habitat and use.
2. Environmental Issues and Challenges
- Water quality contamination must be addressed.
- Governance must be addressed.
3. Moving Forward with a Roundtable
- Identify all the stakeholders.
- Obtain buy-in from the stakeholders.
- Arrange funding.
- The roundtable should set short and long term goals.
- The first goal should be an enforced no discharge designation for False Creek.
At the point of combining the output from the 4 groups, Vancouver City Councillor Gordon Price joined the
workshop. He brought a dose of cold water with him. Some of his points.
- The 70’s legacy when it was determined the creek would no longer be an industrial sewer, the pollution on
the bottom of the creek was not cleaned up.
- City Engineering staff are frustrated as no one appears to acknowledge what has been accomplished by the
extraction of money from development around the creek to assist in paying for clean-up to date.
- Money is not available from the City to fund a major clean up and if you want to proceed you must be prepared
to make trade offs. That is the political reality.
- Use the creek as a classroom to bring as many people on board as possible to support your cause. Politicians
respond to good strong feedback.
- The City will never take responsibility for cleaning up the creek. They are very nervous about being
hung out to dry with no funds. If they thought cleaning up the creek was required before any more development around the perimeter could occur,
they would stop development.
Fred Mah thanked everyone for coming and invited interested persons to join the Friends of False Creek. They
meet the first Tuesday of the month at the False Creek Community Centre. Feedback from the session will be provided to all the attendees and to
those who registered but didn’t appear.
|
|
