Harper's closure of the $700,000 a year Kitsilano Coast Guard station which served the extremely busy downtown Vancouver harbour confirms everything you strongly suspected about his value system. The station was the busiest in Canada with about 350 calls a year.
Of course, even while the Cons preach restraint and implement budget cuts, they always have money for Stephen Harper's core values and the voters attracted to them. The Cons are closing the base as part of their budget cutbacks while continuing the $45.8 billion estimated cost of the F35 program according to the auditor-general. Furthermore, they did closed the base within a few days of announcing the opening of the $5 million a year Office of Religious Freedom. I guess those in danger of drowning off Vancouver are comforted by the fact someone may be saying a prayer for them at the Office.
The Cons also announced the closure on the same day the BC government brought down its budget in order to minimize media coverage. Even staff at the base only learned of the closure earlier in the day and then not through the federal government but via a shipping news website. Shortly after that they were ordered to remove any personal belongings their lockers and pack up. Rescue boats were immediately removed from the station. Vancouverites did not expect to close the base until later in the spring.
"Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang noted no one at city hall, Vancouver Police Department or Vancouver Fire and Rescue received any warning that the base would be closing Tuesday. The city had also put forth a report that spoke against the base’s closure. “The entire city of Vancouver is in shock,” Jang said. “Shutting this base will cost lives. It will play roulette with people’s lives.”
Jericho Sailing general manager Mike Cotter has worked with Vancouver’s marine safety community for 25 years. He said what might be a three-minute rescue mission could now become a half-hour body recovery, since marine rescues at Canada’s busiest port must now rely on the Sea Island Coast Guard base in Richmond, some 17 nautical miles (31 kilometres) away.
“For 50 years, this station has saved lives off the southern coast of British Columbia. People will die as a result of this decision,” Cotter said of the sudden closure."
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Vancouver+Kitsilano+Coast+Guard+Base+clo...
In just the brief two weeks since the closure we have had two close life-and-death calls.
"Critics of the Kitsilano Coast Guard station’s closure say the time it took for two men to be rescued from the frigid waters of the Strait of Georgia Wednesday morning could have been cut sharply had the station still been operating. The men dumped in the water when their 19-metre fishboat sank off Point Grey.
According to Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Victoria, it took 21 minutes for the hovercraft to reach the men at 5:38 a.m. But the Coast Guard said later Wednesday that it took just 17 minutes for the hovercraft to reach the men.
Critics of the Kitsilano station closure said it would have taken 10 minutes to reach the men had the Kitsilano station been open.
The two men, who were wearing life jackets but not survival suits, were in the water between 20 and 30 minutes before being rescued.
Experts say that at that amount of time, they were not likely to die.
However, the boaters were still treated for hypothermia and taken to Vancouver General Hospital in stable condition, according to the B.C. Ambulance Service.
A survival chart posted on the American safety website BoatSafe.com says exhaustion and unconsciousness from hypothermia for a person wearing a life-jacket kicks in between 30 and 60 minutes when water is 40-50 F. The ocean temperature Wednesday was 44.6 F, or 7 C."
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/rescued+after+fishing+boat+sinks+Strait...
In a local "24 hours" free newspaper, I read about how the two local private water taxis are now expected to be part of future rescues to a much greater extent than ever in the past. While the owner of one of the water taxis says he would willingly help rescue anyone in trouble in the water as he has done in the past, he emphasized that the closure of the base would double or triple the time for the Coast Guard to arrive from the now closest station. Financially, this interrupts his water taxi business, but he said that he would try to do all he could for someone in trouble but that there is no way that he or his crew could ever match the skills of the Coast Guard and that the extra time now involved in a Coast Guard rescue could be the difference betweent the person surviving or not. He noted that he already had to be involved in one rescue where the Coast Guard did not arrive as fast as in the past.
Harper has already generated enormous anger in Vancouver over this. If someone(s) die over this, Harper will hear the gun going off in his game of Russian roulette with voters in Vancouver.
The Cons claim that the Kitsilano Coast Guard station can be closed because there is another station in Richmond at Sea Island, even though it historically has had to deal with about 100 less rescues per year than Vancouver, is skirting the key problem. Having rescue boats come from the Richmond station means a doubling or tripling of rescues times for Vancouver harbour, thereby greatly increasing the risk of drownings. Not coincidentally, all three Richmond ridings have Con MPs while Vancouver has elected 2 NDPers, 2 Liberals and only 1 Con.
BCers historically have viewed themselves as isolated from Ottawa which is 5,000 km away. From their perspecitive, everyone on the other side of the Rockies is an easterner, including Albertan Steven Harper. We keep track of issues that increase this sense of isolation, just as Westerners did when the Mulroney government chose Quebec over Winnipeg for a large aviation contract. We just may let those easterners freeze in the dark over the Northern Gateway pipeline, as well as freeze out some Con BC MPs.
If someone(s) dies in a boating accident in the Vancouver Harbour region because the Coast Guard cannot reach them fast enough, the response will not be like that following each of the many disappearances of the sex workers in the Downtown Eastside or along the Highway of Tears in northern BC.
Why? Because to be a boat owner in what already is the most expensive city in which to reside in Canada means the odds are overwhelming that you are a member of at least the upper quarter of the middle class. Therefore, the resulting outcry will be deafening, just as it was when the body of the sister of the mayoral candidate, Peter Ladner, of the right-wing NPA muncipal party was found sexually assaulted and murdered in a wealthy part of the city.
Even on minor issues their outcry can be deafening. A few years ago the city decided that it would no longer have its garbage collectors go onto the property of expensive properties in the richest neighbourhoods to pick up their garbage but have these property owners have to put their garbage at the curbside like everyone else. The indignation of the wealthy that their property taxes would not include this service was a topic of major media coverage while the coverage of the murder of sex workers and Aboriginal women was token by comparison.
Should a drowned boater (swimmers are protected by lifeguards who are municipal employees and not affected by cutbacks) not be among the elite I think the reaction will still be the same. Although I am not a boater, I know many of them. They will empathize with other boaters (unlike sex workers or Aboriginal people) in trouble because they understand one thing: when you are in trouble in the ocean, the ocean does not care how wealthy you are. They know it could well be one or more of them the next time.
Tonight on the BC Legislature TV channel, the BC NDP MLA for Alberni-Pacific Rim on Vancouver Island, Scott Fraser, outlined more cuts that are to be to marine safety along the BC coast. The Cons are planning to close Marine Communications Centre at Comox on the east coast of Vancouver Island, which is involved in marine traffic control, as well as weather and distress call monitoring.
They are also closing Coast Guard station on the west coast of the island off the area known for centuries as the Graveyard of the Pacific. These closures will leave two centres to serve the entire BC coast, according to Fraser.
At the same time, the Cons are contributing a large portion of the funding for the $4 billion Asia Pacific Gateway Project, which will greatly expand the Vancouver and Prince Rupert port facilities and the roadways nearby, thereby greatly increasing marine traffic and the risk of accidents.
The closing of these stations will save peanuts compared to the cost of the Gateway Project. This tells you how much priority the Cons give to safety and human life.
Meanwhile, this tiny community of roughly 130 people has had a Coast Guard ship stationed at our wharf for two years now, but the crew are to cover a huge area. I'm not exactly sure the size of their coverage area. The ship is the CCGS Cap Perce.
Christy (surprise, surprise) has delivered an ultimatum to the Harper government: if the feds do not reopen the Kitsilano Coast Guard Station, there will be no expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. Can you say election time? Still its nice to see two right-wing governments fighting. Kind of strange Harper can now find $120 million for "tanker safety" but can't afford $750,000 a year for the Kits Coast Guard station. It tells you how much he values life.
"She made the comments Wednesday while responding to two federal announcements (found here and here) made this week aimed at calming British Columbians’ fears about new oil pipeline projects from Alberta to the B.C. coast, and discussing her five criteria for supporting any of them.
“If they’re closing down Coast Guard stations at the same time that they’re saying they want to improve our Coast Guard capacity, the two just don’t make sense beside each other,” Clark said.
“It sounds to a lot of people like what they’re saying is different from what they’re doing and that poses a real problem for the expansion of heavy oil in British Columbia.”
On Monday in Vancouver, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver announced $120 million in new funding over five years for “world-class” tanker safety investments."
http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/603319/christy-clarks-ultimatum-to-fe...
It also puts Haper in an awkward position - don't fund the station and continue to get questions about why not when so much more is proposed for tanker safety or do fund it and get asked why it was cut in the first place.
CBC Vancouver TV showed the closed down Kitsilano station rusting away with the Coast Guard boat that was meant to deal with such spills in drydock and of course no one available to respond.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/oil-spill-response-by-coa...
Oil spill at #EnglishBay http://bit.ly/1CYAQoF #Vancouver
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https://twitter.com/News1130radio/status/586163402814447617/photo/1
The closing of the Kitsilano Coast Guard Station by the Cons two years ago has come back to bite them with the English Bay oil spill. The public outrage can be seen in the Twitter comments at the end of the following article.
http://www.vancourier.com/news/politicians-and-residents-blast-response-...
Con Industry Minister James Moore, a Metro Vancouverite, tried to reassure the public that the federal response was adequate. Unfortunately, for him, no one else does. Comments like this are only making their well-deserved hole deeper for them.
Furthermore, this relatively small spill shows how overwhelmingly inadequate our preparations are for an oil tanker major accident or pipeline spill.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1933267/vancouver-oil-spill-cleanup-becomes-ce...
Here's a sample of the many more Twitter comments showing how concerned people are about this in Vancouver. (The Douglas Channel referred to below is the outlet to the ocean for the Northern Gateway pipeline that runs through a narrow channel containing roughly 100 islets where tankers could run aground on).
http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/dramatic-photos-of-vancouver-oil-spill-s...
So much for the Harper/Christy Clark "world class oil spill response" for the increased number of pipelines and tanker traffic.
Thanks for the information. Of course I heard of the oil spill (yet another...) but I appreciate the backstory about the government's funding cuts to needed safety infrastructure in your area. Is there more at the Tyee?
Here's an article on the spill from the Tyee.
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/04/10/Vancouver-Preview-Spill-from-Hell/
Here's another article from the Tyee on the issue.
http://thetyee.ca/News/2015/04/10/Vancouver-Fuel-Spill/
The following article points out that the government response had fallen far short of the "world class standards' promised by Harper and Christy
Tollefson goes on to emphasize that the cumulative of many relatively small spills can be extremely damaging and a scientific study shows that this is at least as serious problem on the East Coast.
Despite the claim by federal Con Industry Minsiter James Moore and his Coast Gurard senior managers that the Coast Guards's response, despite the closing of the KItsilano Coast Guard Statioh, was fast and effective in allegedly cleaning up 80% of the spill, people are not buying this. That's because such cleanups ususlly only get 10 to 15% of the spill even with a fast response.
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/spill+response+English+falls+shor...
Oil spill, schmoil spill. Don't you know we're in a war on terror??
Even the right-wing Vancouver Sun admits that this spill and its aftermath is likely to major political ramifications in the upcoming federal election in BC.
Despite Con Industry Minister's claim that 80% of the spill has been cleaned up thanks to its fast response, no one is buying this as discussed in the post #16. The Cons usually technique of deny, deny, deny the problem is not working because the evidence to the contrary is so visible. This reminds me of what happened to Bush and New York Mayor Guiliani. Despite Bush ignoring the large body of evidence that a major Al Quaeda attack was imminent, he got overwhelming support when he looked like he was dealing with the problem. The same happened with Guiliani, despite the fact that for years he had refused to fund replacements for the very outdated communications equipment that resulted in more than 200 firefighters being recalled from the about to collapse World Trade Towers because their communications equipment was useless. He was praised, despite his failure to deal with this and other problems earlier, because he appeared to be taking charge when the attack occurred.
On the other hand, the number one issue leading to Bush's growing unpopularity was his indifference and denials of the Katrina Hurricane devastation of New Orleans. When the problem is blatantly obvious to the publc and you continue in denial mode, like Moore, watch out. This is especially true with security problems. Unfortunately, Cons define security only in military terms. However, while the public generally follows the same thought pattern, when their security is threatened by other problems, such as hurricanes or catastrophic environmental disasters, they expect the government to carry out its number one task - achieving public security. Denial does not work under these conditions and, IMO, the Cons will play a significant price, both in Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and along the Coast.
It is interesting that the main thrust of the federal Liberal response is how they could use this problem to benefit them in the upcoming election (see Joyce Murray's comments below on potential Liberal gains, which unlike the NDP's Kennedy Stewarts' or the Green's respsonse in the article, don't focus on the issue) rather than deal with the issue at hand, something very familar to us in Liberal posters on this site for nearly all issues.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Conservatives+hammered+over+spill+clean...
Those saying that the Green vote is too high in polls might be wrong. There are some people in BC looking at this story who might vote Green as a comment on environmental policy and protection.
This is not an endorsement -- just an observation.
See the impact on Vancouver's marine wildlife after the English Bay oil spill
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/toxic-fuel-spills-into-va...
After Liberal BC Premier Christy Clark harshly criticized the federal government over the spill, the response of Liberal BC Environment Minister, Mary Polak, is revealing about how little effort it is willing to put into cleanup, pipeline and tanker issues, rather than the politics of the issue.
http://pacificgazette.blogspot.ca/2015/04/english-bay-oil-spill-non.html
Helicopter activity over Sandy Cove.
I hope it helps prevent pipelines from going through BC to the coast.
Moore won 56% to 30% in 2011.
I really hope Sara Norman can put him out of his misery in 2015.
Who is she anyways as she needs to be jumping all over this now?
What a shame - Vancouver parks and beaches used to be its pride and joy. Now it's wall to wall freighters and you can't even swim in the water any more. And it's getting to be same in the Gulf Islands.
Vancouver residents fear for future of waterways
http://www.vancourier.com/news/vancouver-residents-fear-for-future-of-wa...
https://www.facebook.com/saranormanNDP
New headaches for tar sands pipeline proponents as oil fouls Vancouver harbour
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/roger-annis/2015/04/new-headaches-tar-sa...
The consequences of this oil spill and future ones are economic, as well as environmental:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-oil-spill-could...
In less than 24 hours, there have been 2,443 comments, and counting, on the CBC website concerning Con Industry Minister James Moore's statement that it is
This kind of defence of the government actions is backfiring bigtime, providing further support to the article in post # 18 that this will cause the Cons significant damage in this year's election. The overwhelming majority of these comments attack Moore and the Cons for the closing of the Kitsilano Coast Guard Station, the failure to deal with the oil spill, and/or the whining response to their failure to deal with the problem. The comments can be seen at the bottom of the website article:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/james-moore-fires-back-at...
Incroyable!
Kinder Morgan-owned company called in to clean up oil spill in English Bay
http://www.straight.com/blogra/428816/kinder-morgan-owned-company-called...
As North Report points out, not only does Kinder Morgan own part of the clean up company for the oil spill but "4 major oil companies (Imperial Oil, Shell Canada, Chevron and Suncor) and Trans Mountain pipelines" are in the business too.
http://www.straight.com/blogra/428816/kinder-morgan-owned-company-called...
Nice work if you get it. If you create an oil spill - no problem - you can make a profit on that to. This is truly focusing on what is most important to oneself. What more could one ask for?
Vancouver oil spill removed from water, coast guard says (cbc.ca)
Assistant commissioner Roger Girouard says flight showed only about 6 litres left in English Bay
And with companies like Kinder Morgan and "4 major oil companies (Imperial Oil, Shell Canada, Chevron and Suncor) and Trans Mountain pipelines" doing this and other oil spill cleanups the Cons not only pay off their fossil fuel friends, they have a much more reliable ally in proclaiming that everything is cleaned up and an A+ Okay than Coast Guard public employees, while these fossil fuel friends make money in the process of both making and cleaning up the spill.
http://www.straight.com/blogra/428816/kinder-morgan-owned-company-called...
Send a message to the Cons by signing the petition to Protect Vancouver Against Oil Spills at
http://you.leadnow.ca/petitions/never-again-protect-vancouver-from-oil-s...
Thanks Jerry. There is also a twitter tag: #VanFuelSpill I found that while looking at Tantoo Cardinal's twitter account, on the climate march in Québec.
She also retweeted this, which I found wonderful (Black humour, quite literally):
Tantoo Cardinal a Retweeté Miranda Nelson @charenton_ · 9 avr.
"Oil escaped into English Bay." No. It spilled. It didn't magically break free of the tyranny of its tanker master #VanFuelSpill
Just another example of the mendacious reporting about this disgusting and predictable event.
This is not supposed to make sense. This is simply Con damage control through their typical practice of denial by lying.
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/spill+response+English+falls+shor...
The supposed 6 litres remaining in the water out of 2700 litres represents 0.2% of the spill. The Coast Guard official said this because he was told to say this - a similar pattern to what the Cons did when they closed the Kitsilano Coast Guard station.
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/retiring-coast-guard-officer-slams-kitsilano-base-c...
Same old story.
http://www.plant.ca/general/conservatives-make-big-spending-cuts-transpo...
Time for an oceanic Lac Megantic!
Former Commander of Kitsilano Coast Guard base speaks out (globalnews.ca) Friday, April 10 [VIDEO]
FYI: before you get to watch the video there is an advertisement, and when I watched the video, the ad was for enbridge
Vancouver oil spill: Coast Guard calls cleanup response 'exceptional' (cbc.ca) Sunday, April 12
Public relations campaign heats up over English Bay oil spill in Vancouver
http://www.straight.com/news/429136/public-relations-campaign-heats-over...
Disgusting.
This is where recreational water activities take place - do you want to children playing in this kind of environment now?
Oil spill debris found near Iron Workers Second Narrows Bridge
http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/04/oil-spill-debris-found-near-iron-work...
this morning's news stated the canadian government tried to keep reporters out of the conservationists who are saving the birds, offices and tried to make them keep their mouths shut.
are canadians really going to stand for these fascist actions?
What would be the environmental and economic impact if the BC coast had an oil tanker major spill rather than this relatively minor one? The Exxon Valdez disaster gives us a clue. Remember the monetary amounts are in 1990s dollars, which would be equivalent to much more today. As the article points out the Exxon Valdez was only the 34th largest oil spill in history.
http://useconomy.about.com/od/suppl1/p/Exxon_Valdez_Oil_Spill_Economic_I...
Thanks mmphosis. For anyone who doesn't have a video connection or can't abide watching an Enbridge commercial, here is part of what Fred Moxey, the retired Coast Guard commander, who started at the Kitsilano Coast Guard Station 35 years ago, part of what had to say.
http://pacificgazette.blogspot.ca/2015/04/english-bay-oil-spilland-just-...
NDP MP Don Davies has demanded the reopening of the Kitsilano Coast Guard Station.
http://dondavies.ca/ndp-mp-demands-kitsilano-coast-guard-station-be-re-o...
However, the NDP needs to take it up a notch and have Mulcair make a pledge that he will reopen the station if elected, as Trudeau has already done. It would show that he gets West Coast needs. This has broad spectrum support as everyone from environmentalists to those in the tourist and fishing industries, to First Nations, to those who can afford yachts, to those who can only afford to go to a free public oceanside beach want.
The following article shows how the English Bay oil spill already has had a severe economic impact on the fishery of First Nations and others.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1516271/musqueam-first-nation-concerned-...
James Moore - The Royal Harper Court's Fool:
http://montrealsimon.blogspot.ca/2015/04/the-bc-oil-spill-and-con-clown-...
Conservative government cut back Environment Canada's capacity to respond to oil spills
http://www.straight.com/news/429251/conservative-government-cut-back-env...
https://www.google.ca/search?q=kitsilano+coast+guard+station&espv=2&biw=...
It makes no sense because how could they measure "6 litres" of remaining oil, eyeballing it from a plane? How would you even see 6 litres of oil? And if you can see it, and it's that small a quantity, why not scoop it up and call it zero? It sounds so stupidly, blatantly false.
The executive director of Tanker Free B.C. , Ben West, states that the oil spill in English Bay is a warning about what increased tanker traffic will do off the BC coast.
http://www.straight.com/news/428521/oil-spill-english-bay-called-scary-r...
..txs jerrym
Here's a demonstration by the Cons of "world class" oil spill clean up done in Vancouver two years ago.
http://montrealsimon.blogspot.ca/2015/04/the-bc-oil-spill-and-con-clown-...
Poor response to toxic spill in Vancouver warns against bitumen (rabble.ca)
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