Peace Arch News, November 29, 2012

Page 1

Thursday November 29, 2012 (Vol. 37 No. 96)

V O I C E

O F

W H I T E

R O C K

A N D

S O U T H

S U R R E Y

w w w. p e a c e a r c h n e w s . c o m

Taking on a new form: As the new year approaches, the Semiahmoo Potters are looking to their future and the possibility of expanding to a new location at the South Surrey Recreation Centre. › see page A11

Warnings disputed

No hearing required

Anger over coal traffic

Patience runs out, by George Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter

White Rock Elks members say they have been more than patient through disruptions over the past year associated with construction in the 1400-block of George Street. But when workers tore up the hall’s main driveway access Tuesday, effectively preventing any disabled members from coming in, and blocking the hall’s emergency exits, they drew the line. “Handicapped members can’t get into the building,” Tom Corless said, noting one member actually tripped on the debris Tuesday night. “The two emergency doors at the front, you can’t get out because it’s all dug up. “It’s just not acceptable… a mess.” The current work along the street got underway about 10 days ago. Site foreman Manuel Ferreira said it is to upgrade the sanitary system to handle the increased flow expected once the near-complete Avra tower is occupied; in about a week, the focus will be on upgrading stormsewer connections. Sidewalk and curb work is expected to get underway Dec. 21. But while Corless and Elks president Ray Francoeur said they and surrounding businesses should have been given a heads-up so they could notify members and post signage redirecting visitors, Ferreira insisted notice was provided. “The notice was given over a year ago that this was coming,” Ferreira said, adding a reminder was issued two weeks prior to the work’s start. › see page A4

Tracy Holmes photo

Ray Francoeur and Tom Corless, at club.

The Best Care for your Best Friend.

Jeff Nagel Black Press

James MacKinnon photo

White Rock coal trains are expected to increase if an export terminal is approved on the Fraser River.

Enjoy more time this holiday season! Peninsula Crossing Animal Hospital 2382 - 152 St. • 604-541-7374 Open 7 days a week

Climate-change activists are vowing to fight plans to build a new coal export terminal on the Fraser River in Surrey and expand an existing one in North Vancouver. Fraser Surrey Docks has applied to build a terminal in Surrey that would bring in thermal coal from Wyoming via the BNSF railway that runs through White Rock, South Surrey and Delta. It proposes to export four million tonnes of coal a year initially, with potential to double that later. Meanwhile, North Van’s Neptune Terminals aims to increase exports of B.C.-mined metallurgical coal used in steelmaking, to 18 million tonnes from 12 million tonnes. To activists like Kevin Washbrook, of the group Voters Taking Action on Climate Change, it’s another case of B.C. becoming the outlet for fossil fuels that will be burned in Asia and warm the planet toward dangerously irreversible levels. “If these two plans go ahead, Metro Vancouver will be the largest exporter of coal in North America,” Washbrook said. That’s anathema to a city and region that prides itself on being green and sustainable, he said. An open letter was issued Wednesday opposing the export plans, with signatures from leading B.C. climate change experts Andrew Weaver and Marc Jaccard, as well as dozens of environmental groups and activists. They’re calling for a public review. But unlike plans for the Enbridge or Kinder Morgan oil pipelines, neither regulators nor politicians can stand in the way. › see page A4


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