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Cove Christmas traditions
From classic reads to volunteering, our community leaders share their favourite holiday rituals.
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December Deep Cove happenings
The Nutcracker and the annual Penguin Plunge are some festive events to check out during the holidays. December 2016
9900 Circulation East of the Seymour River
Cove shops collectively oppose pipeline by ANNA DIMOFF
CONTRIBUTOR
Gallant Avenue was quieter than usual for a Saturday and many of the storefronts dark. Taped to the glass of the Bluhouse Market & Cafe door, right below the wooden, hand-painted “closed” sign, was a poster advertising a march from Vancouver City Hall to protest Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Normally, Bluhouse owner Jennifer McCarthy only closes her shop one day a year, for Christmas. But on Nov. 19, McCarthy made an exception. Her staff stood behind their boss, willing to give ¸ ª¸~z ¸~ ¨ ¸ § ª «¸ © i§¦ ¥ § for the environmental protection of Deep Cove. “When I went to our crew here and asked, ‘What about this folks? Does anybody want to gather and get together and do this?’ One hundred per cent of the crew said, ‘Yes, I want to give up my wages that day to go,’” says McCarthy. “That really spoke to me about the importance of actually shutting the doors. We gave up sales that day too but it’s because we feel so strongly. This is something that we have to stand for right now in our community, it’s too big a risk.” Businesses belonging to the Deep Cove Merchants Association feel the same way, that the risk of allowing Kinder Morgan’s large-scale project to cut into their community is too great, especially for operations on the water like Deep Cove Canoe and Kayak. Erian Baxter runs the outdoor recreation company and saw a minor spill in 2007 that left her staff cleaning boats and equipment with dish soap for a week after a section of Kinder Morgan’s existing pipeline ruptured. “Belcarra (park) was hit pretty badly and (it hit) Cates Park just a little bit. It didn’t quite make it to Deep Cove with the way the inlet works but ... we closed © ¸ ¥ ¨ ¦ ©© i © ª¸~ l q© were speaking with our school director the other day and they’re still testing the mussels ... in the area and they’re still showing (contamination) in them from almost ten years ago,” Baxter says. “We don’t have the right to risk (those resources.)” The domino effect is far reaching for the small community and a spill could impact other businesses along the inlet, says Baxter. The Tsleil-Waututh Nation run Cates Park Paddling Centre and
Deep Cove business owners and employees Ashifa Saferali (Honey’s Doughnuts) Kristina Egyed (LaLa’s) Erian Baxter (Deep Cove Canoe and Kayak) Luca Giannetti (Cafe Orso), Megan Curren (Room 6) Jennifer McCarthy (Bluhouse Market & Cafe) and Debra Milcak (Deep Cove Pizza) protest Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion which they say presents a risk to their livelihood in Deep Cove. PHOTO PAUL MCGRATH
Takaya Tours in Belcarra Park, while several of the summer camps operate farther up Indian Arm. “I’m so not a ‘not in my backyard’ person. I try really, really hard to look at all the aspects of it and in this one I’m just screaming ‘not in our front yard,’” says Baxter, referring to the pipeline proposal as a province-wide issue. Deep Cove Canoe and Kayak, on average, sees about 30,000 visitors per year and employs 60 to 80 people within ¸ ©¸ n ¸ ~ ¨ ¦ ¸ © i m ¥ © employees. “Those are all things that help our community and all of those would vanish in a heartbeat if there was a spill of any kind,” explains Baxter. “And that’s not just those nice people from Germany who can’t rent a boat, it’s those 50, 60,
“Those are all things that help our community and all of those would vanish in a heartbeat if there was a spill of any kind ...” 70 school groups that won’t get to come out, those kids’ summer camps. It’s not frivolous, it’s very community based.” Seeing young employees passionate about issues in their community was one of the factors that inspired McCarthy
Season’s Greetings from all of us at the
to look more deeply into the proposed pipeline. McCarthy said she’s frustrated by the time and energy being poured into an issue that has, in her eyes, made it clearer each day that the socioeconomic risk falls to the people whose livelihood relies on the survival of our coast. “We’ve been in business for two-anda-half years, so we’re still growing, we’re ¥¢¢ i ª¥ § ¨©© · ·© ª¸~ in the summer is ten times better than our slowest day in the winter,” explains McCarthy. “I would expect that if we had a spill here I would see every day be like my slowest winter day, because ¦© ¸¨i« ¦¸ © ¦¸ © ¥ ¦© © is because of people that are coming to this place because it’s so beautiful. They wouldn’t come (to Deep Cove) if there was see Pipe page 2