Boring Can Also be Expensive
Tunnel boring machines are being built in Canada, and beingused all around the world.The Campbell government has no excuse for the devastation it has caused byrefusing to use the available and promised boring machines for the $2Billion dollar Canada Line, and ripping up Cambie Street instead.
We, the families who own and operate small businesses all along thiscut-and-cover-up have for 2 years now, endured a level of hardship that isbeyond belief in a democracy. Well established businesses have failedthrough no fault of their own, and lives continue to be shattered by thestress and burden of our daily struggle to sustain our livelihoods. We havehad no respect or financial help from the project nor from our government.
Our neighbours in Seattle are currently using these Canadian boringmachines, as well as offering their citizens a comprehensive mitigation andcompensation package. Why not here?T
The approved plan for this mega-project was to use boring machines thatwould have left the community and street surfaces accessible to customersand traffic. Now we read in your paper that a world leader in thistechnology is here in our own country and shipping machines worldwide. Yetthe builder of the Canada Line, SNC Lavalin and our Provincial governmenthad secretly decided to mine a massive canyon instead down Cambie Street,the main route in and out of Vancouver. The devastating impacts of doingthis were well known to the builder, the City of Vancouver and the Campbellgovernment, but we were double-crossed and our concerns have been ignored.
The callous disregard for all these tax-paying hard working families is appalling and shameful.They chose the most destructive method of construction instead of using ourown homegrown resouces and acted with integrity.The injustice of this arrogance must be made right with compensation forthis now obvious needless suffering, and with legislation to ensure that itnever happens again.
Susan Heyes
Hazel&Co
3190 Cambie Street
Vancouver BC
V5Z 2W2
604 687-0721
4 comments:
David, What can we as a community do to help Susan? Perhaps you can do a column on this outrageous situation?
Thank you...that's a good suggestion.
I'm a bit troubled by Ms. Heyes assertion. Please know that I have great empathy for her and her fellow retailers. And I, for one, have never stopped shopping in that section of Cambie.
But as a former mining engineer, I'm deeply troubled by people like her or those who petitioned for a tunnel in West Vancouver to so easily suggest that a traditional tunnel excavation would be just as simple or inexpensive as a surface-based excavation. Of course it wouldn't!
Once again, I do have empathy for her. And I don't think that the original deception was right. But her instant degree in my past profession really irks me. It's just as troublesome as all those who became instant structural engineering experts after 9/11.
Robert
We thank you all for your support -especially for continuing to shop all along the Canada Line.
We claim no expert knowledge of tunnel engineering - just the firm belief that elected officials should be accountable for the decisions that they make, and do no harm. In a democracy this kind of shocking harm should not be done to citizens, and further disguised as for the common good.
They mislead us on the scope, duration and cost of the project, then did absolutely nothing in the past 2 years to stem the flow of red ink as one after another, small businesses were forced into financial ruin.
They can make this right with the stroke of a pen, and tap into the billions in surplus that the small businesses have been contributing to with taxes for years.
It's the right thing to do.
Email: Carole.Taylor.MLA@leg.bc.ca, especially now that she is NOT running for mayor....
Gordon.Campbell.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Kevin.Falcon.MLA@leg.bc.ca
mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca
Speak out! The money is available -now we need our politicians to show some integrity.
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