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e-2828 (Environment)
- Keywords
- Environmental protection
- Migratory behaviour
- Ports and harbours
- Roberts Bank Superport
- Shipping containers
- West coast of Canada
E-petition
Initiated by Roger Emsley from Delta, British Columbia
Original language of petition: English
Petition to the Government of Canada
Whereas:
- Vancouver Fraser Port Authority wants to build another container terminal on Roberts Bank, Delta B.C. in the Fraser River estuary, requiring a new man-made island the size of 150 football fields, plus expansion of an existing causeway and enlarged tug basin;
- Roberts Bank is an ecologically productive, sensitive area on the Pacific Flyway for migratory birds, adjacent to an internationally recognized site of wetlands importance and critical habitat for the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales;
- Large salmon runs migrate through Roberts Bank;
- It is adjacent to the Tsawwassen First Nation, close to the Tsawwassen and Ladner communities with more than 50,000 residents;
- It infringes upon aboriginal and treaty rights;
- The $3.5 billion projected cost makes it the most expensive container terminal anywhere;
- BC’s West Coast terminals currently have capacity to handle over 6 million containers per year. Planned expansions will add millions more, providing capacities exceeding 10 million containers by 2030, enough for Canada’s trading needs for many years; and
- The federally appointed environmental assessment panel’s March 2020 report noted numerous adverse residual and cumulative effects, insufficient compensation in its offsetting plan and significant adverse and cumulative effects on wetlands and wetland functions.
We, the undersigned, concerned citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to:
1. Maintain the environmental integrity of the Roberts Bank ecosystem;
2. Protect the Pacific Flyway and its Roberts Bank migration stopover, critical to Western Sandpipers and millions of other shorebirds;
3. Protect endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales, Great Blue Herons, and other wildlife that rely on Roberts Bank; and
4. Deny approval of the Roberts Bank Container Terminal 2 Project.
