Elephant In the Room Being Ignored In Gabriola Bridge Proposal
...Will the Island Become A Bedroom Community for Vancouver?
NANAIMO - "Islanders, and the local residents in particular, need a chance to talk about the elephant in the room," says Jackie Moad, a candidate running to win the NDP nomination race for the new federal riding of Nanaimo-Ladysmith. "And Vancouver speculators and real estate agents should stop their drooling. We are not going to become a bedroom community for Vancouver developers without full public consultations."
Challenging the BC Government to come clean about hidden agendas and unspoken plans for proposing a bridge to Gabriola Island, Ms Moad - a registered nurse at the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, is calling for a full federal socio-economic impact assessment before any decisions are made to proceed with a bridge.
"This is a land grab, pure and simple," says Ms Moad, who's also a property owner on Gabriola Island. "Over and over again mainland developers with get-rich-quick schemes and narrow economic ambitions have tried to get a toe-hold on Vancouver Island."
Before any decisions are made Moad argues that Gabriola and local Island residents need to be fully consulted, and their concerns addressed in any bridge study that could lead to Gabriola Island becoming an open door for Vancouver's development.
"Let's be honest," says Moad. "The bridge proposal to Gabriola Island has a hidden agenda - one that the provincial government is subsidizing. If the bridge proposal is to proceed we need public consultation as well as social and economic and ecological studies so that the full impact will be known to local residents."
Moad argues that the federal government should undertake public hearings to examine the future costs and demands to Canadian taxpayers. "All Canadians will be on the hook to pay for the next stage of this development proposal, so we need to be proactive," Moad notes. "We've already heard suggestions for a series of bridges along the Gulf Islands, and for a ferry terminal from Vancouver to Gabriola Island."
Moad sees the provincial government's study as being purposely inadequate, looking at technical and engineering considerations of building a bridge while avoiding the conversation with local residents and Vancouver Islanders that is necessary if the public interest is to be served.
"It's like dominoes," Moad says. "Knock one down, and watch the rest fall one by one. We need to know the plan, and we need a full socio-economic impact assessment that will reveal the costs and benefits of encouraging residential, commercial and industrial development of the fragile environment of Gabriola Island, the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island."
Moad also wonders about what will come next - whether a bridge to Gabriola will lead to new calls for a bridge to the mainland, like the one the federal government helped build to Prince Edward Island.
"Lets' get all the cards on the table," Moad says. "If Canadians are not going to be stuck with hidden costs, with marine and coastal impact assessments, with subsidizing more bridges and ferries in the Gulf Islands and to the mainland, then we need to know about it now."
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For more information :
Jackie Moad, RN
Candidate for NDP Nomination,
Federal Riding of Nanaimo-Ladysmith
(250 722-7223) <http://jackiemoad.weebly.com>
-- Thistledown Farm, Cedar, BC, (250 722-7223)<[email protected]>