Thank you, John.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for this opportunity to speak today. I'm going to read directly from the submission, so please bear with the notes that you already have. Hopefully, you'll have a chance to read them.
Over the past five years, the issue of secondary channel dredging has become a significant local issue and, given the senior government's responsibilities on the Fraser River, as with the St. Lawrence River, it is also an issue of national significance. This matter has been discussed with the local port authority and representatives from several departments in your government. This brief provides information on the background to the issue and on some recent activities and then identifies the support needed to make progress in addressing the concerns.
Here's a little bit of history. The Fraser River in B.C. travels, as Mayor Jackson said, through almost three-quarters of the length of British Columbia and is a very unique river. One aspect of the river is that it runs through a major clay-bank area in the central interior of B.C., where it picks up a tremendous amount of fine clay and silt. This silt has been deposited in this delta by the Fraser River for thousands of years, and of course continues to be deposited.
The lower reach of the main channel of the river is used for heavy ocean freighter traffic that plies the river as far as New Westminster. This area of the river needs to be constantly dredged to maintain shipping depth of water for ocean freighters.
Up to approximately 1998, the management of the lower reaches of the Fraser River was under the jurisdiction of the federal government, under the Department of Public Works and later the Department of Transport. They were the shepherds of this lower area of the Fraser River, and along with maintaining the main channel for ocean traffic, they also maintained the secondary channels for fishing vessels, tugs, and barges, and general traffic for both commercial and pleasure craft.
Through the years, as river managers, they have trained the river by placing diversions at critical locations to divert more water into the main channel at the expense of the secondary channels. The result of this increased flow in the main channel was less silt settling out in this area, which resulted in less dredging needing to be done in the main channel and a subsequent savings of millions of dollars annually.
The secondary channels are now showing the results of this water diversion training. With less flow coming through these secondary channels, they are silting up dramatically, with alarming reductions in the water depths for navigation. Where there were 20 feet of water at low tide, there are now, in many areas, only two to three feet.
The result is that the channels are becoming a hazard to navigation. Water lease-lot owners are experiencing their floating homes and vessels tied to docks going aground at low tide, at times causing damage to the structures. Commercial and residential boat owners' safety is at risk when accessing the area when there is insufficient water to navigate to their docks. And there are substantial private expenditures to keep their floating structures floating, not sitting in the mud.
The need for this type of program has never been more urgent, nor has the call to action.
The port authorities in the Vancouver area were amalgamated in early 2008 to form a new authority, Port Metro Vancouver. They have been charged with maintaining the water depths in the lower Fraser River; however, their main concern is the ocean freighter traffic in the main channel.
Port Metro Vancouver hosted a community meeting in the area last summer to discuss dredging with the stakeholders of the Ladner secondary channels. They encouraged us to form a working group--