Mr. Speaker, I am not too sure I can rise to the occasion as my good friend just did, but I too would like to raise some problems and to advise the government of some difficulties I see with the bill in some areas where I think it is somewhat negligent.
I am told that the purpose of this act is to provide for a fair and equitable administration of payments in lieu of taxes. That tells me that the government is under some obligation, whether through its own actions, in doing business or in providing for an authority with the ability to business such as an airport authority or a port corporation, to make payments in lieu of taxes or to provide to the municipality or to provincial government for expenses that may occur as a result of a particular business.
I would like to address the issue that has to do with the port authorities, in particular Vancouver port and Fraser port. Both those ports are great contributors not only to the local economy of the Delta area in which part of the Vancouver port is located or of the Surrey area where the Surrey-Fraser docks are. They also have some properties in the municipality of Richmond.
It is not only that they have an impact on those municipalities, but they certainly impact on the province and the transportation routes maintained by the provincial government. Their impact extends across the country. They allow Canadian transportation facilitators, whether the Canadian National Railway, the Canadian Pacific Railway or trucking companies within Canada, to move goods from Vancouver port across the continent right down to the east coast and elsewhere into the heartland of the continent.
That movement does not come without cost. Unfortunately much of the cost of that accrues not to the federal government but to the province because it is responsible for providing highway transportation certainly to the municipalities adjacent to these ports. The cost there can be huge.
I will address the cost associated with providing a connecting route between Fraser port, whose main focus of operation is on the Fraser River in Surrey across from New Westminster and on Annasis Island, which is again in the same neighbourhood, and the port of Vancouver at Roberts Bank where a large container facility now exists.
That container facility was completed a little over two years ago when it came into operation. The result is that truck traffic to the Vancouver port has increased tremendously. It has gone from basically zero, as far as containers went, to where there are probably hundreds of truck movements a day in and out of the port.
There is also rail car activity, moving containers on to the port property and away from it. The result is a huge increase in traffic in the municipality of Delta. As well, the connection to CN rail yards at the port of Mann and the CP rail yards at the port of Coquitlam are originating points for some of the train and container traffic that moves into the port of Vancouver.
The burden in providing for the road link between these two port facilities falls directly on the municipality of Delta. The roads that are in place were roads that were not designed for that purpose. If we look at River Road in Delta, it is a local road. It was designed as a local road to provide access for the local community to move along the south shore of the Fraser River. It was not intended in any way as an interprovincial artery or an artery that would join two of the busiest ports in Canada. I believe Vancouver port is the busiest in Canada, or close to it. The Fraser port in its own right is a very busy port.
What we now have is day and night a continual line of heavy trucks moving through the area of North Delta where I live. They are moving these large containers from the Fraser port and other truck facilities throughout the lower mainland and across Canada, through North Delta to Vancouver port at Roberts Bank.
It may be difficult to imagine but I am talking about a road which is the normal width of a residential street. Day in and day out large trucks move along that street. The street is located at a height above the river. If we look at the topography of the land in North Delta, as we approach the Alex Fraser Bridge the road goes up from a point at almost sea level on the dike to about 150 feet above sea level. It is at the top of that hill that the road runs.
The problem is that the land is not exactly stable. If we talk to residents who live along that road they tell us that over the last little while since this container activity has begun at Roberts Bank they are seeing cracks in the foundations of their houses. All day long they can feel the pounding of the trucks going by. They can actually feel that in their homes. The homes, Mr. Speaker, are no farther away from the truck traffic than you are away from me, which is about 100 feet. That is how close these large trucks are travelling to the homes in that residential area.
The question is who is responsible for upgrading this arterial route through a residential neighbourhood. Should it be the municipality? The cost will be horrendous for whoever does it. To upgrade the road would require the purchase of many of the homes that line it to provide for additional width to the road bed. In several areas the ground on which the road stands is not stable enough to allow for continued use without serious upgrading. There would be a huge cost to do that.
The underlying question is would it be ethical and morally correct to upgrade the arterial traffic through this neighbourhood or would we simply ignore the residents and tell them their neighbourhood is going to have a four lane highway through it, an artery which is primarily dedicated to truck traffic plus a bit of local traffic? Do we do that? The answer many have reached is no, the current route through a residential neighbourhood is not the one.
One of the alternatives that has been proposed is to go up through a gully which is a salmon bearing stream for coho salmon and whatnot and connect with the North Delta connector, the Nordel Way. That road is an arterial road. It is a busy road already without the addition of the truck traffic. Many would suggest it is not the chosen route either.
The chosen route by many would be to construct a new road along the river bank at the base of the hill. At times the road would be mounted on pilings in the river. It would be an elevated road in the river. The question then is who will pay for it. Should the municipality accept the burden of paying for the roadway, or should it be the province, or should it be the federal government?
It all boils down to whose facility the road is accommodating. It is not accommodating the interests of the local people. Their interests are already well taken care of by the existing road network. It services that residential area.
Should it be the province? Is the province the only beneficiary of Vancouver port and Fraser port? It is not. The country as a whole benefits from the existence of these two ports. Prairie grain is shipped through there. Coal from the interior of British Columbia and elsewhere is shipped through the port at Roberts Bank. Containers travel from across Canada and containers travel into the ports and then move across Canada. They are the goods that move through the municipality.
The benefit accrues not only to the local people. Our involvement is probably less than most. The involvement here is one that benefits everybody, the local people insofar as jobs are provided, the province because of the taxes that accrue from the port, and the country as a whole because Vancouver port provides a gateway to the world for goods both exiting Canada or entering from afar. From coast to coast, we all benefit from Vancouver port. It would seem to me that if we all benefit then to a certain extent we all should pay.
The bill talks about payments in lieu of taxes. Somehow the government itself is the final arbitrator on the level of benefit that should accrue to a municipality. I think we are shortchanged. The local people are not being given the kind of access to federal money that they should have.
An outside arbiter or a neutral arbiter should look at the impact of these registered federal facilities. The arbiter should say what their impact is on local communities and what type of tax revenue should accrue to local municipalities and to provincial governments, given the impact the federal facilities have on the local people.
I do not see that happening. I think it is a weakness in the bill. I have written to the federal Minister of Transport on the issue of a connecting route between these two ports and a connecting route really between Vancouver port and the rest of North America. That traffic should not in any way shape or form be traversing a residential neighbourhood. It is dangerous and destructive to the community.
There is a danger in moving many of these goods. Certainly, local emergency officials have no idea what types of goods are being transported through that residential neighbourhood and accidents do happen. As that traffic increases, the chances of a serious accident are even more possible.
When I look at this bill, I would certainly like to see the government address the issue of giving municipal and provincial governments a better hearing, a hearing that would be more independent than the kind that has been proposed by the bill.
Too often we think of government services as benign or merely helpful to the local community. People may think of a post office in a downtown core. They may think of other government offices that do not really have an impact on the environment and may be a benefit in that they draw people to a commercial district. When I look at the bill, I think of government entities which have a huge impact on the environment and which affect the quality of life many of us enjoy. I do not see that being protected in the bill. That is a serious shortcoming.
There are a number of other issues in this bill that are worth mentioning. I will briefly mention three items which I think are worthy of note.
The first is that the minister and crown agencies maintain too much discretionary power. I addressed that issue. I underline that we certainly believe that is the case. A neutral arbitrator should be addressing these issues.
The second point is that recommendations of the dispute advisory panel are non-binding. It merely maintains the status quo and entrenches into legislation common practices that were put in place 16 years ago. The bill is not an improvement in this area. It merely confirms the status quo and does not do anything to address the problems I have mentioned.
The third item we are concerned about is that the Royal Canadian Mint, Canada Post Corporation and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation should be added to schedule IV in order that they may be eligible to make business occupancy payments in lieu of taxes. That is fairly self-explanatory. These corporations are currently excluded from coverage in schedule IV. We think they should be brought into the fold.
On those issues, we hope that the government would see fit to amend the bill to address these shortcomings. We think it is only reasonable. I know my constituents who are living along that artery or river road would appreciate it if the government would see fit to accept some responsibility for the increased traffic through a residential neighbourhood that has resulted as a consequence of the development, if I may say a very positive development, of the Vancouver Port Corporation.
