VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Thirteen people are staging a sit-in at the Kits Coast Guard station.
    
It’s the latest ploy to keep the station open.

Recreational boaters, tugboat operators and even the president of the BC Federation of Labour will occupy the station until 5 p.m. today.

“We are ready to suffer the consequences,” said Jim Sinclair when asked if he was prepared to be arrested. “But I want to be clear we are not interfering in any way  with the operation of the station.”

Commercial fisherman Mike Eams is also among the group. He says he’s keenly aware of the station’s importance. 

“I mean you look at the boats that go in and out of this harbour every day. It’s probably the busiest harbour in Canada. Why they want to shut it down is beyond me.”

Word of this latest protest drew Mandip Sandhu, who lost his brother off the coast, just after cuts were made about a decade ago.

“Through that, we fought long and hard and we had a policy change. Now ten years later, dollars and cents are taking over again. They’re shutting down this program. The reason why this resonates with British Columbians is that we’ve already paid for this. We paid with our blood.”

Protesters are also drawing attention to a leaked report by the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre. It says closure of the station will mean longer response times and over dependency on a rescue boat that will be brought into action once that location is closed.

The coast guard responds to about 300 calls a year.