The fight continues to save the Kits Coast Guard Station
Posted February 10, 2013 6:39 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It’s not over until it’s over, at least that’s the mentality of a group fighting to keep the Kitsilano Coast Guard station open.
Members of the Jericho Sailing Society did their best to convince anyone perusing the Vancouver Boat show over the weekend to sign a letter addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, urging him not to close the station at the mouth of English Bay.
They’re hoping for around 3,000 signatures by the end of the show Monday and were just over halfway on Saturday afternoon.
Jericho sailing general manager Mike Cotter says it boils down to safety.
“If they close it, there is no doubt in my mind and others in the Vancouver marine safety network have said, that people will perish on the water,” says Cotter. “So the question I have back is, how many is acceptable to the federal government.”
Harper said on Friday that his decision to close the base was final.
Cotter says the vast number of people affected by the closure is reason enough to keep the base open.
“Twenty-million people transit the waterway in a year within a ten-minute response radius of the Kitsilano Coast Guard station,” he says.
Cotter says the organization hopes to gather 10,000 signatures by the end of their four-week campaign before sending the letter to the prime minister.
