Ottawa’s shutdown of Vancouver-area Coast Guard station spiteful: Elizabeth May
Posted October 6, 2015 2:31 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Green party Leader Elizabeth May says the Conservative government’s cost-cutting decision to shut down a Vancouver-area Coast Guard station in 2013 was spiteful.
Yesterday, the Tories announced they would position a Coast Guard pollution-response vessel in the Vancouver harbour and turn the area’s HMCS Discovery base into a major maritime operations centre.
But May says the government can’t claim to be investing in Coast Guard stations at the same time it shuts them down.
“It turns out that shutting down the Coast Guard stations is not saving any money. The docks that were there are being stored at Steveston at a cost that’s almost the same as running the stations and the land at which the Coast Guard stations exist is bound in perpetuity for one purpose only, search and rescue.”
May also reiterated her opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline project, which would triple the amount of bitumen transported from Alberta’s oilsands to BC’s Lower Mainland.
