Natives try to shut down superport, ferry terminal

Suzanne Fournier

The Province Friday, March 08, 2002

The Tsawwassen band has launched a lawsuit to shut down the giant Roberts Bank Superport and the B.C. Ferries terminal.

Emboldened by a Haida court victory, in which a logging company was ordered to consult the Indians before logging, the Tsawwassen band's B.C. Supreme Court suit seeks an injunction to curtail the port and ferry operations and get the causeways fixed or removed.

The 300-member band says it has got nowhere in negotiations with B.C. Ferries and the Vancouver Port Authority.

"Our injunction says removal of the port and ferry terminal would be the best remedy," said Tsawwassen Chief Kim Baird.

"We have tried to negotiate with both of them but they simply kept expanding over the years without consulting us, to the point that they have destroyed our traditional shellfish harvest and environment and are harming our health and way of life."

Baird said the noisy, dusty superport and the causeway to B.C. Ferry's busiest terminal have virtually extinguished what was once a vigorous Fraser River flow on to the reserve's beaches, creating a foul bay of muck, bereft of the shellfish and salmon on which the band once depended.

The Tsawwassen, which means "land facing the sea" in the Halqemeylem dialect, have always been fishermen, said Baird.

Band lawyer Greg McDade says the band is quite serious in seeking to remove the B.C. Ferries terminal, which handles 15,000 ferry sailings, 2.6 million vehicles and 7.8 million passengers a year and earns an annual $188 million..

McDade said the coal port causeway has a serious environmental impact because it cuts off all fresh water flow to the band's land.

If it was removed, he said, it is possible the B.C. Ferries causeway could be redesigned.

McDade said the band is suing the port, the federal government, the ferry corporation and three other B.C. Crown corporations under common law, alleging they are nuisances that have interfered with the band's riparian (waterfront) rights.

He said the Tsawwassen people were given the desirable oceanfront reserve, their only tract of land, because they relied on the ocean and its resources. He noted they cannot sell their land and relocate because their reserve is owned by the federal Crown.

Vancouver Port Authority spokesman Jon Hicke said the port will "vigorously defend" itself but wouldn't comment further because of the law suit. B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Beth Wilhelm declined comment for the same reason.

The Tsawwassen band filed its lawsuit last Thursday, just one day after the Haida Nation won a landmark court decision that most lawyers concede could alter B.C.'s economic and political landscape.

Baird agreed her band was emboldened by the court ruling that ordered Weyerhaeuser to consult the Haida about any logging in the Queen Charlotte Islands.

This week, the Haida launched a lawsuit to claim aboriginal title to the Queen Charlottes and the surrounding seabed.

"I would imagine the Haida decision would bolster any First Nation's case and help convince government and corporations to take what we are saying very seriously indeed," said Baird, 31, chief for three years and a treaty negotiator for 11 years.

In 1960, the ferry terminal and causeway was blasted through band land and extended two kilometres into the ocean.

B.C. Ferries expanded the terminal and causeway in 1973, in 1976 and in 1991 and plans further expansions.

Construction began on the $250-million Roberts Bank Superport in 1968. By 1983 it had become a 113-hectare island, with a B.C. Rail line running along the causeway. It now has several ship basins and earns $86 million a year.

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