SPEC News Release

Devil in the Gateway Details

November 13, 2007
Devil Found in the Details- Gateway is the Wrong Way
Livable Region Coalition Examines Gateway Environmental Assessment Documents

For Immediate Release

November 13, 2007

Vancouver- The Livable Region Coalition has released its findings on the Gateway Program documents submitted to the Environmental Assessment Office and the picture looks bleak. Riddled with low-balled estimates, over-looked, ignored and contradictory information, as well as straw man arguments, the Gateway application has undermined the entire EA process. It is clear that the expansion of Highway 1 and the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge is driven by a communications strategy,
not by sound science and will set Metro Vancouver into a continued pattern of automobile dependence and urban sprawl at a
time when we need to retool our region to cope with climate change and peak oil.

“The Precautionary Principle suggests that a responsible Environment Assessment must consider all realistic scenarios - the good the bad and the ugly,” said Michael Mortensen, Urban Planner and LRC member. “Despite protests from Metro Vancouver that the Highway is not consistent with the LRSP, the Province has held firm on the assumption that their freeway
will not exacerbate sprawl and increase car dependency. This is simply not believable.”

The Gateway Program has yet to provide any evidence to show where freeway expansion has worked to solve traffic congestion and to keep sprawl in check yet promises publicly that this time it will be different.

"The cost benefit analysis would not be acceptable as a term paper from a first year student, let alone justify the expenditure of billions of dollars of public funds," said Stephen Rees, former Program Manager with TransLink.

The demand forecast is deliberately designed to underestimate future traffic levels. The government has chosen to ignore the
effect that the new freeway capacity will have as soon as the new facilities open in generating more traffic. It has also chosen to ignore the inevitable, and much longer term, impact on land use.

“While the Province has compiled a substantial amount of information for the EA certificate application, it has over the course of the document missed critical information, ignored available information, reported findings inaccurately and continuously provided contradictory statements regarding the ecological values of the Highway 1 corridor,” said Pamela Zevit, a conservation biologist. “There is also a substantial lack of detail on how they plan to mitigate and monitor the impacts of the project.”

"The EA application ignores the province's commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 33 percent by 2020. It says that
emissions will just continue to rise, and the freeway expansion is no big deal because it only makes the problem a bit worse." said Eric Doherty, MA Candidate at UBC's School of Community and Regional Planning. "But the application also states that system-wide bridge tolls and adequate transit would provide the equivalent congestion relief as twinning the Port Mann Bridge, a solution that would greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the application claims that this combination should not be considered as an alternative since the Ministry is not directly responsible for providing transit service."

Background information is available for download here: http://www.cleanairradio.ca/EA/

For more information, please contact:

Stephen Rees, Livable Region Coalition, 778-865-0184
Pamela Zevit, Livable Region Coalition, 604-939-0523
Eric Doherty, Livable Region Coalition, 604-877-1223
David Fields, SPEC Campaigner, 604-722-4775