It came as no surprise that conflicting opinions and questionable claims regarding the George Massey Tunnel replacement bridge peppered a debate among Richmond’s provincial election candidates Wednesday evening at Gateway Theatre.
Non-Liberal candidates took the incumbents to task on the planned $3.5 billion, 10-lane bridge.
“This bridge has nothing to do with transit and everything to do with LNG and coal ships,” said Aman Singh of the NDP, in reply to his Richmond-Queensborough counterpart, LNG lobbyist and Liberal Jas Johal, who said the bridge will benefit a growing population and the economy.
Green candidate Michael Wolfe said Port of Vancouver’s lobbying efforts to remove the tunnel were intended for dredging the Fraser River deeper.
Singh said the NDP has FOI documents on the bridge, many of which are blacked out, thus raising questions of transparency on the project. Thus, he said, he couldn’t make a fully-informed decision.
Wolfe suggested only the Greens have outright opposed the bridge. That’s because deeper dredging will facilitate industrialization of the river, he noted.
Richmond’s South Centre candidates then kicked off as Liberal Linda Reid, B.C.’s longest-serving MLA, gestured to the audience that the government has a business case for the bridge “this high.”
NDP counterpart, and popular city councillor Chak Au weighed in, scoffing, at the fact the business case was presented years after a decision was made, following a widely-criticized public consultation process.
When Reid said the seismically unsafe Richmond Hospital now has a business plan and then pledged to have a new acute care tower under construction before the next election, Au said the Liberals displayed “negligence” in delaying it for so long.
Again, he turned to the bridge.
“When the government wants to do something they don’t need a business plan. The bridge is an example,” said Au, who promised a faster track for the hospital tower.
The Liberals made several attempts to argue the bridge is safer than proposals to keep the existing tunnel and/or twin it.
Arguments ensued on where one would rather be situated during a major earthquake — on the bridge or in a tunnel.
NDP candidate Kelly Greene suggested a bridge is unsafe on soft soils. Liberal Teresa Wat countered, no tunnels are built in earthquake zones.
Non-Liberal candidates pointed out that in 2009, the Liberals’ former Minister of Transportation declared, that retrofitting the Massey Tunnel would safely expand its life by 50 years. And, any new tunnel can easily be engineered, as noted in government reports.
On Tuesday, however, Reid said a new tunnel “likely” wouldn’t pass an environmental assessment, later stating it would be invasive on the riverbed.
To explain why the Liberals have expedited the bridge project, but have stalled on upgrading the Richmond Hospital, Wolfe quipped: “Hospital patients don’t donate to the BC Liberals,” alluding to port-related corporate donors.
When asked about controversial campaign donations, only the Liberals said they would not commit to banning corporate and union donations.
Reid also noted there are limits on local campaign spending.
Opposition parties have argued that generous donations from the real estate industry to the BC Liberals explain why the government has allowed speculation, and the resulting affordable housing crisis, to grow.
Greene said, her NDP party would close loopholes to reduce speculation, which she says has led to an “erosion of neighbourhoods.”
Meanwhile, Wat made clear her continued pledge, as Minister of International Trade, to continue to diversify B.C.’s trading partners in the era of President Trump tariff wars.
She was asked to rationalize how her government failed on its promise to deliver a booming LNG industry. She said markets go up and down and B.C. should still be prepared to go to market when prices rise.
Greene repeated a popular NDP slogan, calling the LNG prosperity fund a “fantasy fund.” Her party intends to spend this $500 million piggy bank on social programs, in addition to raising corporate taxes and high-income taxes.
Liberal John Yap pounced on Greene’s party, calling it out for not being up front about how it intends to eliminate MSP fees, as stated.
“They’re going to raise your taxes,” said Yap.
While NDP candidates avoided specific costing, Greene pointed to higher fees for MSP, ICBC and BC Hydro, which she said effectively act as taxes.
Johal noted that the government has had five straight balanced operating budgets.
However, Green Roy Sakata mocked the notion, stating Crown corporations, buoyed by rising (regressive) user fees, provide dividends to the government’s bottom line, allowing it to balance said budgets.
