Stuck boats, unloaded fish, inaccessible businesses - these are just some of the consequences of not dredging the Steveston Harbour.
But with three-quarters of the funds secured to do the work, the Steveston Harbour Authority is frustrated that the last piece of funding - about $2 million - still hasn't come from the federal government.
"We've literally done three-quarters of the federal government's job for them and it's their harbour, so it's very frustrating," said Jaimie Gusto, general manager of the Steveston Harbour Authority.
Three-quarters of the $8.5 million needed to dredge the Steveston Channel has been secured by the harbour authority, including last year's provincial funding of $2.1 million and about $2 million from the City of Richmond.
However, the federal government's $2.125 million contribution is still nowhere in sight.
Sediment has been building up in the south arm of the river and has started to impede the navigation of boats travelling on it, according to Gusto.
"They legitimately don't want to put their hand up because they think that if they do it for us, they're going to have to do it for everyone else," said Gusto.
She told the Richmond News the longer they wait, the bigger the economic, safety and environmental impact it will have on the harbour.
The sediment buildup has caused "big reverse potholes in the channel" where many boaters can't get low enough to unload their catch nor can they access the 45 seafood businesses at the harbour.
"It's crippling to our fishermen and crippling to our supply chain," said Gusto.
Recently, five seine boats ran aground in the channel and couldn't bring their catch into the harbour, including one that ended up on its starboard side.
"I keep saying it's drastic, but something horrible is going to happen."
Tugboats are no longer seen entering the Steveston Channel to fuel up at the Chevron because they cannot get in without getting stuck, Gusto added.
Instead, they are seeing the boats fuel up in Vancouver to avoid damaging their boats and waiting long hours for the tide to rise to get into the harbour, she added.
Feds working on 'long-term solution': Bains
Parm Bains, member of Parliament for Steveston-Richmond East, said the federal government is working with different ministries to find a funding stream for the urgently needed money.
However, there is no timeline for when the harbour authority can expect the funds.
"We're trying to gather funding together and to have a long-term solution," said Bains.
"It doesn't make sense for us to do this type of dredging every decade versus something that we can't do at a biannual or annual maintenance level.
"We need to create a new program for it and that's what we've been working towards."
Dredging local channels was the purvey of the federal government for most of the 20th century – from 1901 to 1982.
It was then off-loaded to the Canadian Coast Guard, but in 1998, this responsibility was transferred to commercial users and ports.
In 2009, the Port of Vancouver started a local dredging program whereby stakeholders of the 14 channels along the Fraser River could apply for $500,000.
The City of Richmond and the province chipped in $786,000 and portions of the west end of the channel were dredged.
The harbour authority managed to raise money to dredge the eastern portion, and then later chipped in $590,000 of its own money to finish dredging the western section.
The port's dredging program ended in 2019, leaving it up to each harbour to fund on its own.
-with files from Maria Rantanen
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