General Infrastructure Discussion

[jollyburger]

The project assessment says it's Lot 10-3 and Lot 11 but I couldn't find a map of the lots on the reserve.

https://iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/evaluations/proj/85705

In addition, the project will enable the construction of a natural gas supply line to the Semiahmoo reserve lands without requiring additional capital investment on the part of the nation. The project will also enable the construction of roads and utility infrastructure on undeveloped portions of the reserve, facilitating future industrial/commercial development opportunities for the Nation

https://www.cdn.fortisbc.com/librari...ication-ff.pdf

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Who is 'you' who can preserve the land as a park? I certainly can't! Neither can you.

If the Semiahmoo first nation wanted to share it as a park, they could, but that seems unlikely, given the history of how they've been treated in the recent past. They had a boil-water for 16 years because of the poor condition of their water system. White Rock stopped the clean water supply, and it took years to connect through Surrey instead, although now they have a replaced supply and new pipes.

In 2014 the band had to spend a lot of money in cleaning up more than half the reserve that from 1942 to 1996 was leased by the band to the Municipality of Surrey for recreational "parkland" purposes. The City of White Rock and the City of Surrey both used the land, known as "Semiahmoo Park" for landfill, leaving it contaminated.

Hence, the regional park, so it's not left to Surrey to manage.

The goal is basically just to preserve that environmentally sensitive area, not turn it into an RV park. Metro is so slow in actually developing new parks and trails after they take the land that it'll be at least a decade or two of leaving the land fallow. (See Surrey Bend).

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by fredinno

Hence, the regional park, so it's not left to Surrey to manage.

The goal is basically just to preserve that environmentally sensitive area, not turn it into an RV park. Metro is so slow in actually developing new parks and trails after they take the land that it'll be at least a decade or two of leaving the land fallow. (See Surrey Bend).

So you think Metro Vancouver should 'take' part of an Indian Reserve for a regional park? And you think they could do that?

[jollyburger]

It's not anymore environmentally sensitive then any other part of the area that was redeveloped into golf courses & single family housing.

[jollyburger]

Pretty sure it's happened before with generators not kicking in during a power outage at LGH.

A disruption to the electrical system and the failure of the backup generators saw nearly two dozen surgeries cancelled at Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver earlier this month.

BC Hydro attended the area to clear balloons that had become tangled in power lines on June 17, causing arcing. According to the utility, power was cut for only three minutes.

But Vancouver Coastal Health admits there were “intermittent power disruptions” from June 17 to 20.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/balloon-induce...ne%2FVancouver

[madog222]

Who is responsible for the backup generators in buildings, BC Hydro or the building?

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by Changing City

So you think Metro Vancouver should 'take' part of an Indian Reserve for a regional park? And you think they could do that?

Last time I checked, Metro Vancouver doesn't 'take' land from anybody's jurisdiction.

And that's why I proposed adding land on the opposite side of 99 to compensate for the loss.

Originally Posted by jollyburger

It's not anymore environmentally sensitive then any other part of the area that was redeveloped into golf courses & single family housing.

http://www.metrovancouver.org/servic...20Inventory%22
Metro Vancouver doesn't agree with you.

Most of the Semiahmoo reserve is considered either 'sensitive' or 'modified' ecosystems.

The 'modified' stuff can be left out, but the 'sensitive' stuff is worth protecting.

Other than some of the lands in the vacant Aldergrove Naval Radio Station, and arguably Thornton Hill in Maple Ridge, the Semiahmoo Reserve Lands are the last large, unprotected low-lying, unmodified, ecologically sensitive parcels left in Metro Van.

It's also on the outlet to the Campbell River (river outlets tend to be protected for ecological reasons.)


Also, golf courses are some of the least-intensive forms of development, and are often allowed in ecologically-sensitive areas for that reason.

Metro Ecologically Sensitive Areas:


Proposed Park Area:

This includes most of the most environmentally-sensitive part of the reserve, but this would be the minimum amount of land that should be protected.

The proposed compensation land (without river setbacks removed):


Note that Surrey once tried to turn the nearby Hazelmere Golf Course into housing, so it's safe to say there's enough excess 'Golf Course capacity' here to let this happen.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by fredinno

Last time I checked, Metro Vancouver doesn't 'take' land from anybody's jurisdiction.

And that's why I proposed adding land on the opposite side of 99 to compensate for the loss.

Most of the Semiahmoo reserve is considered either 'sensitive' or 'modified' ecosystems.

The 'modified' stuff can be left out, but the 'sensitive' stuff is worth protecting.

Other than some of the lands in the vacant Aldergrove Naval Radio Station, and arguably Thornton Hill in Maple Ridge, the Semiahmoo Reserve Lands are the last large, unprotected low-lying, unmodified, ecologically sensitive parcels left in Metro Van.

It's also on the outlet to the Campbell River (river outlets tend to be protected for ecological reasons.)

Also, golf courses are some of the least-intensive forms of development, and are often allowed in ecologically-sensitive areas for that reason

Note that Surrey once tried to turn the nearby Hazelmere Golf Course into housing, so it's safe to say there's enough excess 'Golf Course capacity' here to let this happen.

You were the one who said 'take', not me. So you think that Metro Vancouver should buy the privately owned Hills at Portal Golf Course (created in 1927), and a cattle farm, and a nursery, and some other ALR land. And then the Semiahmoo first nation will happily add that (on the other side of Highway 99) to the land where they have some of their homes, and the band office, and the piece of land where they're probably developing the gasification plant that just got a $14m Federal grant.

Well that shouldn't face any sort of problems. Come back to us and let us know when it's all arranged.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Forcibly making an FN band give up their land, in exchange for worse land on the other side of a highway - and on the pretext that only the City can properly take care of their ecosystem for them, no less - sounds like a political Darwin Award.

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by Changing City

You were the one who said 'take', not me. So you think that Metro Vancouver should buy the privately owned Hills at Portal Golf Course (created in 1927), and a cattle farm, and a nursery, and some other ALR land. And then the Semiahmoo first nation will happily add that (on the other side of Highway 99) to the land where they have some of their homes, and the band office, and the piece of land where they're probably developing the gasification plant that just got a $14m Federal grant.

Well that shouldn't face any sort of problems. Come back to us and let us know when it's all arranged.

Pretty sure plenty of FNs have lands that are far more separated from each other than a highway.

Like pretty much every FNs in Metro Vancouver aside from Tsawwassen and Semiahmoo? They all have separated parcels.

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Forcibly making an FN band give up their land,

Again, no one is 'giving up' or ‘taking’ anything.
Seriously, look back at my original comment. No jurisdiction is changing hands.

No one is proposing a Vanier Park situation except you and Changing-City.

Also, I presume you don't understand how Regional Parks work?
Because it's not some 'other City' that's responsible for it.

in exchange for worse land on the other side of a highway - and on the pretext that only the City can properly take care of their ecosystem for them, no less - sounds like a political Darwin Award.

I'm not sure the FN would even want to directly manage a nature-oriented park.
The Tsleil-Waututh originally wanted to take the Admiralty Lands (part of Belcarra Regional Park) directly, for instance, and now, they get front-rows in planning and use of Belcarra Regional Park.
http://www.metrovancouver.org/media-...-regional-park


The only buildings that would (theoretically) be lost in this proposal is the band office at the gates into the reserve proper, but I don't think they would be forced to move.
There's plenty of situations like that in regional parks, where there are private users of the land that's technically parkland because they don't want to move (or are preserving heritage property.)



Also, it seems like the estuary of a river is worse land than mostly flat plains on the opposite site of the highway.
1. A higher % of the land is not covered by streams and rivers.
2. One of them is actually developable without the diking of the riverbed. Which is what you'd have to do otherwise.
3. The upland areas on the north side of the Campbell River (facing Surrey) are literally just as disconnected in practical terms as the other side of 99 (unless you plan on wading across the Campbell River...)
4. The amount of land is larger, and mostly flat (unlike the Campbell River Estuary, which is a canyon surrounded by uplands.)



Also, this discussion about 'connectedness' assumes Semiahmoo actually wants to develop most of that land for their own direct use, and not to generate revenue.
Which is probably untrue, especially given the small size of the nation.
The 'core' of the reserve is fronting the ocean, and most of the lots there are barely developed.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Regional Parks are run by regional governments; in this case, a nonprofit called the Metro Vancouver Regional Parks Foundation. You yourself admit the Semiahmoo probably don’t want to manage such a park.

Turning reserve land into NGO property, likely against the FN’s will? That’s pretty much the definition of “taking.” Let them make their own decisions about their own land, yeesh - that's kind of a big thing right now. They know their ecosystem.

Originally Posted by fredinno

Pretty sure plenty of FNs have lands that are far more separated from each other than a highway.

Like pretty much every FNs in Metro Vancouver aside from Tsawwassen and Semiahmoo? They all have separated parcels.

That’s... really not by choice. At all. Look up how many times the government’s opted to break their own rules and run a ROW through reserve land (e.g. Esquimalt, Snaw-Naw-As, et al), or exile the FN outright, develop whatever, then give them back the table scraps decades later (Senakw, et al). Forget politicians, even David Suzuki wouldn’t open that can of worms at the moment.

[Changing City]

What you're doing here is the same as you do on several other threads. You think that part of the Semiahmoo Indian Reserve should be protected from development (like you think there should be a station at Sasamat on the UBC line, etc etc). You come up with an idea for how this could happen, by having Metro Vancouver acquire a chunk of ALR that has farms and a golf course and a nursery.

When it's pointed out that that's unlikely to happen, for a variety of reasons, you double down, and write longer and longer posts that just go over the same arguments.

It seems to me that your idea wouldn't fly because the Semiahmoo first nation would have to agree, and there's no suggestion that they want to do anything but follow their own plans for development. Your vague use of language that 'they' should 'take' the land as a park made your statements more confusing, and extended the thread to nobody's benefit. To be clear, nobody can make the first nation do anything they don't wish to do, although there are reviews and rules they have to follow. They can't entirely 'do as they like' as the reserve is still crown land.

It seems highly unlikely (to a very high degree of confidence) that the owners of the area you made a map of would all agree to sell. It seems equally unlikely that Metro Vancouver would consider spending tens of millions of dollars (at the minimum) to buy the land to give it to a first nation in compensation for holding part of their reserve as a provincial park.

There are environmental protections in place for any development the first nation want to pursue, (jollyburger linked to it above for the waste to gas plant that has Federal funding approved), and they've already carried out geotechnical reviews of the site the 5 acre clean gas plant will occupy.

[jollyburger]

BC Hydro's distribution grid not keeping pace with development

The energy within B.C.'s construction sector at the moment could be described as electric, with major project activity recovering to pre-pandemic levels and record demand for housing.

But the power flowing to those new developments needs to be amped up, say city managers.

“There are key areas for development in our city that are challenged for appropriate hydro,” Sean McGill, city manager with Delta, told a recent meeting of commercial real estate association NAIOP Vancouver.

Delta regularly receives calls from developers saying they’re powerless, an issue also facing civic projects in municipalities across the region.

“We’re building arenas that we’re now told that in three years’ time we can’t open because there’s not enough power,” Vincent Lalonde, city manager with Surrey, told NAIOP.

The province’s second largest city, Surrey is in the midst of an ambitious capital program but projects like the CloverdaleSport and Ice Complex – set to open in fall 2024 – have been jeopardized because BC Hydro’s distribution grid can’t keep up.

This is despite the fact that the three-rink arena, like many new public and private projects, have been designed to the highest standards of energy efficiency. But without power, there’s no glory in their carbon-friendly story.

“It’s a huge impediment,” Lalonde said. “We have an acute demand for power.”

He’s seeking a meeting between Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and BC Hydro to address the issue, which to date has been addressed by staff on both sides.

“City staff [have] worked with BC Hydro staff to coordinate project schedules to ensure that electrical service will be available for these projects once they are completed,” he said.

But a long-term solution remains a ways off, underscored by the fact that BC Hydro has been slow to keep pace with the growth of Campbell Heights, which was slated for industrial development in the 1980s.

BC Hydro recently told Glacier Media that power demand is now three years ahead of its existing capacity. It is currently advancing investments and integrating new technologies into the distribution network to make existing resources go farther and serve more customers. Upgrades to substations In Vancouver, for example, could serve an additional 86,000 customers.

Connecting the average customer typically takes about seven days, but BC Hydro says it receives about 4,800 applications a year for high-complexity projects that require the involvement of designers. It recently hired 50 additional distribution designers and has also transferred staff from other divisions to help address what it describes as a “backlog.”

But not all the blame falls at the feet of BC Hydro, said Vancouver city manager Paul Mochrie. BC Hydro may be scrambling to keep up with demand for power infrastructure, but the city’s permitting systems are also under tremendous pressure.

“We’re also a rate-limiter for them. We permit them, they permit us. Neither of those systems are working very well,” he said. “The challenge that we have in Vancouver is just an extraordinary complicated regulatory environment that developed piecemeal over decades and now is kind of at the point of imploding on itself.”

BC Hydro said it is reviewing its own processes, just like the municipalities.

The ongoing work includes improving the application process to ensure designers have the information they need in a format that allows them to initiate work faster. Specialized teams are being created to focus on specific types of connections, such as electric vehicle fast-chargers.

“We’re also actively working on a number of changes to our procedures and policies to help expedite the process for new customer connections,” it said in a statement. “We know businesses need new electrical connections faster and we are making these changes to help support the higher volume of requests we are receiving.”

https://biv.com/article/2023/07/bc-h...ce-development

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

i dont know what people expected. we all of a sudden went to 100% electricity in our projects for heating + cooling. that becomes a massive load.

this was predictable when we pushed for the whole "ban all gas" thing.

[officedweller]

Construction on new 1.4-km-long tunnel in Stanley Park begins in 2024
Kenneth Chan|Jul 18 2023, 1:46 pm
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/stan...t-construction


Map of the routes of the existing and future replacement water main in Stanley Park. (Metro Vancouver Regional District)
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/stan...t-construction


Stanley Park Water Supply Tunnel construction process. (Metro Vancouver Regional District)
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/stan...t-construction


Alignment of the route for the new Stanley Park Water Supply Tunnel. (Metro Vancouver Regional District)
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/stan...t-construction


Construction site plan for the south shaft of the Stanley Park Water Supply Tunnel. (Metro Vancouver Regional District)
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/stan...t-construction


Construction site plan for the centre shaft of the Stanley Park Water Supply Tunnel. (Metro Vancouver Regional District)
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/stan...t-construction


Construction site plan for the north shaft of the Stanley Park Water Supply Tunnel. (Metro Vancouver Regional District)
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/stan...t-construction

[jollyburger]

But the BCUC now wants a more fulsome examination of BC Hydro’s safety practices and culture.

“BC Hydro’s Post-Incident Report and Supplemental Information raise serious concerns for the BCUC regarding BC Hydro’s safety practices and culture,” the BCUC said in a press release.

The BCUC has ordered a third-party investigation, to be submitted by November 30 this year. It directs the investigation to address BC Hydro’s general culture of safety and compliance, its asset management practices, and its procedures and quality control.

https://biv.com/article/2023/07/bc-h...ot-good-enough

[flipper316]

https://www.squamishreporter.com/202...aIfu8W1bvDixyM

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by flipper316

https://www.squamishreporter.com/202...aIfu8W1bvDixyM

In-water construction on Mamquam Blind Channel pedestrian bridge starts next week

[waves]

Having so many more homes have accessible pedestrian and bike transportation to downtown Squamish will be so interesting. It already feels as though the apartments on the west side of the river have livened things up.

[hollywoodnorth]

Originally Posted by waves

Having so many more homes have accessible pedestrian and bike transportation to downtown Squamish will be so interesting. It already feels as though the apartments on the west side of the river have livened things up.

for sure it will be interesting to see what happens when the retail units facing the Highway fill out in the new 6 Story Building >>> https://goo.gl/maps/9TXP7zCdmcsf5zkR6

should add to the community feel over there.