Friday, October 24, 2008
Gabriola? Island or cul-de-sac?
The governments proposal to build a bridge from the brickyard across Mudge to Cedar in order to cut one ferry line has from the beginning been a ridiculous endeavour. The cost alone is prohibitive. 15 tears ago when they first floated this concept the cost was expected to be 50,000,000, –today at least 100,000,000.
I am sure all this makes sense from some silly bureaucrats perch in never-never land. The government would like to spend $5,000 to do a survey about whether it is a good idea. You can prove anything you want with a survey.
Meanwhile, what does it do to us? 15 years ago when they first floated this idea it was going to cost $50 million – in today’s cost and with the usual over runs it is probably in excess of $100 million – to be payed off by a 50 year toll. Anybody who believes that our government would be willing to spend $100,000,000 for the convenience of 4500 Islanders would have to be deranged.
So what would a bridge do for us? Shorten the time to Nanaimo-No, not when you take into account the extra distance from Cedar. Make medical care more accessible – I thought the clinic was doing that. Increase prices of real estate? –Definitely. Vastly increase the population and environment strain –most definitely, especially if Vancouverites can catch a shorter ferry to Van. How about increase tourism? Not a chance. Fixed links to places like PEI, Manhattan and the Chunnel have increased tourism, but for islands the size of Gabriola it has often decreased tourism as instead of a destination that you have to take a ferry to it becomes a three hour drive around cul-de-sac with a hefty toll. Not many tourists want to spend their vacation paying a large toll to explore a cul-de –sac. Tourists like the adventure of an island and ferries really do give the feeling of getting away from it all. One Irish island had its tourism business so destroyed by a fixed link that they eventually re-added a ferry for tourists to take and sure enough it restored the tourism market.
So what would it give us, well, tolls discourage both tourists and residents but they don’t seem to discourage the criminal element, so we can all look for a gigantic upswing in crime. If they actually move the Vancouver ferry dockage to the north side of the island we can count many thousands more cars and their pollution 17 hours a day-that will really effect our air quality as well as traffic noise which will be heard from all over the island. What about the people on Mudge and near the brickyard – they will in some cases be living under the bridge – I think we can safely say that land values on Mudge and anywhere near the bridge or highway or proposed new docks will significantly decline. Talk about creating an instant slum.
The other problem with islands the size of gabriola is that they have a great tendency to become just another suburban part of the nearest big city.
So given all the problems and costs why would the government even propose such an expensive and ecologically damaging project? One rumour is that a fixed link is part of the final negotiations with the Nanaimo band to accept the federal and provincial land on Gabriola as their new reservation, but who knows- with our government the only thing you can bet on is that the reasons they give us mushrooms is never the whole truth and is seldom even partially true.
One thing, I have never understood is the bridge people – if they hate living on an island so much why did they move here and why do they stay
I am sure all this makes sense from some silly bureaucrats perch in never-never land. The government would like to spend $5,000 to do a survey about whether it is a good idea. You can prove anything you want with a survey.
Meanwhile, what does it do to us? 15 years ago when they first floated this idea it was going to cost $50 million – in today’s cost and with the usual over runs it is probably in excess of $100 million – to be payed off by a 50 year toll. Anybody who believes that our government would be willing to spend $100,000,000 for the convenience of 4500 Islanders would have to be deranged.
So what would a bridge do for us? Shorten the time to Nanaimo-No, not when you take into account the extra distance from Cedar. Make medical care more accessible – I thought the clinic was doing that. Increase prices of real estate? –Definitely. Vastly increase the population and environment strain –most definitely, especially if Vancouverites can catch a shorter ferry to Van. How about increase tourism? Not a chance. Fixed links to places like PEI, Manhattan and the Chunnel have increased tourism, but for islands the size of Gabriola it has often decreased tourism as instead of a destination that you have to take a ferry to it becomes a three hour drive around cul-de-sac with a hefty toll. Not many tourists want to spend their vacation paying a large toll to explore a cul-de –sac. Tourists like the adventure of an island and ferries really do give the feeling of getting away from it all. One Irish island had its tourism business so destroyed by a fixed link that they eventually re-added a ferry for tourists to take and sure enough it restored the tourism market.
So what would it give us, well, tolls discourage both tourists and residents but they don’t seem to discourage the criminal element, so we can all look for a gigantic upswing in crime. If they actually move the Vancouver ferry dockage to the north side of the island we can count many thousands more cars and their pollution 17 hours a day-that will really effect our air quality as well as traffic noise which will be heard from all over the island. What about the people on Mudge and near the brickyard – they will in some cases be living under the bridge – I think we can safely say that land values on Mudge and anywhere near the bridge or highway or proposed new docks will significantly decline. Talk about creating an instant slum.
The other problem with islands the size of gabriola is that they have a great tendency to become just another suburban part of the nearest big city.
So given all the problems and costs why would the government even propose such an expensive and ecologically damaging project? One rumour is that a fixed link is part of the final negotiations with the Nanaimo band to accept the federal and provincial land on Gabriola as their new reservation, but who knows- with our government the only thing you can bet on is that the reasons they give us mushrooms is never the whole truth and is seldom even partially true.
One thing, I have never understood is the bridge people – if they hate living on an island so much why did they move here and why do they stay
