Bearing Down on Bare Mountain
by Ingmar Lee
It's been difficult to write current updates about the "Bear Mountain Interchange vs. Treesit" issue of late. The convoluted twists and turns of the tale where Babylon meets bush at the edge of Victoria are evolving so fast, that news by the time of writing is usually already obsolete.

 

 

In a state of apparently premature excitement last November, the proponents jointly announced that the forest would be bulldozed come mid-December.

 

That date has now come and gone, and the developers final obstacle, - a tough and determined crew of skilled tree climbers and their hundreds of supporters - defiantly continues to stand in the way. As the treesitters continue to perturb the issue at this seeming 11th hour, there have been numerous terse RCMP incursions into the forest, interspersed with regular harassments by belligerent Langford bylaw poseurs.

 

Meanwhile, the construction of a comprehensive forest defence infrastructure has openly continued. Cooking and heating fires burn 24/7. Non-violent civil-disobedience workshops are conducted. Large demonstrations have been held. Banners have been hung, trenches are being dug, more platforms are being erected, canopy-height traverse lines are being extended, the occupation of the forest continues, and all the while the RCMP stand by.

 

In a blatant smear attempt, the apparently vegetarian Mayor of Langford, Stew Young - who has never deigned to take the 15 minute walk from his office to meet the tree-sitters -  was recently "shocked and disgusted" to learn that some of them eat venison and rabbit occasionally.

 

We expect that the Mayor prefers not to have the tree-sitters arrested through the many legal options currently available to him, and is pleading with the judiciary for a court injunction instead.

 

This travesty of justice has been the corporate/government modus-operandi for dealing with pesky citizen dissent on environmental matters. Protesters who are arrested by court injunction have no opportunity to defend themselves by fair trial in British Columbia.

 

Considering Mayor Young's close relationships with the Bear Mountain developers, arresting the protesters through normal channels would not be desirable. That would allow them to make their case in court, where all the wheelings and dealings, such as the Western Forest Products/Campbell government land scam which made the Bear Mountain development possible, could be carefully exposed.

 

It was postulated that the Bear Mountain Interchange consortium might be having trouble getting their desired court injunction, and this was why the RCMP has been put on hold.
 

Turns out, it isn't the Mayor's lack of a court injunction that's holding up the project, apparently they've now got problems getting their financial ducks in order.

 

On August 8/07 in a letter to the Goldstream Gazette, Mayor Young wrote that "we estimate that the Spencer Road interchange and connections to it will cost approximately $30 million.

Developer contributions will fund this project."

 

But public money had already been invested into the project when the City of Langford secretively bought out the Leigh Road neighbourhood to make way for the project.

 

Then at a September 19/07 public consultation meeting, Bear Mountain #2 Les Bjola, promised that the developers would cover the entire cost of the interchange. Two months later, in a ridiculous display of fiscal irresponsibilty, Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon tossed $5,000,000 of provincial money into the Bear Mountain Interchange pot. But now it appears that the Bear Mountain developers will not be putting up any of their money.

We have learned recently that it's actually Langford citizens who are slated to pay $25 million for the Bear Mountain Interchange, essentially assuming all the risk, and covering the debt of the Bear Mountain developers over the next 15 years.

 

Mayor Young and Langford council held a secretive meeting two days after Christmas – no press of public were notified - where they hatched, and passed through 3 readings in a single meeting, their scheme to borrow $25 million to pay for their little mega-project.

 

The Bear Mountain developers, apparently, will pay out their "contribution" in installments through 2018. That is, of course, if they don't just up and declare bankruptcy one day, and move onto other projects, under different names.

Although it's true that this beautiful patch of forest has significant, potentially show-stopping features such as culturally modified trees and numerous karst sinkholes which were missed in the Golder Associates bogus Environmental and Archaeological Assessments which greenwash the project, the main reason for the blockade has always been about Bear Mountain.

 

Bear Mountain is clearly the interchange project's sole beneficiary. It will do nothing to alleviate traffic congestion along the Trans-Canada Highway corridor out of Victoria. The proponents claim that a new interchange will eliminate the traffic light at Spencer Road, but Langford is just about to add another traffic light a kilometer down the highway at Amy Road!

Having built out Phase 1 of its monster-house, condo and golf-course project as far as it can using existing access infrastructure, the Bear Mountain developers desperately need this interchange to carry on with Phase 2, which will double its current size.

 

Numerous citizen groups throughout the CRD are now mobilized to fight this interchange, and thereby thwart this massive, unethical blast and smash project. To those of us who are worried about rampant, sprawling monster-projects springing up all over Vancouver Island. We cannot allow the Bear Mountain developers to set precedents for the future of our island and must stand up and demand ethical development now.

 

Bear Mountain Interchange: "Number One Story of the Year" at Goldstream Gazette.