Team would ditch plans for rowing course

By Dan Hilborn
Published Oct. 15, 2005


Team Burnaby wants to dredge Burnaby Lake for wildlife and recreation, but not for international rowing.

The plan, unveiled on Wednesday, calls for more aggressive programs to stop silt from flowing into the urban watershed and for dredging to accommodate recreational rowers and a new 'pocket wilderness area.'

"We don't think an eight-lane rowing course is appropriate for the lake," said Ron Churchill, a longtime B.C. Green Party member and city council candidate for Team.

"We think the money should be spent on dredging, with opportunities for people to get closer to the lake."

The future of Burnaby Lake has been debated at city council for almost three decades, since former city councillor Doreen Lawson called for an integrated management plan to enhance wildlife and recreational activities at the regional park.

In September 2002, just two months before the previous municipal election, the Burnaby Citizens' Association outlined a $29- million rejuvenation plan for the lake but delayed implementation of that program until they received commitments for equal cost-sharing from both the provincial and federal governments.

In May, just days before the provincial election, Premier Gordon Campbell came to Burnaby Lake to announce his government was contributing $10 million as its share of the program. Earlier in the year, federal environment minister Stephane Dion visited the lake, but a federal commitment on funding has still not been announced.

Churchill, who developed the Team Burnaby strategy along with Green Party compatriot Bruce Friesen, said the elimination of a planned international rowing facility is one of his group's most important changes to the long-debated plan.

"While people can row there, it should not be a venue for international rowing regattas because it's just not big enough," Churchill said. "I think it's been damaged trying to make it an eight-lane rowing venue."

The press release also stated that a Team Burnaby council would call on the city engineering staff to "systematically curb sediment- laced storm surges" into the lake while working with property owners, streamkeepers and developers to limit the amount of silt that enters the lake. The press release also noted that "inappropriate land management practices" have caused many of the current problems with the lake.

Parts of the Team Burnaby proposal, such as the call to build catch basins and settling ponds along Still Creek to help trap sediment heading into the 10,000-year-old glacier-made lake, are similar to the city's current plan for the lake.

The proposal was unveiled Wednesday by a small group of Team Burnaby candidates, including mayoral hopeful Andrew Stewart and B.C. Green Party leader Adriane Carr.

"I'm very pleased to be here today to praise and support Team Burnaby's vision for Burnaby Lake," Carr said in a press release. "This plan is for the long-term future."

In the press release, Stewart said the debate over the lake has been "pre-empted" by the proposal for an elite rowing facility at Burnaby Lake and the process of dredging should be separated from the construction of new facilities.

"Team Burnaby wants everyone - canoeists, walkers, joggers, birders and local streamkeepers, as well as elite-level rowers - to enjoy the lake," Stewart said in the press release.

Stewart also called for the creation of a mayor's committee to advise council on what facilities might be built at the lake after the dredging is completed. "There is room for rowing and for a pocket wilderness - if our community's cooperative spirit is engaged to find it."