Campbell promises $10 million for lake project

By Dan Hilborn
Published May 14, 2005


B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell gave Burnaby voters 10 million more reasons to cast their ballot for the B.C. Liberals in the May 17 election.

In his second visit to the city in less than a week, Campbell was flanked by all four of his local candidates when he promised $10 million for the dredging and rejuvenation of Burnaby Lake.

"Burnaby Lake is one of the Lower Mainland's truly great environmental and recreational assets," Campbell said while standing on the recently refurbished Piper Spit boardwalk Thursday morning.

While exact details of the dredging project still need to be finalized, Campbell's announcement means the city can finally move forward with a long-planned $29-million project to remove up to 400,000 cubic metres of sediment from the 36-hectare lake.

Campbell also offered to work with Simon Fraser University, the Burnaby Lake Rowing Club and the Canoe and Kayak Club to build a national training centre at the lake.

Contacted at city hall, Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said the city had been lobbying the provincial government for the funding since 2003, and he was pleased to see the Liberals finally come onside with the revitalization project.

"I'm really pleasantly surprised that they made this commitment today, even if it is electioneering," said Corrigan, noting that he was not invited to the formal announcement.

Corrigan also said that he received a similar funding commitment from NDP leader Carole James less than 24 hours earlier.

When asked if he was surprised by the timing of Campbell's commitment, Corrigan responded: "In a sense, if you're cynical, you're not surprised. And if you're practical, we could have been on this project if we could have gotten the support earlier on.

"I'm just glad I've got bipartisan agreement on this now," he said. "Carole James committed yesterday that they (the NDP) would support this, and I had given up on the Liberals supporting this."

But Campbell, who compared the Burnaby Lake dredging announcement to his government's 2003 decision to spend $79 million to purchase and preserve 2,200 hectares of Burns Bog in Delta, said the funding was only made possible because of the booming economy.

The project, which should be completed in time for the 2009 World Police and Fire Games, also meets two of his government's "five great goals" for the future - sustainable environmental management and healthy living.

"This could be one of the premier sport facilities in Canada," Campbell said, noting the project will restore the 2,000-m rowing course that was initially built at the lake in time for the 1972 Canada Summer Games.

And he gave credit to the city's four MLAs - Harry Bloy, Patty Sahota, Richard Lee and John Nuraney - for being "persistent in their pursuit of this plan."

In addition to the dredging, the project includes an upgrade to a large GVRD water main under the lake.

Just hours after the Liberal announcement, the NDP issued a press release that promised their support to the dredging project and some other uses for the planned rowing facility.

"Party's plan would look at creating dragon boat facility to reflect Burnaby's multicultural diversity," said the NDP press release.

"I couldn't believe what I heard from the Liberals today, because it wasn't that long ago that Gordon Campbell personally rejected funding this important project," said Burnaby-Willingdon NDP candidate Gabriel Yiu in the press release.