Tribute concert helps grieving families
Chiefs win one, lose two
page 33
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Thursday May 30, 2013
Serving Surrey and North Delta www.surreyleader.com
Close calls for Surrey and North Delta seats
Time to talk about
Provincal election’s absentee ballots confirm losses by B.C. NDP’s Jagrup Brar and Sylvia Bishop
COAL
by Frank Bucholtz LANGLEY CITY Mayor Peter
Peter Fassbender, Surrey-Fleetwood
Scott Hamilton, Delta-North
Fassbender is the MLA for Surrey-Fleetwood. A count of about 2,000 absentee ballots which began Monday is complete, and B.C. Liberal candidate won the seat by 200 votes. Elections BC made it official Wednesday. Fassbender ousts NDP opponent and incumbent Jagrup Brar, a three-term MLA who was first elected in a 2004 byelection. As an ex-basketball player, Brar said he’s not unfamiliar with loss. “It’s part of life. You have to take the defeat in a graceful way,” Brar said. He notes that the NDP took a pounding at the polls in this area. “This is bigger than SurreyFleetwood,” Brar said. “In Surrey, we lost between six and 15 per cent (popular) support.” See BRAR / Page 4
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Coal has for decades arrived by rail at Deltaport, where it’s loaded onto waiting ships. A proposed new coal terminal at Fraser Surrey Docks would not have open coal piles. Coal would be loaded from rail cars into barges inside an enclosed building.
Proposal to build a new export facility in Surrey to get full hearing at Metro Vancouver next month by Jeff Nagel IT MAY BE the closest anyone gets to a full public hearing on a controversial proposal to build a new coal export terminal in Surrey. Metro Vancouver’s board voted Friday to throw open its June 14 meeting to delegations on the topic and officials from Port Metro Vancouver and Fraser Surrey Docks will be there to answer questions. Critics of the plan to increase coal shipments by rail and then barge have zeroed in on the failure of the port – the final deciding body – to adequately consider opposition, which includes those who want U.S. coal to stay in the ground and not add to climate-warming emissions as well as neighbourhood opponents who either fear escaping coal dust or don’t want more trains rolling by.
“I think it’s ironic it’s come down to regional government being the one who’s trying to organize public hearings around this issue when the port authority is the public agency with the power to make the decisions,” said Kevin Washbrook of Voters Taking Action on Climate Change. He said the port is abdicating its regulatory role by not organizing hearings itself, adding it should still do so. Port Metro Vancouver has so far let Fraser Surrey Docks – the proponent – lead open houses into the proposal, which would export an additional four million tonnes of coal per year. It’s far from a massive jump in the region’s existing or approved coal handling capacity – an increase of less than 10 per cent. But opponents like Washbrook say it amounts to a new terminal that once open could expand further. See COAL / Page 4
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