Blue Bridge Counter Petition Process Update

The counter petition process is going better in Victoria than I thought it would:

On Tuesday, December 22, Ross Crockford will be delivering the 5000 signatures we have collected to-date to City Hall. If you would like to help with the delivery, join us at the Bridge Petition Office (A-777 Blanshard St at Fairfield) by 12:30. Ross has arranged to hand over the gift wrapped petitions at 1:00 pm.(with press on hand . . .) and would love to be accompanied on the walk over by as many volunteers as have the time. Have you got a Christmas hat to wear??

Thank you to everyone who made it to our office party on Sunday evening. The excitement was palpable as Ross announced the numbers to date, and we all started silently calculating how many we still needed to bring in. Though we can't relax for a moment, we are getting close. It really can be done!

Yes, Virginia. There really is a Santa Claus.

Looking forward to the days ahead,

Anne

Anne Russo
Blue Bridge Volunteer Coordinator
250-704-9120 or 250-590-4809
777A Blanshard Street , Victoria

The 6300 signatures may be achievable.

Victoria International Marina

I have been meaning to write about the proposed Victoria International Marina in Vic West for some time now but things keep getting in the way.

In general I have no major problems with the marina proposal, in fact it seems to be more sensitive to the needs of other water users than the original 1984 concept plan for the Songhees. The location strikes me a a good one to have a marina, certainly we need a lot more moorage of all types in the harbour as demand way outstrips supply.

There has been a loud and strong opposition to the marina. Our local MP is doing a stellar job in representing the interests of the people opposed to the marina. She deserves to be congratulated for working this well on an issue, it is rare to find an MP that is able to work this well.

The opposition to the marina comes in several forms and I am not convinced by any of the arguments.

1) The size and scope of the marina - it is about the same size as what has been suggested for that location. It is not a very large marina all things considered. It is on a scale that is harmonious with the existing uses on the water in the harbour.

2) Impact on paddling sports. I know that many kayakers are concerned about the loss of the distance between the shore and the water aerodrome, but I can not see how this is a problem as they still have a decent sized passage between the marina and Pelly Island. I will admit I am not as up on the concerns about the paddlers as I should be. Of the arguments made against the marina, this is the one that merits the most consideration.

I am convinced that it should be possible to accommodate the interests of the marina and the paddlers if people are willing to cooperate.

At the end of the day, paddlers are getting the habour for free and have many other locations in the region to paddle. The marina would be paying some of the harbour costs.

3) Habour safety because there is more traffic. I do not see how this argument is being made given the small number of boats we are talking about and the skills needed to operate one of the yachts. If there was an actual measurable issue with traffic, I am certain this proposal would be shot down.

4) Large yachts are not acceptable in the world today. This argument seems to be about opposition to the idea that there are rich people out there that can own large yachts. There is a knee jerk reaction to the wealthy among certain parts of our society. There are arguments being made that these yachts will burn too much fuel and cause too many CO2 emissions. Other arguments being that with peak oil no one will have yachts like this. The answer to the first is to have a carbon tax - which only BC has. The answer to the second is that this is business idea and has every right to fail because it does not make money.

At the moment the shoreline of the Songhees is dead. There is a nice walkway built, but as a public space it is dead, it has no life to it. The grass is too nice and green, the space is too open and clean. There is very little inviting about it. There is no attempt to hold community events on the waterfront.

The marina will add some more life into the area. The proposed restaurant will help give people a place to go to and be. One of the reasons the north side of the inner harbour works is because there are places to sit and eat. Eating meaning a place to buy food.

The marina would also offer us something to look at. I will never own one of these large yachts (OK that is not necessarily true as I almost ended up buying a 55' Hereshoff design sloop when I was at UVic - it was going for a song because it was fero-concrete). But I do like going to the inner harbour to look at them. I love going to the Classic Boat Festival.

I am in general not a fan of tourism as an economic driver, but if one is to focus on tourism, the best bet it is to focus more on the wildly wealthy than anyone else. They not only offer more money per day, they also offer the lightest footprint per dollar on the environment and local infrastructure.

This marina is the right sort of use of the location, it is a smart type of marina to build, and it is first step in breathing any sort of life into the Songhees. It is also want has been in the visions for that location for 25 years now.

WHL v ECHL

I really wish someone would get the Salmon Kings out of Victoria and bring in a Western Hockey League team. The ECHL is not a place you find players that are destined to be in the NHL, it is in Major Junior Hockey in Canada that you find them.

The ECHL tries to sell itself as a double A hockey league even though no one uses those terms for hockey farm teams. Double A in baseball is a training league to develop players going to the majors.

On the current Vancouver Canucks, there is a single player that has played in the ECHL - Alexandre Burrows. He was in the ECHL because he went undrafted, not because he was being groomed to be a player in the NHL. He did part of a season in the ECHL once he signed with the Canucks.

Meanwhile 21 current Canucks have spent some time in the AHL, 12 in Major junior hockey and 7 in Junior A.

With the WHL you are watching the next generation of NHL players, you are watching the future stars. In the 1980s the Victoria Cougars had several players graduate to be career NHLers

• Geoff Courtnall
• Russ Courtnall
• Barry Pederson
• Paul Cyr
• Greg Adams

There were also another dozen or so that played some time in the NHL. The other WHL teams that came to town had some of the biggest NHL stars of the last 20 years on them.

Remember, this was an era where the ownership of the Victoria Cougars seemed to be trying to kill the team.

I see no serious path for players to go from the ECHL to the AHL and then to the NHL. I really would like to see Victoria move away from this backwater of the hockey world and re-enter the mainstream.

Dogwood Line

The Victoria Transit Commission is considering a new bus service from Downtown to UVic that will be a limited stop service like the B-Lines are in Metro Vancouver. This new bus service will be named the Dogwood Line.

This service will start on January 4th and should dramatically improve the speed from Downtown to UVic. It will only be running during peak hours, but it should quickly show if it is useful or not.

On the same day the new #10 bus on Bay Street will also start to operate, pending approval from the city of Victoria that the street can handle it.

The new #12 University Heights - UVic and #13 Caboro Bay - UVic have both been over subscribed. There either needs to be more community buses on the routes or there needs to be full size buses on the routes for some of the day. I am still curious that there is enough demand for the #13 given that the #11 covers much of the same area.