THE TALK OF THE TOWN

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What Do We Have For You This Month?

Welcome to “The Talk of The Town” for November, 2024. Click on the following links to find:

  • West End News & Notes: Hedy Fry confirms she’ll run again in the next federal election, an update on plans for the Stanley Park Water Tunnel, and Spencer Chandra Herbert’s electoral win — by the numbers.

  • The West End & Coal Harbour In The News: In case you missed it, we’ve got a roundup of links to media news items about the West End - Coal Harbour neighbourhoods.

West End News & Notes

the Honourable Dr. Hedy Fry.

HEDY FRY TO RUN IN NEXT ELECTION
The Longest Serving Female Member of Parliament

Though federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has said that he is not interested in bringing down the minority Liberal government and forcing a pre-Christmas election, the situation in Ottawa remains uncertain. Some 20 Liberal MPs have signed a letter calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down, and several cabinet ministers have announced that they have decided not to run in the next federal election.

In light of this situation, The West End Journal (TWEJ) reached out to longtime Vancouver Centre MP, The Honourable Dr. Hedy Fry, to ask if, after 31 years of distinguished service, she intended to run again in the next federal election, whenever it might be called.

After a week of back-and-forth with Dr. Fry’s staff, and two cancelled phone interviews due to her travel itinerary, TWEJ suggested that a written statement from Dr. Fry would answer the question, which has been on many West Ender’s minds lately.

The one-word answer to our question was “Yes.”

Fry is currently the longest-serving female Member of Parliament, having won ten consecutive elections since the 1993 election when she defeated incumbent Prime Minister Kim Campbell.

The longest serving Member of Parliament is 81-year-old Louis Plamondon, who has won 12 consecutive elections since 1984, first as Progressive Conservative and later as a founding member of the Bloc Quebecois. At 40 years of service, he falls just short of the record-holding Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, who was in Parliament for 44 years and ten months.

So Hedy still has some catching up to do!

KEY PROJECT LOCATIONS.

STANLEY PARK WATER TUNNEL UPDATE
Work To Begin This Winter

by Nate Lewis
(click images to enlarge)

Murray Gant is the Metro Vancouver (MV) director of major tunnelling projects. Gant provided The West End Journal (TWEJ) with an update on the current status of the water supply tunnel project going through Stanley Park, and shared some important information on various details of the project’s delivery over the next five years. 

BIG BUDGET INCREASE … In a July 2024 correspondence (here) with the Metro Vancouver Board of Directors, Gant requested the overall budget for the project be increased by $100 million, or approximately 25 per cent, from $395 million to $495 million.

Gant confirmed this increase had been approved and said it was necessary “to account for contractor pricing due to market conditions, escalation and material pricing increases, as well as revised schedule requirements to meet operational water redundancy and planning requirements.”

Project construction will begin in mid-November at the central shaft, at the Park Board’s works yard off Pipeline Road, in what Gant calls a “slow mobilization” of construction activities. Work at the Burrard Shaft on Stanley Park Drive and at the Chilco Shaft at Chilco between Alberni and Robson – which is where the majority of local attention on the project has been focused due to its proximity to West Enders’ homes and main roads like Denman — will begin in early 2025, Gant said. 

The project’s original start date of late 2022 has been pushed back twice over the past two years. However, the timeline to complete the work is still five years, meaning the new water supply tunnel will be finished in late 2029, Gant confirmed. 

PROJECT CROSS SECTION ILLUSTRATION.

CONTRACTORS … Metro Vancouver awarded the construction contract to a group called Burrard-Chilco Partnership (BCP), a joint venture made up of Quebec-based construction companies EBC and Pomerleau, and French based civil-engineering firm Spie Batignolles, who specialize in building tunnels. They were chosen from a shortlist of five proposals, with BCP’s proposal being evaluated as the “best technical score and the lowest price and demonstrated best value overall for Metro Vancouver,” according to MV documents.

SHAFT SITE LOCATIONS AND TRUCK ROUTES.

The full package contract will include tunnelling, shaft excavation, and valve chamber construction. Having a contractor now on board also means Metro Vancouver has more clarity on traffic plans, including trucking routes. 

ROUTES & TRAFFIC … Gant clarified that the alternative Denman and Davie Street trucking route would only be used “in a very rare circumstance,” such as an emergency on West Georgia that completely blocked traffic. 

“We just felt for the contractors, they should be aware that there’s this alternate route, if there's an emergency, but the intent is not to use Denman and Davie,” Gant told TWEJ. 

Pipeline Road, the roundabout near the Rose Garden, and entry and exit ramps connecting to West Georgia, will experience the most truck traffic from the project as this will be the entry and exit point for construction traffic in Stanley Park. Gant said this will range from five to 30 trucks per day, depending on the phase of work. 

Gant also shared that one lane of Stanley Park Drive near the Burrard shaft site will be closed for the entirety of the project. Metro Vancouver considered the possibility of periodically reopening the closed lane – which will extend for approximately 200 meters – but were advised that could pose a safety issue, Gant said.  

THE TUNNELLING PROCESS.

NOISE & AIR QUALITY … At the Chilco site, the construction contract includes various stipulations to mitigate noise and air quality impacts to the surrounding neighbours. These include the erection of a three meter high sound barrier between Chilco and the work site, continuous noise monitoring at the site to ensure noise levels remain within limits set out in city bylaws, using white noise instead of beepers for truck back-up alarms, setting up a wheel wash station for trucks leaving the site, and sweeping and applying water to the site when necessary to reduce dust during the summer months. 

Based on public feedback, MV had discussions with the city about using Gilford Street as an exit point for trucks to access West Georgia. However they determined it was not technically feasible, Gant said. 

A PUBLIC INFORMATION SESSION… Metro Vancouver is hosting another project information session on Thursday, November 7 in the cafeteria at King George Secondary between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m.

This will be an opportunity for the public to get more detailed information about next steps of the project and what they can expect, Gant said. The public should not expect changes to be made to project plans at this point in the process, however Gant stressed that MV’s community liaisons will be available to individually address any questions or concerns that may arise.   

MLA Spencer chandra herbert.

SPENCER FOR THE WIN

To hardly anyone's surprise, last month’s provincial election winner in the Vancouver West End riding was the incumbent Spencer Chandra Herbert, who’s held the seat since 2008.

In the week after the election the final outcome hung in the balance, with the NDP and Conservatives neck-and-neck, but Spencer's win was clear, with 12,595 votes (62.9 % of votes cast). His support holds fairly steady compared to his 12,439 votes (62.31%) in the 2020 election.

Running against Spencer, Conservative Jon Ellacott came in a distant second with 5,482 votes (27.5%), up from the 4,014 (20.11%) he earned as a Liberal candidate in 2020.

Third place went to Green candidate Eoin O'Dwyer with 1,792 votes (9%) compared to the 3,250 votes (16.28%) that Green candidate James Marshall totalled in 2020.

Last in the running was Independent Carl Turnbull with 140 votes (0.7%). By comparison, the fourth candidate in 2020 was Libertarian Kim McCann, who totalled 259 votes (1.30%)

And that's the way it went in Vancouver West End on October 19, 2024.

The West End & Coal Harbour In The News

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Thank you!
Kevin Dale McKeown
Editor & Publisher
editor@thewestendjournal.ca