THE latest frustrated attempt by the City of North Vancouver to deal with Port Metro Vancouver descended to a racist slur at council Monday night.
Council was discussing how to proceed with PMV and BC Hydro on the matter of controversial power lines proposed for St. Davids Avenue when Coun. Rod Clark vented a series of past aggravations with the port, ending with the most recent - not yet known to the public.
"We're getting shafted by Port Metro Vancouver on their paying of taxes because they don't like the assessed value and they've gone to court and they're fighting us tooth and nail and we're getting jewed down completely on the taxes that are owed," he said.
Coun. Don Bell interrupted and pointed out that the language was racist and Mayor Darrell Mussatto told Clark with withdraw his comment.
"It had no religious overtones whatsoever," Clark said in his own defence. "It's a commonly used term."
"Coun. Clark, you have to withdraw that comment," Mussatto shot back.
Clark rephrased, choosing instead to say that the city and its citizens were "needlessly taking a hit" from the port. The lawsuit Clark was apparently referring to was still subject to in-camera meetings and only intended for discussion behind closed doors.
With the ugliness seemingly dealt with, council discussions resumed until Clark added the city should tell PMV to "go to hell"
Mussatto rebuked Clark again, twice telling him that his language was unacceptable for council chambers.
"Sure, dad," Clark responded, sarcastically.
When it was his turn to speak, the mayor apologized for the earlier display. "I want to apologize to everyone in the gallery this evening and to those watching on TV and to the residents of the City of North Vancouver for comments that were made by Coun. Clark. I'm embarrassed and ashamed," Mussatto said. "I feel those comments are completely unacceptable in the council chambers or in our community. I'm embarrassed."
There was a familiar chorus of frustration among those council members who supported the Low Level Road expansion in 2012, only to find PMV had a series of massive projects planned that it never consulted the city or city residents on, including expansions of Neptune Terminals' coal operation and Richardson International's grain silos. However, none of the council members said they regretted or felt shame for voting in favour of a project with the information they had.
Council has passed several motions calling on PMV to work with the city to find ways to mitigate the negative effects of the port's growth on its neighbours, but so far, the port has shown little willingness to change course on anything.
The port delayed finalizing its plan to install 69-kilovolt transmission lines on St. Davids to give the city time to hire an outside consultant to prepare an independent report on other options for providing electricity to Richardson without running the lines through the residential neighbourhood.
The engineer's report concludes that, while technically feasible to service Richardson's grain terminal from the west on Port Metro Vancouver land, it would not be possible given the time constraints and budgets.
The west-routing of the lines would cost an extra $10 to $12 million, according to city staff.
"Council is trying to reach out to do anything we can, but tragically this is not within our realm of decision making. This is the responsibility of the federal government and the provincial government," Mussatto said. "I'm making a plea to the port and to BC Hydro and to Richardson's to work with the community - to listen to their concerns and explain why they are doing what they're doing . . . and to look at all options possible for the routing of this power. If, at the end of the day, they have to go down St. Davids, they have to go down St. Davids."
Building on past requests for a more co-operative approach with the port, Bell proposed a motion calling for the creation of a new city committee for Low Level Road and area residents to be in regular contact with city staff and council on all matters related to the port. Council passed Bell's motion and asked staff to begin drawing up terms of reference for the new committee.
Scan this page for video of the council debate.
