One more freighter parked in Saltair, right across from my B&B.
Thank you Transport Canada for transforming our area into an industrial zone. Surely, tourists will appreciate the gesture.
What is it we need to do now? Well, sounds like the time has come to do a delegation at the Cowichan Valley Regional District and ask for rezoning. We have the noise, light and signage nuisance. It is not compatible for a residential and tourist coastal area and the level of taxes we are paying. We are going to make sure to alert the CVRD of what is happening.
The Santa Valentina is 199 metres, parked about 600m from shore. Its anchor is damaging our seabeds on an area of three football fields.
Since the invasion of freighters resumed on Aug. 8, our marine life has hardly come back. I’ve not seen the baby sea otters and our resident blue herons and babies. Blue herons are an endangered species but the interim protocol does not care. They are only counting vessels, not blue herons.
Statistics show an increase of 600 per cent for Saltair, with an average of 23 days per month having a cargo ship idling here.
I am inviting the Chemainus Chamber of Commerce to visit my B&B. They have to see what is happening here. The victimization of a coastal rural community and at the same time record profits for Port of Vancouver. We pay the socio-economic cost and industries get the benefits. What a shame.
There is no freighter on Vancouver Island tourist brochures. This is now a fact that Transport Canada has decided to damage our tourist potential and ruin small eco-tourist businesses.
Kay Morisset
Saltair