8 June 2006
Railway Didn't Fess Up
Vancouver - The Canadian Pacific Railway has refused to
tell Vancouver planners about the hazardous materials travelling through the city's central waterfront, according to the results of a
Georgia Straight freedom-of-information request. Planner Kevin McNaney asked for the information in an
26 Apr 2006 e-mail as part of the city's review of the proposed Whitecaps soccer stadium, near the downtown
SeaBus station. The team hopes to build a 15,000-seat stadium, which will later be expanded to 30,000 seats at an
unspecified future date.
In a 10 May 2006 letter, obtained by the Straight through the access request, the CPR's manager of dangerous goods, Lori
Kennedy, told the city to look elsewhere for that information. "We would recommend that you contact your local fire department or
other emergency response agency," Kennedy wrote. She also noted: "we are restricted to providing this information only to
bona fide emergency response and planning agencies."
In the city's initial staff report on the application, McNaney noted that dangerous goods travelling by rail under the proposed stadium
"raises liability issues for the city and the Whitecaps".
On 27 Jun 2006, city council is scheduled to vote on whether or not to move forward with the Whitecaps' proposal. Trish
French, the city's assistant director of current planning, told the Straight that even without the hazardous-materials
information, she feels comfortable providing council with the report on the stadium's initial review.
"We had a lot of major issues [with the Whitecaps proposal]," she said. "We're not making a comment on whether they're
solvable."
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