B.C. Conservatives vow to scrap NDP's Massey Tunnel replacement, build bridge instead - CBC

Is it too late to cancel the current project to build an immersed tunnel in favour of a new bridge project to replace the aging and seismically unstable George Massey Tunnel? Premier David Eby is arguing that construction of his BC NDP-led provincial government’s new George Massey Tunnel has advanced too far to justify abandoning it, warning that switching to a bridge would disrupt work, threaten jobs, and put significant funding from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s federal government at risk.

The BC NDP scrapped a bridge plan in 2017 and instead planned an immersed tube tunnel. The plan to replace the George Massey Tunnel, built in the 1950s, has changed under successive governments.

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The Conservative Party of British Columbia is promising to cancel the BC NDP’s current project of building an $8.5-billion, eight-lane immersed tunnel to replace the aging, seismically-deficient, and congested George Massey Tunnel. Instead, if elected, the party will revive the 10-lane bridge project that was cancelled shortly after the BC NDP formed provincial government in 2017.

The day after the leaders’ debate, B. C.’s political parties were back on the campaign trail. BC NDP leader David Eby returned to Surrey for the fifth time on Thursday, promising a plan to eliminate the $45 bus pass fee for low-income seniors and allow more to qualify. He also announced funding for a major regional bus rapid transit project. “This commitment is backed with $250 million in funding in order for us to work with the federal government to deliver bus rapid transit between Surrey and White Rock,” Eby said. The BC Conservatives also tackled transportation on Thursday, promising to scrap the Massey Tunnel replacement project and proceed with a 10-lane bridge instead. “It totally makes sense on saving money for the taxpayers, getting this bridge built faster than they can build this tunnel, and environmentally it’s way further ahead,” Ian Paton, BC Conservative candidate for Delta South, said. Story continues below advertisement

On Monday, Albertans vote on whether to stay in Canada or hold another binding referendum on quitting Canada. If the vote goes as polls suggest, a majority of Albertans will mark an X to stay in Confederation, and Premier Danielle Smith has said if that’s so, she expects everyone to accept it and move on. Leaders of the independence movement contest that. And political watchers are divided about whether separation — previously a fringe sentiment — will now be a prominent, permanent feature of Alberta’s political landscape, as in Quebec. Julian Castro-Rea, a political-science professor at the University of Alberta who studies the separation debates in Quebec and Alberta, believes as long as Alberta feels alienated from the Canadian capital — feeling that Ottawa benefits from Alberta’s resource economy without giving back — the movement will have fuel. “Even if the referendum is lost, the westernization will still be around, because it’s kind of a way which, traditionally, Albertans have related to the rest of Canada,” says Castro-Rea, who believes western alienation may remain indefinitely. Story continues below advertisement