If you can't build across, sail across

> Ferry service proposed in place of Q2Q bridge

Aaron Guillen
Staff Reporter

 

Or: boasted as “an
iconic crossing over the
magnificent Fraser River,”
it seems as though the
Queensborough to the Quay
(Q2Q) bridge will likely never
be built. With a $39.1 million
estimate from SNC-Lavalin,
the construction company
dedicated to the project, city
officials have had to back out
due to the price tag being well
above the budget. With only $6.8
million in available allocated
funds, there seems to be no way
to bridge the financial gap.
“While the city has been
successful in obtaining modest
TransLink grants in 2015 and
2016 for Q2Q, as well asa
small donation from a private
developer totaling approximately
$500,000, less than one-third
of the funding necessary for
Q2Q has been identified
in existing budgets, which
includes allocated development
assistance compensation (DAC)
funding from the casino,” stated
a recent city staff report.

Though plans seemed
concrete at the beginning of
the year, fault lines became
apparent back in April as
city officials were struggling
to find the support from the
Council of Marine Carriers.

“We are not against bridges,
per se, but the north arm of

the river is our Trans-Canada

Highway for the tugboat industry

between New Westminster
and the Strait of Georgia,”
Captain Phil Nelson, president
of the Council of Marine
Carriers, pointed out to the
New West Record in April.
“There’s an awful lot of

  

Image via www.88844ferry.com

traffic through there. Every time
we have a new bridge put into
place, it’s another obstruction
our people have to negotiate,

and potentially another accident.
Adding a pedestrian bridge at the
end of the rail bridge [...] is just
increasing the risk that there’s

going to be with that structure.
It’s difficult to navigate through
there as it is, without adding
another bridge into the mix.”

In a determined effort to
bring both sides of the river
together, a ferry service has
floated its way to the top of their
solution list. In a close second
comes the potential offer for
a four-metre wide pathway
crossing if the current railroad
bridge is replaced. Over the
next few months, city council
will take a deeper look into
operation costs for a trial ferry
service, in hopes the project
will be successful. If so, council
will record various statistics of
passengers and charge a minimal
crossing charge for six months.

“Ferry services are seen as
the most likely alternative within
the resources available to the
city in the near term, and the
exploration of a trial ferry service
would allow the city to determine
the demand by pedestrians
and cyclists for a crossing
in this area for recreation,
utilitarian, and community
purposes,” the report said.

Federal government announces pay equity legislation

> Legislation reducing gendered wage inequity set to be implemented in 2018

Savanah Tillberg
The Argus

 

n October 6, 2016,
members of the federal

government announced the
government’s plan to establish
pay equity legislation for federally
regulated sectors. The goal of
this legislation is to reduce wage
inequality between genders and
ensure that work of equivalent
value receives equivalent pay.

The Liberal Party plans
to incorporate the legislation
into practice by 2018. Patty
Hajdu, who is the Minister of
the Status of Women for federal
cabinet and MP for Thunder
Bay-Superior North, justified
the delayed establishment of
this legislation by stating that
the matter of pay equity is
“complex.” She emphasized that
redirecting Canada’s current
approach to pay equity to a more
proactive method will take time
and careful consideration.

Members of the Liberal Party
stressed that Canada’s current
approach to pay equity often
involves employees being forced
to lodge complaints regarding
wage discrepancies, which often
lead to lengthy court battles.
Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk
said the current means to achieve
equal pay is “burdensome, costly,

 

and unfair to workers.” Treasury
Board President Scott Brison
added, “Canadians deserve
equal pay for work of equal
value. They should receive it
when it is earned, not years after,
through fighting in courts.”

The federal government
hopes that this new proactive
legislation will allow for
employers to regularly review
their compensatory system,
and for any gender-based
wage inconsistencies to be
adjusted within the companies

themselves. Hajdu stated,
“We want to make sure that
employers from all different
sectors have the capacity,
[and tools] that [are] usable
and [do] not unduly burden
[employers] administratively.”
The new legislation faced
criticism from New Democratic
Party MPs, as it is not to be
tabled until 2018. They expressed
frustration and disappointment
towards the notion that
women will be forced to wait
another 18 months before they

Image via Thinkstock

will experience pay equity.
New Democrats Sheri
Benson and Karine Trudel
said, “Enough is enough. Pay
equity is a human right and
Canadian women should not
be made to wait any longer to
see their rights implemented.”
UFCW Canada, which is
Canada’s leading private-sector
union and represents more
than a quarter of a million
workers in Canada, expressed
their disappointment in the

legislation announcement as well.
“Pay equity is a basic human
right. Equity delayed is equity
denied, so we call on the federal
government to act swiftly to
introduce proactive pay equity
legislation before the end of
2016,” said the national president
of UFCW Canada, Paul Meinema.
Hajdu argued that the
legislation requires all the time
necessary to ensure that it is
done properly and is effective and
spoke of her personal experience
to outline the importance of
taking time to create the tools
necessary to achieve pay equity.
Hajdu, who previously
worked for a small, non-profit
employer when pay equity was
originally introduced, said, “I can
tell you, it was incredibly costly,
it was incredibly labour intensive
and, in fact, we did not have the
expertise within [to comply].”
The cost of pay equity to
the federal government was
acknowledged; however, Brison
said the exact cost is unknown
and hinges on the specifics of the
legislation. For now, the Liberal
Party’s main objective is to spend
the next 18 months creating and
fine-tuning the tools and details
of the upcoming legislation
in order to steer Canada ina
more progressive direction
when approaching pay equity.