Dredging project in Burrard Inlet takes first steps, with many questions still unanswered

Good morning,

What a response! After sharing our Vancity Lookout reader survey, almost 400 of you have completed it in just a few days. 

We originally set a goal to get about 500 responses, but if this trend holds, we may blow past it!

I do have a small favour to ask. If you’re a parent, or someone between the ages of 18-45, please consider taking the survey. We’re really hoping for a balanced cross-section of readers, and having a few more within those groups to fill it out would be really helpful.

We’ve also switched up one section of the newsletter. Let me know if you catch it, Nate and I are keen to know what you think.

With that, let’s get to today’s main story!

— Geoff Sharpe, Vancity Lookout managing editor

PS - If you find this newsletter valuable, please consider forwarding it to your friends. New to the Lookout? Sign-up for free. 

WEATHER

Friday: 14 🌡️ 8 | ☁️

Saturday: 18 🌡️ 11 | 🌤️

Sunday: 17 🌡️ 12 | ☁️

Monday: 17 🌡️ 9 | 🌧️

THE LOOKOUT RECOMMENDS

Clay and food?: Count me in. Lila’s, a restaurant by chef Meeru from Vij’s, is over a year old and you can attend this set course meal along with live pottery (and you get to take home some hand-thrown bowls). There are only a few seats left for the May 28 and 29 event. 

Pierogies please: It’s the BC Polish Festival this Sunday. You might have to hop on a SkyTrain, but it’s worth it if you love perogies and sausage. There’s beer, performances, and something for the whole family. 

Go fresh: Summer means farmer markets. For anyone who loves farmers, they’re a must-visit. Saturday at Trout Lake and Riley Park are always popular. And then, on Sunday, you’ve got the West End and Kitsilano. The full list is here. 

Shhhhh, it’s a secret: The Secret Plant Show (not sure why it’s secret) is on at the PNE on Saturday and Sunday, and it’s the perfect opportunity to soak up plant and gardening knowledge.

ENVIRONMENT

Dredging project in Burrard Inlet takes first steps, with many questions still unanswered

By Nate Lewis

What happened: Initial work has begun on a plan to dredge part of Burrard Inlet, east of the Second Narrows bridge. That includes early field work and consultation with First Nations, according to the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.  

• However, there’s yet to be an official plan or proposal made public by the federal government. It’s still unclear exactly where, how deep, or how much material would be dug up.

Why dredge?: Dredging, the excavation of the ground beneath a body of water, is being proposed in Burrard Inlet to “improve shipping efficiency,” specifically for oil tankers filling up at Trans Mountain’s (TMX) Westridge Marine Terminal to be more fully loaded, the port authority said in a statement. 

• “There is pressing need to optimize the port and its infrastructure to support Canada’s trade through the gateway and support a strong national economy, in the face of an uncertain and rapidly changing global landscape,” they said.

What we heard: “We were blown away,” that this is being considered, said Beatrice Frank, executive director of the Georgia Strait Alliance, an environmental conservation group. 

“It's a little bit of a counter intuitive project when we think about how much work has been done [to improve] the Burrard Inlet water quality already,” Frank told Vancity Lookout, pointing to the extensive and long-term work being done by the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation (TWN), which the province has collaborated on, to restore the ecological health of those waterways.

Since at least 1972, water contamination in Burrard Inlet has severely impacted TWN’s ability to safely harvest their traditional foods, like shellfish, from the inlet, according to a 2022 research report by Anuradha Rao, TWN’s senior marine ecosystem specialist. 

• Dive deeper: The Narwhal put together a comprehensive story about pollution in Burrard Inlet and the Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s deeply personal efforts to improve the water quality in their unceded territory. 

Ecosystem impacts: Dredging one part of Burrard Inlet would “change all of the ecosystem around it and have [a] really big impact beyond just the place,” that would be excavated, Frank said, noting that the inlet is rich in biodiversity, with important species like orcas, salmon, herring, and clams relying on the ecosystem for feeding, spawning, and habitat.  

“With dredging the bottom of the inlet, we know that a lot of those pollutants will be spread even wider and will be distributed across the inlet,” and reach areas where the water quality is better, Frank said. 

Intergovernmental affairs: Project proponents include the port authority, the provincial government, and Prime Minister Mark Carney, according to the Canadian Press.   

The province’s Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions Adrian Dix said the dredging would be a federal project, which the province would have “no objection to” as long as it met requirements and standards, including those around environmental impacts and consultation with First Nations.  

However, Tsleil-Waututh Chief Jen Thomas told the Canadian Press that “Tsleil-Waututh cautions those who speak as though this project has been pre-approved,” noting TWN’s inherent and constitutionally protected title and rights to the area.

• Vancity Lookout asked TWN if they had started consultations or received any formal engagement about the dredging proposal, but did not receive their comment by the time of publication. 

The port authority said they did not have details on the project’s estimated cost, or how it would be paid for, despite saying early work on the project has already begun.

“We are partnering with industry and government to enable Canadian trade through the Port of Vancouver and deliver stronger national supply chains… We will work closely with Trans Mountain, other stakeholders and First Nations on the early assessment to inform the proposed dredging work,” the port authority said in their statement. 

Ship specifics: TMX says the most common type of tanker “will generally only load to about 80 per cent of capacity” to allow the ships to have enough depth and width clearance as they navigate through the inlet. 

Due to shallow areas around the First and Second Narrows (15 and 19 metres respectively) “it has been suggested that some fully loaded tankers leaving port through the narrows would need to wait for a high-tide window of about 20 minutes in order to safely navigate out of the harbour, potentially leaving less than 2m of under-keel clearance,” according to a 2019 report from Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Minister Dix told CP the dredging project would allow for less ship traffic in Burrard Inlet because ships could fully load up without risking hitting the ocean floor in shallow areas.

Since the expanded TMX pipeline began operating in May 2024, the number of oil tankers in Burrard Inlet has significantly increased, according to David Huntley, a retired physics professor at SFU who has been tracking tanker traffic in the Inlet for about 10 years. 

• Since June 2024, there have been between 18 and 30 tankers filling up every month at TMX’s Burnaby terminal, while there was, on average, just over two tankers coming to the facility between 2020 and 2023, according to Huntley’s data, which he sources from publicly available ship tracking records. 

THE VANCOUVER NUMBER

$350,000

The amount the city will contribute to build, install, and maintain a permanent “VANCOUVER” sign on the waterfront between Canada Place and the Convention Centre. The large sign is expected to be installed in the first three months of 2026. [CBC, COV]

THE AGENDA

👮 The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) has a new face in the top job. Steve Rai was selected by Mayor Ken Sim – who led the search committee – and other members of the Vancouver Police Board as the VPD’s new police chief on Thursday. Rai, who’s worked for the VPD for three decades, was appointed to the position after serving as the VPD’s interim leader since the planned retirement of Adam Palmer in April. [CTV]

⚖️ The same day, Sim released a statement calling on the provincial and federal governments to stop high-risk offenders from being released from custody. The mayor’s statement comes after two high-profile stranger assaults in Vancouver over the past month. One man, who allegedly assaulted a woman in Coal Harbour in April, was released on house arrest this week, while on Monday, a convicted sex offender was arrested and charged for attacking and sexually assaulting a woman in a Stanley Park bathroom. Also on Thursday, the VPD announced they’d re-arrested another high-risk offender after he broke his parole terms the same day he was released from prison. [COV, CBC, VPD]    

💐 The city announced that the memorials to the victims of the Lapu Lapu Festival tragedy will be carefully consolidated into two locations – one at 43rd and Fraser and another at nearby Mountain View Cemetery. It’s being done in an effort “to support respectful spaces for remembrance [and grief]… while also recognizing the need for those who live and attend school in the immediate area to also be able to heal from this tragic incident,” they said. [COV]

👷 A trade union is warning that between 10 and 15 foreign workers building the new St. Paul’s Hospital might be being exploited, receiving half the typical wage for their job. Their contractor denies this and is threatening legal action against the union. Meanwhile, the province is investigating, calling the allegations “deeply concerning.” [Global]

🚽 City council passed a motion to identify locations for new public washrooms and daytime drop-in shelters, and to ask the province and Vancouver Coastal Health to help pay for them. [COV]

Outside Vancouver 

💉 The 10-week strike by LifeLabs employees is over, with a new contract reached by binding mediation. However, the union that represents these healthcare workers is calling on the province to review its own contract with the U.S.-based company, which the union says is prioritizing profits over people. LifeLabs currently provides about two-thirds of the province’s diagnostic lab services. [The Tyee] 

EVENT GUIDE

Vital Signs | Bill Reid Gallery, 639 Hornby St. | Now until Sept. 7, 10 am | Indigenous art on climate and land resilience | Learn more

Tranquility of Communion | The Polygon Gallery (North Van) | Now until May 25, various times | Exhibit of late artist Rotimi Fani-Kayode | Free admission

Vancouver Rise FC vs. Calgary Wild FC | Swangard Stadium, 3883 Imperial St. | May 24, 4 pm | The Northern Super League season rolls on at Swangard | Tickets $24+

Art Party | Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby St. | May 24, 8 pm | Late-night art, live music, and interactive exhibits | Tickets $50

South Flats Pet Social 2025 | Nemesis Coffee, 555 Great Northern Way | May 24, 12 pm | Pet portraits, local pet vendors, scavenger hunt, and food trucks | Free

Hyack International Parade & Festival | 6th Street / Tipperary Park, 315 Queens Ave, New West | May 24, parade 11 am, festival 1 pm | Floats, bands, food trucks, crafts and family fun | Free

BMO Day of Music | Various venues, Vancouver (Orpheum, Yaletown, more) | May 24, 10 am - 10 pm | 100+ free live performances citywide, VSO concert at 8 pm | Free

Spot Prawn Festival | False Creek Fishermen's Wharf, 1505 W 1st Ave | May 25, 11 am | Live demos, music, and prawn dishes from top chefs | Free admission, tickets for bisque ($10) or brunch ($79)  

Spring Strings | May 25, noon or 4:30 pm | VanDusen Botanical Garden | A contemporary cello concert in a fecund spring setting | Tickets $32 

Sophia's Forest | May 29 - June 1 | Studio T at SFU Woodwards | A chamber opera exploring the inner life of an immigrant girl | Tickets $55+

DreamLab | June 14, 3 pm | Center of International Contemporary Art, 228 Abbott St. | An art therapy experience rooted in dreams | Tickets $35

Want to see your event here? You can purchase placements through our self-service portal here.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Damn, Mount Pleasant and southeast False Creek sure look different in the late 1970s when this photo was taken.

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

• If you wanted one more reason to love Northern Cafe, here you go. [Georgia Straight]

• Congrats to Vancouver’s Brendan Liaw who recently won Jeopardy! [CBC]

• Bons may have the most chaotic washroom in Vancouver… [Reddit]

• There’s a new gluten-free commissary kitchen in Olympic Village. [Georgia Straight]

• There was a bit of drama captured on film at the Vancouver Aquarium sea lion enclosure. [Reddit]

Want to have your announcement featured? Learn how here.

VANCOUVER GUESSER

Alright, we may have gotten a bit too tricky on last week’s Guesser. While it certainly looked like somewhere you’d find in River District, it was near Sunset by Langara Golf Course (is Langara in Sunset… maybe not, one could argue). Still, congrats to the eight of you who got it right despite the misdirection and my flexible application of neighbourhood boundaries. 

For this week, can you tell me which neighbourhood this out-of-the-way (but very helpful) alley/staircase will help you cut through? 

STORIES THIS WEEK