Burns Bog Society Launches Lawsuit Against Feds

LAWSUIT LAUNCHED OVER ROAD CONSTRUCTION ON BURNS BOG

Wednesday, November 24, 2010 – Delta, B.C. – The Burns Bog Conservation Society announced today that it has delivered a statement of claim to Federal court office. The Society claims that the Federal Government has violated the conservation covenant to protect Burns Bog.

“The construction of the South Fraser Perimeter Road will have a significant impact to the health and well being of residents, plants and animals alike,” said Eliza Olson, President, Burns Bog Conservation Society. “Our Governments have failed to conduct a thorough and credible analysis of the environmental impact of paving a highway through Burns Bog, over valuable farmland, and along the Fraser River.”

The freeway will cause irreparable harm to critical habitats of the Fraser delta including the bog, farmland, and the forests and wetlands located in Surrey and North Delta. As such, Burns Bog Conservation Society, with a grant from West Coast Environmental Law, has hired Vancouver lawyer Jay Straith to advocate on their behalf.

“The governments have failed to honour their commitment to protect Burns Bog under a Conservation Covenant and Management Plan signed by the Governments of Canada and British Columbia, the City of Vancouver, and the Corporation of Delta,” said lawyer Jay Straith. “They must be held accountable for their actions and negligence.”

Further, the Federal Government has violated public trust, and ignored their fiduciary duty to protect the environment, by carrying out the development of the South Fraser Perimeter Road. The development contravenes the laws outlined in the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the Federal Species at Risk Act in the following ways:

• Fails to ensure that the Federal Environmental Assessment of the South Fraser Perimeter Road was considered in a careful and precautionary manner, to avoid adverse environmental effects
• Fails to disclose the use of Federal lands for the purpose of enabling the project to be carried out
• Fails to protect endangered species such as the Pacific Water Shrew
• Fails to meet the legal requirement of assessing the overall cumulative effects of the South Fraser
• Perimeter Road, in combination with related Gateway Projects such as the Delta Port expansion and Golden Ears Bridge.

Eliza Olson, president of the Burns Bog Conservation Society, is one of ten finalists in CBC's Champions of Change contest. If she wins, Burns Bog will get $25,000 which would help pay for the lawsuit. If you haven't already, please go to CBC's Champions of Change and vote for Eliza. You can vote up to ten times, and can cast all of your votes today.