Cowichan Bay Ship Watch Society
cowichanbayshipwatchsociety.com
cbsws820@gmail.com
Right Honourable Elizabeth May M.P.
Parliament Hill Office
518 Confederation Building
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
elizabeth.may@parl.gc.ca
Dear Elizabeth,
I represented the Cowichan Bay Ship Watch Society at the November 4th Islands Trust meeting
with the BC shipping authorities that you chaired. Thank you for chairing that meeting.
Our society would like to be proactive requesting an environmental assessment into the
safety, and potentially devastating environmental consequences of grounding or a spill,
from having freighters anchoring in Cowichan Bay/Satellite Channel, as well as the
community and social impacts. These areas as you know are relatively enclosed waterways
that have salmon run estuaries at each end, with only a partial tide flush.
According to a comment Capt. Edward Dahlgren, Director of Operations, Nanaimo Port
Authority made to me after the meeting, anchorage of large ships in Cowichan Bay/Satellite
Channel occurred due to a log loading strike during the late 1960s’ or 1970. When these
anchorages were charted only show on records from the Canadian Hydrographic Service as
of 1970 with very little support information. Perhaps the legality of this action is
questionable?
We do not want to be unreasonable in our actions or timing of such and although the risk of
a grounding or spill from these ships being here may be low, the risks are too high to
contemplate and there must to be an action started to eliminate them.
I am are writing on behalf of the society, to ask your advice as to whether there could be a
case for government funding for this assessment, and who you might suggest that we
contact to gain support for this project?
We thank you for your attention in this vitally important matter.
Kind Regards,
Peter Holmes CBSWS.
4411 Kingscote Road, Cowichan Bay, B.C. V0R1N2