Thousands attend rally

A little rain didn’t sway more than 2,000 people from attending the Spirit of Delta rally Saturday afternoon.

Tsawwassen residents and more than 60 groups from B.C. and Washington State rallied together in the hope that Premier Gordon Campbell will respond by stopping construction of overhead power lines through a residential neighbourhood.

Cecil Dunn with Tsawwassen Residents Against Higher Voltage Overhead Lines (TRAHVOL) was one of a number of people to speak.

“There is still time to change this decision, Premier Campbell. I’d like everybody here to make a noise so that Premier Campbell can hear us in Point Grey and say, ‘We don’t want these power lines here or any of these other things.’ So let’s hear it for that.”

Rally organizer Kevin Wright said Monday he was overwhelmed by the number of people who came out in support. He estimated 2,500 people were at South Delta Secondary at the rally’s peak, with about 2,000 signing the guest book.

“People are supposed to listen when politicians speak. This was the people talking for the first time, and the politicians that actually wanted to listen to the people showed up,” said Wright, noting that in attendance were Delta-Richmond East MP John Cummins and Delta North MLA Guy Gentner.

The BC Transmission Corporation plans to replace over seventy wooden poles along the BC Hydro neighbourhood right-of-way with 20 steel ones of higher voltage. The Tsawwassen leg is part of BCTC’s Vancouver Island Transmission Reinforcement Project, which will upgrade the power supply to residents on Vancouver Island and the southern Gulf Islands.

Residents want BCTC to bury the lines using horizontal directional drilling to reduce the level of electromagnetic fields, which many fear are linked to cancer. BCTC and independent studies conducted by the provincial government estimate horizontal drilling would add $37 million to construction costs. An engineer hired by TRAHVOL estimate the cost would be just over $16 million.