Mayor Derek Corrigan is saying it's now or never for a multi-million-dollar Burnaby Lake dredging project that's been stopped dead in its tracks by an endangered turtle.

"The project will either go ahead immediately or it's just gone," said Corrigan. "If this opportunity is missed, then that will be it."

The city was poised to start dredging this past Wednesday to remove 200,000 cubic metres of sediment - enough to fill 24,000 truck loads or 80 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The dredging will restore a rowing course to international standards and stop the lake from turning into a swamp.

Last Monday, just two days before the dredging was set to start, the city's application for a wildlife-salvaging permit was rejected by the Environment Ministry because of concerns about the endangered Western painted turtle.

Biologist Vanessa Kilburn is worried that dredging will chop the turtles to bits, especially since no one knows for sure where they are hibernating this year, and they tend to group together at the bottom of the lake, under the mud.

The city says the Environment Ministry asked them to do telemetry work about three or four weeks ago, which involves trapping and tagging the turtles so they could be tracked with radio and their hibernation spots avoided while dredging. There are about 100 of these turtles in Burnaby Lake, and as of last Sunday (Sept. 20) not a single turtle had been caught and tagged. The turtles could already be on their way to hibernation spots, making it too late to tag this year. Without knowing where the turtles are, the ministry won't grant the remaining wildlife-salvaging permit, which means the city can't start dredging. Since the Western painted turtle is protected under the Species At Risk Act, it's a criminal offence to kill, harm or harass the turtles.

Corrigan places the blame squarely on the government's shoulders, saying the city had all the approvals in place and the ministry is changing the rules at the last minute.

"There's no getting around the fact that this entirely has been the screw-up of the Ministry of Environment. Nothing we have done has caused this problem," he said. "We've done everything we've been asked to do, and we've done it correctly."

Meanwhile, Hazco, the dredging contractor, has already set up equipment at the lake, costing the city $20,000 a day, according to Corrigan.

"Obviously, this is going to end up in litigation," Corrigan said. "Why is it coming up when we've got dredging about to start? Did they just figure out there were turtles in the lake? I mean, it's ridiculous."

Environment Minister Barry Penner, in turn, placed the blame back on the city.

"It's a mystery to me why the city of Burnaby would hire contractors to begin work on a project and have them go to the site before they had all their permits in place," he said. "We're not going to allow the mayor to kill turtles just because he's been caught not having the permits in place and now he has to explain to taxpayers why he's cost them money unnecessarily."