Photo: Burnaby Lake

Mayor furious after $17m project stalled by permit rejection

The mayor of Burnaby says a multimillion-dollar Burnaby Lake dredging project is in jeopardy now that the province has refused it a permit.

The Environment Ministry said it was concerned about the lake's 100 Western painted turtles, which are an endangered species.

Mayor Derek Corrigan said Tuesday he's livid the $17-million Burnaby Lake dredging project may be cancelled because of the ruling.

The dredging was intended to restore a rowing course to international standards and to stop the lake from turning into a swamp.

"We are not happy at all," said Corrigan. "We sent [the province] a copy of our turtle protocol and said we wanted to start dredging in September.

"Despite repeated calls, the ministry never contacted us . . . Then we were refused the permit.

"We are pretty disappointed."

Corrigan said the city has done everything it could to make sure there would be no harm to the turtles -- and has spent $2 million in related studies.

"The spin we were hearing on this was we were going to hurt the turtles. That is foolish.

"We were told [the turtles] hibernated from November to April. Our dredging in that area is to be completed before November, before their hibernation date."

Ministry of Environment spokeswoman Jennifer McGuire said the city waited to the last minute to seek approval.

"They submitted their wildlife [salvage] application Aug. 31, which is way too late," she said.

The turtles could already be on their way to hibernation spots, making it too late to tag and track them this year, McGuire said.

And without knowing where the turtles are, the ministry won't grant the wildlife-salvaging permit, which means the city can't start dredging.

McGuire said Burnaby could reapply for a salvage permit under the Wildlife Act again next spring. The city could also appeal the refusal to the Environmental Appeal Board, a process that can take months.

An angry Corrigan said the city now has a large amount of equipment at the lake and that the delay is costing $20,000 a day and could mean abandoning the project.

The city had planned to start dredging last week to remove 200,000 cubic metres of sediment -- enough to fill 80 Olympic-sized swimming pools.