Georgia Straight Letter editor@straight.com
It’s time to take Stanley Park out of the splash zone
Publish Date: 28-Sep-2006
I have read your articles for years and love how you try and tell it straight. We only get one side from politicians and interested parties; you bring necessary details and balance.
I’d like to know what long-term vision the Vancouver Aquarium has for itself [“Aquarium lease linked to expansion”, Straight Talk, Sept. 14-21]. Like all businesses, it has visions and goals. It keeps chipping away at Stanley Park, which doesn’t belong to it. Now a 50-percent [area] increase. This will continue forever; the bigger it gets, the more it needs to feed.
The problem is the aquarium is constrained in a little area. The aquarium is a nice aquarium, but it will never be world-class and it will never be what it wants to be, because it is in the park. It is time the aquarium begins its vision for vacating Stanley Park and finding itself land where it can grow as much as it wants, where its visions can become reality, and where it can have a world-class aquarium facility, one that is more centrally located. It will eventually have to move, so let’s get on with it now. Don’t waste any more money in the park or steal more parkland.
> Brian Curelle / Vancouver
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Groups call for boycott of aquarium consultation
By charlie smith
Publish Date: 28-Sep-2006
Genuine Health
Several animal-welfare groups have issued a news release asking the public not to participate in a Vancouver aquarium public-consultation process.
The Vancouver aquarium has hired Kirk & Co. to evaluate the public’s appetite for increasing the size of the facility. No Whales in Captivity, Lifeforce Foundation, Vancouver Humane Society, and Whalefriends say the only way to deal with the aquarium’s expansion plan is through a referendum.
The previous COPE-controlled park board passed a motion for a plebiscite in the 2008 municipal election on keeping whales and dolphins in captivity in Stanley Park, where the aquarium is situated.
A previous NPA-controlled park board in the mid-1990s had passed a motion requiring a referendum before the aquarium could expand.
Last May, however, NPA Comm. Marty Zlotnik introduced motions to cancel the requirements for a referendum on expansion and a plebiscite on keeping cetaceans in captivity. Both motions passed.
The Vancouver aquarium has announced a plan to increase its footprint in Stanley Park by 0.6 hectares. This would boost the facility’s size by 50 percent, and create room for larger pools for beluga whales, sea otters, sea lions, and dolphins.
The aquarium’s proposal would require the removal of 15 conifers and 17 deciduous trees, and no trees with a diameter greater than 60 centimetres.