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Greens say Tory decision to shutter Kits coast guard base senseless

VANCOUVER — Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is promising to work toward reversing a deeply unpopular Conservative government decision to shut down a coast guard station in Vancouver.
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Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, centre left, raises her hands during a First Nations welcome while standing with her daughter Victoria Cate May Burton during a campaign rally in Vancouver, B.C., on Saturday October 3, 2015.
VANCOUVER — Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is promising to work toward reversing a deeply unpopular Conservative government decision to shut down a coast guard station in Vancouver.

Concern over the 2013 closure of the Kitsilano coast guard base lay mostly dormant until a freighter dumped thousands of litres of bunker fuel into English Bay on Vancouver’s front doorstep last April.

The Canadian Coast Guard was harshly criticized for bungled communications and a delayed response to the incident, which sparked a public outcry over the absence of a closer-spill response centre.

May says the cost-cutting decision to shutter the station failed to save money in part because of how much the government is spending to store the docks.

City of Vancouver Green party councillor Adriane Carr says Canada has never been as poorly prepared for oil spills as it is now

Both the NDP and the Liberals have promised to reopen the Vancouver-area base if either forms government after Oct. 19.