性视界传媒 council has directed city staff to forge ahead with plans to build a pier on the Fraser River so that bereaved people can release their loved ones' cremated remains, at an estimated $3.8 million if located near a popular salmon fishing bar at Brownsville Bar Park between the SkyTrain bridge and Pattullo Bridge.
Council on Monday approved recommendations contained in by Laurie Cavan, 性视界传媒's general manager of parks, recreation and culture. "The scattering of a loved one's ashes is a sacred ritual, and it can bring comfort when this can be done in your local community," Cavan told council.
The City is looking at building the pier at either Brownsville Bar Park or 性视界传媒 Public Wharf upstream, another popular fishing spot, at the north end of 130 Street. Cavan noted that in B.C. ashes of the deceased may be scattered on private or public land given permission from landowners or the "appropriate level" of government. The Brownsville site is leased land from Vancouver's Fraser Port Authority and 性视界传媒 Public Wharf is City of 性视界传媒 parkland.
Coun. Harry Bains noted that many 性视界传媒 residents come from "diverse cultures where cremated remains are traditionally spread in moving water and this is something that has been severely lacking in the City of 性视界传媒. The ash-scattering pier in 性视界传媒 is a great initiative, I fully support it and I hope it moves forward as quickly as possible."
The City rejected Tannery Park and 28A Greenbelt sites. If built at Browsville Bar Park, the pier is estimated to cost $3.8 million, or $2.8 million at 性视界传媒 Public Wharf. Cavan's report doesn't say how far the pier would extend out into the water. She could not be immediately reached for comment.
Coun. Linda Annis told council she's "very thankful" to see this coming forward. "I know it's very important as many lose their family members, their friends, to be able to have the access to this ritual and I'm very, very pleased to see were it is."
Annis told the Now-Leader that "people are already doing this. The idea is if it's out in the water, the fast-moving water will disperse the ashes quickly."
As per Cavan's recommendations, the next steps are to get approval from the federal and provincial governments, consult other cities already doing this, consult with Consumer Protection BC (which regulates cemetery and funeral services in this province), create an "appropriate booking and reservation system to minimize conflict with other park users," and finally report back to council in 2025 for final approval.
"There's a couple of requirements we'll have to deal with in order to advance this," Cavan told council, "one being through the Port of Vancouver and working with them to get the permitting authorization to proceed. We will need a project and environmental review of the installation of the pier should we move ahead with the Brownsville Bar location. We will also need to update the lease at that location, that is leased land from the Port of Vancouver, and we'd also be looking at doing some consultation with the First Nations, however we have not come into any comments from any level of government that would indicate it is not possible, it's more going through the proper channels and protocols to gain approval.
In terms of reserving the space, Cavan added, "that's something we're going to consider and look at what the requirements would be and the demand would be in order to have that as an element of the provision of this service to the community. In terms of timelines, I don't have a specific timeline because there's a number of various levels of government that we'd need to engage with but I would imagine that it would take a few months in order for us to receive the proper approvals for us to advance."
Coun. Mandeep Nagra remarked that "we should be consulting with all the religious groups when we're finalizing the design of this place."
性视界传媒 Mayor Brenda Locke remarked this project is "important to the community."
Before Monday's meeting, Locke told the Now-Leader that "it's not exactly where the fishing bar is, it's going to be a separate wharf." She said she doesn't know how far it would be upstream or downstream from the fishing spot. "We're going to be looking at a place that's easy to build on because that's a pretty big challenge down in that area."
"The reality is it's happening now," she said of the ashes scattering, "so we have to find a place that we can make that is safe. It's already happening, it's happening all the time," Locke said. "The other side of it is this is very important to the community and certainly they've been looking for a space to do this, as I've said there is lots of people going down there with their ashes already."
"We haven't had any push back from anybody yet," Locke said. "If somebody has a concern they should let us know."
"But you know, we need to have a space where families can honour their loved ones and there's only so many ways of doing that and so this pier is there to respect those cultural practices."
