The Western Canada Marine Response Corporation base on the Saanich Peninsula is inviting the public to tour one of its new facilities in North Saanich this week.
Trevor Davis, base manager, said the public can visit its warehouse and office at 9930 McDonald Park Rd. in North Saanich next to Victoria International Airport on Wednesday, April 27 from 4 to 7 p.m.
“Come meet us, tour the new base and learn about spill response along Canada’s West Coast,” he said in a release, adding the event will include food and fun family friendly activities.
The base also includes eight new response vessels moored at Van Isle Marina in Sidney.
“I would like to acknowledge and thank the community for their patience and understanding while the base was constructed,” Davis said. “We appreciate your support and are committed to serving you as best we can.”
The tour follows almost two years of construction on the McDonald Park Road building. The base is part of an expansion of available spill response measures mandated by the expansion of the Trans-Mountain Pipeline, itself a controversial project subject to long list of political and legal wranglings.
The release announcing the tour stated this larger expansion will double the organization’s capacity and cut mandated response times in half in South Coast waters. “As a part of the larger expansion, a number of new bases are being constructed, the majority of which are located on Vancouver Island.”
Western Canada Marine Response Corporation is the only Transport Canada-certified marine response organization on Canada’s West Coast. Its mandate is to ensure a state of preparedness for marine spills and mitigate their impacts on B.C.’s coast, including the protection of wildlife, economic and environmental sensitivities, as well as ensure the safety of both responders and the public.
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