Category Archives: Admin

Pat Carney. Continued her fight for heritage protection for lighthouses

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Debates of the Senate (Hansard)

1st Session, 39th Parliament,
Volume 143, Issue 44

Wednesday, November 1, 2006
The Honourable Noël A. Kinsella, Speaker

Heritage Lighthouse Protection Bill

Second Reading—Debate Adjourned

Hon. Pat Carney moved second reading of Bill S-220, to protect heritage lighthouses.

She said: Honourable senators, this bill represents the sixth attempt in as many years to grant protection to heritage lighthouses of Canada. It was introduced five times previously, including during the Second Session of the Thirty-sixth Parliament, the First, Second and Third Sessions of the Thirty-seventh Parliament, and the First Session of the Thirty-eighth Parliament, and it has proceeded to committee stage in the other place. It never received Royal Assent before those parliaments rose.

While this bill was co-authored by me and the late Senator Forrestall, it was introduced five times by him, and it is in his memory that I speak today.

Despite the broad support in Parliament for this bill from all parties, the fact that we have not been able to enact it thus far represents a legislative embarrassment. It should be noted that this bill is supported in principle by the Departments of the Environment, Heritage and Fisheries and Oceans. Aside from the obvious negative political optics of such failure, even more regrettable is the practical damage being sustained by the lighthouses no longer in operation and the loss to the communities they have served, and where they stand as a proud pillar of heritage. Each day that goes by without the kind of legal protection afforded by the heritage lighthouse protection bill is a day that lighthouses are left exposed to neglect.

This bill addresses the problem that lighthouses, once deemed to be surplus to operational requirements, have no mechanism for their preservation. In the past they have been blown up, burned down, jack-hammered or left prey to vandalism, because the operational departments have no means of transferring them to interested community groups that are prepared to take on their maintenance. The present heritage designations are too restrictive to apply to most and do not provide a public consultation process.

The main feature of this bill is to facilitate the designation and preservation of heritage lighthouses as part of Canada’s culture and history, and to protect them from being altered or disposed of without public consultation. The bill defines heritage lighthouses as any lighthouse, together with all buildings and other works belonging thereto and in connection with which, as designated by the minister on the recommendation of the board as a heritage lighthouse.

The board referred to is the National Historic Sites and Monuments Board.

It defines “alter” as “to change in any manner” and includes “to restore or renovate” but does not include the performance of routine maintenance and repairs.

Honourable senators, I could take the time of the Senate to read the other main purposes of this short bill, but it would serve the interests of the Senate better to move this bill into committee where these aspects can be addressed.

The key to this bill is that the Canadian public will be consulted before any lighthouse is disposed of or destroyed, because currently there is no method by which to protect those structures.

The substantive provisions of this bill remain the same as they were the past five times it was introduced, and each time it received unanimous support in this chamber. I have been in communication with the government and believe that there may be minor amendments made to the bill at committee stage to align it with other legislation that was passed since this bill was first proposed.

I hope this bill can be referred to committee today.

Hon. Jim Munson: Honourable senators, I agree that this bill should be sent to the appropriate committee today. I have a keen interest in this bill. My great-great-uncle, James Munson, was the first lighthouse keeper in Cape Enrage, New Brunswick. It is a wonderful place just outside of Fundy National Park. It is the home of regulation-sized Munsons. I somehow got short shrift.

It is a great historical story which must be put on the record. I would like to speak to this bill at report stage when it returns from committee.

The Hon. the Speaker: Are honourable senators ready for the question?

Some Hon. Senators: Question!

Hon. Gerald J. Comeau (Deputy Leader of the Government): I move the adjournment of the debate.

Senator Carney: Honourable senators, it was my understanding from my house leader that this bill would go to committee today. Can I be told why the deputy leader has moved the adjournment of the debate when it has been agreed with the opposition and the committee that it be sent to committee?

Senator Comeau: There is no agreement that it would be sent to committee today.

On motion of Senator Comeau, debate adjourned.

Upper Piling Installation for the Tidal Energy Current Project

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Images by Gary Bouman, Garry Fletcher and Chris Blondeau

Installation of the tidal Current Generator at Race Rocks, Sept, 2006

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Integrated Energy Project Update-Record of Events

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With the Pearson College – EnCana – Clean Current Tidal Power Demonstration Project at Race Rocks now fully underway, we are seeing a variety of activities in the preparation for the tidal generator and other components of the Integrated Energy System at Race Rocks. Look for the most recent updates at the top of this page.
END of Tidal Energy project and removal of Turbine

 

 

 

 

 

In the late summer of 2009, Pearson College installed six new 165 watt solar panels to add to the existing bank of 38 panels on the energy centre.

 

 

 

Redeployment of the Tidal Energy Turbine  October 2008

 

 

April, 2007.The tidal energy turbine is raised to change the bearings which had been deteriorating faster than expected.

 

 

Cementing anchor bolts to the roof January 17, 2007

Installaton of solar panels January 25,2007

 

 

PM Stephen Harper visits Race Rocks for an “ecoenergy announcement” Jan 19, 2007

 

 

 

Installation of the turbine Sept. 27, 2006

 

 

 

Testing of the Turbine in Pedder Bay

 

 

 

 

Installation of the turbine control unit

 

 

 

 

Laying of the cable to shore Aug.20-22, 2006

 

 

 

Installation of upper part of the piling

 

 

 

Installation of bottom part of the piling

 

 

 

 

Drilling Problems encountered in installation of the tidal current energy Piling

 

 

Installation of the Anchors for Drilling for the Tidal Current Energy Project

 

 

Dredging the overburden for the tidal energy installation.

 

 

The following on this page still need more work reconnecting links
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The Race Rocks Weather
Instrument is installed at Race Rocks, Oct.26, 2005

 
dredgebucket detachment drilling
Dredging the overburden Deployment of Anchors for the
Piling July 16, 2006		 Drilling
solar energy
sonde sensors
Underwater Sensors at RR
hybridunit2s.jpg
projweeks.jpg
mar23placebattery.jpg
Equipment install
Students of Pearson College help with transferring 96 storage batteries March 10-12, 2006
 Battery Installation,
March 2006 		Electronic equipment arrives March, 2006
Cable across Island
barge.jpg
SIMS towed video chart
install fouling plates
January 2006: preliminary work on piling installation Preliminary work for Cable laying and Pile Drilling..Nov 2005 Succession Studies on Different Substrates, summer, 2005
weather
The Race Rocks Weather
Instrument is installed at Race Rocks, Oct.26, 2005
ADCP recover
location
adcp
Deployment and Retrieval of the ADCP from the Bottom of the Channel Dock modifications for a concrete channel to carry the underwater cable: June 2005 Divers Examine two Prospective Locations for the Turbine Installation March 30, 2005 Triton and ASL Environmental Services do surface ADCP.
Extension of Generator Building to accommodate storage batteries

 

Link to the Tidal Energy part of the Integrated Energy Project Index

Turbine Control Installation for the Tidal Current Energy Project

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Problems in the Installation of the Piling for the Tidal Energy Project

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Not every aspect of the tidal Current energy project went perfectly without problems. At one point the project was within hours of being called off. A replacement drill bit had to be flown in and weather conditions threatened to suspend operation.  The most difficult stage in the installation was the breaking of the drill casing and drill bit. One morning when attempting to attach the barge, the casing which by this time was sunk in the bedrock, twisted off, trapping the drill bit in the ground.

The conditions in August were marginal for the work at sea.

The most amazing part of thew process was that whatever the problems, the engineers proved to be very capable in meeting the challenge and coming up with a problem. This was particularly impressive in that it was the first kind of such an exercise and it was in an ecologically sensitive area  at a time of year when weather  could cause a stop to the process.

Cable laying for the Tidal Current Turbine Project

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On August 20, 2006 the cable laying boat was deployed to start the process of laying the four electrical cables and a fibre optic cable which will take the energy generated by the turbine to the energy building on Race Rocks.

 

The cable laying barge is towed to the site to begin laying the cables

 

Photos taken by Mike Slater, Chris Blondeau and Garry Fletcher

Geology of Race Rocks

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TOPOGRAPHY of SUBTIDAL RACE ROCKS

 Topography of Subtidal Race Rocks

Only by looking beneath the waves can we really get a full picture of the extent of the topography of the Race Rocks Archipelago. We were fortunate in 1999 to have a comprehensive study and mapping project done by the Canadian Hydrographic Service. They used multi- beam sonar to plot the bottom profile down to 150 metres.

 

With the results of this imaging process we are now able to appreciate the extensive powers of the glaciers as they moulded the terrain at the Southern tip of Vancouver Island. Now, the only surface features that attest to this force are the glacial scouring on the rocks and the erratics, (rocks of basalt or conglomerate) left by the last glacier to pass over Race Rocks and the adjacent shorelines of Vancouver Island.

 

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The Abiotic effect on Organisms of the Surface Topography of Race Rocks

 

Go to this Google Map of the Surface topography of Race Rocks to see how the abiotic factors of geology and topography affect the distribution of organisms at Race Rocks

AND THE GEOLOGY IS EVER-CHANGING

This large boulder at one end of the artificial tidepool moved 2 metres during the Hurricane of Dec 15, 2006. See this file for before and after pictures.

 

 

THE QUARTZ INTRUSIONS:
We have very little formal information on the Geology of Race Rocks, but no doubt it has an important role to play in the distribution of organisms. Most of the foundation rock at Race Rocks is a black coloured basalt. It was formed underneath a volcanic range which has since been scoured away by glaciers. One obvious example to which we often refer students on field labs is the interesting rock structure of the bottom of tidepool number 4 on the west intertidal shelf of Great Race Rock. On the this side of the island, many seams of white rock occur as intrusions into cracks of the previously hardened basaltic background rock.

 

On the bottom of this shallow pool is a seam of quartz with some obvious crystalline structure.. In the tidepool we find a pure white variant of the usually black coloured Littorine snail, Littorina sitkana( periwinkle) We speculate on the existence of this color variant being due to the quartz background which makes it well camouflaged in the pool and thus able to avoid the predation of shorebirds. In the picture several white and several black variants of this species are shown against the quartz background.

In 1998, a Pearson College student, Giovanni Rosso, conducted research on this color variation and produced a paper on shell colour variations at Race Rocks. In his abstract he summarizes:

“As with most intertidal gastropods, Littorina sitkana shows remarkable variations in shell color. This occurs both in microhabitats which are exposed or sheltered from wave action. There seemed to be a close link between the shell coloration of the periwinkle and the color of the background substrate. Field work was carried out on the Race Rocks Marine Protected Area in order to investigate patterns of color polymorphism. Evidence from previous studies was used to support interpretations and understand certain behaviors.
The results showed that in the study site there was a very strong relation between the shades of the shells and the colors of the rocks. Light colored shells stayed on light shaded rocks and vice versa. An interesting pattern was noticed with the white morphs. These were rare along the coast (only 2%), but were present in relatively high numbers in tidepools of white quartz. From previous experience (Ron J.Etter,1988), these morphs seem to have developed as evolutionary response a higher resistance to physiological stress from drastic temperature changes between tides. Some results showed that the white morph is present in an unexpectedly high percentage at the juvenile stage, but then their number decreases dramatically.”

APPEARANCE of CONGLOMERATE SUBTIDALLY.

An interesting discovery was made in 2005 on the preliminary dives to examine the substrate where the tidal current generator was going to be installed, The bottom at location 1, just North of the docks at Race Rocks, yielded a conglomerate type of rock surface at 15 meter depth in the channel . We were surprised at this as we had never come across this formation before, certainly it doesn’t appear to exist on the rocky islets, above water on the archipelago. Dr. Chris Yorath who has recently published a new version of “The Geology of Southern Vancouver Island” has supplied the following information which may explain this finding:


1. Race Rocks are part of the Metchosin Igneous Complex and is part of the Crescent Terrain (25 million years old).

2. Conglomerate rock overlays the igneous rocks although it has been eroded away in many places.

3. The source of the “boulders” within the conglomerate is often from within the Metchosin Complex but there may also be sources from other parts of Vancouver Island.

This large glacial erratic boulder made of conglomerate rests on the shoreline 50 metres east of Fossil Point. in nearby Pedder Bay.

4. The conglomerate is called Sooke Conglomerate and can be found in East Sooke Park (between Aldridge Point and Creke Point).

 

 

 

 

 

 

EARTHQUAKES

The 1872 Earthquake as recorded at Race Rocks by Mr .Argyle the Lightkeeper from:
The 1872 North Cascades Earthquake British Columbia Reporting Localities.

The 1872 North Cascades Earthquake British Columbia Reporting Localities.
The Metchosin volcanics are particularly unusual in that they are not only an emergent sequence with ocean-floor affinity (Muller.). but as we will demonstrate, they are also an example of low-titanium normal mid-oceanic ridge basaIts (low-Ti MORB-N).
METCHOSIN VOLCANIC: A LOW-TITANIUM EMERGENT SEAMOUNT
AT THE BASE OF THE CRESCENT TERRANE” (92~)
By Andree de Rosen-Spence and A.J. Sinclair
The University of British Columbia
Accretion-related metamorphism of the Metchosin Igneous Complex, southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia Sean Timpa, Kathryn M. Gillis, and Dante Canil

 

Drilling for the piling for the Tidal Energy Project

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On July 24, 2006 the drilling took place throughout the day, with ever-increasing wind speed. The following pictures were captured from the remote Camera 5 on Race Rocks.