A multi-million dollar project to deepen Burnaby Lake is on hold because of the harm it could cause to a group of endangered turtles.
The city of Burnaby wants to dig the lake deep enough to host rowing competitions like it did in the past. But the endangered western painted turtle lives in the lake, what's believed to the largest population of its kind in the Lower Mainland.
The ministry of environment is asking the city of Burnaby to conduct research to find and track the turtles to move them safely before work begins.
"[They] wanted them to do radio telemetry work in advance in advance of drudging," biologist Vanessa Kilburn told CTV News.
Kilburn says the city didn't apply for the required permits from the ministry of environment in time to get that research done -- and now it's simply too late. The turtles are already in hibernation mode and they're starting to sink into the ground.
"Right now salvage of the turtles at this time would be very, very harmful to them," Kilburn said.
"They're going to be hard to find which means they could be chopped up in the drudging machine is they are buried in the substrate."
This means the dredging equipment remains unused -- a move that is costing taxpayers $20,000 a day.
Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan is shell-shocked.
"We're very disappointed," he said.
Corrigan says his consultants did two environmental assessments that included turtle research in 2002 and 2007. He says everything was on track until the city found out it needed the research permit in July.
"I'm confident that the city has done everything it could do to make sure this project could move forward," he said.
"And there was absolutely no reason for us ever to fail to get the required permits in place."
Corrigan says if the city has to terminate its contract with the hired crews there could be litigation costing millions.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Norma Reid
