B.C. and Richmond to help fund dredging of Steveston Harbour amid mounting risks to boaters

A historic B.C. channel where boaters have been running aground due to increasingly shallow waters could soon be dredged after an injection of funding from the province, but the harbour authority says it's still short about $2 million to finance the job.

On Monday, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure committed $2.125 million to dredge the Steveston Harbour, the largest small craft commercial fishing harbour in Canada, according to its website, where a buildup of sediment has made it increasingly difficult for boats to come and go without running aground or dragging on the channel floor.

"We know the Steveston Channel and Harbour do need dredging, and it's becoming more and more urgent," said Kelly Greene, MLA for Richmond-Steveston. "I'm going to continue to work towards a long-term strategy for sustainable dredging in this area."

The non-profit Steveston Harbour Authority is matching the province's funding, and so is the City of Richmond.

But the financial commitments still leave the harbour authority about $2 million shy of being able to fully finance the project, the authority says. It hopes the additional funding will come from Ottawa.

"We hope that these missing funds will come from the federal government, which owns the harbour and has a major stake in its success," said Jaime Gusto, the harbour authority's general manager.

Increasingly shallow waters

The Steveston Harbour Authority has been lobbying all levels of government for years, including the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, for a cost-sharing agreement to dredge the channel.

The mouth of the channel hasn't been dredged in upwards of a decade, and the authority said the sea floor filled up with a large amount of sediment during the 2021 extreme rainfall event.

The shallow waters mean commercial fishers can only get in and out during a particular window at high tide or risk dragging, running aground, and spilling fuel.

In February, a pair of commercial herring fishing boats were stuck for four hours waiting for the tide to rise before they could dislodge and continue onto the seafood auction down the channel, the harbour authority said.

Fisherman Allan Marsden, who once nearly collided with a grounded boat, says navigating the channel is getting increasingly difficult.

"Even at high tide, you're pretty much scraping bottom all the way coming in," said Marsden, pointing out some of the safety hazards.

"There could be logs on the bottom. It could be sucked into your propeller. It just needs to be done. The quicker, the better," he said.

Waiting on more funding

Over time, the responsibility for maintaining and dredging the local channel has shifted from the federal government to commercial users and ports.

In 2009, the Port of Vancouver's local dredging program helped finance the dredging of the Steveston channel, alongside funding from the City of Richmond, the province and the harbour authority.

In the years since, the port has dropped its dredging program, while costs have increased substantially, the harbour authority says.

The Steveston Habour Authority estimates the job would cost about $8.5 million and hopes that all stakeholders can come up with a long-term plan to regularly dredge the channel.

"We need more than anything else a long-term, sustainable solution to this ongoing problem. Otherwise, we're going to be standing here every two or three years saying we need funding from the various partners," said Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie.

CBC News has reached out to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for comment.