A former Olympian wants to bring Rowing Canada’s national training centre to Buntzen Lake.
Cedric Burgers, who competed at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, said the size and stillness of the water makes the popular Tri-Cities spot an ideal place to locate the facility.
“We know that this is the perfect location,” he told The Tri-City News Thursday. “It is close to the metropolitan centre. It is still, it is deep, there are no powered craft on it.”
Currently, Rowing Canada has a facility in London, Ont. mainly used by the national women’s team while a second training centre is located on Vancouver Island near Victoria, which is mainly used by the men’s team.
But earlier this year, the organization issued a request for proposals (RFP) to find a new location to house both teams.
Burgers, who is not affiliated with Rowing Canada, has taken up the request and is the proponent for the Buntzen Lake proposal. He said the waterway has to be at least 2 km long, although the RFP said 4 km is optimal, with up to eight lanes marked by buoys. The centre would also require the construction of a boathouse to store the boats — some of which can be up to 72-feet long — as well as a change room and washroom facility.
Ideally, Burgers said, the boathouse would be located near the Burrard pump house at the southwest end of the lake but he is open to locating on the north shore.
At its peak use, up to 60 rowers would train at the facility between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., with the busiest times taking place in April and October. July and August are slower, he added, as competitive rowers are out of town competing at events and regattas around the world.
While concerns have been raised by residents in the community, Burgers’ proposal has some supporters.
Wendy Chan, the treasurer of the Inlet Rowing Club in Port Moody, said the club has heard rumblings about the initiative and is pleased with the prospect of having a national training centre right down the street.
“We’re obviously super excited about having a facility so close to our club (should it come to fruition),” she said in an email. “We hope it would bring more rowers to Port Moody and raise the profile of the sport.”
But not everyone is thrilled with Burgers’ idea.
Louise McRae, an Anmore resident who often takes her grandchildren to the park, said the buoys would be an eyesore and the course would take up a significant portion of the lake.
“Right now, you look down the lake and you see the beautiful water and the mountains,” she said. “What you are going to see for most of the day is these paddlers and all these buoys. It restricts the use of the lake greatly.”
McRae also raised questions about the amount of traffic the rowers would create as well as increased noise.
Linda Weinberg, another longtime Anmore resident, concurred with McRae, stating in an email to The Tri-City News that Buntzen is not big enough to house the national facility (her letter to the editor can be found on page 13).
She noted that the lake is 3 km long from the south beach to the north beach, with the rowers requiring more than 2 km in the middle for their training lanes.
“The lake is too small,” she said. “The rowers will disrupt any persons wanting to boat on the lake.”
Burgers acknowledged the community’s concerns and said bringing the training centre to Buntzen is far from a done deal.
He has presented his proposal to Anmore council, which has supported it in principal, according to Mayor John McEwen. And he is still in talks with BC Hydro, which controls the lake. Burgers added that he is also pursuing discussions with the province and local First Nations.
If he can get all of the various groups on board, Rowing Canada would still have to choose his proposal among those submitted (Terry Dillon, the organization’s CEO, would not say how many other proponents have responded to the RFP).
“They do not want to be somewhere where they are not wanted,” Burgers said. “The opportunity here is to see the Olympic rowing team training on Canada’s most beautiful piece of water. The benefits are hard to pin down but certainly there is a sense of pride that would come out of it.”
gmckenna@tricitynews.com
@gmckennaTC
