A former provincial environment minister in British Columbia said Bermuda must act quickly to save its only freshwater resource ? the Pembroke canal.

David Mercier is former BC environment minister and mayor of Burnaby, a city with an estimated population of 197,292. He now lives part-time near the Pembroke canal which he first noticed when jogging.

?How do you want your backyard to look?? Mr. Mercier asked. ?You would really like to have it environmentally sound and state of the art.

?There is a very critical time frame right now.

?There is stuff that should be done in the next year or two. If a couple more buildings get in and encroach more and more you will be left with everyone?s back alley.?

Mr. Mercier said he saw the canal in various states of cleanliness when he dropped his daughter off at a Pembroke swimming pool.

However, he said after further research, he has now become so passionate about the canal, that he vowed to drop whatever he was doing in the future in order to help out.

The Pembroke canal ? built in 1900 ? runs from the Marsh near the former Pembroke dump through the Bermuda Electric Light Company, Fairylands and into Mills Creek.

Referring to an October 1996 report on the ecological conditions in Pembroke Canal by Dr. Martin Thomas, he said the idea of the canal was flood control and an exit for water accumulating in the Pembroke basin.

?The Pembroke Canal and Mills Creek complex form the only fresh water stream and estuary marine habitat in Bermuda,? he said.

?If you only have one of something the value of it goes up, if you treat it right.?

In San Antonio, Texas, a canal runs straight through the town, he said, and in Burnaby he helped clean up Still Creek, which had lumber yards built on top of it.

As an accountant, Mr. Mercier said the Pembroke Marsh and Mills Creek were assets to preserve not a liability to be ignored by big businesses like Belco, which could assist in the preservation of the canal.

Speaking on Government?s 1987 Pembroke Marsh Plan to convert the Pembroke Marsh Basin into a park, amphitheatre, community centre and playing fields, Mr. Mercier asked ? ?What happened after 1987??

However, the plan did not address how to restore the canal.

Although it may appear a daunting task, Pembroke Marsh was no different than any other park on the Island when it came to repairs and maintenance, he said.

?It?s not a bottomless pit of cost, it is a trade to make good the area.?

In order to move forward, the canal needed to be accurately mapped right away, he said, so the nearby property owners could be contacted.

?We can even give commercial owners incentives, you can go two stories instead of one, if you let us have 20-feet,? he said. ?The Harvard people, they talk about cutting out this canal. I would not do that,? he said. ?You are fighting for every drop of water for the wild life and water creatures to use.?

Neither was it necessary to close Dutton Avenue and The Glebe Road as the plan suggested, he said.

?In London the main park has a road running right through the middle,? he said. ?In New York, the main park has two or three roads right through the middle. These guys from Harvard ... that would have really intimidated local politicians.?

A multi-storey seniors? home could be built above the Transport Control Department, because that was the best location for it and it would be a lot of activity for the seniors, he said.

?I?m watching the (population) projections, 70,000 people, and I?m reading the Minister who is supposed to be responsible for Housing say, ?Well this military base, we can get this or that or anything?. If this was Burnaby, we?d already be building along there.?

Mr. Mercier said there was local expertise already available to save the canal and conceded there had already been some improvements to the area since 1987.

?If Amsterdam can manage the North Sea, this Island should be able to manage Mills Creek, that?s the context I put it in,? he said.