VANCOUVER -- Critics of the federal government’s abrupt closure Tuesday of the Kitsilano Coast Guard station say they will try to get the base reopened, but that it may take a fatal boating accident to accomplish that.

“Our message is that this station will reopen,” said B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair at a news conference and vigil at the station site Tuesday afternoon. “People will die if it doesn’t.”

Sinclair and several others at the site were livid over the closure of the station, saying it was timed to coincide with B.C.’s budget.

They also said there was no warning whatsoever.

“They wanted to bury (the decision),” said Vancouver city Coun. Kerry Jang. “It’s budget day. It’s disgusting. It was a total surprise to us, in one of the most dangerous times of the year (for boaters).

“They’re playing Russian roulette with lives,” he added of the decision to close the station, which will save the coast guard about $700,000 a year.

News of the closure was delivered by telephone to the national office of the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees — the union representing 12 full-time employees at the station — by Deputy Coast Guard Commissioner Jody Thomas.

“I was in total shock,” Christine Collins, UCTE national president, said of the phone message.

“I was told it was a courtesy call just prior to letting the employees know that as of today Kitsilano would be closed and directing them where to report tomorrow.”

Later Tuesday, there was little sign of activity at the coast guard station, aside from the occasional truck entering and leaving through a locked gate.

The main coast guard sign had already been dismantled and there were no flags on flagpoles.

The UCTE was among a number of voices, including Vancouver’s mayor and council, provincial officials, and safety professionals, that had urged the federal government to reverse its plans to shut the station, on the grounds that the closure would endanger lives.

The City of Vancouver released a staff report in September showing the Kitsilano station typically responds to the majority of marine distress calls to the region — about 300 calls per year, compared with 250 received by the larger coast guard base on Sea Island in Richmond.

One-third of the calls relate to a life-and-death situation, with most emergencies in the winter months.

Ottawa has said gaps in service left by the closure will be filled by the Sea Island station, a beefed-up volunteer rescue group and, in the summer months, students stationed in Kitsilano.

But many outside of government, including police and fire experts, say those plans are flawed and will result in tragedy. “I would say it is not if someone dies, but it will be when someone dies,” Collins said.

Gary Sidock, the coast guard’s acting assistant commissioner for the Western region, said he made the decision to shut the Kitsilano station after he was satisfied new plans to safely patrol Vancouver Harbour were in place.

Sidock said he made the decision after observing a major exercise in the harbour Monday that included participation by the marine branches of the Vancouver police department, Vancouver fire department, and Port Metro Vancouver. He said he recommended the closure “because we could do so with no increased risk to the public and the station was closed today.”