Adopted 2 March 2005 on 92G/3; a long-established name.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

Carries Highway 99 traffic under the south arm of the Fraser River between Deas and Lulu Islands. Originally called the Deas Island Tunnel; officially opened 15 July 1959; subsequently renamed by Premier W.A.C.Bennett, after Nehemiah "George" Massey, MLA Delta, 1956-60.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

"This facility is a combination tunnel and bridge, the tunnel being 2,000 feet long. Its offical name is Deas Island Tunnel, named after the island in the Fraser River on which it emerges. From there it is connected with a small bridge across a slough to the bank of the river. The highway in which the tunnel and bridge system is incorporated is called the Deas Tunnel Thruway." (July 1964 letter from R.J. Baines, Admin Officer, Department of Highways)

Source: Provincial Archives of BC "Place Names File" compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions

"George Massey, former-Delta Social Credit MLA, died suddenly at home [April 8, 1964], a week after he had seen a dream come true when he paid the last toll on the Deas Island Tunnel. Massey, 60, suffered a stroke just a few days after the Queen opened the tunnel in 1959. However, after four months in the hospital he recovered sufficiently to return to work. For 23 years he addresed meetings and wrote thousands of letter to hundreds of engineering firms and shipping men all over the world in a one-man campaign to get backing for his Deas Island project. He was one of the first informed in February 1956 that the $17 million tunnel would be built. Ladner residents then demanded that it be named the George Massey Tunnel. In September the same year he was elected Social Credit MLA for Delta. He ran again in 1960 but was defeated by two NDP candidates, James Rhodes and Camille Mather. Mr. Massey was born in 1903 at Courtown Harbour, County Wexford, Ireland..." (The Province, 9 April 1964, p.2) See also Vancouver Sun, April 9, 1964, p.11.

Source: included with note

"Premier W.A.C.Bennett announced that the Deas Island Tunnel has been renamed the Geoge Massey Tunnel in honour of a man who worked for years to establish the crossing. Massey, Social Credit MLA for Delta from 1956 to 1960, worked for years as vice president of the Lower Fraser River Crossing Improvement Association and as a board of trade tunnel committee chairman to have the tunnel built. He suffered a stroke in 1959, the year the tunnel was opened, and died in 1964." (Vancouver Sun, 27 October 1967, p.3)

Source: included with note