EDITOR,
As residents of Paradise Valley, we were horrified to read that three test wells will be drilled in the next few weeks to see if there could be a large enough water supply to support the proposed all-season resort of Garibaldi at Squamish (“Garibaldi at Squamish eyes Paradise Valley,” Chief, Nov. 29).
How desperate and self serving is the greedy project founder, Wolfgang Richter!?
Where was the inclusion of residents from the area regarding this ridiculous plan?! Richter tells the news of his upcoming experiment but fails to share anything with those who would be most affected.
When contacted, employees of the Tenderfoot Fish Hatchery were unaware of any ideas to pump water from Paradise Valley. The reporter covering the story, Rebecca Aldous, was not aware that folks in our community were not notified.
The film industry has more respect for the taxpaying members of this community. They give us days’ notification of any filming in the area including names and phone numbers of people to contact if we have questions or concerns.
So, to find out through the local newspaper that a huge development is eyeing our underground water for their use is nothing short of irresponsible. To exclude us from any discussions, regarding this subject, shows us that some individuals are being financially rewarded to push this forward at all cost.
Will we have our water piped to us, at the cost of other taxpayers, once our area is sucked dry?! Where is the support of the mayor and councillors for us living out here? Not one comment was made and included in the article.
Who got invited to the “project update meeting” on Nov. 22? Putting a notice on the Internet hardly counts. We certainly did not get an invitation taped to our gate from Janice Brown, Garibaldi at Squamish board director. She is so concerned with the community, but only if those community members do not oppose her opinion, I guess.
We moved from the developer-controlled, destroy-everything-in-one’s-path, stack-people-on-top-of-each-other Lower Mainland, so our kids could have fresh air to breathe, wonderful untreated water to drink and lots of space to grow up healthy.
Why does this area need another resort?
It does not. And certainly not at the cost of Paradise Valley’s water supply.
Has anyone with common sense actually stood up and said, “stop the insanity already, this proposal is not viable for this area”?
Brenda Bjorkman
Paradise Valley
