About 100 anti-Woodfibre LNG demonstrators gathered at municipal hall Friday morning as local, regional, provincial and national representatives met inside to discuss Woodfibre LNG.
The demonstration, organized by My Sea to Sky, drew people from Whistler, Lions Bay, Bowen Island and the Sunshine Coast.
The Squamish RCMP in two cruisers kept watch discreetly over the peaceful demonstration from about 100 metres away in a hotel parking lot.
“We have all of the local municipal leaders coming from around Howe Sound to a meeting that has been organized by [West Vancouver-Sea to Sky MLA] Jordan Sturdy and [North Vancouver MP] Jonathan Wilkinson with the goal to enhance transparency around the Woodfibre LNG project,” said Tracey Saxby, co-founder of My Sea to Sky.
“So the reason we are here today is this is the first time that all of these local, provincial and federal leaders are here in Squamish and we want to make it loud and clear that we do not support Woodfibre LNG and we are asking them to do everything they can to stop this project.”
Co-organizer of the event, MP Wilkinson, told The Squamish Chief that media and the general public were not allowed in to the meeting.
Representing Woodfibre LNG at the meeting was Byng Giraud, vice-president of corporate affairs.
“We were invited to give a project update, but more importantly to talk about communications plans and communication tools moving forward to increase the level of transparency about all the environmental conditions,” Giraud told The Squamish Chief shortly after the meeting.
Woodfibre LNG supplied The Squamish Chief with a copy of Giraud’s presentation. (See related material in the sidebar of this article.)
Giraud said a beta version of a website portal has been created that will be evolving over time as construction begins and the project progresses. On the site will be updates, received permits and authorizations.
He said the company’s application for an amendment to its Environmental Assessment – to account for the Squamish Nation-led change from sea cooling to air cooling – was filed Friday and would be public within days on the EA’s website. A three-week public consultation process will follow, he added.
In addition to Squamish Mayor Patricia Heintzman, at the meeting were representatives from Bowen Island, the District of West Vancouver, the Island Trust, Lions Bay and the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and the Sunshine Coast Regional District.
As they arrived, MLA Jordan Sturdy, MP Jonathan Wilkinson and MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones walked a line of polite, but adamant demonstrators who stopped the politicians to ask them to not support the project.
“One of the conditions, condition 25, which is how the project is monitored – what is the status of the conditions and the monitoring?” said Sturdy, to explain what the meeting was about.
“This is about trying to better understand the impact of this and better monitor the impacts.”
Also in attendance at the meeting were representatives from the BC Environmental Assessment Office, the BC Oil and Gas Commission and the BC Ministry of Natural Gas Development.
First Nations leadership from the Tsleil-Waututh Nation were in attendance, but the Squamish Nation was not represented, according to Heintzman. From outside, Squamish Nation elder Sut-Lut protested her Nation’s involvement in the Woodfibre LNG project.
“I am here because 10 Squamish councillors cannot answer for 4,000 band members,” she said.
“We are deserving under our custom to have a vote, to have a say and until my people put their hand [up] in a vote, this I don’t support.”
Giraud said now that the EA application for amendment has been filed, the next steps from his company’s perspective are to clean up of the Woodfibre LNG site and select of a contractor for the early works.
Mayor Patricia Heintzman said the intent of the meeting was good, but some local government officials were a little discouraged because there were several presentations, but not a lot of time for feedback. Another meeting is in the works for elected officials in the next week or so, she said.
She said there was a lot of talk about who should host such a portal.
“How do you create something that builds trust in the whole process,” she said. Another issue addressed was “if you don’t have the systems and the people in place – like enough regulators going in and checking, then there is no trust in it anyway,” Heintzman added.
With BC Oil and Gas there are more than 20,000 sites in B.C. and “about 20” people to inspect sites, she said. “If you don’t have the scientists and the inspectors to back all this stuff up, it is still hollow.”
**Please note this story has been updated since it was first posted to include Mayor Heintzman's comments.
