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Objections mount to Garibaldi at Squamish

District of Squamish, Whistler and regional district submit concerns to Environmental Assessment Office

An echo of  “no” to the Garibaldi at Squamish year-round resort proposal is ringing through the Sea to Sky Corridor.

This summer, representatives for the District of Squamish, Resort Municipality of Whistler and the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District all filed submissions to the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) outlining concerns and objections to the resort’s supplemental application. 

The supplemental application covers only certain aspects of the project: groundwater effects, fish and fish habitat, wildlife, socioeconomic and heritage effects, human health effects, traffic accidents and environmental management. 

After reviewing the proponent’s original application in 2010, the EAO asked for the supplemental application.

The three governmental bodies also made submissions to the EAO in 2010 outlining objections and concerns in regards to the original proposal.

The District of Squamish’s submission filed July 3 questions the viability of the project. 

The resort’s application, according to district staff, only contemplates the success of the project on all levels, with no plan B. 

“The environmental and socioeconomic impacts of the failure or abandonment of such a massive project are huge, and need to be considered as part of the EAO process, and not simply ignored,” states the letter from the district.

Should the project go forward, the district’s recommendations laid out in the submission included that the proponents be required to construct any necessary improvements to Highway 99 directly related to the project and that the applicant provide affordable rental housing in Squamish for 800 or more potential employees of the resort. 

“I think one of the major issues for all of us in the corridor is the highway,” said Mayor Patricia Heintzman. “The highway gets more congested and it can jeopardize some of our aspirations too… and the highway is already at capacity.”

Other district concerns were groundwater effects, maintenance of municipal services and lack of climate data.

Whistler’s submission, filed Aug. 17, challenged the accuracy and validity of the information and conclusions in the supplemental application and focused on the potential hit to Whistler’s business community, should the Garibaldi at Squamish resort go ahead.

“The project would dilute investment and add duplicative capacity and offerings in a market with significant existing capacity, flat demand and high sensitivities to highly fluctuating global economic forces and uncertainties,” reads the submission by Whistler.

The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) board of directors was more emphatic in its submission, filed July 23. 

“The [SLRD] does not support the proposed Garibaldi at Squamish project and continues to have significant concerns,” reads the letter. Issues raised by the regional district included, among others, insufficient and conflicting information in the proposed resort’s application, unclear jurisdictional authority for development approval, water supply uncertainty, a lack of data, and possible socioeconomic impacts.

For Jessica Reid, from the group Say No to GAS, the objections are further evidence there is a lack of support for the resort proposal in the corridor.
“The logistics of the GAS development, specifically water access and availability, ski hill viability, and on-going infrastructure costs – fire protection, public transit, road and infrastructure costs, sewage and garbage removal. All of these on-going costs are not accounted for in the GAS proposal,” she said. “The other major issue is the exclusion of Brohm Ridge current user groups. GAS has not properly consulted with them,” she said. 

Last month, the EAO sent a letter to the resort proposal’s proponents asking that they do further consultation with local stakeholders and user groups. 

None of the objections put forward by the three governmental bodies was news to Wolfgang Richter, vice-chairman of Garibaldi at Squamish.

“There is a great presumption that we are stupid and that we don’t have a clue about what we want to do, and can do, and will do,” he said. “They say the same thing over and over again – hardly welcoming to a future neighbour and it wears you out. Frankly, if I was them I wouldn’t draw a line in the sand like they are doing in black and white.”

Richter stressed that there is still a lot of process and consultation yet to happen before there are shovels in the ground on the project. 

To discuss the process ahead, including the timing and the master planning process Garibaldi at Squamish is hosting a reception for the community at the Railway Museum, on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 6 p.m.

Once the EAO issues an assessment report on the Garibaldi at Squamish proposal, which is expected sometime this fall, the proposal is referred to provincial and federal ministers who will make the final decision. 

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