It was a bit like speed dating, except instead of romance, participants were looking to share their thoughts and concerns on the proposed Woodfibre LNG (liquefied natural gas) and FortisBC projects and contribute their voices to the environmental assessment process.
On March 18, the District of Squamish council hosted a community meeting at the Sea to Sky Hotel, where local residents took part in roundtable discussions of issues surrounding the planned plant and natural gas pipeline expansion. Participants sat at various colour-coded tables – each corresponding to a particular “theme,” like water, air and land, or community impacts – and took turns giving their points of view and sharing concerns. After about 20 minutes, a facilitator would write down the main points of the conversations, and then everyone would switch tables to discuss another theme.
“It is called a world café,” said Mayor Patricia Heintzman. “The idea is for the people in the room to generate the conversation, and not to have it manipulated by organizers or any one group.”
The public event is part of council’s efforts to engage the community and gather input before it submits its official response on the projects to the Environmental Assessment Office at the end of April.
Heintzman said that despite people’s strong emotions both for and against the projects, the roundtable dialogues remained mostly respectful.
“I thought it went very well,” she said. “People were really welcoming the respectful dialogue. It was very civil.”
Councillor Susan Chapelle said the face-to-face format was what made the conversations less heated.
“Really, it is in the online world that it gets uncivil,” she said. “But when that person is right in front of you, things are different. But, I do think we have a fairly civil community.”
Chapelle expressed some concern about how the dialogues would help the overall environmental assessment process, saying most of the concerns and issues are already well known and have already been covered by the LNG volunteer committee in its discussions.
However, Heintzman said notes from the discussions would be sent to the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) along with council’s own official response.
“All the information and opinions that came out of the dialogues will serve to help inform council’s response to the environmental assessment process,” she said. “In addition, all that information will also be sent in as a community submission to the process.”
For Heintzman, the evening had one surprising revelation.
“The one thing that did surprise me was how much of a lack of clarity and information there is on the specifics and facts of the projects,” she said. “There seems to be a void of factual information…. We are still debating the facts.”
Indeed, some who came to the meeting weren’t there to specifically share their thoughts, but rather to learn more about WoodFibre LNG and FortisBC’s proposals and their potential impacts.
“I was hoping to find out some real facts,” said participant Ed Matley. “If you look at social media and forums, it’s all opinion and conjecture. So, I’m hoping to get some real information. I really haven’t seen enough to even make a comfortable opinion.”
Another problem, Heintzman said, was when emotions run high on an issue, often people don’t even want the facts.
“Whether you are for or against, often people will seek information that’s useful to them and totally disregard anything which doesn’t meet their needs,” she said. “But, everything that was said and all that people shared as concerns will go towards council’s ultimate response. Now we have to take all that information, debate and discuss it in council, and formulate our response to the EAO.”
To contact the B.C. EAO directly, go to www.eao.gov.bc.ca. The public had until March 23 to respond and ask questions of the EAO regarding the Woodfibre LNG assessment and has until March 27 to comment or ask questions regarding FortisBC.
