In some tests, it’s not enough to give the correct answer – you also have to show your work to get full marks.
This doesn’t make the answer any more correct; rather, it demonstrates that you understand the concepts being taught rather than coming to the right answer by the wrong means.
It seems District of Squamish council missed the opportunity to show its work when it decided which company should develop the Squamish Oceanfront lands.
As noted in this week’s Squamish Chief, former Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation (SODC) chair Bill McNeney explains the SODC board’s rather sudden resignation earlier this year in the wake of council’s decision to go with Newport Beach Partnership Ltd.’s bid ahead of the Solterra Group of Companies.
According to McNeney, council’s selection of Newport Beach over Solterra following presentations by each developer, but before each had provided term sheets for their projects, left Solterra upset and the SODC board shocked by the change in process, leading to the board’s resignation en masse.
However, McNeney doesn’t say council made the wrong decision – in fact, he says that council likely picked the best proponent.
It’s tough for us to clarify that this was the intended process, because neither proponent nor the District of Squamish is talking. In the case of the district, they are bound by confidentiality with negotiations still under way. All we have to go on is McNeney’s perspective as a deeply-involved party in the process.
The problem is that council, in coming to a conclusion earlier in the process than apparently the SODC board and perhaps one of the proponents expected, have created the potential for this decision to be second-guessed and potentially pushed further down the road by misperception.
That’s a shame. After years of false starts and delays to what will likely be among the most important land developments in this community’s history, this uncertainty gives ammunition to those who want to second-guess either the process, the decision or members of council seeking re-election.
We understand the district can’t speak now while it’s in negotiation. But the moment those negotiations are complete, it needs to be as transparent as it can about how it selected its oceanfront partner and why.
This project is too important to be sidelined just because the work was done, but not shown.
