Perhaps only with Mayor Patricia Heintzman and perhaps only in Squamish would a chamber of commerce luncheon with the community’s leaders start out with a ukulele and a song.
The audience for the first chamber lunch of the year on Jan. 28 included business leaders, such as Wal-Mart’s Harj Purewal, Woodfibre LNG executives including vice-president of corporate affairs Byng Giraud, academic representative Gina Jenkins from Capilano University and politicians such as MLA Jordan Sturdy and Councillor Peter Kent.
Heintzman had the crowd stomping and clapping – if a bit awkwardly – along to her heartfelt rendition of Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” The lyrics were given a made-in-Squamish twist: “Squamish, we’re a young town, making big noise, everybody is watching because our day has come...,” Heintzman sang.
At the sold-out event at the CN Roundhouse and Conference Centre, the mayor spoke to a crowd of 140 about the current spotlight on Squamish and her hopes for the future.
“What I wish for more than anything, for the people of Squamish in 50 years from now and generations to come, is to be able to walk out your door and in a moment be immersed in nature. A nature that provides wilderness for the creatures of the forest and the ocean, that is a playground for endless recreational pursuits and an economic base that is responsible, robust and sustainable,” she said.
Heintzman also alluded to the division in Squamish over interlinked projects such as the FortisBC pipeline and the liquefied natural gas export plant proposed by Woodfibre LNG.
“We too often focus on our differences and not on our commonalities,” she said. “This is a really exciting time for Squamish and unless we are pulling in the right direction and making it happen, we will get fractured and we won’t get to where we want to go for the future.”
Some of the recent division in the district was also evident in a question about the no vote by council on the FortisBC proposed drilling in the estuary posed to the mayor by chamber member and Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) Area D alternate Maurice Freitag.
“My concern is the question around certainty and anytime we know with the business community, the environmental community… certainty is always the key component and I have felt the last couple of meetings there is once again a feeling, and it is my own feeling, of uncertainty,” Freitag said. “And how do you expect to address that?”
Heintzman answered that there are inconsistencies in Squamish’s municipal documents that need to be addressed to create certainty.
One of the most important things that will happen in 2015, Heintzman said, is the review of the Official Community Plan. She also said that FortisBC can come back to council. When it came down to it, FortisBC just didn’t meet guidelines, she said.
“I know that Fortis and WLNG will go out there, do their due diligence – it could be as simple as meeting the prescription of the development permit guidelines or figure out a new route whereby they don’t have the onerous [riparian area regulation] expectations,” she said.
Freitag told The Squamish Chief that he isn’t necessarily supportive of the Fortis pipeline or the planned LNG plant, but he said council needs to be decisive, and not keep businesses in limbo. He said Squamish has the reputation in the investment world of being a place where things get bogged down and dragged out.
“It is hard to be the person who says yes or no, but you need to do it,” he said.
Heintzman is now holding monthly mayor’s breakfasts, and the next one is scheduled for Feb. 13 at 8 a.m. at the Howe Sound Inn. The topic will be affordable housing.
