Sylvie Paillard
[email protected]
Council for the District of Squamish passed a motion during the Tuesday (Jan. 24) council meeting to apply for a land remediation loan in the amount of $2.5 million.
The loan will be used to clean up much of the Oceanfront Corp. waterfront land at the end of Logger's Lane.
Council sent a loan application to the Green Municipal Fund (GMF), administered through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, for a Brownfield remediation loan. A Brownfield is defined as "an abandoned, vacant, derelict or underutilized commercial or industrial property where past actions have resulted in actual or perceived contamination and/or threat to public health and safety and where there is an active potential for remediation." Applying for this specific loan is a good idea, said Mayor Ian Sutherland, because repayment hinges on the property's worth. "It's a loan that mitigates a risk for all of Squamish," he said. "If the [Oceanfront Corp.] project makes money, than the money is repaid through the normal proceeds from sales and taxes on the land, through the actual land itself. That's the same as any loan. The positive thing is if that land did not make money, than the loan is forgiving."
The GMF will assume the risk associated with these loans. If the land fails to generate money for any reason, "the applicant will not be liable for any remaining principal or interest then owing," stated a district staff document.
"So there's absolutely no skin off our back at all to go with this?" asked Coun. Corinne Lonsdale.
Sutherland and Chief Administrative Officer Kim Anema assured Lonsdale that Squamish taxpayers would not take on the burden of the loan, though it does have a small impact on the District's borrowing power.
The remediation plan has not been professionally drawn up yet, but the Oceanfront Corp. hopes to include the cost of building demolition, removal, disposal or treatment of contaminated soils and materials, and the construction of engineering controls and monitoring systems.
