Squamish officials are questioning whether the cart has been put before the horse as FortisBC development permits (DP) hit council’s table next week.
The energy provider’s application to drill six test sites around Squamish — three within the estuary’s wildlife management area — is scheduled to come before council on Tuesday (Nov. 3). The 10-inche holes, each approximately two telephone poles deep, will examine the ground’s stability. The company wants to determine whether it can adopt a trenchless building technique to put in place a 24-inch natural gas pipeline that would serve the proposed Woodfibre liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.
Coun. Patricia Heintzman questioned whether the district has the authority to pull on the reins. Woodfibre has not yet been approved, nor has the project been handed an environmental certificate from the provincial government, Heintzman said, noting a single test site requires a 30-by-30 metre clearing.
“Why would we issue any of these permits before we know if the project is going forward or not?” she asked district staff.
Approving the permits is not a discretionary decision for council, warned the municipality’s general manager of business Randy Stoyko. If the applicants meet the DP requirements, legally they should be given the green light, he noted.
Heintzman reframed her question, instead asking whether granting the permits with a time element could be considered at council’s discretion. Backed by council’s support and that of Mayor Rob Kirkham, council requested an answer on the query be presented with FortisBC’s DPs next week.
“There is some fuzziness there that I think we could use some clarity on,” Kirkham noted.
Coun. Ted Prior said he wanted to see more options put on the table for the project’s proposed compression station. Fortis is in the midst of buying industrially zoned property off of Queens Way. The large 12-acre lot, which was previously used as a transport hub during the 2010 Winter Olympics, will only provide one job, Prior said. As such, Prior said he wants to see some type of compensation or community amenity for the prime industrial land.
“I have never seen all the options for [the compressor] sites,” he said.
He also questioned the speed at which FortisBC’s application was moving forward. He said he’s known development permits that have taken the district years to process, yet Fortis’s application was zipping through the district’s departments.
Acting CAO Linda Glenday answered that applications are processed in chronological order. Under council’s directive, district staff has worked hard to streamline application processes for all projects, she noted.
Coun. Doug Race warned Prior that he was stepping into hot water. The District of Squamish was sued by a developer when officials tried to block his project that was built outside of the community’s diking system, Race noted. The municipality lost because the judge ruled the project was inline with zoning and the town’s Official Community Plan, he said.
“This [council meetings] is taped,” he said. “Comments like that will land in front of a judge.”
Wherever one places the Fortis compression station within the business park, the job count would remain the same, Race added, noting Fortis has promised a third of the lot would be available for other development. The land is not being rezoned, therefore there will not be any added value to trigger a community amenity, Race said.
The district needs to do its due diligence and act in good faith, Race said. There is nothing within the municipality’s zoning bylaws that talk to the number of jobs per industrial-zoned acre a project must provide, he noted.
Lawyers are really good at scaring people into thinking they have no power, but they do, Coun. Bryan Raiser said. Raiser asked staff to explore whether the district could demand a royalty fee on the proposed pipeline.
“We have the power to communicate our community’s many concerns.” He said. “I’m sure Fortis wants to be a good corporate citizen so they have to know that there are two huge red flags with their proposal.”
Staff will come back with council’s requested information at the Nov. 3 meeting when FortisBC’s DPs will be presented.
