Both sides of the Garibaldi at Squamish resort project debate are voicing their thoughts in the wake of District of Squamish council's strongly-worded letter opposing the project last week.
Wolfgang Richter, whose been involved with the project for 31 years and is its current co-chairman and director, balked at council assertions that today's proponents haven't reached out to the community enough. He also rejected Coun. Doug Race's statement that the current proposal is much different and has doubled in size.
"The one [project] from the '90s is the one we still want to build," said Richter.
Save Garibaldi member Jessica Reid said GAS proponents were invited to the public meeting they held on April 12, however none attended.
Richter said some members of the company were there but didn't feel comfortably speaking in the "hostile environment." He went on to compare the proposal process to a war.
"Getting an EA certificate is one battle and the battle isn't over," he said. "If someone thinks they've won, they're wrong."
Richter also rejected recent Squamish Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) concerns over public safety - specifically in reference to proposed reservoirs and dams.
"We're not going to build a dam that's going to break and drown people in our community," said Richter. "That's what engineers are for."
Richter made it clear GAS is planning on improving communications with the community by returning to "an open and transparent process."
"I won't say it's been great, but it hasn't not been great. On one hand there's been a lot of mean-spirited attitude about this, and on the other hand it's a very delicate, confidential and highly specific process vis-à-vis the province."
GAS's vice-president of project approvals, George McKay, said he doesn't feel the proponents have been neglecting community outreach.
He said GAS has been following the process outlined by the environmental assessment office (EAO), and since a public meeting was held last summer, they've been busy submitting consultation studies to the EAO.
"We've had a lot of public interaction over the years and feel we know their sentiments," said McKay. "We're available to meet with public, council and anyone interested."
McKay referred to the EA draft as "an important milestone with something in the order of 220 conditions and 55 monitoring plans" and said he was happy to see the report.
"We see the EA certificate as being one step along the way, it's not nearly the end of the road," said McKay.
Reid said she was relieved with council's decision based on that same report.
"After spending two and a half years attempting to bring GAS issues to light, it is a huge relief to see the District of Squamish take such a strong stance against the proposal," she said.
Project environmental assessment director Graham McLaren was collecting responses from the EA working group, stakeholders and the proponents by deadline Monday (April 26).
Once he has looked over the information, the 18 days left to submit the prolonged EAO report will resume. Once the report and recommendation are signed, they will be sent to the Minister of Environment Barry Penner and Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Kevin Krueger, who will have 45 days to make a decision.
"Our goal is to identify all the issues and get everyone in agreement as to whether this is a good project or not and the ministers normally agreebut in this case there's not a lot of agreement," said McLaren.
