David Burke
Whistler Question
A Whistler-based environmental group is seeking municipal funding for a study that the group's leaders hope will help provide unbiased information on the impacts of wide-scale independent power project (IPP) development in the Sea to Sky corridor.Brad Kasselman, president of the Whistler Area Residents for the Environment (AWARE), told Whistler Council on Monday that the $7,000 AWARE is seeking would provide approximately half the funding needed to complete the study.
Kasselman was addressing Council on behalf of AWARE's application for funding for the RMOW's Community Enrichment Grant program.
Kasselman said the study, which AWARE is calling "Turning on the Lights," would aim to look at environmental impacts and the impacts on, say, the power infrastructure of the corridor as a way to provide unbiased data on the implications of large numbers of IPPs in the corridor.
Currently a handful are in operation, several others have obtained water licences and other corridor streams are the subject of water-licence applications that are pending. AWARE wants to help provide data on what is likely to happen comprehensively if dozens more are approved and built over the next decade or so.
"It has become clear to our board due to the various different, uncoordinated provincial government agencies as well as Crown corporations having responsibility for differing aspects of both approval as well as the permitting and implementation process for independent power production that it is difficult if not impossible for anyone to see the big picture," Kasselman said."The whole aim here is to shed light on aspects of the IPP process to make it more transparent."
Outside the Council chamber, Kasselman noted that the Squamish Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) has called on the B.C. government to conducted a regional, comprehensive impact study related to IPPs in the corridor. The SLRD has even set aside a small amount of money for that purpose, he said.
Kasselman said that in recent roundtable discussions set up by the Fraser Basin Council, it's clear that other municipalities and regional governments are looking to the SLRD as a testing ground on this issue.
He said he hopes that the information gathered for the study will be used by the SLRD and others to create a strategy for dealing with the large number of applications that are already in the hopper, and with future applications.
"We won't create that strategy, but we hope to create some information that will point to some of the challenges, and yes, we hope it will become the basis of a broader strategy that will provide a lot more clarity.
"The relative chaos that prevails in the process now only benefits the applicant."
He said AWARE hopes that in the future, municipalities, First Nations and others will be able to use the information gathered to help them make informed decisions in the best interest of the community.
He said AWARE is seeking the remaining funding for the proposed $15,000 study from private, non-profit foundations.
Coun. Nancy Wilhelm-Morden on Tuesday said the groups applying for the RMOW grants are asking for a total of $480,000. A total of $260,000 is available, she said. Mayor Ken Melamed said Council plans to discuss the grants on March 21 and announce them on April 3.
