I watched the live streamed Squamish Council Committee of the Whole meeting wrestle again with the IFHMP. What became clear early on was that despite years of consultant and staff work and hundreds of thousands of dollars of consultants’ fees, all designed to come up with a “made-in-Squamish” flood protection policy, council still does not have the information it needs to reach a decision. Even though lots of cities, like Richmond, Delta, Port Moody, Abbotsford, etc. have similar or greater flood-related challenges and have all worked on solutions already.
Three other facts were also highlighted.
Although staff recommendations remain incomplete and council was unable to agree on them, all new construction protection measures proposed have the same effect on existing homes – they increase the risk in the event of a flood.
Secondly, affordable ground-based housing in Squamish, already hard to find, is out the window. One councillor flippantly stated that because the new protection measures would increase the cost of new housing, “we’ll have to locate affordable housing elsewhere” and then moved on. But if not in the lowlands, the only “elsewhere” is up on the slopes – where all the $1,000,000 plus homes are now being built. Is this the kind of considered thinking you elect councillors for? Brackendale is the best option for on-grade affordable housing for families who don’t want to live in apartments.
The third fact, which all the focus on new construction flood protection ignores, is that the best protection for everyone is a well-built dike.
Staff’s position is that all dikes will fail at some point so new construction flood protection is required, and this is not entirely wrong. But this ignores all the existing housing and the existing taxpayers who will be worse off under the current proposals.
And realistically, if Squamish built a really dam good dike, the chances of failure, while never entirely removed, would be very, very small.
But a proper new diking system does not come cheap and Squamish does not have vast, or even sufficient, funds to do all the work.
To date, council, with the exception of one councillor, has refused to discuss offers of private dike construction funding designed to provide superior protection along a section of dike staff have admitted is one of the critical areas and would therefore protect all of the down slope-lands.
Flood protection in Squamish is a very serious matter and can’t wait forever. One would think that the district would take this matter seriously and consider the pros and cons of all options to protect its citizens – especially its existing ones, rather than close off viable offers of assistance without discussion while it fruitlessly pursues programs that increase the risk for its existing at risk communities.
But hey – it’s your house – not theirs.
Nick Westeinde
Brackendale
