There’s no doubt the proposed Woodfibre liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant is a contentious and divisive issue. As soon as the community caught wind of the plans, there’s been no end to the debates, protests and vitriol.
Arguments have been put forth on both sides of the debate that essentially boil down to the economy versus the environment, however nobody actually has all the information necessary yet to really make an informed decision.
And even though there have definitely been some vocal members of the community on both sides of the issue, it’s hard to accurately gauge the real feelings about the project in Squamish. The Squamish Chief’s own online poll on the issue is pretty much split down the middle, with about 42 per cent in favour of Woodfibre going ahead, and 49 per cent against. Squamish council wants to know which way the Woodfibre wind is blowing, too, and last week started looking into whether they should put the question to the good people of Squamish with a referendum. Other than council scoring some points with the electorate, this writer wonders if a referendum would make a difference, or even accurately reflect the will of the people. As columnist Helmut Manzl pointed out last week, voter turnout for municipal elections has traditionally been dismally low at around the 40 per cent range. So, any referendum would only represent the opinion of less than half of the community, and only the civic-minded at that. And as Coun. Ron Sander said during the whole referendum discussions last week, the project’s environmental assessment will just be wrapping up around that time, so it is still unclear if residents will actually have the right information to really make that informed decision… or if they will just vote based on their own confirmation bias.
Then there’s the little inconvenient truth that any referendum would be solely for the district’s informational purposes, as such things are non-binding, and as the site doesn’t require rezoning, the district actually has little jurisdiction in the matter, anyway. A referendum result one way or another would likely send the provincial government a pretty strong message on the project, though. However without binding weight and with the likelihood of it not being an accurate reflection of a still uninformed public’s will, the real question is: Would it really be worth it? -Steven Hill
