Natural gas utility FortisBC filed a court petition against the District of Squamish last week, claiming the town unlawfully refused a development permit for a gas pipeline feasibility study tied to the proposed Woodfibre LNG plant.
Squamish mayor Patricia Heintzman. Photo: City of Squamish.
A Jan. 20 vote of the Squamish district council – passed by a count of four to three – denied FortisBC’s application. Squamish mayor Patricia Heintzman said that Fortis failed to meet district guidelines.
“Council determined that (FortisBC) didn’t meet our DP guidelines and so we rejected the permit,” Heintzman told AM 980 in Vancouver.
In a recent statement, Fortis said that it met all of the application requirements, and that the District should have issued the permits.
Fortis originally applied to drill five boreholes to obtain soil samples as part of preliminary work on the Eagle Mountain Woodfibre Gas Pipeline Project.
Randy Kerr, executive director of the Canadian Natural Resource Alliance. Photo: Submitted.
“I think Squamish, like a lot of communities, is overstepping its jurisdictional boundaries,” Randy Kerr, executive director of the Canadian Natural Resource Alliance (CNRA) said.
“My opinion is that we need cities and counties to make projects better, they’re not there to stop them, and far too many communities think that’s their role.”
Environmental group My Sea to Sky’s co-founder Tracey Saxby feels that the Squamish council’s vote to deny Fortis the testing permit in the estuary upholds the council’s obligation to protect the sensitive habitat as specified in the town’s Official Community Plan (OCP).
My Sea to Sky’s co-founder Tracey Saxby. Photo: My Sea to Sky.
“Squamish residents have been very clear that our estuary is sacrosanct,” said Saxby in a press release.
“For months, council has queried FortisBC to provide alternative pipeline routes that do not entail putting a high-pressure natural gas pipeline and compression station near Squamish homes and businesses, and do not go through our estuary,” Saxby said.
“Those questions have been largely ignored, FortisBC is not interested in working with the community on what is the best interest of the community.”
The district’s OCP and the Squamish Estuary Management Plan (SEMP) require council to protect sensitive estuary habitat from industrial developments.
Saxby thinks that Mayor Patricia Heintzman and the councilors who voted against the borehole permit upheld this obligation, and that Fortis’s decision to take the district to court demonstrates contempt for both council and community concerns.
“As a monopoly utility it’s not surprising at all to witness this attempt to intimidate council through legal action,” Saxby said. “Disappointing, but not surprising.”
As of now, a court hearing date has not been set, and Heintzman says the district has until the end of March to respond.
By David Wiechnik of Beacon News.
