Starting on January 22, the Environmental Assessment Office of British Columbia opened its 40-day public comment period on the proposed Woodfibre LNG export facility to be located near Squamish. This process is meant to assure that the public gets the information required to make informed comments, and to that end, open houses were held in Squamish, West Vancouver, and Bowen Island last week. Approximately 150 people attended the Woodfibre LNG open house held at BICS. A common sentiment among attendees, it seems, is that while some questions were answered, many concerns remained inadequately addressed.
Robert Ballantyne calls the experience unconvincing.
“What I saw was a very expensive exercise so that they could say, ‘We went to Bowen to consult.’ People were willing to answer questions, and some of them were quite knowledgeable. There was one woman who had clearly done field work around the Woodfibre site and so I learned a few things about the local area and watersheds, but I couldn’t even check who I was talking to because their nametags only gave first names,” says Ballantyne. “But they certainly weren’t interested in hearing people’s opinions, and that was clear when they started asking people distributing information with other points of view to leave.”
Ballantyne says that when he saw an official make the request for those who were handing out pamphlets at the entrance to leave, he pulled out his camera and started filming the incident.
A man without a nametag who said he was a contractor hired by the BC Environmental Assessment Office told Eoin Finn that it was a private function and the whole area had been rented and was therefore not a public space.
Someone pulled this individual away, and when he returned, he told Finn and the other people from My Sea to Sky that they were welcome, as long as they did not block the entrance way.
Michael Shepard, from the BC Environmental Assessment Office says this was a simple mis-understanding and the man who made the request was in fact a security contractor hired by Woodfibre LNG.
Brent O’Malley also witnessed this encounter, and it seemed to colour his impression of the event.
“This open house was not a discussion,” he says. “For every concern posted, the company representatives claimed to have an appropriate solution that I completely disagreed with. I didn’t think this was a helpful process.”
O’Malley says that while he feels he has been rather late to learn about this project, he was surprised how many people he encountered at the open house knew almost nothing about it. He says he plans to hold another information session about this project to educate the public.
“And I would really like to engage our politicians, at both a local and provincial level,” says O’Malley. “I would like to see council take a firm position on this. The letter sent by the municipality to the province in August stating their opposition to this was very vanilla in flavour, in my opinion. It didn’t even ask for a response. But this project has absolutely no benefit to Bowen as far as I can see, and in Howe Sound our economy is based in tourism and I can only see that suffering. For my business (Bowen Island Sea Kayaking), if I have to get my boats off the water every time one of these tankers goes by, that could mean hundreds of dollars lost at each instance.”
Edward Wachtman says he went to the open house hoping to learn something new, but did not.
“Someone had posted the Risk Assessment of the project on the Bowen Island Phorum, so I read that before going to the open house,” he says. “My main concerns are about safety. The people I spoke with were nice and knowledgeable, and they provided an array of technical information about the tanker technology and how safe it is. However, I was still not convinced. It felt more like a sales pitch.”
Wachtman says, “I also want to know what the benefit is to the people on Bowen. Will this affect our property values? What are the economic pros and cons for Howe Sound and the Sea to Sky corridor? What do we have to gain by building a quarter billion dollar plant that will create 100 jobs as opposed to the 24 million dollar Sea to Sky Gondola, which employs 70 people? Recently, the New York Times included Squamish on its list of the top 50 places to go in the world. What happens when you also put an LNG plant there? And as for Bowen, the story that is emerging about what makes this island so special is that it is perceived as a being pristine and peaceful. I can’t imagine LNG tankers passing by our island every few days adding to that perception.”
Peter Williamson says he walked into the open house feeling cynical, and emerged much the same.
“Everyone was very nice and willing to answer questions, but I had to tell them how I was feeling,” he says. “One of the people who is going to make the decision on this project is the Minister of Natural Gas Development. Is there really any chance he’s actually going to say no?”
Williamson says he did have a very good conversation with an engineer about the heat generated in the process of cooling the gas to -161°C.
“They’re going to take water from Howe Sound and put it through cooling pipes and shoot it out 10 degrees warmer. They say it won’t make a difference, I’m not in a position to judge but I suspect it will. In any case, I said to the engineer, why can’t you use the energy created in heating up that water and send it to Squamish? He said yeah, I suppose you could. Of course this might not be possible but I would like to see some sort of positive idea like that take hold.”
Williamson says his big concern about the project is its impact on climate change.
“I don’t doubt the sincerity of the people at the open house, but I do doubt the Provincial government is willing to have an open debate or discussion on this,” he says. “I am going to make comments to the Environmental Assessment Office on this, but I’m not sure what form those comments will take. I don’t think they will address my concerns about climate change. I could talk about the impact of using water from Howe Sound, other people have talked about safety and shipping, where do you begin? They gave me all the information in the ten binders of material submitted to the Environmental Assessment Office on a little thumb-drive, I have yet to look at it. I feel like what we’ve got here are processes that are very slickly managed, and commenting is just another part of that.”
The 45 day public comment period on the Woodfibre LNG project ends on March 9. Michael Shepard, from the BC Environmental Assessment Office, says that all comments are posted on the EAO website within seven days with no editing. He recommends that comments be as specific in nature as possible.
“The proponent needs to respond to all the comments and questions, and we find that those that are most specific tend to elicit the most specific answers and are particularly helpful,” he says.
To make a comment to the Environmental Assessment Office of British Columbia, click on Public Comment Forms and Submissions at: http://www.eao.gov.bc.ca
