On Thursday evening, members of council listened to Bowen Islanders and legal representatives of Bowen Island property owners express both their support and disagreement with the proposed Bylaw 381, 2015, to ban all future dock construction along the shoreline at Cape Roger Curtis. In the face of lawyers representing the Cape on Bowen and waterfront property owners, Bowen Islanders who support the measure urged mayor and council to act on behalf of the public and move forward with the Bylaw 381.
Don Ho, the owner of the Cape on Bowen, was the first speaker to address council. Ho stated that he has enjoyed his relationships with the four previous mayors and councils, and hoped to continue working with this council over the next four year term. He proposed that the passing of Bylaw 381 be deferred, allowing the developer to work on a compromise.
“I respectively submit that mayor and council keep an open mind on this issue, and do not fast-track the passing of the bylaw. However, please note that if I have to take measures to protect the devaluation of the properties of my company, it will be with great reluctance and not by choice. I will have to do it, only if I am cornered, because I have to fulfill my duty as the president, and be accountable to my shareholders as well as to the owners who have purchased property from my company.”
Ho went on to apologize to Bowen Islanders for any offence that may have been caused in the building of his dock.
“I was an innocent guy. At the time when I paid a lot of money for my own waterfront lot, lot 13, the shoreline was definitely beautiful. I loved it, so I paid, the big price to buy it. I went ahead to apply for the construction of my own private dock – at that time I was following all the rules and regulations and I did not realize that by all the rules and regulations, I ended up with a dock that is substantially longer than I thought I would, because of the topography of the site. I had no choice to extend into almost the centre of the ocean, but I didn’t know that until the design was complete.”
A lawyer named David Chan, spoke on behalf of Mr. Dom and Ms. Wing, the owners of lots 17 and 3, at the Cape on Bowen.
“Throughout the discourse of this dispute, my clients, Mr. Dom and Ms. Wing, have only been referred to as property owners at Cape Roger Curtis, but I submit that those words they annihalate a person and any visuals behind them. These are in fact your neighbours. They are newcomers, and they are moving in to the neighbourhood of Cape Roger Curtis, and with this bylaw being passed, it truly is predjudiced against them.”
Mr. Chan followed with a brief introduction of his clients, describing Mr. Dom, a business man as a “tall guy, with a booming voice” who has not been to Canada in a long time, but who wants to set his roots here alongside his brother who is his business partner. Ms. Wing, he said, has been in Canada for 5 years and owns two blueberry farms in the lower mainland. Both, he said, intend to make their homes on Bowen Island.
Nerys Poole directly addressed the legal issue of discrimination in relation to this bylaw.
“There is one lawyer’s letter in the agenda package that I reviewed today that talks about the land owners being deprived of rights and asks, whose rights will be deprived next? I think he has it backwards. The publics rights have already been deprived, not the owners. And you have finally, through this bylaw, corrected this travesty by returning the rights of the public. The public owns the foreshore in this province and has a right to enjoyment of the foreshore and to protection of the coastal bluff ecosystem at Cape Roger Curtis. Owners do not have a right to a dock, this is why they have to apply to the province, and this is why the province asks the municipal government and the public to provide comments on these applications. Please, do not be deterred by threats of litigation. This is a classic bullying tactic. I’m sure you have advice from your legal council explaining that you have full authority to pass this bylaw…”
Another lawyer, Stephen Hsia, stepped up to speak on behalf of the owners of lots 1 and 14 on Cape Roger Curtis.
“I have no doubt that you have proposed this bylaw with the best of intentions, but a bylaw even with good intentions can have discriminatory effects. In our view, the proposed bylaw is a discriminatory bylaw,” said Hsia. “These families seek the same opportunities that every other Bowen Islander has: the opportunity to enjoy their waterfronts, the opportunity to apply to build a dock, and the opportunity to have those applications reviewed on their merits.”
Darren Donnoly, a lawyer representing the Cape on Bowen, followed Mr. Hsia. He told council that his firm sent a letter to the Municipality about a month ago and if council has spoken to their lawyer, they will know that there are legitimate grounds on which this bylaw could be set aside.
“I just want to point out that this bylaw backs Don’s company into a corner as they have obligations to others, and they have no choice but to challenge it if it does pass,” said Donnoly. “Having said that, that’s not what they want at all. As Don stated earlier, his preference is for a compromise, to work with you, to pursue what the Advisory Planning Council suggested – which was to have two shared docks as opposed to 11 private waterfront docks… that’s a significant effort to co-operate and do what’s best.”
A number of Bowen Islanders proceeded to stand up and challenge the notion that Bylaw 381 is discriminatory. André Chollat told council that it would be “adding insult to injury to pretend… that the bylaw is discriminatory and primitive. Given the wrong doing that was previously allowed should everyone follow suit with more wrongdoing, just to avoid discrimination?”
John Dowler, after stating his support for the bylaw said that the word discrimination has been used in the wrong context.
“It’s been used to mean singling out a person, as opposed to another person, because of some perceived difference. But that is not the case, we’re talking about the difference between shorelines, and docks, and this is a place on the island where in order to access the water you have to build a ginormous dock that mars the coastline and affects the well-being of a lot of people…”
Council is expected to vote on whether to go through with the third reading and adoption of Bylaw 381, 2015, at their meeting on May 25.
