Squamish council rejects temporary lodge for FortisBC workers

 The District of Squamish council voted against a temporary use permit for an accommodation lodge for FortisBC workers after dozens of community members raised concerns at a public hearing Wednesday evening. 

Council made the decision to reject the lodge by a 4-3 vote. The proposal aimed to house up to 600 workers for FortisBC's Eagle Mountain-Woodfibre gas pipeline project, reducing the demand on local housing and tourism accommodation, Katherine Mulligan, the district's director of major industrial projects, said during the meeting. 

Squamish Mayor Armand Hurford says council was put in a difficult position.

"If you don't have a plan for your workforce that's acceptable to the community, then you need to have one," Hurford said. "Frankly, this conversation could have been avoided a long time ago," adding that a former Squamish mayor spoke during Wednesday's meeting about having similar conversations in 2016. 

Hurford and councillors Chris Pettingill, Andrew Hamilton and Lauren Greenlaw voted against the proposal while councillors John French, Eric Andersen and Jenna Stoner voted in favour. 

The public hearing had dozens of community members express their concerns, which included public safety, accessibility to the site, and tourism. 

"I'm standing here protecting my land," Roberta Williams, a member of the Squamish First Nation, said during the meeting.

"My concern is the location of the camp to be situated in highlands. It's going to be close to [Capilano University] … it's too close to where people are living." 

Tracey Saxby, executive director of the advocacy group My Sea to Sky, told CBC News that "FortisBC is clearly not interested in hearing what the Squamish community has to say." 

During the meeting, Furry Creek resident Allan Barr said he was in favour of the temporary use permit. 

"It's a temporary use permit to figure out how we're going to house the people to build the facility, and how we can do that with the least [impact] on our community," Barr said. "I believe this is a great choice. The opposite of not doing this creates quite a bit of chaos."

FortisBC wrote in an email that work is continuing on the Woodfibre LNG project and its timeline will not be affected by the decision.

"We will move forward with alternate plans for our worker accommodations, which includes utilizing local accommodations, with some workers commuting from out of town during peak periods of construction," said the statement. "We remain committed to working with the community to reduce impacts as best we can." 

Hurford says conversations with the community will continue.

"Overall I think this project has been really challenging for our community to interact with," he said. "I think the concerns really need to be listened to and actually addressed."