The following letter was sent to Gibsons council and copied to Coast Reporter.

Mayor Rowe, you stated that after the first committee of the whole session examining the Gospel Rock neighbourhood plan (GRNP) this week, the public would be allowed to pose questions.

As a member of “the public,” my first question is: could you clarify what exactly are the objectives of these deliberations the committee is holding?

The Town requested input from stakeholders. You received well thought out and articulated feedback on the plan from several quarters. Most of the feedback concentrated on the plan’s shortcomings and much of it offered solutions to the problems raised. Yet after 2.5 hours of deliberations, you made no improvements to the plan, and no changes of any kind. The problems raised so trenchantly by the stakeholders received barely a mention.

Where is this all going? What is the point of wasting staff time and taxpayers’ money talking? We want results. We want this plan to reflect the desires of the majority of the townspeople as demonstrated many times over the years, most concretely in the referendum of 2008 when, although offered a devil-and-the-deep-blue-sea choice, the people still came down firmly on the side of leaving the waterfront natural.

You were all elected to represent the best interests of the citizens of Gibsons, not to cater to the ambitions of developers.

Nothing has ever been put forward by the Town, the developers or anyone else claiming (let alone proving) that the GRNP in this or any of its iterations is in the best interests of Gibsons and its citizen-taxpayers.

So my second question is: can you clarify what’s in it for us?

Judith Hammill

Gibsons