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SCRD to raise concerns about Burnco assessment

Howe Sound
burnco
Troy Speedie of the McNab Creek Strata speaks to SCRD directors about the Burnco project.

Ian Winn, Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) director for West Howe Sound says he’s had “extensive” feedback from the community on the Burnco gravel mine proposal, and a lot of it has been about how the environmental assessments are being handled.

Winn made the comments at the Dec. 14 meeting of the planning and community development committee after hearing from a three-person delegation headed by Ruth Simons of the Future of Howe Sound Society.

Burnco wants to mine gravel at McNab Creek, process some of it on site, and barge it to the Lower Mainland. The project has been on the books for more than six years and provincial and federal assessments are entering the final phases.

“There’s a general lack of trust in the environmental assessment process, and the conclusion on this project in that process highlights many flaws,” Simons told the committee. She said the flaws included an incomplete cumulative effects assessment, the lack of an official community plan covering the area north of Port Mellon, or a comprehensive land use plan for the Howe Sound area.

“Let there be no doubt in your minds that there is enormous opposition to this McNab Creek, Burnco aggregate project,” she said. “Not just from those that would have this project in their backyards but thousands who oppose the destruction of this valley and the resulting effects on the wildlife.”

The committee also heard from Troy Speedie, president of a strata on the mainland near McNab Creek. “Our paramount concerns have always been our community’s health and safety,” he said, adding that the strata owners feel the baseline studies and criteria being used by the BC Environmental Assessment Office (BCEAO) and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) are biased in favour of the proponents.

For example, Speedie said, there has been no analysis of impacts on property values.

He also said after reviewing a proposed community enhancement fund and community advisory group they came to the conclusion that “there will not be any actual or direct benefits to the McNab Creek strata. The drafts are very vague and provide virtually no commitments.”

Lea Bancroft, representing the Burrard, Thunderbird, and Squamish yacht clubs, was the third presenter. He said their outstations at Ekins Point on Gambier Island, across from McNab Creek, are the jewels of what he described as “cooperative, essentially non-profit, small businesses that rely upon the satisfaction of our membership to continue our activities.”

After the presentations Winn said the key words he picked up on were lack of trust, unfair, excluded, ignored, disrespectful, disregarded, and dismissed.

Winn put forward a motion calling for the SCRD to send a letter to the relevant provincial and federal ministries outlining concerns “regarding the process as followed by the BCEAO and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency in evaluating the Burnco Rock Products Ltd. application for an environmental certificate.”

The motion will go to the SCRD board for endorsement in early January.

The CEAA’s public comment period ends on Jan. 22, 2018.

If Burnco gets an environmental certificate, it would still need rezoning from the SCRD to carry on certain types of processing at the site. That application is on hold during the environmental assessment.

The SCRD’s latest submission on the assessment, filed last month, noted that “if the related zoning bylaw amendment is adopted for the gravel processing area, the EAO should be aware that the SCRD may establish conditions relating to hours of operation and construction that differ from those set out in the environmental assessment certificate.”