Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) staff and consultants AECOM are scheduled to review responses to the environmental assessment for the Chapman Lake expansion project at an April 20 committee meeting, but it’s still not certain whether BC Parks requirement for a “park boundary modification or a re-designation of the park” will change the project timelines.
The SCRD is hoping for changes to its park use permit for Tetrahedron Provincial Park that would allow work to begin this year on deepening the outlet from the lake, to allow it to draw down an additional five metres during extreme drought conditions.
In a March 6 letter to SCRD chair Garry Nohr, BC Parks’ regional director for the south coast Jennie Aikman said: “BC Parks has conducted further legal review and identified a legal risk with issuance of a park use permit.”
The letter said the boundary change or park re-designation are the only options, and they’d require “consultation with the public and First Nations.”
The letter was presented at the March 23 corporate and administrative services committee meeting, where CAO Janette Loveys told SCRD directors that staff had requested the letter from BC Parks to clarify some of the responses in an earlier letter and the issues raised by legal opinions drafted by West Coast Environmental Law, on behalf of the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association.
“SCRD staff are not able to provide any further insight or comment on this process at this time,” Loveys said. “Staff are waiting for further communication from the province with respect to their process [for public consultation]. With respect to the actual environmental assessment review, staff have received the shíshálh Nation comments and [Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Management’s] creek flow comments. Staff anticipates receiving BC Parks comments by [March 24].”
Loveys said AECOM and SCRD staff will present those comments to directors April 20 “for review and discussion.”
A request for proposals from companies interested in doing the work for the $5-million project closed Dec. 9, but the SCRD has not announced a winning company.
