A legal opinion drafted by West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL) says the Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) plan to expand the water intake at Chapman Lake could be illegal.
The opinion was prepared at the request of the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association, which has opposed the $5-million project. It hinges on the fact that Chapman Lake is within Tetrahedron Provincial Park, which is a Class A park under the Park Act.
The SCRD needs to obtain a Park Use Permit before it can start work on deepening the outlet channel in order to draw more water in times of extreme drought.
“There are very special restrictions on the types of activity a Park Use Permit can cover,” WCEL staff counsel Deborah Carson said. “A Park Use Permit can only be granted if, in the opinion of the minister, to do so is necessary to preserve or maintain the recreational values of the park involved.”
According to Carson, what the SCRD is planning is outside the very narrow scope of the current Park Use Permit issued in 2014, which allows for maintenance of the existing weir.
The WCEL opinion also says the Alternative Approval Process that authorized the SCRD to take out a long-term loan to fund the project is on shaky legal ground.
“It is further our position that the SCRD’s recent Alternative Approval Process (AAP) to provide funding for the proposed water infrastructure was also illegal – in that local governments cannot raise funds for an illegal purpose. In the alternative, the questionable legality of the project should have been made clear to voters in the AAP process, and was not,” it reads.
Carson said WCEL believes there’s an important principle at stake in the decision about a Park Use Permit for the expansion project.
“We see our role as shining a light on the existing legal framework and doing our best to see that the environmental protection that we have is not eroded on a step-by-step basis,” she said. “We need to have attention paid to the requirements of the protection that’s created under tools like the Park Act and the Protected Areas Act.”
CAO Janette Loveys said the SCRD has received a copy of the opinion and that it’s being treated as a legal matter. Like most local governments, the SCRD typically deals with legal matters behind closed doors.
