Residents have mobilized practically overnight to fight Pan Pacific Aggregates' (PPA) proposal to run a conveyor belt to Wood Bay to barge industrial minerals off the Coast.
The Friends of Malaspina Strait - which this week changed its name to Save Our Sunshine Coast - held its first meeting April 9 at a Wood Bay home where a crowd of more than 50 people attended with less than a day's notice.
"I showed up and they were spilling out onto the front yard," said Mike Poole, a spokesperson for the group. "Within 24 hours the word spread that quickly. I can't believe how fast this moved."
Within three days a website was up and running, www.friendsofmalaspinastrait.com, which was expected to be replaced by today (April 21) with www.saveoursunshinecoast.com. The group has already formed a nine-member board of directors, including the support of the neighbouring Rockwater Ocean Resort (formerly Lord Jim's). Since the meeting, the group has been inundated with phone calls and emails, Poole said. The group's name changed because the people involved now stretch along the entire Sunshine Coast and beyond, not just Wood Bay. The board has been in contact with the Friends of Sechelt Peninsula and the Halfmoon Bay Citizens Association.
"We've also been contacted by a number of other citizen groups on the Sunshine Coast," Poole said. "Many of them are determined not to lose the beautiful sub-alpine wetlands where PPA's northern mine site would be. There may be a Stop PPA coalition in the making here, representing thousands, not hundreds of people."
The group plans to register members at no charge to create a membership email and mail-out list.
"In this thing, numbers will prove to be everything," Poole said.
The group's board was to meet Thursday (April 20) then decide on a date and location for the next public general meeting.
Rockwater Resort is one km south of the proposed conveyor site in Wood Bay.
"I was advised by my neighbours and found out about Pan Pacific's reported plans for Wood Bay," said co-owner Kevin Toth.
He went to the April 9 meeting and became involved because he is concerned about what the proposal's environmental impacts would have on tourism in the area.
"I am always concerned when there is proposed industrial development in a residential, resort and recreational area," Toth said.
He said the group's goal is to garner community support, gain an understanding of the development and make sure everyone understands this type of industrial development is not appropriate.
"Our mandate and our desire is to stop the offshore off-loading at Wood Bay proposed by Pan Pacific," he said.
Toth is well connected in the tourism sector, being the chair of the Sunshine Coast Tourism Partnership, though his work with the Wood Bay group is separate from his work with the partnership.
PPA environmental technologist John Ellis said valid environmental objections that community groups and individuals brings forward would carry weight in the decision-making process.
"We want to address concerns," Ellis said. "Scrutiny is an important part of the process; that is what ensures we do everything right. We welcome the scrutiny, we want it, we invite it."
However, he is concerned that some objections are based on misinformation.
"My opinion is that if they were dealing with facts, those would be valid concerns," Ellis said. "The final decision comes down to, is it a marketable decision that has minimal environmental and community effects?"
Sunshine Coast Regional District chair John Rees attended the Wood Bay meeting.
"I was really surprised at the size of a meeting that was called at very short notice," Rees said. "They seem to be fairly passionate about preserving the lifestyle they have in that community. They are concerned about the possibility of having a loading terminal and a dock facility with conveyors carrying materials constantly through their community."
At this point the Regional District has not taken an official position on the proposal, but if PPA goes ahead with its plans, it would need to apply for rezoning.
"The Regional District normally responds to the concerns of people in the community," Rees noted.
