During a visit to the Sunshine Coast with MLA Sonia Furstenau in August, B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver said the situation at Seawatch was one of the local issues he was watching – and he’s now urging the province to “work with the District of Sechelt to come up with a solution to this local crisis.”
Seawatch has been under an evacuation order since mid-February since a state of local emergency was put in place because “life and property remain at risk due to land subsidence, including sinkhole formation and slope instability.” The state of local emergency has been constantly extended.
Weaver made the call for a resolution in a short, four-paragraph letter to Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth dated Oct. 1.
“The residents have been told that a plan is coming but have seen no new information in months from any level of government,” Weaver wrote.
“I am aware that the province has refused to consider disaster finance assistance due to the known geo-technical risk factors outlined before any buildings were constructed. However, repeatedly reissuing this state of emergency every 10 days is an untenable situation that cannot continue.”
Weaver did not, however, offer any ideas for what a solution might look like.
Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons said he’s “been meeting with [Seawatch] residents for years” and “facilitating discussions with government” on the issue, as he has since before the evacuation.
“While there are no relief programs for residents who have been forced from their homes due to sinkholes,” Simons told Coast Reporter, “I will continue raising the issue with the Minister of Public Safety and with the Minister of Housing to make sure residents get access [to] what services do exist.”
Officials in Farnworth’s office say they have received Weaver’s letter, but have not yet drafted a response.
Meanwhile, the legal fallout of the evacuation order continues.
The District of Sechelt and the province are named as defendants in lawsuits filed by eight Seawatch property owners on Aug. 13, which name others including the developer Concordia Seawatch, realtors, and engineers.
Some of the realtors named in those suits as well as the province have now filed third-party notices.
The notices are not statements of defence or counterclaims, but are used by defendants to indicate that if the court finds them liable, a third party or parties should be responsible for the damages.
Although the province has not filed a full response, its third-party notice offers some idea of what could be in that response when it is filed.
For example, the province’s lawyers say in the section of the notice naming the District of Sechelt that “despite being aware of pre-existing geological issues that made development of residential homes on the Seawatch lands inappropriate and potentially dangerous, the district improperly approved such development.”
It also claims the district failed to “conduct proper inspections,” “properly review engineering reports,” or “follow appropriate recommendations from geotechnical professionals with respect to maintenance and repair of public services and works on the Seawatch lands, including drainage infrastructure.”
The only other party the province’s notice makes specific claims about is the engineering firm, GeoTacTics, now known as Suncoast Geotechnical, which the province claims “performed inadequate geotechnical testing and analysis with respect to the development on construction on the Seawatch lands.”
Earlier this year, both the province and the district filed statements of defence in lawsuits filed by two other Seawatch property owners in which they flatly deny any liability. A hearing date for those lawsuits has not been set.
Suits filed in 2015 by the owners of a home that had to be evacuated earlier that year and a neighbouring property are expected to go to court in 2020.
None of the claims made by any of the parties in the legal actions has been proven in court.
