After a five-and-a-half-hour marathon public hearing, the District of Squamish council has voted against a temporary use permit for FortisBC’s workers’ accommodation lodge.
By a 4-3 vote, council made the decision to oppose the lodge, which was proposed to house up to 400 Eagle Mountain Pipeline workers, with a peak of 600 workers during the summer period.
Voting in favour were councillors John French, Eric Andersen and Jenna Stoner.
Opposed were Mayor Armand Hurford, Coun. Chris Pettingill, Coun. Andrew Hamilton and Coun. Lauren Greenlaw.
Wrapping up just before midnight on Sept. 25, the public hearing at Brennan Park Recreation Centre saw over 30 residents speak, mostly in opposition to the workers’ camp.
The most common themes raised by locals included women's safety, the location of the camp and its impact on the Squamish Canyon project.
Public comments
“I'm from Squamish Nation and I'm standing here protecting our land,” Roberta Williams said at the meeting.
“My concern is the location of the camp to be situated in Highlands, is going to be close to CapU. It's too close to where people are living. I don't know what it's like in other territories, but I think that this is too close to your community,” Williams said.
“As you can see, I'm an Indigenous woman, and those are the women that they will be seeking out; a vulnerable Indigenous woman; our young, impressional girls.
“We need to find a better way of getting resources for the communities; the non-Indigenous communities have such a reliance on the economy, the economy of the natural resources, but we can't do that anymore–it's destroying our planet.”
Squamish resident Keenan Miles said as a former Quest University student, he was also worried about the proximity of the workers' camp to the new Capilano University campus.
“I can definitely speak to the fact that a lot of students like to recreate and hang out in that area already, and so I'm definitely concerned about that, given the not so good reputation at these work camps have, with increased rates of violence against women, and especially younger girls,” Miles said.
“One study done by the Firelight Group (an Indigenous-owned consulting group) found that rates of violence against women increased by about 38% in the first year of industrial projects.
“I don't know for certain, but I would believe that in a lot of other communities, these work camps are not so close to residential areas as this one is. So it's crazy to me that this is not only close to a residential area, but also to a university.”
Previously, CapU officials told the Squamish Chief they were not concerned about the lodge.
“We met with FortisBC in May and based on that conversation, a risk assessment, and appropriate measures in place, we don’t have ongoing concerns for CapU students or employees on campus,” the CapU spokesperson said previously.
Squamish Canyon founder Robin Sherry said the TUP would cause catastrophic problems for the project which is nearing the halfway point of construction.
“This has been a 10 year endeavour of vision and a dream … I sold my home to pay for the compensation for the forest not to be cut down there. We went through COVID, we went through inflation, we got through everything.
“This is a tranquil area, and yes, there is some minimal industrial traffic that goes through it and during our council proceedings and all of our development permits and everything we went through in our zoning change to foster an eco tourism–we are now proposing to run an industrial way through the centre of that.
“It goes completely against the first objective of a TUP, which is not to negatively affect adjacent lands or business.”
A small percentage of the public did speak in favour of the TUP.
“This project is approved by all the regulatory authorities of the province and other agencies. We're not going to change that,” Furry Creek resident Allan Barr said.
“It's a temporary use permit to figure out how we're going to house the people to build the facility, and how we can do that with the least impact on our community. I believe this is a great choice. The opposite of not doing this creates quite a bit of chaos.”
Earlier in the week Squamish Chamber of Commerce executive director, Anne MacKenzie, wrote to the District in support of the FortisBC workers’ lodge.
“WIth an expected influx of up to 600 workers at its peak, a work camp would not only provide procurement opportunities for local businesses, it would also alleviate pressure on our already pinched rental housing market,” MacKenzie wrote.
“The chamber recently polled our membership base to take a pulse check on the sentiment in the business community, and the majority were in support of the work camp.
“We encourage the District of Squamish to issue a TUP for the establishment of a FortisBC work camp.”
After presenting their proposal at the beginning of the meeting, FortisBC representatives left the room just prior to the commencement of public comment.
The move saw members of the gallery yell at them for leaving, with one man accosting the three representatives all the way to the front door.
Council comments
Mayor Armand Hurford said one of the reasons he would not be supporting the issuance of a TUP was because of the impact a "man camp" would have on the community on a Saturday night.
"I saw an early draft of this as a councillor a year before the application was made, and my first comment was 'wow, that's a really complicated location, who told you that was a good idea?' Now a lot of complicated problems can be solved, and that's through listening and through appropriate planning and listening and I have not seen that here," Hurford said.
"The community was presented with a binary choice; one, this work camp proposal that we're discussing here now, or two, we will just simply take all the available housing and hotel space in your community ... now, what's the best choice of those two? It's a really hard choice.
"What does Saturday night look like in Squamish with a 600 person man camp? We have opportunity here, and by my score, we're taking it, to say, no, you're going to bus in half the workforce, and on the days off, we're going to have half the challenges on a Saturday night in Squamish. Simple."
Coun. Pettingill spoke against the motion to approve a TUP for the workers accommodation, stating the “collection of people together” would be a real problem.
“The research that I've read, that I've been presented with, talks about work camps as the problem,” Pettingill said.
“I'm not aware that individually, a pipeline worker is a greater risk than another worker. It's when there are collections of people together.
“So my concern is actually more about putting these people into a camp setting, as opposed to having them distributed throughout the community where they are having conversations and interactions and building relationships with people who live here all the time.”
Pettingill shared his distaste of the FortisBC representatives leaving the meeting early, stating that they could have helped clarify details the council were confused about.
“It’s really frustrating that Fortis just walked out because they heard that we were confused about local versus non local [workers]. They didn't bother to stay to clarify for that, so we could actually understand what impact this would have on our local housing market,” he said.
“Fortis has also been very clear that they don't need this. They can work without it, that they would bus folks in from the Lower Mainland. So you know, it's not clear to me that there's any improvement for a camp. It seems actually worse”
Counc. Greenlaw has been vocal about her opposition to FortisBC’s TUP application since early on.
“I have made it abundantly clear, in no uncertain terms, several times, that I would not support a TUP that included a liquor licence and parking for hundreds of personal vehicles up our busiest forestry road,” Greenlaw said.
“So it should come as no surprise to the proponent that I am once again speaking in opposition of the motion.”
Greenlaw has been a strong advocate for women's safety surrounding this application and stated she doesn’t see “why the District would take on the risk to our women”.
“It seems like a lot of risk for the District to take on for an issue that could be addressed with fewer than 10 Greyhound buses a day from Metro [Vancouver].
“Thank you all for coming tonight and participating in democracy this evening, and I look forward to seeing how the province will try to railroad us on this one.”
Previously, after Woodfibre LNG was unable to obtain a TUP to house its workers in its floatel, or floating worker accommodation, the provincial government’s Environmental Assessment Office forced the issue, by issuing a Compliance Order, telling Woodfibre LNG to stop housing workers in community and/or start housing them on the floatel in June.
The floatel has been in place housing workers since.
Asked this week if a TUP was ever issued, a District spokesperson said, “Staff are working with Woodfibre LNG to seek a path to compliance.”
Laydown yard
Later in the evening, council voted 4-3 in favour of issuing a TUP for FortisBC‘s construction laydown yard.
The laydown yard, located to the northeast of the Valleycliffe neighborhood, will be used to store materials and equipment and is currently forecasted to be active until the end of 2026.
For more information on the Eagle Mountain Pipeline project, visit the District of Squamish website.
FortisBC reaction
For its part, FortisBC told The Squamish Chief after the meeting that the company had heard through years of engagement an "overwhelming preference" for the lodge proposal as it would lessen the impact of the workforce on the town.
"This plan was approved by Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) and the BC Environmental Assessment Office in 2023, based on a comprehensive set of conditions. We are grateful for the input we received from Indigenous Nations, local organizations, and community members who invested their time and expertise into shaping our proposal," said FortisBC spokesperson Jessica Skjeveland.
"Construction is continuing on the [Eagle Mountain – Woodfibre Gas Pipeline] project, and our construction timeline will not be impacted by this decision. We will move forward with alternate plans for our worker accommodations, which includes utilizing local accommodations, with some workers commuting from out of town during peak periods of construction. We remain committed to working with the community to reduce impacts as best we can," she said.
The company is currently reviewing the District of Squamish’s conditions with respect to the Temporary Laydown Yard, Skjeveland added.
Why leave early?
About leaving the meeting early, Skjeveland said the FortisBC team made an assessment and decided to leave after proponent remarks.
"We did so based on previous experience and interactions in Squamish where some members of the public exhibited aggressive behaviour toward our employees and contractors," she said.
"Unfortunately, these concerns were further validated last night, as our team was followed as they were departing the meeting. We urge Squamish council to ensure public meetings are a safe environment for all who attend."
District response on civility
Asked about the incident, a spokesperson for The District of Squamish said the municipality does not condone the treatment of Fortis BC representatives during the meeting.
“The member of the audience was prevented from returning,” said the District’s Rachel Boguski.
“The District works to create a safe, civil and respectful environment at all council meetings in order to fairly support the local democratic process,” she said, adding that rules of decorum and civility are displayed at the entrance of public hearings.
“In addition, the rules of decorum and civility clearly states that anger, rudeness, ridicule, obscene or profane language, impatience, personal attacks and lack of respect for others will not be tolerated,” she added.
She noted that at the beginning of any public hearing and council meeting, the mayor reminds everyone present of these rules and notes that those who disrupt or impedes the orderly conduct of the meeting will first receive a verbal warning and ultimately be asked to leave if the behaviour persists.
“Additionally, security is present in the event of a public safety risk within or outside the venue,” Boguski said.
“We recognize that public hearings often involve big issues and hard conversations. Ultimately, the individual’s outburst cost them the opportunity to participate further in the conversation and their actions were not representative of the general conduct of last night’s lengthy proceedings overall. It is our hope that we can continue to encourage and hear all views through listening and treating everyone in the room with kindness and respect.”
Members of the crowd yell and follow FortisBC reps as they leave the meeting.
•Please note that this story has been updated since it was first posted to include a response from FortisBC, the District of Squamish and Mayor Armand Hurford.
•The story has also been corrected since it was first posted to say that the EAO compliance order told Woodfibre LNG to stop housing workers in community and/or start housing them on the floatel. The original story said that the compliance order demanded the workers be housed on the floatel. This error was made in the editing process.
