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Years est. 1954
Volume 60 No. 20
Sentinel
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Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
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1.30 INCLUDES TAX
Black returns on refinery mission Cameron Orr Oil refinery proponent David Black returned to Kitimat to speak publicly on his proposal, both to Kitimat Council and later to the public at large at the Riverlodge. His message was largely the same as in previous talks, playing up that the Kitimat Clean refinery proposal would be the cleanest refinery in the world and would solve many of the problems associated with raw bitumen export, such as proposed with Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project. Perhaps most notable from his visit however was the response from Kitimat Council, which voted to formally endorse his refinery by writing to Premier Christy Clark and Prime Minister Stephen Harper urging them to support the proposal. Mario Feldhoff put forward that motion but did receive resistance from Rob Goffinet, who would rather have opted to more general wording that didn’t specifically back Black’s proposal. “Why would we make a locked-in decision that we think that we are going for this project?” he asked, saying that as a political body they may in the future have to make judgements on that very project. Goffinet is in support of Kitimat Clean but not in endorsing it as a council. He attempted to create an amendment to the motion to generalize it away from Kitimat Clean but to a vote he was not successful in having it pass. Phil Germuth said refining product in Canada is in the country’s best interest and was comfortable with the motion as is. “Overall, on the concept of endorsing the government look at the proposal of a refinery, I would support it on that,” he said. Corinne Scott also spoke in favour of the original motion. “I hope the federal government will take the message by us writing to the Prime Minister, that we’re saying we’re against the Northern Gateway project. So I’m speaking in favour of the project.” Continued on page 2
A District of Kitimat employee blasts water from a fire hydrant along Kingfisher Avenue, part of the District’s water main flushing, which continues into early June.
Council says no to ‘no-camping’ signs Cameron Orr Kitimat Council won’t yet take any action regarding riverbank camping after a motion by Mary Murphy failed on May 5. Murphy had moved for the District of Kitimat to identify areas of riverbank camping and to erect “no camping” signs, which would direct people to legitimate camping sites within the town. “It started early this year and I’ve been down to that area and it’s mostly people who are working in town and I think it’s going to be a huge problem this year,” said Murphy. While action on riverbank camping is something councillors seemed to agree on, there was no consensus that this was the plan to
solve any problems. When it came to “putting the lid” on riverbank camping, Mario Feldhoff said “I don’t think [this] addresses the problem at all, it creates new problems.” Edwin Empinado also had concerns regarding the legalities of putting up signs, noting that there are places of riverbank camping where property lines abut municipal and private lands. Director of Leisure Services Martin Gould said they can put signs up wherever they like on municipal land, but indicated that enforcement would be the one area of concern for staff on such a plan. “The issue of the no-camping signs is enforcement. How do you enforce it?”
Councillor Mary Murphy believes riverbank camping is a big problem. Enforcement was a sticking point for Phil Germuth as well, who agreed without a way to enforce it, it would not be much benefit. He said the town does need more camping sites. Murphy main-
tained support for her motion in her closing remarks. “We have put in to place, at our cost, monitoring of the river, and it’s going to be an issue, it’s already starting to be an issue, and I know we have to do
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something about it. And right now what we’re doing is nothing,” she said. She said no other town allows people to camp for free within town boundaries and be allowed to remain for months.