Nanaimo News Bulletin, December 11, 2014

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Conference centre hotel will miss permit deadline BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN

CHRIS BUSH/THE NEWS BULLETIN

Few souls ventured out to Swy-a-lana Lagoon Wednesday morning when rain drenched Nanaimo for a second-straight day and winds blew up a storm surge that contributed to a 4.7-metre high tide. A weather system coming in off the Pacific will continue serving up rain, wind and warm temperatures today.

Storm leaves thousands without power

I

RAINFALL HEAVY but city avoids major flooding. BY CHRIS BUSH THE NEWS BULLETIN

A subtropical storm kept ferries docked and commercial seaplanes tied up at wharves while thousands of B.C. Hydro customers waited for power to be restored this week.

Winds, from the first wave of a large storm system that moved in from the Pacific, gusted to 90 km/h over the Strait of Georgia Monday night and Tuesday morning, knocked down trees and dropped branches on power lines across Cedar, Yellow Point and Gabriola Island, leaving about 5,000 customers in the dark until B.C. Hydro crews could make repairs. “Cedar and Gabriola

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were hit by the storm, but we brought crews in from other areas and we’re well prepared for the next onslaught,” Ted Olynyk, B.C. Hydro spokesman, said Tuesday. Nanaimo Airport also reported losing power for about four hours Monday, but backup generators supplied auxiliary power and no flights were cancelled. High winds grounded Harbour Air and Seair

morning flights out of Nanaimo until about 11 a.m. Tuesday and forced B.C. Ferries to cancel its first two morning sailings between Departure Bay and Horseshoe Bay and Duke Point and Tsawwassen. B.C. Ferries also cancelled its 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. sailings between Departure Bay and Horseshoe Bay Wednesday due to weather.

See ‘RAIN’ /10

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The multimillion-dollar conference centre hotel isn’t expected to meet its building permit deadline, but the project isn’t dead, according to Mayor Bill McKay. SSS Manhao and its architect have indicated to the City of Nanaimo that it will not meet the deadline for its building permit application this December, which was needed in order to begin construction of a 21-storey conference centre hotel. The project was initially anticipated to get underway in October, after SSS Manhao announced the construction phase of the hotel with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in August. But the company has not filed the necessary paperwork to break ground. Tom Weinreich, the city’s manager of building inspections, told the News Bulletin the developers didn’t have a lot left to submit, but now face new and more onerous building code requirements if they reapply after Dec. 17. He said it sounds like the developers intend to wait until the spring to reapply. “We have been waiting months and months and months ... it’s kind of like pushing on a rope, you know, everybody wanted the project to go ahead but it just didn’t seem like there was enough impetus on the other end to actually just get the work done and finish it off,” he said. McKay, who has spoken to senior staff and the Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation about the project, says the delay is caused by design changes the company is looking to make, which requires a new building permit. “When they came to us their biggest expectation was they wanted to get going and they wanted to make sure that the message was loud and clear to us that they did not want us delaying their process and then to see this change, came as a wee bit of a surprise,” he said. See ‘DELAY’ /10

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