FRIDAY APRIL 8, 2016 VOL. 42, NO. 62
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Pig Tales
Meet Pebbles, the pet pig
Birds and Butterflies
An ancient tradition on the coast
Spring brings special sightings
Randall Lewis has a powerful message
Cape Roger Curtis docks bylaw upheld by BC Supreme Court
Bowen Island Municipality’s controversial bylaw banning the construction of new docks at Cape Roger Curtis (CRC) has weathered a storm in the courts. The BC Supreme Court has rejected a bid by two CRC property owners to quash BIM Bylaw 381, which was passed by council last May. CRC property owners Shu Lin Dong and Zhen Wang filed suit against the municipality last June, asking the court to declare the bylaw illegal. “The petitioners challenge the bylaw on the basis it is ultra vires [beyond the municipality’s legal authority] because the bylaw is inconsistent with the Official Community Plan, the bylaw was passed in haste and in bad faith, the bylaw is discriminatory, that the bylaw’s consultation was inadequate, the disclosure to the public before the bylaw was passed was deficient, that when the bylaw was passed certain counsellors [sic] failed to consider the matter objectively, and there was a lack of procedural fairness when the bylaw was passed,” according to the written judgment issued March 31 by Justice Robert Punnett of the BC Supreme Court. Punnett rejected all of Dong and Wang’s arguments. In response to the argument that the bylaw contravened the municipality’s Official Community Plan, Punnett wrote: “In my view the petitioners are attempting to cherry pick from the Official Community Plan.” “I conclude that there is no specific policy in the Official Community Plan that constitutes a ‘direct or head-on collision’ with Bylaw No. 381 and that on a standard of reasonableness the bylaw is consistent with the Official Community Plan, is not ultra vires, and therefore is not to be set aside on that basis,” Punnett wrote. “Bylaw No. 381 is not, in my opinion, one that no reasonable body could have enacted.” Dong and Wang’s suit also contended that the Municipality acted in bad faith in passing the bylaw by targeting them specifically, claiming that the mayor and the three councillors who voted for the bylaw acted with bias. “For example, at the public hearing, at least half of the residents did not want to pass the bylaw. Also, the developer offered to work with the city planner for alternatives to reduce the number of docks at CRC. These representations were sum-
The waters around Cape Roger Curtis host a treasure trove of sea life. These canoes are tracking scuba divers as they record findings for baseline records and general knowledge about the island and surrounding waters. LOUISE LOIK photo
marized for the Council at the third reading but these representations were futile: they had their minds set already,” Punnett’s ruling quoted from Dong and Wang’s petition. “The difficulty with these assertions is that they are the petitioners’ interpretation or impression of what occurred,” Punnett wrote in his ruling. “The fact that the Mayor and other counsellors [sic] may have, before they were elected, been members of or in agreement with the Stop the Docks group does not establish bias. Presumably their position during the election was just that and they were elected to council with the electorate well aware of or because of their views on this issue. Indeed that may have been why they were successful in the election. “What the argument of the petitioners fails to recognize is that in a democratic electoral process the electors chose to
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Council allows scooter business to get rolling limited speed motor scooter rentals was accepted and passed last week. Residents will see the scooters dispatched from a base in the cove to customers arriving off the ferry and to short-term vacation accommodations rentals around the island.
LOUISE LOIK EDITOR
Jamie Woodall and Ben Tamblyn are ready to roll out their new business thanks to a change to a local bylaw allowing for the rental of their low-powered scooters. Jamie Woodall’s application for a bylaw change to allow
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