FRIDAY JULY 21, 2017 VOL. 43, NO. 26
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Lessons from Gambier
Bowen Islanders reflect on neighbouring island’s logging battle
Logging
New RCMP Officer
Woodall’s perspective
Soaking up the Island experience
BIM loses appeal on CRC docks MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
Aubin Van Berkel greets young artists heading in to her garden to learn principles of design, colour intensity, and brush techniques - and also to eat and paint with the many berry varieties found in the garden. Rebecca Smith, camp leader, at right. photo submitted
Islanders mobilize to Defend Island Forests
MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
Last Sunday, a group of roughly thirty Bowen Islanders gathered at Collins Hall to work on formulating an understanding of the legal parameters of a logging on Bowen, and to brainstorm tactics on how to stop it from happening. They formed a steering committee made up of people with various areas of expertise, and by mid-week had named the group, Defend Island Forests. “We figure we need to get 1,000 people to the open house that BC Timber Supply is hosting next Sunday,” says organizer John Dowler. “But we also need to figure out what to do with them when they get there. I feel like we are organizing Woodstock at the same time as taking a legal course.” This effort is just one of many initiatives that has emerged to combat potential logging on Bowen.
Julie Vik is printing anti-industrial logging shirts, and two petitions are being floated, and one has close to 2,000 signatures stating an opposition to logging on Bowen. The Bowen Island Conservancy has created a set of talking points with facts and suggested actions. The information page states, “if we get to the point where logging is approved and we have to take drastic measures to try to prevent it, the proverbial horse is out of the barn. What we need to do is stop the initiative in its tracks. The only way to accomplish that is to have Bowen Island removed from the FSP (Forest Stewardship Plan), and then we won’t have to think about what comes next.” Mayor Murray Skeels has also written a letter to Enrique Sanchez of BC Timber Sales (BCTS), stating that in disregarding council’s request for a reasonable consultation date, he is acting against the best interests of the people of Bowen Island. Further, Skeels requests that BCTS exclude Bowen from the current review and comment process, as well as the draft update of the next FSP (FSP 643).
Last November, the BC Supreme Court dismissed a petition against the Bowen Island Municipality (BIM) by Zongshen Envirotech Limited for withholding a building permit for a dock on the shoreline of Cape Roger Curtis, and on Monday, the Court of Appeal for British Columbia overturned that decision and ruled in favour of Zonshen. Zongshen purchased waterfront Lot 14 in 2011 and first submitted applications to the provincial Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources to build a dock across the foreshore in 2013. By the time provincial approval for the docks was given, council denied Zongshen a building permit based on the enactment of the bylaw disallowing docks on the shoreline of Cape Roger Curtis. At the time, Zongshen argued that the municipality improperly used the building bylaw to delay the application for a building permit. When the court ruled in favour of BIM, it awarded the municipality the costs of the lawsuit. In the appeal, which the court heard several months ago, Zongshen argued that the previous judges interpretation of the terms “private moorage facility” or “permanent moorage” as defined by the Land Use Bylaw, and and disallowed on the shoreline of Cape Roger Curtis by Bylaw No. 381. The judgement hinged on this particular definition. As explained in the reasons written by Mr Justice Lowry, as defined by the Land Use Bylaw a private moorage facility means: A float on the surface of the water that is affixed to the sea bed. Justice Lowry noted that the previous judge “discounted the requirement that to be such a facility, the dock would have to be ‘a float on the surface of the water.’ As stated, the proposed dock would not in any way be a float on the surface of the water. It would all be supported by pilings resting on concrete footings: no part of it would float on the water.” The court has ordered that the Municipality issue a building permit for Lot 14 that is subject to the application made in March, 2015, subject only to Zongshen submitting to the municipality a current title search and re-submitting the application fee. BIM’s lawyer in the case, Christopher S. Murdy, said that theoretically the municipality could appeal this decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, but getting the court’s permission to do so would be difficult.
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