The District of Squamish is pleased to announce the formation of a Community Committee to help staff objectively assess the proposed Woodfibre Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project and provide input to both District Council and the project proponents as the proposed project progresses though its review processes.
“We received a large number of high-calibre applications from highly-educated, deeply experienced individuals representing a range of backgrounds,” says District of Squamish CAO, Corien Speaker. “The end result is a balanced committee that will ensure staff obtains all relevant information on this proposed project, which will in turn serve Council and our community very well as Council assesses this project.”
The committee’s ‘citizen’ members-at-large offer expertise across the tourism, manufacturing, and energy industries, with a strong focus towards environmental and resource management, as well as engineering. The committee is also rounded out by representatives from key local organizations including the Squamish Chamber of Commerce, Tourism Squamish, and the Squamish Climate Action Committee. Faculty members from Squamish’s two universities are also represented on the committee.
Read biographies of the Committee Members.
The committee will be facilitated by Catherine Rockandel, also a Squamish resident and a certified professional facilitator, well-practiced in supporting people through understanding complex issues and making effective decisions together.
The committee’s mandate is twofold. It will provide input to staff as the technical advisors who will help inform Council prior to the District’s response during the provincial environmental application review phase of the project. The committee will also provide feedback directly to the project proponents on certain technical matters that could mitigate impacts or enhance the project in the eyes of the community. Such technical matters include decisions that will be made on: water- compared to air-cooling technology, land- compared to water-based plant structures, environmental, safety and community impacts.
The committee’s first order of business will be to visit a compression facility and liquefaction facility in the Lower Mainland, scheduled for June 7. An additional four meetings have been scheduled prior to the end of July in order for the committee to begin assessment of the technical information as quickly as possible.
The proposed Woodfibre LNG project is currently in the pre-application stage at the provincial Environmental Assessment Office (EAO). The EAO received notice of the proponent’s intent to submit an application in November 2013. The EAO has just announced details for a public open house and invitation to submit comments to the EAO between June 12, 2014 and July 11, 2014. This will be to provide input to the values that the proponent must comment on when they submit the formal Environmental Assessment (EA) application for the project later this year. Once the Province has received and reviewed the EA application, the public and the District will have the opportunity to submit formal comments to the EAO on the application.
More information on the EAO process is available here.
Residents can sign up to receive project updates via RSS.
As part of the EAO process, District staff are currently participating in a working group with the Province and other stakeholders to review technical information specifically pertaining to the District of Squamish scope of influence. As with the public comments, this information will be used by the EAO to finalize the Application Information Requirements that will be requested of the proponents.
District of Squamish Council has yet to take a formal position on the Woodfibre LNG project. The Community Committee’s work will gather information that will help inform Council. Council will consider this information prior to responding to the request for comments on the Environmental Assessment application that is anticipated to be requested from the District later this year.
The committee will provide periodic progress reports to staff and Council; the committee’s term is one year in length. Minutes from committee meetings will be available for public review via the District’s website.
June 5, 2014
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