City of Powell River council members received more correspondence about a planned composting facility in Townsite, indicating they are monitoring the situation.
In a letter to council introduced at the March 16 committee of the whole meeting, Townsite Ratepayers Society president Diana Collicutt stated that funding was awarded to a compost facility in Townsite without any public consultation, and she was concerned city council does not appear to be mobilized to do anything to stand up for the community from the fallout of this decision. She stated that if a compost facility is located in Townsite on the waterfront and if it stinks, all of Powell River will be the casualty.
“The Townsite Ratepayers Society asks council to be proactive and work with other levels of government to consider an alternate location, away from residential neighbourhoods, away from tourist commercial areas and off the waterfront,” stated Collicutt.
Councillor George Doubt said a number of letters have been received regarding Townsite composting.
“The comments we are getting arise from a public announcement by the province and the federal government saying the governments had given a grant to the Tla’amin Nation to establish a composting facility,” said Doubt. “It wasn’t put out by the city, or to my knowledge, approved by anyone in the city or the regional district to make that announcement.
“This has been done without any public consultation. The city has been doing public consultation for composting for years. If you read through the official community plan, the desire to have a local composting facility is in the plan.”
Doubt said through the fall, council had received presentations from city managers about organics and extending the city’s composting trial. He said he and councillor CaroleAnn Leishman were both qathet Regional District (qRD) directors and there has been a request for proposals by the regional district for a composting facility in the qathet region.
“The public is well aware of what we were doing,” said Doubt. “The province, I think, made a premature announcement of this grant to the Tla’amin people. They have indicated that they would like to place a facility down near the log dump, near the barge terminal, below Townsite. It has been designated by the city and Tla’amin Nation as treaty settlement lands. I don’t know how the progress of that is going, but it is within the city.”
Composting RFP coming to qathet Regional District
Doubt said a request for proposals for composting is coming to the qRD in April. He said to his knowledge, there are three proponents that would like that contract with qRD for composting organics.
“I don’t know who is going to win that process or whether they are in the zoning jurisdiction of the city but I think the appropriate process to go through is for the regional district to make a determination on who the proponent is and look into the appropriate levels of consultation for whatever area that might be,” said Doubt. “The time for public consultation is after we have an idea on where those locations might possibly be. No decisions have been made. I’m asking for patience.”
Mayor Dave Formosa said the ratepayers society had been heard from in a number of letters. He said it was the regional district’s authority and he believes the rewarding of the regional district contract will be looked at carefully. If qRD deems the waste material will cause hardship to the local population, he said he thinks the regional district is going to look at what the proponents have to offer and ensure hardship is not caused to the local population.
Formosa said the same will go for the city. He said there will be dried solids coming out of the consolidated wastewater treatment plant and the city will elect whether it wants to give the solids to a contractor.
“If we feel a contractor is not acting responsibly to our citizens, we might decide we are not going to provide that product and continue to ship it out of our neighbourhood,” said Formosa. “As councillor Doubt has stated, patience is needed to see who gets the qRD contract and what their plans are,” said Formosa. “There are regulations around the environment and releasing things into the air. I understand the angst. I live right above it, but at the same time, let’s allow the process to carry on.”
Lands belong to Tla'amin
Formosa said in terms of the proposed Townsite compost facility, the lands where the plans are to establish the site were sold to the Tla’amin people as treaty settlement lands.
“What that means is their government controls these lands,” said Formosa. “We had to deal with that when we decided to allow the treaty settlement lands. We gave them the right to manage their own lands.”
Councillor Cindy Elliott said she wanted to thank Collicutt for the letter and for all of the residents who have sent messages. She said she has tried to educate herself about the issue and learn a few things.
She said Tla’amin lands that are going to be treaty settlement lands are currently under the jurisdiction of the city. She said there has been no application regarding composting that has been made to the city, so there is nothing that would trigger consultation from the city government. She said if an application is to come forward, the city will do its due diligence regarding public consultation.
“If we are looking at lands intended to be treaty settlement lands we need to be working in the spirit of neighbours and ensure we speak in negotiations around our interests,” said Elliott. “I think we will be able to work with Tla’amin Nation and make sure everybody is not impacted by the smells and all of those kinds of things.”
Elliott said details have not been decided yet and she wants people to have patience. Committee chair councillor Jim Palm said he also wanted to thank Collicutt for bringing the matter to council’s attention.
“She is a very strong advocate for the Townsite area and its residents,” said Palm. “It’s being advocated strongly by a number of people from the Townsite.”
