FortisBC has revealed concerns that approval delays from the District of Squamish could rule out the possibility of a housing lodge for its workers.
The lodge is subject to a temporary use permit (TUP) and, if approved in time, would house up to 400 workers, with a peak of 600 workers during the summer period.
FortisBC vice president of major projects, Mike Leclair, wrote to council stating that the lodge TUP approval would be required by Sept. 3 and development and building permits required by Nov. 15.
Without approval by these dates, FortisBC says the lodge might not be completed in time for the 2025 peak construction season.
“Based on recent discussions with District staff, we understand that the earliest date that a TUP approval could be rendered is following the public hearing planned for Sept. 25, 2024,” FortisBC vice president of major projects, Mike Leclair, wrote to council.
“We are concerned that this leaves little time to work with District staff so that the required development and building permits can be issued by Nov. 15, 2024.
“We reiterate that the Nov. 15, 2024 date is critical to having the lodge fully operational by June 2025 in advance of the peak construction period. Otherwise, the lodge is not a feasible solution.”
At the council meeting
At the Sept. 3 council meeting, District director of planning, Jonas Velaniskis revealed a TUP decision would be unlikely to happen earlier than Sept. 25.
“As with any development applications, especially when it's a variance of the zoning bylaw, we have certain steps that the District or any local government has to go through, which is advertising the permit, preparing the final version of the permit and the staff report,” Velaniskis said.
“So at this point, given that we are anticipating one more trip to the committee of the whole with the temporary permit application, I think just before Sept. 25 is probably the earliest possible at this point.”
Velaniskis noted that District staff were “aware of the deadlines” that FortisBC referenced but couldn’t guarantee an earlier timeline.
“We're looking at whether that's possible, but we can't guarantee that it is going to be possible to get all the permits. It's going to depend on the quality of the information that we receive … there's a lot of variables, and it's certainly a tight turnaround time,” he said.
If approved, the workers' accommodation would contain 576 beds, with the option to add 36 more, as well as 325 parking stalls and a bus/shuttle staging area for about eight buses.
The lodge—which is set to be operational in 2025—would house a peak of 600 workers during the summer period.
What could happen without a TUP?
Previously, back in June, when council could not meet Woodfibre LNG deadlines for its floatel workers’ accommodation, .
Leclair said if FortisBC was unable to receive approval of the necessary development and building permits for the workers' lodge by Nov 15, they would not have the sufficient time to construct it by their June deadline.
“In this circumstance, we would seek to implement alternative solutions to manage the peak workforce and minimize impacts to the District for the remainder of the project,” Leclair said.
“For instance, we would seek alternative accommodation for the peak workforce (i.e., the workforce over and above those project workers living in the community today) which would include a portion of our workforce living in the Lower Mainland and being transported to the project site daily.
“Additionally, we would continue with our mitigations for community safety and for the use of local services throughout construction.
“This includes the additional mitigations we implemented earlier this year, including the continuation of the gender and cultural safety training, medical services, and third-party respectful community conduct line, as described in the previous letters.”
Councillor frustrations
Counc. Chris Pettingill did not shy away from his frustration with the FortisBC TUP time constraints.
“I just wanted to highlight in the context of this, that in my estimation, both Fortis and Woodfibre have had unrealistic expectations of our capacity to meet the deadlines that they want over and above most proponents,” Pettingill said.
“I've seen our staff move heaven and earth and council has endorsed it, but to a level that I've been uncomfortable with, given that this project is not driving our strategic goals.
“They have no right to complain about not getting due attention, because they've been getting more attention than anyone else, as far as I can tell.”
Mayor Armand Hurford said he believed council and staff were doing all they could to meet everyone’s needs.
“I'll remind everyone, including council, that every proponent ever that I've engaged with has been challenged with timelines,” he said.
“We always push to do what we can to meet everyone's needs, including our own, as a council and as staff for review and consideration, I think we've done that in this case as well.”
FortisBC’s reaction
In a statement to The Squamish Chief, FortisBC said they applied almost two years ago for the lodge TUP but have been continuing to receive new requests from the District.
“We have also provided the District advance notice for months of the importance of getting timely approvals so that the lodge can be constructed in time for the summer 2025 workforce peak,” the statement read.
“In a series of letters to mayor and council dated April 9, 2024, June 21, 2024, and Aug. 16, 2024, we communicated timelines by when key decisions would need to be made in order for the lodge to remain a feasible option to house the peak project workforce.”
FortisBC said that while they have concerns about timing, they “care deeply about advancing the lodge based on what we heard through community engagement”.
“We also understand the significant resources required for the District to work through these applications, and have a capacity funding agreement in place to support these efforts,” they said.
The FortisBC TUP application will come back to a committee of the whole meeting on Sept.10 before a public hearing on Sept. 25.
**Please note that we updated this story after it was first published to include the statements from FortisBC.