Editor's note: This letter was sent in before council's April 30th denial of the Woodfibre LNG temporary use permit.
I live in a neighbourhood, and I have neighbours.
Like you, I imagine you have a perception of what is a good neighbour and what makes a bad neighbour.
For me, a bad neighbour is one who uses my tools and returns them dirty or broken.
They don’t pick up after their dog. Their kids leave their bikes and junk all over the neighbourhood. When it comes to supporting the flotel and WLNG, I think to myself, are these good neighbours?
A good neighbour to me is not one that arrives with promises but one that actually shows they care, pitches in, and actually tries to improve what they use.
From what I can see, this has not been the case.
For the past few months, WLNG has been helping itself to the only boat ramp in town. They have knocked over the rails and, to make matters worse, all but destroyed the gravel side.
They apparently have made zero effort to fix or remedy the situation.
This is not a good neighbour.
This is all before they even have all their permits.
Can you imagine how badly they will treat the town once they have them all?
You would have thought WLNG would have made an effort to arrive at last week’s [public hearing] meeting with its best foot forward but nope, not even close.
Councillors Chris Pettingill and Lauren Greenlaw attempted to nail down how to resolve grievances of this type but were met with very little information.
If the town actually plans to give this company—that clearly could not care less about Squamish—the floatel permit, I would really hope it is something like 18 months with the option to renew again for another 18 months. Giving the full permit with so few restrictions or means of holding accountability seems very risky.
So far, these are just terrible neighbours.
Mac McDell
Squamish
