District of 麻豆社国产councillors have given their feedback on a temporary use permit for two Woodfibre LNG floatels.
After offering numerous comments on the draft permit application to council staff, the decision was made at a council meeting Tuesday to bring the TUP back to a future council meeting for a decision, without a public hearing.
Brief history
In 2024, 麻豆社国产council voted to reject a one-year temporary use permit for the first WLNG floatel.
However, after a BC Environmental Assessment Office (BCEAO) order was issued on June 17, 2024, which required the company to address its worker housing issues, WLNG moved the ship into place.
Floatel 1 has been moored at the WLNG site and occupied since June 21, 2024, without a TUP in place.
According to a report to council, since the first floatel, MV Isabelle X, became operational over a year ago, the District鈥檚 Bylaw department has not received any formal complaints related to its use or operations.
鈥淎dditionally, no compliance or enforcement issues directly related to the floatel have been posted on the BCEAO website,鈥� reads the council report.
On May 1, WLNG announced it was seeking to place a second floating workers鈥� accommodation at its site, which would accommodate 900 more tradespeople.
(The ship has the capacity for 650 workers, but would create up to 900 jobs because of the shiftwork aspect of the construction workforce.)
鈥淲LNG proposes Floatel 2 to be moored by November 2025, with operations continuing for approximately two years, through to November 2027,鈥� reads the council report.
If approved, the TUP would bring the first floatel into compliance with the District鈥檚 land-use regulations and authorize the use of Floatel 2.
Members of the public were invited to meet with the WLNG staff at the Executive Suites Hotel & Resort on July 2, to discuss the TUP application for both floatels.
At a committee of the whole (COW) meeting on July 8, District planner Robyn Hay said the draft proposal, as it is currently written, would see the TUP three-year term commence when the permit is issued.
WLNG would then be eligible for one TUP extension of three years (to make it a total of six years, they would be moored at site), but would have to come back to council with the request.
鈥淎ny renewal application would be subject to council approval,鈥� Hay said.
As part of the application, a $2 million security deposit鈥攚hich covers both floatels鈥攎ust be provided before the release of the permit.
鈥淎ny amounts used to enforce compliance will be deducted from the deposit. If the security deposit doesn鈥檛 fully cover the costs owed to the District, the remaining amount would become a debt that the permit holder is responsible for,鈥� reads the council report.
Also included in the draft application is a voluntary community amenity contribution (CAC) from WLNG of $300,000, which would be used to help fund the construction of the Brennan Park Splash Park.
According to the council report, WLNG requested attribution of their financial contribution to the splash park 鈥渁s a reminder that Woodfibre LNG is striving to be a good neighbour, making a positive impact on the 麻豆社国产community.鈥�
District senior director of community development Jonas Velaniskis, told council members at the COW meeting that staff would take their feedback before returning with the TUP to a future council meeting.
鈥淭he main thing is to confirm that we're going to follow the kind of standard process 鈥� and not hold public hearings,鈥� he said.
鈥淪taff weren't planning on bringing this application again for a committee meeting. It would be coming back to a council meeting to make a decision.鈥�
Council comments
As with all prior council meetings on the topic of WLNG, council members didn鈥檛 hold back on their comments about the floatels.
But the one thing they could all agree on was that they didn鈥檛 feel the need to hold a public hearing for this TUP.
Coun. Andrew Hamilton listed off the changes he would like to see made to make the TUP a proposal he could support.
鈥淭he first is the expiration date: I would expect it to be June 21, 2027, as I don't think it's fair for a company, an organization, to have the possibility for a seven-year temporary use,鈥� he said .
鈥淭he security deposit ... I believe the $2 million is low, particularly in the case where remediation may need to take place. I accept staff鈥檚 analysis of it, but would like to see this $2 million per vessel and a $10,000 daily amount per vessel [for any floatel in non-compliance].鈥�
Hamilton also said he would like to see the $300,000 community amenity contribution put into the CAC reserve so they could use the funds for any project in need, not just the splash park.
(Community Amenity Contributions (CACs) are voluntary financial contributions from developers intended to support local infrastructure or community projects.)
Coun. Eric Andersen said he thinks it is time to move on from conversations regarding the TUP for the floatels.
鈥淥n the $300,000 toward the Splash Park issue, I think that this is a project that is shovel-ready and an appropriate choice [of fund allocation],鈥� he said.
鈥淚n addition to the project choice and the amount, I don't have a problem with having Woodfibre LNG acknowledged as a contributor to that project.
鈥淢ore generally, I think that the Floatel 1 and Floatel 2 are practical solutions. I think we need to move on in an amiable and collaborative way to other business we have and will have with the WLNG project. [There are] other issues to resolve, including opportunities.鈥�
Mayor Armand Hurford suggested reducing the first TUP length from three years to two years to accommodate Foatel 1, having already been moored for one year.
Coun. Jenna Stoner requested public disclosure of the Henriette Lake Dam Breach and Consequence Classification Analysis, a report that was prepared as part of the TUP application to assess the possible dangers for floatel workers, should an incident occur with the dam.
Earlier in the meeting, Hay noted the report is currently confidential, and District staff have requested to make this public, and were 鈥渏ust waiting on response from the applicant.鈥�
Stoner said she agreed with Coun. Hamilton鈥檚 suggestion to increase the security deposit amount to $2 million per boat, and that the TUP expiration date should be in June 2027.
On the issue of no public hearings, Stoner said she thinks council has 鈥渄one our due diligence in terms of community public hearings on this particular file.鈥�
Coun. Chris Pettingill was the most vocal at the meeting, suggesting that the WLNG security deposit should be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
鈥淔or me, the CAC number in my head is around $200 million to $300 million and my justification for that is they were told over and over again, 'We don't have the housing' since 2014 and we are now seeing them spend, by their numbers, $200 million to $300 million on temporary housing that does not stay in our community, does not address our housing problem,鈥� he said.
鈥淎t the same time, they and their ... interdependent projects like FortisBC are exacerbating our housing prices, and I don't think it makes any sense to allow businesses to come into town, have these negative impacts.鈥�
Pettingill suggested WLNG could have chosen to adjust their timelines and build housing that would be permanent and not temporary.
鈥淎ll across B.C., we have a massive housing crisis, and we're allowing these big projects to go and use temporary housing and not build permanent housing. So, how do we address this if we keep allowing them to do this, it is completely unreasonable,鈥� he said.
Pettingill also said he wanted the Henriette Dam report to be made public, and that while he agreed a public hearing was not necessary, more public input was.
Speaking in support of the staff recommendation to receive the report to council and move ahead without a public hearing, Coun. John French said his decision was based on the word 鈥渞easonable.鈥�
鈥淚'm going to just share a word that I heard today that has really caught me here. The word is reasonable, and it was used by our staff. And one of the reasons that the word reasonable was used, is because of the level of due diligence that's being done, and some of the due diligence that I've learned about today has been a bit surprising,鈥� he said.
鈥淚t's clear to me that our staff has done some deep digging to get us to where we are today. Reasonable. Contrast that with some of the unreasonable things I've heard at this end of the table, that's why I support the staff recommendation.鈥�
Coun. Lauren Greenlaw echoed her fellow members' sentiments on the TUP start date, making the Henriette Dam report public, and not allocating the $300,000 CAC to the splash park.
But she had a different figure in mind for the WLNG security deposit.
鈥淎 $2 million deposit for two boats, when we nearly settled on $10 million for one boat, is just not acceptable. We're somehow down to double the risk and one-fifth of the deposit.
鈥�$2 million for reference is the same deposit that a remote mineral exploration camp of 50 people would command, not two vessels with 1,300 people in a UNESCO World Heritage site that is also a deep fjord.
鈥淚 would request that the deposit is increased to at least $50 million for the two vessels.鈥�
Greenlaw said that the deposit should reflect the cost of removing a vessel, given that Howe Sound already has an issue with derelict vessels being left behind by owners.
鈥淚 looked up the cost of how much it is to recover a cruise ship and found the Costa Concordia, which ran around in Italy about 10 years ago, and it cost in excess of $1.2 billion to recover,鈥� she said.
Councillors voted 5-2 in favour of receiving the TUP report for information and to direct staff to bring forward the application to a future council meeting, without holding a public hearing.
Councillors Greenlaw and Pettingill opposed the motion.
For more information on the WLNG project, visit the
