Picton Terminals Question

On October 21, 2020, Council voted unanimously to deny a rezoning application from Picton Terminals to bring in container and cruise ships. If presented with a similar vote today, how would you vote (deny or approve)? Why?

I would vote to deny this application for the following reasons:

  1. It is inconsistent with the strategic goals of the County re: maintaining our rural and historical heritage and reducing the impacts of climate change- as well as our economy and our financial stability given the attendant risks.
  2. It was incompatible with the then existing official plan and the then circulating draft official plan
  3. Through cruise ships and container ships the quality of our drinking water was at risk, as was our sport fishing industry. Similarly the community was not entitled to know/inspect the contents of containers thus our ability to identify risk was impeded.
  4. The quality of environmental documents was poor and the proponent provided inadequate responses to peer review questions except to say they would “take care of it”. The proponent had a poor track record managing environmental risk that had already cost taxpayers considerably. We were asked to assume all of these risks for little economic upside – three permanent local jobs.

The Official Plan which came into effect in July 2021 will be eligible for amendment as of July 2023. We must ensure no amendments can be included which would permit this project to proceed. I would also like to better understand how planning staff came to recommend in favour of this project so we may review/improve our planning procedures to ensure this does not occur again.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Comments are closed.