B.C.’s forests minister has a warning for Nanaimo city council about the new proposed industrial zoning regulations it’s considering.
Ravi Parmar says they could have extreme consequences for Harmac Pacific, one of the city’s largest employers.
Pulp and electricity producer Harmac Pacific, employee-owned by 350 people, has plans to rezone close to 72 hectares, or 180 acres, of land for industrial uses.
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It’s land the company has purchased, and if the rezoning goes ahead, the company would add a 30-acre buffer to the eastern edge of Cable Bay Trail.
However, the industries that could potentially move into their land or other industrial areas in the city may be limited after a motion by a Nanaimo city councillor was narrowly passed by city council.
“The intention of the motion is to get a staff report to provide options on excluding emission-intensive heavy industries from our zoning bylaw,” said Paul Manly, the city councillor who proposed the motion.
If approved, council would have a say, and there would be site-specific zoning and a public hearing process.
The seven industries on the list include waste-to-energy or garbage incineration, petroleum refineries or LNG export facilities.
This week, Forests Minister Ravi Parmar slammed the proposed changes in a letter to council, saying it “… could result in lost investment, confidence, and assuredness in the local forest sector” and it “…would restrict the ability for Harmac to make needed investments in their capacity, and as a result threatens their operations.”
The first page of the two-page letter BC Forest Minister Ravi Parmar sent to Nanaimo City Council.
The head of Pacific Harmac says if approved Nanaimo city council would simply be adding an extra layer of bureaucracy to the provincial permitting process.
“To think that the City of Nanaimo or any city has the capacity to do a proper evaluation of the cost and benefit analysis is way outside of what a city/municipality can handle,” said Paul Sadler, CEO of Harmac Pacific.
READ MORE: Owner-employees celebrate 10 years at Harmac mill in Nanaimo
Manly says that without changes, any industry would be able to move in, potentially with environmental ramifications, adding that provincial oversight may not be good enough.
“We have seen them fail in a number of situations, including the incinerator that’s in Burnaby. Right now, they’ve been testing independently, and they found that fly ash contains dioxins and heavy metals, and it’s landing in residential areas in Burnaby, which is not something I would like to see in Nanaimo without having a public discussion about whether people want that or not,” said Manly.
Harmac says it has a lot of interest in the land it’s trying to rezone. Sadler admits some involves very intense heavy industry but, that high paying jobs would accompany it adding that he thinks it can be done in an environmentally friendly way. The mill also wants to expand it’s own operations.
“We’re excellent at making northern bleach softwood kraft pulp, we’re excellent at making green power, and these are very natural things we’d like to expand our capacity in,” said Sadler.
Manly’s motion will come back before council in January.
Manly included the following backgrounder in the council package when he introduced his motion.
