Squamish council will soon hear the temporary use permit (TUP) application for Woodfibre LNG’s proposed floatel workforce accommodation. However, the separate TUP for the FortisBC workforce lodge does not yet have a set date for when it will be in front of the council.
As part of the District of Squamish staff update at council on March 5 about the Woodfibre LNG (WLNG) project and FortisBC Eagle Mountain pipeline project, it was revealed that council will hear the temporary use permit application on WLNG’s floatel at an upcoming committee of the whole meeting on March 26.
After that meeting, the District and council will schedule a date for a public hearing plus a decision on the TUP.
The floatel worker accommodation is a ship slated to be moored at the WLNG site, which is about seven kilometres away from downtown Squamish in Howe Sound. Estimates say the floatel will house about 600 workers.
In recent months, the ship in question, the MV Isabelle, has made its way to B.C. and the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office has given the go-ahead for the facility. The TUP is another permit required to operate the floatel.
A separate TUP is required for FortisBC’s proposed workforce accommodation, which is being proposed to be located off the Mamquam Forest Service Road near the Carpenter’s Son bridge near Capilano University (formerly Quest University campus). That TUP application, however, does not have a set date although it is estimated to be after March in the staff memo about the projects.
District planner Vrish Prahalad told the council that FortisBC is developing a contingency plan for incoming workers arriving in June or July.
“Due to the potential timing of the workforce lodge occupancy being post-summer 2024, FortisBC is developing a contingency plan to temporarily house an additional 100 non-local workers in the summer. At present, approximately 180 non-local workers are temporarily residing in the Squamish community,” he said.
Prahalad said the contingencies include housing workers at the WLNG floatel or in the Lower Mainland, travelling to Squamish via the Indian Arm Forest Service Road. He also said that FortisBC has not yet confirmed if it is using living-out allowances for 2024.
Coun. Jenna Stoner was particularly critical of developing a contingency plan this late.
“Not having a workforce lodge contingency at the beginning of March—when we're just a few months away from adding another 100 folks to their workforce—is unacceptable,” she said. “I'm still baffled that this is where we're at in the conversation.”
Stoner added FortisBC is “dragging their heels” in regards to providing information for the TUP application so that a workforce lodge may come to fruition.
“So this is a plea to the proponent to figure out a plan and figure it out quickly and communicate that to council and our community because we deserve to know.”
There was some conversation about sharing information about the projects with the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) and its board, as the board recently referred a TUP application for offices and amenities at the WLNG site back to the SLRD staff as well as sharing it with the District of Squamish.
Mayor Armand Hurford commented that alignment on communication between WLNG and FortisBC would help improve communication overall.
Later in the meeting, two members of the public asked questions about the impact of these projects on local housing.
In response, Hurford said having a temporary workforce in town is “very likely” affecting the affordability and availability of housing in Squamish, estimating the vacancy rate between 0.5% and 0.7%.
Coun. Lauren Greenlaw also believed this to be true.
“I think there's little chance that they are not already detrimentally impacting our housing stock. It's a big concern because renting to Fortis with their unconfirmed, officially, live-out allowance will have detrimental impacts on our community,” she said.
Council unanimously voted to receive the staff memo on these projects. View more from this meeting and the staff memo on council’s agenda at squamish.ca.
**Please note that this story has been updated since it was first posted to reflect that the floetel will be seven kilometres from downtown Squamish, not from Squamish as first stated. It will still be within the District of Squamish's jurisdiction.
