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Squamish has been transformed from an out-of-the-way backwater into a boomtown in a little over a half-century. A quick look at the historical record reveals a trio of factors responsible for that rapid transition.
On Aug. 27, 1956, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway completed a line between Squamish and North Vancouver. Before that, the only major access to Squamish was by seafaring vessels plying Howe Sound, or through the northern section of the PGE line running out of Prince George.
A couple of years later, the completion of the “Seaview Highway,” now the Sea to Sky Highway, connected Squamish to the Lower Mainland. That thoroughfare received a $750 million upgrade leading up to the 2010 Games.
Extra passing lanes and safety features cut travel time to the Lower Mainland considerably.
The establishment of rail and road links to Vancouver in the 1950s were major events triggering significantly expanded access to Squamish from the outside world and the potential for substantial development.
But as much as those transportation breakthroughs accelerated growth, they only tell half the story. Historically, Squamish was a magnet for large-scale flooding from local rivers.
Photos abound of residents navigating downtown streets and outlying areas in rowboats, canoes or hip waders. Launching a major commercial or residential development on a flood plain without adequate protective bulwarks was a non-starter for many would-be investors and settlers.
By the late ‘60s and early ‘70s local officials launched a five-year dike construction strategy that would dramatically shape the future of this community. Given the limited tax base in Squamish at the time, the province entered into an agreement with the municipality to help fund and monitor the work.
An overall preliminary estimate of the cost of the project was set at $2 million by the federal-provincial engineers assigned to the venture, but the final tab came in well below that figure.
During the first year of construction, Squamish Alderman A.W. Hendrickson was the superintendent of the workforce followed by local contractor Bill Manson in subsequent years. The project was undertaken in the winter to provide work for logging and contracting firms during a downtime in their operations.
On Feb. 18, 1971, Ray Williston, who was minister of lands and forests from 1956-1972 in the B.C. Social Credit government under then-premier W.A.C. Bennett gave a speech in the Legislative Assembly in which he praised the level of co-operation shown during the dike construction phase.
To avoid squabbles between contractors over access to the project, a “problem-solving device” was incorporated into the operation. It provided for the appointment of an arbitration committee consisting of two members from the local contractor community and the municipal clerk who kept the peace on the job. Referring to the general success of the project, Williston had this to say: “Many men can share credit for this accomplishment, but there has to be a key figure responsible for this first-class public achievement. His name is Pat Brennan, who is mayor, logger, trotting-horse owner and top harness driver — and one of the most colourful characters to live on the coast of British Columbia.
On this job they worked around the clock, at times, to overcome tidal conditions. The words of emphasis are — they worked! Anybody who can turn in that job, that quality job, $530,000 against a $2 million estimate is worthy of a great deal of public acknowledgement.”
With some segments of the dike network still waiting to be completed, then-mayor Brennan said, “When all that’s been done, I’ll be able to take a few deep breaths and not worry about high water.” And on Dec. 17, 1974, the District received an early Christmas present of $500,000 to build an additional two-mile section along the Squamish River in Brackendale.
Over the years, those structures have been upgraded, with the most recent installment being the implementation of the Integrated Flood Hazard Management Plan.
According to the DOS, that project will “address all known deficiencies in the existing dike network; upgrade the existing sea dike to protect against both current and future anticipated sea levels and adopt a higher standard of protection for the Squamish and Mamquam River south dikes in light of the significant development they protect.”
Everything considered, despite the opening of important rail and road links to the Lower Mainland, without this municipality’s precedent-setting dike construction initiative, the wave of commercial and residential development now washing into almost every neighbourhood in Squamish would be considerably abridged.
Put another way, ironically, as much as the flow of water was controlled by the bold flood hazard management program launched in the late 1960s, that process helped lay the foundation for a tsunami of residential and commercial development half a century later.
Political columnist Helmut Manzl writes about all things related to Muni Hall for The Squamish Chief twice per month.
