The time is ripe to have this two-week long Open House exhibit at the Adventure Centre on the Westwood Anette oil spill. The District of Squamish is to be commended for showing photos of the site for those who can't get there on their own and, even more importantly, a local representative or staff member will be available there until Friday (September 1) to speak to the public in person.
Of course, it is at least partly a public relation's exercise, and the operation to recover and clean up the remaining globs of Bunker C fuel will be shown in the best possible light, but at least it is taking place.
So now the ball is in your court. If you care about the Estuary and how the cleaning of it has been managed and will be managed in the coming months it is important that you participate. Cynics may not want to, citing an ineffectual and suspect officialdom that is not being sincere, but the only people non-participation truly helps are those who would rather this episode is swept under the rug and ignored.
As Coun. Patricia Heintzman said in an interview she gave the Chief as she waited for interested members of the public to arrive on the first day of the exhibit, Squamish could be the community that changes poorly thought-out federal regulations on oil spills. That would be a great outcome for such a hideous mess.
But that would take effort on the part of the townspeople and public officials to apply pressure on and in Ottawa. It would take time, as those folks are a little slow. But a new federal oil spill policy could be a legacy from Squamish to the entire country.It would be tremendous to hold shipping companies to account for their mistakes.
This Open House is a good place to start. It would be preferable if warm bodies from the District were on site for a few days longer, at least, to discuss the spill and to gauge for themselves the feelings of as much of the public as possible.
But at the very least, there will be a comment box on site.
And then there are the council meetings and other political gatherings. Hope to see you there.
