B.C. ordered to pay $10M for denying Squamish power project
Randolph W. Hurst
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A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ordered the provincial government to pay $10.125 million after it denied permits to a company that wanted to build a run-of-the river power project near Squamish.
In his Oct. 10 decision, Justice Kevin Loo said the plaintiff, Greengen Holdings Ltd., “lost an opportunity to achieve a completed and profitable hydro-electric project” after government representatives wrongfully exercised their legal authority, a transgression described in the ruling as “misfeasance.”
Between 2003 and 2009, the company sought to develop a hydro-electric project on and around Fries Creek, which sits opposite the Brackendale neighbourhood on the other side of the Squamish River. To do so, Greengen Holdings Ltd. required a water licence from the Minister of the Environment and tenure over Crown land from the Minister of Agriculture.
After a lengthy process involving extensive communications between Greengen and various provincial and other ministries and regulatory agencies, the permits were denied, according to Loo. Both decisions cited impacts on Squamish Nation cultural sites that could not be mitigated.
Greengen asserted that the decisions were not made for reasons set out in the permit denials “but for collateral political purposes related to the Province’s relationship with the Squamish Nation (SN) and its desire to avoid a lawsuit from the SN,” Loo said in the ruling.
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Open for that new challenge.
11 个月So, the government, using tax payer dollars, will Pay a private entity! Hmmm. Good math