A recent rendering of the marina, looking east toward Laurel Point

Credit: Image courtesy of Community Marine Concepts

Battle Over Big Boats

Victoria International Marina project has residents crying foul over absence of meaningful public participation

In a busy harbour where ferries, seaplanes, barges and kayaks jostle for space, a local developer’s plan to build a marine enclave for the rich has revived debate about who gets a say in what happens on the body of water that defines Victoria’s downtown, but is itself defined by fractured ownership and a lack of accountability.

The Victoria International Marina and Yacht Club, as the mega-yacht project has been christened by its proponents, has been percolating in the mind of former View Royal alderman Bob Evans since the mid-1980s when, under the Pacific National Investments banner, he first pitched plans for what would eventually become the Songhees condominium neighbourhood. A long-running legal battle with the City of Victoria over a council decision to downzone the lands where the marina was to sit forced the idea to the backburner (Evan’s 1993 bankruptcy probably didn’t help either), but he has kept the wheels in motion to see his dream come to fruition.

He re-emerged in the local media last year with blueprints for an exclusive marina to moor 50 yachts ranging in length from 65 to 135 feet, bringing on Alberta-based WAM Development Group as the managing partner in the project under the business name Community Marine Concepts. When complete, the developers say the marina will encompass 6.4 acres on the waterfront (Evans notes that’s half the size of what was permitted under the original plan) and will require dredging 34,000 cubic metres of seabed sediment.

Its proponents paint a rosy economic picture, citing the creation of 110-equivalent full-time positions at an annual value of $4.8 million, not to mention what they say will be the $50-million impact of the construction phase. Evans says the proponents have already spent more than $2 million on the development and study stages alone.

The preliminary plans curried fast favour from those prone to swooning at the prospect of Victoria becoming the Pacific Northwest’s answer to St. Tropez.

In a January 2007 letter to Evans, Victoria economic development commission chairman Brian Wesley wrote, “We are strongly supportive of the provision of new high value services in Greater Victoria to support this important industry and opportunity and wish you success in moving ahead with the Victoria International Marina project.” Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce CEO Bruce Carter capped off his own letter of support noting, “The economic and community benefit are significant.”

But while some eye what they hope to be a surefire revenue source for a city perpetually doubting its inherent worth, others are growing increasingly frustrated at the confusing regulatory process that has seen the plan move quickly and quietly forward with apparently little notice.

Because it concerns changes to a high-traffic body of water, Transport Canada is the lead regulatory and approval agency. However, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Environment Canada, the provincial Integrated Land Management Bureau and the City of Victoria all have jurisdiction over various aspects of the project.

“We’ve been getting so many inquiries asking ‘How do I get information?’ and it really has to be passed on to the provincial and federal authorities to respond to those requests, and they are not as accessible as we are,” says veteran Victoria city councillor Pam Madoff.

Among those concerned about the regulatory process is Victoria NDP MP Denise Savoie, whose office has been deluged with requests from people searching for information about not only the approval process, but the project itself.

Responding to constituent concerns, Savoie has demanded a genuine opportunity for the federal regulatory authorities to hear public comment on the plan—and use that information in their decision-making. She first approached the bureaucrats tasked with assessing the scheme. That proved a dead-end when Transport Canada’s navigable waters protection officer Jim Schellenberg told her public participation was “not warranted [. . .] given the nature and setting of the project, and since other means of public input into the environmental effects of the project are readily available through the project review process.” The City of Victoria received a similar response to its request for public process.

Unsatisfied with Schellenberg’s response, Savoie took her concerns higher up the food chain, to federal transportation minister John Baird.

In a January 22 letter to the minister, she entreats Baird to reconsider the need for a public process, citing the volume of people who had contacted her office searching for data and asking for ways to communicate with the authorities.

“If this level of feedback from the public is not an indication of public interest, I am curious to know what citizens need to do in order to meet that criterion,” Savoie wrote.

Baird has yet to respond to Savoie’s request. However, in an interview with Monday, Savoie said the principal issue is to whom the government should be accountable when assessing a development proposal.

“I think right now the federal government’s process is geared toward facilitating things for the developer, and not necessarily—and I don’t think they’re always opposed—but not necessarily in the public interest,” says Savoie. “And there appears to be a lack of transparency.”

Were there to be a genuine public process, Transport Canada and the other responsible agencies would doubtless hear from groups like the Victoria West Community Association,* which has opposed a marina on the site since its membership first commented on the plans in 1986.

At that time the association declared, “This development would damage a small, already congested harbour, limit recreational opportunities and become a regrettable precedent for future waterfront developments.” The community association reaffirmed this position in a 2008 motion.

But the project’s proponents have been careful to lubricate their proposal’s trip through the bureaucratic mire.

Although he claimed to be unaware of the fact, Evans’ former Saanich-Gulf Islands Conservative Party riding association cohort and local lawyer Bruce Hallsor is currently registered— and has been since 2007—as a federal lobbyist for the WAM Development Group concerning the “Application of transport regulations related to use of the Victoria Harbour.”

Meanwhile, the provincial government, which owns a water lot required for the development, has rebuffed numerous requests from the community association and the City of Victoria over the years to designate the area as parkland, citing the fact the Songhees Master Plan designated the lot as a marina and have refused to change that tune.

In a thorough critique of the intrusion of a private playground into what many consider to be a public amenity, South Island Sea Kayaking Association president Gary Allen sums up the feeling of many interested parties on the issue.

“Approval of this project proposed by Community Marine Concepts LP on the north shore of Victoria harbour will effectively alter the use of this area from the current public use to private use,” he writes. “[. . .] In order to restore our trust in the review and approval process, integrity, transparency and accountability are of primary importance. It is SISKA’s contention that Transport Canada has not met these obligations.” M

The office of Denise Savoie and the Vic West Community Association will co-host a public meeting on the Victoria International Marina in the Victoria City Hall ante chamber on Tuesday, February 17 at 7 p.m. As of press time, Bob Evans said he hadn’t received an invitation.

Support Secured

A March 14, 2007 letter from MLA Stan Hagen—then-minister of tourism, sport and the arts for the province— to local lawyer and project lobbyist Bruce Hallsor demonstrates the lengths the proponents are going to garner support for the marina project at all turns.

After Hallsor visited Hagen in late January, 2007, Hagen replied, “These projects would generate significant tourism activity which is critical to leveraging capital investment and creating opportunities for economic and social benefits in the Victoria region [. . .] We support WAM Development Ltd.’s plans to initiate tourism activity in the Victoria harbour, and look forward to hearing more about these exciting developments.”

An April 19 letter to project lead Bob Evans shows he pitched the project to the province too. Then-minister of economic development Colin Hansen wrote, “Such private initiatives stimulate our regional economies by producing a competitive and vibrant marketplace. I wish you success in your endeavours.”

The aforementioned letters were appended to an environmental assessment compiled by Chatwin Engineering and submitted to the federal and provincial government agencies as part of the permitting process. This raised red flags for Archipelago Marine Research Ltd. principal Brian Emmett, who was asked by Victoria MP Denise Savoie to review the proponents’ environmental assessment report and identify perceived shortcomings.

Emmett writes in his review, “It is highly unusual for an Environmental Assessment to include letters of support. The Environmental Assessment is intended to be a systematic determination of environmental effects and evaluation of the significance of these environmental effects. Letters of support have no role in this process. I note that several of the letters appended to the EA report are from elected officials. This potentially prejudices the evaluation of the EA by public servants who are answerable to these elected officials.”