Sechelt council tabled Target Marine's proposal to process sturgeon for caviar at Wednesday's committee of the whole meeting, delaying the process by at least two months as they wait for the new official community plan (OCP) to be completed.
"I feel that we've been robbed of the public process and representation," Target Marine's manager Justin Henry told Coast Reporter after the meeting.
The meeting started when council refused to receive a staff report on the proposal.
"Here's my concern about receipt, and I know planning's answer, but it's maybe wise to ask the question," said Coun. Fred Taylor. "I understand that we are very close to having a draft of a new OCP and that would be going to public hearing shortly, and that new OCP is meant to take into account all of the public's interest, in particular the neighbourhood's interest in that geographic area. Would we be wise to defer receipt of this until after we have the new OCP in place, just so that people's comments and concerns about the neighbourhoods then come fully forward and we're aware of them, as opposed to dealing with these incremental pieces just before the OCP?"
Mayor Darren Inkster was surprised at the question.
"So you're suggesting we wait until hopefully late March or early April to talk about this again," Inkster said. "I'm asking council if in fact they agree with that route based on the argument being made or that they prefer it not to come forward. I'm wondering what council's thoughts are on this."
The only member of council who seemed to want to deal with the application in front of them was Coun. Ann Kershaw.
"Well, I prefer to deal with it. Just by receiving it, at least you put it on the table so you can discuss the report," Kershaw said. "I think it should be allowed to go to public hearing whether you support it or not. The public has a right to comment, and we should be willing to sit at a public meeting and listen to everyone who has something to say.
"By saying no we won't receive it or we're going to wait for this, that and the other thing, you're just avoiding the question. So why don't you just deal with it. Let it go to public hearing and hear what the people have to say in a fair, open meeting."
Her argument didn't persuade councillors Warren Allan, Alice Janisch, Keith Thirkell or Taylor, who voted 4-3 not to receive the report, while Inkster, Kershaw and Coun. Alice Lutes voted in favour.
The move caused some question as to order, and director of corporate services Jo-Anne Frank noted something must be done with the report.
"I would suggest if you don't definitively pass a resolution as to how you want to proceed with this application, we won't have that direction from council. The fact is you still have somebody who has made an application and needs to know what council's going to do with that application," she said.
To that, Taylor suggested tabling the item until after the new OCP is finished. The vote was 4-3 in favour of tabling the application with Thirkell, Kershaw and Inkster opposed.
With that, discussion was over and Target Marine was officially put on the back burner, leaving the company in need of finding another place to process their female sturgeon for caviar this year.
"For the first fish we are still working on different options, but obviously at the current rate here, we won't be processing caviar here this year.
"But we're looking at other options in other processing plants, so currently we're sending our males out to a processing plant in Vancouver. We're a couple of months away from processing our first female, so we're working on plans for that," Henry added.
He said he hopes council will consider looking at the application again soon.
"I think that a council can make a motion at any time, so someone might move to discuss it again," he said.
Mention was made of just that when Thirkell said, "We couldn't talk about it today because it was tabled, but it will be back at the next council meeting in the committee minutes."
When Coast Reporter asked why councillors voted to table the application, Allan said he felt there were some "ambiguities" in the report and mentioned Target Marine could buy another piece of property that is in an industrial location to complete their harvesting.
Taylor wanted to see the new OCP and thought two months was a "reasonable time frame to wait."
Lutes voted to table because she wanted to see the OCP completed and because she didn't want the public's perception to be that council is "trying to rush something through before public comment had been heard around the OCP."
Janisch said she was "happy to table it " because she's opposed to spot rezoning for industrial purposes in a residential area "when there are other places for them to go."
Thirkell noted he did not vote to table it because he wanted to have more discussion.
Inkster seemed surprised by the move.
"When applications come forward now, because of the indeterminate amount of time when the new OCP will come forward, generally I would hope that we would look at issues according to the OCP that's here now because we don't know when the new one's going to be passed," Inkster said. "I tried to look at it according to the OCP we have in existence because so many things could come forward in the next few months. What lens do you apply?"
