It took several days past the 30-day appeal period for Sechelt to confirm it will comply with a Nov. 1 BC Supreme Court order to release previously withheld documents related to the Seawatch subdivision. Justice G.R.J. Gaul’s decision dismissed Sechelt’s petition to overturn a 2019 Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s (OIPC) ruling ordering that 30 disputed documents be released.
On Dec. 7, Sechelt advised Coast Reporter via email that it had not appealed the Nov. 1 Court decision. It also confirmed that it would be providing the documents to affected property owner Ed Pednaud, the party that was granted access to the material by the court.
Pednaud told Coast Reporter on that same date that he had not received the documents or other contact from the municipality on the issue. Following advice provided to him by the OIPC legal counsel, the body that made the original ruling about the release of the documents, he contacted the District of Sechelt offices by both telephone and email to obtain the material as ordered.
The OIPC was a co-respondent in the Nov. 1 court action. In an email to Coast Reporter, spokesperson for that office Jane Zatylny stated “we would expect them [Sechelt] to comply with our order forthwith.”
“As there has been no appeal, then we can safely conclude the judicial review is completed,” Zatylny said. Therefore, Sechelt must release the documents.
The battle over document access began in 2015 when Pednaud filed a Freedom of Information request for disclosure of Sechelt’s files relating to the Seawatch development. Over the next four years, some documents were released but in 2019 he filed for an OIPC inquiry to seek a ruling on access to more information. That inquiry ruled that Sechelt was required to release additional documents. The municipality appealed to the court to review the inquiry’s decision.
Pednaud’s quest for information about the Seawatch subdivision, where his family had purchased a home, followed the daylighting of sinkholes near roads in that area in 2013. In subsequent years, ground and subsurface instability issues continued in the subdivision.
On Christmas Day 2018, another sinkhole formed in the subdivision. Following investigation of the geotechnical conditions and the impacts those might pose for buildings and infrastructure in the area, Sechelt declared a state of local emergency on Feb. 15, 2019. It evacuated and barred public access to the area based on the potential threats to life and property safety. Since that date, the province has approved the municipality’s application for weekly extensions of that order.
There are a number of other unresolved legal actions related to the subdivision pending among property owners, the municipality, the province, the developer and others parties.
– Connie Jordison
