How can a government legislate where people stay, what they eat, where they eat and when they eat?
We're asking those questions and wondering what some directors at the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) were thinking last week when the issue of the temporary worker housing at Howe Sound Pulp and Paper (HSPP) was raised.
HSPP, the Coast's largest employer, is currently shut down while some 500 workers have been brought in to complete a boiler upgrade. The workers have packed into Coast hotels and motels, and there are so many of them, HSPP has housed them in Squamish, North Vancouver and at HSPP's own housing, dubbed "the camp." This camp has been in place for decades and is used only to house temporary workers when the mill is shut down. The camp is only now on the radar at the SCRD, we suspect, because HSPP recently applied for and received several new permits, which allowed the mill to upgrade and construct some buildings to improve the camp and the dormitory-style housing.
According to the SCRD's bylaw inspector, everything has been handled properly, and HSPP is doing nothing wrong by operating this camp.
If HSPP had broken some bylaws, we would expect the SCRD to step in and make sure those bylaws were enforced. But HSPP has done nothing wrong. So why all the fuss about this camp?As for directors' concerns about economic impacts and the workers not staying in town or not eating in town, HSPP president Mac Palmiere put those fears to rest when he told us there is simply no more room at the inn. So in order to have all these workers on site, they have to house them. And if the workers are cooking and enjoying a meal or two on site, where do you think they are getting the groceries for those meals - from our Coast grocery stores, that's where. And we know for a fact that many of the mill workers are going to town and eating in the pubs and restaurants and shopping locally, because we've seen and met many of them.
HSPP is providing well-paying jobs to hundreds of workers. The business contributes thousands of dollars to the tax base and is a wonderful corporate citizen. While other mills are closing down, crippling the economy in many B.C. communities, HSPP is doing everything it can to remain viable in this community and keep the mill operating so Gibsons doesn't turn into a ghost town.
Why are SCRD directors trying to make something out of nothing?
To us, this is an unwise use of power. Some of our SCRD directors need to rethink their positions.
