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Petition against Pemberton Creek project presented

Forty-two signatures 'demand' withdrawal of REI
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The opposition to the proposed Pemberton Creek run-of-river power project continues with the submission of a petition "demanding" the Village of Pemberton withdraws its Request for Expression of Interest (REI) for the project.

The petition, with 42 signatures, was submitted to council at the regular council meeting of March 5.

Along with this, the petition stated: (the signatories) "demand that (the VOP) follow the recommendations of the Pemberton and Area C Trails Master Plan to improve and expand the Waterfalls Trail."

Pemberton Council announced in November that it was moving forward in investigating the potential of the project.

This followed the VOP's unsuccessful attempt to attract federal government investment for the project from P3 Canada. The project could produce 15 MW and be valued at somewhere between $30 million and $40 million, it was stated in November.

Local opposition came forward shortly after, with increased attendance of opponents at council meetings and presentations to council.

VOP chief administrative officer Daniel Sailland told council that the next step would be to take submissions from the REI and present them to the public in an open house forum in order to get comments back from the community.

"It allows us then to go back to the proponents that have submitted and seek clarity, and that would be amongst all proponents — they would get all concerns and we'd see how they'd address it," Sailland said.

"I feel that helps us strengthen the overall dialogue and gives us an idea for the appetite in the community for the various concepts."

Pemberton Mayor Jordan Sturdy said: "I think the idea here is to take the high-level aspect of the projects and then explore them all."

Sailland said the REI would not "confirm or deny any one particular option."

Sturdy afterwards took questions from opponents of the project who attended the council meeting.