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Squamish seeks to clear air over Triack

A couple weeks after local media blasted Squamish Mayor Greg Gardner for hiding details related to the cancellation of a lease held by Triack Resources, the district has issued an information package through the Squamish Sustainability Corporation (S

A couple weeks after local media blasted Squamish Mayor Greg Gardner for hiding details related to the cancellation of a lease held by Triack Resources, the district has issued an information package through the Squamish Sustainability Corporation (SSC).

Owned and operated by Dave McRae, Triack was in the business of turning wood waste into fuel and other products. In interviews with local media, McRae said Triack, which had leased land on the Cheekye Fan, had 20 full time employees and $1 million in annual payroll. The notice to vacate allows a six month grace period.

The decision to cancel the lease was made in camera. Gardner offered no details to local media, citing the Local Government Act as the reason. He was slammed in a Squamish Chief editorial afterwards, and has since written a number of letters to this and other papers explaining his decision to keep quiet.

Since then, a press release and backgrounder appeared on the SSC website explaining the move.

“On December 4, 2008, the District of Squamish issued a notice to Triack Resources to vacate lands currently licensed by the District from the Province of British Columbia,” reads the release. “The notice comes after the two parties were unable to successfully negotiate a sublicense through a process that spanned four years.”

At issue was a security bond. Before Triack set up operations on site, a previous sublicensee operated a wood waste disposal business on the same lot. After quitting the business in 2002, the former operator left 25,000 cubic metres of wood waste on site, and the district was without recourse to force a cleanup. Triack took over the lot with a series of interim deals with the district. According to the backgrounder, the parameters of those deals restricted the amount of waste permitted on site to 52,000 cubic metres.   According to the district, Triack has ramped up waste volume to 100,000 cubic metres. A bond was requested in the event of Triack folding to save the district from incurring clean up costs.

“It is the district’s expectation, and Triack has confirmed, that Triack will honour its obligation to remove all of the waste it has brought on site and the residual waste from the previous sublicense (approx. 8,000 cubic metres),” reads the backgrounder.