Ministry visit over gravel pit

Summerland Mayor Doug Holmes says senior ministry staff will be visiting the district next week to hear concerns related to the province’s decision to approve a controversial gravel mine in Garnet Valley.

Holmes said Summerland council members and staff attending the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention met Wednesday with Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, to discuss the gravel pit.

The project at 27600 Garnet Valley Rd. was approved by the province in July, even though strong concerns about the gravel pit had been raised by the District of Summerland, the BC Wildlife Federation and the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen.

Since then, Summerland’s tourism and business groups, the Lower Similkameen Indian Band and the Penticton Indian Band have joined the uproar against provincial approval of the project.

“I think the minister was quite sympathetic. She’s the former mayor of Tofino, she understands the importance of tourism,” Holmes told Castanet.

"What we’ve arranged is to meet with senior staff in the ministry. They’re coming to Summerland next week, and we will meet with them, go through the whole process, and raise our concerns with them,” he said.

He said he was happy with the quick timeline for the in-person meeting, noting they will take the process “one stop at a time.”

“What I said to the minister is that it seems to me that the decisions are made, they look at the property itself, but they don't look at what impacts it will have on the properties all around it, on the community as a whole,” he said.

“They base their decision based on the property that the application is for — and there's other institutions, including the municipality, that are responsible for the impacts around it. But if their decision overrides our responsibilities, then there’e something not right there with the process.”

Holmes said he has asked the minister for an independent review of the decision — and they are still hoping for this outcome.

He said as far as council is concerned, the ideal resolution would be for the province to cancel the permit and recognize the property in question isn’t the right place for a gravel pit — but the district knew the minister wasn’t going to reverse the decision two days before the writ is dropped.

Holmes wrote a letter to the minister in late August, asking for Osborne to overturn the decision.

The district is concerned about environmental impacts, traffic, geotechnical stability, landslides and impacts to existing district infrastructure.

“This is not the right place,” the mayor said. “There’s other places in Summerland, around Summerland, where you can put gravel pits — and this isn’t it.”