B.C. taxpayers are the new owners of a controversial soil dump above Shawnigan Lake, after the previous landlords defaulted on their taxes, Environment Minister Mary Polak confirmed Monday.
The site, known as Lot 21, is adjacent to a quarry and contaminated soil landfill, known as Lot 23, that has been the target of protests and court action.
Both properties are associated with Cobble Hill Holdings Ltd. and its related companies.
Cobble Hill president Mike Kelly said Monday that the tax default was a simple oversight. “We accidentally missed paying our property taxes,” he said in an email. “We are paying them tomorrow.”
Polak said the former owners of Lot 21 have three years to pay their tax debt and regain title to the property. “This marks the beginning of that process,” said Polak, who was unable to say how much money was owed or how long the owners had been in arrears. Her office referred the questions to the Ministry of Finance, which did not respond by deadline.
Government documents show that South Island Aggregates Ltd., an affiliate of Cobble Hill Holdings, has a mining permit for Lot 21 that allows it to store soil or “clean fill” that meets residential land-use standards. The material stored on Lot 21 was to be used in the future to close or cap the rock quarry at Lot 23, the documents say.
Shawnigan residents have long raised concerns about both sites, but particularly Lot 23, where Cobble Hill Holdings has a Ministry of Environment permit to receive and store up to 100,000 tonnes of contaminated soil a year.
The permit was issued in 2013 and upheld by the Environmental Appeal Board in 2015. The Shawnigan Residents’ Association returned to B.C. Supreme Court this week in an ongoing effort to get a judge to quash the permit.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment said last summer that its own testing on Lot 21 revealed no threat to human or aquatic life.
Green Party MLA Andrew Weaver, who has urged deeper “core” testing, argued Monday that government no longer has any excuse to keep from doing that now that it owns the property. “It is no longer private [land] — it’s public,” he said. “And if they’re not going to do it, it’s Crown land. I’ve got a shovel and bucket and I’ll go out and get some samples myself.”
NDP leader John Horgan asked Polak in the legislature whether taxpayers are now “on the hook” for the materials buried on Lot 21, but she continued to insist that ministry staff have found no cause for alarm.
“The Ministry of Environment has continued to monitor what is coming from the site, both 23 and 21, and to date has not found that there are elements of concern for human health or the environment,” she said. “Again, this is part of their ongoing monitoring and compliance work. It is not to be interfered with by those in the political process.”
Polak also said her office is in discussions with the Cowichan Valley Regional District to see if a monitoring and testing process can be put in place so residents have confidence in their drinking water.
