For Immediate Release Monday, October 27, 2008

Hearing Attendance Cracks 1000: 850 Opposed to Genstar vs. 150 in Favour

Taxpayer Implications of Bill 11 "PDA" Still Dominate Discussion

Vancouver, B.C.— An ill-fated 9 AM Saturday public hearing on the controversial Genstar mega-development defied sleepy expectations: Mission residents rose early after 4 straight days of 6 hour evening hearings that lasted into the wee hours, turning out in numbers big enough to exhaust Mayor and Council once again, and warranting yet another re-scheduling of the hearings.

To date, attendance at the hearings has been a record-breaking 1,000. Although not all citizens are comfortable with public speaking, a sizeable number of about 150 have signed up to make speeches to Mayor and Council with a ratio of approximately 10 to 1 opposed to the development.

"One very interesting aspect of the presentations is the content," reported Andy Miller, Staff Scientist at the Wilderness Committee. "Speeches in favour of the development are generally quite short and lacking in detail whereas speeches against are quite extensive and very detail oriented. A typical speech in favour of the development often involved one of several points including irritability that the planning process has been ongoing for so many years, that environmental and economic concerns were unjustified despite federal and provincial government opposition, and that the speaker would directly benefit from the project through increased trades related employment. Speeches against the project however have tended to be much more broad, research-based, and presented actual evidence such as government and consultant reports, while others were purely anecdotal," reported Miller.

The most stunning revelation of the hearings has been the nature of the Phased Development Agreement (PDA) process between the City of Mission and Genstar. "This PDA," said Miller, "is the first since the BC government passed the enabling legislation last year. Its twice as long (20 years) as the maximum recommended, and now features a weakening of Genstars financial commitment to the citizens of Mission."

PDAs are a component of the BC Governments new Bill 11, the BC Community Services and Statutes Amendment Act of 2008 which allows corporations like Genstar to enter into "Phased Development Agreements" (PDAs) with municipalities. PDAs are long term legal contracts between developers, municipalities and the BC government. In the case of Missions PDA with Genstar, the PDA would be a 20 year long legal contract restricting citizens of Mission from future Genstar development decision making. Mission is the first municipality in BC to enter into a PDA with a developer and is also the first to extend the timeframe of a PDA above that recommended by the province (10 years). Genstar recently announced that it wanted to amend its PDA to lessen its future financial commitments regarding infrastructure costs. The Abbotsford newspaper editorial board recently cautioned the City of Mission regarding its PDA with Genstar regarding negative implications to future taxpayers.

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For further information contact Andy Miller at 604-992-3099 or Nick Cuff at 604-716-4756