Friday, November 16, 2012

Let's call the whole thing off...

Citing "hardship and inconvenience", the City of Prince Rupert has filed a motion with the Supreme Court of British Columbia to remove the pending litigation related to Watson Island, between the City and Sun Wave Forest Products.

Prince Rupert's longest running soap opera has been meandering its way through the legal system for close to three years now, a never ending process of court dates that so far has led to nothing but frustration for all, most importantly the residents of the city currently the ones on the hook for the financial burden of the place.

The City in its filing outlined five major concerns over the long drawn out process, the main point being that while the legal battles continue, the City has been prevented from selling the property to a willing buyer.

The Watson Island Development Company which has an offer on the table for the property, recently held an open house to outline its plans for the long dormant industrial site, plans which seemingly won't move too far off the drawing board until the legal ramifications over the state of the site have been resolved.

Among the other concerns the City cited in their presentation to the court were: The inability to collect taxes from the property, the environmental concerns of the site, the ongoing the maintenance costs of watching over the site and the amount of time the City is spending on the file rounded out their five points of concern.

The Northern View provides this synopsis of the City's filing to the court, including disturbing details of a sulphuric acid leak on the site over the summer, some of which leeched into the marine environment.

With word of the City's approach to the court the local paper approached Sun Wave's representative Bill Belsey, but at the time of the story being posted on line, Mr. Belsey was not immediately available for comment.

No update on the Sun Wave reaction to the city's request had been provided as of this morning.

You can review our full review of Watson Island related items from our archive page.

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