A motion to rezone the property that Hudbay’s Snow Lake Camp sits upon was put forward for discussion during the Town of Snow Lake’s Feb. 6 regular council meeting. Coun. Peter Roberts brought forward the idea and it elicited frank discussion around the council table and afterwards on a Facebook site where council matters are discussed by citizens of the community.
During the meeting, Roberts was asked pointedly by Coun. Richard Jones why he thought the camp property should be rezoned. Roberts brought up a July 2016 community meeting, which informed Snow Lake residents that the property wasn’t (as they had believed for the past six years) governed by a conditional use permit, but was in fact a permitted use under the town’s zoning bylaw. Roberts said his concern was that council had been under the impression that they had options in respect to the camp, when they actually didn’t. Up until this came to light, the town had the option of approving the camp as a conditional use on a term that they set in consultation with the company.
The Hudbay Camp sits at the northeastern edge of the town site and houses employees and contractors who work for Hudbay in the area. Since being built, it has been a bone of contention with many locals who see the camp as a deterrent, keeping workers from moving to Snow Lake and becoming participating members of the community.
The camp was originally put in place under a piece of provincial legislation, called The Planning Act, and at the time was deemed subject to a conditional use permit. After a Nov. 16, 2010 hearing, the original permit was approved and signed off by previous Mayor Clarence Fisher and former CAO Jeff Precourt. On July 15, 2014 Fisher and the council of the day again heard representation for and against renewal of the conditional use permit and although controversial, approved it for an abbreviated term, with then CAO Charles Boulet signing off on it. That renewal permit was set to expire on Dec. 31, 2016. With Hudbay indicating that the permit needed to be sorted out before that deadline in order for them to provide a reply to the town’s initial proposal in the payment-in-lieu negotiation process, the CAO at the time, Jordan Willner did some investigating.
During that July 2016 community meeting, Willner noted that conditional use means having something in a zoned area where it’s not permitted, but it is allowed to be there based on a conditional permit approved by council. He added that Hudbay’s camp was located in a zone identified as limited development. He found in the town’s zoning bylaw, under a table for limited development that one of the permitted uses listed was temporary buildings and uses (including staff accommodation). That is the category under which the Hudbay camp is designated and as such it was considered a permitted use within the limited development zone, and as a result was deemed not to be subject to the conditional use permit process.
At that meeting Willner went on to note that even though the town has previously advertised and held public hearings on a conditional use permit for the camp, he found such a permit has never been required. Willner said that he couldn’t explain why the town’s zoning bylaw wasn’t checked to confirm that the camp didn’t require a permit, prior to declaring it did in 2010 and again in 2014. However, he added that council could amend their zoning bylaw to require a conditional use permit, but it wasn’t something they were prepared to do that night.
It appears the amendment mentioned at that time had been on some peoples’ minds for a while, as at the Feb. 6 meeting a resolution was put forward directing the CAO to investigate options on rezoning the area of the Hudbay Camp in order to maximize the assessment base. Prior to the question being called, Coun. Brenda Forsyth asked for a recorded vote. The result of this was - councillors Peter Roberts, Robin Turnbull, Richard Jones, deputy mayor Penny Roberts and Mayor Kim Stephen were in favour with councillors Jodi Wilson and Brenda Forsyth opposed
Discussion of the resolution on the Facebook site devoted to talk on town matters was decidedly in favour of doing away with the Hudbay Camp entirely; however, many felt the town should reach a compromise on a transition from camp to community living.
Nevertheless, it appears this isn’t the only avenue the council is looking down in respect to the community’s biggest employer. At their Feb. 13 committee of the whole meeting, the CAO was asked to check on the Municipal Assessment Branch’s progress in relation to a late 2017 request to perform an on-the-ground assessment of 2017 developments on Hudbay mines properties within the town boundaries for purposes of assessing grants-in-lieu equivalents for negotiation in 2018.
