Letter to official from North Shuswap
Sir:
I am writing to you, as it is you who made the decision to disclose our information ‘in compliance with the requirements of Section 25 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which requires a public body to disclose, without delay, information:
(a) about a risk of SIGNIFICANT harm to the environment or to the health or safety of the public or a group of people, or
(b) the disclosure of which is, for any other reason, clearly in the public interest.’
I demand to know exactly what information was disclosed and to who, under these aforementioned ‘requirements’.
Please explain to me exactly how either of these criteria applies to us.
I would also like to know how it is that you determined that our property falls under these requirements or even that our property, per your letter dated June 28, 2024, falls within a geotechnical hazard area as identified by BGC Engineering, susceptible to such frightening hazards as steep creek hazards (which include debris flow and debris flood), rockfall, earth and debris landslide, washout of culverts or bank erosion, etc., etc., when the study you rely on for this analysis clearly shows the entire area of Scotch Creek to be within the Blue zone (Area 40B) risk level of 1:100,000 or less, and also clearly states ‘In other jurisdictions in Canada, an annual life loss risk of 1:10,000 or less is considered tolerable’. Also,
Blue Zones: (per BGC Engineering Report, project 1899012), (capitalization mine)
Buildings are UNLIKELY to be affected….
in the UNLIKELY event of inundation, …..
In these areas, BGC estimated life-loss risk to be within levels considered BROADLY acceptable.
This indicates to any reasonable person that even yellow zones should not have been painted with such inflammatory and misleading labeling.
You must certainly be aware that such reckless misleading information would greatly contribute to a negative public perception for not only our property, but for all of Scotch Creek, detrimental to both property values and business. It also imposes more significant and unreasonable costs in the form of geotechnical assessments.
I have to wonder whose best interests the CSRD has at heart, especially given the abominable treatment we suffered at the hands of the CSRD last summer during the fires.
Do I have to remind you that you are not just bureaucrats, but people, affecting the lives of other people. Your job (you, the directors, and entire staff) is FOR the people, but one would never know it. I therefore demand a retraction, a statement to the effect that there is no significant risk other than that which would be generally acceptable in ANY area, and a correction of the record to all parties who you may have misinformed. Otherwise, I have a rightful claim of damage against you personally.
I intend to disseminate as widely as possible, information of the harm you and the CSRD are causing to the residents and businesses of the North Shuswap.
Sincerely, Rick Charleston, Scotch Creek, BC.
This letter was a respond to the letter from CSRD {see below}
