Yahoo Finance Old Fort Residents File Lawsuit Claiming Damages From Two Landslides
FORT ST. JOHN, British Columbia, Jan. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Residents of Old Fort, a rural community near Fort St. John, say their property values have evaporated following two landslides in the past few years that cut-off the only road in and out of their community. Two homes above the community and a few in the community remain under evacuation alert. However, permits kept being issued and landslides kept happening. While the energy rich North East and the defendants continue to rake in the money through royalties, licence fees and rates, the Old Fort resident plaintiffs remain economically impoverished because of this industrial activity. The Old Fort plaintiffs say they resorted to legal action to protect their economic and other interests after months of excuses and foot-dragging by the Province of BC to determine the cause of the landslides and implement permanent solutions. The lawsuit includes the Province of BC, the Peace River Regional District, the City of Fort St. John, Deasan Holdings Ltd. (owners of the Blair Pit aggregate mine) and BC Hydro. Malcolm Macpherson is a partner with Clark Wilson LLP who represents the Old Fort Residents.
Macpherson states: “The Old Fort Residents have endured over two years of anxiety and sleepless nights as the Province and others have conducted multiple inconclusive studies to try to determine the cause of the slides, which purportedly remains unknown. This case is about the ongoing loss of land stability, the loss of road access and the corresponding total loss of value to the homes. It is also about the alleged negligence, nuisance, and breach of the home owners’ right to soil support by the defendants. My clients are the proverbial salt of the earth. They are hard-working families of energy rich North Eastern B.C. They are pro energy and pro responsible industrial development. What they are not in favour of is inadvertently and personally subsidizing this wealth creation at their families’ expense. If permits are being issued and industrial activity around them impairs the slope stability of their community, rendering their family homes unsellable and un-mortgageable, they expect to be made whole. This is unmistakeably the right thing to do. This resulting unjust enrichment to the defendants is a matter that I would expect the current NDP government, who while in opposition was expressly opposed to Site C, would be live to. Sticking it to the hard-working families of North Eastern B.C. is unconscionable. It adds insult to injury when the Old Fort plaintiffs read in the newspapers that BC Hydro granted $171 million in no-bid Site C dam contracts, and that BC Hydro’s former chief engineer and SNC Lavalin are the beneficiaries of some of these previously undisclosed contracts.”
Macpherson went on to say: “It is not a matter of if another slide will occur but when, and will the defendants continue to allow industrial activity to grow and prosper, undermining soil stability, at the expense of the Old Fort residents? The Province of BC is spending billions of dollars to construct the Site C Dam for the benefit of all British Columbians but has so far shown little interest in spending what is necessary to keep the Old Fort plaintiffs and their families safe, economically whole, and with reliable access in and out of the community.”
Media contacts:
Kevin Brown | Malcolm Macpherson | |
