So, Tofino, I assume, gets a choice. We can sit back and allow the City of Victoria, The Courts, and The Ministry of the Environment to hash this all out, and then simply adopt whatever policy they determine will work. OR.... Tofino Council can rush out in a panic, send staff on a fact finding mission, seek legal advice, and spend needless time and energy and money on a "problem" that's not really even a problem. I'm predicting that Tofino will choose the second option, regardless of the cost to the taxpayers. Gotta display that "enviroflag", eh?
What I don't get is the environmental cost of all the 'correct versions of this or that'. quite often the replacement enviro item does more damage to make and use than the problem they were trying to solve in the first place.
The City said that the main purpose of the bylaw was to regulate businesses, something which is in a municipality’s jurisdiction. However, the court found that the dominant, underlying purpose of the bylaw was to protect the natural environment, which falls under the jurisdiction of the provincial government.
The court came to this conclusion after citing that much of the bylaw’s influences came from the work of the environmental organization, the Surfrider Foundation.
Therefore, in order for this bylaw to have come into effect the City needed to seek approval from the Ministry of the Environment, which it did not, making the bylaw invalid as of immediately.
So, Tofino, I assume, gets a choice. We can sit back and allow the City of Victoria, The Courts, and The Ministry of the Environment to hash this all out, and then simply adopt whatever policy they determine will work. OR.... Tofino Council can rush out in a panic, send staff on a fact finding mission, seek legal advice, and spend needless time and energy and money on a "problem" that's not really even a problem.
ReplyDeleteI'm predicting that Tofino will choose the second option, regardless of the cost to the taxpayers. Gotta display that "enviroflag", eh?
What I don't get is the environmental cost of all the 'correct versions of this or that'. quite often the replacement enviro item does more damage to make and use than the problem they were trying to solve in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThe City said that the main purpose of the bylaw was to regulate businesses, something which is in a municipality’s jurisdiction. However, the court found that the dominant, underlying purpose of the bylaw was to protect the natural environment, which falls under the jurisdiction of the provincial government.
ReplyDeleteThe court came to this conclusion after citing that much of the bylaw’s influences came from the work of the environmental organization, the Surfrider Foundation.
Therefore, in order for this bylaw to have come into effect the City needed to seek approval from the Ministry of the Environment, which it did not, making the bylaw invalid as of immediately.