Woodfibre LNG’s proposed $100 million floatel is stuck and in limbo

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A cruise ferry that was refurbished into a $100 million so-called floatel, with luxury accommodations for 650 workers on a natural gas construction project just south of Squamish, remains anchored offshore, empty and in limbo.

On April 30, Squamish District Council failed to approve a temporary use permit that would allow the MV Isabelle X to dock at the Woodfibre LNG site, seven kilometers south of the city.

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On Thursday, Isabelle a Plan B.

“This is the housing model approved for the project’s workforce by the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office and the Squamish Nation government,” Kennedy said during a question-and-answer session at the end of a tour.

Kennedy said Woodfibre continues to work with the District of Squamish and its company, as well as Bridgemans, and anticipates they will find a solution to the issues of concern to the community.

“The District of Squamish makes a zoning decision, but other levels of government have already approved the use of floatel to accommodate the workforce.”

Thursday’s tour was designed to showcase the luxury features of the floatel and demonstrate how Woodfibre intends to use it to allay concerns about the workforce’s potential impacts on housing and public safety in the community.

Brian Grange, chief executive of Bridgemans, led the tour showing the float’s attributes to workers, including 652 individual cabins with their own bathrooms, a dining room that seats 450, a three-bed medical clinic, a state-of-the-art gym 8,000 square feet and three rooms to meet the diverse recreational needs of more than 650 workers.

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Grange said the gym, with multiple cardio machines, free weights and weight machines, was inspired by the best its designers had seen at other housing camps because “we learned that if you put in a good gym, the workers will be happy.”

Kennedy added that the floatel concept was devised to ensure that the project workforce would not put any additional pressure on Squamish’s limited existing housing stock or create potential safety issues, particularly for Indigenous women and girls.

Among the concerns raised by the community were impacts on human rights, the potential for gender-based violence and human trafficking. Kennedy said those would need to be answered by the floatel, which will be the only accommodations for his non-local workforce, and a detailed cultural and gender safety plan.

Kennedy said his site has water-only access and workers are transported by bus to a dock in Squamish from Vancouver, where boats will take them to the float. Then, at the end of the 14-day rotations, workers will be transported back to Vancouver.

“Workers should not have non-emergency access to the Squamish community,” Kennedy said. “There will be no leisure shuttle services to Squamish.”

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Kennedy said that, in the meantime, Woodfibre is housing workers at a land-based camp in Port Mellon, which is also only accessible by water and does not have any of Floatel’s many amenities.

“The float is a direct response to requests from the District of Squamish and the Squamish Nation and community members (to house) our project workforce outside of the community,” Kennedy said.

Grange said the floatel, a 170-metre-long former cruise ferry, was also renovated into a “self-contained ecosystem.” All supplies and materials supporting your operations will be shipped by barge to Isabelle X.

All waste, including treated effluent, will be returned through Howe Sound and “there will be no impact on Howe Sound or the Squamish community,” Grange said.

A Squamish council representative did not respond to a Postmedia News request for comment by Thursday’s deadline, but a report in the Squamish Chief indicated council had 30 days from April 30 to reconsider the motion.

Kennedy said Thursday that Woodfibre is willing to accommodate Squamish’s requests, including increasing a security deposit to $10 million from $2 million in its initial request, as discussed at the April 30 meeting.

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