A deal is a deal is a deal, after all.
That’s what the November BC Supreme Court ruling means – or could mean – as it orders the Municipality of North Cowichan to reconsider its decision to deny the expansion of the highly successful Vancouver Island Motorsport Circuit (VIMC) last year.
In 2014, the GAIN Group purchased the land next to Highway 18 that VIMC would build its first motorsport track next to. It was an ambitious plan, featuring a Formula One style race track where prospective purchasers of GAIN’s high-performance vehicles – and other motor enthusiasts – could take their cars for test runs.
As predicted, it’s been successful enough to encourage VIMC owners to move ahead with their next phase on adjacent land it bought in 2015. It has brought much needed jobs and investment to the area.
Justice D. MacDonald ruled: “For six years, the municipality supported [VIMC’s] development and was satisfied that its uses complied with the zoning bylaw. In these circumstances, it was arbitrary for the council to diametrically disagree with a past interpretation of the zoning bylaw without explaining the basis for the disagreement. There was a reason, the uses were not compliant with the zoning bylaw, but no explanation.”
What North Cowichan’s elected council did was effectively change the goal posts, like Charles Schulz drew in his renowned Peanuts cartoon: Lucy pulling the football that Charlie Brown was trying to kick away an instant before he was to make contact. The resulting miss left Charlie laying on his back, deflated, looking up at the sky, wondering why he even tried, again.
Framing this situation is as simple as this: North Cowichan invited VIMC to town six years ago with open arms, knowing there was more to come if the initial phase was successful. This version of representatives of the Municipality changed the rules, mid-stream. Public hearings about the expansion in 2019 produced the inevitable group of vocal naysayers, and the volume convinced council to change the mind of previous council, including usually pro-development Mayor Al Sebring.
Thus the roadblocks for further expansion, despite the fact they had already been given a green light under existing zoning to continue on, from the beginning. It always was the owners’ plans to expand, thus the term “Phase One”. The first stage made financial sense, so it was time to move forward to expand their vision, which would triple the size of the development and their investment.
All investors look for stability and consistency. When they decide to put their money down on a development, it comes with tolerable, calculated risk. What they can’t deal with – and shouldn’t have to – are municipal rules arbitrarily being changed part way through the game.
Not that many years ago, Westbank First Nation Chief Robert Louie decided to offer 99-year leases to prospective tenants/builders on land within the Nation’s territory in what is now called West Kelowna. Louie recognized that investors required a guarantee that the deal they signed today couldn’t be changed by future councils tomorrow. They need that in order to secure long-term financing for major projects before they can move forward. The result was transformational development and investment.
North Cowichan’s earlier commitment needs to be honoured, plain and simple. But will council do it? Rest assured if they don’t, the October, 2019, $60 million lawsuit VIMC threatened to cover the potential loss of earnings during the construction delay would be revisited.
Possibly more legal bills for the taxpayer to cover, plus an expected loss of future development from investors who will take note of North Cowichan’s mid-stream rule-changing and look elsewhere.
Mark MacDonald is President of Communication Ink Media & Public Relations Ltd. and can be reached at mark@communicationink.ca
