By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: June 10, 2015
In response to our story on the rockfall report, the District of Squamish has clarified that it did not pay for the controversial report.
It said, “The report was part of the emergency response to the rockfall and was commissioned in the immediate aftermath of the rockfall to confirm the safety of the area for any search and rescue mission. To support the emergency response, the District of Squamish Emergency Operations Centre arranged for the geotechnical specialists on behalf of Squamish Search & Rescue, to confirm safety of the area. The report costs are covered by the province through Emergency Management BC.”
The district also said the report was never meant to be a thorough examination of the entire rock face of the Chief, a fact that the report itself states but then goes on to make sweeping remarks and that too on the basis of insufficient data.
This is not your best work, Gagan. Both the original story and this follow-up would have benefited from conversations with BC Parks (who administer the Chief – it is not within DoS’s jurisdiction) and the climbing community.
Good, the district did not fund this funny study. They don’t even know what happened two years or 15 years ago and they make claims about 100 years? But I guess they did their job well about immediate safety after the rockfall. They only exceeded their brief and ended up looking stupid.