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City of Prince George was facing $6 million in damages from gravel miner

A hefty payout was at stake if City maintained authority over works, a court document shows, and the plaintiffs are still seeking undisclosed damages in aftermath
gravel operation
Site of a gravel operation at centre of dispute with the City of Prince George.

The City of Prince George could have been on the hook for as much as $6 million under a previous version of a legal action it is facing over a gravel mining operation.

The amount is how much Rock'n'Roll Aggregates Ltd. and Rolling Mix Concrete (B.C.) Ltd. would have been seeking had it turned out the City - not the provincial government - had authority over the operation southwest of corner of Foothills Boulevard and North Nechako Road, according to a document filed recently at the courthouse.

In mid-October 2020, bylaw enforcement officers issued a cease work order under the City's soil removal bylaw after becoming aware that trees were being removed at the site and that a 100-metre setback from the sides bordering residential property may have been violated.

The two businesses took the issue to court in February 2021, arguing in a notice of claim that the operation is subject to the B.C. Mines Act and not the City's soil removal bylaw. A permit under the Act allowed for a 50-metre setback, the plaintiffs said.

Nine months later, the City relented and agreed that the Mines Act took precedence. 

But had the outcome gone the other way, Rock'n'Roll and Rolling Mix would have been seeking a hefty payout, according to a letter included in an affidavit filed February 25 by the plaintiffs' lawyer, Roy Stewart, as part of a renewed action against the City.

In it, Stewart said the mine had been operating since 1995 and the City bylaw in effect at that time had no setback requirement. The City's cease work order was invoked under a bylaw passed in 2019 and, citing a section of the Community Charter,  Stewart maintained the City would have been liable for compensation equal to sand and gravel foregone due to the difference in setbacks between the City's bylaw and the mining permit granted by the province.

The potential loss of material was estimated at two million cubic metres and worth $6 million, Stewart said in the letter, which was sent to the City at the outset of the legal action.

The sides reached an out-of-court settlement in December 2021 in which the plaintiffs agreed not to pursue damages. But now Rock'n'Roll and Rolling Mix are seeking compensation for separate but related matters they say were not expressed in the original action. 

When the October 2020 cease work order was issued, the plaintiffs were forced to pay the costs of mobilizing and demobilizing a contractor hired to create a berm along the perimeter of the site. Rock'n'Roll and Rolling Mix are seeking compensation for those costs, noting also that they have increased considerably since that time.

They are also seeking compensation for the extra cost that came with buying material from other pit operators to keep Rolling Mix in operation.

No total for those costs have been disclosed in documents filed so far and the matter remains before the court.