Former B.C. Premier Bill Vander Zalm and members of the 1980s Social Credit government committed “misfeasance in public office” in their dealings with a B.C. water export company, a B.C. Supreme Court judge said this week in a ruling on a decades-old case.
A civil suit filed by Rain Coast Water Corp. claimed the company experienced “mistreatment by the Government of British Columbia through actions of Premier Vander Zalm, several Cabinet Ministers and a number of civil servants,” in the 1980s and early 1990s, according to reasons for judgment handed down Thursday.
Rain Coast, which was originally called Coast Mountain Aquasource and incorporated in 1983 by B.C. businessman Colin Beach, had applied for licences to export water in bulk from B.C. to California.
Rain Coast’s lawsuit alleged the government of the day gave a rival company, Western Canada Water (WCW), “preferential treatment in an unlawful manner.”
In Thursday’s decision, Justice Peter Leask wrote: the “initial selection of WCW was a clear example of giving favourable treatment to one competitor at the expense of others, including the plaintiff, and against the public interest.”
The original writ was filed in 1996. Reached for comment Thursday, Beach said that after nearly 20 years of involvement in the case, “Some people have called it a battle, but maybe it’s better to call it a war.”
The matter went to trial in 2012, with lawyer George Douvelos representing Rain Coast. Prior to the trial, Justice Leask dealt with the cancellation of the plaintiff’s foreshore licence at a summary trial, finding the government had cancelled the licence unlawfully.
“The misfeasance in public office finding is an extremely weighty one, but I’m not at all sure of the decision’s current political resonance given the 25 year time lapse,” he said.
“That could well change, however, when the second shoe, i.e. the award of damages, drops and the judgment becomes more than an historical footnote.”
Ruff said: “With damages, someone has to pay, and my guess is it’s very the likely B.C. taxpayer.”
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