B.C. agrees to pay $300K to couple who say logging flooded their property

Lawyers for the British Columbia government have agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit by a couple whose property flooded after a third of the forest in the surrounding watershed was cut down.

The agreement came in a handwritten note that was signed by the Crown's lawyers and handed over in court on the day the trial was set to begin last month.

Ray Chipeniuk and Sonia Sawchuk had launched the lawsuit in 2014, claiming that B.C. Timber Sales, the provincial Crown agency responsible for auctioning about 20 per cent of B.C.'s annual allowable cut, was negligent in its failure to take reasonable care to ensure their property in northwestern B.C. would not be damaged by the logging.

It also alleged the agency committed the civil tort of nuisance by clearcutting the watershed to an "unreasonable extent," causing flooding and increased flows of water that would continue to affect the plaintiffs' enjoyment of their property, south of Smithers.

The province's 2015 response to the civil claim denies negligence and denies that the province owed the couple a duty of care. It says B.C. Timber Sales engaged in a planning process "typical for forest operations" in B.C., including assessing conditions at the watershed and engaging a hydrologist to provide advice.

The couple's lawyer, Ian Lawson, said he had put forward an offer to settle for $300,000. He said he was in B.C. Supreme Court in Smithers last month, waiting for the trial to begin, when Crown lawyers asked for a pause.

They then gave him the handwritten note agreeing to the $300,000 settlement, subject to final approval, "which counsel for the province undertakes to promptly pursue."

Lawson described the last-minute decision as "rather dramatic."

The Forests Ministry declined to comment, saying the matter has not been formally finalized.

The Canadian Press has seen a copy of the offer signed by Crown lawyers.

Chipeniuk, a retired professor of environmental planning at the University of Northern B.C., said in an interview that he and his wife spent years searching for an ideal rural property with land as close as possible to its natural state.

They purchased the 65-hectare property in 2004 and got to work expanding a network of forest trails and gardens to enjoy during their retirement.

Chipeniuk said the landscape is now so saturated he can't use his tractor in parts of the property and lengthy stretches of trails are unusable for much of the year.

Chipeniuk said that for a year, he raised concerns with B.C. Timber Sales about the possibility that logging could affect downstream hydrology.