Weapons Range Gets Backing B.C. Wants To Stop U.S. Tests; Suit Says Province Can’t Do It

The Canadian federal government began legal proceedings Thursday to keep the Nanoose Bay weapons testing range open, a move that could save face for the British Columbia government and Ottawa.

British Columbia Premier Glen Clark, upset about the heated U.S.-Canadian salmon dispute, has threatened to cancel the lease, effective Aug. 22, and force the U.S. Navy out of the torpedo testing range.

But the federal lawsuit filed in British Columbia Supreme Court says the province has no right to make the move under a license agreement it signed.

“The province has failed to act reasonably and in good faith,” the Justice Department said in a news release.

Ottawa has argued that cancellation of the lease would harm international relations with the United States and threaten the viability of a prime Canadian defense facility.

But Clark refused to back down.

“We will fight it in court. We expect to win and when we win, we will then proceed to close the base,” he said Thursday.

“I am very angry at this action. I think it’s a betrayal of our interests. I think it plays into the Americans’ hands.”

By next Friday, Aug. 22, the U.S. Navy was to have started clearing out of the shared range just outside Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

But Clark said the province will now wait for the outcome of the court case before ordering the Americans out. He added he wants the case dealt with as soon as possible.

While the range is federal jurisdiction, the provincial government owns the seabed.

According to the lease, British Columbia is allowed to cancel the agreement when “in (its) sole discretion, (it) considers that it is in the public interest.”