This is a letter to the citizens of Parksville, Qualicum Beach and surrounding communities.
We apologize for the inconvenience we may have caused during our land clearing burn on ALR land located on Church Road.
We understand your concerns and are currently reviewing our processes to be as courteous as possible in the future.
Our decision to have one major burn rather than five or six small burns to reduce inconveniences multiple times may not have been the correct one.
Although we did have all permits and followed all regulations, our window to burn was last minute as the venting and wind directions were correct from our advisors.
As farming on ALR lands is very difficult to be profitable in the best of times, adding extra costs as grinding would have incurred an expense un-recoupable in 10-15 years, thus our decision to burn.
I hope this gives you some insight of the decisions I made. I understand we will never make everyone happy but it is our goal to have the majority happy. We sincerely apologize and ask your forgiveness.
We live in and love this community as you do, and have intended no harm.
Marc Fortin, Chief Operating Officer, Island Valley FarmsParksville