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BCAL issues cease and desist orders

Three commercial backcountry operations shut down Three small Sea to Sky companies have been held up as evidence that the B.C. Assets and Lands Corporation means business when it comes "illegal" commercial operations on Crown land.

Three commercial backcountry operations shut down

Three small Sea to Sky companies have been held up as evidence that the B.C. Assets and Lands Corporation means business when it comes "illegal" commercial operations on Crown land.

The Crown corporation last weekend issued formal cease-and-desist orders under the Land Act to Whistler Dog Sleigh Rides, Mountain Echo Bed and Sled and Outback Snowmobile rentals.

One operator said he wasn’t even doing business and the other two said they didn’t think they required tenure for their operations.

To date, they are the only three companies in the Squamish Forest District that BCAL has identified as not having applied for tenure by the Dec. 29 deadline.

In total, BCAL has received 53 applications for tenure from operators currently doing business in the area. BCAL’s Charles Littledale said 23 applications were already in the system. The other 30 were a result of the Crown corporation’s 14-month transition plan launched to get everyone licenced by November, 2001.

The goal is now to process all the applications that involve summer activities before May 1. That means 44 tenure bids will need to adjudicated within the next two to three months. To do this, BCAL will batch the applications for efficiency and hold round table meetings with stakeholders, including local municipalities, the Ministry of Forests and the Ministry of Environment.

Within the next two weeks advertisements outlining the first round of applications will be placed in all corridor newspapers and the public is invited to offer input in writing.

A chart listing the applications will also be posted on the BCAL Web site. People who wish to start up new commercial operations on Crown land can still apply for tenure but they will be put in a "pending pile", said Littledale at a press conference held in Whistler Monday, Feb. 5.

Two of the three businesses hit with the recent cease-and-desist-orders fall into a somewhat grey area of the province’s Commercial Recreation on Crown Land Policy, implemented in 1998.

The other, Helmut Banka’s Whistler Dog Sleigh Rides, is listed in the phone book but Banka said he was no longer operating.

This is the second time the Crown has taken steps to shut Banka down. The first time was in March 1995 when representatives from the Ministry of the Environment and the Whistler public works department posted a trespass and seizure notice at Banka's kennel site on Crown land in the Wedgemount area. They then set fire to his kennels. In the process several dogs were turned loose and one was alleged to have burned to death. The incident is still subject of a legal tussle.

"I was not running dogs," said Banka of his recent cease-and-desist order. "In order to run a dog team you need healthy dogs and not aged dogs. The dogs I have are over-age and they went through the fire… they are not good to run commercially."

BCAL said Banka had not applied for tenure. "All we have said in the cease-and-desist order is basically that if he is taking dogs onto Crown land, then he needs to cease-and-desist that activity," noted BCAL’s David Reilley.

Cory Donner of Outback Snowmobiles said he is not a tour operator but a rental company. He said he was told by BCAL prior to the Dec. 29 deadline that he did not have to apply for tenure. As BCAL’s enforcement officer Bob Cunneyworth told Pique last month, Donner’s business falls into "a grey area right now. We have yet to determine the type of business he is doing. However, we are receiving complaints."

Donner has referred the matter to his lawyer, Peter Shrimpton.

His business involves dropping rented sleds at trailheads – particularly the Callaghan – for his clients. "I have never guided a trip in my life," Donner said.

He added there are several other rental companies that do what he does but they have not been shut down.

"BCAL has now said I can still rent snowmobiles but I can’t drop them off on Crown land," noted Donner. "I can drop them off on private land and the customer can ride them onto Crown land. I can give them my big trailer or I can give them smaller trailers and they can use their own cars, which is just going to cause even more congestion," he said.

"BCAL told me they would fine me up to $20,000 and take my snowmobiles. They haven’t told any of the other guys to stop, like No Limits and Cayoosh and Tracker and Squamish Snowmobile rentals and Powder Mountain Snowcats which drops snowmobiles anywhere you want. Why am I the only guy? Just because I am in Whistler and competition for big corporations with big money and they can push the little guy out?"

Reilley said Donner has not been singled out but he would not elaborate on why he was the only rental company issued an order. "We have to be very careful what we say about cease-and desist orders. We have to be respectful of people’s legal rights and due process. It’s not like we have gone through a hearing process and have established legal evidence that they have done something."

The difference between Outback and other rental companies may be as simple as signing the waivers on Crown land as opposed to in an office.

"Generically speaking, if a rental company has a location off of Crown land and is just renting equipment, then they are not in violation of the Land Act," said Reilley. "But if they are doing things like unloading snowmobiles onto Crown land; getting people started on their trip on Crown land; providing back-up rescue service while the people are on Crown land – even if the rescue service isn’t invoked on a certain trip – the fact is they’re there as a safety net underneath the renters while they are on Crown land. Organizing routes and drawing maps; having a brochure with a photograph of a well-known Crown land mark saying ‘rent a snowmobile to go there’, you are using Crown land in your marketing… all of those things are use of Crown land for business purposes under the Land Act," said Reilley.

"As soon as you set foot on Crown land while you are conducting some aspect of your business, the Land Act requires that you have permission from the Crown to do it and the program we have set up for that permission is the new commercial recreation tenure program."

Tony Kaizer of the Mountain Echo Bed and Sled in Pemberton was told in his order to stop taking his guests – usually experienced out-of-town sledders with their own machines – on guided trips.

Kaizer said he has been offering this service as an adjunct to his bed and breakfast business for the last four years and he doesn’t operate in any one specific area.

"If they want to go to Blowdown, I go there. Or to the ice cap or Meager or Bralorne or Lillooet… anywhere they want to go, I’ll take them. Where would I apply for tenure, all of B.C.?"

Kaizer said he told BCAL he wouldn’t mind paying the Crown the $6 per head for his clients if he could get some kind of guiding permit but he doesn’t have the cash to put in tenure applications for all the areas clients may ask to visit.

"I was told it costs $4,000 to $40,000 per area to get tenure." Kaizer said the system doesn’t cater to people like him.

"So now I am out of business. It’s going to hurt a lot. I have advertised and have bookings already for the next few months. I now have to phone them all and cancel. I bought a new snowmobile this year and was counting on making money to pay for it and here I am with no income for the winter," he said.

"And I wasn’t too impressed when the BCAL guy and a conservation officer came to my house packing guns and shit either. It was totally intimidating. The guy had his hand on his gun like I was going to jump him or something."

According to BCAL’s business plan for the 2000-2001 season, the corporation had a target to process 100 applications by March 31 this year.

BCAL had initially estimated there were about 100 commercial operators in the Squamish Forest District. It has now verified 60, including the four businesses that already have tenure.

No new tenures have yet been announced.

Littledale said he is encouraged with the overall buy-in to BCAL’s transition plan.

"We are very pleased people have bought into what we are asking, despite the rough edges." He said he is getting feedback from communities and government agencies that there is real support for the process.

"In large part, we all agree the problems need to be solved."