The board of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) is not about to come to a consensus on backcountry closures.
A request for support for a resolution from the District of Sicamous—asking the federal and provincial governments to place a moratorium on all backcountry closures—led to some discussion at the board's March 20 meeting.
Directors John Courchesne and Russell Mack (Areas A and C, respectively) both said they would support the resolution.
"I support a motion that communities and local government be involved in the process, and I wouldn't trust any provincial government saying that (the backcountry) needs to be closed," Courchesne said, adding that he understands the sensitivities around species-at-risk, "but sometimes it's not always species at risk, and there is underlying reasons why they want it closed."
"I fear that (we) that live out in the middle of nowhere are going to get excluded from our own backyard, because some bureaucrat in Kamloops or Victoria or Prince George deems that that area needs to be closed."
Mack agreed, saying that many local people in rural areas are being excluded because of backcountry closures.
"There needs to be consultation with everybody when they're going to have a closure. They need to justify that closure to the local governments, and the local organizations," Mack said.
"There's lots of people that live throughout this province that recreate in the backcountry, and if we are being hindered in doing that, why are we? So we need to have a voice in that decision that's being made."
It's a very complex issue, said Squamish Mayor Karen Elliot, and not one she'd want to wade into without more information.
"I want to hear from all sides, because I'm thinking in my own mind, if someone said that they wanted to close Squamish's backcountry because of the species' at risk, I know that our community would have a hard time with that," Elliot said.
"At the same time, I also want to respect senior levels of governments' right to actually put the environment and species first ... I'm not sure I could support (the resolution) here today."
Senior levels of government need the ability to enact closures in the case of emergencies, "so I can understand why it's been happening," said Whistler director Cathy Jewett.
"But the way it has been happening, there's been no process to be able to go and advocate for a reduction of restrictions or anything like that."
Rather than voting on consensus support, the board moved to receive the letter.
The resolution will be brought to the 2019 Southern Interior Local Government Association convention, where attending SLRD board members will be able to further debate it.
SLRD OFFICE RENOVATIONS NEAR COMPLETION
The SLRD's staff is almost ready to move into its newly renovated office space at 1350 Aster Street in Pemberton.
"Staff is pretty excited," said Chief Administrative Officer Lynda Flynn in an update to the board on March 20.
"We did the walkthrough yesterday and that's pretty exciting ... hopefully we'll be out of (the Pemberton Community Centre) soon."
The renovations included adding office and storage space, a larger entry, new paint, carpet and lighting throughout, a new accessible washroom and more parking.
The total project cost about $1.7 million.
"We're still in line (with the budget) ... one of our concerns has always been when they get inside to the old part of the building—you know, we hope that there's going to be no surprises or skeletons or previous administrators in the walls," Flynn joked.
"But right now we're OK."
