Ruby Lake logging update...

Here's the latest news from Ruby Lake...

"Work continues, seven noisy days a week, on the Ruby Lake cutblock.

The "low impact roadbuilding" must be near completion, as we have had several days of blasting (I don't recall any mention of dynamite from Tsain-Ko et al). The road consists of 30 to 60 cm of well packed crushed rock - a better base than most of us have on the public roads in the area.

The ravens and jays in particular continue their raucous complaints while the workers are around, although I expect it will be a quiet spring with bird populations displaced.

I am attaching some recent photos of the area, painful as it is."

troch

Campbell's Secrecy...why?

I have been browsing through Sean Holman's January postings over at the 'Public Eye Online' (see link in right column) and there are some real gems. Did you know that the Campbell government failed to inform the province's major news organizations that the Premier was delivering a keynote address at that Ottawa conference on climate change last week? Holman was the first to break the news in his posting "The price of Information" on January 22. Vaughn Palmer followed up on that news with this Vancouver Sun story the next day (the day Campbell was delivering his speech).

Palmer says this is just another example of provincial government's "systematic withholding of details on the climate change plan." Palmer says the media aren't the only affected, "On the "climate action plan," members of the premier's own caucus of MLAs have begun to complain quietly (and not so quietly) about being left out of the loop." A major reason for this secrecy according to Palmer is "Campbell displays increasing impatience for involving in decision-making anyone other than those who are ready to carry out his instructions without serious challenge."

Another gem by Holman posted that same day was "More Power to Plutonic" describing the number of Liberal aides who have recently gone to work for Plutonic Power Corporation Inc. I decided to check out that company's website and got an eyeful. Look at what is happening and proposed for the BC's hinterland just north of us.

The green lines are existing BC Hydro power lines. That dotted line from East Toba to Saltery Bay is according to the map the "proposed new 230 kV transmission line." The Saltery Bay substation will be the "point of interconnection." Here's a close-up of the map.

It looks like this new proposed transmission line will hook into the line that already runs the length of the Sunshine Coast.

So, we have Liberal aides who know first hand the workings of the Campbell government moving over to work for this private company that plans to tap numerous rivers to deliver "green" power. Well, would they be leaving a government job unless they were certain of the company's success? Yes, I am sure this company fits in quite nicely with Campbell's water management plans and how those plans can be linked quite nicely to climate change.

As for the Sunshine Coast, I would say the writing is on the wall. Not long ago, I looked out the window at the land across the Skookumchuck Narrows and thought to myself, "That will be our North Shore." So, it is good-bye coastal rainforest, hello pavement. Unless... say let's take a closer look at that map of the shishalh Nation Traditional Territory.

More on Gordon Campbell and water...

The two-day summit has now wrapped up in Vancouver. The CBC offers this:

"B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said that while Ontario and Quebec will remain observers of the cap-and-trade initiative for now, they may decide to move in a similar direction down the road.

"We're really basically sharing information as we go through," he said during a news conference at the end of the Council of the Federation conference in Vancouver.

In addition, premiers and territorial leaders agreed Tuesday to establish a forest review, water agenda and flood-management program in their respective regions. Campbell said leaders will regroup to discuss their plans at their next session, scheduled for July in Quebec City.

"I felt like today was an important day. We recognized there are broad issues of national agreement that we have across the country," Campbell said."

A forest review? A water agenda? A flood-management programme? What are we to expect from these initiatives based on Campbell's comments posted below?

(Read the full CBC story here)

Gordon Cambell's Climate Speech...

Folks, I can't leave this one alone. I am truly bedazzled by this one line in that excerpt from Campbell's speech posted below:

"You know there’s an awful lot of water in places that it’s not needed and not enough water in places where it is needed"

Can you believe that a provincial leader would make such a blatantly simplistic comment such as this at a national conference on climate? Can you give me one example of where water is not needed? I live in a coastal rainforest. In a rainforest there is an abundance of water, an extraordinary abundance of water which is why it is a rainforest! However, it would appear at least in Campbell's eyes that some of this water may not needed. Perhaps, if you plan on cutting down that rainforest and developing it you no longer need this abundance of water.

There is only one reason why a national leader (our provincial leader!) would reduce the issue of water to such a simplistic level: you plan to sell it. Or, perhaps, exchange it for future guarantees on oil and gas. (See this Vancouver Sun news article)

Water Initiative with Alberta???

What is Gordon Campbell up to? I quote from an article in today's Globe & Mail:

"While the premiers made little progress on how to stem rising greenhouse gas emissions, Mr. Campbell's proposal was to focus on the results of global warming, such as extreme weather patterns that can lead to floods, fire and drought.

"“I would hope that we can move ahead and British Columbia will be moving ahead certainly with a water initiative with Alberta. We hope Saskatchewan and other provinces will join us,” he said moments before the closed-door session began,”"

Here is the link to that news article at the Globe & Mail.

I thought I would check the BC government website to see if there might be some details on this "initiative" buried there and in a speech at the Climate Adaptation Conference in Ottawa last week, Campbell had this to say...

"We take our water for granted in Canada. You know there’s an awful lot of water in places that it’s not needed and not enough water in places where it is needed. We’ve all watched as the flood-drought syndrome that’s starting to take place, certainly in western Canada. It’s important for us to look at how we deal with that, with those issues.

And it’s important for us to deal with it in concert. So next week as the Premiers come to Vancouver, I’m going to be encouraging them to work at least an inter-provincial and, hopefully, a national water conservation strategy. I believe we should have a national water security strategy, a national flood mitigation strategy. I think we should be looking at our forests across our country and saying how do we make sure that we know the kind of forests we should be replanting, how can we stop the level of deforestation we’ve had and move closer and closer to net deforestation across the country. All of those things are going to require all of us, all of us. It requires the forest industry, the federal government, the provincial governments of New Brunswick and British Columbia. It requires all of us. We can all learn from one another."

Hmmm, BC has a lot of water and southern Alberta needs water. Are you thinking what I am thinking? Does this water security strategy include transportation?

Oh, lordy, I just grabbed this (dorky) pic off the BC Government website.

This gives me so much more confidence knowing that these provincial leaders are dealing with such pressing issues. Hey, wait, they're all men! They're all dressed the same! They're clones! We're doomed.

North Carolina Visitors...

This blog has been getting quite a few visits from North Carolina in the last few days. People there are searching watershed issues. Perhaps, someone could satisfy our curiosity and post a comment telling us why the search.

On the Shishalh Nation Statement...

Well, what to make of this? If I were a Starbucks-sodden business pundit at a national newspaper today, I might write:

"The shishalh Nation is undertaking a robust approach to Aboriginal Title and Rights within its claimed Nation Territory. What we may be witnessing here is a paradigm shift..."

If I were Winston Churchill, I might write:

"Never have so many on the Sunshine Coast, been so annoyed by so few."

If I were I were Karl Marx, I might write:

"This is a perfect example of the dialectic at work. We have had the thesis and now we are to experience the anti-thesis. We wait for the synthesis of this materialistic struggle."

If I were Plato, I might write:

"The shadows we see reflected on the cave wall...oops, sorry, they're petroglyphs. My mistake."

Yes, I am having a bit of fun here and no, I do not take the shishalh Nation Statement lightly. In fact, I am trying to understand it and the Band's decision to release it in light of the political theories I have studied and by putting it into an historical context. I am actually quite excited by this Statement and must lean towards Marx by saying there is an opportunity here for an extraordinary synthesis if all sides in this issue are willing to set aside historical prejudices and differences and envision the possibilities.

Shishalh Nation Title & Rights...

shishalh Band Councillors Garry Feschuck and Tom Paul elaborated on the Band's announcement regarding its title and rights in the January 18, 2008 edition of the 'Coast Reporter.' You can read that follow-up article by Staff Writer Stephanie Douglas here.

Shishalh Nation Speaks...

Within the Tsain-Ko FSP Public Response Letter posted below there are references to the shishalh Nation and to the Shishalh Land Use Plan. To understand why this is so, it must be borne in mind that Tsain-Ko Forest Development Corporation is owned by members of the shishalh Nation and the logging cutblocks are within shishalh traditional territory.

On January 11, 2008, the following document appeared on page A26 of the 'Coast Reporter,' a newspaper that serves the Sunshine Coast. It will be quoted in its entirety:

Statement of the shishalh Nation on our Aboriginal title and rights to shishalh Nation Territory

On November 20, 2007 the BC Supreme Court released a landmark decision in the Tsilhqot'in Nation's Aboriginal Title and Rights trial. This decision confirms that Aboriginal Title in B.C. has never been extinguished and continues to aply to lands, resources and waters which have sustained First Nations culturally, spiritually, economicially and socially since time immemorial. The decision further clarifies that, where Aboriginal Title exists, Provincial Crown jurisdiction does not.

shishalh Nation Aboriginal Title is a legal interest in the lands and resources of our Territory, and includes the right to decide how those lands and resources will be used, and share in the benefits from the development of our Territory. The shishalh Nation does not accept the Province acting as if our Aboriginal Title does not exist. The Province must respect the law of this land. Once again, the Court calls upon governments to recognize our Aboriginal Title and Rights to our Territory and engage in meaningful negotiations.

The shishalh Nation is putting all residents, businesses and governments within our Territory on notice that we intend to continue to exercise, and defend, our Aboriginal Title and Rights.


It is our responsibility to protect shishalh Nation Aboriginal Title and Rights, so that our Territory will continue to sustain our present and future generations. The shishalh Nation is prepared to work with the residents, businesses and governments within our Territory on that basis. However, the law is now clear that there can be no further use of our lands and resources without the consent of the shishalh Nation, and without meaningful recognition and accommodation of our Title and Rights.

A copy of the Tsilhqot'in decision can be accessed through: http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/sc/

For more information on the shishalh Nation, please visit our website at: www.secheltnation.ca

Court Decisions Establishing Aborignial Title and Rights & Duty to Consult and Accommodate

Title Cases:

Tsilhqot'in Nation v. British Columbia, 2007 BCSC 1700 (.pdf - 485 pgs)

Delgamiuukw v. British Columbia, [1997] 3 S.C.R. 1010

Consultation and Accommodation Cases:

Haida Nation v. British Columbia (Minister of Forests), 2004 SCC 73

Musqueam Indian Band v. British Columbia (Minister of Sustainable Resource Management), 2005 BCCA 128

Comments on Tsain-Ko's Public Response Letter

I would just like to make a few initial comments on Tsain-Ko's FSP Public Response Letter. I notice in the timeline at the beginning of the letter Mr. Forester fails to mention that the Forest Stewardship Plan and maps were initially placed in the Sechelt Public Library which is an hour drive from the communities affected by the logging. Some library staff had no idea the documents were there and those that did pointed to a corner table where the maps were rolled up in a bundle. It was due to the initiative of the staff at the Egmont Museum that these documents finally became accessible to all community members. Because of this oversight, the period for public comment was extended.

The FSP document itself is a technical document and makes no sense to a lay person. This, of course, is no fault of Tsain-Ko and its management staff. It is the provincial government which bears responsibility for not requiring a document easily understandable by the public.

I would like to jump to the end of the letter to 'Comparisons with the "Courtnall" property.' The community was well aware that the Private Managed Forest Land Act governed those lands and that those laws differed substantially from the laws governing crown tenure. There was no animosity but frustration that we had to deal with more logging so soon after PNR had finished its fine forest management job across the Skookumchuck Narrows. Now, the community had more logging coming in from the backside. Did Tsain-Ko expect to be greeted with open arms? If the shishalh Nation or some of its members took this frustration personally then they should not be in the logging business. Perhaps the fault lies with Mr. Warren Hansen of Chartwell Consultants. He of all people as a former employee of Canfor knew what reaction to expect from the community since under Canfor he had presented those same cutblocks to us a few years back. Those logging plans weren't welcomed then; did he think they would be welcomed now?