qathet Regional District has received notification that shishálh Nation wants to change the name of Saltery Bay to skelhp.
At the April 15 committee of the whole meeting, the committee was presented with a letter from provincial toponymist Carla Jack, indicating that the BC geographical names office had received proposals from shishálh to change or adopt names for several geographic features in the Sunshine Coast area.
Electoral Area A director Patrick Brabazon said the regional board was probably going to see more of this.
“When I sat at the treaty table with the Tla’amin [Nation] negotiations, it was quite clear from the federal government’s point of view there would be no name changes whatsoever on nautical features,” said Brabazon. “By that, I mean that nautical charts will say ‘Saltery Bay’. We and they may refer to it as skelhp, but I gather from this there is no intent to change the name of the community, unincorporated, of Saltery Bay.
“I would like to see, if there are going to be some signposts up, and the province would have the authority for that, that it be bilingual as they are doing on the lower Sunshine Coast.”
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said the correspondence stated that before considering the adoption of the name, whether the regional district would provide advice or comments.
“Should we provide some comment or advice in response to this?” asked Gisborne.
Electoral Area C director Clay Brander said he believed the information was first received back in February and he thinks at that time the board voted to send individual comments rather than a collective one.
“I have done that and I would encourage everybody to do so as well,” said Brander.
The committee voted to receive the letter.
Jack, in her letter, said skelhp is an ancient name whose meaning has been lost over time. She stated this feature is within or forms a portion of the boundary of the shishálh and traditional territory of several other first nations and is within or near the border of local governments, so it is important to ascertain if there are other known traditional names for this feature, and that the proposed name reflects the heritage values in the area.
