As existing tidewater docks and boathouses within the shíshálh swiya are allowed to stay under conditions detailed in updates to the dock management plan (DMP), the Waterfront Protection Coalition (WPC) is calling for the removal of the yellow signs opposing the plan.
Brad Edgelow, a director of WPC, a volunteer organization representing waterfront property owners throughout the province and part of the shíshálh Nation and province’s DMP advisory group, said the process was “never a fight."
“Those signs are not good for the environment, they are an eyesore, and they represent part of the history of this problem that should soon be forgotten...This was a situation where you had groups that had to come together to become informed and educated. This advisory group has accomplished that. And our work now is to get the community to realize that. And the community should be thankful and appreciative of the work that the Nation and the Ministry have done,” he shared with Coast Reporter on Aug. 16.
Based on a drive around Pender Harbour area roads, Coast Reporter estimated under half of the signs, most erected around late November of last year when proposed new DMP regulations were released and before the advisory group was struck, remain displayed. Aug. 21, on a three-kilometre drive along Francis Peninsula Road to Highway 101, where seven had once been in place, only four remained.
WPC directors Jim Case and Jim Stewart said their group will be taking out ads show that the WPC is “appreciative of the province and the Nation's willingness to sit down and discuss” adjustments to the DMP.
Best management practices adjustments anticipated
Case noted that while the Aug. 1 announcement made by the Nation and province addressed “the big rock” issue of grandfathering for existing infrastructure, further announcements on adjustments to the best management practices (BMP) that the DMP is based on are likely still to come. In his view, BMPs are akin to building code requirements. When conditions are introduced, new docks need to follow those but existing infrastructure only needs to comply when being upgraded.
Case explained that for new rules on infrastructure on freshwater, the province and Nation have agreed to wait until more lake-specific reviews are conducted. He said that will happen at a later time, but believes the same protection on grandfathering of existing structures will be included. He views that as a “great example of a collaborative conversation of the advisory group process” when the authorities realized a need for a “pause until they have further information."
And when it comes to establishing BMPs, Edgelow said there are different opinions on what those “should truly be." WPC made a number of recommendations to the governing authority on those through the advisory group process. “I do believe the Ministry [of Water Land and Resource Stewardship] and Nation are open to looking at specific situations and a variance process, if required," he said.
The 19 summary recommendations provided through the advisory group process by the WPC were, in Case’s view, “all considered but not all adopted." Some, he said, were partially adopted or modified as the advisory process was “not a negotiation” but one where the decision makers choose and ultimately determine what is appropriate.
Moving forward
While the advisory group's mandate has not been formally extended, Case said the WPC is willing to continue to assist with the DMP process. Since it was established in March he said the advisory group and its sub groups met, in most cases virtually, about once a week until the end of July, constituting “too many meeting to count."
Community education on the updated DMP is the next step in Stewart's view. He said that the province is aiming to have letters out to all who submitted comments and to all waterfront tenure holders in late September.
As for the future of one of the yellow signs, its owner (who asked that their name not be published) told Coast Reporter although it has been taken down, “It’s in storage in case I need to put it up again."
