Dock Management Plan/Land Act/Section7
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March/19 and 21/2024
Reply to Nathan Cullen’s email (below)
Sent from PHARA board to Honorable Nathan Cullen
March 21, 2024 12:39 PM PDT | Subject: Meeting with Ministers
Dear Minister Cullen
Thank you for your email.
For future reference, please note you have misspelled the name of Sean McAllister (it is not McCallister).
We respectfully disagree with your assertion that the PHARA board has “not taken.. up” meeting opportunities and “declined to meet” with you.
The record – which I am happy to send to you directly for ease of reference if you wish – makes clear the opposite is true.
PHARA has been trying for more than a year to meet with you and / or your colleague Mr. Rankin on the secret negotiations with the shishalh Nation to confer decision-making powers under the Land Act, and for months now on your amendments to the dock management plan (DMP).
Yet the province has imposed numerous preconditions and limitations to the meetings that were of concern to us – particularly a lack of public access, as not every interested person in this area is a member of PHARA. And several times communications were – on the province’s end – delayed until extremely close to a proposed meeting time, which had by then become impossible to accommodate. Put simply, it seems clear government was more interested in trying to establish a record of engagement than actual engagement.
We must also note that, in numerous cases when our emails asked those questions or stated such concerns, we would get a phone message from your Deputy Minister, or a text asking us to call her. The obvious inference is the province did not want a paper trail of its engagement limitations, pre-conditions and inadequate answers to such questions.
Going forward, PHARA is more than happy to meet with you to discuss the DMP provided the province does not hold the discussions in secret (i.e. public and media access should be allowed) and there are no limitations on the concerns that can be raised. To be clear, concerns that we would want to openly discuss would include:
- The problematic history of the DMP and the need to scrap it and start a new process
- Concerns about the fact that the plan is approved by only BC and the shishalh Nation and no other parties
- Concerns about how the plan is being treated like law when it is not law
- Concerns about the conferral of Land Act decision-making powers on the shishalh Nation which we say should not happen
- The myriad of substantive concerns beyond the few “amendments” recently announced.
These are consistent with the open letter we sent you on March 17. As it is not clear if you have read it, we attached it again below.
Unfortunately, based on the comments made in your media statement last Thursday, it is our understanding that you are continuing to require consultations occur through a secret process that is not open to public monitoring, and you will again be restricting discussions to specific proposed amendments to the DMP. If that has changed and is no longer the case, then we would very much appreciate receiving confirmation of that and joining in the discussions.
Please note that we are posting your email below and this reply on our website to maintain public transparency.
Yours truly
PHARA Board
Email from Honorable Nathan Cullen
Sent to PHARA board member Sean McAllister
March 19, 2024 5:05 PM PDT | Subject: Meeting with Ministers | Reference: 41014
Sean McCallister
Pender Harbour and Area Residents Association (PHARA)
Dear Sean McCallister:
It is regrettable that the PHARA Board has not taken myself and Minister Rankin up on the invitation to connect directly about the shíshálh Dock Management Plan in the past, and declined to meet with us on Monday, March 11, 2024. We welcome the opportunity to have PHARA participate on the Advisory Group announced last Thursday. The Province remains committed to hearing from Pender Harbour residents in kalpilin.
If you remain willing, I would like to discuss with you opportunities for PHARA to be involved in the next steps of amendments to the Dock Management Plan.
Sincerely,
Nathan Cullen
Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship
pc: Honourable Murray Rankin, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation
Tom McCarthy, Deputy Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation
Lori Halls, Deputy Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship
March/17/2024
An open letter to the Honorable Nathan Cullen
Click here to download and read PDF
Honorable Nathan Cullen Via email to WLRS.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship
Parliament Buildings, Victoria BC
Dear Minister Cullen:
Re: More secret talks after the Land Act debacle?
It was less than a month ago that you were forced to announce a major reversal on your Land Act amendment plans. You reluctantly admitted that you had dropped the ball on public engagement. Vaughn Palmer reported that you had been in quiet discussions with “a select list” of people – presumably all under NDA’s (non-disclosure agreements).
But the secrecy did not end there. Those Land Act amendments were going to play themselves out first on the Sunshine Coast where you are, right now, negotiating an agreement with the shishalh Nation to give powers under s.11 of the Land Act. This is because an August 2022 Cabinet1 Ordersays this:
“the Minister of indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and the Minister of Forests are authorized, on behalf of the government, to negotiate an agreement with the Sechelt Indian Band relating to the exercise, jointly by the Minister of Forests and the Sechelt Indian Band, of the power under section 11 of the Land Act 1 to dispose of, by way of a lease or license issued to a person entitled under that Act, Crown land within the area outlined in bold black on attached map for the purpose of a private or commercial dock”
Let’s just say that PHARA, and others, are not accepting being shut out of those secret talks either.
So Thursday, when you stood at a podium and confirmed for the media that your newly announced “advisory committee” on the Sunshine Coast dock management plan would also operate in secret, we were shocked2.
But maybe we should not have been. Our organization of concerned, ordinary citizens has been trying for years to meet with you or your staff to discuss the dock management plan in a publicly transparent manner, with no preconditions. Yet your government has refused to do so.
We know government would like everyone to believe the dock management disaster is now in the rearview mirror. But let’s be honest – the changes were cobbled together hastily, and many problems remain.
Like a new 1.5 meter float width restriction that is contrary to the government’s own engineer’s report.3 It made us wonder if any of the people in your secret meetings have toddlers that they have to hold on to while going to and from boats? Do any of them have elderly people that need assistance and may use a walker? How many of them have even ever walked on a floating structure?
And where was the information on who will be making decisions on application. Will it be the province The shishalh Nation? Why is local Government or citizens not included in decision making? Why the secrecy?
The Sunshine Coast dock management plan has become a bellwether for your government’s reconciliation plans across BC, and you surely must see that ordinary people are getting increasingly concerned. So we urge you, if you are serious about reconciliation and democracy, to do the following:
- Publish the full text of the more than 1,700 comments you received on the dock management
plan (redacting personal identifiers if you wish). - Scrap the present dock management plan and start again from scratch, in an inclusive, public
and transparent process. - Rescind Order in Council 2022-0444 and keep final decision-making authority regarding dock
tenures under the Land Act with the Province (and of course undertaking meaningful consultation
with the shishalh Nation as the courts require).
Yours truly
PHARA Board of Directors
Cc: Honourable David Eby, (Premier@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Pam Alexis (AF.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Niki Sharma (AG.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Grace Lore (MCF.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable George Chow (CITZ.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Rachna Singh (EEC.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Mitzi Dean (CC.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Bowinn Ma (EMCR.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Josie Osborne (EMLI.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable George Heyman (ENV.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Katrine Conroy (FIN.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Bruce Ralston (FOR.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Adrian Dix (HLTH.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Ravi Kahlon (HOUS.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Murray Rankin (IRR.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Brenda Bailey (JEDI.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Jagrup Brar (minister.TRD@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Harry Bains (LBR.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Jennifer Whiteside (MMHA.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Anne Kang (MUNI.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Lisa Beare (PSFS.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Mike Farnworth (PSSG.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Sheila Malcolmson (SDPR.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Lana Popham (TACS.Minister@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Rob Fleming (minister.MOTI@gov.bc.ca)
Honourable Dan Coulter (minister.SI@gov.bc.ca
—
1 Order in Council 444/2022 (gov.bc.ca)
2 B.C. government scrapping proposed Land Act amendments | Globalnews.ca
3 Engineering-Review-of-Pender-Harbour-DMP-Best-Management-Practices-McElhaney-Ltd.pdf
March 14, 2024
The Sunshine Coast’s Disastrous Dock Management Plan
After 20 years, the Province still refuses to seriously consult with property owners
March 14, 2024 3:05 AM EDT | Source: Pender Harbour and Area Residents Association
Pender Harbour, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – March 14, 2024) – After a 10-year moratorium and 10 subsequent years tinkering with a Dock Management Plan (DMP) that remains untenable, the Province and the shíshálh Nation have failed miserably, according to the Pender Harbour and Area Residents Assn (PHARA).
Following the latest round of DMP amendments announced in November-which expanded the plan to include all the shíshálh claimed territory-and after a 90 day “public engagement” period, about 1,700 comments were received by the Province from concerned stakeholders. They raised fundamental issues with the government’s implementation of the DMP. “This is not something the Province can be smug about,” said PHARA director Sean McAllister. “This is clear evidence that the DMP has been an absolute and abysmal failure since its first draft in 2015 and following several ill-thought-out iterations.”
While a simple dock application sits in government offices for years, government somehow found a way to summarize all 1,700 submissions in a few weeks. But on reading the “What We Heard” summary report, PHARA concluded the summary is rushed, trivialized, slipshod and inaccurate by omission. Many of the concerns expressed by the community-such as asking for the science behind implementing zones where docks may or may not be permitted-were, despite numerous comments – not even mentioned in the summary. The Province chose what to include and the document more accurately could have been titled, ‘What We’ve Chosen to Hear.’
“Why bother if they were not going to report out on everything?” said McAllister, “We call upon the province to publicly release all the submissions in their entirety – all British Columbians need to see how voices are being ‘managed’ here.”
PHARA cannot accept that the Province and the shíshálh continue to refuse, for 20 years now, to consult in any meaningful way with stakeholders, and it is not conducive to reconciliation. Instead, the DMP has been thrust on the community by the Province and the shíshálh, developed behind closed doors and then handed down to the community as a fait accompli. Receiving comments, cherry-picking them and the science, and then moving forward without face-to-face discussions is an insult to stakeholders who are most impacted by proposed changes. “This whole DMP controversy could have been avoided if we’d all sat down at a table as equal participants from the start,” noted McAllister. “Instead, government has created unnecessary conflict.”
To be clear – representatives of the provincial Ministers of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship and Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation have recently sought meetings with PHARA and other parties. But they have been unwilling to confirm that there are no “pre-conditions” to the discussions. They have refused to confirm the DMP itself and the pending negotiation of a related agreement under the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act are on the table to talk about. And they have required some parties to sign non-disclosure agreements – which PHARA will not do. Citizens should not have to agree to be muzzled in order to meet with those who hold public office.
“The current Dock Management Plan needs to be scrapped in its entirety, along with the secret negotiation of the agreement to give the sishalh Nation legal powers under the Land Act,” said McAllister. “We need to go back and start again from scratch, working together as equals – this is not the way to advance reconciliation.”
Contact:
Sean McAllister
Director, PHARA
Email: board@phara.ca
ABOUT PHARA: Founded in 2013, PHARA is a non-profit volunteer organization which exists to support the interests and needs of residents and visitors of Pender Harbour, Egmont and the rest of Area A. PHARA believes that all important decisions that affect our communities should be made by those who live, work and play in the areas. Visit phara.ca.
Box 15
Madeira Park, BC
V0N 2H0
board@phara.ca
March/8/2024
Province Releases Summary of Comments Received Regarding Proposed Dock Management Plan Amendments.
Febrary22/2024
A Win for the People Province Backs Down on Amending the Land Act
Due to an unprecedented public outcry over proposed changes to the Land Act, the province has delayed the legislation amending that Act. Those changes would enable the government to implement and put into place agreements with the 204 BC First Nations pursuant to Section 7 of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. Those agreements, once entered into, have the effect of requiring the government to either obtain prior consent with the Indigenous governing body or establish a joint decision-making agreement. Either way, consent of the Indigenous body would be required.
The Land Act Amendments would allow the government to enter into these agreements with the First Nations concerning all Crown Land in BC, which makes up approximately 95% of the province.
Currently, the government is negotiating a Section 7 agreement with the shíshálh Nation concerning “docks in the swiya.” This announcement merely puts the necessary Land Act Amendments on hold but does not stop these ongoing negotiations.
In a February 21 news release, Nathan Cullen, Minister of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship, said, “Over the past several weeks, I have had the opportunity to discuss proposed amendments to the Land Act with over 650 representatives of stakeholder groups representing tens of thousands of British Columbians, from mining, forestry, oil and gas and clean energy, cattle ranchers, to adventure tourism operators, snowmobilers, hunters and anglers, and many others . . . I’ve also heard that we need to take the time to further engage with people and demonstrate the real benefits of shared decision-making in action. We want to get this right and move forward together.” He concluded: “For that reason, our government has decided not to proceed with proposed amendments to the Land Act.”
We note that PHARA was not included in those discussions Minister Cullen speaks of, notwithstanding that we are the only community we are aware of that is affected by a Section 7 agreement currently being negotiated.
This delay is a win for all those opposed to the province’s ill-thought-out Land Act amendments. In the case of the Sunshine Coast, without those amendments the province cannot continue its implementation of the Section 7 agreement being negotiated in secret between the province and the shíshálh Nation. That agreement would have given the Nation veto power over dock tenure authorizations on the Sunshine Coast.
The province and Nation still plan on revising the Dock Management Plan. Through hundreds of letters, the province has heard loud and clear that they must consult and give fair consideration to the concerns of all stakeholders. The province has said it will publish on March 8 a summary of the concerns expressed through the public engagement process.
Thanks to everyone who helped put pressure on the province to delay the Land Act amendments! Please stay tuned, as the battle to have a say in our dock tenures continues.
PHARA Board
February/2/2024
Global TV Covers the DMP and Land Act Amendments
Interviews with Robin Junger and Sean McAllister (PHARA) in Pender Harbour.
January/29/2024
Should Indigenous Groups Have Control over BC Crown Land Decisions?
Our Provincial Government is attempting to change our Canadian Constitution by forming a new level of government, unelected First Nations!
Changes are being proposed to the BC Land Act that would give First Nations veto power over all Crown land use decisions, including water, in the province. If passed, the government will no longer have the power to make decisions in the public interest about Crown land. Instead, they are delegating the power to unelected First Nations who will have final say. This unprecedented engagement process was not announced to the general public or the media and has a March 31 deadline for comments. Click here.
PHARA’s legal counsel, McMillan LLP, has published an excellent opinion piece on the engagement process. Click here.
These changes to the land act will affect all British Columbians and add additional layers of bureaucracy to an already overstrained government.
January/14/2024
Province Extends Comment Period for DMP
Your support in challenging the proposed Dock Management Plan amendments has led to a last-minute extension of the comment period until February 16, instead of the original deadline of January 12. We attribute this extension, in part, to the letter addressed to Minister Cullen from our legal counsel at McMillan LLP. This additional time is crucial as we continue to attempt a meeting with the Minister responsible, enabling us to directly express our concerns regarding the poorly thought-out amendments to the DMP. If you haven’t read our letter to Minister Cullen, click here.
If you haven’t yet submitted your comments, there is still an opportunity to do so. Please click here, using Reference No. 2412772, to submit your comments to the province (click View Application Details) to submit your comments to the province. Additionally, ensure you send a copy to board@phara.ca, WLRS.minister@gov.bc.ca, premier@gov.bc.ca, and Simons.MLA@leg.bc.ca.
Many of our members have inquired about the Waterfront Protection Coalition and our association with them. We want to clarify that we wholeheartedly support this parallel group. The Waterfront Protection Coalition operates with a distinct set of resources, a mandate that spans the coast and province, and is actively raising funds for legal and other initiatives.
It’s important to note that PHARA specifically concentrates on the Sunshine Coast, particularly the shíshálh swiya region. Our newly established Sunshine Coast Dock Management Committee comprises approximately 20 representatives, not only from the Pender Harbour area but also from the entire Sunshine Coast, including lakes and islands, such as Nelson and Hardy. These representatives provide updates to their respective members following our meetings.
Our organization has fostered a nearly decade-long relationship with the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD), the Provincial government, and the Nation. PHARA’s primary strategy is to advocate for a pause in the Dock Management Plan (DMP) and for all involved parties to engage in collaborative discussions to find a viable solution. Our focus lies in challenging the DMP on legal grounds, and any funds we raise are strictly allocated for legal fees.
We extend our gratitude to those who have contributed to our legal funds. Although we are unable to thank each of you personally, your support plays a vital role in defeating the amended DMP.
Thank you for your ongoing support. We encourage members to consider contributing to our legal fund. If you can assist, the easiest method is via e-transfer using the following steps:
1. Add PHARA as a new contact (name: PHARA, email: board@phara.ca).
2. Go to “Send Transfers By” and select “email.”
3. For the initial e-transfer, set a security question and answer. (This is a formality; we have auto deposit.)
4. Once PHARA is added, proceed to the “Send via Interac e-Transfer” page.
5. Select your account, specify the amount, and in the Message box note DMP Legal Fund.
6. Check the box confirming PHARA’s auto deposit registration.
7. Click Continue to complete the process.
For larger donations exceeding e-transfer limits, cheques can be sent to PHARA, Box 15, Madeira Park, V0N 2H0
Thank you from your PHARA Board.
