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Mr. Don Ashton, Chair and RDOS Directors Dear Mr. Ashton and Directors of the RDOS, As a stakeholder in the Okanagan Shuswap Land Use Resource Management Plan (OKSLRMP), the Canadian EarthCare Society is disappointed and concerned with your resolution of January 6, 2004. That resolution makes a request to the provincial government stating, “that the Province does not legislate any new protected areas within the Land Use Planning Area until the Land and Resources Planning Committee has been able to come to an agreement on how to mitigate the impact that the new National Park proposal will have on other resource users.” In a memo from Director Mayer dated December 11, 2003 to the Board of Directors, Mayer refers to a possible National Park and states, “This process will require a considerable amount of discussion with communities and stakeholders within the region, and may require that in order to reach agreements on supporting the development of a National Park in our Region, that some of these listed protected Areas within the LRMP plan may have to be deleted in order to maintain the consensus that was developed in the original Plan.” Director Mayer was your representative at the OKSLRMP and is correct in that the RDOS was a signatory to the consensus OKSLRMP agreement that included recommending amongst other provisions to moving 49 Parks to Class A status. Your recent actions indicate that you have now broken that agreement and have created instability within the Plan area. In fact, we consider your actions and that of the provincial government to have broken the public’s trust by lobbying to have an agreement broken without consideration of the other stakeholders within the OKSLRMP. We have enclosed as an attachment to this letter the minutes of the OKSLRMP Monitoring committee of November 21, 2003, which has answers to questions directed at Parks Canada regarding the National Park feasibility study. Nowhere in those minutes is their any discussion regarding the deletion of current protected areas within the plan as Director Mayer states in his memo. The answers from Parks Canada are quite clear in that the feasibility study is simply a process to determine whether or not a Park is feasible and that that involves extensive consultation with all interested stakeholders including the RDOS. It is also a process that will take numerous years to complete should a National Park be found to be feasible in your region. We have the following questions for you regarding this issue. 1. Who is the Land and Resources Planning Committee and what ability
do they have to come to an agreement and who would the agreement
be with? The Canadian EarthCare Society is encouraging you to review and rescind your resolution (B727/03). We believe that you were provided incorrect information on this issue and that your resolution breaks the land use contract you agreed to in April of 2001. We would also encourage you promote the benefits of Parks and the lasting legacy they provide to present and future generations. We look forward to your early response to our questions. . Canadian EarthCare Society Lloyd Manchester
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Canadian EarthCare Society Street Address: |
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EarthCare expresses concern
over RDOS resolution limiting new protected areas in Okanagan-Shuswap
Land Use Plan |