Lake

By Diana Forster – 100 Mile House Free Press

The Friends of Lac des Roches and Birch Lake came into existence in 2004 to fight a governmental body’s suggestion of creating a huge development on their lakes, which include Montana Lake. The group worked extremely hard to advise the “powers that be” that such a scheme for this pristine area was not good. All along they’ve had the backing of the Cariboo Regional District (CRD), which had long previously designated these lakes as “fragile”.

Eventually, Friends succeeded and the whole scheme was put “on hold”, but there is still potential for some sort of go-ahead as one side of the lakes are in the Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD). For that reason, there is movement afoot to have the regional district boundary moved so that the entire lakes area falls within the CRD.

The group meets every last Wednesday evening of the month at Bridge Lake Elementary School. For more details call Bill Jollymore at 593-9305.

Lake development idea shelved

By Kathy Michaels, Free Press staff – 100 Mile House Free Press

Residents from the Lac des Roches area can rest a little easier as their concerns are now being addressed by various levels of government. For the time being, plans to develop the area are on hold, and talks on boundary issues have begun.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Lands had slated the area for development of strata title, year-round residences and resorts at the east end of Lac des Roches. The plan didn’t sit well with local homeowners concerned that the ecologically sensitive area couldn’t sustain the level of infrastructure that the government had proposed.

To compound the issue, the lake straddles Cariboo Regional District (CRD) and Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD) boundaries.

The CRD deemed the lake as a sensitive watershed area that would not be ideal for development, whereas the TNRD’s stance is contradictory as they have said their portion is prime for development, Sharron Woloshyn, secretary for the Friends of Lac des Roches and Birch Lake explained.

For now, the provincial government will not be moving forward with it’s initial plan.

“There’s nothing planned right now. Basically the project is on hold pending further review,” Liz Bicknell, a ministry spokesperson said. “However the ministry has said it will honour a commitment that was made, and that is that if there is going to be any further consultation that participants will be given 30-days notice to any further rezoning meetings.”

Bicknell suggested that the group meet with Cariboo South MLA Charlie Wyse to voice their concerns, which they did, and plan to again by next spring. He said he met with staff of Agriculture Minister Pat Bell, and the proposal is under review.

“It’s not off the table. His staff are in the process of completing their information gathering,” Wyse said. “From there Robin Levesque (who had been co-ordinating the project, will make his report to his group in the new year, and from there they will decide where to go with this particular proposal.

Wyse said he has been given assurances that should the proposals in whatever form proceed, all groups will be advised as to when and how.

The CRD has started the process of expanding its boundaries to encompass the entire area.

“The board will be sending a letter to the TNRD in response to an application received from residents of Lac des Roches,” Shelley Burich, the CRD Communications manager, said. Next step for the CRD is assessing the feasibility of moving forward with a plan.

“Now, planning staff and two managers have to look at what is involved,” said Maureen Pinkney, the CRD’s Area L director. “Geographically they fit the CRD better than they fit Kamloops, but it’s just at the beginning stages. Staff is looking at it so it can be a win-win situation, not a case of fix one thing and not another.”

Friends of Lac des Roches formed in September 2004 as a voice opposing the proposed development. The society, with membership totaling 141, consists of local and seasonal residents, as well as supporters from the United States and England. The group has a Web site www.lacdesroches.org.

Wyse tackles issues in the Leg

By Keri Langley – The 100 Mile House Advisor

Cariboo-South MLA Charlie Wyse has brought up a number of issues he says are on the minds of his constituents in the South Cariboo.

One issue concerns a proposed development on the shores of Lac des Roches, off Hwy. 24. The housing development brought up concerns that not enough study of whether the area could sustain it had taken place.

“The Minister of Agriculture (Pat Bell) says the project is moving ahead, albeit slowly,” Wyse said last week. “He’s extended an offer to me as MLA to be involved in this project. I intend to do that. My staff are arranging a meeting with myself and area residents.”

The development is a 225 lot subdivision.

“It raises all sorts of questions as to whether the lake can support this development,” Wyse continued. He said he would keep his constituents apprised of a meeting date.

Lac des Roches Boundaries

The 100 Mile House Advisor

(Excerpt from the Cariboo Regional District Board Report)

The Board will be sending a letter to the Thompson Nicola Regional District in response to an application received from residents of Lac des Roches. Lac des Roches has been traditionally divided between the CRD and the TNRD. Residents are requesting to be integrated into the CRD including the entire sensitive watershed, as they have been concerned with proposed development within the area.

Community must have say in development

By Bryson Kerr & Bill Jollymore, Friends of Lac des Roches – 100 Mile House Free Press

This letter is to forward stewardship concerns of the property owners of Birch Lake and Lac des Roches Lake regarding a TNRD scheduled workshop on an official community plan (OCP) for this fragile watershed area.

The Friends of Lac des Roches and Birch Lake agree with the TNRD that there is a need to provide a long-term strategy that will guide any developmental growth to protect and/or minimize the impact on the natural environment – plan that avoids conflicts with the surrounding area’s historic uses.

The community of Birch Lake and Lac des Roches Lake, however, does not believe it is appropriate for an OCP to be forged out of the needs of a speculative developer but should be established first on factors and values the community identifies with.

We understand from Bill Valentine that the TNRD has required the proponent of Land Water BC Inc. to provide an environmental and economic impact assessment as a condition of rezoning.

We believe these studies will identify issues that will not be supportive of the proposed massive development currently being pursued.

The sensitivity of this watershed with its cluster of sports fishing lakes, streams and wetlands is not conducive to a large-scale C-4 zoning or a site specific lakeshore rezoning.

This type of development would be more suitably established along the Highway 25 corridor and away from an interconnected network of ecosystems.

This area would have a greater sustainable value as a public park or wildlife preserve/interpretive center. We would suggest further the OCP have discretion in approval through a performance bond to limit any strata development and the environmental blight often created.

Our joint lake community group is most apprehensive due to the dual regional district status of Lac des Roches, and that the resulting OCP will be incomplete in its scope to deal with developmental issues when applied to the whole lake system.

Such a plan is not a plan that will provide a balance between future development and lake and watershed stewardship. We look forward to the TNRD public meetings in this local community and for the TNRD to take the initiative to collaborate with the CRD to develop a comprehensive plan for this jewel on the Highway 24 corridor.

Land and water branch dissolved

By Lachlan Labere – 100 Mile Free Press

Residents of Lac des Roches are waiting to see how changes in the B.C. provincial government will affect a development proposal for the area.

With the recent dissolve of the Crown corporation, Land and Water British Columbia (LWBC), Lac des Roches area residents have been awaiting word on the future of a large residential development project LWBC announced in 2004.

“I got a notification of a water rate increase on our water licence on the lake, and its on Land and Water BC stationery, and I am sure they’re probably just using up old paper, but so far I haven’t seen anything,” Bill Jollymore, media liaison for the Friends of Lac des Roches, said. “Everything seems to be dormant at this point.”

Handed a mandate by the province in 2002 to develop and market Crown land, LWBC sought to develop approximately 300 residential properties around Lac des Roches and neighbouring lakes Birch and Montana. A hotel and golf course were also planned.

Residents of the area formed the Friends of Lac des Roches, which became the formal voice of opposition and negotiation to LWBC’s venture.

Following the 2005 provincial election, the re-elected B.C. Liberals dissolved LWBC and put all its projects on hold.

According to Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell, water concerns once handled by LWBC were handed to the re-formed Ministry of Environment. Development projects, such as the one at Lac des Roches, now fall under Bell’s portfolio and the recently formed Integrated Land Management Bureau (ILMB), which Bell will oversee.

“It was time for us to have a bit of a fresh start with LWBC,” Bell explained in an Aug. 8 interview with the Free Press. “We felt it was time to make a bit of a shift. Land and Water BC’s mandate certainly was to try and create opportunities and access to Crown land wherever we could. That was the business they were in. The ILMB will continue to do that type of stuff, but it will take, at this point, an approach that is more holistic. So we’ll be looking at values to society beyond the cash value of the land that’s being transferred.”

Jollymore said the change had to do with how LWBC’s aggressive approach reflected upon the government.

“I think that the government got a pretty fair massage, and I don’t know whether it was from our message or just a whole bunch of outcry from other sources of dissatisfaction with the arrogance and the aggressiveness of LWBC, but it certainly had an effect,” Jollymore said.

Bell recognized there were issues in the province around LWBC’s methods, particularly in the handling of First Nations issues.

“We are serious about trying to make significant headway with First Nations and bring them into the economic tent of the rest of B.C. so they can start building capacity and sharing in the economic wealth generated in the province,” Bell commented. “Taking a step back, a breather, and slowing down a bit here, and making sure we’re doing things in a methodical way – is exactly why we made the change from LWBC over to the ILMB.”

Along with managing Crown land sales, the ILMB, soon to be centered in Kamloops, will also be a single access service centre for all natural resource tenures.

“It is a program intended to help simplify the tenuring process for people that want to get any sort of a natural resource tenure,” he said. “We haven’t gone beyond that yet. We’re a few weeks away from a formal announcement.”

Jollymore is compiling a history of LWBC’s development projects which he plans on sending out to all of B.C.’s newly appointed ministers, including Bell.

“This is basically the story of Land and Water BC from last August, when this all started and came to light to the citizenry, and letting them know what has gone on prior to their appointment,” Jollymore explained.

Power

By Lachlan Labere – 100 Mile Free Press

A government’s first and foremost responsibility should be to the people it is elected to serve – not just party members, but all the people.

The recent provincial election may have served as a reminder of this to the BC Liberal government, whose majority in legislature slipped from 77 seats to 46, with the B.C. New Democrats taking the remaining 33.

As a result, the B.C. Liberals may be taking a less aggressive, more inclusive, approach to governing. One example of this was their decision to fold its Crown corporation Land and Water BC, Inc. (LWBC).

Initially charged with the mandate of selling small amounts of surplus land in the province, LWBC received new responsibilities under the Liberals, and was charged with “providing timely and continued access to land and water resources through tenures, licences and land sales.”

As LWBC grew to a corporation of over 300 employees, with its own president, vice-presidents and senior executives, it became more aggressive in its practices of “managing” the province’s Crown lands.

Eventually B.C. residents began to notice areas, known for their natural beauty, were being targeted by LWBC. From the Jumbo Valley in the Kooteneys, to the Lost Trails Wetlands on Vancouver Island, to the Metchosin Wilderness Park, to areas around Lac des Roches and Birch Lake, grassroots organizations rose up against LWBC’s attempts to sell off public lands.

Whether the efforts of those organizations played a part in the outcome of the provincial election or the following government cabinet shuffle that saw to the end of LWBC, who could say?

Maybe this smaller Liberal government will heed its citizens more and be more benevolent with the power it wields.

Future of lands project is uncertain

By Lachlan Labere – 100 Mile Free Press

The Friends of Lac des Roches and Birch Lake are celebrating the dissolution of the Crown corporation behind a contentious local development project. Land and Water BC (LWBC) is no more.

“It has been announced that this Crown corporation of the provincial government was dissolved after a three-year life span,” Bill Jollymore, the group’s media co-ordinator, wrote in a letter to the Free Press. “Controversy over the disposal of land and water rights, tensions among ministries and agencies with independent mandates, over aggressiveness in their selling of Crown land and problems with First Nation’s rights and claims apparently contributed to their death knell.”

The Friends formed last August in response to a proposed project that could have seen 98 additional properties built on Lac des Roches, 130 at Birch Lake and 61 at Montana Lake. A hotel and golf course were also planned. The group opposed the scope of LWBC’s plan for the area and the potential ensuing environmental harm.

Following the May 2005 provincial election, Premier Gordon Campbell announced the results of a cabinet shuffle that saw a number of changes to the government. These included the re-instatement of the Ministry of Environment, and the establishment of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. Another change resulting from the re-organization was the dissolve of LWBC, the mandate of which was divided among the newly formed ministries of Agriculture and Lands, and Environment.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Lands is responding to calls made to LWBC. Liz Bicknell, the ministry’s director of Communication, told the Free Press not to expect a decision on the future of the Lac des Roches project until the end of July.

“What I can tell you is no decisions have been made with respect to that development,” she said.

“When there’s change, there always takes some time to finalize it.”

The Friends are taking the news of LWBC’s dissolve as a victory.

“As a resulf of losing so many seats in the Interior, especially in areas where they were pushing for the sale of Crown land to developers, (the Liberal government) lost almost every riding they tried to pull that off on,” Gordon Marshall, a Friends member, said. “It’s been a sore point so they squashed it and they want it to be kept fairly quiet rather than say ‘hey, we made a mistake’. I think what will happen, in my opinion, is they’ll probably slow down in their approach of selling off Crown land to developers.”

While the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands was unable to provide any specifics behind LWBC’s demise, like Marshall, Ed Jewer, a Vancouver Island opponent of LWBC, surmised it had something to do with the Crown corporation’s aggressive mandate.

“I think it is an admission that they weren’t operating fairly, and I think they upset a lot of people in a lot of different areas, even within the government,” said Jewer.

Andrew Gage, a lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, said LWBC began as the Whistler Land Corp., which in 1983 oversaw the development and marketing of Crown land in the Village of Whistler. In 1997 the provincial government expanded the mandate of the Whistler Land Corp., around the same time the company changed its name to the BC Assets and Land Corp, (BCAL). In 2002 BCAL became LWBC and its mandate changed.

“With BCAL, the idea was that whenever they wanted to sell surplus land that they really should have someone there to aggressively market it and make sure the public gets the best return for their money,” said Gage in a March 2005 interview with the Free Press. “The big difference between BCAL and LWBC, there are probably a few differences, but I think the most significant one is they were really there to market surplus lands. What LWBC has effectively done is declared anything that they aren’t restricted under the Lands Act form selling – which is almost everything – open for business.”

LWBC had a mandate to maximize the government revenue from public lands. In turn, LWBC received a percentage of sales. Gage is cautious in how he regards the recent news.

“One hopes that this is only part of a broader recognition that LWBC was just too aggressive in the way they were selling public lands” Gage said. “If it’s not, it’s largely a symbolic victory. Hopefully it is part of something larger but I haven’t got a sense of that yet.”

For Cariboo South MLA Charlie Wyse this represents an attempt by the Liberal government to right some of the wrongs the government made in its first term.

“I am pleased to see the Liberals have recognized their error in their first term of office and are finally getting around to re-establish the Ministry of Environment with all those responsibilities that go along with it,” he commented. “Their attempt at privatization through Land and Water, it just hasn’t been successful, and this situation down in Lac des Roches, they just furthered questions around what the Liberals were doing.”

Friends Chair Barry Reid said the group would not have made a commotion if LWBC’s proposal was in reason.

“Our feeling, overall, is that we’re not opposed to stuff happening on the lake,” Reid said. “It’s not like we’re saying ‘no, we live here, we like it and we don’t want it to change’. We know development is going to occur on this lake, and we’re not opposed to recreational stuff happening. But a 228 unit strata subdivision? And they’re claiming this is going to be a year-round development. And you’ve got to ask yourself why people already here don’t live here year-round. It’s because of the weather and the distance from where things are.”

Development

By Diana Forster – 100 Mile Free Press

Petitions bearing 700 signatures opposed to large-scale development at Lac des Roches, Birch Lake and Montana Lake have been forwarded to the premier, with a copy to the Minister of Water Land and Air Protection.

While mostly in the TNRD, the development abuts the CRD. Having much earlier designated these lakes ‘sensitive’, the CRD has voiced opposition to any large development. On a bitterly cold May 23, Friends of Lac des Roches and Birch Lake made a “floatabout” on the side of Lac des Roches, took photos and handed out information.

The group meets at 7 p.m., June 29 at Bridge Lake School.

Development out of scale with the land

By Bernd Eisele, Williams Lake – 100 Mile Free Press

Dear Sirs and Mesdames,

I, together with my family, often drive on Hwy 24 in the winter to reach Sun Peaks; occasionally we camp at Lac des Roches in the summer. A few weekends ago, we stopped at the Lac des Roches rest area, noticed some colourful flyers attached to a post, and took one to read. At first I believed this to be some sort of joke, left over from April 1st, but now realize that it’s anything but! Unfortunately, it’s what city people call progress.

I understand that there is a desire and need for recreational development and that others may want us to share our pristine environment – fair enough. I also understand that, no matter where development happens and how little, there will likely always be some form of opposition – no one, including myself, is completely immune from the NIMBY effect. People don’t like change, especially if it affects their immediate surroundings, be it perception or not.

Having said that, I do believe it to be a shame if Lac des Roches has to sustain such a (mega) development. Gone would be the tranquility for which we visit the lake, the very reasons we don’t visit Shushwap Lake and the like. Although it would be unreasonable and selfish to oppose any development at Lac des Roches (don’t forget that every home or business there was once “new” development), I am of the opinion that a development the size of “Imagine” is an aberration that should not be permitted in its current proposed form. While some landholders may benefit through increased land values and therefore welcome “Imagine”, it is essentially short-term thinking. A crowd that we have chosen to avoid by moving to the country, such as Lac des Roches, will replace the crowd that now visits the lake.

I do wish the Friends of Lac des Roches very well in their endeavours. Hopefully, they will be successful in stopping this project or, at the very least, modifying it substantially to fit in with the lakes’ infrastructure and sustainable rate of growth.