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.