City calls for new environmental review process

The City of Williams Lake has joined with provincial officials and Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick Harris in seeking a joint federal/provincial environmental assessment process for resource development projects.

  • May. 19, 2011 3:00 p.m.

The City of Williams Lake has joined with provincial officials and Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick Harris in seeking a joint federal/provincial environmental assessment process for resource development projects.

At a North Central Local Government Association annual general meeting, the City forwarded a resolution that called on British Columbia and Canada to amalgamate their environmental impact assessment processes for major resource development.

The City won a gold award for the resolution, written by Chief Administrative Officer Brain Carruthers, whom Mayor Kerry Cook congratulated.

“There is an opportunity to address the environmental and First Nations concerns through a more streamlined process,” Cook says.

A second resolution, an attempt to address an inequity in how police-based Victim Services funding is allocated by the province, was also endorsed at the NCGLA.

Both resolutions will be forwarded to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities for debate at its convention in September.

Williams Lake Tribune