People who use B.C.’s resource roads are invited to make comments on a discussion paper that will help build the foundation for the Natural Resource Road Act.
The act is to improve resource road laws and regulation for the benefit of all users.
The report was released to the public on Oct. 17. The deadline for responding is today, Dec. 15.
The Cariboo Regional District Board thinks that time line is unacceptable.
At its regular monthly meeting Dec. 9, the board voted unanimously to write a letter to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations voicing its concern over the Dec. 15 deadline for responses, after Area A Director Ted Armstrong made a motion and said he felt the public consultation in Williams Lake has been “inadequate” so far.
Area C director John Massier, who seconded the motion, said the consultation process hadn’t gone to Quesnel or surrounding communities, where there is a huge base of roads.
Weighing in, board chair Al Richmond said it’s too late to submit a reasonable response to such an important issue.
He went further with his criticism of the resource roads discussion paper, saying he sat on former Minister Bill Bennett’s rural roads committee that generated the original report.
“The act as it’s proposed appears to be almost 120 degrees from what was envisioned by people who put a lot of work into it,” Richmond said.
Independent MLA for the Cariboo Bob Simpson, who attended the CRD meeting, told the board there was a telephone discussion two weeks ago between the Cariboo Mine Association and Steve Thomson, minister of forests, lands and natural resource operations.
The road act and the time frame was a major discussion item, Simpson said.
“I think something from the Cariboo Regional District — with the heart of the province, we have a lot of those roads here and a lot of the issues associated with those roads — to the government saying you want to do this right this time and that some more time for meaningful consultation and listening to what they’re told during the consultation may end up in an act that will be supported,” Simpson told the board, adding he doesn’t see the point of pushing the road act through.
Responding to the CRD’s concerns, a spokesperson for the ministry said there was “ample time to provide initial input and it’s important to note that the Dec. 15 deadline is only the end of the first phase of consultation.”
A report on Phase 1, slated for release in January, will outline the next steps in the process, based on feedback received so far.
Ministry staff are also arranging conference calls with or through provincial associations, the Ministry said.
