(Editor’s note: an earlier version of this story, and the story that appeared in Thursday’s edition of The NEWS, the chief source in this story, Ross Peterson, said he was speaking on behalf of the Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society. The society says Peterson is not speaking on its behalf.)
The Englishman River needs to be celebrated and represented by a new, collaborative board of stakeholders, says a former government biologist living in Nanoose Bay.
“There’s a lot of competition for that water,” Ross Peterson said this week. “You and I want it on our lawns and in our taps, fish want it for their gills, frogs want it . . . we need more than standard government approaches to this.”
Peterson is suggesting the formation of a water board that would be part of all decisions related to the river, which is a major source of water for the City of Parksville and Nanoose Bay.
Peterson said such a board could have representation from municipal and provincial governments, logging companies, First Nations, residents and environmental groups.
Currently, most decisions related to the Englishman — its flow rates, how much water is taken from the river and where, etc. — are made by the Englishman River Water Service (ERWS), which is governed by a board with representation from the City of Parksville and the Regional District of Nanaimo. The ERWS also has to include input from both the federal and provincial governments.
Peterson said decisions related to the river “should not be done by a single agency . . . and senior governments don’t work very well at the local level.” He did acknowledge any new board “can’t cancel out government mandates.”
Peterson said he is trying to get the idea of a new board into the minds of local people and groups, but doesn’t have a set plan for the group’s structure.
“It would have to discover its own mandate,” he said. “This would be a more collaborative process rather than a combative one. We have to get people to buy into this model first, tell us what they want to accomplish, before we get into the governance model.”
In addition to a new board, Peterson said he hopes to lead a more celebratory attitude toward the Englishman.
“We want to go the next step, we want to celebrate the river,” he said.
He pointed to the Dungeness River Festival in Sequim, Wash. as an example of what might be done in Parksville.
“They celebrate the fact this is a life-giving system that goes right through the town,” said Peterson, who said he plans to attend the 11th annual Dungeness River Festival in September.
Peterson said he would like your input regarding both the water board and celebration ideas. E-mail: mvihes@mvihes.bc.ca.
