By Rita Giesbrecht
In the 27 years I have lived in the Cariboo and travelled in the Chilcotin, one thing I’ve learned is that the people here value their place on the land. Almost without exception, residents of the Cariboo-Chilcotin will name some aspect of the natural world as their reason for being here. That’s only natural, in a place that is as large as some countries, has no large urban area, only two arterial highways, and less total population than a medium-sized city.
We of the Cariboo-Chilcotin love our land above everything else, even when we grouse about the cold and head south for a break—we always come back to the plateau; home.
Why, then, would our MLA assume that the citizens here ‘are not—currently looking for her to comment on’ the environment and land use? (Free Press, Jan. 5) Could it be because with the current land use plans now ready to expire, the BC Liberals have nothing at all in place to renew, replace or update them?
In recent history, many jobs that have kept us here have been of the land; visitor and hospitality, ranching, logging, some mining. Before that, the pre-contact cultures that form the backbone of our regional identity, and are strong and growing, lived well and thrived for thousands of years.
The Supreme Court of Canada has made a significant ruling that completely alters the requirements for how we plan land use and resource development, which the BC Liberals have chosen to give the narrowest possible focus, or ignore altogether.
The Cariboo-Chilcotin is on the cusp of either falling by the wayside even more, or building opportunity and resources for ourselves. Are we just a resource depot for foreign-owned extraction companies to wring every bit of value out of our land and leave us with the mess to clean up, throwing us the bone of a few short-term jobs?
Or do we take our future and our leadership in both hands and demand a better plan? We have the potential here to create an economy using Cariboo-Chilcotin resources for Cariboo-Chilcotin jobs. The people of the region are our own greatest resource; we are self-sufficient, inventive, smart, and forward-thinking. We know what we need, what to do, and how to do it.
As your candidate, and member of the BC Green Party I can take a strong Cariboo-Chilcotin voice to Victoria. One person, one member at a time we can remove the vested interests of big money from our government, and turn back to representing the real interests of people. We can work on and protect the land that we all live and thrive on, and let our grandchildren do the same.
Job one for me is to hear from you, so don’t be shy.
Rita Giesbrecht is the local candidate for the Greens of BC.
