Hi Everyone,

I guess everyone has heard by now that the BC Supreme has thrown out the SCRD’s Board of Health order that restricted logging in the Chapman Watershed Reserve; not good news but not unexpected either. Here’s my perspective on where things sit now.

Bright spots.

• Judge Butler’s comments clearly indicated that the SCRD’s lack of authority over watershed activities is unreasonable. This is exactly what we all know to be true.
• Judge Butler dismissed Western’s allegation that the members of the board of health were biased. Our elected officials were doing what they are supposed to do, which is to protect public health.
• Finally, Judge Butler affirmed that, if a local board of health has sufficient reason to believe that a health hazard exists, it has a right to issue an order. This right is not limited by the fact of logging approvals from the Ministry of Forests.

These are important details in the reasons for judgment. If a judge couldn't’t see, for example, how patently absurd it is that the purveyor of water isn’t allowed to control land use in the source area of public water supply; I would really be scratching my head!

Downside

The court basically found that the Local Board of Health was unreasonable in not accepting the opinions of the most credentialed presenters during the public hearing. In other words, the forest industry’s consultants said that the trees don’t matter and we didn’t have equally credentialed experts saying otherwise. So the court sided with the “experts”. To bad for us; the court’s finding is reasonable but not very enlightened and not helpful. It doesn’t change the fact that protection of the trees in the watershed is necessary and in the public interest (and that this is overwhelmingly supported by the best currently available scientific information).

Current Situation

Western came into our watershed to log this past summer and this touched off a brawl. The public at every level, fought tooth and nail every inch of the way. In the end, Western got most of logs they were after but they spent $3 on lawyers and consultants for every dollar they made on logging. We haven’t yet achieved control of the watersheds but we’ve put out a very strong message that we can and will act massively to defend our watersheds and we will not be ignored.

The basic issue here is that the public through the SC Regional District needs to have control over the watersheds in order to provide safe water in sufficient quantity to the public in perpetuity. We need to continue focusing on this simple fact. This has been a battle royal but just one episode of many. I am optimistic, a great deal has been accomplished. I congratulate you on all your efforts. We will continue…….

Cheers!  Daniel Bouman

The Judges decision in full can be read here