50 YEARS ON THE BC COAST

On June 14, colleagues from CPAWS-BC and West Coast Environmental Law had the pleasure of hand-delivering an astounding 405 postcards to Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Kelly Greene. We enjoyed reading the messages about your desire to see a strong Coastal Marine Strategy for BC. From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to thank everyone who took the time to write one of these postcards. You’ve shown us the true meaning of teamwork and helped move the dial on coastal stewardship.

The Government of BC released a What We Heard Report to summarize nearly 1,000 public feedback submissions on the Coastal Marine Strategy Policy Intentions Paper. The issues of most concern for respondents were restoration of wild salmon populations, addressing marine pollution, and incorporating legislation in the strategy. Moreover, 88% of survey respondents felt the province was on the right track with Coastal Marine Strategy development. For more information, read “Our Key Takeaways on Public Feedback”.

The ministry releases a Policy Intentions Paper for the BC Coastal Marine Strategy that was co-written with representatives from coastal First Nations. The Policy Intentions Paper lays out 6 outcomes they want to see achieved for coastal marine areas across British Columbia, as well as 30 policy intentions to get us there.

The Ministry will engage coastal First Nations’ leadership on a process for developing a Coastal Marine Strategy and key priorities. Then in collaboration, they will draft an intentions paper. Following this step, we expect further engagement over this government’s mandate to develop a made-in-BC Coastal Marine Strategy.

For the first time, the Government of BC commits to developing a Coastal Marine Strategy in partnership with First Nations and other orders of government, as a means to preserve coastal marine ecosystems and in turn, growing coastal economies. Minister of State for Lands and Natural Resource Operations, Nathan Cullen, is tasked with leading the development of this strategy.

A big win for sustainable ecosystem-based ocean management occurs when a co-initiative between Indigenous nations and the Provincial government completes its marine plans for the Great Bear Sea. The initiative, called the Marine Plan Partnership (MaPP) for the North Pacific Coast, would go on to win the inaugural BC Reconciliation Award in 2021.

Here in BC, MLA Harold Steves introduces a private member’s bill to establish a Coastal Commission Act to better manage coastal areas. Unfortunately, the bill was not passed by the legislature.