Category: Timeline Stories

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.

The implementation of BC’s Coastal Marine Strategy is both a promising and necessary first step towards a brighter future for coastal communities across BC, both for those who live on land and in the water. We know that this is the start of all the hard work that lies ahead, as things like species recovery […]

Intensifying climate change impacts, record low salmon runs, and increasing demands over resources continue to negatively impact coastal communities and ecosystems, making the need for a Coastal Marine Strategy more urgent than ever.

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 […]

British Columbia enacts legislation requiring the province to bring its law and practices into harmony with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) – this includes its marine management regime.

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.

The federal Oceans Act comes into force and the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans & the Canadian Coast Guard is put in charge of developing a national oceans strategy in collaboration with provincial governments, Indigenous organizations and coastal communities.

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.

With coastal development accelerating, and pressure from a burgeoning environmental movement, states along the Pacific US coast adopt some of the first modern Coastal Marine Strategies. These plans bring together the federal government, Indigenous tribes, and local governments.