Almost three years to the day after it was unveiled in draft form, the Pender Harbour dock management plan was dropped on the public Wednesday as a fait accompli.
In substance, the plan that’s now in effect appears to differ very little from the draft plan that was so passionately rejected by a large and vocal segment of the Pender Harbour community. The zone system was kept in place, including the red zone where no new docks will be allowed and existing unauthorized docks will have to be removed. While environmental and archeological studies were carried out in accordance with consultant Barry Penner’s recommendations in 2016, the end result will seem nugatory to residents who expected a rethinking of some of the draft plan’s key assumptions. There were also strong expectations that the provincial government would go back to the community’s dock management plan working group and take its views into account before imposing a final plan, but that’s not how it played out, working group chair Leonard Lee said Thursday morning. “It’s quite bothersome,” Lee said, “that in their news release they said they consulted with us. They didn’t.”
Protecting archeological resources and “advancing collaborative management between the shíshálh Nation and the province” are major objectives of the dock plan – and for shíshálh Nation, the protocols in place are seen as long overdue. The archeological survey conducted for the province by North Vancouver-based Inlailawatash Limited Partnership “shows that no portion of the project area can be considered low potential for archeological materials” and that “any development in the project area has the potential to destructively impact archeological materials; with many impacts having already occurred.” Whether applying for a new or replacement tenure, dock owners will be obliged to engage and consult with shíshálh Nation, identifying critical habitat and commissioning a preliminary field reconnaissance assessment of archeological resources. Depending on the site, those could be only the first steps.
The dock plan represents a historic shift in managing the foreshore at Pender Harbour, but it effectively ends a moratorium on dock construction that’s lasted for 15 years. More than 300 dock owners can now begin the application process for replacement tenures. How those applications move forward will be the real test.
The plan is a done deal. Let’s hope patience and goodwill can prevail on all sides.
