There's quite a battle brewing between the Sechelt Indian Band and residents of Pender and Egmont.
At issue are foreshore rights and aboriginal title.
It's difficult to take sides in this issue because both groups make pretty good cases.
In one corner, you have the Sechelts, who are asserting aboriginal title to the foreshore throughout their traditional territory. The Sechelts are demanding meetings from the government to have meaningful consultation, but they seem to be getting nowhere.
In the other corner, you have many residents in Pender and Egmont who just want permission to build a dock.
Then you have the referee in all of this - the man in the middle - Land and Water B.C. LWBC is in charge of processing foreshore applications. Earlier this spring LWBC stopped accepting new lease applications for the Pender area until a foreshore study was completed.
That's all fine and good, but how about some consultation between all the parties before making this decision?
At a heated meeting on Monday with all parties present, it was pretty clear from where we sit where the blame lays - LWBC and the provincial government.
LWBC has clearly left a lot of people in the dark, and understandably both sides are upset.
They've made decisions without proper consultation. That's unacceptable.
Our MLA Harold Long also attended Monday's meeting, and he too should share in some of the blame.
After all, it's Long and the rest of his Liberal cronies in Victoria who have cut services in almost every sector of the province. LWBC is dealing with poor staffing levels, just like health services and other government agencies. It's no wonder they don't have the manpower to deal with these issues.
Long attributed many of the problems in Pender to misinformation. The reason that so-called misinformation exists is because LWBC wasn't shedding any light on the problem, and neither was Long.
Long is finally helping to get the sides to the table. It's a little late, but let's hope some common sense will prevail.
