Skip to content

Craigan hails start of new era, sets Feb. 28 for Pender community event

First Nations

In a rousing address to more than 100 Pender Harbour area residents last Saturday, Sechelt (shíshálh) First Nation Chief Calvin Craigan proclaimed a “whole new era” of joint resource management and coexistence with communities on the Sunshine Coast.

Speaking at the launch of the Egmont/Pender Harbour Official Community Plan (OCP) review, Craigan introduced his council members and some key unelected officials from the band, touched on the pending dock management plan and reconciliation agreement with the province, explained why Sechelt was constructing longhouses on public parkland, and announced Feb. 28 as the date for a day-long cultural event to be held in the same venue, the community hall at Madeira Park.

“We want to announce that we will be engaging the community, engaging the schools, bringing you parts of [our] history, of who we are, our culture, how we utilized the land, how we respected the land and how the land sustained our people,” Craigan told the receptive audience.

“We want to share that with you because we think it’s of utter importance in terms of how we try to protect and sustain the values that are in this territory, from here to Egmont, right up to Jervis Inlet.”

Engaging the Pender Harbour area communities was part of a larger outreach, Craigan said.

“We’re engaging with the people in Gibsons, Roberts Creek, eventually in the District of Sechelt,” he said, noting the District had declared “that they understand and accept that they do sit on band land … and those people in the District don’t feel threatened by our presence, even though we’ve been here for thousands of years.”

Historically, he said, former chiefs welcomed newcomers and “always accommodated them,” sharing land, resources and knowledge — “and we just want to continue that process, the vision that the old chiefs had.”

Concluding his opening remarks, Craigan said to booming applause: “I think there’s a whole new era that’s beginning here,” as the Sechelt Nation and local governments on the Coast work collaboratively to protect areas like Mount Elphinstone, agree on a common future and determine “how are we going to protect the most beautiful country in all of Canada?”

Fielding a question from one woman on the band’s motives for placing a longhouse at Garden Bay Marine Provincial Park in September, Craigan conceded the action was intended to send a message to the provincial government following the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling last June on Aboriginal title.

“We wanted to send a message that we still had a presence within the park system,” he said, adding the Sechelt had never been consulted nor given their consent before parks were established in their territory, yet park master plans included an Aboriginal cultural component that was never spelled out.

“So we see these small little longhouses as a contribution to let the general public know that we are still here, we’ve been here for thousands of years. The land those parks sit on was originally ours and … when the reconciliation comes down, we’re going to pursue how we are going to share those values, those park systems.”

In a brief address, Coun. Garry Feschuk said he was looking forward to “how we can work together and put away those fears. There may be some fears of us putting up some longhouses, but to me, why can’t we coexist together? We’re not looking at taking anything over. It’s our presence, having our presence here. How can we share our culture?”

While he did not go into details on the dock management plan, Craigan said the agreement that’s being negotiated with the province is “a really good system that takes into consideration that some of you people are new to this area, some of you have been here for many, many years.”

Pointing to a fisherman who had complained earlier in the meeting that an OCP was too rigid to fit the realities of land uses in Pender Harbour, Craigan said: “We understand where he’s coming from. He’s been here for many, many years, yet changes are happening. How do we accommodate that? We’re hoping that our input will help that. We’re hoping that our input will lay out some visual long-term plans that will work for all of us.”

On the larger reconciliation agreement, Craigan predicted it would be completed “fairly soon, and we’re very hopeful that you will be with us when we do that. The premier promises she’ll be here to cut the ribbon.”

While the OCP launch was eclipsed by the presence of the Sechelt delegation, Craigan spoke to the importance of Sechelt participating in the OCP process, especially to ensure the preservation of watersheds and salmon-bearing streams.

Resource director Sid Quinn, who had participated in the last OCP in 1998, said one of the major accomplishments that came out of that process was saving the Sakinaw salmon.

“Eight years ago there were 29 fish, the year after that there was one fish, the next two cycles there were no fish,” Quinn said. However, “working together with the community, with the SCRD, with the residents and Department of Fisheries and Oceans,” the return count in the last four years has been 554 fish (in 2011), 244 (in 2012), 134 (in 2013) and 464 last year.

“It’s really great to see those fish coming back and being part of the ecosystem,” Quinn said to heavy applause, comparing the phenomenon to “the lights coming back on in the lake.”

Egmont/Pender Harbour director Frank Mauro described the OCP as “a vision of the community” and said the current update was “a major milestone … and an invaluable opportunity for the community to have input.”

Citing the 2011 census, senior planner Andrew Allen noted the Pender Harbour area’s population was on average older than the rest of the Sunshine Coast and the number of homes occupied by “usual residents,” at 57 per cent, was substantially lower than the B.C. or Coast average.

“One of the challenges — and we saw it in Halfmoon Bay — is reaching out to those off-Coast property owners,” Allen said. “It’s significant, almost half of the community, so that’s something we want to explore in the review.”

Allen said the SCRD is looking for 12 to 15 people from different parts of the plan area, with a good mix of skills and backgrounds, to serve on the OCP review advisory committee. Anyone interested can email him at andrew.allen@scrd.ca.

The targeted date for adoption of the revised OCP is July 2016.