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Sechelt Nation backs plan to protect lower slopes

Mount Elphinstone
SIB Chapman
Sechelt Nation Coun. Chris August (right) and rights and title director Jasmine Paul appear before the SCRD board on Nov. 13.

Efforts to expand Mount Elphinstone Provincial Park to 1,500 hectares got a major boost last week when the shíshálh (Sechelt) First Nation announced it was moving to protect the portion of the disputed area that lies within its territory.

Coun. Chris August, accompanied by rights and title director Jasmine Paul, made the historic announcement at the Nov. 13 SCRD board meeting.

“We’re here to announce that we will be protecting an important portion, with the SCRD, of Mount Elphinstone that is critical for our drinking water,” August told the board. “We want to make that stand with you guys.”

Calling the occasion “a really powerful moment for me,” Roberts Creek director Donna Shugar said it was “the first bright light we’ve seen in a very long time” on an issue that has dragged on for more than 30 years.

“Going forward together makes our case very, very strong, very powerful,” Shugar said, “and I’m really excited about the very real possibility that this actually might be realized.”

In his presentation, August thanked the SCRD board for collaborating on vital interests such as the Chapman and Gray Creek watersheds, and Shugar in particular for making a case to protect the local drinking water above Highway 101 in Roberts Creek.

“We know that water is a very scarce thing to have — it’s a precious resource to our people — and we want to and look forward to continuing our work with you guys to protect drinking water from Mount Elphinstone,” August said.

In a statement released the next day, Chief Calvin Craigan reiterated the pledge.

“In support of our working relationship and after considerable dialogue, we have chosen to protect this area from industrial development,” Craigan said. “We will be working with the SCRD, as we have in the Chapman and Gray Creek watersheds, to develop collaborative management.”

As the proposed park spans shíshálh and Squamish First Nation traditional territories, a meeting is being set up early in the new year with the Squamish chief and council to seek their support for protecting the Squamish portion of the 1,500 hectares.

Mount Elphinstone Provincial Park currently consists of three isolated parcels on the mountain’s lower slopes that total about 140 hectares. The proposal to expand the park has been advocated by environmental groups for years and is supported by the Roberts Creek official community plan.

Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF), which has been a vocal proponent of the park expansion in recent years, hailed the shíshálh decision but noted that up to 20 cutblocks have already been logged within the area.

“What remains is a fragment of its former self,” ELF’s Ross Muirhead said.

“Since 2010, ELF has been lobbying BC Timber Sales and the Sunshine Coast Community Forest to back away from logging these natural forests in the 1,500-hectare zone, made several trails to get the public into previously unseen areas, conducted research into the area’s ecology and now looks forward to a new chapter that means the full protection of the remaining intact, natural forests within the 1,500-hectare zone, which provides dozens of free environmental services to surrounding communities,” Muirhead said.

About 300 properties above Highway 101 in Roberts Creek are not connected to the regional water system but instead rely on wells or gravity feed systems from creeks, Shugar said Wednesday.

“There are people who get their water from streams still,” she said.

In his statement, Craigan backed the move by citing the Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark tsilhqot’in (Chilcotin) decision on Aboriginal title.

“The courts clearly articulated what shíshálh always knew — that Aboriginal title is alive and well,” he said. “Consent for development has always been required within shíshálh territory. Tsilhqot’in unlocked new doors for reconciliation, doors which we are opening.”