Nine community groups and associations from Langdale to Powell River are joining forces, which they hope will give them more clout when their individual interests aren’t heard by government, says the new group’s chair.
The Sunshine Coast Federation of Community Associations (SCFCA) was officially incorporated on March 3, chair and Elphinstone Community Association vice president Clint Budd told Coast Reporter.
Budd said the federation “has caught everybody’s imagination.”
“If they feel they are not getting any headway, that they’re not being listened to, they can turn to us for backing,” he said, adding: “Our backing has a much louder voice than a single organization.”
Issues on the federation’s radar include watershed and old-growth forest protection, short-term rentals, participation in reconciliation, land use processes and logging.
“The significance of this new society lies in the size and extent of the membership – a community group the size of a provincial constituency with the aim of being heard and working constructively with all levels of government and industry to solve decades-long issues,” Budd said in a March 8 release.
Budd said he called about two dozen groups in total from the Upper and Lower Sunshine Coast and some are waiting until the next general meeting to take the idea to their membership before joining.
“I think this is probably the first organization that reaches across the gulf between the two [Coasts],” he said.
The initial member groups are:
• Powell River Townsite Ratepayers Society.
• Westview Ratepayers Association.
• Ruby Lake Landholders Association.
• North Lake Residents Association.
• Davis Bay-Wilson Creek-Selma Park Community Association.
• Highway 101 Society Sechelt.
• Roberts Creek Community Association.
• Elphinstone Community Association.
• West Howe Sound Community Association.
Interested groups are invited to contact Budd by email at [email protected] or by phone: 604-649-0641.
