None of the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors were very surprised to find out that in Minister of Health George Abbot's newly introduced Bill 23, the ability of local governments to form a local board of health when necessary had been gutted from the new Public Health Act.
"We were very bad boys to get this all stirred up. We used the tools available to us and now we're going to be penalized," said SCRD board chair Ed Steeves at the April 24, SCRD corporate and administrative committee.
Steeves' reference to getting things "all stirred up" refers to the SCRD convening as a local board of health last summer to deal with complaints that logging in the Chapman Creek watershed posed a drinking water health risk. Under the previous health act, local governments like the SCRD had the authority to become a local board of health and hold an inquiry into this type of complaint. One of the reasons for this ability was justified in the fact that regional districts like the SCRD are the purveyors of water and as such, have a responsibility to provide safe drinking water to the people who trust and rely on them - the community. "They [the provincial government] have taken the voice of local government away," said Steeves.
However, as noted by West Howe Sound director Lee Turnbull, the SCRD has all the responsibility and none of the authority when it comes to what happens in the watershed. She said the provincial government's retaliation was disappointing, but not surprising.
Gibsons Mayor Barry Janyk said the Ministry of Health should be invited to an SCRD board meeting "to explain their rationale." Janyk said the changes to the health act with the new Bill 23 are all about the SCRD taking a stand last year and this bill is a predictable result.
"The government is ripping away powers that rightly belong in these chambers, [taking them] out of our hands," Janyk said.
Information on the new act states that "the legislation doesn't continue the explicit power of local government as local boards of health." The information also says, "the Minister is quite clear that this power should now be in the hands of the health authorities."
The corporate services committee recommended that information on the new health act be referred to the watershed committee so that further strategies and planning on this issue can take place.
