The Sunshine Coast Conservation Association (SCCA) has received direction from the provincial ombudsman on how to proceed with their complaint against the District of Sechelt (DOS) and the Ministry of Forests (MOF).
The SCCA filed a complaint with the ombudsman against the MOF for granting Sechelt's community forest licence and against the DOS for "abuse of process" relating to the licence.
The ombudsman recently directed the SCCA to forward their specific complaints to the DOS and MOF and allow the parties time to formulate a "reasonable response" to the complaints.
The SCCA did that late last week and they are now awaiting a response.
Executive director for the SCCA Dan Bouman said he expects the MOF will respond "in an appropriate way" shortly, but he is unsure how the DOS will respond. "I have no idea how they will respond, but if we are not satisfied with the response, we will go back to the ombudsman," Bouman said.
Sechelt Mayor Cam Reid said that the DOS will respond appropriately, but he maintained he felt the District did nothing wrong in regards to the community forest process.
"I think we had a very open process and staff were very diligent. As we look at the community consultation process, we did far more than other areas like Powell River that had one limited public meeting, for example. I would like the community to work with us to make our community forest successful and I'm disappointed some continue to criticize," he said.
Specific complaints against the DOS include failure to comply with application requirements, inadequate public consultation, falsified information relating to public support, failure to provide adequate response to concerns raised, not acting in good faith with regard to the signing of the Joint Watershed Management Agreement and inappropriate influence by special interest groups.
Specific complaints against the MOF centre around the ministry's granting of a community forest licence to the DOS. Complaints allege the ministry failed to ensure the District's application met all requirements necessary, they wrongfully allowed and directed the DOS to evade disclosure and public consultation responsibilities, they improperly assisted the DOS, and they knowingly accepted false information from the DOS.
Richard Coleman, Minister of Forests and Range, was unavailable for comment when contacted this week by Coast Reporter.There was no timeline set by the ombudsman for the MOF and DOS to respond to the allegations, but Bouman said they hope to get some answers soon.
