As the Sunshine Coast Regional District and Sechelt weigh their responses to the name change proposals for Madeira Park and Wilson Creek, some community members are raising concerns about the practical implications of adopting a new name.
In its letter to the SCRD on the Madeira Park proposal, the Pender Harbour and Area Residents Association (PHARA) summed up some of those concerns.
“If adopted in its current form it would subject its residents and government to enormous hardship, loss of identity (branding) and cost,” PHARA said.
“The name Madeira Park will no longer appear on maps. Businesses and residents would be forced to change their address and personal identification, banking information, credit cards and all government documentation including passports. The federal post office names would have to be changed. All of this would be costly to the federal, provincial and local governments as well as each individual resident.”
According to the province’s geographical naming guidelines: “Only official place names are used on BC Lands maps and in publications. Editors of official government maps and reports are encouraged to use only official place names when depicting or describing geographical features.”
And a spokesperson for the Heritage Branch of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRORD), which oversees the Geographical Names Office, told Coast Reporter, “If a geographical name is officially changed, the previous name will forever form part of the official name record and information about it will remain publicly available in the BC Geographical Names Information System … to ensure that the history associated with names is maintained as a record.”
The Heritage Branch said that for an unincorporated community, such as Madeira Park and Wilson Creek, “postal codes will not change so citizens will continue to receive mail sent to their previous address.”
Valérie Chartrand of Canada Post media relations said when a new name is adopted the postal service works with the responsible local government on the next steps and if those steps include changes that impact mailing addresses, “we provide free mail redirection service for one year, so they have enough time to manage this change and ensure a smooth transition.”
As for other changes, like driver’s licences or health cards, the Heritage Branch spokesperson said changing “government ID would happen on the normal ID renewal schedule – or earlier if desired.”
