Skip to content

Pender advisory council aims to unite residents with name change

The Pender Harbour Advisory Council (PHAC) is considering a name change and has welcomed Pender Harbour Dock Management Plan Working Group chair Sean McAllister to its board.
PHAC
Alan Stewart, Pender Harbour Advisory Council president, announced the name change at the area’s Sept. 14 town hall meeting.

The Pender Harbour Advisory Council (PHAC) is considering a name change and has welcomed Pender Harbour Dock Management Plan Working Group chair Sean McAllister to its board.

Alan Stewart, PHAC’s president, announced the name change at the area’s Sept. 14 town hall meeting. The new name, Pender Harbour and Area Residents Association, is intended to be “more of a representative group,” and will be introduced as a resolution at a spring meeting, Stewart told Coast Reporter.

McAllister was elected to the PHAC board by acclamation at its AGM, also on Sept. 14.

Stewart said the move to change the name and bring McAllister on to PHAC’s board was recommended by the dock plan working group’s legal counsel, John Weston. Currently, the working group sits “under the umbrella” of the Pender Harbour Chamber of Commerce.

Stewart said the working group would be a “co-sponsored endeavour between the PHAC and the Chamber of Commerce.”

“The groups wouldn’t amalgamate; there will just be a relationship between the two. And a board member from the dock management plan working group would join our board, and that’s what happened,” Stewart said.

The aim is for the working group to represent residents and homeowners rather than just businesses. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense for people who are contesting the dock management plan to have their voice from the Chamber of Commerce,” Stewart said.

As for the name change, Stewart called the PHAC “a challenging name,” and that swapping it for Pender Harbour and Area Residents Association would help people grasp the point of the organization, which is to represent the area’s communities. He said the organization also wants to increase its membership to 1,000. As of Sept. 14, it had 150 members.

At the town hall meeting, Bill Charlton, also a member of the dock management plan working group, suggested the closer ties to the PHAC could bring more legitimacy to the working group. “We need to be united as we go forward,” he said before encouraging people to sign up as PHAC members. “Any issue that comes up, we’ll tackle it together,” Charlton said.

McAllister, a retired lawyer from Alberta, also provided an update at the town hall meeting about the working group. He said he has reviewed two “extensive legal opinions” that were obtained since the plan was released. “They’re lengthy, they’re detailed and they’re not optimistic with respect to commencing any legal proceedings today,” he said. He also said they are trying to “explore all possibilities before heading down that path.”