Editor:
Roberts Creek director Mark Lebbell’s defence of SCRD advisory committees (“Kudos to our committees,” Letters, Feb. 26) demonstrates what’s been wrong with the system for a long time. Both his area and Halfmoon Bay have done well with a system controlled by present and past SCRD leadership that frustrates public input from Sechelt, Gibsons, Pender Harbour and rural areas in Howe Sound.
In giving kudos to the folks in Roberts Creek, Mr. Lebbell fails to mention the role of selective reception of recommendations that favour some areas when it comes to dividing up the budget for things like recreation.
The recent advisory planning group involved with the Lily Lake Trail in Madeira Park resulted in members walking away in disgust when their work was ignored. My own negative experience as a member of two SCRD advisory committees saw me cheering when the SCRD announced a move to replace the current fragmented committee structure with science-led integrated community roundtables to generate policy alternatives covering everything from watershed protection to waste management.
Beginning in 2003, when I was chair of the Area A Quality Water Association, Pender taxpayers were forced to take legal action to force the SCRD to formulate a master water plan that resulted in SCRD unification of tiny, dangerous water systems and a local water treatment plan. With financial help from West Coast Environmental Law and community fundraisers, we were able to overcome SCRD lack of responsiveness with a court order, even though the SCRD leadership spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting us.
The real kudos should go to the newer members of the SCRD who are overruling the unhappy old boys of both sexes who have dominated the board for too long. Replacing the “adversarial committees” with a responsive system is overdue.
Joe Harrison, Garden Bay
