Wednesday May 31st, 2023
The Atlin Whisper “Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world.” Margaret Mead
HI JINGO IN THE B.C. LANDS DEPARTMENT? ‘Hi Jingo’ is a term often used by police departments and the military to describe questionable dealings that take place in the upper echelons, behind closed doors. The term also seems to come up when governments sidestep proper procedure in favour of political expediency, special interests, or both. Many Atlin residents are wondering whether they might be seeing the results of some hi jingo that may have taken place in B.C.’s Lands Department. Between 2019 & 2020, pretty well all the Land Act Conservation Lands, inclusive of UREPs (recreational reserves) & NOIs (notices of intent) with conservation sub-purposes, were cancelled by Authorizations Manager, Bobby Love, across the entire Skeena Region. In Atlin’s case (and many others I suspect), this was done without any consultation with the public or their representative bodies. Our only governing body, ACID, was left completely in the dark in this matter, as were the residents and stakeholders in the community. How could this happen? In Atlin, it began with Authorizations requesting that B.C. Parks, who held an interest in the Pine Creek UREP, review that UREP’s status. At this time, the presence of the Atlin Land Use Plan prompted Parks to suggest its status be returned to Land Authorizations, with the understanding that an informed community would have input in the matter as required in the “Impacts Assessement Process.” To quote B.C. Parks’ Nancy White: “BC Parks proposed to reach out directly to the communities, and Crown Lands staff agreed that time would be provided.” Well, it wasn’t. Authorizations manager Bobby Love took it out of B.C. Parks’ hands and summarily cancelled the UREP status without notice of cancellation, and without any public input whatsoever. When asked why, Love refused to publicly share the rationalization for the cancellation. Again, why? Just like those old TV detectives, I have a lot of trouble with ‘coincidences’. They prompt me to ask questions like “what could be going on with that land that might require a summary decision to change a long standing land status without public input.” Well, in Atlin’s case, consider the following: Between 2014 and 2016 a limited corporation - the Atlin Tlingit Economic Limited Partnership - secured government funding for a pre-feasibility study towards the development of a hydro project on public lands. Following that, a full-bore Feasibility Study led to project development that continued into 2022. The centre of the activity was to be the location of the UREP at the outflow of Pine Creek. To a public increasingly critical of government bodies, this sort of thing looks like hi jingo, smells like hi jingo, and quacks like hi jingo. I believe the B.C. government has some splainin’ to do, starting with B.C. Land Authorizations. Let’s make sure we get those answers. In the meantime, let’s ask for our damn UREP back. Paul Lucas