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New Super Ministry Now Decides on BC's Environment

Campbell's cabinet shuffle concentrates power over water and land use into one office.

By Andrew MacLeod, 29 Oct 2010, TheTyee.ca

Steve Thomson, minister of resource operations

Steve Thomson, minister of resource operations.

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In the days after British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell announced a major reshuffling of his cabinet Oct. 25, it was clear one of the largest and least understood changes was to how natural resources will be managed in the province.

The shuffle created a Natural Resource Operations ministry, with Steve Thomson at its head. The new ministry picked up two dozen responsibilities, including providing permission for forestry, independent power production, aquaculture, mines, water use and wildlife management.

Many of the responsibilities -- laid out in a 44-page Order in Council document (available below right) -- were pulled from existing ministries responsible for forestry, energy, the environment, aboriginal relations, and agriculture and lands. The new ministry is to work in an integrated way with the ministries that remain responsible for those areas, a government document suggests.

"I think it's just a flip flop," said Will Horter, the executive director of the Dogwood Initiative. "Another flip flop."

The move contradicts the Liberal government's reputation as good managers, he said. "In terms of managing their ministries, it's like shuffle board."

The new ministry seems reminiscent of the Sustainable Resources Ministry created by the Campbell government in 2001, he said. That ministry, along with Water, Land and Air Protection, was later disbanded and its duties transferred to Environment and other ministries.

The civil servant who led SRM, former deputy minister Jon O'Riordan, told Public Eye however the new ministry is more like a supercharged Land and Water British Columbia Inc., which was closed in 2005. "[The new ministry] not only issues water and land permits but it also issues all the forest permits and mining permits and access to Crown land. The only thing that's left outside that is the pollution permits from environment," he said.

University of British Columbia forestry professor George Hoberg called it a dramatic reorganization, even without the details available, Public Eye also reported. A student drew up a flow chart in an attempt to understand the new structure.

One land manager

A nine-page background document (available below right) for government staff describing the reorganization, obtained and shared with The Tyee by West Coast Environmental Law, makes it clear the change is dramatic.

"Increasing levels of resource use activity and complexity have made a more integrated or 'One Land Manager' approach to land and resource management in B.C. essential," the document said. "Sustaining priority services such as promoting economic activity and sustainable development requires a more nimble and responsive ability to shift and allocate resources."

Related Document

Related Document

The re-organization is aimed at "a number of key and well known barriers to moving towards our vision for 'One Land Manager,'" it said.

Those barriers include industry having to deal with multiple legal frameworks and statutes among the nine agencies previously dealing with natural resources, it said. Different agencies had different approaches to risk management, creating an "inefficient and unnecessarily complex approach to land management."

"Our current approach lacks coordination and often causes unnecessary delays before decisions are made. This translates to a lack of certainty for client who ends up confused and frustrated by delays, multiple 'asks' for information, and works as a disincentive to certainty an economic investment [sic]"

While the various ministries continue to play a role, "Most operational activities will be the responsibility of the ministry of natural resource operations. NRO is configured to provide integrated operational decision making and resource stewardship functions."

The change is not about reducing staff numbers or budgets, it said. "It is about realigning staff and budgets to better deliver on government's priorities."

Industry over environment

The mandate of the new ministry and structure appears to get approvals to industry to use public land and resources as quickly as possible, said Andrew Gage, staff counsel for West Coast Environmental Law.

He called it a "promotion of economic development at all costs kind of movement." While streamlining can be okay, he said, "If I thought it could be done in a way that protects the environment I wouldn't be opposed. I just don't see it."

It looks like everything industry needs -- approval and permitting processes -- are going into one ministry, while everything the public needs -- environmental protection -- is going into another, he said. "What does that mean for budgetting?"

While NRO will likely be well funded, it looks like environment will be reduced to setting policies and hoping the other ministries implement them, he said.

"This is being driven by access to industry and cutbacks," he said. "There's no doubt underfunding the ministries is doing this to a large extent."

The government needs to have a broader discussion about these changes, one that looks at the need to protect the environment alongside industry's goals, he said.

Weak enviro minister

The new structure is unlikely to make any difference to the decision making process until the questions of aboriginal rights and title are fully resolved, said Dogwood's Horter. "The land title question is still up in the air," he said. "None of the underlying issues have been resolved."

He also wondered whether Murray Coell as environment minister will be able to provide a counterbalance to the new industry-favouring process. In nine years Coell has been "asleep at the wheel or missing in action" on environmental issues, including those important to the capital region, said Horter.

"You put a weak minister of environment in place that's supposed to provide checks and balances in terms of the environment being watched," he said. "That's not a good sign."

The reorganization appears to be in tune with the direction the Liberal government has taken since 2001, said Jim Cooperman, the president of the Shuswap Environmental Action Society in Chase.

"It's basically industry gets anything it wants," he said, adding the public and the environment aren't properly represented in decision making processes. "It's been like that since, I call them the Fiberals, took power."

The government has already overseen deregulation across the resource ministries and increased self-regulation by industry, he said. "The situation is already grim. Would this really make it any worse?"

Interview requests to government officials weren't responded to by publication time. [Tyee]

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee's Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.

27 Comments:

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  • Skywalker

    1 year ago

    Simply the campbell Liberal Agenda

    It is all about greasing the skids to quicker land use by investors and developers. Anything that greases the skids is by definition not good for prudent decision making. It is the Campbell way and to hell with public concerns. That is came with some surprise tax cuts to smoke screen the real effects is no surprise. Campbell knows he will be gone soon, his reputation is in tatters and this is his way of screwing BC one last time. To bad one has to wait for recall or an election.

  • Peter Dimitrov

    1 year ago

    Background info on Minister Steve Thompson

    Born and raised in Kelowna, Steve comes from a pioneer family who continue to operate the original family farm established in 1896.

    Steve is the former executive director of the BC Agriculture Council and has developed his career and experience working on behalf of British Columbia farmers and ranchers. He has served as General Manager of the BC Fruit Growers Association and the BC Milk Producers Association.

    He has been selected for many leadership roles and advisory positions dedicated to the continuous improvement of our province. Steve brings to his role of MLA for Kelowna Mission extensive leadership expertise, experience in economic development and a clear understanding of how to get things done in government. He has served the community and province as president of the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce and chair of the BC Chamber of Commerce and has represented those organizations and others on provincial government task forces focused on red tape reduction and small business development.

    He has also served as a director of the Kelowna Museum, the Okanagan Innovation Fund and the BC BioEnergy Network.

    .....

    so he has a clear understanding how to get "things" "done" --- should be "interesting" times ahead?????

  • Van Isle

    1 year ago

    Thanx for the info Pete. Do

    Thanx for the info Pete. Do you think Mr. Thompson could be a replacement for Gordo? With his background one would think that he would have a better understanding of business than that of Gordo's hucksterism.

  • whatthe

    1 year ago

    Horter hears a who?

    Is that the same Will Horter who ensured the liberal threepeat by fawning all over the then Minsiter of the environment?

    [OFFENSIVE COMMENT REMOVED. -MODERATOR.]

  • Aspired

    1 year ago

    Planning for retirement

    He can read the writing on the wall, our premier is not just planning for his own retirement. Time is of essence here. With this super ministry, he can easily and quickly give away our natural resources to big international resource corporations in exchange for cushy jobs for his gang after voters throw them out.

    Hope Tyee will keep a close eye on this ministry.

  • Morg

    1 year ago

    Ministry of Destruction

    Instead of Gordo and his pathetic Liberal government having many ministries of destruction they now have a super ministry of destruction .This ministry will speed up the logging of the last of the old-growth forest the selling off of BC rivers the mining of any critcal habitat they want and who can forget more fish farms.These guys have to go now! we cant wait three year.

  • Hugh

    1 year ago

    Speaking of IPP projects, BC

    Speaking of IPP projects, BC Hydro is buying power from them at up to $125/MWh. The mid-c market price is at $31.70 right now, as seen on this site:

    http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/

    I don't think the mid-c price has gone much above $50/MWh all year. It's been as low as $7/MWh.

    Is this the price BC Hydro exports for, can someone explain, thanks.

  • Skywalker

    1 year ago

    Hugh

    While BC Hydro pays this inflated and obscene price so that IPP's will be very profitable for the investors they even provide power to BC industry at "Heritage Power" prices. After the contracts with BC Hydro expire in a few decades the IPP's don't have to sell to BC Hydro. They have access to the grid and can sell to anyone. BC will then have to pay market prices and compete with the U.S. demand for that power.

    We are being taken to the cleaners by these clowns. The lower cost hydro advantage we have enjoyed ever since WAC Bennett took over BC Electric will be a past pleasant memory.

  • samuidave (not verified)

    1 year ago

    Spin it as you wish, Peter Dimitrov

    As for Steve Thomson, though he may be a "man of experience, balance and leadership" holding the dubious website claim of wanting to "help keep BC strong" (as if it was not in need of life support at this time), the fact he embedded himself with the rot of Gordon Campbell and the Liberals just prior to the 2009 election tells me far more about his judgment and ethical character than his leadership achievements in government.

    Seriously, after 8 years of Gordon Campbell's corruption in office, you join his team??? Give me a break.

    But carry on folks -- heads Liberals, tails NDP.

  • Peter Dimitrov

    1 year ago

    Samidave- where have you been the last 5 years?

    First,Samuidave, I infer you have not followed my posts on Tyee over the past 5plus years,where I have persistently gone after GC and the Fiberals on a multitude of issues. That you would suggest in the form of a rhetorical question that " I join his team" -is completely "wacko" as many readers of Tyee could attest to. I have been called many things over the years but never a person to "join King Campbell and his Fiberals". I posted biographical info of him, without comment not to spin anything, but to give readers some info who the new Minister is because he is fairly unknown.

  • Peter Dimitrov

    1 year ago

    Let Democratic Subsidiarity Rule!!

    IMO, this is one more example of top down authoritarianism gone wild in this Province. Behind the Minister, will be a board of appointed Deputy Ministers from the previous line-ministeries that are now mostly folded into the NRO Ministry, who as political mandarins will have enormous power to approve projects and propose new legislation to the Minister. This is a model that will enhance efficiency and corporate lobbying while minimizing genuine democratic participation by the citizens of BC - it does not even purport to balance those two pillars and it is nowhere near concepts related to ecological governance or 3E sustainable development. That the word sustainable is even used to describe what this NRO Ministry will do - is completely ludicrous. It will accelerate resource extraction by large corporations and the accumulation of private wealth by dispossession of public assets - and no doubt with more $ donations to Liberal party coffers. It is a sign of more dysfunctionalism,cronyism, corruptions, yet more adherence to professional managers, like the unelected Transit Board that levies taxes, like the unelected Regional Health Boards; like the lobotomization of the BC Utilities Commission that once declared the IPP route was not in the public interest.

    There are good alternatives, one of which was articulated by Corky Evans and the citizens of the Slocan Valley some 40 years ago, namely devolve resource management decisions on a watershed basis, disperse political and fiscal power away from Victoria mandarins, give democracy oxygen and allow citizens and First Nations who will be impacted by forestry/mining, hydro, etc land uses have much more of a say. In essence, let subsidiarity rule, not top down authoritarian 'harmonization'. All this is possible due to the colonial institutions of governance imposed on this Province, which the Liberals comprehend all too well.

  • Peter Dimitrov

    1 year ago

    Some info for Samuidave

    In January 2007 I was the person who made public a very detailed research report on King Campbell's IPP plans for hundreds of BC rivers and creeks - it was published at my former website bcpolitics.ca and on others too. I also attended numerous public meetings on that subject, made numerous appearances on various media, including CBC, with Professor John Calvert, co-op radio, etc. Furthermore, said report was provided to Gwen Barlee of Western Wilderness, Tom Rankin of Save Our Rivers, and to Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of UBCIC -which gave them info to do their own advocacy campaigns on this issue.

    As well, see this 5 minute You Tube speech I gave:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SEaZJCV1a0

    I am not sure which side of the 'fence' you and your interests lie, but if you are not a Campbell supporter - then we are on the same side - so get informed :)

  • lynn

    1 year ago

    The Wrecking Crew shifts into warp speed

    Quote:

    "This is a model that will enhance efficiency and corporate lobbying while minimizing genuine democratic participation by the citizens of BC ....It will accelerate resource extraction by large corporations and the accumulation of private wealth by dispossession of public assets - and no doubt with more $ donations to Liberal party coffers. It is a sign of more dysfunctionalism,cronyism, corruptions, yet more adherence to professional managers, like the unelected Transit Board that levies taxes, like the unelected Regional Health Boards; like the lobotomization of the BC Utilities Commission that once declared the IPP route was not in the public interest"

    You are right on, Peter Dimitrov, and so is Corky Evans. This 'Super Ministry' is all about accelerating the rate of private access to our public resources and assets.

    They've already done so much damage already, that I didn't think this BC Liberal Wrecking Crew could go much faster - but it looks like they've found a way.......

    The grand theft and grand neglect of the democratic process continues on....

    For Gordon Campbell and the Fiberals, who have turned BC into their own private real estate club for anointed friends, this new and conveniently conjoined Ministry of Many Hats, is a way of centralizing the controlling hand over the 'further' selling off of the public resources and assets of BC.

    It must be a control freak's idea of paradise.

  • F-Stop

    1 year ago

    A Decade of Going Backwards

    Having managed natural resources in B.C. for 25 years, I'd like to say that this is the decade where we have taken a step backwards after taking a couple steps forward in the 80's and 90's.

    In the 80's and 90's B.C. was actually making good progress of moving out of the 'expoitation' phase of natural resources - into a more balanced 'resource management phase' - and we were poised to take the next step to better integrate environmental wealth into our economic resource management balance sheet.

    Then along came Campbell. First thing he did, and is still doing, is to kill land use planning - a place where the public gets informed so that they want to (and can) have a say in how our natural resources are managed. Many public servants did not like this - some quit, some went quiet. Others saw it as an opportunity to climb the ladder into the government beaurocratic world, some thereby leaving their conscious behind.

    The lack of real land use planning has and is resulting in an erosion of the mid to long-term economic viability of some areas - for short-term gain. It is also risking some environmental values by the resultant top-down decision making, and short-term economic emphasis.

    The Liberals have not asked the public's opinion on much if any of this - not that they'd listen anyway. There appears to be some idealistic agenda here that stomps on who the majority in B.C. really are, and where we thought we were going.

    Problem is, it seems to take a blow horn to wake up the average voter in B.C. to take action. Wait, I just heard something...

  • samuidave (not verified)

    1 year ago

    Kindly Slow Down, Peter Dimitrov ;)

    I am sorry for not making myself more clear. That is my fault.

    But the body of the post was, and is, with regard to Steve Thomson and he alone. The rhetoric came on the heels of his joining the liberals in 2009, which I wrote immediately prior. That is, how can anyone knowing the GC/Liberal tactics prior to 2009, assumed to be a person of sound judgment and ethical standing, believe joining that political regime is going to allow him/her to ever be credible again? I was calling BS to his abilities other than politicking, imo.

    I addressed your 'comment', ie, the (liberal) spin on what a good guy he is, and since you posted it -- despite it not being in synch with your political positioning -- I made my subject header align on that connection.

    I suppose I wonder why you left the post not quite silent but neither completely skeptical. Being a political rival, I'd have seized the day to question his past and what the road taken really says about his ambitions.

    I suppose there may remain some who think an unknown Liberal MLA might be a solid choice for a government job ...

    ...I just think those credulous folks need a lot more help than getting up to speed on a guy's background information however.

  • Peter Dimitrov

    1 year ago

    to Samuidave

    I now understand you Samuidave, emails are not the perfect way to conduct communication. Indeed, I copied and posted his bio such as I found on the net - because I frankly have never heard of him before, and thought others likewise know zilch about him. The inferences you make of him given that he belongs to the GC team are to me right on "the money"...and that primarily is what his appointment is all about "greasing the wheels so more wealth can be extracted from the private dispossession of public assets ever more efficiently- whilst schools are closing, whilst senior care beds are in short supply, while we have an alarming child, hence family poverty rate in BC, while the minimum wage has gone nowhere fast, while BC Hydro and ratepayers are on the hook for hundreds of millions of $ to way over the top expensive IPP energy, while the HST is shoved down peoples throats, etc. ad nauseum....need I say more, no. Respectfully, Pete Dimitrov

  • North of Hope

    1 year ago

    Where is BCUC?

    This is what we get to replace BCUC because they had the audacity to tell Gordo and gang that what they were planning was not in the public's interest. This gang will decide what is in the BC Liberals friends' interest and Gordo will think all is well.

  • Peter Dimitrov

    1 year ago

    NRO is about property theft and usurption of rights.

    IMO, the title to this aricle misses the mark. The NRO is not at all about the environment or sustainable development- it is about the theft of property and the usurption of constitutional rights.

    More specifically it is about ecological land & marine resources within territorial British Columbia which the legal system has transformed into property. This property either is owned by the Provincial Crown or First Nations. The freedom that is at stake is the freedom that accompanies ownership of that property by either the Crown or First Nations, or both acting in collaboration.

    In essence, the Provincial Crown's NRO Ministry and the shadow elites of deputy ministers are seeking to usurp and use freedoms that are not lawfully theirs. They intend to benefit a small monopoly group of corporations and stockbroker /financiers and their own political party, while dispossessing the genuine owners, namely First Nations and Brtish Columbia natural persons who are resident citizens who rely upon the Provincial Crown to steward and care for public asset property.

    IMO, the framing in this article of this NRO Ministry as an 'environmental' and land use issue - and not a owner/property issue is not only not helpful but it deflects debate away from the justice issues at stake here: namely, is it just and fair for the Provincial Crown to appropriate powers to itself to commodify and dispose of ecological land & marine resources when it does not possess full clear legal title to said resources? Is it just that First Nations will again be further dispossed of their property and their rights of stewardship, and excluded from all benefits flowing from their commodification, whilst major corporations, financiers, stockbrokers, and political parties gain financially? Is it just that the majority of the citizens of this Province will be disempowered by the largely secret and unaccountable decisions of such a Ministry and the shadow elite of political appointees deputy ministers who rather than providing careful stewardship of public asset property likely intend (given their past track record) to do otherwise? Finally, who should decide?

    Lastly, this new NRO ministry was devised and hatched in secret - no consultation whatsoever with First Nations or the citizens of British Columbia, why even Campbell's own Energy Minister did not learn of it until it was fully announced/

  • HawkEyes

    1 year ago

    nimble?

    "Sustaining priority services such as promoting economic activity and sustainable development requires a more nimble and responsive ability to shift and allocate resources." Shift ...resources? What?

    The only nimble response this government knows is a slight of hand. This looks like a good one.

    Too bad the government wasn't concerned about social assistance citizins when they are dealing with the same: "This translates to a lack of certainty for client who ends up confused and frustrated by delays, multiple 'asks' for information, and works as a disincentive to certainty an economic investment [sic]".

    Sick.

  • Avalanche

    1 year ago

    Take them to court

    Can citizens of this province take a government to court if they sell and mismanage a public land? Actually how can they sell something that isn't theirs. If it is public we need to be consulted first, right? If they cause environmental damage they should be taken to court simple as that. How can we citizens do this?
    I really had enough of greedy f.heads who don't give a damn about the future's generation.

  • morechatter

    1 year ago

    Another Flop

    It gave me the shudders when I first started to read this article. Its guaranteed to be a flop for citizens of BC as it something residents have learned to count on as the Liberals take a have province and turn it over to the haves to do with as they want as residents suck up yet another betrayal from the premier of BC.

  • jnewcomb

    1 year ago

    COELL: STOP VICTORIA'S LAND-BASED SEWAGE TREATMENT!

    Murray Coell knows environment, and he knows Victoria. Now that Penner is gone, Coell must step in to stop this headlong, ignorant rush to build additional land-based sewage treatment in Victoria.

    Our current, marine-based system of two long screened outfalls and source controls works well. Costs little, creates no sewage sludge and little greenhouse gases - NOT like land-based treatment that most cities must have.

    Calling for a referendum on this unnecessary, billion-dollar plant is the least that Coell can do, given that CRD voters rejected the plant in 1992.

    For more information on the unnecessary sewage treatment plant:
    http://aresst.ca
    http://rstv.ca
    http://victoriasewagetreatment.ca/ccost/
    http://sites.google.com/site/sewageplantsvictoria/

  • Dahlia

    1 year ago

    Super Ministry

    This promises to be a very rewarding Ministry for those running it. Not that any of our Ministers would ever think of being dishonest, but if they were, it would be ever so much more rewarding, not to mention easier, to feast from one single full trough, fed by several rich streams, not just one.
    The Okanagan farm boy has certainly done well here. I would say this will be the most powerful minister in the cabinet.
    That will bear watching!

  • Piker

    1 year ago

    Read the September Issue of BC Business

    Campbell's latest brain fart/cabinet shuffle is based entirely on the bad press generated by article.

  • Fish-counter

    1 year ago

    Good idea in principle

    The old MoE used to be called, "Water, Land and Air Protection". Anything that reduces conflict between government departments has to be good.

  • mtn.caribou

    1 year ago

    MNRO

    Excellent comments here.

    It is just simply time for action NOW. Take the government to court and put a stop to their total madness. Let us stage the biggest public protest in Canadian history! We will be suing the Ministry of Environment for their failure to adequately protect Mountain Caribou from snowmobile displacement under the Stewardship Management Agreements awarded to snowmobile clubs. This was done behind closed doors after the province announced the Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Plan (MCRIP). They supported the development of a brand new snowmobile destination in legally protected Mountain Caribou habitat. It's a complete joke. The province's land use plans are legal policy documents that cost the tax payers alot of money to develop and implement. They provided meaning to the taxpayers and an avenue for public input. The government must be held accountable by the tax payers. This latest warp speed shift to total sell off and chaos of resource allocation must be stopped. The whole fundamental culture of BC is at risk of being lost. The person that spoke about the advances made in the 80's and 90's is bang on. We have no safeguards left, no enforcement, no watchdogs. Everything is centralized and privatized, Gordo doesn't even know there are people living past Surrey. Just minerals, old growth and free water to give to their friends. F the wildlife, kill the wolves, hunt grizzlies, and overhunt moose populations, is their clear strategy. These things have no value to them unless they can sell them for profit to their friends.

    Of course the MCRIP is only one small example of what is at risk. Capturing just the cost of changing the stationary could help us in the interior. F Stop you are bang on about the monkeys still left in management positions in the resource ministries. I know one that is particularly about as sharp as a broom.

    What the f have they done with all of our money...is our province bankcrupt and they forgot to tell us?

    Get mad people do something before it really is too late. There should be legislation to prevent any government from having complete free rein to play with our resources and livliehoods. I have had Kevin Krueger and Terry Lake lie to me in a face to face meeting, it's on record.

    The fiberals killed our interior forest industry and gutted BC Parks. How about the big mine planned for the headwaters of the Adams River...yes people look up Selkirk Metals in Oliver Creek which drains into the upper Adams River. Ruddock Creek property. They are currently pouring water that comes from a hole they drilled 2.0 km in to the mountains into an alpine lake which drains into the Adams River. The company has planned to build their own lead/zinc refinery right on site in the middle of the Monashee Mountains. Last month they announced they will start the process to patch into the grid near the Mica Dam.

    The largest Sockeye run in North America is very much at risk.

  • Grania

    1 year ago

    Bilderberg

    I believe Gordon went to the Bilderberg conference and sold us out for future personal advantage. He has known he is on his way out for a long time. The purpose of this Ministry is to further pillage our resouces and hand them over to multinational corporations. We need to get rid of the political infestation of our legislature before the entire structure is eaten away from the inside out!

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