One of the reasons council decided to hold a community vote on the national park issue at election time was that it had made a commitment to Bowen residents to gauge public opinion. And the chance to deliver on that promise would be gone once a new council is elected. On that issue, all councillors were in agreement when they endorsed holding the community vote on November 19.
Yet in council's discussions about the timing of the vote, a lack of information was repeatedly cited. And there was unease about continuing a national park process that didn't map out further stop signs and opportunities for the community to weigh in.
Councillor Doug Hooper addressed that issue in an email to fellow councillors. He suggested making a recommendation to the future council to again take the decision to the community when more hard answers were available.
"Whatever action [next council] will take is up to them but this council will deal with the outcome of the referendum question in its last few weeks prior to the termination of this term. There are some important clarifications that we can make in part in reflection of some erroneous comments that were made and that is the question whether or not this is the only and absolute time to decide the matter," he said.
"There are two things that need clarification," he added. "One is to reinforce that this council has endorsed that the majority decision will be determinative and the other thing that is important to convey to the electorate is that there is subsequent consideration based on the final proposal."
Mayor Bob Turner agreed. "We made a commitment to the community to provide a vote but we are providing a vote very early in the process and the consideration that this would be the last time the community could vote, to me, makes no sense at all."
Councillor Peter Frinton had similar concerns. He said, "People may approach a vote like this as the last chance to get a kick at the can. They think that they may end up endorsing not just the proposal but the process as well. The intent of this council in bringing it to a community opinion vote was to do that within the context that this will be an ongoing process with stop signs indicated along the way."
Involving the public throughout the process was what council had in mind, said Mayor Turner. We felt that the optimal timing of the vote would be when all the facts are on the table, at the end of the feasibility study. That was at the point when Parks Canada was essentially ready to answer the question: is it feasible? It is when the First Nations are in, when Metro Vancouver is in, and when the province gives the consent to go ahead. Then we would be in a position to really understand the full impact."
When an establishment agreement was mentioned, Councillor Alison Morse cautioned that council had no guarantee they could take the document to the public. But the idea of recommending a later vote found wide resonance. And Councillor Nerys Poole argued that it would send a message to Parks Canada that council is not walking away from a strong negotiating position.
Mayor Turner stressed again, "A recommendation from this council to the next is just that: a recommendation. But we are a year and a half into this and have done a lot of thinking, so that gives us a credibility to recommend thoughts of value to the next council."
Whether future council members will take it further is up to them.
