Onbowen - Music, Ideas and Culture

Sept 6th involved two Council Meetings and a Public Hearing. The afternoon session, a Council Meeting, turned into a resinding of the contentious Land Use Bylaws, informally known as the Steep Slopes Bylaw, the Environmentally Sensitive Areas and the Watershed Protection Bylaws. It began with a recommendation from BIM Planner, Hap Stelling, that Council should halt the process for this term as their was insufficient time. Councillor Poole jumped in first and uncharacteristically agreed with the assessment, given that she was one the prime proponents of the Bylaws in their draft form. Councillor Hooper similarly agreed, however, Councillor Frinton was visibly agitated by the about face that was happening around the table proclaiming that he was flabbergasted presenting some arguments towards making some small but significant fixes to wrap up this legislation. Discussion happened around the table and they eventually came to an agreement to rescind the bylaws so the new Council could properly deal with rewriting the draft bylaws to incorporate the comment they heard from their constituents at the Public Hearing earlier in the Summer.

The Tunstall Bay Boat Launch was next up on the agenda. CAO, Brent Mahood, gave a summary of what had transpired including all of the negotiation with Fisheries and the performance bond that had to be issued in order for the work to take place. It appears the project will come in under budget and it is expected that Public Works Director, Wil Hilsen will be presenting a more detailed report on the matter in the coming weeks.

If you wish to watch the video of the presentation, you can Download the video here [QuickTime - 582 MB] ( with Internet Explorer use right-click > save target as, on a Mac use control-click > save link as... ) or you can watch online after the break.  

A healthy crowd showed up for Parks Canada's second kick at their near urban park concept for Bowen Island on August 25th, 2011 despite it being one of the nicer summer days we have experienced this year. 

The presentation was positive placing things through a lens that one would expect from Parks Canada. The language used showcased Bowen as a National Park and not merely a land reserve. Richard Carson, the newly placed Director of Western Establishment Initiatives... in other words the civil servant who will be doing the heavy hitting and the representation to the federal politicians on the Bowen initiative, went to some length to assure the attendees that ferry matters were very much on their mind and would be addressed. He and his new counterpart, Helen Davies, the Field Unit Superintendent, also explained that the economic stimulus of Parks Canada on Bowen would not be trivial. Employees would be living on the island, roads used in the course of the Park would be maintained by them. Probably most importantly to a good slice of people on Bowen, they stated that Crippen Park would have to be part of the Park but they were in the process of arranging for a shared agreement between themselves and the GVRD on the management. Many of the concerns issued by the residents in their comments to Parks Canada were addressed in varying degrees of satisfaction to Bowen. Marine conservation was positively acknowledged as a requirement where possible such as the aquatic area where the newly included Lieben lands are, however, the degree to which the people of Bowen have control or say over what transpires once the process begins after the vote is questionable.

In other words, the people of Bowen vote to either go along for the ride or not. It all hinges on whether or not Bowenians feel the Parks Canada's brand, heritage and past encounters with other communities it works with make it worth our while. Worth our while both economically and the way it will shape our community thereby giving the visiting public a vehicle to experience and learn about the natural environment in a near urban setting.

The question and answer period had a wide range of people asking pointed questions, from the desire for Parks Canada to bring meaningful self-sustaining economic development to the island to the assertion that Parks Canada's thinking was flawed and they should be looking up the Sea to Sky highway rather than involving a locale like Bowen that involves a ferry.

Parks Canada's presentation was based on their Revised Park Concept document for the assessment of a National Park Reserve lands on Bowen Island. The document goes into a fair amount of detail both in word and maps. You can find the document here [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 3.96 MB]. Their previous draft document from February 2011 can be found here [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 1.24 MB].

If you wish to watch the video of the presentation, you can Download the video here [QuickTime - 504.64 MB] ( with Internet Explorer use right-click > save target as, on a Mac use control-click > save link as... ) or you can watch online after the break.