BC Minister of Environment sheds his responsibility!

To the Editor of the Victoria Times Colonist letters@timescolonist.comRe:  Cowichan estuary at risk of heavy-metal manufacturing.Like the author of the above noted opinion editorial, as a long time resident of the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD), I am opposed to the proposed rezoning of the Cowichan Terminal from marine transportation to metal manufacturing by the CVRD. My involvement on the Estuary goes back to 1978 when Doman Industries decided to build a sawmill in the Estuary. I was also involved later with former Fisheries Minister MP David Anderson, the BC Wildlife Federation, the Cowichan Estuary Preservation Society and the provincial government that set out the management plan to address a number of environmental issues. Cowichan Estuary protection became a priority for the provincial government resulting in 1986 with an order-in-council that provides the legal framework which guides the management of the estuary.O-I-C 1652 prescribes that “…any licence or permit or exercise of power requires the written approval of the Minister of the Environment to the effect that the issuance or exercise will have no significant detrimental environmental impact upon that area and is in conformity with the plan.”  No such approval has been granted by the Minister which would permit marine metal manufacturing which has been operating out of compliance of both the CVRD zoning and the Estuary Plan. Without a required environmental impact assessment, a civil servant serving as the minister’s designate held a meeting of the Cowichan Estuary Environmental Management Committee and without legal authority or the required scientific data provided a letter to the CVRD which stated, “I have determined that the rezoning of the Cowichan Terminal lands will have no significant detrimental environmental impacts and the rezoning will be in conformity with the Plan.”This invalid determination flies in the face of the Premier’s Salmon Advisory Council’s efforts to restore our salmon stocks by putting one of the province’s most productive salmon producing ecosystems into harm’s way. Both the Minister of Environment and the Minister of Forests have declared this a local issue. By so doing the Minister of Environment has abrogated his legal obligations under O-I-C 1652.  It is not his option but a legal requirement that the Minister of Environment take responsibility for this issue and prevent the conversion of marine transportation to marine manufacturing which is a totally incompatible use of an estuary, especially one as productive as the Cowichan Estuary.Ed Mankelow, Past President,  B.C. Wildlife FederationChemainus, B.C.  250-246-3109