October 2024 Forum Review
Fifty-four elected officials, staff and observers gathered at Camp Elphinstone in West Howe Sound on Friday, October 25, 2024, for the Howe Sound Community Forum hosted by the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD). We welcomed the newly elected MLAs, Randene Neill, Powell River Sunshine Coast and Jeremy Valeriote, West Vancouver Sea to Sky.
The forum began with a territorial welcome and an overview of the YMCA Elphinstone Event and Retreat Centre. Many people in the room, who had been youth camp counsellors in the past, are now elected local government councillors and were enjoying the camp's atmosphere.
Area F Director Kate-Louise Stamford, co-host of the forum, presented an overview of the beautiful Sunshine Coast Regional District and its many challenges, which include an aging population and increased environmental impacts from droughts and floods. It is one of the few areas to have declared a state of emergency for both simultaneously in recent years.
Chris Stoicheff, Kyle Wells, and Garrett Norris of Paper Excellence presented the history and environmental improvements at the Howe Sound Pulp and Paper Mill operating in Howe Sound for over one hundred years, not far from Camp Elphinstone. Garret, a fifth-generation coaster, presented on the new Bayview Fibre facility. Once in operation it will have a capacity to process 1 Million m3 of pulpwood per year and is anticipated to reduce barge traffic in Howe Sound.
Representatives from the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Uxwumixw, the municipalities of Whistler, Squamish, West Vancouver, Gibsons, Bowen Island, and Lions Bay, plus the regional areas of the Sunshine Coast Regional District, Squamish Lillooet Regional District, and the Gambier Island Local Trust Area gave updates on actions and issues in their communities.
At lunchtime, we enjoyed a walk down to the dining hall for a delicious buffet lunch. Reconvening until 4:00 p.m., Patrick Weiler, MP West Vancouver/Sunshine Coast/Sea to Sky, shared Federal news. While election results were still not finalized, we learned more about the MLAs elect. Jeremy Valeriote is very familiar with the Howe Sound Community Forum during his time as a Council member with the Town of Gibsons.
Ruth Simons provided updates on the Howe Sound Biosphere Region Initiative Society projects and reviewed the inaugural Howe Sound Roundtable, which took place in May. Ruth then reflected on the 2017 Community forum in the same hall at Camp Elphinstone, at which time support for the Marine Reference Guide was proposed as the next step, as the 2017 OceanWise Howe Sound Ocean Watch Report recommended.
Following seven years of Ocean Watch Action Committee quarterly meetings, the forum has been updated on the actions taken in the past four years, summarized in this report. The recent highlights are the multi-day marine debris clean up of Howe Sound, as described by Ellika Cairns, Project Director with the Marine Stewardship Initiative. Ellika shared images of the massive clean-up effort by Ocean Legacy, funded by the BC Clean Coast Clean Waters Fund. Communities around Howe Sound were pleased to see their piles disappear.
While the theme of the Spring 2024 Forum hosted by the District of West Vancouver was bicycle tourism and the options for the Sea to Sky Rail to trails, this forum focused on Community Climate Action Strategies. Joyce Williams, a Council member of the Squamish Nation, gave a high-level introduction to the Nation’s newly released Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw Climate Legacy Strategy. SCRD Area E Director Donna McMahon summarized The Sunshine Coast Regional District’s Community Climate Action Plan, which covers three areas: adaptation, good governance, enabling actions, and mitigation. Sarah McJannett gave an update on the District of Squamish’s Seven Big Moves as defined in their Community Climate Plan. For the rest of the forum, small group discussions were held about the successes and challenges of implementing these plans in the community. Notes are here.
For those not taking the water taxi back to Bowen Island, camp staff led us through the lovely forest to see one of the few accessible old-growth trees in the area.
The next forum will be in April 2025, and confirmation of the host and location will be announced soon.
