Harbour Spiel Online

November 2014 editorial: Winter is coming...

By Brian Lee

I’m no more qualified to predict weather than the cat but it seems to me that this might be the year to go out and buy that generator you wished you had on those coffee-less winter mornings. We’ve been really lucky the last couple of years with few — if any —significant power outages. It’s partly due to an unlikely stretch of relatively calm winters but also, I think, to the active clearing by BC Hydro crews.

But this fall seems different. The sudden switch to winter’s inevitable southeast winds has been ominously abrupt. Environment Canada’s website has shown a strong wind warning (20-30 knots) or higher almost every day for weeks. In the last week, I’ve probably suffered more hours without power than all of last winter. And it’s not even November.

The recent caffeine-free, candlelit mornings reminded me that newcomers to the area are probably oblivious to how quickly our standard of living disappears when the wind blows. Recall the storms of December 2006 — the year Stanley Park took that terrible beating. On one of the worst nights, I happened to be in Powell River visiting a friend. When the ferries finally started running the next day, I landed in Earls Cove to find the Sunshine Coast Highway transformed into a twisted, one-lane tunnel of trees, branches and downed hydro lines. And when I did get home, my power didn’t return for five days.

As a general rule, it’s relatively easy to go without power for one or even two days. Hot water will run for awhile and when it chills, you can go to Sechelt for a swim and hot Chinese food. Or you can light candles and talk.

But everything changes after three days when rising temperatures in fridges and freezers start costing money in spoiled food. The rustic novelty is really lost on those without an alternative heat source where life quickly becomes an episode of Survivorman. Hopefully, thoughts turn to elderly neighbours and friends without wood heat because five days is a long time to be without power. But eight days is a really long time to go without power, which was the case in Egmont that year. I still feel a sense of survivor’s guilt over that one.

That 2006 storm stands out as a nasty one but it’s not that far from typical and if the start to this winter is any indication, we should expect some carnage. So, here’s a reminder to stock up on candles, batteries, headlamps and generators — because I don’t plan on sharing.

Harbour Spiel November 2014 issue

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October 2014 editorial: Respect and consultation work both ways

By Brian Lee

 

For as long as I’ve lived here, when members of the Sechelt Indian Band come to Pender Harbour, they usually wear cleats and proceed to school us in soccer. So, it surprised me when the former chief of the SIB, Garry Feschuk, issued a press release a couple of years ago claiming:  "In recent decades, the proliferation of private moorages has done significant damage to Sechelt’s economy, fisheries, and way of life." As the band’s dispute with the province and subsequent moratorium on Pender Harbour docks enters its 12th year, a cynic might ask, "What is it they really want?" Last month we got a hint.

The Sechelt Indian Band quietly erected a "longhouse" on provincial park land in Garden Bay. It stands as a symbolic declaration that the SIB intend to assert themselves in Pender Harbour. Confirming their political intent, a press release marking its completion opened with a reference to the recent recognition of  Ts’ilhquot’in title to their traditional territory by the Supreme Court of Canada. SIB Chief Calvin Craigan went on to say,

"Kalpilin [Pender Harbour] is at the heart of our territory and the importance of the area cannot be overstated."

Better than most, I would say, I understand Pender Harbour’s centrality to the Shishalh people before measles and smallpox decimated their lot and missionaries forced a move to Sechelt in the late 1860s. Pender Harbour has a rich archeological past and one I’m continuing to expand my appreciation for. And I would welcome the band’s recent interest if it came in the form of investment and mutual partnerships rather than political posturing to exert more control over anyone who chooses to live or do business here. But there’s an arrogance on the part of the SIB that rubs many the wrong way and it’s exhibited by their complete lack of consultation with our community. Consultation is at the very heart of their dispute with the province yet the band council hasn’t the foresight to understand the same holds true with their closest neighbours. The fact that waterfront owners in Secret Cove, Halfmoon Bay, Sechelt Inlet or Egmont are exempt from the dock ban only increases the wariness many Pender Harbour residents feel toward the band.

The SIB certainly has a legitimate beef with the province but it’s not over Pender Harbour’s clams. How much has the ongoing uncertainty for newcomers looking to purchase waterfront property cost our community? The SIB doesn’t feel it owes us an answer. Despite repeated attempts over the years, I’ve yet to receive a comment from anyone at the SIB. Neither our community nor the Harbour Spiel were even invited to the longhouse opening celebration. It seems we’re a wealthy hostage whose captors’ only interest is what they can ransom us for. And anyone who cares to look past the cedar boughs and smudging ceremonies will find a corporate ambition that prefers confrontation over compromise.

I challenge anyone who claims a deeper connection to this land than the descendants of pioneer settlers who came here after the Shishalh left. But we all should be offended by the SIB’s refusal to acknowledge that the community that sits here now deserves a voice when it comes to asserting authority over it.

October 2014 issue

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