There’s an interesting commonality in how Ingmar Lee has approached his purchase of the mineral rights of Bear Mountain (see the article reprinted below) and the provincial government rules that have allowed greater “flexibility” at the municipal level. In both cases, civic government and Mr. Lee are taking advantage of new provincial regulations that allow unheard of speed of action with a minimum of oversight.
In the case of the mineral rights rules, the flexibility inherent in the new rules allows people to make mineral claims without ever setting foot on a property they’re claiming the rights to, or even the province.
In the case of the many local concerns, the Community Charter was supposed to bring new accountability to municipal government but it seems to have not had the intended effect. The media is full of growing citizen revolts against city councils, including some in our community (of which City Hall’s plans to borrow millions of dollars without public approval is just one). When I ran in the May 2005 provincial election, one of my three themes was empowering communities. However, I fear communities have now been empowered without the adequate oversight that would give checks and balances to protect citizens. While this isn’t a new issue, the growing concerns in places such as Mission, Langford, and untold numbers of smaller centres is very new and suggests this problem continues to get worse rather than better.
- Steven Hurdle -
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Mineral claim system too loose
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