Vaughn Palmer: Horgan's 'inclusion process' in B.C. caribou rescue plan made fur fly
Credit to Author: Gord Kurenoff| Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2020 03:02:37 +0000
VICTORIA — Anatomy of a John Horgan backdown:
• April 15, 2019: Premier John Horgan journeyed to Northeastern B.C. to address community anger over being left out of a far-reaching caribou rescue plan.
The plan was negotiated in secret over a period of 18 months by the federal and provincial governments in partnership with two First Nations.
When the resulting plan and partnership agreement were presented during a series of community meetings, it provoked a backlash over potential loss of jobs, harvestable timber and access to the backcountry.
Horgan conceded the locals had good reason to complain about being left out of the process, then presented with a fait accompli.
“I regret we didn’t put more information before the public,” he told a news conference in Dawson Creek.
He blamed Ottawa for foisting the problem on the province by threatening to impose a rescue plan if B.C. didn’t negotiate one.
Still, the premier took responsibility for the botched consultation. “My bad,” he told reporters.
He appointed Blair Lekstrom as his liaison to try to build local support for the plan and suggest remedies to overcome the backlash.
Lekstrom, a member of Dawson Creek council, is a former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister with a reputation for independence.
Horgan is an admirer: “Blair is a trusted and well-respected member of the community, someone that I worked with for over a decade in the legislature.”
But as the coverage noted at the time, Lekstrom was not likely to participate in a sham.
• June 20, 2019: The New Democrats released Lekstrom’s report on his efforts as liaison.
“I knew when I asked him to do this work, he would give me the unvarnished truth as he saw it,” said Horgan.
But Lekstrom’s unvarnished truth came in the form of 14 recommendations the New Democrats were not inclined to accept.
He thought the partnership agreement with Ottawa and the First Nations should be amended to provide a greater role for the community in implementing the rescue plan.
The two Indigenous partners, the West Moberly and Saulteau First Nations had refused to meet with Lekstrom. They’d negotiated with senior governments in good faith and believed the partnership agreement was a done deal.
Moreover, B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman suggested they were right: “To the nations, I say we remain committed to the agreements that we’ve reached with you and with the Canadian government.”
• August, 2019: The premier’s office confirmed the government had hired a second liaison to try to rescue the rescue plan.
He’s Lorne Brownsey, a former deputy minister of Aboriginal relations under the previous B.C. Liberal government.
One of his tasks was to try to keep Lekstrom from quitting, a point underscored by NDP insistence that Brownsey was an “addition” to the team, not intended to supersede Lekstrom.
But the main job was finding a way to placate the community without giving the community what Lekstrom recommended, namely a seat at the table in implementing the rescue plan.
Despite NDP attempts to characterize the plan and partnership agreement as a “draft,” it was the product of extensive trade-offs among four parties — the provincial and federal governments and two First Nations.
Short of going back to square one, not likely could it be changed. Neither Ottawa, nor Victoria, nor the two First Nations had any intention of doing that.
• Jan. 16, 2020: Horgan made it official in a letter to the Peace River Regional District: “B.C. is not proposing text amendments to the current draft to our partners Canada, the Saulteau First Nations or the West Moberly First Nation.”
Instead, local governments would have to be content with involvement in a variety of consultative and advisory committees.
The premier hinted they might even be invited to sit in as observers at meetings of the overseer Caribou recovery committee, which was established under the partnership agreement.
Not that Horgan was cutting local governments loose altogether: “I continue to encourage all parties to consider a much stronger role for municipal government in the caribou recovery process.”
But the obstacle was those damned feds: “In a recent meeting with the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, federal minister of environment and climate change, I heard directly from the minister about the urgency and importance he places on this file.”
Meanwhile, pleaded Horgan, would the locals please get on side with the fait accompli?
“It will make a huge difference to these efforts if local governments affirm their determination to use the options already in place,” said the premier.
• Jan. 23: Lekstrom resigned. In his letter to the premier, he respectfully disagreed with the view there was no need to provide a greater voice for local government in an agreement with far reaching implications for jobs, access and the economy in the Northeast.
But Lekstrom won’t be speaking out as a politician any more. He’s resigned his council seat to become chief administrative officer to the city of Dawson Creek.
He estimates he billed the government about $30,000 for his work as Horgan’s liaison.
• Feb. 21: Provincial, federal and First Nations representatives met in Vancouver to sign the 30-year partnership agreement to rescue the caribou.
Horgan, though, was in Vancouver that day and did not attend the signing.
He’s a busy man. But perhaps he didn’t want to be there for a ceremony confirming that his outreach to the northeast had mostly left the community sitting on the sidelines.
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