Vaughn Palmer: Never the yes man, Lekstrom wants no part of NDP's caribou rescue plan
Credit to Author: Gord Kurenoff| Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2020 01:52:34 +0000
VICTORIA — Blair Lekstrom resigned in frustration this week as Premier John Horgan’s liaison to the northeast community on the caribou rescue plan.
The letter of resignation chronicles Lekstrom’s fruitless efforts to persuade the New Democrats to formalize a role for local government in implementing the plan and an accompanying partnership agreement.
“From our first meeting I was very clear that there could be no satisfactory solution to this problem without changes being made to the draft agreement,” he wrote in the letter to Horgan, released Thursday.
“The changes to the agreement that I have and will continue to speak about are a number of small text additions to the document which speak to the inclusion of the local governments within the impacted area of the agreement.”
But Horgan rejected Lekstrom’s concern out of hand Friday. He indicated the agreement, negotiated in secrecy by the federal and provincial governments in partnership with First Nations, was now written in stone.
“I would like to personally thank Mr. Lekstrom for his important work,” said the premier in a statement released by his office. “It’s important to note that changes to the text of the partnership agreement require the consent of all three parties and cannot be done by the province unilaterally.”
This did not come as a surprise to Lekstrom.
“I understand that B.C. cannot make these changes alone as there are three other parties to the agreement,” he’d acknowledged in his letter to the premier.
“But it was the hope of local governments and the residents which they represent in the region that you and your government would support their efforts to be written into the partnership agreement.”
That part of the letter refers to why the Premier recruited Lekstrom in the first place.
The governments spent 18 months negotiating the rescue plan and partnership agreement with the West Moberly and Saulteau First Nations.
Local governments repeatedly sought a window into the negotiations and were repeatedly frozen out.
Then, last March, provincial officials visited the north to present what was characterized as a “draft” version of the caribou rescue plan and partnership.
The public meetings sparked a backlash. It appeared that the effort to protect caribou habitat meant restricted access to the back country, removal of land from the forest base and loss of jobs.
Some of the outcry was directed at the two First Nations — unfairly, because the governments had obliged them to sign non-disclosure agreements. Moreover, West Moberly had made strides at restoring caribou herds on its own.
Horgan took the blame (“my bad”) for the secrecy and lack of consultations.
“I regret we didn’t start that consultation earlier,” he conceded during a press conference in Dawson Creek on April 15. “I regret we didn’t put more information before the public.”
Seeking to rectify the situation, he reached out to Lekstrom, a Dawson Creek councillor and a former MLA and cabinet minister with a well-earned reputation for independence.
As a B.C. Liberal MLA, Lekstrom voted against his own government a half-dozen times on contract-breaking legislation. As a cabinet minister, he resigned over the mishandling of the Harmonized Sales Tax.
“Blair is a trusted and well-respected member of the community, someone that I worked with for over a decade in the legislature,” the premier would say later. “I knew when I asked him to do this work, he would give me the unvarnished truth as he saw it.”
Lekstrom referred favourably to the circumstances around his appointment in his letter to the premier.
“You recognized that it was a mistake to negotiate the partnership agreement for 18 months behind closed doors and then only after it was completed present it to the public, business, industry and local governments,” wrote the departing community liaison.
“As a result I was engaged by yourself to speak with local governments, industry, back country users and the residents of the region to try to find a path forward.”
But it would appear that Lekstrom gave Horgan more of the unvarnished truth than the New Democrats wanted to hear.
Lekstrom’s consultations led to a report with 14 recommendations for giving the community a say and a seat in the implementation of the plan and the partnership agreement.
Horgan never embraced those recommendations. Instead, the premier’s office hired a second envoy, Lorne Brownsey, a former deputy of Aboriginal relations under the B.C. Liberals, to try to do a workaround.
Lekstrom, increasingly sidelined, nevertheless kept up the effort as community liaison. But last week the New Democrats advised the Peace River Regional District there would be no changes to the partnership agreement.
Lekstrom had enough.
“I respectfully disagree,” he wrote Horgan this week. “I stand by my report and the recommendations contained within it, which is supported by local governments, industry, business, back country users and the residents who reside in our region.”
Horgan got credit last year for admitting the New Democrats had failed to properly consult the Northeast community on the caribou plan.
His appointment of Lekstrom signalled a willingness to go outside the NDP government for a straight-shooter to rescue the situation.
But it also obliged the premier to listen to Lekstrom and act on his advice. Lekstrom proved his independence under the Liberals. He would not compromise his reputation for the New Democrats.
Rather than preside over a sham consultation that was designed to make the premier look good, he resigned.
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