[LabComm] Campbell dismisses years of community planning with decision to cut parkland

[BC NDP NEWSWIRE]

Today's decision to remove thousands of hectares of land from one of BC's most important protected areas undoes years of effort to establish a balanced land-use plan that works for BC communities, said BC New Democratic Party leader Carole James.

"It took seven years to arrive at a consensus within the local community regarding the Lillooet Land and Resource Management Plan and the creation of the South Chilcotin Mountains Park," said James.

"Now the Campbell government is turning back the clock -- shrinking one of BC most important parks."

"It demonstrates once again that Gordon Campbell can't be trusted to listen and abide by agreements that were reached through open negotiation."

"Local stakeholders spent years participating in the long and arduous consultation process at the LRMP table. Now the Campbell government is dismissing their efforts."

"This is an effort to pit environment versus jobs and we reject those confrontational politics. We know they don't care about jobs – if they did, they would not have taken steps to change forestry policies to sever access to timber from local job creation."

James noted that the BC Liberal government's own socio-economic impact study demonstrated that the South Chilcotin mountains have far greater value preserved as parkland than they would if logging and mining were allowed.

"This area supports a growing wilderness tourism industry that contributes $11 million annually to the provincial economy," said James. "On the other hand, there is little evidence of economically-viable mineral reserves in this area."

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