Friday, July 20, 2012

“Once again the BC Liberal government seems more than willing to download provincial responsibilities, on to the taxpayers of smaller communities in rural BC.”


A week ago CHBC TV in the Okanagan ran a story (Passionate pleas to save Marshall Lake) on a group of people in Greenwood, that are desperately trying to save one of the few lakes in their area

Marshall Lake Stewardship Group working to save lake
The story indicated that:
The province wants to decommission the structure over concerns about the dam’s structural safety, the possible consequences to Greenwood should it fail and the liability of the government.  Removing the dam would reduce the lake to about one-third of its current size which would markedly affect its recreation and water storage values.

It also quoted Christopher Stevenson, of the Marshall Lake Stewardship Group, who stated, “It is a move that will permanently destroy much of the value of Marshall Lake, a highly valued recreation site.

Don’t take out our dam. Let the lake be the way it is. Take care of the dam. Upgrade and maintain it as a provincial asset and let us have our lake,” said Stevenson.

In several conversations I have had with Christopher he has let me know more about the possible decommissioning of the dam on Marshall Lake, and what it means to the people in this region.

Just so you know - there is an economic component to this -- we have few lakes here. Marshall Lake is part of a recreation / wilderness complex that is well used, and has great potential for tourism and local use.  We don't have the lakes that the Okanagan and Kootenay’s do; which is why we need every one we have. 

Marshall Lake is used year round by recreationalist and outdoors people. This is not just environmental; we’re trying to build our tourism here as well. Meantime the government is looking at legal aspects, and trying to find loopholes.

The private owners are being unfairly hit as they will lose their lakefront – it will ruin their property for at least two years, and permanently in many ways, which will result in a loss of value.  It will also ruin the BC Forest Recreation campsite. 

There has also been no environmental assessment, and no inundation (flood) study.

They should be ashamed to be picking on rural BC again.  There are so many things to base a case against them on … environment, economic, private property rights, rural BC.


The BC government has said that the dam should become the responsibility of the local Greenwood Council; however they have rejected this -- likely due to the cost -- $135,000 to upgrade the dam, and taking over responsibility for its ongoing maintenance.

As Christopher Stevenson said, “They don’t have the resources to take this over. It’s not fair of the province to ask them that.”

That plus … the costs of decommissioning the dam will probably far exceed the costs to upgrade, when the loss of property value, and the costs of providing access, are factored in.

Once again the BC Liberal government seems more than willing to download provincial responsibilities on to the taxpayers of smaller communities in rural BC.  This isn’t anything new however; it’s something this government has been doing with more and more regularity – and in my opinion, it’s wrong!

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops, with the thoughts of one conservative.  Now I ask, “What do you think?”



Follow-up:
CHBC TV has run a couple of stories on this.  They can be found at:

3 comments:

Daniel F said...

This is completely like the current government. You can be sure they have never even visited the area, nor do they actually KNOW what they are doing. They just do.

Once we run out of lakes for them to destroy and forests for them to cut down, I wonder where they'll turn next.

Christopher Stevenson said...

We invited the Minister to visit the lake, when we drove to Kelowna to drop off the petition to his office (a 5 hour trip, return). No one has responded. No email, no phone call, nothing.....

Christopher Stevenson said...

We invited the Minister to visit Marshall Lake, when we dropped off the petition at his office in Kelowna (a 5 hour trip). No one has responded - at all. No email. No phone call. Nothing. Evidently, we don't matter.