Letter #2

North Canyon Improvement District
P.O. Box 60
Canyon, BC
V0B 1C1
250-428-4031

Mr. Garry Beaudry
District Manager
Kootenay Lake Forest District
Ministry of Forests and Range
Nelson, BC
May 7, 2008
Dear Mr. Beaudry,
The North Canyon Improvement District is in receipt of your letter of March 7, 2008.
Since our last correspondence, the residents and water users of the NCID have been
informed of the CVFCʼs logging proposal for Camp Run Creek watershed, and they are
justifiably outraged. The NCIDʼs Board of Trustees is now being joined by the many
voices of our angry citizenry in mounting opposition to any logging activity, road
building, or human trespass in the Camp Run Creek watershed, the source of the
NCIDʼs precious drinking water.
Your letter discreetly avoided responding to the NCIDʼs request for an injunction
ordering the CVFC to halt their reckless planning to log the Camp Run Creek
watershed. However, in reading between the lines, the Trustees have come to the
following disturbing conclusions: (i) it would appear, that in your duties as the District
Manager of the Kootenay Lake District of the MoFR, you are presently wholly unwilling
to rescind the CVFCʼs tenure agreement granting them access to the Crown lands
which are the source of the NCIDʼs drinking water in the Camp Run Creek watershed,
and (ii) it would also seem, that as a representative of the MoFR, you are presently
unwilling to monitor the logging companyʼs compliance with the legislation and
corporate responsibilities contained within their 2007 MoFR-approved FSP. The people
of North Canyon, including their duly elected representatives, are deeply disappointed
that you have chosen to do nothing to halt this logging proposal fiasco. As a community,
we are not going to sit idly by and let the CVFC destroy the lifeblood of our District, the
crystal clear drinking water of the Camp Run Creek watershed.
In your letter there is reference to your preparedness to assist the NCID, however Mr.
Beaudry, the Board of Trustees of the NCID see no commitment on your part to pursue
this promised course of action. Merely offering to send one of your staff members to
future meetings to answer questions, is not going to assist us in dealing with the
unlawful actions of the CVFC. The NCID is already painfully cognizant of the critical
issues in this logging proposal that will adversely affect the quality, quantity, and timing
of the flow of our drinking water source; we do not need to further evaluate the risks
which logging will present in the Camp Run Creek watershed. The threat is only too well
understood and rightfully feared by the community of North Canyon. We have implored
you to immediately stop this planned destruction of our intact, functioning watershed
catchment basin, and you have so far refused our cries for help.
We have taken the time and energy to present these critical topics and issues to you in
our letter of February 15, 2008, and you have summarily dismissed them by saying only
that our letter “covers a large number of topics, many of which I do not believe I can
address effectively in a written response.” Why is it so difficult for you to address the
topics we have brought to your attention? This is an unacceptable response to our
impassioned pleas. Our copious evidence is backed by a solid presentation of the facts.
This community certainly deserves the dignity and respect of a well-qualified response
to our document detailing the many transgressions of CVFCʼs FSP. The inevitable
consequence of this action by your office must be the issuing of an immediate injunction
halting any further logging and road construction plans by the CVFC for the highly
contentious Camp Run Creek watershed. Do the right thing and act forcefully to protect
this sensitive, high-elevation watershed which serves the drinking water needs of the
entire community of North Canyon.
The CVFCʼs refusal to engage in the public participation process they themselves
defined in their FSP is a direct contravention of their legally-binding responsibilities. The
CVFCʼs numerous documented violations of the FPPR and the Kootenay-Boundary
Higher Level Plan cannot be denied; the evidence is clear and concise. It is somewhat
mysterious to the Board of Trustees why you would suggest, as you have in your recent
letter, that the CVFC is sincerely desirous of working cooperatively with community
water-user groups such as the NCID. The NCID has no evidence to support your
allegation in our experience with the CVFC over the Camp Run Creek debacle. You
state that, for the CVFC, public consultation “is often difficult and that oversights and
miscommunications occur from time to time.” It is not difficult to comply with the FSP
and write a letter of direct referral to a stakeholder. Further, the only two short meetings
the NCID Board had with the CVFC were called by the water supplier, and in those
meetings it was the former manager of the CVFC, Mr. Dan Murphy, who dominated the
conversation. He did not want to listen to the Districtʼs concerns with protecting our
source water, nor did he indicate any intention of responding to the NCIDʼs issues. This
is not, in your own words, developing a “constructive working relationship.” There have
been no oversights, no miscommunications. Simply stated, this is arrogant disregard for
the health and well-being of North Canyonʼs water users. This is arrogant disregard for
the due process of the law as it pertains to logging in the publicʼs Crown lands. Mr.
Beaudry, the CVFC has blatantly broken the law, and you are covering for them with
your comments in your recent letter to the NCID Trustees. Your justification and
rationalization of their inactions is inexcusable.
The NCID is, and always has been, available to engage with the CVFC in a productive,
two-way dialogue in this logging matter. Indeed, one of the CVFCʼs prime promoters,
Mr. Jim Smith, is a resident of North Canyon. Still, the NCID has never received a single
page of written correspondence from the logging company regarding their plans for
logging our drinking watershed. The NCID and its citizens have never been asked for
their input into the proposed denudation of the Camp Run Creek watershed. The CVFC
has most certainly deliberately avoided meaningful consultation with our licensed wateruser
group, and this indefensible action will not be tolerated by the NCID. The terms
and conditions outlined in the CVFCʼs 2007 FSP are a legally-binding contract which
they must adhere to for any proposed logging activity. Their documented failure to
comply with their prescribed mandates is a serious legal violation which cannot be
remedied by a few platitudinous statements from your office.
The NCID Board reiterates their demand for an immediate withdrawal of the MoFRʼs
dangerously erroneous disposition of the logging rights to the Camp Run Creek
watershed. The water users of the NCID will not be subject to the vagaries of a reckless
logging outfit like the CVFC. We desperately need the MoFRʼs assistance in exercising
our inalienable rights to the protection of our drinking water, before it is too late. In your
capacity as the District Manager of the Kootenay Lake Forest District, the Trustees
beseech you too enact severe punitive measures against the CVFC. Protect the
undisturbed nature of the NCIDʼs pristine drinking watershed. Revoke the CVFCʼs
privileged access to our treasured Crown lands. They cannot be trusted with the
preservation of the Districtʼs precious source waters in the Camp Run Creek watershed.
None of us in the NCID wish to play this frightening game of watershed roulette with the
CVFC. You are a District Manager of the Kootenay Lake Forest District, and you have
the power to avert the truly catastrophic consequences that any logging will have on the
NCIDʼs source water supply. Safeguard the Districtʼs source of drinking water for many
generations to come. Allow the NCID to continue the rightful single use of the Camp
Run Creek watershed for the production of high-quality drinking water.
The Board of Trustees
North Canyon Improvement District
Canyon, BC