| Many people believe that there are too many elected officials on the Coast and that there should only be one local government. At this time and in the near future, however, one government is not a likely possibility. Only a few years ago there was an opportunity for the people on the south end of the Coast to vote in a referendum to combine the town of Gibsons and SCRD Areas E and F into one community. This referendum failed, even though the provincial government was willing to fund the transition. After the defeat of the referendum, the directors of the Regional District moved to support the concept of an LRMP (Land and Resource Management Plan). This concept would have brought about the harmonizing of many of the land use concerns that business, industry and builders on the Coast have been requesting. This initiative failed because the four governments on the Coast could not agree on process. The provincial government changed the process and the name of the LRMP to another acronym—SLUP (Strategic Land Use Plan)—trying to get the First Nations and local governments to accept the concept. The efforts to bring all the Coast governments together failed, as the provincial government tried to institute parallel land use processes, one for the First Nations and one for the other governments on the Coast. As conceived, the two processes would run at the same time and be combined at the end. There were many doubts by the jurisdictions involved and all queried about how it would proceed, how it would be funded and, probably the most asked question, how would the public have input. Possibly the number-one reason the SLUP failed was the ongoing question by all parties as to how the provincial government staff would bring the two plans together. Would there be compromise to get agreement between all the governments? And if not, what would be the dispute resolution process to get a final decision? All governments soon realized that this would be a costly, long-term project. | If any of these efforts over the past five years had been successful, the Coast might now have a single land use plan. Since all plans failed, the local governments have tried to use a memorandum of understanding to work together. There has been sharing of equipment, combined purchases for materials and equipment, and staffs working together to look at bylaws and planning issues that effect development, and which could be streamlined to be consistent from one local jurisdiction to another. All local governments are looking at ways to reduce costs to taxpayers and are changing policies to assist the business community during the economic downturn. For these changes to happen, a positive communication exchange between business and local governments is crucial. Recently, all areas of business on the Coast came together to form an Economic Task Force to promote Coast-wide economic development. This group then met with elected officials to ensure that the urgency of their concerns was clear. After a meeting with the task force, all elected officials met at the Sechelt Indian Band hall, not as members of one government but rather, of four: Sechelt, Gibsons, Sechelt Indian Band, and the rural areas of the SCRD with the agreement to have a Coast-wide economic development program. Each government is expected to produce funding for this program by 2012 budget time. The local governments have been collaborating effectively over the past few years. This indicates that the one-government concept is possible, but it will come about in a different way than most people believe. If there were one government for the Coast, it would probably be a ward system—and that is essentially what we have now, with the three municipalities and the regional areas working well together. |