Western Canada Wilderness Committee

Parks Day of Action -- Cultus Lake

As a part of the Parks Day of Action, myself, Andy Miller and Gil Aguilar (an uber volunteer) went out to Cultus Lake to talk to residents and folks on the beach about how they felt about parks and parking meters, privatization and the underlying cuts that have necessitated the various changes that have been seen in parks in BC. It was great to get out there and hear what people had to say, and to feel the 'pulse in the park'.

I had lived in that area years ago, and I was excited to go back and see if much had changed. I was pleased to see that it was much as it was, the community that lives there largely unchanged. We had a photographer from the Chilliwack Progress follow us around while we talked to people about the issues and got folks to sign our petition. We were on the side of the lake that had the nearly extirpated salmon run, and there was quite the concern raised about that.

We spoke to one woman that was very upset about the parks issue, and was already quite well versed in the details of the current events surrounding the various privatization initiatives in our park system. She was one of those folks who nearly tear the petition out of your hands to sign it; she knew quite a few people who have lost their jobs to privatization in parks. It was good to commiserate, at least to see a human face on the tragedy that is happening. It is not just that our parks are being slowly privatized, and managed for economics and not ecology, but also that there is a real cost to real people with the loss of jobs.

It felt good to be in the sunshine, talking about such an important issue here in BC. Most people were really open to talking to us, even with the photographer trailing us around. Because it was a 'Day of Action', we had people in 13 different parks raising awareness about the issues. It is great to feel part of a group, using our freedom of speech to have a dialogue, or rather a 'multi-logue' about what is going on. Quite inspiring.

So we end up having a great day out there, and as we were packing up to go we got a call that CKNW wanted to have a 'Point-Counterpoint' segment between Barry Penner, the Minister of Environment, and the Wilderness Committee at 5:10 that evening. Great! Part of why we wanted to make sure and go to Cultus Lake was to have a presence in Barry Penners' riding, which is Chilliwack. So Andy Miller was elected to take on the interview, and we were off.

We got to near the 264th exit at the appointed time, and pulled over... strangely, we pulled up to the County Line Elementary School, where I went to grade 1. I don't think I had been back since, so it was a bit of a flashback to be there. Anyhow, Andy prepared for the radio spot, and then we were on. Unfortunately, Andy had planned for two minutes, but there was only two minutes between Andy and the Minister, so he felt a bit cut off. He sounded great to me, though, and even more importantly, we saw evidence that the government is listening to the concerns of British Columbians.

Well, we will see, I suppose. The fact that the Ministry of Environment put out a press release that day means that the decision-makers are listening. I hope this trend continues... We have land to steward for future generations.