Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There was a great deal of anger on Cortes Island when the province lifted the open campfire ban on June 21.  As Nancy Kendel wrote in the Tideline, “We have had basically NO RAIN since beginning of May, and our forests are tinder dry!” The ban was reimposed days later, but the underlying problem persists today. Cortes Island is part of the Coastal Fire Centre, and the regulations governing it are drawn up in a wetter climate.

Regional Director Mark Vonesch brought this matter up before Strathcona Regional District Board on June 28, “I got a lot of alarming emails and phone calls regarding the lift.  I contacted the province and they said that they can’t change that decision, because it’s based on boundaries, unless we have a bylaw in place.”

The Board passed a resolution ‘that staff prepare an open burning bylaw for Electoral Area B for the Board's consideration.’

That was more than a month ago, but there has been little progress.

At the July 19 SRD Board meeting, Chief Administrative Officer David Leitch explained. “When Director Vonesch brought this forward, there was a real sense of urgency because there was no open burning ban, but that has been taken care of.  I think it's highly unlikely during the summer that, and those burning bands will be lifted anywhere through the province. Which gives us a little time to draft our own burning bylaw.”

“I did promise director Vonesch I would bring a draft bylaw forward. However, in the time that we made this motion, The province had lifted the open burning regulation across the province and since then,  they have downgraded that to eliminate any open burnings throughout the province. So I pivoted a bit and didn't bring a draft bylaw forward. As well, we had a couple other issues in terms of delegating the enforcement of that authority forward. That's why we have the report here with the recommendation we  receive input and based on the input, look to bring forward a draft bylaw for the board's approval.”