Background to the lack of informed public consultation
For 9 years the CRD has been working towards a new park management plan. The most notable feature of this planning has been the lack of opportunity for the public to have informed input into the plan, and a disturbing pattern of misleading and inaccurate information from the CRD.
The first 5 years were done in secret by CRD staff unknown even to members of the the CRD Regional Parks Committee, and this lead to the Cordova Strategy a project between CRD parks staff and the Tsawout First Nation that called for the mosquito drainage ditches to be filled in and the protective seawall removed to encourage flooding of the park and surrounding properties by the sea.
In January 2011 the CRD announced it was just beginning its study of the Island View Beach, failing to mention it had just completed this 5 year study with the Tsawout. This was the first of what became a pattern of misinformation to the public.
A public meeting was held on March 16 2011 and the public told the CRD to leave the park alone. This was the only public meeting held by the CRD - they did not want a forum where the public could speak and be heard by others. They wanted to control the information the public heard.
In January 2013 the CRD held a "public information session" in the middle of winter, 12km from the park, advertised with just one notice in the paper. This session might be better described as a public mis-information session. Plans shown were wrong and misleading, and an area claiming to be the input received from the public failed to disclose any of the outcry from the public about the mosquito drainage ditches, the two large public petitions, the resolutions of Central Saanich Council, or that the CRD had to turn to Central Saanich to clean the mosquito drainage ditches in October 2011 because its own park staff would not clean them.
In September 2013 the CRD released a discussion draft of a proposed interim plan that was written in a way that no reasonable person could understand its intent.
The draft plan was riddled with factual errors and false claims. See here
The CRD held a beach walk but did not disclose the main features of the plan.
The CRD held a drop in session at the Tsawout gym, but the display boards there did not disclose the main features of the plan.
The public were encouraged to complete a survey based on the beach walk or the Tsawout drop in, but the survey used defined terms from the draft plan that had meanings different from what the average reader would expect, and within each survey question they mixed different subjects so that if a person voted for one, say the quality of visitor experience like flying a kite on the beach, they could be counted as having voted for something else, like having the Tsawout co-manage the park. There was no control on how many surveys one person could fill in. In the end only 77 surveys were completed. CRD staff were instructed by the CRD Parks Committee that no use could be made of the results of the survey yet CRD staff posted on the CRD web site for more than 5 months exaggerated claims of what they said the survey responses showed.
For more detail on what has been going on over the last 3 years look here
The first 5 years were done in secret by CRD staff unknown even to members of the the CRD Regional Parks Committee, and this lead to the Cordova Strategy a project between CRD parks staff and the Tsawout First Nation that called for the mosquito drainage ditches to be filled in and the protective seawall removed to encourage flooding of the park and surrounding properties by the sea.
In January 2011 the CRD announced it was just beginning its study of the Island View Beach, failing to mention it had just completed this 5 year study with the Tsawout. This was the first of what became a pattern of misinformation to the public.
A public meeting was held on March 16 2011 and the public told the CRD to leave the park alone. This was the only public meeting held by the CRD - they did not want a forum where the public could speak and be heard by others. They wanted to control the information the public heard.
In January 2013 the CRD held a "public information session" in the middle of winter, 12km from the park, advertised with just one notice in the paper. This session might be better described as a public mis-information session. Plans shown were wrong and misleading, and an area claiming to be the input received from the public failed to disclose any of the outcry from the public about the mosquito drainage ditches, the two large public petitions, the resolutions of Central Saanich Council, or that the CRD had to turn to Central Saanich to clean the mosquito drainage ditches in October 2011 because its own park staff would not clean them.
In September 2013 the CRD released a discussion draft of a proposed interim plan that was written in a way that no reasonable person could understand its intent.
The draft plan was riddled with factual errors and false claims. See here
The CRD held a beach walk but did not disclose the main features of the plan.
The CRD held a drop in session at the Tsawout gym, but the display boards there did not disclose the main features of the plan.
The public were encouraged to complete a survey based on the beach walk or the Tsawout drop in, but the survey used defined terms from the draft plan that had meanings different from what the average reader would expect, and within each survey question they mixed different subjects so that if a person voted for one, say the quality of visitor experience like flying a kite on the beach, they could be counted as having voted for something else, like having the Tsawout co-manage the park. There was no control on how many surveys one person could fill in. In the end only 77 surveys were completed. CRD staff were instructed by the CRD Parks Committee that no use could be made of the results of the survey yet CRD staff posted on the CRD web site for more than 5 months exaggerated claims of what they said the survey responses showed.
For more detail on what has been going on over the last 3 years look here