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.”  

Director Vonesch reiterated the fact he was looking for a bylaw that will give Cortes the opportunity to say ‘no’ when the open burning ban is lifted, should the community feel this is necessary. 

Looking at the Cortes Island Fire Department’s service area, Mayor Martin Davis of Tahsis noticed that a significant part of the island is not covered. 

 “I just have a question regarding schedule  A, the bylaws from 1990. It doesn’t include all of Cortes Island and I’m just curious. How that’s defined here.” 

Senior Manager Thomas Yates replied, “The current bylaws for the Cortes Island Fire Protection Area was essentially inherited from the Comox-Strathcona Regional District (which was divided into the Comox and Strathcona Regional Districts on Feb 15, 2008). We don’t necessarily have all the history, but presumably the boundaries were set on the basis of not exceeding a certain distance from the fire halls that are providing the service. We don’t actually operate the fire department. We contract with another entity for that purpose and there might be an element associated with that that has set those boundaries to where they are.  That’s really all we know about why those boundaries are the way they are currently.” 

Mayor Davis: “Will this include the entire island? What we’re proposing here.” 

Mr Yates: “My understanding is that the Regional District cannot have any kind of regulations with regard to open burning other than in a fire protection area.” 

Director Vonesch explained that large portions of Cortes Island, especially in the north, are not accessible by road. The only way to service these areas would be by water, which would be very costly. There are similar areas in the south of Cortes island which are not within the service area because of the difficulties involved: the southern shore of Gorge Harbour, Tiber Bay and Tla’amin First Nation land.

The motion that Director Vonesch brought forward, and Director Mawhinney seconded, was ‘that further research be done regarding the proposal to prepare an open burning bylaw for Cortes Island following which a report be prepared for the Board’s consideration.’

It was carried with no opposing votes. 

Top image credit: Beach fire Photo by photo_collections on Pixnio

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