Local politicians have returned to their communities after attending the 2019 Union of BC Municipalities convention in Vancouver last week.
The Agricultural Land Commission is threatening to shut down the Chemainus River Campground because that governmental body said that the owners aren’t supposed to have a campground.
The owners, John and Jeri Wyatt have had to go through the municipality to pursue an Agricultural Land Reserve exclusion application.
North Cowichan Mayor Al Siebring has gone to bat for these business owners and said he ran into Premier John Horgan and told him about this issue at the UBCM convention.
“We met with the Agriculture Minister and the head of the Agricultural Land Commission, there are more discussions that are going to be precipitated there,” said Siebring. “I literally ran into the Premier on the street going to different venues.”
He added, “I had five minutes and I gave Premier Horgan about a three minute, Reader’s Digest version of what’s going on there.
Siebring said this request doesn’t make sense when you consider that we are in a housing crisis and Premier John Horgan agrees.
“We have a situation here where we have one arm of the government that wants to shut down this campground and, essentially evict a dozen people who have a permanent residence there so that another arm of the government, the housing ministry, can find them a place to live, it doesn’t make sense.”
“That has the attention of the Premier and that’s always a good thing,” said Siebring.
Siebring said while discussing this issue with the Agriculture Minister and the ALC the consensus was, and is, that more discussion with the Wyatt’s is required before moving forward.
