At a press conference in Dawson Creek today, Premier John Horgan announced the provincial government was extending the caribou consultation period by another month.
“I believe that’s adequate time to get to where we want to be,” said the premier, who also announced he was hiring Blair Lekstrom to work in the region listening to people’s concerns.
The new deadline for feedback? May 31.
“This is not a new issue for the region; we’ve been talking about caribou and their potential extinction since 2004,” he said. “My biggest concern is that a region that has worked cooperatively on a whole host of issue is coming to conflict.”
He says he thought with the issue having been around for so long, more people would be aware of what was happening. “I regret we didn’t start that earlier, we didn’t put more info before the public, but we are where we are.
“What I’ve discovered over the past six weeks is there’s significant misinformation and misunderstanding. People have been getting on with their lives and then this major consultation drops in front of them. We have an obligation to consult with the people. We need to protect the caribou; these are federal laws that we will run afoul of if we don’t.
“This issue has been around for 16 years. This didn’t arrive on my watch. First call was in 2003. I thought the public was more informed on that. That’s on me, not on the public, and we didn’t give enough time to allow people to have time to process.”
Horgan says he met with members of the Peace River Regional District. “I heard it to a person today; we’re neighbours. This should not be an issue that drives people apart, but it should draw people together. We decided to add more time because the public wanted more engagement.”
