OLSEN: In the beginning, it was the W̱SÁNEĆ teaching to look after Mother Earth, all of the animals, the birds, the trees, the salmon, the wind were— and still are — people
On Thursday we finally had the second reading debate for Bill 16, Protected Areas of British Columbia Amendment Act (2019). Each year there is an amendment Bill similar to this one, where government will open up the legislation to make adjustments to park boundaries. In this instance, there are a handful of parks that are impacted. There are a few additions with land either donated or purchased being added to a park and one instance of land being removed so the Loon Lake community can rebuild their fire hall after it was lost in last year's wild fires. John Dean Provincial Park, known for many years by the W̱SÁNEĆ people as Ƚ ÁU,WEL Ṉ EW̱ There was one other aspect of this Bill which impacts Saanich North and the Islands. For decades the Class A Provincial Park at the top of Mt. Newton on the Saanich Peninsula has been known as John Dean Provincial Park. For countless generations before that it was known by the W ̱ S Á NE Ć people as Ƚ Á U,WEL Ṉ EW ̱ . What...