The Thompson Nicola Regional District Board has voted to move forward on a plan initiated before the last election for a broader review of its current boundaries — and who might be represented on it.
Originally launched as a “trial balloon” by the previous TNRD Board before the October election as a review of the Regional District’s borders, any forthcoming review will also be looking at the TNRD potentially adopting Indigenous representation.
TNRD Legislative Services Manager Deanna Campbell says this would be in-line with the BC government’s legislation to meet the standards of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
“The government has new legislation to enact UNDRIP, and a result of DRIPA [Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act], the new legislation, they have developed an action plan,” said Campbell. “One of the action-plan items is to have First Nation representation on Regional District boards.”
Right now in BC, only Treaty Nations are allowed to have representation on regional district boards.
“We assume that means that they will change the legislation to allow all First Nation representation on the Regional District boards,” said Campbell. “There are over 25 First Nations within the TNRD.”
While voting in favor of the move, Barriere Mayor and TNRD Director Ward Stamer suggests the review will have to answer a number of questions.
“How would that look with so many separate First Nation organizations in our region,” noted Stamer. “We already have 27 Directors on this board, and what opportunities do we have of being a member of their boards or their organizations.”
Current scale and make-up of the Thompson Nicola Regional District/via TNRD
According to Regional District stats, while geographically the TNRD is not the largest regional district, it has the largest Board of Directors second only to Metro Vancouver, which has 41 directors — all of whom represent municipalities, with the exception of one electoral area.
There are 27 regional districts in BC and the average Board of Directors composition is between 10 to 15 members.
Speaking in favor of asking for the review, Cache Creek Mayor and TNRD Director John Ranta suggests the original intent of the review is also worth considering.
“In looking at this [Thompson Nicola] Regional District, I’ve always scratched my head and wondered ‘what the hell is Lillooet doing with Squamish-Lillooet [Regional District],'” argued Ranta. “That’s gotta be a pain in the butt to administer from Whistler or Pemberton or something.”
At this point, the TNRD is simply asking the province to allow for the review to be approved, as something of this scale requires the consent of Cabinet.
If the review is granted, it’s expected the province will pick up half of the costs, though a cost analysis of the review has not been made at this point.
