Former Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells chats with Spencer Chandra Herbert, the provincial NDP environment critic, in a photo taken in October 2014 when Chandra Herbert visited Osoyoos. Wells has also been a supporter of permanent inspection stations for boats entering the province at major roadways. (Richard McGuire file photo)
The NDP Environment Critic has taken aim at the provincial government’s approach to intercepting invasive mussels with his own private member’s bill based on Alberta’s approach.
Spencer Chandra Herbert introduced his bill in the B.C. Legislature last Thursday.
The B.C. government has resisted the approach called for by the Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB), which seeks the establishment of permanent inspection stations to check boats at major highway entry points into the province.
Instead, B.C. has introduced three roving inspection and decontamination units. These are being supplemented by an additional three roving units funded by the Columbia Basin Trust.
Chandra Herbert’s bill, however, is closely based on a law introduced in Alberta last year that establishes permanent inspection stations at highway entry points.
Only minor modifications are made, for example, to change the Alberta term “fisheries protection officer” to the B.C. term “conservation officer.”
Recreational boaters who fail to decontaminate their boats after using them in infested waterways typically spread invasive zebra and quagga mussels.
Zebra mussels have reached Manitoba and quagga mussels have reached lakes in the U.S. Southwest.
“I think the challenge with a roving station is we have 20,000 lakes in this province,” said Chandra Herbert. “Unless you’re at the borders and unless you stop them at the border, there are so many gaps and so many places a boat can go in this province that a roving station would never even find them.”
Even the number of access points to the Okanagan lakes makes it unrealistic to intercept boats with roving units, he said.
Chandra Herbert thinks the B.C. government is resisting permanent inspection stations because it wants to save money in the short term, but he points out that costs will rise substantially if any B.C. lakes are infected.
The OBWB estimates it would cost $43 million a year just to mitigate the damage caused if invasive mussels ever got into the Okanagan lakes.
“Alberta has figured out that if you close the borders to invasive species, you don’t need to spend a whole bunch of money roving around the province in a slapdash manner,” he said.
Chandra Herbert admits that an opposition private member’s bill in a majority legislature has no realistic chance of passing. And he denies that he is trying to score political points by getting the B.C. Liberal government to vote against sensible legislation.
“The focus of this is just to find another way to remind the government and every member in that house that we can’t ignore this problem,” he said. “Fingers crossed and rolling the dice seems to be the approach we’ve got now.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
