That the City of Nanaimo request that the Province of British Columbia work with the City of Nanaimo, the Regional District of Nanaimo, Snuneymuxw First Nation, Nanaimo and Area Land Trust and the Federal Government to protect the ecologically and culturally sensitive areas within the area known as the Harewood Plains including the protection of identified species at risk.
Yeah. So this part of the world, the southeast coast of Vancouver Island, is all privatized due to the E&N land grant of 1887 when BC joined Confederation. Part of the deal was to build the E&N railway from Nanaimo to Esquimalt and as such we lost 8,000 square kilometers of land to Robert Dunsmuir along with $750,000 to build a railway. And as a result of that less than 2% of the land base in the regional protected. And as a city, we have some very unique areas. There's very unique areas in Moorcroft Regional Park. And this is a very unique area as well. And it's incumbent upon us to protect what we can in this region, especially endangered species and sensitive of ecological systems. But we can't do that as a city alone. We just do not have the tax base or the funding to do it and I think it's incumbent upon the province of British Columbia and the federal government to step up and work with First Nations, in this particular case with Snenemo, to protect areas that are important to them. And I've talked to elders at Snenemo. I know that there are petroglyphs in the Harewood Plains area. I've talked to them about the camas fields and this is an important area to them as well and I think that working towards reconciliation to make sure that we recognize the importance of these areas not just for the sensitive species and the species at risk in the ecosystems but also the cultural importance of these areas and so that's why I'm bringing this motion forward and I'm hoping them happy to hear this presentation tonight thank thank the presenters for the knowledge that they bring forward and I'd like to thank everybody for sending all those 500 emails although it really clogged up my email box as long as well as everybody else's but it just shows that this is this is important to the Nanaimo and I want our MLAs and MP to understand that and work with their counterparts at federal level in the provincial level to to work on
thanks mayor and through you I think the last time I was walking through there was last summer and when you're in the plains area I was just really struck by and you can really see that, you know, the water that's higher really percolates down through and feeds those flowers and that it is a very sensitive area and development in that area is going to irreparably harm that. And I think, you know, Councillor Manley speaking to the EANN Land Grant and how much land is privately owned and that makes it much more difficult to protect and it's sad seeing these small little slivers of areas that still are home to you know a very rich level of biodiversity and I think that we really do need to you know make every effort to protect them and I think that these motions recognize that for this particular area there are constraints and with resources and we really do need to work with the federal and provincial government to to make it happen and you know at the provincial and federal level there's a lot of talk about you know preserving biodiversity goals of protection and I think that if folks are really serious about doing that, you know, we do expect to see a high level of collaboration in trying to protect the Harewood Plains. And just finally, I think we're laughing as our, maybe not exactly laughing, but as our email boxes we're filling up with these emails because I don't think that this is a particular contentious thing on Council. I think everybody here would like to see Harewood Plains protected. already a slam dunk, but it just really does speak to the amount of people that did take the time to write in at how important this is. And often when we get emails, it's engaging on other things, and we don't see even that level of engagement. And so natural areas are very important for Nanaimo whites. And, you know, I'm happy to see these motions go forward and protect this area. Thank you.