South Delta in the Future....what will it look like?

At a recent Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Chief Kim Baird unequivocally stated that the TFN was open for business and that she and the TFN were looking forward to working with their immediate neighbours (us) in the coming years to capitalize on business opportunities. We should be glad for that.

I know that this concept sends a chill up many spines in South Delta and that there are many hear that would take such a notion as an offence to their sensibilities and an obvious assault on the “quality of life� that they have come to enjoy. Our quality of life comes about from many things not the least of which is the ability to participate in and adapt to change. The TFN is finally able to participate in the benefits that change, growth and evolution present.

Our local landscape will morph as the TFN works with its partners to build a new life for its people. This is exciting stuff and people who think that the TFN treaty has been hastily negotiated are wrong.

As the TFN carefully and diligently investigates opportunity, our local government is no doubt assessing what a new South Delta will look like and how it can prepare to appropriately participate in it.

This weeks approval from the Agricultural Land Commission to grant the exclusion of ALR lands and associated land re-classifications for the Tsawwassen Golf and Country Club development gives a clear indication that our region is on the move and that reasons to prohibit change may not be as a effective as they were twenty years ago. We shouldn’t be so frightened!

Our local government and Municipal staff are grappling with pressures and issues that are difficult to manage but necessary to implement.

Naysayers to the Shato Holdings golf course proposal have lamented over the loss of ALR land at the immediate site of the proposed development. This past weeks’ ruling by the ALC clearly emphasizes that the proposal in its entirety would provide a net benefit to the community, farming and otherwise.

Detractors of the proposal also constantly refer to the project as being outside the realms of an Official Community Plan. That is because the “OCP� needs a facelift in the worst way. The TFN treaty demands this pragmatic policy review and council and staff are, I am sure, looking well beyond what it had envisioned for this region just a few years ago.

To those who suggest that the Shato proposal deviates from the OCP by placing housing units on the “edge� of the community, I would entirely beg to differ.

Look in your crystal ball and like it or not, see the TFN fulfilling its treaty rights over the years. Then, look at the Golf Club expansion and understand, very quickly, that some of the detractors of this proposal who feel that a development of this magnitude would seem to be on the edge of our community should be recognizing that this plan may very well be more in the centre than they may realize.

Manage and mitigate risks associated with change but do not underestimate the collective benefits that can come with it. Time to move on folks.