The Government of B.C. is once again under fire for releasing a land-use survey to a select group of organizations without public notice, leaving many directly affected groups in the dark.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship quietly launched the Kootenay Backcountry Access Survey without posting it on a government website, issuing a press release, or making it searchable online.
The lack of transparency has prompted backlash from residents concerned about potential land-use restrictions and impacts on industries including mineral exploration, forestry, and tourism, as well as recreation, private property and rural communities.
In less than a week since its release, the government was forced to acknowledge concerns raised that the survey questions are bias and leading.
In an attempt to stem the backlash, ministry staff released a clarification document that paradoxically claims more user input will lead to better-informed decisions, yet the survey remains hidden from the very public whose feedback is supposedly essential.
If the government truly intends to listen to these concerns and incorporate them into future survey designs, there’s nothing stopping them from making these changes now.
The situation mirrors last year’s uproar over proposed changes to the Lands Act – a process Premier Eby was forced to abandon after overwhelming public outcry.
During the provincial election, the Premier committed not to revisit the issue without first rebuilding the trust of industry and the public, saying “The reason is that we need to make sure that we have the confidence of British Columbians in doing this critically important work.”
Despite that commitment and the Premier’s post-election promise to bridge the urban-rural divide and “represent the entire province”, the government has reverted to the same closed-door tactics.
This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the rapidly growing Facebook group BC Property Owners Losing Road Access, where residents have been vocal about growing restrictions and concerns about the new survey.
One widely shared post by one of the group’s administrators, Kim Hubert, summarizes their concern with the government survey:
“On the surface, it sounds like they want our input, but dig deeper, and it’s clear this could lead to the closure of backcountry roads—roads that are 80 to 120+ years old, built in the late 1800s to support families who received land grants during that time. These aren’t just roads; they’re lifelines to homes, farms, cabins, family lands, and the tourism that keeps our small towns alive.”
Their message has resonated with opposition politicians who have since raised the topic of public land access and rural communities in the Legislature.
Provincial MLA Scott McInnis, the opposition’s critic for Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, has supported the group around the lack of transparency in public land-use decisions, including the proposed deactivation of the Incomappleux Forest Service Road, which some residents rely on to access their properties.
Federal MP Rob Morrison of Kootenay-Columbia also issued a statement in February, describing a “systemic effort by the B.C. government to cut off access to rural properties,” adding that his office had been “inundated with requests for federal intervention.”
Forest Service Roads are critical infrastructure for BC, providing access for fire control, fish and wildlife officers, government geologists, environmental surveyors, as well as the film industry, energy and oil sectors, prospectors, miners, and more.
The fact that impacted stakeholders were unevenly contacted makes it easy to understand the growing suspicion that the survey was never intended to be representative.
When asked if the East Kootenay Chamber of Mines had been made aware of the survey, President Jason Jacobs said his group hadn’t been informed of the survey and that “It is obviously governments way of putting more nails in the coffin of the once prosperous province by cutting off public lands.”
The controversy concerns more than just who received the survey, but how it’s framed; with criticism that the wording is loaded and designed to lead respondents toward a predetermined conclusion that supports restricting access to public land.
One survey question pointedly asks whether respondents are aware that the province has the legal authority to prohibit even non-motorized access “for the purposes of wildlife management.”
Questions like that don’t read as neutral, they read as veiled threats.
Worse still, the government has said that survey results will be shared only with those organizations that were initially invited to participate.
So much for transparency.
Premier Eby can easily deliver on his promise to improve public engagement on land-use planning with a straightforward solution: Post surveys publicly.
Share them through media, social media, and industry channels.
And most importantly, ensure equal participation opportunities for everyone: industry, rural residents, conservationists, Indigenous groups, and recreation users.
Failing to do so, especially more than once, only reinforces the perception of secrecy and bias, and further widens the divide between urban policymakers and the people who live, work, and depend on B.C.’s backcountry.
Warren Mirko is the executive director of the Public Land Use Society, a provincial non-profit committed to defending public access to Crown land and advocating for transparency in land-use decision making across B.C.
