Trust lacking in natural resource decision-making

B.C. can act to restore public’s faith, says Kathleen Walsh.

The B.C. government recently undertook a review of its “professional-reliance” system. After a decade of cuts to the scientific capacity within the public service — a reduction of 25 per cent — most of the public-interest science was outsourced to “qualified professionals,” and the critical decisions around our land, water and natural resources management were all but handed over to the industry.

Unfortunately, this broken system has reallife effects on British Columbians, decreasing public transparency and accountability, and leading to such disasters as the Mount Polley tailing dam collapse.

The “professional-reliance” system outsources decisions to industry-employed professionals with little government oversight and enforcement capacity. Now with the smallest public service in Canada, B.C.’s environment doesn’t stand a chance.

An independent report on the professional-reliance system, produced after an extensive public review process, was recently released. It provides a comprehensive and hard-hitting analysis of how we manage natural resources in this province, particularly related to our forests and wildlife habitat.

Now the government must act.

This wide-sweeping report provides the government with a roadmap to increase trust and transparency in the decision-making and management of B.C.’s resources. It offers 121 recommendations that focus on suggested changes to the governance of qualified pros and much-needed legal reforms to our environmental laws and regulations. A core recommendation is the creation of an oversight body, to ensure the industry of qualified professionals outside of government follow best practices and is adequately regulated. Such changes will increase the ethics, duties and powers of qualified pros and their agencies and how they operate.

The current professional-reliance system must change so that conservation scientists, engineers, foresters and other science-based “qualified professionals” can genuinely and honestly assess the effects of industry projects, and present that information to their employer without fear of retribution.

While the report’s recommendations are substantive, British Columbians have to ensure that fixing the professional-reliance model is addressed, and soon. The government does need some time to respond, but we must make sure they follow through to repair a broken system.

The first steps for the government must be to increase capacity within the public service. Doing so will not only address some issues around professional reliance itself, but increases the potential positive effects of other legislative changes with a more robust, wellresourced public service.

While the report does offer recommendations for increasing management of external professionals, simply increasing government oversight isn’t enough. Scientific capacity within the B.C. government must be increased in order for the government to know the questions that need to be asked, the potential impact of their decisions and to know what qualifications are necessary to carry out this work.

It doesn’t just stop at oversight. British Columbians deserve government scientists who are well-resourced, free to speak about their public-interest science and able to carry out research on projects without concern for industry repercussion.

This report provides an outstanding opportunity for Premier John Horgan to demonstrate leadership and conduct a significant overhaul of the government’s current practices in natural resources decision-making by promptly implementing the report’s recommendations. Such action will restore public trust and confidence in how the environment and natural resources are managed.

This is our chance to be proactive. We can have a system that protects the environment and our health, and honours and protects Indigenous and local government values and goals.

The review summarizes the proposals of hundreds of British Columbians, environmental groups, industry pros and outside scientists — the demand for change is present. The government only needs to supply the action.

Kathleen Walsh is director of policy for Evidence for Democracy, an online platform that advocates for the transparent use of science and evidence in public policy and government decision-making. The author submitted this piece on behalf of the Professional Reliance Working Group.