The Omineca Beetle Action Coalition hasn’t been so quiet after all.

Board Chair, Len Fox, says  his group has just  received the necessary approval  for official “Society “ status, meaning his group  can  now administer the funds the Province had set aside for them  “Up until now the McGregor Model Forest has been looking after finances as we didn’t have the official Society status to allow us to do that.”

The Province had set aside $800 thousand dollars for the OBAC to develop programs and fund projects aimed at economic diversification in the wake of the mountain pine beetle epidemic.

Getting this far hasn’t been easy.  “We have 9 communities, 2 regional districts, 5 Forest Districts and 5 land use plans.  It has been a challenge to bring together all the communities and come up with bylaws which respect the diversity of each community” says Fox.

There has been criticism that Mackenzie, Valemount and McBride were left out of the OBAC “We have never said they couldn’t be part of the OBAC” says Fox, “It’s just that at the time when the Coalition was established, the beetle wasn’t posing a major threat to those areas.  That of course has changed, and the Mayors of the three communities will meet with the Deputy Minister Ray Shultz in late October to see how they can come on board.”  Fox says  the Province will have to give the O.K. for the  inclusion of the three as  it will mean another 4 million hectares of Crown Land will  be added to the 14 million hectares  the Omineca  group is already responsible for “That is a significant increase, and may require additional funding” says  Fox.

The MacGrego Model Forest has acted as an agent for the group and has dispursed some funds for some groundwork “So far we have only funded research that will increase our data base” says Fox who adds most of the $800 thousand remains intact.  “We are hoping that once we have hired a full time manager, we will be able to move forward more quickly” That hiring should be completed in two weeks or so.

Fox says much of the ground work is done and communities will soon start developing their own strategies which will be rolled into developing an overall regional strategy.  He says one thing is very clear “We need everyone to understand this is a very complex issue, and we will only succeed if we do two things.  One, we have to think positive, and two; we have to work in the collective.  If we fragment, we will all be spinning our wheels.”