The UDI successfully lobbied the government against environmental streamside protection regulation.
This ‘achievement’ by the UDI took place about 2 decades ago.
Despite numerous indications to suggest lobbying activity at all levels of government, the UDI does not appear to have registered lobbying activity on the federal level since then.
Photos of the same section of Bowker Creek in Browning Park at different times of the year (2024). Development excavation and road work have been key contributing factors to silting of the creek, frustrating attempts to return it to a salmon bearing state.
The Urban Development Institute, (UDI) is registered on the BC Lobbyists Registry, but does not appear to have registered for almost 2 decades on the Federal Lobbyists Registry. This is despite information abounding that they have been lobbying the federal government in recent years, and with their own recent material suggesting that they are ramping up advocacy efforts towards the federal level to achieve similar regulatory outcomes with the Province’s recent housing legislation.
The last registration that I came across from the UDI on the federal lobbyist registry involved some vague inactive registrations from 2005 involving a third party lobby consultant, and fish habitat.
Yes it did look fishy…
The only real detail I could find of their actual federal lobbying activities was:
| Government Contract Pursued | REGULATORY REFORM WITH REFERENCE TO FISH HABITAT REGULATIONS |
Having for sometime observed this strange anomaly and pattern of not registering lobbying activity on the federal level, that may have to do with a complete failure by the Federal Government to hold lobbyists accountable, this piscine puzzle piece seems to have finally come together.
The UDI’s 2004 Annual Report, one of the few document survivors of their 2023 purge of their branch websites, provides a capsule into time to when they were proud of their connections to the Campbell government, and of their shared deregulation efforts.
Fast forward 2 decades, and now they are proud of their shared policy efforts with the BC NDP that culminated in perhaps the most far-reaching power grab from the Province over urban planning, in perhaps its entire history, something even the Campbell Liberals hadn’t have dared politically, even if they had made some tentative forays into this direction that never quite culminated into anything close to this outcome.
In 2004 however, the UDI had something else to be proud about, it was deregulation of fish habitat protections…
As they highlighted in their Annual Report on p.11 under the UDI’s ironically titled “Environment Committee Report”:
Here is what was written:
“During the past year the activities of the Environment Committee have
been varied but have again focussed on two main areas: Streamside
Protection Regulation, and provincial legislation and regulations,
particularly the Fish Protection Act and Streamside Protection
Regulation (SPR), as well as the Waste Management Act (now the
Environment Management Act), Contaminated Sites Regulation and a
number of related regulations.
The province enacted legislation (Fish Protection Act) in 1999
concerning water quantity, fish habitat, endangered species, provision
of responsibilities for fish habitat to municipalities along with other
environmental responsibilities and co-ordination between the
enforcement officers working for the two governments. The
government enacted the streamside protection regulation in late 2000
and brought that regulation into force in January of 2001. Lobbying
by UDI and others was eventually successful in causing the regulation
being put into abeyance. Since that time the Province has been
working, through a committee of MLAs to revise the regulation to be
science based and bind the Federal government to the decisions arising
from the Guide Book that is to be used to replace the very prescriptive
set back requirements in the regulation. There are some significant
issues to resolve, primarily with regulatory process. The Guide Book
approach has been tested by UDI members and found to be
significantly better than the former Development Guidelines or the
former SPR. We are hopeful that the current issues can be overcome
and a new approach to streamside set backs initiated.
UDI has participated in the reviews set up by BC Water Land and Air
Protection (WLAP) regarding upcoming changes in the Act and
associated regulations. Changes have already occurred in the Act and
further changes to the Act and regulations are anticipated this year.
Additional issues that may be of concern in the coming year and
beyond are the implementation of the federal legislation on
endangered species (Species at Risk Act).
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act has also been revised but will likely
not affect the development community.
The Environment Committee has worked hard this past year and I
would especially like to thank the members and staff for their diligent
effort.”
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Appendix: 2 excerpts from the UDI’s 2004 Annual Report showing their influence with the BC Liberal government of the day:
Excerpt 1:
“Our relations with the provincial government remain strong. Premier
Campbell recognizes the importance of our industry to the provincial
economy and continues to meet annually with your Board of Directors
and address the membership. Although the Honourable George
Abbott left the municipal affairs and housing portfolio to take over the
sustainable resource management portfolio, the groundwork he
undertook to ensure a strong and stable development industry is being
carried on by the Honourable Murray Coell. UDI president Ward
McAllister and I have met with Minister Coell as well as Ministers
Abbott, Barisoff, Hagen, Collins, Falcon, Murray, and others along
with senior officials on matters ranging from deposit insurance and the
new Real Estate Development Marketing Act, environmental
legislation including the Streamside Protection Regulation and Waste
Management Act, the skilled worker shortage, Community Charter,
economic policies, energy efficiency policies, deregulation, to name a
few. UDI has a long track record of being a “voice of reason” and
governments continue to turn to the Institute for advice and thoughtful
comment on public policies and legislative initiatives.”
Excerpt 2:
“The Institute is now in its 31st year and it has been both exciting and
rewarding being part of the evolution. Today the Institute has become
a leading voice on any and all issues associated with community
building. We have done an excellent job of communicating and
educating all levels of government, many whom firmly believe we are
partners in the process of community building.
In the fall of 2002 your Board, through a series of planning sessions,
agreed upon a new Strategic Plan for the Institute, which would shift
the direction of our resources to education and discussion more
focused on our responsibilities at a municipal level. This decision led
us to the recruitment of Cameron Thorne, as our Director of Municipal
Affairs. Cameron was formerly the Ministerial Assistant to the
Honourable George Abbott, Minister of Community, Aboriginal, and
Women’s Services. Cameron has done an exceptional job of
reformating and expanding our municipal liaison functions with the
City’s of Vancouver, Richmond, Coquitlam, and Burnaby. These
committees are working well and we feel privileged to have so much
commitment from both councils and staff for being included in the
process of shaping our communities. I thank every one of our
members who give up their time to be part of these very important
committees as we plan to devote more attention to these vital roles.
Provincially there continues to be much change that directly affects
our industry on a daily basis. On January 1st of this year the new
Community Charter became law, which replaced the local
Government Act. We were pleased that the Provincial Government
carried through with their promise to include us in its drafting, and we
are happy that they listened. UDI staff and our many committees
continue to dialogue with government on many issues such as the
Streamside Protection Act, Real Estate Act, Labour Laws, Shortage of
Skilled Workers and other initiatives. I am pleased to report that we
are making excellent progress on all fronts and confident that together
with government, anticipated changes we will be able to reduce red
tape and provide a stable foundation for continued growth in our
industry.”
Yes, you read that right, in addition to helping the government deregulate protections on fish habitat, the ever-busy UDI helped around the same time, the Provincial government draft the Community Charter, in which was placed many of the responsibilities over municipalities, previously held by the Local Government Act.
