Thanks to a new cash injection, the Shuswap Lake Integrated Planning Process will move forward.

The group has received $115,000 from the Fraser Salmon and Watersheds Program which manages B.C.’s Living Rivers initiative with a $2 million budget over five years.

Phil Hallinan, Fraser Basin Council’s Thompson region manager, says the money will be used to finalize the SLIPP document and distribute it to government, other agencies, stakeholder groups, First Nations and the public.

As well, members of an inter-agency technical committee that meets every month will develop an application review process.

“This will outline how (development) applications will be handled and the basic requirements that have to be met on Shuswap or Mara Lake,” Hallinan says, noting some of the funds are dedicated to a site-sensitivity map, “showing basically what areas need to be treated with kid gloves.”

Hallinan says the map will help protect spawning beds, and public access and provide a cumulative impact model for development.

Funding will also support an on-the-lake stewardship and education program regarding foreshore development.

The SLIPP process was initiated by Ian McGregor, section head of Ministry of the Environment’s Fish and Wildlife Branch in Kamloops, after several area politicians and other officials took a houseboat ride on Shuswap Lake and viewed firsthand the threats to the lake.

Support for the process came quickly from several groups and Hallinan says funding for SLIPP has trickled in from various sources, allowing officials to do a few smaller studies.

One completed study is a survey on how greywater storage is implemented in California.

Hallinan says government agencies, including planners from the Columbia Shuswap Regional District and the North Okanagan Regional District, have been meeting on a regular basis to talk about a variety of projects, determining amongst themselves what common issues must be dealt with before development proceeds.

This aspect of the process is being co-ordinated by the Integrated Land Management Bureau of the Ministry of Forests and Range and Front Counter BC.

“There is a more relaxed atmosphere in which they can talk about issues,” says Hallinan. “They are meeting once a month and having a great deal of success.”

Hallinan says a stakeholder meeting is on the agenda, as is reporting back to the public.

While pleased to see some movement, Electoral Area C South Shuswap director Ted Bacigalupo wants more commitment from the province.

“The public and local government is anxiously waiting for the province’s position on the SLIPP program, which was touted to be an initiative that would pave the way for the protection of the Shuswap watershed,” he says. “At least two years have passed and we’ve had a very brief update report which really doesn’t tell us where the process is taking us next and we need to know that.”

As well, Bacigalupo says the focus needs to go beyond Shuswap and Mara Lake to become a watershed view and include Mabel, Adams and Sugar lakes and Shuswap River.

He notes that at the June board meeting, CSRD directors voted unanimously to ask that a permanent prohibition be placed on the deposition of treated effluent from private sources into Shuswap and Mara lakes in the province’s Municipal Sewerage Regulations.

The implications are enormous, he says, noting that if their request is granted, the prohibition will include every water body in the province.

Bacigalupo says he gets phone calls regularly inquiring about the status of SLIPP.

“And I can honestly say I don’t have the answer because the opportunity to release good news to appease the public that something positive is happening is not forthcoming,” he says. “OCPs, development permits, zoning bylaws and local regulating bylaws are not sufficient in themselves to be compatible with senior government legislation in order to achieve solutions acceptable to the public and local governments.”

But Bacigalupo allows that the province is trying to act on the issue in a gradual and responsible way, keeping in mind that whatever decisions are made set a precedent and may be pursued by other governments and interest groups.

“The SLIPP process could be an ongoing initiative that has implications far into the future and will require funding commitments from all levels of government if we are intent on protecting the watershed,” he says.