Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Doug Clovechok says it is suspicious and unacceptable that the provincial government provided such little notice about information gathering open houses covering backcountry road access.

Clovechok said he learned of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRORD) open houses on Sept. 23, the day the first open houses were being held in the region (Invermere and Elkford).

FLNRORD is reviewing and updating established Motor Vehicle Closed Areas and Motor Vehicle Hunting Closed Areas in the region “to make them function better for wildlife, public and enforcement objectives.”

Both Clovechok and Kootenay East MLA Tom Shypitka learned of the series of open houses on Monday.

“I was not made aware of these meetings until the morning of Monday, Sept, 23, in which I immediately, posted on FB (Facebook) to inform residents,” Clovechok noted on social media.

“The lack of advertising and poor timeframes for our province’s land use public sessions is another example of the lack of transparency that (Premier John) Horgan and his government refuse to participate in.

“Your own community mayors and regional district directors were not informed of these meetings either (PS they are all in Vancouver for UBCM this week). We were all shocked; no one in good faith can approve of this backdoor approach,” Clovechok said, adding, “I do find it blatantly suspicious that the very people who should be attending these open house sessions were not informed of their existence; running sessions with little to no notice is unacceptable.”

He said the meetings should be run in the day and evenings with lots of notice for the residents and your locally elected officials to participate in, otherwise, what are we all here for?

“FYI: the Golden session is tomorrow, Sept 26 – Lions Den from 12 – 5 p.m. Further, I have not been told if Revelstoke is having a session, I’ll let you know if I get more info,” Clovechok told constituents on Facebook.

Learning of the open houses from MLA Shypitka who posted an alert to constituents, e-KNOW could not find any quick information on them on any government website. The story we published came courtesy of information published by Shypitka. At publication time of this article, we’re still trying to find information on the open houses.

Upcoming meetings we do know about:

Wednesday, September 25, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at Cranbrook Manual Training Centre (1212 2nd Street North).

Thursday, September 26, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at Fernie Chamber of Commerce (102 Commerce Rd).

Friday, September 27, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at Sparwood Chamber of Commerce (30 141 A Aspen Dr)

e-KNOW

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