Mr. J. Lorimer,

Minister of Municipal Affairs,
Parliament Buildings,
Victoria, B.C.

RE: Prohibition or Regulation of Land Clearing

Dear Sir:

Since being advised by you that you had referred our submission of October 10, 1972

to staff for possible drafting of legislation, we have been in touch with Mr.

McKelvey of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities and Mr. Ted Whalen of

your Department.

Mr. Whalen has advised us that he is in agreement of our basic purpose but is
concerned about the possibility that municipal authority to protect trees and

streams might infringe on the tree farm licence rights of large timber companies.

We agree with Mr. Whalen that an accommodation along the lines of "regulation"
rather than "prohibition" might be in order. We would suggest that another
alternative might be to specifically exclude tree farm licences from the

legislation.

Finally, in the event that a compromise is impossible and the rights of private
citizens are balanced against those of the timber companies, we are confident
that your Government would agree with us that appropriate legislation should

still be drafted. We enclose a copy of our original submission for your quick

recall,
Yours very truly,

L.B. Scott

Premier D. Barrett wyor