Coalition History

This coalition started with the Tenough Coalition of First Nations and supporters including church groups and a group of history/geography and law profs at UVic called the Committee for the Preservation of BC History to protest the closure of the Victoria Land Title Office as announced by the British Columbia government in 2004. We joined a broad-based Victoria swell of opposition to the move.

When that proposal was replaced with a plan to create a non-profit non-government agency to take in the province's entire land title and survey system a common front was formed with the Victoria Genealogical Society and the Association of BC Archivists. Jointly we held a news conference and proposed recommendations for the act that would create the Land Title and Survey Authority to ensure that there was a full catalogue of the records of both the land title office and surveyor's general before the transfer to the new authority. That did not happen. We recommended that the agency put a preservation program in place and that access to researchers be improved. This remains to be seen. We recommended that the agency hire a professional archivist. This they have said they will do.

Once the act was introduced we were joined by the BC Historical Federation, the Vancouver Historical Society, the BC Genealogical Society and the Friends of the BC Archives to ask for assurances that cataloguing, preservation and access to the historical documents would be part of the mandate of the new agency (the mandate is vague on this) and that there would be significant heritage presence on the governing board and the advisory board. While realtors, lawyers, surveyors, notaries, and land agents are represented on the governing board, the heritage constituency was left off.

We supported a rally organized by the First Nations at the legislature in March 2005 to press our concerns about access and preservation of Land Title and Survey Records and to raise more general concerns about the lack of a heritage policy in B.C. One First Nations representative is appointed to the governing board. One First Nations representative and one representative of the BC Historical Federation are the only voices on the advisory board which has the power of recommendation only,

We continue to work to ensure that the vital land title and survey records of the province are preserved, catalogues and available to historical researchers. In addition, in working together on this file, we have found that we have many interests in common and are working towards a broader common front for heritage issues in the province.