Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

TROUBLE AT THE RANCH

Hat Creek Ranch operators concerned about renewal red tape

May 31, 2019 | 5:57 PM

CACHE CREEK, BC — Hat Creek Ranch is a Provincial Heritage site, much like Barkerville and the Yale Historic Site. The Friends of Historic Hat Creek have been overseeing the property for the past 15 years, but there’s uncertainty in the future of the site. Instead of renewing the current contract, the province is putting out a Request For Proposals, in the hopes of increasing the Indigenous representation at the site. It’s a move that has left the management of the site in doubt.

Robert Sharkey is Chair of the Friends of Historic Hat Creek, the society that has overseen the property for over a decade. Sharkey and the rest of his board are concerned its tenure managing the site is in jeopardy.

Image Credit: CFJC Today

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“About a year and a half ago, we started a process to renew that contract,” Sharkey told CFJC Today. “We had renegotiated a renewal; then we didn’t get the renewal. Then we had a conditional [renewal]; we lived up to the conditions, and then that changed. So what we fell as a board – we don’t understand what’s really going on.”

Sites like Hat Creek Ranch are administered by Heritage Branch, as part of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources. As part of the provincial government’s commitment to reconciliation with First Nations, Heritage Branch is encouraging the Friends of Historic Hat Creek to increase its collaboration with the local band.

“The ranch is really culturally significant to the Bonaparte Indian Band,” Jennifer Goad, Executive Director of Mountain Resorts and Heritage said in a phone interview from Victoria. “Over the past year, the Friends of Hat Creek have had an extension, partly to help encourage building a relationship between the Friends and the Bonaparte Indian band.”

Sharkey says the ranch has done just that. They have built significant indigenous display on the site, and they have also worked to include members of the Bonaparte Indian Band in their decision-making.

“We have three seats on the board for the Bonaparte Indian Band, and we have great content at our Aboriginal site,” Sharkey said. “We really believe in adding more of that to the cultural aspect of the site.”

Goad explained that this is just part of the process for all government contracts. The decision will come down to what is best for the site through the Request for Proposals process, which is expected to get underway in mid-June.

“We’re going to invite [all groups who submit] to articulate to us what their vision for the site is,” she said. “The site is really important in the local community, but it’s also important in the provincial context.”

With the RFP still pending, the future of the site is uncertain; that fact is frustrating Sharkey and his board.

“We can’t take bookings for next year or the year after. So far, we’ve probably lost around $200,000 in bookings.”