B.C.’s Bear Smart Program Is Stalled While Families And Bears Pay

B.C. does not need another slogan about coexistence. It needs the prevention machinery to actually work.

The Vancouver Sun reports the province’s Bear Smart program is not accepting new applications and community reviews or audits are stalled. That matters because Bear Smart was built to tackle the preventable causes of human-bear conflict: garbage, attractants, weak bylaws and uneven public education.

The program began in 2002. According to the Sun, 13 communities have signed on. Wildlife advocates have long described the model as a serious framework, not a photo-op: local rules, local education and provincial standards aimed at keeping bears from becoming habituated to human food and keeping people safer in their own neighbourhoods.

Now the hard allegation is administrative drift. The Fur-Bearers obtained freedom-of-information records and told the Sun the program has no dedicated staff positions, is not taking municipal applications and has audits on hold. The Sun reported internal documents showing vacant roles and confusion over responsibility after the file shifted from the Environment Ministry to the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.

The province’s own response does not erase the problem. The Ministry of Environment told the Sun that Bear Smart has not been discontinued, but that B.C. is “not in a position to expand the program at this time.” The ministry also said communities seeking review or accreditation are being told applications are not currently being processed.

That is the accountability gap. If a program still exists on paper but cannot take applications, cannot complete reviews and cannot show who is clearly responsible for keeping standards current, families are entitled to ask what exactly the NDP government is managing.

The stakes are not theoretical. CBC, citing the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, reported a black bear attack in Anmore on Monday, August 17, left a woman and her dog injured on the back deck of her property. CBC also noted the incident followed an earlier Maple Ridge attack this month in which a three-year-old girl was injured and the bear was later killed by RCMP officers.

None of that means every encounter could have been prevented by one provincial program. It does mean prevention cannot be treated as an optional side desk while communities deal with attractants, residents call for help and conservation officers face the worst end of the problem. When systems fail early, the consequences arrive late and brutally — for people, pets and bears.

Port Moody is now taking a resolution to the Union of B.C. Municipalities asking the province to reactivate Bear Smart, including staff and funding to administer and expand it. That is not a radical demand. It is local government asking Victoria to make a provincial program functional again.

David Eby’s government should answer plainly: who owns Bear Smart today, what staff are assigned, when will applications restart, when will audits resume, and what will be funded before the next conflict season? If the answer is still “not at this time,” British Columbians should hear that for what it is: a prevention promise left tangled in red tape.