The development and implementation of municipal smoking-control bylaws in British Columbia during the 1990s was characterized by polarity and confrontation. Health sector professionals, members of the hospitality industry, community activists, and municipal politicians disagreed over the need for bylaws, types of establishments that should be regulated, and the degree of restriction. This research used narrative policy analysis to understand the factors that influenced the development of these bylaws in order to delineate a less confrontational process and ensure a more stable resolution. Narratives were collected from representatives of the main policy sectors in four communities throughout British Columbia. Victoria and Vancouver represented urban communities that were updating existing bylaws. Professional staff headed their top-down bylaw processes. In the rural communities of Squamish and Kimberley community volunteers attempted to introduce new bylaws through a bottom-up process. The narratives proved to be a rich source of information that would have been difficult to capture in any other manner. They offer a novel and fruitful means of engaging in policy analysis. The provincial government's tobacco-control strategy served as a backdrop for all policy processes, although it was experienced unequally in the four communities. Urban centres were more aware of provincial tobacco-control initiatives and accessed provincial resources to a greater extent than did Kimberley and Squamish. Each policy sector was led by champions, but the nature of these groups and individuals greatly influenced their success. Those who were credible, persistent, and had access to decision makers were most likely to influence the policy-making process. The antagonism that distinguished the bylaw process was itself a determinant. In all communities, the discord reached a level where it precluded a fair and inclusive process. The bylaw debate was framed and reframed by different sectors. The ability of champions to reach policy makers and frame the debate in a way that was compelling played a significant role in the outcome. Finally, the narratives indicate that each community's “readiness” for policy change is a factor that must be considered. Community readiness was seen to comprise seven main components: (1) each policy sector's belief that a policy is worth adopting and their ability to successfully influence the public and policy makers; (2) the nature of a community—its size, demographics, and social norms; (3) the politicians involved and the ability of champions to understand the political process and reach policy makers; (4) the type of policy under consideration and its relationship to both previous statutes and social norms; (5) the ability of media to reflect sectoral interests and influence public knowledge and attitudes; (6) the temporal context in which the policy change was considered; and (7) a process that fits the needs and resources of the community. / Graduate

The Homesite Severance Policy of British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Commission permits the subdivision of the farmer’s home from the farm property. Its purpose is to balance the protection of the agricultural resource with fair treatment for retiring farmers. This study documents the land use implications of the policy as well as its development, charting its origins and changes over the decades. Critics of the policy have noted two major problems. Urban sized lots have been scattered throughout the agricultural community, increasing the possibility of urban - rural conflicts (over the noises and smells of farming). Scarce arable land has also been lost, through construction (of the home or barns), on the remnant property. To determine if the agricultural resource has been compromised by the policy the frequency, location and actual area taken by homesite severance will be reviewed. In addition the study will explore the rationale and results of the two reviews of the policy. Suggestions will be offered (as they emerge from the findings and discussion) to alleviate the negative effects of the policy.

The Homesite Severance Policy of British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Commission permits the subdivision of the farmer’s home from the farm property. Its purpose is to balance the protection of the agricultural resource with fair treatment for retiring farmers. This study documents the land use implications of the policy as well as its development, charting its origins and changes over the decades. Critics of the policy have noted two major problems. Urban sized lots have been scattered throughout the agricultural community, increasing the possibility of urban - rural conflicts (over the noises and smells of farming). Scarce arable land has also been lost, through construction (of the home or barns), on the remnant property. To determine if the agricultural resource has been compromised by the policy the frequency, location and actual area taken by homesite severance will be reviewed. In addition the study will explore the rationale and results of the two reviews of the policy. Suggestions will be offered (as they emerge from the findings and discussion) to alleviate the negative effects of the policy. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Contaminated sites are a common problem across municipalities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District. These problems are complicated and multi-dimensional, and raise fundamental concerns about the risks to human and environmental health. This thesis shows however, that there are no easy answers to how much risk is "acceptable", and no one right way to decide. How the acceptable risk problem is structured is important, because fact and value issues, a source of controversy and dispute, are variously interpreted depending on how the problem is cast. The literature generically categorizes acceptable risk as either a technical, social or decision problem, and each of these have implications for the types of decision-making approaches and solutions that are considered appropriate in resolving acceptable risk. This thesis investigated how acceptable risk in contaminated site problems is handled in British Columbia by reviewing the provincial decision-making framework, and by surveying municipalities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District for their views on contaminated site problems and acceptable risk decision-making. The underlying goal of the thesis is to question the use of the current approach, the Pacific Place site criteria, as a model for acceptable risk decision-making in the province, and to explore the implications for urban communities. The Ministry of Environment is the central authority for contaminated sites in British Columbia and has generally taken a scientific and technical approach to the problem. Although the municipal survey suggests that the Pacific Place site criteria has a broad base of support in the GVRD, the technical emphasis has implications for urban communities. The approach is expert-oriented and largely excludes local and public involvement in the acceptable risk debate. The major concern is that important social value issues have been neglected, relative to the engineering and technical aspects of the problem. The research also finds however, that the majority of individuals in the municipal survey are willing to explore other methods of determining acceptable risk, and support in principle, local government and public involvement in deciding what these methods should be. This thesis suggests that British Columbia can benefit from a more comprehensive view of acceptable risk in contaminated site problems. Resource limitations at the provincial and local level, and the high stakes in contaminated site problems for urban communities point to the growing importance of incorporating a broad range of value issues and understanding the trade-offs in acceptable risk decisions. The Ministry of Environment can improve the current decision-making approach by: incorporating structured value assessments that elicit stakeholder values and address trade-offs; involving a wider range of stakeholders in standard setting and risk assessment, including the forthcoming review of the Pacific Place site criteria; creating forums to explore other decision-making approaches; and by encouraging private sector involvement in risk assessment and risk management. The province can also encourage and support community-based institutional networks, both at the municipal and regional level.

This paper examines British Columbia's residency requirement on social assistance implemented by the NDP government on December 1, 1995. The policy created a three-month waiting period for newcomers to the province before they could apply for social assistance. Because it violated ;the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP), the residency requirement put the BC government at risk of losing, through federal penalty, many millions of dollars more than the intended savings. To explain the BC government's decision-making, I use a rational choice nested games approach. I argue that the residency requirement policy produced two sets of interactions in two separate policy arenas. In the principal arena, the British Columbia Social Services Ministry negotiated with the federal Department of Human Resources Development (HRD). The negotiations centred on the possibility of federal concessions in- exchange for BC withdrawing the residency requirement. In the secondary arena, the federal Department of Finance was consulting with its provincial counterparts regarding the' long-term funding formula for the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) set to replace CAP on April 1, 1996. Social Services interacted with the federal Department of Finance to influence the outcome of the funding decision. I propose that the BC government risked minimal resources in the primary arena to gain substantially higher payoffs from the CHST funding formula. The government linked these two arenas through a 'trade-off strategy that allowed them to apply the political pressure and communication generated by the residency requirement and negotiations with HRD to the Finance arena. This enabled them to. increase the possibility of a favourable payoff in that arena. I find that the rational, choice approach produces an explanation that reflected the government's actual decision-making more closely than other theoretical approaches.

The practice of providing urban parks as an integral part of community development no longer creates public debate about the function or legal authority of local governments to make such purchases. However, the debate continues on the ethics of local government's parkland acquisition practices. These practices have the capability and motivation to influence the land value of sites they wish to acquire. Local governments are responsible for determining land use, which in turn affects land value. The limited financial means of local government to acquire parks makes influencing land value one way of stretching the scarce resources of the community. The ethics practiced in the negotiations to acquire urban parkland where the land has development potential are unique because: 1. Parkland is a public good and not a market commodity; 2. The potential for other higher land uses exists; and 3. Local government plays a dual role: one of a regulator and approving authority for determining land use and providing community stewardship, and the other as the corporate cost controlling agency seeking to acquire land. These qualities create the strong possibility for ethical conflict to occur in the negotiating process. Building upon the Interest-Based approach to negotiations, this paper uses a set of Prescriptive, Intuitive and Evaluative (P.I.E.) criteria that define ethical conduct, and the dimensions of Fact, Social Consensus and Experience that defines the dimensions of interests, to develop a General Model for Ethical Negotiations (GMEN). Conceptually, the GMEN model is a three-sided pyramid within a sphere of negotiations. Negotiations that adhere to the principles defining the parameters of the pyramid would be considered ethical. Negotiations outside the pyramid are considered unethical. Six parkland acquisition cases are discussed using the GMEN model. In this study, the parameters establishing the criteria for passing ethical judgment are the functions of the political economy, the policy statements of the local government, and the legislation that delegates power and authority to local government. The study finds that ethical conflict is inherent in parkland negotiations where the land has development potential because of the multiple roles and dual character of local government. This conflict is not necessarily illegal since prescriptive criteria are only one means of judging ethics. Nor is the outcome necessarily negative to the vendor, since the public may end up with a less attractive park agreement. However, the parameters that would require parkland acquisition negotiations to be ethical sometimes conflict with some of the multiple roles held by local government. Several recommendations are made that would help to reduce ethical conflict and the imbalance in parkland negotiations.

This thesis argues that landscapes are products of language, that the meaning of a landscape depends upon how it is presented and interpreted in the course of human communication. It is also argued that the field of rhetoric—as a body of theory, ideas, and methods for interpreting the persuasive use of language—can assist human geographers in their attempts to interpret landscapes. These positions are put to work in a study of the promotion of tourist landscapes by the British Columbia government. Two time periods are examined: first, presentations of landscape during the 1920s and 1930s, and second the 1970s and 1980s. These periods are similar in that they are periods of transition—periods in which the tourism industry underwent significant change. The first period is associated with the development of mass tourism, and specifically with the emergence of the state as a major player in the tourist industry. The second period concerns the recent development of postmodern (alternative environmental and cultural) tourism. Postmodern tourism is characterized by the rejection of mass tourism and by the quest for real places and experiences. The thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative (computer-assisted content analysis) methods to examine how the state has rhetorically responded to these changes in its presentations of landscape. Changes are found in both periods, but they are gradual and incomplete. It is consequently argued that the state’s character as an author limits its audience and the strategies it may use for presenting tourist landscapes.

This paper examines British Columbia's residency requirement on social assistance implemented by the NDP government on December 1, 1995. The policy created a three-month waiting period for newcomers to the province before they could apply for social assistance. Because it violated ;the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP), the residency requirement put the BC government at risk of losing, through federal penalty, many millions of dollars more than the intended savings. To explain the BC government's decision-making, I use a rational choice nested games approach. I argue that the residency requirement policy produced two sets of interactions in two separate policy arenas. In the principal arena, the British Columbia Social Services Ministry negotiated with the federal Department of Human Resources Development (HRD). The negotiations centred on the possibility of federal concessions in- exchange for BC withdrawing the residency requirement. In the secondary arena, the federal Department of Finance was consulting with its provincial counterparts regarding the' long-term funding formula for the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) set to replace CAP on April 1, 1996. Social Services interacted with the federal Department of Finance to influence the outcome of the funding decision. I propose that the BC government risked minimal resources in the primary arena to gain substantially higher payoffs from the CHST funding formula. The government linked these two arenas through a 'trade-off strategy that allowed them to apply the political pressure and communication generated by the residency requirement and negotiations with HRD to the Finance arena. This enabled them to. increase the possibility of a favourable payoff in that arena. I find that the rational, choice approach produces an explanation that reflected the government's actual decision-making more closely than other theoretical approaches. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

Contaminated sites are a common problem across municipalities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District. These problems are complicated and multi-dimensional, and raise fundamental concerns about the risks to human and environmental health. This thesis shows however, that there are no easy answers to how much risk is "acceptable", and no one right way to decide. How the acceptable risk problem is structured is important, because fact and value issues, a source of controversy and dispute, are variously interpreted depending on how the problem is cast. The literature generically categorizes acceptable risk as either a technical, social or decision problem, and each of these have implications for the types of decision-making approaches and solutions that are considered appropriate in resolving acceptable risk. This thesis investigated how acceptable risk in contaminated site problems is handled in British Columbia by reviewing the provincial decision-making framework, and by surveying municipalities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District for their views on contaminated site problems and acceptable risk decision-making. The underlying goal of the thesis is to question the use of the current approach, the Pacific Place site criteria, as a model for acceptable risk decision-making in the province, and to explore the implications for urban communities. The Ministry of Environment is the central authority for contaminated sites in British Columbia and has generally taken a scientific and technical approach to the problem. Although the municipal survey suggests that the Pacific Place site criteria has a broad base of support in the GVRD, the technical emphasis has implications for urban communities. The approach is expert-oriented and largely excludes local and public involvement in the acceptable risk debate. The major concern is that important social value issues have been neglected, relative to the engineering and technical aspects of the problem. The research also finds however, that the majority of individuals in the municipal survey are willing to explore other methods of determining acceptable risk, and support in principle, local government and public involvement in deciding what these methods should be. This thesis suggests that British Columbia can benefit from a more comprehensive view of acceptable risk in contaminated site problems. Resource limitations at the provincial and local level, and the high stakes in contaminated site problems for urban communities point to the growing importance of incorporating a broad range of value issues and understanding the trade-offs in acceptable risk decisions. The Ministry of Environment can improve the current decision-making approach by: incorporating structured value assessments that elicit stakeholder values and address trade-offs; involving a wider range of stakeholders in standard setting and risk assessment, including the forthcoming review of the Pacific Place site criteria; creating forums to explore other decision-making approaches; and by encouraging private sector involvement in risk assessment and risk management. The province can also encourage and support community-based institutional networks, both at the municipal and regional level. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Local Government Heritage Planning Legislation in British Columbia investigates and critiques the community planning policies of the provincial government white paper Toward Heritage Legislation. This investigation is undertaken from the perspectives of the experience of other jurisdictions and the views of professional heritage planners in British Columbia. The primary objectives of this thesis are: i) to illustrate by examining the history of heritage conservation legislation in other jurisdictions that there is a common pattern to the evolution of conservation legislation and that the proposals of Toward Heritage Legislation are consistent with this pattern ii) to examine the views of professional heritage planners regarding the proposed policies and iii) to argue that the proposed policies demonstrate both strengths and weaknesses and that a strong implementation framework will be required if the policies are to be implemented effectively. These objectives are achieved by the use of two methods. First, the history of heritage conservation is traced through a review of the relevant historical literature on the legislation of other jurisdictions. Second, fifteen professional heritage planners from across British Columbia are interviewed regarding their views on the proposed policies. The first conclusion of the thesis is that there is a pattern to the development of heritage legislation in other jurisdictions. This pattern illustrates that early heritage legislation focuses largely on the conservation of individual sites and monuments and that over time the legislation evolves and ultimately demonstrates three characteristics: one, the recognition of the context of individual sites including grouping of individual sites to form historic areas and districts, two, the integration of heritage planning into the day to day planning processes of local government and three, the devolution of responsibility for heritage conservation from senior to local governments. The data collected from the consultations with professional planners indicates that there is broad support for the conceptual basis of the proposed policies but that there are significant weaknesses in the details of the proposals. The planners indicate that in particular there are weaknesses in the ability to implement the policies within existing local government administrative practices. The thesis also concludes that the community planning proposals of Toward Heritage Legislation are consistent with the policies of other jurisdictions and in fact represent the logical next step in the development of heritage legislation in British Columbia. However, the planners interviewed clearly cautioned that the details of the policies must be reviewed, clarified and modified if they are to be successfully implemented. Their concerns focused on three general areas: the planners indicated in some cases that they did not support individual policies as proposed, secondly they requested clarification and detailing of the implementation of individual policies and thirdly, they advised that additional resources will be required to successfully implement the policies. The final conclusion of the thesis concerns the importance of training personnel to implement new heritage legislation. The consultations with the planners highlighted the current weaknesses of training for heritage planners and emphasized the importance of this shortcoming for the future of heritage conservation in British Columbia. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate