EDITORIAL · WARREN MIRKO · KOOTENAY-MONASHEE
Warren Mirko didn’t wait for a seat to fight for the Incomappleux and Rady Creek.
Warren Mirko’s Public Land Use Society published the Province’s own words: a district letter telling a landowner that road work “will permanently remove road access to your private property.” He stood at Trout Lake on 8 July when the ministers would not. Here is that record, in full, beside the record of the three people running against him.
Backcountry Coalition is independent. This article is not authorized by any candidate or party.
On 4 June 2026, Warren Mirko’s society published a sentence the Province had put in a private letter. The Selkirk Resource District had told a landowner in the Incomappleux Valley that the summer’s road work “will permanently remove road access to your private property.”01 That landowner is not alone. Some 140 parcels and 28 landowners along a 13-kilometre stretch of the valley have no other way in.02
Mirko does not hold a seat, and neither road is in Kootenay-Monashee, the riding where he is running. He fought for them all the same. He has done it with a registered society, a joint demand, a freedom-of-information request, a commissioned survey and a day on the road. Each of those is dated and public, and each is set out below, beside a fair look at the three people on the ballot against him.
CANDIDATE, KOOTENAY-MONASHEE · CONSERVATIVE PARTY
01 Mirko’s society put the Province’s own words on the record
On 15 May 2026, a coalition of property owners, recreation groups and conservation interests asked the Minister of Forests, Ravi Parmar, for a stop-work order on the Incomappleux Forest Service Road, and asked for an answer within seven days. The ministry did not give substantive answers. It told some affected parties that work could begin as early as 9 June.01
On 4 June, Public Land Use Society and the Quad Riders Association of British Columbia took the matter public. Their joint release, issued from Nakusp, demanded a stop-work order, written answers to the 15 May letter and an urgent meeting. It also printed the district’s own sentence to the landowner. Mirko set out what the Province still had not explained:01
The government still has not clarified whether it has the authority to proceed, whether the corridor remains a public highway, or how access, Crown grant interests, legacy mine sites, and conservation monitoring will be protected. Those answers must come before the Ministry of Forests permanently removes access.
Warren Mirko, executive director, Public Land Use Society.
Joint release with the Quad Riders Association of British Columbia, 4 June 2026, Nakusp.
A letter like the district’s, sitting in one landowner’s mailbox, is a private misfortune. Once it is published, a minister can be asked about it. The release also reported that a petition to the Legislative Assembly against the deactivation had passed 2,000 signatures in under sixty days.01 A week earlier, on 28 May, the member for the neighbouring riding had tabled a petition against it in the House with 1,500 names.03
On 8 July he was at Trout Lake, and the ministers were not
More than seventy people gathered at Trout Lake and on the Incomappleux road on Wednesday, 8 July. They came from the BC Wildlife Federation, the BC Snowmobile Federation, the Four Wheel Drive Association of BC, the Association for Mineral Exploration, the Arrow Lakes ATV Club, the Nakusp Rod & Gun Club and the Trout Lake Recreation Club, along with prospectors, property owners and representatives of the villages of Nakusp and Salmo. The group also visited the Rady Creek road and Silver Cup Ridge, which stakeholders said were scheduled for deactivation the same summer.04
Provincial ministers and senior ministry officials were invited, and they declined. Ministry staff sent Natural Resource Officers in their place, who told the group it could not travel past the concrete barricade. Local recreation groups had offered to take on maintenance of the road themselves, and they had been told that the offer would not even be considered.0402
A month later Mirko put the cost plainly to Resource Works:05
Government is going to strand property owners behind this (road) because they’re saying we don’t have the money to maintain the road.
Warren Mirko, executive director, Public Land Use Society.
Resource Works, Nelson Bennett, 6 August 2026. The parenthesis is the publication’s.
In the Trout Lake community hall on 8 July, he told Black Press: “This town is at jeopardy.” He added that open roads can bring in revenue from recreation.02 The Province cites public safety and has said that landowners and mineral tenure holders may apply under the Land Act for a licence of occupation to regain access.02
The area’s MLA, Scott McInnis, spent the day there too, and his record is set out in a separate editorial.
02 He built it with a society instead of a seat
He registered Public Land Use Society on 7 March 2025, and every act below was done in its name.06
The society’s About page lists him first under its Board of Directors, as Executive Director & Founder.07 He moved to the West Kootenay from the Lower Mainland to raise his family, and on 25 September 2026 he was acclaimed to Warfield council.0809 He has said he would not hold both offices if he wins the provincial seat.08
He announced his candidacy for the Conservative Party on 28 September, and he is on Elections BC’s final list for Kootenay-Monashee.1011 He opened with the question that runs through his work:10
For communities, businesses and families that depend on access to land, natural resources and clear, predictable rules, there is colossal importance in knowing who governs B.C., how those decisions are made, and whether the public has a democratic voice in them.
Warren Mirko, announcing his candidacy.
As published by the Castlegar News, Jim Bailey, 1 October 2026.
He put it more simply to My Kootenay Now a week later: “Everyone relies on access to public land in different ways. It means more than just providing income for people. It provides a way of life.” He told the station the Province has been restricting access to backcountry roads for prospecting, firewood and recreation. He also named the Province’s adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples among the legislative decisions he sees as a threat to public access.08
His biography credits him with fifteen years supporting public protection mandates at the BC Financial Services Authority, Engineers and Geoscientists BC and Transport Canada.10 The BC Financial Services Authority’s releases confirm the first, naming him as its Communications Manager in 2023 and 2024. The other two roles are from his published biography.12
03 Every act in his record is dated, and each one produced something
Four-wheel drive access is what makes Crown land usable. Whether for recreation, stewardship, tourism, or resource development, most activity in BC’s backcountry depends on reaching it first.13
The survey is about who governs public land, not about any one road, and its headline numbers are worth reading as the society published them.15
- 86% said major changes to how public lands and resources are governed should need public approval first.
- 90% said the source of that governing authority should be clearly disclosed to the public.
- 73% said the Province’s terms in talks on public lands should be made public before the talks begin.
The society also backs four petitions, and two of them are about these roads: “The Incomappleux Forest Service Road not be deactivated” and “Deactivation of the Historical Silver Cup Ridge Trail & Rady Ck Road near Trout Lake BC.” The other two would restore stewardship of the Columbia & Western Rail Trail and save the historic Kettle Valley Railway.07
04 On these roads, Mirko is the only candidate in Kootenay-Monashee with a record
Four people are on the ballot in Kootenay-Monashee: Stephen Hill for OneBC, Connie Larochelle for the BC Greens, Warren Mirko for the Conservatives and Steve Morissette for the BC NDP.11 Both roads sit near Trout Lake and Beaton, in Columbia River-Revelstoke, whose MLA is Scott McInnis.0216 Access to the backcountry is a provincial question all the same, and this is how the four of them compare on it.
| Question |  Warren Mirko |
 Steve Morissette Incumbent |
 Stephen Hill |
 Connie Larochelle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public office held | None provincially; acclaimed to Warfield council09 | MLA since 2024; mayor of Fruitvale before that17 | None found; ran federally in 2011 and finished second18 | None found; retired provincial public servant19 |
| On the floor of the Legislature | No seat to raise it from | 72 speaking turns; none used a road-access term20 | No seat to raise it from | No seat to raise it from |
| On the Incomappleux and Rady Creek | A stop-work demand, the district’s letter published, and both petitions backed0107 | No public statement was found.21 | No public statement was found.21 | No public statement was found.21 |
| At Trout Lake, 8 July | Present; quoted by Black Press in the community hall02 | Not named in published accounts04 | Not named in published accounts04 | Not named in published accounts04 |
| Does the 2026 campaign name access? | Yes: “Everyone relies on access to public land”08 | No: jobs, health care and the cost of living17 | No: “prosperity, not poverty”, debt and resource exports18 | No: sustainability, housing, health care and farmland1922 |
Portraits and logos come from each party’s own pages, except Stephen Hill’s portrait, which is from My Kootenay Now. OneBC’s page for him carries no photograph.1821
Steve Morissette has held the seat since 2024 and was mayor of Fruitvale before that.17 In his 72 speaking turns in the 43rd Parliament he spoke about housing, health care, colleges, mining and forestry jobs, and he never once used “forest service road”, “backcountry”, “Crown land”, “road access” or any of the other nine terms we tested.20 Outside the House, he hosted the lands minister on the Columbia & Western Rail Trail in August 2026, and that is access work.23 His campaign page names jobs, health care and costs.17
Stephen Hill is a retired financial planner from Castlegar who says he founded the local Conservative riding association, and he is now running for OneBC. His campaign, as he described it to My Kootenay Now, is about debt, drug rehabilitation, pipelines and getting resources to market. Road access does not come up.18
Connie Larochelle is a retired provincial senior research adviser who lives in Trail. She has a master’s degree in environment and management and lists sustainability and responsible resource management among her priorities. Her campaign page and her interview with My Kootenay Now cover housing, health care, the agricultural land reserve and a tax on large fortunes, and neither mentions backcountry access.1922
That is the difference, and it should be read fairly. Hill and Larochelle have not held a seat in the Legislature to raise anything from, and a candidate who has not been asked about these roads has not refused to answer. Morissette has held one for two years.
05 Ask your candidates to name a road, a procedure and a date
None of this has saved a road. The ministry scheduled the Incomappleux work for the 2026 field season and the bridges for 2027, and Rady Creek was slated to close the same summer.02 What Mirko has is proof that a citizen without a seat can put the Province’s own words on the record, where anyone can cite them.
Every candidate on the 24 October ballot can be asked to do as much, and whoever wins can be asked to do more.11 “I support backcountry access” commits a candidate to nothing. A named road, a named procedure and a date can be checked a year from now.
The letter below puts that question to every candidate in your district at once.
Share this story
Six images that carry this story on their own: the letter, the day at Trout Lake, the dated record, the four candidates side by side, and the one thing to ask them. Made to be posted.
Backcountry Coalition is independent. This article is not authorized by any candidate or party.
Suggested caption
Warren Mirko didn’t wait for a seat to fight for the Incomappleux and Rady Creek.
On 4 June 2026, Mirko’s Public Land Use Society and the Quad Riders Association of British Columbia published what the Province had put in a private letter: the summer’s work “will permanently remove road access to your private property.” They demanded a stop-work order on the Incomappleux Forest Service Road. Some 140 parcels and 28 landowners along that road have no other way in.
On 8 July more than 70 people spent the day at Trout Lake, on the Incomappleux and at Rady Creek. The ministers were invited and declined. Mirko was in the community hall: “This town is at jeopardy.”
His society also published freedom-of-information records with more than 400 pages withheld, commissioned a 1,002-person survey with the data posted, and backs the petitions for both roads. None of it needed a seat.
Side by side in Kootenay-Monashee. Steve Morissette (BC NDP) has held the seat since 2024. In 72 speaking turns he never used one of 13 road-access terms. No public statement was found on these roads from him, Stephen Hill (OneBC) or Connie Larochelle (BC Green).
One ask. Have the candidates in your district name a road, a procedure and a date. The letter is on the page.
backcountry.cx/editorials/warren-mirko-public-land-use-society/
#BCpoli #Kootenays #PublicLand #ResourceRoads #Outdoors
Sources
Everything above rests on a primary document or a named publication. Every page cited here was last checked on 9 October 2026.
- ↩ Public Land Use Society and the Quad Riders Association of British Columbia (ATVBC), joint release of 4 June 2026, Nakusp — the 15 May 2026 request to the Minister of Forests for a stop-work order with a seven-day deadline; the ministry telling affected parties that work could begin as early as 9 June; the Selkirk Resource District’s written statement to one landowner that the work “will permanently remove road access to your private property”; the petition to the Legislative Assembly with more than 2,000 signatures in under sixty days; the call for a stop-work order, written answers and an urgent meeting; and Warren Mirko’s own statement, quoted here in full. Link
- ↩ Revelstoke Review (Black Press Media), Evert Lindquist, 15 August 2026, “Residents, stakeholders unite to stop deactivation of valued forest road near Trout Lake”, also carried by the Arrow Lakes News — the road near Beaton; some 140 parcels and 28 landowners with no other access along a 13-kilometre stretch; the ministry’s schedule of work in the 2026 field season with bridges in 2027; ministry representatives invited to the 8 July event who sent Natural Resource Officers instead, who told attendees they could not travel beyond the barricade; Warren Mirko speaking in the Trout Lake community hall, including “This town is at jeopardy” and his point that open roads can raise revenue from recreation; the Province’s public-safety reason for the closure and its statement that landowners and mineral tenure holders may apply under the Land Act for a licence of occupation; and the Rady Creek road east of Trout Lake slated for deactivation the same summer. Link
- ↩ Hansard, 43rd Parliament, Second Session, Issue 187, morning sitting of Thursday 28 May 2026, 187B:1120 — Scott McInnis, member for Columbia River-Revelstoke: “I rise to present a petition on behalf of 1,500 individuals who are vehemently opposed to the deactivation of the Incomappleux Forest Service Road.” Link
- ↩ Public Land Use Society, release of 9 July 2026, “Province Poised to Cut Off Access to Homes, Private Property, and Public Lands in the Incomappleux Valley”, issued with ATVBC, and its backgrounder on the 8 July community access tour — more than 70 participants; the organisations named here; representatives of the villages of Nakusp and Salmo; the visit to the Rady Creek road and SilverCup Ridge; provincial ministers and senior ministry officials invited and declining; Natural Resource Officers directed to attend by ministry staff; and the maintenance offers that would not be considered. The only elected provincial official it names as attending on 8 July is the MLA, Scott McInnis. Link
- ↩ Resource Works, Nelson Bennett, 6 August 2026, “Prospectors losing road access in Kootenays” — on the Incomappleux and Rady Creek forest service roads, quoting Warren Mirko as executive director of the Public Land Use Society. The parenthesis inside that one quoted sentence is the publication’s own. Link
- ↩ BC Registry, via OrgBook BC — checked 7 October 2026: PUBLIC LAND USE SOCIETY, registration S0082239, business number 713048825, registered 7 March 2025, a British Columbia society with active status. Link
- ↩ Public Land Use Society, About Us page — read in full on Wednesday 7 October 2026. Source of the Board of Directors listing, in which Warren Mirko is listed first as Executive Director & Founder ahead of two directors; the society’s own sentence about its Constitution and Bylaws; the four petitions it says it supports, quoted exactly as that page names them; its own figure that Crown land is more than 95% of the province; and the biography shared word for word with the party candidate page. Link
- ↩ My Kootenay Now, Greg Nesteroff, 5 October 2026, “Warren Mirko running for BC Conservatives in Kootenay-Monashee” — his move from the Lower Mainland, his acclamation to Warfield council and his statement that he would not serve in both roles, his quotation on access to public land, and his account of restricted backcountry road access and of the Province’s adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as reported. Link
- ↩ Trail Times, Sheri Regnier, 25 September 2026, “Meet 2 of Warfield’s acclaimed councillors” — all five Warfield seats filled by acclamation for the 2026–2030 term, Warren Mirko acclaimed to his inaugural seat, and his own description of himself as founder and executive director of the society. The term start is set by the Community Charter, s. 119(1)(a) with s. 125(1): office begins at the new council’s first regular meeting after the general local election. Link
- ↩ Castlegar News, Jim Bailey, 1 October 2026, “Warfield councillor to run for B.C. Conservatives” — the 28 September announcement date, the candidacy statement quoted here in full, and the biography the paper itself prefaces with “according to his biography”, including the fifteen-year employment sentence and the BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia. Its line that the Greens had not named a Kootenay-Monashee candidate is superseded by the Elections BC final list. Link
- ↩ Elections BC, 2026 Provincial General Election — Candidate List, the final list published after nominations closed at 1 p.m. on 3 October 2026: 355 candidates across all 93 electoral districts, with Warren Mirko listed for Kootenay-Monashee under the ballot’s listed affiliation Conservative Party. Link
- ↩ BC Financial Services Authority news releases of 10 January 2023, 8 November 2023, 10 January 2024, 24 January 2024 and 13 February 2024, each naming Warren Mirko as media contact — four as Communications Manager and one as Manager, Communications. The other two roles, at Engineers and Geoscientists BC and Transport Canada, are taken from the biography on his Conservative Party of BC candidate page. Link
- ↩ Public Land Use Society and the Four Wheel Drive Association of British Columbia, release of 12 March 2026 announcing their partnership, including Warren Mirko’s statement quoted here. Link
- ↩ Public Land Use Society, release of 19 May 2026, “FOI Records Obtained by PLUS Show Tahltan-BC Title Talks Cover 11% of Province” — the Foundation Agreement negotiation process covering land transfers, governance restructuring and recognition of title and rights across 11% of British Columbia; internal records identifying fall 2025 as the target for finalising; more than 400 pages withheld; no version of the agreement released; and Warren Mirko’s statement, which is quoted in this piece. Link
- ↩ Public Land Use Society and Abacus Data, release of 31 August 2026 — an online survey of 1,002 BC adults fielded 9 to 15 July 2026, margin of error ±3.09% nineteen times out of twenty for a comparable probability sample, with the full data deck published alongside. The three findings quoted: 86% for public approval of major changes to governing authority; 90% that the source of that authority be clearly disclosed; and 73% that the Province’s proposed terms in negotiations affecting public lands be made public before negotiations begin. Link
- ↩ BC Snowmobile Federation, “Rady Creek Road: A Test Case for the Future of Recreation Access in BC” — on the Rady Creek road near Trout Lake, naming Scott McInnis as MLA for Columbia River-Revelstoke and recording that he joined the delegation on the road on 8 July 2026, later that day to hear users. Link
- ↩ BC NDP, campaign page for Steve Morissette, Kootenay-Monashee, read 9 October 2026 — elected in 2024; previously Mayor of Fruitvale, first elected ten years ago; his priorities given as “creating good jobs, strengthening our public healthcare system, and helping with costs.” The page does not mention backcountry access, roads, recreation or Crown land. Portrait from this page. Link
- ↩ My Kootenay Now, Greg Nesteroff, 7 October 2026, “Stephen Hill running for OneBC in Kootenay-Monashee” — a retired financial planner from Castlegar; his own account of founding the local Conservative riding association; his 2011 federal candidacy in BC Southern Interior, where he finished second; and his platform of “prosperity, not poverty,” with mandatory rehabilitation, provincial debt, the tanker ban and getting resources to market. The article never mentions road access or Crown land. Stephen Hill’s portrait is from this article, where it is credited “Photo submitted”. Link
- ↩ BC Green Party, candidate page for Connie Larochelle, Kootenay-Monashee, read 9 October 2026 — a retired public servant who retired in 2020 as a Senior Research Advisor with the provincial government; her degrees from Royal Roads University and Thompson Rivers University; and her stated focus on “sustainability, responsible resource management and practical solutions for local communities.” The page names no public office and does not mention roads or access. Portrait from this page. Link
- ↩ Hansard, 43rd Parliament — every speaking turn by Steve Morissette. All official House transcripts of both sessions, 18 February 2025 to 28 May 2026, read from the Assembly’s own document service and searched in full. Each turn is assigned to the member who opened it. Steve Morissette is the only member of that name and took 72 turns. None contains any of the thirteen terms tested: forest service road, resource road, Rady Creek, deactivat-, decommission-, Crown land, backcountry, Incomappleux, public land, road access, access road, motorized recreation and logging road. His turns cover housing, health care, child care, colleges, critical minerals, mining and forestry jobs, ICBC licensing and community events. Committee of Supply is inside the corpus; select standing committee transcripts publish separately and were not swept in bulk. Link
- ↩ Where we looked for the other three candidates on these roads, read 9 October 2026: the four candidates’ party pages; Public Land Use Society’s releases of 4 June and 9 July 2026; the Revelstoke Review and Arrow Lakes News account of 8 July; the Arrow Lakes News and Castlegar News archives searched for “Incomappleux”, “Rady Creek”, “forest service road” and each candidate’s name; the My Kootenay Now candidate profiles; and the BC Snowmobile Federation and CTV accounts of the two roads. None of the other three is quoted or named on the Incomappleux or Rady Creek. OneBC’s candidate page for Stephen Hill at 1bc.ca carries his name and riding, with no photograph and no text under its headings. Castanet could not be read on 9 October. Facebook, Instagram and X need a sign-in and were not read.
- ↩ My Kootenay Now, Greg Nesteroff, 8 October 2026, “Connie Larochelle running for BC Greens in Kootenay-Monashee” — her key issues as she gave them: the party’s fair share tax on net worth above $50 million, health-care working conditions, housing and the agricultural land reserve. The article does not once mention road access or backcountry roads. Link
- ↩ Arrow Lakes News, Emma Bolzner, 12 August 2026, “Minister of Water and Lands, visits the Kootenays” — MLAs Brittny Anderson and Steve Morissette hosted the lands minister, Randene Neill, from 5 to 7 August, which also included an on-site tour of the Columbia & Western Rail Trail along Arrow Lake. Link