Interview with Bob Williams

Part of a collection of video oral history interviews with park pioneers, as well as some events, created by EKOS Communications in partnership with the Elders Council for Parks of British Columbia to commemorate the 100th anniversary of BC Parks in 2011. The Elders Council is an independent society, whose members are retired parks system employees and conservation advocates who have dedicated a significant portion of their lives to parks and protected areas in BC. These interviews served as source material for the documentary BC Parks: Celebrating 100 Years of Recreation and Protection. Standard questions were used in most of the interviews and included dates of employment/association with BC Parks, parks worked in, greatest challenges, accomplishments and regrets, lessons learned, hopes for provincial park system today and mentors.Part of Elders’ Council for Parks in British Columbia oral history interview series, collected for the documentary "BC Parks: Celebrating 100 Years of Recreation and Protection". Rick Searle interview with Robert (Bob) Williams. Williams speaks about his involvement with BC Parks and protected areas in his role as Minister of Recreation and Conservation and Minister of Land, Forest and Water Resources (1972-1975). Williams discusses his portfolio and several cabinets, committees and secretariats he was involved with during his time and characterizes 1972-1975 as a time of great productivity. For example, several major park developments took place, which doubled parks from 3M acres to 6M acres. He sees this expansion, which resulted in such parks as Spatsizi, Kwadacha, Carp Lake, Mt. Assiniboine, Cape Scott, Okanagan Mountain and Purcell Wilderness, as his major accomplishments. Wiliams faced few major challenges in his work since environmental issues were not yet fully formed, he had a small cabinet and good relations with colleagues and also enjoyed a certain level of freedom. If he could change anything, he speaks of his political party taking a more moderate approach which might have allowed them to stay in office longer. Williams touches on successes in the Ministry's structure at the time, including capacity at community level, decentralization and local management. He counts this decentralized structure as a lesson learned and stresses the importance of empowering local people for success. Wiliams' future hopes and wishes for BC parks include finding more diverse sensitivity and a wide-range of uses in "mixed zones". The interview ends with a listing of Williams' mentors, including Bob Aherns, Alister Crerar, Ric Careless, Bristol Foster and various conservation, fish and wildlife groups. Camera shots show Bob Williams on a wharf in Penticton with water and hills in the background; interviewer seen at end of interview; plane heard in background at one point during the interview.

In Collection:

• Elders Council for Parks in British Columbia

Creator

• Elders Council for Parks in British Columbia
• EKOS Communications, Inc.

Contributor

• Searle, D. Richard (Donald Richard), 1951-

Subject

• Williams, Robert
• Conservation of natural resources
• Conservation of natural resources--Societies, etc.
• Wildlife conservation
• Nature conservation
• Nature conservation--Societies, etc.
• Wilderness areas
• Biodiversity conservation
• Natural areas
• Parks--Conservation and restoration
• Parks
• National parks and reserves
• National parks and reserves--Management
• Parks--Employees
• Parks--Employees--Attitudes
• Parks--Management
• BC Parks
• Oral histories

Language

• eng

Date created

• 2006?

Resource type

• Moving Image

Rights statement

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Extent

• 00:32:45

Alternative title

• Robert (Bob) Williams interview

Geographic coverage

• British Columbia--Purcell Wilderness Conservancy Park
• British Columbia--Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Park
• British Columbia--Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park
• British Columbia--Penticton

Coordinates

• 57.41638, -128.50368
• 49.48062, -119.58584
• 49.71647, -119.63568

Physical repository

• University of Victoria (B.C.). Library

Collection

• Elders Council for Parks in British Columbia

Provenance

• Donated to the University of Victoria Archives on October 20, 2008 by Rick Searle (EKOS Communications).

Provider

• University of Victoria (B.C.). Library

Genre

• oral histories (literary genre)
• reminiscences
• video recordings (physical artifacts)

Archival item identifier

• Accession Number: 2011-006

Fonds title

• Elders Council for Parks in British Columbia / EKOS Communications video history collection

Fonds identifier

• AR447

Is referenced by

• Archival Finding Aid: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/elders-council-for-parks-in-british-columbia-ekos-communications-video-history-collection

Date digitized

• 2011

Technical note

• Migration metadata from UVicSpace to Vault by KD, Summer 2024.

Rights

• This item is under copyright and made available on this site for research and private study only. Commercial use is prohibited. For all other uses please contact UVic Libraries' Special Collections and University Archives.

DOI

•  https://doi.org/10.58066/jpv2-ng44