Robert Arthur Williams

Robert Arthur Williams (born January 20, 1933) is a consultant and political figure in British Columbia. He represented Vancouver East in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1966 to 1976 and from 1984 to 1991 as a New Democratic Party (NDP) member. Life and career He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was educated at the University of British Columbia, graduating from the School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP). Williams worked as a town planning consultant. He served as an alderman for Vancouver from 1964 to 1966. From 2004 to 2006, he was a member of the Vancouver City Planning Commission, serving as its chair in 2005. He served in the provincial cabinet as Minister of Lands, Forests and Water Resources from 1972 to 1975. Political legacy In that capacity, Williams was responsible, or co-responsible, for the Royal Commission on Forestry (the Pearce Report); the Columbia Basin Trust; the purchase and management of Ocean Falls pulp and paper mills and township; the acquisition and management of Columbia Cellulose, renamed Canadian Cellulose, a sulphite, sawmill, and bleached kraft mills operation in Prince Rupert, Terrace, and Castlegar; the BC Assessment Authority; the Agricultural Land Reserve and Commission; the first resort-municipality in Canada, created for the Whistler/Blackcomb complex; as Minister of Parks, a doubling of Provincial Park acreage in British Columbia, including creation of the Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park, protecting 1.6 million acres and the largest known herd of woodland caribou; Robson Square and its attendant Law Courts in downtown Vancouver; refurbishment and operation of the SS Princess Marguerite electric-diesel ferry service from Victoria to Seattle; and, expansion of the role and authority of the Environment and Land Use Secretariat. Later, as Deputy Minister for Crown Corporations, Williams helped lead creation of the West Coast Express, a new commuter train system running from the SkyTrain / SeaBus / Canada Line Waterfront Station in downtown Vancouver, in the former CPR Station, along CPR tracks to Mission, British Columbia, a distance of 69 km (43 miles). It began operation on 1 November 1995, and incorporates eight station stops altogether. In 2015, annual ridership was reported at just under 3 million passengers. Williams resigned from his seat in 1976 to allow Dave Barrett to be reelected to the assembly.