“Soon after I moved to the island I received brochures in the mail from the Improvement Association and the Eco Alliance. I thought that both groups had some good ideas and decided to join both of them. Before long it became apparent that it was like joining both the American Republican Party and the Communist [...]
Tagged Island Life, Municipal Politics, OCPOur Municipal Council is about to pass three new environmental bylaws. Two of them seem to me to make sense but the third is a disaster.
The first proposed bylaw seeks to control disturbance of steep slopes. Remember when that yard in North Vancouver slipped down the hill and killed a woman in her home below? [...]
So, are you in favour of the HST or against it? On the face of it this is a pretty silly question. The vast majority of people are against anything that takes money out of their pockets, especially when it is the hand of the government. But this time you have to vote “no”. That [...]
Tagged HSTWhenever we’ve been off the island for any length of time I read through the accumulated Undercurrents to catch up. The last few have been quite enlightening.
First there was the great council debate about when we should have a community vote on the proposed National Park. Of course Parks Canada (PC) hasn’t actually put forward [...]
Shortly after the current council took office they outlined certain tasks that they hoped to complete during their term. Ferry marshalling was one of them. So now two and a half years later we get to once again enjoy one of our perennial debates. This time the consultant, along with our new senior planner, waded [...]
Tagged Ferry, Island Life, Snug CoveI really don’t mean to sound like an alarmist but, our ferry service will soon be an intolerable disaster and we’ll have nobody to blame but ourselves. B.C. Ferries has no plans to upgrade our ferry service. Their plan is simply to keep increasing ferry fares to reduce demand. However we have reached a point [...]
Tagged Ferry, Island Life, Snug CoveThere may one day be a National Park on Bowen but right now I doubt that any betting man would place the odds at better than 100 to 1. In the last few weeks the Park plan has taken some pretty serious hits. It started with the unveiling of the Parks Canada Preliminary Concept Plan that [...]
Tagged National ParkNo matter what happens from here on in, nobody can accuse the citizens of Bowen of not doing their job. Most of the heavy lifting was done by the National Park Community Advisory Committee, which consisted of 31 islanders who applied to Municipal Council to serve on the committee. Unlike so many task forces and [...]
Tagged Island Life, National ParkAs the National Park (NP) feasibility assessment process unfolds all kinds of little facts and speculations pop up. It’s hard to know which ones are true and important and which ones are just fear mongering or incidental. For example, did you know that Bowen is the only
Tagged National ParkI was listening to the last Parks Canada meeting. A woman got up and spoke about how the actions of BC Ferries (BCF) were “unconscionable”. That struck me as a little harsh even for BC Ferries so I looked it up.
Tagged Ferry, National Park