Council has taken the bull by the horns and is actually going to reconfigure Government Road this year to improve ferry marshalling. Yep, they’re going to fritter away another $50,000 or so of tax money on consultant’s fees and at the end of the day nothing will change. Getting cynical about ferry marshalling is almost [...]
Also tagged Island Life, Municipal Hall, Snug CoveA couple of weeks ago another “Building Community on Bowen” flyer landed in our mailbox. It is the personal opinion of three of our Municipal councillors published by Bowen Island Properties. When you consider that our local council only has six members plus a mayor you realize that this document is the closest thing we [...]
Also tagged Affordable Housing, Community Centre, Island Life, Municipal Hall, Municipal Politics, Snug Cove, Surplus LandsIf you wander from the ferry up to the baseball field on a warm summer’s evening it’s sometimes fun to try to look at Snug Cove through the eyes of a visitor arriving for the first time. While we have been hearing for years that the Cove is in desperate need of rejuvenation visitors to [...]
Also tagged Island Life, Municipal Politics, Snug CoveProperty Taxes – Many of us got a pleasant surprise when we opened our property tax bills and saw that our taxes had actually gone down. In fact we are paying the same rate as in 2010 at $457.00 per $100,000 of value and the average assessed value has dropped from $781,000 in 2009 to [...]
Also tagged Cape Roger Curtis, Census, Island Life, Municipal Hall, Municipal PoliticsIt’s time for a paradigm shift. We have long thought of Bowen as a growing, thriving community. Between the 2001 and 2006 census our population increased by over 400 people. But on February 8 Statistics Canada informed us that between 2006 and 2011 our population increased by 42 people. The typical response to that information [...]
Also tagged Census, Island LifeAs soon we arrived home from the south I picked up the back issues of the Undercurrent to see what you’ve all been up to and a couple of things jumped out. BC Ferries is finally making news for doing good things. First the Ferry Commissioner acknowledged that fares had reached the tipping point and [...]
Also tagged Municipal Hall, Municipal Politics, Snug CoveThe Municipal election rhetoric is starting to heat up with the pro-development crew taking out full-page ads in the Undercurrent and treating our mailboxes to their propaganda. I read some of it and decided that they were saying almost the exact opposite of what I would say if I were running for council.
Also tagged Cape Roger Curtis, Island Life, Municipal Politics, National Park, Snug CoveShortly 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 [...]
Also tagged 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 [...]
Also tagged Island Life, Snug CoveI 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.
Also tagged National Park