PROTECT our friendly rural island way of life by actively bringing islanders together to defuse potentially polarizing issues and by preventing government over-regulation, large-scale development and loss of essential services.

Introduction
Some of us came to Texada for a job. Some of us grew up here and still call Texada home. And many of us, including me, came here in search of a better quality of life. One thing we have in common is that this is our home, and in accordance with our OCP Vision, we want to “adapt to change carefully.” Specifically, Texada is generally a friendly place, and we want to keep it that way. Texada has minimal regulations, and that’s golden. Texada tolerates small scale development without defining what that actually means; Texada’s essential services truly help make this an enjoyable and safe place to live, so we want to keep our services.

As Texada Director, I would consider it my sacred duty to protect our way of life by doing my best to find common ground on polarizing, divisive issues, to head off qRD regulation (and other regulation), to prevent us from being overwhelmed by development and to keep or restore our essential services. Read on:

Polarization prevention
In my experience, Texadans would generally prefer not to think about our local government, let alone put time and effort into helping make decisions or solve problems. So we elect a qRD Director to decide for us — I call this the “elect and forget” model of democracy. This works tolerably well for routine decisions that don’t bother anyone, but it’s a very different story when significant issues arise.

Last year, when qRD proposed new restrictions and fees for our beloved “Lot 6” (aka “heavy metal dump”), many of us got agitated enough to email or phone qRD, or even attend a qRD Board meeting in protest. This got qRD’s attention and it backed off. That was easy, but it’s not the “significant issue” scenario I’m worried about.

What concerns me, for example, is when a global mining company proposes to expand trans-shipment of thermal coal or bring in millions of tons of some other potentially unhealthy material to be stored on our island, what then? I’ve seen this community turn very tense with emotional division from such proposals, while qRD tries to placate both sides and does nothing to help us cope with being painfully divided.

Living in a divided community is more than uncomfortable — it’s seriously disruptive of our peaceful, friendly vibe. Friendships can come undone from disagreement; local businesses may be boycotted; sometimes property gets vandalized. Eventually you’ll hear calls for a referendum, even if it’s only advisory, thus deepening the division without resolving anything.

We can do better than this.

When, not if, the next deeply polarizing issue shows up on Texada, I propose that Texada’s qRD Director provide active leadership to bring all Texadans together for mutual listening and understanding — to seek common ground rather than to fight amongst ourselves. This might not succeed, but it’s absolutely worth a serious effort by our community.

The best we can probably hope for is to arrive at a general consensus — not 100% agreement, but maybe something like 60% of us can agree on a path forward, even if only reluctantly. It’s essential that minority opinion be respectfully heard and its concerns be seriously considered. So instead of a referendum, we meet and talk as often as necessary, focusing on problem-solving and avoiding personal attacks. The most common personal attack I’ve heard in public meetings over the years was “go back where you came from.” That’s not acceptable.

If we stay focused on defining and solving our problems then we just might be able to find solutions that most of us can live with. That would be one of my goals as Texada Director.

Bylaws
Texadans need to define what we mean by the words “minimal regulation” in our Official Community Plan (OCP) Vision Statement (quoted here). Provincial legislation prohibits qRD from passing any bylaw “inconsistent” with our OCP, so if we specify the meaning of “minimal regulation” in our OCP Vision then we should be protected from qRD regulatory bylaws.

Examples: revising our OCP to define “minimal regulation” would be a legal way to prevent further qRD attempts to impose restrictive zoning, building code enforcement, “untidy premises” rules, tree cutting prohibitions and any other excessive bylaws.

I’ve seen all of the above and more pushed at us by qRD over the years. Issues like backyard trash burning, dangerous dogs, and excessive noise are already covered by provincial and federal law and are enforceable by RCMP.

It’s a mistake to claim that Texada has “no bylaws.” Every year qRD passes a budget bylaw affecting Texada (as do both our local Improvement Districts). Plus Texada has a brilliant 1983 anti-zoning bylaw that helps protect us from zoning and landfills, a community watershed protection bylaw, and qRD has bylaws that established each of our Texada qRD services. There may be rare exceptions in the future, but for now we definitely don’t need more bylaws than we’ve already got.

No to large-scale development
Land use development happens. There are three basic flavours: residential, commercial and industrial. On Texada we’ve seen gradual small-scale (in my opinion) residential and commercial development, so far without causing problems. Availability of water seems to be a natural self- limiting factor that so far has prevented larger developments, but we can’t take that for granted.

Problem: There is always a risk that some big-city developer will be tempted to put dozens or even hundreds of mansions or condos on our island, which would surely disrupt our community. Texada’s OCP advocates limiting development to “small-scale” without defining the term, so it’s largely meaningless in a document that purports to be an official plan representing our community’s perspective.

Solution: I’m in favour of community discussion leading to a decision on what we want as an upper limit for residential and commercial development — without introducing a zoning bylaw. We just need to agree on what “small-scale” means to us and let the world know through our OCP. That will give fair warning to developers on what’s acceptable and what isn’t.

As for industrial development — that’s another story. In the 26 years I’ve lived on Texada there have been several industrial development proposals, none of which ultimately got built. Examples:

• industrial ocean-pen fish farm near Raven Bay
• LNG port facility and multi megawatt power station at Blubber Bay accompanied by more high-voltage power lines and twining the gas pipeline
• a line of 70-meter-tall wind turbines along Texada’s mountainous spine plus high-voltage lines
• tidal-powered turbine suspended between Texada and Lasqueti Islands plus more high-voltage power lines
• new quarry near Davie Bay
• shipping container port proposed for the old Lafarge quarry at Van Anda
• large increase in coal transshipment from Lafarge (now Amrize)
• an industrial oyster farm at Northeast Bay.

Currently there’s a revival of gold mining near Van Anda that’s still in its exploratory phase, and is planned to have a much smaller land footprint than a limestone quarry. The main issue for Texadans thus far seems to be how to reconcile this mine with expansion of Emily Lake Park — something I will commit to seeing resolved if I’m elected as Texada’s Director.

I’m also in favour of initiating regular public discussions with Texada’s mining and forestry industries to ensure that our community’s voice can have more influence on land stewardship decisions that affect everyone.

Loss of essential services
Last year we lost our doctor and Gillies Bay lost its post office. I commend the Texada Health Services Society for its ongoing efforts to find a new doctor for our community.

Next, if the rumor I’ve heard is true, then in a year we may lose our on-island police officers due to a proposed RCMP budget cut. I hope not, and as a member of the Texada Community Policing and Public Safety Committee I’m keen on verifying the facts and sharing findings with the community so we can take action if needed.

In past years I remember Texada came close to losing our ferry and our school due to proposed budget cuts. In 2013 we lost our (mostly) affordable scheduled air passenger service, and it isn’t coming back.

Texada’s qRD Director has a role to play in protecting our island way of life from loss of essential services. One of the Director’s prime responsibilities is to advocate on our behalf with governments and corporations.

By “advocate on our behalf” I mean that the Director should organize community support to save or restore our essential services. It’s neither realistic nor fair to expect one person to heroically accomplish such feats alone. It takes an island community, with leadership by its Director. There will be meetings, and more meetings, and lots of letter-writing and phone calls. The Director can help organize this effort, but cannot do it alone. Expect to be asked for your contribution, especially of your time.