Tom Read for Texada Director, qathet Regional District Area D
Texada Resilience means we can thrive as a more self-reliant island community

IMPROVE existing qRD services on Texada without raising taxes or expensive borrowing

Introduction
Most of our qRD property taxes go towards providing services, including some on Texada that are unique to our island and paid for exclusively by Texadans. First I’ll review what services belong to us, then how they could be improved without raising taxes. You’ll find much more detail in the links provided below.

Our qRD-funded services on Texada, and their current (2026) budget amounts, include:

  • Texada Rescue/First Responders (annual budget $15,000);
  • Grants to several community organizations that help hold our community together, making this a great place to live (annual budget about $19,000);
  • Texada Heritage Museum and Archives (annual budget $29,000)
  • Management of Recreation Commission properties, Health Centre and Van Anda Dock (combined annual budget $358,000)
  • Texada Airport (annual budget $171,000; planned rise to $331,000 in 2029).

When these services are looked at as a whole, it’s obvious that Texada Airport is over-funded and under used, while Texada Rescue/First Responders and community groups are starved for qRD support. Budget priorities need to be re-balanced.

Further, if Texadans take over managing most of qRD’s buildings and grounds on Texada, the benefits would be considerable: timely maintenance instead of long delays; an end to paying qRD workers to sit in ferry line-ups; meaningful consultation with our community instead of arbitrary top-down decisions by Powell River managers, and a more frugal attitude that would save thousands of our tax dollars each year.

Finally, Texada isn’t being well-served by qRD’s regional Solid Waste Management Service, with negative impacts on our island’s forest lands and community watersheds. I favour developing a community-based proposal that could divert most of the household and construction waste that is now being dumped in our watersheds to responsible disposal instead.

This much-needed overhaul of qRD’s Texada services can be achieved using the “Service Review” process, explained below.

Service Reviews
Texada has only one real leverage path to improve our qRD services — a process known as the “Service Review.” The BC Local Government Act allows Electoral Areas such as Texada Island (Electoral Area D) to negotiate changes to any regional district service to make it more beneficial to our community.

In some cases, an Electoral Area like Texada can also withdraw completely from a regional district service if it’s not providing any benefit to us. The regional Social Planning service comes to mind, because it hasn’t done anything for Texada in its six years of existence.

The Service Review process can cover multiple services simultaneously and can happen informally, where negotiations between the Texada community (led by our Director) and qRD are successful in getting the changes we want. Or, if the regional district resists such changes, our Director can formally bring in a provincial mediator. The mediator becomes an arbitrator if the two sides can’t reach agreement, so that’s our leverage.

With that necessary background, below is a summary of what I propose if I’m elected as Texada’s Director. Follow the links below for a deeper dive into each topic.

2027-2028 Service Review for Texada Airport, Texada Rescue and Texada Grant-in-Aid

We need to create a realistic, affordable vision and plan for our over-funded, under-used Texada Airport. This will include transforming the nearly dormant Texada Airport Advisory Committee into a very active Texada Airport Commission, which will be responsible for operations, planning and development of our airport. In the last 10 years, Texada Airport has accumulated an unnecessary surplus of several hundred thousand dollars that will be reallocated to the Texada Rescue/First Responders and Texada Grant-in-Aid services — without raising taxes.

2029-2030 Service Review for Texada Recreation Commission, Texada Marine, Texada Health Centre

It’s time to transform the Texada Recreation Commission from a passive advisory role to an active body that directly manages qRD’s locally-funded public buildings and grounds on Texada Island, except for Texada Airport and regional facilities like the cemetery and Shelter Point Park. The Recreation Commission would be empowered to manage the buildings and grounds already under its advisory purview, and add the Texada Marine service (Van Anda dock) and the Texada Health Centre building and grounds only (Vancouver Coastal Health provides the health service).

Bringing these facilities under one decision-making body made up of Texadans can lead to more efficient, frugal and better service, which should help stabilize local budgets and taxes as well. It’s a simplified form of “home rule” without the bureaucratic overhead of incorporation as a municipality.

2028-2029 Service Review for the qRD Solid Waste Management Service on Texada

The qRD Solid Waste Management Service is not keeping up with Texada’s needs — our island’s forest lands and community watersheds are being hit with an increase in dumping of household garbage and trash, toxic hazardous materials and many, many dead vehicles, including motorhomes. In a future post I’ll describe how a Service Review with qRD could give Texadans the help we deserve in solving this problem.