Comox Valley to discuss the climate crisis on Wednesday, Nov. 20

Comox Valley to discuss the climate crisis on Wednesday, Nov. 20

Will Cole-Hamilton, a Courtenay city councillor and one of 20,000 Global Climate Leaders  |  Archive photo by George Le Masurier

Comox Valley to discuss the climate crisis on Wednesday, Nov. 20

By

Scientists tell us that climate change is one of the biggest issues facing humanity but talking about it can be uncomfortable. North American statistics show that most people do not discuss the climate crisis.

This silence makes it hard to build momentum to solve the problem.

The Comox Valley Unitarian Fellowship will join The Climate Reality Project for 24 Hours of Reality: Climate Truth in Action, a day that is about mobilizing a worldwide conversation about the climate crisis and how we solve it on Wednesday, Nov. 20.

Climate Reality Leader volunteers from across the globe will lead presentations and conversations in countries around the world. The presentations will focus on the climate crisis, what it means for us in our everyday lives, and the solutions already in our hands.

Worldwide, more than 20,000 Climate Reality Leaders have been personally trained by Vice President Al Gore to give updated versions of the slideshow made famous in his book An Inconvenient Truth and the subsequent documentary by the same name.

Courtenay City Councillor, Will Cole-Hamilton, is one of those trained by Al Gore and ready to share this critical information with local citizens.

After his presentation, participants will have a chance to form small groups and have facilitated conversations. The purpose of the small group chats is to gain knowledge, build community and find inspiration to face this challenge together and share ideas for taking practical steps for individual and collective action.

Invite your neighbours and friends to talk about climate action. The event will take place from 7 to 9 pm on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at the Comox United Church Hall (250 Beach Drive).

Contact climatecomoxvalley@gmail.com for more information.

 

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Enter your email address to subscribe to the Decafnation newsletter.

More

Farmers: reject Merville water bottling operation

The Mid-Island Farmers Institute has asked the Comox Valley Regional District board to reject a water bottling facility on Sackville Road in Merville. And they want the regional district to ask the Ministry of Forestry, Land, Natural Resources, Operations and Rural Development to rescind the water licence granted to the Sackville Road property owners, Christopher MacKenzie and Regula Heynck.

Requiem for a Garry Oak prairie

The Comox Valley has lost a 6,000-year-old Garry Oak prairie … largely because Comox mayor, Town Council and staff either don’t care or are ignorant of Comox’s natural heritage, or are hell-bent on development vandalism.

Is Site C a Done Deal?

More than 150 people gathered at the K’omox First Nation Band Hall recently for a powerful inspiring evening of speakers who proved that the fight to save the Peace River Valley is far from over. Ken Boon, farmer and member of the Peace Valley Landowners Association and two other speakers explained why Site C is a boondoggle.

Water bottling project raises aquifer concerns

The B.C. government has approved a controversial groundwater licence for a water extraction and bottling operation on a two hectare property on Sackville Road in the Merville area. They did it despite a strong objection from the Comox Valley Regional District and without public consultation or regard for community concerns.

Comox Valley lags the world without ban on plastic bags

The Comox Valley uses and discards between 9,000 and 19,000 plastic shopping bags per day. While other Vancouver Island communities are following the worldwide movement to enact bans of the non-biodegradable bags, most Valley elected officials don’t seem interested.

Could Kus-kus-sum go coastal?

The importance of the planned restoration of the Fields Sawmill site may well go beyond repairing a blight on the Comox Valley’s image. It’s likely to influence the prospects of a coast-wide approach to replacing multiple forest industry eyesores with ecological assets.

Waste to energy discussion missed the GHG point

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has committed Canada to aggressive reductions in our annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. It will take a coordinated national effort to get there, and that means small communities across the country, like the Comox Valley …

CVRD internal tension builds over waste to energy report

The tension between staff and elected officials of the Comox Strathcona Waste Management board (CSWM) ramped up another notch this week. The friction has increased since directors openly criticized Comox Valley Regional District staff at a full CSWM board …

BC’s logging practices called out by Comox Valley group

BC’s logging practices called out by Comox Valley group

Photo Caption

BC’s logging practices called out by Comox Valley group

By

Braving a brisk, cold wind on Nov. 8, supporters of Save Our Forests Team – Comox Valley (SOFT-CV) rallied outside Claire Trevena’s office in Campbell River to protest the provincial government’s continued logging of the last stands of productive old growth on the island.

In addition to two public surveys conducted in July, the province recently commissioned a two-person panel to travel throughout BC and gather more information about residents’ attitudes regarding old growth logging.

But, according to SOFT-CV, neither panel member is an independent expert.

“They are shills who have business connections within the timber industry and are primarily interested in economic development,” Megan Ardyche, an organizer of the protest, said.

One day before the protest, Premier John Horgan was in the Comox Valley for a ceremony breaking ground on a new long-term care facility.

SOFT-CV members asked Horgan if the province had any plans to stop logging productive old growth on the island in the face of the climate crisis.

“Well, there’s a strike happening right now, so nothing’s being logged,” Horgan told a member of the group.

Monica Hofer, a member of SOFT-CV, then expressed her concerns regarding old growth logging to Horgan.

“What would you have me do?” he said. “If we don’t log, we’ll be fighting court battles with countries which we’ve signed agreements with about log exports. That’d cost millions of dollars and eat into the provincial health care budget.”

Pat Carl is a frequent contributor to the Comox Valley Civic Journalism Project. She can be reached at pat.carl0808@gmail.com

 

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Enter your email address to subscribe to the Decafnation newsletter.

More

Cumberland workshop steals the spotlight from bullies

A Village of Cumberland workshop addressed bullying in the Comox Valley, where it comes in many disguises, such as mayors or other elected officials, nonprofit board members, popular high school students or managers of businesses large and small

“Stinking” sewage plant wafts back onto CVRD agenda

The Curtis Road Residents Association will press the Courtenay-Comox Sewage Commission again next week, this time on policy issues related to their decades-long battle to eliminate unpleasant odours from the system’s sewage treatment plant

Hospital district board debates advocacy role, doesn’t back off on retaining NI pathology

Hospital district board debates advocacy role, doesn’t back off on retaining NI pathology

BC Premier John Horgan helped break ground for 126 new publicly funded long-term care and hospice beds to be built by Golden Life Management Corp at Cliffe Avenue and 29th Street in Courtenay. The event was unrelated to the regional hospital board meeting  |  George Le Masurier photo

Hospital district board debates advocacy role, doesn’t back off on retaining NI pathology

By

Should the Comox Strathcona Regional Hospital District advocate for health care services on behalf of its constituents? Or is the district’s role limited to funding 40 percent of selected capital projects proposed by the Vancouver Island Health Authority and levying appropriate taxes?

That question arose at this week’s meeting of the hospital district board during debate about whether to send a follow-up letter to Health Minister Adrian Dix. The minister has not responded to a previous letter that advocated for maintaining onsite clinical pathologist’s services in the North Island.

At the direction of the CSHD board in April, Chair Charlie Cornfield wrote to Dix and VIHA’s board Chair Leah Hollins. In that May 3 letter, Cornfield called removing onsite clinical pathologist’s services “yet another reduction in health care services for communities in the northern region.”

“On behalf of the CSRHD board, I am requesting that Island Health revisit and cancel the contract with VICPCC for laboratory services and … request that Island Health retain and expand, with appropriate funding, pathological laboratory services at the North Island Hospital campuses.”

VIHA did respond to Cornfield’s letter. They sent Dr. David Roberston to address the issue with the board in September.

Director Jim Abram, who represents the Discovery Islands-Mainland Inlets area, made a motion to send a second letter to the health minister to “reconfirm our strong support” for onsite pathology services and a third pathologist at the Campbell River Hospital, and to “fully utilize our capital investment in both hospitals.”

A reworded motion was eventually passed unanimously but not before several directors questioned whether the board should advocate over what they called “operational” issues.

Board Chair Cornfield said he thought “advocacy around operation issues are best dealt with by the public.”

And Campbell River Mayor Andy Adams, also a hospital board director, said he was “uncomfortable” with the board playing an advocacy role. And Comox Valley Area A Director Daniel Arbour said he had “questions around advocacy.”

But Abram and Oyster Bay Director Brenda Leigh tied advocacy in this case to a capital issue.

“I think advocacy is the best use of our hospital board,” Abram said. “We spent $267 million for fully functional laboratories.”

Leigh added that “when you don’t get a letter back in eight months, it’s time to knock on doors.”

In the end, the directors did not back off the advocacy they expressed in their May 3 letter and voted unanimously to send a follow up letter to Health Minister Dix.

The approved motion:

“That the Comox Strathcona Regional Hospital District write to the Premier and Island Health to reconfirm the board’s strong support for maintaining fully functioning local pathology services at the North Island Hospitals in Courtenay and Campbell River in support of optimum health outcomes for the hospital district and to fully utilize the board’s capital investments at both hospitals.”

The provincial Hospital District Act is silent on the issue of advocacy.

 

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Enter your email address to subscribe to the Decafnation newsletter.

More

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Jesse Ketler, first woman to chair the Comox Valley Regional District Board

Jesse Ketler, first woman to chair the Comox Valley Regional District Board

Jesse Ketler, Cumberland Councillor, CVRD Director and Board Chair

Jesse Ketler, first woman to chair the Comox Valley Regional District Board

By

Cumberland Councillor Jesse Ketler this week became the first woman to chair the Comox Valley Regional District since its inception in 2008.

All 12 of the past chairs have been five different males. Two of them — Bruce Jolliffe and Edwin Grieve — each held the post for four consecutive terms.

Ketler defeated two male opponents — David Frisch and Edwin Grieve — to win the annual November election of board officers.

Arzeena Hamir was elected vice-chair for the second consecutive year. The only other woman elected to the vice-chair position was former Comox councillor Patti Fletcher, who previously held the post in 2012.

In her speech to directors before the vote, Ketler touched on a variety of issues including fiscal responsibility, equality of power and climate change.

“On equitability. With seats at the board based on population and majority rules, the feeling of equity and balance can be elusive,” she said. “As a member of the board with the smallest population, I acknowledge how important it is to be heard. And I know that the best decisions come out of healthy debate where all sides are given a voice. I will endeavour to allow for fulsome, respectful debate of the important issues we face. And I feel that as presiding member, I can bring a neutral lens to some of our more contentious challenges.”

Ketler said she’s aware of the financial impact CVRD decisions have on constituents.

“I myself am a single parent of two young children and I live with my share of financial insecurity,” she told directors. “I have been a member of the Comox Valley Coalition to End Homelessness since its inception and I am entering my second term as the Village appointee to our Homelessness and Affordable Housing Committee. I know how even $50 a month can have a big impact on a family and I do not take decisions on tax increases or user fees increases, lightly.”

And, in a statement released by the CVRD, Ketler said she wants to contribute to “solutions that bring people together.”

“The board has heard the community’s concerns around affordability, climate change, and reconciliation with First Nation people and has reflected these in our priorities,” Ketler said.

 

PREVIOUS BOARD CHAIRS

Note: Vice chairs in parentheses

2008 — Fred Bates, Feb. 15 to Nov. 31 (no vice chair)
2009 — Fred Bates — (no vice chair)
2010 — Gregory T. Phelps (Edwin Grieve)
2011 — Edwin Grieve (Paul Ives)
2012 — Edwin Grieve (Patti Fletcher)
2013 — Edwin Grieve (Jon Ambler)
2014 — Edwin Grieve (Jon Ambler)
2015 — Bruce Jolliffe (Manno Theos)
2016 — Bruce Jolliffe (Ken Grant)
2017 — Bruce Jolliffe (Bob Wells)
2018 –– Bruce Jolliffe, Jan to Nov. (Bob Wells)
2019 — Bob Wells (Arzeena Hamir)

 

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Enter your email address to subscribe to the Decafnation newsletter.

More

Cumberland workshop steals the spotlight from bullies

A Village of Cumberland workshop addressed bullying in the Comox Valley, where it comes in many disguises, such as mayors or other elected officials, nonprofit board members, popular high school students or managers of businesses large and small

“Stinking” sewage plant wafts back onto CVRD agenda

The Curtis Road Residents Association will press the Courtenay-Comox Sewage Commission again next week, this time on policy issues related to their decades-long battle to eliminate unpleasant odours from the system’s sewage treatment plant

Curtis Road residents threaten legal action over sewage commission failure on odour issues

Curtis Road residents threaten legal action over sewage commission failure on odour issues

Decafnation archive photo of the Courtenay-Comox sewage treatment plant  |  George Le Masurier photo

Curtis Road residents threaten legal action over sewage commission failure on odour issues

By

This article was updated Nov. 6 to add further information from CAO Russell Dyson about financial planning for large expenses.

The Courtenay-Comox Sewage Commission has a sure-fire $8.5 million solution to the raw sewage odours that have plagued the Curtis Road neighborhood for 34 years, but it decided this week to spend another five months looking for a less expensive option.

That didn’t please the Curtis Road Residents Association who want a definitive decision from the commission by Nov. 15 to finally resolve the odour problem or they may pursue a legal recourse.

“While we appreciate that financing can take time, we have not heard, to date, any solid commitment from the commission that they intend to resolve the problem,” wrote Jenny Steel, spokesperson for the residents, in an email exchange after the meeting.

READ MORE: Previous stories on this issue

“That does not give (residents) a warm and fuzzy that you’re particularly committed to resolving the stink.”

Steel told the commission the CRRA plans “to take our campaign to the next level,” which includes lodging formal bylaw complaints and preparing for a new legal action against the Comox Valley Regional District.

Since the commission opened its sewage treatment plant in 1985 on property that borders Curtis Road, residents have suffered noxious odours that at times make their homes uninhabitable. Pleas for relief, including a previous successful lawsuit against the regional district, have made little difference, they say.

In 2018, the commission spent $2 million on a solution to “upgrade existing scrubbers and covering primary clarifiers.” But that did not solve the problem.

The commission now plans to spend $20,000 taking more odour measurements and studying what other BC governments have done to minimize the negative impacts of noxious odours on nearby homeowners.

Liquid Waste and Water Manager Kris LaRose told the commission this week that he’s “not disputing that odours from the plant are unacceptably high.”

And he believes two consultants’ reports are reliable that said covering the sewage plant’s three bioreactors would reduce odours in the Curtis Road area to a level below human detection.

But several factors prevent the commission from deciding to move ahead now.

One of those factors appears to be financial planning. CVRD’s Chief Administrative Officer Russell Dyson said the commission could not make a commitment to spend $8.5 million without an amendment to the regional district’s financial plan, and he said that could not be done before the CRRA’s Nov. 15 deadline.

“The alternative is for it to be considered as part of the 2020 budget which will be approved in March,” Dyson told Decafnation. “Given this level of expenditure, my advice was to follow the staff recommendation to do additional analysis and then consider (it) as part of the 2020 budget. The alternative would be to push through three readings by year’s end for a large expenditure that will have a lasting impact on the service.”

Dyson said the commission needs to find a way to improve the impacts of odour in a manner that respects the capacity of the ratepayers and the many financial challenges the service is facing, which include a new sewer conveyance system and treatment plant upgrades.  

That led several commission directors to conclude that whether or not they voted to approve the $8.5 million expenditure now, it couldn’t be formally approved until spring, so that doing further studies would not delay the solution.

Jenny Steel, the spokesperson for the CRRA, said the regional district spends similar amounts with less analysis.

“To put this in perspective,” she told the commission in a prepared presentation, “you just spent $7.6 million to expand the composting facility, you approved $7.1 for the EQ Basin and (the) CVRD provided $9 million for the Cumberland Host Community Benefit.”

Cumberland’s host agreement is with the Comox-Strahcona Solid Waste service.

Steel said spending $8.5 million to finally resolve the sewage commission ongoing odour problem is a 45-year investment that will cost Courtenay and Comox taxpayers less than $5 per year.

“That’s less than two cans of Febreze,” she said.

Another factor is a disagreement over how low odour levels need to go.

Residents want odour levels reduced to one odour unit (OU) at the plant’s property line boundaries under normal operations but will accept five OU (a design limit) only when there are problems at the plant, such as a power outage or mechanical failure.

One OU is the standard used by the province of Ontario. BC has no province-wide odour standards.

The problem, according to LaRose, is that covering the three bioreactors at a cost of $8.5 million might be unnecessary. His data shows the move would reduce odour measurements down to 0.5 OU at sensitive receptors, which he called a “big step.”

“Is there something in the middle? That’s what we want to study further,” he said.

The Curtis Road residents are also disputing CVRD staff reports that claim the 2018 upgrades made a significant reduction in odour from measurements taken 2016.

A CVRD newsletter about the issue claims odour levels declined by 80 percent. But the residents say the CVRD’s own data shows the reduction was only 47 percent.

When Steel asked for the newsletter to be recalled, Dyson said the CVRD stands by the newsletter’s claims

“Interesting — CVRD senior management are content to push demonstrably erroneous and misleading information to the public,” Steel emailed back. “Absent any commitment in writing … you leave us no choice but to pursue other avenues to resolve this issue.”

Comox Commissioner Russ Arnott said he didn’t “take kindly” to be given a mid-November deadline.

“If we’re going to be ostracized in the press, let it happen,” he said. “I will vote in favor of the $8.5 million, but I won’t be scared into making a decision.”

 

 

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Enter your email address to subscribe to the Decafnation newsletter.

More

Electoral Area B Comments

Comments from Electoral Area B respondents on Decafnation’s Local Government Performance Review

Comox respondents’ Comments

Comox residents responding to Decafnation’s Local Government Performance Review make comments on the Town Council and individual councillors

Did the Comox Town Council pay their CAO $350,000 just to go away? Why?

Did the Comox Town Council pay their CAO $350,000 just to go away? Why?

Winter is coming  |  George Le Masurier photo

Did the Comox Town Council pay their CAO $350,000 just to go away? Why?

By

“Nothing makes me more nervous than people who say, ‘It can’t happen here.’ Anything can happen anywhere, given the right circumstances.”
— Author Margaret Atwood, quoted in The Daily Telegraph (U.K.)

 

The firing of Chief Administrative Officer Richard Kanigan is just one part of the turmoil surrounding the Town of Comox. And it might not even be the town’s most expensive headache.

Unhappy public works employees, false allegations carelessly publicized, two expensive Supreme Court lawsuits, a road project that won’t end and a fired CAO walking away with a pile of cash.

Comox Town Council must have been desperate to get rid of their long-time CAO. According to a reliable source within town hall, councillors gave him a whopping severance package totalling $350,000.

Council members aren’t talking about why or how much, and definitive confirmation of the amount won’t come until at least the town releases its 2019 financial statements. But our source is somebody who would know.

The provincial Public Sector Employers Act generously caps severance pay at 18 months after five years of service. That only applies to executives in health authorities, K-12 and post-secondary education institutions and Crown corporations. It doesn’t apply to municipalities. Small towns like Comox should be much further down the pay-out scale.

But even on that basis, Kanigan’s 2018 salary of $140,028, plus $8,056 in expenses, would have put his golden parachute around $210,000.

So what was the extra $140,000 for?

Did Kanigan have some good buddies in high places who approved a sweet deal in his contract? Did counmcil just want him gone in a hurry and they didn’t have a strong enough case to warrant or withstand a protracted wrongful dismissal suit? Did they pay him extra so some dirty laundry didn’t get hung out publicly? We don’t know.

One thing we do know is that Kanigan’s firing had nothing to do with the fake allegations that the town’s public works employees were harassing Highland High School students. That story should have never been splashed across the front page of the local newspaper. It was an anonymous letter and the paper did no investigation that corroborated any of the allegations.

It was probably written by someone with a motive to cast nefarious suspicions on public works employees, and it wasn’t worth the space or time spent on it.

That said, there have been personnel problems in the town’s public works department that may yet end in the courts. And the basic road reconstruction of Noel Avenue has taken way too long — so far, all summer and most of the fall. It continues to disrupt a private school and a residential neighborhood.

Somebody seriously miscalculated something.

Kanigan’s departure also creates some problems for the town. Foremost, it makes the town’s petition to the BC Supreme Court to alter Mack Laing’s trust agreement quite a bit more tenuous. The town wants to tear down Laing’s iconic home, called Shakesides, and spend the famous naturalist’s money on other things.

But only two people have submitted affidavits to the court defending the town against the mountain of evidence compiled by the Mack Laing Heritage Society: Richard Kanigan and former finance direct Don Jacquest. And guess what? Neither of them are still employed by the town.

That alone might not be fatal to the case. But what if the BC Attorney General’s office suddenly realized that among the hundreds of pages of documents submitted by the Mack Laing Society there was evidence of questionable handling of procedure and critical information? And what if that also happens to be something similar to the reasons council fired their CAO and paid him a king’s ransom to keep whatever it is a secret?

Last spring, the Attorney General requested a hiatus in the Mack Laing court case. That delay has now turned into five months and counting.

What makes that so odd was Comox Mayor Russ Arnott’s anxiousness to settle the matter. He railroaded a quasi public hearing last March to rubber-stamp the town’s plan, although he forgot to consult with the K’omoks First Nation. And then the mayor was in such a rush to get back into the courtroom that he didn’t even want to finish the 90-day abeyance agreed to by council.

Yet, here we are eight months later, going on nine, and no court dates are scheduled. No negotiations are taking place. Nothing. It’s dead air.

Except, of course, there’s the matter of the huge legal bill the town rang up trying — and failing — to keep the Mack Laing Heritage Society evidence out of the Supreme Court’s hands. That bill could be getting close to what Kanigan’s golden parachute should have been.

And then there’s the matter of the $250,000 lawsuit over the town polluting Golf Creek and failing to take corrective measures in how its deals with stormwater, despite repeated recommendations from more than one consulting firm.

So, who knows what’s really going on? But it has begun to look like a more deeply rooted problem.

 

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Enter your email address to subscribe to the Decafnation newsletter.

More

The Week: No new snow, no new bridges and no new beds

Every homeowner knows that when you delay repairs to your house, they just get worse and more expensive to fix with the longer you wait. Courtenay City Council learned that lesson this week about the Fifth Street Bridge.

Hanukkah: celebrating the promise of hope in dark times

BY RABBI SETH GOLDSTEIN onight marks the beginning of Hanukkah, that eight-day celebration when we bring light into the darkness by lighting the menorah each night.The story of Hanukkah is retold and well known—the Hasmoneans (Maccabees) lead a...

Fentanyl is a provincial public health crisis

Our family lost a loved son and brother at the age of 26 to a Fentanyl poisoning on April 24, 2017. Ryan was one of 124 people last April in British Colombia to lose their life and 1 of 1,400 British Columbians in 2017 due to fentanyl poisoning. 

Help! Recruiters Needed for Pro Rep Vote

Chris Hilliar writes about ‘relational voting,’ which he learns is a simple concept – friends talking to friends. And without the individual’s participation democracy unravels.