After three great days of sunny weather, the wind is blowing and the rain is falling, so it is a perfect time for me to write my report! As you are probably aware, I was away for April and I have been trying to catch up ever since. I'm gaining!

First of all, I just did a whirlwind tour of the entire island today with the new interim Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to show him all of the issues that need addressing and that I am having difficulty getting action on due to the split in the regional district and the chaos that it has caused.

So, in no particular order....

Granite Bay Wharf floats
Finally!... after many months of hounding the staff to get on with the job of inspecting the floats that are being donated by Marine Harvest, the engineer from Campbell River is going to the site tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. After that he will give me a report on the ones that are best suited for our needs and we can finally get on with the shipping and installation.

Evans Bay wharf divestiture
We have finally found the bureaucrat in charge and will be setting up a meeting with him in the very near future to discuss getting the wharf into the community's hands, with the appropriate amount of money to go along with it. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to have governments change, bureaucrats retire and files drag on and on forever. I like to get things done. Now! So, at least we have a starting point once again.

Pre-school property
I was informed today that the School Board met last night and agreed to enter into an agreement to negotiate on a right of first refusal basis for the old pre-school property in Heriot Bay. I cannot attest to the accuracy of the wording of the above since I was not there, but the gist of it is that we will be talking soon about this property and keeping it in public hands. That was my goal.

Heriot Bay sewer
The engineer for this project does not have any new information at this time so we will be looking at contracting the remainder of the project to a very qualified individual. We will then hold a public meeting (well advertised) to inform the public of next steps.

Quathiaski Cove sewer district expansion
The same goes for this project. It is a simple process, but since the split, the remaining staff in the Comox Valley RD cannot keep up with the workload and we will need to contract this one out. Once again the split has caused us grief and we have no staff except our CAO in the new Strathcona Regional District (SRD). And he is already overloaded with the amount of work that needs to be done.

The Village concept
As I explained in my last report, part of the planning budget discussion at the board meeting had to do with the initiative that is underway on Quadra to try and develop a village concept to implement some of the policies of our OCP with regard to various types of housing for different age groups within a village setting, utilizing best practices around walkable communities and green energy. This will be a very exciting exercise involving a great number of community members and will allow us to partner with other agencies to leverage money and expertise for this project. It will also be a good example of what a community, working together for a common goal, can accomplish. A sum of money is earmarked for use in this project to hire a consultant to help get this off the ground. There will be a meeting of senior staff this week to get this going. Once again, staff shortages have set us back. I intend to push hard on this one and hope to have an answer by the end of the month on how we will proceed.

Last but not least - Ferries in the night?
Attending the BC Ferries Advisory Committee as one of the first things that I did after my holiday was not the best thing I could have done for my own mental health. But, hey, it's all part of a day's work as your director!.

Are you aware that we have all been living under a false assumption? I always thought that ferry service was available on a call out basis in emergencies 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Well, it was explained to us at the meeting that we are living under a false assumption. We all know that if it is the middle of the night and it is blowing SE 60 knots, the ferry probably won't sail. We also know that if the engines or whatever are broken down, we won't sail. But did you know that there is now a possibility of a crew shortage and that under those circumstances, the ferry will not sail? It seems that BC Ferries Service has not kept up with its recruitment of enough staff to make sure that we always have qualified crew living on the island so that the Transport Canada minimum crew can be maintained. This is not the crew's fault. They go out of their way to insure we are cared for during emergencies. I was shocked, as were the other members of the Advisory body. Please refer to John Sprungman's excellent report on this issue in the last issue of the D.I. and on the Gumboot. We need to do something, folks! More to follow on this one.

Feel free to call me between the hours of 8:30 am and 7:00 pm, Monday through Friday (not on weekends, folks!) at 285-3355, or you can fax me at 285-3533 or you can email me anytime at abramfamoberon.ark.com , or by mail at Box 278 in the Cove, V0P 1N0... Lots of choices!

Respectfully submitted,
Jim Abram
Director, Discovery Islands - Mainland Inlets (Area J), SRD