I would like to start this report by thanking all of you, my constituents, for continuing to allow me the honour of representing you as your Regional Director for the next three years. I feel privileged to live in this community and care deeply about the future of our area and the people who live here. I commit to you that I will do my very best to continue to represent you in an effective manner and will deal with your issues as promptly as possible at all levels of government. I look forward to working with you and to your involvement in initiatives that come up in the coming months and years. I will remain accessible, as always, at the contact information at the end of this report.

Some congratulatory comments
I would first of all like to congratulate our other locally elected representative, Helen Moats. Helen was elected by acclamation to the School District #72 position for Quadra and the outer islands. She has done a great job representing our views to the School Board and has been wonderful for me to work with on various issues. I look forward to our future collaboration.

The new Strathcona Regional District
We are now having our committee meetings at our new office in Campbell River, located at 301 - 990 Cedar Street. We have a receptionist, a Parks Planning technician and our Interim Chief Administrative Officer located in this office. The office also houses our Emergency Program Coordinator and his assistant, for the Strathcona Emergency Program (formerly the Northern Communities Emergency Program). Our Board meetings are still held at the Maritime Heritage Centre, due to the size of the room that we require for the entire Board. As soon as we can, we hope to be moving a partition wall in our new office to accommodate the entire Board and then all of our meetings will be held there.

We were notified by the Minister of Community Development that our bid to have the previous Minister's misguided decision to amalgamate Area G and Area H reversed, had been denied. So, the two areas are now one with only one director. This reduces our rural representation at the Board to four instead of five directors. The area letters for each area have been changed due to this. the new amalgamated area is Area A, Cortes Island is Area B, we (Discovery Islands - Mainland Inlets) are Area C (no longer Area J), and Oyster Bay - Buttle Lake is still Area D.

Area C (formerly Area J), now represents 48.6% of the entire SRD land base of 2,187,022 hectares for a total of 1,064,167 hectares.

It will be interesting to see what our new Board of Directors looks like after the elections on November 15th. Only a few of us were acclaimed and will return to the Board table. The others will depend on who gets elected and who gets appointed from the municipal councils. Should be interesting! I will work with everyone at the table to fulfill the needs of Area C.

Village project
I am told by the SRD that the request for proposals closes on October 31st and a consultant will then be chosen. The discussions with the community will take place regarding the "village concept" for the Cove from the beginning of January until the end of March. I will have more details after the close of the proposal process.

Meeting with our Minister
I will be meeting with our Minister, Blair Leckstrom, at 4:30 on Tuesday, October 21st, in Campbell River to discuss issues of concern to our Board. I will be bringing our applications for grants regarding the Q. Cove and the Heriot Bay sewer issues to his personal attention along with the new funding that has been announced regarding "Connecting Communities". I have requested that the SRD apply for $50,000.00 to extend our high-speed internet services to areas that are not currently connected. I am hoping that his support of the above items will help them get approved.

Parks grant
Our Manager of Parks has applied for funding from the Community Tourism Fund to replace the aging sign that is at the entry to Blenkin Memorial Park. This will be a nice addition to our wonderful Community Centre. Another grant will also be forwarded on behalf of the Quadra Island Chamber of Commerce, from the same funding source.

Plutonic Power consultations
An issue that is front and center in our area, is the proliferation of "run-of-the-river" power projects and the hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of power transmission lines. There are more than 800 applications for projects in BC, many of them in the Toba Inlet and Bute Inlet areas. These are areas that are still "wild" and are home to many critters other than humans. These areas are also the base for many of the eco-tourism / tourism businesses that have established throughout Area C. Most of the big projects are applied for by a company known as Plutonic Power. We all want to see more renewable "green energy" come onto the market. But that is not what we are talking about here. We are talking about mega-corporations establishing mega projects, diverting rivers and streams and clearing swaths 240 feet wide to put up transmission lines. How this is "green" is beyond me.

The BC and Canadian Environmental Assessment has begun and will be reaching the public comment stage soon. When it does, I hope that you will educate yourselves on these projects and the detrimental impacts to our environment and our socio-economic situation and that you will participate, in person, in writing and in any other way that you can. There will be ads in the media and I have requested a meeting on Quadra Island.... They were reluctant to do that, thinking that Campbell River was good enough, until I explained where Quadra was (they didn't know), and how difficult it would be for islanders and outer islanders to attend a CR venue. We will see if they take my request seriously.

Regional Zero Waste Strategy
I would like to fill you in on what the SRD and the CVRD (Comox Valley) have been doing in regards to reducing waste. I asked Leigh Carter, our General Manager of Corporate Communications to put this together for me after some questions from constituents.
We have completed the conceptual design for an organics composting facility which has the potential to divert over 30% of household waste from our landfills. The board has recently approved application to the province for proceeding with preliminary design of this facility.
The addition of curbside recycling in Campbell River and the move to blue boxes in the CV has increased the diversion in 2008 of recyclable materials and the RD is working in partnership to increase education on diverting these materials.
The Comox Valley Regional District manages over 84,000 tonnes of solid waste each year within the district boundaries. This waste, which includes a mix of household, business, hazardous and industrial wastes, is collected, transferred, managed, and landfilled by the CVRD.
Our facilities include two regional Waste Management Centres that serve the Comox Valley and Campbell River, as well as a range of transfer stations and smaller waste handling and recycling facilities for Tahsis, Gold River, Zeballos, Kyoquot and the islands of Denman, Hornby, Quadra and Cortes.
An important part of solid waste management is the act of diverting waste, or working to reduce the amount of waste that needs to be dealt with. When items can be reused or recycled this means they are diverted from the waste stream, which prolongs the life of our landfills.
The CVRD oversees an extensive multi-material recycling program and has active re-use and re-purposing programs in place at each of our landfills. At present, 32% of solid waste generated in the district is diverted through these programs.
We also provide a wide range of educational programs - dozens of in-classroom and public sessions each year - that encourage household waste reduction through recycling and backyard composting efforts.

I know this is a long way from "zero", but it is evidence that the RD is working hard to approach this ideal goal.

I think that is about it for this issue. 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 C), SRD