I don't really know where to start this report since there seems to be so much going on. So I guess I'd better just dive in and try to bring you up to date on what is going on in our area (remember, it is now Area C, not Area J).

First of all, I would like to congratulate the people who just got elected to office at the local level: our "next door neighbour," Noba Anderson was elected to represent Cortes Island, (Area B); Gerald Whalley was elected to represent the new Area A, which was called Area G and Area H before being amalgamated, and he is in the Sayward Valley; and re-elected was long time director Brenda Leigh, for Area D. On the municipal side, we have a new Campbell River mayor, Charlie Cornfield. I have worked with Charlie for years in many capacities, most recently on getting the donations for the Lucky Jim Mine "renovations", and I really look forward to working with him as mayor. I won't go into all of the council positions but can say that I think that our situation at the Strathcona Regional Board will be a positive one, and I look forward to getting things done for our area and for the region.

Connecting Communities Grant

This is a provincial grant that was announced at the Union of BC Municipalities in September and the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) has written a letter to the province in support of Gulf Island Cable's bid to expand service on Quadra Island. They are hoping to expand to the south of the Q. Cove area and to the north of Heriot Bay. The grant was not available for companies such as Telus, under the criteria in the program. TwinComm service has also applied for the Cortes area which will also reach some Quadra residents that are within their range. So eventually we will get 21st century communications, a bit at a time! (or is that byte?)

BC Ferries meetings - If you read nothing else in this report, please read this!

A town hall meeting was hosted by BC Ferries Service on Thursday, Nov. 13th at the Community Centre. The attendance was not great due to very poor advertising. I notified the public through my report in the previous issue of the DI and the chair of the Ferry Advisory Committee also notified people of the meeting though his report in the DI, but there was no ad placed in our local media by BC Ferries! The only mention was in the "Community Calendar" in the DI which went unnoticed by most. There were still about 45 people there, but not the 450 that might have been there with better advertising.

Having said all of that, the meeting was fairly emotional and heated due to the way that our ferry dependent community has been treated since the corporation was semi-privatized by the current government in 2003. Having been involved in the Ferry Advisory Committee process since it's inception, I have come to know that our true adversary regarding our ferry service is the current government, not BC Ferries bureaucrats. I hope that in future meetings we can try to remember that and treat our guests with respect and direct our very justified anger at the government. I will not be an apologist for BC Ferries, but I have always insisted on running a respectful meeting, no matter how much anger and frustration is in the room. Enough said on that topic!

It was abundantly clear to me and I think to most in the audience that we are wasting our time talking to the bureaucracy. Until we can get up our energies and gather together to confront the real culprit in this very important issue, we are just wasting our time. Sure, I will continue to work with BC Ferries to insure that they don't make any changes that are within their power to make that will effect us negatively, but for the real issues of how much the ferry fares are breaking up our community and holding us hostage on our own island, we need to go to the government. This government (and I don't care what their party is... it could be any party) has done its level best to ruin our public systems in a few short years: public marine transport, public power generation, public power transmission, public rail and the list will grow. These institutions were put in by a free enterprise government (Social Credit) that seemed to have a view of the bigger picture. We have all been the beneficiaries of those projects of years gone by. Now we are watching all of those institutions taken out of public hands and privatized. This has got to stop. Our marine highway's fate should be the last straw for all of us in ferry dependent communities. If we don't do something and do it soon, none of us will be able to afford to live here. Don't be fooled by the claw back of a portion of the fuel surcharge; don't be fooled by the fare reduction in December and January; don't be fooled by the restoration of the eliminated runs on the Sunshine Coast ferries. These actions were taken by government due to the groundswell of protest that started to emerge when the services were cut to the Sunshine Coast on top of outrageous increases in fares. People had had enough. The Premier stepped in and took over from the Minister. The Minister's inattention to the actions of BC Ferries was starting to cause the government too much damage... a few short months before a provincial election. So the Premier took over, promised a small bit of relief, reversed some decisions and hoped that everyone would forget the pain and suffering prior to the election next May. Please keep in mind that there will be two scheduled increases to our fares in 2009 and who knows how many unscheduled increases.
A press release, that just this second arrived by email as I type, talks about a government audit that recommends that students should start paying fares! A report that came to us on Friday at the Ferry Advisory meeting talks about "rationalizing fares" (averaging and consolidating)... there are too many different classes of fares so lets combine some and still keep the same amount of revenue coming in, is the gist of it. That would mean that there will be "winners and losers", in BC Ferries words. And the losers, in some cases would be "big time" in some cases, in their words. And then there was the proposal, under "rationalization" to start charging for bikes! Well the you-know-what hit the fan at that point in the discussion. To penalize people who are trying to make a difference in our world by riding bikes and reducing the number of cars on the ferry is just not on. Two of us made that point quite clear to the BC Ferries staff in attendance. I just received an email from the chair of the committee, John Sprungman, and he advises that they are not likely to have that one ready until after April of next year (funny how that works.. no bad news just before the election!). To charge for bikes flies in the face of the Premier's initiatives to try to encourage more use of bikes to reduce our overall carbon footprint. The right hand doesn't seem to know what the left is doing.

So what are we going to do? How much more are we going to take? Suggestions?

On other fronts

The following is a short list of other issues that I am working on. I will only provide a brief comment on each. If you want more info, please call or email me.

1) I had a great meeting with our CAO, a Read Island resident and the current owner of the Evans Bay wharf. We met to discuss the willingness of the owner to give the wharf back to Transport Canada so that it can be properly divested to the community through the Regional District. It was mistakenly divested to a private entity before offering it to the community. I have been working on this one for years!. The owner is willing, the SRD is willing and Transport Canada is willing. So we are going to have a conference call with Transport this week and try to reach a deal.

2) The hiring of the consultant to lead the "village project" in Q. Cove is in the final stages. All of the proposals are in and the evaluation team has met to go over the proposals and make a recommendation. After that we will hire the person and get on with the work in the new year.

3) I was approached by the residents of Granite Bay to ask me to negotiate with the School District (SD) regarding a building that the SD owns in Granite Bay, for the use of it as a storage building for Emergency Preparedness equipment. I have passed on this request to our CAO who will meet with SD staff to see what can be done.

4) I have talked with our SD representative and our CAO regarding getting the property and the building that belong to the SD in Heriot Bay (the old Preschool). We are trying to negotiate a "purchase" (transfer) of the property and the building from the SD to the SRD. The path is paved with red tape, but we are still traveling down it. More to follow.

5) I have not heard from Graeme Faris on either Q. Cove or Heriot Bay sewer updates. I would like to get on with these studies. Many people are being held up with planning, etc. due to the unanswered question of whether or not there will be sewer service in these two areas. People that have systems that need to be replaced do not want to waste their money on a septic system if a sewer is not far behind. I am pestering the SRD staff continually to get some action and I will continue to do so.

There are many more things that I am working on and that are in progress but I think that is enough for this issue. I don't want to try your patience! 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