- Council election results & swearing in ceremony
- Upcoming AGM of Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities
- Physicians file complaints about Denman Island doctor re COVID conduct
- Town’s ‘New’ Community Climate Change Adaptation Plan
- Demonstration outside MLA Walker’s QB office protesting old growth logging
Council election results & swearing in ceremony
Our congratulations to candidate Anne Skipsey for her by-election win on May 15, 2021. She will be officially sworn in as Councillor Skipsey at the Regular Council Meeting on Thursday, May 27, 2021 at 10:00 am. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the swearing in ceremony will be livestreamed on the Town’s website at www.qualicumbeach.com. We commend all of the candidates for their interest in serving our community.
Upcoming AGM of Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities to debate issues affecting QB
The Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities (AVICC) AGM is being held virtually on May 28, 2021 – A number of resolutions that could affect Qualicum Beach are being brought to the annual AVICC general meeting seeking support. For example, our Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) — see resolution # 30 in https://avicc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-AVICC-Resolutions.pdf — is recommending that the AVICC and the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) urge the Ministry of Municipal Affairs to amend the Local Government Act to provide broader tree management authority to regional districts equivalent to the authority granted by legislation to municipalities. Rather ironic, given that at least one of the municipalities in the RDN, namely the Town of Qualicum Beach, doesn’t yet have any meaningful “tree management authority” in place.
Physicians file complaints against Denman Island doctor re anti-COVID conduct
In our previous article, Local chiropractor’s medical mask exemption provided by doctor who spoke at anti-mask rally, we reported that a local chiropractor claimed a mask exemption which she supported with a letter from a Dr. Stephen Malthouse of Denman Island. CBC identified Malthouse as being an anti-mask and anti-vaccine advocate. This week, CBC reported that several BC physicians have submitted complaints about Malthouse’s COVID-related conduct to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC (CPSBC). Dr. Michael Vance of Nelson, BC is reported to have written to the College because of his professional duty to report doctors who pose a danger to the public. Vance called for Malthouse to be stripped of his license to practice medicine. The CPSBC has not yet ruled on the complaints about Malthouse but did issue the following Statement on Misleading COVID-19 Information on May 6, 2021 — fourteen months after the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was declared.
Town’s ‘New’ Community Climate Change Adaptation Plan was available a year ago
Last week, the Town was invited to review the Draft Community Climate Change Adaptation Plan and email your comments to the Planning department at planning@qualicumbeach.com before June 11, 2021. Yes, this is the same plan that we included a link to in our August 2020 article New community group pushes for urban forest plan.
Laughingly, that document, dated March 2020, was labelled “FINAL.” Seems like the cover page date has since been changed to April 2021 so readers might think it’s a recent publication, when in fact glaciers have been moving (in retreat) faster than the Town has responded to this planning effort — work that was done two years ago, but which the Town let sit idle until now.
Demonstrations outside MLA Walker’s QB office protesting old growth logging
Ballooning profits and lumber demand are putting BC’s old growth forest at risk. Two Vancouver timber companies, Canfor Corp. and West Fraser Timber, recently combined for an eye-popping $1 billion quarterly profit. These companies’ quest for timber (and money) keeps ratcheting up the already unsustainable annual cut of BC softwood, colliding with public interest in retaining and preserving the few remaining old growth ecosystems, particularly here on Vancouver Island.
It is primarily the duty and responsibility of our provincial government to balance these competing private and public interests.
A group of local advocates who believe that continued logging of the remaining old growth forest is damaging our dwindling eco-assets have been gathering every Friday morning in peaceful protest in front of government MLA Adam Walker’s Qualicum Beach office at 184 West Second Avenue.
Readers wanting to learn more about this critical but still unresolved issue can drop by and speak, safely distanced and masked, to organizer David Haynes, or to one of his colleagues.