Vanessa Craig
Director, Electoral Area B
(Gabriola, Mudge, and Decourcy Islands)
Regional District of Nanaimo
Happy June! Congratulations to all of the students who are completing their school year and gearing up for summer. With the nicer weather Huxley Park is hopping with many users, including children walking to the park after school. A reminder that the 30 km/hr playground zone around Huxley is in effect dawn to dusk 7 days per week!
Emergency Alert System
As we’re seeing in other provinces, we’re entering fire season. In central and northern BC they’re seeing the flare-up again of multi-year fires. The Province has a lot of information on the fire situation in the province here: https://wildfiresituation.nrs.gov.bc.ca/map. In the event of an emergency on Gabriola, the RDN will provide information via our emergency alert system. If you haven’t already, please sign up for the RDN’s emergency alert system, Voyent Alert. In an emergency the RDN can send notifications via phone, email, or text https://www.rdn.bc.ca/voyent-alert
Work happening in the 707 Community Park June 4 to June 24
Trail maintenance is being undertaken to ensure that trails remain up to standard and that emergency vehicle access is unobstructed. Some trails require limbing only, and others require brushing and limbing.
Trails requiring limbing include: Old Centre Rd, Coats Dr, South Road, Three Gates, Sump Farm, Marsh Trail, and Stanley Pl.
Trails requiring both brushing and limbing include: Trail to Nowhere, Old Centre Rd (markers 46–50), Ricki Avenue, Granite Trail, and Fisher Rd Trail. Find these on the GaLTT map.
Parks and Recreation Master Plan
The Advisory Committee and the POSAC have received the draft Master Plan which includes parks in Area B and recreation on Gabriola. The draft and the background documents are available at the Get Involved website https://www.getinvolved.rdn.ca/ea-b-rpmp. Staff will update the report based on the feedback received to date and it will be coming to an upcoming meeting for Board approval. Thanks again to all of the community members who have participated on the advisory committee and/or provided input during the different phases of this project.
Members of the public at an engagement date hosted by the RDN in May. Sarah Holmes, Gabriola Sounder photo
GIRO Makerspace opening
The RDN has provided over $350,000 in funding in a series of grants to support GIRO’s innovative and exciting programs C2C threads and ReLove Local, which includes the building and developing of a new Makerspace. The grand opening is scheduled for June 13 with an open house on June 14 – come and check it out! https://www.girodepot.com/2025/06/01/grand-opening-of-the-giro-makerspace/
Parks Biodiversity Plan
After review the Board recently approved our Parks Biodiversity Plan. The plan “aims to provide a proactive approach to maintaining, enhancing, and restoring biodiversity” in the RDN’s parks. This framework does provide some baseline data; however, there are many opportunities to improve the database over time, especially with volunteers submitting records. The plan has a significant focus on the identification and management of invasive plant species in our parks; by removing invasive species native plants and the associated ecosystem will be more resilient. You can find the Parks Biodiversity Plan here https://rdn.bc.ca/parks-and-trails-strategies
Coats Marsh
As you know, the RDN is restoring Coats Marsh to a more natural beaver-managed ecosystem. The marsh has been heavily modified over many decades – by draining and placement of structures in the marsh, to re-flooding the marsh behind a concrete weir (the natural rock barrier was blasted to install the weir). The province has recently declared that the weir is considered a regulated dam, which has significant implications for its maintenance, particularly as the weir is in need of repair. The recommendations initially were to reinforce/reconstruct the weir and to remove the beaver dam, which was retaining a depth of water more than 1 m in height over the weir height and was a threat to the weir. Instead of removing the beaver dam, the Board decided to remove the weir and restore it to a more natural state through placement of boulders and plantings and retaining the beaver dam. The Coats Marsh Dam Decommissioning project RFP has now been posted and is scheduled to close June 13. You can find the RFP here: https://rdn.bc.ca/node/27032
Noise Bylaw
A few years ago I made a Motion for a review of the Gabriola Noise Bylaw, specifically with respect to construction noise. The current bylaw allows construction noise between 8 am-8 pm 7 days a week. There have been a few projects over the years that include rock breaking or significant noise that neighbours find challenging. Due to staff capacity the review hasn’t yet occurred, but it’s scheduled for the 2025 workplan. There will be consultation as part of that and I will ensure I keep you informed and would welcome your input.
Our Changing Coast
The RDN is implementing a multi-year project on our changing coast which includes coastal floodplain mapping, a coastal risk assessment, an erosion hazard assessment and most recently, a survey of residents to identify their key concerns and questions about coastal changes as well as information about how they would like to be engaged. Information on the project and a What We Heard document that summarizes the recent public engagement is available here: https://www.getinvolved.rdn.ca/coastal-risk
Development Cost Charges (DCCs)
• DCCs are fees that local government collects from land developers to help pay the costs for specific types of capital infrastructure. As you know, the RDN has implemented Development Cost Charges (DCCs) on new development in some electoral areas, including Area B, which will go to specific park amenities required to respond to population growth. We are in the process of developing a 50% cost reduction bylaw for affordable rental housing developments that are managed by a non-profit society.
• We are also in the process of considering DCCs for solid waste management. DCCs help ensure that developers pay their fair share of the costs required to develop infrastructure. The RDN has identified eligible solid waste and recycling projects that need to be constructed over the next 26 years to support the solid waste generated by new development in the residential, multi-family, industrial, commercial and institutional sectors. The funds required for these capital projects are significant and require taxation to build reserves to limit borrowing– by having DCCs the taxation required of current residents is reduced as some of the cost is appropriately shifted to reflect the increased demand due to new development. We’re looking for input on this https://www.getinvolved.rdn.ca/solid-waste-dcc
Upcoming:
The Electoral Area Services Committee meets next Thursday and the next Board and the Nanaimo Regional Hospital District meetings are on Tuesday June 10th. You can see the upcoming meetings or review the agendas/minutes/video of past meetings at https://www.rdn.bc.ca/agendas-minutes-videos – click on the date/meeting.
If you have any thoughts or questions about this update or anything else RDN related or are curious about any of the reports I mention above, please contact me at vanessa.craig@rdn.bc.ca or 250-741-4589.
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