TUESDAY MARCH 8, 2016
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FIGHTING IGNORANCE
EVENTS ABOUND FOR BRANT FEST
Transgender people deal with a lot of closed-mindedness
Viewing, tours, high tea — this year’s festival packed with activities
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TENT CITY IN PARKSVILLE?
Preparing the bylaw City may try to protect Community Park, wells JOHN HARDING editor@pqbnews.com
The city may ban campers from high-profile, environmentally-sensitive areas as it considers ways to get out front of possible tent-city issues in Parksville. Council was supposed to consider a report last night, but that regular meeting was cancelled due to a lack of a quorum. It’s unclear when the report will re-surface, but council’s next regular meeting is scheduled for March 21. If council decides to do nothing, leave park uses as they are, the city could find itself in court, said the report from the city’s director of administrative services, Keeva Kehler. “The current bylaw would be open for legal challenge given recent B.C. case law,” wrote Kehler. “Should council direct staff to prepare a new bylaw for parks and open spaces, staff will develop provisions to regulate how and where overnight accommodation by people who are homeless can occur.” As Kehler pointed out in her report, the city cannot adopt an outright prohibition on overnight accommodation on people who are homeless using public lands to sleep or erect structures. The city can, however, adopt a bylaw that prohibits overnight accommodation in “key sensitive areas” and permit it only between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m. The recommended areas where overnight accommodation could be prohibited include Parksville Community Park, any city-owned lands within 60 metres of the ocean, Springwood Park and the Despard Avenue municipal well sites. Kehler wrote that staff believes it would be beneficial to undertake an education outreach campaign in conjunction with any bylaw implementation. See VICTORIA RULING, page A8
J.R. RARDON PHOTO
Sandra Gray, left, and Alison Bakker spot and count Brant geese as they look off the shore near Eaglecrest Friday.
THE BRANT GEESE ARE HERE AND THE HERRING SPAWN CAN’T BE FAR BEHIND
Counting our winged visitors J.R. RARDON
near the mouth of the Little Qualicum River. “Columbia Beach was a seething mass of waves.” “You just saw little heads bobbing up and down between the waves,” fellow bird-counter Dave Erickson added. Still, the March 4 count did deliver some good news, as seven volunteers working in two teams counted an estimated 1,115 of the small, dark geese in the Parksville Qualicum Beach Wildlife Management Area, which is situated between the Little Qualicum River to
reporter@pqbnews.com
On a day particularly suited for waterfowl — there was water, and it was foul — volunteers from the Arrowsmith Naturalists Society were right at home Friday as they conducted their third Brant goose count of the season along the local coastline. “Two counts ago it was really windy,” said Sandra Gray, count coordinator, before stepping out of her car into another heavy wind, which pushed needles of rain ahead of it,
the north and Craig Bay to the south. That is an increase from the estimated 759 birds tallied on Feb. 29 and the 347 logged on Feb. 19. “That’s good that the numbers are up, as we expected with the herring fishery opening (Thursday),” said Sandra Gray. Brant geese migrate from their winter refuge as far south as the Gulf of California, to the arctic, stopping in the mid-Island to feed and fatten up on the way, said Gray. See SOME HAVE BEEN, page A8
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