WWW.BOWENISLANDUNDERCURRENT.COM bowenislandundercurrent.com
THURSDAY MARCH14, 142019 2019 •• 5 5 Thursday, March
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Trust provides checks and balances
Save up to
40
%
Luck of the Irish
Spin to Win Additional Discounts!*
la-z-boy.com/vancouver · Locally Owned & Operated
Ma rine Dr
W. 14th St W. 3rd St
I N D E P E N D E N T LY C A N A D I A N O W N E D & O P E R AT E D
d nR rso La
Bewicke Ave
W. 16th St
Westview Dr
Richmond · Coquitlam · Langley · North Vancouver
No delays: we need a health centre
DEAR EDITOR: The issue of an island health centre is important to many of us, especially those who may need urgent medical support overnight or on weekends, when emergency services are not always available without delay. If the report in last week’s Undercurrent is correct, the medical clinic centre project may again be delayed. We urge council to avoid further delays, for the benefit of all Bowen Island residents and visitors. We need this facility and we need council’s most intense efforts to finally have it built and operating. Respectfully submitted, —Renate J. Williams, Cherie Westmoreland, Ron Hogan, Dennice Hall, Gillian Barber, Nicholas Lay, Mary Ellen & Hal DeGrace, Susan Nelson
off
PLUS
Fell Ave
DEAR EDITOR: In her recent letter (Undercurrent, March 7), Nerys Poole explains how our local council’s policies and bylaws and our Official Community Plan are legally embedded in our inclusion within the Islands Trust. She also outlines other important legal aspects and the significant benefits to our community as an island within the Trust. It is a must-read for islanders interested in this issue. The Islands Trust is a federation of islands whereby islanders govern themselves within the legislative structure that protects their island environments and ways of life – not only for their communities but for our entire province and the rest of Canada. Islanders do this not only for themselves as individuals but for their children and their children’s children and for the progeny of all those who will come to visit these unique, magnificent and majestic islands in perpetuity. That is the kind of long-term vision embodied within the framework of the Islands Trust and the vision that propelled those of us who laboured steadfastly in the creation of our Official Community Plan. Our vision was nothing less than creating a community that is a true model of sustainability for the rest of Canada - a vision driven, not by mere profit motive, but by the longterm will of the community and a fundamental caring for the land and its surrounding waters. Removing Bowen Island from the Islands Trust would render our community plan more vulnerable to major changes that could drastically alter our island community and its way of life. By removing the legislative checks and balances of the Islands Trust, the fate of our island and its people would be essentially determined by succeeding short-term municipal councils - as it is with regular off-island municipalities. Ten, twenty or thirty years from now, councils could bring about changes that our current island community would find unacceptable. Contrary to what some opponents believe, the great majority of islanders who support the Islands Trust are not involved in blanket opposition to development. After the creation of the Trust in the mid-‘70s, we began raising issues of sustainability that are now being discussed by all forward thinking communities. Long before other communities, we had the forethought of realizing that our North American cities, with their unsustainable development projects, are sleepwalking toward environmental degradation. The issue, therefore, was never opposition to development. It was the creation of a community plan that lays out land use provisions for more balanced, sustainable and comprehensive development practices, and the creation of covenants that respect our island ecology and environment commensurate with the gradual growth of a rural island community. Bowen Island is different from other municipalities in B.C. It has the unique status of being an “island municipality” within the Islands Trust - the first and only island municipality in the province. If it were not for this special, dedicated status within the Islands Trust, the incorporation of Bowen Island would have been soundly defeated by islanders in the 1999 referendum. Given our short distance from a large urban centre, our islanders were not so naive as to agree to self-government without the special status and protections established by the province for natural treasures such as Bowen Island. I urge our municipal council and all islanders to very seriously consider the future, long term implications of losing our status as an island municipality within the Islands Trust. The formal attempt to remove Bowen Island from the Islands Trust would also be overwhelmingly ill-received by the citizens of our province, many of whom would find it unwise and foolhardy - regardless of their political leanings. In 2011, a public opinion survey showed province-wide support for the mandate of the Islands Trust, with at least 83 per cent supporting the preservation and protection of the islands within the Trust. Within the Islands Trust area, that figure rises to 90 per cent. The attempt to sever Bowen from the Islands Trust is a course of action which would find itself on the wrong side of history, British Columbians and our provincial government. In the same manner as we led the way with the first community school in British Columbia, we can lead the way as the first “island municipality” in the province. We will abdicate that leading role if we ever become a municipality with the same status as those on the mainland. For those of us who have fought relentlessly to uphold our island way of life since the ‘70s, we believe the political agenda behind severance from the Islands Trust is to erode the integrity of our Official Community Plan. Our community plan reflects who we are as a people, a people who stand for our long term common good rather than merely bending to the will of vested interests who expect us to bend the rules on their behalf. The issue of Bowen’s inclusion within the Islands Trust goes to the heart of who we are as a people and the fundamental reason we came to live on this island. For the sake of our children and all future generations, I urge our mayor, our councillors and fellow islanders to claim the future by maintaining our allegiance with the Islands Trust - with island communities who stand with us as beacons of light for a better world on our western shores. —John Sbagia Bowen Island
W. Keith Rd
North Vancouver · (604) 229-6035 734 West 14th St. (1 Block N. of Marine Dr. off Bewicke)
HOURS: MON - FRI 10 - 6
SAT 10 - 6
SUN 11 - 5
*See store for details. Cannot be combined with any other offers. Hot Buys & prior sales excluded. Minimum Spin to Win purchase $496. Although every precaution is taken, errors in price or specification may occur in print. We reserve the right to correct such errors. Offer ends Sunday March 17th, 2019 at 5pm. While supplies last.