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Incorporation: A Complex Question

In recent editions of the Shawnigan Times, Rick Restell has contributed to our community’s conversation on the merits and pitfalls of incorporation. He is to be congratulated for taking on this most complex of subjects, because there is much to consider. This posting is intended as a contribution to the conversation.

Shawnigan, with a population of 8100 and growing, is the largest unincorporated social jurisdiction in British Columbia. It is an electoral area within the Cowichan Valley Regional District, represented by a single elected official. Many decisions affecting the area are made collectively by the 15 Directors of the Regional District Board, fourteen of whom are non-resident. Provision of basic infrastructure and services is divided between the Regional District and the Province. Water is provided individually by wells or drawn from the lake, by the Regional District through a variety of area-specific water districts and by private water purveyors. Sewage treatment is provided primarily through individual septic systems governed by the Vancouver Island Health Authority, with community level systems limited to a few subdivisions, mainly run by the Regional District. Roads are built and maintained by the Province. Police and ambulance services are provided directly by the province while fire services are provided by separately governed Improvement Districts. Health Services are provided by the Province and the Regional District and by private clinics. The Province governs subdivision developments while the Regional District administers official community plans, zoning regulations and building by-laws, parks and recreation services and economic development. Industrial activity in the watershed is governed directly by provincial ministries with limited influence from the Regional District. Regional Districts do not have a business licensing function and have limited ability to level development cost charges to support local infrastructure.

The Province, the Regional District and the Improvement District have separate taxing authority to support their responsibilities. As an electoral area, Shawnigan is governed by numerous political and agency authorities in a complex web of relationships that are challenging to integrate in practice. Informal community organization is spread among resident, business, education, arts and cultural groups that form the civic base for future governance. Both the Malahat First Nation and the Cowichan Tribes have interests in Shawnigan and will be partners in whatever form of governance emerges.

The main advantages of being incorporated as a municipality include more extensive political representation, greater local control over the scope, cost and integration of public infrastructure and services, and increased opportunity to shape the social, environmental and economic future of the community. Local control also comes at greater local cost. Two main drivers of increased cost are roads and policing, both of which become a municipal responsibility upon incorporation.
Other costs are more difficult to determine, such as governance, water and sewer infrastructure maintenance and by-law enforcement. An incorporated Shawnigan would still be part of the CVRD, like Duncan, North Cowichan, Lake Cowichan and Ladysmith and would be expected to continue to share in the cost of the hospital, along with regional transit, parks and recreation facilities.

The political, cost and infrastructure control implications will vary substantially among incorporation options. Shawnigan, Mill Bay and Cobble Hill could seek to become a single municipality or in any combination. Standing alone or combining with other communities is a question of cost sharing, political representation in decision-making, boundary definition, service areas assumed from the Regional District and social cohesion. It will be very difficult to address these issues without the thorough assessment that is normally provided by the province, one that they are currently reluctant to provide. The three southern Area Directors have told the province that they should provide the proper studies to enable our constituents to make an informed choice. Only one thing is for certain, the issue is extremely complex.

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October 23rd Tour with the Minister of Environment

Report at Director’s Meeting, November 5th, 7pm Shawnigan Lake Community Centre

On October 23rd CVRD Directors and staff toured soil-dumping sites with Environment Minister Hon. Terry Lake. The objective of the tour, at the Minister’s request, was to see first hand a number of active soil dumpsites and to discuss their significance for watershed concerns with Regional District leaders. Sites visited included the Evans site on Koksilah Road that threatens the Duncan area along with sites along Stebbings Road and the most currently active site on Goldstream Heights that present risks to Shawnigan. To illustrate the urgency of our concerns, our bus was passed by dozens of trucks bringing soil of unknown origin to the Metchosin Properties site on Goldstream Heights where the road was mud covered for a long distance from the active dumping area. Trucks delivering soil to this location are being monitored and license numbers recorded for further investigation. The Minister was shown the proximity of our headwaters dumpsites to Shawnigan Creek and Shawnigan Lake.

Minister Lake, with his experience in local government as well as his provincial role, commented on how much he understood the concern of CVRD residents that they were on the receiving end of another region’s waste. As we discussed remedies for the current situation, the Minister expressed the limitation that the ministry faces in dealing with the movement of soils. Before regulatory sanctions can be legally applied for non-compliance with safety requirements there has to be direct evidence of environmental harm, not just the public concern for possible risks. We, of course, are concerned that damage to waterways and aquifers could be impossible to repair after the fact and that the risk should be avoided in the first place. Collecting the necessary evidence of contaminated soils that violate regulations will require government check-sampling of incoming soils and the accumulated material on the current dumpsites, not just reliance on self-reporting of the property owners or their hired professionals. The Ministry has notified dumpsite landowners that they are actively sampling their properties now as part of the Minister’s commitments made to the CVRD in recent meetings in Victoria and we await results that we will report to the public as they arrive.

Now that the fall rains have come, Regional District by-law staff are monitoring turbidity in several locations on Shawnigan Creek and will report problems to the MOE authorities for source investigations if required. Residents who notice problems should call the CVRD By-Law 24hr Hotline at 250-746-2600 to let us know.

Join me and CVRD Chair Rob Hutchins at my next Director’s Meeting on Monday November 5th at 7pm in the Shawnigan Lake Community Centre for an up-to-date discussion of the soil dumping issue and our continuing efforts to control the situation.