JANUARY
• The first Sunshine Coast baby of 2016 was born to Victoria Pauls and Nick Samaras at 5:24 a.m. on Jan. 2, at Sechelt Hospital. Baby Athena Samaras weighed seven pounds, 15 ounces and was about a week past her due date.
• The Annual Polar Bear Swim in Davis Bay hit its 30th anniversary this year with over 300 spectators and 68 people who jumped into the chilly water on Jan. 1. Throngs of hardy souls attended the annual Polar Bear Swim in Gibsons held at Armours Beach on Jan. 1.
• Brian and Corin Mullins, makers of Holy Crap cereal, were once again featured on CBC’s Dragons’ Den on Jan. 6, looking for more funding to expand their reach and increase sales of their popular breakfast cereal, packaged in Gibsons. They signed on with a new high-powered partner, Dragon Manjit Minhas, co-founder and co-owner of Minhas Breweries and Distillery. “It’s called a marketing and management deal. She’s coming on board as co-CEO,” Brian said.
• Sechelt hired a permanent CAO to replace interim administrator Bill Beamish. Tim Palmer started as Sechelt’s new chief administrative officer on Jan. 18.
• The crew at Coastal Craft launched their second multi-million-dollar luxury yacht in Gibsons on Jan. 7 after working for about 11 months to create the wheelchair-accessible, 65-foot vessel for a U.S. customer. The custom-made yacht came with a price tag of C$4.5 million.
• Sechelt was poised to ink a deal with consulting firm Deloitte LLP for a “post-project completion review” of the Water Resource Centre. Council’s finance, culture and economic development committee recommended awarding the $125,000 contract to Deloitte at its Jan. 13 meeting.
• Pacific Ferries’ Coastal Clipper set sail on its first voyage across Howe Sound on Wednesday, Jan. 27. The new service offered sailings to foot passengers between Gibsons and Horseshoe Bay – launching from the public dock in Gibsons Landing. Despite stormy weather, Pacific Ferries spokeswoman Linda Feuerhelm said the crossing was pretty smooth. “Everybody started cheering when we passed the ferry,” she said.
• A family of four Syrian refugees was approved for immigration to the Sunshine Coast, and volunteer efforts were underway to prepare for their arrival. Pastor Jaz Ghag made the announcement on Jan. 22 at the Gibsons Christian Life Assembly Syrian refugee project meeting.
• Heavy rains caused a landslide at a popular walking trail in the Davis Bay area, flooded a roadway in Secret Cove and partially submerged a bridge in Cliff Gilker Park. A total of 36.9 mm of rain fell on Jan. 21 and Jan. 22, according to the Environment Canada website, and with that rain part of the Chapman Creek walking trail collapsed.
FEBRUARY
• Residents from six homes in Sechelt’s Seawatch development in West Porpoise Bay were pressing the district for a fix to sinkhole issues, claiming the municipality holds ultimate responsibility. Mayor Bruce Milne didn’t see it that way. The mayor encouraged residents to get together and launch a class-action suit to seek resolution, suggesting it was the most appropriate action. Two well-reported sinkholes have opened at the subdivision in the past three and a half years and several geotechnical reports suggest ongoing sinkhole formation can be expected in the area. The price to fix just the municipal infrastructure in the subdivision has been estimated to cost up to $10 million.
• Prompted by a suggestion from a community member, councillors on Sechelt’s public works, parks and environment committee asked district staff to look into if, and how, Wormy Lake could be renamed for John Phare. Phare was the Roberts Creek man killed fighting a forest fire near the lake in the summer of 2015.
• Almost 10 months after it was stolen, a near-life-sized wooden statue of Jesus Christ was recovered and put back in its grotto on Gower Point Road at Gospel Rock. Owner Albert Holtforster was tipped off about the statue’s location by a Gibsons woman who was walking her dog on the beach below the 1300 block of Gower Point Road, near the foot of Swallow Road. The woman, who requested anonymity, left a note in Holtforster’s door saying, “Email me, I found Jesus.”
• A family from Hopkins Landing was counting their blessings after three Douglas fir trees – each measuring about 80 feet (25 metres) in height – fell on their home on Friday, Feb. 5. The fir trees were downed by winds that hit gusts of up to 57 km/h in the area. The wind also brought down a large cedar at the home of Lee and Sharon Selmes. Lee said the tree hit his truck and slammed into the roof of their home above their son’s bedroom.
• Margie Gray filed a lawsuit to seek “justice and change” after the death of her 33-year-old son Myles following an altercation with seven Vancouver police officers in Burnaby on Aug. 13, 2015.
• An anonymous donor paid the way for a second Syrian refugee family (a mother and one adult son) to be relocated to the Sunshine Coast, along with the original family of four who were expected soon. “The nice thing is they know the other family,” Christian Life Assembly Pastor Jaz Ghag said.
• The Gibsons Public Market broke ground on its 7,000-square-foot addition, with $2.3 million in funding secured for the project. Another $1 million was still needed before the market expansion could be finished, but executive director Gerry Zipursky was “very confident” the market would make its goal in the coming months.
• Demonstrators from Elphinstone Logging Focus and supporters turned back contractors for AJB Investments, preventing them from getting to work in the Chapman Creek watershed early on the morning of Feb. 12. The protest was triggered by a revelation that AJB planned to start logging on the company’s private managed forest land. The work on cutblock DR7, on the east side of Chapman Creek above the Sechelt Airport, started on Feb. 2.
• The province delayed the implementation of the Pender Harbour Dock Management Plan (DMP) for “up to a year” while it conducts environmental and archeological studies in the area. The announcement was in response to former B.C. attorney general Barry Penner’s report on the DMP, released Feb. 12, and was based on two of 13 recommendations in Penner’s report.
• WeeMedical Dispensary Society, a dispensary chain started in Nanaimo, set up shop on the corner of Teredo Street and Inlet Avenue and opened its doors to the public on Feb. 22. Sunshine Coast RCMP Const. Harrison Mohr said the detachment takes a “zero-tolerance approach to dispensaries,” as selling cannabis products from storefronts remains illegal.
• Eight firefighters from the Sunshine Coast raised about $10,000 for the BC Lung Association at this year’s Climb the Wall: Stair Climb for Clean Air on Feb. 20. Sechelt’s soon-to-be-retired fire chief Bill Higgs was the top fundraiser, bringing in more than $7,500.
• Elphinstone Logging Focus maintained the blockade it set up Feb. 12 to prevent work crews from getting into AJB Investments’ property in the Chapman Creek watershed.
• The Sunshine Coast gave a sharp thumbs down to the Woodfibre Liquefied Natural Gas project at Gibsons Heritage Playhouse on Feb. 29 in the last of three community meetings held across the riding by MP Pam Goldsmith-Jones.
• Baby Kai Jamie Bryson Friesen was eager to make his appearance on Feb. 28. He was born in the passenger seat of parents Aleisha Friesen and Sheldon Bryson’s car on the way to the Sechelt Hospital.
MARCH
• Elphinstone Logging Focus and its supporters converged on Sunshine Coast Regional District headquarters March 10 with the message that it was time to buy a block of private managed forest land in the Chapman Creek watershed, owned by AJB Investments.
• Community foundations in the Sea to Sky region answered the call to action in helping to create more smart and caring communities. This was the message delivered by Governor General David Johnston on March 3 at an event at the Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver. Sea to Sky community foundations, which include Squamish, Whistler, Sunshine Coast, North Shore, West Vancouver and Bowen Island, hosted the event.
• A total of 94 Indian bands signed up to be part of the day scholar class action lawsuit launched by the shíshálh Nation and the Kamloops (tk’emlúps) Nation against Canada. The class action seeks compensation for those who attended residential school during the day, but returned home at night (day scholars), as well as their children and all Indian bands affected by the loss of their language or culture as a result of the schools.
• The owners of S&M Sweet Shoppe, a home-based dispensary in Selma Park that was raided by RCMP on Nov. 28, 2015 for selling medical marijuana edibles to an undercover officer without a prescription, were charged with trafficking. Charges stemmed from different times the undercover police officer had contact with the dispensary. Ultimately he purchased 23 marijuana-infused candies and four marijuana infused teabags from S&M Sweet Shoppe without a prescription.
• A back room at 420 Hemp Shop on Cowrie Street was repurposed and a dispensary dubbed Coastal Meds was opened on March 9, bringing the total number of medical marijuana dispensary storefronts in Sechelt to three.
• Shíshálh Nation Elders, council and members were honoured with the 2016 John Hind-Smith Environmental Achievement Award, presented by the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association at a ceremony on March 12 at the shíshálh Nation Community Hall. Chief Calvin Craigan accepted the award on behalf of the shíshálh Nation. The award was in recognition of the shíshálh’s critical actions to preserve, restore and protect their land, ocean and waterways – as well as their successful efforts in restoring the Sechelt Creek salmon run.
• Strong winds and high tides wreaked havoc on the Sunshine Coast as volunteer firefighters responded to 23 separate 911 calls within 15 hours. Winds surged to almost 40 km/h between 7 p.m. on March 9 and noon on March 10, felling trees and power lines. At the peak of the storm, around midnight on March 9, BC Hydro reported 7,000 customers on the Coast were without power.
• The 2016 Midget Tier 3 BC Championship kicked off on March 13 with five games in a row before the opening ceremony, followed by a sixth game on Sunday night between the Sunshine Coast Blues and Dawson Creek. Games continued throughout the week at the Gibsons and Area Community Centre organized by the Sunshine Coast Minor Hockey Association. More than 1,000 visitors came to the Coast for the event.
• Funding for the Coast’s only cold weather shelter ended on March 31, forcing the shelter to close its doors – but more funding was being sought to help the homeless find housing alternatives until the shelter could reopen in November. The Sunshine Coast Cold Weather Shelter is funded by BC Housing, and members of a shelter steering committee (an offshoot of the Sunshine Coast Homelessness Advisory Committee) have asked BC Housing for additional funding over the spring, summer and fall months for an outreach worker to serve the homeless.
• MP Pam Goldsmith-Jones said she accepts her government’s decision to grant environmental approval to the Woodfibre LNG project, but would be “doubling my resolve” to ensure the proponent met all 122 conditions. Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna announced approval of the $1.6-billion project on March 18, saying it was “not likely to cause significant adverse environmental impacts.”
• The District of Sechelt was told it must wait one year from the death of faller John Phare to request the renaming of Wormy Lake after him, but the community didn’t appear to want to wait. A carved sign reading John Phare Lake had already been erected at Wormy Lake, and while no one took credit for it, many started calling the lake by its new community-bestowed name. In addition, a group of mountain bikers built a trail around the lake through some of the forest that was scorched by the fire Phare lost his life battling last summer, and the bikers dubbed the trail Phare Line.
• Canadian icon and disabilities advocate Rick Hansen gave Coastal Craft a ringing endorsement for their new, wheelchair-accessible, 65-foot Concord yacht after taking a tour on March 26. Hansen was very impressed by the yacht’s design and accessibility.
