APRIL
• The Nicholas Sonntag Marine Education Centre in the Gibsons Public Market offered free admission April 7 to celebrate the official opening of the aquarium. The centre is the fourth “collect and release” community aquarium of its kind in Canada. About 200 individual specimens and 70 species are on display at the aquarium.
• Costly parking garages and an auditorium pushed the estimated price to build Pender Harbour Ocean Discovery Station (PODS) to as high as $20 million, but executive director Michael Jackson remained optimistic that construction was on schedule to start in July and reach completion by 2020.
• The provincial government released the new Pender Harbour dock management plan (DMP), opening the way for the end of a moratorium on new dock construction. The joint shíshálh Nation, Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations plan was released April 4. Leonard Lee, chair of the DMP working group, said the province missed an opportunity to make the DMP better and that the plan was finalized with little community consultation.
• As the Festival of the Performing Arts opened its music competition at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre, parents and teachers of junior pianists were dismayed to find that the walls of the gallery were covered abundantly with nude portraits of men and women, sketches made by the Life Drawing group of live models. On festival opening day, April 9, approximately 35 children passed through the centre to give their performances.
• Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors decided April 12 to draft a strongly worded letter to Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc to curb shellfish poaching on the Coast. MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones wrote a similar letter in March stating that the absence of a DFO officer on the Coast means poaching “has gotten so bad that in some areas there is barely any crab left.” • A 62-year-old man was arrested for impaired driving and also faced charges of mischief after the van he was driving flipped on its side and slid into the Langdale Ferry Terminal April 14, coming to rest wedged between the two toll booths. Neither the driver nor his passenger suffered serious injuries.
• Councillors in Gibsons passed second reading for the Gospel Rock Village project April 17, after hearing details of the affordable housing agreement and community amenities being proposed by the developer. The project, slated for Block 7, is the first to come forward under the Gospel Rock Neighbourhood Plan. It calls for 360 units to be built in three phases with a mix of apartments, townhouses, single-family homes and commercial space.
• On April 19, a totem pole was erected at Gibsons Elementary School to commemorate the Skwxwú7-mesh origin story of Chek-welhp, the area around Gibsons and Langdale. “My vision was to tell … one of our creation stories about the beginning of time and first man,” said carver Wes Nahanee.
• For Roberts Creek cannabis dispensary owner Kalawna Biggs, this year’s 420 marked “the beginning of a new era,” because of the expected legalization of cannabis in July. “It makes economically a huge difference in B.C. and we really need to embrace that,” Biggs said. Biggs opened her business on April 20 (420) and co-organized the celebrations in the Heart of the Creek with Renee Boje, owner of Shakti Blissful Botanicals, and Natania Rogers, manager of Elfinstones Gemshop.
• Former shíshálh Nation chief Garry Feschuk and his project partner, Cam Reid, a former Sechelt mayor, were spearheading what they call Syiyaya Reconciliation Movement, and on April 25, more than 200 people joined them at the shíshálh Longhouse to launch it.
• Councillors on Sechelt’s planning committee endorsed BC Housing’s plan for a supportive housing development at 5656 Hightide Ave., in the same area as the Upper Deck shelter. BC Housing owns the land but needed an official community plan and zoning amendment to go ahead with a three-storey, 40-unit, building.
• At the Ma Murray Com-munity Newspaper Awards on April 28, Coast Reporter’s Sean Eckford placed second among the finalists for the Neville Shanks Memorial Award for Historical Writing, for “Shíshálh ancestors come to life.” Coast Reporter also received silver for best overall B.C. community newspaper in its circulation class.
MAY
• Cannabis dispensary owners Michelle and Doug Sikora were back to business as usual at their S&M Medicinal Sweet Shoppe in Gibsons after they were granted a stay of proceedings on trafficking and possession charges. Judge Steven Merrick granted the stay on May 8 in Sechelt provincial court based on court delays, saying, “the net delay of 19 months remains presumptively unreasonable.”
• In a province with the highest share of households in Canada overspending on rent, the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) and District of Sechelt were faring among the worst. Twenty-nine per cent of renters in the SCRD and the District of Sechelt are spending more than half their income on rent and utilities. The rate in Gibsons was 25 per cent. The provincial average is 21 per cent and the national average is 18 per cent.
• The Pender Harbour Dock Management Plan (DMP) was one of several items on the agenda for the Pender Harbour Advisory Council’s May 6 community meeting, and council president Alan Stewart conceded it was the “hot topic” as he opened the meeting, which drew well over 100 residents. A joint effort between the shíshálh Nation and the province, the DMP was supposed to be a way forward after more than a decade of bans on new dock construction in the area, but the 2015 draft DMP faced a storm of criticism.
• The BC Supreme Court ruled that Sechelt Community Projects, the district-owned company that manages the Sunshine Coast Community Forest, and the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations carried out proper consultations before a cutting permit was issued for the block in the East Wilson Creek area known as EW28 or the Chanterelle Forest.
• Sechelt Seniors Activity Centre began work in mid-May on an $800,000 expansion project intended to accommodate its membership, which president Charlie Jensen said is growing 10 per cent a year.
• The City of Nanaimo parted ways with chief financial officer Victor Mema, who once had the same role with the District of Sechelt. Mema, who joined Nanaimo’s staff after leaving the District of Sechelt in 2015, was at the centre of a controversy over personal use of the city’s credit card.
• The body of 91-year-old Gambier Island resident Geoffrey Smedley was recovered May 9 after he accidentally drove his all-terrain vehicle off the New Brighton public dock and drowned. Sunshine Coast RCMP said it appeared the senior reversed the ATV he was driving when it struck a barrier and flipped into the water. He then became partly trapped underwater by the ATV.
• One of the three men charged in a high-profile crab poaching case was scheduled to be sentenced in Vancouver provincial court. Lyle Donald Sparrow, Jr. entered an intention to plead guilty on four charges during a court appearance May 14.
• At a May 17 ribbon cutting ceremony a newly-renovated 70-square metre lower level was officially opened at the Rockwood Centre, the only designated heritage building in Sechelt.
• Three classic cars and a tractor were engulfed in flames on May 20 after a fire broke out at two workshops on Cemetery Road in Elphinstone.
• A local man died after his car collided with a hydro pole and tree in the 1000 block of Gibsons Way on May 23.
• Road access, ecosystem preservation and housing needs were points of contention raised by the more than two dozen speakers at the Gospel Rock public hearing on May 23. The event, which saw a turnout of more than 200 people at the Gibsons Legion, was organized following the second reading of the Gospel Rock Village project.
• A very dry May pushed wildfire danger ratings up on the Sunshine. Only two days of rain, with a total of 9.8 mm, were recorded at the Sechelt weather station as of May 30.
JUNE
• Attorney General David Eby released his recommendations on electoral reform May 30, and they call for a referendum campaign to begin July 1 with voting by mail between Oct. 22 and Nov. 30.
• Around a hundred demonstrators lined Teredo Street in Sechelt June 4 to protest the federal government’s plans to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline. A separate protest was also staged outside the West Vancouver office of Liberal MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones. The protests were part of a coordinated series of nationwide demonstrations organized by groups opposed to the buyout.
• The Conservation Officer Service on the Sunshine Coast were seeing an increase in bear-related calls and several cougar sightings in the Gibsons area.
• An Alternative Approval Process for authorizing a $6-million, long-term loan that would fund installation of water meters in Sechelt and on shíshálh Nation was decided on by Sunshine Coast Regional District directors after a provincial grant to fund the project fell through.
• Gibsons Mayor Wayne Rowe said the Greenlane Homes proposal to develop Gospel Rock was the best plan he’s seen come forward in 20 years. Council gave unanimous approval to third reading of the zoning changes needed for Greenlane to build Gospel Rock Village at its June 5 meeting.
• The Sunshine Coast Community Forest operating arm, Sechelt Community Projects, spent $79,692 on legal and audit fees in the first quarter of 2018 as a direct result of court action by the group Elphinstone Logging Focus.
• A boathouse, 30 kayaks and three sailboats were destroyed in a fire that broke out in Gibsons Harbour between the public wharf and the Hyak Marine fuelling dock on June 4. Two other sailboats and a cruiser also suffered minor damage in the blaze.
• More anchor tenants were planned for Tsain-Ko Village Shopping Centre in Sechelt, with the third phase of the development expected to start in the fall, shíshálh Nation Chief Warren Paull has confirmed. “We are going to fill up the entire seven-acre parcel with units,” Paull said.
• BC Ferries said it would stick with a “soft” approach to enforcing Transport Canada rules around remaining in vehicles on the lower car decks, but was considering options for cracking down if necessary. The regulation has been in place for years, but BC Ferries only started enforcing it last October after pressure from Transport Canada.
• BC Ferries said the target date for two-vessel service on the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route is 2024. Adding a second, full-time vessel and terminal upgrades at Langdale and Horseshoe Bay were among the major topics at the June 6 meeting of the Southern Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committee in Sechelt.
• Wayne Rowe, incumbent mayor of Town of Gibsons, confirmed June 12 that he would not seek re-election in the municipal elections in October.
• A public information meeting was held on Sechelt’s proposed non-medical cannabis bylaw on June 19, the same day the Senate voted to pass Bill C-45. Temporary use permits allowed Sechelt cannabis dispensaries to operate while provincial licensing was finalized.
• Kris Sneddon and his business partner Paul Tosczak formed a company, Sunshine Coast Mountain Adventures Limited, hoping to bring helicopter adventure tourism to the Coast. A land tenure application for commercial recreation and multiple use was under review by the province, which could give the operators permission to use Crown land.
• The District of Sechelt announced plans to kick off “an extensive discussion about the Sunshine Coast Community Forest” following the resignation of chair Glen Bonderud, vice-chair Tom Pinfold and board member Fidel Fogarty, and a BC Supreme Court challenge of how the organization handled community consultation before logging a controversial cutblock.
• On June 16, Darcy Long became the first Sunshine Coast resident to be installed as governor of Rotary International District 5040, which spans 51 clubs in the coastal and Caribou regions, from Prince Rupert to Vancouver.
• BC Ferries said the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2018 saw the highest levels of vehicle traffic ever carried by the company’s fleet. It also saw a 20-year high in passenger numbers.
• Pride Month celebrations continued June 24 with the colourful Little Pride Parade from Davis Bay pier followed by Sunday in the Park with Pride at Mission Point Park. Over 350 people attended the third annual event.
• Sunshine Coast Community Foundation celebrated its 15th anniversary on June 20 by awarding its one-millionth dollar in grants during a ceremony Chatelech Secondary.
• Miroslav Vydra, an 84-year-old Sechelt man, was killed June 22 as he was cycling in Sechelt. He was hit by a Waste Management truck making a right-hand turn at the intersection of Highway 101 and Wharf Avenue and succumbed to his injuries after being taken to Sechelt Hospital.
• George Goudie was collecting signatures to prevent the Sunshine Coast Regional District from passing a bylaw that would enable it to borrow nearly $6 million to install water meters in the District of Sechelt and on shíshálh Nation band lands.
