JULY
• Thousands of people gathered in downtown Sechelt July 1 for the annual Canada Day Parade. With 54 floats, it was the largest parade to date.
• The Queen of Coquitlam was out of service for the Canada Day long weekend, and Route 3 experienced delays, overloads and long lines of traffic with a two-sailing wait at times to depart Langdale. Water taxis picked up some of the slack.
• Buddy Boyd and his wife Barb Hetherington, former owners of Gibsons Recycling Depot, partnered with Ted Allsopp of Hummingbird Micro Homes, to build a zero-waste tiny home.
• A small dog survived an encounter with a cougar unscathed, despite spending time between the cougar’s jaws. The incident occurred on June 8 in Irvines Landing, Pender Harbour.
• The SCRD chipped in more money than requested for Creek Daze, so the annual Roberts Creek festival planned to go big in 2019 with bouncy castles, funswings, a petting zoo and more.
• Darlene Bulpit, fisheries technician for the shíshálh Nation, retired after 27 years. Chief Warren Paull, band councillors and Department of Fisheries and Oceans staff were among the colleagues, friends and family gathered at The Old Boot Eatery in Sechelt to mark her retirement.
• The owners of two properties in Sechelt’s evacuated Seawatch neighbourhood filed petitions in BC Supreme Court, naming the District of Sechelt and the Province, through the Minister of Public Safety, as defendants. Greg and Gerry Latham, owners of 6637 Gale Avenue North, and Carole Rosewall, owner of 6641 Gale Avenue North, filed court actions July 12, alleging the district was aware of “steps necessary to address geotechnical instability under Gale Avenue North, Seawatch Lane, Seawatch and the surrounding region.”
• Sometime overnight July 12, the rainbow stripes at the three crosswalks at the Five Corners intersection in Gibsons were covered over with whitewash. Within hours more than a hundred people rallied, waving rainbow flags, carrying signs and using chalk to restore some of the colour. The Town later repainted them.
• The 19th annual Pulling Together canoe journey ended in Gibsons July 12. More than 300 paddlers, including Indigenous peoples, youth, police, and public service personnel took part in the eight-day voyage.
• Gibsons council gave first reading to the zoning and official community plan changes for a supportive housing project at the old RCMP site on School Road, in the face of vocal opposition from neighbours who packed the public gallery during a July 16 committee meeting.
• The George Hotel and Residences was expected to pay an estimated $330,516.79 in non-development cost charge contributions to the upgrade of the Prowse Road sewer lift station in Gibsons.
• Former shíshálh chief Stan Dixon died July 17 at the age of 77 from complications of a serious stroke. His public life spanned shíshálh Nation politics, municipal politics and regional district politics. As well as terms as chief and band councillor, Dixon also served on Sechelt municipal council, on the Sunshine Coast Regional District board and as director for the Sechelt Indian Government District. He will be remembered by many for his role in helping to achieve self-government for the shíshálh Nation as chief in 1986.
• The Community Action Team launched its Sunshine Coast Connections outreach project July 17 to respond to community concerns and reach out to the homeless population with resources such as public washrooms, showers, shelters, Naloxone kits and other services.
• Angie Legault, interim chief administrative officer for the Sunshine Coast Regional District, left the SCRD July 22 to take the position of corporate officer at the Cowichan Valley Regional District on Vancouver Island. Legault, the SCRD’s corporate officer, served as interim CAO since Janette Loveys departed in March.
• Federal help was sought to deal with an ongoing labour shortage at the Sunshine Coast RCMP Detachment, due in part to a lack of affordable housing. Staffing was highlighted by Staff Sgt. Poppy Hallam as one of the top “organizational challenges” the Sunshine Coast detachment faces.
• On July 22, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans updated the necropsy result for the Southern Resident killer whale J34, known as DoubleStuf, which was found dead near Sechelt in December of 2016, giving final confirmation that the whale died of injuries suffered when it was hit by a ship.
• Sherry Reid was appointed corporate officer by the Sunshine Coast Regional District board, replacing Angie Legault, who left SCRD July 22.
• The Sechelt Hospital Foundation received $1.3 million, which it would be putting towards a fund to help cover the cost of new mental health facilities. Stuart ‘Tookie’ Angus and Helen Angus provided the “pioneering donation” of $500,000. The foundation matched that initial $500,000 and then topped it up with another $300,000 from the estate of Joan and Andy Hansen.
• An estimated 750 to 1,000 people descended on Winegarden Park on July 27 for Gibsons first Lantern Festival. The event was a placeholder for the town’s annual Sea Cavalcade, which was cancelled this year.
• Three passengers walked away without injuries after the Beaver float plane they were in crashed in the ocean west of Davis Bay on July 30. The plane was shuttling between Vancouver and Ruby Lake when its engine reportedly lost power. The small plane sank after it hit the water.
• The Town of Gibsons was looking for voter approval for another major infrastructure loan. At its July 30 meeting, council authorized an Alternative Approval Process for borrowing of up to $3.3 million to complete the extension of the aquifer water supply to Zone 3.
• An anticipated lease between Trellis Seniors Services and shíshálh Nation would see a long-term care facility built near Stalashen that could also include a four-bed hospice owned by VCH and operated by Trellis in conjunction with the Sunshine Coast Hospice Society.
• Nearly 200 people attended a July 31 information meeting on the proposed supportive housing project on School Road, amid increasingly vocal opposition to the project.
AUGUST
• Transportation Minister Claire Trevena asked ministry staff to conduct a new speed survey along the portion of Highway 101 between the Gibsons town boundary and the Woodcreek Park neighbourhood in Elphinstone. The last speed review on that section of highway was in 2016.
• A new report on the opioid overdose crisis from Vancouver Coastal Health showed that the Sunshine Coast and Powell River are being “disproportionately affected.” The overall overdose death rate in VCH is the highest of any health authority in the province, with the highest rates in the City of Vancouver and the city’s Downtown Eastside.
• BC Green Party leader and MLA Andrew Weaver and Sonia Furstenau, MLA for Cowichan Valley, visited the Sunshine Coast as part of a province-wide “listening tour.”
• The 3.8-hectare Sakinaw Lake Fire was spotted Aug. 5, burning on the opposite side of Highway 101 from the lake near BC Hydro’s Malaspina Substation, the seventh wildfire in that part of the Coast this season.
• The Sunshine Coast Regional Economic Development Organization underwent “significant organizational change” as it prepared for the final year of its service agreement with local governments. Board chair Dave Chisholm and program manager Chris Hergeshiemer both stepped down.
• Matt Treit was hired as the SCRD’s manager of protective services starting Aug. 6. Treit will be the first person to occupy this role, which replaces the emergency coordinator position.
• Thousands of people lined the streets and flooded parking lots Aug. 9 to 11 for the 24th annual Coasters Car Club Sleepy Hollow Rod Run and Show ‘n’ Shine, with at least 330 collector cars registered.
• Greg Eymundson, a Gibsons-based professional photographer, launched iPlanet360, an online portal that offers 360-degree aerial imagery of the Sunshine Coast with information links and maps to create a one-stop virtual tour.
• Family and friends of Myles Gray of Sechelt marked the fourth anniversary of his death on Aug. 13, with no idea whether the people they hold responsible will face charges. Gray was making deliveries for his landscape business in Vancouver on Aug. 13, 2015 when there was an altercation between Gray and VPD officers that resulted in fatal injuries to Gray. He was 33 years old.
• The District of Sechelt faced eight new lawsuits over the ongoing sinkhole issues in the Seawatch subdivision and the evacuation that left the neighbourhood abandoned since February. The lawsuits also named various other defendants including the developer, Concordia Seawatch, the province and local realtors involved in the sale of some of the properties. The actions were filed in BC Supreme Court on Aug. 13.
• Approximately $235,400 was provided to the Granthams Hall rehabilitation project in the form of a federal grant, announced by Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country MP, on Aug. 15.
• Respected environmentalist Rick O’Neill died at his Roberts Creek home on Aug. 16, in his late 80s. In the 1990s, O’Neill founded Elphinstone Living Forest, which pushed to have environmentally sensitive areas on Mount Elphinstone protected from logging and development.
• Elphinstone Secondary School graduate Sasha Stipec was the recipient of the prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarship, worth $100,000 and given to 50 students across Canada. She was chosen from approximately 300,000 applicants.
• Former Sechelt councillor and well-known local photographer Keith Thirkell died Aug. 18 as a result of injuries suffered from an accident in July while assisting a friend in medical distress. He was 57. Thirkell moved to the Sunshine Coast about 30 years ago and worked as a photojournalist, landscape photographer and self-described “jack of all trades.”
• The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team and Sunshine Coast RCMP were investigating the death of Max Fischer, 79. His 54-year-old wife Karin Fischer was charged with second-degree murder Aug. 22.
• Grade 12 student Skylar Moore launched Navigating Grade 8, a mentorship program that “gives girls a basic toolkit with ways to destress, communicate effectively … and implement self-care.”
• BC Parks Foundation purchased approximately 800 hectares of property along the waterfront of the southern side of Princess Louisa Inlet for $3 million to protect the region from development.
• Fred Tolmie was appointed chief administrative officer for shíshálh Nation. He started his new role Aug. 26. Before that he was chief financial officer for Ucluelet First Nation.
• The shíshálh Nation was among the 18 self-governing Indigenous governments to sign on to a new fiscal transfer agreement. Carolyn Bennett, the minister of Crown-Indigenous relations announced the agreements Aug. 27 in Vancouver.
• Nanaimo MLA Sheila Malcolmson, the NDP government’s special advisor on marine debris and abandoned vessels, was on the Sunshine Coast Aug. 27 and 28 as part of the province’s effort to find ways to prevent vessels from being abandoned and find recycling solutions to keep salvaged marine debris out of landfills.
• The federal Liberals chose Patrick Weiler as their candidate for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky. Weiler, 33, confirmed his candidacy on Aug. 28 in Gibsons.
