SEPTEMBER
• Tragedy struck over the Labour Day long weekend when 18-year-old Summer August from Sechelt died after the vehicle she was a passenger in went off the road on Highway 101 and slammed into a tree. Three other people in the vehicle made it out of the accident with minor injuries.
• Schools were closed Sept. 2 as the dispute between the provincial government and the BCTF continued to drag on with each side blaming the other for the prolonged strike and lack of a new deal.
• Port Metro Vancou-ver’s decision to approve a transfer facility for U.S. thermal coal ignored the concerns of the Sunshine Coast and other communities that could bear the brunt of the impact, a member of the Salish Sea Coal Committee said.
• The chair of the Southern Sunshine Coast ferry advisory committee floated the idea of eventually replacing the Queen of Surrey with a smaller vessel for Route 3 between Langdale and Horseshoe Bay.
• About 40 environmentalists packed the SCRD boardroom to show their opposition to any measures that would further draw down Chapman Lake.
In a joint presentation, George Smith of the Tetra-hedron Alliance and Jason Herz, chair of the Sunshine Coast Conser-vation Asso-ciation, urged directors to explore more effective and less ecologically damaging ways to upgrade the regional water system, “rather than installing floating pumps, siphons, tunnels, dredging or other changes.”
• The province’s Ministry of Transportation and Infra-structure turned down a request to lower the mandatory speed limit from 50 km/h to 30 km/h for a one-km section of Beach Avenue in Roberts Creek.
• Teachers accepted the tentative agreement from the province with an 86 per cent affirmative vote that effectively ended the strike and solidified a Monday, Sept. 22 school start-up. Of the 31,741 B.C. teachers who voted on Sept. 18, a total of 27,275 voted in favour of the new six-year agreement. While there are about 41,000 teachers in the province, B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jim Iker said he was happy with the turnout at the polls.
• About 150 guests gathered at the Sechelt airport to hear about plans for its expansion, what it would cost and why council is in favour of the move.
• A groundbreaking report that called for action on BC Ferries was the highlight of the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention in Whistler. The report, released by UBCM and the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities, estimated B.C.’s economy lost $2.3 billion in economic activity due to ferry fare increases between 2003 and 2013.
• Members of the shíshálh (Sechelt) First Nation marked their return to Pender Harbour in a longhouse blessing ceremony on lands near Garden Bay that remain technically under a provincial park designation.
• A Sechelt family was overwhelmed by the generosity of friends, neighbours and total strangers after their Tuwanek home was gutted by fire.
• A 162-hectare site near Sandy Hook once known as Silver-back was in the hands of Sechelt Sustainable Community Properties Ltd., a development company consisting of then-Sechelt Mayor John Henderson, Clark Hamilton, Rob Barrs, Randy Knill, Glenn Hafey, Mark Sager and Werner Hofstatter.
OCTOBER
• There were more protestors than guests at the Sechelt and District Chamber of Commerce event on Sept. 30 where business people gathered to hear what Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Todd Stone had to say about ferries and transportation in general on the Coast.
• A charge of second-degree murder was laid against 47-year-old Donovan Penner in connection with the death of his mother, 67-year-old Esma Lachance of Selma Park.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Unit received approval for the charge on Oct. 1.
• A steadily aging population, the loss of young families, higher food costs and more vulnerable children were some of the concerning statistics in the new Vital Signs report. The 16-page report was the third analysis of key areas on the Coast that had been compiled by the Sunshine Coast Community Foundation since 2009.
• Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) officials were scrambling for information after learning that extensive logging was taking place on private land in the lower portion of the Chapman Creek community watershed.
• The Sunshine Coast could house 25 medicinal grow ops and fill 35 per cent of the B.C. bud quota in the future, consultants told those gathered for an information meeting on medicinal marijuana.
• MP John Weston recalled a terrifying day in Ottawa after he and his fellow MPs were locked down in Parliament Hill following a rampage by a lone gunman.
• Night shift workers at Howe Sound Pulp and Paper found themselves trapped after an evening storm with high winds and heavy rain washed out two sections of the only road between Port Mellon and Langdale.
• BC Ferries agreed to extend the free student fare program to include children and youth travelling to participate in organized sports on the Lower Mainland.
NOVEMBER
• Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson decided not to accept the winning bid for two woodlots on Gambier Island.
• Sechelt residents elected a new mayor, Bruce Milne, who defeated incumbent John Henderson and challenger Christine Younghusband in the Nov. 15 municipal election.
Gibsons residents returned Wayne Rowe to the mayor’s chair after he easily won re-election over challenger Suzanne Senger.
• A locally grown curriculum connecting students to their environment, their community and their political system was praised by school board chair Betty Baxter during the Nov. 18 school board meeting where the innovative curriculum was discussed.
At the beginning of the meeting Pender Harbour Elementary Secondary School teacher Jay Walls presented the highlights of his award-winning curriculum, dubbed The Plight of the Sakinaw Salmon, with some of the students who took the course.
DECEMBER
• Staff Sgt. Vishal Mathura assumed command of the Sunshine Coast RCMP detachment, replacing Sgt. Mike McCarthy who was acting commander following the retirement of Staff Sgt. Herb Berdahl last summer.
• It was inaugural government meeting week on the Coast with the Town of Gibsons, District of Sechelt, SCRD and SD46 all swearing in their new councils and boards.
• Members of the Welcome Beach Com-munity Association delivered a cheque for $140,000 to the SCRD that marks the first donation towards a new community hall at Coopers Green. The new hall, expected to cost about $650,000, is necessary to replace the aging Coopers Green structure, which no longer meets the community’s needs.
