Elphinstone director Donna McMahon held a well-attended course about regional districts through Elder College that was educational as well as entertaining. Her guest speakers, mainly other regional directors including from our own and from other regions, were forthcoming and it is obvious that these are people dedicated to the service of their communities; it certainly isn’t the money (about $30,000 a year) that motivates them. Constituents have very high expectations considering the limitations of the job, and one director recounted the story of a resident who phoned expecting him to come out and fix his water leak.
Regional districts have very few powers – the province is in charge of development permits and roads – but many responsibilities, like drinking water, garbage, transit and fire services. Municipalities have more powers but also suffer from the downloading of costs from the province. Although part of the Union of B.C. Municipalities, regional districts are not listened to as much as municipalities. An interesting topic arose several times in the course – the idea of creating one large regional municipality that would avoid duplication and give the lower coast more political clout. There is one such regional municipality in the northeast of the province, but Donna noted that the jury is still out as to its effectiveness. Throughout the four-session course it was apparent that the current slate of regional directors like and respect each other; Donna says the board is operating well – a very good thing given the current challenges we face!
This is my anniversary; it’s my 100th Elphinstone Chronicles column! Penning this community column since May 2018 hasn’t always been easy given Elphinstone has no “downtown” or business district – being essentially a “suburb” of Gibsons (on all of our addresses). We are, however, lucky enough to have many farms and farm stands, about which I’ve often written, along with a wealth of wonderful artists, musicians, and some historic buildings. I decided early on to prepare an “in memoriam” column at the end of each year, to commemorate residents who have passed away during the year and will be doing so again this year.
Some of the people I’ve interviewed about the history of the area (settler history since I’m not familiar with much of the Indigenous history) include Murray King, whose family King Road was named for, and Budd Fisher, who recently passed away. I also interviewed two of Frank West’s daughters and have written about the pioneer cemetery and the treasured Reed Road Forest (DL 1313). Recently I’ve covered some Cedar Grove School items of interest and it was neat to find out from Kerry Mahlman that Stelkaya was the Skwxú7mesh name for the Esplanade area.
Although I mainly write articles of interest to Elphinstonians, I’ve also covered general interest topics like Streamkeepers and the Gibsons Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, a real gem that we’re lucky enough to have on our doorstep. The Elphinstone Community Association that started life as the Elphinstone Ratepayers Association has been around since the 1960s and I’ve written about their meetings and issues. How great it is that there are now quite a few neighbourhood associations as well, to which I extend an open invitation to contribute to this column.
I’m happy to have guest columnists and since I don’t plan to do this forever, if there’s someone who’d like to try their hand at it, let me know. If interested, contact me at: [email protected].
