NOVEMBER
• Isobel Mackenzie, B.C.’s seniors advocate, presented the Staying Apart to Stay Safe survey report on Nov. 3. She said prolonged isolation was creating health consequences for seniors living in care facilities during the pandemic and further damage could be prevented by relaxing visiting restrictions.
• A massive array of 350 photovoltaic solar panels was installed atop Claytons Heritage Market in Sechelt. The system was expected to generate about 160 megawatt hours per year.
• B.C. provincial health officer Bonnie Henry issued a series of regional health orders and strong recommendations on Nov. 7 focusing on social gatherings, travel, indoor group activities and workplaces. Non-essential travel was strongly discouraged.
• Elections BC completed the final vote count for the Powell River-Sunshine Coast riding on Nov. 8 and NDP Nicholas Simons would be sworn in for a fifth term as the MLA with 50.9 per cent of the 24,961 ballots cast. Green candidate Kim Darwin finished with 32.5 per cent, and Liberal Sandra Stoddart-Hansen had 16.7 per cent.
• Children of Pender Harbour Secondary School and their parents were raising funds to cover legal fees because they had yet to be reimbursed for educational trips cancelled due to COVID-19 – trips they paid extra to insure.
• The Sunshine Coast COVID Physician Task Force’s message of Nov. 10 said there were increasing COVID-19 cases across B.C. and that “we need to make changes or we will risk losing control of COVID-19 in our province.”
• Sunshine Coast governments received nearly $5 million in federal-provincial safe restart funding.
• Halfmoon Bay director Lori Pratt was acclaimed chair of the SCRD board on Nov. 12, while Sechelt director Alton Toth beat out Elphinstone director Donna McMahon for vice chair.
• More than 2,500 Sunshine Coast residents lost power on Nov. 17 after a strong windstorm caused trees to fall across wires.
• Coast Reporter editor and associate publisher John Gleeson was named as a finalist in the 2020 Jack Webster Awards. He was nominated for the City Mike Award for Commentator of the Year.
• SCRD directors OK’d an “accelerated restart” of the Gibsons pool after public demands for reopening and near-capacity occupancy at the Sechelt pool. It would take up to eight weeks to get plans in place, install protective barriers, train and recruit staff and source personal protective equipment.
• The BC Centre for Disease Control’s COVID case numbers showed the Lower Sunshine Coast saw just three additional cases over the month of October for a total of 29 since the beginning of the year.
• The rental market on the Coast was the tightest it’s been in at least 15 years, with a jump in demand for rental units, and evictions were also on the rise.
• Gibsons Mayor Bill Beamish was hoping to have shelter space available for homeless people this winter, and was suggesting a recent infusion of safe restart funding could provide the money needed to make it happen.
• A man was sent to hospital for a psychiatric assessment after an incident Nov. 22 in Sechelt. The man, reportedly completely naked, crashed a stolen truck into a tree on Reeves Road and ran off. An RCMP dog was brought in to track the suspect, who was not injured.
• BC Ferries held a virtual meeting Nov. 25 to give Sunshine Coast residents a look at the 19-member working group’s suggestion for solutions to improve service.
• Sunshine Coast RCMP used a Taser to subdue Ryan Ronald Robinson, who resisted arrest after allegedly breaking into several homes in Sechelt on Nov. 26. He was taken to hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, and charges related to the crime spree were formally laid in early December.
• There were 48 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the Lower Sunshine Coast between Jan. 15 and Nov. 27 – and at 148.5 per 100,000 people, the region had the lowest rate of COVID-19 of all local health areas in Vancouver Coastal Health.
• Road rage was considered a factor in an alleged physical assault that led to a woman being arrested in Sechelt on Nov. 27.
• Golden City Restaurant in Sechelt closed its doors on Nov. 28 due to a positive COVID-19 test. Village Restaurant was also closed temporarily as a precaution since staff work at both locations.
DECEMBER
• A car crashed into a toll booth gate at the Langdale terminal on Dec. 1. There were no reports of injuries.
• The Sunshine Coast saw 16 overdose deaths in the past two years, with extreme concentrations of fentanyl present in the drug supply, according to the Coroners Service data.
• Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons was named Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction in Premier John Horgan’s new cabinet. The ministry focuses on providing British Columbians with a system of supports to help them achieve their social and economic potential and is responsible for programs like income assistance and WorkBC.
• Construction began in the vacant lot between Big Mac’s and Raven’s Cry Theatre for the mixed-use rental and retail building known as Our House of Clans. Once completed, the building will include 34 rental units for members of shíshálh Nation, in addition to leasable retail space on the ground floor.
• First Responders were out in force Dec. 5 to collect donations for the Elves Club Sunshine Coast annual holiday fundraiser Crash the Coast. Last year, the fundraiser brought in $26,000.
• Restrictions on gatherings continued through the holidays. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said that meant there could be no extended family coming for dinner, no parties and no non-essential travel. The province recorded 2,020 new cases of COVID-19 and 35 new deaths over the weekend of Dec. 5 and 6.
• The Sunshine Coast COVID Physician Task Force Community Update for Dec. 8 announced news of promising vaccines on the horizon, while cautioning residents that “we must continue to take every precaution to protect our most vulnerable until vaccines and/or effective treatments are available.”
• Former Gibsons councillor Silas White was fined the maximum amount of $2,000, would serve one year of probation and agreed not to operate a vehicle unless equipped with an Interlock device after pleading guilty to one count of careless driving under the Motor Vehicle Act. White was charged in October 2018 with impaired driving causing bodily harm and causing an accident resulting in bodily harm.
• Sechelt Mayor Darnelda Siegers said Sechelt was headed for a mini construction boom in 2021. Several “big and small projects are projected to start early in the new year,” including Trellis, a 132-bed complex care facility in West Sechelt; a five-storey Lions seniors affordable housing project at Greenecourt; and a six-storey affordable housing project for women and children on Inlet Avenue led by Sunshine Coast Community Services Society. Other development proposals were also being reviewed by council.
• Demand remained high for housing throughout the Sunshine Coast with sales 82.8 per cent higher than in 2019 and a vacancy rate close to zero in the rental market.
• A project proposing 34 affordable rental units for women and children on Inlet Avenue in Sechelt sailed through a Dec. 8 virtual public hearing with no opposing voices. The six-storey unit would also include new office and program space.
• Students from a leadership class at Elphinstone Secondary School collected 4,500 items and $1,390 in cash for local food banks – more than double what they collected last year.
• Owners of The Oracle gift and décor shop in Sechelt reported the theft of two 1.5-metre, 34-kilogram Buddhas from their storefront on Dec. 9.
• BC Ferries received $308 million under the Safe Restart funding agreement, tied to fare freezes and service level guarantees.
• Operations manager Dave Lasser was presented with a retirement gift from Sechelt Mayor Darnelda Siegers and Sunshine Coast Community Forest president and chair Geoff Craig in recognition of his professional dedication.
• Heather’s Your Independent Grocer in Sechelt was taking extra precautions after the store confirmed an employee tested positive for COVID-19.
• The SC COVID Physician Task Force Community Update for Dec. 11 said the doctors were “very concerned by the local case numbers.” From Dec. 1 through 10, there were 19 new cases of COVID-19 and the first local death.
• BC Ferries committed to help fund the restoration of the Persephone, the boat from CBC television’s The Beachcombers. Dec. 12 marked the 30th anniversary of the airing of the final show, which was shot on the Sunshine Coast.
• B.C.’s Prosecution Service (BCPS) announced Dec. 16 that no charges would be laid against the officers involved in an altercation that ended with the death of Sechelt resident Myles Gray in August 2015. The statement concluded that “based on the evidence available, the BCPS is not able to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the officers committed any offence in relation to the incident.”
• The Blue Sky Motel entered into a contract with BC Housing to take in people from the Sechelt homeless shelter, freeing up space for Gibsons clients, after further delay in the supportive housing project on School Road.
• The completion rate for School District No. 46 showed that 84.7 per cent of Indigenous students completed high school within six years, compared to 84.4 per cent overall. Superintendent Patrick Bocking said the completion rates “have never been higher” for Indigenous students.
• Following the announcement by B.C. Prosecution Service that it would not be approving criminal charges in the death of Myles Gray, the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) announced it would be moving ahead with its own investigation into the conduct of the officers involved in Gray’s death in 2015. Unlike criminal investigations, the OPCC has a “broader
