Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) chair Garry Nohr is back at work after suffering a heart attack at the start of the summer.
“This is my last go. I said last year I would step aside so there is a transition and someone else could have a go… and after this excitement it seems it was a good plan,” he said, sitting at his desk at the SCRD offices on Field Road. He’s been a fixture at the SCRD for many years; he was elected as SCRD director for Halfmoon Bay in 2005 and was elected as the chairperson in 2010.
Nohr said after his heart attack he got back to work as soon as possible. “The food in the hospital is not that great. It was good to get back to my wife’s cooking and my own bed,” he laughed. “Once I got out of the hospital, two or three weeks ago, I was back to work within a week and then I got my licence last week so I’m driving again.”
Nohr is keen for the SCRD board to get back to work on priority items, securing more water through the proposed Chapman Lake expansion project, and continuing on the path to zero waste.
“Finishing off the water is number one, and number two is coming up with a program that we can all agree on for waste management and recycling,” he said.
“In 2015 we had to go to Stage 4 [water restrictions] and we got a real reaction from the community; they felt we weren’t looking after the water source properly.”
Nohr said some groups “weren’t happy with us being in the park.” However, the Chapman Lake water supply system preceded the establishment of the Tetrahedron Provincial Park.
Nohr said the SCRD has taken a number of steps to remedy the water shortage, including “working on getting a reservoir and at the same time working on a siphon system [to draw water from Chapman Lake], and wells and putting them into our circuit, and metering.”
Although metering has been somewhat controversial, Nohr said metering has been responsible for detecting many leaks and ultimately conserving water. “We’re not at Stage 4 right now and that has a lot do with the fact that we have metered,” he said.
The second ongoing priority for Nohr is waste reduction.
“We’ve got about 10 years left on our landfill,” he said, noting that plans to divert more organics may add a few years to the lifespan of the landfill.
Nohr also commented on the expanded Sunshine Coast transit system that will align with the BC Ferries schedule starting Oct. 10; he noted that the new, smaller buses are now operational on the Coast. Nohr will be meeting with the CEO of BC Ferries in the coming weeks.
Other ongoing regional priorities include reconciliation with First Nations and completing the protocol with the Squamish Nation.
Nohr said an interesting change at the SCRD in the next year will be the additional representation from Sechelt as the district has reached a census milestone for population. “At the end of this year, Sechelt will have two representatives at SCRD,” he noted.
As the SCRD representative for Halfmoon Bay, Nohr said a priority for the community is fundraising to build a new community centre at Coopers Green Park.
