Three years ago my wife and I moved into our new home in the Oceanside area. I am very happy with where I live, but not with the complicated governance of the neighbourhood.
We live in French Creek, otherwise known as Electoral Area G of the Regional District of Nanaimo. Try using that as a return address or telling folks where you reside.
This means I have a Qualicum Beach phone number, a Parksville street address, pay my taxes to the province of B.C., pay for services to the RDN and buy my water from a third party. That same party has just announced a rate hike of 45 per cent over three years.
Regional District of Nanaimo chair Joe Stanhope is recently quoted as saying that French Creek is “one of the most, if not the most, urbanized electoral areas in the province.” Is there no one but him who has noticed?
With the rapid increase in the number of homes being built in this area, surely this situation needs review. This area hardly fits the designation “rural” now.
Would it not make sense to realign Parksville’s and Qualicum Beach’s boundaries to include Area G with French Creek as a natural division?
Lionel DaneaultParksville