Town of Lake Cowichan council has created their wish list of provincial ministers they’d like staff to set up meetings with during the Union of B.C. Municipality’s meetings this fall.
During their June 11 committee of the whole meeting, council decided they’d like a meeting with the Minister of Housing regarding the “implementation of provincial requirements and the necessary infrastructure required to meet those targets”.
The Crown/school district currently hold two large vacant properties in Lake Cowichan and one in particular, the old A.B. Greenwell site, has been the subject of much debate over the last few years.
The A.B. Greenwell site is Crown land in the Agricultural Land Reserve and is zoned P1. Initially plans were in place to convert the site into the Town of Lake Cowichan's public works yard and the plan for non-farm use was tentatively approved — that is until new housing regulations required all Crown land to be looked at to increase housing and the public works plan was scrapped.
What's more, given the influx of young families into the western communities, the school board and some on town council now believe the community will eventually need another school.
Lake Cowichan Mayor Tim McGonigle said there was a time that a new school for the region was on the top of the province's capital project list but now Lake Cowichan area is not even on the list at all.
“I don’t believe they’re looking at another school for the Town of Lake Cowichan,” McGonigle.
“We can continue to lobby for proper use and best use of those two properties. I think we're looking at the minister of Education to show the influx of families that have decided to move to the west Cowichan area and how that has impacted the schools with the implementation of more portables," said the Mayor. "Growth is happening and a lot of younger families move up because of the relative affordability of Lake Cowichan."
Coun. Carolyne Austin said during the committee of the whole meeting that Island Health reports 30 to 40 new babies a year in the western communities "and some of them are starting Kindergarten this year and there’s not many portables. I think we do need to push for an elementary school," she said.
There's also been a push by the community to reinstate the StrongStart program, which helps prepare kids for school, that was lost this year given the population and the growth of that demographic.
It's a bit of a tricky situation as it's become a provincial requirement to create more housing to adhere to the aforementioned new provincial housing targets.
“We’ve been asked to identify Crown lands. Why, I have no idea because it’s Crown land, the province should know what it is — for housing," McGonigle noted.
As for A.B. Greenwell, council wants to access a road through the site for access to the Trails Edge community to take some pressure off the existing roadways. The old school site has also been eyed for a firefighters training facility.
"Those discussions have been paused because of the identification of Crown land for new housing regulations but I don’t think that it has to be all one," explained the mayor to his council. "It could be a plethora of [uses] that could be accommodated.”
In addition to the ministers of Housing and Education, McGonigle wants a meeting with the minister of Health about the need for an urgent care facility for the Western Communities of Lake Cowichan, Honeymoon Bay and Mesachie Lake similar to what's in Ladysmith and Chemainus.
"It would take pressure off the emergency rooms and [help] the people who are without a family doctor and would lessen the pressure on the healthcare system.”
Austin said during the meeting that doctors in the past would stitch up patients, apply casts and none of that happens anymore.
McGonigle said last week that Lake Cowichan's current health care unit is inundated with para-medicine, and fortunately has a nurse practitioner but the facility is small and the town needs more.
"With our lack of doctors or walk-in clinics, our population is over 7,000 people and I think it's time to look at an urgent care facility in the west here to take some pressure off the health system. A lot of it is the lack of people having a family physician," McGonigle noted. "Even if it means renovating the current health care unit site to accommodate an urgent care unit."
A meeting with the minister of Environment is also on the list as the town is piggy-backing with Area I director Karen Deck and Area F director Ian Morrison to talk about riparian issues within their communities.
"We seem to have a lack of enforcement once [infractions] have been reported," McGonigle explained, adding that he understands the ministry has been struggling with proper staffing levels like everyone else but even when staff are available, the results "seem like a slap on a wrist and not accommodating to remediation."