February 26, 2020
On Friday February 21, Nature Nanaimo President Doug Fraser and Past President Staffan Lindgren met with Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce our society to the Mayor, and to explore roles we can play to promote and facilitate mutual interests in the city. We had a good, casual discussion. We described the types of activities we do, including general meetings, Nature outings and rambles, as well as projects. Mayor Krog encouraged us to connect with the co-chairs of Nanaimo’s recently formed Environment Committee, Councillor Brown and Councillor Geselbracht to explore how we can best contribute to their mandate, as well as benefit from any City initiatives that fit with our objectives. We left with a comfortable sense that Nanaimo has a Mayor and Council that value environmental stewardship.
Re: Nanaimo has a Mayor and Council that value environmental stewardship….?????
Last month, the Stephenson neighbourhood residents took their opposition to the City Council on the development permit application for the proposed development on 3258 Stephenson Point Road for a variance to allow the minimum required water course setback (City of Nanaimo Zoning Bylaw 2018 No 4500 6.3.1) from Cottle Creek (a fish bearing creek) top of bank to be reduced from 30m to 6.9m in order to allow for the construction a single residential dwelling, driveway and site improvements. Except for Ben Geselbracht who opposed the permit, the City Council voted to support the development permit application.
Dear Rosalie,
Thank you for your comment. We agree that this action is not in keeping with good environmental stewardship. There is no question that politicians frequently make decisions based on economics rather than the environment. On the whole, we feel that Mayor Krog and Council appear to be on the right side of environmental stewardship, but in this case definitely not. The jurisdiction for protecting anadromous fish like salmon rests with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, so you may try to contact them to see what they have to say. We can’t guarantee that you will get a satisfactory response, but at the very least you will register the complaint, which can then be referred to for future cases of a similar nature. Thank you again for raising this issue.