Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -Strathcona Regional District (SRD) staff will be asking the Ministry of Forests about the possibility of obtaining two provincial lots on Quadra Island for development. Three of the four Regional Directors at the Wednesday, January 14, 2026, Electoral Areas Services Committee meeting voted to proceed.

Meredith Starkey, Manager of Planning for the SRD, brought a list of 13 Federal, Provincial and Regional properties to the meeting. She explained that the report provides an overview of public land available near Quathiaski Cove and Heriot Bay on Quadra Island which could be considered for future affordable housing.

 “There's really only three sites that are currently undeveloped in a suitable size and some other conditions that make them more suitable than others. They all have constraints.”

She advised that the appropriate next step is an inquiry to the relevant land manager to determine if the province is willing to sell or lease the land. Subsequent steps would depend on the tenure type but would likely include legal surveys, management plans, First Nations consultation, and site condition assessments. These assessments would cover environmental, archeological, geotechnical, potable water, and sewage disposal factors.

Robyn Mawhinney, the Regional Director for Area C, responded, “ I wanted to say thank you for this great report. It's really comprehensive, clear to understand maps and came back really quickly. I really appreciate all of that. And I think for me, when I, once I looked at it, it really feels like there are two provincial land lots of particular interest identified in the report. I think the report identifies them as lot 7 and 8 in on Hyacynth Bay Road and those are the ones that kind of sparked my curiosity in the first place when I was looking at the provincial IMAP website and what led to the request for this report. So I'm really happy that they made it onto the report.”

John Rice, Regional Director for Area D, had some concerns: “When I read the report, it seems like there's a fair amount of hurdles that need to be jumped through. What is the likelihood that anything can be achieved from this?”

 Meredith Starkey: “I think that there is certainly likelihood. We don't know what the current intent for these parcels is from the provincial perspective. Without opening that line of inquiry, I can't really say with any certainty. Through our other park processes to pursue tenures, we know that the province does consider this. There's nothing today that would tell us that they wouldn't, if that makes sense. It isn't likely something that would be concluded in a short period of time. Tenure processes usually do take a number of years.”

Director Rice: “That was exactly what my line of thought was thinking and here we are, in year four and I'm wondering is this something that is going to take a fair amount of effort? What I would like to see staff working on is our existing projects and get them completed before the next election cycle. I really don't see a quick end game to this.”

Mark Vonesch, Regional Director for Cortes Island, had a different perspective.

 “I just want to give a little bit of perspective on a similar situation on Cortes where there was a piece of land owned by Ministry of Transportation. The previous regional director pursued it for three years. I've been pursuing it since and it has only just finally been announced that the Ministry of Transportation is willing to release it.”

“I think these things do take time and I've certainly been impatient around the process, but just wanted to let fellow directors know that these things do take time and taking the small steps to move them forward is ultimately worth it in the end.”

Director Rice voted against the motion, but Directors Mawhinney, Vonesch and Whalley were in favour, so the motion to further look into the possibility of developing these lots for housing will proceed.

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