Signs have yet to be posted on a Marine Avenue storefront, but work is underway to open a constituency office in Powell River for North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney.
Blaney, who had been sharing an office with North Island MLA Clair Trevena, decided to continue the arrangement and officially opened the first of her two offices in Campbell River at the end of March. Her Powell River office is due to open the week of April 11.
“We didn’t want people feeling like the only way they could talk to their member of parliament is to catch a ferry and drive 45 minutes,” said Blaney. “It’s been in the works, but sometimes these things take a while.”
In the riding, the second largest in BC, Powell River has the largest population after Campbell River, so it made sense to open an office here, said Blaney.
Efforts will be made to have regular visits to more remote and smaller communities throughout the riding as well, she said.
The constituency office will be the first in Powell River since 2013; former MP John Weston employed staff locally, but did not rent space between 2013 and 2015.
Since being elected last October, Blaney had been informally sharing Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons’ office on Marine Avenue.
“We ended up getting space not far from his,” she said. “The reality is that his space is not big enough to fit all the staff.”
Blaney explained she wanted her office to be fairly close to Simons to be of better assistance.
“If constituents come in the door and they are not sure which level of government they want to talk to, and in some cases it’s both, we’re doing our best to be as close to each other as we can to make sure the services are accessible,” she said.
The lease is signed for space at 4697 Marine Avenue, telephone lines have been installed and new constituency assistant John Young, who is also coordinator of local social-planning project Tapping the Groundswell, will start work there this week.
The plan is to have the office open three days a week, Wednesday to Friday, said Blaney.
While the office will be open and operational, it could be some time before the community is invited for an official opening.
Blaney’s other constituency assistant Lucas Schuller explained that the challenge is finding time in the next few months when Blaney will be in the riding.
“The [House of Commons] schedule for the spring is pretty demanding,” said Schuller. “She’ll be in Ottawa for basically all of June and a pretty good chunk of April and May as well.”
Schuller said an official opening with Blaney attending in person might not happen before summer. “But it will definitely happen,” he said.
Blaney said that during the upcoming House of Commons spring session she will continue to advocate for greater social and economic equality and to keep the Canadian Coast Guard communications station in Comox open.
Blaney also said a priority is taking a closer look at how the recent federal budget will impact the riding and suggesting to government how to make it work better for the people of North Island-Powell River.
She said her staff are starting to compile results of her request to riding residents for their thoughts on what they think is important for Blaney to work on.
