Facing what some Lasqueti Islanders themselves termed as vitriol, Powell River Regional District directors and staff came under fire over several issues during a board meeting on the island.
The regional district typically holds one board meeting a year outside of its chambers in Westview. This year and last, the board and senior staff members travelled to Lasqueti Island. Prior to this year’s out-of-town board meeting, held Thursday, August 27, in the community hall, the regional district held a community engagement meeting to hear concerns expressed by islanders regarding several regional district initiatives. There were about 50 people in attendance.
Opposition to regional district initiatives came to a head in March of this year when islanders responded to the regional district’s imperative to commit islanders to the North Island 911 emergency service, and to have houses numbered so first responders could rapidly find locations where emergencies were reported. A group of islanders travelled to Powell River to express their opposition and the regional district agreed to postpone passage of a bylaw until March 2016.
Patrick Brabazon, regional district chair, presided over the Lasqueti public engagement session.
Islander David Ham told the meeting he wanted the board to rescind the 911 bylaw and start to properly communicate all Lasqueti matters discussed by the board in a clear manner to the community. Ham also accused the regional district of being hypocritical by including a sheet outlining directors’ personal interests in Lasqueti matters along with an extensive package outlining regional district services. He said in a previous meeting, Brabazon said the regional board was not interested in personal interests.
Brabazon replied that calling someone a hypocrite was probably not the best way of engaging the board. He said, however, the islanders asked for interests and the board decided to send them.
“You wanted to know what directors thought and you received information as to what individual directors thought,” said Brabazon.
Ham also took exception to the inclusion of projected 911 service costs and a table outlining the annual mobility pager rental costs, which is the system currently used to dispatch first responders.
Brabazon said the information was provided so that islanders could make informed decisions.
Ham began interrupting Brabazon and a female member of the audience told him to sit down and be quiet because he was wasting her time.
Several islanders took exception to the methodology the regional district used to circulate a survey sent by the district to poll them on a number of topics.
Brabazon told the islanders the survey had been sent because their opinion is of importance to the regional district. He was asked how binding the survey was. Brabazon said it was strictly informative.
Resident David Rogers said he was actually in favour of the 911 system as an option but said he was disappointed in the “lack of professionalism” shown by the regional district, that “rammed through some bylaws.”
“We have been lied to, we have been deceived, we have been put on back burners and we have been told that a legal and appropriate approach to requesting those bylaws to be rescinded was inappropriate,” he said.
He added it was unreasonable for the regional district to be considered as a board that represents the Lasqueti community. He said the survey sent to islanders by the regional district was an insult.
Andrew Fall, a resident who made an extensive presentation to the regional board during its March meeting in Powell River, said that trust had been damaged.
“The process followed by the region regarding North Island 911 and house numbering services up to last March knocked trust down,” Fall said. “The deferral of the service bylaws marked a step toward restoring trust, as did the public engagement session in June.”
Fall advanced five requests, including the establishment of an advisory committee along the lines of the Islands Trust Advisory Planning Commission, and rescinding the 911 and house numbering bylaws. He further requested the March 2016 deadline for adopting an emergency dispatch system for Lasqueti Island be removed.
“Let’s keep moving forward, but realistically, and with a focus on good solutions that are not bound by arbitrary timelines,” he said.
Karl Darwin said he worked about 20 years ago on implementing the pager system that is still being used on Lasqueti Island. There is a group now working on alternatives, including modernizing the pager system. He said the medical emergency system works fairly well but the five dispatchers have stated improvements could be made because the current system is a dial-up system. He said he is looking into getting a three-number system attached to the dispatchers’ phone so islanders could dial the three numbers and speak to one of the local dispatchers for fire calls.
“This is a system that can work right here,” he said. “It is substantially cheaper than 911. It can also deal with cell phones.”
Richard Chesham said contrary to what some people were saying, not everyone on the island said no to 911.
“Personally, I don’t know where I fall, so I actually resent it when people say everyone says no,” he said. He added, though, that everyone he’s heard from has said they wanted to be asked as part of the decision-making process.
Ken Pickard, a part-time resident and Lasqueti property owner since 1984, said he was really disturbed by how vitriolic the process had been and all of the disparaging comments that are made almost daily.
“They are contrary to my view of this community,” he said.
Resident Darlene Olesko thanked the board and staff for travelling to Lasqueti. She believed the regional district and islanders were on the cusp of coming together.
She said she was absolutely tired and dismayed with the vitriolic, name-calling, accusatory tone that she was hearing from islanders.
Maggie Hathaway, an alternate City of Powell River director on the regional board, said she had shared the islanders’ concerns at one point in her 12-year career as a dispatcher for the fire departments in the entire regional area except Lasqueti. She said the system in use then was almost exactly like Lasqueti’s.
“When we went to 911 I wondered what was going to happen,” she said. “I was terrified because it was never going to work. It did work and it worked really well.
“We’ve had no major incidents in the time we’ve been on 911 since the mid-‘90s”
When she was on the regional board she was on the North Island 911 committee and knows how the group worked to make the system work effectively.
“I’ve become a supporter of 911 because I think it works,” said Hathaway. “I apologize profusely for the lack of communication. There was nothing clandestine happening at all. I thought I was acting in the best interests of Lasqueti Island.”
