Originally published in the Bird’s Eye

By Melissa McKinney, editor/owner of the Bird’s Eye.

On March 25, the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) board voted 7–6 to move forward with drafting a bylaw that would add Quadra Island — not all of Area C — to the Strathcona Gardens recreation service area. Although that vote was a blow to many residents, it’s not the end of the road by any means. In our third article on the unfolding situation, we look at what options are legally on the table, how they can be navigated, who is involved, and how you can still have a say.

The foundation for all of this is that under the BC Local Government Act (LGA), there are three ways to get elector approval before a new service area bylaw can be adopted. SRD’s Corporate Officer, Tom Yates, confirmed that two of them don’t apply here.

The 2/3 consent mechanism is not available here, as it cannot be applied to only part of an electoral area. Since the Mar 25 vote was for Option A, which applies to Quadra only — not all of Area C — it does not meet that requirement. The Alternative Approval Process (AAP) is limited to a maximum tax requisition of $0.50 per $1,000 of assessed value — the Strathcona Gardens rate is currently $0.73, well above that threshold, rendering it also unavailable.

That leaves one option: assent voting, more commonly called a referendum. However, the SRD board decides who votes in it. If Campbell River and Area D vote alongside Quadra, Quadra’s smaller population is outvoted before a single ballot is cast. 

That’s not a technicality — it’s the central question this process now hinges on. The numbers don’t lie. As reported in our last article, adding Strathcona Gardens would increase the average Quadra household’s total SRD tax bill by 66% in one fell swoop. At the projected annual rate of $943,114, Quadra’s contribution over 30 years would total approximately $28.3 million — at current rates, before any increases. The overall project budget has already grown from $71 million to $131 million. Once included in the service, removal is unlikely, making these costs effectively permanent.

The 2/3 Question

If the amendment bylaw appears on the April 29 agenda, the board could give it all three required readings in a single meeting. At that point, Director Mawhinney, as Area C Director, would formally refuse consent. 

The board could then attempt to pass a resolution to dispense with her consent — in plain terms, override her refusal. That resolution requires at least 2/3 of the votes cast. Tom Yates indicated that, in his opinion, this vote would be weighted — though how that is interpreted in practice remains an open question.

If the board reaches the 2/3 threshold, the bylaw moves forward without going to residents — unless Director Mawhinney appeals to the Minister within 14 days. The Minister can then allow the override to stand, OR require a referendum or an AAP. 

If the board doesn’t get the 2/3 vote, it can’t move the bylaw ahead on its own. It would have to go to a referendum instead.

But the board still decides who gets to vote. It could include Campbell River and Area D alongside Quadra in a single vote. At that point, it becomes a numbers game — areas that would see a tax decrease voting alongside a much smaller population facing a significant increase.

This is why the Minister’s independent power under Section 349(5) matters. She can order that Quadra votes separately as the primary electorate — regardless of the board’s decision. No one yet knows when a referendum would run. The board could attach it to the October 2026 municipal election to reduce costs, or call a standalone vote sooner. That timing is also the board’s to decide. 

Behind the Scenes

Since the March 25 vote, Director Mawhinney has formally written to both Minister Christine Boyle and the Inspector of Municipalities, requesting an “exclusive assent process (aka binding referendum) which meaningfully consults Quadra Island residents, rather than a process which simultaneously polls the 40,000+ residents of the areas already within the service.” 

In her letters, she noted that the Strathcona Gardens service has taken on $122 million in loans over the past two and a half years through AAP processes that Quadra residents had no voice in. She has also spoken with staff in the provincial local governance branch and requested an in-person meeting with the Minister.

Long-time Quadra resident Mark Alexander submitted carefully researched letters to both the Minister and the Inspector on April 13. More on these letters below. Many others in the community have written directly to the Minister and Inspector as well. 

Former Area C Director Jim Abram, who served the area for 35 years, has been chasing down his connections across BC government on behalf of the community, making sure the right people know what’s going on.

A 1,226-signature petition spearheaded by Mike Gall, along with hundreds of formal written submissions, has been added to the public record over years of Quadra residents actively opposing this expansion. The community response has been organized, documented, and sustained.

Mark’s letters centre on procedural fairness, Quadra’s exclusion from a decade of planning, consultation, and financing decisions, and whether the current attempt to include the island aligns with the LGA.

A retired airline captain and flight instructor, his decision to dig into the issue comes from a career where process isn’t optional. Working directly from the public record, he lays out a straightforward argument: Quadra was not included as a participating area during the AAPs and bylaws that established the service and its financing, and is now being considered for inclusion after the fact.

His submissions are detailed, sourced, and now before both the Minister and the Inspector ahead of the bylaw review. He has also made his full documents publicly available: Letter to Minister (bit.ly/3QznRtc) | Letter to Inspector (bit.ly/4cG5snd), encouraging others to read through the material themselves.

Minister Christine Boyle, BC’s Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs, holds independent authority under Section 349(5) of the Local Government Act to order that Quadra Island residents vote separately as the primary electorate — regardless of what the board decides.

Her Ministry is already aware of the situation. Director Mawhinney has requested an in-person meeting. Mark Alexander’s formal submission is now on record with both the Minister and the Inspector, and others in the community have written as well.

The Inspector of Municipalities must also approve the bylaw before it can be adopted — a review that can take anywhere from days to months. Multiple formal submissions raising concerns about the process are already on record ahead of that review.

Getting the Minister and Inspector informed and engaged as early as possible is not just strategy — it is the most direct legal path available to Quadra residents right now. With that context in mind, it’s worth taking a closer look at the evidence the board relied on to get here. 

The consultant’s own report acknowledges there is no standardized or legislated approach to recreation funding in BC, and that every model is different. The SRD’s situation is described as unique — something worth keeping in mind when weighing the recommendation it produced.

The first report, presented to the SRD board in August 2024, included a table of comparable island communities along the BC coast. It listed Hornby Island, Denman Island, and Quadra Island identically — none fund recreation services in other jurisdictions. The same report also states that remote communities with limited functional access “should not automatically be presumed to benefit at the same level as communities with routine and practical access” to a hub facility. 

The second report recommended full participation for Quadra anyway, citing the Comox Valley recreation model as a comparable. But the Comox Valley Regional District explicitly excludes its own ferry-dependent islands — Hornby and Denman — from that service. Instead, they contribute approximately $33,000 combined per year through a separate, purpose-built mechanism, confirmed by the CVRD’s General Manager of Corporate Services.

That report’s island comparables table notes that of all the island communities examined, only one funds off-island recreation at all. Read together, the consultant’s own documents point in a different direction than the recommendation they ultimately produced.

According to former Area C Director Jim Abram, the true cost of accessing Strathcona Gardens from Quadra extends well beyond the ferry fare — fuel, admission fees, and meals for all passengers add up quickly on top of an annual tax that applies whether residents use the facility or not. BC Ferries fares increase annually under the Coastal Ferry Act framework. The 45-minute catchment area used to define Quadra’s inclusion was a threshold chosen by RC Strategies themselves — not a provincial standard — and was calculated using Google Maps travel time, a tool that does not account for ferry wait times, sailing schedules, or missed connections.

Your Turn

A letter generator is now live at thebirdseye.ca/strathcona-gardens — built specifically for Quadra residents to send sourced, documented letters directly to Minister Boyle and the Inspector of Municipalities. Every concern comes with its source embedded. No data collected. You choose what matters, copy, paste, send. Use it. Share it. Send it to every Quadra resident you know.

You can also find our Strathcona Gardens articles there so you can share them easily! We’ve also added a full sources and references section. Read them. Share them. The more people who understand what’s happening, the stronger the community voice becomes. We will continue to add future articles and publicly available resources as they come.

Director Mawhinney’s community survey closed April 22 — results coming soon. The April 29 board meeting agenda is expected around April 24 at agenda.strathconard.ca. If you plan to attend in person, start planning now. On March 25, Quadra residents filled the board room, the lobby, and the main floor. April 29 at 12:30pm — who’s in for round two?

Links of Interest:

• A $943,000 Question: Quadra and the Strathcona Gardens Vote – The Bird’s Eye
• Strathcona Gardens tax for Quadra considered – Area C Director’s Report
• Must Quadra Island taxpayers pay for Strathcona Gardens? – Cortes Currents
• The (Almost) Secret Budget For REC-CREATE Strathcona Gardens – Cortes Currents