A timeline on the REC-REATE – Strathcona Gardens Revitalization Project website traces the origins of this project back to an operational review in 1998. At that time, most of the community was satisfied with the existing facility and the idea of building a new complex did not gain momentum until 2015. A community survey taken between February 2nd and March 2nd that year found that someone from 72% of the Campbell River and 64% of Area D households visited Strathcona Gardens at least once a year. Construction for Phase One, the New Aquatic and Wellness Centre, finally began on September 10, 2024. However the estimated cost of this project had risen to $73 million and the Strathcona Regional District is exploring the idea that Quadra Island and Sayward taxpayers should be contributing. Nothing has been decided, but the SRD has received a stream of letters from hundreds of Quadra Island residents stating they do not use Strathcona Gardens and definitely do not want to pay for it! A little group calling itself the Friends of Area C collected hundreds of names on a petition opposing the suggestion that Quadra taxpayers should be included in Strathcona Garden catchment area.
Cortes Currents: How long have you been collecting signatures?
“We’ve been collecting for two and a half weeks. We have well over 600. My last estimate, because I haven’t actually collected the form, is that we’re closer to 800 already. We’re actively canvassing, in some cases door to door. We have signing tables in front of the grocery stores. We have petition sign up locations at a multiple business locations throughout the island,” explained Mike Gall from the Friends of Area C.
Cortes Currents: How long will you continue to collect?
Mike Gall: “Well, I could set a limit and say 1,000. We think that would be a pretty good representation of the sense of the community. Or a week or so before the next board meeting, which will be February 19th. There’s no set timeline for all of this because it’s really a non-binding petition.”
Cortes Currents: Who are the Friends of Area C?
Mike Gall: “Friends of Area C is a loose group of people that are watching and very carefully trying to figure out what the SRD is doing. We have chartered accountants, we have access to lawyers, we have all kinds of people that are willing to put a little bit of time and effort and provide advice. In the core group, I’ll call it, there’s about eight participants.”
Cortes Currents: Are you the spokesperson?
Mike Gall: “Nothing’s official, any one of the eight members could be talking to you today. I happen to be the loud and boisterous one.”
“Right now, Strathcona Gardens is funded specifically by Area D and the City of Campbell River. They have very high operating costs, I might add, over $12 million a year to run Strathcona Gardens. Then they took out a $64.9 million loan to do this renovation project. I think they’re starting to see that the tax implications for the two participant areas is extremely high. For Campbell River it’ll be $521 per household in 2025 and for area D it’ll be $527. The poor people that live in these regions are getting taxed to death and they’re trying to find a way to access more revenue. That would be Area C as well as Sayward. We’re putting up a fight because we don’t want to be included.”
The SRD Board appears to be aware that a +$500 per year tax rise will not be popular in Campbell River and Area D.
At its January 22 Board Meeting, John Rice of Area D, moved that, “the Strathcona Gardens requisition for phase two of the REC-REATE project (the Rod Brind’Amour Arena Renovation) be reduced to $80 per home/year for area D and the city of Campbell River in the 2025 financial plan.”
Susan Sinnott, a Campbell River Director and Chair of the Strathcona Gardens Commission immediately piped up, “Second.”
This motion was passed with no opposing votes.
Mike Gall: “This is a 3-year-project and the cost of construction are going up and up and up. They say it’s going to go over budget. That’s an assumption, I agree, but it’s quite probable.”
“ I want to point out one thing. Our total taxable budget for Area C is $1,720,000. If we get included in the area expansion for this service, they will add another $1,000,000 to a $1,700,000 budget in an area that does not have water, sewer, gas, garbage pickup or anything. If you take the total number, it’s greater than a 30% increase on our total budget just for that. You could look at it a different way and might say that’s a two thirds increase. There are people I’ve talked to that are a little bit older, they bought their properties back in the 70s, 80s, paid $200,000, or $300,000, not to any fault of their own, their assessed property value, is now $2,000,000. They’re retired, they don’t have any additional income, and their taxes will more than double. This will throw people out of their properties.”
“We have a population of 2,500 people based on the last census. Over one third of them are disagreeing with this and a very small margin have not chosen to sign, less than 1%.”
“We want to go to the board with a delegation bringing a petition in hand and have it entered as correspondence into the board meeting, minutes do that. We have support from folks in the outer islands. We have support from the folks in the outlying communities here on Quadra. It’s actually quite a resounding message that’s being offered, and we want to make sure that the timing is right when we actually go to the board, because when the second report comes in, board delegations and petitions are at the very beginning of a meeting, so it becomes the poison pen message against whatever the report will say. The board will be sitting there and listening to the people that it affects, and it is impressive.”
“The community is rising up to this challenge.”
Links of Interest:
- REC-CREATE Strathcona Gardens website
- Strathcona Gardens Facility Needs Assessment Final Report (June 30, 2015)
- Area C Taxpayers Resistant to paying for Strathcona Gardens Re-Development – Cortes Currents
- Rural Directors opposed to their residents paying for Strathcona Garden renovations (July 5, 2023)
- Articles about, or mentioning, REC-REATE Strathcona Gardens
All undesignated photos by Roy L Hales. Top photo shows BC Ferry arriving in Campbell River,
Sign-up for Cortes Currents email-out:
To receive an emailed catalogue of articles on Cortes Currents, send a (blank) email to subscribe to your desired frequency:
- Daily, (articles posted during the last 24 hours) – [email protected]
- Weekly Digest cortescurrents – [email protected]
Mike Gall is speaking on behalf of Quadra Island, as if that is all of Area C. It is important to remember that Area C, and the population of Area C is not only Quadra Island , but includes all of the Discovery Islands, for whom this proposed tax levy makes even less sense. It takes a minimum of 3 hours to travel to Campbell River, and using the Strathcona Gardens complex usually requires an overnight stay as well due to small boat travel and the short day/darkness factor. Once the errands are done, there is no time for swimm8ng or skating. The whole thing is ridiculous.
Hi Claudia: I will forward your email on to Mike, but as I remember our interview he spoke of a proposed Strathcona Gardens catchment area of within 45 minutes travel time. This would seem to eliminate all of the Discovery Islands except southern Quadra Island. If you accept Mike’s estimate that the average ferry trip takes 45 minutes, even Quadra is outside of the circle.
We have owned our home on Quadra for eight years and once in that eight years went to Strathcona gardens rec center with my neice who was visiting from Tofino. We were only able to be there for 45 minutes because of ferry times and getting home to feed kids. 45 min in 8 years and it wasn’t even worth it. Our lives are just not focused in Campbell River, Quadra is our recreation, that’s why we live here.