In a 7–6 vote, on March 25th the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Board moved to have a bylaw prepared that would add Quadra Island to the catchment area for the Strathcona Gardens Recreational Facility. If the bylaw proceeds, Quadra residents could face an additional $558 in property taxes—slightly more than the $526 Campbell River residents pay for their facility. One SRD director was not present when the vote was taken, which raises the possibility that the proposal could be defeated in a 7–7 tie when all 14 directors are present.
Opposition from Quadra Residents
The board faces fierce opposition from Quadra Island residents. Among the 90 or so Quadra residents who crowded the SRD Boardroom and adjoining lobby for the May 25 board meeting, were some of the 1,226 area C residents who signed a petition opposing inclusion in the Strathcona Gardens catchment. Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney of Area C noted that this number represents about 44% of the adult population of her area.
After the 7-6 vote was tallied, some of the Quadra residents shouted phrases like:”What’s wrong with you people?”; “You are using this opportunity to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the people of Quadra Island!”; “Shame on you!” SRD Chair Mark Baker responded with an order that gallery to be cleared of visitors and called for a 10 minute recess.
Mawhinney argued that close to half of Quadra’s population are seniors who already support Quadra Island’s own recreation centre. She added that Strathcona Gardens is a Campbell River facility, and the economic benefits—23 new jobs, roughly $1.3 million in tourist revenue and estimated $1.4 million GDP—will primarily benefit Campbell River.
Tahsis Mayor Martin Davis, another opponent of the plan, declared, “ I’ve had issues with this expansion ever since it was announced. Not because of what’s happening, but how big it is: the fact that it’s $123 million. I know if I was in Campbell River, I couldn’t support that. I’m the mayor of Tahsis and I have no stake in this game, apart from at this meeting, but it’s far too much to be putting on any taxpayer – in my opinion.”
Even with the additional $943,114 a year that the board is proposing to collect from Quadra Island residents, Campbell River taxpayers will face annual payments of $9,739,974, and Area D taxpayers will pay $1,533,047.
Regional Director Mark Vonesch of Cortes Island warned that there would likely be further opposition and suggested the province might raise concerns as well.
Director Mawhinney stated, “Campbell River and Area D voted for grand upgrades to their facilities and it is predatory for the SRD to now reach into the pockets of (Quadra Island) retirees on low fixed incomes for this non-essential facility.”
Rationale for the tax
There were many unknowns about including Quadra, but Mawhinney moved to defer the proposal until it could be explored further—the motion was opposed by a group of seven directors.
Regional Director John Rice of Area D was the only one of them to explain his rationale.
”What I’ve been talking about for the last three years is that SRD is well behind other regional districts in terms of funding recreation. This has been a question that my constituents have been asking for a long time, ‘Why are we the only electoral area paying?'”
SRD Chair Baker did not disclose that he was one of the seven directors until Mawhinney asked, “Mr. Chair, how are you voting?”
The five Campbell River Directors behind the plan – Mayor Kermit Dahl and city cousilors Doug Chapman, Ron Kerr, Ben Lanyon, Susan Sinnott – allowed a consultant to speak on their behalf. Stephen Slawuta from RC Services began by outlining the financial models used by other facilities.
In the report his company prepared for the SRD, it states, “”Quadra Island derives benefits from the broader indirect impacts of having a major recreation hub in Campbell River including workforce attraction, regional service capacity, rehabilitation access, event hosting, and economic spin-off effects. While the Quadra Island community has benefited from these services, it is not currently included within the service area that provides funding support to the Strathcona Gardens facility. The analysis determined that inclusion of Cortes Island (Electoral Area B), the Outer Discovery Islands, and mainland inlet communities is not recommended due to limited functional accessibility, travel constraints and participation data.”
Do many Quadra Island residents use the facility?
When Director Vonesch asked how many Quadra residents actually use Strathcona Gardens, Slawuta admitted they don’t know because most people pay cash.
He claimed that 66% of the people outside of Campbell River and Area D, who have accounts with the complex, come from Quadra. There are 935 individual accounts and 9 organizational accounts.
These same numbers appear on a chart of ‘area accounts,’ per family, created between 2018 and 2025 and contains data from Areas A, B and C (not just Quadra).
Mawhinney pointed out that the report states there were more than 62,000 total adult visitations in 2024, with 74% originating from the entire Strathcona region, 13% from the Comox Valley, and 12% from Nanaimo.
“When I do the math, I’m just wondering if that means that 1.5% of adult users are from Area C?” she said.
Director Rice from Area D cautioned the board against using utilization figures. A lot of people in his area are over 65. There are 50 properties in Upper Campbell Lake, for example, and he doubted more than one or two use the Strathcona Gardens.
“ I’ve never gone to the gardens myself,”Rice explained. “But I understand the value that it brings for the families and the children, and I think that if you went back and talked to a lot of my area residents, they would say the same thing, that they are doing this for the younger families. So let’s keep that in mind when we’re actually questioning the usage.”
45 Minutes from Strathcona Gardens
Another calculation used to justfy including Quadra within the catchment area is that everywhere on the sland was supposedly within 45 minutes from Strathcona Gardens.
Director Vonesch questioned whether they were including the ferry trip, “I know the ferry takes 20 minutes. I know it takes 10 minutes once you land in Campbell River to get to the front doors of the recreation center. So that’s 30 minutes. And then everybody who lives on an island, shows up at least 15 minutes before the ferry so that you can catch it. So that’s 45 minutes. So it seems like all the only people who are 45 minutes away are the people who live right beside the ferry.”
Slawuta replied, “In the 2024 study: what we wanted to do is just do some preliminary analysis and there’s some limitations, like it was a GIS based analysis … That’s what flagged the fact that a deeper dive is needed.”
Using Ferry traffic as a justification
Mawhinney added she found it problematic to use ferry traffic data when you do not know how many of those vehicles are actually from Quadra or Cortes. (Or Campbell River or Read Island for that matter).
Slawuta conceded, ”It’d be great if we knew out of that kind of what proportion is specifically Quadra Island residents versus not? We don’t know that information. I can’t really speak to the BC ferries data other than it was the second highest minor route amongst all the minor routes. The most recent report identified 10,000 round trips a year, which is quite significant.’
No one mentioned that Cortes and Quadra both receive a massive influx of tourists during the summer. Cortes Island’s population allegedly quadruples! Most of those tourists arrive on the ferry.
The Vote
Campbell River Doug Chapman moved that staff a prepare a draft bylaw to include Quadra. This motion passed 7-6.
It remains to be seen what will happen if all 14 SRD Directors are present when the draft bylaw is voted on.
Some Quadra residents have made it clear that imposing this tax on them “means war.”
Links of Interest:
- Strathcona Gardens tax for Quadra considered – Area C Director’s Report
- A $943,000 Question: Quadra and the Strathcona Gardens Vote – The Bird’s Eye
- SRD staff report & RCS study ‘Strathcona Gardens Recreational Complex Funding Models Models Review’
- Recreate Strathcona Gardens website
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