Tag Archives: David Leitch

Housing, Politics

Cortes Island Zoning Bylaw Passes

The Strathcona Regional District Board passed the Cortes Island Zoning Bylaw. 

Regional Director Mark Vonesch gave an overview of the process at the Wednesday, November 19, 2025, board meeting:

“We’re at the last stage of potentially passing the Cortes Island zoning bylaw. It’s been almost a two year process of community consultation, both online and in person. It’s gone to the Advisory Planning Commission on Cortes, and it’s gone through a public hearing at the beginning of September. We had 140 plus folks attend that hearing, which is amazing. The reason I deferred it a month was that you have 200 pages of comments on this, and I wanted to take the time to read them all and to really assess what people’s challenges and also what they like about the bylaw before making my own personal recommendation.”

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Food, Politics

SRD Will Not Use Gas Tax Funds for Cortes Island Food Bank

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The Strathcona Regional District will not use $28,000 of its gas tax funds to help the Cortes Island Food Bank. At their October 22 meeting, 7 of the 14 district directors voted against a motion to fund the food bank.

Directors opposed to the motion were concerned about the potential impact that supporting a third party organization could have on future SRD applications for gas tax funding. 

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Politics

SRD Municipalities wanting control of the Electoral Areas Planning Service

In the past, Rural Directors have not always appreciated Campbell River ‘interference’ in their affairs. An initiative coming out of the Strathcona Regional District’s (SRD) Municipal Services Committee could result in a lot more interference from Campbell River and other municipalities. A planning service typically manages zoning and land use rules, reviews development and building applications, prepares community and regional growth plans, protects environmentally sensitive areas, and coordinates public input on land use decisions. They would like to take control of the Electoral Area Planning Service.

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Politics

Possible SRD Breakdown? Campbell River Vows To Cut Payments

While most of the Strathcona Regional District’s costs can be directly allocated to specific areas, others are labelled administration costs and need to be shared among the 10 communities. At their February 19 meeting the SRD Board discussed ways to make a more fair allocation of this expense. 

Chief Administrative Officer David Leitch explained, “ To put this in perspective, let’s say the SRD’s total budget is $20 million or whatever it may be this year, we’re talking about the $2.8 million for admin costs.”

Campbell River has close to three quarters of the SRD’s population, but only contributes $1.6 million towards the $2.8 million administration bill. That’s just under 56%. Some Campbell River Directors dispute that number and most appear to think they are paying too much for a service they derive very little benefit from. Mayor Kermit Dahl served notice that at the next SRD Board meeting he will move to slash Campbell River’s contribution by 82%.

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Development

Minimizing the impact Trump’s tariffs could have on the $130 million REC-reate Strathcona Garden project

It is only two weeks until President Donald Trump decides whether to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico. There is some question whether he will follow through. Trump was initially going to impose the tariffs on February 4, but the previous day Wall Street’s three main indices fell sharply over concerns about the global economy. The stock market recovered that afternoon, after Trump announced he would postpone the tariffs for a month. However Canadians are preparing for the worst and, on the local level, one of the topics discussed at yesterday’s Strathcona Gardens Commission meeting is the impact Trump’s proposed tariffs could have on Campbell River’s $130 million REC-reate Strathcona Gardens project. 

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