The Active Transportation Network Planning grant that Quadra Island received, and both Cortes Island and Area D are applying for, opens the door to far larger opportunities. 

As Meredith Starkey, Manager of Planning for the Strathcona Regional District (SRD), explained “Active transportation means anything human powered: walking, cycling, and rolling in the sense of skateboarding or some other type of device that you might use to roll.” 

“This is the BC Active Transportation Infrastructure Grant Program that’s administered through the Ministry of Transportation (MOTI) and Infrastructure. They have  a sub grant  that is specifically for active transportation network planning.” 

“What we have is the network planning grant.” 

“We just were directed by the Board to apply for Areas B (Cortes) and D. It’s this same grant that we now have for Area C. The province provides  a maximum of $50,000. It’s 50 percent grant funded and 50 percent funded by the Gas Tax for us and so in total, it’s $100,000 to develop the plan.”

“That enables us to do all the foundational background research, the data gathering part, but then also to flesh that out into a full plan. On top of that,  we’re able to pull out one high level priority from that plan and do all  the engineering work, the survey, the cost estimates and  concept design work that would need to happen so that we can actually make it shovel ready.  All the groundwork that we need in order to apply for the infrastructure grant,  which is the same fund but a different funding stream within it.” 

Cortes Currents: So this grant is the door opener and in the next grant you actually get to do some of the stuff.   

Meredith Starkey: “That is correct.” 

Cortes Currents: Is there a financial cap for the second stage?

Meredith Starkey: “The infrastructure portion of the grant is much, much bigger.  I don’t actually know the cap on it now, but it’s quite substantial.”

Cortes Currents: The first thing that comes to mind in terms of the second grant is bike lanes. Do you think there would be enough, for example, to build a bike lane from Quathiaski Cove to Heriot Bay? 

Meredith Starkey: “Bike lanes are a little bit tricky for the Regional District because the Ministry of Transportation has jurisdiction over roads.”

“I think there is interest in that, for sure. Certainly connecting the two terminals from an active transportation perspective is very desirable. Those are two key destinations on Quadra.  If that’s the priority of the community, then that’s something that we would want to figure out how to do.”  

“We would have to bring in an engineer and our consultants to help bridge those design limitations that we have with our topography and with our jurisdictional boundaries. The road right of way isn’t very wide there, it’s somewhat limiting. For trails we want to have at least 3 metres, that’s our minimum. On the road, that would be a conversation with the Ministry.  I know that those roads are so narrow. I hate to either say whether a bike lane’s possible or not possible because there’s a lot of unknowns.”  

“I don’t want to presuppose what we can and can’t do because  we haven’t studied it yet.”

“What we look to primarily is how can we build on those road right-of-ways that exist and create parallel pathways for walking and cycling? Or where can we improve pedestrian infrastructure where there is no intersection, viable crosswalk or safe way for kids to get to the school? That’s one that we’ve heard from the public already, an interest in creating a walking path for kids going to the school. Those are the kinds of things we could certainly explore and could potentially develop.”  

Cortes Currents: Is this the SRD’s first active transportation network plan?

Meredith Starkey: “This is the SRD’s first active transportation network plan that we’ve developed, it’ll be something new.  It’s not that we haven’t planned for these things in the past. They’re usually just embedded in our official community plans and other master documents. This is the first time it’s a dedicated grant. It will feed into the OCP work that we’re doing on Area C, or will be doing shortly. All of these things feed into each other.” 

Cortes Currents:  As we’re also heading into a provincial election, I’ve got to ask what happens if we change governments? Could the second grant disappear? 

Meredith Starkey: “This is a question that we get a lot, what happens when there is a regime change ? There is always the possibility that funding sources or priorities will change or disappear altogether. Generally, I don’t like to speculate on what a particular party might do or not do. Instead, what we always try to do is find what are the pathways now to bring those community priorities forward.”

“So if something shifts, we’re still finding a new path. In this case, if the Active Transportation Infrastructure Grant were eliminated before we could apply  for that priority project, we would still have a shovel ready project ready to go. So we would still be able to find either alternate sources of funding,  fund it directly for our financial planning process or if  the priority shifted for the province and we needed to work with them as a partner,  it’s  a process of finding the new path to get to that end goal.”

Cortes Currents: Let’s say we already have the grant, can they cancel it?  

Meredith Starkey: “I’ve never seen that happen. I think it would be unlikely.  The thing with grant projects is that they’re  from the community and so elected officials generally don’t want to cancel projects in process because those are community priorities.” 

Cortes Currents: Let’s talk about stage one of the Active Transportation planning grant you have for Quadra Island. What do you need from the public?

Meredith Starkey: “The whole thing must be done by March 31, 2025. So we are in a very, very tight timeline, as we always are when we’re grant funded. That’s why it’s so important to come out,  let us know your thoughts and tell us what you want.”

“I hope that everyone participates. We are going to be launching  a survey that will be on our website. October 29th we’re going to come to Quadra, to the Community Centre for an in-person engagement. that’s from 12:00 to 3:00 PM currently.  There will be a virtual version of that in the evening for those who can’t make it during the day.” 

“I’m trying to find out when people are available. Everyone has different schedules so that there will be both that in-person during the day and evening virtual.  The survey continues after that. There will likely be another opportunity after that. There will be initial questions like: what are people interested in? What are their primary destinations? And what are their barriers?”

“We’ve heard a lot from people who are currently walking and cycling. We know what their challenges are, but we also want to capture  that latent demand. The people who maybe would like to be walking and cycling more, but aren’t for X number of reasons. Those are barriers that we can start to address. That’s what that first round  of consultation is focused on.   We’ll come back to the community with some concept of what  the plan could include and ask questions like: ‘does this make sense?’ ‘Is this what you said?’ And ‘have we heard you correctly?’”

Links of Interest:

• B.C. Active Transportation Infrastructure Grants Program
• SRD press release announcing Active Transportation Network Plan (ATNP) for Electoral Area C
• Articles about, or mentioning, cycling on Quadra Island
• SRD Applying for Active Transportation Planning Grants on Cortes and in Area D – Cortes Currents
• Grant to help take stock of walking and cycling routes on Cortes Island (2021) – Cortes Currents
• Articles about, or mentioning, cycling on Cortes Island

All undesignated images courtesy SRD

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