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The Baynes Sound Lions are at it again! They are preparing for their 39th walk “for the kids” in support of the Child Develop-ment Association’s upcoming Children’s Telethon on Sunday, November 1st from 12 to 8 p.m. at the Sid Williams Theatre. The group walks 30 km from Fanny Bay arriving at the theatre late afternoon with a wheelbarrow fi lled with coins. The ar-rival of the Baynes Sound Lions is an important part of the Telethon day. This year the Child Development Association is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Telethon. You can join us to catch all the action in person at the theatre or watch us live on the internet or on Shaw TV.

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www.comoxvalleyecho.comFRIDAY.OCTOBER 30, 20154

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Hotel rooms converting to seniors’ unitsBY DEBRA MARTINEcho Staff

The Best Western West-erly Hotel plans to convert a large block of its hotel rooms into seniors’ housing.

The hotel has already submitted a development permit application to Cour-tenay for the conversion. No variances or rezoning are re-quired.

The plan is to reconfi g-ure the back building of 86 hotel rooms into a 48-unit independent seniors living facility complete with din-ing room and common, so-cial and media rooms for the tenants.

Future phases of the proj-ect include building a new block to add a further 45 units.

Overall, the plan would take about fi ve years if it proceeds in its entirety. The

fi rst phase will take about 20 months to build out.

Hotel owner Rick Brown-ing said a number of factors played into his decision to convert the hotel rooms to a new use.

“It’s a business decision that I made with respect to return on investment,” he said, adding that he has past experience in running se-niors housing facilities. “I’m not unhappy with the hotel business.”

He said there were a num-ber of factors involved in the decision, including an ex-pected demand for seniors’ housing in the next 10 years.

Plus, the hotel has “a bril-liant location” for seniors’ housing off ering access to the popular river walk plus convenience to amenities such as medical, pharmacy, food and other shopping.

(Continued on page 5)

Westerly plans to develop ‘Riverside Seniors Living’ facility at rear of main hotel

The rear block of the Best Western Westerly Hotel will be converted to a senior living facility

TRICK-OR-TREAT SAFELYAs thousands of children prepare to embark on their trick-or-treating jaunts in neighborhoods near and far, it is best to once again revisit safety tips that can help ensure this Halloween is enjoyable and injury-free.• Visibility: Visibility is key when don-ning a Halloween costume. Children should be dressed in highly visible costumes so drivers can easily see them. Parents and chaperones also should be dressed in bright colors. Refl ective tape and fl ashlights also make pedestrians more visible to on-coming cars.• Routes: Children and adults should plan their trick-or-treating routes ahead of time. This way they kids can

be found quickly if they are separated from their groups, and parents can choose safe neighborhoods. Choose neighborhoods and paths that have the least amount of automobile traffi c.• Walk, don’t run. Trick-or-treaters should stick to sidewalks and only cross the street at intersection cross-walks. Make sure kids know to avoid darting out between cars or cutting across lawns and driveways. When darkness sets in, fast-moving children can be diffi cult to see.• Visit only lit houses. Residents who don’t want to answer the door will typically leave their homes’ exterior lights off. Only visit homes that are decorated, bright and welcoming to

trick-or-treaters.• Go in groups. Children should go out in groups and always be accompanied by an adult chaperone.• Costume safety: Everyone should wear well-fi tted costumes that do not drag on the fl oor or impede mobility. Choose face paint over masks so that vision is not obscured.• Beware of fi re hazards. Keep clear of jack-o-lanterns that are lit by real fl ames. Homeowners can opt for LED lights or other, safer methods of il-lumination rather than candles and open fl ames.Halloween is an exciting day for youngsters, and following a few safety can make the day both fun and safe.


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(Continued from page 4)

Converting hotel rooms into seniors’ units isn’t a new idea, at all, he said, and it’s been done else-where throughout North America and Europe.

Browning said rents haven’t been determined yet for the suites and will depend on the market at the time, plus the size of each unit. Some will have “fantastic views” of the river and estuary, and thus higher rents.

But the rents will be comparable to what’s out there now, he said. There won’t be any assisted liv-ing units.

The fees will include meals and utilities. There’ll also be an option to have a suite furnished, using the hotel brand’s buying power in that regard.

The approximately 600 sq. ft., one-bedroom units will feature a kitchen area with everything except an oven/stove. There’ll also be some studio apartments.

The development will be called “Riverside Senior Living”.

Project architect Phillipa Atwood said “it’s a pret-ty clever idea.” She said the hotel room block would basically be reconfi gured to turn two rooms into one living unit. One balcony would be kept as an outdoor area for each unit while the second balcony would be turned into a solarium.

Browning said the Westerly has quite a large ca-pacity on its site.

“We also have an opportunity to increase the size of the hotel,” he said.

The hotel currently has 140 rooms. The newest addition to it was in 2007.

Watershed Moments: A Pictorial History of Courtenay and District, was offi cially launched Saturday at the Courtenay Museum with three of the book’s fi ve co-authors, l. to r., Deborah Griffi ths, Catherine Siba and Christine Dickinson. The trio gave an entertaining, illustrated lecture about the book prior to signing the copies that the audience lined up to buy. There’ll be another book signing Nov. 7, 10 am at the Laughing Oyster Book Shop and one to follow at Blue Heron Books, 1 pm, Dec. 5. The book is published by Harbour Publishing.


BY MICHAEL BRIONESEcho Staff

Five bears that included two cubs that were recently put down have upset some people in the Comox Valley.

At Cumberland’s Monday night council meeting, council-lor Gwyn Sproule spoke about the unfortunate incident that happened just west from the vil-lage near her home.

“It’s distressing,” she said. “It’s a shame and it should not

have happened.”A provincial conservation of-

fi cer had no choice but to de-stroy a 500-plus pound male bear, a sow and her two litters in Cumberland because they had become food conditioned bears and were no longer suitable for relocation.

A fi fth bear that frequented Fifth Street and McPhee Av-enue in Courtenay was also put down.

Sproule said the bears were regularly seen in the Chinatown

area for four to fi ve weeks. “People were thrilled to go in

the old orchard and along the road to see this big fellow. He was really a big fellow,” she said. “He was behind the Coronation shack one morning but he had no interest in people. He was just cleaning up all the apples and those particular bears were cleaning them off Chinatown. There were a lot of apples sit-ting there.”

The problem, Sproule said, was the apple trees bore fruit a

month earlier and it’s still a long way before bears go into hiber-nation. It was the main reason they frequented the area.

“The bears headed down-town and they wouldn’t have done that if there was no food source, either in people’s apple trees, fruit trees or in garbage left unsecured,” said Sproule. “If there’s no food, they won’t go. It’s seems they were lured inad-vertently by people.”

As far as she knows, there haven’t been any bear attack in-

cidents in Cumberland in recentyears.

“Bears have not caused aproblem, they only want food,”said Sproule.

Better human food and gar-bage management will keepbears away, said Sproule whowants residents to be more re-sponsible.

And if they see neighboursnot complying, they should con-tact the bylaw offi cer.


Cumberland taking steps to keep bears out of the villagewww.comoxvalleyecho.com

FRI DAY.OCTOBER 30, 2015 39

The countdown to November 11th Remembrance Day is on and Courtenay Legion Branch 17 is alive with preparations.

The visible signs begin today (Friday October 30th) when the Poppy Flag is raised at City Hall by Mayor Jangula.

That marks the beginning of the annual Poppy Campaign in which funds are raised by the Legion to assist veterans and their families in need and also to assist special projects in the community that will be most likely to assist veter-ans.

Courtenay Legion has focused on St. Joseph’s Hospital Founda-tion in past years and contributes an average of $10,000.00 per year to support its work.

More visible will be the Tag Days on Saturday October 31st and Sat-urday November 7h. Army and Air cadets will be on the streets and at most large shopping areas on those days distributing poppies and accepting donations to the fund.

Meanwhile, out of the limelight, preparations are well underway for November 11, the annual Veterans’

Breakfast, the cenotaph ceremony and the in-house activities includ-ing afternoon entertainment.

This year marks the 68th annual Veterans’ Breakfast which is open to all veterans, their families and friends.

For the fi rst 60 of those years the breakfast was coordinated by the late Sandy Strachan, a former Legion President, City Councillor and Freeman of the City.

The breakfast is held in the George Swift Memorial Hall at the Legion. Tickets are available upon entry and guests are asked to be

seated by 9:00 a.m.Following the breakfast, the pa-

rade will form up on Cliff e Avenue outside the Legion at 10:40 and march off to the cenotaph in Jubi-lee Square for the ceremomy.

Following the ceremony, open house will begin in the Legion lounge and food will be served during the afternoon.

This is a family friendly event and the Legion encourages any members of the public to come and learn about what the Legion does behind the scenes as well as to enjoy our hospitality.

Poppy fl ag raising today as Courtenay Legion prepares to remember

Sandy Strachan


The wave pool and slides at the Comox Val-ley Regional District’s (CVRD) aquatic cen-tre will be closed from Wednesday, November 4, through to the end of day Friday, November 6 to conduct resurfacing work on the pool basin. The 25-metre pool and heat zone – hot tub, sauna and steam room – will remain open.

Swim lessons on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as two aqua mo-tion classes in the morn-ing and aquasize in the afternoon on Thursday, are cancelled and patrons should know that fees for these programs and class-es will be prorated.

“We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause our valued patrons. Some resurfacing work was done during the annu-al maintenance shutdown and the maintenance work being done now will help ensure continued patron comfort and safety,” said Jennifer Zbinden, CVRD manager of recreation ser-vices.

“We recognize that this impacts our pool users and we are endeavoring to make this a quick job in order to get our customers back in the wave pool to enjoy the many programs and public swim sessions we off er.”

Schedules for the CVRD’s sports and aquat-ic centres can be found at www.comoxvalleyrd.ca/rec.

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LUSH Valley wants to launch a bear aware educational campaign in light of the fi ve bears that were recently de-stroyed in the Comox Valley.

The non-profi t orga-nization that focusses on food security has sought the support of the Comox Valley Re-gional District.

LUSH Valley oper-ates by picking residen-tial fruit trees and dis-tributing the produce to local organizations like the Comox Valley Food Bank. It would like to develop an edu-cational compoent that will teach and inform homeowners about the importance of picking fruit trees to reduce at-tractants to bears. The program will also teach people proper com-posting techniques, cleaning up fruits in yards, and the proper garbage storage.

LUSH Valley is ap-plying for a Coastal Community Credit Union “Building a Healthier Communi-ties” grant for the proj-ect.

The CVRD board of directors agreed that this would be valuable to the commmunity as it will assist residents to make their yards bear safe and reduce bear-human confl icts.

The board passed a motion that they pro-vide a letter of support for the LUSH Valley Bear Awareness pro-posal.

LUSH Valley aims to create bear awarenessprogram


During the months when bears are frequently seen, Sproule sug-gested the bylaw offi cer conduct checks the night before garbage is collected, as well monitor unpicked apple trees and to verbally remind residents.

To make sure they comply in the future, Sproule recommended the village increase the fi ne to $2,000.

“Littering along the highway is $2,000 and it’s only a hundred dol-lars here for us,” said Sproule.

“If it was a large enough fi ne and put into people’s taxes, I don’t think they would put out their garbage.”

The village has food collection every Wednesday morning said Sproule. “There’s no reason to put

food in the garbage, absolutely none,” said Sproule.

Sproule also suggested the vil-lage off er to sell bear-proof garbage cans at a cheaper rate if possible.

“We can do better,” said Sproule. “We have to come up with some-thing so this does not happen again.”

Council agreed. “We have to work as a community,” said Mayor Leslie Baird. “We don’t want to see bears destroyed. We can do it if every-body pays attention to what we’re doing.”

Council directed staff to come up with a report that looks into animal proof garbage containers and pos-sibly subsidizing a small part of the cost to make it aff ordable to resi-dents.

Bears drawn to Cumberland by fruit, garbage

“I have been working with Laurie Shambrook for nearly 10 years. She

that she always has the best interests of

Mark Allan, Courtenay

What are clients saying?

Laurie Shambrook

value for Valley taxpayers as we face staggering costs in Regional Capital Infrastruc-ture directives.

I can tell you that time and time again, when meet-ing with Provincial and Federal agencies, we are told that, “We will not en-tertain anything except re-gional solutions for services in the Comox Valley.” They stress “partnerships” and “economies of scale” when applying for any scant se-nior government funding.

New mandated require-ments for WATER TREAT-MENT from the Provin-cial Ministries of Health (VIHA), for WASTE WA-TER TREATMENT and SOLID WASTE (Ministry of Environment), not to mention the replacement of existing failing infrastruc-ture, all add up to well in excess of $240 million over the next decade.

It is a well known fact that “Local Governments” are responsible for almost a full 2/3rd of ALL INFRA-STRUCTURE in Canada and are expected to deal with this and other costs with the 8 cents it gets out of every dollar of tax paid by the Canadian Citizen.

Amalgamation? I per-sonally do not support Amalgamation but that is not what’s at issue here. All we are asking for is a request to the Province to fund a Study.

Information on how we might better manage the provisions of services to

all our communities. It could mean more integra-tion - sharing of expertise and staff capacity! (The “ SHARED BACK OFFICE” model). What ever makes the most sense. It is not helpful to jump to any con-clusions here.

The plan is for a commit-tee to be struck (thankfully without politicians) that would draft a terms of refer-ence. That would then set the scope for the report.

Information. That’s all. As I’ve said before;WE ARE ALL IN THE

SAME CANOE SO WE MAY AS WELL PADDLE IN THE SAME DIREC-TION

Edwin GrieveCVRD Area C Director

Evidently the Conserva-tive Party is now trying to fi gure out what went wrong in the recent election. Let’s help them fi gure it out:

1. Identity - The current Conservative Party is not the traditional Progres-sive Conservative party that played an important role in Canadian politics in the past. The party has dropped the word “progres-sive” from their name for good reason. The old party was taken over by the Re-form/Alliance faction that represents an American Re-publican Tea Party import into the Canadian political spectrum. Just as the Tea Party has lost its lustre in the US, its northern cousin

lost its lustre here.2. Policies - This Con-

servative/Reform/Alliance Party attempted to under-cut every aspect of social support that was carefully built over decades of work by all Canadians. They gut-ted everything from our environmental protection agencies to the CBC and from Health Care to the Coast Guard. They sent our soldiers overseas and then refused to attend to their needs on their return. Ev-erything that binds us to-gether as a nation was un-der fi re. The claim was that these things cost too much. However, because they re-duced corporate taxes and taxes on the “wealthy 1%” they insured that all these things of communal value looked expensive. A fair and progressive tax structure is essential to a functioning society and the Harperites attacked that too.

3. Approach - A highly centralized and top-down administration housed in the PMO asserted domi-nance over every aspect of Federal politics. Every gov-ernment communication had to be cleared by the Prime Minister‘s twist doc-tors - even the most trivial: scientists who attempted to temper the Conserva-tive ideological machine with the intrusion of facts were silenced; news report-ers were kept at bay. Even the House of Commons was treated with contempt. Ironically the man who

claimed he would bring transparency to Ottawa clapped the whole of gov-ernment under a dome of silence and control.

4. Individuals - People like Joe Oliver, as loveable as a school yard bully, or Bev Oda, who consumed orange juice at $16 a glass, became symbols of ran-cour and arrogance. There are many others who could make the list, probably the most prominent being Mike Duff y. The central issue is not where did the Duff er live but rather why he was put in the Senate in the fi rst place. He was put there to be a Conservative bag-man who operated at public ex-pense - a strange twist on the promised Senate Re-form.

5. Harper - At the centre of this of this Conservative/Reform/Alliance Party is the Emperor with no clothes: unapproachable, arrogant, autocratic and ultimately unloveable. He champi-oned the special interests of a right-wing cabal and tried to remake Canada in his own image. Canadians called his number. They re-jected Harper and also what he represented.

I’m sure that much more can be said about the Con-servative defeat, but these points summarize my short analysis.

Harper and his ilk are gone. May they rest in piec-es.

Murray LindmanComox

Re: Eco-Causes at Cour-tenay Council

Thank you David Frisch for bringing forward such important issues as GMO reporting and global warm-ing in such a timely year.

As you may remember in Oct. 2015 Justin Trudeau of the Liberal party was just elected as our Prime Min-ister and there was excite-ment and change in the air.

By making environmental issues a focus for the City of Courtenay you made sound economic and political de-cisions. Now, the Comox Valley is a world-renowned travel destination, touted as an environmental leader of small communities. Canada is back on the map when it comes to climate change initiatives and the Comox Valley can be proud to be one of the fi rst communi-ties that came up with inno-vative solutions locally.

We have saved and grown our ski resort, our beaches have been preserved and our shellfi sh growers thriv-ing, our rivers are full of salmon, and our forests are an educational escape for our overseas visitors. Our water is clean and plentiful and our farms are thriving as leaders in healthy agri-cultural practices. We have developed sustainable cut-ting edge building practices helping to grow our vibrant downtown core. And we can be proud that our commu-nity is healthier and draw-

ing less on public health care due to our highly eff ec-tive bike lanes and public transportation.

The City of Courtenay has inspired all of Vancou-ver Island to raise the bar and put environmental practices at the forefront of municipal business. As a result we have managed to make a signifi cant contri-bution to the health of our global climate.

Without your hard work and the support of fellow councilors Doug Hillian and Rebecca Lennox, we would not have aligned with the direction of the internation-al community and made such important progress toward a richer, cleaner and safer Comox Valley.

Thank you from the fu-ture.

Gabrielle Durupt

It was with great interest that I read the letter to the editor by Murray Presley re-garding Cumberland Coun-cil’s decision to not support a request that the Province fund a “Governance Review Study” for the Comox Val-ley.

Having been the Comox Valley Regional Chair for four years and the Vice-Chair for two years, I think I can agree that we are pre-cisely at a juncture in time when such a review could provide some valuable di-rection in how to maximize

LETTERS

OPINIONSEC

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www.comoxvalleyecho.comFRIDAY.OCTOBER 30, 2015 9

FIGURING IT OUT

IN THE SAME CANOE

Thank youfrom the future

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The Comox Valley Echo is a member of the British Columbia Press Council, a self-regulatory body governing the province’s newspaper industry. The council considers complaints from the public about the conduct of member newspapers. Directors oversee the mediation of complaints, with input from both the newspaper and the complaint holder. If talking with the editor or publisher does not resolve your complaint about coverage or story treatment, you may contact the B.C. Press Council. Your written concern, with documentation, should be sent to B.C. Press Council, PO Box 1356, Ladysmith, B.C. V9G 1A9. For information, phone 1-888-687-2213 or go to www.bcpresscouncil.org. All original content in this publication is copyright material belonging to Black Press. Any re-use or reproduction without the expressed, written consent of the copyright owner is strictly prohibited.

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THE COMOX VALLEY’S FIRST AND BEST READER’S FORUMEmail to: [email protected]

BOUQUETS to all the able seniors who are taking to cycling and/or walk-ing for both exercise and shopping. You are doing your little bit to cut down carbon dioxide pollu-tion and demonstrating that you are concerned about the future for your grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

A LARGE BOUQUET of grati-tude to the kind person who graciously bought lunch for the group of us seniors from Casa Loma enjoying lunch out at the Griffi n Pub. Your be-nevolent act of kindness touched each of us and we will each, in our own way, carry forward your act of kindness. We thank you for your thoughtfulness - it certainly brightened our day.

enough, we were mar-shalled into a sheltered spot just steps from the ticket booth. Only later did we surmise that my veterans’ plate plus our grey hair had earned us this special treatment. To Coastal Black and all involved: BZ! and God Bless!

MR. DIPPER, what would you like us to do? All fall in line with your way of thinking? We are still free people in a free country at least the last time I checked anyway. If Harper had stayed in for another term that might have all changed. Maybe you should run for offi ce in the next elec-tion so you can tell us the ‚Äúright way‚Äù to vote.

THANK YOU to the un-

known person that paid for a whole lot of coff ees at Tim Hortons. It made my wife’s day.

A BIG DOGGIE KISS to

Woofy’s for yet another fun Halloween Costume Contest on Sunday at the Comox Mall. Jill and (this year) Irene did such an amazing job with keeping everyone (including their furbabies) under control but mostly excited and engaged. I also want to thank the professional photographer and his helper. They are always so friendly and take such great photos; I wanted to be sure to thank them. Congratulations to the winners - spider dog, taco dog and puppy mill dog. They all did an amazing job. Have a safe and hap-

py Halloween everyone! I COULD NOT LET the week-

end end without thanking Stacey at Canadian Tire for her amazing Customer Service this past week-end. We were shopping for a new upright vacuum. Stacey was patient with us and made us feel like we were her only custom-ers despite the Courtenay store being quite busy that Saturday. Thank you Stacey, we are so sold on the Dyson and will be coming back in to pur-chase one soon. Note to Bert and Keith, Stacey is a keeper. I hope you both know that!

BELATED THANKS to the Public Works people in the water department. This summer I had some plumbing problems and my house water shut-off broke inside meaning

people! So if you are hav-ing a diffi cult time getting around, practise civil disobedience and park in those spots! I am hope-fully sure these healthy parts of our community won’t mind. As for Mr. or Ms. Picky - I will say it too! Get a life!

A BOUQUET OF APPRECIA-TION to the gentleman in the red truck at St. Joe’s parking lot on Oct. 21. Not only did he fl ag me down and generously of-fer me his parking ticket (which had almost three hours remaining) but he graciously waited for me to circle the parking lot before pulling out, thereby giving me his spot. It was very much appreciated and I wanted to say thank you and also let you know my appoint-ment was also done early so passed along the ticket

BOUQUETS to the City of

Courtenay for holding a public forum for people to share their ideas for the downtown core. I love the beautiful downtown core of Courtenay with its cute shops and its historic feel. Too bad the Town of Comox hadn’t done the same thing. Unfor-tunately the downtown core of Comox, instead of being historic and invit-ing is more like a modern shopping mall minus the shoppers. When asked for public input regarding the Lorne site and the rede-velopment of the Marina, people were told that the architect had already been paid so changes would be minimal. No historic feel in Comox by the Sea. The money to redevelop the Marina should be used to create a bike/walkway to Goose Spit. Then you would see some activity in Comox and perhaps less activity at the hospital. As we all know or should know exercise is one of the ways to maintain good health. The vision for the marina looks like another contribution to the many already vacant spaces in Comox.

WARM HEARTS and Good Health to all those who generously donated to Cumberland Rotary’s Sock It to Polio campaign this past weekend. Many thanks also to all volun-teers, to Driftwood Mall, Comox Mall, Walmart, Canadian Tire, Cumber-land Liquor store and Wa-verley Hotel and Thrifty’s for permission to canvass

by their businesses. Chil-dren worldwide will ben-efi t from your kindness.

A HUGE CAULDRON of fi sh eyes to the owners of that eyesore at the beautiful Airpark Marina. That old dilapidated shack has been tied up at that dock

to another patient, so your kindness was paid forward.

A REFRESHER in sign recognition to the female who sped through the stop sign on Towhee Ct at 8:45 AM 26 Oct. at an estimated 50+ km per hr. I was about to turn left with the right of way, signal on, when I realized based on the speed with which you were approach-ing, you couldn‚Äôt stop even if you wanted to. No surprise, you came through the sign without even touching the brake. No beef, no bouquet, but perhaps a wreath for one or both of us if I hadn‚Äôt stopped without turn-ing. There are also small children who play and live in the area. If you don‚Äôt care about cars, consider them.

for years and never been fi xed in any manner. It appears that now the roof has even blown off , leaving it open to the ele-ments. Our group enjoys the airport walk for its calm beauty and then we get to the boat marina section and there sits that ugly listing structure. Over the years we have watched rodents of all sorts coming and going from its platform and wonder why somebody doesn’t do something with it or remove it from ruining such a lovely view.

TO THE ‘GET A LIFE’ COM-PLAINER: Your picky at-titude regarding where a handicapped card is displayed says a lot about you! First - there are not enough handicapped parking stalls in the city; second - the cards do cost money to purchase (thank you so much BC Liberals) and guess what? Not everyone can pay the “modest” fee to get one. Also, there are many elderly people in the valley who have vari-ous degrees of mobility issues who do not qualify for handicapped parking. So, my beef (besides your attitude) is all those (in my opinion - sick) park-ing spots everywhere for “families with children” or “expectant mothers”! You are far more capable and healthier than many of our elderly population. Guess what - it’s not all about family and youth

I RECENTLY PURCHASED a computer from Island Technologies in Cour-tenay. As a novice in computers, I can’t thank owners Rick and Andy enough for taking the time in their offi ce and later on phone to program and set up on the comput-er. - One happy customer who would recommend them any time for their patience and professional service. Thank you.

MY WIFE AND I ATTENDED the Halloween festivities at Coastal Black Winery last Sunday afternoon. There were large crowds present and parking space was at a premium. As we scanned the area for a spot, a friendly gentle-man directed us closer and closer to the events area. We couldn’t believe there would be any park-ing that close but, sure

I needed to have the water turned off at the source outside. Phoned the works yard and the receptionist was most helpful--she said they would be right over and almost before I put down the receiver they were--no kidding! Within a short time they had found the shutoff buried in the front yard and installed a pipe down to it and turned it off . They said I should let them know when it needed to be turned on again and they would be right over--AND THEY WERE there in minutes after I was done. Great service and pleasant in-teractions all round--fi rst rate. Sorry I took so long to say thanks--been sick.


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THE COMOX VALLEY’S FIRST AND BEST READER’S FORUMEmail to: [email protected]

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS!Our weekly feature, Beefs and Bouquets,

is intended to be a light-hearted forum

for you, our readers, to express brief

views on issues and events in your lives.

It’s not intended to hurt people or make

unsubstantiated and libelous comments.

Names won’t be published with the beefs

and bouquets; however, we do need your

full name, mailing address and tele-

phone number for verifi cation purposes.

Each week someone will win a 2 Classic

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Have fun with this!

THIS WEEK’S WINNER, DRAWN AT RANDOM FROM SUBMISSIONS RECEIVED UP TO TUESDAY, IS:

Winners, you may pick up your prize certifi cates at the front desk of the Echo, 407-D Fifth Street, during regular business hours. Thanks

to everyone for the great submissions- keep ‘em coming!

Donald Waddell, of CourtenayWinner of two classic cheese baskets

from Dairy Queen

SENDING A BIG BOUQUET of roses to the teachers and administrators of High-land Secondary’s Inter-national Baccalaureate (IB) programme. Thank you for your tremendous eff ort in providing this academically rigorous high school curriculum to grade 11 and 12 students across the Comox Valley. Your passion to teach is obvious to us parents and invaluable to the many students who gain an advantage when applying to post secondary insti-tutions in Canada and around the world. IB plac-es great importance on a holistic education meant to develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and

a fuss that it should be deemed vicious. This is a breed-specifi c witch hunt and is the sole fault of the owner not the dog. Yes, I was more than angry and sad but to vilify the whole breed because of this is unfair and an overreac-tion. I have seen many cats killed by dogs over many years and none of them have been banned. I do believe the cat’s owner should be fi nancially com-pensated. RIP Munchkin.

A BEEF to the four city councillors who waste the city’s money and time to debate issues that have nothing to do with their mandate as city council-lors. The issues of global warming and GMO food are obviously a personal issue for two of them and to bring them up to a city meeting is wast-ing taxpayers money and time. The councillors mandate is the running of the city. Looking after the road system, sewer and water, fi re protection and the city bylaws. Not to get involved with social and controversial issues they have no control over. There has been too much of this in the past and we hoped this would end with the newly elected council.

BOUQUET to Kari-Anne at Bosley’s for provid-ing such good customer service. We appreciate what she did for us and our dog Buddy loves his new coat!

ELVIS SIGHTING: Singing I’m all broke up - on the road from 5th St to Con-densory Bridge.

Continued on Page 12

She was very appreciative of your help as we are. She is doing well now in part due to your selfl ess act. Many thanks.

MANY HAPPY HOURS of viewing and listening to each and every volunteer across two ridings who helped us on the ‘We Vote CBC’ campaign, collecting signatures, distributing lawn signs and organizing a concert! A special thank you to Jo Smith of Glen Alwin Farm who graciously loaned us her canopy on several occasions, with-out which we would have been very wet indeed or, in one instance, roasted! If you happen to have one of those lawn signs and it has not yet been collected please feel free to keep it as a reminder to hold our representatives to their promise to preserve and properly fund our na-tional broadcaster. Thank you to everyone who helped and to everyone who put up a sign. You have all made a diff erent in the Valley and beyond!!

I HAVE A HUGE BEEF with the Courtenay city coun-cil. Some of the coun-cillors have their own agenda regarding GMO food and global warming. I wish they would concen-trate their eff orts on run-ning the city. I don‚Äôt believe they should be wasting our tax dol-lars having the city staff reporting to them about issues that the city has no control over. Coun-cil should be spending their time regarding the running of the city. How about discussing improv-ing traffi c or building a third bridge. How about seeking a grant from the federal government to make this happen.

on principle. Islanders may have to make some fuss to get Federal fund-ing - the Separation issue has worked well for Que-bec. We are separated by the Salish Sea, and now the Orange and Green.

AFTER RECENTLY READING

about the Pitbull attack-ing and killing a cat in Comox I was compelled to have my say about this. Firstly, I would like to off er my condolence to the Munchkin owner. It is always hard to lose a beloved pet, especially in such a violent way. Deeming a dog vicious

BOUQUETS to all the vot-ers who braved line ups and did what needed to be done in our riding! It’s great to have a fresh start in our riding and I read the highest voter turnout in the province. Beefs to the Echo and other media that nearly ignore the issue of climate change during the election and in general. It is not con-spiracy theorists that are urging us to take serious action, it is 97% of cli-mate scientists, the World Bank, the United Nations and many conservative groups. The more I learn about climate change the more urgent I see the situation is. It just takes one look at the Comox

Glacier, which any of us who have lived here more than a few years can see is tiny. Urgent action is needed all around, includ-ing the proper reporting of its eff ects present and future on our valley and on our world. Thanks for printing this.

INTERESTING that some-social skills required to live, learn and work in a increasingly global world. As Highland Secondary is the only school in the English public system on Vancouver Island to off er this programme, all resi-dents of the Comox Valley should also be very proud of School Board 71’s vi-sion to establish it here.

A LARGE BOUQUET of red roses to the lady who stopped to help my moth-er who had fallen on the sidewalk at the corner of Ryan road & Back road.

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because of this is abso-lutely ridiculous. Dogs have been chasing cats since the beginning of time. All cat owners know this and when you chose to let your cat outside you are exposing it to all kinds of dangers. What about the birds the cat kills? Shouldn’t the cat be deemed vicious also? A life is a life no matter how small! Who decides which life is more important? Not too long ago a black lab killed our tiny 9-week old kitten. I never ever thought of making such

one has objected to the color of the new hospital. The Green color is sym-bolic of the Green build-ing, fi nanced by Green Bonds, both recognized by New York investors. The only thing we don’t know about this fi ne P3 project is how much “Green” it will cost BC Taxpayers. Most don’t care about the color or cost - we are happy to have a new hospital with 700 parking spaces.

BIG THANKS to Council-

lor Frisch for bringing up REAL issues that the younger generation of this city actually care about, like GMO food and climate change. Thanks to all the other councillors that support his views. Change can happen, people support these ideas! Keep it up!

BOUQUETS to Vancouver Islanders who voted in re-cord numbers, for Orange and Green. Unimpressed with the big money cam-paigns of the Blue and Red machines, they voted

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Vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes) affect 60 to 80% of women entering menopause. This is thought to result from a disturbance of the temperature regulating mechanism in the hypothalamus due to low estrogen levels. Although most menopausal women experience hot flashes for less than 7 years, up to 15% report hot flashes lasting for 15 years or more. The symptoms accompanying hot flashes include sweating, palpitations, apprehension and anxiety, all of which contribute to the woman’s discomfort and distress.

Treatment options include lifestyle modifications (regular exercise, weight management, smoking cessation & avoidance of triggers such as hot drinks and alcohol), prescription drugs (hormonal and non-hormonal) and non-prescription therapies in the form of complementary and alternative medica-tion.

We are pleased to offer a new non-prescription, non-hormonal therapy called Estrovera. It has been clinically proven to help common menopausal symptoms such as irritability, anxiety, urinary tract symptoms, sleep disturbances, vaginal dryness and of course hot flashes. It does not contain estrogen so it is a safe treatment option. Metagenics, the manufacturer, is so confident in its product that not only does it provide a hot flash diary to track your symptoms but it offers a money back guarantee. This means not only is it a safer option but a safe bet as well. Check out their website www.metagenics.com or see us for more information.

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Shoppe Talk for October 2015Estrovera for menopausal symptom relief

I’ve got hot flashes, need HRTThis house feels like it’s a hundred and threeCome on hubby can you turn down the heat?I’ve got hot flashes, hot flashes Apologies to Foreigner and Hot Blooded


HERE’S MY BEEF! Why do people park outside their neighbour’s house? Also, it seems okay for their friends to park there too. I believe it is a rude, non-caring, and ignorant hab-it. I constantly look out of my front window to see my neighbour’s car on my frontage, when the front of their house is clear of traffi c, and there is lots of parking space on their lot too. I know to mention it would only make matters worse, so I don’t want to go that route. Where is my company supposed to park when you’ve com-mandeered my frontage? I know several people that have the same problem. What’s with you people? Can’t you understand how ignorant you are? Here’s a message for you, get your act together and park your vehicle out-side YOUR OWN DARN HOUSE! and that goes for your friends too!!!

I WOULD LIKE TO CON-GRATULATE the teachers at Queneesh Elementary who encouraged their classes to participate in a mock election last week. Special appreciation goes to my grandson‚Äôs teacher, Mr Manns. On

the days I picked my grandson up after school over the past couple of weeks, he has been full of news about how the kids were campaign-ing for the four parties and presenting to other classes - this from a child whose regular response to “what did you do in school today?” is usually “Nothin’ much”! He was so enthusiastic about how the leaders were selected, the research done for each party, how the lead-ers answered questions asked by “constituents”, interviews, discussions, even “security”. The students learned so much about government and had a great time doing it. Their election results with the Green Party becom-ing the Opposition, were somewhat diff erent from the real thing, but what a grand experience for 12-year olds to have. Wish I had a Social Studies teacher like that when I was in Grade seven!

I’M RESPONDING to the incident that occurred in Comox last weekend involving a cat & a pit bull dog. I’m really very sorry for the owner of the cat. But I’m really disturbed that he, as well as others, want to place a

blanket coverage / bylaw over an entire breed of dog - just because of this. You cannot say that every pit bull dog is vicious because that is simply not true. You might as well say that every kid under the age of 20 has to have a curfew of 10pm & not allowed to drive or carry knives - then we wouldn’t have hit & run accidents that put people in wheel-chairs & fatal stabbings! You can’t say that ‘every pit bull’ is like this one - because it isn’t & that is not fair on the rest of the pit bulls which do behave normally. I sincerely hope that when this particular dog is getting assessed, it’s by a qualifi ed person like Carrie Lumsden of K9Kind or Megan Hird of Poochies , not by the Co-mox bylaw idiot! And for those folks who need fur-ther convincing - the ‘Dog Whisperer’ himself Cesar Milan - his worst ever bite / attack was from a lab-rador yet his best friend was a pit bull! Just ask his opinion! Again, I’m sorry for this guy’s cat - but you can’t expect a blanket ban on a breed of dog just because of one ‘not so in-nocent’ one.

A HUGE BOUQUET OF THANKS to John Duncan for the

many years he put in bringing federal resources and whatever else was needed from the federal government, making this certainly a “Have” riding when it came to federal monies/resources coming our way. I, for one, want to thank John very much for all his hard work over the years on our behalf. It did not go unnoticed. Now John you can take some well earned R & R. You deserve it As for our two new MP‚Äôs, I congratulate them on their wins and wish them all the best when they go to Ottawa, they will need it. Unlike John who was a true veteran of federal politics and knew how to get things done and who, by the way, was a mem-ber of a political party that was in power, that certainly helps. These two MPs are new to the game and part of a third place political party, and that doesn’t help. They will have very little, if any, clout in Ottawa, and as such we can expect very little from them in the form of federal resources coming our way during their term in Ottawa, no fault of theirs. Certainly the Liberals will not be anxious to help out these MPs and in turn their

NDP ridings, so unfortu-nately we will be out in the cold, so to speak, over the next four long years. Too bad, but that is how politics works.

THANK YOU to the wonder-

ful family that opens their farm so that children, parents and grandparents can choose pumpkins from the fi eld, enjoy the Corn Maze, and be a little scared by the barn with all its creepy Halloween characters. Thank you to the young lady on the cash desk who explained to my fi ve-year-old grand-son that the talking and singing pumpkins way up at the end of the barn that terrifi ed him at fi rst, were made with the use of a projector. Once it had been explained that this was like a movie, those pumpkins weren’t as scary. Thanks too, to the young man who let us have one pumpkin at no charge since it had a soft spot and might not last until the big day! Great way to spend some time with our grandkids, oh, and feeding the chickens and goats was fun too!

BOUQUETS to SJGH work-ers who are advocating for local food services at the new Hospital. CVRD

directors - please do not cop out on this. Let’s see decent hospital food and local jobs from this expensive P3 investment. CVRD approved the P3 arrangement in which local property owners are paying 40% of this P3 hospital capital cost and BC Taxpayers are paying 4.4% to some Green Bond Investors‚ and undisclosed costs to other private lenders. One private lender in the Fort St John P3 hospital is reported to be receiv-ing over 14% interest on a $30 million loan. Let’s see decent hospital food and local jobs from this expensive P3 investment!

NICE TO HAVE a new, third, Comox Valley Fire training center a just few KM apart. Interesting that Courtenay taxpayers have no problem funding redundant fi re training centers but can‚Äôt tackle Aff ordable Housing, for those many who live and work in Courtenay at less than a living wage. The CVRD $165,000 home-less funding will do noth-ing for the working poor, while Courtenay blows $2.5 million on a redun-dant fi re training center. Please sign the petition on governance review.


LOVE BOOKS?Don’t miss the

Courtenay Rotary ClubBook Sale!

November 4 - 7thWed - Fri 9AM - 7PM

Sat 9AM - 5PM

Comox Center MallFunds raised help to support many community projects!

Comox Valley Salvation Army Pastor, Kevin Elsasser, has com-pleted an instructor’s course in fork lift operation and is now teaching it to people in the valley.


The Comox Valley Salvation Army’s fork lift training course has been a soar-ing success.

And instead of bringing in an instruc-tor to teach their clients at a cost of $400 each, pastor and executive director of the local Sally Ann, Kevin Elsasser took courses and earned a certifi cate that now allows him to teach this program.

“So we decided it wold be better for us, better for our schedule and cost if we would get someone trained,” said El-sasser. “So I got trained. I never thought I would be teaching fork lift but I am en-joying it.”

To test it out, Elsasser said he taught small groups with the last one earning certifi cates on Oct. 14.

Clients are provided training on how to safely operate a fork-lift, learning it through theory and practical experience.

“We are very excited about this pro-gram,” said Elsasser. “This is one of the many programs that we are very proud of. It provides our guests with more op-portunities to get a job.”

As well, Elsasser said they can now help train other staff not only from the local ministry but also those from other locations to become certifi ed fork lift in-structors.

Anyone interested in the fork lift train-ing program can go to the Salvation Ar-my’s Family Services offi ce located on Kilpatrick in Courtenay.

“We are trying to improve people’s lives and part of that comes through your eco-nomic advancement,” said Elsasser. “If you have a better paying job, you become a productive member of our society.”

Since they’ve started this program, El-sasser said, some of their students have landed jobs.

“A lot of them are happy to get the cer-tifi cation,” said Elsasser.

Sally Ann staff now qualifi ed to teach fork lift operationPastor enjoying teaching fork lift operation

The topic for Seed Sav-ers’ monthly meeting Nov. 5 is “Greenhouse Grow-ing.” Members Nick, Bar-bara and Larry will talk about their greenhouse experiences and then we will open the meeting to all present to share their greenhouse stories.

After this we will share delicious non-GMO or-ganic and locally sourced (as much as possible) snacks - while the discus-sions continue.

Non-members are wel-come by donation or can join and this will be good for next year! Meeting starts at 7.00 and will be held at Creekside Com-mons, 2202 Lambert St , Courtenay. There is lim-ited parking at Creekside, so please park on Lam-bert.

Please bring slippers, as shoes are not permitted inside

Any questions call 250 871 0553.

Seed Savers to talk greenhouses


BY MARY LEEEcho Staff

It was a packed house Tuesday night as par-ents, teachers and school board employees crowded the School District Board Meeting eager to hear trustees deliberate on a motion to accept recom-mendations that could re-sult in school closures, re-aligning school boundaries and expanding the French Immersion Dual Track program throughout the Comox Valley.

The recommendation came out in a BC Gov-ernment mandated study approved by the Board of Education and conducted by an external engineer. The findings were com-piled in October 2012 in a Long Range Facility Plan. Its intent is to provide a strategic framework and direction for the school district’s annual review of its Five Year Capital Plan and the District’s proposed capital projects.

The Facility Plan con-tains three recommen-dations pertaining to the boundary, structure and programming in the dis-trict and are further bro-ken down into phases.

The nine recommenda-tions on the School Dis-trict Trustees table are part of the fifth and final phase outlined in the Fa-cility Plan Summary com-piled in October 2015.

Some trustees de-scribed the recommenda-tion package as an omni-bus motion.

Sheila McDonnell, Area A Trustee, made an argu-ment that the recommen-dations should be separat-ed to address two distinct areas of concern as identi-fied in the Facility Plan.

The first area of con-cern addresses boundary realignment. The second

and more radical are of concern is very narrowly focussed on school clo-sures and the resulting im-pact. The report identifies Ecole Puntledge Elemen-tary for closure and gives recommendations for re-location of students into Lake Trail thereby convert-ing the middle school into full elementary K-7.

McDonnell motioned for an amendment to sepa-rate out school closure and the recommendations to respond in the aftermath from the more broader rec-ommendations regarding boundary changes.

McDonnell reminded trustees of the ruling on the district’s last school closure of Brooklyn Ele-mentary as a sham process and discussion around clo-sure now are being driven around existing budget constraints.

The potential cost sav-ings is approximately $720,000 to close Ecole Puntledge School and re-locate to Lake Trail School.

The motion for an amendment was defeated.

Ian Hargreaves, Area C Trustee, applauded Trust-ee McDonnell’s passion but pressed to move on a motion that keeps the nine recommendation lumped together, stressing that the Board was not in a school closure process at the mo-ment and that in order to get a public consultation process underway the Board must initially pass on the motion.

Trustee Peter Cole-man was quick to point the Board was under a tight timeline regarding the bud-get.

The motion was passed.Following the regular

board meeting, the floor opened to the public for questions. The emotions in the room were quite high with concerns largely

EDUCATION

Reshaping Valley school district could bring closures, new boundariesThe elephant in the room is the provincial government ... I for one am getting really, really tired of us having to dance to their tune to the total disregard of what other people in the community might think. Trustees are becoming the meat in the sand-wich”

CLIFF BOLDTCity of Courtenay Trustee

This isn’t about talking us in or out of anything. This is about us being part of a conversation with the public and hopefully coming to a wise decision”

TOM WEBERBoard Chair

Judging by the number of people who have ap-peared here today it’s obviously struck chords, and because of that it’s vital we move forward with consultation on all these aspects ...”

VICKY BROWNCumberland Trustee

At some point or an-other we have to do the budget consultation as well and we really need this to be resolved to make any sense of the budget. I really don’t think we can defer. I do agree that there are very diff erent kinds of consultation. There are very diff erent problems here. The consultation has to be in separate chunks anyway”.

PETER COLEMANTown of Comox Trustee

The type of consultation we do is really impor-tant and we have said that we want communi-ty engagement and that we care about relation-ships. We can do these with consultations in a very positive way.”

SHEILA MCDONNELLArea A Trustee

It’s a legal obligation to start the conversation. We have to scare you to engage you.”

SHERRY ELWOODSuperintendent

THE MOTION:That the Board of Education of School District 71 approve in principle the recommen-dations set out in Phase 5 of the October 27, 2015, Long Range Facility Plan Summa-ry, for distribution and con-sultation in accordance with Board Policy 3-2 and Regula-tion 3-2R1, commencing No-vember 01, 2015.

WHAT IS PROPOSED:1. Incorporate French Immer-sion Dual Track (Phase 3 of the Long Range Facility Plan);

2. Close Ecole Puntledge School (consultation re-quired);

3. Relocate Ecole Puntledge School to Lake Trail School (continue to run as a recog-nized Community School);

4. Convert Arden, Ecole Puntledge (in Lake Trail), and Courtenay Elementary to K-7 schools;

5. Transfer West Courtenay 8-9 student to GP Vainer;

6. Expand Courtenay Elemen-tary boundaries into Arden and Ecole Puntledge (growth available in Arden);

7. Create Regular English boundary for Ecole Robb Road by adjusting Aspen Park and Brooklyn boundar-ies;

8. Adjust Isfeld boundary to include area around Que-neesh (reduce GP Vanier en-rolment); and

9. Adjust Highland Secondary into Isfeld Secondary bound-ary (increase Highland enrol-ment).

focused on the way ahead including projected time-line for the consultation process and implementa-tion of decisions thereafter.

Quest ions a lso fo-cused on whether the Board had looked at other ways to save money. Oth-ers stressed to the Board Trustees the need for as-surance that they will en-gage fully with the public and not be guided through management reports.

Sherry Elwood, School District Superintendent noted in her remarks that it is unfortunate the pro-cess has to be referred to as a school closure, adding that this Valley has a his-tory of school closures in which public input made a difference.

The recommendations will go to public consulta-tion before final decision by the Board. Two separate processes will be undertak-en for school closure con-sultation and for French Immersion dual track.

Tom Weber, Board Chair and Area A Trustee, acknowledged that public input is heavily weighted but financial consider-ations are always taken in-to consideration.

Consultation processes are required to be 60 days, as explained in the Facili-ty Plan Summary, and are expected to commence in November. Submission are due February 2016 for a Board decision in March.

Puntledge Elementary could close, with students moving to Lake Trail (below)


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Oct 30th-Nov 5thCinema #4: “Tannhauser” Metropolitan Opera - LIVE Saturday, October 31, 9:00 am (ends approx. 1:20 pm). Doors open at 8:30Approx. 4 hours, 20 minutes. 2 intermissions

Cinema #1 & #4: “Spectre” NYR Thursday Nov. 5: 7:30 (10:10) & 8:30 (11:10)

Cinema #4: “Wrecker” Canadian Indy Film Series NYRWednesday Nov. 4: 8:30 (10:05)

Cinema #1: “Goosebumps 3D/2D” PG: Frightening scenes - Captiview Available Friday - Sunday: 2D 7:00 (8:55) & 3D 9:25 (11:20)Monday - Wednesday: 2D 5:50 (7:45) & 3D 8:45 (10:40)Thursday: 2D 5:00 (6:55) & 3D 5:35 (7:30)Saturday Matinee: 3D 12:45 (2:40) & 2D 3:20 (5:15)Sunday Matinee: 3D 12:20 (2:15) & 2D 2:40 (4:35)

Cinema #2: “Steve Jobs” PG: Coarse language Friday - Sunday: 6:50 (9:05) & 9:35 (11:50)

Monday - Thursday: 5:40 (7:55) & 8:40 (10:55)Weekend Matinees: 12:35 (2:50) & 3:40 (5:55)

Cinema #3: “Bridge Of Spies” PG: Violence; coarse language Friday - Sunday: 6:40 (9:10) & 9:40 (12:10) Monday - Thursday: 5:30 (8:00) & 8:35 (11:05) Weekend Matinees: 12:25 (2:55) & 3:30 (6:00)

Cinema #4: “The Martian 2D” PG: Coarse language: scene of surgery - Captiview Available Friday - Sunday: 6:30 (9:00) & 9:30 (12:00)Monday - Tuesday: 5:20 (7:50) & 8:25 (10:55)Wednesday: 5:20 (7:50) Thursday: NO SHOWS

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■ Leona Alleslev-Krof-chak, former member of the Royal Canadian Air Force who served as a lo-gistics offi cer at 19 Wing Comox upon graduation from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1991 until 1994, success-fully ran and was elected for the Liberal Party of Canada for the Aurora-Oakridges-Richmond Hill Riding.

Alleslev-Krofchak has an extensive background in project management and in the aerospace in-dustry having worked as a consultant for close to 20 years for the Department of National Defense, IBM and Bombardier Aero-space.

Her and husband Ted Krofchak, former military pilot who fl ew with 414 Squadron, 19 Wing Co-mox, met in the Comox Valley while still serving in the military.

■ Speaking of new Liberal MPs that have a Comox Valley connec-tion: Highland grad Jody Wilson-Raybould is one of the bright new stars in the new federal government, and one of 10 Aboriginals elected across Canada. She won the newly cre-ated Vancouver Granville riding last week. There’s

plenty of speculation that she might be named Ab-original Aff airs minister.

Her father is Bill Wil-son (Hemas Kla-Lee-Lee-Kla), who many here will remember as a most outspoken First Na-tions leader widely cred-ited with having Pierre Trudeau and the premiers recognize aboriginal rights in the Constitution, and her grandmother was Ethel Pearson (Pugladee) who held a naming pot-latch for Jody when she was eight-years old. Pug-laas, “woman born to no-ble people”, was the name Ethel chose.

Wilson-Raybould, 41, has a long list of accom-plishments: law degree, working as a Crown pros-ecutor, and serving as the only female chief (BC Regional) on the national executive of the Assembly of First Nations, just to name a few.

Former School District 71 secretary-treasurer Bill Burns passed along the info about Jody’s Valley connections in an email from his retirement home in Victoria:

“Jody was in Tim McK-innon’s AG (advisory group) at Highland. Tim said this on Facebook: “In my AG at Highland for three years. Despite that she’s done very well. Great kid; accomplished adult. Next Minister for

Aboriginal Aff airs? Hope so.”

■ Calling all book clubs, and just plain book worms. The Laughing Oyster is having its an-nual Book Club Night on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7 pm in the Courtenay Muse-um. Delicious desserts by Zocalo’s, some intriguing selections from their staff to inspire your personal or book club reading. Tick-ets are $15 and available at Laughing Oyster Book-shop. They look forward to seeing you there!

■ Here’s a tour we could defi nitely see ourselves going on: A Comox Val-ley Winery, Brewery and Distillery Tour off ered by Ambassador Shuttle Transportation.

A local beer, wine and spirit tour is a delightful way to spend the after-noon, and each destina-tion is its own haven. At each stop, you’ll learn more about the establish-ment itself and the unique conditions and ingredi-ents that contribute to the quality of wine, beer and spirits produced in the Comox Valley.

Potential stops include: 40 Knots Estate Winery, Blue Moon Estate Winery, Beaufort Estate Winery, Coastal Black Estate Win-ery, Cumberland Brewery, Forbidden Brewing, Glad-stone Brewery, Wayward Distillery, Shelter Point Distillery.

Call 1 (877) 339-5252 or email [email protected] for more information!

500 shirts were hung from the Fifth Street bridge on election day morning to symbolize Canada’s ‘dirty laundry’ on missing and murdered aboriginal women

■ Guerilla Foods is once again the Chili Champion! The 2nd annual Persever-ence Party for the Forest in Cumberland this past weekend off ered a chili cook-off . A whole lot of chili was served by Gue-rilla, Atlas Cafe, Cum-berland’s Waverly Hotel, Bobby Herron and The White Whale. This was a friendly competition while supporting a fantas-tic event for a great cause.

Guerilla says they’re looking forward to a championship belt after successfully winning the chili cook-off two years running and hoping to add a third title next year.

■ Did you know the

Courtenay Library off ers free movie nights once a month, complete with popcorn? The Monday Movie for November is Neill Blomkap’s new sci-fi thriller “Chappie”. Pop down to the library on Monday, Nov. 2 at 6 pm.

■ The new Forbidden Brewing Co. in Courtenay has won a second place in the BC Beer Awards. Its Forbidden Pale Ale took silver in the UK Bitter cat-egory.

The brewery is locat-ed at the Westerly Hotel and had its offi cial grand opening this past Sunday, although it’s been open a few months longer than that. Congratulations!

■ In case you were won-dering about what was go-ing on at the Fifth Streetbridge on election day: Asmall group of women in-stalled about 500 shirtson the bridge to symbolizeCanada’s “dirty laundry”over the 1,181 missingand murdered indigenouswomen in this country.They were inspired bythe recent “Walking WithOur Sisters” memorial in-stallation at the K”omoksFirst Nation.

According to a Face-book post: “On the eve ofelection day, fi ve womenspent close to fi ve hoursstrategically placing theshirts and signage.



THE FLU SEASON IS HEREIMMUNIZATION CLINIC INFO


During this time the RCMP arrived and were quite supportive.

“Sadly, the City of Cour-tenay dismantled this dis-play within hours of its creation. The message is this: Stephen Harper has said he will not hold an inquiry into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Vote for a party that will!”

■ David Pugliese, the defence reporter for the Ottawa Citizen, reported this week in his Defence Watch blog that several fi rms have deemed 19 Wing to be a good location for the proposed Fixed Wing Search and Rescue training centre.

“Representatives of Team Spartan, including Alenia Aermacchi, direc-tor Roberto Leva and Ian McIntyre, training solu-tions specialist for DRS Technologies, recently an-nounced the team’s plans to establish a FWSAR training centre at 19 Wing Comox as part of its bid for the Fixed Wing Search

and Rescue project”, Pug-liese wrote.

The team is off ering the C-27J Spartan for the RCAF’s fi xed wing search and rescue project.

Airbus Defence, which is off ering Canada the C-295 for FWSAR, is also leaning in that direction. “We’ve not fi nalized that element of our bid yet, but Comox is currently the preferred location,” spokesman Michael Pow-ell told Defence Watch.

Bids are to be submitted by January.

■ WestJet’s fi rst wide-body aircraft takes to the sky.

The airline company’s fi rst Boeing 767-300 ex-tended-range aircraft per-formed its inaugural fl ight this week, departing To-ronto to Calgary.

Featuring a new teal and blue maple leaf-themed logo, which will eventu-ally appear on all WestJet aircraft, the airline’s 767-300s seat 262 guests and have a range of approxi-mately 11 hours. Begin-ning May 2016, WestJet

will begin serving London (Gatwick) on a non-stop basis from six Canadian cities including Vancou-ver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and St. John’s.

■ In Canada, approxi-mately one in four people who are living with HIV are unaware of their infec-tion. Starting October 22, all patients admitted to Campbell River Hospital will be off ered an HIV test as part of their routine ad-missions bloodwork. As with all medical informa-tion and investigations, testing happens once pa-tient consent is given. The initiative, which bega

n in Port Alberni at the beginning of the month, will be expanded to Nanai-mo General Hospital this winter with further Island Health acute care sites to follow.

■ Well, this could be an interesting read. Heritage House publisher Rodger Touchie this week an-nounced plans to publish Christy Clark: Behind the Smile, a biography of Brit-ish Columbia’s 35th pre-mier. “

The book, due in stores by May 2016, will be au-thored by former Okana-gan MLA and BC political insider Judi Tyabji.

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Valley answers the call to cancer care expansionBY MARY LEEEcho Staff

Cancer can affl ict any-one. It knows no bound-aries, is not biased nor discretionary.

According to Health Canada, another Canadi-an will be diagnosed with the disease every three minutes.

Count the number of other lives - the friends and colleagues, relatives and loved ones - aff ected by those suff ering or have suff ered from cancer and the statistics multiply exponentially.

Fortunately, cancer diagnosis and treatment involving chemotherapy is available at St Joseph’s General Hospital and the cancer care team has been able to keep cur-rent with advances in the protocol for treatment with the assistance of the BC Cancer Agency and oncology team in Victoria.

And, with the addition of Telehealth that enables patients to be in touch with health profession-als from off site locations, the cancer care unit at St Joseph’s has grown over the past eight years to become a patient treat-ment center with all the provisions for accessible information, right here in the local area.

In many cases treat-ment provisions and

Leslie Baird, Mayor of Cumberland, receives regular treatments at the St. Joseph’s Cancer Care Unit. Dr. Tanya Austin, oncologist (standing), leads a dedicated team of nurses and care provid-ers including Lindsay James (center).

services at St. Joseph’s havw eliminated the costly, time-consuming and often overwhelming commute to Victoria or Vancouver for the same treatment.

Cumberland Mayor Leslie Baird is a huge proponent for cancer care treatment at home. She visits the care unit every three weeks and will have

to for the rest of her life because of her rare form of infl ammatory breast cancer.

“There are so many advantages for having treatment here at home because you have your family,” shared Mayor Baird. “You need that family support; it is so important.”

When the cancer care

unit opened in 2007, St Joseph’s treated 1,408 patients. Today, ap-proximately 4,600 cancer cases are processed annually. With this aging demographic in the Co-mox Valley that continues to give rise to the number of cancer related cases, the cancer care unit had outgrown its footprint. Treatment chairs were

limited and space was tight for the necessary equipment.

Waiting for the Island Health Comox Valley Hospital to open in 2017 to secure more space would not adequately ad-dress the rising statistic in cancer cases nor allow St. Joseph’s to meet its mandate in delivering safe quality health care services.

Instead, St Joseph’s took a proactive approach with modest and aff ord-able plans for a cancer care expansion budgeted at $85,000. In the spring of 2014, St. Joseph’s Hos-pital Foundation reached out through its household newsletter calling for do-nations to help fund the project.

Renovations began in the fall to increase the existing footprint by 150 square foot using space reallocated from reha-bilitation services rather than having to construct onto the hospital’s exte-rior.

As renovations were underway, the Foundation continued eff orts with its annual head shaving cam-paign with support from local service clubs and the community.

while donations steadi-ly residents in the Comox Valley answered the call through the spring mail-ing.

In total, $245,000 was raised thus allowing the cancer care unit expan-sion to be fully funded by donations from the com-munity.

The expansion was completed in June 2015 resulting in a spacious area to accommodate fi ve treatment chairs comfort-ably, a patient center area and room for the addi-tional equipment.

The room itself is amaz-ing,” commented Mayor Baird.

“And the team here are so friendly. They really make you feel so comfort-able and with the upgrade now I can actually have privacy. It’s much more relaxing.”

“These changes will ensure sustainable healthcare in the area of cancer support is avail-able for our community for the next three years until cancer diagnostic and treatment moves to the new Island Health Comox Valley Hospital in 2017,” explained Lynn Dashkewytch, Founda-tion Executive Director. “Through community support, St. Joseph’s can make the changes needed to ensure our friends, families and loved ones battling cancer continue to have the best available care here and now at St. Joseph’s General Hospi-tal.”

Donations help fund vital service that lets patients get treatments, consultations closer to home


#UsedHelpsA division of


First impressions are lasting impressions so when it comes to an orga-nization’s website, visual appeal best be made on that initial click.

Town of Comox coun-cillors feel they are miss-ing the mark in captivat-ing audiences online. As valuable as the current content is, council mem-bers and staff agree the appearance and accessi-bility is not ideal nor is the website optimal for tour-ists looking for relevant and specifi c information about Comox.

These concerns were addressed with an online survey asking respon-dents for feedback on the website’s current func-tionality and attractive-ness, results with which could then be used as a benchmark for improve-ments. Responses in-cluded comments that the site is boring and lacks enough social media in-teraction to stay current particularly in promoting

tourism.Website redevelopment

was identifi ed as a priority in the 2015-2019 Strategic Plan by the new coun-cil that came into offi ce following the November 2014 municipal elections. The Town of Comox struck an ad hoc com-mittee July 22 consist-ing of Councillors Russ Arnott, Ken Grant and Barbara Price along with Don Jacques, Director of Finance, who met over the course of three weeks to provide direction on the redevelopment of the Town’s website.

“We looked at many diff erent website and took components from several that would meet our needs and achieve the objectives we’re striving for,” shared Councillor Russ Arnott.”

Findings on the research were presented at the Au-gust 19 Council Meeting and unanimous approval was granted for staff to solicit proposals from lo-cal website developers. A total of 13 recommen-dations were presented ranging from improve-

ments to the appearance of Town’s homepage and functionality of the drop down menu to technical enhancements including an event calendar and links to the Town’s social media.

A Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued August 20 to local fi rms involved in web design. Three re-sponses were received from Proxenos Consult-

ing, nrichmedia and a joint proposal between MEDIUrMare Interactive, Dialect and the Update Company.

In the RFP, proponents were asked to provide pricing for three optional features: an online pay-ment module, a web forms module and a social me-dia push module to allow website news items to be uploaded to Facebook and

Twitter.Staff may award a con-

tract placed out to ten-der without prior Council approval but given the Council’s interest and sen-sitivity to the project, the three proposals and a rec-ommendation for the win-ning bid were presented at the October 21 Council meeting

Donald Jacques, Direc-tor of Finance presented

his evaluations of the three with the recommen-dation to award the con-tract to Proxenos, as he believes is the best value for money. All the option-al modules are included in their proposal powered by a superior content man-agement system. It is also noted in Jacques’s report to Council that although the web developer, Mat-thew Meredith, has lim-ited experience, he was impressed with another of his projects, the Comox Fire Department website

Council originally set a $35,000 budget for et project, largely based on funding allocated for similar projects in other municipalities. Coun-cil agreed to reallocate $5,000 from the budget to help create an online map viewer, a feature that was widely popular among the requests from survey respondents. Proxenos’ proposal came well with-in the allotted budget at $25,000.

Council members voted unanimously in favor of the recommendation.

Comox moving a step closer to its new online look

Sample mock-up of what the redesigned Town of Comx website might potentially look like were presented in the Request for Proposal. In total, three responses were received. The contract was awarded following Council’s unanimous approval for Proxenos, a locally-based web de-veloper.


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It is this time of the year again – Halloween. Exciting as it may be for our children, the number of people calling into the Animal Poison Control Centre increas-es sharply during the week of Halloween. The most common hazards for our pets include the ingestion of chocolate, candies including wrappers, raisins, and even Halloween décor.

Chocolate is a known toxin to dogs and cats. Most often dogs are aff ected, as they are drawn to the smell and taste of choco-late. The toxic compounds in

chocolate are methylxanthines which are similar to caff eine.

The rule of thumb is that the darker and more bitter the choc-olate, the more poisonous it is. One ounce of Baker’s chocolate can make a 50 lb dog sick! Milk chocolate is less toxic, and white chocolate rarely causes any poi-sonings. Signs to watch out for are vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy or agitation, and an increased heart rate. Seizures and even death can result in severe cases.

Eating large amounts of can-dy which are high in sugar and

fats can lead to pancreatitis, an often painful infl ammation of the pancreas. Mild cases may lead to vomiting and diarrhea only, while severe cases can involve prolonged in-hospital treatments with the possibility of organ damage. Eaten wrap-pers can cause intestinal block-ages, especially in smaller dogs and cats.

Mini-boxes of raisins, a healthy treat for people, can lead to kidney damage in dogs and possibly cats when ingest-ed. Some dogs are more suscep-

tible than others and become very ill even on very few rai-sins (or grapes) eaten. Signs to watch out for are vomiting, diar-rhea, lethargy, abdominal pain, and kidney failure.

The chewing on and ingestion of glow sticks and glow jewel-lery do not tend to be life-threat-ening, but can lead to irritations in the mouth and esophagus. Signs include drooling, foaming at the mouth, and gastrointesti-nal upsets. If ingested, intestinal blockages can also result.

Do not dye your pet’s fur – the

dye may be non-harmful to hu-mans, but it can still make your pet ill especially when it is be-ing licked off . If you choose to dress up your dog, make sure he or she is comfortable in the costume. We may think our pet looks cute, but your dog may not like it at all. Make sure your pets are in a safe environment if you expect fi reworks to go off in the neighbourhood.

Above all, have a Happy andSafe Halloween – and keep your pets safe.

- Shamrock Veterinary Clinic

Make sure your pets don’t get sick, or freak out, this Halloween

Local youth fi lm makers win big awardBY MARY LEEEcho Staff

The overwhelming re-sponse to “Charlie” has reached new levels win-ning three young talented fi lm makers from Cum-berland Best Film in its category at the Vancouver International Film Festi-val (VIFF).

“Charlie”, a stop mo-tion fi lm, was selected as one of 19 fi lms from 700 entries worldwide to be screened at the Reel Youth Film Festival as part of VIFF in early October. Four fi lms screened were created by youth under 19 from Vancouver and sur-rounding regions includ-ing Vancouver Island and were put to a vote among audience members for best local picture.

Charlie earned the pres-tigious title among the four productions by pop-ular vote leaving its cre-ators Tao Werner, Kaya Fox and Maya Willard Ste-pan completely shocked.

The young fi lmmakers hadn’t had a chance to take in all the excitement of being at the festival let alone be up for an award when they found them-selves on stage interacting with the audience.

“They asked what equipment did you use and someone would say an isolating mic, a T3, a Macbook, and we just said

iPhone 5, about 250 sheets of paper and an unknown amount of pencils that we continually lost”, said Maya about what she credits t their win to. “I honestly think it was the medium that we used and because it was so diff erent from everything else.”

“One of the amazing facets of this fi lm is the fact that they were able to use Shane’s poem, that it was fi lmed with an iPhone and the animations were done by a 12 year old”, said

Reel Youth Director Mark Vonesch. “Shows you that you don’t need fan-cy equipment to make a fi lm. Just be creative and have passion.”

“Charlie” is set to the voice of Shane Koyczan, internationally re-nowned spoken word artist, poet and author, who credits Charlie Chaplin as his inspiration to write and to speak his convictions.

“I want to take a moment to thank the three young fi lm makers from

Cumberland, BC who made a short fi lm out of a piece I wrote about Chaplin,” commented Shane Koyc-zan in a Facebook post. “I’m fl oored by what these three young artists have created. I look forward to see-ing what comes next from each of them. In whichever way they choose to use their voices, I look forward to hearing their voices grow.”

Werner’s creative passion for fi lm making has also been noted by a

panel of judges for the Take Me Outside Student Video Contest earning him the 2015 grand prize winner for his fi lm “Fall-ing In Love With the Out-doors.”

Tao’s mother explains that her son had learned about the competition within days of the dead-line, and promptly went to work on his latest produc-tion.

“I had to create an idea pretty quick but once I got that, I started fi lming and sent it just in time. The night before we left for this [VIFF], I got an email congratulating me for being the grand prize winner,” commented Tao. “So that was pretty excit-ing and now they will send me and my family out to Banff .”

Falling In Love With the Outdoors will screen at the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival October 30th.

One of them continues to fascinate audiences, earning a new award for an outdoors fi lm

I had to create an idea pretty quick but once I got that, I started fi lming and sent it just in time ... and now they will send me and my family out to Banff .”

TAO WERNERAward-winning fi lm maker

Tao Werner, Kaya Fox and Maya Willard Stepan, local fi lm makers attend the premier screening of their fi lm Charlie at the Reel Youth Vancouver International Film Festival October 1st. (Credit: Reel Youth)

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HOME Sweet HOME

By Mary LeeEcho Staff

Jazz Parmar opened his new furni-ture business with one clear goal in mind, to off er quality product for the best value. After all, furni-ture should be an investment built to last long after the purchase. Top quality and aff ordability is what customers will fi nd at Island Home Furniture. Owned and op-erated by Parmar the store cele-brated its Grand Opening in April. Although the store is still young, Parmar marks 10 years in the furniture business this year and surrounds himself with seasoned sales representatives who all have equal if not more years of experi-ence in the industry. “We focus on top notch quality and customer follow-up,” shares Parmar. Staff aim to match cus-tomers with best products for their needs and not just what is on sale.” Island Home Furniture fea-tures several reputable Canadian manufacturers including Palliser and Stylus. One of the Palliser’s unique products only carried in

the Valley by Island Home Fur-niture is the My Comfort line of sofa beds. Built for simplicity and ergonomically engineered, these sofa beds revolutionize the old pull out couch with the agonizing metal bar to a versatile piece of furniture with a whole new level of comfort. The same comfort found in Island Home Furniture’s larg-est selection of recliners in the Valley, many with lift capability to cater to the growing senior popu-lation. Parmar is particularly proud of his unique mattress product line by Kingsdown and is the only furni-ture store to have the bedMATCH computer system created by the manufacturer that matches an individual to a specifi c mattress comfort level. Using a diagnostic system, bed-MATCH identifi es the optimal postural support and pressure re-lief for body type and sleep posi-tion and can recommend blended sleep solutions for those who share a bed. “It takes the guess work out of selecting the right mattress,” ex-plains Parmar. “In my 10 years in

the business I’ve never seen any-thing like it.” “These [products] give the true message about what we are all,” shares Parmar. “But you don’t need to break the bank to buy quality.”Island Home Furniture’s line of Kingsdown mattresses, available in all sizes including for recre-ational vehicles, are on sale up to fi fty per cent off regular price through to the end of November. But diagnostic test alone is worth the visit into the store.

New Valley furniture business backed by years of experience, superior in quality brand and design

Jazz Parmar brings 10 years of experience in the industry to his new store Island Home Furniture. Located

at 6-2966 Kilpatrick Avenue, the store features a large variety of BC-made

home furnishings, quality brand names and unique products not found any-

where else in the Valley including the Kingsdown mattress line and bedMATCH

diagnostic sleep system designed to match customers with an optimal

product for comfort and posture support.


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If boots, a warm hat and a tuned-up snow blower are the only items on your winter preparation list, your home maintenance plan may need a make-over. These simple home maintenance projects can help lower your energy bills, prevent more costly repairs and/or increase the lifespan of your home.

1. Heating & Ventilation — Examine your fi replace and chimney system to ensure that no soot or creosote has col-lected. Any cracks or voids could po-tentially cause a fi re. Before you turn the furnace or boiler on, replace the air fi lter and hire a professional to inspect the unit more thoroughly. These steps will improve the effi ciency and life of your furnace and will ensure stable in-door air quality.

2. Seal Windows and Doors — If not properly sealed, windows and doors can be a major culprit for heat loss. To keep the warm air inside, inspect the weather-stripping around your home’s windows and doors for leaks, rot or de-cay. Repair or replace structural fram-ing, and caulk inside and out, if neces-sary.

3. Insulate well — One of the easiest and most eff ective defenses against heat loss is proper insulation. Prevent cold drafts from entering and the loss of heated air through basement head-ers, which, when left exposed, can make your furnace work harder. Look for a moisture-resistant product off er-ing high thermal performance, such

as Roxul Comfortbatt insulation. Thistype of mineral wool insulation makesinstallation simple. All that’s neededis a serrated blade or bread knife. Cutthe batt to fi t the cavity and press intoplace. The insulation will help improveenergy effi ciency as soon as it’s in place and provide savings over the lifetimeof your home. Comfortbatt can also be used to top or replace old attic insula-tion. Aim for an R-50 or a depth of 16inches.

4. Backyard Care — Save your prop-erty from potential damage by trim-ming overgrown trees and shrubs to prevent ice-laden branches fromthrashing against electrical wires andyour home’s exterior. Drain/shut off any exterior faucets and sprinkler sys-tems to prevent freezing. Ensure rainor snow drains away from the house to avoid foundation problems.

5. Roof and Gutters — Inspect your roof for shingles that are warped, dam-aged or even missing to prevent a fu-ture leak. Use roofi ng cement and acaulking gun to seal joints where wa-ter could penetrate, such as around thechimney, skylights or vent pipes. Makesure that your gutters and downspouts are securely fastened. Downspoutsshould extend at least fi ve feet awayfrom the home to prevent fl ooding.

When it comes to preventative main-tenance, a little time and eff ort can savethousands in energy costs and repair bills over the lifetime of your home.

Get your home fall and winter

ready with 5 simple projects

The CVRD toilet rebate program will help residents use water more efficiently. Replacing a 13 litre

toilet with a dual flush toilet or high-efficiency (4.8 or less) toilet could reduce indoor water use

by approximately 18 per cent. Homes with older 20 litre flush toilets could experience even

larger reductions.

Only high efficiency (4.8 litre or less) and dual flush toilets are eligible. A maximum of two toilets

rebates per installation address, including those toilets rebates received under the 2009-2014

programs, will be accepted.

Old toilets must be taken to the Comox Valley waste management centre (2400 Pidgeon Lake Road,

Cumberland) for the proper disposal and date-stamped receipt.

The toilet rebate program applies to homes that are connected to the Comox Valley water

system including the Town of Comox, City of Courtenay and the Arden, Comox Valley, England

Road,Marsden/Camco, and Greaves Crescent water local service areas. A limited number of

rebates are available for the program.

To download the 2015 eligibility requirements and the rebate form visit

www.comoxvalleyrd.ca/rebates or call 250-334-6000.

WATER-GUZZLING TOILET

= $75 REBATE

REPLACE YOUR WATER-GUZZLING TOILET (13 LITRE OR MORE) WITH A NEW WATER-EFFICIENT MODEL AND RECEIVE A $75 REBATE FROM THE COMOX VALLEY REGIONAL DISTRICT (CVRD).

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Be it a velvety chocolate milkshake, refreshing fruit smoothie, or a creamy butternut squash soup, the Wolf Gourmet blender will craft what you crave. Exceptional performance, responsive speed control, and a unique design for quiet blending are just a few of the features that will make your time in the kitch-en a pleasure. Create sublime, blended drinks at your next cocktail party with fi ngertip convenience, leaving you more time to enjoy your guests.

Blend whole foods for a nutritious beverage ex-perience like no other. This essential multi-tasking

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Recreation Centre (CRI) at 4:00, before parading down Dunsmuir, stopping at businesses for candy and other sur-prises. Be sure to stop by the Cumber-land Library for a free book before head-ing back to the Cumberland Recreation Centre for hotdogs and juice, and to visit the ‘Spooky Haunted Coal Mine’ at the Museum, open until 6:30pm!

Comox Halloween Parade • Oct 31 from 4:30 - 6pm.HALLOWEEN ROW • Join us in and around Duncan Avenue in Downtown Courte-nay on Saturday October 31 for events for the whole family. 3:00 - 4:00 pm, games and activities including: Music & freeze Dance; Flash Mob (theme Ghost-busters). Pumpkin Carving Contest, Hot

Cider from the Art Gallery, Enter into cos-tume contest for children’s and pet cos-tumes, Hoopy Hour! Come hula hoop with Tracey Clarke. 3:00 - 5:00 pm: Books for Treats at the Courtenay Library. 4:00 - 4:45 pm: Trick or Treat down 5th Street in Courtenay Recreation’s Halloween Parade. 4:45 pm: Halloween Party at the Courtenay Recreation Lewis Centre. En-

joy carnival games and treats. 5:00 pm: Zombie Walk begins on 4th Street (spon-sored by InCON Family Gaming conven-tion). 5:00 - 8:00 pm: Half the Fright Night at the LINC Youth Centre’s Haunted House featuring a spooky Haunted Hos-pital. 300 Old Island Highway. $2/person or $5/family. 8:00 - 9:00 pm: Halloween

(Continued on page 29)COMOX HALLOWEEN FAMILY-FEST • Friday, October 30 & Saturday 31, 3:00-6:00 PM. Hallowe’en FamilyFest is a two day celebration of all things KID. Dressing up in character, playing games, creating art, imaging crafts, and going on a Trick or Treat Treasure Hunt by following a map all through the town, collecting Treasure & Treats along the way! Friday a visit with Vinnie the Vampire! Sat-urday, pictures with the Gla-cier KingS! And crafts, and games galore!EVERGREEN CLUB FRIDAY NIGHT DANCE • Let’s celebrate Hal-loween together! We will cel-ebrate Halloween on Octo-ber 30th with costumes and door prizes. We had a great turn out last year! So, if you like dressing up, here’s your chance for some fun! The Dan Hughes Band will be travelling up to Courtenay to entertain you. It all goes down in the Rotary Hall at Courtenay Recreation’s Fil-berg Centre from 7:30-10:30 pm. Non-members are wel-come for $9 and our regular members for $7. FMI call the Filberg office at 250-338-1000.SPOOKY HAUNTED COAL MINE • On Friday, October 30th the Spooky Haunted Coal Mine at Cumberland Museum comes to life between 5:00 – 7:00pm for older youth and adults, with special ghostly interpretive appearances. Join us… if you dare! Then, at 7pm, join Meaghan “the Curse” Cursons for a guided walking tour of the Village, featuring tragedies and tales from Cumberland’s past. The truth is darker than fiction. The Spooky Haunted Coal Mine is open by donation October 21st to November 1st. The guided walking tour is $12, or $10 for youth and seniors, and $2-off for Muse-um members. Space is limit-ed so reserve a spot by call-ing 250-336-2445, emailing [email protected] or visiting the Mu-seum & Archives in person. Pearl Ellis Gallery in Comox COURTENAY LEGION • Meat draws every Friday, 5-7 pm. COMOX LEGION • Meat draws every Friday, 3 p.m. Open to all Legion members and signed in guests. Friday is still drop in darts night 7.30 pm toe line, $2.25 per per-son.

CUMBERLAND TRICK OR TREAT PARADE • On Hallowe’en Eve, October 31st, join the annual Trick or Treat Pa-rade in Downtown Cumber-land. Trick or Treaters gath-er outside the Cumberland

31 SATURDAY

WHAT'SON

30 FRIDAY

In the Comox Valley


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Forty years of celebration for Telethon


The annual Children’s Telethon Sunday, Novem-ber 1 will have a slight vari-ance from the program in previous years. Eff orts will be made to celebrate 40 years of contributors and acknowledge the many past donors from organi-zations, service clubs and individuals throughout the community. Without their generous contribu-tions over the decades, the Comox Valley Child Development Association (CVCDA) would not be where it is today.

Neither would two Val-ley moms who benefi t from the many services, equipment and support the centre off ers them day in and day out.

Kelsey Ruttan and Jana Letain have frequented the centre located on Cliff e Avenue and Third Street in Courtenay ever since their young children were babies.

Now toddlers, Ruttan and Leitan have much to be thankful for in their development and in the peace of mind their par-ents get knowing their child is receiving some of the best therapy using some of the fi nest state-of-the-art equipment.

“Sanity,” exclaims Rut-tan in describing what the centre provides for her. “They have been a coun-selor, a friend, a shoulder to cry on”

Talia Ruttan was born premature and suff ers from cerebral palsy.

Her fi rst three months were spent in hospitals down-island. While at Victoria General staff set Kelsey and husband James up to receive ser-vices at CVDCA. Today, Talia, who will celebrate her third birthday in Janu-ary, benefi ts remarkably from in-house therapists at CVCDA for physio, oc-cupational and speech therapy.

Mason Letain also has cerebral palsy as a result of a stroke at birth that went undetected at the time. He doesn’t have full use of one of his hands and hasn’t since infancy, an indicator that prompt-ed the Leitans to look a little further into his con-dition.

Upon learning about his health they immediately sought assistance from a child development cen-tre in Maple Ridge before moving to the Comox Val-ley.

“I can’t speak highly enough about early in-tervention and the child

development centre,” remarks Letain. “They have been amazing here. It’s such a big part of our lives.”

“Don’t be afraid to come here. Don’t be afraid to talk and be honest with them,” encourages Ruttan of other families needing resources and support in raising children with de-velopmental issues or dis-abilities.

CVCDA provides servic-es for over 800 local chil-

dren per year ranging in age from infancy through to 19 years old. These services are free, funded in part from the annual telethon and from the pro-vincial government and through donors. Funds support the work of the CVCDA and enable the nonprofi t organization to purchase some of the lat-est equipment for therapy and development includ-ing a sensory room, which opened in June 2014.

Both of their children appear on the 2015 Tele-thon 40th Anniversary poster and will be part of the program line-up Sun-day. The telethon runs from noon until 8:00 p.m. at the Sid Williams The-atre and is free to the pub-lic. The 2014 Children’s Telethon raised $85,000, 10 per cent more than the amount raised in 2013. Joanne Schroeder, CVC-DA Executive Director is hoping to break records

this year for the 40th tele-thon anniversary.

“We rely on this moneyfor quality services, sharedSchroeder. We encouragethe public to come join uson Sunday or watch liveon the Shaw communitychannel or streamed onthe internet.”

For more informationabout the CVCDA, visitwww.cvcda.ca, by phone250-338-4288 or on Face-book.

Kelsey and Talia Ruttan are one Comox Valley family of many who benefi t from a variety of services and support offered free of charge by the Child Development Association.

Child Development Centre continues to help kids


Only at Your Local Superstore

Only at Your Local Superstore

ALL LANES OPENSaturdays & Sundays10am - 6pm

Inventory may be augmented for better selection. In-stock merchandise only. Some exclusions may apply, see in store for details. Shop early for best selection.

Exquisite selection of: Silver & Gold Jewellery; Diamond, Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire and Gemstone Jewellery, Watches, Clocks, Giftware and much more!Some of the Lowest Prices in Store History!

www.francisjewellersltd.com

350 - 5th Street, Courtenay BC 250-334-2611

Francis Jewellers Ltd.Store Hours: Mon-Sat 9 am – 5 pmSun. Closed

SALE

Retirement &

Store ClosingStore ClosingStore ClosingAfter more than 80 years serving the Comox Valley area, Francis Jewellers is closing forever!

EVERYTHING MUST BE SOLD

Francis Jewellers Ltd.

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Socks are the most needed but least donated article of clothing for the home-less. The Comox Valley Sock It To ‘Em Project is getting this one handled in the Comox Valley.

Each hand-knit sock purchase from the Comox Valley Sock It To ‘Em Proj-ect provides up to 10 pair of high quality store-bought socks for someone who is homeless or vulnerable in our communi-

ty. This is a way to give a gift that gives many times over. All proceeds from the sale of hand-knit socks go toward buying store-bought socks which are then dis-tributed to those in need by the Care-A-Van -- Comox Valley’s volunteer mobile heath-care unit. The Nursing Centre and Aids Vancouver Island also receive socks for distribution through their communi-ty outreach programs.

Going into our third season of this project, “We have the biggest and most beautiful selection of colourful hand-knit socks, ever,” says the project organizer, Roberta DeDoming.

“With growing participation from gen-erous and skilled volunteer knitters in our community this project is really tak-ing off .”

You’ll fi nd baskets of colourful hand-knit socks at Sock It To ‘Em SALE DAYS held at Zocalo Café at the corner

of Cliff e and 5th Street between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM on the following days: Thursday, November 5th: Friday, No-vember 6th & Saturday, November 7th.

For the best selection please come ear-ly. Each pair is $35 in adult sizes.

Some children’s and infant socks are also available. Cash only please.

Find photos, updates and news on Facebook: Comox Valley Sock It To ‘Em Project or e-mail project organizer Ro-berta DeDoming at: [email protected]

Sock It To ‘Em starts


Remaining lots starting at $162,500

New Home Construction to begin in OctoberCall Jason Andrew at 250-207-0070 for more details.

399 Clubhouse Drive, Courtenay | www.CrownIsle.com

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Enjoy a high standard of living at an affordable price.

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Volunteers have been hard at work, gathering donated books in preparation of the huge Courtenay Rotary Club Book Sale Fundraiser, coming to the Comox Mall November 4-7th.

here you’ll fi nd books in a wide a va-riety of genres as well as DVDs, puzzles, VHS tapes, games, records and collect-ible books.

“This is our biggest fundraiser of the year and we receive incredible donations from the Comox Valley community,” says Rotary Co-Chair Audrey Craig. “ It’s very encouraging to see the line ups of people who come to each sale in support of our projects!”

The sale will be happening 9am-7pm Wednesday to Friday, and Saturday from

9am-5pm. Inventory will be changingdaily so plan to come more than once!The prices are great at just $2 per book,or 3 books for $5 making it easy to stockup on your winter reading list or add toyour collections.

The deal gets even better on Saturday,when you can pick up a Canadian Tirebag at the door and fi ll it up for just $7.

The money collected will support on-going renovations to the CourtenayTrainStation and other community projects.

For more information about the Cour-tenay Rotary Club or how to become amember, visit their website http://por-tal.clubrunner.ca/671 or Facebook pagehttp://www.facebook.com/CourtenayRo-tary.

Rotary book sale next week


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Forum on future of old sawmill siteThe Comox Valley Proj-

ect Watershed Society, with the support of North Island College, is hosting a community forum about the Project Watershed vision for the restoration and long-term conserva-tion of the decommis-sioned Field Sawmill site.

Date: November 3rdLocation: Stan Hagen

Theater, North Island College.

Doors open: 6:45pm. Displays will be present and the forum will start at 7:15 pm.

The forum is an infor-mal community Open House with our support-ers, local stewardship groups and interested members of the general public. We have received support for this project from the City of Courte-nay, the K’omoks First Nation, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and other environmental organiza-tions. We feel that hearing from the local commu-nity is an essential next step and part of our due diligence process for this project.

The objectives of the open house are to:

1. Communicate our

restoration and conservation vision for the property;

2. Gauge from those attending the Open House the level of sup-port for this project in the commu-nity; and

3. Solicit input regarding particu-lar constraints, issues or design features that we should consider.

The program will feature a pre-sentation by Jennifer Sutherst, Proj-ect Watershed staff Biologist and Estuary Coordinator, Tim Ennis, Director Project Watershed and one of the key people involved in the Campbell River Restorations, and Darcy Miller Department of Fisher-

ies and Oceans, Hatchery Manager.Facilitator Sandra Bordon will

moderate a panel to take questions from the audience.

“Every time I give talks locally about our eff orts in the estuary, I get questions relating to the decommissioned Field site and the major eyesore it is for our commu-nity,” comments Paul Horgen Chair of the Board.

“This is an opportunity for the public to give us their feelings and input.

The Comox Valley Project Water-shed Society has been in operation since 1993 and its mission in-

volves environmental stewardship. Our most recent public steward-

ship activities involve shoreline restorations at the Royston Sea-side trail, planting eelgrass in the estuary, and breaching the airpark lagoon.

Forum seating will be made avail-able by RSVP and will be based on a fi rst come fi rst serve basis.

For more information you may visit the Project Watershed web-page at http://projectwatershed.ca/fi elds-sawmill-restoration-vision/.

Please RSVP to Lisa La Rose by email ([email protected]) or phone (250 703-2871. .

Lake Trail Neigh-bourhood Connections(LTNC) extends a anoth-er yummy invitation toour local neighbours, stu-dents, parents and facultyin the Lake Trail and sur-rounding area.

We are cooking up a de-licious pasta dinner withall the fi xings and dessertfor no cost, Thursday, No-vember 5th at Lake TrailSchool (805 WillemarAve) from 5 to 8:00 pm.Please join us!

In addition, there willbe a short Annual Generalmeeting to highlight theyear’s accomplishments,review the offi cial fi nan-cial report and invite inputto upcoming vision/plan-ning sessions.

We are actively seekingnew board members. Weare looking for like-mind-ed community residentsand youth(between 17-21years of age) that live inthe Lake Trail area andare welcomed to standfor a board position. Theboard is a volunteer po-sition, meeting once amonth, and for the occa-sional event.

Lake TrailNeighbourhoodConnectionscooking updinner Nov. 5

Books for Treats is at the Cum-berland library between 4 and 5pm on Saturday, October 31st. Swing by to get your book treat!HALLOWEEN APORKALYPSE PARTY • Saturday October 31, 1pm to late. FREE! Imperial Square (4th at Cliffe), CourtenayCOMOX VALLEY FARMERS MARKET • 9-12 every Saturday at the Na-tive Sons Hall, Courtenay. FMI: Mkt. Mgr. Vickey 250.218-0321 or or www.comoxvalleyfarmer-smarket.com & keep in touch on Facebook.COURTENAY LEGION • Meat draws every Saturday 2-5 p.m. in the lounge. Dancing.COMOX LEGION • Meat draws are held every Saturday 3 p.m. plus Ace of Spades draw.

GHASTLY WALKING TOUR • On Sun-day, November 1st at 4 pm join Dawn Copeman for a ghastly walking tour featuring the noto-rious ghosts that have haunted, and continue to haunt, our co-lourful little village Cumberland. Delve into the haunted pasts of the ILO ILO Theatre, the Bick-le house, Tarbell’s, the house with the twisted chimney, the old hospital and more. $12, or $10 for youth and seniors, and $2 off for Museum members. Space is limited so reserve a spot by calling 250-336-2445, emailing [email protected] or visiting the Museum & Archives in person. ST. THOMAS TRADITIONAL ANGLI-

CAN CHURCH • Invites you to worship with us each Sunday at 11 am. 440 England Ave., Courtenay with kind thanks to Piercy’s Mt. Washington Fu-neral Chapel for the use of their facility. Fr. George Daley 250-871-6782, [email protected] National Website: www.angli-cancatholic.ca

EVERGREEN CLUB WHIST • Come join us every Monday (doesn’t run on Statutory Holidays) for a fun night of Whist. Come ear-ly to sign up. It takes place at 7:30 pm in the Rotary Hall of Courtenay Recreation’s Flor-ence Filberg Centre. Only $2.00 a person and you must be an Evergreen Club member. 20 hands of play, door prizes, snacks and good fun will be had by all. New players wel-come. FMI call 250-338-1000 or check out the website www.evergreenclub.meCRIBBAGE • Every Monday night, 7:00, at the Royston Hall, cor-ner of Old Island Highway and Royston Road. No need to bring a partner. FMI: 250-334-1883.LADIES AUXILIARY DROP-IN BINGO • Comox Legion Ladies Auxil-iary Drop-in Bingo, upper hall. Doors open 6 pm, bingo 7 p.m.

COMOX VALLEY WOOD CARVERS • If

you are interested in any type of wood carving please join us at the Royston Community Hall every Tuesday from 9:30 AM to 3 PM for a day of carving and learning about carving. No ex-perience necessary. FMI call Al at 250-331-0156 or Jim at 250-339-5350.DUPLICATE BRIDGE • Every Tues-day at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m., Comox Seniors Centre.

COMOX VALLEY HOSPICE SOCI-ETY • Annual General Meet-ing, Wednesday, November 4, 7:00pm, Best Western Westerly Hotel, Cliffe Avenue, Courtenay.World Community Film Night • Is thrilled to announce that film-maker Damien Gillis will attend the screening of Fractured Land on Wednesday, November 4 at 7 pm at the North Island Col-lege Theatre, Courtenay. This screening is co-sponsored by Eatmore Sprouts & Greens. Admission is by donation. Ev-eryone is welcome. For more information: 250 337-5412PLAY BRIDGE • Every Wednes-day at 7:00 pm at the Royston Hall, 3902 Old Island Hwy and Royston Road. FMI: 250-334-1883 or roystonhall.com and on Facebook at Royston Com-munity ClubFUN DARTS • 1 p.m. on Wednes-days at the Courtenay Legion. More players (Legion members and their signed-in guests) al-ways welcome.

LOST FAMILIES FOUND • Everyone welcome. Monthly Genealogy meeting Nov. 5th, 7-9 pm in the Campbell River Maritime Heri-tage Centre. This month’s pre-senter is retired Colonel Jon Ambler, manager of the Comox Air Force Museum, who will share the amazing resources of the museum to help us in our research. The following day, Fri-day, Nov. 6th, there will be a tour of the Comox Air Force at 10:00 a.m. Car pooling will be offered for those who sign up. Library open 6-7 before meeting. For info, call Janice 250 203-0585. Campbell River Genealogy So-ciety. http://www.rootsweb.an-cestry.comTHERAPEUTIC RELAXATION PRO-GRAM FOR PERSONS WITH CANCER IN THEIR LIVES • Thursdays, 3-4 p.m., Nursing Centre, 615 10th St., Courtenay. Free. Spon-sored by BC Cancer Founda-tion, BC Cancer Agency, Pacif-ic Therapy and Consulting. FMI: Diane Davies 250-338-2700.THERAPEUTIC RELAXATION PRO-GRAM FOR PERSONS EXPERIENC-ING CHRONIC PAIN OR ILLNESS • Thursdays, 1:15-2:30 p.m., Nursing Centre, 615 10th St. Free. Sponsored by the Nurs-ing Centre. FMI: Diane Davie 250-338-2700.

CHRISTMAS TEA AND BAZAAR •

The Comox United Church Women will be holding their annual Christmas Tea and Ba-zaar on Saturday, Nov. 7 from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, at 250 Beach Drive in Comox. There will be a great variety of baking, jams and jellies, sewing, knit-ting, crafts, books, CDs, DVDs, games and a Treasure Table with many items that would make wonderful gifts. The Knit-ting Club of the church will be selling their knitted goods as well. There will be tea, coffee and goodies for people to en-joy as well. FMI: 250-339-4229.COMOX SENIORS CENTRE PANCAKE BREAKFAST • Saturday, Nov. 7, 9 am to noon, $5. Also book and bake sale, crafts, white el-ephants, quilt raffle and much more. Don’t miss it. 1801 Beau-fort Ave., Comox.

HUMAN RIGHTS TALK • Thursday, November 12, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. Co-mox United Church, 250 Beach Drive, Comox. Debbie Hub-bard and Dean Reidt will share their stories and experiences from their time there as human rights observers with the Ecu-menical Accompaniment Pro-gram in Palestine and Israel, a program of the World Council of Churches. Light refreshments will be served. Questions?? Contact Debbie by email at: [email protected]



Costume Contest @ Games & Grounds. Call the Courtenay Recreation Lewis Centre for more information at 250-338-5371.HALLOWEEN PARADE AND PARTY • Join Courtenay Recreation’s Halloween Parade and Party on October 31. This fun event is geared to 3 - 8 years with adult.4 pm, Parade down 5th Street (Meet on Duncan Av-enue). 4:45 pm: Party at the Courtenay Recreation Lew-is Centre featuring carnival games and prizes. More infor-mation: 250-338-5371BOOKS FOR TREATS • Is back this Hallowe’en in Comox, Cum-berland, and Courtenay! Vol-unteers and librarians will be handing out books to children in Cumberland, Courtenay, and Comox. In Courtenay, make the library one of your down-town parade stops – come by and choose a book treat on Sat-urday, October 31st between 3 and 5pm. In Comox, Books for Treats volunteers will be in the Comox Mall on Friday, October 30th, from 3 to 5pm. Come at 3pm to listen to a spooky story read by Comox librarian, Nancy Duncan, and then choose your book treat. In Cumberland,

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Residential property variance permit casts shadow on unhappy neighboursBY MARY LEEEcho Staff

Town Council heard from several delegates at the October 21 meeting, many of whom attended to plead their case on how best to build a house on the residential property at 85 Jane Place in Comox.

Two neighboring prop-erty owners above on Beaufort Avenue are not pleased about the plans that Colin and Sandra Eves have to construct a home on their waterfront lot.

The narrow and irregu-lar shaped lot and its to-pography limits both the size and confi guration of a residential dwelling and requires some thinking outside the box in its de-sign.

In the Eves’ case, it also calls for a great deal of consideration toward their neighbours. The lot, zoned R1.1 Single Family sat vacant for many years. Except for a small cabin that is being used in the interim as the primary residence, the lot, located beside the Regional Dis-trict sewage pump station, is undeveloped.

The Town of Comox Zoning Bylaw outlines the required setbacks for a residential lot. Meet-ing these measurements would limit the footprint at 85 Jane Place to a small triangular portion of the lot forcing them to build as high as 9 meters, ex-plained John Gower, de-signer, at council.

However, when factor-ing in the waterfront view enjoyed by the neigh-boring property owners, height is an issue. Eves and Gower came up with an option they felt was the least intrusive and optimizes the unusual lot

footprint. Their solution is a one-

storey, 1,715 square foot single-family dwelling. To facilitate construction of their design, an appli-cation for Development Variance Permit (DVP) was required.

Eves’ variance applica-tion addresses a rear set-back (7.5 meters to 2.4 meters) that, if approved, will allow him to construct a dwelling on the narrow portion of the lot parallel to the shoreline and close to the backyards of his Beaufort neighbors.

A second application for Development Permit and a Flood Plain Exemption was submitted to request a reduction in the mini-mum setback from the natural boundary (visible high water mark).

The second application was accompanied by a geotechnical report in ac-cordance with the Flood Plain Exemption bylaw.

Building plans and ap-plications for variance were submitted to the Town of Comox in antici-pation of being brought to Council for approval in August.

Neighbours were in-formed in February of the proposed building site and the application for variances as part of the application process.

Beaufort neighbors wor-ry that the rear setback will encroach on their pri-vacy and thereby reduce their property value.

The terrain to the im-mediate north (backyards of the Beaufort lots) rises sharply and then slopes toward Beaufort Avenue leaving a portion of their outdoor livable space on the down slope.

The variance also has the potential to signifi -cantly reduce the existing sunlight that casts onto their properties, noted in Town of Comox Planning

Report to council by Mar-vin Kamenz, Municipal Planner.

In the report, Kamenz discloses that the ap-plicant addresses these concerns through a com-bination of topography, building siting, height, and design.

Eves felt that the closer the dwelling is to the toe of the slope, the better the sight lines for their upslope neighbors and therefore he opted for a height signifi cantly lower than R1.1 zone maximum - a variance option that they felt was the least in-trusive.

Neighbors couldn’t dis-agree more stating that the variances are extreme and the Eves were fully aware what they were get-ting into when they pur-chased the lot and the variances are eighty per cent off from a conform-ing building site.


The south-east facing view of the lot at 85 Jane Place shows the narrow land upon which Colin and Sandra Eves plan to build their one-storey dwelling. The home will run parallel to the shoreline abutting on the toe of the slope of the backyard properties on Beaufort Avenue with a 2.4 meters rear setback. The existing cabin (right) is currently their interim residence and will be removed, replaced by a detached carport with main house extending to the left. Council approved the variance permits application with a condition of a 5.75 meter height restriction.

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“In the case of this property, there aren’t technical barriers to using the conforming building site,” expressed the neighbors in briefi ng note to the Town of Comox, dated 14 October.

“We believe the proposed plan is based on personal preference for the location of his house. Allowing the development to go ahead as submitted will increase the use and value of Mr. Eves’ property while reducing the use and value of our proper-ties.”

Neighbors also object to the fl ood plain exemption and feel that it is inconsistent with the Environmental Policies of the Offi cial Community Plan (OCP) that states the Town will consider changes to the Flood Plain bylaw to address the im-pact of climate change.

“Granting such large bylaw variances is not good public policy,” neighbours ex-pressed in their October 14 briefi ng note. “How can property owners feel confi dent investing in Comox if they can’t rely on the bylaws being applied to adjacent properties?”

During the council meeting, the con-cerned neighbors asked for a two-week delay on issuing any variance permits so that they could seek greater clarity on the proposed height of the dwelling as it was inconsistent in two reports they re-ceived from the Municipal Planner.

Discrepancy was a result of conditions the Town of Comox fi rst placed on the variance application to restrict the dwell-ing height to 5.65 meters.

The condition was amended to 5.75 meters to allow a greater margin of error if necessary.

The delegations’ presentations were followed Eves and Gower and by the Mu-nicipal Planner who gave further clarity and a defi nitive answer to the height of

the subject dwelling. Kamenz explained at the council meet-

ing that the planning report recommen-dations have given consideration to the variances application based on the unique siting constraints of the property while striking a balance between prop-erty enjoyment and privacy of the neigh-bors adjacent and of the subject property owner.

Councillor Barbara Price made a mo-tion to delay a vote to accept the recom-mendations on the variance expressing that she would prefer to know there is a level of comfort in the neighborhood now that better clarifi cation has been given to the height conditions. Council-lor Marg Grant seconded the motion but it was defeated.

Council then discussed a motion to vote on the variances to the property

“It’s seems to me there’s not much room and it would be worse for the neighborhood should they build there. The restriction is actually 9 meters so you could go up”, said Counc. Ken Grant.

“Another thing is they wanted some assurance of height and in the recom-mendation that the planner gave us, the assurance is there. I think he has gone out of his way to conform this to the neighborhood and make it so that it fi ts nicely so I would be in favor of this rec-ommendation.”

Councillors Marg Grant and Hugh MacKinnon agreed with the neighbors that these variances are extreme and that a two-week delay would give all parties concerned a chance to digest the correct information going forward in application for variance. The motion passed, Marg Grant and MacKinnon opposing.

Councillor Maureen Swift was dis-missed from discussion and did not par-ticipate in the motion due to confl ict of interest.

Firm directly hired for Dunsmuir projectBY MICHAEL BRIONESEcho Staff

The Village of Cumberland council has agreed to hire McElhanney Engineering Ltd. to do the detailed design work and construction management of the Dun-smuir Avenue upgrades.

Staff recommended the contract be di-rectly awarded to McElhanney because of its indepth knowledge of the village’s infrastructure. Manager of operations Rob Crisfeld said this will save the proj-ect time and money.

Earlier this year, McElhanney did the pre-design for the Dunsmuir Avenue upgrades including storm and sewer separation. Since a portion of the design work has already been done, there will be

project effi ciencies and savings if McEl-hanney completes the design, according to Crisfeld.

McElhanney also authored the Sani-tary and Storm Sewer Master Plans for the village as well as delivered a num-ber of past projects. Staff told council, McElhanney has the ability to start the project soon and call tenders within four months.

The time to put out a request for pro-posals often causes delay in the design and the start of construction schedule signifi cantly, adding cost to the project.

The village has exemptions from a call for proposals in its purchasing policy. They are allowed to hire a contractor that has a unique understanding and knowl-edge of local systems and circumstances.



The Village of Cumberland learned some valuable lessons from the recent boil water no-tice that was issued due to the presence of E-Coli in the water distribution system.

It has led to staff employing adjustments on procedures and policies to ensure safe water is being provided to the commu-nity. That includes updating the

water emergency response plan, working with the CVRD on bet-ter communication planning be-cause of confusion over the im-pact on Royston area residents, and investing in a real-time on-line water monitoring unit to be installed at the village offi ce to accurately determine chlorine residual levels at any time of the day.

The village still doesn’t know for sure the source of the E-Coli bacteria that was drawn from

samples taken from site No. 3. The reading was low but Island Health ordered a boil water no-tice to protect the public. The notice was advertised on the ra-dio, newspapers, social media, as well as notices posted at key locations in Cumberland.

The watermains were fl ushed and following that two addition-al samples 24 hours apart were taken from the site to ensure the bacteria was out of the system or disinfected. Samples turned

out negative but Island Health ordered additional sampling from other locations which de-layed the lifting of the advisory by another day.

Staff reported E-Coli does oc-cur in the surface water supply and is occasionally detectable. It can also re-appear within the water distribution system which is why the village maintains a minimum level of 0.2 ppm of chlorine to neutralize it. But the gas chlorine injection system

was not functioning well and gave a reading lower than nor-mal chlorine levels, which staff stated more than likely led to the existence of E-Coli in the distribution system.

Staff will look at using exist-ing funds already in the budget to install an on-line chlorine re-sidual monitor and link it to the village’s existing SCADA system so that they can be notifi ed im-mediately if chlorine levels drop below 0.2ppm.

Cumberland learns lessons from recent boil water event

By Michael BrionesEcho Staff

Cumberland council and staff have raised serious concerns about the draft Comox Valley Regional District’s Watershed Protection Plan.

Staff described some of the identifi ed risks and recommen-dations in the plan to be unrea-sonable and diffi cult to imple-ment.

The WPP draft was completed by Aqua-Tex Scientifi c Consult-ing Ltd with the assistance of the Comox Lake Watershed Ad-visory Group, which consisted of land owners, regulators and technical advisers.

The CVRD commissioned the report to meet a requirement in its water licence that will work to-wards achieving Island Health’s 4321 drinking water criteria. The objective is to establish a man-agement guideline for Comox Lake to ensure the long-term protection of drinking water at the highest possibly quality.

The plan was referred to the three Comox Valley municipali-ties for review.

Cumberland staff acknowl-edged the plan contains strong recommendations but will be diffi cult to implement as it will require all stakeholders to buy into the idea to make it eff ective when it’s implemented.

Cumberland expressed serious concern that body contact rec-reation on Comox Lake topped the list of hazards that pose the greatest risk to the water quality.

Manager of operations Rob Crisfeld said the high risk rating matrix that was used to rank it was “unreasonable.” Councillor Jesse Ketler also called the rating method too “subjective.”

Crisfeld said Comox Lake is used for various recreation ac-tivities and is accessed from various points that are either managed or unmanaged. Pre-venting people from swimming, waterskiing and other water ac-tivities will be detrimental to the local economy, he said, because

they attract a lot of visitors to thearea.

Crisfeld said there needs to be proof humans are negatively af-fectiing the quality of the waterin Comox Lake, which currentlyhas a high quality rating despitethe level of human to water in-teraction.

“There’s not a ton of recreation in the lake,” said Crisfeld.

Another risk mentioned in the plan was the impact of trails andnon-motorized trail use suchas hiking, biking, horse riding,cross country skiing and snow-shoeing.

Crisfeld commented the trails for the most part, especially onthe village’s side of the lake, havelittle to no impact on soil erosionand do not aff ect water quality.

The village, he said, is current-ly in the process of improvingtrails to lessen the impact theyhave on the watershed by repair-ing and rebuilding bridges overtributaries and wetland areas,along with decommissioningand rerouting courses that posepotential threats to the waterquality.

Crisfeld said they also have strong concerns with the recom-mendation that no new develop-ment take place in the ComoxLake watershed, and that por-tions of the land should not bezoned to pemit further residen-tial, commercial, recreational,agricultural and industrial devel-opments

They are also against a for-mal process being establishedto ensure all members of WAGSare informed and have opportu-nity to comment on events andactivities for Comox Lake likefi st derby, bike races and manymore.

“It seems to be adding a lot more bureaucracy to various ap-plications,” said Crisfeld.

Council decided to forward their concerns to the CVRDalong with staff ’s views aboutthe WPP, which Crisfeld saidcould impact the village specifi -cally related to the possibility offuture land use planning.

Village raises concerns about draft Watershed Protection Plan

Janice Armour and Investors Group, who supports the SPCA, were the top fundraising team for the Comox Val-ley 2015 Paws for a Cause for the third year in a row. Thanks to all who joined the Investors Group team! We raised nearly $1500.00 to support our local shelter whom provide love and care to abandoned animals.

The HMCS ALBERNI Museum and Memorial has received news that the Canadian traveling exhibit of Anne Frank; A History For Today, will be coming to HAMM opening on Decem-ber 1, just in time to celebrate Hanuk-kah and to give the public another holi-day activity to do with their families.

The exhibit has travelled to more than 60 countries, and now the exhibi-tion will be arriving in the Comox Val-ley.

Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl who had to go into hiding during World War II in an attempt to escape the Na-zis. Her diary from that time remains a vivid record of the impacts of historical events on one person’s life.

Seventy years after her death, Anne Frank’s short life still resonates strong-ly with people, especially with youth. This exhibit aims to create a dialogue with young people about topics such as the dangers of discrimination. Lewis Bartholomew, Director of HAMM, has worked diligently to arrange to bring this exhibit to Comox with assistance from the Anne Frank House in Amster-dam.


Special Anne Frank exhibit coming to HMCS Alberni Museum Volunteers and sponsors needed for this event

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“We hope to be able to connect it to our community through the stories of those who lived through the occupation or their surviv-ing relatives. The stories of Canadian Forces who served, and in some cases paid the ulti-mate sacrifi ce, to liberate Europe will reside alongside Anne’s personal story in our main exhibit hall”

Anne Frank; A History For Today will be at HAMM from December 1 - February 28 during regular museum hours. So that this exhibit can remain free to the public HAMM needs local sponsors of this exhibit to cover the cost to host this event. The museum is hoping to use both corporate funding and individual donations to bring this exhibit to the Comox Valley. We are also looking for persons in the Comox Valley who can share their own experiences of the German Occu-pation of the Netherlands during the war and perhaps loan us some items from their own personal history.

During the months of January and Feb-ruary HAMM will be working with local schools and the college to have volunteer stu-dent guides who will go through some train-ing courtesy of the Anne Frank House. These students will conduct all the school fi eld trips that will be scheduled through the Museum.

For more information on sponsorship or to volunteer some time as an adult or student tour guide for this exhibit, please contact Lewis Bartholomew at the HMCS ALBERNI Museum and Memorial at [email protected] or at 250-339-4322.

Anne Frank exhibit

Cumberland’s aging infrastructure needs replacement


The Village of Cumberland is facing an ag-ing infrastructure that needs to be replaced soon.

Some have been in place since the 1950s and much earlier for some of the water and sewer infrastructure.

Manager of Operations Rob Crisfeld said it is a signifi cant challenge for the village.

Council was handed a report this week that staff has been working on in the last two years that identifi es aging infrastructure that needs to be replaced. However, it only focus-

es on roads, water, storm and sewer and does not include old buildings and parks.

The report refl ects the costs asso-ciated for replacing or upgrading the assets in the next 20 years.

Crisfeld said the village needs to develop a strategy for replacing as-sets and how this would be funded.

“In order to maintain a reasonable level of maintenance and replace-ment of this infrastructure with-out falling further behind, careful thought needs to be given how best to fund this work, while at the same

time balancing these decisions with service levels and fi nancial stability,” Crisfeld said.

In 2013, the village hired a consul-tant to develop a Pavement Manage-ment Plan that had staff driving ev-ery street in town, block-by-block to evaluate road conditions using a 12 condition assessment.

Their fi ndings revealed that 29 streets received failed ratings and 21 streets were categorized as poor. They are beyond any type of mainte-nance and will require a complete re-build. The cost to perform this work

was fi rst estimated to be around $8.4 million.But with the Comox Valley Regional Districtand Building Canada funding, the amount hasgone done to $5.5 million.

Another 23 streets that carry a “fair” ratingalso require some maintenance work. Theyneed to be sealed using either an asphalt over-lay or micro asphalt surfacing to prolong theirlife. It will cost between $0.4 million and $1.1million to do the job depending on the chosencourse of action.

Staff also advised council that although theother streets are still in good condition, theyalso need to be addressed once the pressingneeds for the other roads are met.

Apart from the streets, staff also collecteddata on three utilities - water, sanitary andstorm sewer.

The water infrastructure that has been ratedas failed or beyond its life expectancy amountsto $2.5 million. But the cost to repair them andupgrade all the aging pipes is estimated to be$11 million. For sanitary and sewer, the cost toreplace the old systems carries a combined to-tal of $16.6 million.

Council welcomed the report. They feel it isimportant to know what needs to be done andchoose the best options to address them.

Staff will use the information in helping thevillage work on its 20-year capital plan that willestablish a schedule to replace aging infrastruc-ture.

Staff identifi es roads, water, sanitary and sewer that have reached end of life cycle

CVRD defers decision on improved handyDart registration process BY MICHAEL BRIONESEcho Staff

The Comox Valley Regional Dis-trict this week held back a decision to implement the improved handyD-art registration process on a perma-nent basis for all new applications.

Electoral Area C director Edwin Grieve made the motion to defer the recommendation until the next Committee of the Whole meeting in November.

Grieve said out of the $1.4 mil-lion budget for transit, the three municipalities pay a combined total of $888,000 while the rural areas’ share is around $539,000.

“What it means is Electoral Ar-

eas are paying for 38 per cent of the handyDart budget and yet were de-nied any use of the handyDart,” said Grieve.

The new application process that was introduced as a pilot project in 2014, has decreased handyDart rid-ership because a commissioned oc-cupational therapist identifi es peo-ple who legitimately need to use the service.

It has helped reduce the cost of the service and also lessens the need to expand it.

Grieve said this may deny service to a lot of seniors in the electoral ar-eas in the future.




Island Health projects in 20 years, there will be a 95 per cent increase of people over 75 years old, and a 60 per cent rise of people over 60.

About 25 per cent of the seniors live alone, said Grieve.

“The issue is not to deny handyDart services,” he said. “I am concerned that we are denying services to the people. Coupling with that is the underlying is-sue around the unfairness of paying into a service that we cannot access.”

Grieve asked the board to defer the application of the new registration process until they’ve seen the report on the Comox Valley Transit Analysis by DanTec.

The board supported the motion.

handyDart

songs like “The Last Trip Home.”

Field’s writing is infl u-enced by his travelling experiences, as in the aforementioned titles, as well as with “Train Sta-tion Frustration” - where Field’s love for rhumba grooves shines through, with layers of Santana-styled guitar, Charlie Palmieri staccato piano and awesome wailing trumpet throughout, and “High Altitude,” a sunny pop Andrews Sisters-type of melody from the ‘40s.

More travelling encoun-ters have spawned songs such as “Dance of the Biometrics,” inspired by customs offi cials con-stantly asking for more biometric data every time you cross borders (fi nger-prints, retinal scans, voice recognition, portraits, etc.). This tune evokes a silent movie soundtrack for a Charlie Chaplin or Keystone Cops chase sequence which culmi-nates in a choppy Jewish-wedding romp.

Dinner at The Ava-lanche is available before

and during the show. Be there early if you intend to fi nd seating for a group of friends - there are no reserved tables. Admis-sion is $10 for members, $12 for non-members.

For more information about forthcoming events and GSJS please visit www.georgiastraightjazz.com

Mike Field Jazz Quintet visits Courtenay

Georgia Straight Jazz Society (GSJS) presents award-winning, Toronto-based artist, trumpeter and composer Mike Field, as he energizes and beguiles the stage at The Avalanche Bar this Thurs-day night at 7:30 pm.

Jazz afi cionados in Courtenay, as one of the venues on his Canadian and international tour - including B.C., the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Korea and The Netherlands - will be treated to material from his recently released album Attic Jump.

The album has already been nominated for a To-ronto Independent Music Award (TIMA). For more information visit www.mikefi eldjazz.com.

Check out a video teas-er for Attic Jump at http://www.mikefi eldjazz.com/videos, treat yourself to a 20 minute set of videos and listen to some of the amazing music you will experience this week!

Touring is the life and love of jazz trumpeter and occasional guitar player

Field, who has become a welcome treasure at Aus-tralian and New Zealand jazz festivals and venues; as well he’s been winning new fans in Germany and Italy over the past year.

After a short stay in his home base of Toronto, he’s on the road again. In his short summer break, Mike found time to re-

lease an offi cial video for the gorgeous, beautiful, melancholic jazz ballad “The Last of the Summer Days,” from his highly acclaimed album Rush Mode (which won fi ve Aurora Awards, Indepen-dent Music Video Awards, and was a nominee for two Independent Music Awards) and another

wonderful bluesy video teaser from his third, new album.

Attic Jump is a real departure from his earlier works Ashes and Rush Mode and moves in a very bold and thrilling new direction, with high-energy groove and dance-able swing.

The title track jump-starts your listening engine for the ride you’re about to take.

With the introduction of some hot guitar licks via Craig Stull into Field’s work, the songs are fi lled with New Orleans bounce, Brian Setzer-styled rockabilly and Santana-like guitar solos, plus Count Basie-type, high, tinkling trills on the piano by Mark Camilleri, as in the jumpin’ jive tune “One Time in Tibet.”

As well, Field interjects and seamlessly weaves even more jazz strands into the mix, where Django Reinhardt gypsy guitar meets Dixieland clarinet meets bebop brass (including William Carn on trombone) on

Mike Field

Jazz Society welcomes award-winning musician on tour from Toronto

CourtenayO N E H U N D R E D Y E A R S O F H I S T O R Y

1915–2015

The Courtenay and District Museum is celebrating the City’s 100th anniversary with the publication of a coffee table style book with the help of the Comox Valley Echo. It is a high quality magazine style publication with a durable cover.

Historically rich content focuses on activities of people who have shaped our community over the decades. Proceeds from the sales of book copies will help the museum with funding development of programs and activities. Copies are $5.00 each which includes GST, and are available at the Museum and the Echo.

Tia

O N E H U N D R E D Y E A R S O F H I S T O R Y

1915–2015

O N E H U N D R E D Y E A R S O F H I S T O R YO N E H U N D R E D Y E A R S O F H I S T O R Y

915 20151915–20151915–2015


MISSION HILL AREARt. 302 – Cruickshank, Valecourt, MyraVALLEYVIEW AREARt. 364 – Hebrides, Inverclyde, Fife, CarstairsRt. 408 – Trumpeter, Swan, Sparrow, ValleyView Dr.Rt. 375 – Hobson, 12 St. E., Hurford, QuinsamCUMBERLANDRt. 705 – Union Rd, Royston RdRt. 745 – Maryport, Egremont, PenrithCOURTENAYRt. 123 – Archery Cres, 1st, TimberlaneRt. 127 – Mitchell Rd, Robert Lang Dr.Rt. 200 – Stewart (between Cumb. Rd & 5th St)Rt. 122 – Mitchell Rd, Mitchell Pl, StubbsEAST COURTENAYRt. 400 – Malahat, Marble, Elkhorn, 9th St E, McBride, ArrowsmithMISSION HILLRt. 311 – Muir Rd, Cruickshank Pl, McLauchlin Pl, Bryden Pl.COMOXRt. 546 – Murrrelet, Plover, Meadowlark, TowheeRt. 645 – Hillside, Crestview, Chinook, NimpkishRt. 570 – MacKenzie & Robb (Between Anderton & Rodello)Rt. 547 – Queneesh, T. Park, Glacier View Dr.Rt. 545 – Condor, Robb, Davis Rt. 587 – Comox Ave., Stewart, Alder, Arbutus, BalmoralRt. 604 – Comox Ave., Donovan Dr., Donovan Pl.Rt. 541 – Noel, Cardinal, Stellar, AspenRt. 605 – Orchard Park Dr, Baybrook, Mack Laing Ct.UPCOMING SUBSTITUTES FOR COMOX

No collection required. Great exercise!Call Comox Valley Echo • 250-334-4734 or drop by 407-E 5th Street, Courtenay

CARRIERS WANTED

EMERGENCY SUBSTITUTES NEEDEDFOR VARIOUS AREAS

Tickets going on salefor Co-Val ChoristersChristmas show

Christmas is coming and so are ticket sales for Co-Val Choristers’ Christ-mas program entitled “Once Upon a Christmas.”

Sales begin Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 10 am at the Old Church Theatre.

Other times will be Thursdays from 10 am to 2 pm, and Monday and Thursday evenings from

7-9 pm.All sales at the Old

Church Theatre on Harmston Ave. in Cour-tenay, email [email protected] or phone 250-334-2992.

“Once Upon a Christ-mas”, as the title suggests, addresses the stories and music of past Christmas-es.

Join us for Kitty’s Com-edy Supper Club, a glam-orous Hollywood style 1940s supper club at the Native Sons Hall on No-vember 14!

Kitty is bringing back her supper club for a sec-ond year in a row. \\

This year’s comedians Kyle Bottom and head-liner Ivan Decker, Wine by 40 Knots, Jilli Martini band and after party DJ Adil!

All VIP tickets are sold out but regular seats are available.

All tickets include mu-sic, three course dinner, comedy show and after party with free shuttle ride home by Ambassador Shuttle for $80. Tickets available at Edward and Parnell Barber Shoppe Chances Playtime Gam-ing or by contacting Par-nell [email protected]

1940s Hollywood glamour comes back to the Valley for second year in a row

Comox Valley Art Gallery’s TIFF Fall Film Series continues Sunday November 1 at 5pm with “Grand-ma”, a spirited and touching com-edy drama from director Paul Weitz.

Comedy legend Lily Tomlin shines as Elle Reid, a California poet and failed academic who’s hav-ing a pretty bad day.

A self-described misanthrope, Elle once declared that she loved being old as young people are stupid.

However, as the movie progresses

and Elle is drawn into a day-long road trip with her grand-daughter, Sage (Julie Garner), she realizes there is much to be learned at all stages of life.

Seattle Times movie critic Moira Macdonald states “Short, tart, yet unexpectedly sweet, Paul Weitz’s “Grandma” is a small-scale charac-ter study - and, because that charac-ter is played by the great Lily Tom-lin, it’s mesmerizing, right up until its fi nal frame.”

Tickets are $13, $12 for CVAG members, and are available at the CVAG Gift Shop, 580 Duncan Ave, in Downtown Courtenay.

To purchase tickets by phone, call 250-338-6211.

All fi lms are screened at the Ri-alto Theatre, Driftwood Mall, 2665 Cliff e Ave, Courtenay.

■ For complete fi lm series infor-mation visit www.comoxvalleyart-gallery.com

Fall Film Series screens ‘Grandma’ Nov. 1Lily Tomlin in a scene from ‘Grandma’ showing this Sunday at the Rialto


4790

We’ll be making system improvements on Lazo Road from Sand Pines Drive to Southwind Road.

Start Date: Friday, October 30, 2015

Anticipated Completion: Monday, November 30, 2015

Working Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The work may cause minor traffic delays. Please plan ahead and give yourself extra time for your commute. When possible, plan an alternate route to avoid delays.

Thanks for your patience while we complete this work.

BC HYDRO SYSTEM UPGRADES LAZO ROAD

The next 1st Tuesday Fundraiser event at the Mex Pub on November 3rd features singer/songwriter Sue Pyper.

This will be a relaxing evening of heartfelt music, raising awareness and money for the Comox Valley Hospice Society. Sue has a long standing involvement with hospice, not only in the Comox Valley, but also in the UK where she is origi-nally from.

The evening starts with an open-ing set by event organizers Judy and Bruce Wing.

Admission to the evening concert is by donation, and thanks to the on-going sponsorship of the Mex Pub, 100% of the evening proceeds go to the charity. Come on out to en-joy some fi ne music and a monthly helping of community spirit.

Volunteers from the Comox Val-ley Hospice Society (CVHS) will be at the door to off er receipts, as well as information about their organi-zation and their community pro-grams upon request.

Food donations for the Comox Valley Food Bank are also welcome and will be collected at the door.

Sue Pyper is well known in the Comox Valley as an award winning songwriter and contributor to the community. She has released two CDs, “Before You Learn to Fly” which earned the award for Best Song at the Vancouver Island Mu-sic Awards in 2002, and a second album “Taillights in the Rain” re-leased in 2009.

Sue’s music can be gentle, hu-mourous, political and poignant and she creates a memorable con-nection with her audiences. In ad-dition to the fi ne sounding Taylor guitar she plays, Sue has also been exploring clawhammer banjo tech-niques, adding this fl avour to her own repertoire as well as the re-cordings of other artists.

Her creative talents are not lim-ited to beautiful vocals and song

writing, and have expanded over the past few years to new areas of fi ne arts include detailed paintings, abstract nature images, pet portrai-tures, and pyrography.

Proceeds for the evening support the Comox Valley Hospice Society, a local organization that supports people living with dying grieving and caregiving. With the support of local businesses, private donations, and community partners, CVHS of-fers a wide range of programs that bring comfort to the dying and the bereaved.

With a newly opened facility called Hospice at The Views, some of these programs can now be ex-perienced in a home-like residen-tial setting, as well as in hospital or privately at home. CVHS programs include grief counselling, compas-sionate presence, respite support, vigils, walking groups, and various modalities of alternative healing such as music therapy, Reiki, and healing touch.

In addition, the Comox Valley Hospice Society provides on-going community education on Advance Care Planning to help people make their wishes for medical care known in the event they are ever unable to speak for themselves.

“We are fortunate to have so many dedicated volunteers who really do come from all walks of life,” says Executive Director Terri Odneal. “The skill sets of our volunteers are carefully matched to the programs we off er. This allows us to really take direction from each person in all aspects of care, with regard to their personal needs, interests, and belief systems. The generosity of the community is much appreci-ated, not only in terms of fi nance, but also in terms of dedicated time and talents.”

For more information about this month’s feature performer or char-ity, please visit suepyper.com or co-moxhospice.ca.

Sue Pyper performs forHospice at 1st Tuesday

Well-known Vancouver theatre professional, Scott Swan, will be presenting his popular Shakespeare Work-shop, in conjunction with Courtenay Little Theatre, over three sessions at Vani-er Senior Secondary on the weekend of November 13th to 15th.

Actors and Shakespeare lovers from teens to seniors are invited to take part in these high energy sessions, either as participants for all three sessions or as auditors for any of the sessions.

“With our production of Shakespeare’s “The Tem-pest” set to hold auditions in mid-January, we are thrilled to be able to off er training of this caliber in advance,” says CLT President, Val Macdon-ald.

“Anyone in the commu-nity who wishes to enhance their insight and understand-ing of Shakespeare’s use of language and technique will gain a great deal from work-ing with Scott, who has had a distinguished career act-

ing and directing across Canada, including at Bard on the Beach, The National Arts Centre, The Shaw Festi-val and Stratford Festival, to name just a few.”

Swan, who holds an M.F.A. in Directing from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England, is the Artistic Di-rector of Seacoast Theatre Centre and Head Teacher of Seacoast Studios in West Vancouver.

In addition to his directing engagements across Canada, he has had two shows op-tioned for Broadway and a large number of his former students have found work professionally in both Cana-da and the US.

He is also a member of Seacoast’s professional com-pany.

Application forms and more information for the workshop are available on-line at CLT’s website www.courtenaylittletheatre.com.

Pre-registration and atten-dance at all three sessions is required for the full work-

Scott Swan Shakespeare Workshop coming to the Valley thanks to Little Theatre

shop, the fee for which is $150.

Individual sessions may be audited for $20 per session.

There is a limit to the num-ber of registrations that will be accepted on a fi rst come, fi rst serve basis so do not de-lay registering.

Professional theatre director, Scott Swan, will be visiting the Comox Valley Nov 13th to 15th to give his popular Shakespeare Work-shop. For more information see www.courtenaylittletheatre.com

Sue Pyper (Photo by Joanne Stoeckl)


Margaret Sarah (Maudy) HobsonNovember 9, 1922 – October 21, 2015

Maudy was the granddaughter of pioneers who settled in the Comox Valley during the 1860’s. She was born and grew up on the family farm just outside Courtenay, attended an eight-room school on Cliffe Avenue and graduated from Courtenay High School in a class of 13 students. Maudy led an active and engaged community life from an early age. Her contribution to the family farm included doing milk delivery runs before and after school. She participated in the High School student council, played trombone in the band and was a member of the basketball and track and fi eld teams. Her Mom died shortly after Maudy’s graduation from high school so Maudy let go of her plans to become a nurse and instead stepped into her Mom’s role to help raise her four younger sisters and brother. As well, Maudy worked for Kay Stephens in Kay’s Confectionary. At the age of 22 Maudy started her career as a businesswoman when she bought the business from Kay. During this time she met George Hobson. They married in 1945 and ran Hobby’s Snack Bar on Fifth Street for 25 years.Maudy was committed to serving and building her beloved community, possessing an intimate knowledge and recall of its’ history. Her lifelong community service included joining the Courtenay Soroptimist Club in 1947 and she remained a member throughout her life. She has been an eager and committed member of numerous or-ganizations and community projects. While very humble about her accomplishments, she has been recognized on many levels for her contributions to her community, which she regarded as her extended family. She was a “gracious fi rst lady” when her husband George served as Courtenay’s mayor and helped spearhead projects such as the Sid Williams Theatre, Winter Carnival, and 1981 B.C. Summer Games to name a few. She chose to work behind the scenes, providing the “wind beneath the wings” that assured their success. Maudy was a remarkable mom, grandma, sister, sister-in-law and a good friend to many. She actively participat-ed and supported her children and grandchildren throughout their lives with everything they have been involved in. For example, she coached the CRA’s Blue Devils Swim Club for many years during and after her children’s involvement. Skiing was a big part of her recreational and professional life. As a vibrant business partner in the Forbidden Plateau “Ski Tak Hut” Ski Rental Shop, she provided employment and training for many Valley youths. Our beloved Mom was one of a kind. She was known and well-loved as a beautiful person who lived her life with dignity and grace. She was a strong, independent, positive, capable and caring woman. She was deeply loved by family, dear friends and many in our community. Maudy was a woman who gave her all to make a difference for everyone, and will be with us forever in our hearts and memories.Maudy died peacefully in the evening of October 21st at Glacier View Lodge surrounded by the love of her family. She lived a very rich and fulfi lling life, touching all with her positive way of being, her wisdom and her humour until the end of her life. Our family thank the many Angels who have surrounded and supported her and ourselves with their loving, compassionate care—Dr. Winter, the Glacier View team, her dedicated caregivers and several faith-ful, long time good friends. Thanks to each of you for making an unforgettable difference in Maudy’s and our lives. Maudy is predeceased by her husband George and sister Evelyn Zink. She is sadly missed and survived by her loving family of daughter Leslie and son-in-law John King; son Art and daughter-in-law Jo Ann, grandson Elliott (Elysia), and granddaughter Aynsley (Rod); sisters Kassy Cessford, Bev (Ken) Aitken, and Marie Gordon; and brother Alex (Rene) Urquhart all of the Comox Valley, and all their families, as well as George’s extended family.A service to Celebrate Maudy’s Life will be held at 1:00 PM on Monday November 9, 2015 at the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton Avenue, in downtown Courtenay. In lieu of fl owers, donations may be made in Maudy’s memory to the Comox Valley Community Foundation. email: [email protected] mail: Box 3126, Courtenay, B.C. V9N 5N4

Bonnie Lou Day LLB passed away on Monday, October 26th, 2015 in her home in Merville, British Columbia, aft er a short battle with ALS. Bonnie died with her loving husband Bryan at her side. Bonnie was born in Edmonton, Alberta on September 15th, 1956. Aft er many adventures, she moved to the Comox Valley in 1983. Always reaching to achieve her full potential, Bonnie put herself through law school, and was called to the bar in 2001. She quickly became a well-respected member of the Bar practicing family law and acted as President of the Bar Associa-tion for many years. Bonnie was passionate about her work and she had great plans to make family court a better place for parents and children alike. She recently became a Certifi ed Parenting Coordinator, Family Law Mediator and Family Law Arbitrator. Bonnie’s professional motto was “Commitment, Integrity, Results.”Th roughout her life, Bonnies gracious character proved her to be a rare fi nd. For her family and friends, she was the granite corner stone. Her advice always solid, her outlook always brave. All were welcomed under her roof and none were forgotten. Bonnie was always prepared to stage an event and share the good times with all who would come. In the fi nal stages of her life, Bonnie endured her sickness with a quiet heart and a steeled bravery that we witness so seldom in life. Th ere was no feeling sorry or garnering of pity. Th e love and undying faith of her husband Bryan was her hold in the lonely hours. He never wavered in his responsi-bilities to her and always held that they would get through this and go on. A piece of our whole is now gone. We are left with fond memories of our Bonnie. She showed us what family and true friends in our lives can really mean to us.Bonnie was predeceased by her father, Harry Mertz. She is survived by her mother, Gladys Mertz (nee Wedman), her husband Bryan McInnes (Edwards), her siblings Terry Mertz (Chrissy), Chris Mertz (Cathy) and Patti Mertz, her children Damon, Beau, Kevyn, Rachel, Sarah, Michael, Cheryl, Kelly, her nieces and nephews, her grand-children and her great-grand-children. We have lost an amazing woman, a loving mother, sister, and friend to many. A celebration of life will be held on Monday, November 2nd at 1:00 pm at the Merville Hall, 1245 Fenwich Road (at the Old Island Highway). We invite you to wear bright colors in honour of the bright light that Bonnie was in our lives.In lieu of fl owers, donations will be accepted for the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Society of British Columbia.Please join us in remembering Bonnie by visiting our memorial at www.piercysmtwashingtonfuneral.com

Bonnie Lou Day (nee Mertz)

DEATHS

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS

CARDS OF THANKS

Card of ThanksThe family of Bob Bruon would like to send a heartfelt thank you to for the beautiful cards, fl owers and baking during our recent bereavement. The love and support shown us has been overwhelming. Special thanks to Florence Chapter #53 and Chas Maria #76 Order of the Eastern Star for the lovely lunch, Dr. Bakshi, the St. Joseph’s Seniors Health Team and the caring staff at the Florence Filberg Centre and the Comox Valley Seniors Village.

Warmest regards, the Bruon family.


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FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS





FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTSYour Community, Your Classifi eds. Call 1-855-310-3535

It is with very heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Shirley Anne Salter on October 14, 2015 at the Campbell River Hospital with her two children by her side. Shirley will be dearly missed by all who knew her and loved her.

Shirley spent her career taking care of patients in Sunshine Lodge at the Campbell River Hospital. She made many friends whom she cared for greatly about during her life. She enjoyed her retirement days painting, spending time with the Gun Club and square dancing.

She leaves behind her sister Wendy Dew; her children en ammy Salter, Wendy Dennis Harrison; her ve

grandchildren Carolyn, Carla (Jonathan), Nicole, Michelle (Shea), ris (Nerissa), and ve great grandchildren Aiden, Kristyna, Kyla, Eldon and Rose, as well as many nieces and nephews.

As per Shirley’s wishes, there will be no services held and though the family appreciates the love and outpouring of support, they respectively decline owers and gifts. The family would like to thank the Campbell River Hospital staff for their tremendous support and care.

A Celebration of Lifewill be held at a later date

by invitation.

Shirley Anne Salter

We are sad to announce the passing of Mervyn Harold Drummond on October 25, 2015 at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Comox. Merv was predeceased by his brother Allister, father David, mother Irene and former spouse Sara. He is survived by his longtime girlfriend Ruby Papke of Salmon Arm; sons David (Andrea) of Maple Ridge and Robert (Rose) of Calgary; grandchildren Elizabeth(Daragh) of Maple Ridge, sister Beverly of Kirkland, WA; nieces and nephews Kim & John Kissenger of Carnation, WA and Candice and Carl Bouroughs of Everett, WA. Merv was enlisted on May 1952, St. John, PQ with the RCAF and for 28 years served as Armament Training and Maintenance. His service took him to Trenton, North Bay, Marville, France, Zweibrucken, Germany, Sardinia, Italy, Chicoutimi, PQ and finally Comox and he retired in 1980. In Merv’s leisure time, he belonged to Ocean Waves Square Dancing, Upper Vancouver Island Square Dancing Association and the Comox Valley Horticultural Society. Merv was a sweet, warm and likable man, who was very thoughtful, generous and kind. He always had witty one liners. He loved the outdoors and nature and would spend time in his garden or walking trails. Flowers gratefully declined. Donations in his memory to the BC Cancer Society or to a charity of your choice would be appreciated. Special thanks to the doctors and nursing staff at St. Joseph's Hospital.A celebration of Merv’s life will be held on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015 at 2:00 pm at Comox Valley Funeral Home, Cremation and Reception Centre, 1101 Ryan Road, Courtenay with a reception to follow.

DRUMMOND – Mervyn Harold October 12, 1927 – October 25, 2015

Comox ValleyFUNERAL HOME

CREMATION AND RECEPTION CENTRE

1101 Ryan Road, Courtenay

250-334-0707

Gertrude Helen Robbins1923 ~ 2015

Gertie passed away on October 16, 2015 at Eagle View Lodge peaceful-ly with her family by her side. She was born in Port Arthur, Ontario on August 15, 1923.Gertie moved from Ontario to BC in 1946, Raymond followed and they married Dec. 28, 1946. Gertie was happiest spending time with her family. She had work at CFB Co-mox until her retirement. She was a member of the Pythian Sisters. Her greatest joy was being Nana. She will be greatly missed; her ashes will join those of her beloved Raymond.She was predeceased by husband Raymond, granddaughter Laura-Lee, parents, 2 sisters and 1 brother.She is survived by children, Donna Gendron (Dave), Sonny, John (Bon-nie), David (Cheryl), Bonnie Moore (Bill), Maureen Allen (Blaine), Cindy Harmon (Cole), Kelli Verboom (Don Walker), 12 grandchildren, 30 great grandchildren, sister Hilda Foster, Brother Andrew Brown (Naida), Niec-es and Nephews.A Celebration Of Life will be held on Monday, November 2nd at 2:00 PM at Piercy’s Mt. Washington Funeral Home, Donations to the St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation – Eagle View would be appreciated.A special thanks to the caring staff at Eagle View Lodge for the wonder-ful care she received and also to Dr. Bakshi.Please join us in remembering Gertie by visiting our memorial at www.piercysmtwashingtonfuneral.com

TED KLEIMIt is with great sadness that we announce that Ted

Kleim passed away on Wednesday, October 21st following his incredibly brave battle with Multiple Myeloma.

He is predeceased by his parents Doris and Eric Kleim and sister Barb Kleim. He is survived by his wife Mary and daughter Heather and his beloved granddog Buddy. He is also survived by his siblings Don (Sharon), Jackie (Jerry), Sandra (Rick), Murray (Gerri), Bob and Ron as well as his best friend Noah.

Ted spent 29 years in the Canadian Air Force as a weather man which brought him all over the world. Retiring in Comox in 1993, he went on to work in private aerodromes running airports and making dear friends along the way. Avid travellers, Ted and Mary continued their adventures all over Europe after falling in love with Italy while visiting Heather.

He was a key member of the local Myeloma Support Group where his positive outlook and sense of humour was invaluable. The group was an incredible source of support and kindness and will never be forgotten.

Ted will always be remembered for his wicked sense of humour, ability to crack an off colour joke and being a dedicated fan of the Roughriders. He will be deeply missed by his friends and family.

There was a memorial held on

Wednesday, October 28th at the Comox Legion.

In lieu of fl owers, we welcome you to donate to Myeloma Canada.

COMOX - 1425 Sabre Court Oct. 31, 8am - 1pm. MassiveWeather Friendly Sale! X-masdecorations/paper,DVD player,clothing, housewares, rubberstamps, new purses, new/unused beauty prod., outdoorfurniture, lamps, x-countryskis, jewelry.

Visit us online at www.comoxvalleyecho.com

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Five bears that included two cubs that were recently put down have upset some people in the Comox Valley.

At Cumberland’s Monday night council meeting, council-lor Gwyn Sproule spoke about the unfortunate incident that happened just west from the vil-lage near her home.

“It’s distressing,” she said. “It’s a shame and it should not

have happened.”A provincial conservation of-

fi cer had no choice but to de-stroy a 500-plus pound male bear, a sow and her two litters in Cumberland because they had become food conditioned bears and were no longer suitable for relocation.

A fi fth bear that frequented Fifth Street and McPhee Av-enue in Courtenay was also put down.

Sproule said the bears were regularly seen in the Chinatown

area for four to fi ve weeks. “People were thrilled to go in

the old orchard and along the road to see this big fellow. He was really a big fellow,” she said. “He was behind the Coronation shack one morning but he had no interest in people. He was just cleaning up all the apples and those particular bears were cleaning them off Chinatown. There were a lot of apples sit-ting there.”

The problem, Sproule said, was the apple trees bore fruit a

month earlier and it’s still a long way before bears go into hiber-nation. It was the main reason they frequented the area.

“The bears headed down-town and they wouldn’t have done that if there was no food source, either in people’s apple trees, fruit trees or in garbage left unsecured,” said Sproule. “If there’s no food, they won’t go. It’s seems they were lured inad-vertently by people.”

As far as she knows, there haven’t been any bear attack in-

cidents in Cumberland in recentyears.

“Bears have not caused aproblem, they only want food,”said Sproule.

Better human food and gar-bage management will keepbears away, said Sproule whowants residents to be more re-sponsible.

And if they see neighboursnot complying, they should con-tact the bylaw offi cer.


Cumberland taking steps to keep bears out of the villagewww.comoxvalleyecho.com

FRI DAY.OCTOBER 30, 2015 39

The countdown to November 11th Remembrance Day is on and Courtenay Legion Branch 17 is alive with preparations.

The visible signs begin today (Friday October 30th) when the Poppy Flag is raised at City Hall by Mayor Jangula.

That marks the beginning of the annual Poppy Campaign in which funds are raised by the Legion to assist veterans and their families in need and also to assist special projects in the community that will be most likely to assist veter-ans.

Courtenay Legion has focused on St. Joseph’s Hospital Founda-tion in past years and contributes an average of $10,000.00 per year to support its work.

More visible will be the Tag Days on Saturday October 31st and Sat-urday November 7h. Army and Air cadets will be on the streets and at most large shopping areas on those days distributing poppies and accepting donations to the fund.

Meanwhile, out of the limelight, preparations are well underway for November 11, the annual Veterans’

Breakfast, the cenotaph ceremony and the in-house activities includ-ing afternoon entertainment.

This year marks the 68th annual Veterans’ Breakfast which is open to all veterans, their families and friends.

For the fi rst 60 of those years the breakfast was coordinated by the late Sandy Strachan, a former Legion President, City Councillor and Freeman of the City.

The breakfast is held in the George Swift Memorial Hall at the Legion. Tickets are available upon entry and guests are asked to be

seated by 9:00 a.m.Following the breakfast, the pa-

rade will form up on Cliff e Avenue outside the Legion at 10:40 and march off to the cenotaph in Jubi-lee Square for the ceremomy.

Following the ceremony, open house will begin in the Legion lounge and food will be served during the afternoon.

This is a family friendly event and the Legion encourages any members of the public to come and learn about what the Legion does behind the scenes as well as to enjoy our hospitality.

Poppy fl ag raising today as Courtenay Legion prepares to remember

Sandy Strachan


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World Community is thrilled to announce that fi lmmaker Damien Gillis will attend the screening of Fractured Land on Wednesday, November 4 at 7 pm at the North Island College Theatre, Courtenay. This “must see” fi lm was recently honoured with two more major au-dience awards at the Vancouver International Film Festival : “Cana-dian Impact Award” and “Best BC Film”.

In Fractured Land, we follow Caleb Behn, a young Dene lawyer who may become one of this gen-eration’s great leaders, if he can

discover how to reconcile the frac-tures within himself, his community and the world around him, blending modern tools of the law with an-cient wisdom.

“Anyone who can throw a hatchet and sue you is a force to be reck-oned with.” This is how author and environmental activist Bill McKib-ben describes Caleb Behn,

Caleb’s father is a devout environ-mentalist and residential school sur-vivor. His mother is a top executive for the oil and gas industry. His peo-ple are at the epicenter of some of the world’s largest “fracking”operations

(hydraulic fracturing for gas). They are also are deeply divided about it. How does Caleb balance their need for jobs with his sacred duty to de-fend their territory? He has arrived at a key moment in history, sees the contradictions, and wants to recon-cile them.

Don’t miss this opportunity to see the fi lm and talk with the fi lmmak-er! This screening is co-sponsored by Eatmore Sprouts & Greens. Ad-mission is by donation. Everyone is welcome.

For more information: 250 337-5412

Filmmaker to attend screening of award winning documentary, Fractured Land

A scene from ‘Fractured Land’, showing Nov. 4 at North Island College theatre

What is the value of art? Discuss at nextPhilosopher’s Cafe

What does it mean when we say a work of art is priceless? How do you decide what you are willing to pay for a paint-ing? When viewing public art, have you ever asked “my tax dollars went into that!?” Have you ever booked into a hotel room with no art on the walls and thought the place looked sterile? Would you pay $5 extra to have nice art on the wall? Art is be-ing planned for the new hospitals. If art can make you feel better, does that have value?

Most of us would agree that art is important in our society, but how im-portant? What is its val-ue?

Peter Davies is an il-lustrator, cartoonist, de-signer and author with over forty years’ experi-ence working in the many forms of visual commu-nication, creating images that tell a story.

An accomplished artist with a wide range of styles Peter’s has been involved in a number of com-munity art projects. His cartoons can be seen on Utility boxes, ‘Ask Luke’

in the newspapers as wellas other publications andpresentations. He hasundertaken projects inschools and with disad-vantaged youth, as wellas providing workshopsfor people of all ages. Hecontinues to support com-munity art as secretary tothe Campbell River ArtsCouncil and as one of theorganisers of the annualRiver City Arts Festival.

Join us as Peter Davisleads us into a discussionon the value of art. PeterSchwarzhoff will return asyour moderator.


Peter Davies

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Canuck Game Prize Package Giveaway

(entry deadline is Dec.18 at 3pm - must answer phone on day of the draw to claim prize - tickets are for a regular season game between January 1 and April 1 2016)

“Serving the Comox Valley for 51 Years”


Once a month a speaker will introduce a theme to the Café, and then all who attend can join in respect-ful, non-partisan conver-sation, or just sit back and listen. You are welcome to propose topics and intro-duce them at future Ca-fés. Themes should be of broad interest and nation-al signifi cance, and have an element of controversy to them.

As with each Café, Mr. Davies will have just 10 minutes to introduce the topic, and then the fl oor is open for 50 minutes of moderated discussion.

When: Wednesday, No-vember 4, 7:00-8:00PM

Cost: FreeLocation: Berwick Co-

mox Valley, community room

1700 Comox Ave, Co-mox, BC V9M 4H4

More Info: peter@peter-schwarzhoff .ca

Philosopher’s Cafe

Books for Treats is back this Hallowe’en in Comox, Cumberland, and Cour-tenay! Volunteers and li-brarians will be handing out books to children in Cumberland, Courtenay, and Comox.

In Courtenay, make the library one of your down-town parade stops – come by and choose a book treat on Saturday, October 31st between 3 and 5pm.

In Comox, Books for Treats volunteers will be in the Comox Mall on Fri-

day, October 30th, from 3 to 5pm. Come at 3pm to listen to a spooky story read by Comox librarian, Nancy Duncan, and then choose your book treat.

In Cumberland, Books for Treats is at the Cum-berland library between 4 and 5pm on Saturday, Oc-tober 31st. Swing by to get your book treat!

Books feed children’s minds. Comox Valley Lifelong Learning Asso-ciation and partners are encouraging people to

hand out book treats in-stead of candy. Consider putting out a basket of gently-used books out for trick-or-treaters this Hallowe’en. You will be a popular stop!

Books for Treats is a book distribution cam-paign coordinated by the Comox Valley Lifelong Learning Association and funded through Raise-a-Reader.

For more information, please visit www.cvlit-eracy.ca or facebook.com/booksfortreatscomoxval-ley or phone 250-897-2623. To learn more about the Books for Treats movement go to www.booksfortreats.org. A trick-or-treater chooses his book treat at the Courtenay library.

Choose your book treat this Halloween at local libraries

The 2014 Annual Gen-eral Meeting of the Comox Valley Hospice Society will be held on Wednes-day, November 4, 2015 at the time and location in-dicated above. We would encourage all members, volunteers and individuals interested in hospice pal-

liative care in the Comox Valley to attend.

This meeting off ers the forum for election of new directors of the Society, presentation of the 2014 annual report and fi nan-cials, and updates on the accomplishments and fu-ture of hospice palliative

care in the Comox Valley. In addition, it is a great opportunity for you to dis-cuss your thoughts and ideas regarding hospice palliative care with mem-bers of the Board of Direc-tors and to catch up with many of the other fantas-tic CVHS volunteers!

While CVHS has beenable to celebrate many ac-complishments since itsfounding in 1983, this yearwe are able to celebrate anaddition to hospice care inthe Comox Valley with theopening of Hospice at TheViews.


Hospice Society annual general meeting on Nov. 4


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This would not have been possible without the steadfast commitment of the CVHS volunteers (in-cluding the Board of Di-rectors) and staff , the gen-erosity and support of the community and our part-ners in care-St. Joseph’s General Hospital & Foun-dation and Island Health.

Please make every eff ort to attend this very impor-tant meeting and feel free

to bring your colleagues, friends and family-anyone who is interested in en-hancing the quality of hos-pice palliative care in our community.

Please remember, vot-ing at the AGM requires that your 2015 annual dues of $20.00 are cur-rent. If possible, please let us know if you will be attending by calling the offi ce at 250-339-5533 or email to [email protected].

Hospice Society AGM

The African Children’s Choir will bring a vibrant celebration of Afri-can music, drumming, and dancing to Courtenay when they visit the Sid Williams Theatre on Tuesday November 10th as part of the the-atre society’s Blue Circle Series.

The 43rd iteration of the choir is comprised of children ages seven to ten from Uganda; their smiles are lighting up audiences across North America, which they have been touring since March.

Music for Life, the offi cial fund-raising charity of the African Chil-dren’s Choir, works in seven African countries, and has educated over 52,000 children as well as impact-ing the lives of over 100,000 people through its relief and development programmes during its 30 year his-tory.

“The goal of the organization was to change the way that the West thought about Africa, and I think that in 30 years we have re-ally seen changes,” said Sarah Lid-stone, North American choir op-erations manager. “We don’t have

the same views that we would have had in 1984 when the choir began. The Ethiopian famine was happen-ing; African countries were just be-ing displayed as destitute areas. We wanted to change that view to show that if we provide support, these children have just the same poten-tial as any other western child.”

The African Children’s Choir travels the world, acting as the am-bassador for Africa’s most vulner-able children, raising much needed awareness as they go. Funds raised contribute to the continued devel-opment and support of the Music for Life programmes that help edu-cate some of the continent’s most in-need children, providing them with better opportunities; creating change makers for the future of Af-rica.

The choir has attracted fans from all over the world, including some celebrity admirers. Talking about the choir, international superstar Annie Lennox said, “I fi rst encoun-tered the African Children’s Choir as they were heading towards the

stage to perform for Nelson Man-dela’s 46664 campaign ... Since then I’ve come to appreciate more and more, just how uniquely special they are.”

The concerts refl ect the energy, beauty, dignity, and unlimited ability of these incredible children through song, music and dance.

Many of the choir children have lost one or both parents to poverty or disease.

The performances are both up-lifting and humbling and are an op-portunity to experience the vitality of the youth from this challenged continent.

Don’t miss an inspiring night with the African Children’s Choir! Tick-ets for this Blue Circle Series per-formance are $44 for members, $49 for general public, $34 for students and groups of 10 or more. Members can add this show to a SID TIX pack for just $34. Purchase in person at the Ticket Centre Tuesday to Sat-urday from 10am to 4pm, by phone 250.338.2430, or online at sidwil-liamstheatre.com.

The African Children’s Choir returns to the Sid


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CROWN ISLE’S 14th ANNUAL BEER WINE FESTIVAL

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November 6 & 7, 2015

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Book Reading and the opportunity to meet the authors of “Tide Rips and Black Eddies - Bill Proctor’s Tales of Blackfi sh Sound” by Bill Proctor and Yvonne Maximchuk .

Presented by Cape Lazo Power and Sail Squadron and Harbour Publish-ing.

This book was released in September 2015 and is a follow-up to the authors’ classic “Full Moon Flood Tide” and focuses on Blackfi sh Sound, it’s pow-erful tides and wealth-creating fi shing grounds, interesting old-timers, life as it was in the earlier part of the centu-ry for Billy’s family, First Nations and immigrant population. The book ends with stories from Billy’s life experience as an Auxiliary Coast Guard, animals and strange encounters and the cre-ation of his well-known museum at his Echo Bay home.

This free event is taking place on Thursday, November 5 at the Native Sons Hall, Lower Level. Doors open at 7 p.m.

Meet the authors of ‘Tide Rips and Black Eddies’

Paddling president special speakerThe Comox Valley Paddlers’

Club is pleased to welcome Mike Gilbert, President and BC Di-rector of Paddle Canada as the guest speaker at the club’s No-vember meeting.

Mike was born and raised in Montreal and spent his summers exploring the rivers, lakes and farmlands of the Eastern Town-ships by rowboat and kayak.

After leaving university he moved west and fi nally ended up settling in Vancouver. With a growing family he spent a lot of time at ice rinks coaching hock-ey.

He achieved his National Coaching Certifi cation Program (NCCP) qualifi cations and has coached at provincial level. On making the decision to leave the hockey arena Mike found he had more time available, which he channelled towards sea kayak-ing.

Mike now instructs and coach-es year round throughout the

province and his paddling certi-fi cations include: Paddle Canada Level 4 Skills, Paddle Canada Level 2 Instructor, Paddle Canada Rolling Instructor and VHF Ma-rine Radio Instructor. His com-pany, BC Kayak Centre provides Paddle Canada certifi cation cours-es, clinics and related classes. He became Paddle Canada’s Director for BC in 2013 and in 2015 was voted in by the Board for a three year term as President of Paddle Canada.

The presentation will be in two parts. Part one will cover the Pad-dleSmart program; what it is and how it came about. Mike will ex-pand on specifi c topics relevant to coastal paddlers. He will also extend an invitation to those inter-

ested in becoming a PaddleSmarttrainer or instructor. Part two willprovide information and back-ground on Paddle Canada: currentissues, what has happened in therecent past and its three year vi-sion and direction.

The event commences at 7:00pm sharp, Thursday, 5th Novem-ber at the Lion’s Den, 1729 ComoxAve, Comox, V9M-3M2 - (NordinStreet, behind the Pearl Ellis ArtGallery). Doors open at 6:30 pm.There will be a (very) short clubbusiness meeting followed by thepresentation.

The event is free of charge andopen to non-members. Anybodywith an interest in developingtheir canoe, kayak or SUP skills isvery welcome to attend.

Mike Gilbert

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