Let’s get more signatures for this petition + please contact your representatives!
Hi all, we’ve reached 991 signatures on this petition—thank you so much for your support!
August 30, 2026 update
I started this petition in January 2025 after a local resident tragically died crossing Highway 19 near the PetroCan on foot, which underscores the road safety and infrastructure deficit issues that residents of Nanoose Bay live with every day. Since then, there have been more serious accidents on our roads, with a serious incident involving a gravel truck that had to take evasive action when a vehicle pulled out ahead of it unsafely at the rest area (Highway 19 southbound) in January 2026, a crash near Weeks Road on Highway 19 in July 2026 that sent three people to hospital, and now three horrific deaths on Highway 19 between Nanoose Bay and Nanaimo last week (on August 26 and 27, 2026 respectively). Nanoose Bay also has two of the highest collision points in the area.
Obviously the status quo is not working, and with each mounting tragedy on this stretch of highway, we also face the scary reality that there is no alternate route between Nanoose Bay and Nanaimo when the highway is closed due to accidents, and highway closures in Nanoose Bay impact folks up island as well. As tourism in the area puts more cars on our roads every summer, and with plans to expand Nanoose Bay by several thousand residents in coming years with the Lakes District development, we need real action on our current road safety realities to prevent further deaths.
I've shared this petition with our our MLA Stephanie Higginson whose office responded on January 7, 2025 with promises to follow the issue closely, and I've contacted her again in light of last week's tragedies (no response yet on the recent email). I have also shared this petition several times with Area E Director Bob Rogers, from whom I've received no response. In the last year, I've received positive responses from Councillor Sean Wood (Parksville), Councillor Paul Manly (Nanaimo), Director Leanne Salter (Area F), and Chair Stuart McLean (Area H). While the RDN is not in charge of highways, they can act as a champion for improvements to road safety and enforcement on this critical piece of infrastructure and it is worth it for you to contact your local Director to express your desire for the RDN to push for better infrastructure and enforcement here. I also spoke on the phone with MP Gord Johns' office last week, and his staff promised to take the issue forward to Gord. While highways are a provincial jurisdiction, our MP can potentially act as a catalyst to bring federal resources to the table for things like major infrastructure development to bolster provincial spending, and our MP can potentially help push the RCMP (BC Highway Patrol), who are a federal agency, to put better enforcement in place.
I will be printing off the petition this week and delivering it to some of our representatives. I am so grateful to the politicians who are stepping up to address this issue.
The more people who contact our representatives directly, in a constructive way, the better. We deserve both better infrastructure to handle increasing traffic and increased enforcement to prevent accidents that close this vital road regularly. We need to keep the pressure up so that this issue is not sidelined. We cannot have more deaths on this highway.
Ministry of Transportation and Transit:
Minister Mike Farnworth TT.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Deputy Minister Heather Wood: DeputyMinister.Transportation@gov.bc.ca
Ladysmith Oceanside Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
MLA Stephanie Higginson (be sure to include your postal code in your correspondence): Stephanie.Higginson.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Courtenay-Alberni Member of Parliament
MP Gord Johns: gord.johns@parl.gc.ca
Regional District of Nanaimo
RDN Board of Directors individual emails can be found here: https://rdn.bc.ca/regional-board
In road safety solidarity,
Zoe Todd (Nanoose Bay resident)