The Petition to fund the Vancouver Island Railway grows! The last few days have seen another 291 signatures. Now at 1291 in just 10 days. I have to thank Norm Thomas, John Wynia, Samuel Thompson, and David Neufeld for promoting the petition on top of signing it!
You should share this with friends, family, and colleagues across Canada, because without the rail corridor the demand to expand highways on Vancouver Island will increase and end up costing all Canadians and British Columbians an order of magnitude more in taxes.
Expanding highways on mountainous landscape is not cheap. I can’t even imagine the pushback from First Nations on that since the Island Corridor Foundation is of their making. That’s right, we would not be having this conversation today if not for the Cowichan Tribes and the other island Nations banding together with Regional Districts to create it. The Snaw-Naw-As who had their land returned had 2 Directors of the 6 First Nation reps on the ICF board prior to walking out after the Federal Government visited.
$1 billion is not much when you look at the kind of money the Federal and Provincial governments throw around for things much less valuable than the Vancouver Island Rail Corridor.
Last year, the NDP found out quickly that spending $789 million to rebuild the Royal B.C. Museum was not a popular way to spend that kind of money. Other than preserving history in a shiny new building instead of just fixing the old one, a museum doesn’t offer the spread of benefits that the 289km railway that connects Courtenay and Port Alberni to Parksville, Nanaimo, Duncan, and Langford all the way into Victoria does. Virtually every city or town South of Courtenay is kissed by the railway and 80% of over 900,000 people live within catchment.
Across the country in Quebec, Ontario, and even in British Columbia, rail is being invested in. There are over $108 billion in projects on the books nationwide! And yet a railway supported by every B.C. Regional District and every single city Mayor on Vancouver Island, goes unfunded? How does that make a lick of sense?
With over 900,000 people living here now, and set to grow to 1 Million by 2030, the highways on Vancouver Island will be so congested that people will be getting up 30 to 45 minutes earlier just to get to work, school, or appointments on time.
Every Canadian should be concerned, because it concerns paying a small amount today to prevent having to paying a large amount tomorrow for more highways.
Warren Skaalrud
Restore Island Rail
https://restoreislandrail.com