A very busy Bowen Saturday

JUDITH GEDYE Bowen Island Municipality Councillor

Last Saturday’s open house was smaller and quieter than any previous one It was a beautiful, and busy, sunny day That morning there’d been the Farmers Market, the Bowen Community Foundation’s Vital Conversations, and a meeting of the BC Ferries Advisory Committee In the afternoon, just before my open house, BCF had their open house, and that evening there was a live theatre production and a fundraising dance

Nevertheless, about 20 people gathered to talk and ask questions There was, of course, talk about the ferries: what had happened at the open house, their future construction plans, and their plan to lure some Nanaimo traffic to Tsawwassen hoping to reduce Nanaimo traffic in Horseshoe Bay There was mention of hiring, training, pay levels, and more – all topics of general interest but nothing we have control or influence over.

There was also a question about tent caterpillars on the west side and mention that the hot dry weather was not good for them. You may be wishing for rain, but should not if we want fewer caterpillar eggs for next year

Camping at Cape Roger Curtis dominated the rest of the conversation, with specific reference to the recent neglected campfire at Apodaca Park Councillors who were there were able to announce that there is a Committee of the Whole meeting that has just been scheduled for Wednesday, June 14 at 1 pm to update the community on the process and the content received by Bowen to date

There might be then, but to date, there has been very little information from Metro following our first round of committee feedback to their original proposal One major issue continues to be vehicular access to Bowen and the Cape, and there was some discussion about the necessity of a secondary route if there were ever a need to evacuate the area

One person had put a great deal of thought into a low impact group camping proposal she will be presenting to council and Metro. The emphasis would be on youth and ecology, a sustainable footprint, regenerative building, with no new logging, roads, or infrastructure, other than perhaps with the involvement of local First Nations, a tra-