I am #OneOf40

When I saw Nanaimo’s mayor, Bill Mckay say, “While there’s 40 people perhaps that are actively involved in the Colliery dam issue, 88,000 people live in Nanaimo,” in a recent Nanaimo Bulletin Article, I thought to myself, “That’s odd. I go to the Colliery Dams often and see hundreds of people there. Surely they are ‘actively’ involved in the Colliery Dams issue since they use the park all the time”.

So I’ve taken it as a bit of a challenge. Today Anita Scouten Martin and I set up a table in the famed Lower Dam and talked with upwards of 75 people who passed by. We asked them if they’d allow us to take their photo to show the mayor that there are more than 40 people who give a crap about this issue. We spoke with a number of people and there was not one person who wanted the park’s trees destroyed and a swale created for a never-has-happened-here flood of biblical proportions.

Many people didn’t know this is about to be forced upon the park. There are pieces of information that are still lacking, most specifically, from what I gather, spillway capacity and flow rate.

How can council be justified in picking an option to destroy such an incredible sanctuary for the community with hugely rich history at such an elaborate cost (a further $3-10 million to the taxpayer). It’s one of the only pieces of the coal mining history left in Nanaimo. Logically, council can’t. It would be wrong to do so with these pieces of information still lacking. Are the taxpayers going to get their money back for the $1 million spent by the City of Nanaimo on the later dis-proven study which said an earthquake would kill 150 people?

On their own accord, many of the people who we spoke to believe there is an ulterior motive behind this. A few people we spoke with vowed to take actions into their own hands to protest and block destruction of the park.

Please post a photo of yourself on social media holding a sign and use the hashtag #Oneof40 to show that you too are one of 40 people who are concerned about this issue.

Please try to come to the council meeting on July 6, 2015 at the Shaw Auditorium at the VICC at 80 Commercial Street to fill the seats in the gallery to show you care about our park.

If you are concerned about losing our park, or at the very least, a large part of it, please write these people and ask for an allowance for studies to be done so the damage done can be justified:

mayor&council@nanaimo.ca
Tim.Sheldan@gov.bc.ca
Tom.Ethier@gov.bc.ca
Scott.Morgan@gov.bc.ca
FLNR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Michelle.Stilwell.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Glen.Davidson@gov.bc.ca
douglas.routley.mla@leg.bc.ca
leonard.krog.mla@leg.bc.ca

Links
Nanaimo Bulletin Article cited above: http://tinyurl.com/pbc7nkv