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Editorial: Should South Cowichan form a municipality?

2009 stage one of process undertaken
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Shawnigan Village Rail Trail. (Sarah Simpson/Citizen)

The Cowichan Valley Regional District is comprised of four municipalities and nine electoral areas. Should that be five municipalities instead?

It's long been suggested that a new municipality could be formed in South Cowichan. Some suggest a marriage of Mill Bay/Malahat, Shawnigan Lake, and Cobble Hill, with Cowichan Bay possibly slotting in as well. Others have suggested Shawnigan Lake could make a go of it on their own.

With a population of about 9,000 people Shawnigan Lake does have a more residents than the City of Duncan (just over 5,000 now). For further comparison, the Municipality of North Cowichan has about 32,000 people, by far the largest municipal unit in Cowichan (hence why they have three representatives at the CVRD table), Ladysmith has about 9,000 and Lake Cowichan is the smallest at less than 3,500.

A unit of Mill Bay/Malahat, Shawnigan Lake and Cobble Hill would easily surpass our smaller municipalities' populations.

In recent years work at the CVRD has harmonized many bylaws and services in the South Cowichan area, as it is increasingly known.

Combined, South Cowichan has several commercial and industrial areas, rural and forested areas, as well as ever-growing residential areas. There's an RCMP detachment in Shawnigan Lake, schools, libraries, parks and the Kerry Park Recreation Centre which even houses its own hockey team. There are kilometres of coastline, a ferry and a marina.

There's also no doubt that each area has its own distinct character. For all they have in common, Shawnigan Lake is different from Mill Bay, which is different from Cobble Hill. Would forming a municipality ruin the individuality of each community? Would the largest population base find itself favoured over the rest?

Before these more philosophical questions can be pondered or any decision made the primary consideration of cost would have to be estimated. Running a government costs money. There is infrastructure (where would a South Cowichan town hall go, anyway?), staff, elected officials and more. Is it in South Cowichan residents' best financial interests long term to collect their own taxes and make the shift? That is something that a consultant would likely take years and as substantial paycheque to determine.

But by far the most important question that would need to be answered is what do the residents of South Cowichan want?

As previously stated, the idea of the South Cowichan municipality is not a new one. In 2009 the CVRD even went as far as to complete stage one of the process towards possible incorporation. At the time the electoral area directors involved were in favour of the idea. After several years of wrangling and strong opinions on both sides, it did not, obviously, come to fruition.

Is it time to take another look at it?





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