The 2026 Qualicum Beach municipal election is rapidly approaching and voters will be casting their votes to elect a new council. Whether the new council will be made up of any or all of the current mayor and councillors will be decided by the voters. Thus, it is perhaps appropriate to look back on the current Council’s term to see how effective it has been and what has been accomplished. I attended most of the Council meetings during the past term, some more interesting th

As the nomination period begins on September 1st 2026 and candidates are preparing their campaigns, the time is right for the public to ask key questions that will enable them to make an informed choice for the 2026 election. Qualicum Beach Insights intends to distribute a questionnaire for all candidates on September 12th and we invite our readers to help formulate those questions to ensure we are getting a broad representation from the community....

Local governments have now completed their annual reports and Statements of Financial Information as required by the province. Often you will see economic reports that compare financial positions of major urban centers, but I have never seen a smaller community focused comparison approach. Clearly the amount of money involved and the size of the audience is greater in the bigger cities and hence they get the attention. The matter is just as important to residents of smalle

Well almost a whole year has gone by since we first wrote to council requesting the town institute a policy with respect to permissive tax exceptions. Further, on several occasions through the the year at Committee of the Whole meetings we have brought the subject forward reminding council that these exemptions should not be automatic and that council has some discretion to amend the amount that is exempted...

The town of Qualicum Beach holds town hall meetings at which the public is invited to ask questions of council and staff. At the June 17, 2026 meeting a number of questions were asked about the purchase of the Eaglecrest Golf Course. ...

With neighbouring communities and many other island communities further away, under severe water restrictions, I ask the question “What information have we been given about the Town of Qualicum Beach’s current water situation?” The RDN recently released their Regional Groundwater Level Analysis Report covering the entire RDN with data taken from 62 observation wells across ...