Council's accomplishments - 10 points
Updated: 2 days ago
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 than others. The following makes no attempt to be a complete accounting of the business conducted by Council in the past term. Rather, it is intended to provide an overview of meetings that I think will be of interest to the voters.
In no particular order:
1. The Tree Protection Bylaw received first, second and third readings on March 23, 2023 and was adopted on March 25, 2023 without any public consultation, but, with a promise that it would be reviewed in one year’s time. That date came, and went, without any action by council. On July 23, 2025 Council pushed the review of the bylaw from 2025 to 2026. However, in the event you thought a review of the Tree Bylaw was just around the corner, on December 17, 2025 council further deferred the review to 2027.
2. The Town bought a golf course. The purchase of the golf course was not contemplated during the strategic planning sessions in any of the previous years and came out of the blue after the Town’s February 13, 2025 media release stating that it had been unable to negotiate the acquisition of the Eaglecrest Golf Course and that no further offers would be made. That was the status quo until the Town’s media release of July 16, 2025 which stated that the Town had reached an agreement for the purchase of the golf course. The identity of Councilors' voting in favour, or opposed, to the purchase of the golf course is unknown as the decision was made in closed meetings.
3. The seniors’ care facility proposed for the College Heights neighbourhood failed to obtain first reading for the required Zoning and OCP amendments at the October 22, 2025 council meeting and now seems to be dead. By way of background, the project was privately funded and would have provided much needed care beds for ageing town residents. Staff recommended that the proposed amendments be made, following which discussion could ensue on the merits of the project. This did not happen as Councillor Skipsey moved, with Councillor Vander Valk seconding, that the requested zoning and OCP amendments be denied. This was put to a vote with Mayor Westbroek joining Councilors Skipsey and Vander Valk in voting to deny the requested amendments. By a three (Mayor Westbroek and Councilors Skipsey and Vander Valk) to two vote (Councilors Harrison and Young), the project was rejected.
4. Council entered into a lease with the School Board for Qualicum Commons. Then it changed its mind and gave notice to the School Board to terminate the lease. No details can be provided on this matter as most, if not all, of the business surrounding Qualicum Commons was conducted in closed meetings. To date, no accounting of the cost of this venture has been provided to the public.
5. In conjunction with the replacement of the culvert on East Crescent Road, Council waived the Qualicum Beach Memorial Golf Course’s (“QBMGC”) $76,000 annual lease payment for 2024. In addition to waiving the lease payment, the Town agreed to pay one-half of the estimated $700,000 cost of a bridge on the 5th hole and provided for QBMGC’s $350,000 portion to be borrowed from the Town’s Water Utility Reserve, with a repayment plan to be established. It should be noted that the Water Utility Reserve is the same reserve that is struggling to pay for the replacement of the Town’s aging Asbestos Concrete water pipes.
6. On March 19, 2025 Council adopted the 2025 – 2029 Financial Plan which provided a “road map” for the Town’s projects and finances. The Financial Plan was effectively torn up shortly thereafter when an amendment was passed by Council on July 23, 2025 to provide funding for the purchase of Eaglecrest Golf Course. This resulted in a deferral of a number of previously planned projects to years in the future. The 2026 – 2030 Financial Plan, which was adopted on April 1, 2026 and included the July 23, 2025 Eaglecrest amendments, was further amended on June 24, 2026 to increase the budget for the still to be completed revisioning of Eaglecrest Golf Course. The various amendments to the Financial Plan were passed by a majority of council (Mayor Westbroek, Councilors' Skipsey, Vander Valk and Young) with Councillor Harrison opposed.
7. The June 24, 2026 amendment to the 2026 – 2030 Financial Plan was adopted by Council on July 15, 2026 and one would have thought that was the end of that piece of business. But no. A further amendment was made on July 31, 2026 to allocate $400,000 from the Community Amenity Contribution Reserve towards a $300,000 donation to the Nanaimo & District Hospital Foundation for the purchase of medical equipment for the new medical clinic at 661 Primrose Street, with the additional $100,000 to be available for future council decision making to support health care facilities and multi-doctor clinics.
8. On March 16, 2026 Council authorized the purchase of $755,428 of golf course maintenance equipment. Shortly thereafter, a Town media release of April 26, 2026 stated that a “short – term maintenance contract” for the maintenance of Eaglecrest Golf Course had been awarded to Extreme Eatz Restaurant Inc. (“EER”). Little information is available, including whether the contract was subject to an RFP process, as the contract was awarded in a closed meeting. However, a copy of the contract, obtained by a Freedom of Information request revealed that the contract is for the period April 1, 2026 to July 31, 2026, that the Town will provide all of the golf course maintenance equipment (luckily, it recently purchased $755,428 worth of equipment) and the required supplies (fertilizer, chemicals, grass seed, gravel, soil, fuel) and pay $32,000 per month to EER for the required labour. Upon its expiry on July 31, the contract was extended until December 31, 2026. A June 18, 2026 media release stated that the town was excited to advise that the reconfiguration of the golf course was expected to be completed in early August and the course will reopen in Spring 2027. This raises two questions: how much maintenance is actually required prior to the completion of the reconfiguration? And, can we expect that upon the expiry of the contract on December 31 that it will be extended to the Spring of 2027. As a sidenote, the Town’s March 26, 2026 media release stated that the Town had entered into a lease with EER of the restaurant facilities at the golf course and that a second agreement for golf course operations was being finalized between the Town and EER. To date, nothing has been forthcoming with respect to the ongoing agreement for the golf course operations.
9. Pickleball, pickleball and more pickleball. Pickleball appeared at council meetings beginning in March of 2023 and often thereafter. Basically, the players want courts. The proposals range from the very simple and inexpensive (painting lines on existing tennis courts) as proposed by the players to the hiring of a consultant by the Town to provide an estimate for courts to be built at the dog park by the airport with, as we near the end of this council’s term, no pickleball courts in sight.
10. Council spent an inordinate amount of time with environmental concerns of varying degrees of importance. These included saving plant life being removed for the construction of the subsidized housing project, numerous initiatives of Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region, the elimination of English Ivy, suing Big Oil, and the removal of trees on a Town lane to provide the parking required for a multi-unit housing project. I am not against protecting the environment, however, some of the matters dealt with by council distracted it and took it away from its core responsibilities to the citizens, for water, sewer, roads, police and fire protection.
This is not a complete list of the business conducted by Council during its term and is merely intended to give a broad over view.
As a postscript, I received the agenda for the September 9th regular council meeting subsequent to writing the foregoing article. This is the last council meeting of the current council's term. The following items on the agenda might be of interest to the reader and provide a reason to attend the meeting, or watch on You Tube, to see council at work:
BC Energy Step Code - The BC Energy Step Code was introduced by the province in 2017. It focused on energy efficiency in new construction for homes and small buildings as well as for large complex buildings. The province initially anticipated full implementation to achieve zero carbon in new construction in 2030 but permitted municipalities to accelerate the implementation of the targets. Our council took this route and passed an amendment to the Building Bylaw containing the Step Code requirements for new construction at a pace far in advance of the Province's agenda. Mayor Westbroek is now introducing a motion at the September 9 council meeting to effectively delay the Town's accellerated implementation of the Step Codes. As stated in the motion, "Council wishes to align the Town's implementation of the Step Code with the Province's proposed implementation timeline", which the Province has now been extended to 2032. One can only wonder if this turnaround has anything to do with the developments proposed at Eaglecrest.
Another motion introduced by Mayor Westbroek: Eaglecrest Golf Course be officially renamed as Qualicum Beach Eaglecrest Golf Course and the installation of two additional flag poles at the golf course to fly the Town's municipal flag and the Club flag, subsequent to Council approving the visual identity program for the Qualicum Beach Eaglecrest Golf Course.
Transplanting native flowering shrubs from the Hoylake Road Pollinator Garden to the Beach Creek site in the Heritage Forest by the Brown Property Preservation Society with staff assistance for site preparation, relocation and transporting the plants.
A motion proposed by Councillor Vander Valk relating to the Tree Protection Bylaw directing staff to ensure that replacement trees required under the bylaw are planted and cared for, that permits to remove trees be posted on the property, that staff establish criteria to determine whether tree removal is necessary for the construction of a structure, and that staff collaborate with residents on how best to accomplish the foregoing through a workshop. A question to ask: will the collaboration and/or workshop occur before, or replace, the review and public engagment of the Tree Bylaw scheduled for 2027?
Rescinding the July 15, 2026 resolution that provided $40,000 to the Legion to support the construction of a cenotaph and that funding for the construction of the cenotaph be considered in the 2027 Strategic Planning process.
James Noel
September 8th 2026
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