Mayor Chris Burger signs a lot of cheques every month, bills the City of Parksville must pay like any family or business.
Unlike many in his position as a municipality’s top elected official, Burger has no stamp with his signature — he signs everything by hand.
He says there’s one account, one cheque he signs every month, that causes him some angst. Last year, the City of Parksville paid Southern Rail about $46,000 for the upkeep of railway crossings in the city.
“I can justify every cheque I sign, but I don’t know about these,” Burger said this week. “Those fees are starting to really concern us.”
Vancouver Island’s rail corridor is owned by the Island Corridor Foundation (ICF), which pays Southern Rail to operate the railway. There has been no passenger rail service anywhere on the Island since March 2011 when the railway was deemed unsafe. Freight service continues in some areas south of Nanaimo.
The Town of Qualicum Beach signs similar cheques every month to the account of Southern Rail, to the tune of about $18,000 a year. Both Parksville and Qualicum Beach also waive the property taxes on ICF land in their communities.
“This is a cash cow for somebody,” said Qualicum Beach Coun. Dave Willie, the town’s representative on the Regional District of Nanaimo’s (RDN) board of directors. “There’s no maintenance going on.”
The Victoria Times-Colonist reported Tuesday that B.C. Transportation Minister Todd Stone met with ICF officials Monday and said he will try to persuade Via Rail to restart passenger service on the Island. Meanwhile, ICF CEO Graham Bruce told the paper negotiations with Via Rail will conclude in late August, with or without an agreement.
“Many of us agree we just need to bring this to a conclusion,” said Willie, who made a motion (it passed unanimously) at the last Qualicum Beach town council meeting urging the RDN to ask the ICF to pursue uses for the corridor other than rail.
“The Island Corridor Foundation has become nothing but an Island rail foundation,” Willie said this week. “Many of them (ICF board members) are not being responsible.”
Willie said the people of Qualicum Beach have spent their own funds on the restoration of the local train station, and have work on major intersections in a holding pattern, waiting to see what’s going to happen with rail service.
“We’ve stepped forward and done our two bits,” he said.
The City of Parksville has not passed any motions recently in relation to the corridor or the rail service, but Burger said he believes his council and that of Qualicum Beach are “very much aligned.”
“There’s great concern in the City of Parksville, and not just in the fact we are disbursing funds,” said Burger. “We’re not getting information back and we don’t know where things stand. We all are in favour of the return of rail but there never has been a business plan that makes sense.”
Burger also said the little information he is getting points to passenger rail service, if it ever restarts, concentrating south of Nanaimo.
“And that begs the question: where’s our stake in this?”
