July 15, 2006

We are fortunate to have hundreds of kilometers of trails in and around Victoria and the South Cowichan.  The vast network of the Galloping Goose and the Trans Canada Trail are a real draw for tourism operators and a tremendous recreation asset for the whole community. But the system is disconnected for 615 feet at the Koksilah River - at the Kinsol trestle.

The historic Kinsol is a broken link in the trail network and the cost of repair or replacement is in the multi millions.  The actual physical structure is the responsibility of the Provincial government, more specifically the Ministry of Transportation.  After safety inspections and several consultants' reports, the Ministry has determined the liability to be too great to ignore and decisions about the future of the structure need to be made.

Sounds easy enough - but it's not.  The CVRD has been working on the challenge of the trestle for years.  Consultants have looked at a range of options, but the possibilities are dwindling as the massive beams and cross members rot in the rain and wind.  The structure is magnificent and the prospect of just tearing it down upsets many people.  At the same time, the prospect of spending many millions of tax dollars to return it to some semblance of its former glory is also upsetting for many people.  This range of opinions points to how difficult the decision really is.  Still, it is the role of elected officials, informed by the communities they serve, to make the hard decisions - and that is why I'm calling on all levels of government to work together to come up with a solution for crossing the Koksilah river.

In that spirit, I was joined by CVRD chair Jon Lefebure and Tourism Minister Olga Ilich for a tour of the north side of the trestle on July 13.  I felt it was important for the Minister responsible for both tourism and heritage to see first hand the magnificent engineering and architectural values present in the historic structure.  To her credit, Minister Ilich came with an open mind and ultimately committed to looking for ways to compliment the work of the CVRD and the community.

I think that we as a community need to assess the work already done by the CVRD and the Province and work toward finding partnerships that will meet the needs of the community.  Foremost is to raise the capital required to do the work.  The Ministry of Transportation has put up the first $1.5 million.  The CVRD has plans to establish a local not-for-profit society to help raise additional funding.  Provincial Tourism grants, although small, can add up and if a matching program can be established then the federal and provincial governments can play a larger role.  But for that to happen we need to let the Provincial and Federal governments know what we want.  Area Director Ken Cossey and I have been working toward a positive outcome at Kinsol, and we want all levels of government to commit to a workable plan that will connect the trail from Shawnigan to the rest of the South Cowichan.

I urge you to send letters and e-mails to Minister Ilich, the Premier and the Prime Minister letting them all know that the trail and the trestle are important and need to be a high priority when infrastructure programs are distributing funding in the weeks and months ahead.