Year in review: Mayor of Parksville looks back on 2023

One of his favourite memories of the year, Mayor O’Brien says he enjoyed meeting the students at the various school in the city. Photo courtesy of the City of Parksville.

After his first full year as mayor of Parksville, Mayor Doug O’Brien said he has seen a lot of growth in the city.

As soon as he was elected as mayor he was in charge of one of his biggest challenges this year. A temporary shelter for the unhoused was due to terminate at the end of December 2022. This temporary shelter was approved by the previous council, of which he was a council member, to help those unhoused during the pandemic.

“So upon becoming mayor, I had to get in there and reassure the tenants that were being housed in that area, that none of them were going to be evicted out on the streets and so forth. When we had would be starting a program, rehousing them into appropriate housing,” said O’Brien.

The mayor and council then decided to extend the temporary

housing at the VIP hotel until the end of March 2023. This would give time to help find appropriate housing for those using the shelter.

“And so that it was challenging the working with various collaborations with BC housing and so forth, and the different agencies to get these people housed in better housing than they were temporarily been housed at the VIP,” said O’Brien.

The roughly 20 tenants were then able to leave the hotel for better housing.

“I was very pleased that we were able to do all of that everyone that was in the temporary housing was able to be rehoused in better and more suitable housing conditions, and no one was evicted on the street. We even found housing for some other people that were not necessarily tenants that were kind of in the area and so they got rehouse as well into proper housing,” said O’Brien.

One of his favourite memories of the year, Mayor O’Brien said he really enjoyed introducing himself to students at the various schools in the city.

“The best experience I've been having anyways is introducing myself to the children's school programs in the area whereby the elementary and junior high school programs,” said O’Brien. “It's relating to the kids and what they feel is important, and describing my roles and duties as the mayor as to, you know, everything that we have to do.

The mayor jokes that especially the younger kids were interested in his role even if they might have been confused about who he was.

“Confusing me with the king was often and since I'm the mayor, I must be very wealthy,” said O’Brien.

However many students were able to tell the mayor what they wanted to see more of in the community.

“They had things they advised me with. Things that they wanted in our community and it's centred around playgrounds and skateboard parks and that type of thing,” said O’Brien. “So it was finally one group of organizations that was asking me for more pickleball courts. I was appreciative for that.”

This was a busy year for the Mayor and council as well. 

In response to the provincial government’s bill 35 which will have restrictions on short-term rentals, the City of Parksville sent a letter to the province asking for an exemption from it. O'Brien said he is worried about the effects the regulations could have on vacation rental cottages that many use when they visit the city.

Currently, the provincial government is stern with not allowing any changes or exemptions to the law that will come into effect on May first of next year.

During this year a partnership between the City of Parksville and the Nature Trust of BC planned to conserve 13 acres of land on the Englishman River.

“The concentration has been working to preserve and maintain and enhance the environment around us and we know we have the ocean on one side we have Englishmen Berber was a very important estuary,” said O’Brien. “As well as the wetlands, are parcels that all plays a very important habitat role for our area is not just for the health of the city is some sort of the health of all of our individuals in our community.”

The city also approved a new treatment centre that will be used to support those with addiction or mental health problems.

O’Brien said it was the city’s job to hear from residents and business owners to find out how they feel about the new centre 

“We listened respectfully to everybody's comments, and we got a good feel from the community, what that was and what the concerns were about the new treatment centre as proposed,” said O’Brien.

The City was able to work with Island Health to alleviate the concerns of residents by putting in place conditions such as making sure the centre does not become more than a place where people can seek treatment.

“I think we were able to accomplish a lot by doing that because the people after we unanimously voted to approve the new centre, we received many comments from the public advising us that they're grateful for our decision that we've come to,” said O’Brien. “They're satisfied that we've got the best conditions in place anyways to allow this treatment centre to flourish and succeed.”

For now, the Mayor said he is excited to see what comes next in 2024 and hopes to see the community and economy continue to grow.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.