By Roy L Hales

The old Surge Narrows Store, on Read Island, closed its doors in 2007. A Strathcona Regional District (SRD) staff report sates, “since that time the building and its associated boardwalk, floating dock and fuel shed have been left in a state of disrepair.” Last November, the SRD board applied for a $2.2 million grant to revitalize the property and was turned down. Now it looks the Surge Narrows Store Revitalization project is going forward.

Meeting with the Minister

BC’s Minister of Municipal Affairs, Selina Robinson, recently met with representatives from the SRD.

In the September 2020 issue of Surge Currents, Regional Director Jim Abram wrote, “This year staff and the Chair of the Board had three topics for the Board to consider and vote on as the topics to be discussed. I read them prior to the meeting and noticed that there wasn’t a single Rural Area issue on the list! Very upsetting since this IS our local government. So, I did the research and came up with one that I felt needed to go forward and it was directly related to this Minister’s portfolio.”

The Minister subsequently agreed that the Surge Narrows store project should go forward.

So did the federal ministry.

Map from SRD staff report, GRANT OPPORTUNITY — SURGE NARROWS STORE SITE REVITALIZATION

SRD Meetings

The Electoral Areas Services Committee gave its recommendation to the project at their Sept.16 board meeting.

When the SRD meets again, on October 7th, they will decide whether to send an application to the Canada Infrastructure Program – Rural and Northern Communities grant program.

Read Island ‘already has the grant’

According to Abram, Read Island ‘already has’ the grant, “This is just the board endorsing it.”

In Surge Currents, he wrote, “The grant is for $2.2 Million for the Surge Narrows revitalization project which includes an additional wharf and dock, a rebuild of the Surge Narrows Store historic property and dozens of other wonderful projects within the property that we purchased a year or so ago. It will also look at a small seniors’ village to accommodate the aging population that does not want to leave: Aging in place!”