Dear CVRD directors, North Cowichan and Duncan mayors and councillors, and Premier David Eby:
We agree with basics of the Cowichan Citizen’s Sept. 24, 2025 editorial underlining spiralling unaffordability in our struggling municipalities.
Assume this is a national problem.
The answer is clear: smart growth, and capping population levels. Local governments must address maintenance and upgrade costs for ailing infrastructures before allowing more folks to move here.
Our province’s edict to simply build more housing is myopic sprawl, at best.
Build what, where, for whom, and why, Mr. Premier?
Our addiction to ever-more growth is strangling residents already taxed to the max, while wrecking lifestyle, environmental and cultural reasons we live here.
Cowichan’s feckless economic development department, and North Cowichan’s lame economic development committee, have sadly failed to attract more businesses. They could generate tax revenues — plus jobs — to help us pay our half-billion-dollar infrastructure-upgrade bills.
The Citizen’s timely idea of boosting development cost charges is fine, but those dollar totals will hardly provide big bucks for fixes we urgently need.
Yes folks, the bull elephant in our chambers and legislature is called limits to growth — guided by cogent official community plans touting smart growth.
Yours in limits to growth,
Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan
