TAHSIS: Former mill town beckons retirees
The Schooners needed shelter from the winter storms and jobs to replenish their depleted funds.
They found much more than work — they found home. After a dozen years living in Terrace, Nova Scotia-born Jude fell in love with the remote village on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Ten years ago, the Schooners launched a business catering to scuba divers, kayakers and hikers.
Jude, 62, now serves as mayor of the village of 315.
That population soars by about 1,000 in the summer as visitors and absentee homeowners flock to Tahsis for its sport fishing, kayaking, hiking and caving.
Tahsis has a compelling combination of affordability and access to pristine wilderness, Schooner says.
“We’re the tomorrow of British Columbia,” she says.
“We get retirees who can sell their homes in other municipalities and with the revenue they gain put themselves into a lower-cost home in Tahsis and put the surplus funds away to see them through their years,” she says.
Detached homes currently sell for $40,000-$50,000, she says.
Tahsis has been working to make a transition to a tourism-based economy since its last sawmill closed in the early years of this century. The 62-kilometre gravel road linking it to Highway 19 is at once an attraction to tourists — wildlife sightings are plentiful along the road — and a deterrent to potential residents who need to live closer to medical resources.
The village, which had been home to about 2,500 people at its peak, is blessed with facilities such as a well-equipped rec centre.
But the village’s infrastructure is aging at a time the provincial government has been downloading responsibility for services, Schooner says.
“In the days of the mills, our councils spent money like drunken sailors ... and put nothing into surplus because they thought the mills would last forever,” she says. “We now know that wasn’t realistic.``
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