Mayors Report to Council Sep 16, 2025

On September 3, the North Island experienced an extensive internet outage which included cell coverage. This was an unusual outage and was traced to somebody cutting a fibre optic line beside the Island Highway. This act of sabotage was not explained to my knowledge. Having redundant internet lines will go a long ways towards mitigating these kind of acts as well as from other causes. The Connected Coast infrastructure is still not online but will help to prevent this in future.

On September 10 I was part of the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Just Like Home facility in Campbell River. The Strathcona Regional District has been working for the last five years to bring it to this point. This facility, close to the Campbell River Hospital, will provide accommodations for families from remote communities such as ours when one of the family has a hospital stay. After the ceremony, I met Anna Kindy, our recently elected MLA. We had good discussions about various issues such as the state of our road, first nation land claims and the state of health care on the North Island (she is herself a medical professional). She has promised to be a staunch advocate for Tahsis issues and is willing to go to bat for our advocacy for an extended care senior's home in Tahsis as well as paving of our road.

On the subject of seniors, there is a survey being conducted by the University of Victoria to identify research priorities on aging and technology that matters most to the community. I have included the link here:
https://forms.office.com/r/iqdBxsiDTX

I would also like to mention the recent passing of Rusty Turner, spouse of Brenda Overton. He was a longtime member of our community, working as a faller for many years. I wish to extend condolences to Brenda and his family.