Tofino-Ucluelet Westerly News, March 09, 2016

TOFINO-UCLUELETTOFINO-UCLUELET

Westerly NewsWednesday, March 9, 2016 WesterlyNews.ca

WHALE FEST BUTTONS

Local kids created buttons, like this one by Cedar Forest.

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Erin Linn McMullan selected for International Film Festival

District doubles rates to push businesses onto new system

Tofitian screenwriter honoured

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Rough start for Ukee’s water meters

See WATER page 5See LOCAL page 14

ROUTES OF CHANGE

Markus Pukonen travels the globe to motivate change.

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Andrew [email protected]

Ucluelet is nixing its flat rate water charges and moving to a metered system, starting with local businesses.

This transition was supposed to be well on its way by now but many businesses aren’t playing ball so the district will dou-ble their water rates until they comply.

Ucluelet’s district office sent letters to 55 local businesses

back in November telling them to install water meters by March 31 but just eight businesses had obliged before a Feb. 23 report submitted to Ucluelet’s municipal council by finance manager David Douglas.

“A significant number of our customers have not started the process of changing to water meters,” Douglas wrote adding the best way to speed up the process would be to increase the fees non-metered businesses are paying.


A local screenwriter has big news to celebrate. Tofino’s Erin Linn McMullan is off to the mainland

to participate in the upcoming Vancouver International Women in Film Festival (VIWIFF) where her screenplay Lotus will be featured as an official selection.

“This selection is the highlight for me, and for this little-project-that-could so far,” McMullan told the Westerly News.

“VIWIFF, and Women in Film and TV who also host the film festival, create incredible opportunities for women in the industry and to promote strong female protagonists in film.”

Lotus follows a Romeo and Juliet style story set in 12th Century Japan with fictional heroine Ren, a Bud-dhist samurai and horse whisperer, snagged into an escalating rivalry between the historic Taira and Min-amoto clans.

McMullan said the project began as a scene she imagined roughly ten years ago and started taking shape during her recently completed MFA from UBC.

“It all started with one short story, Lotus, that I sub-mitted for Brian Brett’s fiction class during my MFA and the glimmer of an idea that had run through my mind like a short film clip on and off for a decade since my first introduction to Buddhism,” she said.

“I imagined a little girl, with pigtails, running into an immense gathering of monks and being accepted. I was curious. Who was this young girl? How did she come to live at a monastery? How would that influence her choices as life tested her? It was meant to be one assignment. Instead it became my thesis screenplay.”

ANDREW BAILEY PhOTO

LEAP YEAR LOCAL: A brand new Ukee local arrived on Feb. 29, a date that only occurs every four years. The West Coast wel-comed leap year baby, Morgan Alexander Brown—named in honour of the late Morgan Thorp—born at 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 52.5 centimetres long. Proud parents Bronwyn Kelleher and David Brown were delighted with their new son’s arrival and brother Kellen is stoked on his new sibling.

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Page 2 | The Westerly News Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Cell: 250-726-3888 Fax: 888-885-0005 250-726-2228

Mieke Dusseldorp

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Happily serving T & Ucluelet

MID ISLAND REALTY

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NOTICE OF SPECIAL BOARDOF DIRECTORS MEETING

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

2016-2020 Financial PlanWednesday, March 16, 2016

6:00 pm, Regional District Office3008 5th Ave, Port Alberni, BC

The general purpose of the meeting is to undertake public consultation regarding the Regional District’s 2016-2020 Financial Plan. The Public is invited to attend and make comments on the proposed Five Year Financial Plan.

Copies of the plan will be available at the Regional District office during regular office hours starting March 11th, or visit our website at www.acrd.bc.ca.

Andrew McGifford, CPA, CGAActing Manager of Finance

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Nora o’[email protected]

Routes of Change founder Markus Pukonen has cruised into Tofino for some rare rest and relaxation before gearing up for the next leg of his epic cir-cumnavigation of the planet without using a motor.

Pukonen, who was named one of Canada’s greatest explorers by Canadian Geographic, kay-aked with a friend from Vancouver to Nanaimo, biked to Port Alberni, SUPed the Kennedy River, ca-noed Kennedy Lake with his sister, and then pad-dled his way down the Tofino inlet before meeting his nieces and their Dad on Meares Island.

“They got in the canoe with me and my sister and we canoed the last couple kilometres to Tofino. That was awesome,” Pukonen said of his nieces.

Pukonen will be sharing footage and stories from his self-propelled journey across Canada at the Clayoquot Community Theatre on Wednesday, March 9 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

“I feel so good. I feel like I’m doing what I was supposed to be doing on this planet and it trans-lates into my body,” he said. “I’ve been surprised at how well my body has held up. I think a lot of that has to do with my mental state.”

Since kicking off his journey in Toronto on July 13, 2015, the intrepid 33-year-old has pogo sticked 10 kilometres through the streets of Winnipeg, ski toured 700 kilometres through the Kootenays, and sailed a trimaran across Lake Superior.

“It’s a pretty interesting boat. It sails if there is wind, but if there is no wind you can paddle it or you can pedal it. The paddling doesn’t really work well because the outriggers get in the way, so I ended up having dead flat beautiful canoeing weather for a lot of Lake Superior and ended up having to pedal this thing. It was hard on my knees,” he said.

“I did get some sailing and some really crazy

weather, like ocean sort with two-metre waves. It sort of felt like the West Coast on Lake Superior. There are white sand beaches.”

Pukonen is scheduled to depart the West Coast on Sunday, March 13, at 9 a.m. from the Tofino Village Green and he’s encouraging folks to come out in fun costumes to send him off in style.

“People can ride with me for part of the way too if they want,” he said.

The next leg of his journey involves sailing a 1968 Alberg sailboat from the California coast to the shores of Hawaii. Pukonen has lined up a friend to sail with and describes their vessel as a well-re-spected offshore cruising boat built in Whitby, On-tario.

Routes of Change is a non-profit society created by Pukonen as a way to support leaders of posi-tive change in the world. Inevitably, his quest has inspired people to use more sustainable modes of transport.

“My big goal of this trip is to reach the large general public who could care less about the en-vironment or the value behind the environment and sustainable living. To a lot of people that word doesn’t mean much,” he said.

Anyone interested in learning more about Routes of Change or to sponsor Pukonen on his circumnavigation of the planet, can visit: www.routesofchange.org.

Pukonen studied documentary film making at Capilano University with the goal of making a film and webisodes of the Routes of Change project. He’s also writing a book about his five-year expe-dition around the globe, which incidentally, he told the Westerly is panning out to be more like seven.

“It’s more likely going to be seven years, just looking at the size of the planet. It’s a big planet,” he said with a whimsical smile.

Tuff local travels the globePukonen’s self-propelled journey to spur global change

ROUTESOFCHANGE.ORG PHOTO

Routes of Change founder and one of Canada’s top explorers Markus Pukonen arrived in Tofino by canoe last week. His sister Jen Pukonen and his nieces Ocea and Rio Green who reside on the Coast joined him for the paddle from Meares Island to Tofino.

The Westerly News | Page 3Wednesday, March 9, 2016

March 9 Ucluelet Recycles

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Ukee’s Youth Room helps local teens find friendships, learn new skills and occasionally score free food.

The room is located within Ucluelet’s community centre and offers daily drop-in opportunities as well as larger scheduled ex-periences like Mt. Washington trips and surf adventures.

The district’s youth coordinator Erica Benson told the Westerly that having a judgment-free space for youth to connect and col-laborate helps foster a positive teen culture on the Coast.

“While it does have structure, it also has that more informal atmosphere promoting social growth,” she said. “Kids can come and either bring their homework or just socialize with each other.”

She said the room’s loose structure helps build mentoring skills among older youth who are uniquely positioned to guide young teens through early growing pains.

“For example, when we do have conflict or problems that we need to work through in the youth room, I really like to get the old-er kids who have experience in leadership positions to role model behavioural expectations,” she said.

“Coming from the people that they maybe look up to, like the older kids is, I think, a bit more effective than having adults just tell them how it is and that gets the youth themselves to take ownership and create the space and culture.”

This mentorship helps create a united front against rising so-cial pressures as a generation that has never known a world with-out the Internet grows up in a global neighborhood where online images push distorted realities.

“There’s so many hours a day spent on screens and different message that it can get overwhelming to know what to think,” Benson said.

She said social pressures from online sources are an oft-dis-cussed topic during the room’s Girls Speak Out drop-in events, held every Wednesday at 3 p.m.

“We talk a lot about the idea of body image or different ex-pectations put on certain people to reach certain milestones at certain times,” she said.

“What the trouble is now is finding out what’s real and what’s true. With all the different kinds of software like Photoshop, it’s so easy to doctor an image and the translation then looking in the mirror just doesn’t align.”

She added social media can ease teens into creating online personas that don’t reflect their true selves and it’s important to help them understand the online footprint they’re creating with every post will stay with them forever.

“They’re interacting with a screen. Yes, what’s on the screen is representative of people on another screen but without having that direct human-to-human interaction I think it’s one step back,” she said.

“It’s like a mask…It’s more impulsive and we know that ado-lescents already have reduced impulsive control and so posting based on reaction rather than thinking about it and taking a step back to really think twice about what they want to post can have negative consequences.”

She said the youth room helps promote positive play as an alternative to focusing on online falsehoods.

“Yes, talk about Photoshop, talk about people starving them-selves to have this ideal image, but also just promote play, pro-mote going outside and learning,” she said. “There’s promoting health and promoting well-being…just help kids be kids and do their best along the way.”

Benson collaborates with youth to create the room’s program-ming and she is stoked to ring in the spring season as the weath-er starts to turn and the West Coast’s vast and fascinating outdoor playground opens up.

“I definitely come from a very outdoor recreation focus and background and I really want to maximize living in Ucluelet and on the West Coast so we do surfing and SUPing [stand up paddle-boarding] and outdoor trips,” she said.

“Impromptu nature walks are great. Youth will know trails that maybe adults don’t so we get to look at Ucluelet from their per-spectives.”

Tofino’s recreation programmer Jess Towers commended Ucluelet’s youth room initiative.

“It’s a really challenging demographic to capture for a parks and rec. department… unless the department makes a very firm stance in trying to branch out and reach the youth community like Ukee has done,” Towers told the Westerly. “You really need to devote some time, resources and space to them.”

She said locals have been asking for more youth programming in Tofino but it’s a tough demographic to cater to.

“As programmers and as departments we talk a lot about how we get our youth more engaged, it’s definitely a challenge,” she said.

“It is important to overcome because the youth need some-thing to do and if they don’t have somewhere positive to express themselves then they turn to things that maybe aren’t so posi-tive…Recreation can help in a lot of ways. We know how it helps your general well being to stay active especially when those hor-mones start kicking in; it’s a good time to be able to have ways to express your energy.”

She said the key value of Ucluelet’s youth room is its ability to host drop-in programs.

“Drop in programs tend to very successful among youth be-cause there’s no commitment involved and they can bring who-ever their friend is that week,” she said. “In Tofino it’s hard for me to speak to youth programs because, to be completely frank, we don’t have a huge amount of it…For us it’s a space issue we run into where we can’t host something for the youth because we just really don’t have the space for it.”

Tofino’s Royal Canadian Legion opens its doors to youth every Tuesday night and Legion executive member Duncan McMaster said these youth nights see solid weekly turnouts enjoying a wide array of activities like bingo, movies, pool, and darts.

The Legion’s youth nights kicked off in 2012 and McMaster said they’ll continue as long as interest remains strong.

“We’ll do it as long as we can. It makes sense to keep young people involved,” he said. “It’s really important. It gives them a chance to meet, get out of the rain and just hang out.”

youth room helps kids be kidsANDREW BAILEY Photo

Local youth, from left Allora Hickey, Zachary Belisle, Ian Brittain, Aidan Duffy, chill out in Ukee’s Youth Room at the UCC.



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every time my son sees an eagle he yells at it.

“eggle,” he proclaims—he struggles with hard e’s—as he triumphantly points with more gusto than I could ever hope to muster.

I find it adorable because, like the rest of my kids, he never does anything wrong but is it adorable or simply sensible?

eagles are massive and every bit as majestic as they look on the postcards we send to out-of-town relatives. They should absolutely be gawked at and we should all be pointing and yelling in delight whenev-er we have the privilege of being awed by one. Yet, if my son didn’t yell at them I’d hardly notice them.

Many of us weren’t born on the Coast but we fell in love with its magic and plant-ed ourselves in its garden. even the best magic trick loses its luster once you’ve grown accustomed to the shine.

Growing accustomed to paradise is a gift we all earned but it’s also a gift that must be returned.

Mists of water meters, parking meters, affordable housing and sewage treatment might fog the view but the sunset is still there.

This won’t apply to everyone but many

of us need to open our eyes and see what we saw when we moved here.

Over 20,000 grey whales are swim-ming through our backyards this week, each of them weighing about 36 tonnes.

These colossal behemoths are on their annual 16,000-kilometre round-trip from Mexico’s nurseries to the Arctic’s breeding grounds. Let’s ignore the familiarity of it all and let our jaws drop.

The excitement many of us are feeling about this massive migration is the tourist migration it sparks and the dollars it brings to our towns.

That excitement is valid to be sure; bills have a habit of racking up while we hiber-nate each winter, but can we see what the tourists see?

The Pacific Rim Whale Festival is at our doorstep. Admittedly I’m true to my school and let those colours fly but I assure you if that weren’t the case I’d still pump this festival’s tires.

It will almost assuredly rain on our opening parade, literally, but rain has never dampened the festival’s spirit and frankly watching parade floats hold up in the wind and the wet is part of the attraction.

That parade will kick off two weeks worth of festivities that won’t just floss our whale population but our picturesque

landscapes as well. Guided hikes and boat rides are oppor-

tunities to bask in the nature around us but this festival’s most key attribute is its ninja ability to sneak education and inspi-ration into the fun.

Your walks through paradise and oce-anic adventures will be interpreted by bril-liant local minds. The artwork you’ll see are creations crafted by a community of creative dynamos. Local kids designed each of the spectacular buttons you’ll need to get into events.

Annual cooking competitions aren’t rare in small towns but, while they might be quaint get-togethers elsewhere, our neighborhood chefs are world-renowned. The chowder you’ll inhale at the chow-down won’t be standard fair fare.

This isn’t just an opportunity to tout the West Coast’s streaming-postcards, it’s a chance to tout us; why we’re unique and what that uniqueness allows us to accom-plish.

We take ourselves and our neighbours for granted as much as we take this Coast for granted but 1 million visitors wouldn’t take on the highway to get here if they weren’t impressed.

The Pacific Rim Whale Festival is knocking. Get yourself a button and go.


“Staff would like to see doubling or tripling of the current fixed water fee,” Douglas wrote.

After reviewing Douglas’ report on Feb. 23, council agreed to double the rates though Coun. Sally Mole urged staff to ensure sufficient notice was given before double-sized water bills were sent out.

The doubled fees would kick in for May’s billing cycle but Douglas suggested the district’s revenue would not be impacted because, he hoped, all businesses would be signed onto the water meter program by then.

“It is the hope that all commercial customers will be on metering at that point; however without some form of motivation, it is unlikely,” Douglas wrote. The soon-to-be-replaced fixed-rate system saw businesses charged a flat fee, based on the business class they belonged to, and bills sent out every four months.

The district’s chief financial officer Jeanette O’Connor told the Westerly after the meeting that the new water meter rates will include a minimum monthly charge of $14.25 for up to 23 cubic me-tres of water and $0.61for every cubic metres over that allotment.

She added all businesses would pay the same rate regardless of class.

“The amount each class will be paying for wa-ter will probably be significantly less than the flat rate they are paying now,” she said.

“That will change over the coming months as we still require the same amount of money for not only the maintenance and repair of the water in-frastructure but also the replacement of the aging infrastructure. Not knowing how much water is being used makes it very difficult to estimate how much a business may end up paying for the water they use.”

She said water meters would help promote wa-ter conservation in Ucluelet.

“The district has had to implement water re-strictions the last two years, so it makes sense to switch to water meters,” she said adding both the federal and provincial governments are encour-aging communities to switch to meters and have been reluctant to award grants to non-metered communities.

She suggested after shoring up businesses the district will look to put residents on meters to fur-ther promote conservation and also enhance eq-uity.

“A single family residence is charged a flat rate of $96 every four months for water,” she said add-ing it is difficult to speculate on what the average monthly bill would be once these residences are metered.

“Metering water can be seen as a fairer way to charge for water as you pay for what you use. A couple may use much less water than a family of six.”

Water meters coming to Ukeecontinued from page 1

Kate LightstoneLocal Voice

Like many other readers, I often pick up a book with the awareness that I should never judge a book by its cover. This reminder presses gently on my mind as I take in the title Creatures of the Rock as my eyes pass over the muddy green work boots on the cover.

Much like other works, the title and cover page reveal little of the story that’s waiting to be un-earthed within its pages. In a witty, honest, painting of his everyday life, Andrew Peacock’s Creatures of the Rock weaves a series of brightly coloured an-imal tales as an Ontario-born veterinarian uproots to the Southeastern tip of Newfoundland.

It’s name and cover illustration are a mere veil for an unexpected tale of whimsy and wonder un-derneath. Andrew Peacock’s ¬Creatures of the Rock has a whiff of the unbelievable as it captivates as a descriptively vivid read.

The novel is Peacock’s first launch in literature – as his practice in the care of animals was his focus during his clinical days in Newfoundland. His no-nonsense, exacted scenes structure his chap-ters like mini-episodes – each one a tale of an ad-venture long ago.

It would be short-sighted to describe Creatures as a book that unravels a monolithic story. Which, it does, in a way: It tells the story of how Andrew Peacock, a determined, bright young mind from Northern Ontario grew into a brighter young vet-erinarian – who in his 20s found himself, (along with his wife) on the Southeastern peninsula of Newfoundland. Needless to say, Peacock’s arrival on the Rock was like a fish out of water.

The arrival on the Rock, the Breaking-in period and the changes that come with the start of a fami-ly frames Peacock’s story in a wholesome tale suit-able for all ages. Every chapter of Creatures is its

own individually wrapped mini-adventure. Most (to the best of this individual’s memory), could double easily as a school-ager’s bedtime story. While there is a chronological timeline present in Peacock’s story, the chapters could be enjoyed in any order.

Often animated as a fun career where you’re close to animals, a veterinarian’s work is not for the faint of heart. Among the Peacock’s stories of wild caribou, stranded marine life and countless complicated birthings, Creatures includes mortal adventures in wild snowstorms, worrisome water rescues and humbling excursions at sea.

Andrew Peacock’s first collection of stories is an entertaining field guide to the tests and trials of the faced-paced world of veterinary medicine. There are successes, failures, split-second decisions and an important role for a very particular pair of pants. A delightful road from beginning to end, Creatures of the Rock is a first of what is hoped to be many more from the emerging writer.

Kate Lightstone grew up in Halifax, Nova Sco-tia. She now works at Mermaid Tales Bookshop, and came out to chase the waves, wilderness and peace of the West Coast.

Looking past the coverTofino local Kate Lightstone of Mermaid Tales Bookshop reviews Andrew Peacock’s Creatures of the Rock.

Kate LigHtStone pHoto

Tuff bookseller Kate Lightstone was impressed by Andrew Peacock’s Creatures of the Rock.


PHOTO FEATURE

Locals gathered to celebrate the Canadian Princess’ last annual Great Gatsby Casino Night on Saturday. Scene stealing pin stripes and polka pantyhose.

The event’s fun and festive vibe led to good times and smiles.

Jacqueline Holliday rocked a sparkling vintage flapper dress aboard the Canadian Princess on Saturday night.

Partygoers dressed in their best 1920’s costumes for the farewell party aboard the Canadian Princess on Saturday, March 5. The old steamship is set to be removed from the boat basin later this year.

Stylish hats and beverages in hand.

GreatGatsby

NORA O’MALLEY PHOTOS

Folks had fun placing their bets onboard the vessel.

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LifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeLifeWesterly The West Coast’s News SourceNora O’Malley, Advertising Representative

250-726-7029 [email protected]

Nora o’[email protected]

The 30th Annual Pacific Rim Whale Festival has arrived and it’s spouting like a big one.

Back in the eighties when Whale Fest was born, the event was solely a Ukee tradition with only two operators offering whale watching tours—the Canadian Princess and Subtidal Adventures.

Now visitors and locals alike can admire the impres-sive grey whale migration from the shores along Ucluelet’s Amphitrite Point or go by boat with one of the many whale watching vessels in the area.

Festival coordinator Susan Payne said the two-week long event has even morphed into a really cool, educational type of festival.

“Our guest speakers this year are excellent. Dr. Bar-rett-Lennard coming in from the Vancouver Aquarium he’s done lots of photography with drones on orcas. He’ll be at our Sea-Change panel on Sunday. Dr. Jay Cullen will be at the Sea-Change panel as well as a Masters Student from UVic and they’re all taking about some of the issues we have with noise pollution,” said Payne.

Another highlight of the calendar is National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier who will wow Tofino festival goers on March 26 with their photog-raphy and hopeful perspectives on the future of the ocean.

Staple Whale Fest fundraisers like the Chowder Chow Down (March 20) and Barnacle Bluegrass (March 19) have also been given a slight energy boost in honour of the 30th anniversary.

“The Chowder Chowdown is going to be amazing. We’ve got nine restaurants and this year it’s a little bit different, instead of the rec. department taking it on it’s the Food Bank on the Edge. It’s a great fundraiser for them and we suggest that you bring your own small bowl, spoon, and a non-per-ishable item for the food bank,” Payne said. “

“Barnacle Bluegrass has a great following and we decid-ed we should bring a local band in as well as bring another band in…We’ve got Viper Central coming in and we’ve got Little Saturday playing, warming up the crowd. That should be fun because they’re all local girls.”

Up for purchase at all the event stations this year is a vivid calendar created by the Pacific Rim Whale Fest Committee to celebrate the 30-year milestone.

“We came up with a calendar which showcases all the past posters. It’s a fifteen month calendar so it goes right through until the following March.

We’ve never done a calendar before so this is a brand new initiative,” said festival treasurer Marily McEwen.

McEwen, who has been on the festival committee for the last 18 years, said that this year they tried to schedule the calendar events in such way to alleviate the amount of driv-ing back and forth between towns on the same day.

“If you live in one town and not the other or just have limited amount of time to get to events you can just stay in one town and do everything there is to do in that day in that town,” she said.

Maritime Kids Day will visit both Tofino and Ucluelet this year (March 23 and March 24 respectively).

“The Strawberry Isle build-a-whale will be there and then our guest performer is Norman Foote. He is a Canadian Juno winner from Vancouver and he’s worked with Fred Penner. He’s got these big huge giant puppets,” said Payne.

“We are very thankful to Remote Passages for sponsor-ing Tofino and for Jamie’s for sponsoring Ucluelet kids days. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to pay for it all.”

Pacific Rim Whale Festival blows inThe West Coast’s annual whale spectacle is primed to spout it out loud for its 30th anniversary

ANDREW BAILEY Photo

Whale Fest. will kick off with the annual parade on March 12 which will launch from Wickaninnish Elementary and circle through town before finishing at Tofino’s Village Green.

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Whale FestButtons

The Pacific Rim Whale Festival requires tickets as unique as the locals who live here. Local kids designed and created the buttons that festival goers will need to get into events and these buttons are available throughout the West Coast

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Pacific Rim Whale FestivalMarch 12-27, 2016

TOFINO • PACIFIC RIM NATIONAL PARK RESERVE • UCLUELET

30 years of celebrating the gray whale migration!10 GUEST SPEAKERS

OVER 50 EVENTSWickaninnish Inn Dinner &

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March 12th- 27th, 2016

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MISSoULA ChILDREN’S thEAtRE : Local students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 recently rocked the stage at a production of Aladdin presented by the Missoula Children’s Theatre traveling theatre group.



Local author and poet Christine Lowther had a heck of a February.

Lowther, whose most recent work Born out of This was shortlisted for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, is still beaming over her experience at the Galiano Literary Festival last month.

“It was the festival I had dreamed of, because Galiano is so beautiful and it had been so long since I was there,” she told the Westerly News.

“Festivals are wonderful things for writers and readers. A book launch can be tough on a her-mit-author, whereas at a festival the spotlight is shared. I got to meet loads of other writers much more accomplished than me. I met organizers of other festivals, too. Whether fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, I learned a lot about what is being written in BC and Canada.”

She said she felt intimidated walking into the festival where she had been invited to participate in a panel discussion and read from Born out of This—a memoir dubbed as “a mixture of auto-biography, nature writing, humour activism and punk”—but she forced herself out of her creative shell and came away with a valuable experience.

“Any festival can be overwhelming. You have to remember to take walks out of doors,” she said. “I was determined to connect, so I would walk up to people, hold out my hand and introduce myself.”

This strategy helped Lowther seize the oppor-tunity to be surrounded by, and collaborate with, other writers and readers.

“It’s really peaceful, while exciting. One doesn’t feel like an oddball anymore,” she said. “It is so rewarding to be approached by people who read my books and like them. We get into all sorts of conversations that have nothing to do with surfing or affordable housing. It’s important to hear about others’ writing habits and processes.”

The panel she participated in was themed ‘The Writer as Subject’ and moderated by Bill Richard-son. Lowther joined archivist Linda M. Morra, Red Star Tattoo author Sonja Larsen, Canada’s first Poet Laureate George Bowering and Missing Sar-ah author Maggie de Vries.

“The panel turned out to be deeply personal and moving,” she said.

“I talked about how I gathered anecdotes from a few family members for my memoir and how

one in particular really added colour in a tragi-comic way. I included that piece in the 5-minute presentation. It was about my sister Kathy who passed away suddenly last June. I had read it at her Celebration of Life as well.”

She said she traditionally shies away from in-vitations to speak on panels because she feels “self-conscious of so much less education than most other panelists,” but enjoyed the experience and plans to participate in more festivals moving forward.

“I don’t talk like a text book,” she said. “But with Galiano, I knew it was just five minutes each and maybe an interlude of less academe is sometimes welcome.”

She said her reading the next day followed up on a presentation by David Boyd about good envi-ronmental news.

“Except mine was about feeling the fear re-garding what is happening to the world, starting back in the 80s when I was terrified of nuclear war,” she said. “Finding solace while we continue to work for a better future is crucial or the pain of it could make us give up.”

She suggested Tofino could be well suited to join BC’s literary festival circuit, which includes events in Campbell River, Victoria, Vancouver, Sur-rey, Whistler, Denman Island, Bowen Island, Nel-son, and Sechelt.

“The West Coast is an inspiring environment,” she said adding she enjoys participating in Tofino’s ‘Shut Up and Write’ gatherings.

“We get together, at the Legion or a home, shut up and write for 25 minutes, chat for ten, go again for 25, and then there are the options of staying for a third session or calling it a night,” she said. “These sessions force me to put away the distrac-tions and get down to it.”

Two days after returning from Galiano, Lowther was told her application for a writer-in-residence position at Historic Joy Kogawa House in Vancou-ver had been accepted.

“For three months I can really live the life of a writer, with 60 per cent of the time on my own project, 40 per cent on workshops and readings,” she said.

“I’m thinking Shut Up and Write sessions, feed-back, writing prompts and exercises, outreach, lo-cal library involvement, and nature walks to inspire poetry and prose.”

Tuff author enjoys fest galiano literary festival

KRIS KRUG photo

From left, Margaret Horsfield, Christine Lowther, Sonja Larsen and Aislinn Hunter were stoked to attend the Galiano Literary Festival last month. Lowther participated in a panel discussion and gave a reading.


GAMES & PUZZLES

Royal lifesaving society photo

honoURing heRoes: The Royal Lifesaving Society’s BC-Yukon branch honoured West Coast heroes for their roles in rescuing 21 survivors from the Leviathan II tragedy near Tofino. From left, Burnaby North MLA Richard Lee and Vancouver’s deputy mayor Heather Deal join rescuers Carl Martin, Francis Campbell, Michelle Campbell, Greg Louie, Etienne Herold, Trinity Jezierski and BC’s minister of Justice Suzanne Anton at a Bravery Awards ceremony in Vancouver.

The Westerly News | Page 13Wednesday, March 9, 2016 Wed, Mar 9, 2016 Ucluelet Western News A13

Cermaq Canada is currently looking for a Yard Technician to join our dynamic team!

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Page 14 | The Westerly News Wednesday, March 9, 2016Page 14 | The Westerly News Wednesday, March 9, 2016

She spun vigorous research into creative energy to let Lotus’ tapestry evolve and unfold.

“I followed Ren’s story through my imagination and through research, espe-cially reading the 13th Century Japanese epic, Tales of the Heike, chronicling the two clans’ rivalry, and was excited to discover echoes of my heroine in Tomoe Gozen, who risks her life for love in Tales but whose existence has never been proven,” she said .

“My reaction to learning that Lotus was one of the 11 [VIWIFF] Official Selec-tions was twofold: butterflies in my stomach and gratitude to my thesis advisor, Sara Graefe, who suggested I enter—that first entry of 30 pages was due only 10 days after I handed in my thesis.”

McMullan moved to the West Coast from the Yukon in 2010 and found a landscape perfectly designed for her creative mind.

“Beaches and rainforests provide a writerly walking meditation and our coast, an imagination prompt, as I try to envision Japan’s—with help from re-search,” she said.

“Even my local discovery of a giant wrymouth—Delolepia gigantean—stranded in the intertidal zone, quickly inspired a key metaphor and story mech-anism as Ren discovers a similar dragon-like creature near the floating monas-tery where she grows up.”

She said she caught the screenwriting bug at the age of 12 and was lured to the craft by her visual imagination,

“The appeal for me is in the spare visual writing—I’m definitely a visual writer—and the exquisite challenge of crafting something so structured where the character, or characters, drive the action,” she said.

“Movies offer us, as writer or audience, a vicarious ride through their growth and worlds we might otherwise never experience, like 12th Century Japan, outer space, or the dystopian future.”

She encourages other West Coasters to let their creative flags fly and sug-gested they seek out mentors, consume scripts and continue writing and re-writing.

“Enjoy the process,” she said. “I’m hoping to inspire others—come see me at VIWIFF 2016 or when you spot me writing up in the turret at Common Loaf.”

She believes the West Coast offers solid opportunities for creative minds to collaborate.

“We have the incredibly supportive Clayoquot Writers Group, and four of us have gone through the MFA program, including Adrienne Mason, Ashley Little, Jacqueline Windh and myself,” she said.

“Come join us Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. for a ‘Shut Up and Write’ session at Tofino’s Legion.”

Local earns selectioncontinued from page 1

nancY poWiS photo

Screenwriter Erin Linn McMullan finds inspiration on Long Beach.

A14 Ucluelet Western News Wed, Mar 9, 2016

ON-CALL PROCESSING TECHNICIANTofino, BC

Located in Tofino, Cermaq Canada Processing Ltd. is a salmon processing company focused on operational excellence. With our skilled team, we strive for a high quality product achieved through sustainable aquaculture practices. To prove this, we maintain several ISO standards as well as other industry recognized certifications, along with an award winning safety culture. Our employees are given opportunities to develop and grow within the company. We offer competitive wages and daily processing bonuses. To learn more about us visit Cermaq.ca

We are looking for highly motivated and hardworking people to join our team as on-call processing technicians.

On-call processing technicians have the opportunity to work in various areas of the plant including cleaning fish, managing the boxing line, and operating fork-lifts. The processing plant is a physically demanding environment that operates at a high pace

The processing plant operates Monday to Friday, with 8 hour days.

Prerequisites to hiring are a fitness test and a criminal record check.

If you have the skills we are looking for, and would like to become part of our dynamic team, stop by our office and complete an application form or forward your resume in person, by fax or by e-mail to:

Cermaq Canada ProcessingPO Box 142, 61 – 4th Street

Fax: 250-286-0042E-mail: [email protected]

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Westerly News


community calendarTo submit your activities; e-mail: [email protected], fax:250-726-4248 or drop by: #102-1801 Bay St, Ucluelet

WED. MARCH 9TUFF CITY IDOL Jack’s Pub, 9:30 p.m.

PICKLEBALL

5-7 pm, WCS, all ages welcome.

POOL NIGHT7-11 p.m. Tofino Legion

DROP-IN BASKETBALL 7- 9 p.m. WCS gym

SENIORS SOCIAL AFTERNOONS 1:30-4 p.m., Tofino Legion.

ST. COLUmBA CHURCH 7 p.m. 110 2nd St.

ARTS GROUP 7-10 p.m. Tofino Legion.

DROP-IN VOLLEYBALL 7-9 p.m. USS. $2.

ROUTES OF CHANGE7:30- 9:30 Clayoquot Theate. markus Pukonen speaks to his organization.

tHu. MARCH 10 RAINCOAST SPEAKER SERIES7:30 p.m. Tofino Botanical Gardens.

BINGO7-10 p.m. Tofino Legion.

tHu. MARCH 10DROP-IN SOCCER 7-9 p.m. WCS gym. $3.

YOUTH BASKETBALL 5-7 pm, WCS.

OPERA IN UCLUELET 10:30 a.m. UCC. Vancouver Opera presents Stickboy.

FRI. MARCH 11DROP-IN BADmINTON 7-9 p.m. USS gym. $2.

YOUTH GAmES NIGHT7-9 pm. Ages 10+, WCS.

KARAOKE10 p.m., Officials Sports Lounge

AA mEETING 7:30pm, St. Francis.

OPERA IN UCLUELET 7:30 p.m. UCC. Vancouver Opera presents Stickboy.

SAt. MARCH 12 ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI5:30 p.m.

Sun. MARCH 13DROP-IN BADmINTON 7-9 p.m. USS gym. $2.

CHRIST COmmUNITY CHURCH10:30am, 1419 Peninsula Rd.

GRACE BIBLE CHURCH 10:30 am, UCC.

ST. COLUmBA CHURCH10:30 a.m. 110 2nd St.

UNITED/ANGLICAN SERVICE4 p.m. UCC.

ST. LAWRENCE CHURCH11:00 a.m. Ahousaht.

TOFINO BIBLE FELLOWSHIP10:30 a.m. Tofino Legion.

HOLY FAmILY CHURCH10 a.m. , 1663 Peninsula Rd. Ucluelet

MOn. MARCH 14DROP-IN SOCCER 7-9 p.m. USS. $2.

UCLUELET AA 8pm. Holy Family.

MOn. MARCH 14TOFINO ExPRESSIVE WRITING WORKSHOP FOR WOmEN6:30-8:30 p.m. , 250-726-2343

DARTS AT THE LEGION 8-10 p.m. Tofino Legion.

mONDAY NIGHT mOVIE 8 p.m. Clayoquot Theatre.

tuE. MARCH 15INT. WOmEN’S DAY11 a.m. -2 p.m. Friends of Clayoquot Sound community Space. 100-120 4th St. Tofino.

FOOD BANK ON THE EDGEDistribution day, 1-3 p.m.

YOUTH BADmINTON 6-7 P.m. WCS.

UCLUELET ExPRESSIVE WRITING WORKSHOP FOR WOmEN6:30-8:30 p.m. 250-726-2343

TOFINO LEGION YOUTH NIGHT7-9 p.m., Tofino Legion.

YOUTH NIGHT AT THE ANAF6-8p.m., ANAF Ucluelet

Featured Event for the Week

MARCH 9 - MARKUS PUKONEN ROUTES OF CHANGE markus Pukonen, founder of Routes of Change is on a human-powered journey around the globe to raise environmental awareness. Since July he has biked, paddled, skied and pogo sticked his way from Toronto back to Tofino. Come welcome markus home and enjoy some adventurous yarns! march 9, 7:30-9 p.m. at the Clayoquot Theatre in Tofino. Admission by donation.

KATYA SLEPIAN Alberni Valley News

Business owners looking to make facade im-provements can now qualify for a financial hand up from the City of Port Alberni.

The proposal from economic development man-ager Pat Deakin came out of business walks that city council did in the fall.

“What we heard was that several business own-ers were thinking about making some facade im-provements,” said Deakin.

The improvements business owners were pro-posing weren’t enough to qualify for the city’s com-mercial revitalization tax exemption bylaw, which of-fers a tax break on any increased assessed property values due to improvements.

The minimum improvement value needed to qualify for that is $100,000.

“It really came down to painting the store front or putting a new canopy on it or putting new win-dows in, putting in a new door... something that will change the look of it, catch the attention of people from the sidewalk or the road,” said Deakin.

A facade improvement bylaw could be “a stop gap” for improvements that didn’t meet the com-mercial tax revitalization bylaw criteria, said city planner Scott Smith.

Other municipalities have adopted similar by-

laws successfully, he added, generally via matching funds.

Deakin suggested an annual budget of $10,000-25,000 for the program but was challenged by Coun. Sharie minions who felt it was insufficient.

“I think this is something we could get a lot of up-take on and really see a drastic difference... but my thought was that $25,000 was low,” said minions.

“I’d like to see a good difference so that people could actually feel the difference. my thought was $50,000.”

minions added that for the first year of the pro-gram, she would like to see it target key areas.

“I’d like to see it specific to main streets like low-er Johnston, lower Argyle and Third Avenue so that we’re getting the biggest effect.”

Deakin added that some communities were even more specific and chose to focus on corner proper-ties for the biggest impact.

Coun. Ron Paulson suggested that the program be first-come first-serve and provide up to $5,000 in matching funds but mayor mike Ruttan suggest-ed that be left up to the discretion of Deakin and Smith.

“The advantage of a first-come [system] is that you get the applications coming in right away,” said Deakin.

Staff will prepare a program for council to review.

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The island sits at the mouth of Clayoquot Sound, one edge of it a mile off the busy Tofino waterfront, the other fronting the yawning Pacific Ocean.

Tall, moss-bearded evergreens, damp, tangled under-brush and endless waves pounding the sand bars and rocky outcroppings that mark its shores make it the epitome of rugged Vancouver Island beauty.

Some would have arrived here in 1990, discovered the zoning encouraged development, and swooned over the dol-lar signs in their eyes.

Susan Bloom saw a different kind of opportunity.A generation after purchasing Clayoquot Island and nur-

turing it into a protected slice of West Coast heaven, Bloom has now ensured it will remain that way for generations to come.

On Monday, the steward of this ecological and historical jewel announced she was ceding ownership of the Island’s wilderness portion to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

NCC regional vice-president Linda Hannah said it has been an honour to work with someone with those values.

“I think we need to celebrate that choice,” Hannah said. “She’s a very quiet, deeply principled individual. I’d like to applaud her for taking a different path.”

Also known as Stubbs Island, Clayoquot Island sits near the brink of Pacific Rim National Park to the south and is the gateway to the Clayoquot Biosphere Reserve to the north.

Bloom has donated approximately two-thirds of the is-land (its wildest 93 acres) to the NCC, while retaining owner-ship of its more developed portion. According to Hannah, the property is unique among NCC holdings and an ecological treasure trove.

A dense old-growth and mature second-growth Coastal Western Hemlock forest collides with four-meter thickets of California wax-myrtle, a vulnerable shrub found only in the coastal regions around Ucluelet and Tofino. Sand dunes and thick eelgrass beds provide habitat for the great blue heron, black oystercatcher, Pacific geoduck and Brandt geese.

The island hosted the first European settlement on the west coast of Vancouver Island — a fur trade outpost estab-

lished in 1855. It then evolved into a fishing village of about 400 people with a hotel, school, jailhouse and beer parlour. It served as the area’s commercial hub before eventually being overtaken by Tofino. Schooners stocking for a jour-ney across the Bering Sea anchored offshore and a sizeable Japanese community existed on its western end prior to the internment programs of the Second World War.

The community had disappeared and the property had fallen into neglect through a series of private owners by the time Bloom purchased it and set about cleansing it of bottles and other refuse. She established a few small off-the-grid outbuildings and a heritage garden on the old townsite, built a boardwalk through the woods and made sure the rest of the island was left to exist as nature intended.

Hannah thinks it is a fascinating story in how, after 150 years of use, it is now returning to its natural state.

“To go about re-wilding it is a neat circle,” she said.Public use of Clayoquot Island will continue to be by invi-

tation only. The caretakers who tend to the gardens and oth-er upkeep will remain its only residents. The NCC will spend the next year taking inventory of the property and developing a ecological management plan, funded again by the gener-

osity of its former owner.Bloom declined an interview request and the NCC took

pains to deflect any questions that might infringe on her pri-vacy. She is a resident of B.C. but not of Tofino, does not spend as much time on the property as she used to and is no longer young.

She did, however, release the following prepared state-ment.

“From the very first time I visited and then became the owner of Clayoquot Island, my goal has been to protect the island from any more development, to preserve it in its natural wild state,” she said. “My recent lifetime goal is to see that this beautiful land, steeped in Canadian history, be placed into safe conservation hands and cared for in per-petuity.”

Hannah hopes Bloom’s generosity and commitment to conservation will inspire others.

“It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Ms. Bloom to help her realize her vision,” she said. “Hopefully this will pave the way for others.

“We have so much. We can’t take anything for granted.”

Bloom donates Clayoquot Island wilderness

CLAYOQUOT ISLAND phOTO

The wilderness portion of Clayoquot Island has been donated to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Documents

Tofino-Ucluelet Westerly News, March 09, 2016