Residents in the Horne Lake area have raised concerns about a lack of fire protection.
The owners of Strata Plan - VIS 5160 recently held their annual general meeting and unanimously passed a resolution that they continue the process of getting the community included in the Regional District of Nanaimo fire protection service area.
Strata manager John Pray has written to the RDN board to indicate there is significant interest in this initiative from the community.
The process may take five to seven years to complete but the strata indicated it is important, since cabins may still exceed the acceptable distance from a firehall, with the closest one being eight kilometres away.
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The strata wants to work with the Spider Lake community, which has already initiated the process to be included in the RDN fire protection service.
What is being proposed is to include the Horne Lake community in the Bow Horn Volunteer Fire Department’s area of fire protection.
The RDN informed the strata last March there is a signficant amount of work and cost required to get the process completed. The RDN staff indicated before proceeding, they want to be certain the community is in favour of being included in the fire protection service. Once that is confirmed, the RDN, in collaboration with the Bow Horn Bay Fire Department Society, will begin discussions and conduct a feasibility study.
The RDN would need to acquire land to build a new fire hall, purchase equipment and consider any addtional operational costs.
Electoral Area H (Bowser, Qualicum Bay, Deep Bay) director Stuart McLean made a successful motion at the electorial area services committee meeting on July 8 that funds be considered during the 2022 budget deliberations to conduct a feasibility study for providing fire protection services department to the Horne Lake community.