Proponents seeking to convert the E&N rail line to a trail up and down Vancouver Island are asking for funding that could guide land remediation along the corridor.
Speaking at a Regional District of Nanaimo board meeting July 8, Graeme Lamson, Friends of Rails to Trails Vancouver Island director, said that rail land returned to Snaw-Naw-As First Nation after a legal battle is now a trail, providing access from a gas station on Snaw-Naw-As land to a campground across Highway 19. He hopes for assistance that could eventually lead to the same for other land.
"In 2020, then Snaw-Naw-As Chief Brent Edwards suggested that the E&N railway be called the 'East Coast Trail' instead of its [previous use] as an idle railway," Lamson told directors. "Since 2023, the rail ties have all been removed, and there's been gravel [added] so that a trail could be used by the residents of the First Nation."
The RDN had previously been granted $600,000 from the B.C. government for work related to the future planning of the rail line, with a March 31 deadline for that money to be allocated. The rail trail group hopes the RDN provides some of that for remediation studies.
"One of the requests for the $600,000 would be to get a [cost estimate] study for at least a section of the RDN area corridor,” Lamson told the board. "[We] … received some funding from the federal government two years ago and were able to get a [projected final cost estimate] study which is a fairly high-level cost for the whole corridor, converting the rail bed into a trail."
It would be way to get up-to-date figures, he said.
After an inquiry about priority sections identified in his group's report, he said the RDN's northern areas were at the top, with the corridor north of Qualicum Beach and north of Parksville showing "exceedingly low" rail use potential.
"Next would be north of Snaw-Naw-As, up to Parksville, just because there's the trails already existing … basically making that portion of railway not usable as anything other than a trail," said Lamson. "The third section would be south of Snaw-Naw-As through Lantzville and then the fourth section would be from Parksville, west to the boundary of Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District line."
Thomas Bevan, chief executive officer of Island Corridor Foundation, non-profit responsible for the rail line, told Black Press Media there has been no determination about the rail corridor's future.
"We have no plans to be converting any rail to trail,” he said. "The most important thing is talking to [First Nations] and taking absolute respect and consideration to advance their directions, and we've recently created a reversion committee to help forward that with the nations, and that relates to the Snaw-Naw-As lawsuit from four years ago."
He said the foundation is working in good faith to resolve with the nations "as our members and owners."
The board did not make any recommendations related to Friends of Rails to Trails Vancouver Island's presentation at the meeting.
