I wrote recently in the email list about grants available from the provincial government to construct trails for human-powered transportation. Before a community can apply for a grant to construct, they have to have a plan. They also need to have the cooperation and support of their local government, in our case either the Islands Trust or the qathet Regional District.
 

So far, I have heard only support for the idea of working towards a trail network roughly paralleling our road network. We would have to enlist the support of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and our road maintenance crew and company, plus the other ministries and political people, and to impress them with the level of  our support for the project.
 

There will be difficulties -- and we might not be able to overcome all of them -- but we could plan and begin to build where it is easiest and most likely to be used. Even a couple of sections would be useful, especially if they were joined together by our roadway; and the network could be expanded over time.
 

I'm hoping that one of the upcoming monthly Community Forums will have trails as a topic for community discussion to gauge the level of support or opposition to the idea, and then to begin to see how we can work toward a system that will work for the entire community.
 

If you have questions or ideas, or doubts or worries, please let me know about them. Hopefully in the next month or two we can form a committee to begin planning and working toward this idea. Let me know, too, if you are interested in being involved with the planning and steering committee.  I look forward to hearing from you. 

– Peter Johnston