Putting the damper on private vehicle use

Has it really come to this? Nanaimo city council has given thumbs down to proposed a gas station, drive-thru establishments and a two-storey office building and multi-tenant light industrial in Chase River. A staff report noted that “the proposed auto-oriented development would promote private vehicle use.”

This might be the appropriate spot to insert a 'Horganism'.

The item becomes more interesting after a doctor in Comox asked council for a moratorium on high density and large residential builds until more family doctors are brought to the area.

Dr. Jonathan Reggler told councillors that 11,500 residents do not have a family physician. He said the Comox Valley is short nine physicians, and with growth, that will become 10 in 2023; the numbers don’t take into account retirement or doctors moving out of the Valley.

Within the past two months, he told council 2,500 Valley residents lost their family physician due to retirement and the death of family physician Dr. Brad Harris, who had 1,300 patients. “Walk-in clinics are at a breaking point… many of the Valley’s physicians are approaching retirement.”