How North Cowichan’s Official Community Plan protects rural character by containing urban sprawl and directing growth to serviced centres.

North Cowichan has land and applications — but affordability is the urgent housing issue for local households.

Does the Cowichan Valley have sufficient water to support more growth? Or do our rivers run dry and our groundwater nose dive each summer, triggering Stage 2 and 3 water restrictions that dial back when we can water our lawns and gardens, and wash our trucks and cars? Do returning salmon struggle to survive because our rivers are too low? Are these faltering water supplies jeopardizing our safety because they reduce the water available to fight fires in our neighbourhoods and

Learning from our Mistakes When European settlers arrived in North America, they found a vast wilderness whose “green dark forest was too silent to be real,” as Gordon Lightfoot’s evocative lyrics remind us. For millennia, First Nations had lived gently on this land, respecting and accepting its natural rhythms, and preserving for posterity its diverse and abundant fish and wildlife. Wildfire was a naturally recurring and vital force for renewal and regeneration, usually trig

Low-density sprawl does not pay its way. Evidence from Canadian municipalities shows why dispersed development raises long-term infrastructure costs and property-tax pressure.