Keeping It Rural

This quiz has three questions.

Get them correct and you can start to save our future.

THE SPRAWL QUESTION

First, in what respect is the Cowichan Valley most different from Nanaimo, Langford, or Surrey? The answer is one word: Sprawl.

Sprawl is endless low-density residential development interspersed with strip commercial along the major thoroughfares, punctuated by shopping malls that seem to sprout up like toadstools. It spawns endless traffic jams as residents criss-cross a maddening hodge-podge of cookie-cutter lots and buildings in search of services. Sprawl appears to have a mind of its own, marching across former farmlands, meadows, native forests, and even rivers, lakes and wetlands, gobbling up and paving the natural landscape, seemingly determined to rid us of farms, forests, waterways, wildlife and scenery.

Because of its relative freedom from the scourge of sprawl, the Cowichan Valley still retains much of its natural beauty, livability, and sustainability. But that freedom is now threatened.

THE URBAN GROWTH QUESTION

Second; how has the Cowichan Valley changed the most? The answer is two words: Urban Growth.

In 1960, its population, from Lake Cowichan to Ladysmith, was just 30,000 residents. Today, that figure has more than tripled, to nearly 98,000. That growth has come at a steep price. For over a century, the Cowichan Valley has been admired as Vancouver Island’s food basket, thanks to its moderate climate, long growing season, deep fertile soils, and plentiful water.

In 1960, the Island produced roughly 85% of its consumed food, much of it from the Cowichan Valley. But by 2026, that percentage had collapsed to less than 15%—a five-fold drop. In the Cowichan Valley, the acreage of farmed land fell from more than 43,000 acres to less than 27,000 acres today, a 40% decline. As a result, we’re dangerously dependent on importing food and have just a three-day supply if shipments to the Island are interrupted. Farming’s biggest threat? Urban sprawl that paves over farmland and siphons off its water supply.

KEEP IT RURAL

Third, how can we stop the sprawl, maintain our lifestyle and restore our food independence and security? The answer is three words: Keep It Rural.

Farming and related artisanal industries—farmers’ markets, cideries, wineries, breweries, butcher shops, bakeries, weavers of fine wool clothing, developers of niche dairy products like specialty cheeses and yogurts, and producers of unique, high-end packaged, canned, and distilled goods from fruit jams to honey to spirits—provide permanent, well-paying jobs that can export distinctive finished products and more than pay for the services they require.

Residential sprawl, by contrast, generates no permanent jobs. Instead, it paves over farms, unleashes traffic and its air and noise pollution, and costs 5 to 9 times more for infrastructure than does high-density infill. Its demands for streets, sewers, water, police, fire and other municipal services strain local government budgets.

Stop the sprawl, provide local jobs, and reduce your taxes. It’s a winning combination, and it starts with just saying no to sprawl.

North Cowichan Coalition ( NCC ) stands for putting residents first, not developers, and thereby saving our farmlands, protecting our watersheds, restoring our rivers and lakes, bringing back our salmon, conserving our municipal forests for wildlife and recreation, respecting our First Nations, and preventing wildfires along the urban-wildland interface.

Join us, say no to sprawl, and vote this October for candidates who agree.