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Qualicum Beach

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British Columbia
Town
CountryCanada Canada
ProvinceBritish Columbia 
RegionalDistrictRegional District of Nanaimo, British Columbia
EstablishedAs a village: 1943
 As a town: 1983
Government
 • MayorTeunis Westbroek
 • Governing BodyQualicum Beach Town Council
Area
 • Total18.00 km2 (4.80 sq mi)
Population
 (2006)
 • Total8,502
 • Density472.4/km2 (1,440.0/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC-8 (Pacific Standard (PST))
WebsiteTown of Qualicum Beach Website

Qualicum Beach is a town in the Regional District of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. As of the 2006 census, the town had 8,502 people.

On the Strait of Georgia on the north-eastern coast of Vancouver Island in the shadow of Mount Arrowsmith, the community has been a popular tourist destination for residents of Victoria and Vancouver as well as a retirement community. It is served by the Island Highway (the main northwest-southeast highway on the island) and by a daily train. The community is dotted with rental cottages along the coast. It has the oldest average population in Canada.

Qualicum Beach is frequently, although informally, grouped as a twin city with the neighbouring city of Parksville.

History

Qualicum Beach, an attractive seaside town on the east coast of Vancouver Island, began as a lumbering, summer resort and retirement area. The community is sometimes called "Qualicum" for short.

The name "Qualicum" comes from a Coast Salish term that means "where the dog salmon run."

In May 1856, Hudson's Bay Company explorer Adam Grant Horne, with a group of aboriginal guides, found a land route across Vancouver Island from the Qualicum River to the Alberni Inlet.[1] He also discovered the Haida massacre of local Salish natives. Horne Lake is named after him.

In 1864, the botanist and explorer Dr. Robert Brown led a group which explored the area. A road was built from Nanaimo to Parksville in 1886 and extended to Qualicum in 1894. The E and N Railway reached Parksville in 1910 and Qualicum in 1914. H.E. Beasley, a railway official, sponsored the creation of The Merchants Trust and Trading Company which organized the original layout of the town and built the golf links and a hotel in 1913. [2]

A private boys' residential school, the Qualicum College, was established in 1935 by Robert Ivan Knight. The school grew through the 1960s, but attendance diminished, and it closed in 1970. The structure remains, and though operated as a hotel for many years, it is vacant and proposed for re-development. On its playing fields have been built a housing subdivision. [3]

Doukhobor settlers established a communal colony in the adjoining Hilliers farming district from 1946 to 1952.

Qualicum Beach was officially incorporated as a village on May 5, 1942, and was changed to town status on January 7, 1983. The area is growing quickly with new housing subdivisions and a major new highway. It is a favoured retirement and golfing community.

HMS Qualicum is/was a ship in the Royal Navy named for the community.

Politics and government

Town Hall, Qualicum Beach

Municipal government of the Town of Qualicum Beach is structured like the U.S. American council-manager form of government. It is headed by a mayor (who also represents Qualicum Beach on the governing board of the Regional District of Nanaimo) and a four-member council. These positions are filled by at-large elections every three years, as provided by British Columbia law. [4] The current mayor, Teunis Westbroek, was first elected in 1999, re-elected by acclamation in 2002 and again re-elected in a contested election in 2005. School board trustees, for representation on School District 69 Qualicum,[5] are also elected by residents of the town, the City of Parksville and the surrounding area. The town funds a volunteer fire department, which serves the town and nearby rural communities. The town has a local ambulance station. The nearest full hospital is Nanaimo Regional General Hospital in Nanaimo.[6]

Qualicum Beach is part of the Alberni-Qualicum provincial electoral district, represented by Scott Fraser of the New Democratic Party in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. He was first elected in the 2005 provincial election. Federally, Qualicum Beach, in the Nanaimo—Alberni riding, is represented in the Canadian House of Commons by Conservative Party Member of Parliament James Lunney, who was first elected in 2000 and has been re-elected in 2004 and 2006.

Youth

Qualicum Beach is considered a retirement town, with the median age being slightly over 58, but the number of families in the area is increasing. The town has a modern indoor public swimming pool, baseball diamonds, a bike track, and a skateboard park. It has Kwalikum Secondary School, a middle school and an elementary school.

Transportation

Railway Station, Qualicum Beach

Highway 19A, known as the Oceanside route or the Old Island Highway, runs the length of the town along the shore line of the Strait of Georgia. The modern 4-lane Inland Island Highway, (Highway 19), is nearby. The Qualicum Beach exit is also its junction with Highway 4, which runs through Cathedral Grove to Port Alberni and to Tofino, Ucluelet, Bamfield and the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on the south-west coast of the Island. KD Air offers daily aeroplane transport to Vancouver and elsewhere from the Qualicum Beach Airport. The E&N Railway offers daily passenger service, departing Victoria each morning, stopping in Qualicum Beach en route to Courtenay and returning to Victoria in the afternoon. The town has no marina or harbour but does offer a launching area for trailered boats. French Creek Harbour, is 5 kilometres (3 mi) south-east on Highway 19A.

Demographics

Qualicum Beach Population, 1951-2006 [7] [8] [9] [10]

According to the 2001 Canadian census,[11] Qualicum Beach had 6,920 residents in 3,509 households. Qualicum Beach residents' median age of 58.1 years, the highest in Canada. Fully 38.0% of residents are over 65 years old, which is much more than the 13.6% provincial average. Protestantism (51%) and Catholicism (14%) are the dominant religions. About 2.6% of residents reported themselves as visible minorities, significantly lower than the 21% provincial average. The population density is 556.0 people per square kilometre (1,440/sq mi). Provincial government estimates put the population at 8,807 in 2005.[12]

Geography and climate

The town is 12.45 square kilometers (4.80 square miles) as of 2001. (Statistics Canada)

Qualicum Beach is on the Nanaimo lowlands, a narrow plain which lies between the Georgia Basin to the north-east and the Vancouver Island Ranges to the south-west. Landforms were significantly changed by the most recent advance of glacial ice about 18,000 to 19,000 years ago.

The area has cool, wet winters with 80 to 85% of the year's precipitation between October and April. The average annual precipitation is 1,314 millimetres (51.73 inches). Mean daily temperature ranges from 1 to 3 °C (34 to 37 °F) in January, with cloud and rain from north Pacific air masses dominating the winter weather. High pressure ridges over the mainland can block easterly air flows, bringing snow and freezing tempearatures during winter but do not persist, as moist westerly winds bring above-freezing temperatures. North Pacific high pressure cells influence summer weather, making it warm, dry and cloudless. July and August have mean precipitation of 17 millimetres (0.67 inch) and mean maximum temperatures of 25 °C (77 °F). Although winter precipitation results in much moisture at the start of the growing season, summer, particularly July and August, are drought prone.

With the longest freeze-free period in Canada, at 180 days per year, the Nanaimo lowlands area is favourable for agriculture. The area is within the small Coastal Douglas Fir bio-geograpic zone, which is considered the mildest climate in Canada. The Vancouver Island Ranges, an inland range mountains which includes nearby Mount Arrowsmith, shadows rainfall. This bio-geographic area can support Garry Oak and Arbutus, which do not exist elsewhere in Canada.

Wildlife include: black-tailed deer, Roosevelt elk, black bear, and cougar. With the presence of human population, deer, racoons and other rodents persist.

Soil types in the area, classified as Orthic Dystric Brunisols, vary from marginal to unsuitable for agriculture, as they tend to be gravelly loam with fertility limited by aridity and stoniness, but are suitable for development.[13] [14] [15]

Monuments

1992 History Monuments, 50th anniversary of Qualicum Beach
  • From the beginning to 1913
    From the beginning to 1913
  • From 1913 to 1930
    From 1913 to 1930
  • From 1930 to 1992
    From 1930 to 1992



See also

References

  1. ^ Encyclopedia of British Columbia
  2. ^ Town of Qualicum Beach web site, Early Days in Qualicum Retrieved October 11, 2006
  3. ^ The Homeroom: Qualicum College Retrieved October 11, 2006
  4. ^ See the Local Government Act, RSBC 1996, chapter 323
  5. ^ School District 69 (Qualicum) Board of School Trustees
  6. ^ NRGH web site. Retrieved October 11, 2006.
  7. ^ BC Stats, British Columbia Municipal Census Populations, 1921-1971 Accessed October 9 2006
  8. ^ BC Stats, BC Municipal Population Estimates, 1976-1986 Accessed October 9 2006
  9. ^ BC Stats, BC Municipal Population Estimates, 1986-1996 Accessed October 9 2006
  10. ^ BC Stats, BC Municipal Population Estimates, 1996-2006 Accessed January 15 2007
  11. ^ Statistics Canada, Community Highlights for Qualicum Beach, 2001 Community Profiles, October 6 2006.
  12. ^ BC Stats, BC Municipal Population Estimates, 1996-2005 Retrieved October 9 2006
  13. ^ Environment Canada, Canadian Climate Normals 1971-2000, Qualicum River
  14. ^ BC Ministry of Environment: Soils Of Southeast Vancouver Island Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Courtenay, And Port Alberni Areas, Jurgen, 1989 ISBN 0-7726-0907-1
  15. ^ The Ecology of the Coastal Douglas Fir Zone Ministry of Forests, March 1999
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