Derrick introduced our guest speaker this week.  It was Leonard Krog, Mayor of Nanaimo since 2017.   Prior to being elected as Mayor he served as the MLA representing Nanaimo in our provincial legislature.  He loves to read, is a practicing lawyer, has two children and four grandchildren. 

 

 

     Nanaimo has been growing in recent years and has reached a population of 102,000 people.  Our  City is Mecca for a number of reasons.  It is a stable democracy, is clean and has good health care.  Our population is about 79% of European origin with 8.4% indigenous (many from other areas).  It was built with waves of immigrants and had the third largest china town at one point in time.  Major sources of employment are in health care, service, construction and education.  We are not as rich as we could be and fall below average wealth of province.

     Growth is continuing -  in  2019 there were 386 million in construction permits.  In 2020 this dropped to 243 million and dropped again in 2021 to 232 million.  This was likely Covid related.  Projections for 2022 show us above the 2019 level.

Lack of affordable housing, homelessness are the biggest social issues of our time with addiction and mental health the biggest factors in this.

Fun Facts

• 900 employees
• 144 members of the RCMP. 95% of cost is paid by the city
• Became a city in1874
• 91.3 sq km in size
• 108 km of water supply
• 3 dams holding 18.66 mi cubic meters of water
• 581 km of sewer
• 8540 manholes
• 432 km of storm sewer with 6700 manhole covers
• 12500 catch basins
• 48 km of driveway culverts
• 567 km paved roads
• 324 km of sidewalks
• 750 cul-de-sac
• 1000 hectares of parkland

 Future

• Maybe new hospital at a cost of about 1 billion and about 40% of cost will be regional.
• Port investment already under way.
• New works yard.
• New RCMP office.
• Waterfront walkway under discussion.