Nov 29, 2006

A public opinion poll commissioned by the Chemainus Residents Association has revealed that about 80 per cent of respondents from throughout North Cowichan aren’t happy with council’s plans to proceed with development of the 52-acre Echo heights Forest.

Only 13 per cent of respondents thought that development plans should go ahead while 79 per cent either wanted the entire forest preserved or wanted more studies done before development plans proceed.

The survey also showed that there was the high level of awareness of the Echo Heights Forest issue throughout the municipality. In fact, residents outside of Chemainus and within the town were equally aware of the main issues involved.

“We took a gamble on having this survey done,” said CRA treasurer Ken Diewert. “It could have shown that residents supported council’s plans to develop this special woodland.

“But we were convinced that there was a lot of reservations over plans which would ruin that last publicly-owned forest in our community. And we got tired of the mayor and council claiming that we were just a vocal minority.”

The CRA commissioned NRG Research Group of Vancouver to conduct the telephone survey. A total of 302 random interviews were completed from Nov 16-19. The maximum margin of error in the survey was +/-5.7%, 19 times out of 20.