MLA Josie Osborne on biking the Pacific Rim

As Mayor of Tofino, Josie Osborne was a prime mover of the spectacular  multi-use trail  from Tofino to Ucluelet, through Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Join host Peter Ladner in conversation with Josie, who tells us which MLAs ride their bikes to work, her reaction to the huge uptake on the province's e-bike rebate program and her favourite sections of the trail.

For more info about ʔapsčiik t̓ašii  - the Tofino-to-Ucluelet trail - visit:
parks.canada.ca/pn-np/bc/pacificrim

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Welcome to Bike Tips, the Beastie Cycling Coalition's podcast where we talk about all things related to cycling advocacy, education, and safety in the Eastie. I'm your host, Peter Ladner. I'm the chair of the board of the Beastie Cycling Coalition. I hope you enjoy the show. I'm here today with a very special guest. We're very lucky to have with us, uh, and I'm going to name her importance to us in descending order, uh, the Minister of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation for BC, Josie Osburn. She's also the MLA for the Mid-Iland Pacific Rim since 2020. And probably most important to us for this podcast, she's the former mayor of Tefino from 2013 to 2020. Josie, I know you're a biologist by training and you have some animals and bikes. Tell us about your animals and bikes.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

I uh indeed, I am a biologist by training. I love animals, especially any creatures that live in the sea. But on land, I have been fortunate enough to have goats and chickens and dogs and cats all as a part of my life.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

It must be a little tricky when you're traveling around a lot and in Victoria a lot to uh keep up with all of that.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

You've got to have a really good house sitter, but people love to take care of chickens, so it's not too difficult.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

So tell me about your cycling history. How many bikes do you have?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Uh well, uh currently I have four bicycles. Uh, it's because they need to be distributed around the province. So I have two bicycles in Tofino, where I live, and then I have a bicycle uh in Victoria as well. And then I have this fourth bicycle that's been kicking around, but it's kind of, I think it's at the end of its life. It's been a beach bike, so it's gotten really rusty and salty, and I think it's actually destined for the recycling.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

So that's a very special Tefino thing, the beach bike, where you can get sand in the gears and or maybe have special protection to get from not getting sand in the gears.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Well, some folks do have special bikes, I think, but the the trick is really just taking really good care of it. So if you are going to ride your bike on the beach, then when you get home, rinsing it right away with as much fresh water as you possibly can. But then sometimes, you know, you get distracted or you move on to something else. And so a lot of folks just have simple one-speeds, uh, you know, pretty cheap and affordable bikes that you can ride around. Fat tires works well on the sand, too.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Well, speaking of fat tires and riding around, we are particularly interested in Up's Chic Tashi, which is the multi-use path that goes from Tefino to Eucluet, which is recently completed, although I gather it's not fully completed. And tell us about riding the path. You must have ridden it before or probably many times.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

It is absolutely spectacular. You know, people on the west coast of Vancouver Island living in Tefino or Euchlet or in the region have long had this vision for being able to safely ride their bikes all the way down the west coast. But it's only now that that vision has come to fruition. And it's just this incredible winding path through the forest, uh, sometimes right alongside the highway, but often sort of wending its way off into the forest and uh, you know, a few hills and valleys, some bridges. It's a very exciting path, but it's just it's so peaceful to be on it and to know that you're off the highway, you're out of your car, you're getting exercise, you're spending time with family and friends. And it's not, you know, I guess it depends on how long you or how fast you cycle, but it's just a a couple hours of a leisurely bike ride, really, between Tefino and Eucoolet.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Well, it I I understand it's 76 kilometers return if you were That sounds about right.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

And do you normally just go out and back a little bit or do you go to Eucoolet for coffee and all the time?

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Well, my way myself, I don't go to Eucoolet for coffee. I think if I had an electric bike, I might try to do that, and and folks probably do. But for me, the easiest thing is just to go down to Long Beach, and so that's about 12 kilometers south of Tefino and back and forth makes for a really nice ride. But it's also just nice to to go a few kilometers onto the Up's cheek Tashi and have that, again, that sense of immersion in the forest.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Sounds fantastic. Now I know that a lot of it's in the park, and uh there are some features that people can visit along the way. Can you talk about those? You've mentioned Long Beach, but there's a rainforest trail and whales.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

That oh yeah, you sure can. So the trail goes um the whole length of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve from the south to the north boundary. And there's a spur that goes off down Wick Road, so down towards the Interpretive Center and Wiccaninish Beach, Florencia Bay. But all of the places that you could stop in your car, you can also stop on your bike. So you can go to Comer's Beach or the Rainforest Trail or Long Beach, and I already mentioned Florentia and Wiccaninish. You can get anywhere that a car can get. You can do that on your bicycle. But the the bike path takes you into some kind of secret neat places throughout the park that you wouldn't get to see if you were just in your car. And you also travel through uh Toloquet First Nations uh two communities, um, up uh the uh Tayastanis and Essa Wista. So it's good to be careful there because it's not an invitation to go cycle around their community, but it you do get to kind of skirt along the edge of it and have a good look there. And uh you can stop and get off, of course, at any point.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

You mentioned the First Nations communities, and something we hear a lot about in people talking about getting these kind of trails and roads together is partnerships. And this one would have had partnership with the First Nations community, a big partnership with Parks Canada, and of course the municipalities at either end, the regional district. Can you talk a little bit about putting all that together? And did you have a role in that?

SPEAKER_00 6:24

I sure can talk about that. So, first of all, it's probably important to know that before there was ever an idea coming from Park Pacific Rim National Park Reserve about creating this trail in the park, that both the communities of Tefino and Euchlulet had visions of separated dedicated bike lanes or bike paths that would keep kids safe when they were cycling to school or keep pedestrians safe as they were walking along the side of the highway. Tefino and Euclulit are both pretty rural, small communities, and they don't we don't have the same road sizes or highway widths that you might find in other parts of the province. So for over 25 years, parents and local business leaders, community leaders have been working towards these trails. And so Tefino and Eucloolet both had have ends to the two trails. Uh, but it was when it was 2016 when the federal government announced their budget and said we're going to put money into a dedicated bike lane trail in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve that the lights really went on, and we all realized, wow, this is an incredible opportunity to join our two communities. We each have the ends of a connection, but we don't have the middle part. And that's where Parks Canada came in. So they began a planning process that included First Nations right from the get-go and talking with uh the nations about the routing of the path, what areas to steer towards or to steer away from, working with the two communities as well as the local regional district, the Albernie Clockworth Regional District. And it does take partnership. It takes everybody coming together. We also realized at the Tefino end, though, that our path didn't go far enough south, that even if the park started their path at the north end, we needed to connect. So that really kind of lit a fire for us. And we applied to as much infrastructure funding programming as we could. I went all the way to Ottawa to speak to Catherine McKenna, who was the Minister of Environment at the time, about just how important this was and the work that she was leading in the Pacific Room National Park Reserve, you know, had to work well with Tefino. And and it really was that kind of partnership and multiple funding agencies to come together and pull this all off.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

That sounds fantastic. And you got money, I understand, from the federal government.$51 million?

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Well, there, yeah, there's there's quite, I mean, it turns out these bike paths are quite expensive to build. It's actually kind of shocking. But in the park, of course, there's a really high environmental standard that needs to be met. And so there are a number of studies looking at species at risk, looking at the particular engineering and the crossing of different creeks and streams that needed to be accounted for. So that's you know, that's a significant cost. And the federal government paid for that portion of the trail that runs through the park. On the Tofino end, we had a variety of sources of funding, including the province of BC with some active transportation planning. We even had assistance from ICBC, for example, with some of their pedestrian safety planning, the Resort Municipality Initiative at BC, and then we had federal infrastructure funding as well. And it really, it's like pieces of a puzzle. You've got to pull all of this together in order to make it happen. And then you finally get the funds amassed, and then you put out a request for proposals and get construction companies to bid on it. So we were able to complete our end in Tefino actually long before the park trail was finished, but that's okay because in the end it's all matched up and the trails are all meeting. But uh yeah, it is it is in the order of um$50 plus million dollars. And that's uh for yeah, probably about 40 kilometers of trail, all told.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Well, I like as a cyclist, I like to point out that that sounds like a lot when you're thinking about from nothing, but when you compare it with building a road and a highway, which we do without blinking, uh it's very much more affordable. Um tell me about the use of the park. Has it been popular? Do people come to Tefino just to use it, or do you clue it?

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Well, I think they do. I don't have any statistics myself. I know there's some counters on the trail, so I can't tell you exactly how many people are using it, but we know that there's families and uh people who look specifically for these kinds of opportunities. There are bike trails out in Canmore area, for example, and we know that people travel out there with their bikes and they want that experience, and now they're coming out to the West Coast as well. It's one more activity that makes a visitor's experience that much fuller, but it is attracting people who specifically want to do this. They specifically want to be able to ride their bikes between Tefino and Ukulula and to be able to ride through the forest, through the park. And uh, every single account that I hear from folks is about how much they love it, just how peaceful it is and how incredible it feels to be surrounded by this beautiful landscape and and all of these trees. And it just makes us, I mean, bike riding is already fun, makes us feel good, feels healthy, feels terrific. You do that surrounded by greenery, and maybe you have the chance of spotting an animal or something like that. It's it's pretty thrilling.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Well, and you mentioned environmental protection, and I I read that there's actually at least one amphibian underpass on this trail so that frogs can get underneath it. Uh so obviously it's been built to a very high level of concern and consideration. But you've talked about how much people love doing this, and uh I there was the community all got behind it. We hear this story in other places, and yet there aren't all that many of these kind of trails around. Why do you think that is?

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Well, I think it requires several ingredients for success, and the number one ingredient is that local community vision and drive. You have to really want this. In Tefino, it has taken us decades to see this vision come forward. And it started back in the 80s with parents who wanted safer ways for their children to get to school, who literally ran bake sales and uh bottle drives to be able to raise funds and slowly begin to work with the municipal recreation program and build small sections of trail that really kind of helped this whole big vision come forward. And I think the the without that community drive and vision, it's you know it's really hard to get something like this launched. Then it takes a lot of patience and persistence and partnership. So it's about reaching out and talking to connected or local nearby communities about what the potential is. Of course, in this day and age, we know that no partnership is possible without the work that we do with First Nations and making sure that we have their consent and their support and uh and and their perspective as a as a part of a project from the very beginning. And then the the patience in fundraising and advocating and working is a key part as well. As a former mayor, when when I was mayor, I would talk to a lot of other local leaders around the province, and they often would ask me, well, you know, we we don't we'd love to see a bike trail like this on the Sunshine Coast or somewhere up in northern BC. And how did you do it? So I just tell the story of the vision and the persistence that we've had on the West Coast and encourage them to continue doing that. I would also say that sometimes, you know, we dream really big and we want to build 40 kilometers of path right away. But I think what we saw on the West Coast is that we just started with a few hundred meters, and that's what it takes. So people see that this works, that it's safe, it feels good, they want to add more, they want to extend it. And so no, no portion is too small and and start start there.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

I love that, and I think it's it's it's a show-don't tell when people get and see what and feel what this is like, then you don't have to tell them about it. They they just get it. But there is also the issue of gaps, and uh a bike trail that's got gaps really misses a lot. In fact, it's it's sort of half you know, a tiny fraction of what it could be. And uh I wondered if you could say anything about the need the importance of continuity and when you've done your few hundred meters, how you've got do you how important is it you've got the whole thing um completed so that you can go smoothly from one end to the other?

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Well, it it is important to to have that vision in your head. And I think from a planning, and especially when you're talking about uh roadside engineering, to understand where you think a trail like this will go. So even though you might be able to construct it section by section, because that's what the money or the funding allows you to do, it's important to look forward to understand, you know, exactly where the trail is eventually going to go. And we had that experience on the West Coast where the BC Hydro poles that carry the power lines and telephone lines are all on one side of the highway in Tefino, but they're on the other side of the highway in the park. And we knew that the way the trail was going to be constructed, we were faced with some expensive choices. And so we had to think very carefully about where the path would go, even though we hadn't built it yet. Then actually constructing the path, I think, I mean, from the riders or the user's perspective, obviously the smoothest possible is by, you know, just having a single continuous path without gaps. And it would be frustrating to have a whole series of gaps throughout a long extended path. So probably, you know, adding on length by length so that it slowly gets longer and longer is going to lead to a better experience. But I, you know, what we found is because there is still one small gap that's being filled this summer on the West Coast, uh, you know, I think most people they understand it helps to communicate about what the plan is. Like, hey guys, sorry, we know that this isn't the best experience for you right now. Take care, stay safe when you when you have to get back onto the highway. But here's our vision and our plan.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Oh, and by the way, if you want to donate money to this project to help us fill the gap, here's a website you can go to so I want to ask you a couple questions about your role as the Minister for Energy Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, particularly low carbon innovation. Do you consider active transportation uh expansion to be a significant part of low carbon innovation in our province?

SPEAKER_00 17:06

I sure do. And in fact, active transportation is a big part of our clean transportation action planning, and it's part of our roadmap to 2030. We have very ambitious climate targets. We know that reducing greenhouse gas emissions means getting people out of cars and uh even beyond that, adding options beyond transit. So seeing the revolution in e-bikes, I think has been really exciting. We've got e-bike rebates that people can access and other ways to increase their ability to take non-combustion engine vehicles. But active transportation is, you know, it's more than just reducing pollution. It's uh it's about better health care for us. It's good for mental health, it's good for our physical health. That's really important as well. And seeing the interest that local governments in particular are expressing in increasing their active transportation networks, the planning that they're undertaking, really proud of the support that the province is able to provide to communities to undertake that. Local governments and the people who live in communities, you know, they know their communities best. So they know where it makes sense to plan for better sidewalks, for transit routes, for cycling paths. And it's it's really exciting to see what's going on around the province.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

I just should put a plug-in here for an initiative that we're doing at the BC Cycling Coalition called Safe Roots Now, where we're mapping these routes around the province to show where progress is being made and where it's not being made. But I would all love to congratulate you on the e-bike rebate program. Were you surprised at how quickly it got scooped up and and the the maximum$6 million reached?

SPEAKER_00 18:49

I sure was, really surprised. I mean, it's exciting to see. It just goes to show how much demand is there. We've seen uh incredible uptake in the electric car rebate program, but to see this happen with the e-bikes is it's absolutely phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Well, it's pretty easy to make the case that that an investment in an e-bike, the return on investment for the province is per dollar is vastly higher than the electric vehicles because as you mentioned, you've got the health thing, you've got the reduced congestion, and the lower number of GSG emissions required to make it and all of that. Where do you think we're gonna go? How far can we go with e-bikes and active transportation in the province?

SPEAKER_00 19:33

I think we're just gonna see more and more. I mean, I I know you do see some community pushback sometimes, say in urban centers where bike lanes are going in and parking is being removed. And it's it's hard for folks to make that change and adjust, but once you see it in action, a year or two after separated bike lanes are put in, for example, in an urban environment, we see and we hear from people about just how successful it is. And I think that helps local businesses and other leaders come on board. I mean, it feels like the sky's the limit here. I think people want to take action. They understand that this is very urgent, this climate crisis that we're in, and that cycling, for example, is just one thing they can do to, as you put, you know, reduce congestion, have a healthier lifestyle, and uh reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. So I know that the province will continue supporting with rebate programs, with dollars for communities to plan and to construct active transportation routes and networks. And we're just gonna see this grow and grow. I think it's important too to realize that some of our more remote and rural communities they don't have the same kinds of opportunities, perhaps that we do in urban environments. And we need to make sure that we support them just as much as we are folks who are living in urban environments as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Uh we started this conversation talking about chickens and eggs. Um there's a sort of a maxim in the cycling uh advocacy circles that uh what comes first, the more bikes are more safe routes to ride them on. And I would applaud the government in jumping into the whatever it is, egg or chicken side of the equation by by getting more bikes out there. And then immediately, of course, the uh the demand arises and the need arises for safer routes. Um one of the safer routes that people will have to um turn to in the province is provincial highways. And I know you're not the highways minister, but do you see uh a role for the highways to become active transportation corridors when they are effectively the main street in some of the smaller towns in the province?

SPEAKER_00 21:39

I think that's a really great question. And we're definitely seeing there are places like the south end of Vancouver Island, Victoria, Greater Victoria, where we have trails like the Galloping Goose, for example, that that roughly track alongside the highway and they provide that alternative. Maybe not quite the same in some other places. And so it makes for a bit trickier planning. Uh, out on the West Coast, with the highway that we have there, we've we've been able to build this this one separated bike trail alongside the highway. But it's something we're really going to have to put our minds to. What is fantastic about cycling and about bike paths is they don't take up as much space as highways. So we can look at being a bit more creative and inventive, I think, with the way that, for example, former rail lines might move through communities and how we could use those for cycling paths that provide a really nice alternative or pleasant, more pleasant alternative to highways. As we see uh rapid bus routes and other dedicated types of lanes coming into highways, I think, you know, again, like the the the sky's the limit here, and it's it's our thinking and willingness to try solutions, making sure that people are safe when we do them, and uh having people encourage us to do that. That's going to be all part of all part of that.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Uh I noticed that uh in the United States there's a congressional cycling caucus that uh some avid cyclists on the in Congress put together bipartisan to encourage uh general advocacy for cycling across the floor. Do you see widespread support for active transportation in our legislature, or is it a little more partisan of a partisan issue?

SPEAKER_00 23:18

I I think this is a pretty non-partisan issue. I think that people all people understand that reducing congestion, healthier lifestyles, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, that these are all things that all British Columbians want. There are uh, I mean, I suppose down by the legislature, we are pretty much surrounded just by NDP riding. So we're gonna see local MLAs who are riding their bikes in, like uh Lana Popham rides her e-bike into work every day, and Murray Rankin, he rides his pedal cycle into work every day. It's pretty exciting. But I know parties, uh people from parties, all all three parties are are active cyclists, and I love that idea of a of a cycling caucus or a group. That's really that's great. I'm gonna I'm gonna take that back to the legislature.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

We'd be happy to support it in any way we can. Terrific.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Well, thank you so much. Is there anything else you'd like to add on this? Well, I just want to say, Peter, thank you for the opportunity to do this. Anything we do, like the cycling coalition, the fantastic work that you do, building a podcast like this, getting the word out. Um, really fantastic experience. Thanks so much for having me.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Well, we're happy to continue it and love your support and uh congratulations again on the work you've done at Tefino and the completion of this trail. I will definitely be going there to try it out.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

Awesome. Can't wait to see you out there.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Thanks. Thanks for listening to Bike Tits and supporting Safe Cycling in BC. Please subscribe so you don't miss an episode. BC Cycling Coalition relies on your support to continue our work. Please consider becoming a member and adding your voice to the call for safer and more accessible cycling in BC. Special thanks to our sponsors, Strider Bike, Richard Sbuell Sutton LLP, and ICBC. Visit us at BCcycling.ca.