The future of train travel on Vancouver Island remains in limbo after the province returned nearly eleven acres of E&N railway corridor to the Snaw-Naw-As First Nation in Nanoose Bay.
The troubled E&N Railway stopped passenger service in 2011. Since then, the non-profit Island Corridor Foundation has lobbied the government to invest in modernizing trains, tracks and stations along the 225-km line between Courtenay and downtown Victoria.
The government pegs the cost at more than $700 million to get passenger trains rolling again.
However, in 2020 the Snaw-Naw-As went to court arguing that the government should return land stolen from them to build the railway. They argued that because the railway cuts through the middle of their reservation, it has hampered development opportunities.
The courts handed the province an 18-month timeline to figure out what to do with the E&N. That deadline was reached on March 14, and the Snaw-Naw-As are celebrating.
“This is a historic day for the Snaw-Naw-As Mustimuxw,” said elected chief Gordon Edwards in a media statement. “There are many questions about what lies ahead for the rest of the corridor, but for today, we celebrate the successful return of our land. I look forward to seeing what else is possible for our community, other First Nations, and the corridor as a whole, without having an unused rail in our way.”
The province said it’s still possible that rail travel will be brought back to the Island, but negotiations with First Nations come first.
The BC Government has committed $18 million for consultations with the 14 First Nations impacted by the E&N as well as the regional districts the railway passes through.
BC’s Transportation Minister, Rob Fleming, said he hopes the corridor will still be used for transportation.
“The Province also firmly believes that any potential future use of the corridor, whether it involves rail restoration or not, must involve First Nations participation and perspectives. Consideration for how the Island rail corridor might be used in the future, and commitment to reconciliation, are inseparable,” Fleming said in a statement.
In a February 2023 interview for Black Press, Island Corridor Foundation CEO Larry Stevenson called the railway “…strategically important to everything we’re going to do on this Island in the future,”
The E&N Railway was born over a century ago as part of a scheme to get Vancouver Island to join Canada. Robert Dunsmuir was given 8,000 sq km of Vancouver Island and all the riches above and below this land. In exchange, he agreed to build a railway to Campbell River.
The theory went that rails would bind Canada coast-to-coast. Dunsmuir never fulfilled his promise and the tracks stopped in Courtenay.
Vancouver Island was a separate British colony until 1866, when it joined with the mainland to become the United Colony of British Columbia. In 1871, this colony became the 6th province to join Canada.
