Capital Daily for Saturday, July 4

Greater Victoria's on-again, off-again dream of passenger rail took another step this week. The Island Corridor Foundation's latest annual report, out June 26, says partners plan to launch a feasibility study in 2026 to figure out whether trains could carry people between Langford and Vic West.

The study will spell out what the service would actually need to work. That includes a big open question: whether part of the rail corridor running through Esquimalt Nation lands could be rerouted. If the study finds the project viable, a business plan would follow in 2027.

This all traces back to the Reconciliation Corridor Initiative, an agreement signed in December 2025 between Esquimalt Nation, Songhees Nation, five neighbouring municipalities and the Capital Regional District. The partners agreed to explore bringing rail back while sorting out the corridor's future through Esquimalt Nation lands.

The report catalogued the state of the line too, counting 677 culverts on the Victoria subdivision alone. Not everything held up over the year: the Wesley Ridge wildfire near Cameron Lake destroyed two historic railway trestle bridges and damaged two others, leaving partners to decide what happens to that stretch.

The Skana water system on the north side of Mayne Island serves about 53 connections. As of Friday, those households can use water only for drinking, cooking and sanitation. No lawns, no gardens, no washing anything. It's the first Stage 4 restriction the Capital Regional District has ever issued.

Greater Victoria isn't feeling this. The Sooke Lake Reservoir sits around 85% of capacity, normal for July, and the CRD hasn't moved past Stage 1 since the dam was raised in 2002. But the small systems on the Gulf Islands don't have a reservoir to lean on, and the drought arrived early this year.

The province issued a Level 4 drought warning for eastern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands in late May, the earliest it's ever done so. Last year that didn't happen until August. In Ladysmith, Holland Lake has been dropping about 3% a week.

The Cowichan Valley moved to Stage 3 on Friday, joining Nanaimo and the Comox Valley. Ignore the rules and the fines can reach $2,000 a day.