E&N Railway’s ‘use it or lose it’ deadline is one month away

One month from today, a timer will go off for the E&N Railway; its fate will finally be decided.

The railway between Courtenay and Victoria has been dormant for more than a decade, but chatter for and against plans to restore it got increasingly agitated after a 2020 court case started an 18 month timer, which expires on March 14, 2023.

Advocates say train transportation would alleviate traffic congestion, and cut greenhouse gas emissions. Others say it’s too expensive, and we should invest in more rapid buses instead. Many agree that the most valuable part of the whole thing is the land itself: a contiguous corridor between Victoria and Courtenay, with an arm from Nanaimo to Port Alberni.

The railway’s future is connected to its complicated history that started with the terms of agreement for BC to join Canada in 1871. One of those terms was that the federal government would secure a rail line through the province—a condition that took years to iron out but was eventually ratified in legislative agreements.

To build it the government appropriated land from 14 First Nations, which it was legally allowed to do for the purpose of building the railway.

But since its heyday, the railway struggled as a business, and the last passenger train was taken off the tracks in 2011. Since then, the tracks have been idle, along with the land they’re on.

In 2020, the Snaw-Naw-As First Nation, which had 11 acres of land taken for the railway, took ICF to court, arguing that since the land wasn’t being used for a railway, the terms of appropriation were void. They want their land back.

The BC Court of Appeal agreed in theory, but gave ICF 18 months to make a decision once and for all. After March 14, if ICF hasn’t secured commitments from government to fund the railways restoration, Snaw-Naw-As are welcome to resubmit their lawsuit.

It’s not just Snaw-Naw-As who have a stake in the rail line: there are 14 First Nations whose territory is crossed by the rail line. Many of them lost land as the railway right-of-way was established, with no compensation or consultation. They’re all part of the ICF non-profit association, but not all seem to agree on what should be done with it.

Larry Stevenson, CEO of the Island Corridor Foundation, has been lobbying every level of government to restore the E&N Railway for years. Whatever happens between now and March 14 will be the final decision, he told Capital Daily this month.

“This is not going to be the continuation of another story. This is the decision. We're going to be bound by whatever happens here.”

Read a brief history of the railway here. Read about the business case and alternative solutions here. Read what the politicians have said here, and here.

—With files from Nina Grossman