Donna McMahon from Sunshine coast regional district, area E for everything Elphinstone.

Our 14th waterfowl featured guest, on our 30th episode, Donna McMahon explains to me that Gibson's and Sechelt are the main communities in her regional district. We chat about unrealistic expectations, those who move into rural areas for retirement and about the importance of asking questions with regards to available services. Water restriction, hospitals and the closest bus route being 1.5 km away to acess the handy dart. Many folks have driveways that these specialized buses cant turn around in, thus negating service delivery. I learned about highway 101, Pender harbour and the user groups of the BC transit bus or Langdale ferry system. We discussed hairy passes, steep stairs and areas with no shoulder, inaccessible bus stop due to deep ditches. Fire service and water supply come into play as part of a rural checklist because what might look suburban upon first glance can often be ripe with suprises of septic fields, private wells that dry out seasonally, no garbage pickup and deceiving mailing addresses. Small municipalities with dense populations on small footprints can often struggle with issues of adequately trained staff. We discuss our privileges, why training single mothers to be techicians for waste water treatment plants could lead to longer retention. Or how effective restorative justice projects are in small towns where things can get incredibly loud and too close to home. Also how 220 graduates could be insufficient to make post secondary education sustainable. Its an uphill battle to think about how to be invisible, avoid difficult, dangerous or frightening situations. How to best leaverage knowledge and negotiate safely. A delicate balance between citizen complaints, being tapped into non profit agencies and how diversity on the government level helps us not all make the same assumptions. Something she said that really stuck with me was that legislative requirements keep increasing and local governments are responsible without being in control.