Qualicum Beach mayor Teunis Westbroek Mayor appeared to accuse the School Board of bad faith in the deal to trade land in a statement made during the all candidates meeting at the Qualicum Gardens. Westbroek appeared to be using the derogatory and ethnically charged term "welshed' as a reference to his claim that the school board reneged on a land swap deal. Westbroek said "they (school board) welshed on the deal".
Westbroek appeared to be offering the accusation as a defence of the town's purchase of the old bus garage for 1.5 million dollars. The bus garage purchase came under heavy fire from both the audience and the candidates during the meeting.
In the months leading up to the municipal election Westbroek initially told the taxpayers of Qualicum Beach that he was going to trade town owned land for the School board's old bus garage. Then in a few months, under his leadership, the town sold much of its' vacant property. Later, after little public debate, the town bought the old bus garage property for 1.5 million dollars. At the time, Westbroek 'speculated' that the site would make a fine location for an arts and cultral center. Finally, under his leadership the town hired not one but two consultants to 'review' the idea of a 'Cultural Center' on the site.
Now, embroiled in a lively election campaign, Westbroek has run into strong opposition to his idea of building a potentially expensive publicly funded facility on the old bus garage site. He has waivered in his championing of the site as a cultural icon. In his closing remarks at the Gardens Westbroek also appeared to be denying that the town had spent more than 200,000 dollars upgrading the land that was proposed for the ill fated land swap. Critics have pointed out that the town should not have spent money upgrading the land, located at the airport, until they had a signed contract.
