2181 McNeill Rd, Port McNeill

Clear of steep slope and water setbacks

4.6 ha (100%)

In or within 30 m of mapped water

0%

Steeper than 30%, outside that strip

0%

15 to 30% slope

6%

On designated floodplain (counted as clear)

0%

Median slope

7%

Main slope direction

Mostly faces north-west (82% of the lot faces within 45° of it); measured by us on NRCan's 30 m elevation model

Which way it faces

0% south (SE to SW), 42% north (NW to NE), 16% flat; the rest east or west

Terrain stability (Vancouver Island Geomorphology)

Over the lot, the Province's terrain stability mapping, mapped at 1:50,000 gives no stability class, so it says nothing either way

Estimated by us on Natural Resources Canada's 30 m elevation model: each dot on the plan is one 30 m cell. Small banks, gullies and benches can be smoothed out, and on lots under a few hectares the edges count for a lot. Slopes over 30% usually need a geotechnical engineer's report to build on; 15 to 30% is buildable with more work.

Not counted: zoning setbacks from the lot lines, room for a septic field and well (the Septic section screens for a field), easements and rights of way, and the local government's own slope or hazard development permit areas. What you can build names them where the local government publishes its map. A surveyor and the local government confirm where you can build.

December 21 (shortest day)

6 h 20 min of possible direct sun; 7 h 50 min on open ground

March 21 (about the same on September 21)

11 h 30 min; 12 h on open ground

June 21 (longest day)

15 h 50 min; 16 h 20 min on open ground

Noon sun on December 21

16° above level; the hills due south rise to 7°, 0.4 km away

Highest hills in the winter sun's path

7° above level to the south, 0.3 km away

Measured at

The middle of the lot, ground at about 46 m, from head height

Solar panel output (south-facing, tilted at the latitude)

About 830 kWh a year for each kW of panels (December about 30), on Natural Resources Canada's 1998-2022 sunshine map; the sun on the panel's face is 3.04 kWh/m² a day over the year, 1.28 in December

Water the ground lets you see (16 km)

The sea (our reading of the elevation model) to the north-northwest, from about 900 m away, across about 95° of the horizon

Highest skyline

7° above level to the south, 0.3 km away

Named peaks in view (150 km)

Mount Philley to the north-northeast, 97 km away (about 2,112 m); Mount Stephens to the northeast, 52 km away (about 1,494 m); Village Mountain to the north-northeast, 68 km away (about 1,402 m); Snowdrift Mountain to the north-northeast, 64 km away (about 1,381 m); Mount Verney to the north-northeast, 50 km away (about 873 m); and 4 more

Highest ground in view

About 2,112 m: Mount Philley, to the north-northeast, 97 km away

Farthest ground in view

About 97 km to the north-northeast: Mount Philley

Most relief in one direction

To the north-northeast: from sea level, 2.2 km away, up to about 1,589 m, 82 km away

Town centres in line of sight

None within 150 km, over the bare ground

City lights in direct line (150 km)

None over the bare ground: the lit towns within 150 km are behind the hills or the curve of the earth (our reading)

Computed by us from the terrain only: trees, buildings and cloud aren't counted, so the sun that reaches a window or a garden is often less. The hours are possible direct sun, counted from when the sun's centre clears the hills, at head height at the middle of the lot; another spot on a hillside lot can differ.

The horizon is read from Natural Resources Canada's 30 m elevation model in 72 directions, out to 16 km: on its 30 m grid within 1.5 km, beyond that on a 120 m version of it, where single peaks can read a little lower than they are. The curve of the earth is taken into account.

The sun's path is from the standard solar position formulas. Hours are counted in sun time; clock times shift with daylight saving and with how far the lot is from its time zone's centre.

Check it on site: visit on a clear day in December or January, look at where the trees and buildings to the south fall, and ask neighbours when the sun leaves and comes back.

The panel output is our reading of Natural Resources Canada's figures: its map gives the sun reaching a south-facing panel tilted at the latitude, averaged over 1998-2022 on a grid of about 10 km, and we turn it into kWh for each kW of panels at the performance ratio its Photovoltaic Potential maps use (0.75: losses in heat, wiring, the inverter and dirt). The map is for an open sky: the hills around the lot, trees, buildings and snow on the panels aren't counted. The hills around this lot take about 18% of the direct sun on December 21 (our figure above), so a panel at the lot's middle would most likely make less than this, most of all in winter (our reading; the hills block direct sun, not all the light). A solar installer measures the roof or the spot itself.

What the ground allows you to see from head height at the middle of the lot, read by us on the same elevation model as the sun hours, out to 16 km: trees, buildings and the house's own spot and height aren't counted, so a view the ground allows can be hidden by the forest, and a second storey can see over a rise. Lakes and rivers are the Freshwater Atlas's; the sea is read where the elevation model sits at sea level.

Peaks, towns and the farthest ground are read by us out to 150 km on the same elevation model, coarser past 16 km (cells of 240 m to 60 km, 480 m beyond), with the curve of the earth and the usual bending of light: summits read lower than they are at that scale, so a peak only counts when it clears the ground before it, and one at the very edge of the skyline may be left out. It's what the bare ground allows on a perfectly clear day: haze, smoke, cloud, trees and buildings aren't counted. Peak names are BC Geographical Names'; peaks outside BC aren't named.

City lights in direct line are our reading: the satellite's lit cells (15 nW/cm²/sr and up, the brightness of a town centre or more) within 150 km, each named after the nearest town centre within 8 km, and a town counted when one of its brightest cells, taken 10 m above the ground, clears the bare ground before it on the same elevation model as the long view. It says where lights are in a straight line, not how bright they look: the glow a town throws over a ridge isn't modelled, so a town behind the hills can still light the sky above them, and haze, trees and buildings aren't counted.

Dams nearby

None within 1 km on the Province's list of dams

Dikes nearby

None within 1 km on the Province's map of dikes and flood protection works

These maps were drawn mostly in the 1980s and 1990s and cover only some rivers and lakes. Not being on one doesn't mean the land can't flood: ask the local government whether it has newer flood mapping, and whether its bylaws set a flood construction level or floodplain setback here.

Fires on the parcel

0

Fires within 2 km

1

Within 2 km in the last 30 years

0

Most recent nearby

1930 (28 ha, caused by people)

Largest nearby

1930 (28 ha, caused by people)

Causes on record within 2 km

1 caused by people

Natural fire regime (the Province's ecosystem map)

NDT1, rare stand-initiating events: forest where fire, wind and landslides rarely replace the stand, on average every 250 years (coastal and interior cedar–hemlock forest) to 350 (subalpine fir and mountain hemlock), and then mostly in small patches

Biogeoclimatic unit

Coastal Western Hemlock zone, very wet maritime subzone, Northern Submontane variant (CWHvm3)

Within 1 km, not on the lot

Western hemlock looper in 2007 (nearest 660 m)

Surveys read

1999 to 2025, the Province's own; on the lot or within 1 km of its line

Fire perimeters mapped by the BC Wildfire Service since 1919, each with its size and the cause the Service recorded (lightning or people, sometimes unknown); older and small fires are less complete. Past fire is history, not a forecast: for insurance, ask about the fire protection area and the distance to the nearest fire hall.

The natural disturbance type is how the forest here burned, blew down or otherwise renewed itself before logging and fire suppression, from the Province's biogeoclimatic map and its Biodiversity Guidebook (1995). It describes the land around the lot over centuries, not the lot's own fire risk or the odds of a fire in any year; the Province's fire threat rating and fuel maps aren't open data. Our summary, checked 2026-10-11.

The Province's Aerial Overview Survey is flown each summer from small planes 500 to 1,000 m up, sketching damaged stands on maps at 1:100,000 to 1:250,000: it gives the general location and rough extent of damage, not a ground count, and the Province says it isn't accurate enough to direct work on the ground. Most of the province is flown each year, but weather and smoke leave gaps, so a year with no record isn't a year with no damage. Each year's polygons record the trees recently killed (fading or red) or the foliage damaged that season, as the surveyors read it from the air; trees killed in earlier years aren't counted again, and dead trees may since have fallen, been logged or burned. Clumps of up to about 50 dead trees are mapped as spots, which aren't shown here. Our summary of the survey's standards and damage ratings, checked 2026-10-12.

Peak ground acceleration, 2% in 50 years (the code's design level)

0.36 g

Peak ground acceleration, 10% in 50 years

0.19 g

Short-period shaking Sa(0.2), the value the code uses for houses and other low buildings

0.91 g

Peak ground acceleration, 2% in 50 years, on softer ground

0.39 g on stiff soil (site class D), 0.40 g on soft soil, about 10% more than on firm ground

The same value in city centres

Victoria 0.81 g, Vancouver 0.47 g, Kelowna 0.089 g, Prince George 0.064 g

Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more recorded since 1985

0 within 50 km and 94 within 100 km

Largest within 100 km

M4.4 in September 1989, about 90 km away (NRCan: West Coast Vancouver Island, BC)

Nearest of magnitude 3 or more

M3.3 in March 2021, about 60 km away (NRCan: 26 km W of Port Alice, BC)

Distance to the ocean shore

About 470 m from the lot line (Freshwater Atlas coastline)

Tsunami notification zone

Zone B: the central coast and northeast Vancouver Island, including Kitimat, Bella Coola and Port Hardy (the Province's zone for alerts on this coast)

Ground at the lot's middle

About 45 m above sea level (NRCan's 30 m elevation model; our reading, not a survey)

These are the 2020 National Building Code's reference values at the lot's centre, on firm ground (site class C), with the values the code gives stiff soil (D) and soft soil (E) beside them. Which class the lot's ground is isn't on any open map: the site class and the values a building is designed for come from the building official or a geotechnical engineer. Very soft ground, peat or fill that can liquefy (site class F) needs a site-specific assessment.

2% in 50 years means shaking at least this strong has about a 1-in-2,500 chance in any year; 10% in 50 years, about 1 in 475. g is the acceleration of gravity. The comparison with Vancouver and the other cities is ours.

Liquefaction and earthquake-triggered landslides aren't covered here; ask the local government whether it has mapped them.

Past earthquakes are those Natural Resources Canada's National Earthquake Database records within 100 km of the lot's middle since 1985, the start of its digital record, at magnitude 2.5 and up; blasts, mining events (tremors set off in a mine) and slides are left out. The seismograph network has grown much denser since then, so smaller quakes found today would have gone unrecorded in the 1980s, and positions are good to a few kilometres. A count of past quakes isn't a measure of the hazard: the building code's values above are.

The Province divides the coast into five tsunami notification zones so a warning, advisory or watch can name the coast it's for; they're drawn over the water and aren't a map of what a tsunami would flood. How high and how far inland water could reach here depends on the shore and the local government's own modelling: ask it whether it has a tsunami flood or evacuation map for the lot, and where its high ground is. The height is NRCan's 30 m model at the lot's middle, so a lower corner or a building's floor can sit lower.

The Province's advice near the coast: if you feel a strong earthquake, drop, cover and hold on, then as soon as the shaking stops go to high ground or as far inland as you can, by your community's evacuation route where it has one, and stay there until officials give the all clear. A tsunami from a nearby earthquake can arrive in minutes.

On record within 5 km

0

This is a list of landslides that are known to have happened, gathered from published inventories and from mapping on satellite images and lidar. It isn't a hazard map: it doesn't say how likely a slide is here, and no record nearby doesn't mean the ground is stable. Some parts of BC (the Fraser Valley and Fraser Canyon, Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii, recent burn areas) are mapped in far more detail than others.

Each point mostly marks where a slide started. Debris can travel well past it, down a creek channel and onto the fan at the creek's mouth, so a lot on a fan or below a steep slope can be reached by a slide that began kilometres away. Distances are measured by us from the lot's boundary.

The kind of slide and its date are the database's own, mostly worked out from images, so treat them as a first look. Confirm with the local government, many of which have mapped steep-slope or debris-flow hazard areas, and with a geotechnical engineer.

Health region (regional figure, not this lot)

North Vancouver Island

Homes tested here

106

At or above 200 Bq/m³ (the guideline)

1 (0.9%)

At or above 600 Bq/m³

None

Across BC

143 of 1,817 homes (7.9%) at or above the guideline

Radon comes up from the ground and differs from one house to the next, even next door, so a regional figure says nothing certain about one home. The only way to know is a long-term test of at least 3 months. Health Canada's guideline is 200 Bq/m³ in the parts of a home where people spend more than 4 hours a day; above it, fix it within a year, and the higher the level, the sooner. For a home you buy, Health Canada suggests a long-term test once you've moved in.

The survey tested about a hundred volunteer homes per health region, with one long-term test each. That gives a rough regional picture: it isn't a map, and a region where few or none tested high can still have homes above the guideline. The survey grouped homes by the 2007 health regions; we place the lot by today's boundaries for the same areas.

Nearest railway (2 km)

None mapped within 2 km

Nearest highway or major road (2 km)

Island Highway (Highway 19), a major road, about 1.3 km from the lot line

Nearest airport or airstrip (2 km)

Port McNeill Water Aerodrome, about 790 m from the lot line

Light at night (within 1 km, 2024)

8 nW/cm²/sr, like a small town, as around Gibsons, Sooke or Valemount (our reading); darker than about 73% of BC's homes.

Aircraft accidents recorded within 2 km (since 1995)

1, per the Transportation Safety Board, in February 2004: a plane, near Port McNeill, its position given only to the nearest minute; TSB occurrence A04P0036.

Distances only, not a measured noise level; noise depends on traffic, trains per day and terrain. Measured by us in a straight line from the lot line to the mapped centreline of the track or road, or to the edge of an airport's mapped grounds (to its point where only a point is mapped); a mapped line can sit some metres off the real one.

Railways are OpenStreetMap's track in use: main, branch and industrial lines, sidings and yards, and rapid transit; lines mapped as disused or abandoned, and track in tunnels, are left out. "Main line" is how OpenStreetMap's mappers class the line. Highways and major roads are the roads OpenStreetMap classes as motorway (a freeway), trunk (a highway) or primary (a major road). Airports and airstrips are every aerodrome OpenStreetMap maps, public or private, with its type where mapped; heliports aren't included. Airport noise exposure maps (the NEF contours some airports draw) aren't open data, so they aren't used.

Visit at rush hour and at night, ask the seller how often trains pass, and confirm with the local government whether a noise bylaw, a development permit area or an airport zoning regulation covers the lot. For a railway, the railway company or Transport Canada can say how many trains use the line; for an airport, ask the airport about flight paths.

Light at night is what the VIIRS satellite records looking down at about 1:30 a.m., averaged over the cloud-free nights of 2024, with fires, the northern lights and other passing light left out (the Earth Observation Group's yearly composite); its cells are about 460 m by 300 m in BC. We give the median of the cells within 1 km of the lot's middle, in nanowatts per square centimetre per steradian (rounded to whole numbers), set against the same figure at BC's homes (Statistics Canada's 2021 dwellings on ISED's points) and named after places that read alike (our reading). It is light going up, not how dark the sky looks from the ground: a nearby town's glow on the horizon, the moon, a neighbour's yard light and the trees aren't in it, and it says nothing of light at other hours. For stargazing, look at the sky from the lot on a clear, moonless night. This product was made utilizing VIIRS Nighttime Lights data produced by the Earth Observation Group, Payne Institute for Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines.

Aircraft accidents are the Transportation Safety Board of Canada's record of occurrences it classes as accidents in BC since 1995, incidents left out. The TSB gives most positions to the nearest minute of latitude and longitude, up to about 1 km off, or at the aerodrome's own point, so an accident is counted when its given position is within 2 km of the lot line, and never placed on the lot. A count of past accidents, not a measure of risk or noise.

Community water

No open map of the Town of Port McNeill's water service: ask the Town of Port McNeill whether the lot is on it

Wells within 2 km

3

Median depth

31 m

Median tested yield

–

Median water level below ground

8 m

Aquifer 763 under the lot

Port McNeill West Bedrock: fractured sedimentary rock; productivity not rated, vulnerability moderate, demand not rated; 18 wells linked, median depth 91.4 m

Aquifer 764 under the lot

Port McNeill West Unconsolidated: unconfined sand and gravel (late glacial outwash); productivity not rated, vulnerability moderate, demand not rated; 87 wells linked, median depth 36.6 m

Sea water intrusion

Moderately Low (2 on the Province's scale of five, Low to High) for the sand and gravel aquifer under the lot in the 2021 assessment, rated on the aquifer's setting (its material, slope, distance from the sea and ground water level) and pumping nearby (how many wells, and what for); other ratings over the lot: low (per the Province's map)

Groundwater level trend

No provincial observation well still measured in the aquifer under the lot or within 10 km

Groundwater quality tested nearby

No well within 10 km of the lot in the Province's monitoring records since 2000. Test your own well, for bacteria and these, at an accredited lab; your health authority can say which labs take samples from private wells.

Drinking-water protection zone

None over the lot on the Province's map (it holds only the zones a water system's protection plan has mapped, so many wells and intakes have none on it)

Water systems' wells and intakes within 300 m

None on the Province's list

Community watershed

None over the lot on the Province's map

Neighbours' wells show what drillers found nearby, not what a new well here will find; many wells were never registered. For a property on a well, ask for a recent flow test and water quality test.

Productivity is how much water the aquifer gives up to wells; vulnerability is how easily a spill at the surface could reach it; both are the province's ratings for the whole aquifer, not this lot. Mapped aquifers cover mostly settled valleys: a lot outside every outline can still have groundwater. Confirm with a qualified hydrogeologist or registered well driller.

The Province's map is a regional screening of how easily sea water could be drawn into a coastal aquifer, not a test of any well. Near the sea, fresh ground water floats on salt water, and a well near the shore can turn salty with pumping, its own or its neighbours'; once in, the salt can take years to clear or stay for good, and a well must not be run in a way that draws it in (Water Sustainability Act, s. 58). The Province advises well owners near the coast to test for chloride and electrical conductivity once a year, in the dry season: a well over 150 mg/L of chloride or 1,000 µS/cm counts as affected, and water tastes salty from about 250 mg/L. For a property on a well here, ask for chloride and conductivity in the well water test. Our summary, read 2026-10-07.

Health Canada's Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality set the most a drinking water should hold: arsenic 0.010 mg/L, fluoride 1.5 mg/L, manganese 0.12 mg/L (and 0.02 mg/L for taste and for staining laundry and fixtures), uranium 0.02 mg/L, nitrate 10 mg/L as nitrogen (45 mg/L as nitrate) and lead 0.005 mg/L, with arsenic and lead kept as low as reasonably achievable. Our summary of Health Canada's summary table, read 2026-10-11.

Community sewer

No open map of the Town of Port McNeill's sewer service: ask the Town of Port McNeill whether the lot is on it

Recorded water-supply wells within 30 m

None recorded within 30 m

Mapped water within 30 m

None mapped

Within the setbacks, under 15% slope (gravity fields, mounds and trenches)

4 ha (88%)

Within the setbacks, under 25% slope (mounds, at-grade beds and trenches)

4.3 ha (94%)

Within the setbacks, under 45% slope (trenches)

4.3 ha (94%)

Screening, not a site assessment: measured by us on the same elevation cells as the buildable area, against the separations in the Province's Sewerage System Standard Practice Manual: a field stays 30 m from a drinking-water well (60 to 90 m from a high-pumping one), 30 m from a lake, river or permanent stream (15 m from seasonal water and the sea), 7.5 m from a downslope drain or bank where effluent could break out, and, as a guideline, 3 m from the lot line. We use 30 m for every mapped stream. A gravity field isn't allowed on slopes over 15%, a mound or at-grade bed over 25%, and trenches over 45%.

Under the Sewerage System Regulation, only an Authorized Person (a Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioner or a professional engineer or geoscientist) may plan and install a system, and they file the plans with the regional health authority before work starts. They dig test pits to check the soil depth and the seasonal water table and measure how fast the soil drains, which no open map shows. Ask the seller for the filing and maintenance records of an existing system, and have it inspected.

Well locations in GWELLS are often approximate, and many wells were never registered: look for well caps on and next to the lot. Wells, water lines and septic fields on the neighbours' land count too.

If the lot is on a community sewer, none of this applies; ask the local government, which may also set larger setbacks or a minimum lot size for septic.

Nearest hospital

Port McNeill Hospital: 1.1 km

Next nearest hospital

Cormorant Island Community Health Centre, Alert Bay: 11 km across the water on Cormorant Island

Nearest emergency department

Port McNeill Hospital: 1.1 km. Hours on HealthLink BC's list: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Nearest walk-in clinic

None within 30 km on HealthLink BC's list, which leaves many clinics out: ask the health authority or a local pharmacy

Nearest pharmacy

Harbourside Pharmacy, Port McNeill: 700 m. Hours on HealthLink BC's list: Mon to Fri 09:00 to 17:30, Sat 09:00 to 17:00. Closed statutory holidays

School catchment

Not mapped for this lot: catchments are shown only where the school district's boundaries are open data, for Surrey Schools (Surrey and White Rock) and the North Vancouver School District (the City and District of North Vancouver). Ask the school district which schools serve it.

Nearest public elementary school

North Island Secondary, Port Mcneill: 100 m

Nearest public secondary school

Port Hardy Secondary: 34 km

Nearest public school with early French immersion

Ecole Des Deux Mondes Elementary, Campbell River: 144 km

Nearest francophone school (Conseil scolaire francophone)

Secondaire Carihi, Campbell River: 145 km

Independent schools within 10 km on Vancouver Island

0

Nearest licensed group child care

Little Stars Child Care: 300 m

Licensed group child care within 1 km

1: its operator lists no ages; it takes part in the fee reduction (CCFRI)

Licensed group child care within 2 km

1: its operator lists no ages; it takes part in the fee reduction (CCFRI)

Licensed family child care within about 2 km

2, in the providers' homes

Nearest grocery store

Marketplace IGA: 500 m

Grocery stores within 10 km on Vancouver Island

1

Nearest fire station

Port McNeill Volunteer Fire Department: 600 m, on the Province's list

Nearest fire hydrant

Not said: we have no open hydrant map of the Town of Port McNeill; ask its fire department where the nearest hydrant is

Nearest ambulance station

Ambulance station 129, Port McNeill: 600 m

Nearest police detachment or station

Port McNeill RCMP: 700 m

Nearest transfer station or landfill

Seven Mile Landfill: 11 km

Nearest post office

Port McNeill: 700 m

Postal area

V0N: Canada Post marks it a rural postal area (a 0 as the second character): mail mostly goes to a post office box or a rural route box, not to the door, and couriers often add a charge for rural postal codes (our reading).

Nearest gas station

Petro-Canada: 1 km

Nearest Service BC office

Service BC - Port Hardy: 33 km

Nearest ferry terminal

Port McNeill: 900 m. Crossings from it on OpenStreetMap: Port McNeill ↔ Alert Bay (British Columbia Ferry Services); Port McNeill ↔ Sointula (British Columbia Ferry Services)

Nearest airport with screened airline flights

Campbell River airport (YBL): 147 km

Vancouver International Airport (YVR), BC's main airport for flights abroad

319 km

Nearest transit stop

McNeill & Campbell Way: 250 m, route 12; 4 departures on a weekday, none on Saturday, none on Sunday (BC Transit's schedule, week of October 19, 2026)

Busiest stop within 500 m

Pioneer Mall: 440 m, route 12; 8 departures on a weekday, none on Saturday, none on Sunday (BC Transit's schedule, week of October 19, 2026)

Transit stops within 500 m

8

Nearest park or protected area

Lower Nimpkish Park, a provincial park: 5.7 km from the lot line

Nearest recreation site or trail

Clint Beek (Keogh Lake), on Recreation Sites and Trails BC's list: 12 km from the lot line

Distances are straight lines from the middle of the lot, measured by us. The drive is longer, and much longer where the road winds, crosses water or takes a ferry.

Hospitals are from the Province's list; emergency departments and walk-in clinics from HealthLink BC's lists, with the hours they give. Not every hospital has a 24-hour emergency department, and a small town's emergency department can close for a shift when it's short of staff: the health authority posts these as service changes, so check before you rely on one. In an emergency, call 9-1-1.

Which school a child goes to depends on the school district's catchment, not on distance: ask the district.

French programs are from the Ministry's school list. French immersion usually takes students by application or lottery, often with its own boundary, and the Conseil scolaire francophone's schools are for children whose parents have the right to French-language education: ask the district which applies.

Child care is from the Province's Child Care Map Data, listed October 13, 2026: licensed facilities the Province funds, so a licensed one without that funding, or a licence-not-required carer, isn't on it. The ages served and any space are what each operator reports, and many list no ages. A space reported weeks ago may be gone: ask the facility about spaces and wait lists.

The fee reduction is the Province's Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative (CCFRI): a facility taking part charges lower monthly fees for children up to kindergarten age (our summary).

Licensed family child care is in the provider's own home, so we count it but don't name or place it. It's counted on a grid of about 1 km, so the count near 2 km is approximate (our reading).

A fire station nearby doesn't mean it covers this lot: confirm the fire protection area with the local government. Insurers price fire cover by the road distance to the hall that responds and whether the lot is inside a fire protection area.

Insurers ask how far the house is from a hydrant as well as from the fire hall that responds: ask yours what distance it uses and what that does to the premium.

Fire halls, ambulance stations and police are from the Province's First Responders list (updated 2026-09-11), with fire stations it lacks added from OpenStreetMap. A hall that has moved may still be listed at its old address.

An ambulance station is where crews are based. How soon one arrives depends on where the crew is when the call comes.

A detachment is where police are based; it isn't always the force that covers the lot, and a community policing office is often volunteer-run with no officers on hand. Ask the local government which police serve the lot. In an emergency, call 9-1-1.

Pharmacies are from HealthLink BC's list, with the hours it gives: a few pharmacies are in clinics or programs for their own patients, and hours change, so call ahead.

Transit stops and departures are counted by us from BC Transit's and TransLink's published schedules for one week, leaving out the stop where a trip ends. A stop's distance is a straight line from the middle of the lot; the walk is longer. Service changes with the seasons: check the timetable before you count on a route.

Parks and recreation sites are measured in a straight line from the lot line. Conservancies, regional and municipal parks aren't on these lists. Recreation Sites and Trails BC's list doesn't say whether a site is open, closed or reachable this season: check its page before you go.

Ferry schedules, fares and reservations aren't shown. Check the operator (BC Ferries, or for an inland crossing the Ministry of Transportation and Transit's inland ferries page) before you count on a sailing: many routes run fewer sailings in winter.

Grocery stores, transfer stations, landfills, recycling depots, post offices, gas stations, ferry terminals, ferry crossings are from OpenStreetMap, mapped by volunteers: one may be missing, closed or mapped in the wrong place, and a landfill may be closed without the map saying so (our reading).

The lot is on Vancouver Island, by our reading of the Province's island outlines. Where the lot's own island has a service, its nearest one is named first; one marked "across the water" is a ferry or boat ride away, however short the straight line.

The postal area is Statistics Canada's outline of where a postal code's first three characters are used, drawn from postal code points, so near its edge the lot may fall in the next one. It doesn't say how this lot's mail is delivered: ask Canada Post, and give a courier or online store the full postal code to see what they charge.

Airports with screened airline flights are the ones the CATSA Aerodrome Designation Regulations list, where the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority screens passengers, kept where OurAirports also lists scheduled flights (Dawson Creek is designated but has none listed). Smaller airports and floatplane bases with scheduled flights aren't screened and aren't on this list, so a nearer one may have flights: check with the airlines. Distances are straight lines; the drive, or a ferry, is longer.

Confirm services with the local government.

Best speed recorded within about 1 km

50/10 Mbps or faster

Over a wired line (cable, fibre or DSL)

50/10 Mbps or faster

Over fixed wireless

50/10 Mbps or faster

LTE mobile within about 1 km

recorded

Nearest place with 50/10 Mbps or faster

within about 1 km (about 100 m)

Data

ISED National Broadband Data, May 2026

Mobile carriers listed in the area around the lot (about 25 km²)

Bell and Telus (one shared network), Rogers (ISED, reported, not a guarantee at the lot)

Nearest FM radio transmitter

CBRY-FM, 105.1 MHz FM, 270 W, at Alert Bay, about 11 km to the east; hills about 0.3 km away rise to 3.3° in its direction, above the line to the antenna: likely blocked by the bare ground (our reading)

Nearest TV transmitter

None in operation within 50 km on ISED's list

Bell satellite TV dish sightline

82° W sits 18° up to the south-east, clear of the hills by 15°; 91.1° W sits 23° up to the south-east, clear of the hills by 19° (terrain only; our reading)

Shaw Direct satellite TV dish sightline

107.3° W sits 29° up to the south-south-east, clear of the hills by 24°; 111.1° W sits 30° up to the south-south-east, clear of the hills by 25° (terrain only; our reading)

Starlink: sky hidden by the hills

The hills stay under 20° all round, so terrain shouldn't block it (trees and buildings not counted; our reading)

This is the service providers report to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) for homes and roads near the lot, not a quote: ask providers whether they serve this address, at what speed and at what cost to connect.

Speeds are download/upload bands. 50/10 Mbps is ISED's top band, so a place in it can get much faster service, and it is the CRTC's target for every Canadian home.

A line that reaches homes within 1 km may stop short of this lot; bringing it further can cost the buyer. Fixed wireless and LTE need a clear line to the tower, which hills and tall trees can block.

Satellite service doesn't need nearby lines, but it needs a clear view of the sky.

Distances are straight lines from the middle of the lot, measured by us on a grid of about 250 m.

Mobile carriers are those Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) lists for mobile service in its hexagon of about 25 km² holding the lot's middle; ISED counts LTE and 5G together and doesn't say how much of the hexagon a carrier covers, so a listed carrier may not reach the lot, the house or the valley floor. Cell tower positions aren't open data. Ask the carriers, or try a phone on site.

Broadcast transmitters are from ISED's Spectrum Management System extract: the nearest FM and TV transmitters in operation within 50 km of the lot's middle, with their effective radiated power. Whether the bare ground blocks the line is our reading on the elevation model the Winter sun section reads (out to 16 km round the lot; hills beyond it aren't counted); trees, buildings and an antenna's height on the house aren't, and reception also depends on power, distance and the receiver.

Satellite sightlines are our reading: each geostationary satellite's place in the sky from the lot's middle (Telesat's orbital slots, read 2026-10-13) set against the skyline the Winter sun section reads on NRCan's elevation model, in 72 directions out to 16 km. Trees and buildings, which most often decide whether a dish sees its satellite, aren't counted, and a dish can sit higher or elsewhere on the lot. Starlink asks for a clear view of the sky from about 20° above the horizon and picks its own direction: its app's obstruction check on site is the real test.

Nearest climate station

Port Hardy Airport, 23 km away

Station elevation

22 m

Lot elevation (estimated, middle of the lot)

45 m

January mean temperature (1991-2020)

4.1 °C

July mean temperature (1991-2020)

14.4 °C

Yearly precipitation, rain and snow as water (1991-2020)

1,910 mm*

Yearly snowfall (1991-2020)

39 cm*

Frost-free period (1991-2020)

199 days a year*

Average last spring frost (1991-2020)

April 19*

Average first fall frost (1991-2020)

November 4*

Days with snow on the ground, 1 cm or more (1991-2020)

7 days a year, 3 days of them in January*

Lowest temperature recorded, 1991-2020

−11.8 °C (2012)

Days a year over 30 °C (1991-2020)

no days, no days of them over 35 °C*

Highest temperature recorded, 1991-2020

30.0 °C (2004)

Wettest day recorded, 1991-2020

111.6 mm of rain and melted snow, September 25, 2010

Most snow in a day recorded, 1991-2020

33 cm, November 29, 2006

Deepest snow on the ground recorded, 1991-2020

17 cm, November 30, 2006

Strongest gust recorded, 1991-2020

96 km/h, January 5, 2006; gusts of 90 km/h or more on under half a day a year*

Thunderstorm days a year (1991-2020)

2.3 days; hail on under half a day

Heating degree days, below 18 °C (1991-2020)

3,426 a year*

Growing degree days, above 5 °C (1991-2020)

1,516 a year; 472 above 10 °C*

Period

1991-2020

Plant hardiness zone (regional)

8a

By the 2050s, days a year over 30 °C (model projection, SSP2-4.5)

About as many days over 30 °C a year as in the same models' 1971-2000

By the 2050s, longest frost-free run (model projection, SSP2-4.5)

A longest frost-free run about 75 days longer than in the same models' 1971-2000

By the 2050s, winter precipitation falling as snow (model projection, SSP2-4.5)

About 6 percentage points less of winter's precipitation falling as snow than in the same models' 1971-2000

Air monitoring station measuring fine particles

None within 30 km with 5 or more full years of readings

Lightning near the lot (1998-2025 average)

A cloud-to-ground flash within 10 km on about 1 day a year; under 0.01 flashes per km² a year, less than at 3 in 4 BC homes

Normals are 30-year averages at the station, not readings for this lot. In BC's mountains a few hundred metres of elevation, a north-facing slope or a lakeshore can change winters a lot: a hillside lot can be much colder and snowier than a valley station.

The lot's elevation is our estimate from Natural Resources Canada's 30 m elevation model at the middle of the lot.

The hardiness zone is from Natural Resources Canada's 2025 map, read by us on a grid of about 2 to 3 km: near a zone's edge, or well above or below the valley around it, the lot may fall in the next zone. It is a guide to which plants survive the winter, not a frost date.

* Based on fewer years than the WMO standard: these figures rest on at least 20 or 15 of the 30 years, short of the World Meteorological Organization's standard of nearly all of them. ECCC publishes them as normals; treat them as a rougher guide.

The records are single days measured at the station: the most rain, snow and wind it saw in 1991-2020. Each is one event, not what to expect in a year, and the lot can get more or less than the station.

A degree day is one degree of a day's mean temperature below or above a base, added up over the year. Heating degree days below 18 °C follow how much a home needs heating: a place with 5,000 needs roughly half again the heat of one with 3,300, for the same house. Growing degree days above 5 °C (10 °C for warm-season crops such as corn and grapes) follow how much warmth plants get to grow.

Model projections, not predictions of the weather: the median of 26 climate models downscaled by Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (CanDCS-M6), for 2041-2070 under SSP2-4.5, a middle path for emissions. Each is given as the change from the same models' 1971-2000, not against a station's normals: in the mountains the models' figures can sit well off a valley station's, and the change between the two periods says more than either number. The frost-free run is the longest stretch of days with the low at or above 0 °C. The share of winter's precipitation falling as snow is our reading: each model's December to February snowfall over its precipitation, then the median across the models.

The models work on a grid of about 9 by 6 km, which averages valley floors with the slopes around them, so their own figures can sit well off a station's normals and aren't comparable with them. The models' own figures here, for setting against each other only: about under 1 days over 30 °C a year in 2041-2070 (range under 1 to 1 across the models), against about under 1 in 1971-2000; a longest frost-free run of about 295 days (range 265 to 330), against about 220; and about 2% of winter's precipitation falling as snow (range 2% to 4%), against about 8%. The range runs from the 10th to the 90th percentile of the models' 2041-2070 figure; it isn't a range of the change.

Frost dates are averages: in about half of years the last spring frost comes later than the date shown, and frost pockets in hollows and valley bottoms get it later still.

Lightning is the Canadian Lightning Detection Network's cloud-to-ground flashes, averaged over 1998-2025, on Environment and Climate Change Canada's grid of 0.1 degrees (about 11 km north to south and 7 km east to west in BC): it is the area's lightning, not the lot's. A day counts when a flash fell in a grid cell whose middle is within 10 km of the middle of the lot's cell, by the Pacific standard time day (our reading); flashes per km² are for the lot's own cell. Set among BC's homes by Statistics Canada's 2021 dwellings on ISED's points. Lightning starts fires and can damage a well pump, panels or wiring on high open ground; ask an electrician about surge protection.

Recent years have run warmer than the 1991-2020 averages in much of BC. Ask neighbours or the local government about snow on the road and who clears it.

Local government

Port McNeill

Residential rate, 2026

6.96316 per $1,000

Municipal

3.07562 per $1,000

Regional district

1.04071 per $1,000

Regional hospital district

0.24853 per $1,000

School (set by the Province)

2.2533 per $1,000

Other

0.345 per $1,000

BC municipalities' middle rate

6.24337 per $1,000

Your bill uses BC Assessment's value for the property, which can differ from its price, and may also include parcel taxes and utility fees (water, sewer, garbage) that aren't rates on value.

The home owner grant takes up to $570 off the bill of a home its owner lives in ($770 in the Province's northern and rural area in 2026, and up to $845, or $1,045 there, for seniors, veterans and people with a disability), for homes assessed at $2,075,000 or less in 2026; above that it shrinks by $5 for each $1,000. From 2027 the northern and rural extra ends and the regular grant is $570 everywhere. The owner applies each year, and must pay at least $350 in tax ($100 for the higher grant) after it.

Rates are set each May for the year; the next year's will differ.

Police service

The Port McNeill RCMP detachment (rural; inferred)

Crime severity index, 2025

92 (BC 92)

Violent / non-violent index

100 / 90 (BC 98 / 91)

Crime severity index, 2015

58 (BC 93)

Break and enter, per 100,000 people, 2025

257 (BC 281)

Theft of a vehicle, per 100,000 people, 2025

70 (BC 138)

Theft from a vehicle, per 100,000 people, 2025

233 (BC 441)

Violent crime, per 100,000 people, 2025

2,894 (BC 1,531)

All Criminal Code offences (not traffic), per 100,000 people, 2025

8,121 (BC 6,943)

Inferred: the RCMP detachment named for this town. BC's police boundaries aren't open data, and a detachment's figures cover the countryside it polices as well as the town.

The crime severity index weighs each offence by how serious it is (one assault counts for more than several thefts), with Canada in 2006 set at 100. Rates are per 100,000 people living in the police service's area, so places with many visitors, commuters or seasonal homes read high, and in small places a few incidents swing the figures a lot. These are crimes reported to police, not all crime.

In BC only Surrey, the Township of Langley, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam publish reported property crime block by block under an open licence; reports there count what was reported within 500 m of the lot. The police here don't, so the figures above are for the whole area they cover.

Police calls to a particular address aren't published in BC (privacy law keeps police records about identifiable people closed), and neither is whether a home was used as a grow-op or drug lab: that shows up as a notice on the title. Ask the seller for the Property Disclosure Statement, and your lawyer for the title search.