Council record · 2022–2026

Jean Young on Qualicum Beach Council, 2022–2026

Jean Young won a seat on Qualicum Beach Council in 2022, on her third try. We read the minutes of about 168 meetings in her term, every one from November 2022 to July 2026 that has published minutes. We found no censure and no declared conflict of interest, and she missed 5 meetings. On Eaglecrest, she seconded the plan to pay for it, voted for its rezoning and moved its budget increase to $21.2 million. But she voted against the $1.18 million course contract and against letting staff approve changes up to $1.65 million. Separately, Elections BC fined her in 2025 over her 2022 campaign; that has its own page.

How she was elected

2018: she ran for Council and came fifth of nine candidates for four seats, with 1,919 votes. That was 71 votes behind Scott Harrison, who took the last seat.
May 2021: in the by-election to replace Adam Walker, she came third of five, with 431 votes. Anne Skipsey won with 1,539.
October 2022: she was elected, third of ten candidates, with 1,724 votes. That was 9 votes more than Harrison (1,715) and 85 more than Peter Kent (1,639), the first candidate not elected.

Sources: 2018 General Local Election, official results (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council agenda, May 27, 2021 (by-election results, pp. 77–79) (Town of Qualicum Beach); Inaugural Council agenda, Nov 7, 2022 (2022 election results, pp. 5–7) (Town of Qualicum Beach)

Her roles

In November 2022 Council gave her the arts and culture portfolio, as liaison to groups such as The Old School House, the Qualicum Beach Museum and the Qualicum Beach Residents’ Association. She has been the Town’s trustee on the Vancouver Island Regional Library board every year since 2022, and has taken her turns as acting mayor. She became liaison to the Oceanside Hospice Society in 2023 and to the Flowerstone Family Health Society in 2024.

Sources: Inaugural Council minutes, Nov 7, 2022 (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Nov 8, 2023 (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Nov 20, 2024 (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Nov 20, 2025 (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Jan 18, 2023 (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Jul 17, 2024 (Town of Qualicum Beach)

How she voted on Eaglecrest

The minutes name who voted which way only when a vote is split. Councillor Harrison was usually the only vote against. Young voted with the majority on the funding and the rezoning, and with Harrison on the course work.

Councillor Young’s recorded votes on Eaglecrest, 2025–2026
Date	Decision	Young	Result
Feb–Jul 2025	The decision to buy Eaglecrest, made in closed meetingsOn this site: The purchase agreement	Not recorded	Motions released later don’t say who voted how
Jul 23, 2025	Plan to pay for Eaglecrest: $2,000,000 moved from other projects, including the 2026 pickleball courts, and $6,500,000 from reserves, surplus and future land salesOn this site: Where the money came from, What was pushed back	Seconded; for	Passed 4–1
Sep 17, 2025	Eaglecrest plan and zoning changes, first and second readingsOn this site: What residents told Council	For all four; seconded one	Passed 4–1
Oct 22, 2025	Budget change adding $125,000 for Eaglecrest consultants, due diligence and legal fees, and $200,000 to service land for saleOn this site: What the due diligence cost	Seconded; for	Passed 4–1
Oct 22, 2025	Two changes moved by Councillor Harrison: the upper land on the north side as parkland, and 1,000 m² minimum lots	Seconded both; for the parkland, recorded against the lot minimum	Both defeated
Oct 22, 2025	Eaglecrest plan and zoning changes, third reading and adoptionOn this site: What residents told Council	For all four; seconded three	Passed 4–1
Oct 22, 2025	Her motion: the public and the Eaglecrest Residents’ Association help shape development on four areas before any is sold	Moved	Passed unanimously
Dec 10, 2025	Her motion: only small-scale housing in Eaglecrest in the Official Community Plan	Moved; for	Defeated 2–3
Feb 11, 2026	Five motions on the course work: the $1,181,800 contract, staff authority to approve changes up to $1,650,000, the CAO’s signing authority, the Mayor as liaison, and a report to Council only “at the close”On this site: The course contract, How it grew	Against all five	Each passed 3–2
Apr 22, 2026	Councillor Harrison’s motion: the former 17th and 18th holes zoned for single-family homes, and fewer units per hectare	Seconded; for	Defeated 2–3
Jun 24, 2026	Raise the Eaglecrest budget from $20,688,000 to $21,199,800On this site: The full Eaglecrest budget	Moved; for	Passed 4–1
Jun 24, 2026	Her motion: regular progress reports on Eaglecrest	Moved	No seconder
Jul 15, 2026	Adopt the budget increaseOn this site: The full Eaglecrest budget	For	Passed 4–1

Council decided to buy Eaglecrest in closed meetings in 2025. The motions it later released from those meetings don’t record votes, and we found no public vote on the purchase itself.

After the February 2026 votes, staff were to report changes to Council only at the end of the project. In June she moved that “staff provide regular progress reports as the Eaglecrest project advances.” No one seconded it.

Her motions that failed

Most of the motions she moved passed, many of them routine. These are the ones that were defeated or that no one seconded, apart from the Eaglecrest motions above.

January 2025: six changes to the Town’s Quality of Life Survey, including marking each group that gets a fee for service from the Town. Two were defeated and four found no seconder.
February 2025: a letter asking Island Health to consider expanding the Eaglepark long-term care home, and a motion to lobby BC Housing to help non-profits that offer their land for non-market housing. Both were defeated 2–3.
June 2025: that the new Official Community Plan say it is a guidance document without specific restrictions. Defeated on a 2–2 tie at a committee meeting.
September 2025: removing a $2,500 Town sponsorship for the Farmers Market’s Christmas Night Market. Defeated 1–4. More on this vote below.
November 2025: that staff “investigate options for four pickleball courts at the Community Park”. No one seconded it. In July she had seconded the Eaglecrest funding plan, which moved money set aside for 2026 pickleball courts to the purchase. Later at the same November meeting, the committee voted unanimously, with her, to recommend $170,000 in the 2026 budget for turning a tennis court into four pickleball courts, with the Town paying at most $85,000.
January 2026: that the Town join the QB Collective’s application for a provincial event grant. Defeated 2–3.
March 2026: a draft policy to make development reviews clearer to applicants and the public. Council sent it to 2027 strategic planning, with her the only vote against.

The Farmers Market and the Merchants Society

On September 17, 2025, Council considered five event sponsorships together. Two were for $2,500 each: the Qualicum Beach Farmers Market’s Christmas Night Market and the Qualicum Beach Merchants Society’s Moonlight Madness. Staff noted that Moonlight Madness “falls under” the Chamber of Commerce’s fee-for-service contract with the Town. In the debate, Councillor Vander Valk said Council should fund both the Chamber and the Merchants Society for Moonlight Madness, or neither.

Young moved to remove the market’s sponsorship. Mayor Westbroek seconded it, though he later voted against it. At the meeting she gave her reason: “when the Qualicum Beach Merchant’s Society are asking for money, when they do Moonlight Madness, it isn’t just to benefit the businesses … And we, well the merchants, do spend enough money on their own towards this as well. So, I support their funding ask but for the farmers market … it is a non-profit organization and they do receive a lot of vendor buy in on this.” Just before the vote she added that the Moonlight Madness money “isn’t to benefit any one business.” Her motion was defeated 1–4. Council then approved all five sponsorships 4–1, with Young the only vote against, the Merchants Society’s included. PQB News reported that vote as unanimous; the minutes record it as 4–1.

The market points to a 2023 study by the BC Association of Farmers’ Markets and the University of Northern British Columbia. From one Saturday’s survey and crowd count, it estimated the market’s yearly economic benefit to the local economy at $8.19 million, including $5.46 million in sales at the market and about $4.9 million that shoppers spend at nearby businesses.

Young owns Arbutus Fashion, a store on West Second Avenue. Five days after the vote the Farmers Market wrote that she “is a paid member of the QB Merchants Collective Society” and that her business benefits from the sponsorship. No society has that name. It mixes two: the Qualicum Beach Merchants Society, registered in April 2025, which asked for the Moonlight Madness money, and the Qualicum Beach Collective Society, which got $800 in the same package for a Moonlight Madness I-Spy game. Young says she is a member of the Collective, which charges businesses $150 a year. We couldn’t confirm whether she belongs to the Merchants Society, whose website no longer works and which publishes no member list. The agenda for its May 7, 2025 meeting, a week after it registered, lists “Collect $25 member fees” and “Applying for town funding & grants.” She didn’t declare a conflict of interest.

Under the Community Charter, a member of Council with a direct or indirect financial interest in a matter must say so, leave the meeting and take no part in the discussion or the vote, however they would vote. There are exceptions for an interest shared with voters in general, and for one too small to be likely to influence the member. Whether a member of a merchants’ group has an interest in a grant for its shopping event is for a court to decide.

In April 2026 the market asked for $2,500 again. On April 22 Young went through its event budget: $4,500 in vendor fees, $700 for volunteer meals, $850 in wages “when they have volunteers” and $1,700 for music. The Mayor moved to postpone the request to get answers to her questions, and Council agreed unanimously. In the same item Young said she had contacted the QB Collective’s chair, read out his email from that morning, and moved to fund the Collective’s $2,500 request, which staff had recommended denying. The Collective’s application listed $400 for “light refreshments and snacks for volunteers.” That request was postponed too. The next evening the Collective emailed staff more details, in an email that begins “Jean suggested I share a bit more context.” Council’s liaison to the Collective is Councillor Vander Valk, not Young. Staff had also noted that the Collective still hadn’t sent the receipts for its $800 grant from 2025.

The market answered in writing, and attached its final report on the 2025 event, which Council had received unanimously in February. In May, Council approved $2,000. Young argued for funding two events in full, the Collective’s among them. Of the market she said that other local Christmas markets “none of them ask for donations from our taxpayers.” She voted against the motion, which also cut the Collective’s grant to $1,000.

The market’s 2026 request has the full record.

Attendance

From November 2022 to July 2026 she missed 5 of about 168 meetings with published minutes: March 13, 2024; October 23, 2024; the committee and Council meetings of November 20, 2024; and January 7, 2026. Her report to Council says a ferry cancellation kept her from getting back from a housing conference in Vancouver for November 20. Our fact check compares her record with the rest of Council.

Sources: Council minutes, all meetings (Town of Qualicum Beach); Committee of the Whole minutes, all meetings (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Mar 13, 2024 (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Nov 20, 2024 (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council agenda, Dec 11, 2024 (Councillor Young’s report, p. 139) (Town of Qualicum Beach)

Her pay

Council pay is set by a 2019 bylaw, passed before her term, and rises each year with BC inflation. There was no vote to raise Council’s pay in her term. In January 2026 Council voted unanimously to keep the bylaw’s rates. In April 2025 Council unanimously put off, to its fall strategic planning, a motion to stop members of Council claiming per diems. We found no later decision on it.

What the Town paid Councillor Young, 2022 to 2025
Year	Pay	Expenses
2022 (from Nov 7)	$5,500	$0
2023	$39,019	$6,070
2024	$40,541	$5,836
2025	$41,595	$7,808

The other councillors were paid the same for 2023 to 2025. Her expenses for 2023 to 2025 came to $19,714, the second-lowest on Council. The Town reports one total per member, so it doesn’t show what the money was spent on.

Sources: Regular Council minutes, Feb 4, 2019 (Pride crosswalk; Council pay bylaw) (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Jan 21, 2026 (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council minutes, Apr 16, 2025 (Town of Qualicum Beach); 2022 Statement of Financial Information (Council pay and expenses, p. 3) (Town of Qualicum Beach); 2023 Statement of Financial Information (Council expenses, p. 2) (Town of Qualicum Beach); 2024 Statement of Financial Information (Council expenses, p. 2) (Town of Qualicum Beach); Regular Council agenda, Jun 24, 2026 (closed meeting motions released; 2025 Statement of Financial Information) (Town of Qualicum Beach)

What we looked for and didn’t find

We searched the minutes of every Council and Committee of the Whole meeting from November 2022 to July 2026 that has published minutes. About 20 meetings, mostly closed, have none. We looked for censures, sanctions, findings under Council’s code of conduct, conflict of interest declarations, members leaving the room over a conflict, confidentiality breaches and bullying or harassment complaints. We found none involving Young. No member of Council declared a conflict of interest in the published minutes this term.

Our fact check of her flyer notes that she voted on money for two groups she says she belongs to. We found no record that she is a director of either. The Farmers Market says she belongs to a merchants’ group as well; see above.

We found no lawsuit naming her in news reports or published court decisions. We didn’t search the BC court registry itself.

Sources: Council minutes, all meetings (Town of Qualicum Beach); Committee of the Whole minutes, all meetings (Town of Qualicum Beach); Council Standards of Conduct, Policy 3004-7 (2022) (Town of Qualicum Beach)

More on Jean Young

2022–2025 · Elections BC

Jean Young’s Elections BC Penalty

As her own financial agent in 2022, she put $1,778.39 more of her own money into her campaign than the $2,500 limit. In 2025 Elections BC fined her $650. It said she cooperated in fixing it, but that her campaign didn’t answer some of its investigator’s requests.
Council candidate

Jean Young Questionnaire
- Accurate × 2
- Misleading × 3
- Inaccurate × 1
Young’s description of the Town’s wildfire planning and its aging population holds up. Her account of closed meetings doesn’t. Most decisions made in closed meetings have been released months later, not at the next open meeting, and some were final when they were made. She also points to Eaglecrest due diligence that missed extensive irrigation and drainage problems, and says three golf courses can support tourism, which no published study shows.
Council candidate

Jean Young Flyer
- Accurate × 5
- Misleading × 2
Young’s flyer holds up on her attendance, her conference work, transparency and the groups she says she has supported. Her healthcare record matches her promises, though Council voted down several of her motions. Her claim to have advocated for responsible financial management leaves out that she backed the Eaglecrest funding plan and moved its budget increase. The “Re-wilding Second Avenue initiative” is an idea she has raised, not a Town initiative.
Council candidate

Jean Young “Celebrating Progress” Handout
- Accurate × 10
- Misleading × 8
Most of the work Young’s handout lists is real, and she voted for nearly all of it. Much was done by staff and paid for by grants. But four items were bought or built before this Council took office, including the fire department ladder truck, bought in December 2021. The handout counts tree protection and event sponsorships as progress, though she voted against the tree bylaw at second and third reading and against every sponsorship package. Her Eaglecrest figures are right, but the budget she moved is $21.2 million, not $8.5 million, and most of it is already committed.

Everything on Jean Young · All fact checks · Qualicum Beach Election 2026

Jean Young on Qualicum Beach Council, 2022–2026

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How she was elected

Her roles

How she voted on Eaglecrest

Her motions that failed

The Farmers Market and the Merchants Society

Attendance

Her pay

What we looked for and didn’t find

More on Jean Young

Jean Young’s Elections BC Penalty

Jean Young Questionnaire

Jean Young Flyer

Jean Young “Celebrating Progress” Handout