Nanaimo Waterfront Walkway

The City of Nanaimo is a waterfront community on the east coast of Vancouver Island with a population of over 90,000.  The natural beauty of Nanaimo’s waterfront forms the backbone of the community, bringing residents and tourists together to experience one of the City’s greatest assets. The waterfront is a commercial and industrial hub with shipyards, fishing docks, marinas, yacht clubs, and ferry and plane terminals. The area provides employment and integrates residential and recreational uses to create an active and vibrant waterfront.

Nanaimo and its surroundings are part of the ancestral home of a migratory Coast Salish people, the Snuneymuxw. The Snuneymuxw – meaning “The Great People” in the Hul’qumi’num language – lived in several waterfront villages along Nanaimo’s shores from Departure Bay to Newcastle Island, where they found abundant food, fresh water and winter shelter. Great cedarplanked longhouses were constructed in various locations along this stretch of Nanaimo’s waterfront, from the Nanaimo River Estuary to Departure Bay. The proposed Waterfront Walkway will travel through these important Snuneymuxw village sites and it will link present-day parks, shipyards, marinas, transportation terminals and residential developments.

The importance of the Waterfront Walkway has been recognized by Council and the community, with the expansion of the existing walkway highlighted as a key priority in the Transportation Master Plan, OCP, and the 2016-2019 Strategic Plan Update. The Waterfront Walkway Implementation Plan will be used to expand and improve upon the existing sections of walkway that were built incrementally over the last 30 years.