Dog parks in Nanaimo: the 12 off-leash areas, rules and licences

At 2300 Bowen Road, behind the entrance off Dorman Road, Beban Park has two fenced pens for dogs: one for small dogs and one, as the City of Nanaimo puts it, "typically for larger breeds." In March 2016 the city shut the pens for what it expected to be four days, stripped out the grass, rebuilt the King of the Hill mound and added a new obstacle. It was routine maintenance. It was also a sign of how far the dog parks in Nanaimo had come since 2009, when Beban was one of only three places in the city where a dog could legally run loose.

From three official areas to twelve

In 2009, according to a 2012 Nanaimo News Bulletin report, the city recognized Beban Park, Cable Bay Trail and the power line corridor at Westwood Lake Park as its official off-leash areas. Everything else was leash territory, at least on paper.

The network grew in steps, and almost every step was a trial. In April 2011 council made three more sites permanent: Colliery Dam Park, Beaufort Park and Diver Lake Park. None of them came without limits. Colliery Dam was off-leash only from 6 to 10 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to closing, and Diver Lake only from October 1 to March 31. Three pilot sites opened the same year for a one-year trial: the forest beside May Richards Bennett Pioneer Park, Invermere Beach and St. George Ravine Park.

A second round of pilots followed in 2012, at the Northfield Road rest stop, Gallows Point on Protection Island and Wardropper Park. The accounts of exactly which sites were pilots in which year do not line up. The 2011 Bulletin story lists the May Richards Bennett forest among that year's pilots, while the 2012 story puts it in the 2012 group, and a 2013 Bulletin notice asking for feedback on "the 2012 pilot sites" names May Richards Bennett, Northfield, Gallows Point, Wardropper and St. George Ravine. What the sources agree on is the method. Each site ran for a year, the public was asked about it, and the Parks and Recreation Commission then decided whether to keep it. By December 2015 the city said all 12 of its off-leash parks had come through that process.

Who pushed, and who pushed back

Dog owners wanted water. The 2011 Bulletin report said a place for dogs to swim had been a priority for many of the owners who took part in the consultation, which is how a small beach at Invermere ended up on the list. Not everyone liked that choice. Coun. Diana Johnstone, who chaired the Parks, Recreation and Culture Commission, acknowledged "some concern about Invermere Beach being a private and pristine little beach," and said the whole beach would not be opened. "If people respect it and clean up after their dogs, it will work well," she said.

Johnstone tied the new space to obligations. The city counted about 8,000 registered dogs at the time, with thousands more thought to be unlicensed, and it began offering a Good Neighbours Dog Program on dog park etiquette. Passing the course earned a discount on the licence renewal, and the Bulletin reported that the program could become a consequence for owners with a record of off-leash infractions.

The harder line came from enforcement. Coastal Animal Control Services, under contract to the city since 2010, told the Bulletin in March 2012 that it was done with warnings. Its spokeswoman, Sue Hughes, said the company had kept meeting the same people again and again. "We're all taxpayers. People who don't own dogs are taxpayers and they have the right to go to a park where dogs are supposed to be on leashes and not be accosted," she said. The service had issued 43 tickets and 38 written warnings in 2010, and 49 tickets and 34 warnings in 2011. It planned heavier patrols at Neck Point Park, Pipers Lagoon, the on-leash part of Colliery Dam Park and Linley Valley, and a seasonal officer to allow patrols seven days a week. Kirsty MacDonald, the city's parks and open spaces planner, summed up that year's open houses this way: most owners appreciated the off-leash areas and obeyed the leash rules, but many other park users did not want to meet loose dogs, and some owners still had to learn to pick up after them.

Nob Hill and the beaches

The pilot model was still in use in December 2015, when residents of the Nob Hill neighbourhood petitioned for an off-leash area in Nob Hill Park. The city said a one-year trial could follow if support was widespread; if not, the park would stay as it was, with a picnic area, a trail and a playground. An online survey ran alongside a public input session on January 19, 2016, at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre. Nob Hill Park does not appear on the city's current list of off-leash parks. Other park decisions made by council and its commissions are collected under Civic Nanaimo.

In April 2016 the city reminded owners that dogs were barred from public beaches from May 1 to October 1, citing breeding and migrating wildlife and the bacteria in dog feces. "Dogs are more than welcome at one of Nanaimo's other parks including our 12 off-leash areas," said Rod Davidson, acting manager of bylaw, regulation and security. The list printed with his comment named only 11 sites; the one missing was Diver Lake, which at the time was a winter-only area.

The 12 dog parks in Nanaimo today

The city's current list is the same 12 sites, with some of the old limits gone. Since May 2023 the large field beside the parking lot at Diver Lake Park has been an off-leash area all year, with the rest of that park, fishing float included, still on-leash. At Colliery Dam the off-leash area is the trail around the upper dam, which the city now describes as open during regular park hours rather than in morning and evening windows. The city warns of steep sections and narrow bridge crossings on that trail. If you come from the south, a small lot off Harewood Mines Road puts you closer to the upper dam than the main lot at 635 Wakesiah Avenue does; both dams date from the coal era and survived a three-year fight over Colliery Dam Park.

The rest of the list covers every kind of ground. Cable Bay Trail, reached from Nicola Road, runs down to the water. At Westwood Lake the off-leash zone starts only at the back of the lake, along the power lines, so dogs stay leashed on the main trail until the signs. Beaufort Park, at 69 Lorne Place, is partly fenced on the grass off Chelsea Road. Wardropper Park, at 2957 Departure Bay Road, is fully fenced and looks over Departure Bay. St. George Ravine Park is at 980 Terminal Avenue North. Invermere Beach works only when the tide is out far enough, and the city suggests checking a tide table before going down the stairs. The forest trails beside May Richards Bennett Pioneer Park on Dover Road belong to what the city calls a popular park. Gallows Point Light Park is the only off-leash area on Protection Island, and Northfield Rotary Lookout Park, the Parkway rest stop, has a fenced area behind the visitor kiosk.

The rules inside the fence

The city's rules are blunt. A dog needs a current licence tag and up-to-date vaccinations. Puppies under four months and females in heat are not allowed, and one person may bring no more than two dogs. Dogs go on a leash before entering and after leaving, but leashed dogs are not allowed inside the penned areas at Beban and Northfield, because the city says a leash in a pen leads to leash aggression and dogs that feel they must protect their owners. Choke chains come off before entering a fenced park. Dogs deemed vicious and restricted breeds are banned from off-leash parks and must be leashed and muzzled on trails. Breaking these rules can cost up to $500.

Outside the designated areas, the bylaw requires a leash and the city lists a $150 fine per dog. Some places are closed to dogs altogether: playgrounds, sports fields, cemeteries and Buttertubs Marsh all year, Pipers Lagoon from April 1 to October 31, and Departure Bay Beach from May 1 to September 30. Buttertubs Marsh is a 55-hectare reclaimed floodplain on the Millstone River with painted turtles and a bird-banding station. The current dates do not match the single May 1 to October 1 beach window the city gave in 2016, so the posted signs and the city page are the better guide than older notices.

The waste problem has its own numbers. The city says one day's waste from one dog can hold 7.8 million fecal coliform bacteria, and with more than 8,000 licensed dogs in the city, it treats picking up as a health and water quality issue, not a courtesy. Every off-leash park has a bag dispenser and a garbage can.

What a licence costs, and the Ladysmith discount

Every dog living in the city must be licensed. The city's summary of the Animal Responsibility Bylaw sets the age at four months, caps a household at four dogs over 16 weeks and has licences expire on December 31. The same bylaw sets rules for cats too, and bans feeding Nanaimo's feral cats unless the feeder is registered with a City-approved trap-neuter-release group. Ladysmith, to the south, licenses dogs over six months old and caps a household at three dogs over four months. Both towns cut the price for spayed and neutered dogs and for paying early, though the deadlines differ.

In Nanaimo the dog must be spayed or neutered by March 31 to qualify for the lower fee that year, with proof or a signed declaration. Licences can be bought online, at the Service and Resource Centre at 411 Dunsmuir Street or at Nanaimo Animal Control, 1260 Nanaimo Lakes Road. Ladysmith sells them at City Hall on Esplanade, at the Frank Jameson Community Centre and at For Pet's Sake Pet Store on 1st Avenue. Its renewals open on December 1 and stay discounted until January 31. An assistance dog still needs a licence and a tag in Ladysmith, according to the town's dog FAQ, but there is no charge.

Where dogs run in Ladysmith

The town says it has five off-leash areas, each with signs, a bag dispenser and a waste container. The fenced one is the Davis Road Dog Park. Unfenced areas are at Transfer Beach, above deKoninck Way within the wood fencing, and at Gourlay Janes Park on Chemainus Road. Dogs may also run off-leash, under control, on the Holland Creek Trail and the Heart Lake and Stocking Lake loops. The town's older dog FAQ, posted in 2022, gives a slightly different list that includes the Arbutus Ridge trail and Mackie Park, so the town's park page is the version to trust. Below deKoninck Way, Transfer Beach is a no-dog area, as are playgrounds, sports fields and the cemetery, and dogs are kept off First Avenue during street closures for Ladysmith Days and Light-Up.

Ladysmith's list of park rules reads almost word for word like Nanaimo's, from the two-dog limit to the choke chain ban. The plainest difference is the fine: the town's maximum is $200, less than half of Nanaimo's.