Councillor Scott Harrison brought a complaint to council this season about a Qualicum Beach resident whose neighbour installed exceptionally bright LED lights, horizontally, across their property line. Councillor Harrison would like the town to draft a new bylaw, or amend the existing nuisance bylaw, or otherwise prevent neighbours from beaming photons into each other's bedroom windows.

The mayor's response was to defer the matter to 2029.

Let me say that again. Twenty. Twenty. Nine.

A resident is being lit up at night, in her own home, by her neighbour's lights. Council's plan is to think about it for the next three to four years. In that time we will have a federal election, possibly two. We will be on different phones. The lights will continue.

I am told the existing nuisance bylaw might cover it. I am also told the existing nuisance bylaw might not cover it. This is municipal government's favourite state of being — it might cover it, it might not, we'll know after the next election. In the meantime, the lights are on, and the resident is, presumably, sleeping in a hat.

Follow the money? No. There's no money. There's just light. And council has decided, by inaction, that light is fine, light is free, light is a 2029 problem.

If your neighbour buys a stadium fixture this summer, my advice is to invest in blackout curtains and outlive the council.

— Grant Marlowe, Oceanside Tonight. Let there be light. And then, eventually, a meeting about it.