SCRD Conflict of Interest: Area B Director Justine Gabias, Alternate Landon Dix and Variance Permits
How Landon Dix’s private development permits moved through district committees and the Board without a single vote against.
Transcript
The Sunshine Coast Regional District governs a stretch of communities in British Columbia. Its operations rely on strict rules separating public duty from private business. On October 15, 2022, Justine Gabias was elected to represent Electoral Area B, the district of Halfmoon Bay. Sixteen days later, on October 31, a new design and build firm called Landon Dix Projects Limited was formally incorporated. Before Director Gabias took her oath of office, the insider dynamic was in place.
She appointed Landon Dix as her official alternate director, creating a situation where an elected official and a newly minted contracting firm shared a seat of local power. At 4:37 a.m. on May 8, 2024, a local resident emailed board chair Leonard Lee, Director Gabias, and the SCRD board. The message identified Landon Dix operating a real estate business while serving as alternate director. It cited a conflict of interest and demanded the district sever ties.
Three hours later, Chief Administrative Officer Dean McKinley replied to the board of directors. He issued a clear directive. I highly recommend no one responds to this email, claiming the matter was an active legal file. This instruction from the district's top official silenced internal discussion. With the board told to ignore the warning, the alternate's private business applications proceeded without scrutiny. Two months later, in July 2024, a variance application was filed for 8719 Redrooffs Road,
seeking to reduce the road's setback from 5 meters to 1.5 meters for a covered parking area. The application reached the committee on October 17. Director Gabias served as chair. Landon Dix introduced himself as the applicant, and Gabias personally moved to approve the recommendations for the property in her own district. Throughout the proceeding, the chair did not disclose that the applicant standing at the microphone
was her own appointed alternate director. The architectural drawings attached to the application reveal the specific nature of the project. The title block belongs to Landon Dix Projects Ltd. and labels the site the Macpherson residence. The district's own records show members of the Dix family living on the adjacent lot. The Macpherson's named on the drawing are Landon Dix's own relatives, the half-siblings of his father. Five months after the board received a formal warning about
this conflict, a sitting director moved to approve a variance for her alternate, while the public remained unaware of the relationship. Landon Dix also exercised direct power at the table. On April 17, 2025, he occupied Gabias' seat as the voting member for Area B, moving recommendations and steering policy on a taxpayer-funded park project. On June 19, 2025, another variance application arrived for Landon Dix's company.
This time, the official minutes show Director Gabias recused herself from the meeting due to a conflict of interest. The written record is explicit. She stepped away because the applicant was her appointed alternate director. Yet one week later, when the full board convened to officially issue that exact same permit, Director Gabias was present, and the minutes record no recusal for the final vote. While the alternate director navigated the planning department seamlessly,
ordinary citizens faced a vastly different bureaucracy. Local resident Lorna Vanderhaeghe is a case in point. She waited 366 days for a variance, only for staff to recommend a complete denial. That report was reviewed by the exact same general manager, who oversaw Landon Dix's files. The regional district fought Vanderhaeghe in court, with their lawyers branding her a knowing cheater, until the B.C. Court of Appeal formally rebuked the district's rhetoric.
The district subjects its taxpayers to prolonged bureaucratic friction and aggressive legal attacks, while smoothing the path for its own insiders. By early 2026, the arrangement between the director and her alternate moved from private property variances into the management of public assets, specifically the renovation of Coopers Green Hall. The architectural plans for this district-owned building feature the logo of Landon Dix Projects Limited.
During the March 19th committee meeting, Director Gabias again moved the recommendation to approve the alterations based on her alternate's drawings. This motion authorized a construction agreement and released nearly $66,000 in district-held funds for the project. The conflict of interest now involved the core of civic infrastructure. By approving these plans, the director facilitated the distribution of community funds
for work based on her alternate's designs. This diagram illustrates a July 2023 board decision regarding a $4.5 million budget originally slated for the hall. The funds were divided, sending over $3.5 million to Connor Park and allocating $633,238 to the distinct Coopers Green Park project. By April 2026, the specific Coopers Green Park budget retained a balance of $564,289. dollars. Concurrently, a separate, distinct study was ordered to evaluate the Hall's existing septic
system. The law requires that an official declare a conflict, step away from the table, and make no attempt to influence the outcome. The documented record leaves several questions unanswered. Why did Director Gabias recuse herself from her alternates application in June 2025, but personally move his applications in October 2024 and March 2026? And why was she present for the final permit issuance just one week after declaring a conflict? For the administration,
why did the chief administrative officer explicitly silence the warning about this relationship? And why did a retroactive variance for a district insider take just 104 days, while a standard citizen waited a year for a denial? Finally, who actually holds title to the 8719 Redrooffs property? And after years of entangled votes and public funds, is it time for the regional district to sever ties with its Area B alternate?
When a local government silences internal warnings and operates for the convenience of its own officials, public trust erodes. In the absence of transparency, the official record becomes the only remaining tool for accountability.