A vintage car owned by celebrity trophy hunter Jim Shockey of Maple Bay is at the centre of a legal review by North Cowichan municipality.

Councillor Bruce Findlay drove Shockey’s 1930 Packard in the Duncan Days parade on July 12, accompanied by councillors Tek Manhas, Mike Caljouw and Becky Hogg.

Council’s Standards of Conduct policy states that council members “must not accept a gift or personal benefit that could reasonably be expected to result in a real or perceived conflict of interest….”

To avoid such conflicts, members “will not accept gifts or personal benefits from business or commercial enterprises having a value that exceeds $50.00 or, where the total value of such gifts and benefits, received directly or indirectly from one source in any twelve (12) month period, would exceed $250.00.”

So, how do you value the use of such a vintage car?

One California website offers a 1930 Packard rental for a minimum $1,100 Canadian funds over two hours.

One can only guess what the value might be if the owner is a TV hunting celebrity with almost 800,000 Facebook followers.

Shockey is also the founder of the Hand of Man Museum in Maple Bay and is a director of the Jim & Louise Shockey Foundation.

The museum’s request for a zoning amendment to allow for expansion was scheduled to be discussed at North Cowichan’s council meeting on Sept. 3, 2025.

But staff pulled the item at the last minute, saying that due to new information requiring a legal opinion “this item is being removed from the agenda and will come forward once council has received the legal opinion.”

As part of its rezoning application, the Jim and Louise Shockey Foundation wrote a letter to council saying, in part, that the expansion would allow the museum to “continue to benefit the community, both through embracing cultural diversity and education, and by helping put our Cowichan Valley on the Map as a Vancouver Island destination.”

A municipal staff report recommends approval. (https://pub-northcowichan.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=20503 )

During the 2022 municipal election, Shockey donated $500 to Findlay’s campaign. Shockey also supported the 2025 election of Conservative Jeff Kibble in the federal riding of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford.