Paldi

Paldi is a former mill town on the north side of the Cowichan River, west of Duncan on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. It was founded by Mayo Singh Manhas, a Punjabi Sikh, and named after his home village of Paldi in Punjab. It was first called Mayo, and the name Paldi was approved on 15 July 1936 because Mayo caused confusion with a community in the Yukon (BC Geographical Names).

Key moments

• 1916 to 1918: BC Geographical Names says that after the local timber ran out in 1916 Mayo Singh bought property and timber rights near Duncan. The sources date the Mayo Lumber Company's saw mill to 1917 (Sikh Heritage Museum of Canada) and the start of logging at Paldi to 1918 (South Asian Canadian Heritage). South Asian Canadian Heritage adds that he and about a dozen men pooled their resources to lease a mill, and used its profits to buy about 1,300 acres.
• The mill gave work to East Indian, Chinese, Japanese, European and Canadian residents, and at its height Paldi had as many as 1,500 people, according to the Lake Cowichan Gazette.
• 1 July 1919: the Paldi Sikh Temple officially opened, on Dominion Day. The Gazette quotes Joan Mayo as saying Paldi had the largest Sikh congregation in Canada at the time.
• 1933: the mill burned down, which South Asian Canadian Heritage calls a tragic economic loss to the South Asian community. Only two mills stayed open, and quite a few men went back to India to wait out the Depression.
• 1936: the post office opened on 1 June under the name Paldi.
• 1943 to 1955: the Gazette says the mill shut after logging ended in 1943. Mayo Singh died in 1955, and South Asian Canadian Heritage says his legacy and mill collapsed soon after.
• 1959: the original temple was torn down and a second temple was built on the same spot. The post office closed on 30 June 1969.
• October 2005: fire crews burned the remaining homes to clear the site for a planned development of 120 houses and a commercial centre. The temple was one of only two buildings left standing, and as of 2019 the development had not been completed.

What it means today. Paldi is where a Sikh-founded company town once held what Joan Mayo called Canada's largest Sikh congregation, and its gurdwara is still there. The Gazette marked the temple's 100 years in 2019, and South Asian Canadian Heritage names Mayo Singh's grandson as president of the Paldi Historic Gurdwara.