BC Ferries has been working for some time on a badly needed Masterplan to upgrade the ferry terminal in Fulford Harbour on Salt Spring Island. The Corporation warned at last week’s Salt Spring Island Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) meeting that pedestrians and cyclists may not be accommodated in the Plan. This news came one week after the CRD announced that Salt Spring Island is to be included in the Regional Pedestrian and Cycling Master Plan. Community groups have all cited the critical need to address not only the “pinchpoint” traffic issue in Fulford but also the safety of pedestrians and cyclists in the terminal area. Get your voice heard with the Salt Spring Island Transportation Committee – Vote in this poll.

Latest Signatures

Fast Facts

• BC Ferries has agreement from three property owners in Fulford Village to cede property to MoT for the road allowance
• BC Ferries will now apply to MoT for a License of Occupation for all works on the MoT right-of-way
• In the interim, BC Ferries has presented a suggested upgrade road design to MoT for discussion purposes
• FAC members were “warned” that the final design “may not include a pathway or sidewalk” for pedestrians and that the final design “would most certainly not include a bikeway”
• BC Ferries has decided to give priority to the “pinchpoint” issue
• BC Ferries hopes the construction phase will take place in Spring 2013

My Friends,

Reading this means I have passed on from this body and am seeing Life through new eyes. I have been blessed in this life and have become a better person and soul for meeting each and every one of you. Truer words I could not speak, so please feel them deeply.

My wish for you, all your relations, our country and planet is that we come into balance and belonging together, into peace and Right Action through good conscience and our common wisdom. That we be well for ourselves and act with our children and grandchildren in mind- act for 7 generations ahead, as our elder indigenous cousins wished for us.

I leave this earth plane at a tenuous time in history, and cannot be here for the family I love, but if there is work to be done on the other side, know I will engage in good on all our behaves.

Please don’t let our country be privatized and decimated for the corporate-globalist agenda. Please don’t let our natural world be ruined for short-term profit and small-minded ideology. Please don’t let our dwindling Democracy die or be sold. Bring your personal gifts forward to help make our ECO truly home for us all. I trust you do this already, but I ask again as your friend.

Thankyou Salt Spring Island for being my home and true community, generous, loving, brilliant and embracing; birthplace of my beautiful son and adopted home to my amazing extended family.

Thank you Canada for being my nation. For being a society to aspire and aspire to, a great country not to lose, and reclaim for the better of all. You have been homeland to 11 generations of my family and I hope for 22 more.

Thankyou Earth for being alive and for my life. Please keep treating us better than we treat you.

Thanks for the journey Universe! Best gift God ever gave me; it came with the love and life together with all of you my friends, my family.

Share the Love, shine your Light. Wonder. Joy. Delight!

See you all next time.

Ken Rouleau

(Published posthumously on Ken’s behalf.)

This past Saturday an Orca Pod was spotted in Ganges Harbour and captured on video. An amazing day to appreciate the natural beauty of the island. Video by Terri Bibby.

Canada Postmasters and Assistants Association has sent out notices to Salt Spring Island post boxes informing the community that Canada Post Corporation is planning to reduce staffing levels at the Ganges Post Office by reducing staff hours. They are asking you the community to contact various representatives to make your voice heard if you do not agree with reduced staff times at the post office in town. Do you agree that staffing levels should be reduced?

Big developments all around the island today. New businesses and changes in management. Busy day for Salt Spring’s local economy.

If you’ve placed a posting on the Salt Spring Exchange recently, you might have noticed that you now have the ability to select “I accept Salt Spring Dollars” and this will appear in your listing description.

Salt Spring Dollars were started 10 years ago by the non-profit Salt Spring Island Monetary Foundation (SSIMF) as a way to promote tourism, and the local economy. They have been successful in achieving widespread acceptance by businesses, as well as in winning support from our three island financial institutions. Since then, and especially since the global financial wobble in 2008 there has been a growing interest in “local money” around the world, as an alternative to the impersonal, global financial system.

Salt Spring Dollars, can only be spent locally, and therein lies its’ power to do more good for our community than national dollars, which find their way too easily off the island. It is an important part of the Transition Movement, to re-orient our culture towards self-sufficiency, resiliency, reciprocity and strong local relationships.

With this in mind, SSIMF is pleased to announce that a new Salt Spring Dollar cash machine(eTM) will be in place in the lobby of the Island Savings Credit Union (planned for April 19th). When you buy Salt Spring Dollars from the eTM with your debit or credit card you may select a participating local group to receive a donation from the SSIMF for 5% of the amount of your withdrawal. There is no fee to use the machine.

There are currently seven participation groups signed up: Transition Salt Spring, Island Pathways, SOLID, I-SEA, SPCA (SSI Branch), Search and Rescue Society, SS Literacy.

By indicating that you “Will Accept Salt Spring Dollars” when you submit new listings on the Salt Spring Exchange, you are helping to support the re-localization movement, create more local prosperity, and show your support for worthwhile community groups at the same time.

Our thanks go out to Christopher Roy and the Salt Spring Exchange for helping us in these exciting steps forward. For more information on Salt Spring Dollars and SSIMF visit saltspringdollars.com

What do you think are our community’s most critical needs? On March 15, the Salt Spring Island Foundation is launching an online survey that will give islanders an opportunity to identify the most important issues facing our community. The survey will be available until April 15 and is intended to provide island charitable organizations and the Salt Spring community at large with information that will assist in planning programs and services.

The survey results, which will be published in June, will enable the Foundation and other funding organizations to make granting decisions that consider the priorities set forth by members of the community. Since the Foundation distributes over $100,000 in grants annually, it is crucial that it effectively supports organizations that respond to our most pressing community needs.

The survey also invites responses from members of Salt Spring’s not-for-profit organizations about the challenges they face in delivering services to the community. This information will better enable the Foundation to plan initiatives such as the spring 2012 workshop series, which is designed to assist not-for-profit groups and is co-sponsored by PARC, Salt Spring Community Education and Volunteer Salt Spring.

The last community needs survey was undertaken in 2008 by the Foundation and representatives of other community organizations. It identified eight critical service issues. In order of priority they were: housing; mental health; children, family and youth; poverty; transportation (the survey predated the island’s bus service); alcohol and drug abuse; homelessness; and recreation. Since 2008, many exciting new initiatives have been undertaken by Salt Spring’s active not-for-profit community and more are underway; however, many challenges remain.

What are the issues facing us here on Salt Spring, and how can we all make a difference? Click here to complete the survey and make your voice heard.

Whew! Salt Spring Island is popular. This past week we hit a new milestone on Facebook. We now have over 5,000+ fans of our little emerald isle in the Salish Sea. This isn’t a surprise to those of us that live here or have visited of course, Salt Spring Island is a special place with fans all over the world.

Our community uses Facebook to share local stories, photos, news, events, classifieds and more and works together with the over 15,000+ people who use the Salt Spring Exchange site each month to stay engaged with our vibrant island community. Consider becoming a fan if you aren’t already.

More importantly, we just simply want to thank you. We’ve worked hard to build up this page to promote and share all that is Salt Spring and we thank all those you that follow on Facebook for staying with us as we work to share the beauty of the island.

We thought you might be interested in knowing what 5,000+ fans of Salt Spring looks like and where everyone is coming from. You can see some of the page insights below.

We’re going to continue to work to keep the good photos, stories and content flowing so that you might know even more about the magic that happens here on Salt Spring Island.

Thank you,

Christopher Roy
The Salt Spring Exchange

Facebook Page Insights

Ballet Victoria returns to ArtSpring Sunday, March 25 with an afternoon of dance that includes visual art, poetry, and choreography.

First there will be Paul Destrooper’s new work The Four Seasons which combines Vivaldi’s music with West Coast native legends as we follow two ravens through the seasons of a mystical relationship. The dance is accompanied by art from four first nations artists and haikus written by Victoria poet Linda Rogers and read by the Nonourable Steven Point, Lieutenant Governor of BC. Both music and spoken word for this work are recorded.

Then pianist Sarah Hagen performs several Chopin Preludes live on our Steinway to accompany Sandrine Cassini’s choreographed exploration of Chopin’s life and artistic achievement.

As Ballet BC puts it, this is “a unique show celebrating the West Coast and its multi-cultural, multi artistic community showcasing local international stars.”

The performance starts at 2:30pm on Sunday, March 25. Tickets are available from our Box Office (250-537-2102) or online.

One of the greatest pianists Canada has ever known visits ArtSpring on Tuesday, March 20 for a 7:00pm concert.

Quebec pianist André Laplante has been honoured in almost every major competition over the years, from the International Tchaikovsky Competition to the Sydney and Long-Thibaud Compeitions. He has won several Juno awards for his recordings and has performed around the world from Carnegie Hall to China. In 2005 he was awarded the Order of Canada in recognition of his contributions to classical music.

He is known widely as a specialist in the music of Franz Liszt and Maurice Ravel. At his ArtSpring concert M. Laplante will play Liszt’s monumental Les Annees de Pelerinage, as well as works by Bach, Mozart and Ravel.

“In recent times,” says ArtSpring Executive Director George Sipos, “we have presented some amazing young pianists near the beginning of their careers – Joyce Yang, Di Wu, Mariangella Vacatello. This time we get to hear from one of the world’s seasoned virtuosos, someone whose talent has been compared to Ashkenazy, Horowitz and Rudolph Serkin.”

The 7:00pm start, unlike the more customary 8:00, is to allow for a reception with the artist after the concert in the ArtSpring galleries. Country Grocer will host the food and drink at the reception to allow Salt Springers get to meet M. Laplante informally.

Tickets for the recital are available from the ArtSpring Ticket Centre 537-2012 or online.

This is in response to the open letter to myself from three Beddis water subscribers that was published in the March 14th Driftwood.

For the benefit of all water commissions on SSI and the community as a whole, I felt it useful to outline some of the actions taken in the last three months to address long-standing Salt Spring water management issues.

The issues around quality, delivery, quantity and cost of water on SS are indeed complex and have existed for many years and many are understandably frustrated with the apparent lack of progress. It would be nice, but not realistic to suggest that there is a quick and easy fix. From my brief time in office, with a steep learning curve on water issues, I have a perspective that it is critical to work together to take steps to not repeat the mistakes of the past and deal with the issues on many levels. The past three months have been a time of intense personal education. I have attended almost all water commission meeting, all Salt Spring Water Council meetings and have taken steps in conjunction with commissions, local and off-island staff and others to address water management on Salt Spring from operational, tactical and political perspectives.

Operationally steps have been taken to action recommendations made last fall by the SSI Water Commissions Working Group. Victoria CRD staff have been more engaged in addressing the recommendations and a new on-island staff support organization will be formally in place on April 2nd and in fact the new General Manager, Kees Ruurs has been providing some support already, has hired a new Parks Manager and is in the process of hiring a senior project engineer who will work and live on Salt Spring. Kees will be a direct report to Kelly Daniels, the Chief Administrative Officer, and a first for Salt Spring. At the very least it is expected that the new organization will provide timely and consistent on-island support primarily for water and sewer projects.

Tactically water management has been given a higher profile at the CRD. I pushed to have water management as a key strategy in the CRD’s new strategic plan and it will be included with waste management. In the January CRD Board meeting I was appointed to the Union of BC Municipalities Small Water Systems working group and attended my first meeting on March 13th. It has proven to be a good forum to compare what is happening across the province in the management of small water systems: delivery, quantity, quality and costs as well as possible regulatory changes. The contacts made will be invaluable and information from this working group will be shared with the community.

Politically, in addition to the efforts over the months and years from the individual commissions, it was recently announced by the Provincial Government that a new local government audit department will soon be in place to monitor policies, practices and costs as well as deal with queries from the public. Regional districts will be under the auspices of this department. Salt Spring was fortunate enough to have three delegations present to Provincial Government Minster of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, Ida Chong, on March 12th. As one of the delegations , as part of my presentation, I brought Salt Spring water issues to the attention of Minister Chong and her Assistant Deputy Minister, Julian Paine.

As far as specifics for the Beddis community to be fully informed, formal commission agendas and minutes are posted on the CRD website and commissioners have committed to further develop the Beddis website as a timely and comprehensive communications tool. In addition at the March 2nd, Beddis 2012 budget meeting the motion passed included reference to project cost controls and other elements of project management. The motion was reviewed with CRD staff prior to it being passed to ensure their support. Future meetings can be coordinated with the commission and held with subscribers to outline some of these actions in more detail and to listen to suggestions.

As a realistic optimist I believe all parties are looking forward to positive changes in both the process and results. I am certainly committed to doing my part to make this happen.

Sincerely,

Wayne McIntyre
Electoral Area Director, Salt Spring Island

BC Ferries announced today that it is reminding customers of increases in passenger and vehicle fares effective April 1, 2012. Prices will rise by 4.15 per cent on average on all routes across the fleet. This increase was approved last spring in Bill 14, an amendment to the Coastal Ferry Act. Subsequent price caps will be determined following the Province’s response to the BC Ferry Commissioner’s report. Fare increases are required due to the rising cost of operating and capital expenditures coupled with lower than anticipated traffic levels.

See chart of fares below:

All community members are invited to join the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee in a public discussion on how to permit secondary suites. Saturday, March 31 2012 (2:00 pm – 4:30 pm) at the GISS Multi-purpose Room (Gulf Islands Secondary School, 232 Rainbow Road, Salt Spring Island) or Wednesday, April 4 2012 (6:00 pm – 8:30 pm) at the Fulford Community Hall Senior’s Centre(2591 Fulford Ganges Road, Salt Spring Island).

*PLEASE RSVP*

We have heard from the community that Secondary Suites are part of the solution for helping resolve the affordable housing dilemma on Salt Spring Island: 85.2% of homeowners surveyed agree the Salt Spring Island community would benefit from legalized suites; 50.7% of renters surveyed live in secondary suites. We have also heard that water and septic concerns are among the key issues to resolve.

The Salt Spring Official Community Plan says to legalize suites incrementally and to limit the overall number of suites in order to monitor the impacts.

As a first step, Islands Trust staff have proposed Pilot Areas to allow suites in some trial areas of the Island.

Staff have also recommended legalizing all suites (even outside of the proposed pilot areas) if they already exist at the time a bylaw is passed.

What do you think?

PLEASE RSVP to Islands Trust Salt Spring Office

– 250.537.9144; ssiinfo@islandstrust.bc.ca.

Background Information Package provided with RSVP.

More information is also available at:

http://www.islandstrust.bc.ca/ltc/ss/lubproject2010suites.cfm

UPDATE: Less than 100 homes now without power. Most of the island has had hydro service restored.

Big wind storm last night and this morning on Salt Spring. BC Hydro and local residents are reporting numerous outages. Call 1-888 POWERON (1 888 769-3766) to report an outage.

Dear Wayne McIntyre, Regional Director, Saltspring Island:

The past few weeks have been hard for all concerned. Handled wisely the fiasco and the complete elimination of the Beddis electors’ right to approve borrowing to complete the next part of the water system could have been avoided.

Beddis electors have expressed concern over the potentially dangerous leaking tank at Lautman Road and have done nothing to delay necessary work. We are told temporary repairs are in place but the work has not started although this tank became an emergency back in October, 2011.

In retrospect we understand some of what’s happened and some of the reasons CRD and the commission decided to borrow on an emergency basis. It is clear that decision ought not have been made without informing the electors – particularly when that decision resulted in the revoking of the electors’ legislated right to approve borrowing for the next part of our water project.

We understand staff needs freedom to deal with true emergencies. Emergency borrowing powers must never be used as a means to remove the electors’ rights, although that can be a consequence. When those rights are sacrificed for public safety, information and notice need to be provided to electors within a reasonable time. And when an emergency does result in the removal of electors’ rights, that should never become the pretext for extending the loss of rights beyond the immediate emergency.

Much anguish could have been avoided among Beddis electors had necessary information been posted in a timely way. And it may have been possible to limit the emergency borrowing at the outset and to give the electors some say in the remainder of the necessary borrowing. That opportunity has now passed and can’t be brought back. To move forward let’s keep the community fully informed and let’s deal with their outstanding concerns:

We need your commitment that all legally publishable information concerning the Beddis Water Service will be accessible to electors on a website. This does not restore our lost right to vote but it lets us keep track of developments.

The estimated cost to complete the work is more than many of us can afford. Please add a direction to find as many achievable cost savings as possible, to the job description of whichever (preferably local) professional engineer is hired to prepare construction drawings and to review construction.

And please advise us where CRD gets the authority to keep collecting Parcel Tax and other revenue from us for loans that are already paid out.

To support good faith between electors and the Beddis commission, and in the relationship with CRD staff, we together need to develop mutual ground rules for respect and communications and to agree to some common goals. A community meeting is a good place to start.

Addressing these items could be a good beginning to winning back community trust.

Zwanette Pereboom Ann Wheeler Michael Friedman

Beddis Water Service Subscribers

Feedback Requested on Possible Fraudulent Calls on Election Day

On election day for the 2011 Federal Election in Saanich – Gulf Islands, there were reports of some confused voters who had received calls directing them to the wrong polling stations. At the time, the reports coming into the campaign office were that the problem was scattered and that most of our supporters were able to make it to their polling stations. But there were enough reports that Elizabeth did send a letter to Elections Canada requesting an investigation.

Now we find that this was not an isolated incident, but appears to have affected a number of ridings across the country. We would like to investigate in more depth how many calls were made to voters in Saanich – Gulf Islands.

We would like to know if you:

• Received either a misleading recorded or live call telling you that the location of your polling station had changed.
• Worked as an election day scrutineer and heard complaints from voters about being sent to the wrong voting place.
• Worked as an election day caller and had someone tell you that they were told to go to the wrong voting place.

Your input is valuable. Please email jonathan.dickie@greenparty.ca and use the subject ‘Electoral Fraud”.

There were a lot of complaints of underhanded tactics used during the 2008 election in Saanich – Gulf Islands. Unfortunately, Elections Canada officials claim that they were not able to identify the source of the calls. We need to ensure that voter suppression is ended in Canada so that we can have fair elections.

The Salt Spring Island Farmers’ Institute has proposed that the current Ganges Fire Hall be turned into a year-round covered farmers’ market once a new location for the current hall is secured. Is this something you would support? Share your response in our poll.
 

VICTORIA – One of the most threatened areas in British Columbia situated in the Coastal Douglas-fir (CDF) biogeoclimatic zone on Salt Spring Island is now protected, Environment Minister Terry Lake and The Nature Trust of British Columbia announced today.

Along with the surrounding parks and ecological reserve, this property protects the largest stand of Garry oak woodland in Canada. The area is home to an abundance of birds including great blue herons, as well as bats, butterflies, reptiles and amphibians.

Known as Salt Spring Island’s Mount Maxwell and Burgoyne Bay protected areas, BC Parks and The Nature Trust partnered in a joint agreement where BC Parks provided $310,000 toward The Nature Trust’s purchase of a privately owned 22.3-hectare waterfront property. The land has been leased back to BC Parks to be included in the Mount Maxwell Ecological Reserve. This transaction completes land conservation efforts spanning more than a decade in the Burgoyne Bay/Mount Maxwell area.

The CDF biogeoclimatic zone applies to less than one-half of one per cent of the provincial land base. Almost half has been converted for human use such as residential development, roads, industry and agriculture. All known ecosystems within this zone are listed by B.C.’s Conservation Data Centre as being endangered, threatened or of “special concern”.

The Nature Trust acknowledges that this conservation achievement was not only a collaborative process with BC Parks, it was also made possible through the generosity and support of the private property owner, individual donors and the Government of Canada through the Natural Areas Conservation Program as facilitated by the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

BC Parks provided funds from the Pacific Marine Heritage Legacy Trust account, a fund set up to acquire lands in the Gulf Islands north of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve.

Quotes:

Environment Minister Terry Lake –

“By working together, we were able to complete a land conservation effort that began many years ago. This partnership with The Nature Trust of British Columbia serves as an excellent example of conservation organizations working with BC Parks to protect endangered ecosystems. I also wish to thank all the generous donors and private landowners who contributed to the creation of this wonderful legacy.”

Doug Walker, president and CEO of The Nature Trust of BC –

“This 22.3-hectare waterfront property was a priority due to its natural richness and proximity to our other conservation holdings. Working with our partners we have put the pieces together.”

Linda Hannah, B.C. regional vice-president of the Nature Conservancy of Canada –

“We are so pleased to see this project come to fruition. Protecting a large tract of Coastal Douglas-fir forest is an incredible win in the conservation community’s efforts to conserve B.C.’s most imperilled habitats.”

Quick Facts:
· There are about 760 meters of shoreline along Burgoyne Bay. The total contiguous protected area is 1,168 hectares, which includes 9.2 kilometres of continuous protected shoreline.
· Ecological Reserves are areas in British Columbia selected to preserve representative and special natural ecosystems, plant and animal species, features, and phenomena.
· Ecological Reserves provide the highest level of protection for the maintenance of physical and biological diversity while allowing for research and educational activities.

Learn More:

· Mount Maxwell Ecological Reserve:
www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/eco_reserve/mtmaxwell_er.html
· The Nature Trust of British Columbia: www.naturetrust.bc.ca
· Nature Conservancy of Canada: www.natureconservancy.ca
· B.C. Conservation Data Centre: www.env.gov.bc.ca/cdc/
· B.C.’s coastal parks –view the Great Ranger Experience: B.C.’s Marine Parks video: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL98F546CAAFA58723
· BC Parks’ park bench challenge: http://bit.ly/j9emfc

Media Contacts:

Suntanu Dalal
Communications
Ministry of Environment
250 387-9745

Doug Walker
President and CEO
The Nature Trust of B.C.
604 230-1400

Be Succesful – Dedicated to farmers and growers and all who work to heal the broken Earth unequivocally in honour of Seedy Saturday.

Okay, we’ll there isn’t a version two yet, but you know you want one. We, like so many of you, loved the “Sh*t Salt Springers Say’ video made this past week by the local island Lemon Grease Productions starring Thomas Messer, Rebecca Nygard, Michelle Duncan, Billie Woods, David Alex Eveno with guest appearances by Jada-lee Watson, Ross Duncan and Mike Nelson.

We want them to make another one! If you want them to make another one vote yes by leaving a suggestion, Liking this post, or leaving a comment.

To help encourage them, we want your help. Let’s gather up some perfectly Salt Spring expressions for them to work with and hope we can get them to make another one. If you have a suggestion for an expression you’d like to include, like “Where’s the yeast?” submit it in the form below and we’ll pass them all along to the video producers.

Population on Salt Spring Island Trust Area A has officially increased to 10,234 according to official Census Canada figures released today. This is a 6.2% increase since the 2006 census. The number of private dwelling is at 5,643 with 4,662 of those occupied by full-time residents. See the full details below:

Additional details can be found directly at Census Canada.

Victoria Population Changes

Vancouver Population Changes

Population Changes by Province

Our friends at MainRoads have informed us that they will be installing a 4-way stop at the Central intersection (Vesuvius Bay Rd/Upper Ganges Rd/North End Rd/Lower Ganges Rd) today. As a reminder, the rules of the road are whomever arrives at the intersection first, has the right of way. If you arrive at the same time as another driver, the rule is yield to the right. Please use caution & drive slowly in this area.

New Approach Sign

Dale Johnson from Mainroad installing the new signs

We’re fortunate to live in a community that has an outstanding local hospital, but when one of us is hurt and we need specialized medical attention, and we need it fast, this is how it happens. We captured some footage today of the BC Air Ambulance and our own local paramedics, led by James Cowan, getting a patient transferred to Vancouver via helicopter.

This isn’t the only helicopter that frequents the skies around Salt Spring. Here’s a flash back to some footage of local resident Don Arney flying us back and forth to Vancouver in his own privately owned whirly bird.

The Salt Spring Island Transportation Commission (SSITC) has obtained “crash” statistics from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) which highlight the ten most incident-prone intersections on the island from 2000-2010.

The ICBC crash statistics call attention to the need for care at several other intersections on Salt
Spring, namely:

• Crofton and Lower Ganges
• Lower Ganges and Rainbow
• Beaver Point, North East and Stewart
• Beddis, Charlesworth and Fulford-Ganges
• Cranberry and Fulford-Ganges
• Atkins and Lower Ganges

Three of these intersections will be improved and made safer as part of the North Ganges Transportation Plan, a long planned transportation infrastructure project to improve safety and security for pedestrians and cyclists by adding bike lanes and sidewalks in the village. The project has been approved by MoT to enable CRD to start construction later this year.

The statistics appear to confirm what islanders have long suspected based on anecdotal evidence: the intersection at Central (Lower Ganges, North End, Upper Ganges and Vesuvius Bay Roads) is far and away the most dangerous intersection on Salt Spring with three times more crashes than any other location between 2000-2010. Islands Trust documents going back two decades, the Head of the local RCMP detachment, a Salt Spring Exchange petition with 703 signatures and the SSITC have all called attention to the dangerous nature of the intersection over the years. The Operations Manager of the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoT), Mark Traverso, confirmed last week that a 4-way stop is to be installed at Central based on the results of a traffic count at the intersection, which was conducted by MoT last August. MainRoad, the MoT roads maintenance contractor, has ordered the stop signs which are to be in place “in the next few weeks”.

A number of recent polls on Salt Spring have all indicated that islanders would prefer a roundabout at this location as the long-term solution. The CRD Regional Director Wayne McIntyre believes that “MoT experts need to weigh in on the matter to identify the best approach.” The SSITC Chair, Donald McLennan stated “islanders have every reason to be pleased with the commitment of senior MoT officials to work with the CRD and the SSITC on improving transportation infrastructure on Salt Spring. Safety and security is a priority for the commission, and we will continue to monitor that road improvements mean safer roads for islanders.”

Read the full report here:

Colleen Eccleston and Tara streaming live online tonight, January 30th, at 7 PM from Fulford Hall at the Salt Spring Folk Club. Check out the show here at show time. Click play in the live stream feed below to watch the show here on the Exchange.

BC Ferries Commission News Release

Gord Macatee, BC Ferry Commissioner, delivered his review of the Coastal Ferry Act to the Honourable Blair Lekstrom, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure today. The report contains 24 major recommendations for government, BC Ferries, ferry users and other stakeholders, all intended to better balance the interests of ferry users with the financial sustainability of BC Ferries.

The Commissioner reports that the ferry system is facing challenges now, which are only expected to get larger in the years ahead. Declining ridership and financial losses in the current year, coupled with huge capital investment requirements for fleet renewal and terminal upgrades, is putting strain on the financial sustainability of BC Ferries. Ferry users consider further large fare increases to be unaffordable, and are concerned that the operator is not sufficiently accountable. Furthermore, the Coastal Ferry Act, and its guiding principles, is not perceived to be giving consideration to the interests of ferry users.

The review clearly indicates that all of the principle stakeholders will need to be part of the solution in order to achieve a ferry system which is both affordable and financially sustainable. Specifically, ferry users will need to be receptive to changes in how services and levels of service are delivered; BC Ferries needs to accept additional oversight and accountability measures, and will have to focus even more on cost control and new sources of revenue; and the Province must define a vision for the future of ferry services and provide additional financial support to ensure the system’s sustainability.

To address this new direction for coastal ferry services, the review makes a number of key recommendations, including:

• future price cap increases should be held to the rate of inflation;
• capacity utilization of the ferry fleet should be improved;
• the commissioner should have more explicit authority to hold the operator accountable, and a new authority to conduct performance audits;
• there should be more oversight on capital plans and acquisitions;
• the Province should consider an increase in financial support for the ferry system and should further consider cushioning at least a portion of fuel price volatility, as is presently done on the northern routes;
• municipal and regional governments should have the ability to play a role in keeping fares affordable and increasing ridership;
• BC Ferries should place a high priority on upgrading its reservation and point-of-sale systems; and
• the commissioner should have additional tools for when setting price caps to better consider the interests of ferry users and taxpayers.

In undertaking this review, the commissioner and deputy commissioner Sheldon Stoilen conducted a comprehensive public consultation process, including 40 meetings in 27 communities, involving about 2,000 people. The public was also invited to comment on nine topics on the BC Ferry Commission’s website, and meetings were held with BC Ferries, First Nations, municipal councils, chambers of commerce, tourism organizations, regional districts and other stakeholders.

As part of the larger review, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP researched relevant price cap regulation systems in other parts of the world and other ferry systems in order to compare operating and governance models and the efficiency of BC Ferries. This research found some unique differences in the BC model, and also indicated that BC Ferries appears to be relatively efficient and well run.

12 01 24 BCFC CFA Regulatory Review FINAL

So sad to hear someone drowned in Ganges Harbour today. My prayers go out to family. RIP Sailor. This video was shot just before it happened. Very tragic and very Sad.