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BOIL WATER ALERT: Water Quality Highland-Fernwood, BC

Due to a watermain break the municipal water in Capital Regional District may be unsafe to drink and could cause serious illness. Boil Water Advisory | Portion of Highland-Fernwood Water System due to watermain break The Capital Regional District (CRD) in consultation with Island Health has issued a Boil Water Advisory for a portion of the Highland-Fernwood water service on Salt Spring Island. Customers on the following roads should boil their water until further notice - Maliview Drive, Fer de Lance Road, Westcott Road, Hedger Road and Walker's Hook Road. Water quality may have been compromised as a result of a water main break. As a precaution, the Boil Water Advisory will be in effect until flushing and water samples indicate the water quality no longer poses a risk to public health. Residents in the impacted area should BOIL their drinking water until further notice. The boil water advisory will be removed when Island Heath is satisfied that the drinking water d…
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Islanders Urged: Be An Informed Voter This Election Cycle

Parties Respond To Key Concerns of the Rural Islands and Remote Coastal Communities As a public service for rural islanders and rural coastal communities the Rural Islands Economic Partnership (RIEP) issued a call for the BC Conservative Party, the BC Green Party, the BC New Democratic Party, to respond to questions about their Party’s position on key issues of concern for BC’s rural-remote-Indigenous coastal communities. Read their responses: Election 2024 Responses Table – All Parties RIEP believes that being an informed voter is crucial to the health of our Canadian democracy. When voters are knowledgeable about the candidates, policies, and issues on the ballot, they are better equipped to make decisions that align with their values and the needs of their communities. Informed voting helps ensure that elected leaders are accountable and representative of the public’s interests, rather than being chosen based on personality or misinformation. Responses to these q…
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BC Can't Afford Another Term of Divisive NDP Government

When considering who to vote for in the coming provincial election it’s important to consider the NDP's governments record over the past seven years and to speak frankly about this record. There are many grandiose promises being offered up by Premier Eby, this election and one wonders why they weren’t put into practice during their long reign. Twenty eight percent of BC residents don’t have a doctor and across the province, emergency rooms have been closed and wait times for ER and diagnostic services are extreme. The warning signs have been summoned for years and have been ignored. BC now has a two tiered system -those that have doctors and those don’t and many are opting to pay privately for diagnostic and health services. Over the past 6 years economic growth has stagnated in the private sector. At the same time, the NDP increased the government bloat by 31%. There has been major public sector employment increases which has not netted us swift delivery of service. I…
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New Rebates Announced for North Salt Spring Waterworks District Residents

Have you been dreaming of installing a rainwater catchment system on your property? Well, now is definitely the time to make that dream a reality, as the North Salt Spring Waterworks District (NSSWD) joins forces with Transition Salt Spring to launch a new rebate for ratepayers who install rain catchment systems of 520 US Gallons or larger! The Waterworks District is very excited to support ratepayers in reducing their water bills while conserving our precious shared resources. We all know that as climate change brings longer and more intense droughts, our freshwater resources are becoming increasingly scarce. Living on an island, the only fresh water we receive is what falls from the sky during the rainy season. However, much of this fresh rainwater is fed to the ocean, reducing the potential supply of freshwater in our community. This makes it essential that we all do our part in collecting and conserving our freshwater supply for the most critical uses—drinking water f…
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The Glaring Gap in End-of-Life Services for Our Aging and Underserved Population

The demand for grief and bereavement care is expanding. As a result of the rapidly aging population in British Columbia, the British Columbia Hospice and Palliative Care Association (BCHPCA) is encouraging provincial party leaders and candidates to create a plan to ensure that grief and bereavement care is available to all residents of the province, including rural and remote areas. Although British Columbia experiences more deaths per capita than other jurisdictions, its palliative care expenditure remains disproportionately low and accounts for just 2% of the health care budget despite experiencing the same number of deaths per capita. It is common for rural and remote residents, Indigenous peoples, people of colour, and the differently abled to face barriers to receiving timely, appropriate, and safe health care. The current government of BC has yet to outline its plans for the upcoming election, even though Ontario's budget for 2024 contains robust hospice and palliative…
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ASK Salt Spring Welcomes All MLA Candidates

October 4 We had four very special guests at this ASK Salt Spring gathering - all of our MLA candidates (in alphabetical order): - Rob Botterell (Green) - David Busch (Conservative) - Amy Haysom (Independent) - Sarah Riddell (NDP) Need to learn more? These candidates will be debating this Wednesday, October 9, 5:00-6:30 at ArtSpring in an event sponsored by the Salt Spring Forum and the Gulf Islands Driftwood And, when and where can I vote? The election is Saturday, October 19 with advance polling on October 10-13 and October 15-16. Read all the details at: https://elections.bc.ca/2024-provincial-election/. With a standing room only crowd of over 50, after a lovely Territorial Acknowledgement by Amy, we began our conversation with our first always question: “What excites and delights you?” Rob, telling us that, as a budding politician, he will keep it short, began by expressing his love of sailing, recalling a recent voyage from his home on North Pender to Salt…
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Linda's List for Oct. 6: Last Harvests, Fall DO List, Late Caterpillars

As the growing season winds down, if you have tomatoes still on the vine outdoors, pick the unblemished ones to continue ripening indoors. Any fruit that has even slightly started to turn from green to slightly yellowish-green will continue to ripen fully off the vine. Days now are so short, cool and wet that nothing much is going to ripen now unless it is in a greenhouse. Peppers that have started to turn from green toward their ripe colour (red, yellow, purple) will also ripen indoors off the plant. Winter squash and pumpkins still on the vine can stay there until there is risk of frost in your garden. By now they are growing very slowly and if they aren’t already nearly mature, they aren’t likely to get much further. Keep checking the stems to determine maturity and havest when the stem has become hard enough that you can’t make a mark on it with a fingernail. These late fruit should still be cured after harvest by holding them somewhere as warm as possible for a few week…
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Bus and Ferry Schedules now LIVE on the Exchange!

We are pleased to announce that we are now publishing the local bus and ferry schedules on the Exchange! We have also embedded the web cam links for both Vesuvius and Fulford terminals so you can check the schedule and the cams at the same time. https://saltspringexchange.com/bus-ferry-schedules/
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NEW Web Cams for SSI - Road Work on Fulford-Ganges Hill

We got a call a little while back from our friends at Country Grocer, saying “Hey, we think most people would really appreciate having better eyes on the road work on Fulford-Ganges Hill! Would you guys be up to putting up more web cams? We will pitch in!” “Why yes we would!” We started by trying to figure out where the cams would best be situated. The best location was actually pretty obvious. We called Conrad over at Salt Spring Search and Rescue to see if they would be interested in helping us out. These guys are amazing! Super helpful, excited and really collaborative. Thanks Conrad and the team there especially Bill Griffiths for handling the install. Also a big shout out to Christopher Roy for helping pull all the technical parts together. Christopher and Bill worked tirelessly for the last few days getting these all up and running while upgrading our other cameras so they could stream more clearly on all devices. Super team!! So now you can check out how…
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ASK Salt Spring Discusses the Proposed 2025 CRD Budget

September 27 NOTE: Those of you who are watching carefully may wonder why Electoral Director/Local Community Commissioner (LCC) Gary Holman is often our ASK Salt Spring special guest. This is a result of circumstances: Chair Earl Rook has been on a family holiday in Europe, Ben Corno’s work schedule has interfered, and Brian Webster is in the midst of apple harvesting. (And I, Gayle, am busy taking notes in preparation for the writing of this report.) That will change as Earl is due back soon, Ben’s work schedule has changed, and Brian’s apples will soon be harvested. So, please plan to welcome a varying combination of two Local Commissioners the second week of every month, beginning Friday, October 11. (Gary has been a consistent guest of ASK Salt Spring since it began fall 2019. If you want to check out reports of his visits - as well those of other special guests - nearly 200 searchable reports! - please check out our brand new website: asksaltspring.com.) This gath…
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