I have been stating in this campaign that the housing goals and policies in our OCP do not conflict with, but rather complement other objectives. This is not just campaign rhetoric – there are substantive linkages between these goals, and I’ve worked on them for decades here as a community activist and elected official.

Current OCP policies requiring new housing to be located near our villages and public transit lines are probably the most important complementary connection between housing and the environment. They are also cost effective from both an individual and community perspective.

Keeping settlement patterns more compact prevents sprawl into forested areas, rural landscapes, sensitive ecosystems, and drinking watersheds. It reduces car trips, GHG emissions, village congestion, and related costs, therefore enhancing overall affordability. The multi-family construction that is necessary in Ganges village is also less costly to build and more energ…

By Bryan Young, Candidate for Islands Trust Local Trustee

Islander Margarite Sanchez wrote to me this week with a question others may also have on reading Ron’s opinion piece published on Tuesday on the Salt Spring Exchange, so I’m sharing our correspondence here, with Margarite’s permission, as my reply to her and to my island community as we prepare to choose two hardworking Islands Trust Local Trustees.

Hi Bryan: I am still trying to decide on my vote for the Islands Trust. I want someone who will strengthen the Islands Trust and the preserve and protect part of the mandate. I’ve been leaning towards voting for you, and then an acquaintance directed me to this article that is not favourable towards you. I thought I’d ask you directly: can you explain why you supported the draft Trust Policy Statement as is?

Hello Margarite: I really appreciate the question. I’ve addressed this in my responses to Positively Forward and the Friends of the Gul…

Hello Islanders,

Here we go! The final days of the local election.

First, thank you to everyone who made this election happen. Many islanders and many hours go into this process. Credit to every candidate too, it takes a lot of courage to put yourself in the public light and a lot more will to see it through.

I came to Salt Spring in 2002 to learn ecological construction and never left. I'm a licensed builder and my company, Temple Vision, designs and builds homes on the island. I studied urban and regional planning at Ryerson University and I've sat on the OCP advisory committee, so I know the planning side well. But the CRD is where the services live, the water, the sewer, the parks and the building permits, and that's my lane. Just over a month ago I put my name in the hat, and the more I dug into the job, the more I wanted it. Now I can't imagine doing anything else.

Housing is the big one, and a lot of it gets stuck in the process…

I find it unfortunate and troubling that local elections on Salt Spring get decided by very few people. We need more voices heard than the 31.9% of voters who voted in the last local election.

Typically, only about half the people on Salt Spring who vote in federal and provincial elections, turn out for local elections. In the 2024 provincial election, voter turnout rate was 69% in our Saanich North and the Islands district, and in last year’s federal election, turnout was 77.9% in our Saanich-Gulf Islands riding. In contrast, the turnout for recent local elections on Salt Spring has been consistently in the 30s.

This is a shame because local elections really matter to our day-to-day lives. On October 17, we will elect people who will make decisions on development, housing, recreation, district-wide school policies and so much more. Plus, in an era of climate change, the stakes have gotten higher, and local officials play important roles in emergency prep…

Correction to Last Week’s Report: During our conversation, we spoke briefly about laws and strata rules that do not meet the needs of seniors. The implication of one example, the inability of those living in some senior communities to legally share/rent their home to a younger occupant, was that it was a law when, in reality, it is a strata rule.

A large crowd (we stopped counting at about 68!) came to this ASK Salt Spring gathering to welcome all four of our MLA candidates (alphabetically), Kala Bryson (NDP), Emily Lowan (Green), Richard (Rick) Smith (Centre), and Ryan Windsor (Conservative).

After Emily offered our Acknowledgement, we learned what “excited and delighted” our candidates. Kala shared her delight with being in the room full of folks who care deeply about our future. As a lawyer, she must sometime operate in a silo, so she is excited about the opportunity that campaigning has offered to her to engage in conversations with the local activi…

The Islands Trust Housing Needs Assessment (2025) estimated a 5 year need of about 820 units for market and non-market housing - 80% of which is comprised of expected population growth (new migrants to SSI). Local housing needs included the unhoused, those in extreme core need (housing that’s unsuitable or needing major repairs), and suppressed household formation (e.g., young adults living with parents).

Census data also indicates about 285 households on SSI are in core need (rent or mortgage exceeds 30% of income in housing that’s unsuitable or needing major repairs). Census data likely underestimates housing need, but also confirms that lower income earners, particularly renters, are in greatest need.

CRD building permit and other information indicate just over 70 units of market and non-market housing was built annually on SSI from 2019-2025. Of the 430 units built, about 280 were market…

Like most people who move to Salt Spring, at least in the modern era, I had no understanding of Salt Spring’s Indigenous history, or the 13 (or so) Indigenous Nations whose shared territory this is - not traditional territory, as Adam Olsen likes to point out, but current, unceded territory, not covered by any treaty. My home sits on their land. When I moved here, I didn’t know that.

With so much to learn and relationships yet to be made, I’m discovering how hard it is to start projects off on the best path forward, one that both newcomers and Indigenous rights-holders can travel together. So often, we are in a hurry, make initial attempts at a shared conversation, and then move forward before that first step is effectively made together. This is an example of what Spune'luxtth (Penelakut) Councilor Kurt Irwin, now a friend, means when he says “It’s no fun to be invited to a party after it’s over. And the hundredth time you get invited like that, you may not feel…