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ASK Salt Spring with MLA Adam Olsen on Residential Schools, Provincial Border Reopening and more

Given the tragic news of the Indigenous burial site that was made public this week, we asked our special guest, MLA Adam Olsen, to offer the Territorial Acknowledgement. He graciously agreed, thus beginning this gathering of 12 Salt Springers committed to learning and seeking solutions together. We spent our time together talking about the experiences surrounding the findings at Kamloops Residential School. Adam has asked that we do not publish a written account of the discussion but rather provide a link to his Response to the Ministerial Statement on the issue instead. On Friday morning Adam was very emotional, and these are difficult conversations that require care and the ability to respond to the complexity and nuances. Adam is open to discussing this issue with you either individually or in small groups, and if you wish to schedule a time to meet you can contact him through his constituency office at Adam.Olsen.MLA@leg.bc.ca. Adam thanks you for all the kindness and…
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Obituary: John Macdonald Pickering

John Macdonald Pickering, February 12th, 1948 - June 5th, 2021. It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of John. He is survived by his loving wife Jenny, son Wesley, daughter Emma (Clayton), two beautiful granddaughters Layla and Lilia, sister Susan, niece Robyn and nephew John. He was a humble, kind, loving husband, dad, grandad and friend who loved music, his cars, cooking great food, having a good chat, reading about history and so much more. He will be greatly missed by everyone. We would like to send a special thanks to Jill & Ted, Wendy & Joe and Rob & Sally for being the greatest neighbors ever. And to Doctor Kesh Smith and Jan Hartwig, no words can express the gratitude we have for the compassion that you showed to John these last few months. There will be no service and in lieu of flowers please donate to the BC Cancer Agency.
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Islands Trust Reopen their Gabriola, Salt Spring and Victoria Offices

The public is again welcome to visit Islands Trust offices in person with the reminder that masks and physical distancing are continued requirements. Islands Trust doors are open at all three office locations: Gabriola Island, Salt Spring Island, and Victoria. At this time, each Islands Trust office has different days and times of opening and capacity limits: Salt Spring Office Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 4: 30 p.m. 1 – 500 Lower Ganges Road, Salt Spring Island Maximum two people in addition to staff “We’re pleased to welcome people back into our offices,” shared Russ Hotsenpiller, Chief Administrative Officer, Islands Trust. “Face-to-face contact has been missed, but it hasn’t curtailed our activity. Since the pandemic started, Islands Trust has experienced a surge of development applications resulting in longer processing times. Staff is working to maximum capacity, and there is a backlog. If you’re considering a development application submission, please un…
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Ending violence against Indigenous women, girls

The National Action Plan (NAP), a path towards ending violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ peoples in response to the National Inquiry’s Calls for Justice has been released. The release of the report falls on the second anniversary of the final report from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The NAP includes highlights of the key priorities and progress related to ending this violence in Canada. British Columbia is also posting its own response, A Path Forward: Priorities and Early Strategies for B.C. “The National Action Plan is an important milestone that will inform our work here in British Columbia,” said Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General. “We greatly respect the perspectives, wisdom and experience of survivors, family members, Indigenous partners and community members and are committed to ongoing collaboration as we build and implement the path forward together.” British Colum…
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ASK Salt Spring with Emcon Road Maintenance and our Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure Area Manager

Sixteen gathered for a conversation with Andrew Gaetz, manager of Emcon, our road maintenance contractor, and Jake Roder, our Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) Area Manager. After a moving Territorial Acknowledgment, we learned from Andrew that our maintenance crew is working hard to complete spring duties like moving, sweeping, and brush clearing. Their sights will soon turn to larger projects, such as the smaller paving jobs. (MoTI is responsible for the larger paving projects, but Emcon takes responsibility for some of the smaller projects.) Questions began with a concern about safety issues on the narrow, winding Vesuvius Bay Road. We learned that it is 3.5 km long and has 14 curves, six hills that obscure sight of oncoming traffic, and eight intersections. He recounted six occasions last year alone in which he drove his vehicle on a curve to encounter a car barreling down on him on the wrong side of the road. On each of these occasions, the oncomin…
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Memorial honours the 215 Indigenous children found at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School

Salt Spring Island community members are coming together along with communities all across Canada to honour the recently discovered missing and murdered students of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation has uncovered the remains of 215 children buried at the school in a mass grave that was operated by the Roman Catholic Church in concert with the Canadian Government as part of an effort to dislocate and eradicate Indigenous peoples and cultures across the country. These burial sites are known to exist at numerous residential schools in Canada and though this most current discovery is shocking both for its scale, and for the manner in which the unmarked graves were located. The Salt Spring Island Public Library offered their front steps for the memorial after requests from the community came forward to create a memorial here on the island similar to those happening across the country. Numerous locals have placed 215 pairs of sho…
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Devastating fire at Windsor Plywood on Salt Spring Island causes major damage

Update as of 2021 June 09 at 01:55 PM: Nine days since the devastating fire that fully engulfed and destroyed the main retail space of Windsor Plywood on Salt Spring, the site is alive with people and activity working to restore service for the local trades, building community and homeowners. "We've had a tremendous amount of support and response from our community and our team members have been incredible supporting all the things we've needed to do get back up and running to support customers and the community." - Mike Stefancsik, Owner/Manager Demolition work has begun on the main structure destroyed in the fire, temporary buildings lent to Windsor Plywood by Fields who took over the former Slegg Lumber Yard are in place, temporary water/septic services are being installed, Shaw has been on site to restore telephone and data services, forensic investigators are in the process of conducting their investigation into the cause of the fire and today on site, a massive, tem…
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Gulf Islands Families Together Society Receives $17,500

“Due to the generosity and support of 100+ Women Who Care, many of our vital programs such as Shauna Devlin's Dance Your Abilities and John Reid's music program, that preserve the mental health of participants, will continue to run through these challenging times,” Heather Duerichen, manager of Gulf Islands Families Together Society (GIFTS), said after the May 12th meeting of the 100+ Women Who Care. On that evening, members of the high impact philanthropic group met on Zoom. They listened to presentations for three charities that had been nominated and randomly drawn from the charity basket prior to the meeting. They were the Gulf Islands Families Together Society (GIFTS), Gulf Islands Seniors' Residence Association (GISRA) presented by Helen Hinchliff, and the Salt Spring Community Health Society presented by Martha Taylor. Each presentation was uniquely informative and compelling, but on this evening, members voted to have GIFTS be the recipient of about $17,500 in member…
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