Christopher Roy

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.  

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 c…

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.

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. Take Our Survey! polldaddy.add( { type: 'iframe', auto: true, domain: 'opendirections.polldaddy.com/s/', id: 'sal…

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

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 perc…

From CBC News: A 67-year-old man from Salt Spring Island, B.C., has been killed in Mexico. Police in the Pacific coastal town of Melaque confirmed Robin Wood was shot and killed early Tuesday morning at the holiday home of fellow Canadian Arvid Chalmers, who is also from Salt Spring Island. Police said Wood was returning from a benefit concert in La Manzanilla, and was shot after challenging two robbers who had entered the home. Melaque is located between Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco, just north of Manzanilla. Police director Ruben Hernandez Bonilla told CBC News robberies in the area and associated murders are very common. Read the full story at cbc.ca

It's coming up on the end of 2011 and the 3rd birthday of the Salt Spring Exchange. We wanted to give you an update on how things are going here behind scenes. Since 2008, the Exchange evolved from a basic email list, merged with Harry Burton's email list, turned into to a Google Group email list, then into the web based experience you now see. It has taken hundreds of hours of work each year, the financial support of many donors and support from local businesses to keep it going. The vision is simple: * Serve the residents of Salt Spring Island with a vital resource for community sharing * Deliver the best possible online experience for local news, stories, event and classified listings * Dedicate that online experience exclusively to the residents and fans of Salt Spring Island * Give as much as possible of the service away for free or very low-fees * Provide an unparalleled platform for local business advertising Here are some current stats as of the writing of …