Community Contributed

'Pie Ladies' of the Salt Spring Island Women’s Institute share donations from the sale over 600 pies

February is Women’s Institute Month, and in honour of the birthday of our founder, Adelaide Hunter Hoodless, the Salt Spring Island Women’s Institute (also known as the “Pie Ladies”) is pleased to announce our annual 2022/2023 donations. We are a group of only seventeen members, but with the enthusiastic help of sixteen community women, we were able to make and sell over 600 pies at the 2022 Fall Fair and Apple Festival. The wonderful support we get from the community when we sell our pies plus donations from Salt Spring Island gardeners, farmers and grocery stores help keep our costs down so that we can give more money away. This year, we are donating over $12,000 to local, provincial, national and international groups. We have made over 10,000 pies since 2001 and have given away over $100,000 in the past ten years, an outstanding amount for a group that has never had more than twenty members and who make all the pies that we sell. The Women’s Institute emphasizes don…

Opinion: Good changes to our bylaw enforcement system are afoot

With a new team of Trustees committed to the wellbeing of our Gulf Island communities, good changes are afoot for our Trust-wide Bylaw Enforcement System. For the first time there is a cohort of Trustees in office with direct experience of unfair and overly-draconian enforcement practices. Some of these Trustees entered the political fray specifically to address this significant problem with governance. A historic motion is on the table for the upcoming March Trust Council meeting (the quarterly meeting of all Trustees from all the islands). The motion is to suspend bylaw enforcement pending a review, provide those who are enforced against the democratic right to appeal to a neutral body, and for the Trust to adopt unbiased and equitable enforcement practices. Imagine a restorative enforcement model aimed at building community and restoring balance and respect…rather than the current punitive retributive model which breeds fear, evokes trauma responses, induces secretive …

Times are changing and opinions matter

Salt Spring Insights, an online research panel created in 2022 to enhance the quality of conversations taking place on Salt Spring, has concluded its first year. The Salt Spring Insights online research panel is structured to represent Salt Spring residents by key demographics and regions on the island. And it has proven very accurate at capturing the mood here. A lot happened on Salt Spring in 2022; you told us you were happy, but have serious concerns about housing affordability, and you questioned the value you are receiving for the tax dollars you pay and approved borrowing to build a new fire hall. Here are some of the highlights revealed by Salt Spring Insights panelists. The mood is upbeat but concerned Salt Spring Islanders are happy with their quality of life (87%), but concerns include access to affordable housing, providing more services and facilities, building better road and ferry infrastructure, and the perennial issue of improving the governance stru…

Local election: The elephants in the room

None of our candidates for Islands Trust or the CRD have talked about the volume of traffic here on SSI and what it will be like in the coming years. There are over 10,000 vehicles passing through Ganges daily and how many are there on our roads daily? We do know that per capita SSI has more vehicles than the notorious LA in California. We have over 10,000 registered vehicles for a population of just over 10,00 which includes children who do not own vehicles. According to CRD data from several years ago, the average family does 6.5 trips per day on the island. That makes for a whole lot of traffic. The Transportation Commission has had delegations coming from the Cusheon Lake neighborhood and persons near ST Mary Lake on North End RD complaining about the volume and speed. They have asked for help to deal with the situation. People living on farms and near the main road in the Fulford area are also aware of the speed and noise of passing vehicles. So much for serve…

Local Community Commission advocates respond to proposal critics

As the date for Salt Spring’s Local Community Commission referendum has drawn closer, the writings of the proposal’s critics have grown increasingly alarmist and decreasingly fact-based. Some of them have diminished the views of others by suggesting that their own writing is based on facts while supporters of a Salt Spring LCC are simply spreading ‘propaganda.’ Well, I guess it all depends on one’s point of view. Most recently, they have made several assertions that deserve a response: The critics have suggested that an LCC can only work in a community smaller than Salt Spring, yet they offer no explanation as to why it can’t work here. While the powers delegated by the Capital Regional District (CRD) board to the proposed Salt Spring LCC will be unique among LCCs in BC, CRD staff supported the delegation of such extensive authority in part because of the success of the Peninsula Recreation Commission, which provides a wide range of recreation services to a population o…

We want similar things; a healthy community with safe, sustainable transportation options

Regardless of which side of the political fence we find ourselves on, the division between environmental activists and affordable housing advocates is not as deep as we are led to think. With local elections looming, maybe it is time to revisit some of those priorities that made many of us move here, like maybe adopting a change of lifestyle by slowing down or living closer to nature. After all, very few new residents who go through all the effort of moving to Salt Spring want to recreate the heavily polluted urban environment they left behind in Toronto, Vancouver or whatever city was home before. With the current situation though, the problem is that no one can expect change by just doing the same old thing as we have always done and on Salt Spring we seem to be very keen on talking the talk but not we are not as prolific at walking it. Living in a rural community makes us highly dependent on private cars and while absolutely necessary in many instances, this dependency, u…

2022 General Local Election: Our climate emergency

When I first I came to Salt Spring in the late 1970s, I rented a hundred-year old farmhouse from Tom Bergerud, a caribou biologist who was away doing research in the field. Tom liked keeping track of the natural world around him, and for years he had been penciling the annual arrival of the rains in November and the swallows in spring on the rough planks of his kitchen wall. The dates were remarkably consistent. That’s no longer the case. November rains sometimes don’t arrive until January, and the summer drought can last four months, instead of four weeks. We now record summer temperatures previously thought impossible for the coast, and our forests—once green all year long—are full of parched arbutus, dead cedars, dying fir trees. Vulnerable, endangered, extinct: We read these words more and more often now, applied to frogs, bees, fish, birds, lichens, mosses, and the list goes on. Barn swallows rarely nest here now. The oystercatchers are gone from the Isabella Islands; t…

2022 General Local Election - What is a Local Community Commission (LCC)?

Are you still asking what the heck is an LCC, and why should I care about it? Answer: On Oct. 15 you have a chance to improve our local governance by voting in a referendum to establish a Local Community Commission (LCC). To bring you up to speed on what an LCC could do for Salt Spring, and why it should matter to you, read these informative Q&As prepared by Salt Springers for an LCC. You can also attend the LCC zoom session on October 11 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. What is an LCC and what would it do? First of all, the creation of an LCC is about restructuring how CRD services are administered on Salt Spring Island. It has nothing to do with the Islands Trust and land use planning, or the maintenance of roads and the RCMP. If approved by voters, the LCC would oversee almost all current island-wide CRD services, including parks and recreation, transit and transportation, liquid waste disposal, economic development and grants-in-aid. This proposed, locally-elected c…

We all agree on the need for affordable housing – as CRD Director this is what I’ve done and will do

As CRD Director, MLA, community activist, and Chair of the Islands Trust Advisory Planning Commission (APC), I’ve worked for over 25 years on affordable housing for Salt Spring. I Chaired the APC, which provided input into and supported SSI’s first detailed Official Community Plan and its many policies supporting affordable housing. The APC also supported the Development Permit for Meadowbrook and rezoning of Heritage Place, both seniors facilities. The APC also supported the largest density transfer on SSI, protecting over 200 acres on the west side of the island while providing the densities for a housing subdivision off Rainbow Road. As CRD Director, I opted Salt Spring into the CRD’s Regional Housing Trust Fund (RHTF) in 2006. That year, Murakami Gardens was the first project funded by the RHTF on SSI. I also advocated voter approval for an increase to the CRD’s Regional Housing First Program in 2021. CRD’s affordable housing programs have contributed millions more to pr…

The seduction of sustainability

Words are powerful and fluid. We know that. Their meanings are subject to time, place, and situation, and they pick up and discard interpretive nuances in what sometimes seems like whimsy. This makes it possible to suggest that statements made even a generation ago mean something other than what they were originally intended to mean. Here’s an example close to home: The Trust Object lays out the mandate of the Islands Trust in this compact sentence: “The object of the Trust is to preserve and protect the Trust area and its unique amenities and environment for the benefit of the residents of the Trust area and of British Columbia generally, in cooperation with municipalities, regional districts, improvement districts, First Nations, other persons and organizations and the government of British Columbia.” One phrase in particular has been subject to intense scrutiny, to see if the mandate of the Trust might be reinterpreted to facilitate changes in policy. Supposedly these wor…

Bylaw 530; the antidote to division is story

I attended the Bylaw 530 public meeting on August.18th and listened to the perspectives of many Salt Springers and although I am in favour of Bylaw 530, I empathized with points on all sides. The one speaker that I found most moving was a tiny little girl. Her mom shared that she decided on her own accord to share. She spoke so clearly and articulately of her need for a home. After the meeting and much reflection, I realized that what was missing from the meeting, save for the little girl, were our stories. Too often are people's lives reduced to numbers and statistics. Our stories are what connect us, what build empathy, and most importantly what help us recognize the nuance of issues that seemingly divide us. Division that is so often fostered by fear and also so grounded in similarity. As people, we have much more in common than we like to think. It is often the blessing of young minds that reminds us to be open, curious, and most importantly, to listen. So, thank you…

ASK Salt Spring with 2022 declared election candidates for CRD Director Gary Holman and Kylie Coates

A total of 16 came for all or part of this ASK Salt Spring gathering that welcomed our two declared candidates in the October 15, 2022 local election for CRD Electoral Director, current Director, Gary Holman, and Kylie Coates. After our Territorial Acknowledgement, each candidate began by telling us a bit about themselves. We learned that Kylie is a fourth generation Gulf Islander and third generation Salt Springer, with great-grandparents who arrived on Mayne Island in 1919. While his roots are deep on Salt Spring, he also continues to have family connections throughout the Gulf Islands and, when speaking of our challenges, he told us that he often brings an all-island perspective to the conversation. Born at Lady Minto Hospital, he spent many years in other communities as well as overseas before returning to live on Salt Spring permanently several years ago. Employed for a decade as an independent contractor for the Department of Defense with high security clearance, he…

Reconsider proposed Bylaw 530

Our Local Trust Committee is considering Bylaw 530. If passed, this would rezone most residential properties to allow a second residence, even on properties less than an acre, in drinking lake watersheds, in areas short of water and in groundwater recharge areas. We all agree there is an affordable housing crisis and we support various remedies, but not this. Bylaw 530 provides almost every landowner here the ability to develop a second residence. By allowing more development, this bylaw would throw flames on an already overheated real estate market. It will increase illegal vacation rentals making the housing crisis even worse. Some well-meaning individuals, concerned about the housing crisis, see draft Bylaw 530 as a partial solution. We see it as a huge mistake. Please ask that the bylaw be withdrawn. Below are suggested speaking points: 1. We all agree that there is severe need for more affordable housing. The best way to assure affordability and rental to island …

Is Bylaw 530 illegal?

As almost everyone on Salt Spring is now aware, major changes regarding land use are afoot. What they may not realize is that due process has been abandoned. The most recent land-use controversy involves proposed Bylaw 530 which seeks to rezone thousands of lots to allow for year-round suites and cottages (Accessory Dwelling Units). We do not know exactly how many lots are involved because the Islands Trust has yet to release that information, but we do know the bylaw will blanket rezone most of the island. By any measure, the bylaw represents a major change that will determine how the island looks in the future. This raises a question of legality. Where is the amendment to our Official Community Plan (OCP) that must accompany such a radical change--the extra paperwork that would force a discussion about, not just short-term objectives, but long-term consequences? Bylaw 530 will violate several parts of our OCP, especially the one limiting the island’s population to “a…

Salt Spring Island’s exclusion from expanded Speculation and Vacancy Tax a "slap in the face", say community organizations

Leading Salt Spring Island community organizations and businesses are calling the B.C. Finance Minister’s lack of inclusion of the island in the latest expansion of B.C.’s Speculation and Vacancy Tax (SVT), “a slap in the face.” Minister Selina Robinson announced on July 20 the expansion of the SVT to additional communities on Vancouver Island and in the lower mainland, saying, "People in these communities have been vocal. They've been vocal about the intense housing pressures that they are facing, including speculation and near zero vacancy rates." Salt Spring Islanders have been vocal about the exact same issues and the urgent need for expanded local housing options since the community of 11,635 was first excluded from the tax in 2018. The island is being affected differently than its smaller neighbouring Gulf Islands because it has three ferry terminals and is adjacent to an area already covered by the tax, and because of its larger population and economy that extends …

An island that fears all change can’t evolve

Did you know our local government is set to vote on allowing more small, eco-friendly housing options soon, but that even this cautious move that will only make a small dent in the housing crisis is enough to get some in the conservation crowd up in arms to block it? Here’s what’s going on. Very soon, the Islands Trust will vote on an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) bylaw, one of the key recommendations from its own Housing Action Task Force that Trust staff have been studying for over a year. This bylaw would create a path to legitimizing many existing cottages and suites and would even allow some new small homes to be built, albeit with all the same significant water and construction cost restrictions small homes have long faced. To be clear, while this is welcome, affordable housing advocates like me are disappointed with the Trust’s lack of ambition. We think it’s a first step not a last step, and that there is much more the Trust, and also the unengaged CRD and impenet…

ASK Salt Spring with Trustee Laura Patrick on proposed housing bylaws and more

A total of 14 joined all or part of the conversation with Trustee Laura Patrick at this rainy ASK Salt Spring gathering in the United Church Meadow. Laura offered a Territorial Acknowledgement in which she reminded us of the personal learning opportunity reconciliation offers each of us. Laura began by highlighting important recent decisions made by the larger Trust Council at its June 2022 meeting: A new standing committee was formed to further explore Trust governance. She was one of the seven Trustees from across the islands elected to serve on this committee. Trust Council also voted (21-2) to formally request that the Province of British Columbia conduct a review of the Islands Trust's mandate, governance, and structure. Chair Luckham has already sent a letter to the Minister with this request. Laura then spoke about two recent proposed bylaws addressing housing that were presented to the the Local Salt Spring Trust Committee for a decision. Both are amendments to th…

Kings Lane neighbours make request to BC Housing regarding temporary Seabreeze Inne housing

John Brendan McEown, Director Regional Development Vancouver Island Region BC Housing Regarding the Temporary Housing being immediately set up at 154 Kings Lane, Salt Spring Island. Dear John Brendan McEown, The incredibly short timeline, insufficient information available to the public, and lack of consultation with neighbours about the Temporary Housing on Kings Lane has created a great deal of concern that the Kings Lane residents and surrounding neighbourhood are not known to you and BC Housing. I wish to share my knowledge of the neighbourhood in order to obtain your assurance that there will be no disruption to the established safe activities of residents on Kings Lane and surrounding neighbourhood, and to obtain your assurance that these activities will be able to safely continue throughout BC Housings temporary use of the 154 Kings Lane site. I live at 159 Kings Lane which is directly across the street from the 154 Kings Lane. I have lived here since Au…

Salt Spring Island RCMP Provide 2022 2nd Quarter Report

Collision on Stewart Road - Photo: Salt Spring RCMP As of July 1, 2022, Salt Spring Island RCMP have responded to over 1,360 calls in the past six (6) months, 710 calls in this 2nd quarter alone. In addition to the 710 calls in this quarter, SSI RCMP also conducted 140+ traffic stops with warnings and/or violation tickets issued, 300+ foot patrols in Centennial Park and other areas, and 92 licenced premises checks (bar walks). During this period, SSI RCMP responded to 9 sex-related offences including 3 sexual assaults and 3 indecent exposures, 108 traffic complaints, and 102 mental-health related complaints. Police also assisted the BC Coroner’s Services on multiple occasions and conducted patrols in Ganges Harbour on the SSI RCMP Marine Vessel. In the 2nd quarter of 2022, some of the calls are detailed below: April: Police responded to an Impaired driving call; the driver had crashed the car with multiple passengers on board, some of whom were subsequently trans…

MLA Olsen hosting Community Dialogues this summer, encourages you to get involved in local government elections

Have you ever considered running for public office? If not on the ballot, have you wondered how you can help someone who is running? The decisions at the local government table create the form and character of our neighbourhoods and communities. They are potentially the most impactful on our quality of life and that is why it is so important for all of us to take part. Fourteen years ago, Central Saanich Councillor Zeb King knocked on my door to invite me to get involved in local government. He asked me the same question, had I ever considered running for a seat on the local Council? I live on Tsartlip First Nation, I have lived there my whole life and at that time had little connection with, or understanding of, municipal politics, Council decisions about property taxation, zoning, official community plans, local and regional services. However, as a life-long resident I benefited from the services provided by the district. When I was a kid, I played baseball and so…

ASK Salt Spring with RCMP Sergeant Clive Seabrook on Community Policing, Speed Watch program and more

Fifteen gathered in the lovely United Church Meadow to welcome our RCMP Sergeant Clive Seabrook. After our Territorial Acknowledgement, we asked Clive what was on his mind. He responded with his characteristic graciousness by responding that he was with us to listen and learn and that our comments would help him navigate some of our most important issues. The first question asked Clive to tell us about his stance on Community Policing, characterized by positive interaction, partnerships, and problem solving with the community. (It is often most noticeable when officers intermingle with the community rather than patrolling from their vehicles.) We learned that our RCMP officers were conducting foot patrols before he arrived and that Clive is committed to continuing these patrols as a valuable way of connecting with our community. A typical month records approximately 100 foot patrols, with Clive himself patrolling to interact with Salt Springers four-to-five times each month.…