I believe the Islands Trust needs big improvements. But legal challenges or calls for the Trust’s abolition won't solve its real and current problems. We need a better Islands Trust, one adapted to today's challenges.
We're all watching costs rise for everything from groceries to housing. Over the past five years the Trust budget has grown 30% while BC inflation ran closer to 20%. The Trust's job is to preserve and protect these places "for the benefit of the residents of the trust area and of British Columbia generally", yet almost all its funding comes from taxpayers who live in the Trust Area, with next to nothing from the Province. That's just plain wrong. If elected, I will work with Trust Council and the CAO to secure funding from other sources to meet today’s major challenges.
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We now see climate change impacts everywhere. We have to adapt to the changes already underway and get ready for what’s coming. There’s a lot we can do to better protect our communities and natural spaces as climate risks worsen. We need to:
Make plans for deeper droughts, falling ground water levels, increased winter flooding, and rising sea levels using a climate risk assessment created in collaboration with the LCC, CRD, water utilities, and the fire district. Then match that with new bylaws and public climate risk reporting that help us get ready.
Set new, climate-smart development rules for areas with the highest wildfire and flooding risks to protect lives, buildings, and ecosystems. Allow remaining development to be tied to long-term water availability water forecasts to protect our watersheds. Build these rules off existing Trust and CRD maps and models.
Update our existing bylaws and community plan to prepare for what’s coming in plain language that’s easy to understand.
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Scattering large houses across previously undeveloped lots is the costliest way to add housing to our community. It’s also the furthest from the Trust’s “preserve and protect” mandate, with a well and septic field for each home, forest cleared for driveways, and a car trip for every errand. Housing built where water, roads, and services already exist costs less, paves less, disturbs less nature and makes room for a wider mix of people to continue to live on Salt Spring. Let’s face facts: materials, labour and land costs have made it very challenging to build new housing, especially affordable housing. But, the following measures would make it easier to develop urgently needed affordable and workforce rental housing without using undeveloped land. People who are here now need this type of housing as prices climb out of reach. We need to:
Allow additional density in Ganges, closer to transit and existing services, for affordable and workforce rental housing to increase village vitality, improve walkability, and help island businesses and culture to thrive year-round.
Make better use of what's already built in Ganges: allow existing buildings to be divided into more than one home, and allow small permanent additional dwelling like tiny homes on foundations, properly serviced on lots that can support them. Year-round housing, not short-term rentals.
Collaborate with North Salt Spring Waterworks District and the Local Community Commission (LCC) to standardize and streamline processes wherever possible to speed up affordable and workforce rental housing in Ganges.
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For too long, islanders across the Trust Area have felt like the Trust doesn’t listen or even engage with us effectively.
Citizens’ Assemblies are an innovative tool being used in BC to help communities tackle their biggest and most complex decisions. Membership is determined by lottery, and the Assembly reports back to local government with recommendations. Then elected officials are required to report back to the public on how citizen input shaped the outcome.
I will work with my fellow Trustees to put residents at the centre of how the Trust engages with you. That means processes that work not just for people who have the time, but for a truly representative number of islanders. We need to:
Get the Trust to improve how they engage by bringing a representative range of islanders into big decisions early, with qualified facilitators and access to professional expertise.
Press for more on-island staff presence and encourage retention of strong staff, to help residents and Trust staff build a better, more positive relationship.
Commit trustees to weekly office hours or open houses, and in publishing a monthly public report to build our trust with you.
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Salt Spring’s governance systems CAN deliver when they work together effectively. Recently we have seen a supportive housing project on Drake Road open, construction of new water treatment infrastructure begin, completion of the new firehall, and while it was painful, Ganges Hill was repaved with new multiuse shoulders. That took a lot of coordination between agencies. And yet, there is still no regular forum where elected officials and staff of our governing agencies can proactively work through shared issues and coordinate action.
I'll advocate for regular collaboration between the Islands Trust, LCC, CRD, fire district, water and wastewater utilities, First Nations, and key community partners, aimed at cooperating on the problems no single body can solve alone:
Affordable and workforce housing: Jointly work with local agencies, non-profit housing providers and major employers to identify the best locations and projects for affordable and workforce rental housing.
Climate change: Develop an integrated climate risk assessment that all the agencies use, building on the existing work local agencies and community organizations have done on climate action planning, wildfire risk, and coastal flooding. This assessment will feed into revised bylaws and our community plan to keep development out of high risk zones, while protecting ecosystems.
Environmental protection: We can better steward the watersheds that feed our wells, aquifers, and forests with solid monitoring and public reporting, using data collected through agency-community partnerships. This builds public support for decisive agency action to protect our watersheds and potable water supplies.
Food security and farming: A food and farming roadmap can be built from the Area Farm Plan, protecting the businesses that keep food growing here, and supporting the people whose livelihoods depend on it. The Local Trust Committee needs to work closely with the Agricultural Alliance to ensure that Trust decisions support local agriculture, and prioritize the review of zoning applications that support agricultural infrastructure like composting.
In closing, I want to voice my support for meaningful reconciliation with First Nations. While the Trust has made a valiant effort to undertake reconciliation, it’s come up short, and has a significant lack of capacity to carry out its mandate. The Province needs to provide clarity on the Trust’s role in reconciliation, and provide funding to ensure it has the capacity to undertake reconciliation in ways supported by First Nations so that all parties can move forward together.
Elect me on October 17 and I will listen, think carefully, and act – to build public confidence in the Trust and its capacity to preserve and protect this place we call home.