July 12, 2024: While a small gathering, our time together offered a fascinating exploration of governance issues with our special guest, Local Community Commission (LCC) Chair, Earl Rook, backed up by Local Commissioner Gayle Baker, also notetaker and report-writer. We began with our Territorial Acknowledgement during which Earl lamented all the First Nations sites that have been disturbed, hopeful that we are better-protecting these unique monuments of the centuries that Salt Spring served as an Indigenous homeland to so many bands.

When asked what “excited and delighted” him by facilitator Grant Fredrickson, Earl replied that he was thrilled by the positive forward motion of the LCC. He cited the conclusion of the LCC Strategic Plan which is expected to be released in August. He also spoke briefly about progress reviewing and revising the Five-Year Capital Plans for each of the services under the authority of the LCC, most notably a long, complicated, and outdated Transportation Capital Plan.

Cognizant that it had taken longer than expected for this positive progress, we spoke briefly about initial challenges faced by the LCC. Last year, Salt Spring’s four newly-elected Local Commissioners, Ben Corno, Brian Webster, Earl Rook, and Gayle Baker, joined Electoral Director Gary Holman, expecting to hit the ground running. Instead, they spent much of their first few months analyzing and revising the proposed budget that would have resulted in a 20% increase to one that was half that increase without significantly reducing services. These months of struggling with the budget, though critically important, were sometimes less than “exciting and delighting” for these four just-elected and enthusiastic Local Commissioners hoping to make a significant positive difference immediately.

Local Commissioners also spent many of their first months solidifying such seemingly-simple issues as meeting times, frequency, and duration. They soon recognized that, while an LCC was expected to follow all the rules of the CRD Board, this new Salt Spring governance body was significantly different from the CRD Board. While most who sit on the CRD Board serve on it as a result of their local leadership positions (many are mayors), their roles on the CRD Board are far different from their City Council roles.

As Earl noted, the CRD Board practices “wholesale politics,” at arms length from its constituents. The LCC practices “retail politics,” face-to-face with its constituents, not unlike a city council. This requires more locally focussed procedures. (One example of this could be the ability to welcome anyone wishing to speak at a meeting even if their topic is not an agenda item.) Identifying and implementing needed procedural changes to be more locally accessible is one of many changes that are expected to be topics of conversation at LCC meetings this year.

Earl reminded us that these difference between the CRD Board and our new LCC are entirely predictable. As the first LCC with wide-ranging authority over a variety of services in a large community, our LCC is unique. Without knowledge of how this form of governance would work for Salt Spring, staff was also unprepared for their role supporting it. As an example, when local staff led a virtual meeting March 30, 2023 telling potential LCC candidates about expected requirements, they were told that meetings would be held nine times a year for two hours a month, with no meetings December, July, and August. 

Local Commissioners learned immediately that the workload demanded more meetings. But, getting these scheduled, with one in the evening, took a great deal of effort as well as seven months to secure. (Meetings are held in the SIMS Boardroom the second and third Thursday of each month – with the exception of this July and possibly December – with the second Thursday meeting beginning at 5:00 and lasting two hours and the third Thursday morning meeting beginning at 9:00 and often lasting until 4:00.)

The clear message, though, was that, although CRD Victoria staff may not have been prepared for the LCC support needs nor the level of energy for getting things done, they rose to the task, supporting the LCC, repeatedly finding ways that the LCC could accomplish what needed to be done. Local staff have also been wonderful supporting this enthusiastic group, immensely enhanced in their capacity with the arrival of Stephen Henderson, now responsible for all LCC initiatives and slated to be our ASK Salt Spring guest September 27.

Other important issues also took some time to successfully address. An example of this is the fact that it was unanimously approved at the August 2023 meeting that the LCC should host a housing meeting, suggested for October. It took until February of the following year to clarify that the LCC could even hold such a meeting, a meeting that was finally held this May.

It was immediately clear that the LCC needed an economic development bylaw that was as permissive as allowed by legislation to allow expenditures on key local economic development issues, like housing. Requested by Electoral Director even before the LCC was established, the development of this new bylaw was more complicated than expected but was finally presented at the June 27 meeting: https://www.crd.bc.ca/docs/default-source/crd-document-library/committeedocuments/salt-spring-island-local-community-commission/20240627/2024-06-27agenda-special-meeting.pdf?sfvrsn=5e078bce_4).

Citing the complexity of multiple local authorities, most notably the Islands Trust for land use decisions and the CRD for services, a participant asked whether the LCC had any real authority to make things happen. Earl’s answer was “Yes,” but. . . . . 

1. The separation of authority between land use decisions of the Islands Trust and service decisions of the CRD remains unchanged. The LCC does not make land use decisions. While many argue that this separation of powers makes it very difficult to progress, visionaries in the 1970 believed that development decisions should be made by the Islands Trust rather than by the CRD. Earl noted the tendency in small municipalities with limited tax bases to make development decisions to generate funds for services. With Salt Spring’s similar small tax base, many support this separation of development decisions from financial ones.
2. Also, unlike municipalities, each service under the authority of the LCC has a specific voter-approved requisition that must be used for that service. While cities can use taxes as needed, the LCC cannot, for example, use PARC funds for our liquid waste activities.
3. Although the LCC has authority over the major local services, certain local services, like the individual water and sewer districts, Community Works (“gas tax”) funds, and the Administrative budget, are not under the oversight of the LCC. Conversations about possibly extending the authority of the LCC are expected this year. 

Given these limitations, what authority does the LCC have? Actually, while not as extensive as some would like, it is significant, outlined in Bylaws 4507 (https://www.crd.bc.ca/docs/default-source/legislative-pdf/referendums/2022-ssi-local-community-commission-(bylaw-4507)/bylawno-4507.pdf?sfvrsn=8745abcd_4) and 4508: (https://www.crd.bc.ca/docs/default-source/crd-document-library/bylaws/transportationsaltspringisland/bylawno.4508signed.pdf?sfvrsn=4ce733ce_5#:~:text).

Also, the LCC is discovering that its advocacy for issues out of its authority is another of their important roles. At one of its first meetings, the LCC supported a 30 kmh speed limit in Ganges. Almost immediately, it happened! While many know that work supporting this reduction had been going on for years and the LCC had little to do with this unique Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) decision, the optics were great.

More recently, the LCC is moving forward advocating for implementations of the recommendations of the Road Safety Working Group. They have recently approved a request to MoTI to support ICBC to do a study of our Ganges crosswalks. During one of the August LCC meetings, Local Commissioners will discuss advocating for lower speed limits, adding reflective reflectors on winding narrow roads too narrow to warrant a centre line, and more speed reader boards. While final decisions to move forward with these Road Safety recommendations will rest with MoTI, it is expected that LCC advocacy will make a significant difference in their success. 

Well beyond the authority of the LCC is that needed conversation about the community we want. In Earl’s view, we are lacking a sense – and consensus – about what our community will become in the next decade. Do we want nothing to change, many content to live in their big homes in the forest? Are we still a cottage community of part-time residents seeking relief from urban centers in the summer? Or, should we be working together to support a more sustainable, resilient, and economically diverse community offering significantly more services than our more remote neighbouring islands?

These conversations fall squarely into that Islands Trust discussion of our Official Community Plan- OCP – (https://islandstrust.bc.ca/island-planning/salt-spring/bylaws/), with community engagement of housing portions of the OCP slated to begin soon. But, the LCC has some responsibility beyond offering input to the Islands Trust about possible OCP revisions.

One area that is expected to occupy the LCC this year is a review of CRD bylaws to make sure they reflect our unique needs and the community we want. We learned that many of our bylaws are varied in their scope, with some written for all of CRD, comprised of largely urban and suburban communities; some only applying to all three electoral areas; and some only to Salt Spring. Local Commissioners feel that it is critical that they fully understand the many bylaws defining our community, making sure that they reflect our unique needs as well as not conflicting with one another or other bylaw authorities, like the Islands Trust.

While Bylaw Enforcement is a sub-regional service, not under the authority of the LCC, it was suggested that complaint-driven enforcement of these bylaws may not best reflect our community needs. We briefly discussed the possibility of bylaws that required a conversation between conflicting parties, seeking a Restorative Justice-like solution, before escalating to bylaw citations and courtroom battles. Other communities have developed such a code of conduct between community members. Shouldn’t Salt Spring consider a more community-based solution to bylaw infractions?

And housing. . . . While not a designated service of the LCC, it is clear to Local Commissioners that they have a role and responsibility to address this community crisis. The question of how the LCC will be an important part of this solution will be a key discussion in an August LCC meeting.

With not enough funding in its Economic Sustainability Service to build housing, Local Commissioners firmly believe that they have an important advocacy role. That role may be:

• Funding a local strategic plan,
• Hiring a part-time housing coordinator,
• Identifying parcels of PARC land that may not be needed for parkland and (through referendum) selling or possibly even donating them to the new CRD Rural Housing Program or housing nonprofits,
• Identifying challenges stopping in-progress projects and advocating for them,
• Exploring efforts to develop a trusted community investment fund to support local housing initiatives.
• Or?

Stay tuned for this important conversation. . . . 

As our time together drew to a close, Earl mused that Local Commissioners try very hard to assess what our community wants by:

• Publicizing their CRD email addresses and welcoming comments, Ben Corno (bcorno@crd.bc.ca), Brian Webster (bwebster@crd.bc.ca), Earl Rook (erook@crd.bc.ca), and Gayle Baker (gbaker@crd.bc.ca) and Electoral Director Gary Holman (directorssi@crd.bc.ca),
• Holding office hours each Wednesday in the CRD office next to Apple Photo,(Ben: 8:30-10:30, Brian: 10:30-12:30, Gayle: 12:30-2:30, and Earl: 2:30-4:30),
• Welcoming all to their meetings and to speak as a delegation (please register with the CRD staff – 537-4448), and
• Being special guests at ASK Salt Spring the second Friday of every month (11-1, SIMS classroom next to the Boardroom).

Despite this outreach, Earl recognizes that Local Commissioners depend upon the feedback from those who contact us. We spoke briefly about getting a better understanding of Salt Spring opinions. How can we get more Salt Springers to guide Local Commissioners in their important decisions? As better local communications is a key element of the LCC strategic plan, should a regular LCC online survey be considered? Stay tuned for decisions about better LCC local communications. . . .

With 1:00 upon us, we all thanked Earl for sharing his thoughts with us; so aptly doing the grueling work as Chair, often akin to herding cats; working so hard alongside other Local Commissioners to address a plethora of issues; and continuously being inspired by the enormous potential of our new LCC to make a positive different. (Thanks, Earl!)