The group welcoming Local Community Commission (LCC) Chair Earl Rook to this ASK Salt Spring gathering was small, causing a participant to question why more did not seem interested in learning more about the decisions and plans of our Local Commissioners.
After our Acknowledgment, Earl shared something that had recently “excited and delighted” him: He had just participated in the Cross-Border Forum, a gathering of island leaders from both our local BC islands and the US San Juans. The forum focussed on building environmental and economic resilience across the Salish Sea bioregion, particularly given the potential economic impacts of tariffs. Its intent is to foster regional, intergovernmental collaboration in an era of uncertainty. Strengthening regional ties, it seeks to ensure that local priorities are protected and amplified amid shifting national priorities.
The gathering was sponsored by the successful Southern Gulf Islands Forum (https://southerngulfislandsforum.ca/) established by former MLA Adam Olsen and MP Elizabeth May in 2021. This group, comprised of Indigenous and local leaders, gathers regularly to explore common interests and engage in shared advocacy initiatives.
According to Earl, this first in person meeting of the cross-border group was full of information from both the general sessions as well as two working groups exploring common environmental and economic themes. A successful gathering rich with networking opportunities, it resulted in the identification of a wide range of shared values and interests.
In Earl’s opinion, participants recognized that we are and remain friends, all impacted by tariffs and other shared concerns but remaining committed to not let a border divide us. According to Earl, participants left enthusiastic to continue this cross-border forum by meeting again before too long.
Participants noted that our recent successful Hands Across the Water (https://acrossthewater.org/) event had the same tone of cross-border collaboration and friendship. It was recognized at this event as well that we could learn a great deal from our neighbours to the south, especially from groups like Orcas’ OPAL (Of People and Land) https://www.opalclt.org/.
Established in 1989 OPAL has been successfully developing different types of affordable housing projects, each adapted to the island’s needs and changing economic climate. While our building challenges and funding opportunities may be different from the United States, many feel Salt Spring could learn a lot from OPAL.
We learned from Earl that BC’s Cortes Island’s Housing Society is also initiating some intriguing affordable housing initiatives ranging from the construction of a multi-unit building to the purchase of existing homes. They are learning that, “By purchasing existing homes, we avoid the high costs of developing raw land, and we ensure that existing housing on Cortes is used for year-round housing rather than purchased by off-islanders for part-time/summer use.” Seemingly as applicable on Salt Spring as Cortes, the often-requested (and, so far, denied each time by the Ministry) inclusion of Salt Spring in the Speculation and Vacancy Tax (https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/speculation-vacancy-tax), could significantly help efforts to buy these seasonly-used homes.
It is important to celebrate our recent affordable housing successes, including Croftonbrook, Salt Spring Commons, Drake Road supportive housing, promising progress with the Kings Lane initiative, and hopes for IWAV’s Norton Road purchase. (IWAV’s Alicia will be our ASK Salt Spring guest this Friday,October 31, to tell us all about this Norton Road project.) Despite this success, it is clear that we still have a housing crisis. According to Earl, “One step forward, but we have so much more to do!”
While some suggest focusing all our efforts to push our most promising project (currentlyKings Lane) to completion, the sentiment in the room was that we need to support a variety of different projects to meet the widely different needs of our community. In addition to the most cost-effective alternative of multi-unit apartments, participants seemed to support other alternatives as well. These included Brinkworthy-like purchased prefab housing on property owned by local government or a non-profit, removal of barriers to the full-time rental of existing secondary suites, and possibly a relaxation of rules around multiple small rental units on large properties.
A participant suggested working on housing with our First Nations, citing many successful housing projects with 99-year leases on Indigenous land (https://pushormitchell.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/The-Development-Process-on-First-Nations-Lands.pdf). Another theorized that there were many rich Salt Springers who would donate or invest in below market housing projects – but that there was no clear place to donate. Could our Salt Spring Island Foundation play that very important role accepting these targeted donations and utilizing them to support promising housing projects?
It was suggested that regulations, like building codes and land use decisions, need to be scrutinized to determine which of them could be relaxed to allow creative solutions. While most seemed to agree in theory, we were reminded that a regulation-free marketplace can result in unsafe conditions and landlord abuse.
Earl sees some progress supporting common sense alternatives, like the progressive removal of previous BC prohibitions of tiny homes (https://www.bchousing.org/publications/Tiny-Homes-Alternative-to-Conventional-Housing.pdf).
Earl also noted the good timing of planning initiatives by both the Islands Trust and the LCC. As most know, the Islands Trust review of portions of our Official Community Plan (OCP) is underway. (You may want to subscribe to stay current with this important project: https://islandstrust.bc.ca/update-salt-spring-island-official-community-plan-land-use-bylaw-review/).
Less well-known, the LCC is currently undertaking an Integrated Housing Action Plan to develop a coordinated set of initiatives to address our housing crisis. Community engagement on this plan is set for late November, so stay tuned for more details. Earl is pleased that it looks like the recommendations of this LCC action plan will be available in plenty of time for Local Commissioners to offer them to the Islands Trust for inclusion in their OCP review.
Earl is intrigued by the concept of Inclusionary Zoning (https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/housing-and-tenancy/tools-for-government/local-governments-and-housing/izdb_comprehensive_guidance.pdf) for Ganges Village. While Islands Trust areas are excluded from this ruling that allows for relaxed rules and more density, Earl is intrigued by application of this more permissive zoning in a clearly-defined area of Ganges.
If Ganges had Inclusionary Zoning, Earl theorized that development of needed housing could be far simpler. He cited the example of water hookups: While the partial lifting of the North Salt Spring Waterworks District (NSSWD) moratorium is good news, these additional permits must be given first come/first served basis. What if Ganges were an Inclusionary Zone? Would the Islands Trust then be permitted to prioritize affordable/worker housing projects for these hookups? With many unanswered questions about this special zoning, participants were intrigued by Earl’s suggestion of further exploration of the option.
Earl also mused about exploring legislation for our islands only. Did you know that Washington State has legislated provisions applying only to its island communities served by Washing State Ferries? Would it be helpful if certain legislation applied only to our BC Ferries-served islands?
As our time together was drawing to a close, we realized that much of our conversation had been focused on housing. . . once again. As we prepared to leave, Earl closed by commenting that this last year of our first LCC term was, in his opinion, extremely important. While organizing logistics, like meeting times and procedures, have solidified and satisfying progress has been made on a multitude of projects, large questions remain. Most notable of these questions is the possible increase of LCC authorized services to include all local services. With that, we thanked Earl for his difficult – and often tedious – work as our LCC’s first chair and his willingness to listen and explore new ideas, clearly caring deeply for “All things Salt Spring.” (Thank-you, Earl!)
Just in case you are interested. . . .This report has been written by Gayle Baker, founder of ASK Salt Spring, currently also a Salt Spring Local Community Commissioner. It has been reviewed and edited by Earl.