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The Tricky Issue of Bylaw Enforcement: Trustee Laura Patrick Shares her Perspective
July 17, 2022: Last Friday, 13 attended the ASK Salt Spring gathering under the apple tree in the United Church Meadow, welcoming Islands Trustee Laura Patrick. Laura’s comments were her own and not representing the Local Trust Committee. The discussion began with a question about regulating Short-Term Vacation Rentals (STVRs). Laura believes that chairing the Local Trust Committees on Saturna and Pender Islands has given her the opportunity to see other models of addressing the issues of vacation rentals. While she did not propose any solutions, she did offer some observations. For example, if STVRs were “registered” or “licensed” in some way, there would be the…
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Roads, Cycling Lanes, and our Market: Gary Holman Helps Us Navigate Complex Issues
July 10, 2022: A total of 18 participants joined us in the United Church Meadow for this week’s ASK Salt Spring gathering on a lovely summer Friday. While one guest had to leave almost immediately after learning that our special guest, Gary Holman, would be late arriving due to a conflict, others seemed content to begin with an update of some outstanding issues while waiting for him. Happily, Gary arrived far earlier than expected – by about 11:15 – so these updates where somewhat truncated. A) Friday, July 31 is the fifth Friday of July and, as a result of this extra Friday, we have…
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Cyclists Brave the Rain to Ask Adam for Safe Cycling Lanes
July 3, 2022: Thirty folks braved the cool, breezy summer rains to gather at Portlock Picnic Pavilion to welcome our special guest, MLA Adam Olsen. Nine of them were avid cyclists who had just ridden from Fulford, an annual ride celebrating Kip Nash’s birthday, a former Salt Spring coach who was well supported by our community when challenged by a brain tumor. He, his family, and his friends make this celebratory fundraising ride every year to thank Salt Spring for its support during his difficult times. While many rode from Fulford to Ganges, this hearty nine continued on to Portlock Park…
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Learning Lots from Emcon, our Roads Maintenance Managers
June 26, 2022: Fifteen came to the United Church Meadow on a lovely summer day to welcome our Chamber’s Jessica Harkema as well as Emcon managers Andrew Gaetz and Lisa Herschmiller as our guests. We began with a brief summary of Emcon’s responsibilities as well as those roads-related services for which they have no responsibility. Some of their areas of responsibility include: potholes, small paving jobs, sweeping/plowing, brush cutting on Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI ) rights of way, and other actions needed to maintain our roads to a safe rural standard. (Painting does not fall into their area of…
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Learning About our Soon-to-be-Released Climate Action Plan
June 19, 2022: Fifteen gathered in the lovely United Church Meadow to welcome our special guest, Darryl Martin, Chair of the soon-to-be-released Climate Action Plan 2.0. Despite the focus on climate action, the first question requested an update about concerns raised last week about the Land Bank Society. There is some enthusiasm for an expanded role for Salt Springers in this important affordable housing opportunity, beginning with more members and a well-publicized AGM this fall. Bylaws have been ordered to better understand potential hurdles. Concerns were expressed about reducing our too-high speed limits, an opportunity from multiple angles, including reducing emissions,…
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Welcoming Gary Holman to our Socially-Distanced Gathering – in the Rain!
June 12, 2022: Thirteen came on this cool, rainy day, a pretty remarkable turnout in light of the weather and change of location to Portlock Picnic Pavilion. Gary joined us at noon, and, although one could interpret some of the concerns as critical, everyone appreciated that he had come to teach us, listen, and work with us to seek answers about the issues most important to us. HarbourWalk: Some folks that were new to ASK Salt Spring came with a vision and a plea: Let’s finally get this too-long-delayed HarbourWalk Project completed. . . and Let’s do it for Matt! The governmental hurtles were…
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Zooming With Adam: Safety and Health for Now and a Better Normal for the Future
May 1, 2022: Fourteen joined us for this Zoom session with Adam Olsen as our special guest. We began our discussion with a question about logging, Specifically, to encourage expansion of Islands Trust authority over logging on private land, should letters requesting this continue to be sent to Minister Selina Robinson? After answering in the affirmative, Adam went on to give news that will be discouraging to those concerned about the environmental effects of logging: British Columbia’s economic framework, released in January, places forestry squarely in the category of a essential service. Only the day before, this support of the logging…
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Zooming About With Gary Holman in a Self-Isolating Community
April 10, 2022: Thirteen Salt Springers came to this Zoom session of ASK Salt Spring to get some information from special guest, Gary Holman. The first 40 minutes was spent – once again – addressing road concerns. While some time was spent on logistics (When is the Transportation Commission going to meet again?) the focus of the discussion was on too-high speed limits, beginning with one participant’s ongoing concerns about the speed and heavy use of Kings and Leisure Lanes. It was suggested that he get neighbours to sign a petition so that it is clear that this concern is widespread. He was…
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MLA Adam Olsen: His Wisdom, Vision, and Optimism
February 7, 2022: Our MLA, Adam Olsen, was the guest this week. The 16 Salt Springers who came had plenty of time to ask questions on a wide variety of issues as he arrived 45 minutes before scheduled (10:15) and stayed until slightly after 1:00. The conversation began with BC’s Speculation and Vacancy Tax, and, interestingly, as some left and others came, this issue was brought up three different times during this ASK Salt Spring session. According to a Provincial definition: The Speculation and Vacancy Tax is an annual tax paid by some owners of residential properties in designated taxable regions of BC. The tax is…
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Electric Vehicles 101
January 24, 2022: Thirteen Salt Springers came to ask their questions on a stormy Friday morning. Topics discussed included: The conversation began with an exploration of the creation of Salt Spring’s own “scrap-it” rebate program for those transitioning from fossil fuel-powered to electric vehicles. It was suggested that this program could be administered by Transition Salt Spring’s investment program, TSSEC (Transition Salt Spring Enterprise Co-op). Darryl Martin and Jim Standen will follow-up on this concept. The possibility of getting a Habitat for Humanity Restore shop on Salt Spring was briefly explored. With an organized system to give Salt Springers used and surplus building…