Revitalizing Centennial Park’s plaza was not really a priority a few years ago.
When it came to the now-disbanded Salt Spring Parks and Recreation Commission recommending the re-allocating of hundreds of thousands of Community Works Fund dollars to revitalize the plaza, no one put the project anywhere near the top of their personal “island project” wish list.
But, as our local Capital Regional District (CRD) director has said, sometimes you go where the grant money leads you — and in this case it led to something of a bargain, as we saw workers break ground on a million-dollar project for a fraction of that cost, thanks to a substantial Pacific Economic Development Canada grant that turned out to be a good match for sprucing up the home of our oft-admired Saturday Market.
While construction certainly seems to have taken quite a breather over the holidays, there has been a flurry of activity behind the scenes as a new Salt Spring Island Saturday Market Society has taken the reins of the complicated venture, set to spread out over the new surface this spring. The society has islanders wearing many hats on its board; in addition to vendors, representatives of the broader business community and non-profit organizations like Salt Spring Arts will continue to weigh in as the vitally important market launches into 2024.
The CRD had been running the day-to-day operations of the market, the responsibility for which landed in its lap as part of its broader commitment to Centennial Park itself. And while it may have made a certain amount of sense, it has been unique in the province; no other such market is run by a parks department.
Regional officials deserve praise for their flexibility in working through the financial implications of a non-profit-run Saturday Market; while details have not yet become public, our suspicion is that Salt Spring may have seen yet another bargain here. And the people here on the ground who stepped up, formed a society and took on the challenge deserve our support as well.
It is important that such a special island resource and tradition remains “governed” — if anyone could be said to be able to do such a thing — by Salt Springers. We look forward to welcoming back the Saturday Market to its new digs under new leadership on March 30.