B.C.’s housing minister quietly visited Salt Spring last week to learn more about its housing needs and sit down with the island’s elected and unofficial representatives.
Salt Spring Capital Regional District (CRD) director Gary Holman said Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Christine Boyle was on-island for several hours Wednesday, Oct. 15, spending them in meetings with CRD and Islands Trust officials and community advocates. Holman said the informal visit was arranged by local MLA Rob Botterell.
“She’s a keeper, really knowledgeable,” said Holman of Boyle, reporting to the island’s Local Community Commission at that body’s regular meeting Thursday, Oct. 16.
Holman said there were separate sessions for local government and some NGOs, including Transition Salt Spring. Local trustee and Trust Council chair Laura Patrick said she was similarly impressed with Boyle, saying she believed the minister left the island with a better understanding of its housing situation and a “keen interest” in finding solutions for the island.
“I know she hears about housing challenges in every community in B.C.,” Patrick told islanders attending Salt Spring’s Local Trust Committee (LTC) meeting Thursday, “but ours are sure unique, and very present.”
Boyle was elected as the MLA for Vancouver-Little Mountain in 2024, and was appointed as minister in July.
Community members and officials had planned a similar island “tour” for then-housing minister Ravi Kahlon that would have taken place this past summer.
That event was abruptly cancelled just days beforehand, organizers said, as Premier David Eby shuffled Kahlon into the Ministry of Jobs and Economic Growth position on July 17.
Holman told the LCC that from the Salt Spring electoral area’s perspective there were three projects he’d sought to bring to Boyle’s attention: the 50 units of affordable housing envisioned by the Gulf Islands Senior Residence Association at Kings Lane; the potential for additional affordable units on underutilized CRD land behind BC Housing’s new supportive housing complex on Drake Road; and the CRD’s broader $85-million housing fund, which would unquestionably benefit from provincial matching dollars.
“That last is just repeating the ask from the chair of the CRD board and senior staff [who] already met with the minister,” Holman told fellow commissioners Thursday.
“We just reinforced that, as that matching funding could be quite important for Salt Spring.”