As Salt Spring’s official community plan (OCP) update process looks increasingly unlikely to be finished before the fall election, the island’s Local Trust Committee (LTC) is taking an unusual step it said was proportional to the urgency of the housing crisis: asking the B.C. government to appoint an independent advisor through Bill 43, the Housing Supply Act.
Despite Bill 43 excluding LTCs from housing target requirements — which usually trigger such appointments to municipalities unable to meet them — local trustee Laura Patrick brought the suggestion Thursday, March 19, saying she hoped the province might use the enabling legislation to help either the LTC or the North Salt Spring Waterworks District (NSSWD) set aside the limited number of newly available water connections for “equitable housing options.” Those new connections are currently available on a first-come, first-served basis; district staff said last week roughly 22 per cent of the water volume allocated had been utilized so far since new applications were accepted again at the end of March 2025 — 64 single-family-home equivalent units across 15 island properties.
“This is a desperate move, I will admit,” said Patrick. “This is not about asking for regulatory interference, this is about asking the province to bring some expertise to the table to help us find a solution.”
In a briefing note distributed the day of the meeting, Patrick confirmed that the OCP update process was “stalled” — on Thursday citing staffing shortages — and identified NSSWD’s partial lifting of its moratorium on new connections as a key issue, calling it a “rare and time-sensitive opportunity” to enable housing and characterizing the request as collaborative in nature.
Under the Housing Supply Act, an advisor is typically appointed when a municipality’s efforts to meet mandated housing targets have been unsuccessful; the advisor would inspect records of those efforts and submit a report to the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs with recommendations for further actions. The act also then empowers the minister to issue directives — not just to override or change existing bylaws, but to require the municipality to enact new ones in the pursuit of meeting those housing targets.
As passed by resolution last Thursday, the LTC’s request to the B.C. government asks for an appointed advisor to make recommendations “on increasing equitable housing options within the affordable housing non-market to near- or low-market rental and ownership portions of the housing spectrum” — specifically mentioning a need for regulatory tools that would allow the NSSWD to prioritize granting new connections to projects that met Salt Spring’s “critical housing needs.”
Suggesting the LTC should instead halt the OCP review and unilaterally amend it to include the blanket accessory dwelling unit (ADU) provisions of one-time proposed Bylaw 537 — shelved since March 2024 — trustee Jamie Harris left the meeting without casting a vote on the request.
The Bill 43 process for getting provincial “help” on housing is not without precedent, at least with respect to municipal governments; early this year B.C. appointed a housing advisor to the District of North Saanich after that municipality fell 48 units short of its 60-unit first-year housing target. In a press release back in January, the ministry said the appointment of an advisor would be “beneficial to any municipality that may need support in meeting its housing targets.”
LTC chair Tim Peterson cautioned there was no way of knowing how the province would respond.
“But it’s sending a message that I think needs to be sent,” said Peterson, who joined Patrick voting in favour of the move. “Time is ticking, and there’s a potential for fewer connections to be available for the types of housing that this LTC has heard is wanted, and needed, on the island.”
IMO, this is a complete cop out by Trustees Patrick and Chair Peterson. Patrick was elected nearly 8 years ago and has yet to publicly provide a vision, or solutions, for fixing the housing crisis. She and Peterson torpedoed Bylaw 530 (accessory dwelling units) and stalled Bylaw 537 (Patrick’s “itsy bitsy” version of 530). I don’t blame Trustee Harris for walking out. The voting pattern to date, over this past term, has shown Peterson cast 42 out of 43 split decisions in favour of Trustee Patrick’s desires. The statistical probability of this voting pattern naturally occurring is one in 200 billion…which raises the question of “aprehension of bias” on the part of the Chair.
Now Patrick and Peterson are essentially saying they are incapable of drafting an OCP to meet our housing needs, and want an unelected, Provincially appointed, advisor to come in and make proposals for them. We are now just 6 months before an election. I suggest the Province hold off and see if two rational citizens with a clear vision can be elected this fall. After all, this is not rocket science….this is just land use 101.