Opinion: Community needs and environmental protection must be balanced

By ERIC MARCH

I’m worried about the future of the Islands Trust.

I like the Islands Trust, or rather the idea of it. The idea of a local government duty bound to balance community needs with environmental protection is brilliant and I’d be proud to live in a community like that. Unfortunately I don’t.

I live on Salt Spring Island, where folks desperate for housing are shamed for wanting urban amenities and growth. Where, if someone has the money, property can be purchased, trees can be cut down, and unaffordable luxury housing can be built with all the water-wasting amenities money can buy, but workforce housing requires a herculean effort to come to fruition.

I like the Islands Trust, but it isn’t working for me. It seems it isn’t working for a lot of people I talk to. It definitely isn’t working for the one-third of Salt Spring Island residents living in some sort of housing need. It’s time to change that.

I have spent most of my life playing, working and living in protected areas. Before I moved to Salt Spring Island, the majority of my working life was spent in outdoor education, wilderness skills training and wilderness hospitality management. I have taught thousands of children and adults to love, value and protect the natural environment and to treat wild animals and wild places with respect. If you had told me I would end up as some sort of working-class or housing advocate I would have thought you were crazy.

But in February of 2020 I moved to Salt Spring Island to work in agriculture. I did my research, I knew there was a housing crisis, but no big deal, right? I was only coming for a 15-month contract, and I secured staff housing from my employer. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always follow the plan. I made friends, met my partner, became part of the community and learned in all too much detail just how bad the housing crisis was.

I am astounded that some folks are so out of touch with the reality of their own community they can downplay or even deny the severity of the housing crisis on our island. Not only is it plain to see, not only have plenty of groups released statistics saying how bad it is, but in the 2022 Local General Election, trustee candidates who included housing as a priority in their platform received the first, second and third highest vote count, with candidates who chose to emphasize the environment first receiving the fourth and fifth highest vote count.

Yet some out of touch folks want to threaten the Islands Trust with lawsuits if the Trust dares attempt to make housing slightly less onerous to build. They want to halt any reform to our governing documents such as the Trust Policy Statement or Official Community Plan. They claim to be all about environmental protection while in favour of a status quo that has led to over-development of shorelines, clear-cutting of properties for luxury houses and a housing crisis that has left almost 4,000 Salt Springers living in some form of housing need.

That is what makes me worried about the future of the Islands Trust. There are groups and individuals so absolutely opposed to seeing the truth about the material conditions a huge portion of our population are dealing with. They refuse to see that the status quo has created a community where some folks look towards a life without the Trust as better than one with it. And who can blame those folks?

Can we really expect one third of our population to choose to live in housing need so that some of our community can live in comfort and call it “protecting the environment?” Salt Spring Island may be united in our desire to live in a community that preserves and protects the natural environment, but it is fractured down class lines.

Attempting to preserve and protect by setting a build-out cap that promotes rural sprawl, allows vacation and luxury homes, and leaves workforce housing an exception to planning is foolish at best and is already trending towards disastrous at worst.

Fortunately, the updates to the Trust Policy Statement and Official Community Plan, and Local General Election in October offer us opportunities to change our existing narrative. We can manage growth by setting limits not only on how much build-out can happen, but setting limits on where and how it can happen too.

Let’s protect contiguous forests and preserve farmland. Let’s ensure build-out is well planned, focused close to village sites and planned around the needs of our working class. Let’s limit the ability to build luxury vacation homes and find ways to tax the ones that are already here.

If we want the Islands Trust to continue to steward our communities sustainably into the future, indeed, if we want the Islands Trust to survive, we need the Islands Trust to do better. We need to protect not just the natural environment but also the material conditions of the island’s workers and the agricultural community.

I want to live in a place that balances community needs with environmental protection, and the Islands Trust can make our community that place — if we choose to move beyond the status quo and adapt to meet the challenges facing us in 2026 and beyond.

The writer is a working-class advocate living and working on Salt Spring Island.