A legal agreement has been struck between a former Blackburn Road kennel operation and Salt Spring’s Local Trust Committee (LTC), allowing the owner to avoid mounting fines if they clean up and largely vacate the property by June 15.
The consent order between SaltyDog Retreat owner Jaime Halan-Harris and the LTC marks a likely end to a civil suit filed in February — as well as to SaltyDog’s operations, as it notes that it must not use the portion of the 10-acre parcel zoned as Rural Watershed 1 for a “pet kennel, dog daycare, dog boarding services, or dog training in exchange for payment, or for keeping dogs for the purpose of sale and adoption, effective immediately.”
Halan-Harris was also ordered to remove all buildings and structures on the entire property by June 15, save the possibility of keeping an “existing canopy and the four existing metal containers” there on the condition they obtain a building permit for — and commence construction upon — a primary dwelling on the property.
“The defendant will [also] remove from the property, by June 15, 2025, all travel trailers and recreational vehicles,” read the consent order. “Following the removal, the defendant will not use the property for the storage and accommodation of travel trailers and recreational vehicles contrary to the [island’s land use] bylaw.”
While the court marked the requisition for consent order May 2, the order was not filed with the public electronic system until June 2.
Halan-Harris, who has at different times described the business as a dog rescue and a “vocational rehab program and therapy for youth who were homeless,” had taken in lost animals and provided rescue and pet shelter services to islanders at her own expense since 2018. In March 2023, the business relocated from its former site on Rainbow Road to the parcel on Blackburn Road; a temporary use permit (TUP) application to operate SaltyDog there was denied by the LTC in November that year.
Despite the TUP’s denial having been prescribed by the island’s Official Community Plan — which allowed no exceptions to the TUP process for Watershed and Islet Residential designated property — kennel supporters crowded an LTC meeting the following month urging them to reconsider. At the next month’s meeting, “downstream” neighbours concerned for the Cusheon Lake watershed filed in to express their opposition.
Halan-Harris told the Driftwood she and her son left Salt Spring Island in early March and that she no longer owns the property, but is still responsible for meeting the conditions of the consent order.
“I am still cleaning up the property before transferring ownership to [the lender] to cover my debts incurred due to the tenant situation causing huge costs.”
“I lost everything trying to help the homeless,” she said. “I’m walking away with nothing. I worked hard as a single mom for years.”
Halan-Harris confirmed that the site was visited by BC SPCA personnel in April, who apprehended a number of dogs still on the site; BC SPCA communications officer Debra Walley said as of May 21 the investigation was open and ongoing and no further details could be provided.