By ERIC MARCH
Earlier this year I was inspired by the sentiments expressed by the Mayor of Park City, Utah. Faced with a labour dispute between the Vail Resorts, the town’s biggest employer, and Park City Professional Ski Patrol, essential workers, during the Christmas and New Year’s holiday, Park City faced a massive disruption.
During this time Mayor Nann Worel and Park City Council unequivocally supported the workers in the dispute, recognizing that “it is the workforce that all too often shoulders the weight of today’s economic pressures,” and “supporting a professional workforce is essential to the health, safety and vitality of our town.” These sentiments easily apply to Salt Spring Island; our workforce is unduly suffering under the weight of our housing and affordability crises, and the health, safety and vitality of Salt Spring also depend on maintaining a professional workforce. I can’t help but wonder why, when so many other communities are doing so much, Salt Spring Island struggles to do so little.
In the San Juan Islands they believe that “Stable affordable housing is the foundation upon which community members build fulfilling lives,” and to that extent they have chosen to implement a real estate excise tax and use it to fund several community land trusts and other affordable housing initiatives. On Cortes Island they set their Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT), a tax applied only to visitors, to three per cent, and are using the entirety of that revenue for affordable housing. Contrast these two communities with Salt Spring Island. We charge an MRDT of two per cent, and that revenue is split between tourism advertising and housing funding. We have levied no special taxes to fund worker housing, and haven’t even managed to convince the provincial government to apply the Speculation and Vacancy Tax here.
While the Capital Regional District celebrates building 32 units of supportive housing and four units of affordable workforce housing on Drake Road, nine units of boarding housing on Dean Road and 18 units of healthcare worker housing on Bittancourt Road, just one of the land trusts in the San Juan Islands has 40 apartments and eight to 12 houses scheduled to be built for affordable worker housing. In Ucluelet they have used zoning and the BC Housing Affordable Home Ownership Program to allow a private developer to build 33 units of affordable workforce ownership housing dedicated to residents.
In both Tofino and Whistler they have created corporations owned by the local governments for the purpose of creating affordable housing, the Tofino Housing Corporation and the Whistler Housing Authority respectively. The Whistler Housing Authority has a stated goal of housing 75 per cent of Whistler’s workers in Whistler, and to that extent has built 2,270 units of affordable rental and ownership housing in 25 years. That averages out to about 454 units every five years for a population of 13,982, putting our 140 units for a population of 11,635 built and planned to be built in five years to shame.
In Banff and Jasper National parks the townsites have placed such a high value on workforce housing that they have taken the extreme measure of putting “need to reside” laws in place, simply banning folks from living in the community if they do not work in the community. Parks Canada states that “The eligible residency provisions ensure that community residential lands are available exclusively for community use, rather than recreational or second home purposes,” and “This ensures that housing remains available for those whose primary objective is to live and work in the community.”
Given that the affordability and housing crises aren’t unique to Salt Spring Island but the lack of solutions is, I can’t help but wonder about our lack of action and I believe it is time to have a discussion in our community about that. Worse than our lack of action, our lack of vision. When so many other communities are building not just apartments but entire houses for working-class families, why are some of our local politicians still suggesting solutions like facilitating boarding houses? Our official community plan, aside from a small change in 2020, is almost old enough to drink, and may well reach legal drinking age before we complete our upcoming review.
May 1 is International Workers’ Day, celebrated throughout most of the world as a day commemorating workers rights and the fights to earn them. I hope folks take some time on the 1st to think about the incredibly valuable workers that keep our community functioning and deserve not just shelter but homes in order to build fulfilling lives in while they work and live in our community.
What would Salt Spring Island be like without ferry workers, teachers or nurses? Without bartenders, shelf stockers, cashiers, cleaners, manufacturing workers, delivery drivers, artisans, trades people, or anyone else? I think Whistler has an admirable goal we should adopt, ensuring we can house at least 75 per cent of our workforce within our community, and that those workers have safe, secure, sustainable and affordable housing.
In the spirit of International Workers’ Day I would like to challenge our elected officials and NGOs to make statements appreciating the labour that keeps our community running, committing to adequately housing 75 per cent of our workforce within our community, and echoing Mayor Worel’s sentiments about the difficulties facing our workforce and the importance of maintaining them within our community.
The writer is a Salt Spring Island resident and worker.