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FOURNIER, Radha (Leslie) Louise

Driftwood Obituary
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FOURNIER, Radha (Leslie) Louise

August 4, 1961 – January 16, 2023.

Radha (Leslie) Louise Fournier of Salt Spring Island, BC. passed away Monday, January 16, 2023 in her sleep after a long battle with cancer. Radha is survived by her siblings, Karen Fournier (CA), Bill Fournier (TX) and Steven Fournier (OR). Also Radha’s adopted daughter AmanDa Bapty and her grandson Benjamin Bapty (SSI). Radha was predeceased in death by her older sister Diana Fournier (1997), her mother Donna Mast Fournier (2006), and her father James Damon Fournier (2019).

Radha grew up in Mt. Angel, Oregon. She graduated from Silverton Oregon High School in 1979. She attended University of Oregon from 1979-1985 majoring in Music Education and minoring in German. In 1982, she studied a semester abroad in Cologne, Germany. In 1984, she returned to study again in Germany, this time in Tubingen.

Post college, Radha moved to Portland, Oregon. In 1986 she continued her travels spending 6 months in Australia. While there, she worked as a helping hand on a large sail boat. This is where she discovered her love of sailing.

In 1987, she returned to Portland and worked at various jobs: Spaghetti Factory (waitress), Blackwell Book Depository (administrative assistant) from 1988-1993; INTEL (customer support, programmer, data-base manager) from 1993-1998 and again from 2001-2003.

In 1990, Radha received her certificate to teach sailing. In 1992, Leslie received her associates degree from Portland Community College in Computer Science.

In 1993, Radha bought and moved onto her houseboat in Scappoose, OR.

In 1996 she met Jay Fraser who shared her passion for sailing. Radha and Jay sailed their boat “Kestrel” from 1998-2001 all along the west coast starting at Puget Sound and moving south along the coast through Mexico and ultimately to Central America. Upon Radha’s return, she and Jay returned to Scappoose, Oregon. From 2003-2006 she worked at Oregon Aero. In 2004, Radha and Jay married and moved to Salt Spring Island, BC (SSI) in 2006.

Once on SSI, Radha worked as a payroll administrator for the SSI school district (2006-2016). Even though Radha was retired, she continued working part-time work at the local grocery, Thrifty Foods off and on until she passed.

In 2009, she ran a radio station called “Green FM CFSI”. Then she created her own radio program called “Heart of the Islands Satsang”, which ran from 2009-2015. In 2016, she was instrumental in starting a new community radio station, “Gulf Islands Radio” (CHIR FM).

Radha suffered from various illnesses over the last 20 years. Despite her troubles, she had a huge heart. Radha was very positive and had a compassionate outlook on life. She always found peace. She was pragmatic, and direct and clear about her point of view and boundaries.

She adored SSI – loved the people, their friendliness and relaxed nature. And of course, she loved the natural beauty of the island. She found joy in her dogs, going into town for her daily chai at Barb’s and going for walks in nature. She loved spending time with her adopted daughter and grandson who brought laughter and joy to fill her life.

She was loved by all those who met her and is sorely missed. Her presence was a ray of sunlight brightening your day.

Jasmine Jazz presents Chinese-jazz fusion concert

Contributed Article
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Jasmine Jazz presents Chinese-jazz fusion concert

SUBMITTED BY ARTSPRING

On Friday, Feb. 3, Jasmine Jazz takes to the ArtSpring stage, offering audiences the unexpected and exquisite interplay between traditional Chinese and jazz instruments.

Featuring three musicians from the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble — Jirong Huang (playing erhu), Sarah Yusha Tan (guzheng) and Zhongxi Wu (suona) — with some of Vancouver’s finest jazz artists, including Bill Coon on guitar and James Danderfer on clarinet/sax, the group is led by Juno-nominated bassist and composer Jodi Proznick.

“Jasmine Jazz is about musical conversations,” explained Proznick. “An east meets west experience full of beauty, harmony, mutual respect and interplay.”

The repertoire mixes songs pulled from jazz repertoire, traditional Chinese folk music and original compositions. Chinese classics like Jasmine Flower and Shanghai Night, as well as the contemporary Taiwanese song Moon Represents My Heart, are interwoven with a selection of jazz standards such as McCoy Tyner’s Contemplation, Billy Strayhorn’s A Flower is a Lovesome Thing, Bill Evans’ Turn Out the Stars and Freddie Hubbard’s Little Sunflower.

Formed in 1989, the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble is the first professional Chinese music organization established in Canada. The ensemble consists of accomplished instrumentalists who combine technical mastery with a passionate approach to music. Based in Vancouver, they continue to inspire contemporary compositions and interdisciplinary projects for Chinese instruments in Canada.

Proznik has been a featured performer with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, the Elektra Women’s Choir and the Vancouver Bach Family of Choirs. She accompanied Michael Bublé in the closing ceremonies and soundtrack of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. She is currently head of the jazz department at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music. 

This concert also celebrates the release of Jasmine Jazz, the first album by this excellent sextet, recorded in July 2021 at the Warehouse Studio in Vancouver.

Next Friday’s concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are available through ArtSpring.

Award-winning film The Blue Caftan up next in series

Contributed Article
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Award-winning film The Blue Caftan up next in series

BY STEVE MARTINDALE

Salt Spring Film Festival Society

In the bustling Moroccan medina of Salé, a master tailor and his devoted wife find themselves in a love triangle with a handsome apprentice in Maryam Touzani’s award-winning drama The Blue Caftan, screening at ArtSpring on Wednesday, Feb. 1 as part of the Salt Spring Film Festival’s ongoing Best of the Fests series.

To keep up with their demanding customers, Halim and Mina hire a young man to help them in their traditional caftan store. Youssef eagerly dedicates himself to learning the art of embroidery and tailoring from his perfectionist employer, until Mina begins to suspect that their relationship involves sharing more than traditional craftsmanship. What lies ahead for this adoring trio will break all three of them open in unexpected and heart-wrenching ways.

For her empathetic portrayal of the high-spirited Mina, a woman passionately in love with a man whose physical attractions primarily lie elsewhere, Lubna Azabal, a Belgian actress of Moroccan descent, was named Best Actress at the 2022 Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain.

A Moroccan, French, Belgian and Danish co-production, The Blue Caftan is the quintessentially memorable art-house film, featuring a subtitled foreign language spoken in an exotic locale, gorgeous cinematography, highly relatable characters with familiar wants and needs confronting cultural norms and orthodoxies which may initially seem foreign to us, but which differ from our own only by matters of degree.

Written and directed by the celebrated Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani, The Blue Caftan greatly benefits from also having a woman behind the camera, the award-winning Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej. She imbues otherwise mundane domestic scenes with tender intimacy and radiant sensuality.

Whether focusing on close-ups of a man’s veined hands stitching elaborate gold embroidery on luxurious blue satin, or the everyday eroticism of a woman peeling a tangerine, the painterly eye of Surdej’s camera is reminiscent of the work of the late Canadian artist Mary Pratt, whose hyperrealist techniques were profiled in Kenneth Harvey’s documentary It Was All So Wonderful, which screened at the Salt Spring Film Festival in 2020.

This would likely have been a very different film had it been written, directed and filmed by men. Despite its undeniably homo-erotic undertones and very brief nudity, The Blue Caftan’s focus is firmly on the various forms of love and adoration — both sensual and platonic — that exist between respectful adults, including the in-sickness-and-in-health devotion within a loving marriage that transcends and ultimately outlasts physical desire.

Co-presented by DAISSI, this richly erotic and deeply moving festival favourite won the prestigious FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes, the Jury Prize at the Marrakech International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Athens International Film Festival, where it also won the Greek Film Critics Association Award for Best Film. It has also been shortlisted for the Oscars in a select group of 15 films chosen from among those submitted for consideration by 93 countries in contention for the coveted Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

The “Best of the Fests” series also includes Phyllis Nagy’s Call Jane on Jan. 25 and continues on Feb. 8 when Vancouver filmmaker Kat Jayme will present her wildly entertaining documentary The Grizzlie Truth, which won an Audience Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival, in which she doggedly investigates the scandalous 2001 relocation of the Vancouver Grizzlies to Memphis.

Don’t miss these one-night-only screenings at ArtSpring. Tickets are $13 each (and a student rate of $8 is available for The Grizzlie Truth) and are available online at artspring.ca, or at the ArtSpring box office from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday through Friday (either in person or by phone at 250-537-2102).

Quinsam returns to Vesuvius 

Robb Magley
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Quinsam returns to Vesuvius 

Salt Spring Island briefly experienced two-ferry service on the Vesuvius-Crofton route Thursday — sort of — as the usual vessel returned to operation, and its temporary replacement signed off. 

With perhaps a sigh of relief, islanders finally boarded MV Quinsam Thursday afternoon, Jan. 26, as that ferry returned after 94 days of refit work to a busy route that had been plagued by cancellations and delays. 

The switch was eagerly followed by islanders; vessel trackers and ferry-spotters first spotted the Quinsam leaving the Deas Pacific Marine maintenance facility on the Fraser River Wednesday afternoon, stopping at the Tsawwassen terminal before sailing to Fulford Harbour, where it berthed overnight. 

Just after 9 a.m. Thursday morning, the Quinsam left Fulford empty — perhaps puzzling some passengers waiting for the Skeena Queen — and sailed around the south end of Salt Spring and up to Vesuvius, docking at about 11:20 a.m. After a brief stop, Quinsam pushed off — again, empty — at 11:30 a.m., then held position a kilometre from the dock. 

Meanwhile the Quinitsa pulled out of Vesuvius with a full load just after noon, delivering Salt Spring traffic to Crofton for the last time — for now, at least. Quinsam returned to the Vesuvius dock at 12:10 p.m., finished preparations, pushed back out and — still empty — chased the Quinitsa back to Crofton.  

It was unclear who won the race, but ultimately Quinitsa offloaded at Crofton; Quinsam loaded Salt Spring bound passengers there and departed — a little late — at about 1:10 p.m., and after a quick crossing nosed into the dock at Vesuvius a little before 1:30 p.m.  

The 40-year-old Quinsam holds more vehicles than the Quinitsa, and was originally estimated to return on Dec. 12; supply chain issues for needed parts were blamed for the additional delay. Quinsam was taken off the route for refit purposes on Oct. 24. 

New group promotes harbour walk vision

Gail Sjuberg
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New group promotes harbour walk vision

Completion of what is now known as the Ganges Harbour Walk project may face a number of hurdles, but a small group of citizens isn’t short on enthusiasm to overcome them. 

At an ASK Salt Spring session dedicated to the topic on Friday, Jan. 20, attendees heard about the desire for serious movement on the project, which is now in the hands of the Capital Regional District (CRD), and the launch of a website at gangesharbourwalk.com. 

The Chamber of Commerce-led committee aims to raise public awareness about the project, facilitate fundraising and push the CRD and other bodies to keep it moving forward.

“There’s too much history and not enough action,” said Darryl Martin, a committee member and past president of the chamber, in introducing the other speakers and the rationale for the new committee being formed.

The chamber became involved when the late Matt Steffich was a board member and pushed to get the long-abandoned vision rekindled again in 2014. The result was formation of the Ganges Harbour Walk Steering Committee under the umbrella of the Salt Spring Parks and Recreation Commission (PARC) and CRD, which Steffich chaired. It saw engineering and environmental assessments of the existing harbour walk infrastructure undertaken in 2017 and 2018, with a report completed by Salt Spring-based Aqion Water Technologies Ltd. 

At that time, Steffich stated at a steering committee meeting: “There is no deal breaker in this report.”

Efforts then shifted to determining how to acquire the needed rights-of-way from upland property owners. But the pandemic, other CRD priorities and Steffich’s death in June of 2020 combined to prevent the committee from meeting for more than two years. 

The most recent official action of that committee was a November 2022 recommendation that the CRD seek a consultant to work with community stakeholders and upland owners and develop detailed designs for two areas: a harbour walk structure on the foreshore connecting Rotary Marine Park and a CRD park area near the corner of Upper and Lower Ganges roads; and a roadside pathway on the harbour side of Lower Ganges Road running from the intersections with Rainbow Road and with Upper Ganges Road. 

Karla Campbell, the senior CRD manager for Salt Spring, said Monday that the design contract has not yet been issued or posted. 

The group leading Friday’s ASK Salt Spring session is not affiliated with the CRD committee, although Martin sits on it as a representative of the chamber. 

Bruce Cameron said he first got involved due to Steffich’s enthusiasm for the idea. Through his Salt Spring Insights public opinion research, he found that 92 per cent of people queried in 2022 supported the harbour walk concept as a community priority. In the survey it was described as one that would go from the Beachside building next to Ganges Alley all the way to Moby’s Pub. That’s what the chamber committee would ultimately like to see.

“Ninety-two per cent — that’s almost unheard of on Salt Spring, right?” 

How the harbour walk project would be financed is an unanswered question at this point. Some funds would be available through the Community Works Fund (gas tax), the ASK meeting heard, but it’s likely a referendum to provide borrowing authority would be required. 

Robin Williams, a past SSITC chair who has sat on both the CRD and chamber harbour walk committees, said people should not discount the impact of a community appeal, like the one that raised several million dollars for the new hospital emergency department.  

“I am regularly shocked with the support that the community puts behind things,” he said. 

In acknowledging the project’s challenges, Cameron recounted how a friend of Steffich’s told him, “You know, Matt wouldn’t be hung up on ‘We have to do this and we have to do that piece . . . He would say, ‘Listen, at least this is a first step. Let’s get this first step done. Because with the first step, you’re starting the journey. And you’ve actually got a destination in mind.’”

The group hopes community members will connect with them via the new gangesharbourwalk.com website. It includes a video that alternates footage of existing moss-covered, unmaintained parts of the boardwalk project built in the late 1980s, the overall area where a new structure could be constructed, and architectural images of what the harbour walk could look like. There’s also a link to a GoFundMe page for donations to the cause. 

Cameron said the website content will be “driven by the community. Anything and everything that’s said about this harbourwalk, whether it’s feasible or not, will be posted on there . . . It’s really about education and oversight. And I think it’s long past time for some community oversight on this, given the inaction that we’ve seen.” 

The Ganges Harbour Walk Steering Committee currently reports to PARC, but it will be part of Salt Spring Island Local Community Commission responsibilities once that body is created after election of four commission members at the end of May.

Park-area residents blinded by new light glare

Gail Sjuberg
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Park-area residents blinded by new light glare

A streetlight bulb replacement program has let more light shine on Salt Spring roads in recent weeks, but the results have been overwhelming for residents of Vesuvius Bay Road who live across from the entrance to Portlock Park.  

Jill and William Schulze have had their sleep disturbed as their home now fills with bright light from a 114-watt streetlight bulb installed earlier this month. 

“The light impacts our entire property and has made it impossible to sleep in the bedrooms facing the road, even with blackout blinds. It also has an impact on our farm animals,” said Jill Schulze.  

BC Hydro did the bulb replacements, but under the direction of the Capital Regional District (CRD), which is in charge of streetlight services. Two different wattages are available, said Schulze, with the 114-watt level appropriate “for areas like the Pat Bay Highway.” The other main option is a 75-watt bulb, which has been used in most other places, including just down the road from the Schulze home at the four-way stop intersection at Central. 

Schulze said, half-jokingly, that a person could read a book without their glasses under the light outside her home at midnight. 

She feels the CRD didn’t do their research in making the choice of bulbs, with the brighter ones not appropriate for areas close to homes. She said they have been bounced back and forth between the CRD and BC Hydro since first making the complaint.  

“We have asked for the streetlight to be removed but the CRD refuses, so we have requested a 39-watt 3,000-Kelvin bulb be used in front of what is a day-use park with no accident history.” 

Karla Campbell, the senior manager for the CRD on Salt Spring, told the Driftwood the residents’ concern about the light across from Portlock Park is being reviewed. 

Streetlight bulb replacement is occurring all over the province, with new LED bulbs, which are more energy-efficient, being used. As well, federal regulations were enacted in 2008 requiring all light ballasts containing poly-chlorinated biphenyls greater than 50 ppm to be removed by the end of 2025, the BC Hydro website explains.

In addition to the 75- and 114-watt differences, 4,000- and 3,000-Kelvin options are used, with the latter producing a softer light.

Schulze said the issue has been raised by a number of communities on Vancouver Island, where the brighter lights were installed in residential or rural areas. 

Campbell said the Salt Spring Island Transportation Commission passed a motion in May of 2021 “to ensure the street lighting be replaced with the lowest, most yellow — softest — wattage possible to keep with the rural character of the island and to add night shields where possible.”

Let’s hire the pigeons to take on evil drug cartels and ‘Big Courier’ 

Shilo Zylbergold
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Let’s hire the pigeons to take on evil drug cartels and ‘Big Courier’ 

You might have missed it, but a twisted piece of weirdness went down just before New Year’s Eve a few weeks ago. 

Apparently, prison guards at the Pacific Institution, a minimum, medium and maximum federal penitentiary in Abbotsford, discovered a pigeon strutting its stuff near the inmate unit yard within the prison walls. Now, when I say pigeon, I don’t mean a “stool pigeon,” a term used to describe a police informer placed inside prison bars whose job is to snitch on bona fide inmates. No, I’m talking about a real pigeon with two legs, a pair of wings, and a feathered tail.

What’s so weird about seeing a bird hopping about in a prison yard, you ask? Nothing really, except this pigeon happened to have a homemade backpack strapped to its body, inside of which were stuffed 30 grams of crystal meth. It’s difficult to estimate the value of the pigeon’s contraband, but if it were sold by the dose on the streets of Vancouver, it could be worth as much as $3,000. That’s not exactly chicken scratch for these narco pigeons turned drug “mules” who have flown the so-called coop.

As it turned out, after a fair bit of chasing around [imagine the Three Stooges], the guards were finally able to corner the pigeon and relieve it of its payload. And for you bird fanciers out there in the reading public, you’ll be happy to know that the offending pigeon, after receiving a severe lecture and having its backpack confiscated, was let fly without any charges being laid.

What this criminal incident demonstrates is just the thin edge of the wedge of how modern high tech is being replaced by an old “technology” that was supposed to have been made obsolete. In the case of smuggling drugs across borders and into prisons, the use of drones had been the method of choice for the last decade or so. However, noise detection methods and newer remote interception strategies employed by law enforcement bodies have severely cut into the business of smuggling by drone.

Enter the pigeon. Scientifically classified as Columba livia, our little pigeon has long been a party to nefarious activities. For centuries now, during times of armed conflict, they were often sent back and forth between battle lines and headquarters as a means of communicating messages and secret codes to participating sides. Their homing instinct, that innate genetic coding which allows the bird, using a combination of smell and magnetoreception (navigation using the Earth’s magnetic fields) to fly up to 1800 kilometres in order to find its original nesting spot.

It’s no small wonder, therefore, that our little cooing dove has been pigeonholed by criminal minds to do the dirty work of transporting narcotics and other illicit substances beyond the watchful eyes of controlling agencies. Here’s the math. Carrier pigeons can carry up to 10 per cent of their body weight when in flight. A 500-gm bird could therefore carry a payload of 50 grams. That could translate to $5,000 worth of cocaine for a single trip!

The recent pigeon hijinks in Abbotsford is a local incident, but this type of smuggling is trending internationally. The first recorded instance of this illegal activity involving homing pigeons flying drugs into penal institutes occurred at several prisons in Russia in 2006. Since then, similar shenanigans have been pulled off in countries as diverse as Costa Rica and Kuwait.

It’s not difficult to understand why the drug lords prefer to use pigeons instead of motorized drones. We have already made mention of the reduction in noise output due to the pigeon’s lack of propeller and motor. Add to this the pleasant aesthetics imparted by the soft cooing sounds accompanied by the gentle flutter of feathered wings, plus the much cheaper start-up and maintenance costs, and you can understand why nine out of 10 narcotic smugglers choose the carrier pigeon for their deliveries.

Mind you, there is that little problem of the mess these pigeons leave behind as they tend to their business. In-transit rest stops, which most commonly take the form of civic statues and national monuments, show definite signs that flocks of carrier pigeons have come to earth for a well-deserved flight intermission as well as a lightening of the proverbial load. According to our London cousin they are known as “flying rats” due to their numbers and odiferous debris.

What puzzles me is what do these pigeons get out of this smuggling business? Certainly, they should be able to cut a better deal for all their hard work and dangerous risk-taking than a handful of birdseed and a thank you very much. Yes, it’s high time these birds of a feather organized themselves.

Why not? If you want to take on the drug cartels and Big Courier like FedEx, UPS and Amazon, you have to have strength in numbers. No more fly-by-night operations and triple shift work, to say nothing about working with the criminal element. Say goodbye to dangerous working conditions and no holiday pay. From now on, it will be “Power to the Pigeons” with a strong pension plan, weekly study sessions and a policy of work to rule. If that isn’t enough, there’s always the threat of mounting a national aerial march on Parliament Hill where tens of thousands of Columba livia members and their affiliates fly in formation, à la Snowbirds or Blue Angels aerobatic teams, to Ottawa to leave their mark on the capital. Alternately, for the right price, they could switch sides, provide crown evidence to CSIS and actually become “stoolies,” the slur that for so long has smudged their reputations.

And why stop at just pigeons? Once UPS (United Pigeon Service) is up and flying, I’m sure that eagles and seagulls will want to get in on the action. Heavy bulk freight operations could be funnelled to the Canada geese wing of the movement.

Let’s not leave out chickens. These free rangers could be responsible for cornering the slower overland routes. What did you think were in those egg cartons anyway? At last we’ll know that the answer to the age old question of “why did the chicken cross the road?” is “to get to the other side of the prison fence.”

Nobody asked me, but drug smuggling could take on a whole new look if our feathered friends flock together and exercise their creative power. Gone will be the days when a single pigeon can be chased around a prison yard, frisked, and then strip-searched. It will be the pigeon who calls the shots. 

And when it has done its delivery, it will leave through the front gates on its own little feet and in its own sweet time. And it will take along its reusable backpack too.

Director summarizes CRD and housing initiatives

Contributed Article
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Director summarizes CRD and housing initiatives

By GARY HOLMAN, CRD Director

The following is a summary of community projects and initiatives underway this next term — through 2026 — in which the Capital Regional District (CRD) has or can play a role. 

Affordable Housing

Construction and planning of new affordable housing will continue on a number of properties already designated or zoned for that purpose. BC Housing’s supported housing on Drake Road and the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation’s Seabreeze Inne for health workers will be completed. CRD will prove additional water supply on, and has leased to BC Housing, the entire Drake Road site, which has significant additional development potential. CRD is also working with the Dragonfly proponents on Drake Road to establish a water utility, allowing this owned, worker housing project to proceed. 

The Lookout Society has purchased the Land Bank’s Dean Road property and is now renovating it for additional tenants. Lookout is also exploring other possible opportunities on Salt Spring Island. Another NGO has an accepted offer on the Land Bank’s Rainbow Road property and is undertaking the due diligence necessary to hopefully complete the purchase and begin re-development of the site. GISRA is re-designing its Meadow Lane project, which can begin once the temporary accommodation for Seabreeze tenants at this site is no longer needed.

The six projects and properties outlined above could provide more than 200 affordable and supported housing units, many of whose tenants and owners will also be working in our community. Most of these projects will prioritize Salt Spring residents, which means they will also free up existing rental housing. Provincial and senior governments are continuing their substantial investments in affordable housing from which Salt Spring will continue to benefit. The CRD will also renew its regional housing program, which together with BC Housing and CMHC committed $120 million to affordable housing last term. I’ll continue supporting gas tax funding for housing-related infrastructure (particularly potable water alternatives in the North Salt Spring Waterworks District’s moratorium area), continue advocating for inclusion of Salt Spring Island in the Speculation and Vacancy Tax program, and work with our local homeless shelter and housing council to help secure permanent funding.   

Community Infrastructure

There are a number of important CRD-supported infrastructure projects that will be completed this term, most importantly a new fire hall and a new emergency room at Lady Minto Hospital. The middle school — now called the Salt Spring Island Multi Space (SIMS) — leased by CRD from the school district, is now providing affordable rental space for a number of community organizations, including our local emergency program. If longer-term tenure can be secured, the feasibility of relocating CRD administration and building inspection offices (now paying commercial rents) to SIMS can be examined. 

The feasibility of re-purposing the Ganges fire hall property will also be undertaken this term. 

Upgrading of the geothermal system by CRD at our public library will allow its use as a summer cooling centre. I’ll continue supporting gas tax funding to improve the climate resiliency of our community halls and refurbishing of our arts facilities. 

The Maliview sewage treatment plant will be rebuilt to ensure regulatory compliance, and continued improvements and an assessment of treated water reclamation at the Ganges plant undertaken. Lower-cost on-island disposal of our liquid waste will be evaluated and implemented. 

The first large-scale composting facility on Salt Spring will be completed, initially selling soil amendment to Burgoyne Community Farm operators, and ultimately marketing them more broadly. The fire district and CRD are collaborating on FireSmart initiatives, including chipping as an alternative to burning, which can also provide feedstock for the composting facility. 

The Root facility on Beddis Road will be fully operational, increasing Salt Spring’s local food storage and production capacity. The CRD stormwater service will continue to fund water storage tank rebates administered by the Transition Salt Spring Society.

The repaving of Ganges hill to Cranberry Road, with widened shoulders for cyclists and pedestrians, will be completed, serving as a model for completing the Salish Sea Trail route. The Ganges active transportation plan and an inter-agency working group for the Fulford terminal will facilitate pedestrian and cycling safety improvements in these villages. 

The Merchant Mews pathway, designed by Island Pathways, will be built. Detailed designs for completion of sidewalks on Rainbow Road and fronting Ganges Harbour, as well as detailed designs for the Ganges Harbourwalk will also be completed. We will also be expanding our transit system and EV charging infrastructure if provincial funding can be secured to match the already available local contribution. 

The recent shared daycare/recreation additions at the pool will be fully utilized. Other recreation-related projects will include continued swimming pool repairs, upgrading of Centennial Park, development of the management plan for the Salt Spring Community Park on Mount Maxwell, and detailed designs for bus storage/charging and a new PARC maintenance facility on Kanaka Road.    

Note that completion of detailed designs and costing aren’t “just more studies.” They are required for infrastructure grant applications and other fundraising. Salt Spring has been very successful in accessing infrastructure funding, securing over $30 million in regional, provincial and federal grant funding commitments in recent years for a number of housing, infrastructure and other initiatives, most of which are summarized above.

Governance / Service Delivery

A sea change in CRD governance will be implemented this term with the election of a local community commission (LCC) on May 27. An elected LCC, which includes the CRD director, will broaden CRD representation and take over the services now overseen by Salt Spring’s four, island-wide appointed commissions, thus consolidating and improving accountability for CRD service delivery. I hope that voters elect commissioners who are dedicated to collaborative decision-making and getting things done for our community. The LCC will conduct their regularly scheduled, public meetings in the SIMS building. 

Another key service delivery issue to be addressed this term will be to secure consistent funding for some of our amazing NGOs to revitalize Ganges, promote local food production, take action on climate, and facilitate affordable housing options. Inter-agency working groups will also be convened to explore community safety, better management of Ganges Harbour, and planning of seniors care facilities on the Lady Minto/Greenwoods site. 

As always, contact me at directorssi@crd.bc.ca with any questions or comments.

Fulford Harbour crabbers coming up empty

Robb Magley
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Fulford Harbour crabbers coming up empty

Squinting into the sun, Robert Reinhardt thinks he’s spotted another boat pulling alongside one of his crab pots. 

“Wouldn’t that be something,” he says excitedly, and noses his boat out of Fulford Harbour, burying the throttle.  

Reinhardt is captain and crew, owner and operator of “Fishes Wish” boat charters, and today heads out under a midwinter blue sky. He’s in the usually upbeat business of creating great memories for vacationers — mostly in the summer, but increasingly over the cooler, wetter months. When weather and regulations permit, his days are often filled shuttling hopeful tourists between his favourite fishing spots, hooking salmon — or not hooking them, as the case may be.  

Today, the business is a little more sombre; he’s on the lookout for crab poachers. 

When it comes to crab fishing, the west side of Fulford Harbour might be the worst-kept secret in the Southern Gulf Islands. The sea floor here boasts vast underwater forests of eelgrass, at just the right depth for Dungeness crab to thrive; indeed, the popularity of the harbour among commercial crabbers led to years of overharvesting, and at one point pushed Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to halt crab fishing altogether. 

As the Dungeness population recovered, restrictions were relaxed to allow non-commercial harvests, delighting local crab lovers. Opinions vary as to whether Fulford’s “Dungees” are sweeter than those hauled up elsewhere, but Salt Spring Islanders fully embraced the return of recreational allowances. There are dozens of floats speckling the water today, and while the brimming-full overnight pots of the past haven’t fully returned, a good “soak” for several days will still bring in the daily limit.  

But evidence of poaching has put local crabbers on edge; weekend pot-pullers are worried their laid-back practices are being exploited. Traps that aren’t checked as often are coming up curiously empty, sometimes with access panels unlatched.  

“It was very consistent until this past summer,” said Reinhardt. “That’s when we started finding weird things, like only one trap would have crabs and another two wouldn’t have anything.” 

The empty traps would have suspiciously clean lines connecting them to their respective buoys; generally, even after just a few days, a layer of biological growth builds up on the rope. 

“If I check a line I haven’t checked for a while, and it’s got no growth on it,” said Reinhardt, “I know — especially if it’s summer — I know someone’s pulled it.” 

Reinhardt’s wire traps, like many out in Fulford, are heavier than one might expect; no small percentage of recreational crabbers on Salt Spring are former commercial fishers, and even though they’re now harvesting at recreational limits — four crab per day, two traps per fisher — they’re partial to heavy-duty equipment designed to last multiple seasons.  

“It’s not someone going out in a rowboat from Fulford,” said Reinhardt. “They’re going to need a mechanized way to pull these up.” 

Crab poaching’s effect on the tourist economy here is surprisingly direct, an aftershock of restrictions put in place to protect a different sort of visitor. In recent years, large stretches of the Salish Sea have been closed to salmon fishing when the first Southern Resident Killer Whales are spotted each summer — off the west and south coasts of North Pender, South Pender and Saturna islands, as well as between Prevost and Mayne. While the orca are fishing, people have to try their luck elsewhere, usually until the end of October. 

Retired fishing guide Sean Hart said for small-scale charter fishing operations on Salt Spring, a loop back to a full crab pot made for a good end to the day for a client who might otherwise be going home empty-handed. 

“We have limited fishing here, with the restrictions in the summer months,” said Hart. “Sometimes one of the only things these guests are going to take home with them is a couple of crab for dinner. It’s tough to swallow when they all come up dry.” 

Hart still drops his own crab traps in Fulford Harbour, and said the resource there is a special one. 

“I’ve crabbed all over the Gulf Islands, and it’s just been beaten up so hard commercially, it’s really hard to find them anywhere,” said Hart. “Fulford is one of the only spots we have locally that isn’t open to commercial fishing. Then just all of a sudden, this last year we’ve been noticing our traps have been pulled, gates left open, bait cups missing — and obviously, no crabs.” 

Today, the suspicious-looking boat Reinhardt sighted by his traps is just passing through. Relieved, he re-tells a story of the old days, when “poaching” sometimes just meant an anonymous neighbour had emptied out your pot, but left behind a six-pack of beer.  

“At least they left something in the trap,” chuckles Reinhardt. “But now I’m getting concerned about the numbers, because if they’re working more frequently than we are, that’s obviously going to impact crab populations.” 

A check of DFO’s published data suggest convictions for crab offences under the Fisheries Act are relatively rare — there were three in the province in 2022, each resulting in a $345 ticket for retaining undersized crab.  

It’s difficult to spot a crab poacher, unless they’re doing something obviously illegal, like working in a restricted area, or setting and hauling traps at night. In the past, people on shore recognized boats and even trap buoys, and would call owners if they spotted someone hauling a friend’s trap, or anything else suspicious. But there were plenty of Dungeness to go around.  

Today, suspicion is in better supply than crab. 

“Yesterday I was just going out fishing,” said Reinhardt. “I saw some guys speeding away from the traps, and I’m like ‘Oh, I wonder if that guy just poached me.’ It’s so hard to know, right?” 

DFO has a phone and online reporting system for violations of Fisheries Act regulations — the Observe, Record and Report or “ORR” system — which can be accessed by calling 800-465-4336 or by email at DFO.ORR-ONS.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca. DFO also suggests anyone who has had their equipment destroyed or stolen should report the incident to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 

McIntyre on world championship cheer team

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McIntyre on world championship cheer team

By MARCIA JANSEN

As a teenager, Darby McIntyre was one of the best gymnasts in our country. Since studying at the University of Victoria, she has found a new passion: cheerleading. 

McIntyre’s skill and passion recently contributed to the Vikes cheer team winning gold at the University World Cup Cheerleading Championships. 

The Salt Spring woman  and her teammates trained for the world championships for over two years, as the event was cancelled two years in a row due to the pandemic. In Disney World from Jan. 13 to 15, the Vikes not only won their all-girls team division, but also the Nations Cup, awarded to the highest-scoring team out of all 15 teams from around the globe. 

“It is crazy, I still can hardly believe it,” said the 23-year-old McIntyre. “We didn’t have any expectations going there. Our coaches wanted us to just do well and get experience at this level. At the first day of the event, which is an exhibition, we saw our competition and we hoped that we could make the top three.” 

On the second day, the Vikes team pulled off a technically perfect routine, which was rewarded by the judges without any deductions. 

“We had an amazing routine and made no mistakes, but when we heard that we won, I was definitely in shock,”  she said.

McIntyre, born and raised on Salt Spring Island, competed as a gymnast at a national level. She commuted daily to Duncan to train, but retired from gymnastics in 2017 to focus on her last year of high school. 

After a gap year, when she coached gymnastics on Salt Spring Island, McIntyre started at the University of Victoria. With one more year to go, she is completing a major in Psychology and a minor in Indigenous Studies.  

“I started playing softball in my first year, but when I was at Thunderfest, the kick-off festival of the school year, the softball booth was right across from the cheerleading booth. I recognized a girl who was also in gymnastics and she told me to come to the try-outs.” 

McIntyre made the team and eventually chose cheer over softball.  

“Cheer is just a better fit for me. I love how I can incorporate my gymnastic skills in cheerleading. It has a lot of similarities to gymnastics, but it is also very different. Gymnastics is such an individual sport, and now I am working towards goals as a team. It is so special when you can share your successes with others.” 

In the squad, McIntyre is one of the main “bases” and “pyramid posts,” which means that she has one or two girls on her shoulders and lifts flyers into the air. 

“When we form a pyramid, I am at the bottom,” McIntyre explained. “The back bases are usually the tallest girls, the main bases are a little bit less tall, and the flyers are the lightest girls. I also do a lot of tumbling, which was my best event in gymnastics.” 

 The Vikes Cheer Club is undefeated in B.C. since 2017. The next big event for the team is the B.C. provincial championships on March 4-5 in the Victoria Conference Centre.

McIntyre is looking forward to it: “Our goal is to keep winning!”  

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