SUBMITTED ARTICLE

A bold experiment in alternative education on Saturna Island in the late 1960s and early ’70s is one of 10 that have been put under the microscope in a new book by Vancouver historian and retired educator Harley Rothstein.

Titled Alternative Schools in British Columbia 1960–1975: A Social and Cultural History (FriesenPress, 2024), Rothstein’s book tells the inside story of 10 ambitious B.C. schools that represented a broader countercultural movement against conventional education. Among these was the Saturna Island Free School, billed by its founder Tom Durrie as “the most radical free school in North America.”

Established in 1968 by Durrie and a few fellow teachers in a run-down 1890s farmhouse on 28 acres of rolling meadow and forest, the Free School housed up to two dozen students aged five to 17 at a time until its closure in 1971.

School staff were young, “chosen for their belief in human nature as a positive force,” and mostly worked unpaid; education was seen as a 24-hour informal project. There were few rules and no obligatory lessons, regular hours, or grading, but abundant opportunities to play, explore, discuss, question and create.

The Saturna Island Free School’s unusual approach generated intense interest from media, educators, politicians, authorities and the arts community. Durrie became a sought-after speaker on the alternative-education conference circuit, and a steady stream of visitors came to stay and observe his school in action. But while Durrie welcomed most visitors, he strongly discouraged requests from students of education.

“When people talk about methods and techniques I am at a loss to know how to answer because we simply do not think in those terms,” he wrote to one. “Since we don’t have classes here there would be little opportunity to observe teaching in progress.”

For some students, the Free School was a positive formative experience that developed their social skills, creativity and sense of agency. For others, it was an academic setback at best. Drawing on dozens of interviews with the school’s former students and teachers, Rothstein offers a frank and comprehensive account of what really happened at the Saturna Island Free School — and how its ideals ultimately collided with financial realities, ill-equipped staff, prejudice and well-founded concerns about student safety and academic effectiveness.

“My interviews with Saturna Island Free School students and teachers yielded many surprising stories,” said Rothstein, who also sourced more than 70 photos of B.C.’s alternative schools.

The book is available in digital and hard copy formats from books.friesenpress.com.

For more information about Rothstein, visit harleyrothstein.ca.

The following is a compilation of news bites from Driftwood coverage of events through the 12 months of 2025. See the print version in the Dec. 31 issue of the Driftwood for the following text and photos that highlight other happenings.

JANUARY

• Salt Spring’s first baby of 2025 wasted no time in arriving, as Luna Meadow Moshonas was born on Jan. 1 at 9:49 a.m. to parents Chrissy Courtney and Greg Moshonas and big brother Tycho.

• BC Assessment pegged the “typical” Gulf Islands home at $857,000, a roughly one per cent recovery from last year’s $850,000 number, which had represented a three per cent drop from 2023’s $874,000. But that dollar value seemed increasingly uncoupled from most islanders’ reality, as Salt Spring’s non-waterfront properties’ assessed values dropped 1.2 per cent, representing a 0.3 per cent fall among so-called single-family dwellings and a 2.3 per cent decrease in strata homes’ values.

• The new year began with Blackburn Road blocked to through traffic near the Sunrise Place intersection after heavy rain at the end of December resulted in flooding that caused erosion under the asphalt. The road remained closed at the end of the year.

• A south-end blaze destroyed a fifth-wheel trailer home on Jones Road on the evening of Jan. 7, with some 20 Salt Spring Island Fire Rescue members on scene for about four hours, and 4,000 gallons of water used to extinguish the blaze. No one was home at the time of the fire.

• North Salt Spring Waterworks District (NSSWD) CAO Mark Boysen reported that the district had submitted the $14.6-million Maxwell Lake plant and the $1.78-million Crofton Road pump upgrade as part of a grant funding request with the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund. If successful, that funding could cover up to 40 per cent of the projects and lessen the borrowing ask to ratepayers this year. No response had been received by the end of the year.

• An appeal to save Salt Spring’s Options for Sexual Health (Opt) clinic was launched. The local site was among several in B.C. threatened with closure due to a lack of funding from the provincial government. Opt board members sent a letter to Premier David Eby to request additional funding and urged supporters to add their own voices to the conversation by contacting their MLAs to ask them to support the funding request. A further year’s funding was ultimately guaranteed by the government.

• Saanich-Gulf Islands MP Elizabeth May told a crowd of about 100 people at her community meeting on Salt Spring Island that a federal Conservative party win was not inevitable in the next election, despite what polls and the media were reporting at the time. May came to the island fresh off a recent round of social media popularity, as various online users shared video clips from a Jan. 3 Parliament Hill press conference, where, among other jabs, she offered U.S. President-elect Donald Trump a counteroffer to his Canada-as-51st-state rhetoric, suggesting “maybe California would like to be the 11th province.” 

• ASK Salt Spring hosted the first of its monthly Restorative Dialogue Circles, led by members of Salt Spring’s Restorative Justice group. 

“These circles are not about winning arguments or finding quick solutions; they are about creating space to hear diverse perspectives, reflect together and build bridges across differences,” stated the group. Twenty-two community members participated in the first session on Jan. 10. 

• Armed with the lessons of history –– and with early results from recent local polling data –– NSSWD trustees set May 8 as the date for ratepayers to cast ballots on borrowing $11.7 million for a Maxwell Lake water treatment project mandated by Island Health.

• The BC Parks Foundation was successful in fundraising to purchase a 372-acre waterfront parcel at the southeasternmost tip of Saturna Island for conservation purposes. The undeveloped property boasted nearly three kilometres of coastline and hundreds of acres of marine ecosystems, old-growth trees and Garry oak meadows. An unnamed family had pledged to match $500,000, which left the rest of the remaining $1 million left to be raised from the public before a Feb. 5 deadline, according to foundation CEO Andy Day.

FEBRUARY

• On Feb. 7 Salt Spring welcomed Rob Botterell, the newly minted MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, as he seemed comfortable ticking off one campaign promise almost right away: to participate in an ASK Salt Spring circle. Botterell held the contested seat for the BC Greens in the October 2024 election, after incumbent Adam Olsen’s June announcement that he would not be seeking re-election.  

Botterell said his personal priorities included improving access to primary care via the community health centre model; a substantial investment in non-market housing, with a target of 7,500 units this year; and a commitment to work collaboratively to “permanently protect” the Fairy Creek watershed, which he said he was already working on.

• Salt Spring’s two social enterprise thrift stores were reaching out for community support after learning that Diabetes Canada would no longer come to the island to pick up the stores’ clothing discards. 

Transitions Thrift Store and the Lady Minto Hospital Auxiliary (LMHA) Thrift Shop were informed at the beginning of January — as was the Salt Spring Recycle Depot, which has hosted a Diabetes Canada bin for clothing recycling since 2016 — that Feb. 24 would be the final monthly visit by the organization’s five-ton truck. The change meant both shops would need to ensure all donated clothing was in sellable condition.

• Islands Trust Council chair Peter Luckham announced Feb. 11 that he would be stepping down both from that leadership position and as chair of the Trust’s Executive Committee effective March 11. Luckham said he would continue to serve as a trustee for Thetis Island, where he was first elected in 2005. He had chaired Trust Council since 2014, acting as the body’s primary spokesperson. 

• At first mistaken for a sunken vessel, police on Pender Island said an SUV spotted in the water 50 feet from shore there accidentally drove down the boat launch in Thieves Bay, and that the vehicle’s only occupant — the driver — was later found uninjured. Three youths called 911 around 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 16, according to Outer Gulf Islands RCMP, after they realized what they’d thought was a boat was actually a vehicle, sending police, Pender Island Fire Rescue and Coast Guard assets from Ganges to the scene. The driver’s door was found open, according to acting detachment commander Const. Marcel Taekema, which came as some relief to investigators as it suggested anyone who had been inside was likely able to escape. 

• Nearly two years after a relocation to Blackburn Road, the owner of an unpermitted kennel operation on Salt Spring was facing legal action from the island’s Local Trust Committee (LTC). A civil suit was filed with B.C.’s Supreme Court on Feb. 14 against SaltyDog Retreat owner Jaime Halan-Harris, asking the court for an injunction requiring she cease kennel operations and use of the 10-acre property for storage and accommodation of travel trailers and recreational vehicles in contravention of the island’s land use bylaw. The lawsuit also asked the court to order the removal of all buildings and structures used for the kennel, the trailers and the RVs, and for an award of court costs, although it did not seek damages. By June 15, Halan-Harris had removed all structures on the property and moved off the island.  

• Gulf Islands Secondary School (GISS) students defended their title and took home another win at the Canadian Improv Games’ Vancouver Island Regional Tournament in Courtenay on Feb. 15. The race was then on to raise funds to once more send students to join the top eight in Canada for the national event in Ottawa –– four days of shows, workshops and education in and around the National Arts Centre April 16-19 — where they finished fourth.

• Starting near the end of February, modular units stored on some Beddis Road land were transported to 161 Drake Rd., the property where a 36-unit BC Housing rental housing project was expected to be completed within six months.

• Salt Spring’s LTC delivered on early statements of support for a health care workforce housing effort, quickly lending approval to the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation’s (LMHF) rezoning application for 101 Bittancourt Rd., the former Seabreeze Inne. On Feb. 26 the Islands Trust Executive Committee gave its approval to the bylaw. 

• A seven-month investigation into a sailing journey that ended with the death of a Salt Spring Island couple concluded with evidence pointing toward an at-sea fire having occurred aboard their vessel. On Feb. 10, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada released its report, which included an assessment of data collected regarding the sailing vessel Theros, reported missing in June of last year after departing Halifax Harbour en route to the Azores. The bodies of Theros crew and well-known islanders Brett Clibbery and Sarah Packwood were discovered on July 10, 2024 in a dinghy washed up on the south side of Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia. Despite being fitted with an automatic identification system that transmitted the vessel’s location as late as June 13, the Theros was never found.

• Two Salt Spring gymnasts were making their mark in regional competition. Rylee Severn, 13, won gold on beam and floor, bronze on bars and fourth overall on vault and took home the gold medal in the Xcel Silver category at the Mount Arrowsmith competition in Port Alberni in early February. Rosemary Fehr, 9, won gold on floor, gold on vault, silver on bars, fifth overall on beam and overall gold in her category of Xcel Bronze at the Christy Fraser Memorial Invitational Competition in Langley on the Feb. 15 weekend. The two Salt Spring athletes train with the Duncan Dynamics Gymnastics Club. 

• Salt Spring Island Fire Rescue (SSIFR) passed its Fire Underwriters Survey tanker shuttle test in February, earning the department a “superior” level of tanker shuttle service. Fire Chief Jamie Holmes reminded the public to mention the accreditation when renewing or applying for house insurance, as it could result in lower insurance premiums. 

• Four Salt Spring residents were among 25 in the Saanich-Gulf Islands constituency who received prestigious King Charles III Coronation Medals in a Feb. 27 ceremony at Butchart Gardens, with a fifth awarded through a different process. Robert Bateman, Jean Gelwicks, Valdy and Ronald Wright joined some 30,000 Canadians deemed to have “made a significant contribution to Canada or their community, or who have achieved excellence abroad that brings credit to the nation,” explained an announcement from the office of MP Elizabeth May. Filmmaker Christine Welsh received a coronation medal from Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak, the national Métis women’s organization. 

MARCH

• The Salt Spring Film Festival celebrated its 25th anniversary on the Feb. 28 to March 2 weekend, with David Suzuki and Tara Cullis as special guests. Some 360 people attended the Friday night gala, up 18 per cent from 2024, with overall festival attendance up 16 per cent from the year before. 

• Islanders were supporting an island family whose four-year-old boy was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and receiving treatment at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. A GoFundMe campaign organized by friend Shael Lampard in March surpassed its $70,000 goal, with funds enabling the family to stay together in Vancouver while Jasper Danecke received treatment that continued throughout the year. 

• Salt Spring Island furniture designer and maker Peter Pierobon earned Canada’s top honour in fine craft when he was named the 2025 Saidye Bronfman Award winner as part of Governor General’s Awards announced March 5. 

• Salt Spring’s first Level-3 electric vehicle fast charger soft-launched in early March at the Mid Island Co-op “fuel bar” in Ganges. 

• The Capital Regional District (CRD) board was exploring “Anybody But U.S.” procurement options in response to tariff actions and other threats from the United States. In a pair of unopposed same-day-consideration motions, the board voted to task staff with rapid analyses of the potential impact of U.S./Canada tariffs on the work of that body, and of prioritizing Canadian-made products and services during the international trade dispute.  

• Salt Spring Island local trustee Laura Patrick was elected by Islands Trust Council members to be that body’s new chair, replacing outgoing three-term chair Peter Luckham in a vote among elected trustees. The secret balloting was launched near the start of Trust Council’s three-day quarterly meeting that kicked off March 11. Patrick won a simple majority vote over Mayne trustee David Maude and Lasqueti Island’s Tim Peterson.

• Islanders were marvelling at a freshly repaired and graded Mount Maxwell Road, making access to Mount Maxwell Provincial Park easier for all types of vehicles. Salt Spring’s Search and Rescue group had been among those lobbying for upgrades when an ambulance was unable to reach the park to transport an injured person in April of 2024 due to the poor road condition.

• Federal political parties were gearing up for an April 28 election campaign when Mark Carney, who became Canada’s 24th prime minister on March 14 after handily winning the Liberal leadership race to replace former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, asked Governor General Mary Simon to dissolve Parliament on March 23. 

• Four youth sailors from the Salt Spring Island Sailing Club spent their spring break competing with students from Mount Aspiring College in Wanaka, New Zealand. Izzi Pugh Aucoin, Malikaa Clement, Maeve FitzZaland and Reuben Sol travelled to New Zealand with their coach John Hillier and parent volunteer Anna Pugh. The group finished fourth in the Silver Fleet category after competing in 37 races over a three-day period.  

• Co-creators of The Hearth community hub, operated by the non-profit Chuan Society and housed in a portable building at the former Phoenix Elementary School, celebrated the success of a four-month trial run at a closing event held March 29 and expressed hope that the program could continue in an expanded space at the site when it was expected to come available later in the year. The Hearth resulted from a few years of urging that a “warming space” be established in Ganges during winter months for island residents without secure housing. The property is owned by School District 64 and was leased to the CRD for a five-year term in 2024.

APRIL

• Mahon Hall was filled with art and nature lovers on April 11 for the opening of the Unexpected Bateman Spring Art Show put on by the Salt Spring Arts Council and curated by Zoe Zafiris-Casey. Paul Crawford, the director/curator of the Penticton Art Gallery, who initiated the Robert Bateman retrospective and held a version of the show at his gallery in 2024, was among guest speakers, as well as Bateman and Quw’utsun cultural educator Hwiemtun (Fred Roland). A different Bateman show — titled Confluence and featuring artworks and more from the collection of Bateman and his wife Birgit Freybe Bateman — ran at ArtSpring in May.

• Seventeen individuals who had applied to become members of Island Community Services (ICS) in the fall of 2024 went public with a letter sent to the ICS board requesting acceptance of all member applications by the end of February and demanding a detailed rationale for rejecting any applicants. The board responded by advising that a membership committee was “actively working on a response to the applications that is fair, objective and consistent. The matter deserves the utmost care in deliberation, to which we are committed.” Several months later the board advised that membership criteria had been altered to require 20 hours of volunteer service with the society. 

• Salt Spring trustee Jamie Harris was barred from participating in the April 10 LTC meeting when a motion to waive meeting procedure rules and allow him to participate by Zoom did not pass. Harris had not attended a meeting in person since July 2024, stating that he had lost his housing on Salt Spring. The rules stipulate that trustees cannot attend two consecutive regular LTC meetings remotely if the meetings are held in person. Harris, who was elected in 2022 on a campaign to address the island’s housing crisis, declined public invitations to elaborate on his intentions or whereabouts.

• A High Ground Hike led by the Salt Spring emergency program on April 13 provided islanders with an opportunity to meet local emergency personnel, learn about disaster preparedness and get an on-the-ground look at the tsunami hazard zone that covers most of low-lying Ganges. 

• StageCoach Theatre School celebrated its 25th anniversary with its biggest ever production — Matilda the Musical JR. — as well as a gala event at ArtSpring and the establishment of the StageCoach Legacy Fund through the Salt Spring Island Foundation.

• Former Prime Minister Joe Clark was a Salt Spring Forum guest at Fulford Hall April 23, just one of several sold-out Forum events in 2025. 

• A Beaver Point Road home near Weston Lake was destroyed by fire on April 25, though no one was injured in the incident. Salt Spring Island Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Dale Lundy said firefighters raced to the scene after a caller reported dark grey smoke coming through a rooftop. 

• Elizabeth May of the Green Party of Canada was elected Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands for the fifth consecutive time in the April 28 federal election, earning 37.6 per cent of the vote. She was followed by Liberal party candidate David Beckham (31.8 per cent), Conservative party candidate Cathie Ounsted (25.1 per cent) and Colin Plant of the NDP with four per cent. Nationally, a total of 169 seats were filled by Liberal party candidates — three short of the 172 needed for a majority — with the Conservative party tallying 143 and the NDP seven. As the returning MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands, May was the sole Green in Parliament. 

MAY

• The government of B.C. rejected the Islands Trust Council’s latest request for a governance review. Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Ravi Kahlon laid out the province’s position in a two-page letter, noting that in the current uncertain climate, a focus on “services and choices that make an immediate and material difference, while managing within our means” was the government’s priority. Trust Council had requested the review in an October 2024 letter.

• NSSWD ratepayers approved borrowing of up to $11.7 million to construct a long-in-the-planning Maxwell Lake water treatment plant. The referendum passed with 74.3 per cent in favour. With 32.5 per cent of eligible voters casting ballots either by mail or in person on the May 8 referendum day, participation was at the highest level for any previous vote undertaken by the NSSWD, with 1,023 ballots cast by 3,143 eligible voters in the district. Twenty-seven ballots were deemed not acceptable, for a total of 996 eligible ballots: 740 voted in favour and 256 voted against the proposal. 

• Islands Trust staff decided not to grant a permit to a shoreline erosion mitigation project above Salt Spring’s Baker Beach, — delivering a setback to landowners/proponents who then appealed the decision to the island’s LTC. Staff’s objections to issuing the permit were technical, with the decision resting largely upon a checklist tallying whether guidelines for development within the development permit area were consistent with the language in Salt Spring’s official community plan. Homeowner Ethan Wilding had previously petitioned B.C.’s Supreme Court, asking that body to compel the LTC to issue a decision, claiming officials were taking too long to decide one way or another. Later in the year, Wilding and other homeowners filed a B.C. Supreme Court petition claiming that the LTC had overstepped its authority in crafting development regulations meant in part to protect marine environments, a power they claimed lies exclusively with the federal government. The case was heard in December with no judgement released by the end of the year.

• While Salt Spring drivers had become accustomed to frequent 20-minute waits to get through Ganges Hill road construction, a confluence of incidents on May 13 led to agonizing delays of up to 90 minutes. A concrete pour at the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation’s Bittancourt Road housing project, paving that occurred on Atkins Road and took that route out of commission, and water service work occurring at the Drake Road housing project added to regular delay times caused by one-lane alternating traffic being the norm for several months. 

• Salt Spring’s Local Community Commission (LCC) voted to enter into a 12-month lease with the Chuan Society for a portion of the former Phoenix Elementary School property, a move commissioners said was an important step toward community-building on Drake Road. The unanimous May 15 vote meant Chuan could build upon its wintertime pilot project known as The Hearth, the daytime gathering space for vulnerable community members it had run from the Phoenix property’s portable building. Chuan said it planned to operate a comprehensive “neighbourhood house” from the upstairs floor of the former school’s main building, creating a community gathering place with learning spaces, a kitchen, garden and pantry. The agreement would be in place for the next year, while the downstairs was occupied by CRD Parks and Recreation staff awaiting construction of their new Kanaka Road facility. 

• An injured hiker was rescued from the Burgoyne Bay side of Mount Maxwell on May 18 thanks to interagency cooperation and the Salt Spring Search and Rescue rope-rescue team.

• The May long weekend marked a special anniversary for the Salt Spring Island Sailing Club as it hosted its 50th Round Salt Spring Race. A fleet of more than 100 boats registered for the traditional 42-mile race around the island, or the shorter day race. The Round Salt Spring Race is now one of the biggest — as well as oldest — regattas in the Salish Sea, drawing competitors from Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland and Washington State. The annual Challenge Cup soccer tourney also took place on the same weekend.

• GISS tennis teams had impressive finishes at B.C. secondary school provincial championships held at St. Michael’s University School from May 22 to 24. The boys’ team finished fifth and the girls’ team ninth, with both teams qualifying for provincials through performances at the north Vancouver Island and overall Vancouver Island championships. The team received more than $1,000 to offset expenses through funds raised for the Salt Spring Tennis Association’s junior program at the annual Roy Rajsic tournament. 

• A record number of GISS students who graduated in 2024 received Youth Work in Trades awards of $1,000 at a May 23 event at GISS. Twelve students were recognized for completing the skilled trades apprenticeship program, and 18 had graduated as apprentices, the most in the program’s 20-year history.

• After more than a decade helping keep Salt Spring’s canines cared for while their families shopped at the Saturday Market, the island’s BC SPCA group announced that its Doggy Daycare program would not run this year due to a lack of volunteers.

JUNE

• A campaign to raise $600,000 to cover costs of the SȾÁUTW̱ (Tsawout) First Nation’s purchase of a 2.17-acre parcel of land on Menhinick Drive next to its existing reserve lands on the south end of Salt Spring kicked off June 3 with a special event at the reserve. The Salt Spring Island Foundation Land Back campaign was ultimately successful before the end of the year. 

• Owners of property in the Maliview Sewer Local Service Area (MSLSA) were facing a massive 30-year bill to pay for a mandated wastewater treatment plant upgrade which was finally close to going out for tender. On June 18 the MSLSA Commission of the CRD passed a motion to increase the long-in-the-works project budget by $1,726,000, from the $2,260,000 that was estimated in 2020 for expected completion in 2022 to $3,986,000 now. The additional funds will come from $47,000 in capital on hand and proposed new debt of $1,679,000. Ratepayer approval was required to authorize the borrowing, which would be forthcoming one way or another since the project had been mandated by the provincial and federal governments. An alternate approval process for the borrowing was passed in August.

• Hundreds of Gulf Islands electric vehicle (EV) owners were left feeling uniquely stranded by BC Ferries when the company made public a new internal policy prohibiting EVs that can’t drive themselves aboard. BC Ferries’ current interpretation of federal Transportation of Dangerous Goods regulations means if any of the islands’ estimated 1,000 electric cars, trucks or buses need a tow elsewhere to be serviced, they won’t be allowed on board any vessel within the ferry system. 

“We recognize this presents challenges for customers and commercial operators, particularly as EV adoption increases,” said BC Ferries senior communications advisor Sonia Lowe. “However, the safety risks associated with transporting damaged or potentially damaged high-voltage batteries, especially when the vehicle cannot be assessed under its own power, require a cautious approach.” 

• Salt Spring’s U13C girls fastpitch team finished in the top spot at a 24-team Vancouver Island regional championship tournament in Duncan on the June 14-15 weekend. 

• The Windsor Plywood Salt Spring store was honoured with the Randle Jones Award for Store of the Year out of 62 stores on June 20 at the Windsor Plywood Summit held in Vancouver.

• The second Indigenous Peoples Weekend kicked off with a teepee raising event on the lawn of ArtSpring June 20 and continued with some 20 different events organized through a grassroots community effort. The annual Tour des Îles inter-islands festival was also held on the same weekend.

• As a guest at ASK Salt Spring June 27, BC Ferries CEO Nicolas Jimenez confirmed that the corporation’s decision to homeport both new hybrid-electric Route 6 vessels at Crofton when two-ship service begins on that route in 2027 was a final one. 

“We made this decision, and there are lots of business reasons for it,” said Jimenez. “You may not agree with what we’re saying, and I respect that, but running a system as challenging as the one we’ve got, sometimes you make hard decisions that benefit most, but not all — because it’s better than the version of whatever operating parameters you have currently.” 

Locally elected officials’ efforts to change BC Ferries’ mind on the matter continued through the fall. 

• Provincial wildlife officials were keeping an eye on the north end of Salt Spring Island after multiple late-June sightings of a cougar spotted in broad daylight in a residential backyard. Cougars were seen in a yard on Booth Canal Road on June 20, on Maliview Drive June 25 and on Fernwood Road June 27. According to Salt Spring RCMP Sgt. Clive Seabrook, the BC Conservation Officer Service was notified.

“They are monitoring the situation,” said Seabrook, “but based on the cougar’s behaviour Conservation does not intend to take any action at this time.” 

JULY

• A 911 call warning of a structure fire — and an aircraft report of flames and black smoke rising above Salt Spring — sent firefighters racing up Mount Maxwell Road as part of a busy summer day for island fire crews. SSIFR Chief Jamie Holmes said no one was injured at the fire, which was reported around 6 p.m. July 7 and destroyed a 20-by-20-foot shed. Thanks to swift action by the homeowner and quick response by firefighters, the flames were contained to the structure and did not threaten the surrounding forest.

• Salt Spring’s LTC voted to uphold a staff decision that left a controversial shoreline erosion mitigation project at Baker Beach without development permits. 

• An unprecedented spike in manganese levels in the Highland/Fernwood Water Service Area prompted the CRD to issue a water quality advisory for the entire service area on July 11. Infants’ consumption of the water was the biggest concern, according to a public service announcement released by the CRD.

• Salt Spring’s Special Olympics BC swim team returned from Summer Provincial Games held in Prince George from July 10 to 12 with an impressive array of medals and placements. Dawn Hadler was awarded a gold medal in the 50m freestyle and a bronze in the 50m backstroke. Jason Newport earned a gold medal in the 50m freestyle and Carlos Manzano returned with a silver in the 50m freestyle and a bronze in the 50m backstroke. Deb McNaughton placed sixth in the 25m freestyle and seventh in both the 50m freestyle and the 50m backstroke.

• Family Place celebrated its 30th anniversary on July 30, hosting past and present families and staff, reaching back to those who facilitated and attended programs at the original location behind the Community Services building and those who have been a part of Family Place at the 120 Park Dr. location over the past 16 years.

• July ended on Salt Spring without a drop of rain falling, according to water district officials. Despite drizzle forecast for early August, unless things changed the island was likely headed toward further water restrictions — triggered as lake levels drop.

“Zero precipitation for the month of July is not the norm,” said NSSWD operations manager Ryan Moray, who presented data on island lake levels for district trustees at their meeting on July 31.

Customers of the island’s largest water provider had gone under Stage 3 water restrictions on July 14.

A calendar month without rain on Salt Spring Island is relatively rare. The driest month on record, according to Driftwood reporting, was August 1986, when no precipitation was recorded as part of what became a 58-day rain-free streak — although an 1898 drought was reported in the pages of the Salt Spring Island Parish and Home newsletter. 

AUGUST 

• An online fundraising effort was launched to help a Salt Spring family recover from injuries sustained in a B.C. Day long weekend head-on vehicle collision on Vancouver Island. Taryn and Allan Hancock and their daughter Sage were vacationing at Lake Cowichan when the crash occurred, with all three taken to Victoria General Hospital and Allan facing a long recovery from a shattered femur, among other serious injuries. The GoFundMe campaign launched by friends exceeded its $40,000 goal. 

• Just as traffic-weary Salt Spring drivers could see light at the end of the metaphorical tunnel for the Fulford-Ganges Road improvement project, another stretch of single-lane alternating traffic went into effect in mid-August on Fulford-Ganges Road between Blackburn Road and Horel Road West. Some $4.1 million in work by Windley Contracting Ltd. would begin on replacing the aging culvert beneath the roadway with a “hardened” bridge over Cusheon Creek that would be more resilient to severe weather. An automated traffic light was put in place to regulate the one-lane traffic flow. 

• Firefighters dealt with two reports of fireworks being set off during tinder-dry conditions, with one incident on Aug. 12 requiring 500 gallons of water to extinguish a grass fire at the Kanaka Skate Park. 

“There was a roughly 30-by-40-foot fire in the grassy area right by the skate park,” said SSIFR Deputy Chief Dale Lundy, “as a result of fireworks activity in very, very dry conditions.” 

The night before, multiple calls were received about fireworks being ignited on the west side of St. Mary Lake, but thankfully no flames took hold in the dry brush there. 

• A group that had been quietly working on improving Salt Spring Islanders’ access to health care went public with an update and urged residents without a family doctor to sign up on the Health Connect Registry. The Salt Spring Primary Care Network, part of the non-profit South Island Division of Family Practice, had been tasked with filling 11 full-time-equivalent physician, nurse and other health professional positions being funded by the provincial government.

• The Islands Trust began to eliminate publishing public notices in local newspapers, following on Trust Council approval of a model public notice bylaw that would allow LTCs to only publish meeting, application and bylaw notices on the Islands Trust website or its “social media page.” Salt Spring’s LTC stated it would continue to publish notices in the Driftwood newspaper for now. 

• An Aug. 12 incident on the Salish Heron saw passengers alarmed as the vessel lost an anchor while en route from Tsawwassen to Long Harbour. Passengers were rushed inside as smoke from the vessel’s anchor system brakes filled the air on the front deck of the boat, and “a massive shuddering of the vessel and a huge metallic screeching sound” were experienced. 

• The Photosynthesis group of photographers held their 25th-anniversary exhibition at ArtSpring from Aug. 20 to Sept. 2, with images by both current and some past members included in the show. 

• Organizers of a Pender Island concert with local youth band The Dip and indie rock star Mac DeMarco were thrilled to have raised $46,000 for Doctors Without Borders — $23,000 from ticket sales and donations and a matched amount from DeMarco, a newer Pender resident — at the Aug. 24 event held at Darcie and Alan Whittingham’s Camp Cowbell property.

• The Gulf Islands Open men’s singles tennis title went to 17-year-old Nate Kray-Gibson, who beat Mike Leksinski by scores of 6-2, 0-6 and 2-10 in the Salt Spring Tennis Association event held the last weekend of August at the Salt Spring Island Tennis Centre.

SEPTEMBER 

• The Farmers’ Institute welcomed thousands to the Salt Spring Fall Fair as usual on the Sept. 6-7 weekend, but to grounds with facilities that had been repainted and refreshed through a concerted effort by Friends of the Farmers’ Institute volunteers and others. As well, a new shed to shelter the institute’s growing collection of farm equipment was also nearing completion for the fair weekend. 

• The lithium battery in a charging e-bike was determined to be the cause of a Sept. 9 fire at a Fulford home. Fire Chief Jamie Holmes said firefighters and the homeowners were fortunate in that both a neighbour and a firefighter who lived nearby were able to get some water into the house through an exterior window, dousing most of the flames before they spread.

• A CRD director’s 11th-hour reduction to an LCC proposal to raise Salt Spring’s tax levy ceiling for transit services had driven a wedge between the island’s elected officials — leading LCC member Brian Webster to walk out of a meeting in protest. At the Sept. 10 CRD Board meeting, Salt Spring CRD director Gary Holman amended a recommendation from the LCC that had originally laid out a 78 per cent increase in the maximum levy for transit in 2026 to 25 per cent. Holman told board members that while he supported the larger maximum levy, he would not “sign off” on the higher number without explicitly consulting voters. The board defeated a motion to send the bylaw back to the LCC for further discussion, ultimately approving Holman’s amendment.

• Salt Spring’s annual Pride festival returned to its original month Sept. 11-14 after two years of Diverse and Inclusive Salt Spring Island hosting the festival with a camping component at the Farmers’ Institute in July. This year’s activities included the parade, potluck, workshops, dance and more. 

• Mouat’s Home Hardware store manager Maria Elsser was honoured with the company’s Canada-wide Women’s Inclusion Network award at a mid-September event in Toronto, selected for her “exceptional work in inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility.”

• The Drake Road supportive housing complex saw tenants move into their new homes in early September. The Lookout Housing and Health Society was chosen to manage the facility by BC Housing, which fully funded the project comprising 32 units of modular supportive housing and four units of affordable workers’ housing.

• Salt Spring’s Community Labyrinth was officially opened at its 710 Upper Ganges Rd. site on Sept. 13. The amenity came about thanks to the vision of a small group of women and support from the wider community. Total project cost was $26,000, with about one third raised through Salt Spring Island Foundation and Lions Club grants and the rest through individual donations. 

• A Sept. 14 brush fire on an uninhabited island just 500 metres from Salt Spring brought as many as 30 residents — and almost as many boats — to fight it with buckets, shovels and eventually a pump and hose, according to witnesses. After several calls for assistance and hours of hard work by local community members, the blaze that was started on Third Sister Island by some campers during a campfire ban period was fully extinguished.

• Volunteers with the Gulf Islands Community Radio Society (GICRS) saw their years of effort rewarded on Sept. 18 as CHiR-FM went live at 9 a.m. for a show co-hosted by GICRS president Damian Inwood and David Crouch, who would alternate morning show slots through the weekdays. 

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Inwood from the station’s location in a portable building on the Salt Spring Island Multi Space property the week before the launch. “When we applied for the [CRTC] licence in 2018, we never imagined it would be another seven years before we’d actually be able to do it,” he said, noting the Covid pandemic and other unexpected challenges slowed them down.

• An idea for cross-border connection launched by the Orcas Island Yacht Club and heartily supported by the Salt Spring Island Chamber of Commerce and others reached port on the Sept. 19-21 weekend as Salt Spring hosted an estimated 100 Orcas Islanders for the first Hands Across the Water festival. Events included a multi-vessel handshake greeting in Welbury Bay upon the U.S. visitors’ arrival, live music events, discussion groups, a pancake breakfast and more. Plans to create a “sister island” relationship were also initiated. 

• Salt Spring’s Mira Byron ran 45 laps — 170 kilometres (105 miles) — on a track in Duncan in a 24-hour race in a Victoria Hospitals Foundation fundraiser on Sept. 20. 

• The sixth biennial Salt Spring National Art Prize (SSNAP) Finalists Exhibition opened at Mahon Hall Sept. 27, highlighting works by 52 Canadian artists, including five from the Gulf Islands, chosen by an esteemed jury. The also-juried Parallel Art Show of works by Gulf Islands artists submitting to SSNAP ran at ArtSpring, and the first Salon des Refusés of works by Gulf Islands artists not chosen for either show ran at Salt Spring Gallery.

• The Salt Spring Island Conservancy marked its 30th anniversary with a special fundraising dinner featuring a keynote speech by award-winning scientist and environmental activist David Suzuki at Bullock Lake Farm on Sept. 27. 

OCTOBER

• As the academic year entered its seventh week, Gulf Islands School District (SD64) planners had yet to receive clarity from BC Ferries about how any of the electric school buses running on the islands might be transported off the island if repairs are needed. The ferry company’s abrupt shift in policy over the summer to deny boarding for electric vehicles being towed — saying BC Ferries would, as a safety precaution, refuse to transport any EV not able to drive onto a ferry under its own power — was a surprise to almost everybody, according to SD64 secretary treasurer Jesse Guy, who told trustees Oct. 8 the company had so far offered no solutions for the district. 

• One of Salt Spring’s most enduring musical traditions returned to Fulford Hall after a few years’ hiatus when the Salt Spring Folk Club (SSFC) packed the house for the Gumboot Gala on Oct. 19. Folk club co-founders Bill Henderson and Valdy had made the Gumboot Gala a regular part of the SSFC season since 1999, both performing themselves and welcoming various musical friends to join them on stage. Covid and other challenges put some gaps in the gala schedule in recent years, with the last two held in 2022 and 2019. The club also put out a call for a few volunteers with specific skills to join the board so the club could continue. 

• A change nearly two years in the making came to fruition with the CRD Board voting to pivot from a 35-year-old municipal ticketing system for minor infractions to one incorporating early case-by-case screening and an independent adjudicator. Specific to Salt Spring Island, per the new bylaw, those infractions would notably include contraventions of two so-called “rooster regulations” — Salt Spring Island Noise Suppression Bylaw No. 1, 2006, also known as CRD Bylaw 3384; and Animal Regulation and Impounding Bylaw No. 1, 1986, also known as CRD Bylaw 1465. 

• A dedicated past Greenwoods Eldercare Society board chair and educator on the island was honoured at an Oct. 2 dedication event for the Barb Aust Family Room at the Greenwoods long-term care facility. After approaching Greenwoods management about how she could support the residence, islander Rineke Jonker donated funds to help create the space for residents to meet with visiting family members and friends outside of their own rooms. 

• B.C.’s housing minister quietly visited Salt Spring to learn more about its housing needs and sat down with the island’s elected and unofficial representatives. Salt Spring CRD director Gary Holman said Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Christine Boyle was on-island for several hours Oct. 15, spending them in meetings with CRD and Islands Trust officials and community advocates. The informal visit was arranged by local MLA Rob Botterell.

• The sixth biennial Salt Spring National Prize (SSNAP) event concluded on the Oct. 18-19 weekend with $52,000 in awards disbursed, including the top prize going to a Salt Spring Island artist. Anna Gustafson’s text-based fibre work titled What George Said . . . , which references George Orwell and reinterprets a 1930s cross-stitch sampler originally made by the artist’s mother, won the $20,000 Joan McConnell Award, chosen by the jury of Mireille Eagan, Heather Igloliorte, Sarah Milroy and Kenneth Montague. Awards for both the SSNAP and Parallel Art Show exhibitions were given out at a gala evening held at ArtSpring.

• The Heartwood House facility for health care workers, owned by the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation, was celebrated at an open house event held Oct. 20. First occupants were expected in the new year.

• A second planned community information meeting on Salt Spring Island about the Islands Trust’s Policy Statement revision project was cancelled — technically postponed, according to that body’s communications staff — due to the BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) strike. The Oct. 22 meeting was the second disappointment for land use policy enthusiasts on Salt Spring, where a similar meeting scheduled for Oct. 18 had been postponed just days earlier. Similar meetings on Gabriola and Galiano islands were also cancelled. Unionized employees returned to work Oct. 27, as BCGEU members accepted a tentative agreement and took down picket lines.

• More than half a million dollars had already been raised by Oct. 24, when the Island Community Clinic Society and the LMHF announced a collaborative response to the critical shortage of family doctors and primary care health workers on Salt Spring: attracting and retaining practitioners by transforming the existing Salt Spring Island Health Centre into a non-profit team-based community health centre, backed by the land-owning Gulf Islands Seniors Residence Association’s commitment to long-term tenure.

• The Islanders Working Against Violence (IWAV) organization — which operates the 74-unit Croftonbrook complex at the end of Corbett Road — announced it was seeking public support to help close the deal on an 11.8-acre property on Norton Road with an existing home, orchard and garden, and zoning for affordable housing. IWAV said it needed to raise $300,000 by mid-December; campaign organizers were thrilled to receive a $40,000 contribution in the first week of the campaign and an unprecedented $400,000 grant from the Salt Spring Island Foundation, contingent on the purchase being completed.

NOVEMBER

• A new proposal for a 35-metre-high telecommunications tower in Ganges brought out impassioned public opposition, but there were few clues from Salt Spring’s Local Trust Committee (LTC) on how it planned to ultimately respond. The installation could improve wireless voice and data service in Ganges and along Fulford-Ganges Road, according to a description submitted by proponent SLI Towers, who sought to erect the tower on Knott Place off Rainbow Road — not for a specific operator, they said, but potentially any or all of them. Islanders who turned out to speak at the LTC’s Nov. 6 meeting all expressed worries about environmental health issues they said were associated with the electromagnetic radiation such towers produce. But for their part, local trustees’ conversations centred on whether the proponent was aware of existing LTC protocol, which calls for First Nations consultation for any new antenna siting. 

• Saanich North and the Islands MLA Rob Botterell once again toured Salt Spring with a provincial minister in tow — this time visiting different health care settings with Mid Island-Pacific Rim MLA and Minister of Health Josie Osborne. Botterell and Osborne spent Nov. 1 learning more about the health care challenges facing the island.

• Officials voted to expand the first phase of public engagement on Salt Spring’s Official Community Plan review, a $40,000 budget addition to augment an undertaking one trustee said needed to be wide-reaching and inclusive — but also aligned with formal process. Consulting firm McElhanney Ltd. said it had so far engaged some 600 people through a 40-day campaign that saw 468 online surveys completed, including many that were filled out by hand and entered later, according to Sandra Borton, who presented the consultant’s report to the LTC Nov. 6.

• Mahon Hall was buzzing with celebration on Nov. 6 as the community gathered for the 2025 Salty Awards, hosted by the Salt Spring Island Chamber of Commerce and honouring the island’s most inspiring businesses, innovators and changemakers. Award winners were: Business of the Year: Windsor Plywood; Emerging Business: Sweetwater Distilling Co.; Island Ambassador: Salt Spring Visitor Information Centre; Community Impact: Salt Spring Island Foundation; Green Business: SALT JAR refillery; Trades: Diggin’ It Excavating; Cornerstone: Windsor Plywood; Hand + Land: Salt Spring Wild Cider; Tourism + Hospitality: Salt Spring Visitor Information Centre.

• A winning lottery ticket purchased on Salt Spring left two islanders in disbelief, according to B.C. lottery officials, who announced Nov. 12 that David Aksenchuk and Amber Little had won $1 million from the Oct. 22 Lotto 6/49 draw. The winning ticket was purchased at Moby’s Pub.

• Police investigated an overnight vandalism spree at Salt Spring’s Portlock Park that left multiple structures and CRD vehicles graffitied with spray paint. The damage was discovered by the park supervisor on the morning of Nov. 15, according to Salt Spring’s senior CRD manager Dan Ovington, who then notified RCMP and staff. Ovington said the vandal or vandals must have first broken into park sea cans being used for storage to get the paint.

• Salt Spring’s “summer of road work” stretched well into wintertime, but at least hours-long traffic delays became a thing of the past with the announcement from contractor Northridge Excavating Ltd. that major work on Fulford-Ganges Road was at an end. 

• Meanwhile, in the north end, a closure of Broadwell Road where it crosses Duck Creek due to a culvert discovered close to failure shifted school bus routes and detoured drivers, with a repair not expected to be done until the fall of 2026. 

• A town hall on housing might not have generated rooster-level buzz on Salt Spring, but a smaller group of islanders nonetheless shared plenty of ideas at the LCC-facilitated community workshop held Nov. 27. From the roughly two dozen attendees came just as many suggestions to address the shortage of affordable housing on the island, as the LCC worked to co-develop a new Integrated Housing Strategy and Action Plan. 

• With a unanimous vote the CRD’s Parks Committee recommended the CRD Board hand off the priority-positioned Salt Spring Island Regional Trail to the CRD’s Regional Transportation Service, a shift that brought a long-imagined 21-kilometre path connecting Fulford, Ganges and Vesuvius closer to reality.

DECEMBER

• Islands Trust Council met in early December and wrestled with the “bomb in the attic,” as Thetis Island trustee Peter Luckham called it — a draft budget hovering near $12 million with few easy options for reductions. The meeting also heard that an independent investigator found South Pender Island trustee Kristina Evans had acted appropriately in kicking Salt Spring Island trustee Jamie Harris out of an online committee meeting for abusive behaviour back in May. The Dec. 2 Trust Council vote to endorse the investigator’s recommendations marked the end of a complaint process launched by Harris, the Islands Trust’s first-ever formal misconduct investigation.

• More than 50 vehicles took part in the first Trucker n’ Trade Holiday Parade held on the night of Dec. 6. The event also raised over $5,900 for the Canadian Cancer Society in honour of Rick Andrews, the excavating company owner who passed away this past summer. Fresco Refrigeration’s Graham and Myriam Outerbridge initiated the parade idea, teamed up with the Salt Spring Island Chamber of Commerce and received enthusiastic support from Windsor Plywood, Mouat’s Trading Co. and others.

• Heavy and prolonged rain on Dec. 10 led to something of a washout on Channel Ridge Drive, briefly snarling the only remaining road to many houses as workers rushed to ensure it was safe to cross.

• Grammy-nominated and Juno-winning family entertainer Raffi Cavoukian sat down with the Driftwood to talk about his new song, “ABC Democracy.” The Salt Spring Island resident lamented the recent chaos and erosion of freedom in the U.S, which he said had been “the shock of my lifetime.” Raffi was also interviewed for a national CTV News segment about the song. 

• Some 1,700 islanders lost power when a vehicle struck a hydro pole on Salt Spring the night of Dec. 11. Officials said no one was seriously injured. Just days later, thousands would lose electricity when two days of high winds whipped through the islands and much of southern B.C. 

• More than 200 donations later, a fundraiser supporting the SȾÁUTW̱ (Tsawout) First Nation’s effort to complete its Salt Spring Island Land Back campaign was successful, reaching a $600,000 goal needed to fund acquisition of a lot on Menhinick Drive adjacent to their 50-acre reserve.

• Salt Spring’s LTC approved a rezoning application for a 50-unit affordable housing project and medical clinic expansion at Kings Lane, brought by the Gulf Islands Seniors Residence Association. The LTC also gave the nod to rezoning for a new parks maintenance and bus yard on Kanaka Road, which BC Transit says is critical for future bus service expansion.

• A ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the official opening of a formerly unofficial pathway, as Salt Spring Island community members celebrated completion of Kanaka Connector Trail improvements Dec. 18. The 100-metre pathway’s southern exit by Gulf Islands Secondary School has made it a popular shortcut for students, as well as other islanders headed to and from Ganges on foot or by bicycle.