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REYNOLDS, Audrey June

Driftwood Obituary
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REYNOLDS, Audrey June

Audrey June Reynolds
June 19, 1936 – 20 April 2022

Audrey leaves her husband of 57 years Leonard, nephew David Needham (Ont), and her many friends to mourn her loss.

Audrey (Leverton) was born in Nottingham, England the youngest of three daughters. She completed her Licentiate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in piano performance in London.
After emigrating to Canada in the early 60’s Audrey found employment at Toronto General Hospital in administration.

Audrey married Leonard on 4 December 1965 residing in Brampton, Ont.

It was during these years that she taught piano to many children, some of whom stay in contact with her to this day.

Audrey and Leonard enjoyed travelling and took road trips and cruises up to and including their retirement on Salt Spring Island in 1990.

Audrey was a member of the Lady Minto Hospital Auxiliary Society where she volunteered playing the piano for the residents of Extended Care Unit for over 25 years.

Many thanks to the Nursing and Care staff at Lady Minto Hospital for their loving care given to Audrey during her stay.

SMITH, Douglas

Driftwood Obituary
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SMITH, Douglas

DOUGLAS SMITH

With sadness we announce the death of Douglas Smith (70 years) on April 8, 2022 at Lady Minto Hospital on Salt Spring Island. He died of complications from Covid, contracted at his Greenwoods Eldercare home where he has resided since 2010.

Doug is predeceased by his mother and father, Helen and Alex Smith of Galiano. He leaves behind his sister Anne Marshall (Salt Spring Island), brother Alex (Bundaberg, Australia), and brother Randy (Vancouver).

Doug was born in Vancouver, where he attended Kerrisdale Elementary and Prince of Wales Secondary Schools. After graduating from High School and a welding course at Malaspina, Doug spent a brief stint in the North. He then returned to Galiano Island where he lived in a cottage at his parents’ home. There he worked for twenty-five years as a custodian at Galiano School.

Doug was a gentle soul who loved solitude. He chose to work at the school at night when it was quiet. A shy man, he was more comfortable with animals than with most people.

He cared for his mother (who was blind) and father (who had Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases) at home until they passed away.

Doug never married and never had children, however time spent on the water with his five nieces and nephews instilled in them a lifelong love for fishing and the sea. Unfortunately, his youngest nephew never had the opportunity to know Uncle Doug.

The family would like to extend their gratitude to the staff at Greenwoods for the kind, understanding care shown to Doug over the thirteen years he lived there.

Also a huge thanks to the doctors and nurses at Lady Minto Hospital for the extraordinary compassion offered to Doug and his family in his final days.

There will be no service. The family will gather on Galiano next month to remember Doug and to scatter his ashes near his Mom and Dad at the home they all loved.

Trust proposes accessory dwelling unit bylaw

Emelie Peacock
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Trust proposes accessory dwelling unit bylaw

Salt Spring’s Local Trust Committee (LTC) has given first reading to a bylaw meant to help ease the rental housing shortage on the island.

A bylaw change allowing homeowners to set up secondary suites in all zones, including in accessory buildings, was one of the Housing Action Program Task Force’s recommendations made in the summer of 2021.Trustee Laura Patrick characterized the bylaw presented to the LTC on April 19 as a work in progress and she is eager to hear from would-be landlords and all residents of the island about what they want to see included in the final product.

The intent of the bylaw, Patrick said, is to allow would-be landlords to provide rental accommodation to tenants in nearly all zones on the island. Bylaw 530 “does not represent the finished product, at all,” she stressed. It will now go out to agencies, groups, First Nations and the public for feedback.

“A first reading purely signals that we want to talk to the community.”

An accessory dwelling unit (ADU), according to the bylaw, is a unit that is accessory to a single-family dwelling and intended to be independent and separate. An ADU could be contained within a house or as an accessory structure, including “tiny homes, garden suites, seasonal cottages or full-time rental cottages.” An ADU could also be a mobile or manufactured home, the bylaw stated. The proposal does not include RVs or detached dwelling units on wheels as ADUs.

Patrick said wording about tiny homes should be removed from the bylaw, as they are generally smaller than a building permit allows, aren’t allowed under provincial building codes and should be dealt with separately. Yet as an important “rung on the ladder” of home ownership, Patrick feels they should be dealt with.

The bylaw lists requirements of accessory dwelling units detached from a home, including that the floor area is a maximum of 90 square metres, on a lot 1.2 hectares or larger, is not located in a portion of a lot identified as a community well capture zone and is not on a lot with a duplex or multi-family dwelling. 

Property owners would be allowed only one detached ADU per lot.

If located in a community water system, water for any ADU has to come from alternative potable water supply or have written confirmation from the community water system operator that the site has sufficient capacity to supply the unit.

Patrick clarified that the bylaw does not create new density, which detractors may claim.

“It’s simple math. We’re saying a primary residence plus one ADU, whichever form you choose to use, equals one single family unit.”

She referenced existing properties that have a primary residence and a cottage, noting that the cottage does not change the density.

“[When] planning, we always have to assume that a large family is going to live there. So when you do your original zoning or planning . . . [a lot could represent] a household of six, seven, eight, 12,” she said. “Just because I live in a house, and I now have somebody living in my cottage, that doesn’t change the density of my lot.” 

The staff report presented to trustees April 19 mentioned numerous issues that need further analysis in order to support ADUs in all zones. These include reviews of how the bylaw aligns with the official community plan and the Islands Trust policy statement, which is undergoing an amendment, as well as potential effects on the island’s infrastructure, water districts’ concerns about limited water capacity and building code restrictions.

In a written report to the LTC, housing task force chair Rhonan Heitzmann stated that the bylaw falls short of the principle that the task force hopes to see established.

“In order to find the willing landlords and make use of all available buildings, the permission needs to be extended as broadly as possible, and a way should be found to cap the total numbers to limit the overall impact on population growth.”

Heitzmann said with some tweaks before it is adopted the bylaw is “close to the best we are going to get at this time, given the constraints of the official community plan and limited resources to explore more innovative solutions.”

How many ADUs will be allowed under Bylaw 530, and how these would be counted or monitored, is still to be determined. Regional planning manager Stefan Cermak said this is “one of the biggest questions we have. Because the building footprint is allowed, logic says ‘What’s the difference?’, but the legal interpretation could be different. And we just don’t have that.”

Patrick said the LTC wants to hear from the public, including would-be landlords. Specifically, she wants to hear about what kind of controls they would want to see on establishment of ADUs. These could include voluntary covenants like Central Saanich has established, use of a registry, limiting lot sizes or other mechanisms. 

Rather than putting some parts of the island off limits, which makes a narrow pool narrower and might prevent an appropriate lot within a certain zone from pursuing an ADU, Patrick wants the bylaw to be more specific about what a good lot is.

“This bylaw doesn’t authorize thousands of units. We’re casting a wide net, but we only want hundreds of units to come out of this,” she said at the April 19 meeting.  

From potential landlords, Patrick wants to hear how the Islands Trust can make it a fair, equitable and not overly burdensome process for them.

“There’s already enough hurdles” for establishing this kind of housing on rural properties, Patrick said, including building permits and acquiring water and sewer services.

A 2020 Capital Regional District (CRD) housing needs assessment estimated that an additional 601 households would form on the island between 2016 and 2025.

In his written report, Heitzmann related an anecdote about a local carpenter and their family who are losing their rental in June. Despite a significant household income, well above the median on the island, the family did not qualify for a mortgage large enough to buy a home on Salt Spring. They applied for a $3,000-a-month rental home along with 30 applicants, and were outbid.

“I fear that we have reached a point where even if all our best recommendations are implemented it will be too little [too] late,” he wrote in his written report to the LTC.  

Patrick characterized the workforce housing crisis on the island as “horrific” with over 30 vacant positions at the hospital and people living in their vehicles or in the 80-odd live-aboard boats in Ganges Harbour alone.

“When you’ve got single moms rowing out to these boats with a baby, and it’s because this is her community and she lost her housing . . . people who are putting themselves into more and more marginal situations that are becoming dangerous . . . That breaks my heart.”

“We need to do a thousand things to fix the housing problem. All this is doing is trying to make it easier for people who want to be landlords on this island. And there aren’t very many of them,” Patrick said. “We’re trying to control housing and we need to be equitable about it and we need to be realistic. And we’re going to have to solve this problem. No action is not acceptable.”

Draft Bylaw 530 and the associated staff report is on the Salt Spring Islands Trust website page.

Hospital emergency department construction work begins

Gail Sjuberg
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Hospital emergency department construction work begins

Ground was officially broken on the $12.8-million emergency department expansion project at Lady Minto Hospital on Tuesday.

Lady Minto Hospital Foundation (LMHF) chair Dave Taylor told the group assembled for the occasion that if things had gone according to the original plan, they should have been attending an opening ceremony for the emergency department that day. After the signing of a memorandum of understanding governing the project between Island Health and the LMHF just over three years ago, “Everything was going along just fine for 11 months and then the pandemic hit and brought everything to a screeching halt for the better part of a year. So yes, we are anxious to get going.”

Capital costs are being shared by the LMHF, which has pledged $9.8 million, and the Capital Regional Hospital District (CRHD), which will contribute $3 million.

“Everyone at the foundation feels overwhelming grateful for the support and the generosity of this community,” said Taylor. “It has been astounding. Thank you.”

MLA Adam Olsen also praised the foundation’s and community’s efforts in raising funds.

“It is a tribute to each and every one of you and to the entire Salt Spring Island community,” he said.

Olsen made it clear he was not happy with Island Health for not supporting the project with capital funds and said he would continue to pressure the provincial government to contribute.

Since the LMHF launched its fundraising campaign last June the estimated project cost has leapt from $10.4 million to $12.8 million, making the foundation’s commitment $9.8 million at this point.

LMHF capital campaign committee chair Carol Biely expressed her extreme appreciation to all involved, and especially the large donors who gave the campaign credibility right off the bat. Two million-dollar donations were made anonymously at the time, the Salt Spring Island Foundation contributed $100,000 and Country Grocer gave $50,000. Susan Bloom, who died in December, was one of the anonymous million-dollar donors whose contribution was acknowledged publicly by Biely at Tuesday’s event.

“It set us off on a wonderful start,” Biely said. “Then about 600 more people came diving in amazingly quickly and in no time at all we doubled our original goal because of all of you.”

Biely also recognized efforts of Salt Spring CRD director Gary Holman to get the $3-million CRHD contribution.

The emergency department redevelopment project includes a 420-square-metre (4,500-square-feet) building addition, linked to the existing hospital by a new front entry, that will increase the number of treatment rooms/bays from four to eight. Other improvements include an interview room, a medication area, dedicated check-in desk, nursing/team care station with sight lines to all assessment and treatment areas, ambulance bay, decontamination site, accessible washrooms, and expanded patient and family waiting area.

Island Health states that in support of a culturally safe space, engagements with local First Nations communities are expected to take place over the next year.

“Design elements of the project may incorporate Indigenous influences into work flow, signage, artwork, furniture, fixtures and equipment to ensure spaces are welcoming to everyone who seeks medical care.”

Construction manager is Western Medical Canada Inc. of Mill Bay. The architect is Vancouver-based Kirsten Reite Architecture.

The project is expected to be completed by fall of 2023.

Members of the public are reminded that changes to parking facilities are occurring due to the construction.

Editorial: Even small steps on housing must be taken

Driftwood Staff
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Editorial: Even small steps on housing must be taken

Way back in 2005, alarms were heard about Salt Spring becoming just like Martha’s Vineyard.

Some parts of the comparison to the Massachusetts tourist haven might be considered desirable, but then, as now, the concerns were about gentrification of the community and a lack of affordable housing for resident workers to keep the public services and businesses running, and how to maintain a diverse and authentic community.

The economic crash of 2008 tempered the rush and real estate prices for a number of years, but here we are again in a panic and without the means to quickly create the housing needed today.

We know that the same thing is happening in many parts of B.C., and last year the province saw net migration of 100,797 people, the highest number since 1961. But that doesn’t make it any easier to accept the impact on our own community.

Last week the Salt Spring Local Trust Committee gave first reading to Bylaw 530, which would allow creation of rental housing using accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in all zones on the island. Trust staff caution that several issues need to be explored further both technically and legally before the draft bylaw gets too far. Even if those things are resolved, the bylaw does not eliminate other persistent hurdles such as water and sewer services and building permits. Turning one’s lot into a mini trailer park of recreational vehicles is not envisioned — at all. One ADU per lot (and RVs don’t qualify to be an ADU) would be allowed.

It takes a motivated property owner to even consider adding a rental unit to their home or property and to become a landlord as a result. And a balance needs to be struck between not making it so expensive and inconvenient for property owners to take this action and for units to be truly affordable and/or suitable. A land-use bylaw may not be equipped to help achieve such a balance.

Still, despite the obvious challenges that this bylaw faces in even being finalized and passed in a useful form, it is something that must be done to at least put a tiny Band-aid on the blood loss of the working members of this community.

As trustee Laura Patrick said last week, “We’re going to have to solve this problem. No action is not acceptable.” We agree.

Swierenga saluted during National Volunteer Week

Contributed Article
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Swierenga saluted during National Volunteer Week

CONTRIBUTED BY BC FERRIES

An interest in anything to do with transportation and logistics is what keeps Harold Swierenga at the helm of Salt Spring’s volunteer ferry advisory committee (FAC). Chair since 2008, he says his 15-year run started with a simple conversation borne from curiosity.

“I’m an economist. I retired here from Ontario and got talking to some of the FAC members at that time. I’d done some work in transportation and because I was riding the ferries quite a bit I became a member,” he explains.

April 24 to 28 is National Volunteer Week across Canada. The annual event seeks to recognize volunteers, like Swierenga, and celebrate the positive impact of volunteerism in communities.

“I do it because it’s a way to contribute and I get a lot out of it,” Swierenga said when asked why he gives his time as an FAC chair.

FAC chairs and members work year-round to provide BC Ferries with advice and insight that helps inform day-to-day operations, terminal and vessel improvements, schedule changes and other initiatives. There are no days off for an FAC chair. They answer emails, phone calls and questions from community members 24/7.

Swierenga says satisfaction in the role comes from the fact that people know he cares enough to call him, rather than BC Ferries, with their ferry issues.

“Sometimes I have an answer for them and sometimes they call me just to complain,” Swierenga added with a chuckle.

It’s that kind of volunteer service which National Volunteer Week is designed to celebrate with this year’s theme being ‘Empathy in Action.’ The theme seeks to draw attention to how volunteers build awareness around the experiences of different community members and build capacity to work collectively together towards common goals.

FAC chairs like Swierenga and his committee members are at the front lines of this work, bringing the perspectives, ideas and concerns of the Salt Spring Island community to the table in conversations with BC Ferries.

For BC Ferries’ part, ferry advisory committees are a vital connection to the communities they serve.

“The community insight and understanding that our ferry advisory committees provide us with is invaluable. We rely on them not only for community-centred advice but also to help us get information out to the community, especially when changes are afoot,” said Brian Anderson, vice president of strategy and community engagement. “The committees do a phenomenal job and we are grateful for their dedication and the many hours they contribute.”

For the Salt Spring Island community, an issue Swierenga hears a lot about from locals is the Fulford terminal redevelopment. Discussions go back 30 years, according to Swierenga, adding that the ongoing delays are frustrating. But he tempers the pace of change on that project with a belief that the future for Salt Spring in terms of ferry service looks pretty good.

“We are getting new terminals at Vesuvius on Route 6 and on the other side at Crofton – that’s in the works to be ready for 2028. So it looks good that way, and the two Island Class ferries for that route will hopefully come at the same time. Redevelopment of the Fulford terminal is now scheduled next. We’re also getting an interim bigger ferry on Route 6 this month and we have quite an improvement on routes 9 and 9a (service between Lower Mainland and the Southern Gulf Islands) since 2017. The gains are incremental; we can use more boats and bigger boats, but so can almost every other route,” he said.

Swierenga knows that these major changes will happen after his time as chair but said that’s just fine, adding he was never a single-issue FAC member.

“They tend to quit,” he points out. “FAC members need to be interested and study the whole ferry system given its interconnectedness.”

Away from FAC business you’ll find Swierenga digging into his vast marine library at home, working on his antique car collection or having a glass of wine with his wife Sabine at the end of the day. You may even spot him working around his waterfront property, which is visible from the ferry run between Swartz Bay and Metro Vancouver.

“One time, years ago, the ferry captain saw me on the shore and he tooted the ship’s whistle,” Swierenga quips. “Whenever I see the Spirit I instinctively check my watch to see if it’s on time. It’s just second nature.”

FAC Facts:

• There are 13 ferry advisory committees situated in communities up and down the coast of British Columbia.

• Committees are generally made of up of eight to 12 members who represent ferry-dependent communities.

• FAC members bring a wide variety of voices and perspectives to the table. A committee’s composition depends on the community, and often includes representatives such as: full-time and part-time residents, the tourism industry, commuters, seniors, businesses, commercial goods and service providers, and many more.

This past year, FAC members have helped with:

• Understanding the complex use of ferry service in the Southern Gulf Islands;

• Developing new schedules for two-ship service for Gabriola Island and Quadra Island;

• Adjusting and communicating service and schedule changes during pandemic recovery;

• Providing early input on terminal development plans.

Adam Olsen MLA Column: Southern Gulf Islands Forum addresses Salish Sea anchorages issue

Contributed Article
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Adam Olsen MLA Column: Southern Gulf Islands Forum addresses Salish Sea anchorages issue

BY ADAM OLSEN

Saanich North and the Islands MLA

For years, my constituents living on the Southern Gulf Islands have dealt with the environmental and social impacts created by large transport ships anchored throughout the Salish Sea.

Increased consumer demand for goods from around the globe has stretched supply chains and combined with inefficient operations at the port in Vancouver has meant more vessels anchored for longer.

These vessels are disruptive, creating excessive noise and light pollution, sometimes for weeks at a time, and their generators constantly pump out greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful particulates. They regularly drag their anchors destroying the ocean floor and threatening each other. And ships anchored outside the port waters are unregulated.

For more than a decade the voices of community advocates have been ignored by the federal government.

On March 14, 2022, I hosted a half-day meeting of the Southern Gulf Islands Forum, including First Nations leaders, elected officials from the Gulf Islands and industry representatives, to discuss the issue of anchorages and to learn about the federal government’s Active Vessel Traffic Management (AVTM) program.

We received presentations from public servants and industry leads from Transport Canada, the Vancouver-Fraser Port Authority, and the BC Chamber of Shipping. They explained that an increase in international trade and disorganized operations precipitated the increase in anchorages in the Southern Gulf Islands.

For context, the Vancouver port handles one third of Canada’s trading goods outside of North America. When ports are full, due to increased volumes or delays tied to supply chain disruptions — such as production, weather, labour and inefficient port operations — large transport vessels are forced to anchor at sites in the surrounding areas.

As a result of the complaints from residents, in 2018, the federal government created an Interim Protocol to try to balance the use of the anchorage sites until a longer-term solution could be found.

The federal government then shifted their responsibility to industry, turning to the Vancouver-Fraser Port Authority to lead the work to find a long-term solution now called the Active Vessel Traffic Management program.

Their goal is to strengthen marine safety and manage marine traffic, improve efficiency and reliability of the flow of goods, reduce environmental impacts including noise near southern resident killer whale habitat, and reduce negative social impacts like ambient noise and light pollution.

The port created a new advisory panel of experts populated entirely by industry. None of the groups most impacted by the anchorages, such as First Nations or community members, are represented on the panel.

Anchorages tear up the sea floor, causing significant harm and disturbance. First Nations along the coast rely on the vibrant marine life for food harvest and cultural practices. Considering the damage caused by anchorages and our commitment to government-to-government relations, First Nations must be included on any panel advising on this issue. First Nations are often engaged after the decisions have been made and have no resources to ensure their technical experts can inform the work. This is completely unacceptable.

Residents of the Gulf Islands and leaders of coastal communities must have a voice at the table. They have been advocating for their interests for decades and now they continue to be overlooked while industry experts develop recommendations that work for industry. This is completely unacceptable.

So now we have outlined the issues, what is the Southern Gulf Islands Forum doing?

Following the industry presentations, the members of the forum created a subcommittee to continue this work. I am a member of that group, and the primary focus of our work will be to bring all interested parties together to advocate with one voice on behalf of the interests currently being ignored by the federal government and industry.

In the meantime, please continue writing to your Member of the Legislative Assembly and Member of Parliament, write letters to the editor and post on social media with your stories of how these anchorages are affecting you and your community. You can contact me at Adam.Olsen.MLA@leg.bc.ca or 250-655-5600.

Grow Local program helps build resilient and healthy food chain

Driftwood Staff
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Grow Local program helps build resilient and healthy food chain

The Salt Spring Agricultural Alliance and the Salt Spring Community Economic Sustainability Commission (CESC) are set to launch an eight-month pilot project called Grow Local.

According to a press release issued Monday, the project seeks to expand local food production and enhance the economic viability of farming.

“This new initiative will turn key recommendations from the Salt Spring Island Area Farm Plan into action,” states the release. “The main goals of the project are to build collaborative opportunities and test innovative marketing strategies that strengthen the regional food economy.”

Local producers and food justice advocates Nick Jones and Polly Orr are co-leading the Grow Local initiative. The Grow Local team will be responsible for testing food systems that develop and strengthen short supply chains for the food we eat, and making connections and building relationships across the region to increase the viability of island businesses while also reducing our carbon footprint.

“A robust local food network not only provides more nutritious food for our tables but increases community resilience in the face of the climate emergency,” states the CESC and agricultural alliance.

Grow Local says it is looking to build a strong network of participants who want to help expand the island’s local food system. Local growers, producers, distributors and consumers who are interested in scaling up their productivity within the Salt Spring network are invited to contact Jones and Orr at growlocalssi@gmail.com for more information or to become involved.

Grow Local’s core funding was secured from the Island Coastal Economic Trust, with additional funding from the CESC, which is a Capital Regional District commission.

Ruckle Farm Day excitement set for Sunday

Driftwood Staff
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Ruckle Farm Day excitement set for Sunday

A popular free event for all ages returns this Sunday, May 1 when Ruckle Farm Day celebrates 150 years of farming at Ruckle Heritage Farm.

Running from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the heritage farm area of Ruckle Park, the event displays traditional farming and crafts side-by-side with nature in the beautiful Ruckle Farm setting.

Planned events include a sheep dog demonstration, face painting, showing of local heritage films, a sheep shearing demonstration, a kids’ fish tank and craft table, blacksmithing demonstration, seed saving demonstration, family cow and milking talk, and a log-sawing demonstration. An ox-drawn cart will be on hand, as will the Salt Spring fire department’s vintage fire engine.

Baby animals will be on display, and people can learn about churning butter, knitting, spinning and weaving, basketry and quilting.

Food will be available to purchase from the Salt Spring Lions Club, Al’s Gourmet Falafel and Fries, and Salt Spring Fruitsicles, and musical entertainment will be provided by Marianne Grittani and Rose Birney, with special guest Valdy.

Nobody Asked Me But: You’re never alone with 100 spiders in the house

Shilo Zylbergold
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Nobody Asked Me But: You’re never alone with 100 spiders in the house

My wife and I may think that we are the only ones inhabiting our house, but we are sorely mistaken. Evidence of this fact was exhibited to us a few days ago when a visiting guest held up a glass of water he was using to rinse his mouth after brushing his teeth and asked us if we could identify the little black spot floating on the surface.

There was no doubt about it. That little critter doing the backstroke in the glass was one of our resident spiders. If you live on Salt Spring, you know there’s no way to eliminate the much maligned spider from your home or life. They are ubiquitous, so you might as well accept the fact that they are part of your family and you are sharing accommodation in a fairly fragile codependent relationship.

How do they end up in the house when there is so much natural space in the outdoors? It’s really a mystery to me. I suppose that many of them hang out in the woodshed and take the opportunity to hitchhike a ride into the house with the firewood. Inevitably, whenever we have visitors from the city staying over, I feel responsible to protect them from our spidery menace. After all, for those not used to sidestepping these little creatures on a daily basis, they can be considered right up there on a deadly threat level with great white sharks, grizzly bears and rattlesnakes. The indelible image from cheap Japanese B grade horror movies of giant, furry spiders climbing up the sides of Tokyo skyscrapers while terrified mobs of thousands panic below cannot be easily turned off.

In my more caveman days, I used to squish them every chance I had. Later, as I became more civilized and aware that they were actually nature’s way of controlling the home invasion of ants, flies and other annoying insects, I switched over to some “tough love” tactics. I would fish an empty yogurt tub and lid out of the recycling blue box, herd the offending spider into the container, and escort it out into the shrubbery. There I would give it a little lecture about free-loading and couch surfing before sending it on an arcing trajectory with the flick of a wrist.

If you don’t know already, you might as well accept the fact that spiders are everywhere. There are an estimated 40,000 species of the revoltingly cute little critters around the globe and probably a whole lot more if wildlife scientists really wanted to get close enough to identify them. In just B.C. alone, there are approximately 700 distinct known species setting up shop in the supernatural environment. It is said that you can wander anywhere in the province and you will never be more than one large step away from a spider. Another way of looking at it is that every hectare of land in B.C. has a density of hundreds of thousands of the wee fellers daring you to step in their direction.

A spider may look like just another bug to you, but you’re asking for trouble if you insult it by calling it an insect. An insect has three main body parts: the head, the thorax and the abdomen. In addition, insects all have six legs. The bodies of spiders, on the other hand, are made up of just two parts, the cephalothorax and the abdomen. To make up for the missing body part, spiders are equipped with an extra pair of legs, which brings the total number of appendages to eight. Eight also happens to be the number of eyes that most spiders possess. You would think that would give them incredible vision, but if truth be known, spiders have notoriously terrible eyesight and don’t usually have a clue what’s about to happen when you approach their webs with broom in hand. Understandably, with eight eyes to consider, corrective lenses would be prohibitively costly. 

Surprisingly, spiders do not communicate through the usual social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, even though they invented the world wide web millions of years before the internet was even a twinkling in the eye of humankind. There are, however, unsubstantiated claims that certain high-functioning members of the Arachnid class are close to modifying the TikTok app into something called SpikSpok, where they can spend endless hours watching funny videos of web weaving gone wrong.

In actuality, spiders communicate mainly through smell, percussion, gossamer spinning and dancing. Some of the more highly evolved ones can do all these at the same time and can be found mainly in late night jazz clubs.

When it comes to dancing alone, no spider can bust a move better than the species known as the jumping spider. It is easily identified due to the huge size of its eyes when compared to the rest of its body. Although its dance is performed primarily to impress its mate, it has the amazing ability to jump up to 50 times the length of its body, which would make it the betting favourite at the Spider Olympics but not so popular if the direction it was travelling was towards your face.

Of course, the spider that instills fear in the heart is the western black widow. What easily identifies it is the red hourglass icon on the underside of the female’s abdomen (males can have smaller red dot markings on the same area of the abdomen). Although its venom is neurotoxic, this spider is quite shy and non-aggressive. When threatened, it gets into a defensive stance, tilts its abdomen at whatever is the perceived danger, and shoots silk at it. Now that’s scary!

The other interesting tidbit of information is that the female, which can live more than 10 times longer than the male, may eat the male after mating. The male obviously wants to make a good impression on the first date.

Nobody asked me, but I don’t really mind having to share my abode with spiders. In fact, I don’t think I would mind much if I was the daddy long-legs lurking up in the far corner near the ceiling of our bathroom. After all, it’s a living. Better that, than being the male mate of a black widow.

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