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Lytton fire hits close to home

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Lytton fire hits close to home

Editor’s note: The author’s band, Salt Spring Underground, will perform in Centennial Park on Saturday, July 10 beginning at 2 p.m. in a fundraiser for the Lytton First Nation.

By CHRIS ARNETT

Last week, on the eve of Canada Day, a small town in the B.C. Interior burned pretty much to the ground. Many people on this island have probably never heard of Lytton or only drove by it on Highway 1. If people know of Lytton all they associate it with is the spectacular white river rafting or its reputation as the hottest place in Canada, which proved all too true last week after racking up three days of record-breaking temperatures.  

Lytton is a remarkable Canadian town, one of the oldest communities in British Columbia and today a community proud of its Indigenous, European and Chinese heritage. It is a friendly place where people of all backgrounds live and work together and share in their mutual heritage. The entire town had bilingual street signs in English and Nlaka’pamuxeen. They have an incredible weekly market with local produce and Indigenous arts and crafts. The hotel pub and bar was legendary and its café breakfasts and buffalo burgers unparalleled. 

Lytton, or Tl’kumsheen, “mouth where the waters meet,” is located at the confluence of the muddy Fraser and the green Thompson where populations flourished over the millennia thanks to the annual visit of sockeye salmon and a unique location with hot sun and strong winds to dry vast amounts of the fish for winter use. Like Jerusalem for Jews and Christians, Lytton, for the Interior Salish Nlaka’pamux [IN-TLA-KAP-MUH), is the centre of the world because here the Son of Coyote ascended to the sky where he was given the patterns of all the implements people would eventually use to make their living. He was lowered down to earth in a space basket which landed at Lytton on a large flat rock that bore the imprints of his craft. In 1806, the inhabitants met Simon Fraser on his journey to the coast along the river that bears his name. He stopped at Lytton, was feasted, listened to long speeches and shook hands with 1,000 people. 

In 1858, Nlaka’pamux territory extended from Harrison Lake to the west, into Washington State to the south, to Lillooet in the north and Aschroft and Hedley to the east. That year saw the first gold rush with European and American miners fighting  their way through the Fraser Canyon burning several Indigenous villages. At Lytton they were met by the great leader Sux’pintlum, who stopped the conflict. A unique treaty was arranged between the newcomers and the Nlaka’pamux. Sux’pintlum divided the land where they stood in half and so it has been ever since with the reserve to the north and the town to the south. Chinese miners followed in 1859 and some married Nlaka’pamux women. Their heritage was preserved and celebrated in the Lytton Chinese Cultural Museum, a local collaborative initiative which like everything else in town, Indigenous and non-indigenous, is now utterly destroyed. 

Since colonization, Lytton has existed as a model of an integrated B.C. community that celebrates its diversity. Lytton is home to the pioneering Rebagliati family who immigrated from Italy in 1888 and whose famous snowboarding son, when he was denied participation in the Olympics for alleged marijuana use, prompted the campaign to ”Smoke a fattie for Rebagliati.” The historic 1913 family home and folder freight shed was destroyed, but the acacia trees they brought with them from Italy and planted along the streets of town miraculously survived the inferno.

People might think that Salt Spring has little connection to this far-flung place but there is one that goes back thousands of years. Up until the 1870s, when the newly arrived Canadian government intervened, Vancouver Island people migrated every year to the Fraser River to fish the sockeye, stopping along the way in Shiya’hwt (Ganges Harbour) and Penelakut Island to harvest clams and herring to smoke and take to the mainland to trade with Nlaka’pamux for jade adzes, which were essential woodworking tools with an edge almost as good as steel. Jade is only found in southern B.C. between Hope and Lillooet, with the major source and manufacturing area at Lytton.  

For me and my wife Barbara, what happened last week is personal. In the 1980s I worked with the Lytton First Nation interviewing elders and documenting the history of the Stein River Valley, a place just north of Lytton, which was threatened with roads and clearcut logging. Now it is a pristine Class-A provincial park being considered for UNESCO world heritage status. This work and my archaeological work in the Stein Valley in the early 2000s was the basis for my 2016 PhD. Barbara is related to the acting-Chief John Haugen, who worked tirelessly for his people and the town even as his own home filled with treasured heirlooms went up in flames. We have many relatives in the Indigenous community, many of whom have also lost their homes. 

Ninety years ago much of the original town, a gem of Victorian and Edwardian architecture, disappeared in a similar holocaust, but the people rebuilt, and now a new Lytton will arise on the ashes.

To make this happen, this unique, historic town needs our help. In helping them we help ourselves. Think of Lytton figuratively, as the Nlaka’pamux do, as the centre of the world, as a warning for the future or a cure for what ails us. 

Please donate generously to the Canadian Red Cross or the GoFundMe of your choice.

MOSELEY, Dominique (nee Rivest)

Driftwood Obituary
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MOSELEY, Dominique (nee Rivest)

Dominique Moseley (nee Rivest)
“The Mighty Sparrow”

Our dearest kind & loyal friend Dominic
has passed July 10th unexpectedly.

Dominique lived on Saltspring and spent her life as a giver and loyal friend to all who shared in her life. Her career was a top notch professional hygienist who grew up in Montreal, had two sisters Michelle and Lynn, Michelle being her twin.

Dody, as she was lovingly nicknamed was, and taught, as a hygienist from coast to coast, from Haida Gwaii, Magdalen Islands and here on Saltspring. Her strengths were many. Her life was lived through determination, dedication and honesty.

She hid her pain & her life’s tragedies with courage, heart & soul. Dominique spent her life living & loving the sea.

She was an avid sailor and sailed to the South Pacific, Mexico & the Philippines, some journeys lasting up to six years. Her last journey was with her husband Bill. They spent years in building and launching a 45’ catamaran here on Saltspring in the 1990s. They lived and sailed on it for 15 years before returning to Saltspring to build their dream home. No ordinary home for these two entrepreneurs…it was designed by her husband and herself with a state of the art geothermal heating and cooling, a flowing steel roof designed like a roll of a wave, a magnificent wood structure and design, unusual and detailed inside and out. Their home was completed and fully landscaped in five years.

Dominique was an extremely hard working inspirational spirit. She was kind, caring, generous and expressed it wholeheartedly to friends and family. She was a caregiver in every sense.

Domonique was always ready with enthusiasm to take on the impossible or help in various celebrations.

She will leave us with a lot of fun and wonderful memories that will spill out in stories and albums for years to come. “She will always be The Mighty Little Sparrow.”

We will love and miss you throughout the rest of our life.

CAMPBELL, Bunny

Driftwood Obituary
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CAMPBELL, Bunny

Bunny Campbell

Beloved mother, grandmother and great grandmother, Bunny Campbell, passed away peacefully at Lady Minto extended care on July 8th at the age of 99.

Loved by everybody she was the adopted mother of many of our friends and was known by the younger generation as Nangy. She had a kind, loving and thoughtful nature and always knew how to find the fun in everything. One of her famous remarks, on seeing a young man mooning from a bus, was “Ahh, the sights you see in the spring…” She will be remembered for her wit, her infamous rhubarb and orange pie, her wonderful lamb stew, her “square meat and tulip buns” picnics and her sunken, fudge-filled-in-desperation cake. And for flinging a spoonful of ice cream and fruit salad at her daughter, Avril, as she said “because she knew I wouldn’t.”

Bunny was born in Sorrento, BC and lived on an apple farm on the Shuswap Lake with horses, sheep and dogs, where she attended a one-room schoolhouse. Her family packed up for England as war broke out and lived for a while in a railway carriage. She worked at a chicken farm, married an Air Force pilot and had twin girls, Michelle and Roberta (both predeceased). After the war she and Bob Campbell moved back to Canada, where she had Dawn (also predeceased), Avril and Adrienne (Rennie). She showed great resilience throughout a life that wasn’t always easy or happy.

Survived by two daughters, Rennie Robson and Avril Kirby, Bunny had three grandchildren, Chloe Gill (Ethan), Ferris Robson (deceased, survived by his wife Lisa), Brita Lavergne (Tom) and two great grandchildren, Malakai Robson and Norah Lavergne. She will be missed and loved forever by us all.

We would like to thank the nurses and care aides at Lady Minto for all the love and kindness they showed Bunny. They welcomed us (Rennie, Avril and Chloe) into the hospital over Bunny’s last few days, made her comfortable and looked after her like family. We appreciate you all and are happy she was in your care at the end.

We will have a celebration of life on Saturday, August 21, 2 p.m., at 594 Shorewood Drive, in Mill Bay. Please phone Rennie at 250-709-5840 or email her at rennierobson@icloud.com for more information and to RSVP. Salt Springers can call Avril at 250-537-1772 or email her at avek@telus.net.
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Gulf Islands at ‘extreme’ fire hazard level

Driftwood Staff
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Gulf Islands at ‘extreme’ fire hazard level

Salt Spring and the other Gulf Islands have reached an “Extreme” fire hazard rating, and people are urged to be more vigilant than ever in preventing wildfires on the island. 

No burning of any kind is currently permitted on the island, including campfires. Other outdoor burning was banned prior to June 30, but campfires were added to the list on that date. 

“The BC Wildfire Service takes these extreme heat conditions seriously. Additional precautions are being undertaken across the province, including fire warden patrols, fixed-wing aircraft patrols and an active enforcement presence. Wildfire prevention is a shared responsibility; human-caused wildfires are completely preventable and divert critical resources away from lightning-caused fires.” 

A campfire is defined as any fire smaller than 0.5 metres high by 0.5 metres wide.  

In addition to campfires, Category 2, and Category 3 open fires, the following activities are also prohibited:  

• The use of fireworks 

• The use of sky lanterns 

• The use of burn barrels or burn cages of any size or description  

• The use of binary exploding targets 

• The use of tiki and similar kinds of torches  

• The use of Chimineas  

• The use of outdoor stoves or other portable campfire apparatus without a CSA or ULC rating 

• The use of air curtain burners in Cariboo, Coastal, Northwest, Prince George, and Southeast Fire Centres.

Capt. Mitchell Sherrin of Salt Spring Fire Rescue notes, however, that some chainsaw use on driveways, for example, is still allowed, but should ideally be done early in the day.   

To report a wildfire, unattended campfire, or open burning violation, people should call 1-800-663-5555 toll-free or *5555 on a cell phone.  

Anyone found in contravention of an open-burning prohibition may be issued a violation ticket for $1,150, may be required to pay an administrative penalty of up to $10,000 or, if convicted in court, may be fined up to $100,000 and/or sentenced to one year in jail. If the contravention causes or contributes to a wildfire, the person responsible may be ordered to pay all firefighting and associated costs. 

Salt Spring’s Emergency Program is hosting a webinar and community roundtable titled Living with Fire in Salt Spring Island on Tuesday, July 13 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. More details should be available soon on the emergency program’s Facebook page.

Salt Spring fire district and CRD work together on fire hall issues

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Salt Spring fire district and CRD work together on fire hall issues

The Salt Spring Island Fire Protection District (SSIFPD) and the Capital Regional District (CRD) have agreed to establish a joint working group to make recommendations to their respective organizations regarding both a new public safety building incorporating a CRD Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) as well as the repurposing of the existing Ganges Fire Hall.

As stated in a joint July 2 press release, both the existing CRD Emergency Centre and the Ganges Fire Hall are currently in buildings that are seismically unsound, provide inadequate storage and fail to meet Workers’ Compensation Board standards for both employee and volunteer safety.

“While the Ganges Fire Hall will no longer be used for its original purpose, this centrally located downtown property still holds significant value,” said fire board chair Per Svendsen. “It will be kept as a public asset and redeveloped so that the community can continue to benefit from this location. Sale proceeds will go towards the fire district’s longstanding goal of building a new, ‘work-safe’ fire hall that meets all modern regulatory standards.”

Salt Spring CRD director Gary Holman stated, “By working together, we can achieve, more cost effectively, the building of a new public safety building that includes a co-located EOC, as well as retain the existing fire hall and site as important public assets in the centre of Ganges.”

New Fire Hall/ Public Safety Building

The fire board and the CRD will work together on the development of a new facility at 455 Lower Ganges Rd., near Brinkworthy, on land donated to the fire district by the property owner in 2013. Both parties feel it is centrally located and provides adequate space for both a new fire hall and EOC and offers much improved vehicle access and parking space. Design and cost-sharing terms for the shared space are now under negotiation.

Existing Ganges Fire Hall

The fire district will grant the CRD an option to purchase or lease the Ganges Fire Hall site for fair market value, with the price and other terms of purchase to be negotiated. If the site is purchased by the CRD, it will most likely be re-purposed with a focus on a public food market and related uses.

For more information on how the CRD and the Salt Spring Island Fire Protection District will work together on this initiative, see the Memo of Understanding.

Saturna trustees urge more public involvement in Trust Policy Statement process

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Saturna trustees urge more public involvement in Trust Policy Statement process

Missing Threads: The Islands Trust Policy Statement Review

By LEE MIDDLETON

Saturna Island Trustee

My fellow trustee, Paul Brent, has eloquently written elsewhere in this issue about the problems with lack of community consultation and seemingly from-the-hip policy making of the current draft of the Islands Trust Policy Statement review.

I want to explain here why I don’t think this draft document works for islanders and the environment of the islands in its current state. Why the need to explain the draft rather than reject it? Well, as one well-known islander recently put it to Paul and I: “This happened on your watch!” How did this state of affairs come to pass?

Basically this “revised draft” of the Policy Statement is almost entirely new. It is no longer an evolution of a previous document, which is a guiding policy document with a defined reference role that adjusts to the times through incremental revision — and as a new document has become divorced from its purpose. What is the purpose of the Policy Statement? It is a set of principles and strategies which the Trust puts on record as the preferred means for achieving the preserve and protect mandate: preserving and protecting the Islands in the Salish Sea for residents and for all British Columbians. The current version of the Islands Trust Policy Statement was written in 1994 and is serviceable but admittedly out of date in some areas such as adapting to a changing climate and consulting more meaningfully with First Nations as part of a broader-based Reconciliation initiative.

Many trustees, and I dare say the majority of trustees, have always viewed the policy statement as a document to update rather than fully revise. Incorporating climate change response policies and Reconciliation policies has always seemed quite doable for a time when the organization needed policy not contemplated in the 1994 document. The appetite for wholesale revision during the past four terms of trustees — almost 13 years — has been pretty minimal. It just wasn’t a priority as the way it was written really wasn’t negatively affecting the business of the Trust day to day. I’m sure there are trustees who would disagree with this statement but the fact remains that three terms ago the trustees voted to turn down funding of several hundred thousand “gas tax” dollars to engage in a review of the policy statement. At the time, and Mr. Brent was one of the dissenting trustees, it just didn’t seem like the best use of tax dollars — the revision wasn’t seen as urgent. Subsequent interest from trustees has been low. But staff — no doubt for their own good reasons some of which are articulated in the draft — have continued to be very eager to revise the policy statement. In fact that project did get budget approval about four years ago, but in the face of lukewarm trustee interest the only way the initiative received funding was through the projects’ inclusion in an omnibus funding bylaw. I don’t believe a project solely focused on a wide-ranging review of the policy statement and not wrapped in other work and initiatives would have ever received majority council support. I’m not sure that the review project at this late stage even now enjoys majority support, as it has largely unfolded in the background and behind the scenes without close involvement of the politicians who must pass it into law on behalf of their constituents. How did that happen?

The review was begun as a wide-ranging outreach to islanders to solicit their views on what they wanted the Islands to look like in 2050. Some of you may remember a widely distributed survey and public outreach in 2019. The results of this outreach were reported on and the general view of islanders was that in 30 years they wanted to see healthy communities thriving in an intact and healthy ecosystem. It’s a view islanders 30 years ago would certainly have recognized and endorsed. At this point I think trustees were expecting these views would be drafted into a revised Policy Statement as an incremental revision of the largely sound 1994 document. The work was interrupted by the pandemic and trustees’ attention went elsewhere while staff worked behind the scenes authoring a revised document under the guidance of a committee of trustees drawn from the Trust Council. This committee wrestled with updating priorities and from what I understand spent considerable time debating the balance of community supports with environmental protection — not an easy task. All of these activities — whether welcome or not — at least resembled a politically connected policy development exercise. However, what was subsequently revealed as a draft for consideration by the Trust Council in May — apparently already having been reviewed by First Nations Government contacts and other stakeholders — was a radical departure in many ways from what had gone before. It is very hard to see how the Islands 2050 consultation was taken into account in the drafting of this revised — really completely rewritten — policy statement. Because of this it is hard to see islanders’ views broadly reflected in this document and as a result it is hard for many trustees to explain and back it with the confidence of knowing it was a document carefully shaped through consultation. The priorities of the Islands 2050 consultation, ostensibly to guide the Policy Statement review, just flatly didn’t make it into the revised draft document now being considered for first reading.

Further, from the consultation that did take place with First Nations who have an historical attachment to the Trust Area it is also hard to see how First Nations’ input has shaped the revised draft as a policy document: the aspirations of First Nations in the draft appear more as visionary statements than concrete principles to guide policy. In regard to First Nations endorsement of the principles in the draft, the language is so broad as to permit everything and permit nothing using criteria drawn from ‘social science,” “local knowledge” and “Indigenous Knowledge Holders” — terms repeated frequently but rarely linked to a specific direction policy should take acting on these types of broadly defined “ways of knowing.” I’m not sure how such broad wording gives First Nations a meaningful place in the document to guide future policy development but this is something that would be very helpful for the cause of Reconciliation to go into more detail on. 

The current draft document reads as divorced from any kind of context that public, stakeholders and trustees can use in order to make sense of it, learn from it and hopefully embrace it, for surely that must be the goal of the Trust’s foundational policy document. There is a barrier to the average reader’s making sense of the document raised repeatedly throughout this draft; this is the writer’s attempt to be highly inclusive, as mentioned earlier, of different types of knowledge about the natural environment: criteria are presented for deciding on what is evidence that should lead to action that ranges from “best available science” through “social science” through to “Indigenous Ways of Knowing.” Including these differing varieties of knowledge for every decision area generally makes it very hard to understand what the document is actually proposing to do in the face of climate change or community sustainability or Reconciliation. In my view and I’m sure the view of some other trustees, this means the document lacks needed clarity and will require a lot of work to bring it into the “realm of the possible” where it can actually affect policy decisions. Some of the draft’s goals are commendable, some read as arbitrary without an included rationale, and all need sharpening with a reference to actually proposing specific policy guidance based on evidence —however defined. Engaged and considered consultation would have helped draft a more purpose-fit document and that is what must now happen.

In my view, getting a workable and publicly endorsed document from here means taking the principles outlined in the draft to the islands and their communities, inclusive of Indigenous Peoples, for consultation; further explaining how First Nations see benefit through this document to help gather support for principles of Reconciliation on the islands and just generally working very hard through public engagement to bring this work back into the context that the 1994 policy document framed, and connect the threads of past aspirations with a hopeful future vision. Only then will we have something whole and serviceable that islanders can support. 

Right now, despite perhaps best intentions, we have a document very much divorced from the needs of the islands’ ecology and people that cannot serve as a policy guide to 2050. Please make your voice heard on this. It is important consultation that should happen in as broad a manner as possible and that won’t happen without a broad spectrum of islands speaking up for the best possible policy to guide the islands we all love through the next 30 years.

Warning: Graphic and Disturbing Content

By PAUL BRENT

Saturna Island Trustee

I know, that is a strange and provocative title, but it’s used purposely, because I want people to pay attention to this. 

And “this” is the Islands Trust process to rush through a colossally modified “constitution” equivalent  — the Trust Policy Statement — without truly any meaningful dialogue with our islands.

You may have already seen some correspondence regarding concerns voiced by other islanders regarding the massive changes envisaged by the Trust’s draft policy statement first unveiled last month. It’s a document with the potential to cause a tectonic shift on how our lands (and waters) are managed on our islands.

The Islands Trust Policy Statement is a 30+ page document that guides what our official community plans should/shall contain, and from there, how our bylaws must be constructed. The significant changes to the policy statement being proposed by Trust staff will make major changes to our OCPs, particularly as the existing draft policy statement moves to directing that which must be, rather than that which should be. And that is but one of many elements the draft policy statement is changing.

Saturna’s OCPs were arduously crafted through huge community efforts over years. The current OCP will change if the Trust has its way, and in a process that negates the early and meaningful consultation we all have come to expect for even the most minimal of bylaw changes.

Yes, the Trust introduced the first draft of the 37-page revised policy statement to a public meeting of a working committee of the Trust early last month. It was sent back for rework, noting that community and other key elements were notably absent, notwithstanding that trustees had pointedly advised staff to include it in the revised policy statement. The second draft was released on the web on Friday, June 11 after 5 p.m. for review by that same committee on June 15 so that it could be brought before the Trust Council (all 26 Islands Trust representatives) for first reading. 

Yes, that’s right. The foundational document upon which the Trust uses to guide its policies was introduced May 3 and is now to first appear (on Zoom) to Trust Council on July 8 for first reading. 

Why the rush? In their May 14 briefing to the Trust Programs Committee specific to timing, the Islands Trust briefing document says: “Staff also wish to highlight that First Nations have been working within the timelines outlined below for the last two years and have an expectation that the bylaw will be adopted during this term of office.”

Yet in their June 15 briefing document, Islands Trust staff write this:

“It is important to note that First Nations have been working within the timelines outlined below and have an expectation that the new Policy Statement bylaw will be considered for adoption during this term of office.”

Which is it? Adopted this term or considered for adoption? Words are important.

If the Islands Trust staff speak on behalf of First Nations, we need to know what First Nations want. Does the Islands Trust speak on behalf of all First Nations in the region, or only those they’ve consulted with? 

The other point Islands Trust staff has made in favour of this accelerated process was that if the new policy statement were not adopted (first, second and third readings, blessed by the Executive Committee and then signed by the Municipal Affairs Minister for receipt and final adoption) this term (by October 2022), they would have to “educate” new trustees. That must be a big hill to climb, and some trustees might wonder who works for whom, and whether education might be a two-way street. 

But would delay of first reading to a later date preclude adoption this term? No, ample time still exists to do so. And were the draft policy statement to go through to third reading and off to the minister in, say, September 2022, would this change the minister’s mind about final adoption in the months thereafter? Highly unlikely.

So where is the issue? Is there consensus amongst elected officials on the timelines? Certainly not from the meeting on June 15 with 10 of the 11 Trust Programs Committee trustees present. At that meeting, half the trustees voted to delay the policy statement going to first reading to allow resident communities to have their say. And half were opposed. Hardly a consensus.

And to illustrate the lack of consensus, at the same meeting, a vote was taken to remove “housing” from the draft policy statement. Half the trustees also voted in favour of that. Again, half opposed. So ask yourself, is this truly a document that has been thoroughly vetted and ready for first reading?

You might also ask, why wasn’t the draft policy statement introduced for discussion at the full meeting of 26 trustees at Trust Council on June 8, 9 and 10? That was a decision of the Trust. In my view, it reinforces the bizarre nature of this process, which seems more focused on pushing this bylaw through as quickly as possible without considering the public interest.

We are hearing concerns from residents about this draft policy statement, about the Trust’s focus on diminishing the role of agriculture and taking control of all forestry and tree-cutting activities, banning private docks and forcing OCP changes on islands. You may hear that the Trust has deemed the defining of words and phrases in the Trust Policy Statement as in need of change and “has suggested a move away from fixed academic (mostly colonial) ‘definitions’ in favour of more context-specific ‘interpretations’.” 

These are all directions that may or may not be what islanders ultimately wish to embrace. But first, we need to have appropriate public consultation, ahead of first reading so that we, like the First Nations whose territory we gratefully live upon, can provide our early comments on both content and timelines, before it’s brought to first reading.

I urge you to write to Premier John Horgan and relevant ministers (see below) to request that the Islands Trust engage with the residents and property owners of the Trust area prior to pushing this to first reading, respecting the early and full public consultation we have come to expect as a normal process. Only by this measure will we protect the public interest of the constituents of our islands.

Premier of BC, John Horgan – john.horgan.mla@leg.bc.ca
Minister of Municipal Affairs, Josie Osborne – josie.osborne.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Lana Popham – lana.popham.mla@leg.bc.ca

Minister of Indigenous Relations & Reconciliation, Murray Rankin – murray.rankin.MLA@leg.bc.ca

Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations & Rural Development, Katrine Conroy – FLNR.Minister@gov.bc.ca

Grand slam punctuates midget team season

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Grand slam punctuates midget team season

By MATT ENGLAND

The Salt Spring Sonics midget boys baseball team finished their brief but memorable 2021 season last week. 

After losing all of last season to COVID-19, the boys started practising in May, not knowing what 2021 would look like. In June it was game on as clearance was given for eight games to be played against teams from Duncan and Ladysmith. As there is no ballpark on Salt Spring for midget boys, our home field was once again in Chemainus. 

It was beyond awesome to see the boys out there playing again and some epic evenings ensued. When the dust settled the Sonics had a record of four wins and four losses. For the last game the temperature in the dugout was 35 degrees but the boys were unfazed and played with the same carefree joy they had shown all year. In the last inning magic happened when Ben Stocks hit a grand slam. 

This is a very young team and with all players returning we are very excited about the potential for 2022.

Team members are Eli England, Owen Brown, Dan Quesnel, Daniel Akerman, Ben Stocks, James Schure, Sel Patterson, Finn Hughes, Zack Sturgess, Dawson Bell, Laine Hogstead and Kadin Girdlestone.

Salt Spring trustees urge Policy Statement pause

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Salt Spring trustees urge Policy Statement pause

The following statement was issued by Salt Spring Island trustees Laura Patrick and Peter Grove at the June 29 Salt Spring Local Trust Committee meeting, in relation to the Islands Trust Policy Statement update process.

We are concerned about the level of tension that has arisen in this community regarding the upcoming July 8 Trust Council meeting. At that meeting, consideration will be given for a first reading of a bylaw that is introducing a draft of the Islands Trust Policy Statement, which is undergoing an update to address reconciliation, climate change and affordable housing.

Islands Trust staff have done what trustees asked them to do with the limited resources allocated to them and in COVID times, to provide an update to the Policy Statement. Criticism of staff is unwarranted. We have heard from some members of the public loud and clear that they have deep concerns and do not feel they were appropriately consulted. As well, people want to understand the implications of the proposed changes and how a federation level policy statement gets translated to the local level in the official community plan and land use bylaws.

At this juncture, faith in the process is diminished and there is no way we can just put our heads down and forge ahead.

At the July 8 Trust Council meeting, to restore faith in the process and in the Islands Trust, your locally elected Salt Spring trustees will propose that the current process be paused with the receipt of the draft while Trust Council reevaluates its public consultation plans. We believe an additional phase of consultation should be added to develop a draft Policy Statement that both honours Trust Council’s Reconciliation Declaration and that can be supported by island residents. 

This additional phase of consultation needs to be appropriately resourced to facilitate a deliberative dialogue at both the federation and local island level.  

Editorial: Slower policy statement process makes sense

Driftwood Staff
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Editorial: Slower policy statement process makes sense

Getting the public interested in updating the Islands Trust Policy Statement has seen a familiar scenario unfold. 

Most such “big picture” government projects start with some general information being released and the launch of a survey. Everyone is invited to provide their input. People who follow that particular corner of governance will immediately respond to advertisements and stories calling for “engagement,” while the rest of the population will not. Most working people, especially, do not have the time to “engage” unless they are told it is imperative to prevent something negative from happening in their life. 

That is what has occurred once again with the Islands Trust Policy Statement (TPS) process, which began two years ago with an initiative called Islands 2050. Booths were set up at the Salt Spring Fall Fair and events held on other islands in 2019. Trust staff even rode Gulf Islands ferries for four days to try to raise public awareness. An online survey was widely publicized through social media and in print publications. 

Updates have been provided at Islands Trust Council meetings in the intervening months, but it wasn’t until a first draft of a new policy statement was seen on June 15 that the alarm bells started ringing, as they inevitably always do with Islands Trust initiatives.  

While some of the information circulating was clearly not correct — having a bylaw set to receive first reading is nowhere near the end of a process and does not make it a “done deal” — more island residents and property owners are now paying attention to the TPS. That’s a good thing. 

It’s easy to be critical and say that people should have paid attention and provided input two years ago, but that is not fair nor rational. And despite the fact that first reading is normally the beginning of a process soliciting public feedback, the TPS is not an average land-use bylaw affecting one property or part of an island. It does have broader implications for all of the islands and their residents, as well as First Nations. 

The reality is that it probably won’t make a difference whether or not the document bylaw receives first reading on July 8 or later this fall. But with a public now attuned to the contents of the document, going slow and steady with ears open to island communities and First Nations will be more likely to help the Trust win the policy statement race.   

Nobody Asked Me But: Pivotal turning point in human evolution upon us

Shilo Zylbergold
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Nobody Asked Me But: Pivotal turning point in human evolution upon us

It’s been more than a year and a bit since we fell under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic that swept across the globe. Recently, with the number of infections slowly decreasing as the rate of vaccination has steadily risen, we feel ourselves approaching a new horizon. As the days slip by, we find our faces pressed up against the window to the future. We are on the threshold of a new normal.

One of the changes we are sure to notice involves household cleanliness. All this social distancing and staying within our bubbles during the pandemic has given us so much more time to not do all the things that need doing around the house. Why vacuum the living room rug now when it will just be in the same state of dustiness tomorrow? Who’s going to see it anyway? And, by the way, where is that vacuum cleaner hiding? Could it be crouching deep in the hall closet corner behind that formidable snarl of spider webs and dust balls?

You can bet that I, for one, will not be putting on a mask anytime soon after those in charge of public health declare that the coast is clear. In fact, I’m predicting there will be a steep decline in sales of masks of all kinds. By these, we can include surgical masks, industrial masks and even Halloween masks like the one worn by Spiderman. May the Lord have mercy on the poor slob who forgets that the plague has been declared as over and mistakenly wanders into a bank with his designer mask pulled over his face. There will be no more face masks dangling from the rear-view mirrors of our cars and trucks; that honourable position will be returned to the much more traditional foam dice, dream catchers and air fresheners.

Have I mentioned hand-washing? When the pandemic is declared over, I may take a six-month moratorium from singing “Happy Birthday” twice to my hands as I wash them. In fact, I may never wash them again just so as to give the surface layer of skin on them a chance to regenerate. And, no thanks, I don’t think I’m going to want me or anybody else to shoot a couple of squirts of hand sanitizer into my waiting, cupped palms to make sure that all of those villainous bacteria are exterminated while simultaneously assuring that any moisture left in my skin will be driven off into the ether so that my hands are left as dry as a Sahara sand dune.

How do you suppose the new normal will affect our shopping rituals? Are we still going to be wiping down and sanitizing our shopping carts and baskets before and after every use? Will we still line up at the front doors of our supermarkets and wait until enough shoppers have left the premises before we are given permission by a disembodied mechanical voice to enter? Will we navigate our carts up and down the aisles while attempting to steer six feet clear of any and all who might be coming dangerously close to our air space?

Or are we going to backtrack to the same old same old that were our habits before the word “COVID” ever entered our consciousness? Will we stop our carts in mid-aisle, embrace other shoppers whom we haven’t seen since who knows when, and catch up on all the intricate details of our lives until we are informed by a store employee that closing time is fast approaching? Will we reach our outstretched arms over the shoulders of other unsuspecting store patrons in order to snatch that last remaining carton of organic oat milk on sale this week? And instead of lining up in an orderly fashion so that we can efficiently be directed to the next available till, will we once again play Lotto Checkout with each other to try to guess which till will move the fastest so that we will have to spend the least amount of time possible waiting for our groceries to be rung through?

Leisure, play and holiday time have all been tremendously hampered during the long social distancing period our society has had to endure. Yoga classes, swing dance lessons, fitness centres and Gregorian chanting groups have fallen by the wayside. Live musical concerts and theatre performances seem as distant in the past as once did gladiator battles and jousting contests. As for road trips and vacation excursions, a solo walk around the block has seemed about as adventuresome lately as a climb to the summit of Everest. Will the new normal see us all willingly and even aggressively piling into a moshpit of close encounters?

Then, there’s the matter of the workplace versus working from home. Although many of us have not had a choice during the days of COVID and have had to continue showing up in factories, offices and job sites on a daily basis, a large proportion of workers have been given the option of carrying on their employment duties from inside the confines of their own homes. As one might well expect, the work ethic of these “home drones” has, shall we say, mellowed during the pandemic interval. Consequently, it has not been too unusual a sight for someone to show up on a Zoom conference meeting dressed in a button-down shirt and tie above the desk top, but wearing nothing but boxer shorts and no socks below. This is, of course, referring to those who haven’t yet figured out how to properly frame their online exposure. Whether the new normal will see the workplace trend continue in this direction is anybody’s guess, but it might be a good time to invest heavily in outrageous underwear.

Nobody asked me, but the event horizon which will hopefully mark the end of the pandemic and the beginning of whatever comes afterwards is quickly approaching. Future historians will most probably cite these next few weeks as a pivotal turning point in the course of human evolution. Much like homo erectus first rising up and walking on two legs, the dawning of the new normal could well bring a leap forward in the intellectual and spiritual development of our species. 

Then again, any lessons learned from our recent ordeal may all go for naught and we might just revert to scraping our knuckles along the ground just as we did before this whole thing started. In which case it will mean hand-washing time again.

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