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Safety service bylaw deadline looms

Driftwood Staff
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Safety service bylaw deadline looms

The alternative approval process that will determine the fate of CRD Bylaw 4325 is nearing its conclusion.

The deadline for return of elector response forms expressing opposition to the bylaw is Monday, Dec. 9 at 4 p.m. 

The bylaw would authorize the CRD to requisition up to $0.016 per $1,000 of assessed residential property value for the purpose of establishing a Community Safety Service on Salt Spring to a maximum of $65,000 island-wide.

Some 910 qualified voters (or 10 per cent of the electorate) must complete and return elector response forms to the Ganges or Victoria CRD offices by mail or in person in order to stop the tax from automatically being enacted by the CRD. 

As explained in the Driftwood last month, Salt Spring CRD director Gary Holman has said the first-year budget of $30,000 would see $9,000 disbursed in grants to on-island organizations to better support and connect those in need to existing services; $7,000 for crime prevention measures such as Neighbourhood Watch and security cameras and lighting; and $4,000 for minute-taking and CRD financial accounting/reporting. The remainder of the budget would cover the cost of the alternative approval process required to pass the bylaw.

Forms must be returned to the CRD office in either Ganges (#108-121 McPhillips Ave.) or Victoria (625 Fisgard St.) by 4 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 9. The fact that the forms themselves indicate they must be returned to the Victoria office when that is apparently not true, and that the Ganges CRD office would not provide multiple copies of the form to individuals upon request has garnered widespread criticism.

“The Salt Spring AAP is a demonstration of the worst use of an AAP: confusing, poorly defined and failing to meet legislative requirements,” said Darcy Repen, former mayor of Telkwa, B.C. and a part-time Salt Spring resident, in a letter to the Driftwood.

Anyone qualified to vote in a CRD election can submit a completed form. Only one’s name, residential address and signature are required.

Forms are available at the Ganges CRD office, Salt Spring Public Library, the CRD website, Driftwood office and from individuals who are distributing them on the island. Gordon Lee will be on the sidewalk by the Ganges Fire Hall for the next few days handing out forms and speaking to people about the bylaw. Lee said he is not against the concept of the new service but does not approve of the method by which it is being brought in.

The bylaw could be put to a referendum, or abandoned, if more than 10 per cent of electors return the response form by 4 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 9.

CRD works on new solid waste plan

Elizabeth Nolan
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CRD works on new solid waste plan

Capital Regional District staff were on Salt Spring Thursday to gather public feedback on updating a solid waste management plan for the region.

The plan contains 15 proposed strategies divided into three categories: reduce and reuse, recycling and recovery, and residuals management. Although one of the strategies is to increase capacity at Hartland Landfill so it can be used up to the year 2100, keeping things out of the facility in the first place is a priority.

“We are more aware of the need to reduce our use of single-use items, especially plastics. Capital region residents actively participate in blue box recycling and diversion programs for organic matter like food scraps and yard waste,” public engagement materials read. “At the same time, we still produce a lot of garbage.”

Currently, about 140,000 tonnes of garbage is sent to Hartland each year. A medium-term goal is to reduce garbage by at least one third by 2030, from the current 380 kg per person per year to 250 kg.

“The easiest way to reduce waste is to avoid purchasing or creating what we don’t need,” the engagement material observes. Proper diversion of items that don’t need to go to the landfill and can be remade or reused is the next best step.

An analysis of the Hartland waste stream shows that much of the material going into the landfill could be dealt with differently. Despite a ban on kitchen scraps that started in January 2015, a study of the waste stream in 2016 showed organics accounted for 21 per cent. Wood and wood products made up 17 per cent, and another 15.4 per cent stemmed from paper and paper products. The next highest portion came from plastics, at 14 per cent.

Members of the public who attended Thursday’s open house session were concerned with advancing more diversion options locally. Questions directed at staff centred around the types of recycling available, extending producer responsibility programs, where material goes after it leaves the island and how to facilitate food waste collection and composting.

In regard to a question about why the CRD banned kitchen scraps without providing a way to deal with organics, Wendy Dunn, program coordinator with the CRD’s environmental resource management branch, explained that a processing facility had existed in the regional district when the rule first went into place. It has since shut down, but the CRD is now investigating the potential for establishing an organics processing facility at Hartland.

Dunn said people who wanted to see smaller facilities outside the regional district core, like on Salt Spring, should put that in writing on the feedback forms provided at the open house or through the online survey (which was closed on Dec. 1).

As for items such as hard plastic not related to packaging, Dunn said more and more producers are being folded into the responsibility program. Those that make items that are harder to recycle, such as multi-laminate plastic packaging, are required to pay more into the program than those with easy-to-process items such as soup tins.

“You and I as consumers can exercise our consumer power by what we choose off the shelves, too,” Dunn added. “We have some power to do that.”

Consumers can find out what happens to their recycled material through the BC Recycling website.

More information on the CRD’s solid waste management planning can be found at https://www.crd.bc.ca/project/management-plan.

Trust hears composter appeal

Gail Sjuberg
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Trust hears composter appeal

Two organizations looking to build a community composter on Salt Spring addressed the Salt Spring Local Trust Committee last week to discuss barriers to completing the project.

The Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust Society, along with Salt Spring Island Community Services, have been working to build a community composter at the Burgoyne Valley Community Farm. The composter would allow materials typically taken off-island and disposed in a landfill to stay on the island and help build soil fertility. The partner groups addressed the Trust because in order to get the composter constructed, the Agricultural Land Commission requires that there is no prohibitions from local government. Multiple concerned parties and farmers from the island also spoke favourably about the project during the town hall portion of the meeting.

“That’s ALR land, so our first reference point is the Agricultural Land Commission. They say it’s fine with them in legislation and regulations. The only provisions are that we comply with whatever the Ministry of Environment requires, which is reasonable, and that the local government is not prohibiting it — which is different from approving it,” Farmland Trust president Patricia Reichert explained.

Under current regulations, composting facilities are only allowed in Industrial-zoned properties. A communication from the Trust to SSICS and the Farmland Trust Society explained that if a use is permitted in one zone, then it is excluded from all others.

Islands Trust regional planning manager Stefan Cermak explained that two areas on the island were permitted to have such a facility, one near Gulf Islands Secondary School and one being the property housing the Farmland Trust’s “The Root” food security hub on Beddis Road. Cermak also explained that in order to build the composter at the farm, two options existed: to either rezone a part of the Burgoyne Valley farm property to allow the composting facility, or to apply for a temporary use permit that would do the same. He said no application has been submitted.

Reichert and SSICS executive director Rob Grant both said that those options were not possible. During the presentation, Reichert expressed her concern that the TUP could establish a precedent that would limit, based on the exclusion mentioned above, other farmers from being able to compost on their properties. Cermak later told the Driftwood that the temporary use permit would not establish any precedents.

Composting appears in an ongoing update to the Trust’s zoning bylaws. The proposed Bylaw 489 would allow composting of agricultural waste produced onsite to be a permitted use in all zones that permit agriculture, and that composting organic matter originating at the site of the operation could be a permitted use in all zones. Under that bylaw, all commercial composting would be subject to the Capital Regional District’s Composting Facilities Regulation Bylaw. The Trust bylaw is currently awaiting ministerial approval.

Relocating the facility to the Farmland Trusts’ The Root building would not be an option, Grant explained.

“The whole essence of this was to integrate it with the activity on the farm. It’s not a stand-alone activity. A very particular set of things all needed to come together and balance to make it work. It takes a bit of labour to do it. That’s where we [SSICS] come in. We can bring the labour. We’re not at The Root. So there’s a huge efficiency to integrate everything on that property. All of the pieces are there,” he said.

“We want [the Trust] to circle back and have another look at it,” he added. “The staff have determined that it’s not zoned appropriately, our position is that it absolutely is permitted. We want another look at that.”

Cermak told the trustees later in the Nov. 26 meeting that “composting is absolutely permitted and we would never prevent that from happening. What they are asking for is a composting facility, which has to be done on land zoned for it.”

“We’ve been really trying to help them as much as we can,” he added. “Staff are really keen to help them get a composting facility. We know it’s important. We just can’t do it without zoning.”

For more on this story, see the Dec. 3, 2019 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.

Bands gather with Miltons at helm

Gail Sjuberg
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Bands gather with Miltons at helm

When Bandemonium and Swing Shift members assemble at ArtSpring for a concert this Friday, their merging will represent a community music tradition having gone full circle.

Way back in 1992, Wendy and Derrick Milton started a community concert band  called Bandemonium, with Wendy as its director. Many members had not played their instruments for many years. Some of the more experienced musicians who wanted a jazzier experience led to Derrick and Wendy creating the band that would soon become known as Swing Shift.

Wendy passed Bandemonium over to Dawn Hage in 1999, when it was renamed the Salt Spring Concert Band, and Keith Ollerenshaw took the reins for one season after Hage left the island in 2018.

Leadership of Swing Shift was also passed around amongst various hands over the years. But now both groups are led by the couple who started them.

“I’m at the right point in time where I’m happy to be back,” said Wendy.

Derrick has been leading Swing Shift again for a few years. 

The Dec. 6 show at ArtSpring is called Bandemonium and Swing Shift: Together Again! Beginning at 7:30 p.m., it will see Swing Shift perform in the first half and Bandemonium in the second, joined by Swing Shift at the end. Bandemonium will cover more of the seasonal content.

Sue Newman and Clark Saunders will join the group as vocal soloists for The Christmas Song.

Bandemonium will also play Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Elgar, which fits in with a theme of remembering past band members. In looking at the records, the Miltons counted some 300 people who have played instruments with the band since 1992, and a number of those have died.

This fall Wendy has focused on ensuring the band plays songs they can master and sound good at a performance level.

Derrick promises a great and non-controversial rendition of Baby, It’s Cold Outside. The group will play a cool arrangement that was performed by Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews, but Derrick says Swing Shift’s version is way better than the original, due to Newman’s participation with Saunders.

“I can guarantee that the female vocalist in our performance is far superior to the female vocalist in that one,” he said.

People can also take in Swing Shift at a New Year’s dance at Mahon Hall, featuring the Andrews Sisters (this year that’s Jekka Mack, Margo Milton and Caroni Young).

For more on this story, see the Dec. 3, 2019 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.

Climate plan work well underway

Elizabeth Nolan
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Climate plan work well underway

Close to 200 islanders of all ages from babies to elders attended a brunch meeting held at Gulf Islands Secondary School on Saturday morning to hear more about plans to update Salt Spring’s Climate Action Plan.

Members of the steering committee starting with chair Darryl Martin gave short presentations on the work to create “CAP 2.0,” an updated version of the document that was released in 2011.

Organizers explained that with an escalation in climate change and carbon emissions since that time, there is also a need for new targets for action and new ideas to ensure those targets are met. The steering committee is working on strategies to reduce the island’s carbon emission levels by 50 per cent by 2030.

The 2011 plan included a baseline emissions report using data from 2007. It showed that food accounted for 40 per cent of emissions, and on-island transportation for 36 per cent. Improvements made since then include the establishment of a local transit system in 2008 and the switch of more than 200 personal vehicles from gas-power to electric.  Agricultural initiatives included the opening of the Salt Spring Abattoir in 2012, new allotment gardens in Burgoyne Valley and on Rainbow Road and Community Services’ food waste diversion program.

The updated climate action plan will include new calculations of emissions and where they stem from, proposals for making changes and risk mapping that charts the potential for sea level rise, flooding and fire hazards.

Participants of the brunch event had the opportunity to record a short video with their thoughts and ideas, to become part of a larger project. More opportunity for input will come in February with the launch of an online “smart survey,” following the release of a draft plan in January. The final plan is targeted for April 2020.

More information on the project is available at saltspringclimateactionplan.com.

SD64 mulls turf field project

Gail Sjuberg
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SD64 mulls turf field project

The Gulf Islands School District trustees and staff had a lively discussion concerning a project to install a synthetic soccer field at the Gulf Islands Secondary School at their committee meeting day last week.

The board had been asked to apply for a change of use from the Agricultural Land Commission to allow the project to move forward at their November board meeting on Mayne Island. Since the board meeting, which was held on Nov. 13, trustees received an influx of letters from Salt Spring community members about the project.

In June, the board moved to agree in principle with the synthetic turf field project, which originally was to be comprised of a plastic grass with TPE fill, a plastic similar to rubber that is used in toothbrush handles and baby soothers. That idea was changed to a more natural solution of coconut and cork after the board and soccer association received negative feedback about the plastic granules. The field was also originally to be at the “Hydro field” at Salt Spring Middle School, but that idea was changed because the high school could offer better amenities like change rooms.

That field is within the Agricultural Land Reserve. A synthetic playing surface is not a recognized use by the ALC, and to move forward the board, as the owner of the property, will need to submit an application to the commission for a change of use. The soccer association has said they would pay the fee for the application.

Other factors to be considered by the board would be any future costs for replacement. Secretary treasurer Jesse Guy said that moving forward, the board would be counting on having to save money every year to pay for the eventual replacement of the field and that by the time the field replacement is needed the soccer association would still be robust and active in the community. The district entered a funding protection model with the Ministry of Education in June, which allows them to prepare for drastically lower funding than they were used to. The expense would be roughly $15,000 to $30,000 each year. District superintendent Scott Benwell said that was about the same as one educational assistant per year.

The application is an important stage in the project, and could determine whether or not it continues. Benwell said that asking the soccer association to spend the money for the application would make it difficult and awkward if the district decided to change its decision later on in the process.

Part of the agreement in principle was that the soccer association undergo a “fullsome community consultation” process about the project. Benwell asked the trustees to consider whether they thought that consultation had been completed. Options on that front would be to accept the consultation received so far, or to conduct a further consultation at the board level.

Saturna Island trustee Chaya Katrensky explained that she believed further consultation would “be getting the same [opinions].

“We’re going to be getting really strong opinions for it and really strong opinions against it,” she said. “Going through the hoops again in a full public forum is going to bring us back to the same position.”

The meeting ended with a discussion of the board’s role in the project, and the dilemma facing them. Trustee and committee chair Tisha Boulter described it after the meeting as a “right vs. right” issue and that the trustees would be considering their personal positions on the decision in time for the next board meeting on Dec. 11.

Staff will be speaking to physical education teachers and athletic directors at both GISS and SIMS, as well as facility staff.

For more on this story, see the Dec. 3, 2019 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.

Viewpoint: Ganges submerged in future

Contributed Article
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Viewpoint: Ganges submerged in future

By TIMOTHY HARVEY

Recently, a public rally on Salt Spring drew attention to the local link between our housing crisis and climate change. Demonstrators suggested, among other measures, that we add accommodations to the Ganges village core. Indeed, this would address some of the problems we face today.

What about the problems we will face tomorrow? In October 2019, a consortium of climate scientists released an updated map of coastal regions predicted to be flooded by rising sea levels by the year 2050. The new estimates triple the previously predicted extent of flooding, by correcting for satellite data in which elevations had accounted for rooftops rather than ground-level topography. The updated map shows virtually all of Ganges under water in just 30 years. That’s right: water lapping at the doors of the high school, with everything from Grace Point to Mid-Island Co-op gas station and the sewage treatment plant submerged by tidewater.

Sound extreme? It is. But the damage to climate is already done. When you place an ice cube in a warm room, it does not instantly melt. It melts gradually over a time scale relative to its size. We are now living within a brief, decades-long lag between present temperatures and the catastrophic melting of the earth’s great ice cubes, found mostly in Greenland and Antarctica.

The consensus on coming floods is based on known variables, including water volume, topography and observations of the current rate of melting. It is safe to assume that the fate of our beloved Ganges is a foregone conclusion.

We either fight this reality, adapt to it, or both. But unless we raise taxes enough to protect Ganges Harbour with a storm surge barrier reminiscent of the Dutch Delta Works, we have three decades to mount an exodus from our village core, and from dozens of the island’s more desirable waterfront residences as well. That should be enough time to shift main roads and to decommission the current village in an environmentally sensitive fashion, and, of course, to find new housing for displaced flood-zone refugees.

Until then, by all means, let’s liven up the village and mitigate the current housing shortage. We should enjoy everything Ganges has to offer for as long as we can. But as tidewaters creep to the foot of Ganges Hill and hundreds of millions of climate refugees are displaced worldwide, we’ll want a solid plan in place to deal with homelessness on a scale that puts today’s housing crisis in stark perspective.      

The updated 2050 flood prediction map can be viewed at coastal.climatecentral.org.

Editorial: AAP process undemocratic

Driftwood Staff
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Editorial: AAP process undemocratic

The Capital Regional District’s attempt to create a “safety service” for Salt Spring has garnered lots of negative attention in recent weeks, and for good reason.

The process has been flawed on many levels.

While the desire to help solve a community problem might be admirable, and the amount of money proposed to be spent in the first year will not break anyone’s bank, adding to the CRD bureaucracy and using an alternative approval process (AAP) to fund a new service was not the way to go.

Some of the money will reportedly be used to pay for CRD staff to attend and take minutes at one or more meetings. Those staff are already being paid by Salt Spring Island taxpayers. The CRD should not have to charge another CRD service — in this case the new Community Safety Service — for its staff to do jobs that islanders are already paying them to do.

Unbelievably, Ganges CRD office staff have been instructed to not give more than one copy of the Elector Response Form to an individual for distribution to other electors. That policy makes no sense since the verification of a voter’s qualifications must still be done by matching the name to a residential address or a piece of property owned by a non-resident elector. (You don’t have to be property owner to protest this bylaw; just a “qualified” voter like in any other regular election.)

The form states that it must be returned to the Victoria CRD office (the Ganges office is also fine) and that the bylaw must be attached. Neither instruction is accurate. Another serious flaw. 

We encourage island voters to either print off forms for themselves, their friends and family members from the CRD’s website or to get one from the CRD office and photocopy it.

While it is natural to feel intimidated by having government employees know one’s feeling about an issue, people should buck that fear and drop off the form at the Ganges CRD office at #108-121 McPhillips Ave. by 4 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 9. Or hurry and pop it into the mail to the CRD Victoria office on Fisgard Street, or drop it off there in person. 

Even if forms are not returned by the required 910 electors — 10 per cent of registered Salt Spring voters — if enough people do the deed, it might at least make the CRD think twice about using an AAP the next time it is looking to expand its reach and extract more money from island taxpayers to pay for it.

Salt Spring Metal Recycling wins reprieve to March 31

Elizabeth Nolan
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Salt Spring Metal Recycling wins reprieve to March 31

Salt Spring Metal Recycling has been given a reprieve from Islands Trust bylaw enforcement action for the next few months while owner John Quesnel works with the Trust to bring the business into zoning compliance.

“We’re looking at options at how to comply. We’re going to work together to try to find a solution that works for everyone,” Quesnel told the Driftwood on Tuesday.

Quesnel announced in October that he would no longer be accepting metal recycling materials at 251 Fulford-Ganges Rd. after Dec. 5, following escalation of bylaw enforcement activity. The industrial property is not zoned for vehicle wrecking or the outdoor storage or processing of recycling material, but has filled a gap in local services.

“People are panicking and I’ve been absolutely swamped,” Quesnel said. “I can’t even get the trucks in to get the bins.”

Islands Trust chief bylaw enforcement officer Warren Dingman confirmed that Quesnel had asked for and received a grace period of several months. 

“John will talk to planning staff, and he’s already talked to the regional planning manager, about what applications he can submit to operate his recycling business lawfully,” Dingman said.

Dingman will follow up with Quesnel after March 31 to see what progress has been made. 

DINSMORE, Norman Henry

Driftwood Obituary
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DINSMORE, Norman Henry

Norman Henry Dinsmore
October 16, 1935 – November 19, 2019

Norm has sailed into a peaceful sunset after enduring a number of health challenges in his last few years.

Born in New Westminster, he was the son of Surrey pioneers Ed and Louise Dinsmore, and together with his sisters Helen (Earle) and Mary Jo (Dick) grew up on The Dinsmore Brothers Farm.

Norm chose a different path and attended UBC where he graduated in civil engineering and began working for HA Simons. While at UBC he met and married Ann Brown and made several lifelong friendships. The two set off on a travelling adventure visiting Africa, Australia and Europe, often as passengers on freighters, before settling in Vancouver and having sons Michael (Linda) and Bruce (Lisa). Norm worked in the pulp and paper industry and moved the family to Ticonderoga in upstate NY in the early 1970’s, then to Wisconsin Rapids, WI a few years later. Summers were spent on the Gulf Islands boating with family and friends.

Norm had a reputation for being steady and fair. He was often sought out for advice or help in a jam, and was always ready to lend either a hand with friends or while at work offer his considerable expertise. Ann passed away after an illness in 1999. Dad shared the next chapter of his life with Sally Plunkett on Salt Spring Island. Sally, whose husband Pat predeceased her, and their children Stephen (Janine), Shelagh, (Shane) and Chris (Tora) had been lifelong friends of the Dinsmores, the two families sharing holidays and hijinks.

On Saltspring Norm and Sally made many new and wonderful friends, travelled to Ireland and Russia among other destinations, and were active members of the Saltspring Island community and Sailing Club, where Norm captained “El Zorro de Plata” and served as Rear Commodore. Norm’s grandchildren, Jordon, Kurtis, Gabriel and Tallula, and Sally’s grandchildren Niamh, (Andrew) Patrick and Lucia will all miss him dearly. The family would like to thank Dr Ian Gummeson for his thoughtful care, and the entire nursing staff at Lady Minto hospital for being so incredibly supportive, attentive and kind to Norm during his last few days.

A celebration of life will be held on both Saltspring Island and Vancouver in the coming year. In lieu of flowers, a donation to Lady Minto Hospital in Norm’s memory may be made.

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