Islands Trust leadership last week signed off on an expansion of Trust Council-initiated efforts to curtail a long-running policy of placing public notices in local newspapers, this time approving a bylaw that would require staff “publish” notifications related to Galiano Island only on Facebook and the Trust’s own website.

With motions passed by the Trust’s Executive Committee (EC) at its meeting Wednesday, Oct. 1, Galiano Island’s Local Trust Committee (LTC) will be joining three others — Mayne, Saturna and North Pender islands — who have agreed to adopt Trust Council’s “model” public notice bylaw.

Islands Trust staff promoted the model bylaw earlier this year as a money-saving effort to reduce administrative processes and costs by eliminating the need to advertise in print newspapers — including the Gulf Islands Driftwood. The Islands Trust Council agreed, and in June approved a policy that recommended individual LTCs instead use social media and the islandstrust.bc.ca website.

The Driftwood has run public notices related to the Islands Trust since May 1974, when it printed the full text of the then-new Islands Trust Act. Public notices appear both in print and in the newspaper’s digital edition.

Not all LTCs have adopted the model bylaw without changes. In August, Salt Spring Island’s LTC notably kept the “status quo” and islanders there will continue to see local notices published in the Driftwood — although trustees indicated last week there was nothing permanent about that arrangement.

“I think it’s important for all the Local Trust Committees to be looking at the best ways to communicate all the time,” said EC chair and Salt Spring Island trustee Laura Patrick Oct. 1, “because it is a moving target as things change.”

Galiano Island trustee Ben Mabberley spoke to his view of the shifting landscape at that island’s LTC meeting Sept. 9, saying he felt Facebook and the Islands Trust website were sufficient as newspapers were a “dying industry.”

Going forward, it was not immediately clear what savings islanders might see from the change. Historically, according to Driftwood records, the Islands Trust’s newspaper notices have mostly supported its efforts to inform the public about development permits and rezoning. It spends roughly $7,000 on public notifications in that newspaper each year for notices related to Salt Spring Island, according to a staff report, and some $9,000 spread among notices for all the other Gulf Islands. 

That stands against a backdrop of nearly $450,000 spent on employee time processing development permits alone, according to a staff analysis this year. Roughly 90 per cent of those costs are borne by taxpayers, rather than the applicants themselves. A trustee-prompted initiative to review whether application fees should be adjusted to recover more of those costs remains incomplete. 

At the Oct. 1 meeting the EC also endorsed a proposal to increase the Islands Trust’s Information Services spending by $56,400, within a budget including a new line item for $8,000 in costs “required to maintain the website throughout the year” and a $26,000 server upgrade, replacing equipment coming to its “end of life,” according to a staff report.

The Islands Trust’s approved budget envisions nearly $11.2 million in spending.

CRD MEDIA RELEASE

The Capital Regional District (CRD) has purchased two properties and transferred a former community park from the Pender Islands Community Parks and Recreation Commission (PIPRC) to create a new, 21.7-hectare regional park on North Pender Island.

The CRD paid a total of $1.865 million for two properties located at 2201 Paisley Road and 2210 Clam Bay Road, and the cost to transfer George Hill Community Park from PIPRC to the CRD’s Regional Parks Division. The purchase was made using a combination of Regional Parks’ reserve funds and the Regional Parks Land Acquisition Fund.

“The CRD recognizes both the conservation and recreation value of the properties acquired on North Pender to create a new regional park,” said Cliff McNeil-Smith, CRD Board chair. “This acquisition creates new opportunities to protect unique ecosystems and expand recreational opportunities for people on Pender Islands and across the region.”

The new regional park, which features panoramic views of the Southern Gulf Islands, will provide both forested and summit hiking opportunities to visitors. In addition, it is located within the Coastal Douglas-fir Moist Maritime Biogeoclimatic subzone, which is home to a unique set of ecosystems found principally on south-east Vancouver Island, portions of the Gulf Islands, and pockets along the south coast and mainland of British Columbia. Thanks to a Mediterranean-like climate in this subzone, flora and fauna thrive. Species at risk such as the sharp tailed snake have been noted on the property.

Covenants require the lands to be managed as a regional park in perpetuity. Alongside the CRD Regional Parks Division, the PIPRC will continue to be involved in helping to manage invasive species on the property.

“Transferring the former George Hill Community Park to the CRD’s Regional Parks Division and amalgamating it with the two additional parcels to create a new, regionally significant park is a win for residents of the Gulf Islands and the wider region alike,” said Paul Brent, Electoral Area Director for the Southern Gulf Islands. “The newly established park is a true destination with expansive views of the Gulf Islands and ecosystems worth preserving. Securing these properties as regional parkland will ensure continued public enjoyment and long-term land management by a division of the wider CRD organization that is well-equipped to do so.”

In the interim, the name of George Hill Community Park and the newly acquired lands will be changed to George Hill Regional Park. Renaming or co-naming the new regional park with an Indigenous name can be explored in collaboration with local First Nations as opportunities arise.

With the support of partners, the CRD has acquired approximately 4,900 hectares of land for regional parks and trails since 2000. In that time, the regional park system grew from 8,400 ha to more than 13,300. Find more information online, here.

Expect delays, plan ahead and slow down on Fulford-Ganges Road, officials said — and all signs point to the end being just around the corner.

Contractors for the now year-long Fulford-Ganges Road improvement project said work is underway on the thus-far incomplete and final section near the road’s intersection with Seaview Avenue, at the construction zone’s northern edge — and that “significant” impacts on traffic are expected there starting Oct. 9, excluding weekends. 

And that last stretch will see paving starting Oct. 20, according to Northridge Excavating Ltd. project manager Bob Mitchell, as will the intersection with Cranberry Road at the other end of the project.

But barring unforeseen events, Mitchell said, that should mark the end of serious interruptions on Salt Spring Island’s busiest road.

“We will do our best to minimize traffic impacts each day,” said Mitchell in an update Wednesday, Oct. 1. “October 24 will be the completion of all major paving works on Fulford-Ganges. Further works will be pavement marking, signage and general clean-up; we do not foresee any further significant chronic traffic impacts after the major paving is complete.”

Minor work “tidying up and putting finishing touches” on the project will continue into November, Mitchell said. 

Until then, crews will generally be in place Monday through Friday between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., Mitchell said, adding that the posted speed limit through the entire project — from Cranberry Road to Seaview Avenue — remains 30 km/hr.

The Fulford-Ganges Road Project is a $22.9-million effort, chiefly focused on the Ganges Hill section, where Ministry of Transportation and Transit officials have said work would include stormwater improvements, resurfacing, widening and paved shoulders for pedestrians and cyclists.