BC Hydro’s plans to shift how it pays rooftop solar customers for electricity they generate has been approved by the B.C. Utilities Commission (BCUC), a move local clean energy advocates say has likely upended financial viability for community solar generation on Salt Spring Island. 

The independent regulator issued its decision on the utility’s net metering program Wednesday, March 24, replacing the current scheme with new “self-generation” and “community generation” service rates that set compensation at a flat 10 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). 

But those rates come without contracts, according to Community Solar Coalition’s (CSC) Kjell Liem, who said the decision demonstrates how easily BC Hydro can change its structure. 

Liem lives on Salt Spring, where the grassroots CSC grew out of the island’s 2016 Community Solar Summit. He said that unlike power purchase agreements, the new programs have no inflation adjustment mechanism — so the actual price will decline as electricity rates inevitably go up.

“It’s just not viable on the Gulf Islands,” said Liem, who had travelled to Vancouver in November to take part in BCUC’s public hearing process. 

The two intervenor groups with direct interest in the Community Generation rate — both CSC and the Vancouver-based EcoSmart Foundation — opposed the new rate as presented; both had been part of the Net Metering Working Group.

Liem said the new rates and future uncertainty might not dissuade solar projects that had free access to acreages and federal financial assistance, but there were too many risks for smaller producers — such as community solar projects envisioned to build resiliency on islands.

“Despite over a decade lobbying for a shared solar rate, it’s unlikely that Salt Spring will be able to make use of the Community Generation rate,” said Liem. “It’s hard, if not impossible, to find the ‘community’ part of BC Hydro’s rate.”

The program also includes what BC Hydro has called “safeguards to ensure community participation” — a framework that adjusts the maximum amount of electricity that can be sold to the utility based on the number of participating customers. In its decision, the BCUC said it agreed with BC Hydro’s assessment that if rates were left unchanged, non-participating ratepayers would be gradually subsidizing an increasing share of program costs. 

The new rates both take effect July 1, although net metering service rate customers who did not receive any rebate for their solar panels will have 10 years from the date they joined the program to transition to the new rate, according to the commission.

As Salt Spring heads into what Environment and Climate Change Canada has said is “virtually certain” to be among the four hottest years on record, the island’s largest water district is starting its annual water restrictions with a new, simpler set of regulations it says will increase compliance and spur conservation.

Trustees for the North Salt Spring Waterworks District (NSSWD) approved the changes Thursday, March 26, just in time for Stage 1 restrictions — the most permissive of potentially four that limit summertime water use — to take effect April 1. Along with simplifying when and how much people should water, according to NSSWD water data and assets coordinator Brenna Wells, trustees wanted the new rules to make the use of sprinklers less permissive, particularly for watering lawns, and encourage micro and drip irrigation and hand watering.

Longtime water users will notice the traditional odd and even dates for watering have been abandoned in the new user-friendly format, in favour of permitting a set number of days per week, depending on what stage the district is in. As well, permitted times for watering have been replaced with recommendations about when watering is most effective and when no watering should take place.

“We also added a ‘food producing plants and crops’ category, which we didn’t have before,” said Wells, “and we have that as the most permissive, relative to ‘trees, shrubs, plants and flowers.’”

Other changes include allowing vehicle and boat washing during Stage 4 restrictions for safety and invasive species control purposes, respectively; allowing more watering for public parks and fields, through not having specific hours allotted; and adding specific bylaw language setting definitions.

The new rules all fit on a handy one-page colour-coded chart that will be available to download on the district’s northsaltspringwaterworks.ca website. Staff said they would also have some printed copies available at the district office and at NSSWD’s May 6 AGM at Community Gospel Chapel.

NSSWD’s watering restrictions are in effect every year from April 1 until Nov. 1, and enter different stages mostly as conditions shift. The district uses current and historical water levels at St. Mary and Maxwell lakes to chart a course through restriction planning each year, managing both lakes to ensure adequate customer supply and maintain mandated minimum lake levels.

Also helping out with conservation efforts this year, the first of the district’s new water meters have been installed, according to operations director Ryan Moray, who told trustees that 165 of the cellular-capable devices are currently operating. The meters can transmit consumption data back to the office four times a day, he added, and replace devices in the system that are often as much as 40 years old.

“They’ll also flag continual use, no use, backflow, that sort of thing,” said Moray. “And you can look at your consumption trends.”

Eventually NSSWD plans to replace all 1,800-plus meters in the district, a project that will take multiple years to complete. The new meters have already found a few “slow leaks” on customers’ sides, according to Moray, which he said would have been “very difficult” to catch during normal meter reads that only took place every couple of months.

Customers will also have the opportunity to create their online “My360” accounts later this spring, according to district chief administrative officer Mark Boysen, bringing more information about their water use to their own computers.

“We’re getting some very excited responses from customers about these,” said Boysen. “Particularly strata owners, with 20 to 30 different people connected, there’s a lot of interest in having accurate information — and minimizing leaks that can impact the whole unit.”

The hot summer predicted for 2026 has the potential to break long-standing dry streak records on Salt Spring, which were nearly challenged last July as that calendar month came and went without a drop of rain falling. The driest month on record, according to Driftwood reporting, was August 1986, when no precipitation was recorded as part of what became a 58-day rain-free streak — although an 1898 drought was also reported in the pages of the Salt Spring Island Parish and Home newsletter. 

That year, according to the newsletter, except for “one day’s wetting” of 5.6 mm in August, there was no precipitation between June 19 and Sept. 19, or 92 days.

Construction on the new fastpitch baseball diamond at Salt Spring Island’s Hydro Field has begun, thanks to contractors identifying works that could be completed before the May long weekend — and without interfering with the popular soccer tournament.

Capital Regional District senior manager Dan Ovington confirmed Thursday, March 19 the project is funded not only through a $300,000 anonymous community donation but also through roughly the same amount of Community Works Funds, which had been in the “fix up a ball field” end of the budget for some time — originally as a placeholder for upgrading the field at Fernwood Elementary School before being transferred to the project at 160 Rainbow Rd.

“This work [now] won’t actually impact the tournament or the field,” Ovington told the Local Community Commission (LCC) March 19. “You’ll see quite a lot happen after the May long weekend.”

Ovington told the LCC crews expect construction to be complete by the end of June, after which the field can be hydro-seeded.  

Public tender documents have shown a skinned infield — the diamond-shaped dirt area containing bases, base paths and the pitcher’s mound — dugouts on concrete pads, galvanized steel backstops and a modest amount of spectator seating in two 12-foot, four-tier bleachers.

“It’s quite exciting,” said LCC member Brian Webster. “It’s always good when community members step up and allow us to encourage important amenities and services for the community.”

Local officials voted to raise bus fares across all rider categories for the first time in more than a decade last week — and may also have minted the first campaign issue for Salt Spring’s fall election candidates, punting plans for a taxpayer-funded expansion of the island’s transit system until after Oct. 17.

Those fare increases were built around a “middle ground” option presented to the Local Community Commission (LCC) after BC Transit completed a four-month fare structure review. The LCC voted Thursday, March 19 to approve phased two-year increases in single-ride, DayPASS, 10-ticket and monthly passes, projected to increase revenue by 16 per cent next year and another seven per cent the next.

Single rides, which have been $2.25, will be going up to $2.75 on May 2 and $3 in 2027; DayPASS fares will rise from $4.50 to $5.50 and then $6; and 10-ticket fares will go up from $20 to $24.75 — and $27 by 2027.

Adult monthly passes, which have cost $50 on Salt Spring, will rise to $55 this year and $60 in 2027. Discount monthly passes for students aged 13-18 and seniors 65+ have been priced at a 20 per cent discount at $40, and will be rising to $47 in May and $51 next year — shrinking that discount to 15 per cent.

Notably, while the first year increase adds 22 per cent to the cost of single-ride tickets, monthly adult passes are going up by just 10 per cent. 

“I think the structure here [around] increasing the cash fare will impact visitors, proportionately speaking, more than residents, and it’s the right way to go,” said CRD director and LCC member Gary Holman, noting it was the most popular of three options presented to riders during engagement events and surveys. “Riders should be expected to make a contribution to the existing service, and certainly should be expected to if we’re considering increasing the level of service.”

But expansion of the system — either by adding new routes or increasing bus frequency on existing ones — remains off the table for now, a result of BC Transit’s postponing of many such projects across the province. Holman has also expressed an unwillingness to unilaterally raise the so-called “borrowing cap” for the service to a level those expansions are expected to require. In what has been a source of some friction between Holman and other LCC members, the CRD director had insisted such a raise in borrowing limits — a jump up to $900,000 — should be put before voters, and held the increase on the cap to 25 per cent. That amount, alongside the fare hikes, is expected to just cover maintaining the existing bus service levels.

Recent senior government announcements may have taken even more wind from the sails of that disagreement anyhow; while there were inflationary increases for transit in the province’s February budget, there were no new dollars allocated for expansion anywhere in B.C., transit officials said.

On Thursday, the LCC voted — with Holman and LCC member Gayle Baker in opposition — to wait until after the Oct. 17 election to even discuss raising the cap further, putting the brakes on a notional plan to add a borrowing question to the ballot.

“We know we’re not going to have reason to spend [at a higher level] for some time, due to the province’s fiscal situation and budget decisions,” said LCC member Brian Webster. “I also think we need a comprehensive strategy, and I don’t think we should be tying the hands of our successors. The urgency to do this by October is not there, and the importance of having the big picture figured out is.”

BC Transit will be launching a marketing campaign to notify riders of the changes before introducing them across all Salt Spring routes Saturday, May 2.