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Climate Action Plan in review

Gail Sjuberg
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Climate Action Plan in review

Transition Salt Spring has declared June Climate Awareness Month on the island and has started a review process for the Salt Spring Island Climate Action Plan, to be finished by March 2020.

The organization held their annual general meeting on Saturday, June 1, where they announced the intention to review the plan. The review will be coordinated by the Climate Action Group.

In 2011 the first iteration of the Climate Action Plan was published. It was intended to be a living document. The original plan had one revision in 2012, and has since fallen out of the public eye. Over the course of the next nine months, the Climate Action Group will reach out to community members, businesses and other target groups to inform how Salt Spring will move into a future made uncertain by climate change.

“Things have changed so dramatically since 2011, everybody is beginning to realize that we have to adapt to the changes that are already built in. No matter how much we manage to avoid the worst of what’s to come, we have to do both,” said Climate Action Group member and editor of the original plan, Elizabeth White. “We have to mitigate and adapt. One of the imperatives to doing it now is to put adaptation measures into the plan.”

The project is eligible for CRD Community Works funding, and CRD Director Gary Holman has expressed his support for their application. Next steps include setting up a steering committee with various interests represented, as well as coordinating community meetings. An online engagement site will also be created to give people the chance to voice their ideas even if they cannot attend a meeting.

Though the plan will not be complete until at least next March, White said that people can start to implement changes at any time.

“A lot of it is lifestyle choice, they’re decisions that are made on a daily basis,” she said. “Avoiding buying stuff in general is a huge one. Many of us live in houses that are larger than they need to be. If you can go smaller, that’s a good idea. It’s those sorts of decisions that are going to make a difference.”

For more on this story, see the June 5, 2019 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.

Community health centre idea explored

Contributed Article
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Community health centre idea explored

By Salt Spring Community Health Society

Dr. Marcus Greatheart, in his presentation at the Community Health Society’s Town Hall meeting on May 27, shared his perceptions of how a community health centre could complement Salt Spring’s existing health services.

Greatheart is a family physician on the staff of Three Bridges Community Health Centre in Vancouver. His patients include those with complex problems of aging, mental health, drug and alcohol dependency, and gender and sexual identity issues. With both a master’s degree in social work and a medical degree he is exceptionally well qualified to work with such complex patients.

Greatheart’s training included time on Haida Gwaii, where he learned much about issues within the First Nations community. He also did a family practice rotation at the former Kings Lane Clinic.

Three Bridges CHC includes a team approach with physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, social workers and consultants, all available to give comprehensive services. Visits are typically scheduled for 30 minutes. A CHC is funded to have a range of health service practitioners. It allows for walk-in patients by building that time availability into the daily work schedule, thereby taking considerable pressure off the emergency room.

Having both fee-for-service and CHC practitioners available on Salt Spring would greatly enhance the range of services for the island’s diverse community. By having a CHC, our family doctors would also have additional referral resources for their patients.

The May 27 town hall was sponsored by the Salt Spring Community Health Society as part of our effort to fully involve the community in planning for health services to fill community-identified gaps. The results of a recent interview project concerning gaps in health care on Salt Spring were discussed. With the help of a CRD Grant in Aid, SSCHS has contracted with Wave Consulting to conduct a full community health needs survey. The results of this survey will be presented at a community town hall in September.

More on CRD budget games

Contributed Article
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More on CRD budget games

By ROBIN WILLIAMS

It would seem my comments on the 2019 CRD Salt Spring budget need further clarification in light of CRD director Gary Holman’s allegation in a May 8 letter that I am somehow “misinformed.”

While I was unable to attend the formal CRD budget presentation, I was invited to a private meeting regarding the referendum funding with senior CRD administrative staff on Feb. 28. I based my assessment on that meeting and the fact you cannot finance a five per cent increase in costs with a 1.8 per cent increase in revenue.

To understand how the Salt Spring transportation service requisition was misappropriated you first need to understand how CRD restricted funds should be reported. To see this we can look at the 2019 allocation for CRD Regional Parks. This is divided into two service accounts: 1.280A for land acquisition, which is a restricted fund, and 1.280, which is the general administration or unrestricted account. This simple method ensures restricted funds cannot be used for other purposes.

For 2014 to 2018 the Salt Spring Island Transportation Commission also had two requisitions: their general requisition under bylaw 3440 and the special or restricted requisition created by the referendum. However, when recording theses two requisitions, they were both combined into a single account (1.238B), the account set up for the administrative requisition. From 2014 to 2018 this was not really an issue as the $250,000 special requisition flowed through the account to a capital reserve where the bulk of the funds still sit. It did, however, have the effect of  “laundering” restricted and unrestricted funds together.

In 2019 when the requisition was supposed to end, the CRD was able to disguise that they kept it going but transferred the funds to administrative purposes. The 2019 budget claims the transportation requisition was lowered by 57.88 per cent. In reality the special requisition was lowered by 100 per cent and the administrative requisition was actually increased by $20,870.00. The balance of the $229,130 was simply spread around a series of accounts in various amounts. The CRD was able to use the blended account to disguise the administrative increase and the commission’s correct financial position.

With the requisition ending it should not have been included in the percentage tax calculation. On one hand they claim the requisition has ended but on the other they claim taxes are only increasing by 1.8 per cent. The only way this balances with a five per cent increase in costs is by maintaining the requisition. Now instead of transferring it through to the reserve account it is just getting spent.

Finally, as for the innuendo that as volunteer chair I was some how responsible for the project delay and additional costs, it is important to understand two things. Salt Spring CRD commissions do not have managerial authority;  the project manager is a CRD employee and not the SSITC chair. Second, the project is fully funded and ready to tender but is on hold due to a First Nations review.

I do not consider it responsible for an elected official to imply this delay could have been avoided during the previous term. Nor is the new CRD Director unaware of the significance of the First Nations review as I personally briefed him during a transition meeting. I also left the new director with an open invitation to consult with me on any transportation issue, including the 2019 budget, an opportunity he has to date declined.

The writer is former SSITC chair.

Editorial: It’s a small world

Driftwood Staff
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Editorial: It’s a small world

June is a month with many qualities commanding our attention, not least of which is the natural world.

With our hemisphere moving toward maximum daylight hours, gardens are bursting with life and wild flowering plants and trees are coming into their own.  

While these small miracles still abound, the greater picture is looking bleaker. A report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services determined that nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history — and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating.

The world’s oceans are among the hardest hit environments, perhaps because their plant and animal species are easier to ignore for humans who put most of their focus on the land. The IPEBS found that almost 33 per cent of corals and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened. Whales face a peril we can no longer ignore, as their deaths surface to haunt us. Close to 60 grey whales have washed up dead along the Pacific coast from Alaska to California in 2019. Two prevailing theories are either warmer oceans or lack of food (amphipods, krill and small fish) are to blame. Southern resident killer whales are also turning up malnourished to the point of starvation. These days, the rare birth of a new calf warrants as much anxiety as joy.

With all these worrying facts casting shadows on June’s sunny days, the month has also become a time to raise awareness of the linked issues of species loss, climate change and human action. World Oceans Day arrives this Saturday, June 8. The month of June is Orca Awareness Month in Oregon, Washington state and British Columbia, and it’s also been claimed as Climate Awareness Month by Transition Salt Spring this year.

While far-reaching initiatives are needed on all fronts, paying attention to our actions as individuals is a simple start. Things like minimizing waste that could end up in the ocean, growing more of your own food and saying no to farmed salmon are all ways  to help lessen climate impacts and maintain ocean health. Not coincidentally, these actions will also help orcas.

Our biosphere is an amazing network of connections. Starting small could help in ways we can’t even fathom.

Video: Women in business celebrated

Contributed Article
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Video: Women in business celebrated

As part of our Women in Business celebration, our intrepid reporter DW Salty set out to interview some of Salt Spring’s women business leaders.

Howe Sound passengers invited to say goodbye

Driftwood Staff
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Howe Sound passengers invited to say goodbye

Some Howe Sound Queen travellers can share in celebratory cake on the vessel’s last day of service on Tuesday, June 4.

Cake will be served on the sailings departing from Crofton at 3:35 and 4:50 p.m., and on those leaving Vesuvius at 4:15 and 5:30 p.m.

The 55-year-old Howe Sound Queen has served on the Crofton-Vesuvius Bay route since 1992.

On Wednesday, June 5, the MV Quinitsa will commence service on the route.

“Although the MV Quinitsa can carry about eight fewer vehicles, it has a significantly greater weight capacity,” explains a BC Ferries press release. “This will result in fewer overloads or empty deck space when loading many large, heavy vehicles.” 

Numerous overloads have occurred on the Vesuvius-Crofton route in the past year due to increased traffic and more heavy commercial vehicles using the ferry.

To help relieve the pressure, BC Ferries added sailings and adjusted some sailing times to the route beginning April 1.

“Further adjustments were implemented on May 1 to move dangerous goods sailings to less popular times, which frees up higher demand sailings for regular customers,” the ferry corporation added.

The Howe Sound Queen has been sold via an online auction for a price of $210,000, with the final price to be approved by the ferry corporation.

The vessel was built in Quebec in 1964 and purchased by BC Ferries in 1971. It served Bowen Island until it was transferred to Salt Spring in 1992.

Video: Bike to Work Week

Driftwood Staff
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Video: Bike to Work Week

Salt Springers are taking to the roads this week for bike to work week. Among the week’s events were a celebration station and breakfast at the Islands Trust building on Monday, a bike rodeo and tune-up for kids at Salt Spring Elementary School on Tuesday, and a bike rodeo on Wednesday for Fernwood Elementary School Students. Further events are scheduled for the rest of the week! See last week’s story for more information.

Clinic support floods hearing

Elizabeth Nolan
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Clinic support floods hearing

A public hearing on a seniors housing proposal for Kings Lane held last Wednesday night garnered many responses from people concerned about the fate of the Salt Spring Health Centre medical clinic.

Islanders were invited to the May 22 community information meeting and public hearing to ask questions and give input on an application by the Gulf Islands Seniors Residence Association, and a full house turned out to Lions Hall. GISRA plans to build a three-story residential building with 50 units of affordable housing plus services. The property is currently zoned under community facilities, with uses restricted to medical and dental offices.

The requested zoning would add multifamily, affordable residential use and also permit a service club to accommodate Salt Spring Seniors Society in the main building.

The future of the clinic has caused some concern from the practitioners leasing the Kings Lane centre and supporters in the community, who have asked the Salt Spring Local Trust Committee to guarantee future operations through a covenant.

“Please protect both projects,” housing advocate Fernando Dos Santos said at the hearing. “They’re of equal importance to the community.”

Shared space for Salt Spring Seniors is being planned for the residential building, and would include a kitchen, office and programs room. Seniors Society president Jean Elder said the organization voted to move at their last annual general meeting since the building they own is in bad repair and was only meant to be a temporary home.

But some speakers, including Lady Minto Hospital’s medical director Holly Slakov, requested that “service club” not be included in the property’s permitted uses in order to protect the clinic location.

GISRA representatives have said there is no danger to the clinic operations. The board approved a letter of intent expressing the wish to cooperate on May 21 after a meeting between the two groups and planner Pat Maloney took place on May 16.

GISRA says it can offer the clinic operators a lease of 10 years or longer, if they wish. The board has also committed to providing a liaison to the health centre team and to creating a construction management plan that would limit disruption to daily operations as much as possible.

After hearing multiple comments on the clinic situation, LTC chair Peter Luckham encouraged people with other concerns to submit their views as well.

“We have heard loud and clear that this is a very valued service to your island and it’s important that it continue and not be interrupted,” Luckham said. “What we really want to hear is what you think about the zoning, whether it’s a good fit.”

Most participants at the hearing supported the project for seniors housing in general but disagreed with some of the particulars in GISRA’s proposal. Several people, including the owner of a large property within the Agricultural Land Reserve next door to the site, suggested keeping the building at two stories and having fewer units.

Maloney explained that Salt Spring’s official community plan allows for greater density in affordable housing projects, and GISRA wanted to maximize the number of units to meet demand. There are also cost efficiencies to the plan which will make construction and therefore rents more affordable, she said.

GISRA’s application will most likely be considered for third reading at the June 25 LTC meeting. Conditions involving other agencies include water system approval by Island Health and connection to the Ganges sewer.

For more on this story, see the May 29, 2019 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.

Fowl play reported on Galiano

Gail Sjuberg
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Fowl play reported on Galiano

A flock of chickens were stolen and then, thanks to help from the community, returned all within 72 hours on Galiano Island.

Sometime in the evening of Saturday, May 18, five chickens and one rooster were taken from Colleen Doty’s farm. The theft was not noticed until Doty’s sister pointed out that one of the roosters was missing in the chicken run. After counting the birds, they discovered that a total of six were absent.

“We noticed that six chickens had vanished without any sign of predation. We’re both experienced chicken-keepers. We know what it looks like when any kind of predator has affected a flock,” Doty said. “We went door to door and looking through the woods and there was nothing. We were pretty sure that someone took them.”

Doty reported the chicken theft to the Outer Islands RCMP, stationed on Pender Island, as well as on the local community Facebook page. Since some of the chickens that were taken were of rare breeds, Doty and her husband were concerned that the birds had been taken off-island. However, the community was able to track down the chickens on Galiano and negotiate their return.

“Then Sunday night, we had gone out for dinner and when we came home there were several phone calls from a friend of mine,” Doty said. “The chickens were dumped at the end of our driveway in the dark without a box or anything. They were left in a ditch. We were tipped off that that’s where they were left and then we were able to collect them and reunite them successfully.”

All six birds were returned after dark on Sunday. They were all healthy and had not suffered any harm when they were missing.

“We were so full of joy and super happy. I’m glad that they’re healthy,” Doty said.

Doty explained that believed the chickens were stolen because they were at laying-age, and the alleged perpetrators, who are known to police, already had a group of chicks from another source that had not reached maturity.

“They didn’t want to wait the 20 weeks before they came into lay, so they wanted chickens that were at the point of lay,” she said. “They came in the middle of the night and basically took the chickens off the roosting bar.”

This kind of incident is rare on the island. Doty explained that it would not be worthwhile to install a more secure pen.

The RCMP has a file open on this case and the investigation is ongoing.

Local artist raising funds for first music video

Elizabeth Nolan
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Local artist raising funds for first music video

Salt Spring musician Trisha Spire is ready for the next level in her career but is looking for some community support to help get her there.

The talented vocalist and cello player has already won over two strong supporters in local filmmaker Ian Mackenzie and music producer Alex King-Harris. They are sufficiently impressed to have been exploring the idea of a new platform to launch island-based musicians using their own skills, with Spire as the test case.

A music video and promotional launch of her song Ember Dawning is now in the works, but the crowdfunding financing model also needs to be activated in order to finish production on what amounts to a short film by MacKenzie – the filmmaker who co-directed Amplify Her and co-produced Occupy Love (directed by Velcrow Ripper), among other projects.

“It feels like a dream that Ian and Alex want to work with me,” Spire told the Driftwood. “I really admire their work. Ian’s films have been shown around the world, and I’ve been dancing to Alex’s music for years, so that’s really cool.”

Spire started singing with a choir at age six. She studied classical and jazz vocals at the Victoria Conservatory of Music and has sung in many bands, ranging from folk to metal. She is now emerging as a solo musician, writing her own songs and performing them with her cello, a looping pedal and a keyboard.

The body of work she is currently recording is drawn from a desire to reconnect with her Celtic heritage, and through that to an Earth-based spirituality. As Spire explained, she had been feeling cut off from her cultural roots. She also admires First Nations traditions but didn’t want to stray into cultural appropriation, so she looked back into her own ancestral past to find the same type of approach.

While the Celtic tradition influences her songwriting, her work is not noticeably Celtic in terms of song structure or style. Rather, it’s in energy and the inspiration.

Spire said some of her songs seem to come to her “on the wind” or as if they are being received ready formed, but her lyrics are almost always imbued with intense meaning.

Ember Dawning’s lines are filled with abundant imagery and layered meaning that references the suppression of an old way of life in the British Isles. Spire calls up pagans being burned at the stake, grief at lost culture and the “sin” of not knowing who you really are. Snakes are honoured, both as symbols of pagan Ireland and of India’s Kundalini energy. The music video has Spire appear as forest fay who comforts a child who has run away from an enforced English school.

For more information or to donate to the GoFundMe, visit trishaspiremusic.com.

For more on this story, see the May 29, 2019 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.

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