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Mayne’s Tsartlip history shown

Gail Sjuberg
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Mayne’s Tsartlip history shown

A new project for the Mayne Island Agricultural Society is moving forward thanks to a boost from the Heritage Legacy Fund.

The Society has been working with local Tsartlip elders to develop outdoor interpretive panels and to create a new exhibit at the Mayne Island Museum that recognizes and interprets traditional Tsartlip heritage on the island.

Jennifer Iredale, a retired historian volunteering with the Agricultural Society, said that “we’ve got people who are willing to put some time in effort into this project in order to honour the First Nations on whose traditional territory we get to live, work and play… For this project, I knew that the grant was coming. We moved forward with the application and heard that we were successful.”

The Heritage Fund is managed by Heritage B.C. This is the first year that a grant was available for First Nations partnership projects. The fund donated $7,500 to the project, which was matched by the Agricultural Society.

“We feel very lucky to be one of the recipients,” Iredale said. “With that little bit of money we are able to appropriately recompense the elders that will be working with us from the Tsartlip.”

The money will go towards revitalizing the existing First Nations exhibit. Currently, the exhibit has some archaeological artifacts, but not much is known about them.

“We have already discovered quite a bit more information about them by working with Dr. John Elliott of the Tsartlip,” she said. “We’re looking forward to adding that to that exhibit.”

Some of the grant will also go towards the creation of interpretive plaques on the island giving more information about First Nations and indigenous history on Mayne. The Agricultural Society will be working with the Tsartlip to determine the content of the outdoor signage and putting SENĆOŦEN names on the artifacts found on the island.

“We’re all interested in building this relationship so that is has succession going forward,” Iredale said. “We want to get some younger people from Mayne Island involved and [Elliott is] looking at how to get some younger Tsartlip in the relationship.”

The project will continue over the course of the next year. Public presentations are in the works about local indigenous history and information sharing.

Iredale is optimistic about the project, hoping that the sharing of stories and information helps create a stronger partnership going forward.

“There is so much about how the place came to be, and the natural history of the islands. They are so deeply rooted in this place, so much more than the last 100 years of settler history,” she said. “We’re hoping that as this project moves forward that there will be some other projects that grow out of it.”

Stingrays excel at annual swim meet

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Stingrays excel at annual swim meet

Salt Spring Stingrays summer swim club held their annual open water swim meet from July 13 to 15.

This year, 352 swimmers attended the event from across the Vancouver Island region. Salt Spring had the largest team at the meet, with 86 of their 93 swimmers registered for the race. The first day of the event was the open water portion, held in St. Mary Lake. Swimmers then escaped the heat and moved inside for the rest of the weekend.

Coach Jake Beyak said “there was lots of energy and focus from the Stingrays this weekend, as they pulled off lots of outstanding swims.”

For a number of swimmers, it was the first time swimming in longer races. Swimmers compete in each of the four strokes, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle, and in an individual medley event. The races are in 25-m, 50-m or 100-m increments. The open water portion is on a 1,000-m course in St. Mary Lake. The outdoor race was available for swimmers aged 12 and older.

“There were loads of best times, lots of fun and the meet ran smoothly,” coach Finn Page said.

The swimmer of the meet was Salt Spring’s Renee Hayden. Hayden improved on her time for each of her events. Several other swimmers improved on their seed times, getting personal bests in different disciplines. 

“The team performed exceptionally well, toughing through the heat and being incredibly supportive to teammates,” Coach Brandon Bronson said. “The Stingrays truly showed their sportsmanship and sense of competition this weekend.”

The team would like to thank the parent volunteers who helped run the meet. This year, 74 parents helped out ensuring that the meet ran smoothly.

“It takes a village to raise a swim team,” a press release sent by the team said.

The Stingrays have one more local meet in Sidney on July 21 and 22 before they head off to regionals. This year, the regional competition will be held in Duncan on the weekend of August 3-5. Those who qualify from regionals have the chance to compete in provincials at the end of the summer.

This year, provincials will be held in Surrey from August 17-19.

ArtSpring festival brings chamber music focus to major works

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ArtSpring festival brings chamber music focus to major works

ArtSpring brings back its much-anticipated Salt Spring Chamber Music Fest this month. The 2018 event runs from Monday, July 23 through Saturday, July 28 and features gifted young artists and faculty musicians in three concerts.

The young artists who participate in the Chamber Music Fest come from near and far across Canada for a week of intensive coaching on themed pieces, and they perform these works at the end of the week in public concerts starting July 26. This year Chamber Music Fest presents major works by composers in the chamber music repertoire including Dvořák, Martinu, Janácek, and Smetana as well as Novák, Suk, Franck, and Kodály. Among the highlights is ArtSpring’s executive and artistic director Cicela Månsson performing two of Dvořák’s Gypsy Songs at the July 28 Faculty concert.

“Now into its 16th acclaimed year of west coast performances, the Salt Spring Chamber Music Festival (SSCMF) showcases an outstanding variety of the greatest works from the chamber music repertoire for loyal audiences, all performed on the intimate stage of ArtSpring,” said festival artistic director David Visentin.

Faculty members coaching this year’s group of young artists are Visentin, viola, joined by Hiroko Kagawa, violin; Kai Gleusteen, violin; Catherine Ordronneau, piano; Simon MacDonald, violin; and Amy Laing, cello.

The Salt Spring Chamber Music Fest concert series opens at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 26 with the Chamber Music Fest Young Artists performing Vitezslav Novák’s Piano Quintet in a minor, Op.12.

On Friday, July 27 at 7:30 p.m., the Young Artists perform Josef Suk’s Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op.17, César Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor, Antonín Dvořák’s Terzetto in C for two violins and viola, and Zoltán Kodály’s Serenade for two violins and viola.

The festival concludes on Saturday, July 28 at 7:30 p.m. (bar 6:30) with the esteemed faculty performing Sonatina for Piano and Violin by Dvořák, Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola by Martinů, two of Dvořák’s Gypsy Songs, String Quartet No. 1 “Kreutzer Sonata” by Janáček, Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major by Dvořák, and String Quartet in F major by Dvořák.

Tickets are available online or through the ArtSpring box office.

For more on this story, see the July 18, 2018 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.

Viewpoint: Housing Crisis: Listening needed

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Viewpoint: Housing Crisis: Listening needed

By: DERMOD TRAVIS

Ever sense that you’ve been listening to one, or more, of these rants again and again over the past few years?

“It’s foreign buyers. No, it’s not. Show me your proof. The CMHC said so. No, they didn’t. They said there wasn’t sufficient data to form a conclusion.”

“It’s all about supply. Yeah, right, what supply? Every time you guys dream up a new condo project you sell it all through pre-sales in China and Singapore. You’re a xenophobe.”

“If you’re not willing to increase density, we’re going to start pushing to get our hands on some of that agricultural land. Oh, like you aren’t already. And what’s with those mega-mansions anyways?”

“You’re not putting those modular housing units in my neighbourhood.”

“Isn’t the city going to do something, there’s nearly 40 tents across the street from my house with the homeless living there, the homeless. I’m never donating to that charity again, it’s their fault.”

“If you can’t afford to live in the city, move to the suburbs and commute. Good luck getting your caffè lattes then. Here’s a better idea why don’t you come to Delta and pick them up next time. Don’t forget, number of kilometres travelled TransLink fares coming to a bus route near you soon.”

“Hey, it’s the fourth time I’ve been ‘demovicted’ since leaving home. So move back in with your folks and stop complaining.”

“You want me to take a personality test before you’ll rent to me? You’ve got to be kidding? We want to make sure you’re a good fit with the other tenants. Why, I’m not going to be living in their apartments?”

The repetitiveness can grate after a while.

Every side in B.C.’s housing crisis debate wants to be 100 per cent right, 100 per cent of the time.

Sorry to disappoint, but there’s a host of contributing factors, enough blame to go around and the distinct possibility of some dire consequences still ahead.

In a recent Business in Vancouver column, Jock Finlayson and Ken Peacock of the B.C. Business Council noted that in the last six months of 2017, “the net inflow of people moving to B.C. from other provinces fell sharply.”

Their hunch? “High housing costs are discouraging some from relocating to B.C.”

The duo worry that if they’re correct, “employers in B.C. are likely to face more widespread hiring challenges in the years ahead.”

It’s a viewpoint shared by the British Columbia Teachers Federation that says, “the province is short about 2,000 teachers, with the situation most severe in Vancouver due to its combination of sky-high housing costs and wage issues.”

All of which is why it’s a bit much for a University of B.C. professor – who made more than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last year – to lecture those on the edge of homelessness on how to increase housing supply by selling Canadian citizenships to the world’s ultra-rich.

On the topic of “a bit much,” the marketing director of a major Vancouver property developer claimed this week that the company has a website in Chinese because 40 per cent of Vancouver’s population has Chinese as their mother tongue.

Unless the website is only accessible within specific neighbourhoods, the percentage of residents in Metro Vancouver that report Chinese as their mother tongue is 15.1 per cent. Fortunately, he’s the director of marketing, not architectural design.

Something else to keep in mind? Metro Vancouver may be the epicentre of B.C.’s housing debate, but make no mistake this is a province-wide crisis and it’s time for fewer rants, less shouting and more listening.

Dermod Travis is the executive director of IntegrityBC. www.integritybc.ca

Editorial: ALR cannabis rules

Driftwood Staff
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Editorial: ALR cannabis rules

Salt Spring Island’s reputation for niche craft products is all set to include marijuana come October.

Judging by some of the jokes that come at our expense, the island already has something of a reputation for enjoying the green stuff. When federal law makes recreational marijuana legal later this year, home-grown product with island branding could very well become a big part of the economy.

Pre-emptive moves by companies looking to cash in have brought a couple of industrial-type operations to the island already. Local land use planning body the Islands Trust had no ability to regulate facilities approved by the federal government for medical marijuana production as long as the zoning for the sites was “appropriate.” But the result of federal requirements for heightened security at such facilities created a contradiction in that concrete and steel bunkers were located on agricultural lands that could have been put to other use.

Provincial legislation that was announced Friday and took immediate effect now gives local governments and First Nations the ability to create legislations around concrete-based marijuana growing facilities if those operations are in the Agricultural Land Reserve. The move reflects a concern within the NDP government about the loss of farmland to other pressures. It also gives legs to a request from the Salt Spring Farmers’ Institute for the Islands Trust to create policy dealing with industrial marijuana production on arable land.

While marijuana is perhaps being unfairly singled out, other changes to ALR regulations are most likely coming this fall and this is a good first step to ensuring farmland retains soil with growing abilities.

But the ability to create new land-use policy will not benefit local governments or the communities they serve unless that power is acted on. The Salt Spring Local Trust Committee and its staff are already burdened by a large number of projects concerning water, affordable housing and other pressing needs. With local elections coming up on Oct. 20, and completion of current projects before then looking doubtful, it’s unlikely they will attempt to add another item to the list.

A new LTC should find a way to make marijuana policy a priority. Let’s hope the new gold rush doesn’t hit the island too hard before then.

Specialists seeking bat information

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Specialists seeking bat information

BY PETER OMMUNDSEN

Special to the Driftwood

An international bat survey, the North American Bat Monitoring Program, is sampling bats on Salt Spring Island.

Salt Spring has an abundance of bats of 10 different species, which are important predators of agricultural pests and mosquitoes. North American bats have a low reproductive rate and face numerous threats, including the deadly bat fungus called white nose syndrome that is sweeping across North America.

The monitoring program samples bats using electronic bat detectors left at various locations on the island, and detectors are also mounted on vehicles that are driven along roads at night. Survey results help map bat population trends across North America and help identify areas of important habitat.

Salt Spring also hosts the provincial community bat program, and biologists are available year-round to visit landowners to identify resident bats using detectors and DNA sampling of bat guano. Biologists can help with bat habitat stewardship, including wetlands, and the bat program also collects dead bats, which are sent for laboratory analysis. Biologists are interested to learn of bat colonies and of occupied bat houses and to receive results of evening counts of bats emerging from buildings or other bat roosts.

The Salt Spring bat program can be reached via email, saltspring@bcbats.ca, and via 24-hour phone, 1-855-922-2287, extension 16.

The community bat program is funded in part by the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation and the BC Conservation Foundation. The bat program is no longer associated with the Salt Spring Island Conservancy.

COATES, John Anthony

Driftwood Obituary
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COATES, John Anthony

JOHN ANTHONY COATES
1923 – 2018

John, aged 94, passed away peacefully in his sleep Wednesday, July 11, 2018, on Salt Spring Island, BC, a week shy of his 95th birthday.  Son of James and Phyllis, John was born on Mayne Island July 17, 1923.
After growing up in Vancouver, John enlisted into the Canadian Navy at age 17, trained as an officer and went to war, fighting overseas during WW 2.  His war travels took him to many lands including England where he met and married his newfound love, Joyce Hilda Noall of Portsmouth, then a member of the Royal Navy WRENs.

Following the war, John introduced Joyce to Canada and settled in Victoria so John could continue his naval career.  Soon after, though, he was inflicted with tuberculosis and hospitalized for an extended period which ended his career.  Instead, he put hard work and effort into an education at the University of Victoria and embarked on a legal profession that initially took his young family to Prince George, BC, and where John first pursued raising Arabian horses, a hobby he continued for many years later.  After a year in Boston attending Harvard University for post-graduate studies, John moved his ever-growing family to Ottawa in 1963 and a year later to Pickering, Ont. where he settled in with the Toronto law firm Borden & Elliot with whom he eventually became a partner.

John semi-retired in 1986 when he and Joyce returned to Mayne Island to enjoy the relaxed island life that included bridge games, church activities and the Lion’s Club, an organization John loved and for many years presided as president of its local chapter, and during this time they enjoyed extensive travel.
Joyce predeceased John last year in her 95th year.  He is also predeceased by daughters Anne and Elizabeth and by brother Robert.  He is survived by his children Sandra, Chris, Jamie and Charlotte, numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren, and by sisters Rosemary and Joan.

The Coates family would like to extend our gratitude to the staff of the extended care facility at Lady Minto Hospital on Salt Spring Island for their attentiveness and loving care provided to John the past few years.
Full services will be held at 1 pm, Saturday, July 28, at the Chapel of Mary Magdalene on Mayne Island with interment for both John and Joyce.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Joyce’s and/or John’s names to the Lady Minto Hospital or to the Mayne Island Lion’s Club.

BENNETT, Ellen Lorraine

Driftwood Obituary
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BENNETT, Ellen Lorraine

Ellen Lorraine Bennett
May 16, 1926 – July 2, 2018

On the morning of July 2, 2018, Johnny Bennett was joined by his loving wife Ellen. as she left her beloved mountain to complete their final journey together.

Ellen Bennett (nee Olesen) was the eldest of seven children born to Elmer Olesen and Gudfinna (Bjarnason) Olesen on the 16th of May 1926. She was born in the small town of Wayne, Alberta and grew up in the Markerville area during her childhood. Upon completing Grade Ten she moved to Calgary, Alberta to work as a kitchen dietary aide in the Col. Belcher Hospital where she met Johnny Bennett, the love of her life, who would become her husband and father to their six children. Immediately following their wedding on August 4, 1944 the happy couple moved to Salt Spring Island, the birthplace of her husband Johnny to begin their life together and raise a family, settling at the top of Dukes Road after purchasing the property from John and Alice Bennett.

Ellen by her own admission was in early days a mover and a shaker in island life, always ready to lend a helping hand. She became a member of the Salt Spring Island Rod and Gun Club and for many years taught the Hunter Training Course. Ellen devoted fifty years to the club in several capacities such as trophy shoot organizer, teacher, event planner and was the proud recipient of shooting trophies and a Lifetime Membership to the club. Fall fair time would find her either entering exhibits or elbow deep in volunteering at the Woman’s Institute Pie Stall as a server having spent the previous evening baking a group of the pies she was serving. If there was a neighbour that needed help or a cause she believed in you could always find her in the midst of the action. Ellen never shied away from hard work or a challenge. One of her favourite sayings was “I am a stubborn Prairie farm girl, don’t tell me I can’t do it because I will show you I can and yes She did ! Of the many stories of her youth, Ellen would talk about square dancing on horseback, and her wish that there had been a video camera to record it.

She spent many hours and many miles working not only at a job full time, being a wife and mother, but with a single minded mission to ensure that the current Lady Minto Hospital would become a reality for the residents of Salt Spring Island. Ellen rounded out her working career from waitress at the White Elephant Cafe, Switch board operator for BC Tel prior to going Dial, secretary at Salt Spring Lands, as a member of the feasibility study group for Salt Spring Sewer and Liquid Waste Management System, Real Estate Agent and finally as the Office Manager for North Salt Spring Waterworks when it was formed until her retirement in May, 1991 at age 65. However, no one believes she ever truly retired as she was a proof reader for the Salt Spring Directory from its inception and was always ready to be the Granny of the mountain with duties of babysitter, cook and chauffeur as necessary.

Ellen loved sports and was a player for the South Salt Spring woman’s softball team, she was an avid five pin league bowler involved for many years at the local bowling alley. At the end of several bowling seasons her living room would be set up with card tables and the house would ring with laughter and stories of the previous seasons while enjoying as she put it “the best Pot Luck suppers ever cooked and eaten by the various leagues. She believed in the youth of the island and was involved with many aspects of the boys roller hockey team from Fulford Hall.

For a few years Friday nights would find sleeping bags with teenagers all over the living room floor so that the off island students, who boarded on Salt Spring Island during the week, could participate in the after school curricular activities and have a safe place to sleep.
Family, heritage and history were very important to her, hence her involvement in the early years of the Old Timers Reunion held every five years. Ellen was passionate and opinionated about all things Salt Spring since arriving as an eighteen year old bride and residing on her mountain with her hopes and dreams for the past seventy three years and eleven months.

Ellen was predeceased by her husband Johnny (2007), her daughters Lynn (2005) and Carol (2008), parents Elmer and Gudfinna Olesen, her brothers, Leonard Olesen, Douglas Olesen and sister Louise Jackson and is survived by her sisters, Mayette Stanley, Marlene Linneberg and bother Ron Olesen (Ann), many nieces, nephews and cousins.

As the Matriarch of our family she leaves her daughters, Barbara Pellerin-Vensel, Jean Fargher (Michael), Marla Cole, her son Randy Bennett (Sunny), and son in law Michael Simpson (Carol), Grand children Dan, Lori .Lea, Doug, Kimberley, Dwayne, Vincent, Lisa, Neil, David, Donovan, Matthew and Katy. Many great grand children and great great grand children by birth, by marriage or by choice were the same to Ellen as they loved her and called her “GG”. She loved each and every one of them and considered them her family. She taught us that Family doesn’t always mean blood! Ellen will be missed by the many who knew her, loved her and were touched by her presence.

We, her family, would like to invite you to join us in a
“Celebration of Ellen’s Life and Legacy”
Friday, May 10 2019 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
at the Salt Spring Island Rod and Gun Club

Woman in hospital after Salt Spring crash

Elizabeth Nolan
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Woman in hospital after Salt Spring crash

A 31-year-old woman was airlifted off Salt Spring Saturday afternoon as result of a car crash on Long Harbour Road.

Vancouver Island RCMP said the woman suffered serious but what are believed to non-life threatening injuries and was sent to a larger area hospital.

The collision between two vehicles occurred in the 200-block of Long Harbour Road around noon. According to RCMP, there were two additional passengers in the vehicle with the woman and three people in the other vehicle. All were treated locally and then released.

Traffic was closed for around three hours on the entire length of Long Harbour Road while responders attended. BC Ferries vessel Salish Eagle, scheduled to arrive at the Long Harbour terminal at 1:40 p.m., was re-routed to Fulford so that passengers and cars could disembark. The ferry returned to its usual port around 3:30 p.m. and resumed regular service to Tsawwassen.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Construction begins on The Root

Gail Sjuberg
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Construction begins on The Root

The Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust food sustainability building is beginning to take root.

The aptly named facility, The Root, grew out of the Salt Spring Island Area Farm Plan, which highlighted the need for a community food economy. The plan included the construction of facilities that support agricultural development on the island.

Patricia Reichert, the president of the Farmland Trust, said “It’s been a long time in the planning… so it’s really lovely to see it come up out of the ground.”

The new building will be a food community centre for the island. Once complete, it will be dedicated to food sustainability and permaculture on Salt Spring with a focus on local food. The building will have facilities for food production, storage, processing, distribution and education. Permaculture practices are also being factored into the construction, with renewable energy systems, water catchment and electric vehicle charging stations on site, according to a Farmland Trust press release. The Trust is also looking to work with the post-education system in B.C. to provide a chef training program.

Reichert said that the project is “all about taking a really complete and coordinated approach in the community to increase food production and food sustainability and resilience on the island while building community all around local food. This is a very significant piece of that because it is going to provide a facility where we can do things that we could never have done on the island.”

According to the press release, eight per cent of the produce available on Salt Spring is grown on the island. The Trust would like to see that number reach 25 per cent by 2025, which makes buildings like The Root necessary.

“It ties us in to really building a food system across the region,” Reichert said. “We’re really part of such a huge industrial food system, and to have concrete things that we can do that are an alternative to that industrial corporate model of producing and distributing food is really really important.”

Renovations to existing structures have already begun on the Beddis Road site. The trust has renovated an existing barn and has been operating a community seed bank with the Salt Spring Seed Sanctuary Society. No deadline has been set on the construction, but things are moving quickly, Reichert explained.

A large portion of the project was funded through last year’s $100,000 Shaw Family grant from the Salt Spring Island Foundation.

“We were dumbstruck because it was such an important thing for the foundation to say that what we’re doing really matters in this community,” Reichert said. “That validation from an organization as important as the foundation is just great.”

The Farmland Trust is still looking to fundraise $560,000. To do so, the members are asking those interested to host a Gathering Place Dinner to help raise money for the project. Dinners will feature locally sourced ingredients and each guest will be invited to bring a donation for the trust. Those interested in hosting a dinner or donating to the project are asked to visit the Farmland Trust’s website at ssifarmlandtrust.org.

For more on this story, see the July 18, 2018 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.

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