BY MARC KITTERINGHAM
Gulf Islands Driftwood Staff
Salt Spring Island needs to decide what kind of community it wants to be.
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Editorial: We are rural, really
It’s hard to believe, but when it comes to accessing certain pots of government money, Salt Spring Island is not deemed “rural.”
Local governments in many far-more-populated areas of B.C. are eligible for considerable funding from programs such as Community Futures and the Island Coastal Economic Trust. Grants can be used for all kinds of infrastructure and economic development projects, of which Salt Spring has many in the works or at least envisioned. Because Salt Spring, the other Gulf Islands and the Juan de Fuca area are part of the Capital Regional District, they cannot access certain program funds, even though they are the epitomy of “rural.” They have economic development challenges and are physically isolated from larger centres.
Bowen Island, with a population of 3,680, also finds itself in the same position being part of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It makes no difference that Bowen is incorporated and Salt Spring is not.
Almost two years ago at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, CRD electoral area directors Wayne McIntyre (Salt Spring) and Dave Howe (Southern Gulf Islands) convinced conference attendees to pass a resolution calling on the governments of Canada and British Columbia to recognize the rural nature of CRD electoral areas and include them in all future government programs and grants aimed at rural areas. After that, the Gulf Islands were deemed eligible to receive some B.C. Rural Dividend funds.
But the voice of the UBCM did not lead to all of the desired changes, so last week the issue was brought to Islands Trust Council.
To the credit of trustees from all of the islands, they put their support behind motions to have Trust Council chair Peter Luckham write to both Premier John Horgan and to the federal Minister of Western Economic Diversification Dylan Jones about this issue. While we all know that the islands’ local governments are anything but coordinated, it is heartening to see one agency readily giving support to another.
Our local MLA Adam Olsen and the CRD Board have also written letters to the powers that be, advocating for change. With a concerted push from various quarters, we expect to see senior governments examining the evidence and giving our islands the obvious “rural” designation they deserve.
Truth no longer elusive with the Subtext App
By the time you read this column, I will be a very wealthy man. No, I didn’t just win the lottery. Neither did a distant great-aunt pass away, leaving me a huge inheritance that resulted from cashing in her Franklin Mint commemorative figurine collection.
The manner in which I have amassed my fortune is the good old-fashioned honest way. I don’t mean through imagination, hard work, and perseverance. I’m about to get richer than I could ever have imagined in my wildest dreams by coming up with a gimmicky little mobile phone app that everyone in the universe will be convinced they cannot live without. Even at a mere 99 cents a pop, and even if only one in 10 people buy it, the money I net with this little honey will have me nipping at the hindies of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett and Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal for the dubious title of richest billionaire on the planet.
So what exactly is this revolutionary new app that has the GPS unsure of its direction and Siri talking in her sleep mode? You will probably be able to guess if I divulge that the working name for my earth-shattering invention is “The Subtext App.”
Here’s how it works. Let’s take a simple text message as an example. You check your phone before heading off to bed and notice your sweetie has texted you with the words “I’ll be home L8 2morrow nite.” Lucky for you, you’ve downloaded The Subtext App, which allows you to read between the lines and decipher the deeper meaning of the message scrolling across your screen. What seemed like a straightforward message at first glance now takes on an entire slew of subtle nuances. Is home a geographical location or a psychological state of mind? Is time just a matter of relative chronology, or can separate universes coexist simultaneously? Why are you getting this text message just before bedtime? Couldn’t it have waited until morning? Or wouldn’t it have been more considerate to have texted earlier in the evening when you were still alert and could have texted back something clever and romantic? And why text at all when Skyping or Facetime would have been so much more intimate?
That’s the beauty of The Subtext App and why it is certain to turn the texting world on its head once the phenom becomes available. If you thought that texting while driving was dangerous, imagine the hazards and pitfalls headed your way if you are stupid and reckless enough to subtext while behind the wheel of a vehicle hurdling down the road at breakneck speed. “Meet u 4 coffee” implies an informal immediacy that may subconsciously augment the physical force applied on the accelerator pedal by the foot of the driver. And is more caffeine really necessary in a world driven to the brink of extinction by this incessant need to get to our next destination quicker and sooner? On the other hand, “please slo down, deer Xing” might be mistaken as a recreational area where Bambi and cohorts can be observed cross-country skiing in their natural habitat. And perhaps this subtext might solve the related age-old question as to the motivation that induced the chicken to traverse the roadway.
How would The Subtext App handle what is probably the most texted message ever: “where r u?” What looks on the surface like an obvious question regarding one’s whereabouts within the continuum of space takes on a myriad of interpretations when run through the subtext filter. Perhaps a better question would be why are you in whatever place you propose to be? And wherever this place is, could you not have texted earlier and given me some kind of courteous notice that you might not be in the place I was expecting you to be even though, technically, I never even hinted that here’s where I wanted you to be.
Oh yes, when it comes to hookups and breakups, The Subtext App sits front row and centre in clarifying complex interactions (as well as adding confusion to perfectly comprehendible statements of intent). For a measly extra 49 cents, you can purchase The Profile App To The Subtext App which allows you to navigate through all those LinkedIn/Instagram/Facebook profiles and see the real person with whom you are about to get involved instead of the exaggerated misrepresentations that have been designed to conceal the actual ogre who will likely ruin your next couple of years of life.
For sure, once you install the Profile App To The Subtext App (PATTSA), you will know once and for all that “likes to go for romantic moonlit walks along the beach in the rain” comes with the fine print “provided it does not conflict with Monster Truck Demolition Derby or repeats of the 2009 World Dart Throwing Championship.” Similarly, “loves to cook exotic dishes to be shared under candlelight with a fine 1998 Pinot Noir” comes out of the subtext filter as “but will settle for frozen packaged burger patties on white buns and a case of Moosehead right out of the can because all the glasses are still sitting in the unfixed dishwasher.”
Nobody asked me, but it’s powerfully obvious that The Subtext App is about to become an unmitigated success story and the ranks of the world’s billionaires will soon be joined by somebody who, just a short while ago, had to keep his pickup held together with duct tape. If you buy the product and like it, drop me a text. Don’t be surprised if you don’t receive a reply right away. I may be getting ready for my polo match with the Duke of Sussex. My pony has gone a bit lame, so I’ll be spending the next little while applying layers of duct tape to its sore joints.
Viewpoint: Local control of our docks preferred
By RICK HILL
I would like to thank Kathy Scarfo for her highly informative articles relating to the Harbour Authority of Salt Spring Island (HASSI) and for the work, planning and improvements that she, the harbour authority board of directors and its staff inherited, have maintained and constantly improved over the last five years.
No stranger to HASSI or docks myself, I was a board member for 10 years, finally serving as interim manager for three months. I fished commercially on the West Coast and visited virtually every small craft harbour at one time or another from Alaska to Oregon. Salt Spring’s facilities compare more than favourably with other similar-sized, federally funded, government small-craft docks and it would be a personal tragedy for everyone living on, or visiting, this island if control of these facilities was lost to us in any way.
Our harbour and the village of Ganges together — with the security, convenience and entertainment provided — is virtually unique on the coast, and perfectly located as a waypoint for boat people from the U.S., who generally have money to spend, use little water and don’t bring cars. It is part of our home and plays a large part in why and how people come to visit us.
Ms. Scarfo is wrong to say that the possibility of an attempt or interest in taking over the local facilities by the CRD is a recent occurrence — several references to this were made in early boardroom “skuttlebutt” sessions by various members concerning the inevitability of a CRD appetite for such a plum. Since last fall’s referendum, Salt Spring has become more vulnerable and its ability to fend off “hostile takeovers” by elements within the CRD — who just happen to be our de facto governors — has diminished.
Our harbour facilities actually belong to us, the people of Canada, under the protection and auspices of the federal government through the direction of Small Craft Harbours. Other than our individual federal taxes, we pay nothing extra for major maintenance/repair/development costs. Operational costs are met by operational income. When Fulford dock blew to pieces during my HASSI tenure, the feds drove in new modern concrete pilings and supplied upgraded walkways all without cost to us. Maintaining HASSI’s eight docks to the high standards supplied by the feds would be an impossibility for us and conversion to real estate values would inevitably prove impossible to resist.
The thought that we, living as we do on an island, might lose control over these facilities is deeply disturbing. At present we can go for a walk around the floats, buy fish or crab, have a chat with the locals, all without chainlink fences, padlocks or uniforms to contend with as are most other alternative operations.
To protect our shared interest I believe that we must support our local harbour authority and pursue and encourage the strongest relationship possible with Small Craft Harbours, a proven relationship for many years with results that have enabled both HASSI and us to flourish.
The writer has served on the HASSI board in the past and been a commercial fisherman.
Vandals keep hitting Ganges
Ganges business owners and other facilities have faced a wave of property damage over the past month, with broken windows, stolen plants and discarded beer cans leaving community members angry and frustrated.
Located at one of the busiest downtown corners, El Loco Taco has been among those hardest hit. Company president Larry Gorrill said it started three weeks ago when one person apparently went on a rampage. His restaurant suffered broken windows and planter boxes then, but has been impacted about five times altogether this season.
“Somebody broke my cactus — they broke one of the arms off. Hopefully it will survive,” Gorrill said. “It’s unbelievable. I’m trying to make this place nice.”
Gorrill said the latest activity took place sometime Saturday night. Planter boxes were overturned, while beer cans left behind suggest the site has become a party spot.
Other locations have also been targeted more than once. Police responded to a mischief complaint at the Visitors Information Centre on Thursday. A window at the business had been smashed overnight — the second time in recent weeks. Anyone with information on those two incidents is asked to contact Const. Belton of the Salt Spring RCMP, or to contact CrimeStoppers if wishing to remain anonymous.
Sneakers soar at off-island events
SUBMITTED BY SS SNEAKERS
Salt Springers congregated in two venues this past weekend for off-island competitions.
At 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 24, the Hayden-Fernandes’ were at the start line of the Scotia Bank Half Marathon at the East Mall on the UBC campus for the 21.1km race to Stanley Park. Dr. Richard Hayden finished in 1:28:47, finishing 119th of 4,155 overall runners or in the top three per cent, fourth of 200 in his age group, and 101st of 2,106 males. Janine Fernandes-Hayden crossed the finish line in 1:46:13 for ninth of 200 in her age group, 106th of 2,037 women and 589th of 4,155 runners.
At 8 a.m., Marcia Jansen and Marion Young started the Cowichan Challenge Triathlon Standard competition with the swim competition at Fuller Lake, Chemainus while Julie van Soeren started 10 minutes later in the Sprint competition. In the shorter Sprint competition, Julie van Soeren completed a 750-metre swim, a 20-km bike ride and a five-km run in 1:46:13, earning a first in her three-member age group; 18th place of 33 women and 29th of 48 competitors overall.
An hour later, Marcia Jansen crossed the finish line of the Standard competition in 2:40:16 after a 1,500-m swim, a 38-km bike ride and 10-km run. She finished seventh of 41 competitors overall, second of 19 women and first in her age group. Marion Young followed, finishing the same course in 3:08:34 for 29th of 41 overall, 11th woman of 19 and first in her age group of three.
Illegal shellfish harvest strikes
Salt Spring Island beaches were among those to see illegal shellfish harvests take place during mid-June’s extreme low tides.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans announced last week that its officers issued $600 in tickets in the southern Vancouver Island region between June 13 and 17 and seized close to 1,360 kilograms (3,000 pounds) of clams harvested in areas that were closed due to paralytic shellfish poisoning, commonly known as red tide.
Of the total amount seized, 590 to 680 kg (1,300 to 1,500 pounds) were taken from Salt Spring’s Duck Bay. Illegal harvests were also seized in Nanaimo, and on Thetis and Ruxton islands.
While the investigation is still ongoing, the DFO’s Shellfish Sanitation Program coordinator Elysha Gordon said officers suspect the contaminated product was intended for commercial sales. That’s because such high volumes were taken and the fact that shellfish were placed in sacks commonly used by commercial fishermen.
“It wasn’t just a local tourist out there with their bucket of clams,” Gordon observed.
Gordon said that aspect is troubling since extremely high levels of PSP have been detected this spring. Much of the Strait of Georgia was closed to harvest after the warm spell in May, with waters from Campbell River all the way to Victoria judged to be unsafe.
“Most areas are still closed, although some started to reopen after the cooler weather in early June,” Gordon said.
For more on this story, see the June 27, 2018 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.
Canada Day festivities ready to roll
Canada Day weekend on Salt Spring is gearing up to be a busy one, with activities planned in various parts of the island.
Saturday, June 30 sees three special events take place.
The local Rotary Club holds its third annual Crabfest fundraiser in Rotary Marine Park from 4 to 9 p.m. The event features fresh local crab with all the fixings, cash bar and live music by The Costners. Advance tickets are at the Visitors Centre, Salt Spring Books and through Facebook with all proceeds benefitting Rotary community projects.
Block Party
Running both Saturday and Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m. is the second annual Grace Point Square Block Party.
The family-friendly event will include live music, a beer garden and food vendors.
Live music will be provided by local legends Auntie Kate and the Uncles of Funk starting at 6 p.m.
At 8 p.m., Donny Brook and the Haymakers will take the stage for two sets. The band consists of locals Brent Shindell, Lorne Burns, Dave Roland and Matt Steffich. Guest saxophonist Johnny Ferreira, formerly of the Colin James Band, will round out the line-up.
Sunday’s performance will conclude just in time for the Canada fireworks.
Art & Nature Fest
Last year’s inaugural Art & Nature Fest was so successful that the Salt Spring Island Conservancy is holding it again this year. On Saturday, June 30 from 3 to 7 p.m., the festival will connect people and wild places by inviting people to enjoy numerous activities in nature.
Festival goers can listen and dance to musical performances by Wesley Hardisty and Andy Meyers, the Ruwadzano Marimba band, Women of Note, and during the community picnic, Lewis Davies. Lorraine Lowry will open and close the fest with her masterful bagpipe playing.
Festival goers can take workshops: yoga with Jayne Lloyd-Jones, drawing with Lisa Lipsett, writing with author Claire Sicherman, dancing with Tomoko Yamazaki, or creating cordage with Salt Spring Island’s Basketry Guild.
Patrons can take guided walks with Linda Gilkeson, John Borst, and Chris Drake to learn about bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects, the Cusheon Lake watershed, and wetlands restoration. Adults and kids can play with clay to make tree spirits and origami to create seed packets and can also enjoy a scavenger hunt. Other interactive activities include a labyrinth and an eco-art mosaic.
People are invited to bring their own picnic foods, although a limited menu for purchase will be provided as well. The festival is a zero-waste event and everyone is encouraged to bring their own water bottle.
This year’s event will include an admission to pay for both event costs and to support the conservancy’s work. Last year all event costs were fully covered by a Canada 150 grant.
Canada Day
The Canada Day Show & Shine is a show of vintage cars, hot rods and unique classic rides, along with new sports cars and electric vehicles at the hydro/ball field at Rainbow Road and Jackson Avenue, across from Salt Spring Elementary School. Food, live entertainment and a Canada Day Cake big enough to share are part of the fun from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cake cutting is scheduled to take place with MP Elizabeth May and MLA Adam Olsen at 1:30 p.m.
Then beginning at 7 p.m., the outdoor Kidz Zone, with games and snacks, is hosted by West of the Moon in Rotary Marine Park. Thrifty Foods provides a free BBQ meal. At dusk — approximately 10:15 to 10:30 p.m. — the Salt Spring Chamber of Commerce and Salt Spring Fire-Rescue present the Canada Day fireworks from Ganges Harbour.
Diverse styles blend at lively exhibit
Gallery 8’s summer show in the feature exhibition room blends the diverse modes of expression of a handful of Salt Spring artists, demonstrating once again the wide range of talent found within one small community.
‘Four’ brings together three veteran artists who have been represented by the gallery since it started with JD Evans, Jerry Davidson and Janis Woode. They are joined by more recent arrival to the island, Tiffany Hastie.
Last spring Hastie could be found at the gallery demonstrating her miniature landscapes, surprisingly realist paintings on the very small scale set as if precious jewels into ornate frames. Her output for the current show reveals the very opposite extreme of her interests, with a series of full-sized abstract paintings.
Some of the most successful pieces of her new mixed-media works reduce the palette to monochrome or just a small shift in tones and put the focus on texture. Different tones are produced by the application of the medium and how light moves over it. In Elemental III, light ripples over a shifting landscape of criss-crossed lines in off-white as the background board is allowed to show through in some areas or the paint is more built up. The work gets a spark of definition in the bottom right corner, where a rough grate of scraped lines allows more of the dark background to be glimpsed.
Another well-executed piece called Interrupting Lines suggests an abstracted mountain landscape. The narrow vertical-oriented board is divided into scalloped sections of colour with two opposing curved lines, but instead of the gradations of blue one finds in scenes of sky and hillsides, Hastie moves from white to cafe au lait in thick daubs of paint as applied by palette knife. Vertical lines are scraped along the very bottom edge to reveal a deep carmine red, which creates a satisfying base for the upper elevations.
JD Evans has a gift for creating magical imaginary landscapes that speak to a collective mythology or dream. The acrylic painting A Memory of Mountains is the perfect example, with sharp snow-covered peaks, softer tree-covered hills and the mirroring of moist skies in a gentle waterway. The palette tends toward the pastel with pink, turquoise and lavender, while the composition is balanced perfectly between the heavier plum clouds above and the limestone-like formations of the mid-to foreground region.
One or two steps beyond this delicately rendered vision one finds Within and Beyond, an abstract work in acrylic on textured paper. Evans employs some of the same colours but in brighter hues and more energetic application, while heavy natural formations are suggested in a deconstructed state. Ragged blocks of colour interact with chunks of deep black, wisps of brushwork and splashes of light for a complex piece.
Jerry Davidson’s photorealist paintings can feel unsettling at times for the way they seem to deliver a window directly into a constructed scene. Yesterday and Today is a study in contrasts, as the name implies. An abandoned prairie house in weathered timber in the centre is backed by a white sky and shortened horizon, suggesting miles of flat nothingness. Very close to the viewer’s plane is the curved windshield section of a modern white car in side-view, door slightly ajar. The immediacy of the just-exited car is set against a house that may have been abandoned during the dusty Depression years.
At the Gate shows another side of Davidson’s work. While still very much realist, the pencil drawing of a teenage girl framed by a wooden gate and post reveals a sensitive touch. The gate may have opened, but her face and body language don’t invite further entry to the home behind.
Janis Woode’s ability to capture human motion and even emotion in wrapped wire sculptures is well-documented, but she keeps extending her understanding of form and movement. Where My Dog Takes Me is one lovely example of the dog walking the master. Set on a span of wagon wheel hub, the dog is leaping off into space with just hind legs on the edge of the arc, while the human’s arms and legs are as extended and taut as the leash.
But it would be hard for a journalist not to find a favourite in Deadline, in which Woode’s small human figure is trying to outrun the minefield of a vintage typewriter, spikes out. The mix of anxiety and humour is all too tangible.
Sailings added to relieve Howe Sound Queen traffic
Service notices that BC Ferries’ Vesuvius-Crofton route is running behind schedule and experiencing overloads due to high traffic have become a daily expectation in recent months.
They will hopefully go back to being a rare event with the introduction of a new schedule starting today (Wednesday, June 27) that adds more trips and shifts dangerous cargo sailings outside of peak demand periods.
Service on the route was trimmed back in 2014 by dictate of the previous provincial government, which aimed to recover $14 million in operating costs across the coastal ferry system. A stabilizing world economic situation and fare freezes appear to have helped foster a rebound in traffic since then.
Year-end results for fiscal 2018, which BC Ferries released last week, show that vehicle traffic levels across the fleet were the highest ever experienced, while passenger traffic levels were the highest the company had experienced in 20 years. The company experienced a five per cent increase in vehicle traffic and a 4.7 per cent increase in passenger traffic compared to the previous year.
“The growth on [the Vesuvius-Crofton] route has been particularly strong, and we are adding sailings and making these sailings as an effort to better address this demand,” BC Ferries’ public affairs manager Darin Guenette told the Driftwood.
Additional morning sailings have been added on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.