By MIKE STACEY

When next April arrives I will have been a homeowner on Maliview Drive for 50 years. 

Back then, 39,900 bucks provided a house on half an acre complete with a privately owned water system that failed on an almost daily basis and a sewer system of equal quality. Sewage went downhill and with minimal intervention ended up in the salt chuck. 

Why did we have a sewer system in the first place? Because the heavy clay soil made it impossible to put in a septic field of the type used at that time. So septic fields were a no-go but septic tanks would work just fine, if the outflow from the tank (water) were to be put into the sewer system, leaving very little work for a sewage plant to do. Tanks get pumped out every five years and you’re all set. 

If that would still be possible today, then maybe the collection system slated for replacement would be up to the task. At the other end of the pipe is the plant. The steady stream of septic pump trucks coming from the site tells me that pumping a home septic tank at five-year intervals is a viable option, and according to my own experience of driving one of those pumpers, the five-year pumping schedule works. In the old days a septic tank could go on forever, or at least til the wooden top rotted out and the whole thing caved in. Modern detergents put an end to that because they clog up the tank inlet after five years or so.

I have never been a member of the “green club,” but surprisingly that does not mean I would be in favour of off-shore drilling in Fulford Harbour or an island-wide clearcut. If I see something that might be environmentally friendly and actually work I will consider it. The concept of dumping any sort of waste into the ocean is a less-than-perfect idea, but it fulfills the two requirements of waste control: cheap and easy.

Why not climb out of the box and see what else is out there? Sewage treatment using aquatic plants is working elsewhere, and greenhouses using vegetation for evaporative purposes are possible.

The property owners on Maliview Drive pay very high rates for sewer and water and are being asked to approve a huge borrowing plan to rebuild the sewer system. My last bill was a little shy of $900 for three months in basic charges, before a single drop of water was used.

As long as crap is going into the ocean this is not a Maliview problem, but an island problem. Mother Nature has been doing this stuff a lot longer than we have, so if we are a “green” community, let’s have a look at how she would handle this.

By DEBORAH CAMPBELL

Good journalism is sunlight. Bad politics hides in the dark.

Last week we learned — only because it was reported in the Driftwood, our award-winning newspaper of record — that to save a few thousand bucks from an $11-million budget, the Islands Trust will no longer require itself to publish some public notices in print. Our trustees now deem their own clogged website and American-owned Facebook to be all that’s needed. This on small islands where many residents were born before the internet, where others lack stable access and where the power is sometimes off for days.

Public notices are a cornerstone of democracy. They are meant to inform us about important meetings, development permits and rezoning applications. We also learned (again, only thanks to The Driftwood) that the Trust spends some $450,000 a year facilitating development permits, of which developers pay merely one tenth. Taxpayers cover 90 per cent. Why are residents subsidizing a development boom, especially in a protected area? Only independent local media are likely to tell us. This Trust Council chooses to make key decisions behind closed doors, most notoriously its September 2023 “in-camera” re-interpretation of the Islands Trust Act to “preserve and protect” such “unique amenities” as tourism, infrastructure, and anything else they might decide.

Abolishing the longstanding requirement to print public notices in the newspaper may not even be lawful. B.C. regulations for public notices state clearly that the means of publication should be “reliable” and “provide factual information.” Is Facebook, which we’re now being offered, reliable? Facebook has already made it clear it’s not in the business of providing factual information. In August 2023, the tech giant blocked access to news on Facebook and Instagram for users in Canada. More recently, soon after its CEO dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, it scrapped its fact-checking department.

We’re very lucky to have a newspaper here on the Gulf Islands, reporting not only on our healthcare, schools and politics, but on swim meets, cougar sightings, community arts, music and books. A recent investigation by journalism professor April Lindgren, published in The Walrus, tracked the loss of 529 local news outlets across Canada since 2008. In “Local News Is Dying. The Consequences Are Worse than You Think,” Lindgren found that rumours, paranoia and social divisiveness typically follow the death of a local paper, as people rely on hearsay and fight on social media. Residents are left less informed, less involved and less connected. Some politicians may prefer this, but it doesn’t make for healthy communities.

No doubt trustees will argue they will also be posting notices on the Islands Trust website. But provincial legislation says public notices should be “accessible” and “easily found.” Those who believe information on the Trust website is easily found have obviously never tried to find something there. Important information has even been known to disappear, such as the 14 hours of recorded Trust Council debate from the September 2024 meetings where trustees discussed the controversial new Trust Policy Statement (TPS) that will affect all islands.

The new TPS, and Salt Spring’s Official Community Plan revisions, are now beginning the community input stage — the only chance residents will get to have a say. It’s no secret that some trustees have been unhappy with Driftwood coverage of their activities. But starving our local paper while calling for “public engagement” looks like a cynical attack on the public’s right to know. It will only add to a growing mistrust of the sweeping changes being proposed. Mayne, Saturna, and North Pender have already jumped to the new “model” of abolishing print notices. Salt Spring hasn’t, for now. But the threat is there.

The writer is a Salt Spring resident and a journalism professor at the University of Victoria.

Nothing lights a pathway quite as brightly as a crisis.

As the relationship with our neighbours to the south continues — subtly and otherwise — to fray under political strain, it is all the more heartening to see professionals from both nations serve a common purpose — and in a moment when they’re needed most.

When a dozen kayakers ran afoul of weather and wave conditions between tiny Patos and Sucia islands in the northern reaches of the U.S. San Juan Island chain, RCMP, Washington State Park and U.S. Coast Guard patrols all immediately switched gears from enforcement operations to lifesaving ones — locating the group and bringing two families (and apparently at least one kayaking guide) on board their vessels. 

Thanks to these highly skilled seafaring professionals, short work was made of a potentially dangerous situation for the paddlers; all were transported back to their home port on Orcas Island, and while everyone was shaken up, none were injured.

On one hand, the swift cooperative rescue is the perhaps predictable result of a long-running joint cross-border crimefighting program — the Integrated Cross-Border Maritime Law Enforcement Operations endeavor we thankfully can just refer to as “Shiprider” — built to make it easier for officers from both sides of the international boundary line to slip over and help one another.

On the other, it’s a reminder that while big-picture international negotiations take place, the enduring reality on the ground — or on the sea, as it were — shows us that the best results are produced when we focus on our shared values, rather than places where we are at odds.

Those living in the Southern Gulf Islands — most acutely those here since time immemorial — know that the border running through the Salish Sea is even more arbitrary than most. Technically speaking, when they ran into trouble, those American kayakers were in U.S. waters but farther north than Fulford — and in a moment of need, that mattered even less than usual. 

In late September, three days of events will mark a planned “sister” relationship between Salt Spring Island and the same island the kayakers launched from. The opportunity to renew and revitalize our connection to fellow islanders should be seized — and celebrated.