When the North Salt Spring Waterworks District (NSSWD) partially lifted an 11-year moratorium on water service applications a year ago, it was seen as key for more Ganges-area affordable housing.

If a flood of applications to claim one of the estimated 300 multi-family-unit-equivalent water connections was anticipated due to pent-up demand, a slow drip occurred instead. A year later, an estimated 22 per cent (or 64) connections are paid for, with 36 of those allocated to BC Housing’s Drake Road housing complex.

Included in those numbers are connections to existing rental suites whose property owners decided to legalize them through the Islands Trust. Even though no new infrastructure is needed and water is already being consumed by residents there, capital expenditure charges of several thousand dollars were collected to help pay for the new Maxwell Lake water treatment plant. Since the NSSWD is in the business of providing water — not facilitating affordable housing — it’s understandable that the financial benefits of lifting the moratorium are the NSSWD’s prime consideration.

The NSSWD might have decided to prioritize applications that would create affordable housing — if it could. But the antiquated improvement district legislation it operates under does not provide for that option. The Drake Road units aside, no new single-family dwellings for island workers to rent or buy could result, which would be yet another setback for the affordable housing movement on the island.

That’s why the Salt Spring Local Trust Committee’s decision to ask the provincial government to intervene by providing services of a “housing advisor” makes sense. The powers of the province are needed to perhaps make it possible for affordable housing to be prioritized for the NSSWD’s remaining available water connections. (In addition to the front-page story about this issue, trustee Laura Patrick has written an explanatory article that is posted on our gulfislandsdriftwood.com website.)

Considering the NDP government’s apparent lack of interest in helping improve Salt Spring/Islands Trust governance issues, we’re not optimistic it will make a difference. But as with all things related to increasing local affordable housing options, it’s at least worth a try.

Let me make this admission right off the bat. Since my early days, I’ve always wanted to be a philosopher. The idea I entertained was that I would have the knowledge and discretion to break down complex modes of thinking into their simplest building blocks and thereby make this world a more desirable place to inhabit.

Many schools of philosophy have come and gone over the years. We have survived utopian and dystopian ones. Nihilism, existentialism, stoicism and socialism have had their day in the sun, although it’s useful to remember the old adage “if it’s an ism then it isn’t.” Almost anyone can become a philosopher, although it helps if you are German and your name is practically impossible to spell. Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard belong in this category (although Kierkegaard was actually Danish but wore lederhosen most of the time).

You could argue that modern philosophy began almost 2500 years ago in ancient Greece. This was the age when Socrates, Plato (affectionately nick-named PlayDough), and Aristotle, known collectively as the “gang of three,” expanded our knowledge of truth as it exists in the material world and in the human mind. Socrates, who came first, taught Plato, who in turn passed the torch to Aristotle. All this serious philosophical knowledge was then squandered on Aristotle’s student, Alexander the Great, who was more interested in conquering the world than having an honest debate. There was quite a bit of animosity among these four famous Greeks and it is documented that the philosophers referred to Alex as “Alexander the Average” while he retaliated by naming them “the Three Stooges.” Hence the memorable Greek expression “nyuk nyuk nyuk,” which translates loosely to “who cut the feta cheese?”

A couple of centuries later, the realm of philosophy presented the world with Archimedes of Syracuse. Not only was he a great debater and logician, but he was also an inventor and master of physics, mathematics and astronomy. He is quoted as having said, “If you give me a lever and a place to stand, I can move the world.” Lucky for him, nobody ever trusted him with a lever. He is also famous for yelling “Eureka” (Greek for “you could definitely use a bath”) when he made the water in his bathtub overflow while searching for his missing bar of soap. As a result, he is credited with the discovery of Archimedes’ principle, the scientific theory which warns bathers to make sure they use only soaps that float. As intelligent and brilliant as Archimedes was purported to be, he did mess up royally when he yelled, “Don’t disturb my circles” at an invading Roman soldier in reference to some geometric circular figures he had outlined in the sand. The soldier promptly killed him.

Perhaps the best philosophers around these days are our kids. Even before they graduate from elementary school, you may find a group of boys debating the existential merits of being eaten by a great white shark as opposed to being stung to death by 10,000 African killer bees. Their counterparts of the female persuasion may eschew the topic of how they would rather die, and replace it with a tender discussion about whether Pegasus, the winged stallion, or a unicorn would make the better companion on a fantasy journey to a magical forest.

Long before there were towns and villages, and long before civilization, there was philosophy. Probably the very first philosophers in the history of our planet were the early homo sapiens cavemen. Even prior to the invention of the spoken language, and before they learned to grunt properly, the depictions of riddles and jokes on their cave walls precipitated what would become the art and science of philosophy. For example, the cave drawing showing a baby stegosaurus dinosaur emerging from its cracked eggshell can only be interpreted as that age-old philosophical quandary as to which came first: the chicken or the egg. Several millennia later, after the invention of the wheel, the cave drawing was altered to show the egg lying in the middle of one of the earliest roads. This, of course, gave rise to another historically significant philosophical discussion regarding why the chicken felt it had to cross the road.

Later philosophers successfully merged the chicken crossing the road conundrum with another popular cave painting showing a solitary tree lying on the forest floor. It became obvious to all the schools of thought at the time that the chicken was crossing the road to see the tree fall. Had the chicken remained on its side of the road, it’s quite possible it would have missed the falling of the tree. In that case, with nobody around to witness the tree falling, how would anybody know whether the tree actually fell? Chickens and dinosaurs the world over marvelled at how delicately intricate and promising this philosophy thing seemed to be.

Eventually, as many eons passed, the great religions of the world began adopting and adapting these older philosophies into their formal beliefs. For instance, Zen Buddhists began using an anecdotal paradox riddle, also called a “koan,” to promote enlightenment. To demonstrate how this works, consider this philosophical question: you’ve heard the sound of two hands clapping; what is the sound of one hand clapping? Meditating on this koan is bound to lead you on the path to enlightenment or give you a very bad headache. Personally, I came close to achieving this higher state of being back when I was practising stand-up comedy, but unfortunately I discovered the sound of no hands clapping instead.

Nobody asked me, but I don’t see any reason why it’s too late for me to become a philosopher. Not only do I have an infinite number of complex and unprovable thoughts circulating in my brain, but my name is already impossible to spell.

And by the way, in answer to that existential philosophical question as to whether it would be better to be killed by a great white shark or 10,000 African killer bees, my preference would be to die from 1,000 paper cuts.

By LAURA PATRICK

Islands Trustee, Salt Spring Island

Salt Spring Island is facing a well-documented and increasingly urgent housing challenge. For decades, reports have pointed to a widening gap between local incomes and housing costs. Today, limited rental supply and rising prices are placing real pressure on workers, employers, families, and the overall health of our community.

In response, the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee (LTC) has initiated a planning project to bring up to date the existing 2008 Official Community Plan (OCP) and 1998 Land Use Bylaws (LUB). This work is intended to provide a plan that better reflects current realities: a deepening affordability crisis, the need for a wider range of attainable housing options, commitments to reconciliation with First Nations, and the growing importance of climate resilience and ecosystem protection.

As part of this process, preliminary analysis and public engagement conducted in the Fall of 2025 examined whether existing regulations continue to align with current knowledge, best practice, and community values. This work included exploring ideas identified in the Islands Trust Housing Options Toolkit, such as appropriate limits on house size, adjustments to lot coverage to reduce environmental impacts, reconsideration of subdivision rules where appropriate, and expanding the types of housing allowed — such as secondary suites, cottages and multifamily housing — in suitable locations.

At the same time, water servicing remains the most immediate constraint on how and where new housing can be built. The partial lifting of the North Salt Spring Water District moratorium presents a rare and time-sensitive opportunity to enable new housing. However, there is currently no clear framework to ensure that new water connections are used for the kind of housing our community most needs, particularly affordable, rental, and workforce housing.

Given the governance structure of improvement districts (which is the regulatory framework the water district operates within) and the province’s policy on them, and the LTC’s limited ability to guide how this scarce resource is allocated, we see a real risk that available capacity may not be used in a strategic way.

At our March 19, 2026 meeting the LTC proposed a constructive step: requesting that the Province of British Columbia appoint an independent housing advisor to work collaboratively with the committee under the Housing Supply Act.

This approach has precedent. The province has demonstrated a willingness to work with communities facing housing challenges, including through the appointment of independent advisors in places such as North Saanich. While Local Trust Committees are not subject to provincially mandated housing targets, the scale and urgency of Salt Spring’s housing needs are well understood.

The role of an advisor is not punitive — it is supportive, bringing professional expertise, experience and capacity to the table. In other communities, advisors have helped build on existing work, identified practical solutions, and accelerated progress where local capacity is limited.

Salt Spring’s elected officials and the Trust staff have already completed significant groundwork. However, translating ideas into concrete policy and regulations — particularly updates to the OCP and LUB — has proven challenging, in part due to limited capacity. An independent advisor could help bridge that gap.

Most importantly, this support could help us address the disconnect between infrastructure constraints — especially water — and housing priorities, ensuring that limited servicing capacity is aligned with demonstrated community needs.

If we want Salt Spring Island to remain a diverse and inclusive community where workers, families and seniors can continue to live and contribute, we need an OCP and a set of land use bylaws that are up to today’s challenges. If we want to preserve and protect our island environment we need to halt the damage being done to ecosystems by housing development right now because of inadequate outdated regulations. Partnering with the province to bring additional expertise and capacity to this work is a practical and constructive way forward.

Some days it seems the Islands Trust’s confederation of communities is more loosely laced than others.

Despite all of us being surrounded by shoreline, there are times we watch our trustees truly stretch to leverage the commonalities among our islands as they work to advance our common interests. And even on those infrequent issues where we might all agree on the scope of a problem, how can a solution for Denman Island ever possibly work on Bowen? Or Gabriola’s on Galiano? Salt Spring’s on South Pender? How can 26 members of the Islands Trust Council agree on anything, if on something as simple as a budget, even the eight trustees voting against it didn’t agree on their reasons for doing so?

Yet at the end of the day — or rather, at the end of three at a quarterly meeting — decisions are made and work done. In addition to passing the budget last week, the Trust’s unsung accomplishments include advancing a draft of its remarkable multi-year Indigenous Relations Action Plan, and a final — and also remarkablely, unanimous — approval of a new bylaw compliance and enforcement policy, complete with a user-friendly plain-language guide for islanders. That long-awaited product will be rolling out in the next few months, the fruit of trustees’ sincere efforts to improve what was an arguably broken system.

On the wider stage, they agreed to sign on to a joint call for the province to recommit to meaningful implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; on a much smaller one, they agreed to cover a few thousands dollars in application fees for Salt Spring’s Farmland Trust, to permit distribution of compost produced at the Burgoyne Valley Community Farm site. The work of the Islands Trust is indeed varied.

During this last meeting, one trustee took insightful exception to the characterization of the Islands Trust as merely a land use authority keen to “preserve and protect.” While it is indeed that, they noted the often-recited mandate continues with “in cooperation.” 

We agree that despite all attention given to the former, it’s the latter that may turn out to be the hardest work.

By MICHAEL WALL

Much of the good-natured discussion we’ve been enjoying in the community recently regarding reviews of the Trust Policy Statement and Salt Spring Official Community Plan (OCP) has been focused on housing needs, and the idea that building density closer to the village cores rather than out in the more rural parts of the island would decrease disruption of the forest ecosystems, decrease fire risk and reduce car use, etc.

I think this is an accurate assumption, and if we were, just now, to embark on a process of subdividing and zoning the island, it would be the best place to start. 

Unfortunately, the island was subdivided and zoned many decades ago and we are stuck with the consequences of that process. So it is all very well to say, “We should not build homes remote from the villages,” but there are roughly 1,600 vacant lots currently and the owners have the zoning to build on them, resulting in an estimated build-out population of 17,000 — 5,000 more than now. Do we say to these owners, “I’m sorry, we have decided that you can’t build on your lot because we want to move your density closer to the villages?” I think the Trust would be deluged with bankrupting litigation immediately.

Or should the community buy out these properties, create park land and transfer the densities to the villages? Let’s say at an average of $700,000 per lot, that’s more than a billion dollars we’d have to find to do that. And in the villages we would have to ensure water supply and sewerage adequate for more dense communities. 

We live on an island where water resources are already scarce and vulnerable to climate change effects. In other words, new buildings in rural Salt Spring and the resulting population growth are “baked in” to the future of the island, so any additional market housing built in the village cores will add to the island population over time. Many islanders who have been here as long as I have — nearly 40 years — consider the population already maxed out. Salt Spring’s population from 2016 to 2021 grew at twice the national average.

There is, however, a concrete change we could make to mitigate the environmental effects of remote home building which is within the power of the Islands Trust: take control of the kind of homes that are built. The Trust can do this by limiting the floor area permitted in new homes. If, say, a limit of 2,500 square feet is imposed, it would eliminate construction of “mansions” and summertime trophy homes — we already have more than enough of those. It would probably lower the values of those properties and make it easier for families to buy them. The creators of our existing OCP and land use bylaw tried to do just that but met with strong opposition from certain sectors of our community. Perhaps in the next review we will have the resolve to make it happen.

Our local trustees have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their lumbering review process and PR campaign, but have failed to commission any scientific research into carrying capacity and environmental degradation which could be used to calculate the effects of the extra development they want. The precautionary principle encourages us to consider the consequences before taking action, and that philosophy has never been more important on our lovely little island.