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Editorial: No free [bus] ride

Driftwood Staff
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Editorial: No free [bus] ride

It’s hard to argue against support for public transit.

Anything that reduces the number of vehicles on our roads or improves the quality of life for those who do not own a vehicle must be a good thing, right? And as we so often hear, Salt Spring Island’s transit system is well used when compared to those in other communities in B.C. So it’s easy to see why it’s tempting for the Salt Spring Local Community Commission (LCC) to support growing the system.

But before committing to the eventual 78 per cent increase in property tax support for an expanded system, the LCC and Capital Regional District (CRD) should make the case that such an increase is justified. In 2025, Salt Spring property owners contributed about $450,000 to the local transit service. It cost the owner of an average-assessed million-dollar property about $68 of the $1,230 tax levy paid to the CRD (not counting extra monies paid by those who live within CRD water or sewer service areas). Contributing that amount for bus service seems perfectly reasonable. But considering island geography and where people live, we can’t help wonder how much more service it truly makes sense to add and pay for.

A recommended expansion of Route 2 between Fulford and Ganges is justified by current demand, so there’s no argument there. But the next suggested expansion is to extend the Beddis/Cusheon route (#7) by 1.8 kilometres from the Beddis/Cusheon Lake Road intersection to Beddis Beach. The least expensive of two options presented in a report to the LCC would cost taxpayers an additional $32,320 of the estimated $77,413 cost. That same report tells us that a weekly average of 32 trips were made by people on the Beddis route’s three daily round trips. It seems impossible to believe that many more souls living in and around the proposed extended area might want to ride a bus to justify such a cost.

Has anyone canvassed residents living in the affected area to see if they have a need for the service? The simple fact is that it is extremely difficult for a schedule with only a few trips per day to be usable for most people, and it would be ridiculous to fund enough buses to make it more usable. Then there’s the fact that travel in a private vehicle will likely always be preferred by most: for comfort, privacy and convenience.

The LCC/CRD can and likely will raise the allowable requisition amount for local transit, which is fine. But they and BC Transit need to justify reasons for spending it at every stop along the way.

Nobody Asked Me But: Ready for a grand summer camping adventure

Shilo Zylbergold
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Here we are, in the peak of summer, and it’s time to let our minds stray to one of our favourite seasonal activities. Yes, summer’s here and the time is right for camping in the woods.

Before you start tossing camping supplies willy-nilly into your car or camper unit, you must make the psychological transformation into the headspace of a camper. Start preparing yourself for how the next few days or weeks are going to play out. Find ways to break yourself in. Are you going to be sleeping in a tent? If so, you need to simulate how the cold, hard ground is going to feel against your brittle bones. Don’t think that a thin foamie is going to make much of a comfort difference. Stop using your expensive memory foam mattress a few days before you leave and lay out a small layer of crushed gravel or navy jack on the living room floor. Now snuggle up to yourself and feel every single little sharp edge dig into your body. This is as good as it’s going to get, so you better start getting used to it.

Food intake is another adjustment you are going to have to make. Before you leave home, start decreasing your daily consumption of fresh vegetables and real food. Instead, you want to start leaning towards those trusted camping staples such as hot dogs, popcorn and marshmallows. You can prepare yourself for campground coffee (aka cowboy coffee) by gathering up a few days’ worth of old grounds and dumping them in a big pot of boiling water. After a couple of hours of maximum heat, the thick black liquid should be revived back to its original full-body flavour.

The battle against insects and their annoying habits of biting and stinging innocent campers like you is another issue you will need to consider. By all means, bring along bug spray and mosquito repellant, but preparing your body against the inevitable itch/scratch conditioned response to these flying bandits is the best way to go. Personally, before I leave on a camping trip, I strip off my clothes and take a little naked run through the nearby blackberry hedge. After the bleeding has stopped, I can be quite certain that insect bites and stings will seem hardly noticeable.

Now it’s time to think of packing for the trip. Many campers claim that less is more, but I belong to the camp that insists that more is more. Basically, you want to take along everything that will fit in your trunk, camper or trailer, and then everything else you own. Drawing up a packing list will help you organize for the trip, but don’t let the list cramp your creativity. A general rule of thumb is to pack five times as much as you’ll ever need. You never know when you might have mechanical problems and have to rely on that never-opened fondue set to fend off starvation.

Getting the right campsite at a campground will make a big difference in how much you enjoy your experience. For instance, camping close to the outhouse can be a good thing because you’re close to the outhouse. On the other hand, it can be somewhat revolting because, well . . . you’re close to the outhouse.

It’s almost impossible to know for sure who will be your camping neighbours at any particular campground. Maybe you will be within sharing distance of a peaceful gathering of a local Raging Grannies chapter who are celebrating the completion of an Honour Our Earth Mother weekend workshop. Just as easily, you may be interfacing with Club 666 of the California Hell’s Angels who are ready to party hardy because their incarcerated leader, Snakehead, has finally been released on parole.

One summer, a friend and I were camped next to a bizarre religious sect from Seattle who were followers of the mysterious cultist Brother Love. Each of them had been given a new name by the good Brother to remind them that they needed to resist temptation and keep working on their spiritual auras so they could attain enlightenment. They sported names like Ego, Greed and Envy and wore these monikers proudly. We were invited to join the Love family and were told that Brother Love had taken a shine to us and was willing to bestow new names upon us. We declined the invite and informed them that we already had taken on new spiritual names. We said that we had considered Dopey, Sneezy and Bashful, but settled finally on Flashing Amber Light and Shoulder Check. They didn’t bother us much after that.

People go camping because they want to have fun. And how can you have fun unless you bring toys to play with? You’re going to need a variety of recreational accessories to enjoy the grandeur of nature and to keep from getting bored. By these, I mean surfboards, paddleboards, kayaks, canoes, jet skis, motorcycles, dirt bikes and ATVs. If you find that you don’t have enough room in your vehicle for all these toys, you can always tow a trailer behind you or, better yet, a speedboat (or both).

If you’re going to camp anywhere near water, you’ll want to have inflatables on hand. These can range all the way from water wings and air mattresses to humongous floating castles that look like they would not seem out of place as attractions at Disney World. When inflated, these floaties could actually save your life if you get into a serious collision and your air bags fail. You will also need about a dozen colourful foam noodles lashed onto different parts of your vehicle to prevent your ride from sinking to the bottom of a lake and to make sure that you are visible from outer space. Don’t forget the Super Soaker water guns in case you get hijacked by banditos.

There. You are all packed and ready to go. Nobody asked me, but the only things standing in your way are packed ferry parking lots, overloads, bumper to bumper traffic, highway construction and deconstruction, road closures, full campgrounds and weather that’s either cold and rainy or abysmally scorching. Have a great time camping.

On the other hand, have you considered a staycation?

‘Two Tricksters’ authors visit library

Robb Magley
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‘Two Tricksters’ authors visit library

A pair of Mayne Island authors hope their new children’s book — a collaboration set in a familiar-feeling small island town — will help readers build a bridge across sometimes-troubling cultural differences, through the example set by two seemingly unlikely role models: the authors themselves, reimagined as they might’ve been in Grade 4. 

Jess Willows and Johnny Aitken will be at the library on Salt Spring Island at 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1 as part of their Southern Gulf Islands book launch tour for Two Tricksters Find Friendship. That book’s themes of friendship and strength of character have resonated with readers, telling the story of a young girl named Jessie who moves to the small coastal community and becomes fast friends with Johnny — a local Indigenous boy from the nearby reserve.  

And while Willows and Aitken said the small community where the story is set may remind readers of Mayne Island — or Cortes, or Alert Bay, or even Salt Spring, they said — and familiar tales of beachcombing or coveted cinnamon buns notwithstanding, Two Tricksters Find Friendship could be seen as happening anywhere Coast Salish culture intersects with that of non-Indigenous settlers, and wherever ties to the land are felt and differences spark misunderstanding. 

In the new chapter book, illustrated by Alyssa Koski, the young protagonists face outside pressures and prejudices, but with guidance from Raven — the wise trickster from many Indigenous stories — a Two-Spirit spiritual teacher named Steven and other community members, the pair learn to celebrate and lean on one another. Telling the story through younger versions of themselves helped make the story’s lessons simpler, the authors said; Aitken called it a delightful way to “live a sort of fantasy life of what could have been.” 

“Growing up I didn’t get to spend too much time on the reserve,” said Aitken. “Just because of circumstances in my life, I wasn’t brought up in that way. So it’s been a great experience to be able to fantasize about it. I come from a theatre background, so we did some role playing, saying, ‘OK, well, this is what we’re doing — and what would Johnny say? What would Jessie say?’ And we had fun with it.” 

Other events in the book are based upon life experiences the pair had when they were kids in their respective Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities — some fact and fiction mixed together, they said. 

“There’s lots to draw upon,” chuckled Aitken, who identifies as Two-Spirit. “I’m a bit of an activist in my community.” 

With Aitken’s background as an Indigenous artist and activist, and Willows’ as an educator with the Gulf Islands School District, the duo’s initial focus was to create something for teachers to use in the classroom — exploring entry points for integrating Indigenous content into the curriculum. 

“The book talks a lot about reconciliation through friendship,” said Willows. “And here Johnny and I are writing together and as such good friends there are so many overlapping parallels between this book and real life.” 

The collaboration has quickly found footing; Two Tricksters Find Friendship has been added to the 2025 Telling Tales and Festival of Literary Diversity Kids summer reading lists, and has been shortlisted for the Children’s/YA Book Award for B.C. authors through the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society.  

Willows said a draft has been accepted for a second book in what is now a series, and the third is sketched out with writing underway. Two Tricksters is a “gentle” vehicle for storytelling, she said, and bringing that world to life through the fictional eyes of younger versions of themselves has been a joy. 

“We wanted the Jessie character to have that curiosity as a way to navigate things that can be a little tricky in our world,” said Willows. “Coming at things like kids do — maybe not with as much judgment as we adults have, but with respect and curiosity.”  

“In this friendship, between Johnny who is First Nations and Jessie who’s a settler, they don’t face obstacles between themselves — those challenges come from the adults,” said Aitken. “But it’s also the adults — and Raven — that bring mentorship through conflict.” 

Not to spoil the story, said Aitken, but a “bona fide reconciliation” takes place between the friends. 

“Johnny and Jessie stand together and support each other in a really good way,” said Aitken. “And they become role models in their community.” 

After Friday’s visit to the Salt Spring Island Public Library, Willows and Aitken — and, of course, Raven — will be at the Saturna Island Community Hall from 2 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 2.

For more information about the book visit orcabook.com/Two-Tricksters-Find-Friendship. 

The Point Gallery: a place for great art ideas

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The Point Gallery: a place for great art ideas

By MARGARET DAY

THE POINT GALLERY

The Point Gallery is now in its 25th year as a place to encourage and enjoy art. Over time it has evolved.

Initially a gallery space showing work that stimulated and provoked discussion, in the last nine years it has mainly become the temporary home of an extraordinary group of artists, the residents of the Salt Spring Arts residency.

When we embarked on the program in 2014 we had no idea the diversity we would attract, the wonderful mix of genders, orientations, ethnic origins and, in this case most importantly, of creative practice and ideas. Instigated initially to accommodate the Salt Spring National Art Prize winner, as time went on the program accepted submissions from all over Canada and beyond.

The Point was always available as a studio and for the pop-up exhibits and gave the artists the opportunity to see their work in a gallery setting. These short exhibits were loyally supported by informed and knowledgeable islanders, their interest, comments and questions appreciated by the artists in residence. For the last few years The Point has offered accommodation and work space. Thanks to a hardworking group of artist volunteers, residents were introduced to island artists, visited their studios and explored the landscapes and seascapes of this beautiful place. Many of the artists stayed in touch and some of them returned. On these later occasions conversations revealed just how important their time on Salt Spring had been to their artistic development.

The Salt Spring Arts residency ended this spring when the money from a long-ago fundraiser finally gave out. It is time to move on. The gallery remains, still with the lighting and 2×4 solid wood floor installed by the efforts of the nine island artists who made up the original Vortex co-op, but mainly by the hard work of Deon Venter in 1991. It still pleases and surprises people who come in through the door for the first time. It would be good to think that there are a few more art-related years left in its future.

Over the last few years it has been a pleasure to accept proposals from artist friends and family for a temporary workspace, an informal exhibit, an evening lecture or for a play reading or performance piece. This week it will host a workshop given by the University of Regina’s Kathryn Ricketts. Four days of making and playing with paper will be coupled with writing stories and poems of renewal.

The participants of these explorations are generously exhibiting some of their work for a short window at The Point Gallery on Friday, Aug. 1 from 1 to 4 p.m. only. The show is called Repurposing and Reimagining Stories — an exhibition exploring the repurposing of paper and words.

Come by and enjoy the results of these fascinating experimentations with the idea of repurposing paper and words. If you are an artist, it will provide an opportunity — if you haven’t been before — to see the space and consider how it might fit into your art practice (or that of an off-island artist friend) as a temporary solution to move a great art idea forward.

The Point entrance is on South Ridge Drive and will be marked with a sandwich board and “entrance” sign.

Coast Salish artist Margaret August featured in next Showcase

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Coast Salish artist Margaret August featured in next Showcase

BY ELIZABETH NOLAN

Artcraft Manager

Artcraft will be celebrating the month of August in an especially fitting way this year, with a Showcase exhibition featuring contemporary Coast Salish artist Margaret August taking pride of place on the Mahon Hall stage.

August (who uses the pronouns they/them/their) is a two-spirit Coast Salish artist and a member of shíshálh Nation. Into the Wild is an exhibition that explores gender identity, and what identifying as “two-spirit” means, revealing contemporary Coast Salish art and stories of living in the modern context through tradition.

“Where Indigenous identity and LGBTQ+ identity overlap and shape their lived realities, or through an intersectional lens, we can see how the unique experiences of two-spirit individuals are shaped by their Indigenous background and their gender,” August’s artist statement explains.

August’s new body of work therefore dissects and highlights the gifts of two-spirit people in the framework of the artist’s own unique perspective, while encouraging an understanding that two-spirit identity requires recognizing the intersectional nature of their experiences. The show will also include pieces from August’s Rebirth series, demonstrating the artistic building blocks that brought them into a new type of self-expression.

August was born in 1983 in the traditional unceded L ək ̓ ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ territories, now referred to as Victoria, B.C. Their work is inspired by the archival art pieces of their ancestors in combination with their spiritual encounters with nature.

August originally began developing their artistic talents at an early age. They were introduced to Coast Salish art through the late Tlingit artist Mark Preston in 2016, which then led them to seek guidance and mentorship with Coast Salish artist Dylan Thomas from 2016-23. This mentorship and others have helped August expand their talent and practice to creating art in multiple mediums such as serigraph and giclee prints, glass, cedar sandblasted pieces and wood carving (including a special learning trip to Haida Gwaii this past month to study with a renowned female carver.)

During a recent visit to their studio in Quw’utsun, August outlined just how necessary their six-year mentorship program with Thomas was for learning the foundations of traditional Coast Salish art before attempting to stretch the rules. Artists such as Susan Point, John Marston and Luke Marston have been a huge influence, offering a sense of permission to push the boundaries.

“I still have a hard time breaking outside those lines,” August said. “I mean, I don’t think it has to happen overnight either. I think it’s something that is gradually happening and I think each time I get to present my work in a way that I am, with exhibiting it, it just kind of pushes me to go further.”

Unlike the northern coast’s formline style that many are familiar with, Coast Salish art features symmetrical designs that balance positive and negative space. Designs are built on shapes such as trigons and trigon variations, crescents, variation of crescents, circles and ovals. The themes shíshálh Nation (now called Sechelt and the Sunshine Coast) depicted often had to do with family crests and histories — salmon, thunderbirds, orca and medicine people — while the colours used were those that could be found in nature or produced with available materials, meaning black, reds and ochres.

August’s work builds on those foundations but incorporates colours such as lavender and plum, while telling new stories important to them — especially those exploring their two-spirit identity. The traditional connections to that identity have been challenging to discover since colonial acts obliterated much language and culture.

“I’m still exploring what that means, but there’s no wrong or right. I just think there is something that makes me really different from other people,” August said. “And I’ve always felt that in a way that I don’t think I really honoured until I really branched on my own last year — so this is still pretty new to me.

“But I feel more comfortable in myself, being on my own with this exploration, with this continuation, and building on the experience of my mentorship for six years. I’m glad I dedicated that time to learning and finetuning and really perfecting what I do today and will continue to build in the future.”

The Showcase runs Friday, Aug. 1 through Monday, Aug. 25 during Artcraft gallery hours (10 to 5 daily) at Mahon Hall. Members of the public are encouraged to attend the opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 1 and an artist talk on Aug. 2 starting at 1 p.m.

For more information, visit saltspringarts.com/exhibitions.

Mosaic Arts & Culture Festival on Pender for the long weekend

Driftwood Staff
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Mosaic Arts & Culture Festival on Pender for the long weekend

Back for another year, the Mosaic Arts & Culture Festival presented by Ptarmigan Arts will take place for the second time in the pine forest behind the Pender Community Hall, offering a weekend full of live music performances, emerging youth performers and lots of arts and nature-based activities for the whole family.  

The festival has been part of the island community for years, with its origins in the old Hope Bay Boat Days, which ran from 2012 to 2017 as a celebration of wooden boats, music and local art. Mosaic began in 2019 and — except for a pandemic break in 2020 — has grown to include more music and activities every year.  

Friday’s schedule kicks off at 6:15 p.m. with a welcome and land acknowledgement, followed by Star Captains at 6:30 p.m. and tweener Cole Dine before Garret T. Willie at 8 p.m. and After Dark with Goertz and Lopatecki and DJ Denny at 9:30 p.m.

Saturday’s main stage headline performers include The Dip at 2 p.m., Mercedes Papalia at 4 p.m., Tio Chorinho with Flavia Nascimento at 6:30 p.m., The Infinite Atom at 8 p.m. and After Dark with DJ Denny at 9 p.m. Numerous “tweeners” will also perform between the main acts.  

On Sunday, back on the Main Stage at 10 a.m. is the Sunday Singalong with Wayward Sirens, followed at 11 a.m. by Madame B Musique. After the lunch break at 2 p.m. is Cork and Porcupine, followed by a 3 p.m. performance by Clanna Morna. The Angelica Taekema Band and the Songwriters Circle is at 4 p.m. Pony Gold plays at 6:30 p.m. and The Brooks at 8 p.m.  

Other activities are the Zen Zone, face painting, workshops, market stage music, Art Play with Wendy and the TOTT Mural Installation, plus Saturday’s Imagination Station featuring the POD Baleinophone workshop from 2 to 4 p.m.

Field + Forest programs include Yoga with Mia, Art in the Pines exhibit and Typewriter Poetry in the Pines at different times, and a reconciliation discussion on Sunday with author and artist Johnny Aitken from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. 

Parking is available at the hall; for more information and tickets visit themosaicfestival.com. 

LCC sets higher limit on bus tax

Robb Magley
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LCC sets higher limit on bus tax

In the years to come, Salt Spring’s transit service will need more capacity and additional routes to meet growing demand, according to island officials, who have decided a burgeoning bus system will need funding to match. 

From humble two-bus, two-route origins in 2007 — with a “busy” weekday ridership of just over 100 customers, according to Driftwood reporting — the system has grown to offer multiple routes on the island, carrying over 106,000 passengers last year across year-round routes that reach as far north as Fernwood and seasonally as far south as Ruckle Park. 

On Thursday, July 17, Salt Spring’s Local Community Commission (LCC) voted in favour of increasing the maximum levy for the island’s Community Transit and Transportation Service, a move LCC members characterized as an affirmation of their commitment to a robust bus system. 

“I think this is one of the most important things that we do,” said LCC member Brian Webster. “We need to commit to it, and that means taxpayers being willing to commit to it. If they aren’t, they’re not going to elect people next time who support transit.” 

The new requisition bylaw raises the maximum to $900,000 — up from a currently calculated 2025 maximum of $506,538. A 2013 bylaw set the maximum rate as the greater of $245,000 or 7.6 cents per $1,000 in assessed home value; the latter has been greater for some years, given the increase in Salt Spring Island home values. 

The new maximum limit could similarly see increases in a pro-rated manner, as it establishes the tax rate at 13.5 cents per $1,000 in assessed value — which in 2025 would pencil out at more than $899,000. 

Staff noted these are maximum amounts, and may not immediately be reached; the Route 2 Fulford-to-Ganges service expansion scheduled for the start of 2027, for example, would add an estimated $108,160 to costs, representing a 21 per cent increase over the current maximum requisition, according to a staff report, a total just over $600,000. A similarly scheduled expansion to Route 7 — the Cusheon/Beddis to Ganges route, planned for the summer of 2027, is expected to add less than $19,000 to costs. 

“This is a ‘not to exceed’ number,” said LCC chair Earl Rook. “We’re talking about allowing us some flexibility; it’s not a commitment.” 

In a presentation earlier in the meeting, BC Transit’s senior manager of government relations Seth Wright had pointed out Salt Spring still holds the unofficial title of “the best-performing small system in the province,” a claim supported by metrics like operating cost per service hour — “We’re paying less on Salt Spring and getting good value,” he said — and passenger trips per service hour — “Close to double, 92 per cent, over what we see in our peer systems.” 

“It’s really quite incredible numbers,” said Wright. “That speaks to, I think, Salt Spring’s culture.” 

The approval for the increase is allowed to be made at the discretion of the electoral area director. CRD director Gary Holman expressed reservations about insufficient community consultation for the tax increase. The motion was carried with Holman as the lone vote in opposition. In the past he has said he would wield his powers as CRD director in support of LCC decisions. 

“The LCC’s run amok!” chuckled LCC member Ben Corno.

Editorial: Peace party

Driftwood Staff
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Editorial: Peace party

The Americans are coming, and they’re fellow islanders. 

Coinciding with an emerging “sister island” movement, a friendly flotilla is sailing from Washington State’s Orcas Island Yacht Club all the way to Ganges Harbour, launching three days of activities — from pancake breakfasts to concerts and wine tours — meant to strengthen cross-border relationships. 

On the one hand, the idea is absolutely outstanding. The notion of “sister” communities in different nations has a long and productive history; the postwar arrangement between Seattle and Tokyo famously rebuilt Japanese-American relations from an historical low point. 

And both San Juan and Southern Gulf Islanders agree, they often have more in common with one another than with their respective mainlands. 

On the other, and lofty ideas about economic development notwithstanding, using limited local public funding to welcome an American yacht club event in 2025 lacks some sensitivity to the moment.  

Charitably setting aside threats to Canadian sovereignty, the U.S.-initiated trade war, troublesome tariffs or any elbow we might’ve raised in recent months, Salt Spring’s enduring affordability crisis has left local and vital volunteer organizations struggling. Last year’s grants-in-aid applicants who approached the Local Community Commission (LCC) were scrutinized over how each handled accounting, asked to get by with a fraction of what they requested, and urged to seek funding elsewhere whenever possible.  

Credit where due, an opportunity to broaden our connection with our neighbours to the south(east) — they are friends, family, business colleagues and cultural partners — and a business boost in Ganges during a shoulder-season slump are worthy goals. 

But neither should elbow island nonprofits from their place in line. That the Salt Spring Chamber of Commerce thought $5,000 via grants-in-aid would sound reasonable should alarm every member business; that so many of the LCC members even entertained the idea should unsettle every nonprofit that came, cap-in-hand, before the LCC last year. 

Particularly those who were told there was only so much to go around.

Viewpoint: Trust takes a step too ‘FAR’ 

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Viewpoint: Trust takes a step too ‘FAR’ 

By Frants Attorp

Applying an urban planning formula to a protected area makes no sense. Yet that is exactly what Trust Council has in mind for the Gulf Islands.

The formula, called FAR (Floor Area Ratio), is being introduced through the new Trust Policy Statement, slated for first reading at Trust Council’s July 29 meeting. When finalized, the umbrella document will guide official community plans (OCPs) on all 13 major islands.

The draft includes this: “Density may be defined by the number of units per given area of land. Density may also be measured by dividing the built area including all floor area, by the total area of the lot, e.g. floor area ratio (FAR).”

This means that limiting the number of dwellings per lot and, by extension, overall population growth, could soon be dropped as a conservation measure. The new approach would see elected officials “set floor area and lot coverage” — just like in any city.

The definition is particularly significant for Salt Spring where density means number of dwellings and the general rule is one dwelling per lot. This policy is based on the premise that more people equals more environmental degradation.

If passed, the new definition would lay the groundwork for multiple dwellings per lot, not to mention multi-storied buildings. Depending on how the concept is applied, Salt Spring’s maximum house size of 5,382 square feet could, for example, translate to a primary dwelling of 2,000 square feet plus three smaller dwellings of 1,000 square feet each, or perhaps even 10 tiny homes.

The problem with this growth model is that it ignores the long-term, cumulative impact of an increasing population on ecosystems, water supply, infrastructure, services and rural character. Even modest homes require tree felling, and it’s not as if the people who live in them don’t shower, flush toilets, drive cars, travel on ferries, generate garbage and use health care services.

Ecologist David Rapport, whose research helped shape Salt Spring’s existing OCP, states: “The real measure of our impact lies in the combined influence of our numbers (population), our consumption and our use of destructive technologies that have the capacity to degrade ecosystems even in places where population densities are very low.”

Andres Duany, professor of urban planning, writes: “Abdicating to floor area (market forces) is the opposite of aiming a community toward something more than the sum of its parts. FAR does not consider the factors affecting the environment like the new buildings, greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and repercussions on local ecosystems.”

FAR can send property values soaring by turning undeveloped square footage into investment opportunities. Speculators will be pleased to note the draft Policy Statement now refers to “attainable” rather than “affordable” housing.

There’s also the sticky issue of short-term rentals, which deliver fast profits to property owners while robbing full-time residents of accommodation. Given past experience, the requirement to “where necessary, regulate and limit” does not inspire confidence.

There is only one way to resist this development agenda: participate in the upcoming public engagement process and call for non-market housing and defined, science-based growth limits. We must remind trustees of the destructive power of the free market and their duty to protect these islands for future generations.

Hayley Wallis & the Bright Futures on stage

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Hayley Wallis & the Bright Futures on stage

SUBMITTED BY SALT SPRING ARTS 

The Summer Outdoor Concert Series continues next week with its third performance of the season on Thursday, July 31, bringing the powerhouse vocals of Hayley Wallis & the Bright Futures to Centennial Park. Presented by Salt Spring Arts, this free event runs from 6 to 8 p.m., featuring an opening set by local favourite Mary Kastle. 

Wallis is an artist from the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation in Klemtu, a small and remote island community located in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, whose voice is as commanding as it is soulful. Drawing from her Indigenous roots and contemporary influences, Wallis weaves powerful stories into her music, which spans pop, folk and soul. Since the release of her single Coffee Cup, she has been recognized across the country for her raw emotional delivery and inspiring stage presence. 

Backed by the Bright Futures, Wallis brings an electrifying live show that balances soulful grooves with deep emotional impact. Together, they create a sound that is both modern and timeless, infused with hope and honesty. 

Opening the evening is Salt Spring-based Mary Kastle, known for her rich vocals and warm, jazzy folk stylings. Anchored by funky piano lines, rhythmic guitar, soulful vocals and an inviting openness, her music carries a sense of warmth, resilience and connection. With roots on both the island and in Vancouver’s music scene, Kastle brings a grounded, soulful energy to the stage that perfectly sets the tone for the night. 

The Summer Outdoor Concert Series has become a seasonal highlight in our community, drawing locals and visitors alike for six consecutive Thursday evenings of free live music in the heart of Ganges. This year’s lineup is a dynamic mix of global sounds and West Coast favourites, curated to reflect both the diversity and talent of the wider music community. 

With three concerts still to come, including performances by Alpha Yaya Diallo, Ashleigh Ball and Empanadas Ilegales, the series is in full swing. But on July 31, all eyes — and ears — will be on Hayley Wallis and her Bright Futures. 

And as detailed last week, the July 24 concert features Inn Echo and opening act Yael Wand. 

Visit saltspringarts.com/socs to learn more. 

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