Road crews are working this week to prep for the next stretch of asphalt on the Fulford-Ganges Road project, according to the contractor, who said they have increased the number of traffic control personnel to help keep traffic moving safely and efficiently. 

Northridge Excavating Ltd. project manager Bob Mitchell said the section of Fulford-Ganges Road between Alders Avenue and Beddis Roads is planned for paving Thursday and Friday, June 26 and 27, saying workers hope to avoid weekend operations. 

“If everything goes as planned then there will be no work on Sunday, June 22,” said Mitchell. “Wish us luck.” 

Out of caution, Northridge sent a notice Saturday, June 14, warning drivers to be on the lookout for road crews this Sunday. 

Mitchell said paving preparations for the upcoming section have taken much longer than they expected, as they discovered ground conditions further up the hill didn’t lend well to maintaining unpaved surfaces for traffic to pass by — meaning more time spent keeping the through-lane up to par. 

“Comparatively, the northern section was very easy to maintain while unpaved,” said Mitchell. “Our crews are monitoring the southern section closely and we are working hard to maintain the surface — please drive carefully.” 

The next stretch of asphalt will be laid from the Beddis Road intersection up to Cranberry Road. Although no official date has been announced, prep and paving will likely go into the first weeks of July, after which the side road improvements, including new signage, paint markings, crosswalks and cyclist “refuge areas” will take place, with far fewer traffic impacts expected. 

Work began last September on the 1.6-kilometre stretch of Fulford-Ganges Road from Seaview Avenue to Cranberry Road known locally as Ganges Hill, a $22.9-million project focused on an extensive underground storm sewer drainage system below the road but including a plan for paved shoulders for both pedestrians and cyclists — a 1.2-metre-wide shoulder heading north (or downhill into Ganges) and 1.8 metres in the southbound direction.  

Engineers and inspectors on Salt Spring Island have uncovered wood rot and steel corrosion in the Rainbow Recreation Centre building’s exterior “envelope,” and parks staff warned the island’s elected officials that significant repairs must begin in the next five years — or face a risk of costly structural problems at the popular pool.  

A building’s envelope is essentially the outer shell of a structure, explained Stantec architectural designer and project manager Michelangelo Pico, who told the island’s Local Community Commission (LCC) Thursday, June 5 they could think of it as the barrier that keeps the indoor and outdoor environments separated — things like exterior walls, windows and doors, he said.  

Some damage to an exterior wall was discovered in 2022 while installing ducting as part of the centre’s electrical upgrades that year; thermographic scans at the time indicated some air leakage, and Pico said the problems didn’t seem to be limited to just that wall. 

“Based on our assessment, we believe that this might not be just a localized issue but a systemic issue within the building envelope,” said Pico, who showed commissioners a series of architectural drawings indicating where moisture was being trapped within the stucco wall cavities. That moisture is leading to plywood sheathing rot, he said, which over time may lead to rot of the wood structure. 

In addition to replacing ruined insulation — and eliminating stucco walls throughout, in favour of metal cladding — there will some repair needed at the rusted steel overhang decks on the exterior; Pico said that like stemmed from the hot, moist and chlorinated air from the pool finding its way out there. 

“The materials we’re proposing are not particularly expensive, because we understand that cost is a concern,” said Pico. “I’m pretty positive we will have to proceed with the full replacement.” 

The project’s cost could top $1.3 million, according to a staff report, an estimate inclusive of a 30 per cent contingency and an $85,000 allowance for any needed materials from the U.S. that may be subject to tariffs.  

“This is a 17 year-old building,” mused LCC member Brian Webster. “It sounds pretty clear there were some things done in construction that contributed to a much earlier failure than should have been the case.” 

Pico noted that while they had indeed found a vapour barrier installed on the wrong side of the wall, the design had also intended to allow moisture to escape freely from engineered gaps near the base of the walls. 

“But at some point in time — we don’t know if during construction or maybe as a maintenance operation — someone sealed the bottom of the stucco,” said Pico. “So any water getting behind it was basically trapped.” 

Senior manager Dan Ovington reported the pool’s capital reserve balance was not sufficient to cover the renewal project, meaning electors would have to approve borrowing to complete the repairs, ideally with a referendum in the fall.  

Parks staff would plan to have work done during the regular pool shutdown next April, he said, to minimize disruption for pool users — an estimated 65,000 in 2024, according to a staff report.

Salt Spring officials are standing together to back a 50-unit affordable housing project, promising support and funding to quickly shepherd the proposal towards a critical BC Housing construction grant application. 

The project would be built at 154 Kings Lane, and the island’s Local Trust Committee (LTC) voted to expedite a rezoning of the parcel, asking staff to prioritize the application as well as any others associated with the project. 

The new proposal is built upon a shelved 50-unit senior independent living project once planned by the Gulf Islands Senior Residence Association (GISRA), which owns the property. 

At the site now are the Salt Spring Island Health Centre and BC Housing’s temporary supportive housing modular units, the latter awaiting decommissioning once residents shift to the nearly-complete Drake Road building. 

GISRA vice chair Linda Adams presented an update to the LTC Thursday, June 5 on the association’s application, which seeks to amend the current seniors-focused zoning to allow affordable housing more generally. 

Adams explained GISRA, which operates Meadowbrook’s independent living residences, had originally acquired the parcel intending to build another, similar seniors’ housing complex, and the LTC rezoned it in 2020 to allow 50 such units — alongside the medical clinic use, with a maximum of 12 medical practitioners.  

But with the benefit of the passage of time — and, Adams said, a great deal of community consultation and research — GISRA concluded the seniors’ housing model wasn’t viable, largely due to rising construction costs and limited demand.  

“At the same time, we all know that the need for affordable rental housing — or sometimes referred to as workforce housing — is urgent in our community,” said Adams. “So housing for young families, healthcare workers and other essential service employees.” 

GISRA’s rezoning application also seeks to lift the limit on the number of doctors permitted at the extant clinic, and to allow partitioning of the property. 

Adams said GISRA over the long term will probably want to “subdivide off” the clinic portion and retain the residential side — another measure, she said, intended to help the housing project financially. 

“The overall goal is to improve primary care services, increase the number of spaces available for doctors and therefore improve healthcare for islanders,” said Adams. “We think that this property is a key asset, one that accommodates badly needed workforce housing while helping to address the doctor shortage — so sort of addressing two major issues on Salt Spring Island.” 

Salt Spring’s elected Local Community Commission had earlier voted unanimously to provide a grant-in-aid to GISRA to help fund pre-development due diligence; now, commission member and Capital Regional District (CRD) Director Gary Holman said in a letter of support he had informed CRD staff he was prepared to support a Community Works Fund grant of up to $400,000 to support the extension of the Ganges sewer line to the property, which lies within the sewer district. 

“This project represents Salt Spring’s best opportunity to develop new affordable housing that can serve a range of needs,” wrote Holman, who had penned a letter to the LTC expressing support for the project. 

But local trustees clearly needed little encouragement, voting unanimously in favour of expediting their part of the process. Islands Trust staff told local trustees that while the application was complex, they believed they had the resources to move it through swiftly; that speed, Adams said, would only help the project’s likelihood of success 

“Our understanding is that there’s a provincial pool of funding, and the first ones in the door are perhaps the ones most likely to be able to get some of that funding,” said Adams, laying out details of a particularly relevant call for proposals from BC Housing with applications due by the end of July.  

“We believe this property represents Salt Spring’s best opportunity to develop additional, affordable workforce housing — and it’s in a prime location,” said Adams. 

“This one is important; we need housing, and I agree this project is well positioned,” said trustee Laura Patrick, noting she no longer had a doctor on-island herself. 

“This opportunity in this funding stream is the best fit to this project — and I’m wishing them the best of luck to make it.”

A legal agreement has been struck between a former Blackburn Road kennel operation and Salt Spring’s Local Trust Committee (LTC), allowing the owner to avoid mounting fines if they clean up and largely vacate the property by June 15.   

The consent order between SaltyDog Retreat owner Jaime Halan-Harris and the LTC marks a likely end to a civil suit filed in February — as well as to SaltyDog’s operations, as it notes that it must not use the portion of the 10-acre parcel zoned as Rural Watershed 1 for a “pet kennel, dog daycare, dog boarding services, or dog training in exchange for payment, or for keeping dogs for the purpose of sale and adoption, effective immediately.”   

Halan-Harris was also ordered to remove all buildings and structures on the entire property by June 15, save the possibility of keeping an “existing canopy and the four existing metal containers” there on the condition they obtain a building permit for — and commence construction upon — a primary dwelling on the property.    

“The defendant will [also] remove from the property, by June 15, 2025, all travel trailers and recreational vehicles,” read the consent order. “Following the removal, the defendant will not use the property for the storage and accommodation of travel trailers and recreational vehicles contrary to the [island’s land use] bylaw.”   

While the court marked the requisition for consent order May 2, the order was not filed with the public electronic system until June 2.  

Halan-Harris, who has at different times described the business as a dog rescue and a “vocational rehab program and therapy for youth who were homeless,” had taken in lost animals and provided rescue and pet shelter services to islanders at her own expense since 2018. In March 2023, the business relocated from its former site on Rainbow Road to the parcel on Blackburn Road; a temporary use permit (TUP) application to operate SaltyDog there was denied by the LTC in November that year.    

Despite the TUP’s denial having been prescribed by the island’s Official Community Plan — which allowed no exceptions to the TUP process for Watershed and Islet Residential designated property — kennel supporters crowded an LTC meeting the following month urging them to reconsider. At the next month’s meeting, “downstream” neighbours concerned for the Cusheon Lake watershed filed in to express their opposition.   

Halan-Harris told the Driftwood she and her son left Salt Spring Island in early March and that she no longer owns the property, but is still responsible for meeting the conditions of the consent order.   

“I am still cleaning up the property before transferring ownership to [the lender] to cover my debts incurred due to the tenant situation causing huge costs.”  

“I lost everything trying to help the homeless,” she said. “I’m walking away with nothing. I worked hard as a single mom for years.”  

Halan-Harris confirmed that the site was visited by BC SPCA personnel in April, who apprehended a number of dogs still on the site; BC SPCA communications officer Debra Walley said as of May 21 the investigation was open and ongoing and no further details could be provided.