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Viewpoint: Living wage, affordable housing – a history

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Viewpoint: Living wage, affordable housing – a history

BY MICHAEL WALL

The Dec. 11, 2024 Driftwood included an article announcing the current living wage for Salt Spring. I found the report disturbing for several reasons. The methodology for calculating this $26.25-per-hour wage is a family of four with both parents working full time. I’m disgusted that this situation has been normalized in the 21st century.

Younger readers will not believe what I experienced as a child: most families in my town lived comfortably, and paid rent or mortgage with only one parent working. This was in an England impoverished by the ravages of World War II. After the war, a new “social contract” was established, by a progressive government, which created the National Health Service so that every citizen could enjoy coverage for health, including dental, optical and prescription drugs. Education was free from kindergarten through Grade 12, and means-tested grants for post-secondary education were available, which covered all tuition and living expenses. I benefitted from the latter and have a degree paid for by the state, for which I am very grateful.

To younger people my childhood circumstances may seem idyllic. So why couldn’t these apply now in a Canada which is infinitely richer than war-torn Britain? And why is it so difficult for them to afford to live and find affordable housing? The answers to these questions are complex, but boil down to this: large corporations and the wealthy don’t pay enough tax.

In the three decades after WWII, corporations, high earners and the wealthy paid taxes at a rate which contributed sufficiently to the wellbeing of all members of society. But by the end of the ‘70s the wealthy were frustrated that they weren’t able to increase their wealth as quickly as they wanted, and they found a new economic doctrine — neo-liberalism — which purported to free everyone from the “straitjacket” of mutual caring. They did a great PR job on this internationally and pretty soon everybody had been sold on the virtues of personal greed, the survival of the fittest and radical reductions in corporate and wealth taxes.

Faced with much smaller tax revenues, governments had to reduce spending, and among the first savings they made in Canada was by stopping the building of public housing, convinced the market would provide it instead. But the market is only interested in building one thing — the wealth of its owners. Developers built housing for a demographic which would give them maximum profits. Affordable housing was rarely built and whenever a commodity is in short supply, its value increases — as did rents. Eventually the wealthy and investment firms discovered that they could buy up multiple housing units and rent them out at high rates of return. Rents rose again and, with competition from multi-home owners, property values also rose, pricing first-time home purchasers out of the market. Then came Airbnb, and owners realized they could make even more money from short-term rentals.

These are the principal reasons for the lack of affordable housing in every jurisdiction across Canada and in other countries. To suggest, as Salt Spring Solutions does, that our housing problems are caused by local government factors or zoning is misguided. The only way out of this housing shortage is for governments to resume creating affordable housing in our communities and assisting non-profits and co-ops to do so, and by reverting illegal short-term vacation rentals back into long-term rentals.

Friends group outlines housing position

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Friends group outlines housing position

By JENNIFER MARGISON

On behalf of the Friends of the Gulf Islands Society (FOTGIS), I am responding to Jason Mogus’ Jan. 15 opinion piece, “Our community needs empathy, not attacks, to solve its problems.” 

While I agree with his call for empathy, I believe his definition of community is regrettably myopic, excluding as he does groups like FOTGIS and others that he cited. Ironically, he undermines his own appeal by attacking these groups as part of an alleged “anti-housing movement.”

FOTGIS  has a clear housing position, which is publicly available on our website as a “key issue.” We fully acknowledge the housing challenges in the Trust Area and support affordable housing. However, we believe solutions must be tailored to each island’s unique circumstances, including water resources, ecosystem health and carrying capacity.

We advocate for true affordable housing — projects funded by government and non-profits, not left to the volatile and profit-driven market. As anyone who has recently undertaken construction knows, the costs of labour and materials are prohibitive. The private market cannot realistically provide affordable housing for the  islands’ workforces, which often face seasonal, low-wage or inconsistent employment.

At the same time, we maintain that housing must be carefully located to preserve the natural environment we all depend on. Housing development should reflect unbiased data and minimize environmental impacts.

Mr. Mogus suggests that increasing housing supply through density additions — such as those that were proposed under Salt Spring Island’s Bylaw 530 — will address affordability. However, evidence clearly suggests otherwise. When demand is as high as it is on the islands, adding supply alone will not reduce rents or ensure more rental units. Unregulated density increases could also place unsustainable pressure on freshwater resources and other fragile systems. As a button handed out by the Islands Trust reminds us, “On an island, you must be more careful.” 

We all share a desire for diverse, inclusive communities — economically, demographically and culturally. However, achieving this requires constructive dialogue and thoughtful planning, not polarization. Mr. Mogus’ article unfortunately promotes division by making unsubstantiated accusations against small, volunteer groups like ours. While he claims to champion environmental stewardship, he offers no clear vision of how much growth he deems acceptable or how it would co-exist with the islands’ limited natural resources.

The islands are finite spaces with real limitations — “rocks surrounded by salt water,” as we often remind ourselves. Recognizing these constraints is not anti-housing; it is responsible planning. Demonizing those who call for careful consideration of these issues does nothing to advance solutions for either the housing or environmental crises we face.

These are difficult problems, and solving them requires collaboration, not conflict. I encourage Mr. Mogus to follow his own advice and engage with others — including groups like ours — constructively, without resorting to attacks or mischaracterizations. I invite all readers to view our website for accurate information on our organization: friendsofthegulfislands.ca.

The writer is a Galiano Island resident and president of Friends of the Gulf Islands Society. 

Nobody Asked Me But: Looking at clouds from all sides

Shilo Zylbergold
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Nobody Asked Me But: Looking at clouds from all sides

“I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now.” These are the lyrics penned and sung by Canadian poet, painter and musician Joni Mitchell.

It was the mid-’60s and she was 20-something and probably considered herself a veteran of life’s dramatic upheavals by then. In the song, aptly titled “Both Sides Now,” she comes to the realization that it’s only cloud illusions that she’s found and that she doesn’t really know clouds at all. As the song continues, she comes to the same conclusion about how she looks at both love and, finally, life itself.

There is much we do know about clouds, however. First of all, they are not all the same. In fact, back in 1802, Luke Howard, an English manufacturing chemist and amateur meteorologist, proposed a nomenclature to differentiate between the different types of clouds. His system is fundamentally still functional today and that is probably why Howard is remembered as the “Godfather of Clouds.”

Howard classified clouds into seven basic groupings, depending on their shapes, altitudes and air temperature at which they occurred. He named the groupings: cirrus, cumulus, stratus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus, cumulostratus, cirro-cumulostratus or nimbus.

The four core classifications include cirrus, which are the highest and most feathery looking, stratus, which occupy a mid-level position, and cumulus, which are usually low-level and seem to heap. Although stratus and cumulus can sometimes change positions in regards to altitude, the stratus clouds tend to develop horizontally while the cumulus build up vertically. The fourth category, nimbus, the rain cloud, applies to all clouds that carry more moisture than they can hold and subsequently lose that moisture in the form of precipitation. Cumulo-nimbus clouds take the form of thick, purple billows which can drop rain and snow and also produce thunder and lightning.

Recently, meteorologists have added 12 new cloud classifications to the seven proposed by Howard more than two centuries ago. They are volutus, asperitas, fluctus, flammagenitus and eight others that you will only need to know if you are chosen to be a contestant on Jeopardy.

Who doesn’t love clouds? Okay, they have been known to block out the sun and make rain fall on our heads. They have ruined good beach days and interfered with otherwise fabulous panoramic lookout views upon beautiful landscapes. But other than those minor drawbacks, who doesn’t love clouds?

Certainly we have all stretched our bodies down along the cool grass on the ground and peered up at a sky dotted with white, puffy clouds. We have allowed our imaginations to run wild while we watched them transform their shapes as they reenacted great battle scenes in our childlike consciousness. There goes a valiant medieval knight at full gallop with lance raised and pointed at the barbaric invading hordes. He must be brave and observant or he will be outflanked by the short wispy ones that far outnumber him.

Perhaps, when we look up at the sky, we envision ourselves back in Tolkien’s Middle Earth as we join forces with the floating shape-shifting elves and hobbits to fend off the myriad orcs from Mordor. Or maybe we are watching a ravenous humongous amoeba, as it stalks the many infiltrating germs and harmful bacteria across the wide blue background of the sky (which we pretend is actually the innards of one of our vital organs), and employs sneaky engulfing maneuvers to “capture” the less vigilant ones.

These cloud games don’t have to be life and death struggles of good versus evil. Cloud fantasies can bring us fun and put smiles on our faces. Hold your finger up in front of your face and move it in a way that it looks like the clouds are big blobs of shaving cream and you are giving the sky a nice, smooth tonsorial. On the other hand, imagine that the clouds above are nothing less than giant bubbles you have projected into the sky and that you can control their direction and speed with just a puff of your breath. For an extra challenge, you can pretend that some of the clouds up there are smoke rings and then you can make them compete with the cloudy bubbles in a celestial game of X’s and O’s.

Some of the most interesting games you can play with clouds are when you see them as animals floating across your field of vision. Because they usually move slowly and change shape almost imperceptibly, there is much pleasure to be had in watching the transformations. In a matter of a couple of hours, you can watch a humpback whale morph into a stegosaurus and then into a two-headed unicorn and finally into your Grade 11 chemistry teacher before dissipating into a litter of kittens on the horizon.

In 2015, Joni Mitchell suffered a brain aneurism rupture. She has made a slow recovery, but has had to retrain herself to walk, speak, sing and play a musical instrument. In her early 80s now, she can truly say that she has looked at clouds, love and life from both sides and possibly from more sides than can be counted.

You, too, have spent time observing clouds. Nobody asked me, but you could do a lot worse in life than lying back and staring up at the clouds in the sky. Between fighting epic historical battles in the air above or herding a flock of misguided sheep towards the setting sun, you are bound to find some kind of perspective in your life. With your imagination well in tow, you will be able to see clouds from up and down. You may find that they don’t just get in the way but rather open windows to worlds beyond. You may discover that you finally do know clouds.

Letter: Exemptions make bylaw troubling

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Letter: Exemptions make bylaw troubling

The Dec. 18, 2024 issue of the Driftwood carried an article entitled “Novel Galiano DPA takes next step.” The article discusses Bylaw 283, which focuses on the protection of identified critical aquifer recharge areas by requiring permits for development in these areas.

Although the goal is admirable, the bylaw will not provide much protection because of the many exemptions. Firstly, the bylaw only applies to properties of five hectares or more and includes numerous exemptions — such as for parks, covenanted lands and privately managed forest lands (PMFLs), leaving out many forested properties in critical recharge areas.

Secondly, the bylaw exempts land owned by Indigenous persons with federal Indigenous status who reside in their traditional territory and can prove Indigenous family lineage, apparently applying to those living on their territory of any band anywhere in Canada. This exemption violates a basic principle of land regulation that regulations be based on the merits of the land use, not on the identity of the owner. If approved, this exemption would mean that these specific Indigenous landowners would not need to apply for a development permit in groundwater recharge areas. An exempt landowner could also sell their property after development.

The bylaw was approved by the Galiano Local Trust Committee (LTC) and Trust Executive Committee (EC) despite receiving 40 letters of opposition, emphasizing that protections for Galiano’s groundwater should apply to everyone, and despite receiving legal counsel suggesting that the exemption would likely be considered invalid if challenged in court, thereby potentially incurring legal costs for a body already struggling with its budget. The reason given by the LTC and EC for passing a bylaw with these problems was a desire for reconciliation with First Nations.

The exemption raises numerous unanswered questions, including which traditional territories it would apply to, how joint ownership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons would be handled, where the word “person” would apply to lands owned by corporations, what the process for determining eligibility would be, and who would oversee it.

Bylaw 283 is now under review by the Minister of Municipal Affairs for approval. It’s worth noting that as acknowledged by the Galiano trustee who proposed the exemption, all properties currently owned by Indigenous people on Galiano are already exempt, as they do not meet the minimum five-hectare threshold.

This bylaw with these problematic exemptions, if approved by the minister, will set a troubling precedent for future bylaws within the Islands Trust area and beyond, creating unnecessary chaos and division in our communities, weakening the protections and the sustainability of freshwater for everyone.

Carmita Menyhart,

Galiano Island

Feldenkrais ideas and experiences shared

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Feldenkrais ideas and experiences shared

BY JEFFERY WILSON

Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement© Teacher

I am a movement coach of sorts, aiding people to more easily rise from their bed or chair, or do a gentler swimming crawl stroke, or to walk with no familiar ache.

I am a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement© Teacher. The number-one question asked of me is “What is Feldenkrais?”

Feldenkrais refers to the originating work of Moshe Pinchas Feldenkrais. He was born May 6, 1904 in today’s Ukraine and died July 1, 1984 in Jaffa, Israel, a physicist, who fervently, if not defiantly, challenged the therapy-thinking of the day by arguing that movement — not thought, not sense, not feeling — must be the primary vehicle for effecting change to the better in one’s life.

According to Feldenkrais, the neuroses of Freudian thought are the parasitic habits that we form in our movement that get in the way of our sense of ease, comfort and ultimately self-respect. He pioneered a method — “awareness through movement” — which he argued we can all learn, and which learning inspires the capacity to change our self-image and to feel better about ourselves by enjoying movement of comfort and ease. He was one of the first to articulate the inextricable link between the mind and movement, such that working with one without the other does little to fundamentally change one’s sense of self, and thus, he had little patience or regard for psychoanalytic and other insight therapies that did not integrate the essentiality of movement for one’s well-being.

A repeated teaching observation coined by Feldenkrais and reverently repeated in contemporary trainings is that of our capacity to make “the possible out of the impossible,” founded on his empirical belief that humans can change from their condition of discomfort or misery through his method.

Feldenkrais taught people to learn his principles the way judo is taught, in Awareness Through Movement group classes. Another aspect of his training is that of “functional integration,” working with an individual client lying on a table.

Today, there are over 10,000 Feldenkrais practitioners with national and international professional guilds. On Salt Spring Island, there are at least two certified Feldenkrais practitioners and one certified Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement© teacher.

I am 73 years of age. I began my training at the age of 70. I was one of those people who had to go fast, to be first (and best), and to almost enjoy pain, as in “no pain no gain.” Now, amongst other things, I wear and hand out T-shirts that have “Go Slow Find Joy” printed on the front. The opportunity, for me, to discover the capacity to be aware of my movement and how to organize it to experience ease is akin to a miracle.

Thus, I presently lead self-inquiry Awareness Through Movement© weekly sessions in Victoria, Chemainus and Salt Spring, and forthcoming spring and summer two-day monthly workshops will be offered at the Ucluelet Community Centre.

The offerings are intentionally held at community centres at a low non-private cost, hopefully affordable by all to give all an equal opportunity for the fascination of movement exploration and ease.

I invite curiosity to discover, explore and find joy with the Feldenkrais method of movement awareness and change in self-respect.

I can be reached at jefferywilson660@gmail.com.

Opera-pianist phenom Fenlon comes home

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Opera-pianist phenom Fenlon comes home

By KIRSTEN BOLTON

For ARTSPRING 

After her creative residency last August at ArtSpring and the release of her much-anticipated, internationally acclaimed debut CD in October, the now Berlin-based Rachel Fenlon is returning home with a special concert Friday, Jan. 31. 

Her evocative performance of Franz Schubert’s 24-song poetic masterpiece Winterreise has been praised as the first of its kind in recording history, with good reason.

This U.K.-born, B.C.-raised UBC alum with a master’s degree in opera performance is proving to be a brazen young phenomenon with a double-talent: an opera singer who accompanies herself on piano, performing entirely from memory. Critics and reviewers from the BBC to OperaWire have been struck by the magnitude of this audacious feat.

Recordings by female singers of Schubert’s most haunting song cycle have been few and far between, yet Fenlon felt compelled to take on the challenge.

With the original composition completed just one year before the death of Schubert, who tragically succumbed to syphilis at the age of 31, Winterreise is a setting of 24 poems by German poet Wilhelm Müller that describe the anguished wanderings of a grief-stricken young man, mourning a lost love.

This story of grief, death, loneliness and isolation took root with Fenlon, who, according to the notes accompanying her CD, bought her first score of Winterreise in the winter of Covid lockdowns in 2020 when she was living alone in a house at the foot of a forest outside of Berlin. 

Going days and sometimes weeks without seeing anyone, she spent two years learning the work methodically but also contemplating the themes of solitude, passionate love and loss as her own personal journey. The result is that despite the composer and Fenlon being 200 years apart, different genders in different times, the frequency and feeling of that haunting human story is the same, yet reinvented. 

Fenlon has performed her interpretation for audiences in Germany, Portugal, Ontario and Quebec, and is now coming home to the West Coast. While on Salt Spring, she’ll be sure to have a fan in the audience with her proud mother Tracy Watkins, who is a local resident, and other family and friends with whom she hikes and swims when she returns from overseas every summer.

“To watch Rachel perform this piece is incredibly moving,” said Watkins. “She interprets the work in a single 75-minute fluid cycle from memory, which allows her to lean in and play it with deep feeling and exceptional musicality. It’s such a natural, fluid, human approach that it opens itself up for wider audience appeal.”

Fenlon has performed as soprano soloist with orchestras such as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony, the Northern Czech Philharmonic, Finnish Baroque Ensemble Nylandia, and the Vancouver Bach Choir, and appeared in leading roles with Pacific Opera, Bard on the Beach and at the Rossini Opera Festival.

Thank you to the Farran Foundation for supporting this performance, which begins at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are available through ArtSpring, online and at the box office.

Singing Back the Buffalo screens Feb. 5

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Singing Back the Buffalo screens Feb. 5

By STEVE MARTINDALE

FOR SALT SPRING FILM FESTIVAL SOCIETY

The groundbreaking work of award-winning Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard returns to ArtSpring when the Salt Spring Film Festival presents her new documentary Singing Back the Buffalo on Wednesday, Feb. 5, as part of the popular “Best of the Fests” series.

One of the most upbeat, hopeful and visually stunning Indigenous films in recent memory, Singing Back the Buffalo investigates the concept of “rematriation” – in which sacred relationships are restored between Indigenous people and their ancestral lands – eloquently exploring how the return of the buffalo to the Great Plains can usher in a new era of sustainability and balance.

An associate professor at the University of Alberta and a founding director of the International Buffalo Relations Institute, Hubbard spent eight years interviewing Indigenous people across North America who are collaborating through buffalo breeding programs to restore the species from the edge of extinction to repopulate the lands they once defined.

“I wanted to tell the history of buffalo and Indigenous people from a completely Indigenous perspective,” said Hubbard. “I began to constantly reflect on what it had meant to Indigenous peoples and the land to lose this integral keystone species, to lose our benevolent relative with whom we had been in reciprocity for millennia.”

After a dark recent history, the buffalo herds of North America are returning, aided by dedicated Indigenous activists and leaders such as Blackfoot Elder Leroy Little Bear.

“Leroy talks about the deep time relationship we have with buffalo,” said Hubbard. “His concept of buffalo consciousness has profoundly influenced my academic work, and now it is the nucleus for the film.”

Working with a mixed Indigenous and non-Indigenous crew to capture some truly gorgeous wildlife cinematography, Hubbard said she has been fortunate to spend hours observing buffalo in Saskatchewan’s spectacular Grasslands National Park. “I want people to have a sense of how these beautiful beings live and act in their kinship groups: as families and communities.”

Hubbard was last on Salt Spring Island in 2019 with her film nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, about the tragic death of Colten Boushie, which was named Best Documentary by the Hot Docs and DOXA film festivals, and named Best Canadian Documentary by the Vancouver Film Critics Circle.

This year’s Best of the Fests series at ArtSpring wraps up on Wednesday, Feb. 19 with Fairy Creek, a new documentary chronicling the recent Ada’itsx Valley anti-logging blockades – featuring Salt Spring residents on the frontlines – presented by attending filmmakers Jen Muranetz and Sepehr Samimi.

Tickets are $14 each and available online at artspring.ca, in advance by phone (250-537-2102) or in person when the box office is open (Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), or at the door starting an hour before each film.

Brackett Springs land likely changing hands 

Robb Magley
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Brackett Springs land likely changing hands 

A former Salt Spring Land Bank Society property is unlikely to be available for future affordable housing development, according to one island official, who said the 7.8-acre parcel known locally as Brackett Springs is set to pass into private ownership. 

Salt Spring’s Local Community Commission (LCC) heard the news from LCC member and Capital Regional District (CRD) director Gary Holman during a public meeting Thursday, Jan. 16. Holman told commissioners there was an “accepted offer” for the foreclosed parcel; creditor Vancity had been seeking a buyer since court-ordered foreclosure proceedings in 2022. 

“There was another group forming around exploring possibilities,” said Holman. “[But] I believe this is a private buyer, and it’s my understanding that they’re not pursuing the affordable housing angle.” 

Originally made available to the Land Bank Society by islander Herbert Brackett, the property on Rainbow Road was rezoned in 2009 for 10 units of affordable housing, with a covenant and housing agreement attached.  

Over the next 10 years, according to contemporary CRD reports, 20 building permits were issued at various times for the property, all of which eventually expired. In dozens of site visits, inspectors documented multiple buildings with some work begun then falling into disrepair, as well as repeated observations of garbage piles, derelict vehicles and unapproved occupancy.  

As delays mounted, grant funding from the CRD was withdrawn in 2015 and a notice on title recorded against the property in 2019. And in 2023, as the property’s forced sale foreclosure languished without a buyer, Salt Spring’s Local Trust Committee — citing concerns that a court-ordered purchaser might acquire the property with the density in place yet unbound by affordability requirements –– discharged its housing agreement. 

Islands Trust staff had noted the possibility that the property could potentially be purchased for a single dwelling, although at the time creditor Vancity was actively –– if up to then unsuccessfully –– marketing the property in terms of its potential for affordable housing.  

The Canada Revenue Agency revoked the Land Bank Society’s charity registration in May 2024.  

Holman on Thursday told commissioners the situation was still somewhat “to be determined” as now the court needs to approve the sale. 

“We’ll see what the outcome is,” he said, “but it doesn’t look like Brackett Springs is going to be available for affordable housing.” 

LCC gets update on geotube pilot

Robb Magley
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LCC gets update on geotube pilot

A liquid waste “dewatering” test using geotube technology on Salt Spring is complete, according to Capital Regional District (CRD) staff, who hope to have solid data to bring to the island’s elected decision-makers in the spring. 

Waste material drawn from Salt Spring’s septic tanks, as well as biosolid “sludge” from the island’s two wastewater treatment facilities at Ganges and on Maliview Drive, is currently collected –– alongside material from restaurant grease traps and water treatment plant sludge –– at a facility at Burgoyne Bay, where it all waits to be eventually transferred by truck and ferry to Vancouver Island for disposal. 

Salt Spring’s Local Community Commission (LCC), exercising its authority over what is perhaps that body’s least glamorous delegated service, had asked for the testing as part of a weight- and cost-saving plan to reduce the amount of material currently trucked off island. The annual cost for handling, hauling and disposal of Salt Spring’s septage and sludge already exceeds $800,000 and is predicted to top $1 million in the next few years. 

Geotubes were examined as an alternative to screw press systems that accomplish the same task –– making that material weigh less by removing water –– differently, and the geotube trial took place in December, according to CRD senior manager Stephen Henderson, who quipped the system’s membrane material in the scaled-down test was a little like a “big cheesecloth” that allowed liquids to exit but retained solid material.  

“[Operational geotubes] are about 30 feet long, and eight feet wide,” Henderson told commissioners. “Brown liquid goes in, and a clearer liquid comes out.” 

Results of that testing are now being analyzed, Henderson said, to determine how much ammonia and dissolved oxygen were in the effluent and what percentage of “dryness” was achieved for the solids. The engineers from Ontario-based Bishop Water that conducted the trial are also preparing estimates on how many of the geotubes would be needed at the Burgoyne Bay liquid waste facility –– and how the facility itself could be optimized for them. 

“We hope to have that report within two weeks,” Henderson said. “We’ll review it internally with our three wastewater treatment plants — from McLoughlin [Point], Panorama and Ganges — in February and then ideally come back [to LCC] in March with opportunities.”

Commission mulls washroom hours

Robb Magley
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Commission mulls washroom hours

A spirited discussion of washroom hours at Ganges’ signature public park will be spilling over to a special budget meeting at the end of the month, as Salt Spring officials continue to mull costs –– and community benefits –– to keeping some facilities open overnight. 

Centennial Park’s washrooms currently open and close on a schedule that has evolved over several years, Local Community Commission (LCC) members learned at their meeting Thursday, Jan. 16. Senior manager Dan Ovington said the “new” facility –– replaced in 2018 and featuring two larger gender-specific washrooms and a single-occupant universal washroom –– has been routinely closed overnight, following partly on lessons learned with the old washrooms, which were most often vandalized during those hours. 

But overnight troubles did continue after construction of the current facility, ranging from scratched mirrors and graffiti to open defecation and the smashing of toilets and urinals.  

“What we see is after hours, when we have facilities available, we have gatherings happen in Centennial Park,” said Ovington. “And park staff are cleaning up all sorts of things. So over a number of years adjustments have been made.” 

In their efforts to minimize vandalism, Ovington explained, parks staff have for some years been closing the larger washrooms at 3 p.m. each day during the winter –– leaving the universal washroom open until 9:30 p.m., when it is closed by TLC Security staff. That washroom has continued to see ongoing vandalism, Ovington explained, but its smaller size has meant less to clean up when that occurs –– and, while the universal washroom might face extended closures for cleaning or repair, the other two could remain open for use the next day.  

Commissioners had requested staff present options for keeping some washroom capacity open 24 hours, including the possibility of providing a porta-potty on site, not unlike the one currently budgeted and operated at the entrance to Mouat Park. And while some LCC members bristled at the optics of putting a temporary toilet in front of a “brand-new washroom,” a staff analysis noted the rental of a porta-potty for 12 months would cost less than half as much as contracting an additional security check overnight at the washrooms. 

“I think we either decide we have a responsibility to provide washroom facilities late at night –– and suck it up, do it in that building and bear the cost –– or we decide no, our responsibility is to have a washroom there during daylight park hours,” said LCC member Brian Webster. “And you know, arguments can be made on both sides of that.” 

Commissioner Ben Corno noted the space was “unique” among island parks, in that in addition to regular daytime park users the facilities there are regularly used by people who live on boats. 

“And there are also people who either are living rough, or doing what they want to after the park is closed,” said Corno, “who find themselves without a bathroom option in town.” 

“I do think it’s good, regardless of which clientele we’re thinking about, to have an option downtown late at night,” said commissioner and Capital Regional District (CRD) director Gary Holman. “As an older fella, if I need to go to the bathroom, that sometimes becomes a bit of an emergency.” 

Ultimately the LCC decided to have staff further investigate the staffing, cost and service implications of keeping just the universal washroom open 24/7 on a trial basis, and to decide on whether to go ahead with the idea at a planned special meeting Thursday, Jan. 30, appropriately enough meant to finalize commissioners’ budget plans. 

“I do think, even on a trial basis, we should make some provision for additional funding,” said Holman, “and not just hope it won’t require additional time by TLC or CRD staff.” 

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