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CRD to help with Mayne fallow deer problem

Robb Magley
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CRD to help with Mayne fallow deer problem

A Mayne Island group has successfully recruited regional officials to help tackle an animal problem there, as the Capital Regional District (CRD) board will be urging the B.C. government for sustained funding to control Mayne’s invasive fallow deer. 

Michael Kilpatrick, representing the Mayne Island Fallow Deer Committee, lobbied the CRD’s Electoral Area Committee Wednesday, Nov. 13, explaining the discussion was not surrounding black-tailed deer, the island’s native species, but a now-invasive European deer.

“These deer were introduced to Mayne Island 30 years ago under a permit from the province,” said Kilpatrick. “It was an agricultural permit to farm and raise the deer as game.” 

Some of those deer escaped –– or possibly were released –– almost immediately. Kilpatrick said there were about 50 roaming non-native deer counted just six years after the farm operation opened, and while it was unclear whether they were deliberately let out or found a way through fencing, the population today stands between 1,100 and 1,800 animals. 

Given Mayne’s relatively small size –– 2,300 hectares, or 21 square kilometres –– the impact has been felt across the island. Kilpatrick shared photographs of landscapes turned to what he called “green desert,” where grass, saplings and even ground cover for native birds have dropped dramatically due to deer browsing. 

“This was originally a provincial problem,” said Kilpatrick, “but 30 days after their escape, they become designated as wildlife –– and because they’re considered game, the province will not [automatically] recognize them as being invasive.” 

Kilpatrick said Mayne Island’s residents had tried for years to gain traction with the federal government, which had indicated it was not their matter to address, and had consulted lawyers on whether the farm’s original owners could be held responsible –– a course of action unlikely to yield results, he said. 

Some changes in provincial legislation will be necessary to allow for large-scale culling of the deer, Kilpatrick said, noting that hunting with a rifle is banned on Mayne Island. 

“These sorts of things have to be negotiated through the province,” he said, “and we have to get to a level where we can negotiate. But right now, we can’t get in the door.” 

Electoral area directors worried the problem could easily spread to other islands, and agreed the letter should emphasize both the environmental and economic destruction the deer leave in their paths, as Mayne farmers struggle to keep crops from hungry deer populations that have coalesced into large, distinct roaming herds –– and acknowledged that cramped animals are at increased risk of diseases, some of which could spread to livestock. 

“We should have dealt with it 30 years ago,” said Kilpatrick. “But we should deal with it now.” 

Santa visits via ship on Sunday

Robb Magley
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Santa visits via ship on Sunday

In a revival of a briefly lost, much-beloved island tradition, once again Santa Claus is coming to town by ship –– arriving at Ganges’ Breakwater Dock at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 8. 

Restarting the Santa Ship took a collaboration between Lions Clubs across the Gulf Islands, according to Salt Spring Lions Club president Don Cunningham –– and the availability of a 28-foot Nordic tug, set for “sleigh duty” thanks to Mayne Island club past-president Brian Dearden –– but the seafaring Santa is finally back for his pre-Christmas multi-island tour. 

“We’ll have Santa Claus’ chair ready for him at Mouat’s Mall,” said Cunningham. “There will be hot cocoa and marshmallows in front of the Coast Guard office, then the kids can come down the walkway and go into Mouat’s on the Pegasus Gallery side, walk down the hall and meet Santa.” 

The right jolly old elf will be bringing his sack of goodies, and handing out gifts and chocolate, Cunningham said, as well as candy canes and mandarin oranges. A large number of Lions volunteers will be on-hand to make the event as special as possible. Salt Spring Lions Club member James Sikora is helping Santa get ready, Cunningham said, but may be suspiciously missing whenever Santa is around. 

A Christmas ship visit for Salt Spring has been absent for years, but it’s a tradition with a long history. More than 50 years ago, Cunningham said, Santa’s ship was an international project taken on at the time by the Bellingham Jaycees, with Santa and his helpers staying at the Harbour House Hotel when visiting here and delivering Santa to the school courtesy Salt Spring’s fire truck. 

“That lasted about 20 years,” said Cunningham, “after which the Bellingham Lions Central, the Bellingham Evening Club and Bellingham Breakfast Club got together and said, ‘OK, we’ll take it on for a five-year stint if we have the support of the Canadian clubs.’ And we all said, ‘Sure!’” 

That five years turned into decades, he said, and Santa toured the San Juan and Gulf islands from a home port in Bellingham regularly –– winter weather notwithstanding. 

“It could get pretty rough coming out of Bellingham Bay sometimes,” chuckled Cunningham. “Some winters when the Santa Ship has come in, it’s been a blinding blizzard.” 

As the event grew, Cunningham said, it adapted to changing times. Fireworks, for example, which had been part of the festivities for some years, weren’t allowed on U.S.-flagged vessels after Sept. 11, 2001. When U.S. Homeland Security changed its regulations, he added, Canadian Lions Club helpers had to begin and end their voyage from Bellingham –– often requiring several days of travel and hotel stays to participate. 

But participate they did, right up to Christmas 2019 when Santa and his entourage stepped off the 96-foot Victoria Star II and greeted Salt Spring’s children –– and went on to visit those on Saturna, Pender, Mayne and Galiano islands. Then, in 2020, the Covid pandemic struck; and even after the border reopened, international standards for vessels sailing between the two countries changed beyond what clubs on either side could manage. 

But with a local, more modest boat available this year –– and with the enthusiastic efforts of multiple Lions Clubs –– it’s time for the Santa Ship once again.  

“It’s a great preview to Christmas,” said Cunningham, who said the club and community were delighted to help bring the event back to Salt Spring. 

“If it clicks, hopefully it’ll be a forever kind of thing,” he said.   

Acclaimed pets and war film screens

Contributed Article
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Acclaimed pets and war film screens

By STEVE MARTINDALE

For Salt Spring Film Festival Society

If you love animals and are concerned about the war in Ukraine, you won’t want to miss Us, Our Pets and the War, an award-winning documentary screening on Wednesday, Dec. 11, as part of the Salt Spring Film Festival’s ongoing Best of the Fests series at ArtSpring.

When the Russian bombardment of Ukraine began in early 2022, the massive exodus of refugees from the war zone was distinctly unlike any other humanitarian crisis. Involving not only an estimated 12 million displaced people, it was also the largest mobilization of animals in human history. As Ukrainians fled their homes, most of them refused to leave behind their beloved pets.

In the panic of war, however, not everyone was able to take their pets with them, and regrettably some animals were abandoned. Amidst the worst of circumstances, courageous fellow Ukrainians subsequently returned to the war zone and risked their lives under ongoing Russian bombardment to rescue animals left behind by those forced to flee.

From dogs and cats miraculously surviving in demolished buildings and abandoned shelters, to exotic wildlife helplessly stranded in the nation’s zoos, unbelievably complex rescue efforts were mounted to extract animals from the war zone and transport them to safety.

Some of the rescued animals unexpectedly became online celebrities, such as Patron the Jack Russell terrier – awarded the Order of Courage by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his work locating unexploded landmines – and Anastasia Lunyova’s Persian cat Shafa, who became a national symbol of the Ukrainian spirit of resistance and resilience after being trapped for two months in a destroyed apartment block.

Inspiring the very best of the human spirit in the face of mortal danger, ordinary people do extraordinary things in this astonishing celebration of our bond with animals, co-presented by the Salt Spring Friends of Ukraine Committee and the Salt Spring BC SPCA.

Directed by Ukrainian YouTuber Anton Ptushkin, who has been barred from entering Russia for the next 50 years for speaking out against the Russian invasion, this uplifting and profoundly moving film won the Audience Choice Award at the Irish Film Institute Documentary Festival in September.

The Best of the Fests series continues in the New Year with three more films, including new documentaries about the much-loved Canadian band Blue Rodeo on Jan. 22 and the Fairy Creek anti-logging blockades on Feb. 19, as well as a provocative post-apocalyptic Canadian drama on Feb. 5, all at ArtSpring on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $14 each and are 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.

Avian flu detected near Saanichton 

Robb Magley
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Avian flu detected near Saanichton 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza subtype H5N1 at a backyard poultry flock south of Saanichton, marking the first detection of the virus inside the Capital Regional District (CRD) since Salt Spring Island in 2022. 

Jean-Guy Forgeron, CFIA executive vice-president, declared a primary control zone Wednesday morning, Nov. 27, six days after the virus was first detected. Per the Health of Animals Act, the order restricts both commercial and non-commercial poultry, including eggs, by-products of the poultry, and “things that have been exposed to such a bird” from travelling into, out of, within or through the zone, roughly centred on Interurban Road. 

With a restricted area that extends from James Bay in the south to as far north as Saanichton –– and with 2022’s discovery of H5N1 near Ganges relatively fresh in mind –– local flock owners are being encouraged to follow biosecurity protocols. Salt Spring Island Poultry Club president Elsie Born said the club had advised its members and directed them to protocols from the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and that there had been some discussions about promoting biosecurity measures, but no specific campaigns were underway. 

“Most folks seem to be keeping their flocks in for the winter regardless,” said Born. 

CFIA data indicate more than 50 sites in B.C. — mostly commercial poultry operations — are actively dealing with avian flu infections. In late October, a petting farm in Campbell River shuttered and destroyed about 50 chickens and ducks after H5N1 was discovered in their flock. 

At press time, over 7.2 million birds in the province are estimated to have been affected, according to CFIA. 

For provincial information on reinforcing flock biosecurity, visit www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/agriculture-seafood/animals-and-crops/animal-health/reportable-notifiable-diseases/avian-influenza-ai/reinforcing-flock-biosecurity 

Sick or dead wild birds can be reported at 1-866-431-BIRD (2473). 

Fire devours Blackburn-area cabin

Robb Magley
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Fire devours Blackburn-area cabin

Reports of flames and an explosion sent crews from all three Salt Spring fire stations to an early morning blaze that destroyed a cabin, according to fire officials. 

No one was injured, according to Salt Spring Island Fire Rescue deputy fire chief Dale Lundy, but the roughly 600-square-foot structure on Fulford-Ganges Road near Blackburn Lake was completely consumed by fire early Wednesday, Nov. 27. 

The first firefighter on scene arrived just minutes after the 5:22 a.m. call-out, according to Lundy, as they lived in the neighbourhood –– but discovered the small cabin’s metal roof had already collapsed downward, covering a pile of burning debris. Arriving crews focused on completely extinguishing the fire and keeping it from spreading, he said, noting protocol calls for all fire halls to respond to a structure fire. 

More than a dozen firefighters worked with water from their trucks, Lundy said, as there was no hydrant nearby.  

“People would’ve seen a half-dozen trucks shuttling water from fire hall [in Ganges],” said Lundy, “bringing somewhere around 12,000 to 15,000 gallons in total.” 

Lundy said there was “nothing obvious” regarding how the fire might’ve started; Salt Spring Island RCMP detachment commander Sgt. Clive Seabrook said Thursday that in consultation with SSIFR, there was no evidence to suggest the fire was suspicious.  

Praising the speed of response –– and the good fortune no one was hurt –– Lundy said fire crews were able to leave the scene at around 9:30 a.m. and return to the hall in Ganges. 

“And crews from other halls were kind enough to hang around and assist with getting all the apparatus back in service,” he added.  

Fire trustees get ‘tour’ of new Ganges hall

Robb Magley
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Fire trustees get ‘tour’ of new Ganges hall

Trustees with the Salt Spring Island Fire Protection District got a tour of the completed fire hall, despite construction having only begun this year –– through a computer 3D model. 

Chief Jamie Holmes “drove” the AutoCAD system during the presentation at the district’s Monday, Nov. 18 board meeting, allowing trustees to take a three-dimensional walk through the new facility, from the EV charging area on the southeast side to the hose tower and everything in between.  

Much easier to visualize than blueprints, the software even brought trustees underground, where the rendering showed conduit and pipe being laid to an area left open for a future firefighting museum, “so we don’t have to rip up everything,” he said. 

“A lot of people are just seeing these concrete pads [at the site] right now,” said Holmes. “This kind of gives an idea of how far up we have to come out of the ground still before we really start building.” 

Details illuminated by the virtual walkthrough included shutter doors that will come down in the front entrance administrative area, so the meeting room space can be rented out without security issues, as well as a first look at the training room that will likely also be utilized for board meetings –– and can be divided into separate spaces for multiple uses. 

“The truck bay has the clean self-contained breathing apparatus room up front,” said Holmes. “There’s a fill station for our air bottles, what we’re breathing in a fire. We can clean our backpacks, our masks and everything, and then hang them to drip dry.” 

Individual wire-mesh lockers in the firefighters’ gear room were surrounded by orange pipes, which Holmes explained are part of an air ventilation system connected to the building’s HVAC that would dry gear faster –– and operate under negative pressure, keeping equipment and turnout gear from off-gassing into the rest of the building. 

The virtual tour visited the tower, for hanging firefighting hoses as well as training on the steep staircases and high windows, and the upstairs kitchen and dorm areas that will ultimately be off-limits to the public. 

Holmes said these sorts of virtual environments were fun, but also a good way to ensure plans on the drawing board make sense in a real-world application. 

“It’s important for operations to go through after the architect has done their first run-through,” said Holmes. “Things like the flow path from where our gear is into the apparatus bay; it’s different for career firefighters who are there already, versus paid-on-call who are coming in from outside. 

“Or,” he added, “it’s good just knowing which way the doors swing.” 

GIFTS: 25 years of personal growth and community

Gail Sjuberg
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GIFTS: 25 years of personal growth and community

The Gulf Islands Families Together Society (GIFTS) celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, with a warm, fun and musical gathering that saw Lions Hall filled with happy people on Oct. 5 as the society’s past was fêted and its eyes set on the future.

“A lot of people were saying, ‘This is just what we need in our community — these kinds of events that are all about belonging and caring,’” said new GIFTS board chair Linda Underwood. “We had community members come in who really didn’t know very much about GIFTS, but they left knowing quite a bit, and they left being a member, and they said they want to be involved. We were celebrating as a society, but it turned out to be more of a community celebration.”

GIFTS was formed in 1999 by a group of parents who wanted to improve opportunities and quality of life for their developmentally challenged children as they grew into adulthood.

Employed by the Gulf Islands School District (SD64) at the time, Underwood knew those youth when a few years later the district partnered with the provincial government to help create a transition program to serve them. The program helped the students explore their options for achieving personal growth and fulfilment.

“I did a Planning Alternative Futures With Hope process with parents, and it’s actually still up on the wall in the GIFTS building, which is kind of cool to see after so many years.”

Underwood had enjoyed her experience with the students and their families so much that she agreed to join the board after she retired from SD64.

“It’s just been such a privilege,” she said. “I’ve learned so much from everybody who is a part of that organization. It’s definitely a fabulous group of people, and they are all just working to make things better in the community.”

She said it’s also been “a lot of fun to watch these individuals grow into such amazing adults, and just the success that they’ve had in the community and how our community has embraced them and created so many great opportunities for them to be successful.”

Underwood said island businesses and other organizations have provided “fabulous support” in employing GIFTS adults. And of course the connections go much further in relationships made in recreational activities and the arts, through educational courses, volunteering and beyond.

Amanda Myers has been GIFTS’ executive director since July of 2023, coming to the position with a background in Indigenous leadership and most recently working at Western University in London.

One of the first things she observed is how individualized the services are for each person at GIFTS.

“That’s the really special part of GIFTS: the approach is to ask the individual, ‘What is it that you need from us?’ and put those things in place, instead of, ‘This is our formula as an organization.’”

Group programming for music and art activities, for example, does exist, but that’s because the participants have requested it.

Another thing she noticed was that everyone in GIFTS founding families is getting older and their needs are changing as a result.

“We have a group that’s moving into late middle age and seniorhood; becoming a senior, for some folks, depending on their diagnosis, can be 10 years prior to what the province considers a senior.”

That is expected to create a specific need for housing in future, as parents may pass or be unable to care for their mature children, so the society is looking to purchase an ideal property for that purpose.

Another area Myers is working on is finding a way to get on-island training for potential employees, which would benefit not only GIFTS but other agencies.

As well, GIFTS’ primary funding comes from Community Living B.C., but the society would like to stabilize its financial position with profit from a business of some kind.

How can the community better support GIFTS? Underwood would like to see a way to increase recreational opportunities or access to casual events like going to a movie or a cultural event that occurs in the late afternoon or evening.

“Those are harder to arrange support for,” she said.

For more information about GIFTS and how to support the organization, see gulfislandgifts.com.

CRD Salt Spring provisional budget: 13.2 per cent hike

Contributed Article
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CRD Salt Spring provisional budget: 13.2 per cent hike

By Earl Rook, LCC chair, AND

Gary Holman, CRD director, LCC vice-chair

The Capital Regional District (CRD) Board approved its provisional budget for 2025, including that of the Salt Spring Island Local Community Commission (LCC), at its Oct. 30 meeting.

The provisional budget is prepared by CRD staff based on a number of factors, including inflation, negotiated wage and salary settlements and contractual obligations, CRD guidelines for capital and operating reserves, and direction by elected officials for new initiatives. The provisional budget, which is reviewed and approved by elected officials locally and regionally, provides the opportunity for public input before final approval in March 2025.

The full CRD provisional tax requisition for Salt Spring Island, including Capital Regional Hospital District (CRHD) and other regional, sub-regional and local services, is $9.2 million, a 13.2 per cent increase over 2024. The CRD requisition supports general administration, regional investments in affordable housing, new health facilities, parks, and emergency planning and communications, as well as sub-regional services such as building inspection. The above figures do not include user fees and charges for some services such as recreation facilities, nor for area specific water and sewer utilities (overseen by ratepayer elected commissions). These fees and charges are also increasing somewhat to address inflationary pressures and aging infrastructure. It should be noted that residential recycling costs are covered by provincial stewardship programs, Recycling BC fees on packaging and tipping fees from CRD’s Hartland Landfill.

The provisional CRD requisition for 2025 represents a cost for the “average” residence on Salt Spring (valued at just over $1 million in 2024) of $1,400, or about $117 per month, compared to $1,238 or $103 per month in 2024. This “average” residential cost is an estimated indicator only and subject to change with updated 2025 assessment values. Changes in assessed values do not result in property tax changes for individual properties unless changes in assessed values for such properties are much lower or greater than the overall average change.

The property tax-funded requisition for delegated LCC services (including parks and recreation, transportation and transit, liquid waste, economic development, the library and the arts, and grants in aid) is $4.996 million, a 12.49 per cent increase over 2024. The LCC requisition represents about half of the total CRD increase for Salt Spring.

This is another difficult budget year, due in part to continuing cost inflation. Salt Spring also has less influence on the regional costs allocated to it (primarily on the basis of our island’s share of assessed values) as part of the broader CRD budget. Major factors affecting regional costs include:

• negotiated wage and salary increases, staff turnover and reorganization. A new general manager position for the Electoral Area Services department is being established in order to improve senior staff support for all three electoral areas, as well as direct support for the Salt Spring LCC.

• significant increases for land banking and housing (including the new Rural Housing Program and financing costs of the now completed Regional Housing First Program, which funded the new Croftonbrook), regional trail investments (including designs for Salt Spring’s Salish Sea Trail), and general administration (including cyber security and accounting upgrades to support the approximately 200 services CRD delivers in the region).

• an increase for building inspection (a service shared by the three electoral areas), in large part reflecting lower building permit revenues.

• the CRHD requisition remains at 2024 levels. The CRHD recently contributed $3.7 million to the new Lady Minto emergency room.

Major factors affecting the proposed provisional requisition of the LCC on Salt Spring include:

• restoration of Sunday pool hours;

• initial costs associated with leasing the Phoenix School property for community use;

• increases in transfers to reserves to help address aging and proposed new infrastructure, including possible re-purposing of the Ganges fire hall property;

• costs passed down by BC Transit for our local transit system, which is also still recovering from the cumulative ridership and revenue impacts of Covid;

• increased costs to the library, as it continues to transition from a volunteer-run facility to a greater reliance on paid staff.

Summaries of the provisional CRD budget for 2025 will be available at the local administration office (121 McPhillips Ave.), at the library and online at getinvolved.crd.bc.ca/2025-financial-plan.

Please contact LCC chair Earl Rook (erook@crd.bc.ca) or CRD director Gary Holman (directorssi@crd.bc.ca) for any comments or questions on the budget.

Islands Trust FOI requests rise

Robb Magley
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Islands Trust FOI requests rise

Even a perceived lack of transparency has a real dollar cost, Islands Trust officials learned, as the annual number of Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPPA) requests to that body has doubled from three years ago, putting an increasingly large dent in the land use authority’s budget. 

“This has been a big year for [FOIPPA] requests,” said director of legislative and information services David Marlor, addressing the Trust’s Executive Committee Wednesday, Nov. 20. “Currently we have 59 requests this calendar year.” 

By comparison, Marlor said, back in 2021 and in the years before that the numbers were “all in the high 20s.”  

And as the requests are highly time-sensitive, Marlor said, completing them requires three Islands Trust staff “to literally drop everything” to process them within statutory time limits. 

“This is a service that governments are required to provide,” said Marlor. “There is the ability to charge fees for certain aspects [of the work], but the rate is very minimal, and there are a lot of exemptions –– we do not recover anywhere near the cost of processing, it’s something that we just have to cover.” 

Discussion among Executive Committee members made it clear at least some FOIPPA requests have come to staff from trustees themselves. Director of planning services Stefan Cermak confirmed a recent request from an unnamed trustee had been perhaps overbroad. 

“[There was] a request for ‘everything you have about x, y and z’,” said Cermak. “And ‘everything’ is a deep dive of staff resources. We forwarded as much information as they had available.” 

Interim CAO Julia Mobbs said under FOIPPA legislation, “everything” included email records and even staff notes. 

“These are public records,” said Mobbs, “that are [all] required to be submitted.” 

Marlor agreed that while such requests were certainly acceptable, it would be ideal to go back to the requesting person and ask for more specificity, such as date ranges. What would also help, he added, would be an update to the Trust’s software for records management. 

“A lot of our records are in a warehouse,” he said. “We have to find the boxes, bring them here and manually go through them –– find the records, check them to protect privacy and then release them.” 

A rise in FOIPPA requests is not unique to the Islands Trust; last year the Capital Regional District (CRD) reported a 13 per cent year-over-year increase in its numbers, as well as a corresponding workload jump. In response, the CRD began a two-year, $150,000 project to digitize its most requested documents –– in its case, building permits –– to streamline requests.  

Marlor suggested whatever the organization could do from the outset to reduce the number of people feeling they needed to rely upon FOIPPA provisions to remain informed might be the most effective way to manage costs. 

“Being as transparent as we can,” said Marlor, “and providing as much information to the public as possible.” 

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