A new report has reignited the debate over fairness in funding between urban centres and rural electoral areas (EAs), as Capital Regional District (CRD) officials said they will task future directors with addressing disparities revealed in regional spending.
Suspicions that regional investment favoured cities over rural areas like the Gulf Islands and Juan de Fuca were largely borne out by the report, which — even taking into account population densities — found dollars coming in usually didn’t find their way into rural projects at similar proportions.
“I think there is sufficient evidence in here to suggest that, at least for some services, some electoral areas are contributing way more than they’re receiving back,” said Salt Spring Island CRD director Gary Holman as the report was brought to committee in April. “The staff report indicates there is a concern there for EAs, about paying taxes and not necessarily receiving benefits back.”
According to the analysis first presented to the CRD’s Hospital and Housing Committee, while Salt Spring Island, the Southern Gulf Islands and Juan de Fuca EAs combined represent 5.1 per cent of the CRD’s population, they contribute about 7.5 per cent of regional hospital and housing requisitions and receive just two per cent of hospital capital spending within their areas — and merely 1.5 per cent of housing capital investment.
“We’re all part of the social contract,” said Holman. “But in my view, the social contract is a two-way street.”
The analysis covered the 15 years between 2010 and 2025, and looked at tax requisition, investments and grants for the Capital Regional Hospital District (CRHD) and Regional Housing, including “non-application-based” grants, i.e. direct awards to the CRD such as the Community Works Fund, COVID “Safe Restart” dollars and Growing Communities Fund (GCF).
The request for the report — and the subsequent vote Wednesday, April 29, advising the next CRD board to consider regional equity as part of its strategic priorities planning process — was prompted by EA representatives. Holman told fellow directors on April 1 that in light of the report, his goal was simply to ensure equity was among the principles future boards use in planning.
“Not the only principle, but one of the principles,” said Holman. “For example, we’ve got First Nations reconciliation as a key principle within our strategic goals, we have climate action. The intent of my original motion was to try to get the board, when it was considering its priorities and how it was allocating both staff and funding resources, to take into consideration the equity issue.”
That issue was front and centre in the report. From 2010 to 2025, according to the analysis, $352 million flowed into regional housing capital projects, delivering 989 affordable rental homes across eight municipalities; standout efforts include creating 250 new housing units between Langford’s $36.4-million Spencer Close and the $31.1-million Hockley House projects.
Yet of that total, Salt Spring and the Southern Gulf Islands saw just $5.29 million, or 1.5 per cent — less than half the dollars expected with a strict by-population formula — and zero capital investment was recorded for the Juan de Fuca EA.
EAs similarly funded $1.34 million of the $18-million CRD Land Banking and Housing Service requisition during the period, but despite ongoing initiatives — like $75,000 set aside through 2027 for the Rural Housing Program pilot and $1.2 million to purchase land for Galiano’s Thuthiqut Hulelum’ Housing Project — dollars for completed work are dominated by those in urban centres, according to the report, with 98 per cent of funding.
For hospitals, the picture was consistent. CRHD granted almost $300 million to Island Health for a portion of its capital needs, with only two per cent — about $6 million — targeting EAs, mostly Salt Spring’s Lady Minto Hospital and to a far lesser extent Galiano’s Health Care Centre. During the same period, EAs shouldered 7.6 per cent of the $450 million in total requisition.
On the surface, non-application-based grants painted a rosier picture in the report for EAs. The CRD Board, for example directed 100 per cent of Community Works Funds — $2.6 million annually, across two 10-year terms — to EA projects.
But for other grants, the situation was more complicated. The GCF provided a one-time total of $1 billion in grants distributed among all 188 of B.C.’s municipalities and regional districts, for their use to address each community’s “unique infrastructure and amenity demands,” according to the province — including development finance portions of infrastructure costs that support affordable housing.
And the report noted that the CRD Board directed about 47 per cent of its share of the GCF to electoral areas. But while seeming generous in exceeding the province’s suggested 32 per cent population-based share, that number, according to Southern Gulf Islands EA director Paul Brent, does not tell the full story,
“Of that billion, $100 million came to the CRD,” said Brent on April 1. “$89 million to municipalities directly, and then $11 million that the board distributed: $5.4 million to Electoral Areas, and the balance back to the municipalities.”
From “the perspective of equity,” he continued, “it certainly looks to me that it’s more like 95 per cent versus five per cent, which is kind of consistent with the numbers [for] hospitals and housing.”
EAs already have a lower level of service in terms of health care, affordable housing and other services, according to Holman, who said while the province had made suggestions on how to allocate those dollars, the decision was ultimately up to the CRD Board.
“Provincial funding programs have absolutely benefitted us, and we’re grateful for them,” said Holman. “But they have been inequitable. The board could be thinking about offsetting that, and not reinforcing it.”
As directors from “core” districts noted their own experiences of inequity — where they also might’ve contributed for projects not built inside their municipal boundaries — Brent was less circumspect.
“If there’s affordable housing built in Esquimalt, and you live in View Royal, it’s not very far away — if you qualify for it, it’s realistic and there’s a bus route,” said Brent. “On Saturna? It’s ridiculous. And it’s the same thing with medical services; we may be only 30 kilometres from Swartz Bay or 50 from the hospital, but in reality, depending upon what time you might get sick or need it, we’re 12 hours away.”
The 24-member CRD Board is composed of one or more elected officials from each of the 13 municipalities within the regional district; there is one director from each EA.
“I have always been a regionalist,” said Brent. “I understand it takes time for equity to work its way through. But we’re talking a decade and a half of analysis here, and I’m seeing nothing in terms of housing, close to nothing in terms of hospital. That’s what equity is about, and what I want this board to reflect on. If you want the EAs to be supportive of the region, then the EAs at some point in time have to see it. We can be patient, but I think we’ve demonstrated patience enough.”