Salt Spring elected officials are planning an end-of-summer return to the roundtable on Ganges Harbour management, hoping to build on common ground — if not outright camaraderie — kindled among harbour users.
The island’s Local Community Commission (LCC) tasked staff with finding an opportunity for a second harbour management workshop this fall, this time at least partly focused on regulatory and service options for the future. Nearly 40 people attended the April 10 roundtable, which according to Capital Regional District senior manager Stephen Henderson included representation from First Nations, the Islands Trust, the Harbour Authority of Salt Spring Island, commercial marine operators, environmental stewards, community interest groups and residents of boats living in Ganges Harbour.
“There were a lot of discussions on different ideas, potentially ways to make incentives to getting people together to do beach cleanups,” said Henderson, “which looks like it’s organically happening already. Community members have met and have been undertaking their own initiatives.”
Henderson suggested the most helpful outcome of that first meeting was that seemingly disparate groups found they had greater common interest than they believed prior to the workshop — a “consistent and common interest” in enhancing and improving environmental stewardship of the harbour. LCC member Brian Webster said he was encouraged by the diversity of those participating, particularly among local governments.
“And even more important to me was the significant presence and participation of First Nations representatives, which I find really heartening,” said Webster. “And not surprising, given the obvious interests that First Nations have in our harbours.”
But LCC member Ben Corno said he heard a frustration from some participants — less satiated, he said, by the “happy tone, and the connections, and the sharing” — that no action was proposed. Corno characterized worries over derelict boats as an “anxiety about maintaining the status quo” he said he identified with, to a degree.
“I feel the tension of seeing things that are future oceanic waste, and thinking that ‘well, once that dips below the water line, then we can go and fish it out,’” said Corno. “And that’s like our big plan for this. I am sensitive to the fact that this is just a problem that we are, at the moment, just watching.”
Commissioner and CRD director Gary Holman defended an incrementalist approach, saying that while he was still wary of local government stepping in to “manage” the harbour, the improvement in tone among concerned community members surrounding the issue was taking place even before the April workshop.
“That [March 29] clean-up that was organized absolutely changed the channel,” said Holman. “You had members of [harbour regulation advocacy group] CASHI out there with the liveaboard folks collecting garbage.”
Holman added that in the “things that are happening” category was a likely proposal next week requesting a grant to assist with more regular garbage collection at Ganges Harbour, as well as earlier LCC action to provide the water fountain at Centennial Park and keep washrooms open later — both to the presumed benefit of those living afloat.
“These are all small things, but definitely a shift and I think an improvement,” said Holman. “Both in terms of stuff being done and in relationships between the various stakeholders.”
LCC chair Earl Rook said there was no specific outcome targeted from any of these workshops, adding that neither liveaboards nor those on land should expect the commission to “take over the harbour.”
“It may end up being advocacy to senior government, or maybe some things we can do more locally on the service side,” said Rook. “We recognize there’s a problem here that hasn’t been addressed — a whole constellation of problems — and we see our responsibility is to do all we can to bring people together to sort through some of the issues.”