By ERIC MARCH
In MLA Rob Botterell’s inaugural monthly column, “Original Islands Trust Mandate is paramount,” he dives right into the deep end of Islands Trust politics by sharing his opinion on the Trust Policy Statement and letting us know that he believes preservation of the natural environment of the Islands Trust is paramount.
While our MLA may believe that “the original mandate of the Islands Trust is even more valid now than it was 50 years ago,” that belief could not be farther from reality. The Islands Trust of 50 years ago has successfully protected the Trust Area from overdevelopment, while failing to protect the Trust Area from gentrification. I, like so many others, see gentrification as one of the biggest threats to the Trust Area. However, MLA Botterell has joined those stuck in 1974 afraid of Magic Lake Estates Two: Electric Boogaloo. Our current Trust Policy Statement has allowed the proliferation of waterfront mansions, numerous swimming pools and tennis courts, a few private helicopter landing pads, and even a private golf course attached to a vacation home. At the same time that Trust Policy Statement has largely prevented workforce housing and affordable housing from being built. Brazilian environmentalist Chico Mendes once said that “environmentalism without class struggle is just gardening,” and MLA Botterell’s column seems to show that as our MLA, he is intent on being a gardener rather than an environmentalist.
Unfortunately, MLA Botterell seems to believe there is some sort of preservation vs. development spectrum that folks in the Gulf Islands fall on. Perhaps our MLA should take a closer look and realize that the spectrum is more realistically folks who believe in preservation at the expense of workforce housing vs. folks that think we should balance workforce housing with preservation. The “effort to re-interpret the mandate of the Islands Trust to cover land use planning issues that are not unique to the Trust Area” is an effort from the Islands Trust to modernize the Trust Policy Statement to fit the needs of the 21st century.
Look at Ucluelet, where a private developer working with BC Housing and the Municipality of Ucluelet have worked together to create affordable workforce ownership housing. The developer built the houses, and the purchase cost will be subsidized by the BC Housing Affordable Home Ownership Program, but the most important piece of the puzzle was the land use planning provided by the municipality. Right in the zoning bylaws it states that these houses are for folks who live in and around Ucluelet and work in Ucluelet. If someone wanted to build a similar development within the Trust Area it would be the Islands Trust providing those zoning bylaws.
The Trust Area can no longer afford an Islands Trust that claims to prioritize preservation while allowing waterfront mansions and hindering workforce housing. Our elected officials must recognize which people are suffering most and work to help them. We must have a balanced Trust Policy Statement, and balanced government policy in general in the Gulf Islands, that appreciates both the needs of our working-class residents, their livelihoods, and their ability to be housed, alongside that of the natural environment.