By FRANTS ATTORP
Anyone who doubts the pending demise of the Islands Trust need only examine the public engagement process for amending our official community plan (OCP): no mention of Salt Spring as a protected area, no mention of growth limits and no mention of population at build-out (when all lots are developed). The focus is on “community aspirations” and it’s as if the Islands Trust doesn’t exist.
This did not happen suddenly or by accident. The future of Salt Spring, and possibly the entire Trust Area, was largely decided during eight months of private meetings in 2020 when Salt Spring Island trustee Laura Patrick and lobbyists introduced a new planning concept called “integrated solutions.”
According to the group’s final report, “integrated solutions” will work like a silver bullet to simultaneously address the climate, housing and forest crises. But the catch phrase glosses over the downsides: massive upzoning of private land, gutting of policies that limit development, and juicing up of the real estate market, particularly with respect to tourist accommodation.
None of the targeted crises will be solved by the new approach. In fact, allowing for open-ended population growth will actually make the climate and land-use crises much worse, while adding only minimally to the long-term rental stock. Giving trustees almost unfettered upzoning powers goes against everything the Islands Trust stands for.
This deregulation has never been discussed by the community and it appears it never will be. By designing a “targeted update” process that affects the whole but allows for discussion of only part, trustees have effectively cut the Islands Trust out of the picture.
Planning reports assure us that amendments will be “consistent with the Islands Trust Policy Statement” which covers all the islands. But that is cold comfort given that trustees, including those from Salt Spring,have been working long and hard to make the document as toothless as possible.
The two-pronged attack on the Trust — at the local and Trust Council levels — has been anything but transparent. In addition to the private, undocumented meetings on Salt Spring, we have witnessed Trust Council’s 2023 in-camera meeting which resulted in a reinterpretation of the Trust mandate that was so outrageous it prompted 34 former trustees to write an open letter of concern.
In 2020, Salt Spring Solutions produced a promotional film that revealed their true feelings about the Islands Trust Act: “It was a radical and visionary model for the 1970s, but times have changed . . . .”
But that is only their opinion! Many local residents still cherish the Islands Trust dream and want housing solutions that respect long-term principles of conservation. Such solutions can never be found by people who are intent on tearing down the institution.
Nature is singing her saddest song. If it speaks to your heart, please participate in upcoming public engagement events relating to our OCP and make one simple request: maintain existing growth limits. The biggest threat to the islands is the belief that someone else will save them.