Should Salt Spring be governed like a municipality?
Posted September 8, 2017 10:15 pm.
Last Updated September 8, 2017 10:19 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SALT SPRING ISLAND (NEWS 1130) – A big vote is being staged on Saturday on Salt Spring Island.
People living on the island are being asked whether they want to be governed by a municipality.
About 10,000 people reside on the Gulf Island, which is now unincorporated, administered by an elected body called the Islands Trust. Decisions related to roads on the island are made by the province, while recreational services are overseen by the Capital Regional District.
A vote in favour of a new local government would grant the island a mayor and six councillors.
“It’s a feudal system and it’s not current day democracy,” says Ken Marr, campaigning for the Yes side.
He’s lived on the island since the late ’60s. He thinks decision-making on the island is too fragmented.
“Decisions need to be coordinated under one umbrella and one budget. When you look at how things work, they don’t so well, and they don’t work efficiently.”
However, those on the other side of the debate embrace the ‘preserve and protect’ mandate of the Trust.
Changes to the local government structure pose “a risk that I don’t want to take. I don’t want to jeopardize what we have now,” says Peter Lamb, campaigning for the No side. He has lived on the island for three decades and even served as a trustee on the Trust.
“The island was intended to be managed in a very unique and sensitive way. We have quite a fragile environment. We have very important ecosystems throughout the Gulf Islands that need to be protected.”
He says despite the myth that it’s hard to get projects approved on the island, because of the involvement of several decision-making bodies, the island is equipped with public transit, a library, a swimming pool and an arts centre.
People are bracing for big tax hikes if incorporation goes ahead. But Marr insists the tax bill for the average person would be about $10 a year more.
The island had a similar vote back in 2002, when the incorporation option was rejected by 70 per cent of voters.
