Improving Local Government

Since 2023, when Salt Spring elected our first-ever Local Community Commission (LCC), we’ve been working to improve how local government works. The LCC has moved some CRD decision-making from behind-closed-doors by one person to out-in-the-open by a five-person elected ‘council.’  This has been a positive step.

But the LCC in its current form is only a modest step forward. Yes, it’s more open and accessible than the old system, but we need to go much further.

If I’m elected Salt Spring’s CRD Director in October, I will work with the LCC – and the CRD Board – to do just that, making our local government more accessible and responsive, better coordinated and easier for community members to understand and navigate.

For example, I believe we must:

Add a townhall session to every regular LCC meeting

Right now, all community members can attend LCC meetings, but are limited in their ability to speak to the Commission. For example, they’re expected to apply in advance to speak and to do so only on a topic that’s on the agenda. While the LCC has worked around these limitations and allowed virtually all Salt Springers who attend a meeting to speak if they wish, it’s time to change the rules so everyone in the community knows they can always show up at an LCC meeting with their ideas, issues and concerns – and be heard.

To achieve this, I will work with the LCC to create made-on-Salt-Spring meeting rules that include an open townhall session near the beginning of every regular LCC meeting.

Bring full administrative authority over Salt Spring’s CRD water and sewer services to the island

When the LCC was created, the CRD Board gave it responsibility for a dozen services, from parks and recreation to transit and transportation, economic sustainability to liquid waste and much more. But they didn’t give the LCC responsibility for all local CRD services. A few local CRD services have no public discussion on Salt Spring at all.

If you’re served by one of Salt Spring’s seven CRD water or sewer services, you currently can’t talk to the LCC about them at all. While they each have an appointed advisory commission, these meet just twice a year and final decisions are in the hands of staff, the CRD Director and the CRD Board.

I believe the LCC should be responsible for all local CRD services, with decisions made in public by elected Salt Springers. If I’m elected CRD Director, I will work with the LCC and the ratepayers of the CRD water and sewer services to bring these services within the LCC’s purview.

Create citizens assemblies to assist with some of our community’s most challenging decisions

Many B.C. communities recognize that complex or difficult decisions need more than the usual amount of community input. Citizens assemblies can provide this kind of well-informed advice. A citizens assembly brings together a randomly-selected group of local residents to explore an issue deeply and become well-enough informed to provide valuable advice to elected decision-makers.

For example, Salt Spring has several aging community buildings and facilities that need significant investments to keep them going. Think of SIMS, Mahon Hall, the old Ganges Firehall, even our library, not to mention planned new facilities like the Harbourwalk waterfront boardwalk and more. Which of these should get public investments to renew them? What’s the order of priority? A citizens assembly could help guide our elected representatives to the right decisions on complex decisions like these.

If I’m elected CRD Director, I will work with the LCC to identify issues and questions to be explored by a Salt Spring citizens assembly and then give this potentially valuable community-involvement tool a try.

Work with other agencies to consolidate SSI local government decision-making

Many Salt Springers are confused and frustrated by the many different offices and agencies involved in local government decision-making. For example, while the LCC/CRD is responsible for many local government services on the island aside from land use regulation, our island also has two large improvement districts. Some Salt Springers get drinking water from one agency, sewer from another, fire protection from a third and – of course – land use regulation from a fourth.

In 2026, most Salt Springers were eligible to vote in three different local elections: North Salt Spring’s waterworks board, the fire board and now the CRD/LCC (at the same time as Islands Trust and school board). Each of these has different election rules and procedures. The two of these elections that have already occurred each saw fewer than 400 Salt Springers turn out to vote and tenants weren’t even eligible. That’s confusing and it needs to change.

Why so many boards? Why so many elections, each with different rules? Should we consolidate these decision-making bodies and have one election every four years, with more decisions made around a single table? Is Salt Spring ready for this?

Our improvement districts have rich histories and have served us well for many decades, but I believe it’s time to modernize how we do local government.

If I’m elected CRD Director, I will sit down with our two major improvement districts and work with them to see if we can reduce the number of decision-making siloes while eliminating administrative duplication.