The seven candidates for two Salt Spring Islands Trust seats responded to three questions posed by the Driftwood. The questions are:
1. What skills and experience do you have that would make you a good trustee?
2. If elected, what would be your top three priority areas during your term?
3. Do you think the Islands Trust generally needs more legislative powers, and if so, for what purposes?
Ben Corno
1. I’m a good-willed and fair facilitator of discussion. I delight in learning new things, and I’m excited by the minutiae of public policy and the impact that it has on real people. I possess a great deal of empathy for anyone I’m talking with, and love to put myself in their shoes. I am lucky to have nurtured an expansive and pliable imagination, as well as an attention to detail. I have a strong need to have those details taken care of in the planning stages of any project.
2. First, promoting a conservation mindset to all residents, as well as trying to make conservation covenants more accessible for homeowners.
Second, taking care of the responsibilities of the job in good time, with care to devote to meaningful public consultation, and consistent, detailed communications. I will consider this a full-time job.
Third, identifying the best places for multi-family development on island, and being ready to be a hard-working, optimistic and flexible steward of those projects.
3. I feel that the Trust has sufficient legislative power at the local trust committee level, and that a modernization of our official community plan, as well as the Trust Policy Statement, is needed to give our community direction with regards to our conservation goals, as well as our community care goals.
To what degree the Trust Council should have increased legislative power, I am not yet sure of. I’m still learning, and that’s a great question to spur on my further learning.
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Gary Gagné
1. The main skill that I possess is being a problem solver and peace keeper by nature. Seeing the big picture and thinking outside the box comes quite naturally to me. I have many years of volunteer service including my current position as vice chair of NSSWD. I worked on Climate Action Plan 2.0; on the board of Island Pathways, and their two committees, and worked in Africa on permaculture installations. I also sit on the Salt Spring Housing Council. My natural tendency to look for connection leads me to find ways to bring diverse groups together. Energy and passion included!
2. I am passionate about climate action and justice for all. My first priority would be to support the continuation of work begun on Maxwell Creek Watershed with regard to forest fire mitigation and wetland and forest restoration, with the eventual goal of expanding that resilience to all of Salt Spring. Regarding affordable worker housing, I have cost-effective and simple solutions that would enhance the quality of life and food security on the island. We also need to include Salt Spring in the Speculation and Vacancy Tax system and regulate STVRs. “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” includes housing as well.
3. It seems to me that governments generally have very little capacity to effectively use the powers they already do have, let alone waste staff time on trying to get new powers. The province needs to clarify that the purpose of the trust is to protect the natural environment, not the built environment. A useful aid in connecting with that purpose and with nature more deeply can be found in guidance from our Indigenous Elders and discovering the true value of life, not dead things (money, devices). This is the path most likely to get us out of our current pickle.
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Don Marcotte and Jamie Harris, running as a slate
1. We feel our decades of knowledge on how the Islands Trust works, along with our deep understanding of how the Islands Trust has had a negative impact on our community as a whole, will make us great trustees. Also, our business experience and established relationships would assist us greatly in our roles as trustees.
2. Addressing the ever-increasing workforce housing crisis by working as fast as we possibly can to make provisions for ownership housing for workers and their families will be our first and foremost priority.
Secondly, we would work towards reducing the Trust’s budget, by working with other elected trustees to aggressively get the Islands Trust performing efficiently and effectively to meet our communities’ objectives.
Thirdly, we would work together with other governmental agencies and associations to focus on the much-needed managing of our watersheds and conservancy lands, to improve the overall condition of these areas while reducing the growing wildfire risk.
3. We absolutely do NOT think the Islands Trust needs more legislative power. If anything, we feel the Islands Trust’s bid for more power has been a huge waste of time, money and a gross overreach, as there are already other governmental agencies in place heavily regulating the areas the Trust wishes to gain control in.
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Jenny McClean
1. I do know people on Salt Spring Island from all walks of life, and have a vision of how to create a community that works out for many types of people. I have been following the politics on Salt Spring Island for a long time, and I know about the different groups and what people here are working to have built, and what they are concerned about protecting. I do read land use documents connected to Salt Spring as a personal hobby and I am aware of how things are run and what the issues are.
2. My top three priorities would be housing that serves families; learning about the aquifers, and their capacity and applying that knowledge to land use, and planning for the community we will have in the future.
3. I do not believe that the Islands Trust can take on more legislative powers without a lot of public outcry. I would have to see if the public overwhelmingly wishes for the Islands Trust to have more legislative power before I would even say anything like that.
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Laura Patrick
1. The issues the Trust has to deal with are complex and have interdependencies with other government bodies. As a newly elected representative it takes time to get your feet under you and understand how things work, what the policy purview of each government body is and, most importantly, how to get things done within that framework. I now have one term under my belt and can hit the ground running with all that learning AND all those relationships with other levels of government already in hand. I bring a balance of honesty and compassion to the role of trustee. I am not dogmatic. I really do care about the consequences of the decisions I make.
2. Work initiated in my first term must continue to meet the challenges of climate change, the housing crisis, and walking the talk on reconciliation with First Nations. For example, I would:
• develop a multi-agency housing strategy and action plan that ensures all future development on Salt Spring is delivering the housing our community actually needs and is built with climate change adaptation in mind.
• build respectful relationships and work in trust with the many First Nations that wish to be involved in ensuring the well-being of our island for future generations.
3. Not necessarily, although the provincial review of the Islands Trust’s mandate, governance and structure will ultimately daylight opportunities to the act. The fact is, the Trust hasn’t fully utilized the powers it already has, and I believe we need to use these powers to coordinate the various government entities that share responsibility for addressing issues on our island like housing, equitable water resource use and watershed protection.
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Elissa Poole
1. Dedication, civility, compromise and perseverance are essential for any work that involves people, projects and problem-solving. These aren’t skills so much as character traits, but they’ve informed how I’ve approached an array of skilled professions. I’ve been a classical musician, journalist, editor and university teacher; I ran two ensembles, found the financing to produce their CDs and concert series, and am now working with conservationists to save an island forest and wetland. I’ve acquired new skills with each of these activities. So I’m not daunted by the immense work that will be required to carry out the Trust’s duties. I have great respect for other people’s expertise, I would never hesitate to ask for advice, and I finish what I start.
2. The Trust was founded with the explicit aim of preserving and protecting the environment. A priority is reviewing the draft Policy Statement to ensure that this original mandate is clarified and strengthened throughout, and that it addresses the climate crisis in a way that values the health and security of all life on the islands. All other priorities fall in line with this one: the housing crisis, transparency in the Trust’s process, protecting coastal Douglas-fir eco-systems and watersheds.
3. Maintaining a protected area in the middle of an intensely developed urban region requires funding and cooperation at all levels. The Trust Act must be tightened, along with the Trust Policy Statement, the official community plan and the bylaws, to ensure that the Islands Trust’s top priority is to protect the natural environment. That does not exclude other objectives. We need provincial and First Nations representation on Trust Council (recommended by the Governance Review Report); and the province must provide funding and legislative tools for implementing coastal Douglas-fir protection through development permit areas, for enforcement of bylaws and addressing our housing crisis.