Collaborative Solutions

• The recent Official Community Plan (OCP) process in NS used more than $400,000 of taxpayer money to hire an urban development agency (Modus) for an environmentally sensitive and agriculturally oriented community. This draft plan will be presented to Council and North Saanich residents in 2023 for review and for another phase of public engagement.
• A truly collaborative process does not pre-determine the direction, design, and outcome of a community plan. Many North Saanich residents raised concerns regarding the OCP process and its pre-determined direction, which were rudely dismissed by many members of the council.
• I am running for a seat on the council since I believe that this may be our last opportunity to ensure that, going forward, we supplement the collected data with respectful and wide-ranging input from residents of North Saanich to devise collaborative solutions to the challenges of our community in the climate change era.

Engage Local Community Expertise

The current housing affordability crisis is a product of national and international trends of commodification and financialization of housing. There is ample research to show that lack of supply is not creating the housing shortages. The OCP survey questions were inherently biased towards increasing housing density in a rural community without taking into account the wider context, local needs, or the exigencies of the climate change era.

The robust public debates on the drafting of OCP made it abundantly clear that our community is blessed with a number of residents with expertise in community planning, land management, marine research, environmental sustainability, data analysis, and much more of the OCP. 

As councillor, I would like to include the input of this wealth of local expertise to review the draft OCP to foreground local concerns within the context of regional and global trends.  Given the presence of diverse research and teaching organizations such as the Institute of Ocean Sciences and the Plant Health Research Centre in North Saanich, along with the nearby Geological Survey of Canada Pacific, Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, and the variety of higher education institutes in greater Victoria, we also have the possibility of creating North Saanich/the Peninsula as a centre of excellence for local solutions to globally connected challenges.

Fiscal Accountability

• Aside from protecting the ecological value of our farms, forests, and hedgerows, the rural community character of North Saanich has ensured that infrastructure costs are kept at a minimum in North Saanich. The draft OCP calls for new housing and commercial building in many areas of North Saanich, which does not just ignore the environmental implications of construction, it also defies any financial logic.
• Increasing the density of population, buildings, and traffic in North Saanich will incur significant costs of creating and upgrading infrastructure in this rural community, which will have a direct impact on our taxes.
• As part of the council, I will advocate for a thoughtful review of the draft OCP considering the regional and local contexts, identifying the challenges, and honour community input in making policy choices that carefully weigh the financial and environmental implications of various options. 

Strengthen Food Security

The Capital Regional District’s Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) recognizes North Saanich as a major food supplier, with the potential to dramatically increase food production in the climate change era.

Despite the policy guidance of RGS to protect rural areas, farms, the environment, and to reduce emissions, the proposed OCP draft will do the opposite. The proposed increase in building density will increase pressure to convert farmland into buildings and further reduce the already declining agricultural land in North Saanich.

I am in favour of preserving agricultural holdings and supporting food production in North Saanich. I will work to actively tap into our local expertise to find viable solutions to connect, train, and collaborate in increasing land use for food production within our community to address the logistics of food security for ourselves and our neighbours.

Environmental Sustainability

Living in the idyllic environs of NS, it is easy to forget that we live in an earthquake-prone area. We are also witnessing the annual increases in wildfires, severe weather events, depletion of forest cover, degradation of land, water, air, marine life, and other evidence of the climate crisis around the planet.

Environmental sustainability acquires a specific urgency in the context of our rural island community. In the alarming absence of a disaster management strategy in North Saanich, any increase in population and building density will not only hamper our emergency-preparedness, but also our ability to adapt to the challenges of the climate crisis.

Along with considerations of air, food, water, land, and marine quality, as councillor, I will encourage the council to create a disaster risk-reduction strategy and a viable emergency preparedness response and recovery policy for our community.  I would also encourage the council to conduct long-term environmental impact assessments of any future plans and policies to maintain the high quality of life for current and future residents of North Saanich in partnership with our neighbours.

Respecting Rural

We are very fortunate to be living here in North Saanich – the land where it is truly good to be.  Despite being a regional transportation hub, our rural community provides a significant share of forest, farms, and foreshore in the region.

Recognizing this important role and to contain urban sprawl, the Regional Growth Strategy did not consider any part of North Saanich to be in the “urban containment area”. An inconsiderate application of the draft OCP will irreversibly change this crucial character of North Saanich.

If elected, I look forward to working with council, staff, and residents to retain the rural, green, agricultural, and community-oriented character of North Saanich in keeping with the Regional Growth Strategy.