ASK Salt Spring: Answered - EP 26 Gayle Baker

Episode Date: March 2, 2024

Ask Salt Spring Answered talks to Gayle Baker of the LCC about road line painting and the Ganges boardwalk.

You're listening to episode 26 of Ask Salt Spring Answered in which we talk to Gail Baker of the local community commission about things like line painting on roads and also the waterfront boardwalk around Ganges. Right, I'm here with Gail Baker, who is wearing two hats today. She is not only the moderator and organizer of Ask Salt Spring, but she is also one of our LCC members, commission members, and we had a pretty interesting discussion today, covered quite a lot of ground. So let me just ask you a couple of questions about some of the things we talked about. Now, the first half hour was taken up with road line painting issues, which is sort of a bit of a localized, I think, sort of plea from a resident of the north end of the island

about the fact that the line painting didn't go as far as his home, presumably. And we talked about, you know, how would we be able to improve that? And Gary Holman, I think, suggested that it might be possible for the LCC to pitch in a little bit to enhance the road painting program. Is that something that's actually come up in any of your meetings? No, it hasn't. It did come up several times, many times, actually, when I was chair of Transportation Commission, the one that's now been dissolved, in wanting things and knowing that if we wanted more than the ministry was willing to do in roads, whether it would be painting, sweeping, some of those things, not paving and not the road actual construction,

that maybe it was up to Salt Spring to come up with some of the money that was over and above normal services. It's a slippery slope. It should be paid for by the ministry and definitely do everything we can to get it paid for by the ministry. But if that doesn't work, there is a possibility. But that said, that has not come up with the LCC. We've had so many other things to be thinking about that we haven't really considered it yet. I was interested that Brian Webster said it costs $40,000 a year to do what is done on Salt Spring, which actually doesn't seem that expensive. So to go a little bit further, presumably wouldn't cost that much more, would it? You're not talking about that much money, but you are talking about setting a parameter and setting an expectation that the ministry could count on us to come up for the

money. And I will say that this year, I don't know how much the line painting cost, but last year when they did, last time they did it, there was a, I had heard 120,000, then later I heard maybe 200,000 given for all of Southern Gulf of of southern Vancouver Island and all of the Gulf Islands, and Salt Spring got $40,000 of that $200,000. So that was a few years ago, but it was an indication of the fact that we had done fairly well and that a lot of the other communities were terribly upset that Salt Spring got so much. But this year, I couldn't tell you how much it was. Okay, let's move on to another issue that came up was the question of the boardwalk, the harbor walk.

And I think one of the people who spoke at the meeting said, isn't it time to revisit the whole project and perhaps do something else? That didn't seem to meet with very much approval from the rest of the meeting. What are your thoughts on that, and where are we on the boardwalk right now? Well, I am disappointed because I thought that the RFP that went out would give us detailed designs that would allow us then to go for grants and start really construction. Instead of detailed shovel-ready designs, they're going to be conceptual.

So a grant has just been submitted to try to get the money for the detailed design. So it will take a little longer than I expected. Once we have the detailed design, the ministry, Flynnrod, will presumably force the marina to give us the access through the property to be able to do it. So the detailed designs are really critical. I was hoping this year, maybe it'll be as late as next year, but that's the next step. People really want the boardwalk. And, you know, it's Arvid, and it's MAD, and it's just all these, you know, these reasons that we should do it. And because we now have the province on our side and the marina basically kind of welcoming the boardwalk, we've made enough progress that

I would feel bad just, you know, putting it aside. I think at this point it's good, but the funding still needs to be found. So we're not there yet. So it's still alive, but it's just an ongoing think at this point it's good, but the funding still needs to be found. So we're not there yet. So it's still alive, but it's just an ongoing process at this point. Like a lot of things. Yes. Okay. I think we ended up talking for quite a long time about housing again. And A number of different topics, really. We were talking about opportunities whether the LCC actually has the power to do anything about it. And I'd like to hear your viewpoint on that. You know, I'm really not sure. It sounds great to say there's a piece of property, Brackett Springs, with 11 densities that's relatively inexpensive as land goes these days, and that CRD, LCC should just buy it. And it sounds so logical, but when you start looking at, well, it can't be transportation

money, can't really be park money, where would it come from? So it's a little more difficult to figure out how to actually move forward and do it. I think the conclusion that I felt good with was to have the foundation designate money for, let's say, buying Bracket Springs, and a donor that could come in, could give funding, and it could be collaboratively purchased, and CRD could help, but to actually expect them to buy that without having a housing service, I just, it's a good idea, but I just don't see how it would happen. But I do think the community has the money, and I think it could go that way more easily. Now, what CRD needs to do is it needs to do a lot more looking at services. It needs to look at Drake Road, in my opinion, and saying, how can we actually make

that possible for worker housing projects? Because right now, we haven't filled in with the infrastructure as in the way we should either. Right. Now, as Brian Webster made the point that under the economic development portion of your mandate, you could develop a housing strategy for Salt Spring Island. Do you think that's a good idea? I think we could. I think we need funding. There is some funding out there right now for a housing strategy. It's due in January. I've been talking to Salt Spring Solutions about working with us, and they're pretty excited. So I don't think we would take our pretty limited economic development dollars. It runs it right at about between non-committed money about $70,000

a year just for that strategy. But I think we could partner, we could pay portions, and we could definitely get funding. They love funding studies. It's much harder funding infrastructure. So this is something the LCC, I think, needs to look at as a priority. Now, Bracket Springs itself, one question I had was, I know they said it's only 11 densities. Isn't that negotiable at some point if you change the, you know, if the trust committee decided to increase the density of that property? Couldn't you put more than 11 units on there? You're asking me something I'm not sure of. Of course the Islands Trust can increase densities,

but I do know that it's a riparian area. I do know that there are issues about if there's room for a septic system. It's not on regular sewer. So it's not just an Islands Trust issue about densities. It's actually what would fit, what they're planning on doing. I don't think they're thinking of having a high rise there. So I think that you'd have to really look at the whole topography and see if more densities did make sense. Yeah. The housing issue does seem to be clinging on, and it was, of course, a great issue during the election. In fact, I went to

several meetings, and it seemed to be, you know, top of mind for everybody. Excuse me, even though you know, you you pointed out at the time, well, you don't really have a mandate for housing. Where do you see it going? As far as the LCC goes? Do you think you're going to get more involved in housing? Yes, yes. I think that staff is not so clear we should because there isn't a specific service, a specific housing authority, but I would say the local commissioners are adamant to say this is the most important economic development issue facing Salt Spring, especially worker housing, affordable housing. We have some wonderful non that are really watching that, doing a good job looking at new projects. But the closer to market housing for worker housing is really a problem. So I will be shocked if the LCC doesn't put it as a top priority to

convene meetings, get people together, do the studies in partnership with other funders, and actually move it forward. So you're going to have to ask me this next time, next year, but I think so. Okay. Now, I think you said, or somebody in the meeting said that there is a meeting coming up on the 23rd of November, the next LCC meeting, correct? And that the CRD Housing Corporation people are going to be there. So how's that going to look? Is that an item on the agenda or will they be making a presentation or will you be asking them tough questions about? I'm not sure. We haven't even had an absolute commitment that they are going to be

there on the 23rd. So it's a little bit up in the air and we're a little concerned that CRD Regional Housing will not tell us a whole lot of information. So we were hoping this meeting would be a leaders forum about worker housing on Salt Spring and they would, the housing corporation, would be guests as well as other people, housing council, and I can go through the whole long list of people. We're not quite sure how it's going to work out, and we're a little concerned that it will simply be a presentation, but guaranteed, local commissioners will ask every question they can and get as much information as possible. Okay, and that's on Thursday, I think, November 23rd. What time is that meeting? Nine o'clock. Now, we're not quite sure when they're going to be there, and so hopefully the agenda will come out sometime early next week, probably Wednesday of next week, and then it should have an approximate time.

Likely, they'll be first, which would be 9 o'clock. And if people want to come, it's at Sims, right? It's at Sims, and you can also click in on Teams, I think it is, so you can listen to it virtually as well. Okay, great. Well, thanks for coming in to Ask Salt Spring Answered, Gail. And you've been listening to Islands Radio, the voice of the Gulf Islands. Bye for now. Well, that was fun.

Thank you.