March 2018 Newsletter

You are receiving this newsletter because you signed up for the Positively NO newsletters. This is the last newsletter that we are sending out to this list. We hope you want to keep up to date on the work we’re now doing as Positively Forward (see below) and see how you can be part of that. To that end, we invite you to sign up for the Positively Forwardnewsletters.

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Thanks from your Positively Forward Committee!   We hope you enjoy the information below.

After a winning campaign that saw 61.9% of voters say NO to incorporation, Positively NOhas been meeting to decide where we go from here. Well, after such a successful, positive grassroots campaign that saw us develop community credibility and a formidable research capability, where else but “forward”? As you can tell from the logo, we’ve adopted a new name — Positively Forward. With it come new objectives.

Broadly speaking, we want to:

• Facilitate improved governance
• Identify problems and related solutions
• Develop a broad “platform” reflecting our values
• Identify candidates in the coming October elections for Trust and CRD who would support this “platform”
• Help these candidates get elected

To help us reach these goals we’ve formed several working groups:

• Trust Research
  • To  review the potential amendments to the Trust Act
  • To explore the scope for potential changes such as increasing the number of Salt Spring’s elected Trustees to 4.
• Service Delivery (CRD)
  • To research how to improve governance on the service delivery side, including looking at the implications of forming an LCC (Local Community Commission)
• Candidate Search
  • To identify potential candidates for Trust and CRD who share Positively Forward’s visions and values

We are also committed to liaise with and support the Community Alliance. Ruth Waldrick serves as the Alliance’s official liaison representative with Positively Forward.

TRIBUTE TO ARTHUR BLACK
by Jean Gelwicks

To say that Arthur will be missed is a huge understatement. We will be forever indebted to this modest, lovely man with a huge heart. He had the gift of making us smile, chuckle, and outright laugh at ourselves. He was an engaged member of our community, devoting much of his time to a variety of activities and events which could range from judging the best rooster call at Fall Fair to delivering a keynote speech to raise funds for a worthy cause. He was one of us, an islander. Arthur never said no when his help was requested, but what made him extra-special was that he always added, “Is there anything else I can do to help?”

He loved this island with passion. He once said, “Moving to Salt Spring is one of the very best decisions Lynne and I ever made. Like we won the lottery for life.” He knew at his core what made our island and islanders special and said so in his uniquely humorous way, said it like we wish we could, making us smile and nod in agreement. To quote Arthur about the special quality of life here: “It is what greets me when I get off the ferry … what I see when I look out my door, or shoot the guff with the cashier at Country Grocer. … It is about Salt Spring, this Kingdom that is so magical, it does not need a king.”

In my mind, Arthur was our unofficial king. I wish he could have reigned forever.

https://youtu.be/aQGd99HmmYM

Further examples of Arthur’s passion for our islands
https://youtu.be/OW1CWBbEnGo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwMH7PKC_oQ

One of Positively Forward‘s first public appearances was in the form of a Delegation to the December 6 Trust Council meeting held in Victoria.  Patricia Lockie and Peter Lamb made a presentation on amendments to the Trust Act. The full text was printed in the Driftwood and can be read on their website — https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/opinion/positively-forward-group-urges-changes/

Here are a few highlights:

Patricia:
Salt Springers consider the Islands Trust essential to the preservation of the island and its way of life. Regardless of other reasons people had for voting “no”, the importance of maintaining the presence of the Islands Trust on Salt Spring and enforcing the “Preserve and Protect” mandate was raised repeatedly.

A “no” vote was NOT a vote in favour of the status quo. While dissatisfaction was largely centered around infrastructure and service delivery issues, some concerns related to the operations and legislative mandate of the Islands Trust. These include a strong desire for better communications between the various agencies and with the public, including expanded “Town Hall” meetings, and suggestions for better coordination of by-law enforcement for specific issues such as tree-cutting and STVRs.

Based on this community feedback, we believe there is a broad base of support on Salt Spring for changes aimed at strengthening the efficacy of the Islands Trust and its work. These changes may, or may not, require governance or legislative amendments. We further believe that this appetite for changes to enhance the work of the Trust is likely shared by communities on other Trust area islands.

Peter:
Salt Springers wish to see changes to local governance that would improve coordination and collaboration at both the political and the staff levels. They are looking for something more immediate than legislative changes which may, or may not, be arrived at in the distant future. So, our request to Trust Council today is why not focus on what can be accomplished within the Trust’s existing powers and authority?

Our second comment is that, however you choose to proceed, we urge you to include meaningful public engagement for all island communities in the process of governance reform. On Salt Spring, it would be easy to harness the interest of groups such as Positively Forward and the new Salt Spring Community Alliance to foster broad community involvement.

Positively Forward has made an official request to our three elected officials for a public meeting to share information and answer questions about this year’s CRD and Local Trust Committee budgets. The following is the text of our letter:

The Positively Forward group is seeking solutions to some of the governance issues that islanders raised repeatedly during the referendum on incorporation. We heard a strong desire for more participatory democracy, coordination between our elected officials and greater accountability from them. Both the CRD and Islands Trust are now seeking public feedback on their 2018 budgets. One would think, then, that a public information meeting to discuss those upcoming budgets would be a positive first step in addressing islanders’ governance concerns, especially since there is a clear historical precedent for such an initiative.

Why do our elected officials disagree?

Positively Forward has proposed that they schedule a joint public presentation of their respective budgets for the year ahead. We further suggested that each representative take the opportunity to give a brief summary identifying key budgetary priorities, followed by questions and comments from the public. Such a meeting would demonstrate the expressed intent of the CRD and the LTC to work together on matters of shared community interest.

To date, however, our elected officials have shown no willingness to hold such a meeting. They replied  that there is ample opportunity for islanders to get budget information from CRD and Trust websites and by attending individual Commission meetings on Salt Spring, as well as the Electoral Services Committee and CRD Board meetings held in Victoria.

We respectfully say that effective public engagement involves more than one-way online responses, or an invitation to travel repeatedly to Victoria. The lack of opportunity on Salt Spring for public input into the CRD budget for the island (including gas tax funding and the CRD Director’s operating and grant-in-aid budgets) was frequently raised as a concern during the incorporation debate.

The precedent for annual CRD public budget meetings was established  here sixteen years ago and continued in the form of joint meetings with the Trust during the 2005 -2008 period. In the interests of transparency, public participation and reasoned dialogue, Positively Forward says, let’s renew the practice.

If you agree, please contact our elected officials: directorssi@crd.bc.ca;pgrove@islandstrust.bc.ca;ggrams@islandstrust.bc.ca.

In any event, provide your feedback as soon as possible to the Islands Trust 2018/19 budget proposal at:  http://www.islandstrust.bc.ca/trust-council/budget/ and the CRD 2018 proposed budget at: https://www.crd.bc.ca/about/financial-accountability/budget-in-brief(Preliminary Financial Plan, pages 29-30).

And finally, we hope to have a Positively Forward website up and running as soon as possible. We’ll let you know the details as soon as it is.