Co-sponsored by Councillor Dean Murdock, this report came to Council in October of this year. It recognizes concerns about food security and growing interest in promoting local agriculture. The report builds on Council initiatives such as  Haliburton Farm and Panama Flats by recommending a task force to draft a comprehensive local agriculture and food security policy.

Council accepted the recommendation and directed Planning to draft terms of reference for the task force.

This report came to Council early in 2011. It recognizes concerns around local food and the fact that, in denser communities, fewer people will be able have a garden.

Some Councillors noted that Council already has an allotment garden policy. While this is true, the policy has accomplished little despite being in existence for nearly 10 years.

Council referred the report to the Parks Master Plan Review which is currently taking place.

Co-sponsored by Councillor Gerrard, this report came to Council  early in October of this year. At the time, Council was being asked to endorse the Bowker Creek Action Plan, a remarkable document creating a 100 year vision for the watershed.

Council did endorse the plan but, as discussed elsewhere, that does not guarantee a positive effect on decisions for the area.

This report recommended a special development permit area (DPA) be established in the watershed and went further to suggest a co-operative effort with Victoria and Oak Bay. The DPA would guarantee the 100 year vision has to be considered anytime a decision is being made for the area. This is an example of embedding policy in the decision making process.

Council unanimously endorsed the recommendations of the report.

In 2010, I attended a workshop at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) Conference concerned with urban deer.  The workshop suggested an approach to this issue which had become “front and centre” in our municipality and region.  

In October, of that year I took this report to Council. and suggested that Council deal with it municipally and not send it to the CRD. While there are some regional aspects to the issue, I felt working municipally would be faster and less expensive.

In any case, Council preferred to forward the report to the CRD where, over one year later, it resides. Hopefully, we will see some action soon.

This report stemmed from a Highland’s group who were attempting to purchase and protect Mary Lake. The group were not asking for a donation but were simply asking for an endorsement of their project.

Council agreed, unanimously to provide an endorsement

This report actually first came before Council in mid 2008. However, Council decided to refer it to School Districts 61 & 63 for comment. It did not return for almost 2 years.

The report attempts to achieve better protection for the public interest in cases where school properties are being “sold off”. It suggests doing this in two ways: by changing the zoning of school properties and by using site coverage and setbacks to restrict re-development.

Currently, school areas are zoned P1. This permits a wide variety of uses. Thus, any purchaser of a school property would not have to hold a public process or come before Council when asking for a permitted use. School lands, often regarded as public greenspace, could change dramatically with little  public process.

Council accepted the concept of using site coverage and setbacks but was not willing to change the zone on school properties. For this reason, school properties are still at risk of being “alienated” from public use.  

This report came in response to problems I saw in Saanich during a significant snowfall. Our municipality, like many others, has stated that transit, cycling and walking are “priority” modes of transportation.

In spite of this, our procedure during a snow event is to simply push snow off to the side, often onto bike lanes or sidewalks.

During this snowfall, sidewalks on major streets were filled with 2 - 3 feet of hard, icy, uneven snow, bike lanes were impassable and transit stops were inaccessible. I watched buses stopping in the middle of the road just so that they could open doors and senior citizens walking in traffic lanes late in the evening. In many cases, this situation prevailed for 2 - 3 weeks.

The report recommended an investigation of how Saanich could change its procedures to better support what it has identified as “priority” modes. Council did not support the recommendation even though this could be accomplished relatively inexpensively.