Salt Spring LTC Regular Meeting Agenda Items Received At Meeting

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4 June 2024

To: Islands Trust — Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee
Re: Proposed RFP and Scope for OCP LUB Update (SSI LTC Agenda Item 14, 6 June 2024)

Dear Members of the SSI Local Trust Committee:

| am writing this letter on behalf of Transition Salt Spring (TSS) to voice a number of concerns
with respect to the proposed Scope of Services (“Scope”) for a consultant who will lead the
first significant update to our Official Community Plan and Land-use Bylaw in decades. We
also have comments about the Terms or Reference (“ToR”) which underpin this exercise.

Transition Salt Spring is actively reaching out to other island groups to make them aware of the
significance of this important exercise. As a part of that we will be speaking about what we
see as some equally important shortcomings in the design of the exercise that we are
concerned will not get us the results we collectively need as climate change accelerates.

All page numbers referenced in the following recommendations are those that appeared in the
meeting materials. Transition Salt Spring is open to dialogue on any of these points with any
member of the LTC or Trust staff.

1. GHG Targets, Policies and Actions: In spite of the stated intent to make this update
focussed on housing, the Islands Trust is required under Section 473 of the Local
Government Act to include in its “official community plan...targets for the reduction of

greenhouse gas emissions in the area covered by the plan, and policies and actions of
the local government proposed with respect to achieving those targets.” Throughout
the ToR and Scope, “climate change resilience” and “ecological integrity” are discussed
as subordinate to the stated focus of the update on housing. The Islands Trust is
legally required to include the foregoing which means that this update cannot only
consider housing as its main focus.

2. Project Budget: The project budget is a concern given that this is the first revision or
update to the OCP in decades. Housing equity on its own is a major issue, but to give
justice to this topic, integrated with the required integration of GHG elements, along

PO Box 768, Salt Spring Island, BC V8K 2W3 | www.transitionsaltspring.com | info@transitionsaltspring.com

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with ecosystem integrity and First Nations reconciliation, we are very concerned that
this revision will fail to achieve its stated goals, along with additional required (by law),
and necessary goals. The Islands Trust needs to ensure that this critical exercise is
properly resourced given the multiple crises we are facing at once. Could the Trust lean
on its community more to help achieve a better result? Do we simply need more money
for consultants (who are necessary and skillful), or can we perhaps also leverage the
collective and diverse wisdom in this community to greater effect?

3. Project Name and Branding (p31): The titles proposed do not re

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