Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee public hearing, August 18, 2022

[0:00:11] Voice 23: it's

[0:00:12] Voice 23: thank you yes

[0:00:43] Trustee Luckham: Good morning, everyone.

[0:00:45] Trustee Luckham: Thank

[0:00:46] Voice 1: you for taking

[0:00:46] Trustee Luckham: time out of your summertime and a beautiful day out there.

[0:00:50] Trustee Luckham: And it's nice that it's cool in here.

[0:00:52] Trustee Luckham: And I'm really glad to see you.

[0:00:54] Trustee Luckham: We're here for a public hearing for bylaw number 526.

[0:00:58] Trustee Luckham: six. I just have a few decorum and process remarks to make, and then we'll enter into

[0:01:05] Trustee Luckham: what is a very formal legislatively required process. So I want to acknowledge that we're

[0:01:12] Trustee Luckham: meeting here on Coast Salish territory. And personally, every day I wake up, I'm grateful

[0:01:18] Trustee Luckham: to be here. We live in such a rich, cultural, historic place. There's so much to learn and

[0:01:24] Trustee Luckham: and encourage everybody to take that opportunity

[0:01:27] Trustee Luckham: to learn about this place.

[0:01:29] Trustee Luckham: And I'm grateful to be here.

[0:01:32] Trustee Luckham: I'm just gonna start off with introductions.

[0:01:34] Trustee Luckham: My name is Peter Lockham.

[0:01:35] Trustee Luckham: I'm elected on Thetis Island

[0:01:36] Trustee Luckham: and I'm the chair of trust council

[0:01:38] Trustee Luckham: and the chair of your LTC is our governance structure.

[0:01:44] Trustee Luckham: Locally elected trustees,

[0:01:45] Trustee Luckham: we have Laura Patrick here and Peter Grove.

[0:01:49] Trustee Luckham: On my right here, I have Rob Pringle.

[0:01:51] Trustee Luckham: He's looking after our tech and our minutes today.

[0:01:53] Trustee Luckham: I have Louisa Garbo, our acting regional planning manager.

[0:01:58] Trustee Luckham: In the audience, I have a number of folks, Jason Yeomans, now a regional director, Stefan

[0:02:05] Trustee Luckham: Cermak, and Daniela, thank you, looking after our entry there.

[0:02:13] Trustee Luckham: So thank you very much for all the staff work in preparing us and being here and organizing

[0:02:17] Trustee Luckham: this beautiful location.

[0:02:19] Trustee Luckham: I want to thank you all, all of you that have sent us your comments by email or letter.

[0:02:25] Trustee Luckham: all of these will be considered in our decision respecting this bylaw. If you have written,

[0:02:30] Trustee Luckham: it is not necessary to speak today. Your comments are already in the public binder and will be

[0:02:37] Trustee Luckham: considered. If you have a written submission today, please provide it to us. Danielle would

[0:02:42] Trustee Luckham: be really happy to get those before the end of this particular public hearing. It is also not

[0:02:48] Trustee Luckham: necessary for you to read your submission as we will read it in due course, but you're welcome

[0:02:54] Trustee Luckham: to provide a summary of concerns in your written submission and i say that for time management and

[0:03:00] Trustee Luckham: i'll just get there in a second there is a speaker's list at the back of the room and

[0:03:04] Trustee Luckham: if you wish to address the ltc today please put your name on that list as that is the order that

[0:03:10] Trustee Luckham: i will be following today to give you that opportunity to address the ltc i have a number

[0:03:16] Trustee Luckham: of uh i have one page anyway here already that's going to make its way down here before we begin

[0:03:20] Trustee Luckham: in. And there'll be additional opportunities as the meeting proceeds. And they'll be brought

[0:03:26] Trustee Luckham: forward to me. When the speakers list has been completed, I will call for speakers from the floor.

[0:03:32] Trustee Luckham: And in this case, I asked you to line up here behind the microphone so that we know how many

[0:03:38] Trustee Luckham: people wish to continue to address the LTC through first and second and third call to speak to the

[0:03:45] Trustee Luckham: the LTC. I encourage you, however, to put your name on the list just to help with our time

[0:03:52] Trustee Luckham: management. This public hearing is scheduled to go to 1 o'clock today, and I'd like to keep that

[0:03:58] Trustee Luckham: in line, but you will have adequate opportunity to speak to us. So we don't have a lot of people

[0:04:08] Trustee Luckham: here. I'm not anticipating the necessity to go into overtime or recess the meeting in order

[0:04:13] Trustee Luckham: and reconvened at a later date,

[0:04:16] Trustee Luckham: but that's always an opportunity

[0:04:17] Trustee Luckham: if there's more that needs to be said

[0:04:19] Trustee Luckham: than the time that we've allocated.

[0:04:21] Trustee Luckham: Of course, we have another public hearing

[0:04:22] Trustee Luckham: later today for bylaw 530.

[0:04:25] Trustee Luckham: So this is for bylaw 526.

[0:04:29] Trustee Luckham: And if you have, I'm going to set up two minutes

[0:04:32] Trustee Luckham: is the time to speak.

[0:04:34] Trustee Luckham: And if you have more to say,

[0:04:37] Trustee Luckham: certainly we'll come around to a second time if necessary.

[0:04:40] Trustee Luckham: once everybody has had a chance to speak a first time.

[0:04:43] Trustee Luckham: And that ensures that we get a diversity of points of view throughout the room.

[0:04:49] Trustee Luckham: So please try to manage your time at the microphone.

[0:04:52] Trustee Luckham: And I'm going to suggest that you line up here,

[0:04:55] Trustee Luckham: and I'll probably try and read out five names in advance

[0:04:58] Trustee Luckham: so that you can be prepared with your timing.

[0:05:01] Trustee Luckham: And, you know, I've got these, you know, this is sort of pre-COVID.

[0:05:04] Trustee Luckham: I've got green and yellow, and I don't like red, so I've got orange today.

[0:05:09] Trustee Luckham: day of time. How's your time doing? So green is you've got two minutes. Yellow is you've got 30

[0:05:16] Trustee Luckham: seconds remaining. And orange, it's actually time to sit down. And, you

[0:05:20] Trustee Luckham: know, and that's out of

[0:05:22] Trustee Luckham: respecting that everybody has something important to say. So we'd appreciate your cooperation and

[0:05:27] Trustee Luckham: assistance in that. So and so finally, now, I know that you will all be kind and respectful.

[0:05:36] Trustee Luckham: respectful. Please speak to the issue, not people, including balanced trust staff and trustees.

[0:05:42] Trustee Luckham: Please consider your choice of words to respect everyone in the room and those viewing us from

[0:05:47] Trustee Luckham: home today, actually. I want to acknowledge those that are viewing us from home. This is what we

[0:05:51] Trustee Luckham: learned from the pandemic, is we have the opportunity to broadcast these things so that

[0:05:56] Trustee Luckham: people that only want to observe the meeting can see what's going on here today. This is just a

[0:06:03] Trustee Luckham: a caution, right? If I find your choice of words not respectful, I'm going to ask you to reconsider

[0:06:08] Trustee Luckham: your choice of words or sit down, because we need to be making this a safe place for all the voices

[0:06:15] Trustee Luckham: in the room to be heard and for all those folks that are viewing from home. So in order to support

[0:06:22] Trustee Luckham: an environment free of intimidation, I also want to ask you to not applaud or boo or make remarks

[0:06:30] Trustee Luckham: remarks about someone else who is speaking. So use your time at the microphone and be respectful

[0:06:35] Trustee Luckham: and provide the freedom for everybody to be able to feel able to speak freely at the microphone.

[0:06:44] Trustee Luckham: So that sort of covers all of that off. I'm going to now open the public hearing for five to six

[0:06:53] Trustee Luckham: and then staff will make the required presentations about the bylaw and then we're

[0:06:59] Trustee Luckham: going to go directly to you telling us what you think about this bylaw. So this is a public

[0:07:06] Trustee Luckham: hearing for proposed bylaw number 526 stated as Salt Spring Island land use bylaw number 355

[0:07:13] Trustee Luckham: 1999 amendment number 3 2021. All persons who believe that their interest in property is

[0:07:19] Trustee Luckham: affected by the proposed bylaws will be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard or to present

[0:07:25] Trustee Luckham: written submissions respecting matters contained in the proposed bylaws. Those wishing to speak

[0:07:31] Trustee Luckham: should commence their presentation by clearly stating your name. Members of the local trust

[0:07:37] Trustee Luckham: committee may, if they wish, ask questions of you following your presentation. However, the main

[0:07:42] Trustee Luckham: function of the local trust committee members today is to listen to the views of the public.

[0:07:47] Trustee Luckham: It is not the function of the committee members to debate the merits of the proposed bylaws with

[0:07:53] Trustee Luckham: the individual citizens. Everyone will be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard and none

[0:07:58] Trustee Luckham: should feel discouraged from presenting his or her views. In considering the proposed bylaws,

[0:08:04] Trustee Luckham: the local trust committee has received documents which may influence its decision. Those documents

[0:08:09] Trustee Luckham: are available for review during the hearing and available on our website and indicated as

[0:08:15] Trustee Luckham: indicated in the public hearing notice. And this is a public hearing binder here. I believe it's

[0:08:19] Trustee Luckham: one at the back as well if you need to peruse that and it's also available online any person

[0:08:25] Trustee Luckham: wishing to who wishes to present uh written submission to the local trust committee may do so

[0:08:31] Trustee Luckham: and all written submissions are available for review during the hearing written submissions

[0:08:36] Trustee Luckham: must be received by the local trust committee before the close of the hearing your submission

[0:08:41] Trustee Luckham: can also be submitted by email to salt spring island info at islandstrust.bc.ca that does need

[0:08:47] Trustee Luckham: need to be done before the end of this hearing to essentially protect the legislative process.

[0:08:53] Trustee Luckham: The final opportunity to comment on the proposed bylaws is during the hearing as members of the

[0:08:58] Trustee Luckham: local trust committee may not receive further submission nor discuss the proposed bylaws with

[0:09:03] Trustee Luckham: the public after the close of this hearing. After the public hearing has concluded, the local trust

[0:09:09] Trustee Luckham: committee may, without further notice, make whatever decision it deems proper with respect

[0:09:14] Trustee Luckham: to the bylaws that are the subject of the hearing just know that if you have something that comes up

[0:09:21] Trustee Luckham: that you feel is really critical that the local trust committee needs to know after this public

[0:09:25] Trustee Luckham: hearing raise it with the staff and the staff will determine whether or not it's important enough or

[0:09:32] Trustee Luckham: significant enough that it we should disrupt the legislative process because it's a big deal to do

[0:09:36] Trustee Luckham: that so just that there isn't is a total closed door but we need to protect the decision making

[0:09:42] Trustee Luckham: that is held at this table in this public space.

[0:09:46] Trustee Luckham: So that's it for me.

[0:09:48] Trustee Luckham: I'm now going to go to our designated planner

[0:09:54] Trustee Luckham: for this project, which is the regional planning manager,

[0:09:56] Trustee Luckham: Louisa Garbo.

[0:09:57] Trustee Luckham: Over to you, our acting RPM, Garbo.

[0:10:02] Voice 7: Thank you, Chair.

[0:10:03] Voice 7: I just want to mention that there,

[0:10:05] Voice 7: in addition to the hard copy,

[0:10:07] Voice 7: there is actually the public hearing binder online.

[0:10:11] Voice 7: If you go to Island Trust, go to the Salt Spring Island page, and you go to current

[0:10:17] Voice 7: applications, and you'll see file 26526 for you to review.

[0:10:23] Voice 7: And a copy of this public hearing notice was advertised in two consecutive editions of

[0:10:30] Voice 7: the Gulf Islands report on August 3rd and August 10th of this year, and all notification

[0:10:36] Voice 7: requirements under the Local Government Act have been completed.

[0:10:41] Voice 7: So, for proposed bylaw number 526, if adopted, will amend the Salt Spring Island Land Use Bylaw number 355 to implement residential changes from the Agricultural Land Commission to allow farm worker dwelling units on Agriculture 1 and 2 zoned properties.

[0:11:05] Voice 7: Properties Zone A1 or 2 will be permitted an additional dwelling for farmworkers if the property is classified as a farm under the Assessment Act.

[0:11:19] Voice 7: The floor areas in the bylaw for a farmworker's dwelling are consistent with permissions granted by the Agricultural Land Commission.

[0:11:28] Voice 7: The bylaw proposes changes to the definition of a farm worker's dwelling unit to include use by employees of the farm business, whether full-time or seasonal, and for family members.

[0:11:44] Voice 7: The bylaw also proposes options for farms not sown agriculture to build additional farm

[0:11:52] Voice 7: worker housing by using unrealized subdivision potential to construct additional dwellings

[0:11:58] Voice 7: if certain conditions, such as registering covenants on the use of additional dwellings

[0:12:07] Voice 7: and no further subdivisions are met.

[0:12:10] Voice 7: The bylaw proposes changes to tourist accommodation permissions that have been implemented by

[0:12:18] Voice 7: the Archipelago Land Reserve to provide clarity on the total number of rooms that can be used

[0:12:25] Voice 7: as part of the accommodation.

[0:12:28] Voice 7: These changes simply bring the land use bylaw into conformity with the Archipelago Land

[0:12:35] Voice 7: Reserve.

[0:12:35] Voice 7: serve. Proposed bylaw 526 was referred to provincial agency, regional agencies, non-agencies,

[0:12:44] Voice 7: and First Nations. Agencies are generally in support of proposed bylaw and offered some

[0:12:51] Voice 7: technical comments for clarity and suggestions to amend the definition of farm workers'

[0:12:57] Voice 7: dwelling to not only allow permanent employees, but temporary and seasonal ones. Island trusts

[0:13:05] Voice 7: received limited response from First Nations, and the only

[0:13:09] Voice 7: comment received pertains to proposed bylaws lack mechanism

[0:13:13] Voice 7: to address First Nations housing issues on Salt Spring Island.

[0:13:18] Voice 7: At the close of business yesterday,

[0:13:21] Voice 7: Wednesday, August 17th at 4.30, we received

[0:13:25] Voice 7: 19 submissions. And Chair.

[0:13:31] Trustee Luckham: Okay, very good. Thank you very much.

[0:13:32] Trustee Luckham: um so then um just for clarity so this is public hearing from proposed bylaw number 526

[0:13:39] Trustee Luckham: is now open and this public hearing is being convened pursuant to section 465 the local

[0:13:44] Trustee Luckham: government act in in order to consider uh 526 so i've got a speaker's list here

[0:13:50] Trustee Luckham: and as i indicated earlier for those of you that snuck in at the end um we are running a speaker's

[0:13:57] Trustee Luckham: list there's um another speaker's list that will be maintained at the back of the room

[0:14:01] Trustee Luckham: that we can continue on from here.

[0:14:03] Trustee Luckham: I have 16 names on this list

[0:14:06] Trustee Luckham: and I'm going to follow this as my guide.

[0:14:10] Trustee Luckham: I'm obligated to do first, second

[0:14:12] Trustee Luckham: and third call for speakers.

[0:14:14] Trustee Luckham: And once I've completed the list,

[0:14:16] Trustee Luckham: I will go to second and third calling for speakers.

[0:14:19] Trustee Luckham: But to help us flow, it would be great

[0:14:22] Trustee Luckham: if we could get you to put your name on a list there

[0:14:25] Trustee Luckham: and we'll get to you in due course.

[0:14:27] Trustee Luckham: So I'm going to ask you to sort of self-organize a bit

[0:14:30] Trustee Luckham: and line up behind the microphone and I'm going to tell you who's I'm anticipating to come next

[0:14:36] Trustee Luckham: kind of thing so the first uh four or five people here are Carlos Grooms, Adam Gold, Vincent Gagnon

[0:14:43] Trustee Luckham: and Maddie Smith and there's some more and I'll just keep updating that list as we go forward

[0:14:48] Trustee Luckham: so um as I said earlier two minutes and please be respectful of that the green uh in card here

[0:14:55] Trustee Luckham: please uh keep an eye on that trying to help you with your time management uh indicating that the

[0:14:59] Trustee Luckham: The two minutes has started. I will switch to yellow when you've got 30 seconds remaining and orange.

[0:15:04] Trustee Luckham: I do need you to pass that off to the next person in order to keep us kind of flowing in a respectful way to allow everybody to be heard.

[0:15:12] Trustee Luckham: So the first person. And if you can organize yourselves in the lineup there, Carlos Grooms is first.

[0:15:20] Voice 18: That's why you were on the list first, Nick.

[0:15:22] Voice 18: He was on the list.

[0:15:26] Voice 18: Who wants to be first?

[0:15:28] Voice 18: Can you all hear me?

[0:15:30] Voice 18: I don't really need a microphone, but I'm Carlos Grims.

[0:15:34] Voice 18: I'm with Paradise Within Farm.

[0:15:36] Voice 18: I'm really, really happy to be a farmer on this island.

[0:15:40] Voice 18: We started with the vision of having food security for our family and the greater community.

[0:15:47] Voice 18: The idea was really to be able to share with the community what we have extra.

[0:15:55] Voice 18: Really quickly, with the farming practices that we wish to put in place, which is more organic,

[0:16:04] Voice 18: the volume of labour required was staggering that we need to deal with the soil amendments,

[0:16:12] Voice 18: amendments, the preparation, the invasive species that we're dealing with, just the

[0:16:18] Voice 18: regular mainsail that we were a little bit humbled by the volume.

[0:16:23] Voice 18: So the requirement that we have for workers on our farm is incredible, and there is no

[0:16:29] Voice 18: housing on this island.

[0:16:30] Voice 18: So we've lined up eight now, eight couples to come from off the island to be working

[0:16:35] Voice 18: with the farm for this, to take initiative to it, and all of them had to decline because

[0:16:39] Voice 18: there was no accommodation um

[0:16:41] Voice 18: which is really sad um as you well know the island's trust has always

[0:16:46] Voice 18: been more conservative than the agricultural land commission with in regards to the housing on

[0:16:52] Voice 18: farmland so i really want to uh acknowledge the chair and the trustees for their insight into

[0:17:00] Voice 18: moving this forward to help an obvious need that we have from the community and to help bring it

[0:17:08] Voice 18: more in line with the Agricultural Land Commission's support of farming, generally speaking.

[0:17:16] Voice 18: And realistically, I would think that anyone that stands in opposition to this is possibly

[0:17:27] Voice 18: not as informed as they would need to be as the requirements needed on a farm and or are

[0:17:35] Voice 18: are more likely to be more in support

[0:17:38] Voice 18: of regular agricultural practices,

[0:17:41] Voice 18: which include pesticides, herbicides,

[0:17:43] Voice 18: and all those other things

[0:17:44] Voice 18: that are huge labor-saving devices,

[0:17:46] Voice 18: which most of the farmers I know refuse to embrace.

[0:17:50] Voice 18: So I just really would like to give a shout out to that.

[0:17:52] Voice 18: Thank you so much.

[0:17:53] Voice 18: Thank you.

[0:18:02] Trustee Luckham: So the next speaker is Adam Gold.

[0:18:05] Trustee Luckham: That's right.

[0:18:06] Trustee Luckham: Thank you, Adam.

[0:18:07] Trustee Luckham: Over to you, sir.

[0:18:08] Trustee Luckham: Thank

[0:18:09] Voice 10: you. Good morning. My name is Adam Gold. I've been farming on Salt Spring for about 17 years.

[0:18:17] Voice 10: We've had permaculture apprenticeships, labourers, farm workers, seasonal farm workers,

[0:18:24] Voice 10: and a constant thread is always the need or the wish to provide good housing for them.

[0:18:32] Voice 10: The springs, the weather in spring season can be cold and wet. Fall, the rains can come early.

[0:18:39] Voice 10: And it's hard work.

[0:18:40] Voice 10: And I think, like, if we can offer good housing to our people,

[0:18:45] Voice 10: then we can maintain our staff.

[0:18:48] Voice 10: We can then maintain food.

[0:18:49] Voice 10: We can maintain a solid business and then offer food security to the community.

[0:18:54] Voice 10: If we don't have that, we can't do it.

[0:18:56] Voice 10: And so it's really important.

[0:18:59] Voice 10: Also, I have children that I'm bringing up on my farm,

[0:19:02] Voice 10: and I would love to be able to have housing for them in the future.

[0:19:05] Voice 10: I really don't see how we can move forward without this and I really thank you for for thinking about

[0:19:12] Voice 10: it right now thank you okay thank

[0:19:14] Trustee Luckham: you very much hi

[0:19:17] Voice 11: there so my name is Vincent uh I'm obviously

[0:19:20] Voice 11: a foreigner I'm not from the island and since I'm here I knew a lot of people that are born

[0:19:26] Voice 11: and raised here and I had to leave the island which I think tells a lot about the situation

[0:19:30] Voice 11: it's dramatic and the thing is definitely that if they have to leave it's mean there's no option

[0:19:38] Voice 11: for them and that's the thing that has to be addressed that's amazing that they can have a job

[0:19:44] Voice 11: and a staff house in the same time and that's pretty much that actually i think that's really

[0:19:51] Voice 11: the core of the value of salt spring to you know to have a humble life because they do lead a humble

[0:19:55] Voice 11: life in small cabins which i think is just yeah perfect things okay

[0:20:01] Trustee Luckham: thank you thank you very much

[0:20:04] Trustee Luckham: um so maddie smith ira creagle and i apologize if i get your name wrong hannah

[0:20:11] Trustee Luckham: rife i think it is a maxine like her go ahead hi

[0:20:15] Voice 8: um i'm maddie smith i've been on salt spring

[0:20:18] Voice 8: two years now and I am now on my second cabin on uh agriculture land that would not exist if uh

[0:20:28] Voice 8: yeah um and um I guess you know it's important to note that I I work on a farm I do the maintenance

[0:20:41] Voice 8: I'm a skilled trades person and I also work in the community when I'm not working on the farm

[0:20:47] Voice 8: and if there was no housing for me i couldn't be here and i couldn't do that work within the

[0:20:51] Voice 8: community um that's all i want to say thank you thank you super thank you very much um

[0:21:01] Voice 5: good day my name is iria kriegel um thank you for uh holding the space for us all to discuss this i

[0:21:11] Voice 5: I appreciate it.

[0:21:13] Voice 5: I guess my main point is that we all need to eat.

[0:21:18] Voice 5: We all need farmers to help make that happen.

[0:21:23] Voice 5: And if farmers are saying that they have needs for more housing,

[0:21:27] Voice 5: I think we need to listen to that carefully and respect it and do anything

[0:21:31] Voice 5: we can to fulfill their needs because they're fulfilling all of our needs

[0:21:39] Voice 5: to live and eat good food um the first speaker brought up how how this kind of uh farming

[0:21:49] Voice 5: takes a lot of effort it's a lot different than mechanized monocrop kind of farming and you need

[0:21:56] Voice 5: the people power to make that happen so yeah let's support the farmers let's support people that are

[0:22:05] Voice 5: working in the fields and feeding us all and they're also the ones that are concerned about

[0:22:10] Voice 5: about water and are going to use water properly.

[0:22:14] Voice 5: So thanks.

[0:22:15] Trustee Luckham: Thank you very much.

[0:22:19] Trustee Luckham: Hannah, Riaf?

[0:22:21] Voice 3: Reeple.

[0:22:22] Voice 3: Oh, okay.

[0:22:23] Voice 3: Hannah Reeple.

[0:22:24] Voice 3: Okay, thank you.

[0:22:25] Trustee Luckham: Thank you for

[0:22:25] Voice 3: holding the space, like Iria said.

[0:22:29] Voice 3: I also work on an organic farm and live on the organic farm.

[0:22:35] Voice 3: And if that security wasn't provided for me,

[0:22:41] Voice 3: um I would have nowhere to go and I would be miserable it's created a community for me

[0:22:46] Voice 3: healthy way of living healthy way of interacting um and yeah that's what that's what Salt Spring's

[0:22:56] Voice 3: all about for me is that a sense of community working together in a really organic way that is

[0:23:02] Voice 3: connected and yeah that would not happen there would not be the Tuesday markets there would not

[0:23:09] Voice 3: be all of these like i don't know just the richness of salt spring wouldn't be there if

[0:23:15] Voice 3: we weren't able to live here which is kind of happening and i was born on this island and this

[0:23:20] Voice 3: is more related to i guess bylaw 530 um yeah

[0:23:25] Trustee Luckham: so you want to keep your remarks to 526 okay yeah

[0:23:28] Voice 3: i've been here for a long time and i've been poor and i wouldn't have been able to stay here with my

[0:23:38] Voice 3: mom if we hadn't had connections to landowners and farmers that had these extra spaces for us to be

[0:23:47] Voice 3: um so i guess my main point is i personally really feel that it's very important to have the space

[0:23:56] Voice 3: for people to live that type of life yeah and there's many of us here i would like that so

[0:24:02] Trustee Luckham: thank

[0:24:02] Voice 3: you very much

[0:24:02] Trustee Luckham: thank you very much um so i've got uh maxine leichter wayne hewitt tom billings

[0:24:09] Trustee Luckham: elizabeth fitzalem is my next floor

[0:24:13] Voice 9: i would i would like to use the microphone does this work

[0:24:19] Trustee Luckham: yeah it's on yeah okay

[0:24:22] Voice 9: everybody hear me yes right okay um i want to ask start by asking a question

[0:24:31] Trustee Luckham: uh

[0:24:31] Voice 9: can i know i

[0:24:33] Voice 9: have no questions this is

[0:24:33] Trustee Luckham: public hearing what's your opportunity to tell us what

[0:24:36] Trustee Luckham: what you think. If you have questions, you can ask those questions outside.

[0:24:40] Voice 9: Okay, I'll phrase it that

[0:24:42] Voice 9: way.

[0:24:43] Trustee Luckham: And ask those questions of staff. Go ahead.

[0:24:46] Voice 9: I'm going to give you some history. This is based

[0:24:49] Voice 9: on fact and some conjecture. Farming began in Europe 6,000 years ago. Farming has always been

[0:24:59] Voice 9: difficult. In the early times when farming came to Europe, people were able to have more children

[0:25:05] Voice 9: because they had more food which is the main reason they liked farming and as they ran out

[0:25:10] Voice 9: of land because you know more children were born they wanted more land they moved north

[0:25:15] Voice 9: and they moved north for hundreds of years all the way into the scandinavian countries into the

[0:25:21] Voice 9: very top of great britain into scotland and the islands north of there after the fall of rome

[0:25:32] Voice 9: uh there was a period called the dark ages and what we know about that period is that people

[0:25:39] Voice 9: organized themselves into small groups where they owed allegiance to a leader that leader

[0:25:45] Voice 9: um probably was there because there was fighting there was fighting over land because the land was

[0:25:54] Voice 9: all occupied then we get into the middle ages and by then these leaders had grown into kings

[0:26:01] Voice 9: kings. They had castles. We have the remnants of those, so we know. And the rest of the people

[0:26:08] Voice 9: farmed the land. There were a few trades, but mostly people were farmers, working desperately

[0:26:15] Voice 9: hard. When the weather was bad, as it was for a while, people starved to death. And why did people,

[0:26:23] Voice 9: maybe I'll have to come back later to finish, why did people accept this? Because there was

[0:26:31] Voice 9: something called the divine right of kings in other words god said who was rich and who was

[0:26:37] Voice 9: poor and you had to accept it and if you complained you were dead okay then came the

[0:26:45] Voice 9: industrial revolution and there was a lot of opportunity to build wealth various things

[0:26:52] Voice 9: happened over the 20th century now i have to leave yes okay i'll come back when other people are done

[0:26:58] Voice 9: Yeah, sorry, Maxine.

[0:27:07] Trustee Luckham: Wayne Hewitt.

[0:27:10] Voice 22: Okay, so I understand we can't get any clarifications.

[0:27:13] Trustee Luckham: Pardon me?

[0:27:14] Voice 22: Can we have any clarifications?

[0:27:16] Trustee Luckham: Really, the opportunity for the clarification was prior to the public hearing, and I want to be respectful of the time.

[0:27:23] Trustee Luckham: But if it's a quick thing.

[0:27:26] Trustee Luckham: Yeah,

[0:27:26] Voice 22: just a real quick thing.

[0:27:27] Voice 22: i just under bylaw 526 does it apply to land outside the alr that a1 and a2 does apply to

[0:27:37] Voice 22: any other land that allows agriculture on their zone by zoning okay um

[0:27:43] Trustee Luckham: is there an answer to that

[0:27:45] Trustee Luckham: just by

[0:27:48] Voice 7: the quick read of the proposed uh land use table it's only talk about a1 and a2 thank you

[0:27:55] Voice 7: that's what i believe okay okay

[0:27:57] Voice 22: even though it says the lot is classified environment

[0:28:00] Voice 22: assessment act it only means a1a2 that's correct okay

[0:28:06] Voice 22: go

[0:28:07] Voice 24: ahead i'm

[0:28:10] Voice 22: wayne hewitt the local trust

[0:28:13] Voice 22: committee has many planning projects that are supposed to be proactive initiatives that further

[0:28:18] Voice 22: preserve and protect mandate i'm going to take my mask off that's fine thank you

[0:28:23] Voice 22: british columbia has a rich agriculture history and represents thousands of farmers ranchers

[0:28:28] Voice 22: and food processors.

[0:28:30] Voice 22: Species, food, and beverage products are among the best in the world,

[0:28:34] Voice 22: renowned for their diversity, freshness, and exceptional quality.

[0:28:37] Voice 22: Salt Spring Island shares the rich agriculture history

[0:28:39] Voice 22: and needs to be protected.

[0:28:42] Voice 22: Developing the Salt Spring Island Area Farm Plan Renewal Plan

[0:28:45] Voice 22: document was a collaborative island-wide effort.

[0:28:48] Voice 22: The vision statement is the Salt Spring Island community collaborates

[0:28:52] Voice 22: to produce healthy, abundant food from islands that support

[0:28:56] Voice 22: a diverse local economy and are regenerative and resistant resilient sorry to climate change

[0:29:04] Voice 22: bylaw 512 in my opinion will do more to destroy than to protect agriculture land let me explain

[0:29:12] Voice 22: my reason five

[0:29:13] Trustee Luckham: to six is our bylaw yeah

[0:29:14] Voice 22: i said five

[0:29:15] Trustee Luckham: twelve you said yes i'm sorry

[0:29:17] Trustee Luckham: sorry

[0:29:18] Voice 22: five to six my apologies why was the survey for additional farm worker dwellings

[0:29:27] Voice 22: not undertaken for all farms and farm workers to help determine the housing need before moving

[0:29:33] Voice 22: forward on the project you

[0:29:35] Voice 23: have 30 seconds is

[0:29:36] Voice 22: it a need or a want why is this survey not being done

[0:29:39] Voice 22: before proceeding with bylaw 526 there are too many items that need to be considered in this

[0:29:45] Voice 22: bylaw, for instance, but properties that have already received permission from the LC

[0:29:49] Voice 22: for an additional farm workers dwelling have not been identified. Will they be granted the

[0:29:56] Voice 22: extra housing? Some of the seasonal building uses

[0:30:00] Voice 22: a dwelling some have advertised they can provide accommodation for 90 people or more in cabins

[0:30:05] Voice 22: so

[0:30:05] Trustee Luckham: that is your two minutes you

[0:30:07] Voice 22: can come back later no problem thank

[0:30:09] Trustee Luckham: you uh tom billings

[0:30:15] Trustee Luckham: rebecca block i think it is and sue burrell possibly

[0:30:20] Trustee Luckham: hello

[0:30:25] Voice 16: my name is tom billings i'm a permaculturist and organic gardener

[0:30:29] Voice 16: um so a few things i just wanted to talk about is is that industrial farming has been shown to be

[0:30:37] Voice 16: ruining the planet uh depleting the soils and uh also um destroying our environment

[0:30:46] Voice 16: and that is eventually going to lead us to disaster the solution is permaculture and

[0:30:52] Voice 16: organic farming it needs it's it needs our support no chain no progress is possible without change

[0:31:02] Voice 16: we need to evolve to address these issues if we don't evolve and address these issues

[0:31:09] Voice 16: we're not going to have the workers to to produce the food and from all the indicators we're ready

[0:31:16] Voice 16: running headlong into a disaster um all kinds of people are talking about food shortages in

[0:31:24] Voice 16: the future just what the heck are we going to do you know um this mad chase towards technology

[0:31:34] Voice 16: and and which is shown as far as pharmaculture as far as agriculture going as the wrong direction

[0:31:41] Voice 16: we need hand hands-on workers to grow our food which makes nutritious food commercial food is

[0:31:53] Voice 16: not nutritious and it's been shown in countless studies that uh you know that commercial food is

[0:31:59] Voice 16: disastrous for our health we need good organic food and we need good organic workers to grow

[0:32:06] Voice 16: that food and they need housing there's a housing crisis in in north america there's 10 cities

[0:32:12] Voice 16: is everywhere i was shocked the last time i went to vancouver and saw the tent city on east hastings

[0:32:18] Voice 16: i saw people shooting up drugs right in front of me there and it was just shocking it was terrible

[0:32:24] Voice 16: like we need to address housing in this country thank you very much thank

[0:32:31] Trustee Luckham: you for coming today

[0:32:32] Trustee Luckham: um elizabeth fitzalyn rebecca block sue erie and nick jones

[0:32:39] Voice 28: hello elizabeth fitzalyn um thank you

[0:32:42] Voice 28: so much for holding the public hearing today and for the opportunity to speak. I wanted to share

[0:32:50] Voice 28: that about 10 years ago one of my first jobs on Salt Spring was working for several of the

[0:32:56] Voice 28: farming organizations helping to advance the area farm plan goals at the time and those priorities

[0:33:04] Voice 28: included rezoning the abattoir and the design work for the produce center which is now the root

[0:33:12] Voice 28: and one of the things that I did was go out to all the I'm not all the farmers but many of the

[0:33:17] Voice 28: farmers who were working on island at the time on behalf of the organizations to ask them what

[0:33:21] Voice 28: their needs were how much do you need to store a food what about food processing could you use a

[0:33:28] Voice 28: commercial kitchen all these things are all really infrastructure based and they politely answered my

[0:33:34] Voice 28: questions and were very kind to me and sent me tea or I picked tomatoes with them whatever

[0:33:38] Voice 28: whatever. But all of them, pretty much, with just a few exceptions, wanted to cut to the chase and

[0:33:44] Voice 28: talk about housing. I said, you know, this is all well and good to have this infrastructure-enabled

[0:33:48] Voice 28: farm center and have an abattoir and, you know, all of that, but we need housing. We need housing

[0:33:54] Voice 28: on the farms. We need farm workers. We need places for our family. We can't do this without housing.

[0:34:00] Voice 28: and um and so i'm here today to ask you to approve bylaw 526 um not only is this being

[0:34:09] Voice 28: discussed in our community this has been discussed at length across the province this is especially

[0:34:14] Voice 28: important for small farms that's why there's a backlash to what happened at the alc a few years

[0:34:18] Voice 28: ago when they tried to restrict housing further um and you know this is supported by the area

[0:34:24] Voice 28: farm plan by the ocp we need more farm worker housing this is our opportunity to do it

[0:34:30] Voice 28: i also just want to speak to and show appreciation for the limit that's being put on the primary

[0:34:37] Voice 28: dwelling um and the size limit on that and i encourage i think it's really high but i'm

[0:34:42] Voice 28: glad there's something there instead of nothing and i hope that that's something that's carried

[0:34:45] Voice 28: forward in all of our review of zoning um on the island and in different zones i think that we

[0:34:51] Voice 28: should be supporting small dwellings and putting caps on these massive houses thank you very much

[0:34:56] Voice 28: Thank you very much.

[0:35:00] Voice 24: All right.

[0:35:03] Voice 24: Rebecca.

[0:35:04] Voice 27: I'm Rebecca Block.

[0:35:06] Voice 27: And my husband and I run one of the largest farms on Salt Spring Island.

[0:35:12] Voice 27: We have 25 acres in orchard fruit, berries, and we have over 80 acres in hay that goes directly to local meat, which is butchered and sold legally on the island.

[0:35:25] Voice 27: We have seen farms come and go.

[0:35:28] Voice 27: we've seen farm families that have been here for multiple generations lose the farm right

[0:35:33] Voice 27: underneath them. We work with old-timers, new-timers, permaculturalists, cattle ranchers,

[0:35:41] Voice 27: everybody on this island. I'm here to represent the 200 of us who unfortunately can't be here

[0:35:46] Voice 27: because this is an extremely inconvenient time to

[0:35:49] Voice 1: hold a meeting

[0:35:50] Voice 27: discussing the needs of farmers

[0:35:53] Voice 27: and for the few that are here I'm really proud of us for making the time and space to show up

[0:35:58] Voice 27: and represent ourselves my 10 year old son and I were talking about this today and he said hey I'm

[0:36:04] Voice 27: only 10 I know farmers love the land and farmers know what the land needs best and I agree with

[0:36:11] Voice 27: him wholeheartedly we work with the land we work with the seasons we read about it we advocate for

[0:36:19] Voice 27: we all work for non-profits and we're showing up for ourselves here but we need to keep this

[0:36:25] Voice 27: island alive and agriculture on this island alive is support from our larger community support from

[0:36:32] Voice 27: our governance and support from our neighbors we can't just have people that shop at the Tuesday

[0:36:38] Voice 27: market or shop at our farm stands we need to diversify we have complex businesses as it is

[0:36:44] Voice 27: And we know that the only way to keep this going is to allow multi-generations to live on our farm, multiple stakeholders to live on our farm, and for us to be left to make the decisions that we know best, which is running healthy, small, organic farms.

[0:36:59] Voice 27: Take many hands and many hearts.

[0:37:02] Voice 27: Thank you.

[0:37:03] Voice 27: Thank you very much.

[0:37:13] Trustee Luckham: Let's just try and contain our enthusiasm to maintain the safe place for the diversity of opinions.

[0:37:19] Trustee Luckham: appreciate everything everybody's sharing but let's try to keep that safe place um Rebecca

[0:37:26] Trustee Luckham: Sue sorry losing track here uh so Sue go ahead and then Nick Jones uh Jackson I'm not sure about

[0:37:35] Trustee Luckham: that last name and then Ann go ahead

[0:37:37] Voice 4: I've been involved in farming for 20 years on the island

[0:37:42] Voice 4: And I have certainly, housing has always been a issue with trying to keep it going.

[0:37:50] Voice 4: And we've gone through many iterations and it has gotten too depressing to offer such pathetic housing that's temporary to people.

[0:38:02] Voice 4: We don't do that anymore.

[0:38:04] Voice 4: We've gotten it down to family.

[0:38:06] Voice 4: family uh and i that is not sustainable in the long run unless there's going to be some

[0:38:13] Voice 4: leeway made for more housing on the island and as an organic farmer and since most of the farms

[0:38:19] Voice 4: on salt spring are organic the use of land the care the the awareness of water the um

[0:38:30] Voice 4: recognition that um what we're trying to do is feed ourselves and our community as best we can

[0:38:36] Voice 4: And with high nutrition, we are the last people who want to do anything that would jeopardize that in any way.

[0:38:45] Voice 4: So in terms of making room for people to stretch what has been allowed from before,

[0:38:54] Voice 4: I think putting your trust in organic farmers to do the right thing is the place to be.

[0:39:03] Voice 4: Thanks.

[0:39:04] Voice 4: Thank you very much.

[0:39:10] Voice 24: Nick?

[0:39:12] Voice 15: My name's Nick and I've been on this island for about six years starting a farm and getting to

[0:39:17] Voice 15: know farmers and the agricultural community here as best I can and I've seen so many people living

[0:39:23] Voice 15: in dilapidated trailers, living in moldy wet cabins, trying to live in a tent all year round

[0:39:30] Voice 15: because they want to be here and they want to grow food and they want to learn how to do that

[0:39:35] Voice 15: in ways that supports the community and supports the environment but it is so hard to get up in

[0:39:41] Voice 15: in the morning when it's cold and it's moldy and it's wet and you don't have a warm place to be

[0:39:46] Voice 15: able to come back to at the end of the day I have so much respect for the people on this island who

[0:39:52] Voice 15: are trying to farm without adequate housing and I think if there's one thing that our local

[0:39:58] Voice 15: government can do to support the farming community in this moment right now when we have both a

[0:40:04] Voice 15: housing crisis and food shortage crises coming is find a way to ensure that the people on this

[0:40:12] Voice 15: island who want to grow food to support the community have a place to do so so they can be

[0:40:17] Voice 15: warm they can be dry they can be safe and they can feel like they can put down the roots to grow here

[0:40:23] Voice 15: so that this island can have a strong healthy agricultural community thank you

[0:40:31] Voice 24: thank you

[0:40:32] Voice 24: you um jackson and then ann jackson okay

[0:40:43] Trustee Luckham: well we'll go to ann and um i'll need the next list

[0:40:48] Trustee Luckham: if there's another one i'm gonna go go ahead and let

[0:40:56] Voice 26: me see these um agricultural alliance

[0:40:58] Voice 26: we did submit um a letter and have discussed it at great extent and our member organizations are

[0:41:05] Voice 26: very supportive of this this file all we were pleased to see it extending beyond um just the

[0:41:13] Voice 26: agricultural zones onto larger properties and one thing i'd like to mention that doesn't seem to

[0:41:20] Voice 26: have been pointed out um by anybody is the the aging of our farm property owners and um we have

[0:41:33] Voice 26: lots of properties that are going to people that don't want to farm them anymore they want to maybe

[0:41:38] Voice 26: stay on the land bring other people in to farm it but stay living on the land or they want to sell

[0:41:44] Voice 26: the land but they're not many farmers that can afford the vast the huge cost for some of the

[0:41:52] Voice 26: properties that farm properties that are on the market now and more than one family perhaps wants

[0:41:58] Voice 26: to get together to farm that land to work it as a farm to um but if there's only one house or even

[0:42:06] Voice 26: two houses it's a struggle because they also probably need farm workers so anything we can do

[0:42:12] Voice 26: to increase to go about that everybody not

[0:42:18] Trustee Luckham: your fault i think that wasn't securely just

[0:42:21] Voice 16: hold it just

[0:42:21] Voice 26: put it on there hold it um i'll hold it um i've lost my train thought but anything we

[0:42:27] Voice 26: can do to increase the flexibility around housing and what for year-round housing not just seasonal

[0:42:33] Voice 26: housing to get people on the

[0:42:35] Voice 26: land to grow more food on salt spring to become a more resilient

[0:42:38] Voice 26: community we're very supportive thank

[0:42:41] Trustee Luckham: you very much anne um let rob take the microphone from

[0:42:45] Trustee Luckham: I mean, I'll trade you lists.

[0:42:48] Trustee Luckham: There you go.

[0:42:49] Trustee Luckham: Perfect.

[0:42:49] Trustee Luckham: Thank you very much.

[0:42:51] Trustee Luckham: Okay.

[0:42:52] Trustee Luckham: So we got Harry Warner, Marie Beaudoin, Pablo Etnico, and Amy Santez.

[0:43:00] Trustee Luckham: But I apologize for those last names.

[0:43:02] Trustee Luckham: So, Harry, over to you, sir.

[0:43:08] Voice 24: Here we are again.

[0:43:11] Voice 14: It's been quite a while since I've been at one of these meetings.

[0:43:14] Voice 14: But I think my name is Harry Warner.

[0:43:16] Voice 14: I've been here for 32 years.

[0:43:20] Voice 14: some of you may know that I have

[0:43:22] Voice 14: a little commune there with 16

[0:43:24] Voice 14: adults and 7 children

[0:43:25] Voice 14: all of the buildings on the property are

[0:43:28] Voice 14: illegal according to regulations

[0:43:30] Voice 14: and rules

[0:43:31] Voice 14: but we have successfully

[0:43:33] Voice 14: managed to build that community

[0:43:36] Voice 14: and to keep that community

[0:43:38] Voice 14: alive

[0:43:40] Voice 14: despite all the harassment

[0:43:42] Voice 14: from various government bodies

[0:43:44] Voice 14: the people in my

[0:43:47] Voice 14: community will not be here if we

[0:43:50] Voice 14: we obeyed the law.

[0:43:53] Voice 14: It was Nelson Mandela, ,,

[0:43:56] Voice 14: a whole lot of people said, if the law is bad,

[0:43:59] Voice 14: we are required to break it.

[0:44:00] Voice 14: And that's what we have done.

[0:44:04] Voice 14: The people in my property grow their own food.

[0:44:08] Voice 14: And it seems to me that this meeting here

[0:44:11] Voice 14: is almost superfluous.

[0:44:13] Voice 14: We know that it takes many people to run a decent farm,

[0:44:18] Voice 14: particularly an organic one where heavy machinery is not

[0:44:22] Voice 14: used.

[0:44:24] Voice 14: So I'm appealing to you to listen to these people and to agree that bylaw 526 is extremely important for our community.

[0:44:36] Voice 14: And thank you for your time.

[0:44:39] Voice 14: All right.

[0:44:40] Voice 24: Thank you.

[0:44:42] Voice 23: That's great.

[0:44:45] Voice 2: Marie?

[0:44:46] Voice 2: Yes. My name is Marie Baudouin.

[0:44:49] Voice 2: I've been on Salt Spring 42 years.

[0:44:51] Voice 2: I own five acres in the Agricultural 1 zone.

[0:44:55] Voice 2: and I have a daughter who is 31 who wants to well right now who sleeps in a tent in my yard

[0:45:04] Voice 2: because I can't build anything on it you know legally and the way it's zoned it's

[0:45:11] Voice 2: you know complicated and I would like her to take over my house and my place and for me to have a

[0:45:20] Voice 2: a small cabin and live there

[0:45:21] Voice 24: and

[0:45:22] Voice 2: um i i'm very impressed with all the young farmers that are here

[0:45:28] Voice 2: that are making a way to live here i've seen in 42 years the erosion of the fabric of this island

[0:45:37] Voice 2: it is really depressing to see people who have grown up here who can't afford to live here

[0:45:44] Voice 2: like my daughter can't afford there is nothing to rent anyways unless an airbnb is suitable to you

[0:45:50] Voice 2: um and so you know 31 years old daughter she doesn't want to live in a house with me and i

[0:45:59] Voice 2: don't want that either so i'm asking you to approve this by law five to six so i can have a

[0:46:06] Voice 2: break and she can have my house legally and support all the people that are feeding us

[0:46:12] Voice 2: Thank you very much.

[0:46:13] Trustee Luckham: Thank you very much. Pablo?

[0:46:20] Voice 17: Good evening everyone. I work in the service

[0:46:24] Voice 17: industry, no sorry in the caregiving industry. I also have been experiencing the labor shortage

[0:46:33] Voice 17: and the complications that that brings for their operations to be able to give care to people

[0:46:39] Voice 17: and what I see from this perspective is that there is a huge need of workers and there is a huge need

[0:46:46] Voice 17: of housing. But in the way that laws have been like the things that laws have been addressing

[0:46:51] Voice 17: have been like really prioritizing not the necessities of of that people who work that

[0:47:00] Voice 17: people that that here is covering the minimum needs to to get the island going which includes

[0:47:05] Voice 17: of course, farming, but it touched everything.

[0:47:09] Voice 17: It touched also the industry of caregiving and it touched many more,

[0:47:13] Voice 17: and I think that it's a growing problem that is coming.

[0:47:16] Voice 17: I come to invite you guys, this is the right first step,

[0:47:21] Voice 17: this is a wonderful first step, but to keep doing laws that envision

[0:47:25] Voice 17: the living of the people that can work here.

[0:47:28] Voice 17: And think about, like, what are the needs in their context

[0:47:33] Voice 17: to to to great to write those laws and yeah yeah like at this moment the people that is working

[0:47:42] Voice 17: with the salaries that the that the industry provide for this kind of work doesn't dream to

[0:47:47] Voice 17: buy a house they dream to buy a tiny home but the laws are not there to put a bunch of tiny homes

[0:47:52] Voice 17: next to a communal kitchen where we can do a beautiful life together so we need to catch up

[0:47:57] Voice 17: like because it's it's really embarrassing that it's really embarrassing that that what we are

[0:48:03] Voice 17: coming here is to to claim for our right to have a house like and and yeah and if you see the people

[0:48:11] Voice 17: that is living sometimes in their cars that they are very harassed and they are more often than

[0:48:16] Voice 17: not the people who work the people that for me seem to be lazy is the one that make every single

[0:48:20] Voice 17: room on Airbnb. Thank

[0:48:24] Trustee Luckham: you very much, Pablo. Amy Sandage, is it?

[0:48:28] Voice 24: I'll give it to you. Thank you.

[0:48:31] Voice 20: Hi, my name is Amy Sandage. I've been an Islander for over 22 years. I am an educator

[0:48:39] Voice 20: at our high school, and I live myself in a very unique development adjacent to ALR all throughout

[0:48:48] Voice 20: out the valley um i'm my neighbors are farmers my neighbors are trades people um many of us

[0:48:58] Voice 20: live on alr land and i am in support of bylaw 526 for many reasons i'm just going to give you

[0:49:05] Voice 20: some real bullet points um you know to me very obvious um factors that that should affect your

[0:49:13] Voice 20: decision salt spring organic farming culture is labor intensive and farmers need workers workers

[0:49:19] Voice 20: need homes there is succession farming we are seeing a generation passing on the torch new

[0:49:26] Voice 20: farmers cannot afford land at today's prices particularly on salt spring and many retire

[0:49:33] Voice 20: retiring farmers want to stay on their land allowing additional dwelling support salt

[0:49:39] Voice 20: salt spring farms to survive into the next generation. And I, I will note, um, I did look

[0:49:44] Voice 20: up the census on average farmer, a farm age in Canada, but I mean, I think it's even higher on

[0:49:51] Voice 20: salt spring Canada, the average, uh, farm age or age of a farmer is 51. I believe it to be much

[0:49:58] Voice 20: higher on salt spring, which, which really does, um, speak to that need for additional housing for

[0:50:05] Voice 20: for people that have the energy and the vitality

[0:50:08] Voice 20: to continue to farm the land.

[0:50:10] Voice 20: Our large agricultural properties

[0:50:13] Voice 20: can handle an additional dwelling

[0:50:15] Voice 20: without destroying the environment.

[0:50:17] Voice 20: So I strongly disagree with that gentleman's point.

[0:50:21] Voice 23: Okay,

[0:50:22] Voice 20: landowners may not be farmers,

[0:50:23] Voice 20: but they may want their land farmed.

[0:50:26] Voice 20: I'm just gonna go to my own personal experience.

[0:50:28] Voice 20: So underutilized farm lots all over the valley.

[0:50:32] Voice 20: um there is a young agrarian movement right for food revolution and security our secure housing

[0:50:38] Voice 20: on alr will serve to increase farm productivity um approving 526 and lowering housing restrictions

[0:50:49] Voice 20: on alr will result in substandard um i'm sorry i i'm sorry you need to approve it because the

[0:50:58] Voice 1: The housing

[0:50:58] Voice 20: restrictions on ALR are resulting in substandard inadequate housing for young

[0:51:05] Voice 20: farmers, like Nick said, and that's a big problem.

[0:51:08] Voice 20: Thank you.

[0:51:09] Trustee Luckham: And I'm sorry, I kind of ran out of time there.

[0:51:11] Trustee Luckham: If you need to come back, please do.

[0:51:13] Trustee Luckham: But I want to give everybody a fair chance to be heard.

[0:51:18] Trustee Luckham: So do you have, Daniela, do you have any other lists there?

[0:51:22] Voice 23: No.

[0:51:23] Voice 23: Okay.

[0:51:23] Trustee Luckham: So that concludes my speaker's list.

[0:51:26] Trustee Luckham: list. So what I'm going to do, and I realize there's at least two people that wish to speak

[0:51:30] Trustee Luckham: again. And so I'm going to call a second time. That's the formal process the legislation requires

[0:51:36] Trustee Luckham: and call for a second time for those that have not spoken a first time to the local trust

[0:51:41] Trustee Luckham: committee. Is there anybody else in the audience that didn't have their name on the speakers list

[0:51:44] Trustee Luckham: that wishes to speak to us a first time on this important topic? All right. So then I'm going to

[0:51:50] Trustee Luckham: go to those that have indicated that they have more to say, and I'll give another two minutes

[0:51:55] Trustee Luckham: to those individuals, and I think, I'm sorry, that's the process. I'm going to give you another

[0:52:01] Trustee Luckham: two minutes to Maxine Leichter, and then followed by Wayne Hewitt, if you wish to speak again.

[0:52:21] Trustee Luckham: Let's maybe make sure that's secure or removed, because otherwise somebody's going to get hurt.

[0:52:27] Voice 9: So since there are only two of us that have lengthy presentations, wouldn't it make more

[0:52:32] Voice 9: sense to let me finish and then let Wayne finish, rather than going back and forth between the two

[0:52:37] Voice 9: the last two minutes each.

[0:52:39] Trustee Luckham: That's a great question, Maxine, and I think you understand and know our

[0:52:42] Trustee Luckham: process. And I'll be frank,

[0:52:46] Trustee Luckham: we don't necessarily need a history lesson, okay? This is about a

[0:52:51] Trustee Luckham: bylaw. Go ahead, two minutes.

[0:52:57] Voice 9: Farms need farm workers. Farm workers need housing. That's what

[0:53:02] Voice 9: that every person up here has said, and I agree.

[0:53:07] Voice 9: This bylaw appears to allow additional dwellings

[0:53:14] Voice 9: on farms that have only farm status, that's a tax status.

[0:53:21] Voice 9: That means that they're not in the ALR,

[0:53:24] Voice 9: they're not on lands on agriculture.

[0:53:28] Voice 9: And if that is the case,

[0:53:29] Voice 9: I'm not allowed to ask the question, okay?

[0:53:32] Voice 9: But if that is the case, I oppose that.

[0:53:37] Voice 9: Because anyone can come along, do some sort of farming for a couple years, get farm status, build buildings, and then not farm.

[0:53:48] Voice 9: And then they still have those buildings, and that's what I'm objecting to.

[0:53:54] Voice 9: And the reason I told this story has to do with how we solve these problems.

[0:54:00] Voice 9: And there is a myth that the private sector can solve all problems.

[0:54:07] Voice 9: It's as much a myth as the divine right of kings was a myth.

[0:54:12] Voice 9: It takes the public sector, when the private sector has created a problem like we have

[0:54:17] Voice 9: with housing, it takes the public sector to solve that problem.

[0:54:22] Voice 9: The BC government set up the ALR to support farming, and it's been pretty successful.

[0:54:29] Voice 9: successful and those lands are regulated so allowing more housing there some justification

[0:54:37] Voice 9: because there's big you know provincial regulations over what goes on in that land

[0:54:42] Voice 9: and most of the a's on land on sultry is in the alr what i am objecting to is other properties

[0:54:51] Voice 9: any property on the whole island can get tax status as a farm you have to make i think it's

[0:54:57] Voice 9: only a couple thousand dollars a year to get the tax tax and that's what i object to thank you

[0:55:11] Voice 24: wayne hewitt do you wish to speak a second time yeah i just heard one

[0:55:35] Voice 22: speaker earlier had the

[0:55:36] Voice 22: same concern as me is that she was basically saying she was glad to hear that the extensions

[0:55:42] Voice 22: is outside the ALR to the properties that are outside the ALR first this bylaw and that was

[0:55:50] Voice 22: my understanding when we had the open house talking to geordie gordon that it was any land

[0:55:56] Voice 22: that was in the egg that was assessed as farm on the whole problem on the whole island so

[0:56:02] Voice 22: if that's not the case then some of mine is irrelevant that i'll have

[0:56:06] Voice 22: that i'm going to say anyways just in case that is not the right interpretation but i'm going to

[0:56:16] Voice 22: say really quickly is there's a lot of things going on in the island that actually impact

[0:56:22] Voice 22: the amount of agriculture they may say that they're trying to improve and get more people

[0:56:28] Voice 22: here but there's big events that have 150 they're allowed up 150 people and these events are

[0:56:34] Voice 22: supposed to only go 24 hours and i went on the website and looked up some of these but some of

[0:56:38] Voice 22: them go for five days or more i think those really need to be looked at under this bylaw to make sure

[0:56:45] Voice 22: that they're not being abused because the farmland was there to produce produce and food for everybody

[0:56:52] Voice 22: and we do need this food security and i'm not against it i've been a member of the community

[0:56:57] Voice 22: supported agriculture for three years at one time and so i'm not against farming that's certainly

[0:57:03] Voice 22: because a lot of my family and my dad was even born on a farm.

[0:57:06] Voice 23: That's 32nd.

[0:57:08] Voice 23: Anyways,

[0:57:08] Voice 22: what I'm concerned about is we see farms now occurring in zones

[0:57:13] Voice 22: that there's no agriculture allowed.

[0:57:15] Voice 22: In an example, the CD3, there's two farms up there,

[0:57:18] Voice 22: and I'm not going to name the numbers, that are in that zone.

[0:57:22] Voice 22: And if that's the case, are we allowed the farms to just go anywhere they want

[0:57:27] Voice 22: if agriculture isn't zoned for it?

[0:57:29] Voice 22: In that particular area, I sat in all those meetings

[0:57:32] Voice 22: where they were trying to protect the Stowell watershed.

[0:57:35] Voice 22: And the big thing there was in 1981,

[0:57:38] Voice 22: there was a study done by the Islands Trust

[0:57:40] Voice 22: to see what potential future water sources we had.

[0:57:43] Voice 22: And Stowell Lake was one of the water sources.

[0:57:46] Voice 22: And Ford Lake was another,

[0:57:48] Voice 22: and I won't get into it because I don't have much time.

[0:57:50] Voice 22: I have a

[0:57:51] Voice 22: lot of questions.

[0:57:52] Voice 22: So maybe rather than ask all these questions,

[0:57:55] Voice 22: I will just submit my article, what I wrote.

[0:57:59] Voice 22: and but I really wanted to look carefully at what I have written and and looking if you can answer

[0:58:07] Voice 22: the questions that would be really great because I think that's one of the problems is is we never

[0:58:12] Voice 22: get back to people who ask questions and this has been going on for many years okay I've attended

[0:58:18] Voice 22: meetings since 1991. Thank you Wayne

[0:58:21] Voice 22: and

[0:58:23] Trustee Luckham: so if you can please give your submission to Daniela in

[0:58:27] Trustee Luckham: in the back there yeah

[0:58:28] Voice 22: i will do that you're

[0:58:37] Voice 23: taking yeah thank you thank

[0:58:39] Trustee Luckham: you

[0:58:41] Voice 23: i'm gonna ask

[0:58:42] Trustee Luckham: a third time if there's any other speakers and i recognize um elizabeth fitzalem there

[0:58:48] Trustee Luckham: is there any other speakers that wish to address the local trust committee today

[0:58:51] Trustee Luckham: if you can line up behind the microphone here and we'll let elizabeth go next thank you elizabeth

[0:58:57] Voice 28: hello thank you for turn number two um i wanted to speak um to the process that's happening today

[0:59:04] Voice 28: today. And certainly in regards to this bylaw, but also to bylaw 530 that's happening this

[0:59:10] Voice 28: afternoon. There's so much confusion around this because they've been scheduled on the same day for

[0:59:15] Voice 28: related topics of basically accessory dwelling units, some on farmland or agricultural based

[0:59:22] Voice 28: and some not. Another community member went around the Tuesday market this week. And I think that's

[0:59:29] Voice 28: how many of the people here who are actual farmers found out about this and let them know what was

[0:59:34] Voice 28: happening and most of them had no idea that this was happening they have been farming all summer

[0:59:40] Voice 28: not reading the driftwood or going to the website for the islands trust and likewise that's also

[0:59:47] Voice 28: happening for bylaw 530 there are so many people who will be impacted by that who are especially

[0:59:52] Voice 28: renters who are struggling to find homes who have unsafe shelter who are housing insecure who do not

[0:59:59] Voice 28: not know.

[1:00:00] Voice 28: about the bylaw hearing this afternoon.

[1:00:02] Voice 28: So this is a major issue in all my career as a planner.

[1:00:06] Voice 28: We had never scheduled any public hearings

[1:00:09] Voice 28: around housing in the middle of the summer,

[1:00:12] Voice 28: in the middle of the day.

[1:00:13] Voice 28: That's like the absolute faux pas in my work in agriculture.

[1:00:17] Voice 28: We do outreach and education and meetings in February.

[1:00:21] Voice 28: That's a great month to talk to farmers.

[1:00:23] Voice 28: And so I'm bringing this up because I think

[1:00:26] Voice 28: I want to first acknowledge the people

[1:00:28] Voice 28: who are farmers who showed up today.

[1:00:29] Voice 28: like i'm so grateful i know some people had to go back because they're like picking tomatoes right

[1:00:33] Voice 28: now um and so i i really i hope that we can improve this into the future and if there's any

[1:00:40] Voice 28: reason that you decide that you don't feel like you can improve bylaw 526 then i think that you

[1:00:46] Voice 28: need to hear from more farmers thank

[1:00:48] Trustee Luckham: you all right next speaker and just for the record state your

[1:00:55] Trustee Luckham: name again um

[1:00:56] Voice 27: my name is rebecca block i just wanted to uh address the settlement pattern that

[1:01:00] Voice 27: That was discussed about having additional dwellings for farmland on ALR land only.

[1:01:07] Voice 27: I know that will be a contentious issue when you are dealing with this.

[1:01:11] Voice 27: The settlement patterns that were created for agriculture were created in the 1970s when the zoning was created.

[1:01:18] Voice 27: And that was based on the land that was farmed at the time, which took about 120 years, I would say, from settlers to actually create the farmland,

[1:01:28] Voice 27: which was created, you know, in the settlement pattern from Booth Canal outward because people

[1:01:32] Voice 27: didn't have machines. That land is probably 20 to 25 percent more expensive to acquire now.

[1:01:40] Voice 27: All the land in ALR is actually more expensive. If you look on MLS, then it would be in different

[1:01:47] Voice 27: rural patterns. Farming is also not necessarily needed to be done on 20 flat acres. Permaculture,

[1:01:55] Voice 27: if you look all over the world can be done in a variance of ways and so to allow only ADUs to be

[1:02:04] Voice 27: done on what was traditionally zoned farmland or what is traditionally zoned farmland in the ALR

[1:02:09] Voice 27: is one small necessity that would be addressed if we are looking for people to get into the market

[1:02:15] Voice 27: they're going to need to be able to get into the market on different settlement patterns and

[1:02:19] Voice 27: residential and i do believe people can farm anywhere any place at any time as we've done

[1:02:26] Voice 27: all over the world so please uh note that when you're looking at um this file thank you thank

[1:02:31] Trustee Luckham: you very much for your additional comments um next speaker please state your name for the record

[1:02:37] Trustee Luckham: uh my name is

[1:02:38] Voice 12: jordan holster my family and i have been on salt stream for the last six years and we

[1:02:45] Voice 12: We have been farming all different kinds of crops for that time.

[1:02:52] Voice 12: We are kind of deep into the agricultural community.

[1:02:55] Voice 12: What I've seen over the years are all kinds of ramshackle housing,

[1:03:02] Voice 12: all kinds of housing that goes up outside of the legalities of farmland trust

[1:03:08] Voice 12: and outside of densities.

[1:03:11] Voice 12: It's happening.

[1:03:12] Voice 12: I see it happening. To allow a legal process to kind of go forward to have more people on the land that are actually there, it would actually provide better housing, it would actually provide more stable infrastructure to actually what's already happening.

[1:03:31] Voice 12: I think people get confused as to say, we're going to allow all this to happen. Well, it's already happening. It's happening, but it's happening outside of legalities.

[1:03:39] Voice 12: legalities so now we're having septic systems that are running its course because they're not

[1:03:43] Voice 12: legally due processed people are into uninsulated buildings because people are kind of whacking up

[1:03:49] Voice 12: because the need is there this is a definite um pathway to more density to providing more housing

[1:03:57] Voice 12: um alr land there is so much land there's just salt spring has so much land available um

[1:04:05] Voice 12: I really do feel like this is one addressing one element to our housing crisis and our

[1:04:12] Voice 12: shortage.

[1:04:13] Voice 12: And just to address another speaker here, if they were to farm for three years, five

[1:04:19] Voice 12: years, and then that building not necessarily 30 seconds, 30 seconds.

[1:04:25] Voice 12: Okay.

[1:04:27] Voice 12: And then that land wasn't being farmed.

[1:04:30] Voice 12: I don't think that's a problem.

[1:04:31] Voice 12: I think that was another way to address density and another way to address our housing crisis that we all find ourselves in.

[1:04:39] Voice 12: And having smaller structures rather than these huge megastructures that people would more likely be inclined to build for farm workers.

[1:04:47] Voice 12: It'd be simple.

[1:04:47] Voice 12: It would be more affordable, essentially.

[1:04:50] Voice 12: We have

[1:04:51] Voice 12: access to more affordable housing, regardless if they're farming or not.

[1:04:55] Voice 12: So, yeah, I

[1:04:56] Trustee Luckham: am in support.

[1:04:57] Trustee Luckham: Thank you very much.

[1:04:58] Trustee Luckham: and the next speaker if you could state your name for the record hi

[1:05:05] Voice 6: i'm joanne friedman

[1:05:06] Voice 6: thank

[1:05:08] Voice 24: you joanne go ahead i

[1:05:09] Voice 6: currently live on alr land with a partner and we took over vineyard and

[1:05:16] Voice 6: apple orchards um mainly on the property and it's been 10 years we're trying to maintain the land

[1:05:25] Voice 6: maintain the crops from invasive species alone. Personally, I don't use tractors and gasoline

[1:05:33] Voice 6: and make noise pollution. I do require extra hands on the farm. And through the years,

[1:05:40] Voice 6: we haven't yet been able to establish new produce beds to the degree that we can actually

[1:05:45] Voice 6: be sufficient with our own produce sales. So we're relying completely on apples and

[1:05:53] Voice 6: and grapes, eventually making wine.

[1:05:56] Voice 6: But all of these things require extra hands.

[1:06:00] Voice 6: There's not enough housing on the island

[1:06:02] Voice 6: for all these extra hands and affordable housing,

[1:06:06] Voice 6: especially what we can offer on the farm

[1:06:10] Voice 6: is a barter and a trade for small residences,

[1:06:14] Voice 6: auxiliary bedrooms, shared kitchens.

[1:06:17] Voice 6: All of this can be done within 108 square feet

[1:06:20] Voice 6: with a small footprint using very little water

[1:06:24] Voice 6: and complying with the safety bylaws of the CRD

[1:06:28] Voice 6: and the Islands Trust requirements.

[1:06:31] Voice 6: I don't see any further need to not be able

[1:06:34] Voice 6: to supply housing for our farm help.

[1:06:37] Trustee Luckham: Thank you.

[1:06:38] Trustee Luckham: Thank you.

[1:06:38] Trustee Luckham: Thank you very much.

[1:06:42] Trustee Luckham: The next speaker, Pablo, come on up.

[1:06:46] Voice 17: I think it's going to be faster.

[1:06:49] Voice 17: Just to point to, yeah, like the movement of the law seems to be like slowly catching

[1:06:55] Voice 17: up to the advanced set of needs of society.

[1:06:58] Voice 17: So here we are like kind of catching up in situations that were put as illegal because

[1:07:04] Voice 17: it was not shown in that way or was not allowed in this way, certain ways of living.

[1:07:10] Voice 17: So in this process of catching up we are decriminalizing some of the farms that have like how they need to have more and more people.

[1:07:22] Voice 17: And that also points us to show that the laws need to take into consideration everyone of us.

[1:07:30] Voice 17: Like not just the ones that have like the bigger money or the properties, but also like the people like me, like the renters.

[1:07:36] Voice 17: and and i also address like a legal legal holes where as an example me as a renter if my landlord

[1:07:47] Voice 17: shares my kitchen and my bathroom i have no protection whatsoever and these kind of things

[1:07:52] Voice 17: are like really really hurting the the the most vulnerable part of the of the

[1:07:57] Voice 17: of this island so

[1:07:59] Voice 17: just just open the eyes to see that there are like many more things that need to be done this

[1:08:04] Voice 17: is a good first step but take a look at the way that people needs to live and address that

[1:08:10] Voice 17: is to that direction like to see like okay what kind of situation are happening or that and then

[1:08:16] Voice 17: then approach so that's it thank you thank

[1:08:20] Trustee Luckham: you um so i've asked a third time is there any

[1:08:25] Trustee Luckham: is there anybody else in the audience wishes to address the local trust committee on bylaw 526

[1:08:30] Trustee Luckham: 6. this is the last and final call um wayne hewitt you wish to speak to us again thank

[1:08:49] Voice 24: you wayne so

[1:08:50] Voice 22: my wife and i have been working for the last few days unfortunately we couldn't get enough from the

[1:08:54] Voice 22: trash so we made our own map by taking from the green maps that are allowed on the different

[1:09:00] Voice 22: sheets that you get from zoning so when you look at this map you can see with all the lands that

[1:09:06] Voice 22: that are agriculture and yellow, the yellow with green.

[1:09:09] Voice 22: Yeah.

[1:09:10] Voice 22: You can also see where cottage bylaw 512,

[1:09:13] Voice 22: where they're allowed full-time use of a cottage.

[1:09:17] Voice 22: Yeah.

[1:09:18] Voice 21: Okay.

[1:09:19] Voice 22: And then we went back and we tried to see,

[1:09:22] Voice 22: okay, how is the farming?

[1:09:24] Voice 22: Is it getting better?

[1:09:25] Voice 22: Like a lot of lands are,

[1:09:27] Voice 22: new people are coming in, buying,

[1:09:29] Voice 22: spending huge amounts of money,

[1:09:31] Voice 22: turning it into agriculture,

[1:09:33] Voice 22: maybe a tiny little bit to get to 2,500.

[1:09:36] Voice 22: And so we made spreadsheets and you'll be receiving them.

[1:09:39] Voice 22: I know you've received lots of them already.

[1:09:41] Voice 22: My wife was just trying to get the last part done

[1:09:43] Voice 22: so we can complete it.

[1:09:46] Voice 22: But it was basically to look at what was the need

[1:09:50] Voice 22: for farm work, for housing,

[1:09:52] Voice 22: or were we creating more land being cleared,

[1:09:55] Voice 22: more soil being used to produce something

[1:09:59] Voice 22: that maybe isn't really necessary.

[1:10:01] Voice 22: It's more of a want than an absolute need.

[1:10:04] Voice 22: because we also on if you look under the line it's about 355 you'll notice you're allowed to

[1:10:09] Voice 22: use an rv for 90 days in any zone where dwelling is allowed so my concern is when you go to the

[1:10:17] Voice 22: agriculture part and you realize under the

[1:10:21] Trustee Luckham: 30 seconds go ahead i'd

[1:10:26] Voice 22: like to finish please

[1:10:28] Voice 22: put me i would like to finish can i not finish should i have to go back and then put my hand

[1:10:33] Trustee Luckham: um i don't know if there's any other speakers that wish to speak at this time i don't

[1:10:37] Trustee Luckham: you you'll be given an adequate amount of time to present as necessary but go ahead okay

[1:10:44] Voice 22: so when you

[1:10:45] Voice 22: look at my concern is as you well know i've worked on protection of water since 1991 yeah and like

[1:10:50] Voice 22: peter would call me mr water as his nickname my concern is here we are potentially going to

[1:10:59] Voice 22: disturb a lot of areas where we're going to release the phosphorus and cause more problems

[1:11:04] Voice 22: with our water fresh water sources inside the bacteria blooms and because of the phosphorus

[1:11:09] Voice 22: released from site soil by disturbing it my other concern is when you look at where the groundwater

[1:11:16] Voice 22: wells which we did to try to see what the impact is going to be on more uptake of water and under

[1:11:24] Voice 22: the groundwater under the groundwater legislation for the bc government anywhere that somebody

[1:11:30] Voice 22: irrigates or waters more than a quarter acre of land or 1 000 square meters they're required to

[1:11:37] Voice 22: register the wells and also get a license and that is probably even dugouts if they're not

[1:11:44] Voice 22: basically a connectivity for fresh water okay

[1:11:47] Trustee Luckham: wayne i do have another speaker waiting to speak

[1:11:50] Trustee Luckham: and you've spoken for three minutes now how much more time do you need so

[1:11:55] Voice 22: what i want you to do

[1:11:56] Voice 22: when you receive the information because it'll be in the back i want you to look at the spreadsheets

[1:12:02] Voice 22: we made because we spent a lot of time and look at them in detail and see where the cottages already

[1:12:07] Voice 22: are and what lands have them and also i'm really glad to hear if this is not the case it only

[1:12:14] Voice 22: applies to a1 and a2 and in the alr and not a real watershed one or we're a watershed too

[1:12:22] Voice 22: because that was not the impression we got from jordy gordon when we talked to him he said it

[1:12:27] Voice 22: applied to any land it was assessed a farm on the island so we really need to get that straight out

[1:12:35] Voice 22: i appreciate it thank you okay thank you for your time and are

[1:12:38] Voice 22: you submitting that map to us as well

[1:12:40] Voice 22: us it's

[1:12:40] Voice 22: going to come in pieces because how could you put that in the public

[1:12:44] Trustee Luckham: right but you've got

[1:12:46] Trustee Luckham: you're going to get that to us before the close of the meeting okay thank you wayne okay it may

[1:12:51] Voice 22: not get completed i know my wife is working on it yeah mostly

[1:12:54] Voice 22: be done thank

[1:12:55] Trustee Luckham: you uh the next speaker

[1:12:58] Trustee Luckham: and your name for the record please i'm

[1:13:01] Voice 19: corey johnson hi corey um i wasn't really prepared

[1:13:04] Voice 19: for this uh particular uh part of the bylaw i was more familiar with 530 that's coming up later on

[1:13:10] Voice 19: today so it's a little disappointing to see that we're sort of splitting these things up and making

[1:13:14] Voice 19: it hard for people have to attend multiple different events at the same day it's hard

[1:13:18] Voice 19: enough to get out of work to come to any of these events let alone two of them in one day

[1:13:25] Voice 19: basically all I've got to say about this one because I don't know that much about this

[1:13:28] Voice 19: particular bylaw is I support any housing that can allow workers in this community to live

[1:13:35] Voice 19: thrive and participate in the community anything we

[1:13:37] Voice 19: can do to embrace that and help solve this

[1:13:41] Voice 19: housing crisis I'm all for and so I think this is another step a small step to creating that

[1:13:48] Voice 19: opportunity for better housing for everybody and I support this thank

[1:13:53] Trustee Luckham: you okay thank you

[1:13:54] Trustee Luckham: Corey for taking the time today to convey that message appreciate it is there anybody else that

[1:14:01] Trustee Luckham: wishes to address the local trust committee today.

[1:14:06] Voice 24: Maxine Leichter.

[1:14:14] Voice 9: Before you pass this bylaw you

[1:14:16] Voice 9: should insist on having a map a map that shows where it applies and where it doesn't apply

[1:14:22] Voice 9: because there seems to be this disagreement among whether where this applies and where it doesn't

[1:14:27] Voice 9: apply okay and how it overlaps with the sweet cottage's bylaws.

[1:14:33] Trustee Luckham: Okay thank you for that advice

[1:14:36] Trustee Luckham: and I'm sure that a map will be included at some point

[1:14:39] Trustee Luckham: if it's not already.

[1:14:42] Trustee Luckham: Anybody else wish to speak to the Local Trust Committee

[1:14:45] Trustee Luckham: on By-law 526?

[1:14:48] Trustee Luckham: Go ahead, sir.

[1:14:54] Voice 1: Hi there.

[1:14:55] Voice 1: My name is-

[1:14:55] Voice 1: Two minutes.

[1:14:56] Voice 1: Two minutes, yeah, fine.

[1:14:57] Voice 1: My name is Jordan Heitzman.

[1:14:58] Voice 1: I just want to express my support for By-law 26

[1:15:03] Voice 1: and just with the caveat that I think it's important

[1:15:07] Voice 1: to try to make it as flexible as possible

[1:15:09] Voice 1: within the limits of the ALC.

[1:15:11] Voice 1: farm workers need all the support they can get yeah there's so many challenges for local farm

[1:15:15] Voice 1: workers and uh so so that's the main thing and i'm not sure exactly the detail but if there's

[1:15:22] Voice 1: still a covenant that makes it more difficult to to use this extra building you know there's

[1:15:27] Voice 1: maximum i've been running into people who have um you know the need for multi-generational

[1:15:32] Voice 1: succession and sometimes the the maybe maybe the the owners of the farm or the previous generation

[1:15:37] Voice 1: wants to live in a in the second dwelling they're not the farm worker themselves but they're

[1:15:41] Voice 1: their family is like so if we can you know farm worker status should be enough um and i think

[1:15:48] Voice 1: that's you know we just really want to try to make it as easy as possible for these farmers

[1:15:51] Voice 1: another point that's been raised by farm friends is is to try to make it as easy as possible for

[1:15:56] Voice 1: um you know um the the the agritourism for those glamping opportunities things like that so they

[1:16:05] Voice 1: can you know they need as many possible different streams of revenue and so being able to to rent

[1:16:09] Voice 1: out some some spaces for people to come and stay on the farm and and you know um uh experience farm

[1:16:15] Voice 1: life and and help someone come that way uh thank you very much thank you ronald for coming today

[1:16:23] Trustee Luckham: um is there anybody else who wishes to address the local trust committee today

[1:16:28] Trustee Luckham: sir did you state your name for the record and you have two minutes absolutely i think you've seen the

[1:16:33] Trustee Luckham: flash cards to help you okay great well i'm

[1:16:37] Voice 13: julian bruce um really wanted to know actually you can

[1:16:40] Voice 13: remove

[1:16:40] Trustee Luckham: the mic if it's inconvenient yeah

[1:16:42] Voice 13: i don't want to knock it over you

[1:16:44] Trustee Luckham: know it looks to me like

[1:16:46] Trustee Luckham: that's unthreading at the time yeah

[1:16:48] Voice 13: i wanted to echo your statements there that you know putting

[1:16:53] Voice 13: too many uh what

[1:16:55] Trustee Luckham: was your name sorry for the record

[1:16:56] Voice 13: julian bruce okay

[1:16:57] Trustee Luckham: so i grew

[1:16:58] Voice 13: up on this

[1:16:59] Voice 13: island have really seen a reduction in the amount of farms used intensively um and i just haven't

[1:17:07] Voice 13: seen properties that have farm tax status that aren't farms it's so rare so to you know i

[1:17:16] Voice 13: understand that there's a lot of concerns about this being abused um and that's important i think

[1:17:22] Voice 13: looking at

[1:17:24] Voice 13: the zones is a really important one as there is some you know a1 and a2 are what's

[1:17:29] Voice 13: talked about in the proposed bylaw but there's also language talking about it being available

[1:17:35] Voice 13: in other zonings so clarity on that's important and that's a really important point to make sure

[1:17:40] Voice 13: that you know all farms that really are farms and should be farms have this available to them but

[1:17:47] Voice 13: also that you know it doesn't get abused and expanded into zones where there's a larger

[1:17:52] Voice 13: environmental potential problem but i

[1:17:54] Voice 1: really don't think

[1:17:55] Voice 13: that the issue of you know

[1:17:57] Voice 13: yes you have to

[1:17:58] Voice 13: only make two thousand dollars to get farm tax status on many properties but i just haven't seen

[1:18:03] Voice 13: the examples of those properties that are running a farm stand at the end of the road making you know

[1:18:09] Voice 13: two thousand dollars it's a fair bit uh for selling berries so i don't think there's you

[1:18:13] Voice 13: know that much opportunity for this to be abused in that regard from from my uh views on farm tax

[1:18:20] Voice 13: status on the island um there's one other note about the proposed bylaw though um right the

[1:18:31] Voice 13: The bit about a, sorry, it's hard to read.

[1:18:36] Voice 13: It's so small.

[1:18:36] Voice 13: A dwelling unit accessory to commercial

[1:18:38] Voice 13: should be used on a lot,

[1:18:44] Voice 13: used for the residential accommodation

[1:18:46] Voice 13: of farm worker employees.

[1:18:48] Voice 13: That seems like a great threshold to ensure

[1:18:50] Voice 13: that the people staying in these spaces

[1:18:53] Voice 13: or let's talk about it being for family as well.

[1:18:57] Voice 13: That does seem like a hard thing to enforce.

[1:18:59] Voice 13: force um so i just wanted to bring that up i know there's always enforcement issues with a lot of

[1:19:06] Voice 13: overlap with these you know best intention bylaws then becoming short-term vacation rental uses so

[1:19:15] Voice 13: i'm not sure what the solution is to that but that's something perhaps to give more thought to

[1:19:19] Voice 13: with this bylaw how you can both empower farmers to ensure that they all everybody that should be

[1:19:25] Voice 13: eligible for this gets it but also that we're not empowering people to abuse this uh and to see more

[1:19:33] Voice 13: short-term vacation rentals where they shouldn't be thank you thank you thank

[1:19:37] Trustee Luckham: you for your sound

[1:19:38] Trustee Luckham: advice um i'll ask one more time as additional speakers and um again please state your name for

[1:19:47] Trustee Luckham: the record it's hard for me to keep track of everybody yes

[1:19:50] Voice 6: it's joanne friedman thank you

[1:19:52] Trustee Luckham: I

[1:19:53] Voice 6: would just like to comment on what I heard from a couple of the speakers.

[1:19:58] Voice 6: Agritourism is a growing, important industry for our farm in particular.

[1:20:03] Voice 6: I currently have my farm help staying due to agritourism.

[1:20:06] Voice 6: We do work exchange with an educational program on the campground.

[1:20:11] Voice 6: And without this sort of work trade experience, we wouldn't be able to operate our farm.

[1:20:22] Voice 6: currently. So I think additional cabins for agritourism is as important to the farmers as

[1:20:31] Voice 6: it would be bringing tourists into Ganges for the market and the artisans and all the businesses

[1:20:36] Voice 6: during the summer. So short-term housing for tourism is really important to our farm,

[1:20:43] Voice 6: as well as my personal business, because I'm an artisan at that market.

[1:20:47] Voice 6: it. Thank you

[1:20:49] Trustee Luckham: very much. Anybody else wish to address the LTC today?

[1:20:55] Voice 24: So I

[1:21:00] Trustee Luckham: think that concludes

[1:21:01] Trustee Luckham: our town hall on bylaw 526. So I'm going to ask you one last time, if you have any written

[1:21:10] Trustee Luckham: submissions, please give them to our legislative clerk. And we will be taking all of this

[1:21:21] Trustee Luckham: this information into consideration.

[1:21:25] Trustee Luckham: So when you close the public hearing,

[1:21:29] Trustee Luckham: please note that once this hearing is closed,

[1:21:31] Trustee Luckham: now we'll be no longer able to receive information

[1:21:34] Trustee Luckham: or the trustee is not

[1:21:35] Trustee Luckham: able to discuss this with you

[1:21:37] Trustee Luckham: until we get to our next decision-making moment.

[1:21:41] Trustee Luckham: And just making sure I'm covering everything here.

[1:21:47] Trustee Luckham: And so we are going to recess.

[1:21:49] Trustee Luckham: actually we're going to adjourn this meeting and we will be holding a second public hearing

[1:21:55] Trustee Luckham: for bylaw 530 starting at four o'clock today and appreciate the difficulties that this has

[1:22:03] Trustee Luckham: for everybody but I actually just want to most of the farmers have all left because they've gone

[1:22:07] Trustee Luckham: farming no doubt I really want to acknowledge particularly the young folks that have come here

[1:22:11] Trustee Luckham: today and farmers that have been here today this is really important work that you do and I am

[1:22:16] Trustee Luckham: incredibly appreciative of you trying to provide food for us and so thank you very

[1:22:22] Trustee Luckham: much and so that concludes our public hearing today thank you thank you everybody