Salt Spring committee asks province to appoint housing adviser

The committee voted to seek an independent adviser to review its actions and recommend ways to align water servicing with housing needs.

The Denman Firestarter · Governance · 2026-03-19 · updated 2026-10-02 · Salt Spring Island

The Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee voted to ask the Province of British Columbia to appoint an independent housing adviser to work with the committee and recommend ways to increase housing options, including tools to align water servicing with critical housing needs.[1]

The motion, which carried, asks the adviser to review actions taken to date and provide recommendations to the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs.[1]

During discussion, trustees cited the need to align housing policy with water servicing and said there was no current framework to direct new water connections toward the housing types most urgently needed.[1]

One trustee opposed the proposal, saying the committee was elected to address housing issues and that rezoning could have been undertaken; another trustee said progress on the Official Community Plan and Land Use Bylaw project had been slow because of staff capacity related to staffing shortages.[1]

The committee also deferred its Official Community Plan and Land Use Bylaw project update to its April meeting.[1]

Sources

  1. Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee meeting minutes, March 19, 2026
    that the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee request the Province of British Columbia to appoint an independent housing advisor under the Housing Supply Act to work with the LTC to review actions to date and provide recommendations to the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs on increasing equitable housing options within the affordable housing non-market to near or low market rental and ownership portions of the housing spectrum, including the development of policy and regulatory tools to help align water servicing allocation with critical housing needs.

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