Should Salt Spring Island have more accountable local government?
Private project. The petition is open. This domain preserves public information and invites anyone who thinks Salt Spring Island should govern itself to add their name. It does not claim to speak for Salt Spring Island.
Sign the petition on this page. Residents decide whether and when to sign.
Local context: Salt Spring voters rejected incorporation in 2017 by 3,930 votes to 2,419. Any new local process must begin with that decision and examine what, if anything, has changed since then.
Options local people may examine
Municipal incorporation or regional-district transfer.
A stronger elected local body or service-area reform.
A modified Islands Trust structure.
Maintaining the status quo.
The island, on the record
6,457 parcels across 18,964 hectares, mapped and inspectable. 396 Islands Trust meetings archived since 2012.
Parcel counts and hectares cover the whole Salt Spring Island Local Trust Area as ParcelMap BC maps it, which includes foreshore and marine parcels as well as land. Treat the hectare figure as mapped parcel area, not the island's land area.
The largest and most populous Gulf Island, with the biggest planning caseload in the Trust Area.
Latest research and writing
Newest first; every claim footnoted to its source.
Salt Spring Island: 11,635 people, no council, and a quarter of the Trust's money Published August 21, 2026 Salt Spring is the largest unincorporated community in British Columbia — bigger than 107 of BC's 161 municipalities. It has voted down incorporation twice. The Province's own analysis shows why the second vote mattered to every other island in the Trust.
The Definition of a Crisis Published August 16, 2026 Salt Spring Island declared a housing crisis, and the Islands Trust's own volunteer task force then told it publicly that it moves too slowly to meet one. From a six-month wait for a single staff report, to a community-plan rewrite its consultant walked away from, to a water system that stopped taking new connections in 2014, Salt Spring is the case study in an institution whose pace has become the problem.
Water: the groundwater under Salt Spring Island
Island homes drink groundwater. The Province of British Columbia maps 6 aquifers under Salt Spring Island; the main one sits beneath 3,205 of the island's lots, and 2,297 wells are registered on these aquifers. Classifications below are the Province's own, shown verbatim. Full water report for Salt Spring Island →
Aquifer 721 — Saltspring Island; north part: Bedrock — Fractured sedimentary rock, 48.9 km², mapped 2018. Vulnerability High; productivity Low; demand —; 1053 wells on record; 3 water licences. Provincial factsheet
Aquifer 722 — Saltspring Is; central part; Ganges area: Bedrock — Fractured sedimentary rock, 36.4 km², mapped 2018. Vulnerability High; productivity Low; demand —; 491 wells on record; 4 water licences. Provincial factsheet
Aquifer 1147 — Saltspring Island: Bedrock — Fractured crystalline bedrock, 48.8 km², mapped 2018. Vulnerability High; productivity Low; demand —; 480 wells on record; 0 water licences. Provincial factsheet
Aquifer 723 — Saltspring Island: Bedrock — Fractured crystalline bedrock, 51.4 km², mapped 2018. Vulnerability High; productivity Low; demand —; 238 wells on record; 0 water licences. Provincial factsheet
Aquifer 156 — Ganges Harbour, Saltspring Island: Sand and Gravel — Unconfined sand and gravel - late glacial outwash, 2.3 km², mapped 2019. Vulnerability Moderate; productivity Low; demand —; 14 wells on record; 1 water licence. Provincial factsheet
Aquifer 157 — Fulford Harbour, Saltspring Island: Sand and Gravel — Unconfined sand and gravel - late glacial outwash, 5.6 km², mapped 2019. Vulnerability Moderate; productivity Moderate; demand —; 21 wells on record; 0 water licences. Provincial factsheet
A High vulnerability rating means relatively little natural protection between the surface and the water people draw from; it describes susceptibility, not current contamination. Source: Ground Water Aquifers — BC Data Catalogue (Open Government Licence — BC) and the Province's GWELLS registry.
Ferry tracker
Fulford–Swartz Bay · Vesuvius–Crofton · Long Harbour — live sailings and vessel positions sit at the top of this page. Official schedules: www.bcferries.com/routes-fares/schedules.
Ownership and relationship
Private, personal project. Salt Spring Town was built privately and is maintained privately by Tony Aly, a vibe coder on Denman Island. It is not an official government, Islands Trust, regional-district, community-association, or locally endorsed website.
The related Abolish Islands Trust project advocates long-term provincial statutory change. A future locally led island project may choose a different position.