My vision for Saanich is a knowledgeable, experienced Council that works together, provides clear direction to staff, listens meaningfully to residents, and focuses on practical solutions.
As a councillor, I will advocate for practical solutions to improve how Saanich works; breaking down departmental silos, improving workflow, communication, and ensuring residents and businesses have timely, accurate information alongside clear, transparent processes.
Monday’s Council meeting raised concerns for me. Six significant items were on the agenda, with only three minutes of public input per person. Someone wanting to speak to all six items had just 30 seconds each. That is not meaningful public participation. I challenged this, unsuccessfully, at the end of public input by asking to speak as a resident on a different item following speaking as the president of the Carey Area Residents’ Association earlier. In more than twenty-years of addressing council during public input, I have never felt the need to make this request.
Is council providing direction and driving outcomes or leaving too much of that responsibility to staff?
When decisions move forward without environmental and neighbourhood impact information and building plans available, it blurs the line between Council’s responsibility to approve and staff’s role to provide complete accurate information and recommend options.
The development application process has been too slow for too long. Process changes affecting applications already underway, cost applicants time and money; resulting in abandoned applications without cost recovery. Provincial legislation intended to streamline approvals through pre-zoning (removing a step) has not resolved the issues and created other unintended consequences. Saanich needs to clearly define and publish the requirements used to screen applications, so staff, applicants and residents understand what densification is optional rather than required. In the meantime, it is probable that applications with irreversible environmental and neighbourhood downstream impacts will continue to be approved.
Collaborating with the new council, I will advocate for a solutions-focused approach to housing based on supply and demand. While market housing and rental supply has saturated the market the need for attainable, affordable housing remains under delivered. Saanich had (and has) the option to move faster on garden suites and legalizing in-home suites, including pre-designed options that could help local community-based builders and contractors deliver housing more efficiently.
With approximately 25,000 pre-zoned properties, gentle densification providing even one additional suite on each property could create tens of thousands of new housing opportunities without relying solely on large-scale development.
At the same time, well-defined urban centres can accommodate apartment buildings with a mix of attainable ownership and rental housing, while ground-level uses such as daycare, health services and community gathering spaces can support complete communities.