Indigenous group opposes housing density on B.C.’s Salt Spring Island

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Housing advocates on B.C.’s Salt Spring Island thought they had found a simple win in a longer-term effort to increase density and affordability, but they are faced with Indigenous opposition concerned with ecological impact.

The Saanich-based Tsawout First Nation – which has a reserve on Salt Spring, though no members are living on it – opposes proposed Bylaw No. 530, which would legalize accessory-dwelling units on the biggest of the province’s Gulf Islands. ADUs, such as secondary small houses or suites over garages, are units added to existing property as a way to provide more housing.

The band says the proposal, which was suggested by a housing task force set up by the Islands Trust commission, encroaches on its traditional rights and will damage the island’s ecology by putting too many people in the location. It’s a stark contrast with First Nations in Vancouver planning to build massive new developments that break all previous height and density limits.

“The bylaw amendment infringes on our aboriginal rights and title to protect our traditional territory” and “the proposed referral will significantly change the environmental trajectory of the island by pushing the living capacity well past the standards that were originally outlined in the Salt Spring Island Official Community Plan,” says a letter Tsawout First Nation sent to the commission in preparation for a public hearing on the issue this fall.

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“Furthermore, Bylaw No.530 does not address the potential impacts increased development and living capacity will have on Tsawout First nations rights to manage the traditional territory for now and future generations.”

Of six First Nations that have responded to the bylaw, only the Tsawout have expressed outright opposition. The latter’s offices did not respond to multiple Globe and Mail requests for comment.

Tsawout First Nation’s response has flummoxed commissioners and housing advocates, as Salt Spring has long experienced shortages – with stories about its only hospital being unable to attract staff or the rise of people illegally living on boats making headlines. But Indigenous opposition has been viewed with much satisfaction by the group of Salt Spring Island residents who have made similar arguments about preserving the environment and not exceeding the island’s carrying capacity.

“We’re in a very awkward moment,” said Laura Patrick, one of the two commissioners for the Islands Trust, a unique level of regional government for the 13 major and 450 smaller islands in the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the mainland. “We did delay the public hearing by two months to allow us to build some time to engage with the Tsawout, but we have 13 nations here. How, as a decision maker, do we weigh one nation supports something against another?”

Many long-time renters and even some owners contacted by The Globe say it’s always been a challenging place to find housing but that the problem has escalated to new heights in the past year.

“I have been a happy renter by choice all my life, but I have never experienced what we are experiencing now,” said Nisha Helmig, a 75-year-old who has been forced to move five times since May, 2022. “Friends of friends have been taking me in because there is nothing to rent and I don’t want to leave Salt Spring, and I am certainly not alone.”

But an island group that opposes Bylaw No. 530 says the proposal doesn’t include any kind of controls to prevent new units from being used as short-term vacation rentals rather than affordable housing. As well, the bylaw, which could end up applying to 5,000 properties on the island, will stress the island too much, they say.

“We’ve passed the population load the island can carry,” said Ron Wright of the Keep Salt Spring Sustainable group.

Aside from the opposition from the Tsawout, three First Nations have written in to say they have no comment on the proposed bylaw, one has said it falls outside their traditional territory and one has said they’d like to see more efforts to provide for the housing needs of local Indigenous people. The Ts’uubaa-asatx Nation added that, although it had no concerns about the current proposal, it wants the right to comment on future land-use plans to monitor any effects for their people.

A lawyer who specializes in Indigenous rights said it’s likely that more First Nations will start expressing their opinions, not just on individual projects near reserves or sensitive archeological sites as they have in the past, but more general land-use proposals and official community plans.

“I think we’re going to see more First Nations saying they want shared jurisdiction. They are going to join with other governments to say what kind of zoning and regulations should happen on fee-simple land,” said Elisa Penn, an associate with the Mandell Pinder firm.

Jen Ford, the president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities and a Whistler councillor, also said Indigenous consultation in general land-use policy is going to be more of a factor in the future.

“Situations similar are not widespread across the province presently, but I will be watching to see how this issue is resolved,” Ms. Ford said in an e-mail statement. She added that the province’s declaration last March of an action plan on implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has opened the door for much more consultation between municipalities and First Nations around them.

Adam Olsen, the Green Party MLA who represents the area, also says that B.C. cities, regional districts and jurisdictions such as the Islands Trust are going to have to figure out how to accommodate that.

“It’s a huge challenge for the Islands Trust and a similar reality exists in urban areas,” said Mr. Olsen, a member of the Tsartlip First Nation based on the Saanich peninsula. “It’s going to require even more effort. The way it gets solved is by building a strong relationship. A good relationship is the only way through this.”

That complication is just the latest in the crisis-level housing squeeze that is prevalent in most of B.C., but is particularly acute and divisive in the Gulf Islands.

There, the call for “work force” housing to help alleviate the problem of huge shortages of school, health and service workers runs up against the dilemma of adding population to areas with unique water-supply problems that mainland areas don’t have.

Developing new housing on the islands has been contentious for decades. The Islands Trust was created in 1974 with a mandate to “preserve and protect the Trust Area and its unique amenities for the benefit of the residents.” It was seen as a way to prevent subdivision-style developments from overtaking the islands.

But critics say the Islands Trust model of governance has proven ineffective in dealing with current problems. And some say the trust’s original mandate has been twisted by some environmental groups and residents who seem to believe that the islands should be preserved as a kind of park.

“Preserve and protect has been turned into ‘Do nothing,’” said former NDP premier Mike Harcourt, who has had a home on Pender Island for decades. “And that seems to be more extreme on Salt Spring.”

Mr. Harcourt said there have been some changes in recent years, as pro-housing groups on some of the islands have fought hard to get social housing built there or to change bylaws to allow more than one dwelling a property.

That sea change is something that groups worried about overdevelopment have noticed. After last fall’s local elections, Frants Attorp of the Friends of the Gulf Islands wrote in several published opinion pieces that “pro-deregulation” candidates were taking over and putting all the islands at risk with their openly anti-NIMBY attitudes.