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NEWS: Locals add to national health survey /A5 A Lambrick student fashions COMMUNITY: Ten years for Haliburton farm /A6 a cedar strip canoe. Page A3 SPORTS: Vikes basketball on track /A24
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SAANICHNEWS Friday, November 30, 2012
CRD rejects bid to delay sewage treatment Daniel Palmer News staff
After three hours of impassioned debate, Capital Regional District directors rejected a motion to delay the $783-million wastewater treatment project on Tuesday. The vote was held over from a Nov. 14 liquid waste management committee meeting, where nearly 30 public speakers argued for and against the need for regional secondary sewage treatment. Saanich Coun. Vic Derman and Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins defended their motions to pursue a low-risk designation under federal regulations, a move that would extend the deadline for compliance from 2020 to 2040. “This is not about not treating our sewage, this is about ensuring a better plan,” Desjardins said. Derman argued better technology and money-saving measures can still be implemented. Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin spoke for the majority of the committee when he said treatment is overdue and necessary. “For each household, it’s a dollar a day,” Fortin said. “Let’s put this in perspective. It’s a big global cost (to not treat sewage) and we have a responsibility to implement this.” View Royal Mayor Graham Hill, one of four directors who voted to delay the project, implored his colleagues to work harder to gain public support for the mega-project. He said directors would face consequences for failing to do so at the next municipal election. PLEASE SEE: CRD creates, Page A2
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Saanich allotment gardens
GROW Demand is high as district eyes first new public plots in 30 years Sharon Tiffin/News staff
Saanich Coun. Paul Gerrard, chair of the parks, trails and recreation committee, with hoe in hand in the Capital City Allotment gardens, is aiming to create two new community gardens by next year.
Kyle Slavin News staff
Aspiring farmers may soon have access to two new municipal gardens to grow their goods. Saanich recently announced plans to create two community gardens – one behind Commonwealth Place and one in Gorge Park – to help meet a growing demand for useable land. They would be the first new public garden spaces in Saanich in 30 years. “It’s part of the Saanich philosophy. But there’s also more interest now in food security than there’s ever been,” said Coun. Paul Gerrard, chair of Saanich’s parks, trails and recreation committee. “Why should we have foreign products come in? This was a farming community; we used to produce, on Vancouver Island, 75 per cent or more of our food. It’s under 10
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per cent now, for sure. We need to go back to that, by putting a focus on agriculture.” Saanich’s official community plan seeks to have a community garden in each local area. If these two open, that would bring the number of allotment gardens in Saanich to four. The Capital City Allotment gardens and the Agnes Street gardens, each with about 140 plots, are operational a few blocks apart near McKenzie Avenue and the Pat Bay Highway. “I think it’s going to be a situation where if we can get these two new gardens going, we can attract more and more communities to say, ‘We want one of these in our area, too.’ That’s our hope,” Gerrard said. Dorothy Fitzsimmons, in charge of renting out plots on Agnes Street, says the more gardens Saanich has, the better. “We had to cut our waiting list off at 70,” she said, noting that it could take a decade
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before those 70 gardeners-in-waiting get a plot there. “Most people keep renting them. The only ones that seem to quit are those of us who get too old to garden, and sometimes the people who take on a plot and don’t realize how much work is involved.” Gerrard says the parks department is currently having talks with the Gorge Tillicum Urban Farmers and the Saanich Allotment Garden Advocates Association to operate and maintain the two new gardens. “Saanich would supply the land, the water lines, the parking, but then it has to be managed,” he said. “(These groups will) have to decide who gets plots. It could be local neighbours, it could be school groups, it could also be people who live in apartments.” PLEASE SEE: Panama Flats, Page A2
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