[LINK] "Island Madness: The residents of B.C.'s Gulf Islands are all riled up"

[rfmcdonald]

I've blogged a fair bit here about the Toronto Islands, a collection of sandy dunes bracketing Toronto's inner harbour that, somewhat paradoxically, are actively promoted and protected by the city government and the mini-archipelago's inhabitants as pristine territories, beautiful pieces of nature perfect for--regulated--mass tourism. Via the National Post's Brian Hutchinson, I've learned that the Toronto Islands have close analogies on the British Columbian coast, in the Gulf Islands that lie midway between Vancouver and Vancouver Island in the Strait of Georgia. Although these islands are much larger--the largest, Saltspring Island, is home to ten thousand people and hundreds of times the surface area of the Toronto Islands combined--they have a similar carefully contentious relationship with the mainland that supports the islands economically but could also overwhelm them. It turns out that many people in the Gulf Islands are not happy at all with the way the islands are strictly controlled.

Mr. Pierce swears that all he did to rile up certain neighbours was question new draft bylaws crafted for the island, especially fine print restrictions on agricultural land use and residency. He directly challenged one of Hornby’s two elected officials, members of the Islands Trust. A federation of local governments, the Trust regulates and directs policy on all 470 Gulf Islands, large and small. The vast majority of residents live on 14 of the islands.

Mr. Pierce has been shunned by a segment of his community ever since. “This is the most tightly controlled place I’ve ever seen,” he says. “Step out of line and you become a target.” But that’s nothing new. For as long as anyone can remember, people have bickered on these otherwise idyllic islands, about everything. And since 1974, the year it was established by provincial legislation, the Islands Trust has borne much of the blame.

The Trust is variously accused of an anti-development bias, of being anti-democratic, of refusing to follow simple common sense. Rebellions erupt every few years on one island, then another. There’s a big one brewing on Salt Spring, the largest and most famous island in the Gulf Island chain.

On Sunday, a secessionist rally was held in downtown Ganges, the island’s commercial centre. A group called Islanders for Self-Government wants the B.C. government to review the Islands Trust Act. They want “locally accountable and responsible governance.” They specifically would like Salt Spring to break free from the Islands Trust and incorporate, so that it may establish its own municipal governance.

Incorporation would be expensive, especially for ratepayers, notes Islands Trust chairperson Sheila Malcolmson. The province no longer provides “transition” funding to islands that do choose to go the municipal route, she says. A referendum on the matter was held on her island, Gabriola, in 2005, and incorporation was soundly rejected. Salt Spring held a referendum in 2002 with the same result.

But that was well before the Salt Spring Coffee Co. debacle. The island’s second-largest employer saw its proposal for a new, eco-friendly coffee roasting facility shot down last year by the Islands Trust, in response to some isolated but very vocal opposition led by noted wildlife artist Robert Bateman.