Petitions
Status: Slated to go to Council in February 2025
Status: Ongoing
Status: Ongoing
Status: Ongoing
Status: Urgent
Status: Ongoing
The Province of BC currently does not define "lobby" as a noun in the so-called Lobbyists Transparency Act, thus while the Act acknowledges that organizations lobby as an activity in verb form (through hiring in-house lobbyists), it does not identify lobbies as actual entities, a major blind spot that provides plausible deniability to the BC government that deals with them and to lobbies themselves about the true nature of their organizations.
This provides the government with the ability to deny that branches of the government have not only partnered with lobbies through paid memberships in them, but in addition provides the government the ability to deny that they are simultaneously funding and using lobbies as advisors both outside and within the governmental system, when they are.
For democracy's sake, this must be changed immediately.
Status: Ongoing
Status: Victory
Status: Victory
Status: Partial Victory, Ongoing
The Province's plans to bulldoze the current RBCM building were halted and the Third Floor, including the imperiled Old Town was partially reopened to the public.
The petition started within a week of the initial announcement of the closing of the third floor and with over several thousand signatures, continues to demand nothing less than the full restoration of the once world renowned third floor.
Status: Ongoing
Status: Ongoing
Status: Victory
Status: Ongoing
Status: Saanich's Local Area Plans were rendered legally non-binding by Saanich Council on May 7, 2024 at the final hearing on the new Official Community Plan by removing them from the OCP Bylaw and by putting sections in the OCP that allows the OCP to override them. They did not properly inform the public that this was about to take place prior to the public's final input on the new OCP, neither did the so-called "local media".
That said, this is not over. If elected in 2026, I will do everything I can to fully and rightfully restore Saanich's Local Area Plans, which I consider to have been rendered legally non-binding without democratic assent from the public, therefore the effort to save Saanich's Local Area Plans will continue.
None of the Councillors that voted to render the Local Area Plans (LAPs) legally non-binding told the public during their election campaigns that they intended to do this.
During the deliberations on the new Official Community Plan (OCP), it was mentioned that Saanich could have fully informed the residents of Saanich by mailout at the cost of one dollar per household. That was all it would have taken to properly inform the public about what was about to take place that would reshape their communities for years to come, and yet they didn't, despite spending millions of dollars without blinking on numerous pet projects that has Saanich's debt projected to increase from $54 million to $424 million in 2033 and the cost of merely servicing the debt annually has been projected by Saanich to: "to go from $5.1 million in 2023 to $31.6 million by 2033."
Although Saanich is scheduled to have a referendum about joining the City of Victoria through amalgamation and even had a referendum to have a referendum on amalgamation, not even the possibility of a referendum on the Local Area Plans was discussed by the Council prior to rendering them legally non-binding last month.
Despite not properly informing the public that the disabling of the LAPs by rendering them legally non-binding was on the table during the OCP public hearing, the petition helped spread awareness and galvanize public opposition to the disabling of the LAPs, and as a result, numerous members of the public spoke during the public hearing to preserve Saanich's Local Area Plans. The public spoke to almost 1 in the morning, without even a break provided by the council during the night; as the council seemed eager to have public input closed that night.
The message from the public was overwhelming that night that they did not want their Local Area Plans disabled through rendering them legally non-binding.
For the majority of the Council however, it appears that the public's message fell on deaf ears so to speak. During the final deliberations on the new OCP on May 7, half the Councillors asked no questions whatsoever of Saanich staff prior to voting to pass the 3rd and fourth final readings of the new OCP the same evening, despite that the completion of the new OCP is not required by the Province until the end of next year in 2026!
Thank you to everyone who supported the preservation of our Local Area Plans!!! The great effort to preserve them by the public is not over. With the potential for a new Saanich Council in 2026, it will be possible for the Local Area Plans to be fully restored through an actual democratic referendum at the polls.
06/16/2024
Status: Ongoing
Status: Ongoing
Status: Ongoing
