Dear Saanich Residents,

Last night at Saanich Council, “Public Forum,” ‘another brick in the wall,’ was dismantled from Saanich’s foundation and legacy of civic engagement.

Although the opportunity for semi-annual public town hall meetings was added (council amended to 3), it did not have to come at a loss for the public forum. 5/3 Vote.

Councilor Chambers and 2 other councilors voted to retain public forum

At first, these votes were bundled together, which felt like the council was being forced into a corner and had to vote to remove the public forum if they wanted to get town hall meetings. I communicated about this, and others did, too. As a result, the votes were separated. So council had a choice to vote for both opportunities. The public could have had their cake and eaten it, too, for once.

In the newspaper today, I would be willing to bet that adding Town hall meetings will take the front stage, and there will be no mention of losing public forum.

Town hall meetings are a great addition to public participation, which I have advocated since I was elected, and it was a strategic initiative of the council.

Many bricks have fallen from the foundation and legacy of civic engagement; some were forced, some were surrendered, and in some cases, the mortar was mixed last term.

I see why many members of the public are frustrated, do not feel heard, may perhaps feel they have wasted their time engaging and are angry about being banned from public hearings on zoning (Bill 44). The public forum has been removed from the committee of the whole meetings (COW). I am listening. I agree with you that democracy at all levels of government is declining.

We must fight for democracy!

Last term, the local area plans were suspended (development community recommendations), and this term, they were decoupled (cut out) from the Saanich Official Community Plan (OCP ); they have lost their status as enforceable bylaws, protecting what the community deemed important.

The local area plans (LAPs) have lost their teeth and are now just gums and stand as resolutions, which have been adopted by minutes. As a founding member of the Blenkinsop Valley Community Assn. 2006 and director for many years I intimately know how important these are and advocated with the public for them to be updated.

Then there is the fact that many of our strategies have been superceeded (approved community plans, paid for by residents and have been set aside) and some members of the public feel their wasted. This was really apparent last night with the updates the Shelbourne Valley Plan that I was compelled vote in opposition to. Also my reasons were (consideration of the Bowker, urban forestry and biodiversity strategy should of course e before the plan, not an after thought. The OCP was published ahead of the biodiversity and urban forestry strategies. It does not include those. Although the committee I chair the Climate Action Advisory (CAA) made recommendations to regularly update the OCP so those can be added it has not occurred yet.

Nathalie Chambers