Saanich & CRD residents and businesses are blessed with dedicated & talented elected officials. But we can’t do anything alone. Getting stuff done requires courage, a baseline of collegiality, and a huge amount of collaboration. The items listed below are examples of initiatives accomplished in my first year of elected life that I feel particularly proud to have been be a part of — and in several cases — to have initiated.
- Proposed amendments to strengthen the Tree Protection Bylaw (resulting recommendations were approved by Council in September, 2019)
- Joined Saanich Council and the CRD in declaring a climate emergency and approving/funding these actions in Saanich
- Prepared (with Councillor Taylor) a response to the Province’s consultation to ask them to ban some plastic products, improve recycling, and recycled content standards) (approved by Council in September, 2019)
- Joined Saanich Council and the CRD in declaring a climate emergency and approving/funding these actions in Saanich
- Supported maintaining the CRD Parks Acquisition Levy at $20/household and increasing funding for maintenance and operation of existing park assets (provisional 2020 CRD budget ammendment approved October, 2019)
- Challenged all Saanich Councillors to a competition to reduce ecological footprints from Earth Day 2019 to Earth Day 2020 (and all accepted!)
- Appointed to the Mayor’s new Housing Affordability & Supply Standing Committee (August, 2019)
- Proposed a Saanich Housing Strategy (adopted in the 2019-2023 Strategic Plan)
- Proposed (with Councillor de Vries) a prioritization system for review of development applications for social housing, rental housing, and strata housing with affordability provisions (approved by Council in August, 2019)
- Proposed an independent review of current planning services to identify opportunities for more efficient processing of development applications (approved by Council in September 2019)
- Appointed to the Mayor’s Governance & Finance Standing Committee (September, 2019)
- Worked with colleagues to recommended changes to improve the governance of Saanich’s Advisory Committees (approved by Council in October, 2019)
- Worked with colleagues to review and recommend changes to Saanich’s grant program to improve fairness, efficiency of administration, and financial security for Saanich’s long-term partners in providing essential community services (to be considered by Council in November, 2019)