By Transition Salt Spring Elections & Candidates, Local News – September 22, 2026 on the Salt Spring Exchange. See original post here.
This summer hit hard. Watering restrictions started June 1, weeks before summer even officially began. By July 15, we were under the highest restriction level the water district has. Add in a campfire ban and weeks of wildfire smoke, and the pattern is impossible to miss: our climate is changing, and Salt Spring is already living with the consequences.
Drought puts wells, farms, forests, and wildlife at risk, and it raises the odds of wildfire. That’s why decisions about new development can’t happen in isolation from questions about water. Approving growth without confirming there’s enough water to support it sets every household up for a shortage down the line.
That’s what makes the October 17 election matter so much. We need leaders who will plan for a community that can hold up under these pressures, one where local food production is viable, where nurses, paramedics, firefighters, teachers, and care aides can afford to live, and where new development doesn’t get built somewhere that fire, flooding, or water shortages will make unlivable.
To help voters weigh in, Transition Salt Spring and the Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust sent Community Resiliency questionnaires to every candidate running for CRD Electoral Area Director, the Local Community Commission, and the Islands Trust. The questions cover climate readiness, affordable housing, local food, and protecting the island’s ecosystems. We’ll share candidates’ answers [here].
These issues are tied together more than they might look. The forests, the water, the farmland, and the people who live and work here all depend on the same thing: an island that stays within the limits its land, water, and changing climate now set.
Transition Salt Spring built the following 10 principles from what we heard at the Common Ground Summit in May 2025, and included them in our submission earlier this year toward an updated Official Community Plan. We’re offering them to candidates and to every Salt Spring resident as a shared starting point for what a livable, resilient island could look like going forward. An election is how that hope turns into direction.
- Plan for the climate we’re in, not the one we remember. Salt Spring needs to prepare for heat, drought, wildfire, flooding, rising seas, and food shortages, while still cutting the emissions we can control locally.
- Build where we’ve already built. Put most new growth into existing villages and serviced areas. That makes better use of roads and infrastructure already in place, and takes pressure off forests, watersheds, farms, and rural land.
- Don’t build tomorrow’s disasters today. Keep new development out of places where fire, flood, water shortage, or emergency access problems can’t realistically be managed.
- Use real evidence, then act on it. Base decisions on the best available data, both scientific and Indigenous knowledge, about climate risk, water, ecosystems, and how much growth the island can support. Set clear goals and report progress publicly.
- Make housing people can actually afford. Support smaller, water-wise homes to rent or own, including suites, co-ops, and land trusts that help people stay on Salt Spring.
- House the people who keep the island running. Direct limited land and water toward year-round homes for the workers, families, caregivers, and elders who live and work here, close to jobs and services.
- Protect farmland as a priority, not an afterthought. Give farmers the zoning flexibility they need for worker housing and on-farm activities like processing and sales, and protect their water access alongside strong conservation.
- Take care of the land, water, and wildlife around us. Protect and restore forests, wetlands, shorelines, and habitat, both for what they give us and because we’re part of this place, not separate from it.
- Plan alongside First Nations, not just around them. These are unceded Coast Salish territories. Move past consultation toward shared decision-making, engaging Nations early and giving Indigenous knowledge real weight in what gets decided.
- Write the rules in plain language. Turn these principles into policies people can actually understand, so residents, staff, trustees, and applicants know what’s expected and why.
See more about Salt Spring Local Election 2026 here.