By Transition Salt Spring Elections & Candidates, Local News – October 8, 2026 on the Salt Spring Exchange. See the original post here.
All 5 candidates running for Local Community Commission Commissioner in the Oct 17 election responded to a Community Resiliency questionnaire sent by Transition Salt Spring in collaboration with the Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust.
See below their responses to question 3 about Ganges Village Development and Livability
(Candidate responses to all questions: https://transitionsaltspring.com/election-2026-questions/)
Q3. Ganges Village Development and Livability. Affordable housing development should be directed in and around current village centres, primarily Ganges, in order to prevent further development in our fragile ecosystems and decrease risks to homes and businesses from fire, floods and sea level rise. There are many areas such as sewer infrastructure, water licenses for affordable housing, parking and village character that will be impacted by increased density.
Do you support efforts to prepare Ganges for more development such as housing, accessibility, beautification, etc? (YES, NO, WITH QUALIFICATIONS)
Jesse Jule: YES I support affordable housing downtown. I’d work with Islands Trust and owners on options like residential above commercial using existing footprints. I’d work with utilities to clarify water supply and wastewater capacity, and estimate upgrade costs, including buried power, greywater separation and safe treated-water reuse for toilets and landscaping. With the Province, which owns the roads, I’d work with residents and businesses on shared parking and car-free trials on market Saturdays, keeping accessible parking, deliveries and emergency access. I support Ganges beautification. Our parks should be vibrant places where art, nature and people come together, showing visitors who we are. I’d support a permaculture-informed plan for downtown parks, including Rotary Marine Park, with accessible paths, shade, drought-tolerant plants, flowers, food forests and ongoing care.
Jennifer Lannan: YES Yes. Protecting our forests, shorelines and watersheds means putting new housing where the infrastructure already is, and that’s Ganges. But the village has to be ready for it. Sewer capacity, water for affordable housing, parking, accessibility and village character all need to be planned before density arrives, not after, and I’d make that a CRD priority. I’ve already started. As Chamber President I brought a phased Ganges beautification proposal to the LCC this year: solar lamp posts with wayfinding signs, tree lighting in the core, benches, hanging baskets, proper waste receptacles and regular street and beach cleaning, scaled to a modest first-year ask so the LCC could act on it now. A village people are proud of is a village that can grow well.
Brian Webster: YES Without doubt, the most appropriate place for additional housing on Salt Spring is in the Ganges area. I support efforts to prepare Ganges for increased density. This can and must be accomplished in an environmentally-responsible way and without impact on existing protected natural areas and agricultural land. There are numerous ideal areas for added residential density in Ganges, particularly along Drake and Seaview Roads as well as the many non-ALR properties located east of Atkins Road and between King’s Lane, Lower Ganges and Kanaka Roads. The CRD has a key role to play as the provider of Ganges sewer services and active transportation infrastructure, parks and recreation services and our support for arts groups. These services are essential to adding housing to Ganges and planning for them must take into account the prospect of increased housing density in Ganges.