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 LCC Commissioner in the Oct 17 election responded to a questionnaire sent by TSS and the Farmland Trust. See below their responses to question 3.
(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)
Jenny McClean: WITH QUALIFICATIONS I am very interested in the type of housing that can be also friendly to eco systems. The only reason why there is no longer support for tiny homes is due to the idea that there would need to be a car with each tiny home or else a separate driveway built for each tiny home. Transit has not yet been taken seriously. To limit ability of home owners to have ecologically friendly tiny homes based from transit not reaching the area means that transit needs to reach the area. Planning work about where to put homes into the future is based on current lack of transit funding. The obvious answer is to explore why we don’t have sufficient transit. And of course I do not support housing in ecologically sensitive areas. However, there are many areas that would support tiny homes that are not ecologically sensitive, but they are taken off the map due to transit not going there yet.
Earl Rook: YES We need affordable/worker housing badly and it is best located in already developed areas with at least some infrastructure and services. Ganges Sewer and North Salt Spring Water are two key service providers. Both are ratepayer-owned although Ganges Sewer is operated by the CRD. We need to look at ways to expand the capacity of the sewer system and to prioritize hookups to both services for affordable/worker housing rather than the current first-come-first-served. We also need to work with the Fire District to ensure adequate water for fire suppression and with the Trust to ensure that sea level rise is fully incorporated into our OCP and zoning. Improved accessibility, such as that included in the Ganges Active Transportation Plan currently being implemented by the LCC, will be essential for a more walkable community, along with reduced speed limits and well placed/signed crosswalks.
Pam Tarr: YES The vital need to “reimagine Ganges” has deep support in the community. In fact, it was the top recommendation coming out of the Common Ground Summit, which I organized last year with Transition Salt Spring. We need a walkable, vibrant community for locals and tourists to support our economy, that provides housing that’s affordable to our existing, economically diverse population, adjacent to services, employment opportunities and retail. But where will Ganges be as we look to the future?Sea level rise contributed to the decision to move the Fire Hall and will affect the layout of Ganges within the lifespan of the projects we’re going to build next. This is an exciting opportunity to reimagine our downtown core, while gradually moving it to safer ground, likely focusing on Drake Road and Rainbow Road.
Ben Corno: YES Big idea question! Regarding beautification, I think we can all agree that that should be a bigger focus, I just get curious, and excitedly curious about who would take that on and how? Could be something we do in-house through the Parks and Rec service, but could also be something that another local non-profit takes on that is funded by the LCC. Regarding parking, there’s two big questions: adding parking, and whether we should be enforcing stricter rules inside of Ganges about parking? Tough to make the case for doing more enforcement if we’re not adding more parking spots. Seems like it would have to be a big consideration of any affordable housing project inside Ganges, because there’s not a lot of extra places to put people.
Myna Lee Johnstone: WITH QUALIFICATIONS I believe housing and transportation are 2 sides of 1 coin. The entire Ganges should become a model for a walkable community concept. More parking will be bad for Ganges. It looks like one big parking lot already with too heavy traffic through it and about it. We have to build a community-run shuttle and transit system that is so user-friendly that people will want to use it instead of driving. We need to bring more nature and trees and plants back in Ganges. It could be a Butchart Gardens-looking place to stroll about.