- (Published as ‘Save Our Saanich isn’t saving money’)
I am not sure what Save Our Saanich is trying to save, but clearly it is not money.
Dr. Trevor Hancock
18 July 2025
702 words
I wish I could take credit for the term ‘Dysfunction-by-the-Sea’, but long-time readers of this newspaper will recognise it was Jack Knox’s acerbic term for the Greater Victoria Region. But while Jack has retired – and is much missed – Dysfunction-by-the-Sea soldiers on. Two current examples could be found in the July 18th edition.
The first concerns the rejection of Saanich District Council’s plan to borrow $150 million to upgrade the District’s aging public works yard and buildings, which are old and don’t meet building code requirements. But the alternative process used to approve the funding for the project failed when just over 12 percent of eligible voters opposed the proposed borrowing.
There is so much wrong with this it is hard to know where to begin. The headline says that Saanich residents rejected the proposal, and Mayor Dean Murdoch was quoted saying “’I’m pleased to see democracy is alive and well” and that “the voters spoke and they don’t support it”. Well sorry, but no, no and no!
I am a resident of Saanich, and nobody asked me if I approved the borrowing, which I did. But this process, which was designed by the province, is heavily biased in favour of rejection and is not at all democratic. There were two choices open to me – obtain a form and submit it to say no, or say nothing. There was no option for me to sign a form to say yes.
So did the more than 87 percent of eligible voters who said nothing in fact approve the expenditure, or did they not care one way or the other? We don’t know, but in effect those 12 percent may well have over-ruled a larger group of voters who would have approved, if given the opportunity. Clearly the voters have not spoken, and democracy is not alive and well, it is sick and dying.
Then there is Save Our Saanich (SOS), the group that spear-headed the rejection. I am not sure what they are trying to save, but clearly it is not money. The result of this fiasco is that there may need to be a full referendum, at considerable cost, or the work is postponed, which will increase costs. Meanwhile, thanks to SOS, staff will continue to work in buildings that don’t meet modern building code standards.
Then to add insult to injury, SOS president Nancy Di Castri is quoted saying “We have never been against them fixing up the old buildings”. So why incur extra costs for the municipality’s taxpayers and poor working conditions for staff, for a project you seemingly support?
Meanwhile, over in Victoria, the proposal to amalgamate Saanich and Victoria – perhaps the single most idiotic idea in municipal politics in recent decades – lumbers inexorably on. Victoria City Council, having with Saanich wasted a couple of hundred thousand dollars on a Citizens Assembly, has now voted unanimously to put it on the ballot in 2026.
There is nothing about this idea that makes any sense whatsoever. Why on earth would you want to amalgamate the two largest municipalities – between them comprising half the region’s population – while leaving the remaining eleven untouched? We would be left with one super-municipality and eleven smaller municipalities – some of them very small – that would be dominated by the super-municipality. And we would still be left with disjointed police, fire and other systems across the region.
It makes absolutely no sense to just look at these two municipalities in isolation, when what we really should be doing is a full review of regional governance. But since the local governments seem incapable of any such rational approach, it is time for the province to step in, stop the Victoria-Saanich process and commission such a review.
The question that should be put to a full regional Citizens Assembly is “what is the best governance system for this region in the 21st century? How do we govern this region (recognising that governance is more than just government) so as to maximise the wellbeing of all who live here – and all who will live here in future generations – while reducing our overall ecological footprint and protecting and enhancing the bioregion and all our relations?”
Imagine becoming Functional-by-the-Sea!
© Trevor Hancock, 2025
Dr. Trevor Hancock is a retired professor and senior scholar at the University of Victoria’s School of Public Health and Social Policy
Dr. Trevor Hancock - Healthy people, healthy communities, a healthy planet 