Cadboro Bay Residents Association (CBRA) doesn’t post any letter from residents on its website in almost 2 years.
The last letter posted in the CBRA letters section of its website was from a lobby that opposes environmental protections on private properties.
The CBRA blocked a letter several months earlier to the last posting, which warned of the imminent demise of the Cadboro Bay Local Area Plan, something that took place in May of 2024.
Are the CBRA fulfilling their stated mission to serve as a conduit of communication between residents, or is the CBRA instead gatekeeping and preventing the organization from being a means of communication among its own members?
By Sasha Izard
April 7, 2026
Does anyone ever get the impression that their residents association is not fulfilling its objectives, and has simply become a paper tiger and/or messenger for the establishment, instead of representing the residents it is supposed to represent?
I certainly get that impression from the Cadboro Bay Residents Association (CBRA), which has around 100 members and thus represents somewhere in the ballpark of about 2.5% of the total residents of Cadboro Bay.
At the time of writing this is the Mission Statement of the CBRA:
I’ve added bolding to the text below:
Mission
Cadboro Bay Residents Association is a nonpartisan organization whose mission is:
Facilitation: To foster dialogue between the District of Saanich, other government interests, stakeholders, and neighbours concerning issues important to community members and businesses.
Community Engagement: To actively encourage community engagement and increase opportunities for residents to be involved and engaged in their neighbourhood using communication and information.
Representation: To serve on any District of Saanich or other government-related committees as requested by the city and deemed appropriate by CBRA.
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As becomes apparent, most of the CBRA’s stated Mission comes down to increasing communication amongst neighbours. It is to foster dialogue, community engagement, and “increase opportunities for residents to be involved and engaged in their neighbourhood using communication and information.“
Yet one look at the CBRA’s letters page at the time of writing shows that hasn’t been in the case for almost 2 years. The last letter posted on the letters page on the Cadboro Bay Resident’s Association website was almost 2 years ago, from a lobby that opposes environmental protections on private properties, in what appears to be effectively fearmongering about potential environmental protections coming to the bay.
Letters To the Board Archives – Cadboro Bay Residents Association (CBRA)
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There has not been one letter posted on the CBRA’s letters page since then. This didn’t used to be the case. Far from it. Go back in time on the page and you will notice that letters were frequently posted on the website in previous years.
A few months prior to that lobby letter which was posted on the letters section on the website which was posted almost 2 years ago, I had sent the Cadboro Bay Comms a letter to be posted on the website in regard to the imminent disabling of the Cadboro Local Area Plan, something that was achieved by the District Saanich a couple months later on May 7, 2026 by rendering the Local Area Plans legally non-binding by removing them from the District’s Official Community Plan (OCP) Bylaw.
This was my letter, which the Comms despite acknowledging that they had received it at the time, and would review it before posting it, never posted it. (At least one other person on Facebook mentioned that their letter was also not posted around that time).
Hello Comms,
I am submitting the following letter to the CBRA:
At last Monday’s council meeting (Feb 26, 2024), it was made apparent that the Local Area Plans (LAPs), were effectively being tossed to the side in preference of a new Official Community Plan (OCP) in the works, that does not appear to me to have been generated by the residents of Saanich.
To quote a city planner that night speaking to the issue (Item F3. on the agenda):
“One of the decisions that council made was to remove the Local Area Plans from the OCP bylaw, hence really giving that primacy to the Official Community Plan”
Councillor Plant that night stated that the Local Area Plans “are largely out of date”, which is an interesting take, given that Saanich just spent 10s of thousands of dollars and major amounts of public time on more than one update process for the Cadboro Bay Local Area Plan, including one infamous workshop put on by Saanich where the host (an instructor at the UDI development/real estate lobby) shut the workshop down half an hour early, so that the public could not ask questions; something that was on the program that day and to which those present had continually been assured throughout the workshop up until then would take place.
On the issue of the OCP taking primacy over the LAPs, Cllr. Plant spoke the following at Monday’s council meeting:
“I think the supremacy of the OCP and I appreciate the residents who spoke to it and the people who wrote about it. Actually, I think wrote and spoke and then someone else wrote.
Having had to adjudicate a situation with another Local Area Plan at the time in the context of the OCP, I want this clarity, and I think it is untenable that we would go back into every Local Area Plan and change them so that they align. I think it is not expedient, I think it is appropriate to ensure that this document is as perfect as it can get, but be influenced and reminded of what the LAPs provide us. They provide us guidance for how we see our municipality shaping, but at a certain time period, and those are largely out of date.”
At the council meeting, we were also informed that the public would have its last chance at a public hearing regarding the new proposed OCP during its third reading sometime in April, a time which is very closely approaching, while few are in the public are aware of this quickly approaching event that will be crucial in determining Saanich’s fate.
This as residents and for the association will be our last chance to stand up for the Local Area Plans, before they are finally subsumed by the OCP and rendered obsolete, as appears to be the current trajectory, as seemed apparent from council last Monday.
If we and the association do not, then I think that we might as well drop the façade and just pack it in now, resigning Cadboro Bay to its new fate at the hands of bureaucrats.
What will be the point of a residents association, if the LAPs are wrongly made obsolete by an OCP, which is clearly in both mine and in the views of many others, being rushed through and changed to suit the interests of the development industry, rather than preserving our neighbourhoods, quality of life, and environment as it should?
Cadboro Bay, it is time to wake up and take action!
If we are caught asleep, off-guard, unaware and placid; then our future will be sealed and what is left of the forest canopy and ecology here will increasingly be eroded for development profits until quite likely, there will be practically nothing of it left.
If inaction is the course forward at this crucial time, then in the end we will have only ourselves to blame for the results that are almost sure to follow.
Sasha Izard
Resources [which were included at the end of the letter]:
Council Meeting (granicus.com)
Attachment B – December 2023 Report to Council
Attachment C – Redline Version of Changes to OCP
Attachment D – Redline Version of Changes to Cadboro Bay Village Plan
Attachment E – Redline Version of Changes to Cordova Bay Village Plan
Note: I and another speaker during public input last Monday pointed out that we considered that the following are loopholes being proposed to be put into the new OCP:
7.2.3 Defer to the OCP where there is an inconsistency in policy direction between the OCP and a Local Area Plan or Action Plan.
7.2.4 Consider OCP amendments for increased residential density/height where proposed developments:
a. Advance overall plan objectives;
b. Demonstrate architectural and site design excellence;
c. Provide a significant public benefit including securing non-market or supportive housing and/or parks or community facilities.
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Why did the so-called residents association refuse to publish my timely warning about the imminent demise of the Cadboro Bay Local Area Plan?
Why instead, was a letter from a lobby against environmental protections posted on the site several months later, and no letters from the public posted on their letters page since then?
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On March 2, 2026 I sent the following email to comms@cadboro.ca
Hello,
Why has no letter been posted on this page for almost 2 years?
Letters To the Board Archives – Cadboro Bay Residents Association (CBRA)
The last letter I see posted here is dated to: June 16, 2024 by an lobby that opposes environmental protections:
Thank you,
Sasha Izard
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Although I received an email receipt confirming that my email had been received by comms@cadboro.ca – I received no reply from the CBRA.
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3 weeks later, on March 30, 2026 – I forwarded my letter directly to the CBRA’s Chair Colette Baty.
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Hi Sasha,
Letters we receive get posted as soon as we have the manpower to post them. To my recollection, we have not received any letters to post in the last year or so. I could be wrong. We have one that is going up soon, but that’s it.
Thanks,
Colette
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Over a week later, there are still no letters posted on the CBRA’s letters page, and there hasn’t been one posted in almost 2 years.
The same day, I replied:
Hello Colette,
Have you received a letter from the public to post in almost 2 years?
The last letter posted in the public letters section was on June 17, 2024
I submitted a letter to the CBRA several months before that on March 3, 2024 and I was told that it would be posted on the website, but it never was.
Thank you,
Sasha
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Baty never responded to the email.
However, through another means of communication, she informed me that the communications rep. is someone else. It is notable that this is not information posted on the CBRA website as far as I can tell. I asked her to get in touch with the communications rep, however she said was unable to get ahold of them. It is now over a week since I asked to be in contact with the supposed communications representative.
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My experience with the so-called residents association at a time when the Local Area Plan was unilaterally rendered legally non-binding and the village has been steamrolled by a costly agenda of paving and tree removals, the shuttering of businesses including the much loved Olive Olios, more overly expensive concrete, and more environmental destruction, and nearby environmental destruction, and more nearby environmental destruction, reminds of the Led Zeppelin song Communication Breakdown:
Led Zeppelin – Communication Breakdown (Live at Royal Albert Hall 1970) [Official Video]
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See also:
Cadboro Bay Discussion | Facebook
Index of articles regarding the Saanich Official Community Plan (OCP) and the “decoupled” Local Area Plans (LAPs) – CRD Watch Homepage
Index of CRD Watch articles concerning the environment/ecology. – CRD Watch Homepage
The Lorax Speaks for the Trees. Saanich Council Speaks for the Chainsaws, by M. Rose Munro – CRD Watch Homepage
The Fate of one of the Last Surviving Garry Oak Groves in Cadboro Bay Hangs in the Balance: The District of Saanich Doesn’t Appear to Know What Will Happen to it. – CRD Watch Homepage
“Trees can be managed, but they cannot be controlled. The only way to eliminate all risk is to eliminate all trees.” – Arborist Disclosure Statement to multiple municipalities. – CRD Watch Homepage
The Infill Shock Doctrine on Arbutus Road: A Photographic Essay, by Sasha Izard – CRD Watch Homepage
Cost Effective? $90,000 for roadwork project of minimal benefit, at the intersection of Sea View Rd. and Telegraph Bay Rd. in Cadboro Bay, leads to greater questions about the overall cost across Saanich of the so-called Active Transportation Plan estimated at a Quarter Billion Dollars. – CRD Watch Homepage
CRD Watch Homepage 
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