Saanich Staff are attempting to enter into a multi-year agreement to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars to the South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP) under the guise of “delegated authority”.

Saanich Staff are attempting to enter into a multi-year agreement to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars to the South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP) under the guise of “delegated authority”.

By Sasha Izard
June 16, 2026

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Recently, I wrote the following articles about the South Island Prosperity Partnership:

The South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP) claims “$93.20 per capita annual ROI on SIPP initiatives”, fails to provide evidence for their claim, when asked. – CRD Watch Homepage

What is the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region? (PNWER) and what are its connections to big oil? – CRD Watch Homepage

In 2020, Saanich made a “5 year membership agreement” for close to a million dollars to the South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP). This is what it was to get in return. – CRD Watch Homepage

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On April 14, 2026 – Saanich Council unanimously chose to approve Saanich funding the outside organization for over $200,000 for the next year. The District of Saanich has provided the organization well over a million dollars since it was founded in 2016.

The previous day on April 13, 2026 – on the Saanich Council Consent Agenda was the following item:

“SOUTH ISLAND PROSPERITY PARTNERSHIP (SIPP) 3-YEAR RENEWAL AGREEMENT

Memo of the Director of Corporate Services dated April 2, 2026.

To present next steps for the District’s continued membership in SIPP should Council approve the proposed three-year renewal agreement (2026-2028).

Memo of the Economic Development Advisory Committee dated February 24, 2026.

To recommend that Council continue membership in SIPP to support the implementation of the plan based on the model presented.”

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Myself and others called out this item for inappropriately being on the Consent Agenda, compelling as a result the item to be pulled from the Consent Agenda and hence deliberated on by the council, instead of being instantly passed through if it remained on the Consent Agenda.

I called the proposal for seemingly attempting to bind the hand of the next council for a significant portion of the following term in handing vast amounts of public money over to an outside organization. You can read my full presentation from that evening in Appendix 1., at the end of this article.

As a result of the issues raised, staff and the council felt compelled to move the discussion to the following day April 14, 2026 (when incidentally most of the public were out of the room as compared to the packed room the day before on April 13) during budget discussions.

The deliberations that ensued on April 14, were significantly vague, but in the end Saanich Council as it turns out has apparently approved funding for the organization for another year, but has provided no clear direction to staff as to any subsequent funding for the organization, at least as far as I can tell. The deliberations and decision-making if any, were nothing but murky.

Sometimes what is said, is not as important as what isn’t said.

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After, I sought to find clarification on a number of matters.

On May 19, 2026 I emailed Saanich’s CAO Brent Reems with the following:

Hello Brent,

In looking over significant amounts of information on Saanich’s website and through FOI, I cannot find documentation that Saanich Council approved 2026 funding of the South Island Prosperity partnership.

1. Did Saanich Council approve district funding for the South Island Prosperity Partnership for 2026?

2. Did Saanich Council approve district funding for the South Island Prosperity Partnership for any subsequent years?

Thank you,
Sasha Izard

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Reems responded the following day on May 20, 2026:

Yes, through its confirmation of the budget on April 14 (and subsequent bylaw adoption).

The SIPP funding was built into the budget for 2026 (for this reason the funding was presented as a “reduction scenario” option during the financial planning meeting process). As you know, Council discussed the SIPP contribution on April 13 and 14.
On April 14 it was considered as part of Council’s budget confirmation deliberations. Council ultimately confirmed the budget with the SIPP funding in it. A motion removing the funding would have been required to eliminate the funding. Saanich budgets on a 5-year cycle and future payments (for subsequent years) would form part of the 5-year plan. Like other items, however, the annual amount would be reviewed and subject to Council’s decision-making and confirmation on a year-by-year basis.

Brent

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I replied:

Thank you.

What was the total amount for SIPP that was approved in the 2026 budget?

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Reems replied with a laconic:

$201,600.

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I replied:

Thank you.

“Saanich budgets on a 5-year cycle and future payments (for subsequent years) would form part of the 5-year plan. Like other items, however, the annual amount would be reviewed and subject to Council’s decision-making and confirmation on a year-by-year basis.”

Has Saanich budgeted to pay SIPP for the next 5 year cycle?

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Reems did not reply.

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10 days later on May 31, 2026 – I wrote:

Hello Brent,

Are you going to answer the question?

Thank you,
Sasha

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Reems replied the following day on June 1:

Yes, the 5-year FP [Financial Plan] will have included amounts for SIPP.

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I replied:

Has an agreement been made between Saanich and SIPP for this?

Thank you again,
Sasha

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Reems responded:

That is something staff are working on.

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I replied:

Presumably such an agreement would have to be approved by council, before it was put into force?

Thank you again,
Sasha

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Reems responded:

No staff will execute using delegated authority (see the memo from staff on this on the April 13 agenda).

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I wrote:

Hello Brent,

I believe this is what you are referring to, correct?

[I included the following attached image]:

I see nothing in that memo about staff being able to act unilaterally to make a multi-year agreement to fund the organization, without council approval.

Am I missing something?

Have staff been delegated the authority to engage in a multi-year agreement with SIPP? If so, where is the documentation of the delegation of authority to the staff to do so?

Thank you again,
Sasha

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Reems replied:

Yes, authority is delegated by bylaw – 10049.

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Note: I have added Saanich bylaw 10049) as Appendix 2., at the end of this article.

Saanich’s Signing Authorization Bylaw, 2025, 10049 along with the 2025-10-20-Procurement Policy and Signing Authority Bylaw was authorized by Saanich Council at the Oct 26, 2025 Saanich Council meeting.

See also my article on this: The District of Saanich is hiding how much it paid the Procurement Law Office behind solicitor client privilege. – CRD Watch Homepage

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On June 4, 2026 – I replied:

Hello Brent,

Which person or entity, delegated the authority for Saanich staff to enter into a new multi-year agreement with the South Island Prosperity Partnership utilizing Saanich bylaw 10049?

On what date and time and in which document was that authority delegated for Saanich staff to do that?

Thank you,
Sasha Izard

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Reems did not respond.

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Over a week later, on June 12, 2026 I wrote again:

Hello Brent,

Are you going to answer the question?

Thank you,
Sasha

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Reems replied 3 days later on June 15, 2026:

Saanich Council adopted the delegation bylaw. The delegation bylaw provides the authority for staff to act as delegates as set out in the bylaw.

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I responded:

Thank you for your response. I have difficulty seeing though how the Bylaw (10049) provides the sort of delegative authority that would allow Saanich Staff to enter into a multi-year agreement to hand over significant district funds to an outside organization.

Would you please provide the precise mechanics of how the bylaw can be utilized to do this?

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Conclusion: This article will be updated with subsequent replies from the Chief Administrative Officer.

“Delegating authority” to local government staff should be highly controversial, yet it is practically unmentioned or criticized in the phony press.

As I showed in another previous article, the UDI development/real estate lobby was instrumental in getting the Province to make legislation to allow delegating authority to local government staff, something which I note is wide open to abuse, poor accountability, lack of transparency, and ultimately lack of public democratic power in local governance.

Content from BC Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs FOI, deemed a refusal by the OIPC, reveals that in May 2021, the BC government invited UDI lobbyists for confidential consultations about public hearings (reducing them) and delegating some local government decision-making from elected officials to staff. – CRD Watch Homepage

I have continued to criticize the transfer of powers by publicly elected officials to municipal staff – yet time and again, the council has following the province’s lead, handing many of their powers over to district staff.

In 1888 British historian Lord Acton stated: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

It is time for these powers of ‘delegated authority’ to be reigned in before they can do serious damage.

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Appendix 1: Presentation by Sasha Izard to Saanich Council during public input at the April 13, 2026 Saanich Council Meeting:

Item E.2.: SOUTH ISLAND PROSPERITY PARTNERSHIP (SIPP) 3-YEAR RENEWAL AGREEMENT

Why on earth is this item on the Consent Agenda? This item should be pulled from the Consent agenda immediately, and should not have been on there in the first place.

This item deserves a full and proper public discussion; before rushing through an expensive 3 year agreement, that will cost the municipality over 624,000 with nothing clear or certain to be achieved by it.

A proper cost/benefit analyses is required, including a discussion of what SIPP has achieved having received so many hundreds of thousands of dollars from municipalities, much of which has gone to cover its staff salaries, and other expenses including travel.

There is almost nothing of content in the attached reports to this item, which is a red flag. This signals fiscal irresponsibility. Even worse, if allowed and rubber stamped, it will deny the next council even the possibility of being fiscally responsible in regard to SIPP payments for most of their council term.

Why are you financially binding the next council to over $200,000 a year, to an outside organization with questionable achievements and vague goals?

In 2024, I wrote an Open Letter to the South Island Prosperity Partnership. The organization did not respond to my questions. Why? This organization exists because of the public and the public’s finances. Why is not open, forthright, transparent, and accountable to the public that it survives from?

One of the various questions I asked was: SIPP’s membership includes an international lobby for many of the biggest fossil fuel companies in North America, if not the world, known as the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region, which has a so-called Energy Institute. How does SIPP reconcile that with its oft claimed dedication to climate protection?

According to SIPP’s 2022-2023 “Rising to Resilience” report, the salaries and benefits to personnel were: $588,709. Add travel and accommodation ($23,000) to that figure and these combined expenses are more than half of the total Annual Budget for the organization at the time, and almost equivalent to the total amount the municipalities of the CRD paid in membership fees to SIPP in that year. In 2022 alone, the cumulative membership fee revenue from municipalities for the organization, amounted to $632,714.

A June 22, 2023 article in the Times Colonist was titled: “On the Street: South Island Prosperity Partnership expands”.

In elaborating on the organization’s expansion, the article provides the following quote:

“We also added three executive directors and doubled our staff to steer that expansion and take advantage of new opportunities for the South Island region.”

Does this seem appropriate given how reliant SIPP is on municipal funding, given that we are in an inflationary environment, where taxes keep rising above that already excessive level of inflation? I think the taxpayer deserves a thorough answer with specifics, rather than Public Relations, which seems to be the main expertise of this taxpayer funded organization.

Pull this item from the Consent Agenda at once, and allow the next council to immediately decide after the election, whether or not the organization should still receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from taxpayers to fund its expenses.

Thank you,

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Appendix 2: Saanich Bylaw 10049 “Signing Authority Bylaw” (2025)

Saanich’s Signing Authorization Bylaw, 2025, 10049 along with the 2025-10-20-Procurement Policy and Signing Authority Bylaw was authorized by Saanich Council at the Oct 26, 2025 Saanich Council meeting.

The following was the agenda item: