Index of articles and letters regarding the reduction of public input in the District of Saanich.
Over the last half decade, public input has been steadily curtailed in the District of Saanich and in other municipalities, with the starkest example being the City of Victoria. This process started during the pandemic, which was used as justification to severely reduce public input.
A chart created by the District of Saanich during the pandemic, showing how waiving the public hearing process would be achieved:
Development industry lobbying to the province during this time, also achieved waiving of public hearings based on staff claimed OCP compliance of development applications, something that appears to have begun in 2023, as well as through the elimination of most public hearings through Bill 44, and through pre-zoning aka blanket upzoning, in Bill 47, which were passed toward the end of that year.
In 2024, Saanich Council eliminated Open Forum, despite overwhelming public opposition to the move; thus eliminating all opportunities for recorded public addressing of council on open topic, as opposed to closed topic discussion.
The shuttering of recorded open forum was justified by staff and elected officials by creating unrecorded town halls instead, which were initially held off-site. After only a couple off-site council town hall meetings, where the public made clear that they were not satisfied with the current council’s decisions – Saanich eliminated off-site council town halls. They did so by moving the ‘town halls’ into the council chambers, albeit again these were unrecorded, and reduced to 1 hour of speaking time for the public, which could take place up to 3 times a year to a maximum of 3 hours of open topic unrecorded time for the public to address their councillors annually.
In a democracy, the people are in charge by definition. In an oligarchy, the public are ruled by a small clique.
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Saanich:
How a groundless narrative cooked up by elected officials and the press of “boisterous” and “raucous” meetings, was used to justify major claw backs in open public input to Saanich Council. – CRD Watch Homepage
“Informal feedback” was used as justification to eliminate off-site Saanich Council Town Hall meetings. I made an FOI request to locate the “informal feedback”. The only feedback in this direction, that showed up in the FOI response, regarding the May 6, 2025 Town Hall meeting, was from Councillor Bondaroff. – CRD Watch Homepage
According to Saanich’s Corporate Officer, Saanich staff researched and found the cost for holding a potential recorded town hall to be $6000-$8000 per meeting. – CRD Watch Homepage
The cost of recording a Town Hall plummets from previous estimation by Saanich’s Corporate Officer. Council rejects recording options anyway. – CRD Watch Homepage
District of Saanich: “I have determined that while the records concerning the Procurement Law Office may be of interest to you, there is not evidence to indicate this matter has an impact on the wider community.” – The Procurement Law Office’s advice was cited at a council meeting as justification to award senior district staff the ability to award millions in contracts without the approval of elected officials. – CRD Watch Homepage
Provincial (including affecting the District of Saanich):
How the Development and Real Estate Lobby Pressed Mandatory Housing Targets, Mass Upzoning, Captured Official Community Plans, and Made the Shutting Down of Public Hearings the Norm in British Columbia Under the NDP Government – CRD Watch Homepage
Freedom of Information reveals that the Province of B.C. was working to implement what the registered lobbying organization, the Urban Development Institute, had been pushing for. This culminated in the recent Housing Bills that override local government authority on zoning. – CRD Watch Homepage
Letters to the editor:
LETTER: Public input limited at Saanich town hall – Saanich News
LETTER: Saanich residents clap back over loss of town hall meetings – Saanich News
Saanich’s brief experiment in Town Halls effectively ending after less than a year. That is, unless one considers having brief unrecorded public input at City Hall as Town Hall meetings. – CRD Watch Homepage
LETTER: Saanich council limits public input – Saanich News
LETTER: Saanich should rethink elimination of open forum – Saanich News
LETTER: Loss of open forums a blow to public engagement in Saanich – Saanich News
CRD Watch Homepage 