North Saanich

Canada is at the mercy of ruthless growth-merchants, just like Australia. Until recently, however, counter-growthism Canadians seemed to be almost totally unrepresented in their local, provincial and national press. Candobetter Free Press was therefore interested when news came our way of an exchange between growthists and counter-growthists on the British Columbian island of North Saanich. Another counter-growthist writer, Tim Murray, also lives on an island in British Columbia - Quadra. He often complains about the prevalence of growth politics there in a general aura of Greenwash and the lack of representation of other ideas in the local and national press.

North Saanich is located on the Saanich Peninsula, approximately 25 kilometres north of Victoria, British Columbia on southern Vancouver Island. The District is surrounded on three sides by 40 kilometres of ocean shoreline, and is comprised of rural/residential areas, and a large agricultural base. It has an international Airport (Victoria International Airport) and a ferry terminal (Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal).

Calls for 'more housing'

Recently a resident there wrote in to the local paper, The Times Colonist, calling for more housing to be built to accommodate employees of local businesses. The theme was 'more growth needed'. The writer, J.A. Tomminen, anticipated objections. (http://www.timescolonist.com/Housing+needed+North+Saanich/7481260/story.html#ixzz2B1jky1u1) He dismissed environmental concerns in advance with a questionable assurance that what he was proposing would not destroy "the ambience" of North Saanich. I say, 'questionable' because how the hell can he guarantee anything of the sort? And, when the natural environment is gone and Saanich is overpopulated, how do we go back and, will Mr Tomminem pay damages to all the original inhabitants? I think not. So what is his word worth?

What he actually wrote was: "We can create a vibrant community without destroying the ambiance of North Saanich."

Most environmentalist bulldust detectors would start beeping at the word 'vibrant', because it is a growth industry buzz-word for uncomfortably high population density, usually associated with high rates of overseas immigration. For this reason alone I recently screened-out two Australian local election contenders, who used the word in their election material.

"Ambience" is a plastic substitute word for 'environment' and it tends to include bright lights, loud drunks, gentrified suburbs, yuppie venues, choking fumes, increased traffic, violence, and higher rates and taxes. Ambience means the synthetic environment. "Ambience" has no time for natural environment, local flora and fauna, stable populations, low land costs, home orchards and self-sufficiency.

Vibrancy and ambience together with 'more housing', 'progress', 'moving forward' and other growth lexicon, are all about a desperate raking in of dough, faster and faster, in any way possible. Whilst one recognises that the harsh world we live in pushes more and more people to scrape a living by pushing others around and doing stuff they would not choose to do, anyone who can still draw the line in the sand, needs to stand up for quality of life, democracy, natural environment and honesty.

Short term thinking

On September the 24th, 2011, Allan Tominem and Lucy Tominem (who had then only lived in North Saanich for four years) signed a letter to the council encouraging it to support the idea of an industrial park, and questioning the economic viability of having so many farms. The argument was largely based on the idea that the community could not remain as it was because it cannot provide jobs for people of all ages.

The fact that in the past it was not necessary for farms to be highly productive, nor for farmers to make a profit margin so high that it would finance other industries is overlooked in such discussions. The fact that the growth economy is unsustainable and leaves big populations high and dry when bubbles burst is not addressed.

It actually sounds as if North Saanich is still capable of providing a self-sufficent economy - just not a growth economy.

America, Canada, Australia, and most of the Anglophone countries are scraping around for a living in a declining growth economy of which the symptoms are nomadic movement of people from dying suburbs in search of work. Unfortunately the real-estate bubbles that have caused international debt have encouraged a delusional view that high turnovers and big profit margins are the norm. But the real-estate economy is parasitic and only lasts for as long as it can milk established wealth by developing land cheaply and buying and selling land and buildings to people on credit who must then find work to service their debts where no long-term work exists.

Long-term thinking

Responding to the Tominem's attempts to drive infrastructure expansion in North Saanich, Diane McNally wrote in the Victoria Times Colonist, that it is time to put limits on the island's growth. McNally is a member of the Healthy Saanich Advisory Committee and the School Board.

On 30 October, she wrote, "There are limits to growth. The fact that we live on an island makes our area an excellent laboratory for the concept." She asked, "What future are development-approving "pro-future" fans envisioning? What is the vision for North Saanich and Saanich Peninsula? What is the vision for the Capital Regional District and the South Island?"

She criticised the promotion of "growth" as "fresh and new", pointing to how it is really the artificial preservation of a superceded economic system that uses up ecosystems. When would the growthists in Saanich "address a limit to population increase on this island?" she asked.

"It's past time time to take "degrowth" seriously, a concept first expressed by ecological economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen in 1971 in reference to the ecological limits to growth as it relates to the industrial economic growth model. I applaud supporters of planned downscaling of production and consumption: they are the real "pro-future" supporters, who think far enough ahead to consider long-term ecosystem and human survival."

Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/time+limits+Island+growth/7474929/story.html#ixzz2AxPGD5iB

Let us hope that environmental and economic thinkers in North Saanich support Ms McNally and the long-term future of their island which hosts green forests, wildlife and sustainable farms, in an encroaching sea of Canadian concrete and growthist ideology. Why would any community throw such uniqueness away? The answer is, of course, that communities don't; it is bad government that sells them out.