Is This a Joke?

Because this is what a Trojan horse looks like. A community builds its own plan, together, with everyone at the table. Then the gates swing open — quietly — and in walks provincially appointed housing advisors (who work for CBRE, one of the world’s largest commercial real estate firms). Then a few months later, comes a report from the housing ministry. Then the mayor sides with three councillors to change the Officers’ Bylaw. Then the Director of Planning mysteriously disappears. Then an interim planning director appears, who explains that he is only here for a few months to look at our OCP and the Zoning Bylaw. Then the advisory committees are suspended pending mysterious investigations. Then the rules around public participation in council meetings are changed to limit commentary and engagement.

So, forgive us for asking the obvious:

The Pressure is Real

We know the pressure is real. The province handed North Saanich a housing target — 419 new homes by 2030 — and it collides head-on with the rural character the OCP was written to defend. That’s a genuine tension between moving the urban containment boundary (densification) and the OCP proposed environmentally sensitive housing. Reasonable people will disagree on how to resolve it.

But here’s the line that matters:

Who Gets to Decide What North Saanich Becomes?

The residents of North Saanich? External entities? Those only interested in profit?

Mayor and Council owe this community straight answers — in public, on the record. Because the OCP didn’t just promise a vision. It promised “community engagement, communication, and transparency.”

So, let’s see it. Who is representing who?