Hoping that the holiday season was a good one for you and yours.
It’s a new year and the first Council meeting is Monday, January 13, 2014. I will be bringing forward a motion at that time, asking for a Council resolution to endorse the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)’s “Fixing the Housing Crunch” initiative, a move to address the issue of housing affordability in Canada. Oak Bay is a Federation member and other member municipalities have made similar endorsements. I expect and hope that this Council will support my motion.
Later this month or early in February, I will be bringing forward another motion requesting a Council resolution to forward a letter to the BC Government, asking that the existing Agricultural Land Commission model remain intact and independent and that BC continues to protect valuable agricultural lands through the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). Worth noting is that Oak Bay is a signatory to the CRD’s 2003 Regional Growth Strategy that, in part, addressed the need to protect and preserve agricultural lands in our region, by encouraging land use planning that supports compact human settlement in urban areas and along major transportation corridors. Stay tuned…