I’m running for the position of board member Regional Director for BC for the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).  Below is my official platform after edits suggested by CREA lawyers.

My name is Scott Simmons. I’m a REALTOR® on Salt Spring Island BC. If you go to the REALTOR.ca site and put in Salt Spring Island BC on the “find a REALTOR®” tab you will not find me. Even though I have been a REALTOR® here for 10 years and only work on Salt Spring Island. I have repeatedly asked my local board to fix this glitch and they won’t. During listing presentations the sellers usually tell me that the other REALTORS® have stated that if they list with me none of the other REALTORS® will show their home. Do you think this goes well for consumer confidence?

The good news is this does not bother me. Business is good. Real good. Consumers want what I offer besides my low commission. They like my web sites; 55 pages, 136 blog post, 700 plus videos, videos of my TV show, hundreds of podcast of my radio real estate show and 1000 plus daily micro blog post. Adversity makes one work harder to succeed.

I’m running for the CREA board because of the threat to the industry I see coming down the road. It seems to me that so many REALTORS® do not see the threat and or want to talk about it. Somehow they are hoping it will go away and they can keep going until retirement. Some in the industry hope to stave off the threat by hoarding the sold data. This will not work, it will only speed up the disintermediation process.

The threat to the industry is lack of relevancy, confidence and trust towards REALTORS® by the consumers. So many consumers do not want to use the services of a REALTOR®. They view REALTORS® as the problem, not the people with the solutions. It seems to me many view REALTORS® as sales people more interested in their commissions than helping anyone. Instead of working with a REALTOR® consumers want to drive the process by themselves. Organized Real Estate has to re-invent our service bundles and how we present them. We have to work at creating a system that will make us relevant trusted advisors in this digital era. 54

Let’s start with the sold data. What is the big disadvantage of not giving this data out? Why are boards suing web sites that publish this data? How do you think consumers view this? Probably as well as they view agents who say they are not going to show my listings. Are these action winning the trust of the consumers? I think not. Why not let consumers write reviews about the homes and REALTORS® on the REALTOR.ca site. Why do you think so many go to TripAdvisor? They go there to read reviews from other consumers. Consumers do not trust travel agents opinions on places to stay. Does anyone even use a travel agent anymore? We need to build things like online reviews and price history into our Realtor.ca site. Why not embrace the change and give consumers what they want? Why are we fighting this? Are we winning?

The social media peer to peer era we live in is not going away. If we keep doing what we are doing for the next few years it will be the end of all the REALTORS®, boards and associations. Disintermediation is going to happen. The question is do we want a hard landing or a long slow landing with a niche for REALTORS® carved out. Look at how fast Uber and AirBnB have changed their markets. What is the value of a cab licence now? Embracing change is never easy. Fighting change is a losing proposition.

Vote for me and you have a pragmatic champion of the changes you might not like but need. Vote for the status quo and you will get what you have. Good luck with that. Change is never easy but I do think it’s time to embrace change. It’s time to get our collective heads out of the sand and face these challenges head on. Sitting still makes us a stagnant target. We needed to embrace online consumer engagement. Consumers want to engage and we should not miss the opportunity to give them the platform to engage on. If we do not they will be engaging on the Zillow type platform and we may end up on the outside looking in.

Vote for Scott Simmons Salt Spring Island BC

Sincerely,

Scott Simmons

The nuts and bolts of local goverment are really the non glamours basics of water, sewer and garbage (solid waste).   The CRD is the local service provider for Salt Spring.  On the night of 24 Nov 2016 Russ Smith Senior Manager, Environmental Resource Management for the CRD put on a waste presentation.  Here is a copy of the slide show for his presentation.

Not covered during the presentation but important is the Ganges Sewer upgrade.  Here is a map of what is covered by the Ganges Sewer system on Salt Spring;  20141201-gangessewerageinfrastructure  Here is info about the 3.9 million dollar upgrade to the Ganges Sewer system. sewer upgrade

Here is a letter from Russ Smith to all those that attended the presentation I have posted it here for all who could not make it to this excellent presentation;

Dear Workshop Participant (and invitees):

 Thank you for attending the Salt Spring Island waste management information sharing session on November 24, 2016.  I have attached the presentation by Capital Regional District (CRD) staff for your information.  The meeting was chaired by Director McIntyre who provided opening and closing remarks.  No formal minutes were taken.  A high level summary of the main topics of interest discussed and actions arising from the meeting is provided below. 

 Kitchen Scraps Ban

There was a lot of discussion about the kitchen scraps ban.  Participants identified a desire for more education, including presentations in local schools, curriculum information, ads in the Driftwood, promotion of onsite digesters, and outreach displays at local stores.

 The following links provide information about CRD programs:

School program resources: https://www.crd.bc.ca/education/school-programs

Kitchen scraps information: https://www.crd.bc.ca/service/waste-recycling/kitchen-scraps

 Marika Smith of the Compost Education Centre provided information about onsite digesters and offered to host an information session on Salt Spring.  Participants shared positive experiences about their onsite units.  The Compost Centre also has plans for building your own backyard compost bins and can offer expertise in mid scale composting systems.  Marika can be reached at info@compost.bc.ca or 250. 386.9676.

 Compost Education Centre information:  https://www.compost.bc.ca/

 Actions:

·        CRD staff will undertake to provide more education on kitchen scraps on Salt Spring Island in 2017.

·        Interested groups can contact the CRD or Compost Education Centre for presentations or displays.

 Integrated Resource Management

Another lively topic of discussion was integrated resource management, including using biochar for soil remediation and as a strategy to mitigate climate change.  There was a lot of interest in the planned CRD Request for Expression of Interest (RFEOI) for an integrated resource management project which will provide an opportunity to investigate a wide range of beneficial reuse opportunities for liquid and solid waste feedstocks.  Participants expressed preference for local solutions and asked that the design of the RFEOI allow for scalability to encourage sub-regional application in smaller communities like Salt Spring.  Any interested parties are encouraged to register on the CRD website to ensure they receive notification when the RFEOI is issued (https://www.crd.bc.ca/about/contracts-rfps/register).

 CRD staff advised that the RFEOI is expected to be issued in the first quarter of 2017.  The results will inform the scope for an innovative procurement process.  Any future facility, regardless of technology, would require a number of environmental assessments and controls and be subject to the Ministry of Environment’s permitting process which can take up to two years.       

 Actions:

·        CRD staff will work to try and include a section in the RFEOI to determine the level of private sector interest to undertake scalable sub-regional solutions

·        CRD staff will distribute results of RFEOI to information session participants and other interested stakeholders.

 Solid Waste Management Planning Topics

Several participants pointed out the importance of reducing and reusing in the 5R resource management hierarchy.  There was some discussion about establishing solid waste services on the island, such as providing garbage cans in public places to reduce illegal dumping.  CRD staff advised that the development of the new Solid Waste Management Plan would be an excellent platform for discussing and confirming local community values related to the 5R hierarchy.  Plan development is currently on hold but expected to resume in 2017.

 Action:

·        CRD staff will consult with Salt Spring Island residents about local community values during the development of the new Solid Waste Management Plan.

 At the end of the meeting, Director McIntyre invited Rob Grant, Executive Director of Salt Spring Island Community Services who run the recycling depot to make a brief presentation on future plans.  Mr. Grant outlined potential social enterprises to reuse building materials and recover food from grocery stores to increase food security on the island. 

 Thank you for attending the information session and for your interest in waste and resource management in our region.

 Regards… Russ

 Russ Smith

Senior Manager, Environmental Resource Management

 Capital Regional District

625 Fisgard St, PO BOX 1000,

Victoria, BC  V8W 2S6

T. 250.360.3080 | F.  250.360.3047

So there you have it.  If you would like any more info Russ would be the one to contact.

Cheers Scott Simmons.

 

This was just posted on the Salt Spring exchange in 4 parts.  I have permission from John Gauld the author to publish this document on my Salt Spring web site;

 

SSI is known as a community that questions conventional practices and is creative and innovative in its response to community challenges. Perhaps the up-coming incorporation question is an opportunity for islanders to think outside the box and find a “made-on-Salt Spring” solution to local governance? Perhaps a contract municipality?

A first principles approach to define the community’s objectives for local government might be a governance model that;

• is responsive and accountable to the community; coordinating the disparate local government services to achieve community priorities; and
• manages the community’s physical, human and financial resources to deliver an appropriate level and quality of service to meet the community’s needs while balancing costs to align with the community’s ability to pay.

Arguably, a further objective of many community members is a local government that operates smoothly and efficiently, managing controversy and conflict and taking care of business without requiring the average citizen to be pressed into local affairs to defend their interests. Most of us would rather spend our free time relaxing and enjoying life?

An approach to the incorporation decision might start with an evaluation of the existing SSI governance system in relation to first principle community objectives.

Accountability: The existing multi-agency governance structure results in multiple taxation authorities and taxation levels determined by adding up the taxes and costs of improvement districts, regional and provincial government and other agencies. Direct and indirect taxation authorities include the SSI Fire District, North Salt Spring and other water districts, the Capital Regional District, BC Ministry of Transportation and Islands Trust.

These agencies have no obligation or method to coordinate their planning for major expenditures or proposed tax increases. For the community member this can result in uncertainty about pending taxation levels and the need to follow the financial planning process of all of the agencies. Although it may be argued that the individual agencies are designed to be responsive and accountable, the overall multi-agency structure is cumbersome, unresponsive and lacks accountability.

Improvement districts are considered particularly problematic in their accountability. The province (Ministry of Community Services 2006 – Improvement District Governance: Policy Statement) acknowledges that improvement districts have a lower level of public accountability and administrative effectiveness; inherent conflicts with regional districts and are challenged to deal effectively with growth and development. The province expects improvement districts, over time, to be converted to municipal or regional jurisdiction and at some future point in time all improvement districts are expected to be under municipal or regional district jurisdiction.

Ability to Pay: The level of services and ability to pay question is considered especially important within the SSI community. Demographic indicators suggest a low tolerance for potential property tax increase. Statistics Canada data for the SSI community relative to BC averages includes;
• a substantially higher percentage of seniors 65 years and over: (24.1% on SSI compared to 14.9% BC average);
• lower income levels than the BC average;
• higher self-employment incomes, lower wages and lower salary incomes; and
• more low income households (22.2% on SSI compared to 16.4% in BC)

Community members are aware that change is the only constant. The financial estimates of the past and current incorporation studies are however, linear projections that do not take into consideration the change that we know to be inevitable. Our personal speculation about incorporation cannot help but include consideration of current trends and how they will effect future change.

Revenue Sources: Local government revenues are essentially limited to property taxation; linked in turn to the island’s total assessed property values. The fundamental financial equation for municipalities is that any increase in municipal expenditures; whether inflationary or related to increased demand for services will result in increased taxation of existing properties unless there is an increase in property assessments through new development. Property improvements and new development provide additional revenue that has the effect of off-setting increased expenditures. This financial benefit might also be described as the local government growth imperative.

Residential Tax Base: The property tax base on the island lacks diversity at 94% residential. This leaves very little opportunity to shift the tax burden from residential to non-residential (commercial, industrial and institutional) properties. A 2006 City of Vancouver study by MMK Consulting found that the residential properties in Vancouver contributed 40% of the tax revenues while consuming 71% of municipal services; leaving the non-residential properties contributing the remaining 60% of tax revenues and consuming just 29% of the services. This study is the basis of the understanding that residential properties in general do not pay their own way.

Growth in Tax Base: The added challenge for SSI relative to the municipal financial equation is that growth in the property assessment base is partly confined by a provincial policy statement expressed through the Islands Trust Act. Whereas all other BC local jurisdictions are enabled and encouraged to grow their tax base the Trust area “object” is interpreted that land use planning services should be delivered in a manner to preserve and protect the islands from types of development and scale of development that would detract from its unique amenities and environment. From a financial perspective this suggests limited or slow growth of the assessed tax base; a potential financial disadvantage for municipal revenue growth.

Growth in Local Government: The Business Council of British Columbia, using data provided by the provincial Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development reported in May 2012; The growth of Municipal Spending in Metro Vancouver that the per capita increase in municipal spending in metro Vancouver rose 56% from 2001 to 2010. Provincial per capita spending rose 10% over the same period. Interesting to the SSI context, the report references local government officials who rationalize much of this unbalanced expenditure increase being caused by fire and police services who, because of collective agreements and the perceived imperative to provide certain levels of service, are largely out of the control of local elected representatives.

The BC Public Sector Compensation Review – Ernst and Young (2014) reported that between 2001 and 2012 local government bargaining unit achieved an average 38% cumulative increase in compensation compared to a 19% cumulative increase by provincial government employees over the same period. Inflation during this period was 23%. The EY research also concluded that local government management and excluded positions were paid higher compensation in the majority of cases than their provincial counterparts. This report recommends that the provincial government should do what is necessary to bring regional and local government compensation into alignment with provincial government compensation over time, including using financial levers if necessary.

Municipal Benchmarking: For those that follow the local government budget process it is known that there is a hierarchy within the local government departments and competition among departments for resources and status. Benchmarking between jurisdictions and internally generated statistics are the levers that are typically used to increase salaries and equipment. Local elected officials are hard pressed to challenge the staff generated comparisons given the fear of falling behind in the inter-government competition for well-qualified staff. The issue of upward harmonization of local government salaries, services and equipment is already impacting SSI and will likely become more acute if a SSI municipality enters the municipal employee bargaining environment.

The incorporation question, like most decisions; is a trade-off of positives and negatives or striking a balance between desired and less desirable outcomes. On one hand, the current multi-agency governance model might be improved if replaced with an autonomous municipal government that can more ably manage the competing interests of local government service providers and coordinate and adjudicate among the competing local government departments.

On the other hand, municipal governments include buildings, property, equipment, staff, collective bargaining, and the inevitable comparison and harmonization of salaries, equipment and service levels with other local governments. This comes at a price that will very likely increase local property tax levels.

Contract Municipalities: Although we may prefer not to look south for inspiration, communities in California have faced similar issues that may now face SSI. As early as the 1950’s, suburban California communities were vulnerable to potential hostile annexation. They wanted to retain their local decision making autonomy while maintaining their existing regional service providers and avoiding costly investment in buildings, facilities and staff. Although not entirely analogous to the SSI context, the California situation resulted in contract cities – a municipality whose municipal services are provided via a contract arrangement with another units of government, a public agency, or private or commercial organizations. Contract cities typically start out contracting with the existing service providers and over time their contracts evolve to include other service providers, various contractual arrangements and competition for contracts that better meet their needs and are more cost effective. Contract municipalities have very few employees whose role is to administer a series of contracts that provide all of the local government services.

The suggestion made here, is that the contract municipality model may be well suited to the Salt Spring Island by providing local autonomy and at the same time managing a number of uncertainties about future municipal costs, particularly the risk of taxation growth beyond the means of the local community to pay.

Contract Municipalities are typically and best created at the time of municipal incorporation. In British Columbia the letters patent that legislatively establish a municipality are unrestricted in the province’s ability to establish a contract municipality. A SSI contract municipality could be established by provincial letters patent, resulting in little or no change to the existing list of service providers. In contrast, the option of converting an existing conventional municipality into a contract municipality would be very challenging; requiring that staff and their benefits and pensions be terminated and the municipal organization be deconstructed; a very unlikely scenario. Converting from a contract municipality to a conventional municipality is relatively easy whereas the reverse is almost impossible in the BC context. In this regard a contract municipality is a “one time” opportunity at the time of incorporation.

A vision of SSI as a contract municipality is fairly straight-forward. Local government on SSI would include;
• a Mayor and Council making all decisions, setting priorities, determining service levels, and establishing budgets and tax levels; and
• a staff of possibly 2-3 persons to administer the contracts to deliver the local services.

A contract municipality has little need for staff and physical assets, even the needs of a small office and council chambers might be provided through a lease arrangement. All buildings, land and specialized equipment would be owned by the contract municipality and utilized by the successful contractors. Initially, all the existing service delivery agencies would likely continue; RCMP, CRD, Islands Trust and the existing improvement districts. The improvement districts would have to be restructured through provincial legislation to act as non-elected bodies contracted by the municipality. Over time the local Council might identify other potential service providers and introduce competition to the contracting process.

It is recognized that the contract municipality model may seem to some to be radical or suspect for several reasons. Foremost, contracting for services may be perceived as a right leaning, anti-labour approach.

Contracting Out: Contracting out in BC is nothing new. In 1995, James McDavid and Eric Clemens published Contracting out Local Government Services; The BC Experience and their findings that 32% of local government services in BC were being delivered by private contractors. Contracting out was actually found to be more prevalent in BC compared to equivalent studies in the United States. Their view was that contracting out was increasing in BC and at that time 22.8% of municipal administrators predicted an increase in contracting out over the following five years.

Service delivery to contract municipalities may or may not include private sector contractors. Current local services on SSI are almost exclusively provided by other levels of government or non-profit organizations. Roads maintenance is the notable exception to the current public providers rule, however this approach seems to have worked well for many years is not known to be of any particular concern to the community. If more private sector contracting is considered appropriate, an advantage of contracting out in the SSI context is that island contractors would have an advantage over off-island  contractors. Contracting to island businesses would support local entrepreneurship and employment.

Contract Management: There are also concerns that contractors; both public and more so private, are less responsive and dependable than municipal employees. Private contractors might be considered more likely to provide lower wages, poor benefits and substandard working conditions. This concern is really about the municipality’s ability to establish standards, select, monitor, sanction and, if necessary, replace contractor’s who do not perform to required standards. The support for, and sophistication of municipal contract management has been increasing together with increased levels of contracting. An important lesson learned that is applicable to SSI is managing the size of contracts so that the bidding pool is larger and inadequate performers can be readily replaced. Methods of monitoring contract performance are steadily improving and both current technology (webcams and drones) and future technology advances will further improve a municipality’s ability to achieve all of its performance requirements through third party contracts.

Conclusion: SSI has been prone to community divisiveness on challenges it has faced in the past. If limited to polar options from each end of the spectrum, there is a greater potential for divisiveness and acrimony. Exploration of an “out-of-the-box” middle ground municipal model based on a contract municipality may be the key to achieving a greater community consensus on the incorporation question?

Incorporation is a big decision for the island. A new governance model should be able to effectively manage the level of service and the service delivery costs so that taxation levels can be maintained within the community’s ability to pay. Organizational flexibility and agility is also required to respond to the challenges of an environment that is changing at an ever-increasing pace. The contract municipal model provides a high level of financial control and a much greater degree of flexibility in the choice of service delivery providers.

SSI also has a cultural history of self–reliance, independent thinking, volunteerism and entrepreneurship. It is considered that the introduction of a conventional municipal structure will very likely stifle some of the very characteristics that give SSI its unique community character. The contract municipality has many attributes that are very likely a good “fit” for SSI. In this regard, the Incorporation Committee is asked to include the contract municipality model within its scope of work. The contract municipality model should also be considered for inclusion in the Committee’s recommendations for a future referendum.

John Gauld
200 Wright Road
Salt Spring Island BC
V8K 2H8
jrgauld at telus.net

If you live on Salt Spring you have to get used to all the acronyms.  If you have not heard of SSIWPA it’s because it’s new.   SSIWPA stands for Salt Spring Island WaterShed Protection Authority.  Today  was the first meeting of the SSIWPA PAC (Public Advisory Committee).

The ideal behind SSIWPA is that it will coordinate gov agencies in the protection of the watershed and lakes of Salt Spring.   SSIWPA was created by the island trust bylaw 154  for the purpose of preserving and protecting the quality and quantity of water resources within the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Area.  Here is the actual bylaw; bylaw154delegationpowers.

The photo on this page actually explains how SSIWPA works.  Here is a link to their web site.  There is a Technical advisory committee, PAC and the steering committee. Over the next 6 months or so there will be a series of workshops that will bring solutions forward.  As far as I know there will be no public involvement or public witness and or public minutes of the Technical Advisory committee.  To me this is just wrong.  Part of the terms of reference are to operate in an open, transparent and accountable manner.   On Monday there was another meeting with the company that is paid to write the report and that meeting was not public and no minutes and or tape of the meeting have been published that I know about.

Below are the only audio tape of today’s PAC meeting.   At the end of this rather long tape there is a discussion on how SSIWPA is going to communicate with the public.  I thought it was rather amusing that with their 110k budget they could not spend $50 on an MP3 recorder and tape their public meeting and make it available to the public.  This is why I went to the meeting is to make it available to my subscribers and keep them informed of what is happening on Salt Spring.  I do not want to see a closed door solution put out the public with no public consultation and or input.   My hat is off to Maxine Leichter who is on PAC and wants input and PAC not to be a rubber stamp committee.   For those that do not know Maxine she is one of the driving forces of the Water Preservation Society.  John Borst from the water council is another water advocate on the newly formed PAC.  Along with the other volunteers I think Salt Spring is in good hands.

Here is the actual agenda package for the first PAC meeting; SSIWPA-PAC-Draft-Agenda-Package-Nov-4-2014

Part 1 at the 37:20 mark Maxine ask the coordinator (Chair) about options and will the PAC get the options on how to fix the lake.  To me this is the key question of the meeting.  The taxpayers want options with cost to fix the lake not just a report with one solution.   Again at the 41 minute mark Maxine gets this recorded in the minutes of meeting.

Part 2

Hopefully the end result will be St Mary lake will get the attention it needs and give the island various real options with cost associated to each option.

If you have any questions just send me and email.

Note to readers I’m not any of the committees.

 

I think SSIWPA is a good positive ideal but would like to see all the committee meeting taped and made public.

 

Cheers

Scott Simmons

 

Salt Spring will be having a local election on the 15 of November 2014.  There will be 2 trustees for the island trust elected and one CRD director.   If you would like to know the lay out of local government here is an excellent organization chart. Salt Spring Island Local Governance  Basically the Island Trust does local zoning and land use via bylaws and the CRD handles water, sewer and building inspections.

Last night was the all candidates meeting.  The videos are of the meeting in it’s entirety with no edits.  It’s long but even if you just skip through the videos you will see the passion for the island from all of the excellent candidates running. The videos are low resolution but the audio is not that bad.

ON Monday the 10 Nov was the all candidates meeting for the School board election. There are three positions that need to be filled.

The other contested issue this election is the referendum on granting the Salt Spring transportation commission 1 million dollars over 4 years to spend on? I’m not sure. They have not provided a detailed plan. I’m voting NO.

Cheers

Scott Simmons