Southern Gulf Islands Transportation Integration

Consultation has concluded

The Capital Regional District included a referendum question on the ballot of the General Local Election in October 2022, to ask if voters support the creation of a new transportation service for the Southern Gulf Islands Electoral Area. The referendum question failed with a vote of 1,495 yes to 1,498 no.

As part of the official determination of results, the CRD confirmed and verified the accuracy of all ballot accounts, confirmed the calculation of vote tallies from the electronic tabulators and ensured the correct consolidation of total results from across all polling locations. For details, visit www.crd.bc.ca/transportation-vote

The referendum followed a thorough transportation integration planning and consultation process at the community level. Thank you to all who participated, shared ideas and provided feedback along the way. The Southern Gulf Islands Active Transportation Plan was developed in tandem with the integration plan, using separate grant funding from UBCM. The plan and supporting maps will remain in place as working documents to help coordinate activities at the local level.

How was the Community Consulted?

Stroller on Saturna Island The decision to ask SGI residents to vote in this referendum came after a thorough community engagement process that received very high engagement per capita by industry standards. Led by WATT Consulting Group, a specialist transit, transportation planning and engineering firm, the public consultation process was guided by Transportation Advisory Groups, made up of community members and local transportation organizations, ensuring the proposal is rooted in local experience.

Overall, the theme heard from the public and stakeholders was that there is a need to improve transportation options on the Southern Gulf Islands. This would support the SGI in addressing climate change as well as other community goals by:

Providing sustainable alternatives to single occupancy vehicles and reducing car dependency.
Providing low-income populations more affordable travel options.
Better enabling all islanders, especially seniors and youth, to travel safely and independently.
Better connecting island communities.

To learn more about road safety issues in the SGI, this Driftwood article discusses the first-hand experiences of cyclists in the neighbouring Salt Spring Island Electoral Area.

You can read more details of the extensive community engagement process in Watt’s final report, the SGI Transportation Integration Plan and Appendix A- Public Engagement Summary.

Active Transportation Planning

Bicycles on Galiano Island

In tandem with this Transportation Integration Plan, the Capital Regional District developed a standalone Southern Gulf Islands Active Transportation Plan which was done separately as a result of a grant funding opportunity from UBCM. It builds on existing mapping work completed for Galiano, Mayne, Saturna, and the Pender Islands, including the CRD Regional Parks’ proposed spine trails and trails managed by CRD local Parks and Recreation Commissions as well local trail societies on each island. (The other modes do not have such detailed plans, and have been addressed at a higher level within the overall SGI Transportation Integration Plan.)

This AT plan is intended as a resource for groups developing active transportation in the islands. If the CRD establishes an SGI Transportation Service, the future SGI Transportation Commission can consider a strategic plan for implementation, and start exploring how to fund it with infrastructure grants from other levels of government. The maps are living documents, and the future SGI Transportation Commission will have the opportunity to update them as needed.