Peter Jones
Are you associated with or running as part of a slate? If so, which one?
None
Do you live in the municipality where you are running, and if so, for how long? If not, what is your connection to that community?
27 years in North Saanich
What is your occupation, and for how long?
Engineer, Real Estate Appraiser Complex Properties 30+ years
Tell us about your previous elected and/or community experience.
Executive of the Vancouver Island Kidney Patients Association (VIKPA) for the last 27 years.
President of Dean Park Estates Community Association (DPECA) for the past 5 years.
Why are you running? What’s your motivation?
OCP is highly contentious in North Saanich and the current proposed OCP is driven by consultants and not from ground up. Residents are not being kept informed.
I have hands-on experience with Municipalities working on Land Use, Community Charters, the Rural Act in BC, and similar legislation in other locations nationally.
Effectively, I have over 20 years of expertise engaging with Mayors, Councilors, Policy makers, and other public administrations.
I offer all residents expertise to bring common sense to the OCP and arrive at an OCP residents can be proud of.
What are your top three issues?
OCP is highly contentious in North Saanich and the current proposed OCP is driven by consultants and not from ground up. Residents are not being kept informed.
Regional Growth Strategy: There is great pressure on North Saanich to densify housing. The UCB vision is North Saanich as Ural/Residential Rural, with a housing growth of 5% among all rural communities. I support the RGS as North Saanich does not have infrastructure to support higher densification.
Urban Containment Boundary: To support higher densification the UCB would need to expand. I do not support UCB expansion as growth in community must be steady and appropriate for the location.
What’s your vision for your community in 25 years?
North Saanich is an oasis among urban sprawl with ocean on three fronts and agriculture between. The beautiful town of Sidney is minutes away therefore changing North Saanich semiurban will take away the benefits others living on the peninsula benefit from. We have the airport and BC Ferries that provide service throughout the community – we need to maintain who North Saanich is for all to enjoy.
We are the lungs of the area with a tree canopy to love and agriculture that provides self-sustaining food going forward.
What’s one “big idea” you have for your community?
North Saanich is rural – we need to be a leader in farming and agriculture. To this end I would loke to see Centre for Plant Health integrate with local farmers and agriculture to be a world class destination for tourists to visit and enable local talent to thrive. This vision could be extended to include Ocean Sciences to facilitate land grown as well as sea grown food such as seaweed.
Clean up our environment to permit local shore harvesting of clams etc. for our indigenous peoples and others.
