Under the alternative approval process, if more than 10 per cent of eligible electors — 8,735 residents — submit an elector response form opposing the initiative, the loan authorization bylaw cannot be adopted.
A group opposed to the way the District of Saanich is going about borrowing $150 million believes it might be on the verge of defying the odds and raising enough opposition to defeat an alternative approval process.
Nancy Di Castri, president of advocacy group Save Our Saanich, said they are quietly confident they will exceed the threshold of 8,735 people needed to defeat the process.
Di Castri said the campaign, which held its second public rally Saturday, is going really well and they estimate there have been 4,000 elector response forms already filled out with another 6,000 expected to come through the volunteer network Save Our Saanich has assembled.
“And then we’ve got faith in the public. The public isn’t happy about this way of borrowing,” she said. “It’s not a very transparent way. And I just don’t think the public has the appetite for that right now.”
The alternative approval process would allow the district to borrow up to $150 million to redevelop its operations centre at McKenzie Avenue and Borden Street.
Under the process, which began May 21 and closes June 25, if more than 10 per cent of eligible electors — 8,735 residents — submit an elector response form opposing the initiative, the loan authorization bylaw cannot be adopted.
At that point, the district would have two options — put the project on hold or seek permission for the borrowing via referendum.
Di Castri said her group does not have an issue with the plan to replace the operations centre as the buildings there are well past their prime. But the process is undemocratic as residents are assumed to be in favour unless they return an elector response form.
“What is at the heart of this is the public feels Saanich started to leave the public out of the discourse, it’s been somewhat insidious and it goes little by little,” she said. “I think this is just kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back. If you’re going to borrow this level of money, it really is a lot fairer to do it by way of a referendum.”
Di Castri said the district could avoid the cost of a referendum — estimated at $300,000 — by adding a referendum question to the municipal election ballot in the fall of 2026.
David Black, associate professor of communications and culture at Royal Roads University, said people might not like the alternative approval process but it’s not undemocratic.
“It’s differently democratic. It’s not as democratic as a referendum, but it is not insignificant and it reflects the reality of municipal politics,” he said. “You can’t have a referendum on every big decision or you just exhaust the public.”
Black also noted the cost of a referendum is considerable.
He said what many people don’t like is the negative-option-billing aspect of an the alternative approval process.
Negative-option billing is the practice of adding new charges to a service without the consent of the customer. Customers, in those cases, must decline the new services or be deemed to have accepted them and the new charges.
Black said because municipalities cannot run deficits they have little choice but to opt for an alternative approval process to fund things like infrastructure.
“In order to be sufficiently nimble [governments] need some mechanism by way of getting an okay from the public to take out a big loan, raise taxes accordingly and not run a deficit,” he said.
Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock said if the no campaign is able to get enough support council will have to decide whether or not to proceed immediately to a referendum or if it’s worth holding off until the council election in 2026.
“The challenge, of course, is any delay is just going to add costs to the eventual construction of the project, and unfortunately, in today’s inflationary environment, in the construction world, that has the potential to add millions of dollars in costs,” he said.
The $172-million operations centre project has been identified as a district priority, as the aging site at McKenzie and Borden has been deemed not fit to handle future growth.
About 300 staff based at the operations centre look after transportation, parks, water, sewer and solid waste in Saanich.
Council has already directed district staff to start work to identify a private-sector partner who will develop a master plan for McKenzie and Borden in collaboration with Saanich.
The district would expect a single payment of about $30 million from a developer to lease the development lands while Saanich retains ownership of the entire site in perpetuity.
Part of the redevelopment would see Saanich move its parks maintenance group to a three-acre industrial property it bought from Don Mann Excavating in the 4000-block of Lochside Drive. A date for that move has not been set.
Saanich staff estimate the total annual debt servicing costs for the $150-million loan would be $9.5 million.
If it’s approved, residents would see a 0.85% tax increase on average per year for four years.
Murdock said if the alternative approval process fails, the district will definitely go to a referendum.
“There is really no way to not move forward with replacement of these facilities. And I think that we owe it to future generations to take the responsible step of replacing these aging buildings so that the services that are delivered here for (the parks department) and public works can continue,” he said. “It would be irresponsible for us to simply turn our backs on this project because we thought it was inconvenient or too expensive.”
Saanich used an alternative approval process earlier this year to get the OK to borrow about $9.6 million for five infrastructure projects.
Victoria most recently used an alternative approval process to expand the catchment area of its business improvement association.
In that case only 17 people, or 1.48 per cent of the eligible voting properties, voted against the expansion.
Victoria famously used an alternative approval process 15 years ago to get approval to borrow for the Johnson Street Bridge project. That process failed with 9,872 people — it only needed 6,343 — signing forms demanding a referendum instead.
Nanaimo recently failed in an attempt to get support from residents to borrow $90 million to upgrade its nearly 70-year-old public works facilities. A total of 8,655 valid electoral response forms in opposition were received, representing 10.85 per cent of electors.
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