Saanich Mayor Fred Haynes heads into 2022 with an air of optimism, hoping to bring back popular community events this summer to the largest municipality on Vancouver Island and eighth largest in B.C.
Now all he has to do is make sure the pandemic co-operates.
“Pending getting to the other side of it, just like we got to the other side of polio, what I’ve been working on is to try to have the most remarkable and amazing reset to normal of our social engagements,” Haynes said.
Ideally, that means the return of events like Music in the Park every week through the summer, Strawberry Fest and the Pride Parade, Haynes said.
There are also plans to rekindle a 2019 cultural-diversity program that included events to mark Ramadan and Diwali, and to hold a July 8 and 10 carnival at Uptown that is expected to continue in future years.
Haynes said an Uptown parking area will be closed so people can partake of food, entertainment and dancing. “It’s a confirmed date — we have all the ingredients coming together.”
Then on Aug. 1, 6 and 7, the plan is to hold a festival in Beckwith Park “based on Caribbean and Jamaican music and influence,” said Haynes, who hopes the event — to mark the anniversary of the day Jamaica gained independence from the United Kingdom (Aug. 6, 1962) — becomes an ongoing festival.
“I would like the summer of 2022 to be a celebration,” Haynes said. “We’re going ahead with the plans and we can always press pause on them.”
Another big item on the mayor and council’s 2022 agenda is housing. Since Saanich is largely built out, the goal is to “fill in and go up” along the district’s corridors, centres and villages, Haynes said. Up to 95 per cent of new housing could go in those areas, he said, staying within urban-containment boundary and preserving green spaces.
“With the cost of land, the utility of continuing to build single-family homes is now past,” Haynes said.
Also coming up, Saanich is investing $58 million in road-safety upgrades over the next three years, he said, noting a set of road-safety policies will be brought to council in the next three months.
Many Saanich residents called for improved pedestrian safety in the municipality, including lower speed limits, after a Reynolds Secondary student was killed while crossing Cedar Hill Cross Road in a marked crosswalk last month.
Haynes said already completed are an expanded pedestrian walkway on the Gorge Bridge, new bicycle lanes along Larchwood Drive and improved road safety at Marigold Elementary School, with better signage and road markings.
In the final year of his current mandate, the first-term mayor wants to continue the co-operative approach local leaders have taken during the pandemic, through things like regular Zoom meetings.
“Coming out of this past year where there’s been twists and turns and disappointments, there’s also been some amazing coming together and collaboration because of the challenge of COVID.”
Mental health and policing are among the major topics that have emerged during the sessions, Haynes said, while climate change, improved transit and housing are also well-served by a regional approach.
Plans are in the works for Haynes, Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch and University of Victoria president Kevin Hall to come together for a question-and-answer session with UVic students and the public. The gathering will be called two Kevins and a Fred — with Haynes and Murdoch representing the two municipalities in which the university is located.
The event was planned for this month, but has been delayed due to a sharp rise in COVID cases.
Topics on the agenda include housing costs and availability, on-campus and off-campus housing, transit and the cost of living. The trio will also discuss what can be done to help keep more UVic graduates here, Haynes said.
“It will be a town-hall setting where students can come, members of the public can come,” he said, adding UVic, Camosun College and Royal Roads University are “an amazing centre of excellence” for the region.
Haynes, who plans to run for re-election in October, where he’ll be challenged by former councillor Dean Murdock, said he enjoys the variety that comes with being mayor. “This is an interesting job,” he said. “No day’s the same.
