The Camosun Community Association is much more that a group of concerned citizens who try and amuse residents of a neighbourhood that stretches between the southern limit of Mt Tolmie Park, Derby St, Cedar Hill Rd, North Dairy Rd; a boundary with Victoria between Shelbourne and Richmond; then Richmond, Adanac, then up north along the western side of Foul Bay Road; and finally along the Oak Bay boundary up to Mt Tolmie Park.
We are here trying concurrently to help you, our neighbours, to understand what Saanich Council and staff are doing, and to channel to Council and staff your concerns about issues of importance in our area.
We also are here to liaise with other community associations in Saanich, within the framework of the Saanich Community Associations Network (SCAN). SCAN is an umbrella organization for community organizations in Saanich, created in in 1994 on the initiative of Ron Kirstein, then of the Saanich’s Community Relations Dept, to help groups in the District to interact within a “loose” coalition. Unequal participation among members and fear from some that SCAN might usurp their powers caused some problems at the start.
SCAN was organized as a network organization aimed to support, co-ordinate and liaise community groups and facilitate community participation on social, economic, environmental and land use issues in Saanich. Over time members were specified as registered community associations. Also it was decided that SCAN would not have any authority to take any pro-active role. As such, SCAN now provides to its members:
- a forum to discuss common issues, to provide information on these issues; often by expert presentations, and facilitating a common understanding of issues and common (optional) goals
- a means
- to interact as a group with Saanich by inviting staff to meetings where members listen and comment
- to bring district-wide and local issues to the group’s attention, e.g., with presentations and discussions, easier access to technical reports and to other relevant information
- to rally members as a group on specific issues, if the members so choose
- to interact by email on urgent matters without having to wait for a meeting
- to connect to similar groups on a regional basis
- to assist groups wishing to form community associations in the District
SCAN meetings are held monthly at the Saanich Police Headquarters every first Wednesday at 7:15 pm. The public are welcome to attend and take part, yet without enjoying the same status as members.
SCAN’s Board has no formal authority. Its Chair is a “contact person” among SCAN members, with District staff and Council, and with outside parties. It reports to members without interfering with their responsibilities and rights. It is funded exclusively by a small municipal grant that covers its administrative expenditures. I represented the Association at SCAN meetings shortly after the CCA was first formed, but left the CCA some ten years ago. I rejoined the CCA five years ago and resumed as SCAN Rep.
Since then I took initiatives that beg comments: I alerted the SCAN members to an action started by the residents of Esquimalt on the humongous CRD project of sewage secondary treatment. I tried to alert them to the issue of food self-sufficiency in the Greater Victoria: just think that if we are cut accidentally or otherwise from our the usual line of supply, there are three days of food supply on the Island. The farmers markets cater to people who can afford their produce, not to the general public. Imagine a medium strength earthquake near Vancouver. It might sink the Tsawwassen terminal, Roberts Bank, etc. Then what to we eat? I have also launched a cooperation between community associations to hold an all-candidates debate before the municipal elections.
For more on this topic, contact yves@bajard.net telephone: 250 598 4610.
