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EDITORIAL: Vote signals shift in political climate

It didn’t take long for Karen Harper to make her presence felt around the council table. Less than two weeks after being sworn in to take her place on Saanich council, Harper cast the deciding vote to rescind the controversial Environmental Development Permit Area bylaw .
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It didn’t take long for Karen Harper to make her presence felt around the council table. Less than two weeks after being sworn in to take her place on Saanich council, Harper cast the deciding vote to rescind the controversial Environmental Development Permit Area bylaw.

Council voted 5-4 to scrap the controversial bylaw following a lengthy public hearing Saturday, with Couns. Judy Brownoff, Colin Plant, Dean Murdock and Vicki Sanders opposed.

Harper was elected in a Sept. 23 byelection held to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Vic Derman, a vocal supporter of the EDPA bylaw. The decision came in a committee-of-the-whole meeting, meaning council will need to make the move official during the next regular council meeting.

The shift in the balance of power has left many Saanich residents, along with district staff, wondering what comes next.

“As a bylaw and policy, it clearly wasn’t working for homeowners and needed to be thrown out,” said Mayor Richard Atwell, representing the views of a large number of Saanich residents in calling the EDPA a “draconian bylaw” that offered only weak environmental protection.

But while there was widespread opposition to the bylaw, many felt a few necessary revisions could have addressed those objections with the EDPA without disposing of the environmental protections it offers.

“Saanich is building a new house and while we are building that new house, council has decided to go live out in a tent rather than the house it is currently staying in,” said Coun. Colin Plant.

Following Saturday’s vote council instructed staff to develop a Saanich program addressing environmental topics like climate change, biodiversity and stewardship to “serve as a policy framework for other Saanich environmental policies and programs and that a new EDPA be considered as part of this program.”

So while council’s vote is clearly a victory for those opposed to the EDPA, the dust has yet to settle on what future environmental protections will take its place.