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District’s loss is Tsartlip’s gain

To use an antiquated idiom, the Peninsula Co-op has shown the District of Central Saanich and the CRD that there is indeed, more than one way to skin a cat.

To use an antiquated idiom, the Peninsula Co-op has shown the District of Central Saanich and the CRD that there is indeed, more than one way to skin a cat.

Thinking outside municipal boundaries the Co-op should be able to achieve its goal of keeping its grocery store/headquarters within the same geographic area, while at the same time, avoiding the district’s restrictive urban containment boundary.

By coming to an agreement with the Tsartlip First Nation, whose land is governed by themselves along with the federal government, the Co-op will be able to build its development — and more — on Tsartlip land in Brentwood Bay.

The location is not as ideal for shoppers as its proposed West Saanich Road property, or even it’s current location on Keating X Road. It will locate the new store within a few kilometres of two existing grocery stores in the area, leaving residents of the northeast corner of the community to travel, most likely, to Saanich for their groceries.

While the economic benefits to the Tsartlip people are undeniable, those tax dollars could have easily been in Central Saanich’s pocket, had bureaucracy not been in the way.

The district, and therefore its taxpayers, may also be on the hook for improvements to Stelly’s X Road and other infrastructure leading up to the development — an added cost to the municipality without the benefit of additional revenue from tax dollars.

And what will become of the Co-op’s land on West Saanich Road? It has never been seriously used as farm land to grow crops and could potentially be sold or developed in another way.

While bureaucracy has favoured the Tsartlip First Nation in this instance, it may well be a wake-up call to all municipalities who are also home to First Nation communities to cut the red tape.