Withdraw the CRD (Capital Regional District) from Development Lobby Membership
Withdraw the CRD (Capital Regional District) from Development Lobby Membership
The Issue
We the signed call upon the Capital Regional District, a fourth layer of government that presides over Greater Victoria and surrounding areas to withdraw its paid membership from the Urban Development Institute development lobby.
There are also major conflict of interest concerns with the CRD's Regional Growth Strategy that the Official Community Plans of municipalities must conform to legally, thus overriding municipal sovereignty in determining their own future, causing major tensions in a number of municipalities as they struggle to cope with the housing quotas set for them.
Regional Growth Strategies require municipalities to undertake expensive Housing Needs Reports to base their growth strategies on and numerous municipalities in the CRD have adopted Housing Needs Reports made by companies, which are also paying members of the same development lobby the UDI, that the CRD is a paying member of. These Housing Needs Reports enforcing a growth based agenda have cost millions of taxpayer dollars among the various municipalities required to undertake them and other levels of government that subsidize them including the Province.
The CRD is a paying member of the Urban Development Institute Capital Region, which is a development lobby that targets, you guessed it the Capital Region, which the Capital Regional District represents.
For the CRD to be paying a member of a development lobby that targets the CRD and according to its statements promotes "steady growth" to municipalities, is a clear full circle conflict-of-interest.
Not only does being bound to such a plan override municipal sovereignty and the power of voters that democracy is based on, but it creates a situation whereby municipalities are being bound to expand their artificial footprint over territories that include unceded indigenous lands and across key sensitive environmental regions, which is devastating for biodiversity and natural ecology/ecosystems as a whole through the process of habitat loss, one of the main drivers of human caused extinction.
Other regions have seen their ecology devastated by the Regional Growth Strategy including the municipality of Langford, where whole areas have had their forested hills removed for development, looking like a moonscape and the critical salmon bearing environment of nearby Goldstream Provincial Park is currently threatened by road expansion.
At the end of the day, "sustainable development" is a nice sounding myth cooked up by the PR industry. The term is a self-contradicting statement. Growth is not sustainable on a finite planet and certainly not within the beautiful region with its rich, but very fragile and at the breaking point ecology within the Capital Region.
Please, we the signed call on the CRD to at the very least use logic and a well thought out vision of an actual sustainable future, which seeks a real (non-growth-based) balance with the nature in the region, instead of overwhelming it through an unsustainable model of enforced artificial growth. After all, if the CRD is tasked with so much responsibility over the environment it presides over, it shouldn't be the cause of its demise through its own growth strategy.
In order to end this glaring conflict of interest with its growth strategy and in general, we ask that the CRD withdraw its paid membership with the Urban Development Institute Immediately.
Resources:
https://udicapitalregion.ca/membership/member-directory/
Member Directory - UDI Capital Region Under "C" Entry: "Capital Regional District"
Some articles on the situation in North Saanich:
Quote in the article:
"“We specifically said who we wanted to interview and we also explicitly said that this engagement does not need to include other agencies or the other stakeholders, (such as) outfits like UDI (Urban Development Institute),”"
Is the CRD functioning as a lobby group for Real Estate and Development?
If the CRD board is focused in a way that aligns with “influences issues”, then the CRD Board is also in the business of influence peddling, essentially they are acting as lobbyists.
Now not all influence is bad, but when their two top priorities are those pushed most highly by Real Estate/Development speculators, who have the most to gain financially, then their being a member of the Real/Estate/Development lobby is doubly a concern, of a certain sector having far too much influence over a level of government.
The following is from the CRD's own website:
Advocacy Strategy
The Board is committed to advocating in a consistent, focused way that aligns with the strategic priorities and influences issues important to the region and the people who live here.
Regional Priorities
The CRD Board Priorities set the direction for the 2023-2026 term and represent the risks, opportunities and problems that need to be solved through collaboration for the benefit of the region. Each of these priorities has actions the CRD can advance directly as part of its mandate as well as areas that require action from other governments and partners to fully pursue opportunities and address challenges.
• Transportation
• Housing
• Climate Action & Environment
• First Nations
• Governance
Advocacy efforts include Board resolutions and statements, face to face meetings, presentations, partnerships and correspondence. For a summary of activity and progress to date, please read:
https://www.crd.bc.ca/about/board-committees/board-advocacy
For More Information, Please Contact:
CRDPetition@mail.com
The Issue
We the signed call upon the Capital Regional District, a fourth layer of government that presides over Greater Victoria and surrounding areas to withdraw its paid membership from the Urban Development Institute development lobby.
There are also major conflict of interest concerns with the CRD's Regional Growth Strategy that the Official Community Plans of municipalities must conform to legally, thus overriding municipal sovereignty in determining their own future, causing major tensions in a number of municipalities as they struggle to cope with the housing quotas set for them.
Regional Growth Strategies require municipalities to undertake expensive Housing Needs Reports to base their growth strategies on and numerous municipalities in the CRD have adopted Housing Needs Reports made by companies, which are also paying members of the same development lobby the UDI, that the CRD is a paying member of. These Housing Needs Reports enforcing a growth based agenda have cost millions of taxpayer dollars among the various municipalities required to undertake them and other levels of government that subsidize them including the Province.
The CRD is a paying member of the Urban Development Institute Capital Region, which is a development lobby that targets, you guessed it the Capital Region, which the Capital Regional District represents.
For the CRD to be paying a member of a development lobby that targets the CRD and according to its statements promotes "steady growth" to municipalities, is a clear full circle conflict-of-interest.
Not only does being bound to such a plan override municipal sovereignty and the power of voters that democracy is based on, but it creates a situation whereby municipalities are being bound to expand their artificial footprint over territories that include unceded indigenous lands and across key sensitive environmental regions, which is devastating for biodiversity and natural ecology/ecosystems as a whole through the process of habitat loss, one of the main drivers of human caused extinction.
Other regions have seen their ecology devastated by the Regional Growth Strategy including the municipality of Langford, where whole areas have had their forested hills removed for development, looking like a moonscape and the critical salmon bearing environment of nearby Goldstream Provincial Park is currently threatened by road expansion.
At the end of the day, "sustainable development" is a nice sounding myth cooked up by the PR industry. The term is a self-contradicting statement. Growth is not sustainable on a finite planet and certainly not within the beautiful region with its rich, but very fragile and at the breaking point ecology within the Capital Region.
Please, we the signed call on the CRD to at the very least use logic and a well thought out vision of an actual sustainable future, which seeks a real (non-growth-based) balance with the nature in the region, instead of overwhelming it through an unsustainable model of enforced artificial growth. After all, if the CRD is tasked with so much responsibility over the environment it presides over, it shouldn't be the cause of its demise through its own growth strategy.
In order to end this glaring conflict of interest with its growth strategy and in general, we ask that the CRD withdraw its paid membership with the Urban Development Institute Immediately.
Resources:
https://udicapitalregion.ca/membership/member-directory/
Member Directory - UDI Capital Region Under "C" Entry: "Capital Regional District"
Some articles on the situation in North Saanich:
Quote in the article:
"“We specifically said who we wanted to interview and we also explicitly said that this engagement does not need to include other agencies or the other stakeholders, (such as) outfits like UDI (Urban Development Institute),”"
Is the CRD functioning as a lobby group for Real Estate and Development?
If the CRD board is focused in a way that aligns with “influences issues”, then the CRD Board is also in the business of influence peddling, essentially they are acting as lobbyists.
Now not all influence is bad, but when their two top priorities are those pushed most highly by Real Estate/Development speculators, who have the most to gain financially, then their being a member of the Real/Estate/Development lobby is doubly a concern, of a certain sector having far too much influence over a level of government.
The following is from the CRD's own website:
Advocacy Strategy
The Board is committed to advocating in a consistent, focused way that aligns with the strategic priorities and influences issues important to the region and the people who live here.
Regional Priorities
The CRD Board Priorities set the direction for the 2023-2026 term and represent the risks, opportunities and problems that need to be solved through collaboration for the benefit of the region. Each of these priorities has actions the CRD can advance directly as part of its mandate as well as areas that require action from other governments and partners to fully pursue opportunities and address challenges.
• Transportation
• Housing
• Climate Action & Environment
• First Nations
• Governance
Advocacy efforts include Board resolutions and statements, face to face meetings, presentations, partnerships and correspondence. For a summary of activity and progress to date, please read:
https://www.crd.bc.ca/about/board-committees/board-advocacy
For More Information, Please Contact:
CRDPetition@mail.com
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Petition created on May 13, 2023