Last year, I stopped in at Woodwynn Farms where a farm market was running and bought some produce grown by men who were formerly homeless and now housed and learning farming. We heard about the vision for the farm and were encouraged and inspired.
But then we heard about the issues with rezoning, with neighbours and the Central Saanich council denying farm worker housing on one per cent of the 193-acre farm.
Central Saanich's motto is the Land of Plenty, but yet the community has no low-income housing, no food banks and no service agencies. How can a community call itself the land of plenty but not offer any support to those in need?
Central Saanich denies farm worker housing to people who are want to farm the land, but allows 22,000-square-foot homes to be built on Agricultural Land Reserve land for a single family, and gives tax breaks to the wealthy for their roadside farm stands for the six dozen eggs they sell a week. Perhaps the land of plenty is really about the people who have plenty and keeping out those who have not.
A true community includes all people.
Kathleen Busch
Saanich
