Audited Circulation 12,968

An Island Publishers Newspaper

Wednesday October 17,1990 40¢

Michaluk leaves N.S. mayor's seat open

by Valorie Lennox
The Review

Citing personal and professional
commitments, North Saanich
Mayer Linda Michaluk said Mon-
day that she will not be seeking
re-election in November.

Her July 1 appointment as
chairman of the province’s Envir-
onmental Appeal Board was the
deciding factor in her decision not
to seek a second term as mayor.

“T’ve weighed my personal and
professional obligations and at this
time I don’t feel I can run again,”
she said.

The chairman of the appeal
board should not be involved in
politics, even at the municipal
level, she said.

“Although in a perfect world, I
would like to do both.”

North Saanich alderman Maur-
ice Chazottes, elected in Novem-
ber 1988, will seek the mayor’s
chair in the November 17 election.

“T see the next three years are
going to be very critical for North
Saanich. We want a council that
will work together to defend North
Saanich against all those forces
which are lining up to force devel-
Opment when we don’t want it,”

retired journalist Chazottes said.

Council members elected in
November will serve for the next
three years.

Chazottes anticipates increased
pressure from the Capital Regional
District to force regional planning
on North Saanich and an attempt
to amalgamate Sidney and North
Saanich.

Council must work together to
maintain the rural atmosphere of
North Saanich, he said.

“Tm not willing to stand back
and see things happen which I
don’t want to see happen,” Cha-
zottes said.

He had decided to seek re-
election but said he would not
seek the mayor’s chair unless
Michaluk decided not to run.

Biologist Michaluk was first
elected to North Saanich council
as an alderman in November 1986.
In November 1987 she was elected
mayor, successfully challenging
incumbent Lloyd Harrop.

In July 1988 she was forced to
resign over conflict-of-interest
allegations involving Graeme and
Murray Consultants Ltd., hired by
the municipality to supervise the
Wain Road firehall expansion.

Continued on Page A3

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Vocal support given for Brentwood golf course

by Mare Davis
The Review

A proposal to build an 18-hole
golf course on Central Saanich
farmland should go ahead, most
speakers told council at a public
hearing, Thursday.

The majority of about 200 peo-
ple gathered at the Central Saanich
firehall applauded would-be golf
course developer John Berglund’s
calls for approval of the project.

Area residents took turns to

speak on whether council should
adopt two proposed rezoning
bylaws that would allow a golf
course to be built on 141 acres of
Agricultural Land Reserve land.

A few residents told council a $5
million golf course at Stelly’s
Crossroad and Wallace Drive
would be environmentally damag-
ing.

Berglund said he had been told
on June 29 by the provincial
Ministry of Environment that his
proposed championship golf

course would be less environmen-
tally harmful than most row crow
farming operations.

He added that farming is not
economically viable on his Maber
Flats property, which had been on
the market for more than three
years before he bought it.

He also said about 90 per cent of
the Maber Flats property’s neigh-
bors supported his scheme.

Neighbor Laura Blackwell said
a golf course would beautify the
Grade 2 farmland and would solve

the problem of the land being
flooded every winter.

She said it was actually poor
quality farmland and that it was
plagued by “noxious weeds” and
by mosquitoes in the summer.

“There has not been a farmer
that worked that land who has
been able to keep it up,” she said.

Robert Glazier said a champion-
ship golf course would provide the
area with jobs, a recreational facil-
ity for everyone and a further tax

Continued on Page A4

Police report serves Victoria’s interesis — C. Saanich

by Glenn Werkman
The Review

A report recently completed by-

the regionalization study team and
released by the province’s Solici-
tor General last week is more of a
marketing gimmick for the even-
tual amalgamation of Greater Vic-
toria police forces than an in-depth
research document, the Central
Saanich police department says.
“T think it’s light on research
but it’s an excellent marketing
document when you're trying to
market regionalization,” said Cen-
tral Saanich deputy police Chief
George Lawson.
And the chairman of the Central

Saanich police board, Mayor Ron
Cullis, said if the report’s recom-
mendations are followed up on,
residents of Central Saanich can-
not expect the same level of per-
sonal service they are enjoying
now.

“Our own police officers are
familiar with that element of the
community that causes prob-
lems,” Cullis said.

“We have an accountability at
the local level and I’m not satis-
fied at this point that amalgamated
service would provide us with
that,’ Cullis said.

Cullis said that much of the
report centers on the absence of
specialized services in smaller

departments.

“To date that’s not an operation-
al problem for us and that is not, in
itself, justification for amalgama-
tion,” Cullis said.

Currently, if you have an inci-
dent in Central Saanich the odds
are you'll have a police officer
come to your door, Cullis said.

But in the City of Victoria in a
vehicle break-and-enter complaint
“you'll become simply a number
and that’s the level of communica-
tion you have with the police
community,” Cullis said.

He expects the report to be
tabled at a police board meeting in
Central Saanich tonight but said
the board will likely not act on the

report quickly.

“There’s no great urgency to
deal with the report,” Cullis said.
“The players that will affect any
change in some cases haven’t been
elected yet.” The four core munic-
ipalities will have new police

board chairman after the Novem-

ber election.

Both Cullis and Lawson agree
the report is aimed at solving a
Tising crime rate in the City of
Victoria, at the expense of police
departments and residents in sur-
rounding municipalities, particu-
larly Central Saanich and Oak
Bay.

“It’s probably time, instead of

Continued on Page A2

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