The fact that Oak BayB次元官网网址檚 infill housing strategy includes robust community engagement is a hopeful sign that our council is getting serious about working with the community it was elected to serve.

The engagement process council used for the secondary suites initiative is robust, too. So is the engagement process it is demanding of the Capital Regional Hospital District in planning the future of Oak Bay Lodge. And so is the public engagement framework and toolkit that council recently adopted.

This just underscores how inadequate the engagement around the marina/Spewhung (Turkey Head) process has been for an opportunity that has at least as much, if not more long-term significance for our community and with clearly far more potential to advance reconciliation.

To categorize the marina/Spewhung decision-making as different because itB次元官网网址檚 really just some kind of B次元官网网址減rocurementB次元官网网址� process to B次元官网网址渞enew the marina leaseB次元官网网址� when it actually involves substantial land use and community planning decisions around publicly owned buildings, lands and waters that will affect Oak Bay for a generation feels like trying to explain away a mistake.

The community and our prospects for meaningful reconciliation shouldnB次元官网网址檛 pay the price for that.

Mayor Murdoch was right in December 2017 when he said it would take substantial consultation to get it right at Turkey Head (Spewhung). ThatB次元官网网址檚 why itB次元官网网址檚 wrong now to try to push things through without talking to the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations about their interest in partnership or collaboration, and without the community.

ItB次元官网网址檚 time to hit B次元官网网址減auseB次元官网网址� or better yet, B次元官网网址渞estartB次元官网网址� on the marina/Spewhung decision-making process. We have to get this one right; if we donB次元官网网址檛, we (or at least our children and grandchildren) will be living with the results for the next 30 years.

Bruce Kilpatrick

Oak Bay