Kyle Armstrong with Peninsula Streams and Shorelines, presenting about water quality projects at SIPS Round Table, while Nickolas Schwetz, Environmental Planner and Galen McMenamin, Watershed Analyst with Cowichan Valley Regional District look on. September 11, 2025
SIPS organized the fall Round Table for last month on September 11th and invited speakers to present on the theme of Water Quality in Saanich Inlet. The event was hosted by the Willis Point Residents Association.
After acknowledgements and introductions by facilitator Anne-Marie Daniel, over 50 people were gathered at the standing-room-only event at the Willis Point Firehall.
Attendees included MP Elizabeth May, MLA Rob Botterell, several local municipal councillors and planning staff, Capital Region District staff responsible for water quality, local residents from Willis Point, Brentwood Bay, Saanich and other neighbourhoods near Saanich Inlet, members of the Brentwood Bay Marine Community and many other people with an interest in the wellbeing of Saanich Inlet.
The first talk was by Nicholas Schwetz, environmental planner with Cowichan Valley Regional District who presented an overview of the complexity of jurisdictions which are applied to manage development activities in riparian areas. Land-use regulations applied near water (both salt water and freshwater) depend on the type of activities proposed and those are in turn regulated by several different provincial acts and municipal bylaws. Each of these may have different definitions of ‘riparian’ and some management practices are recommended as ‘guidelines’ versus more enforceable ‘regulations’.
Next, Kyle Armstrong, the Executive Director for Peninsula Streams and Shorelines showed a two-part presentation about the work by staff and volunteers with Pen Streams, including beach and stream restoration, partnerships and stewardship programs. Several of their water sampling and testing has been in place for over twenty years in many creeks and streams across the Saanich Peninsula and nearby watersheds, with focus on the stream systems in Central Saanich.
Kyle also spoke about their work on stream channel restoration and successes, mapping watershed land use, monitoring storm water contamination, beach surveys for presence of forage fish egg surveys, restoration of instream salmon habitats and design for rain gardens. Current work also includes making sampling data publicly available by posting in an online open-source data stream.
Also presenting her work in association with Peninsula Streams and Shorelines, was UVIC student Lily Charette in the Sustainability Scholars program. She has compiled a review of the Capital Regional District, local First Nations and municipalities’ storm water management policies to help to identify a set of “Green Bylaws Toolkit” management practices which can be instituted to improve water management regulations across the region. These include watercourse protection, minimizing disruption of natural waterways and will be suitable for application in small scale projects.
UVIC PhD student Mitra Nikoo presented an overview of her project methods to assess the impact of transient boater and local boaters on the summer water quality in Brentwood Bay.
In Elizabeth May’s report, she explained the status of the Federal legislation to do with regulating and cleanup of derelict boats, as well as the need for better monitoring of safety of shellfish for human consumption at shellfish harvest areas in Saanich Inlet.
MLA Rob Botterell listed the top three environment-related issues that will be the focus of the green caucus this fall as 1) stop the expansion of the Goldstream highway before the project starts; 2) implement the old growth strategy report which the government released 5 years ago which is still not in place and 3) complete the updates to the province’s biodiversity regulations.
Chair Anne-Marie Daniel was facilitator and meeting director. She introduced her student ‘community mapping’ project, available at whatstherush.ca
