LiveSmart BC Community Hero
LiveSmart BC Community Hero: Gary Holman
Salt Spring voters may have recently bid farewell to Gary Holman as their Capital Regional District director, but his work over the past six years, and well before that, makes for perfect LiveSmart Community Hero material.
Gary used his grants-in-aid budget of approximately $40,000 per year to give financial support to a number of projects that reduced greenhouse gas emissions, often helping to leverage funds from other levels of government and agencies, or provided expertise and other non-monetary support.
When it comes to mitigating climate change, Gary’s most significant contribution may be his leadership role in getting the wheels turning on a public bus service on Salt Spring. The service, which began operating in January of 2008 under direction of the newly created Salt Spring Transportation Commission of the CRD, has exceeded all expectations in terms of ridership and demand for more service.
He also supported projects such as:
- Partners Creating Pathways Lower Ganges Road trail, completed in 2008, and the next pathways project.
- North Ganges Transportation Management Plan (in progress), which will make that part of town more friendly for pedestrians and reduce vehicle use as a result.
- The Salt Spring Energy Strategy, which heightened awareness of the need for climate change action through a number of initiatives, including the One-Tonne Challenge.
- Energy retrofits and low-flush toilet rebate programs.
- Transfer station bylaw amendment promoting chipping of clean wood waste rather than burning or transporting the material off the island.
Gary’s efforts for a number of years have resulted in preservation of natural areas throughout the island. He was a co-founder and chair of the South and West Salt Spring Conservation Partnership, whose member agencies saved 2,600 acres of the Texada lands in 2001. He was also involved in efforts to preserve a major Ford Lake property and properties on and near Mount Erskine. In the more general environmental realm, Gary supported a number of initiatives related to water quality on the island, including creation of the island’s water council and upgrades to various water systems, as well as the Burgoyne Bay liquid waste treatment site.
