Saanich News

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Times Colonist, October 23, 2022

​Meet Saanich council newcomers: an 'old millennial,' a founder of a running charity and a sea cucumber crime fighter

Phelps Bondaroff also wants to make the region’s streets, sidewalks and trails safer. He recently saw a mural installed at Falaise Crescent in Saanich as a traffic-calming measure, which he will study. On council, he said, he will push hard for a new advisory committee solely focused on accessibility.

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Saanich News, August 13, 2022

Taking it to the streets: Saanich gets its first road mural

“Research has found that road murals encourage drivers to slow down, thereby improving road safety. I’m very pleased to see this pilot project up and running in Saanich and am looking forward to evaluating its effectiveness,” he said.

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Phelps Bondaroff worked with the district to develop road mural guidelines. He’ll be collecting traffic speed data and comparing it against measurements taken pre-mural to study the impact of the mural on vehicle speeds on the street.

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Victoria News, August 7, 2022

Saanich researcher makes waves studying Asian sea cucumber crime

Sea cucumbers are common. From nearshore shallow waters down to the depths of the deepest trenches – they inhabit nearly every corner of the planet’s oceans. Yet, soaring demand has created a multi-million dollar black market for the lucrative blobs, according to one Saanich researcher.
 

Teale Phelps Bondaroff, director of research for marine conservation organization OceansAsia and an expert on illegal fishing and marine wildlife crime, was in the spotlight following the premiere of a new Undercover Asia documentary Sunday (July 31) featuring his research.

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Victoria Literacy Connection, July, 2022

Book Bash! Champion - Teale Phelps Bondaroff

As a volunteer member of the board of the Greater Victoria Placemaking Network, Teale heads up the Pocket Places Project, which helps promote, map, stock, and build little free libraries around the CRD. To date, he has helped build over 80 of these little book boxes, and has delivered and distributed more than 70,000 books to the region’s growing network of over 615 little free libraries, with his bike trailer. In addition to topping up little free libraries with books, Teale also drops off other important information, including Book Bash! book marks.  

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BCHA, October 27, 2021

Saanich endorses COVID-19 denial through permissive tax exemption

Without benefits tests for permissive tax exemptions (PTE), municipalities risk funding organizations that only provide services to their members, run commercial operations, exclude and discriminate against people or flout the law. This is exactly what the District of Saanich did at its meeting on Monday, October 25th when this municipal council unanimously voted to renew a PTE to a prosperity gospel church known for equating child disobedience to witchcraft, for preaching homophobia, endorsing and engaging in so-called ‘conversion therapy,’ and for outspoken COVID-19 denial and anti-vaccine rhetoric.

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Saanich News, October 8, 2021

LETTER: Noisy vehicles should be monitored in Saanich

Given the well-documented harms of noise pollution to health and well-being, action is needed. I encourage Saanich to explore using noise cameras to address this issue. Our current approach is not working.

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Times Colonist, August 17, 2021

Working on reconciliation, one free little library at a time

“People thought that it was a great idea and suggested that it would be a good title to be included in the little free library network,” said Phelps Bondaroff. “We started a public crowdfunding campaign and in under 24 hours, we managed to raise the $4,000 we had initially asked for. We then raised the goal and, as of Tuesday, have raised almost $6,900.”
 

That’s enough for the non-profit organization to purchase 902 copies of the booklet — 870 in English and 32 in French.

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