Saanich Coun. Teale Phelps Bondaroff remembers when he used to speak before council before getting elected that he wouldn’t give his actual address. He used to simply say he lived “down the road.” But members of the public who speak before council at meetings are technically supposed to give their full address. That requirement, however, is soon to end as council approved a motion to have staff look at how stop this practice at regular meetings and public hearings.

Saanich Coun. Teale Phelps Bondaroff spearheaded a similar effort in his community in January, and said he hopes the province adopts the idea. He said flat rate tickets disproportionately punish people in lower income brackets, while also failing to deter the ultra wealthy from speeding. “The problem is a $100-fine doesn’t mean the same thing to someone making $35,000-per year as it does to someone making $350,000,” he said.

Saanich councillor Teale Phelps Bondaroff says anyone awakened by an after-market muffler in the middle of the night can’t do much about it. “They’re not going to get on the phone and call bylaw enforcement. By now the car’s miles away in some unknown direction,” he said, standing on the corner of Cloverdale Avenue and Blanshard Street. It’s because of what Phelps Bondaroff refers to as “noise pollution” that he’s pitching a pilot project to have noise cameras installed at select Saanich intersections. He says they operate similar to speed cameras.

Representatives from the Falaise Community Association and the Greater Victoria Placemaking Network and the public came out to add purple camas flowers to the mural. 

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“The mural is fantastic,” said Teale Phelps Bondaroff, project co-initiator and network volunteer. “It’s bright and vibrant. It’s great for community building and road safety. Road murals have been found by some research to show that cars slow down.”

“Cameras are an effective way of reducing cost and danger associated with roadside stops,” said the councillor. “If you have a camera, it’s a lot easier to take a picture, audio recordings and give tickets.”

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According to Phelps Bondaroff, one of the challenges you have with vehicle noise pollution is enforcement.

Members of the community and Saanich council gathered Thursday morning (Aug. 10) to break ground on the $1.2-million Rutledge Park improvement project. 

Upgrades to the park will include modern playground equipment, a new washroom and change room facility, a splash pad and new paved pathways.

Phelps Bondaroff will be proposing a motion for Saanich council that asks staff for ways of addressing this issue of when and how they distribute the flyers. “It’s all about trying to find solutions that balance out different needs,” Phelps Bondaroff said. “In this situation, we have the need to balance out freedom of expression, but we need to protect people’s privacy and protect people from non-consensually seeing images that they would be uncomfortable with.”

“Period poverty is something that is a serious issue that we don’t talk about enough,” said Coun. Teale Phelps Bondaroff, “My hope is that we inspire other districts and other actors to do the same thing... There’s a taboo and stigma around talking about menstruation in our society,” said Phelps Bondaroff, who is also the chair of AccessBC which successfully advocated for free prescription contraception in the province. “Having a little box with menstrual products in the washroom …. it could make someone’s day if they’re in need.”

Coun. Teale Phelps Bondaroff said the strategy is important as it had been commissioned when Black Lives Matter was top of mind and things have only gotten worse since then globally.

“It is inspiring to see that Saanich is going in the other direction, that we’ve become a bastion for diversity and equity and inclusion,” he said. “A lot of the people that we’ve talked to in this process were highlighting that we’re doing good and we can do better, but we’re doing pretty good.”