What Does "Quality of Life" Mean to the JBNA and to the People of James Bay?

By V. Adams 

The JBNA Quality of Life Survey – How It Came To Be

As part of its mandate to “enable the community to be actively involved in the preservation, rehabilitation, and planned development of James Bay, so as to preserve and enhance the quality of the environment and life therein”, the James Bay Neighborhood Association (JBNA) conducted a community survey in July 2009. The two-page questionnaire created by the JBNA Quality of Life and Environment Committee (the “Committee”) is comprised of twelve questions designed to “identify and measure issues of interest to all residents of James Bay.”

According to the survey proponents, the study was undertaken by the JBNA in response to the Mayor of the City of Victoria’s request to obtain “a sense of James Bay’s priorities from the JBNA for the use of Council” and, to develop the association’s tasks and priorities for the coming year. It was not however designed to explore the issue of why people choose to live in James Bay, but rather “how we might work together to make it a better place to live and work.”

Yet in the next breath, the JBNA Committee stated that the survey “excludes non-resident workers, businesses, and non-profit organizations”. Perhaps in light of limited time, financial means, and human resources required to undertake a comprehensive community survey, the Committee decided to focus its inquiry on those who live in Victoria’s oldest neighborhood, (approximately 11,000 individuals according to the last census). While the Committee acknowledged that “50% of the working population [of James Bay] work in Victoria, [have] median earnings of $50,000/yr, 35% walk or bike to work and the median age is 50”, it appears to have overlooked the fact that while the City of Victoria’s total population is only 78,000, it increases to more than 200,000 during a work-day. In other words, both those who live and work in the downtown area as well as those who commute from the adjacent neighborhoods and suburbs represent a vital contribution to the overall economic, social and environmental sustainability of a city, not to mention its surrounding environs.

While the JBNA Committee took great pains to state that “the responses to the Quality of Life Survey will also allow us to coordinate with the City of Victoria’s Sustainability Framework”, it would appear that the Committee has been selective in terms of what constitutes “sustainability” in James Bay. It seems that in the absence of an overall sustainability framework for the neighborhood, the JBNA Committee instead chose five key questions to be included in the survey based on “a content analysis of JBNA minutes over a three-year period, which determined the frequency topics were mentioned in meetings.”

The graph appearing on page 5 of the James Bay Beacon (September 2009), suggests that the following issues were identified, in order of significance, by JBNA members:

• “People Movement” was mentioned more than 450 times in JBNA meetings
• “Housing” was mentioned close to 150 times in JBNA meetings
• “Environment” and “Parks & Recreation” were mentioned approximately 100 times each in JBNA meetings, and
• “Safety”, “Education”, and “Business & Amenities” were mentioned less than 50 times each in JBNA meetings 

The City of Victoria’s Sustainability Framework document published in the spring of 2009 focuses on how “to enhance Victoria’s ecological integrity, livability, economic vitality, and resiliency, to ensure high quality of life for all as we prepare for the changes facing our society and plan today and for generations to come”. It is difficult to know where the JBNA Committee stands on issues of sustainability, since it has chosen to focus on only four issues that it considers will “enhance the quality of the environment and life” in James Bay namely:  “Community Safety”, “Traffic and Transportation”, “Access to Amenities” and “Quality of Property Development”.

While the city has identified a number of key goals and indices for measuring sustainability including: land management, waste and materials, water supply, energy and air quality, housing affordability & diversity, mobility and accessibility, education, health/well-being/recreation and poverty, sense of community (i.e. social interaction, inclusion, heritage, arts and culture), as well as food security, governance, economic development (i.e. economic diversity, downtown & harbour, tourism, employment, infrastructure, research and development, training and development), finance, and security (including how people support themselves and neighbours in difficult times, and how they adapt to hazards and emergencies), the JBNA chose not to identify what James Bay residents consider high priority in relation to the City’s sustainability framework.

The City of Victoria staff, council members, together with key public stakeholders representing the business community, employees, non-profit organizations and residents gathered in March 2009 to identify their top ten sustainability areas of concerns:

• Housing & Affordability
• Downtown & Harbour
• Infrastructure
• Transportation Energy & Air Contaminants
• Poverty
• Mobility
• Community Engagement
• Local Food Supply
• Land Development
• Health Care & Wellness 

While the order of questions appearing in the JBNA survey suggests that “Community Safety”, “Traffic and Transportation”, and “Access to Amenities” are the top three priorities for the JBNA (with secondary attention to “Quality of Property Development” and “Noise/Emissions Related to Transportation”), participants in JBNA meetings however consistently identified “Housing”, “Environment” as well as “Parks and Recreation” to be the top three priorities after “People Movement”. Yet, these priorities are not even acknowledged as “concerns” of the neighborhood association in its Quality of Life Survey.

In point of fact, the JBNA is on public record, (in the minutes of a Victoria City Council meeting convened three years ago to deal with a controversial James Bay residential development), as the voice of residents opposing a joint proposal put forward by Stan Sipos, (a local developer), together with James Bay New Horizons Society, the Birdcages Housing Society, and Beckley Farm Lodge for the construction of a 5-storey residential and commercial property at 225 Menzies Street. The property would have accommodated 21 units of affordable seniors housing had the original project been approved by Council. As a result of the JBNA opposition to the project, the affordable seniors’ housing component was eliminated together with one floor of the new building, allegedly because it interfered with the sight lines of a handful of nearby condo owners).

Perhaps the apparent JBNA Board and Committee oversight of the “affordable housing” issue expressed by JBNA members and others in the community begs the question what do “sustainability” and “quality of life” truly mean to this organization let alone to those who live and work in James Bay? One might casually ask, just whose “quality of life” is being threatened, and whose “Quality of Life” is reflected in this community survey if resident-identified issues such as “housing” and the “environment”, not to mention “education” and their attendant questions are not even posed?

What are the implications of the JBNA’s Quality of Life Survey on planning for the future of James Bay?

Established more than twenty years ago out of concern for the environment and social well-being of residents, the JBNA has focused its current efforts and resources on reviewing new development proposals as well as to undertaking a number of special interest projects such as a cruiseship traffic noise study, an air-shed quality study (VOCs) as well as aircraft noise and emissions measurement study, which appear to be largely of concern to upscale harbourside condo-owners at Shoal Point, Laurel Point and the Dolphins.

While it is true that limited resources often preclude comprehensive investigation of issues, often the results obtained from modest inquiries can sometimes muddy the waters, (particularly if there is a bias on the part of those selecting and formulating the questions, there are skewed sampling points throughout the neighborhood, or there is an absence of data from different time periods throughout the year to obtain a representative study sample). For example, concerns expressed about noise levels and toxic emissions from transport vehicles and ships along Dallas Road and Shoal Point may only be of concern to some residents during the summer season, (which may also coincide with increased seasonal visits from itinerant high-value property owners); the problem may be non-existent during the winter months when tourism traffic all but disappears together with the migrating high-value property owners (also known as snow-birds).

Perhaps it is too early to say, but the James Bay Neighborhood Quality of Life Survey does not appear to address issues such as the ecological integrity, economic vitality and social well-being of those who reside and work in the neighborhood, particularly its most vulnerable citizens whom it seems are unworthy of the JBNA Committee’s attention or inquiry. If this is the case, just how valuable will the JBNA Quality of Life Survey results be to the leadership of the neighborhood association, to the Mayor and council members, and indeed to everyone who contributes to and is concerned about the economic vitality and social foundation of Victoria’s oldest neighborhood, James Bay?