March 14 - Crystal Pool referendum approved as is

Good morning !

The city affirms that the new Crystal Pool will be built where the current one stands. BC bans Elon Musk’s Tesla from its clean-car rebate program and introduces legislation that would give it new tools and sweeping power to deal with Trump’s tariffs.

And we have suggestions if you want to get a head start on St. Patrick’s Day.

— Mark

Today’s approx. read time: 5 minutes

🌡️ Weather Forecast

Today: 🌧️ 8 / 4 

Tomorrow: 🌦️ 9 / 5

Sunday: 🌤️ 7 / 5

NEWS

C’mon in, the water’s fine: city approves Crystal Pool referendum results

Councillors yesterday unanimously rubber-stamped results of the Feb. 8 public vote in which 58.7% of voters empowered the city to borrow up to $168.9 million to replace the pool “with a project that won’t exceed $209.2M.”

The council also ratified Central Park north—where the facility currently sits—as the new pool’s landing spot, in keeping with the 60.6% of voters who chose that location over the option of building it next door, where tennis, basketball, and softball facilities and a kids park currently stand.

Those will remain in place as the 54-year-old building is demolished to make way for its replacement, following 21 months of prep time. The north location was the cheaper of the two—by $6.7M—and staff has estimated the city will need to borrow $162.2M to erect the aquatic centre on it, possibly less if the city can land a provincial or federal grant.

Building on the current site means the pool will close earlier than had the referendum gone south. That is going to beach a lot of swimmers who can’t use McKinnon Pool at UVic, which is closed, possibly for good—and soon won’t have the downtown YW-YMCA, which is slated to shut down next year.

A motion on mitigating impacts of a prolonged period—at least 41 months—without a downtown pool also passed unanimously yesterday.

Introduced by Coun. Jeremy Caradonna, the motion calls for Esquimalt, Oak Bay, and Saanich to collectively and correctly pivot when they lose a facility that the city said accommodated 400K visits a year.

It pushes to make pools in those districts available to Crystal castaways and advances the idea of arranging shuttles to proxy pools. The motion also calls for the mayor to press UVic to reopen McKinnon and to pursue the idea of local hotels sharing their pool time.

⚠️ Capital Bulletin

Increased police presence at St. Margaret’s School due to training exercises. [Police Camp 2025]

Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google.

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NEWS

Flower Count is in, as blossoms beautify the region

If you guessed 44 billion blossoms, you would have nailed it. 

OK, more people likely take part in Oscar pools this time of the year than they do in our civic flower count—although that may change, given what’s going on these days—but a lot of school kids did a lot of counting, and them buds sure are beautiful.

The 50th edition of the Greater Victoria Flower Count concluded on Wed., with the City of Victoria taking bragging rights as the area’s “bloomingest community.” More than 30.3 billion blooms were tallied in Victoria, as the Garden City easily placed first ahead of Saanich, where 7.9 billion blooms were counted. 

If you’re wondering how billions of cherry and plum blossoms can be accurately counted, they can’t. But a ballpark count can be, following guidelines that: a small tree full of blossoms equals 250K blossoms; a mid-sized heather bush has 1K blossoms and trees fully in bloom count for 750K blossoms.

“Congratulations to the City of Victoria and Kate Moll’s class at Margaret Jenkins elementary school for leading this year's Greater Victoria Flower Count with an outstanding number of blooms counted,” said Paul Nursey, CEO of Destination Greater Victoria, which organized the count.

NEWS

Where to go, what to do for St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day, a day to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland, is this Monday. The day commemorates the 5th-century death of the “Apostle of Ireland” who returned as a slave and spread Christianity to the Emerald Isle. 

March 17 has evolved into a fun, inclusive day, bringing people together to enjoy Irish music, dance, and food. From Irish cultural celebrations to late-night fun, there are plenty of ways to enjoy St. Paddy’s Day in Greater Victoria—and you don’t need to wait until Monday to get into the spirit of things.

So, if you plan to leave your gaff to enjoy some St. Paddy’s Day festivities, that’s fair play.

To get you started, we’ve compiled a listing of where to go and what to do.

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⭐️ Capital Picks

🍁 Buy Canadian. Boo American. [Grocery list]

👍️ Trump tariffs: BC government equips itself to respond. 

🐐 Beacon Hill Children's Farm has reopened for the season. [Info]

🦭 Synchronized seal swimming: See the seals exhibit a unique behaviour. [Facebook video]

🧮🥧 Pi(e) Day at Camosun. [Info]

🗞️ In Other News

Four people injured in Westshore crash on TCH 
A four-vehicle crash left traffic at a standstill for hours on Wed. after a southbound car crossed the median and struck a northbound one, which ricocheted into other vehicles. All drivers were alone in their cars—two were taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, and the other two suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The crash occurred at 4pm, and the northbound lane didn’t reopen until after midnight. [CHEK]

Saanich house fire under investigation: 2 blazes in 7 months
The unoccupied home on Tillicum was engulfed in flames early yesterday morning when fire crews arrived. Despite being a vacant residence, there have been reports of unhoused people entering the home. It hasn’t been determined whether anyone was inside at the time of the fire, the second there since Aug. Crews fought the blaze from outside as it was unsafe to enter. Tillicum reopened later in the morning. [Times Colonist]

BC bans Tesla from charger rebate program amid tariff fight 
As of yesterday, Tesla products are not eligible for CleanBC and BC Hydro rebates. Premier David Eby made the announcement yesterday in response to the continuing political and economic friction between Canada and the United States. The government is targeting Tesla owner Elon Musk who is playing a major role in US President Trump’s new administration. If you purchased or received pre-approval for your Tesla product before March 12, it can still qualify for a rebate. The BC government also introduced a tariff-response bill that would give it sweeping powers to respond to US threats without legislative approval. [CityNews]

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🗓️ Things to do

🎞️ Documentary: Bribe, Inc.: In the shadows of the global oil industry, a company with a jet-set lifestyle and greasy palms operates with total impunity—until a whistleblower named Figaro reaches out to Australian journalist Nick MacKenzie with enough insider intel to take them down. Filmmakers will be in attendance for a Q&A following the screening. Vic Theatre. Mar. 30. 2:30pm. [Info]

🎹 Pacific Opera Victoria presents The Luminary Series: Tenor Lawrence Brownlee in recital with acclaimed pianist Kevin Miller, featuring selections from Brownlee’s Grammy-nominated album Rising, along with a little Verdi, Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini. McPherson Playhouse. Mar. 19. 7:30pm. [Info]

🎭☠️ Out of Sight, Out of Murder: A tale of mystery and suspense. A murder in an old mansion, performed by St. Luke's Players, who’ve been entertaining Victoria audiences since 1948. Tonight-Sat. St. Luke’s Hall. 7:30pm. [Info]

🩰 Ballet BC: This mixed program will include a performance of PASSING by internationally revered choreographer Johan Inger and a new creation by the winner of the Ballet BC Emily Molnar Emerging Choreographer Award, Andrea Peña. Royal Theatre. Tonight & tomorrow. 7:30pm. [Info]

🎸 Tom Lang Band: The debut of Tom’s new four-piece band playing his upbeat original funk, rock, reggae and country rock tunes. The Coda. Tonight. 6:30pm. [Info]

🎵 Jump: America’s Van Halen Experience. Two hours of the classic David Lee Roth era, featuring a variety of hits and deep cuts from Van Halen’s first six albums. The list includes Panama, You Really Got Me, and the titular Jump. McPherson Playhouse. Tonight. 7:30pm. [Info]

🎶 The ‘60s Music Experience: A cavalcade of stars. A live variety show and multimedia presentation celebrating the music of some of the world’s greatest musical groups lovingly performed by Backbeat, Canada’s most authentic musical tribute to the 1960s. Mary Winspear Centre. Tonight. 7:30pm. [Info]

👀 In Case You Missed It

Thursday’s headlines: British Columbians drinking less booze; More drug poisonings in Victoria; Victoria man wins $1M in Keno. [Mar. 13]

BC brothel-hotel: where the Trump family fortune began. [CTV/CP]

BC seafood industry braces for tariff pain, this time from China. [CHEK]

Rebuild underway for the historic but burnt Telegraph Cove boardwalk. [Times Colonist]

Fraudster calls claiming to be Saanich Police officers.

Cherry blossoms and mountain views in Hillside-Quadra. [Facebook photo]

Vintage Van Island: See Cumberland in the early 1900s. [Facebook photo]

That’s it!

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