Galiano Island

Galiano Island Swiikw Hul'q'umín'um'
Island
View of Galiano Island from above.
Motto: Confiamos en Nosotros ("We trust in ourselves")
A map of the island
Country	Canada
Province	British Columbia
Region	Southern Gulf Islands
Regional District	Capital Regional District
Islands Trust	Galiano Island Local Trust Area
Government
• MP	Elizabeth May (Green)
• MLA	Gary Holman (NDP)
Area
• Land	60.15 km2 (23.22 sq mi)
Population
• Total	1,258
• Density	20.9/km2 (54/sq mi)
Time zone	PST (UTC−8)
• Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC−7)
Area code(s)	250

Galiano Island is one of the Southern Gulf Islands between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Located on the west side of the Strait of Georgia, it is 27.5 km long, 6 km at its widest point, and 1.6 km across at its narrowest point and is separated from Saltspring Island by Trincomali Channel. On the western side of the island there are a series of sandstone caves. The island is northwest of Mayne Island, northeast of Saltspring Island and southeast of Valdes Island. It is part of the Capital Regional District Electoral Area G, and has a population of 1258 inhabitants.

Named after the Spanish explorer Dionisio Alcalá Galiano, who explored the area in 1792, (the island is twinned with his home city - Cabra in Córdoba province, Spain). Galiano was long inhabited by aboriginal people from the Penelakut First Nation and used by other Coast Salish nations. Midden pits at Montague Harbour suggest 3000 years of habitation. Today there is only one Indian Reserve on the island, Galiano Indian Reserve No. 9, located at the northern tip of the island and under Penelakut administration. Industries of the past were logging, fishing and charcoal-burning, although today tourism and the arts are the most common methods of employment.

Government bodies that oversee the island include Federal, Provincial and the Capital Regional District as well as the Islands Trust whose mandate is to establish land-use bylaws to "preserve and protect" the island, most notably in terms of development. For most of the twentieth century roughly half of the land on Galiano was owned by the logging firm MacMillan Bloedel. As a result, Galiano was not as extensively developed as neighboring islands. When the firm sold its holdings on Galiano, debate about development issues sharpened, and the Islands Trust set minimum lot sizes to limit development.