Thetis Island: the bylaw audit

4 findings: 4 in bylaws in force. Read on 2026-09-19. Every quotation is a link to the words themselves.

The Thetis Island Local Trust Area also takes in the Thetis Associated Islands (Ruxton, Reid, Pylades, Hudson, Scott, Dayman, Tree, Bute and Dunsmuir; land use Bylaw 94, plan Bylaw 93) and Valdes Island (Rural Land Use Bylaw 42). Their bylaws are listed here and their findings carry their names.

The bylaws, and where each one stands

Thetis Island Land Use Bylaw, 2011, Amendment No. 1, 2025 (not yet adopted). Read a first time on 3 February 2026 (resolution TH-2026-003). It adds nature-based shoreline protection structures as a permitted use at The Cut, in front of two lots on Blue Heron Road. A community information meeting and public hearing wait on a draft covenant; on 25 August 2026 staff reported the referral period had ended and the bylaw will return for second reading. The Executive Committee still has to approve it.
Thetis Island Land Use Bylaw, 2011, Amendment No. 1, 2026 (cisterns, fences, derelict vehicles) (not yet adopted). Drafted for first and second reading on 20 April 2026. The committee resolved not to proceed (TH-2026-019) and put the topic on its future projects list (TH-2026-020). It was never read.
Thetis Island Land Use Bylaw No. 89 (in force). In force; consolidated April 2023. The live listing is byte for byte the copy our text was made from.
Thetis Island Official Community Plan Bylaw No. 88 (in force). In force; consolidated April 2023. No amendment in progress in 2026.
Thetis Associated Islands Land Use Bylaw No. 94 and Official Community Plan Bylaw No. 93, 2014 (in force). In force; both consolidated July 2024. Not in our library. Nothing adopted or read for these islands appears in the 2026 minutes.
Valdes Island Rural Land Use Bylaw, 1998 (Thetis Island Bylaw No. 42) (in force). In force; consolidated November 2024. Not in our library. Nothing for Valdes appears in the 2026 minutes.

In bylaws in force

A reference that lands on the wrong subject · in a bylaw in force

The rule against dumps and grazing in a Water Resources Area says the area is shown on the Schedule A zoning map. Schedule A is the text; the zoning map is Schedule C.

Section 5.4(c) applies in the Rural Residential 2 zone. It forbids a solid waste site, a garbage dump or the grazing of livestock inside a Water Resources Area "shown on Schedule A Zoning Map of this Bylaw". Section 3.1.2 says zone boundaries are on Schedule C, and the contents page gives Schedule A as the bylaw text, B as the area of application and C as the zoning map. A landowner told to look at the Schedule A map has no such map to look at.

“Water Resources Area shown on Schedule “A” Zoning Map of this Bylaw.”
Read it: Thetis Bylaw 89, s. 5.4, continued on the next page
“Water Resources Area shown on Schedule “A” Zoning Map of this Bylaw.”
Read it: page 21 of the Islands Trust’s own document
“The boundaries of each zone are shown on Schedule "C" attached and forming part of this”
Read it: Thetis Bylaw 89, s. 3.1(2)

A leftover from an older bylaw or a repealed law · in a bylaw in force

Land Use Bylaw 89 cites sections 946 and 911 of the Local Government Act and the Water Act. None can be found under those names today.

The Local Government Act now ends at section 797. Subdivision to provide a residence for a relative is section 514 and non-conforming uses begin at section 528 (BC Laws, read 19 September 2026). BC Laws shows chapter 483 of the Revised Statutes under the title Water Users' Communities Act with sections 2 to 50 repealed, and the Water Sustainability Act speaks of the Water Act as the earlier law (read 19 September 2026). The bylaw was consolidated in April 2023. Section 2.6.6 sets the 20.2 hectare minimum for a lot subdivided for a relative, so the stale number sits on a rule that matters to families.

“may be subdivided under section 946 of the Local Government Act is 20.2 hectares”
Read it: Thetis Bylaw 89, s. 2.6(6)
“Section 911 of the Local”
Read it: Thetis Bylaw 89, s. 1.3(1)
“carried out in accordance with the Water Act”
Read it: Thetis Bylaw 89, s. 11.1(3)

A leftover from an older bylaw or a repealed law · in a bylaw in force

The Valdes Island bylaw, consolidated in November 2024, still takes its authority from the Municipal Act and regulates by reference to the Forest Land Reserve.

The preamble and section 2 cite sections 883, 886, 887, 889, 890 and 899 of the Municipal Act. Rural land use bylaws are now dealt with in section 457 of the Local Government Act, whose last section is 797, and subdivision for a relative is section 514, not 946 (BC Laws, read 19 September 2026). BC Laws marks the Forest Land Reserve Act, RSBC 1996 c. 158, as repealed, yet the Forest/Wilderness zone permits uses only as that Act and the Forest Land Commission allow, and subdivision is conditioned on the Commission's approval. The road standard cites the Ministry of Transportation and Highways.

“Consolidated Version: November 2024”
Read it: page 1 of the Islands Trust’s own document
“WHEREAS under Section 886(1) of Part 26 of the Municipal Act a board may adopt a Rural Land Use Bylaw”
Read it: page 5 of the Islands Trust’s own document
“for a relative under Section 946 of the Municipal Act”
Read it: page 22 of the Islands Trust’s own document
“only when such uses are permitted by the Forest Land Reserve Act, attendant Regulations, an order of the Forest Land Commission”
Read it: page 24 of the Islands Trust’s own document
“approval for subdivision has been obtained from the Forest Land Commission or the Agricultural Land Commission”
Read it: page 22 of the Islands Trust’s own document

A leftover from an older bylaw or a repealed law · in a bylaw in force

The Associated Islands land use bylaw, consolidated July 2024, heads its rule on subdivision for a relative "Section 946".

The rule itself refers only to the Local Government Act, where the provision is now section 514 (BC Laws, read 19 September 2026). The heading keeps the number from before the Act was renumbered.

“7.5 Section 946 Subdivisions (Residence for a Relative)”
Read it: page 37 of the Islands Trust’s own document
“Consolidated Version: July 2024”
Read it: page 1 of the Islands Trust’s own document

What we checked and found sound

Proposed Bylaw 117 (package pp. 84 to 86) read against Bylaw 89. The definition it follows (natural boundary) exists, s. 5.4 has articles a) to c), s. 10.1 has items a) to l), and the map numbers work once the renumbering in clause 2.3 is applied (new Map 1, existing Maps 1 and 2 become 2 and 3, new Map 4). No finding.
Bylaw 89: all 10 numbered cross-references followed with the auditor and read. All resolve.
Live listings for Bylaws 89 and 88 downloaded 19 September 2026: SHA-256 identical to our copies. Listings for Associated Islands Bylaws 94 and 93 and Valdes Bylaw 42 serve the documents their titles name.
Minutes of the four 2026 Thetis committee meetings (3 February, 20 April, 13 July, 25 August) read for readings, hearings, referrals and adoptions. The only other bylaws moving were administrative: Public Notification Bylaw 118 and Meeting Procedures Repeal Bylaw 116.

Open questions

Things that looked worth a second reading and that we could not prove. They are not findings.

Draft Bylaw 119 (not proceeded with on 20 April 2026, but placed on the future projects list): the committee asked for a derelict vehicle test of two years unlicensed; staff drafted "inoperative and abandoned" with no period and said so in the report (package pp. 41, 46). Bylaw 89 now says 5 years. The draft also barred fences within 7.6 metres of the sea and said a building permit shall not be issued for a new dwelling or guest cottage without a 2,000 imperial gallon cistern (p. 47). None of this is an error in the text, so it is not a finding; it is what may come back.
Bylaw 89, s. 2.1.3: "Without limiting the generality of Section 1.2.1 of this Bylaw, the following uses are prohibited". Section 1.2.1 is the area the bylaw applies to. The general prohibition on uses is in s. 1.3.1. The reference resolves, so it is not recorded as broken, but it looks like the wrong section.
Bylaw 89, information note under s. 10.1 (PDF p. 27) sends readers to the Integrated Land Management Bureau for a foreshore lease. We did not confirm from a provincial source whether that body still exists.
Draft Bylaw 119, s. 2.1.5 (package p. 47): "2000 imperial gallons (9093 litres)". 2,000 imperial gallons is 9,092 litres to the nearest litre. Also whether a land use bylaw can condition the issue of a building permit, which the regional district issues, is a legal question we did not research.
Does the Schedule C zoning map actually show a "Water Resources Area"? The map is an image; we did not examine it.
Plan 88 cites sections 944, 945, 946, 948 and 949 of the Local Government Act in its preamble and policies (pages 3, 11, 16). These are pre-2016 numbers. The paragraphs were not anchored and we did not write this up as a finding.
Bylaw 117 is cited as Amendment No. 1, 2025 although it was first read in 2026, and dead Bylaw 119 was cited as Amendment No. 1, 2026. If 119's successor keeps that citation the two will be hard to tell apart.