A Reverse Dunkirk in Scottie Bay

The Islands Trust spent five years and a lawsuit trying to remove a private dock in Scottie Bay, defeating a second rezoning attempt in May 2025 — two months before a floatplane crash closed Lasqueti's only ferry dock and that same private dock became how marooned islanders got home. Paired with an enforcement system whose only escalation is court and land-use rules that leave guest cabins empty amid a housing shortage, the saga shows a process that is slow, discretionary, and disconnected from the island's ferry-dependent reality.

On July 17, 2025, a floatplane flipped while landing in False Bay — site of what one landowner called "the only capable public dock" — and the coast guard closed the bay for spill response, cancelling ferry service.^[1] "The entire ferry dock was shut down, which marooned 60 or 70 local people," one islander told the Coast Reporter.^[1] Residents ferried neighbours home on private boats and barges, landing elderly and disabled passengers at a private dock in Scottie Bay, five minutes' drive from the ferry.^[1] One resident called the effort "a reverse Dunkirk."^[2]

It was the dock the Islands Trust had spent five years trying to remove.^[2]

The dock was built in 2020; bylaw enforcement had been notified of construction in late 2019, and the resulting file (LA-BE-2019.3) was held in abeyance while the owners applied to rezone — file LA-RZ-2020.1, received May 1, 2020.^[3] The owners built first and applied after, under a provision allowing after-the-fact amendment applications, a choice that genuinely cuts against them.^[2] That first application was defeated, and in 2023 the Trust sued to have the dock removed.^[2] A second application, LA-RZ-2023.1, went to public consultation; on May 12, 2025, the Lasqueti Island Local Trust Committee defeated first reading of the enabling bylaw and resolved to "proceed no further" with it.^[4] Two months later came the crash.^[1]

The committee's objections were substantive. The adopted minutes record that "the application is not supported by Official Community Plan policies or the Islands Trust Policy Statement" and that "there is not certainty that the environment was protected while the dock was being built."^[4] The Times Colonist reported the minutes cite scenic views, marine-life protection, keeping the coastal area undeveloped, a lack of First Nations consultation, and doubts about the dock's social benefit.^[2] Provincial staff had earlier noted that private dock owners are not permitted to modify the foreshore.^[3]

The Trust's posture after the crash is the revealing part. Its communications staff confirmed the dock "does not comply with local zoning regulations and does not align with the environmental policies set out in the Lasqueti Island Official Community Plan," noted "an active enforcement file" since 2020, and said a third application might be considered "if new information is provided or if the proposal is revised in a way that brings it into alignment with Islands Trust policies."^[2] Critics note the stated position was unchanged after the dock's emergency use; the remedy on offer is a third application cycle on the same discretionary terms that produced two defeats.^[2]

Even a sitting trustee found the file hard to discuss: in October 2023, mid-lawsuit, he wrote that "there is certainly some confusion and anxiety in the community about all of this" and that trustees were "constrained from speaking about certain aspects of this situation" — while committing to seek confirmation from senior staff and report back publicly.^[5]

The enforcement structure explains how a dispute becomes a lawsuit. Lasqueti has no bylaw-enforcement ticketing bylaw: "In 2012 the Lasqueti Trust Committee considered such a bylaw, but ultimately decided not to proceed."^[6] The Trust describes enforcement as complaint-driven, with negotiated timelines for voluntary compliance and court as "a last resort" — but when negotiation fails, the only remaining escalation is court proceedings (prosecution or a civil claim), the track Scottie Bay went down.^[6]

The same rulebook shapes housing. Each parcel in the main Land Based zone may have one house plus one guest cabin of at most 56 square metres — density falls to one house and cabin per 8 hectares on the outer islands and per 65 hectares in watershed-protection zones — and guest cabins are reserved for non-paying guests.^[7] Staff have clarified, not tightened: a house itself may lawfully be occupied by a long-term renter.^[7] Yet with housing residents call "rough" and prices seen as moving "out of reach for local population," the best-supported idea at a community housing forum was not a zoning fix but a resident-built Community Land Trust — some residents now pursue solutions outside the Trust's framework entirely.^[8]

Lasqueti's trustees are elected, and the record shows no bad faith. But islanders never voted to create this regime: the province built the Islands Trust in 1974 around subdivision pressure in the Gulf Islands, and Lasqueti — off-grid, ferry-dependent, 498 people at the 2021 count — inherited it.^[1] The Scottie Bay file shows what that costs: five years of process, two discretionary refusals, and a court-ordered removal of the one piece of infrastructure that, when the emergency came, brought the island home.^[2]

^1]: [Lasqueti Islanders help fellow residents get back home — Coast Reporter, Jul 30, 2025 ^2]: [Islands Trust wants to remove Lasqueti dock used as backup — Times Colonist, Jul 28, 2025 ^3]: [Applications for private docks in Scottie Bay — lasqueti.ca ^4]: [Lasqueti Island Local Trust Committee, adopted minutes of regular meeting, May 12, 2025 — Islands Trust ^5]: [Scottie Bay — trustee note, Oct 14, 2023 — lasqueti.ca ^6]: [Bylaw Enforcement on Lasqueti — lasqueti.ca ^7]: [Renting residences and guest cabins on Lasqueti — lasqueti.ca ^8]: [Community forum on housing — notes, lasqueti.ca