"Polite Behavior Is Certainly Not Doing It": The Case on North Pender

North Pender Island shows what the Islands Trust model looks like in slow motion: a housing problem the Trust itself says has run "for more than a decade" before a dedicated response began, a complaint-driven enforcement system carrying a multi-year backlog, and broad land-use power that stops exactly where residents' most urgent needs begin. All of it is funded by a budget rising 8.1 per cent per household — one that even North Pender's own trustee suggested voting down to force the province to listen.

North Pender's trustees are elected, and the record below shows them working hard within the system they inherited. That is precisely what makes the island a strong case study: the problem is not the people. It is a structure islanders never voted to create — one that moves slowly where speed matters, enforces unevenly where uniformity matters, and bills residents more each year either way.

A decade acknowledged, a plan at last

The Trust's own project page is candid: "Housing availability and affordability have been ongoing challenges on North Pender Island for more than a decade."^[1] Earlier measures — permitting secondary suites, regulating short-term vacation rentals — did not resolve the problem, and the Local Trust Committee did not launch a dedicated Housing Access and Affordability Project until summer 2024, reaching an endorsed Housing Action Plan of 22 actions only after more than a decade of a problem the Trust itself acknowledged.^[1] The recent effort has been genuinely substantial — three community information meetings, a Housing Needs Survey with 478 responses, and a special Advisory Planning Commission that produced two recommendation reports.^[1] But that is the case in miniature: the machinery does move — slowly, and years after the need was plain.

Enforcement by complaint, backlog by the year

By the end of 2019 the Trust carried more than 300 open bylaw-enforcement files, with 156 cases open between one and five years, 56 open more than five, and the compliance-and-enforcement litigation budget forecast roughly $25,000 over.^[2] North Pender trustee Deb Morrison noted that public feedback on the 2020–21 budget called for stronger enforcement funding, quoting one submission: "The Islands Trust needs to be strong in order to carry out its mandate to preserve and protect the natural rural features of the Islands Trust. It needs to be able to hire people, among other things, to enforce bylaws."^[2] In fairness, the Trust's philosophy is compliance-first rather than punitive, and trustees at that meeting were debating funding increases to fix the backlog, not ignoring it.^[2] The deeper issue is structural: "In most circumstances, bylaw enforcement only happens if a written complaint is received," with narrow exceptions such as advertised short-term rentals.^[3] Complaint-driven enforcement is common among small planning departments — but it means enforcement on North Pender turns on which neighbours will file a written complaint, rather than proactive, uniform inspection.^[3]

Meanwhile the Trust got more remote. North Pender's walk-in Trust office closed August 1, 2022, one of four island offices shut for a combined saving of $12,300, with the Trust noting "Staff and trustees will continue to be available for on-island visits by request, or to meet via other means such as phone or video conferencing."^[4] The Trust called these meeting spaces rather than staffed offices, and the sum is small against its multi-million-dollar budget — which is itself telling about where economies were sought.^[4]

Wide power, narrow reach

In April 2021 the LTC voted unanimously to advise the province against a bare-land strata subdivision of James Island — up to 79 residential lots sought by its private owner — with trustee Morrison explaining, "My concern is this is a different time and a different era than when this subdivision was originally approved."^[5] The rationale was grounded in reconciliation with the Tsawout First Nation, whose asserted title claim over the island is in ongoing litigation, rather than the environmental mandate the Trust is best known for; the Tsawout welcomed the stand ("We are really glad to have the community getting behind us").^[5] Considered or not, it illustrates how much power over private land a small elected committee wields. Yet when the Capital Regional District moved to decommission the Gardom Pond dam serving the Razor Point Water Service Area, trustee Ben McConchie could only lobby: "I feel like the residents there haven't had a proper voice," and "We need this water. Now is the time. When is an emergency an emergency?"^[6] That was a CRD decision, not a Trust one — evidence of fragmented, overlapping governance as much as Trust failure — but the elected body islanders face on land use held no lever on the water they drink.^[6]

The bill

Trust Council adopted an $11.7-million 2026/27 budget carrying an 8.1 per cent per-household increase for Local Trust Areas.^[7] Morrison's response: "What would happen if we all voted down the budget and the province actually had to listen to the fact that we really think that the province should support? ... Polite behavior is certainly not doing it. So perhaps maybe a more radical stance is necessary. … I think our communities would really appreciate a push back on the province."^[7] The CAO's reply — a budget is "not an optional thing" under the Islands Trust Act — captures the bind: her frustration targeted provincial funding, and she was fighting for her island within the system, but islanders face a rising cost structure trustees themselves say only the province can relieve, attached to a budget trustees are legally required to pass regardless of local objection.^[7]

When the representative you elect concludes that only "a more radical stance" can make the structure respond, the question is no longer whether North Pender is well served. It is why the structure should survive.

^1]: [North Pender Housing Access and Affordability Project — Islands Trust ^2]: ["Islands Trust bylaw enforcement issue aired" — Gulf Islands Driftwood, Mar 18, 2020 ^3]: [Bylaw Compliance & Enforcement — North Pender, Islands Trust ^4]: ["Islands Trust offices to close on Mayne, Pender, Saturna" — Gulf Islands Driftwood ^5]: ["North Pender trustees back Tsawout in subdivision delay" — Gulf Islands Driftwood, May 26, 2021 ^6]: ["Dam plan outcry heard" — Gulf Islands Driftwood, Jun 12, 2019 ^7]: ["Islands Trust $11.7 million budget passes following debate at Trust Council" — CHEK News (mirrored)