The Trustee Who Said No

South Pender's elected trustee asked Trust Council, on the record, to hold spending at pre-pandemic levels — and was outvoted by trustees from other islands while the budget climbed from $9.1 million to $11.8 million. The record since then shows an institution that grew its tax take while closing its nearest walk-in office and drafting agriculture out of its policy statement.

# The Trustee Who Said No

South Pender Island elects its own trustees to the Islands Trust. That is not in dispute, and it should not be minimized. The question this case raises is different: what happens when the person an island elects stands up, says exactly what his constituents told him, and loses anyway — to votes cast by trustees from other islands?

March 2022: "We have to obey what they say"

In March 2022, with the Trust proposing a $9.1-million budget during a period of pandemic-driven economic hardship, South Pender trustee Steve Wright moved that Trust Council reject the draft budget outright, proposing that any approved budget not exceed 2020–21 levels.[1] "If we are going to ask the public and they are going to answer us, we have to obey what they say," Wright told Council, arguing that officials should not "start bloating our budget" while residents "have had to tighten their belts."[1] Council did not adopt his motion; after hours of deliberation, trustees directed staff to bring back a more modest version, which they approved the following day.[1]

The other side deserves its say. Trustees including Denman's Laura Busheikin countered that public feedback should inform — not dictate — decisions, weighed alongside science, expertise, and the Trust's legislated mandate for ecosystems across the whole Trust Area.[1] And the trimmed budget did move closer to 2020–21 spending levels.[1] That is the structural tension in miniature: one island's affordability concerns set against a multi-island conservation mission. But note what it means in practice — even when an island's elected voice carries its residents' answer to the table, the table can decline it.

The bill kept climbing

Whatever was conceded in 2022 did not last. The Trust's approved 2026/27 budget totals $11.8 million — up from $9.1 million four years earlier — funded in part by what the Trust itself describes as "an 8.1% increase to the existing local trust area tax base plus an additional 0.8% tax revenue expected from new construction and development."[2] The Trust notes the average residential property owner in the Trust Area will pay roughly $465–470 in 2026 — a modest absolute figure, directed partly at resident-facing work like freshwater science and housing programs.[2] The absolute number is fair context. The trajectory is the point.

What the cuts bought

When the Trust did cut costs in 2022, the savings came from presence, not payroll growth. It closed four walk-in planning offices — Saturna, Mayne, Denman, and North Pender, the last effective August 1, 2022, South Pender's nearest Trust office — for a total budget reduction of $12,300 across all four closures.[3] The Trust said "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."[3] That access remains real, and $12,300 is a rounding error against an eleven-million-dollar budget — which is precisely what makes the choice telling. The institution found its economies in island-facing doors, then resumed growing everywhere else.

Drafting agriculture out

The pattern extends beyond money. The Trust's draft 2025 Policy Statement update — which covers South Pender along with the rest of the Trust Area — removes agriculture's designation as a "traditional and valuable activity" and ends Trust support for adding new parcels to the Agricultural Land Reserve.[4] Pender Island Farmers Institute president Barbara Johnstone Grimmer put the stakes plainly: "We're actually saved by the Agricultural Land Reserve, which allows us the right to farm."[4] The draft is still a draft — public comment runs to February 2026, and land already in the ALR keeps its protections; only future additions would lose Trust endorsement.[4]

The case

None of this is a story about bad people. Trustees on all sides argued their mandates in good faith. It is a story about architecture: South Pender's residents can elect a trustee, and that trustee can say no — clearly, on the record, in their name — and the budget rises, the office closes, and the policy statement is redrawn regardless. Islanders elect the people; they never voted to create the regime those people sit inside. An institution where an island's clearest "no" changes so little should have to explain why it deserves to continue.

^1]: [Gulf Islands Driftwood — Trust Council approves $9.1-million Islands Trust budget ^2]: [Islands Trust — Budget (Accountability) ^3]: [Gulf Islands Driftwood — Islands Trust offices to close on Mayne, Pender, Saturna ^4]: [Country Life in BC — Islands Trust sidelines ag in policy statement (Sept. 30, 2025)

References

  1. Gulf Islands Driftwood — Trust Council approves $9.1-million Islands Trust budget ↩
  2. Islands Trust — Budget (Accountability) ↩
  3. Gulf Islands Driftwood — Islands Trust offices to close on Mayne, Pender, Saturna ↩
  4. Country Life in BC — Islands Trust sidelines ag in policy statement (Sept. 30, 2025) ↩