Galiano Island

Southern Gulf Islands · Islands Trust Local Trust Area

Galiano Island has its own site

Visit galianotown.org → for public records and the petition to make Galiano Island a town.

A long, narrow Southern Gulf Island with extensive forest lands and its own Local Trust Committee.

2026 trustee election

Official winners declared. Lisa Gauvreau: 552 votes (declared elected); Ben Mabberley: 412 votes (declared elected); Tahirih Rockafella: 327 votes. The Trust’s October 22 release confirms the two winners. Candidate vote totals are from the Trust’s separately labelled preliminary table, rechecked November 1. Results checked on 1 November 2026 against the Trust’s October 22 confirmation release. The twelve local trust areas have confirmed elected or acclaimed trustees. Bowen’s municipal appointments remain pending until November 9. Candidate vote totals and confirmation of the winners are separate records. Trustees are scheduled to be sworn in on November 12.

Islands Trust, candidate vote totals; winners confirmed in the October 22 release below

Public-record check · 1 November 2026

Associated-islands bylaw adopted

The signed text of Bylaw 300 records adoption on September 29. Executive Committee approval is confirmed in the adopted September 23 minutes (EC-2026-098). The adopted text still names a Boat Access Only zone in the permitted-use clause for the new Small Island Residential section. Our existing audit records the wording issue; adoption is not a correction of that wording.

Galiano Bylaw 300, signed adopted text

Adopted September 23 Executive Committee minutes

The incoming Trust Council

The Trust’s October 22 release confirms the elected or acclaimed trustees for the twelve local trust areas. Bowen’s municipal appointments remain pending until November 9. Trustees are scheduled to be sworn in on November 12, with inaugural Council meetings on November 13 and 14. The current term and the incoming term are distinct.

Trustee confirmation release, October 22

Ferry funding: the federal response

In an October 27 letter to the Trust, the federal Transport Minister describes the existing coastal ferry subsidy agreement. The letter puts the 2026–27 grant to British Columbia at approximately $38.6 million and says the Province determines which ferry services receive assistance. It directs questions about fares and service costs to the Province. This is a response about existing arrangements, rather than an announcement of a new local ferry service or fare reduction.

Federal Transport Minister’s response, October 27, pages 1–2

Other local votes · checked 21 October

The CRD also lists Rob Fawcett elected by acclamation as Southern Gulf Islands Electoral Area director. This is a regional-district office, separate from the Islands Trust trustee seats.

CRD, general local election results and acclamations

This is a dated status check, not a full re-audit of every bylaw.

Current trustees

  • Timothy Peterson — Chair
  • Ben Mabberley — Trustee
  • Lisa Gauvreau — Trustee

Past trustee elections

2022: Galiano Islands Trust councillor election

2 seats available

CandidateVotesResult
Lisa Gauvreau515Elected
Ben Mabberley447Elected

Source: CivicInfo BC 2022 Local Election Results

CivicInfo elected-official report verifies elected trustees and vote totals. Non-elected/opponent rows are pending a separate official results source before publication.

The archive

343 Islands Trust meeting documents on record. Each links to its exact source.

Documented examples

  • Thirty Years in Court, Seven Years to Yes — Galiano Island's experience under the Islands Trust is not a story of an agency losing in court — it is a story of process: a forest-zoning rule litigated across three decades, a community-backed affordable housing project that took seven years from first application to title transfer, and an enforcement system of three staff for an entire archipelago. The record suggests a governance layer that is slow and litigation-prone even when it ultimately wins.