Islands Trust Financial Planning Committee regular meeting, November 25, 2022

[0:00:00] Voice 14: I'll turn it over to the chair.

[0:00:01] Voice 14: And before we begin, I would like to respectfully acknowledge

[0:00:05] Voice 14: that I'm tuning in from Victoria,

[0:00:07] Voice 14: which is a territories of the Ligonquian peoples

[0:00:10] Voice 14: known today as the Songhees and the Cotswana Nations.

[0:00:14] Voice 14: So as we begin our discussions today,

[0:00:16] Voice 14: can we take an opportunity to acknowledge

[0:00:19] Voice 14: that the lands and waters

[0:00:20] Voice 14: that encompass the Islands Trust area

[0:00:22] Voice 14: have been home to indigenous peoples since time immemorial.

[0:00:26] Voice 14: and let us reaffirm our commitment to reconciliation and also to working together to preserve and to

[0:00:33] Voice 14: protect this ecologically, culturally and spiritually significant region of the Sillage

[0:00:38] Voice 14: Sea. So I'm going to now go to the election if that is okay with the committee. I'm just going

[0:00:48] Voice 14: to stop the show here and I'm just going to take you through how the election is going to be run.

[0:00:55] Voice 14: and just give me a minute to find where I'm at here.

[0:00:59] Voice 14: Okay, thank you.

[0:01:00] Voice 14: I

[0:01:00] Voice 18: think you do have a question, David, from Chair Luckham.

[0:01:08] Voice 3: I can't help but think that in the absence of two members

[0:01:15] Voice 3: being the chairs or the appointee from the committees,

[0:01:19] Voice 3: whether or not it's reasonable or possible for us to,

[0:01:25] Voice 3: at this time, not select a acting chair until all of the voting members are available, as

[0:01:38] Voice 3: obviously in such a small number of individuals, two votes might make a difference one way

[0:01:43] Voice 3: or the other, but that also assumes that there would be more than one person interested in

[0:01:48] Voice 3: chair um and or more than uh interest by uh trustees to nominate another person so just

[0:01:57] Voice 3: wondering what um what um method we could uh under the circumstances yeah

[0:02:06] Voice 14: so may if i may

[0:02:08] Voice 14: uh the trust council policy um only allows the three members appointed by trust council to be

[0:02:17] Voice 14: be eligible to be chair. So if you held the election today, the two members that are appointed

[0:02:23] Voice 14: would not have the ability to vote on who one of those three would be. So they wouldn't be

[0:02:32] Voice 14: eligible to be the chair, but they wouldn't have a say on who is the chair. This is all council

[0:02:38] Voice 14: policy. There's nothing in the policy that says when the chair is usually done at the very first

[0:02:45] Voice 14: meeting obviously so that you can then get on with business um yeah you i think you could probably do

[0:02:54] Voice 14: something interim and then uh have an election once you have a full committee but the problem

[0:03:00] Voice 14: with that is you have a quorum and you don't know if everybody's going to be at the next meeting

[0:03:06] Voice 14: anyway well

[0:03:10] Voice 3: fair enough but that would be a choice that individuals through their own circumstances

[0:03:14] Voice 3: would be slightly different than not being able to attend

[0:03:18] Voice 3: at the present configuration.

[0:03:21] Voice 14: Yeah, it's a little bit of a problem the way the policy is set

[0:03:26] Voice 14: because it means really that the Regional Planning Committee

[0:03:30] Voice 14: and the Trust Programs Committee need to meet

[0:03:33] Voice 14: before Financial Planning Committee to get a full complement

[0:03:38] Voice 14: of members of the Financial Planning Committee.

[0:03:41] Voice 14: So I'm okay. I mean, you know, ask FPC as a group what you would prefer to do.

[0:03:49] Voice 14: I'm fine if you would like to appoint somebody as an interim chair to run this meeting.

[0:03:56] Voice 14: And then at the next meeting hold the election for the chair for the remainder of the term.

[0:04:03] Voice 3: Okay. Well, thank you, David. So I'll just put that out there and see what the rest of the committee thinks on this.

[0:04:09] Voice 16: so joe bernardo has his hand up just uh yeah

[0:04:13] Voice 14: go ahead trustee bernardo thank you

[0:04:16] Voice 4: um i think uh the idea of deferring the permanent election to the chair until we have um the

[0:04:26] Voice 4: other committee chairs who would otherwise be able to attend or present for the election that's how

[0:04:34] Voice 4: the structure is set up under the policy we're under this um abbreviated timeline that seems

[0:04:40] Voice 4: to have affected the selection of those chairs and those other committees so i think it's open

[0:04:46] Voice 4: to us to follow some version of chair luckham's suggestion which is to have an interim chair

[0:04:53] Voice 4: pending um fuller representation now after those i take your point david that uh that may be that

[0:05:03] Voice 4: at some subsequent meeting one or both of those people may not even be able to make the committee

[0:05:08] Voice 4: meeting okay that's a factor but at least um the people who were in the process entitled to attend

[0:05:17] Voice 4: will have had that opportunity uh and i think if we're trying to adapt the policy and follow its

[0:05:26] Voice 4: its intentions. I think it's reasonable to have an interim chair. I'm less confident that it's

[0:05:35] Voice 4: reasonable that that person be appointed. I mean, the structure is set up on the understanding that

[0:05:44] Voice 4: that chair is going to be elected. So I think my suggestion would be, by all means, we could

[0:05:50] Voice 4: probably have an interim chair. It's reasonable in the circumstances. Policy isn't binding the

[0:05:56] Voice 4: the way legislation is uh but i think we still need to have an election for that person and then

[0:06:04] Voice 4: uh you know we could i think on the terms of this meeting have the election on the understanding

[0:06:09] Voice 4: that that chair holds office only for the purposes of this meeting and then at the subsequent meeting

[0:06:15] Voice 4: we're going to have another election and then we just start over then so that would be my uh

[0:06:20] Voice 4: my input on that point thank you hey

[0:06:23] Voice 14: is there anybody else who wants to comment on that uh

[0:06:27] Voice 14: Yeah, Trustee Barton.

[0:06:30] Voice 14: David, I have my hand up as well.

[0:06:32] Voice 14: Oh, sorry.

[0:06:33] Voice 14: I didn't see that, Trustee Scott.

[0:06:35] Voice 14: Let's just go with Trustee Boland and come back to Trustee Scott.

[0:06:39] Voice 16: Yeah, I don't mind if I didn't notice.

[0:06:42] Voice 16: Trustee Scott, why don't you go ahead first?

[0:06:45] Voice 6: Well, usually ladies before gentlemen, but I have terrible connection right now.

[0:06:54] Voice 6: That's why.

[0:06:55] Voice 6: So can you hear me all right?

[0:06:58] Voice 6: Yes.

[0:06:59] Voice 6: Okay, so I absolutely agree, because I'm really warming the seat until we get a conservancy chair at our next meeting.

[0:07:08] Voice 6: So I think it would be better if we did hold off the permanent chair for this committee until after that point.

[0:07:14] Voice 14: Thank you.

[0:07:16] Voice 14: Okay, Trustee Boland, and then Trustee Peterson.

[0:07:20] Voice 14: Yeah.

[0:07:22] Voice 16: Hi. I think we should hold off, but I would argue that we could ask Trustee Luckham to chair this meeting because he is very experienced.

[0:07:35] Voice 16: And I think electing one of the three candidates and having them chair one meeting and then go for another election is an unnecessary kind of load on the system.

[0:07:45] Voice 16: if that was acceptable and possible and I'd feel like like chairing this meeting for any one of the

[0:07:54] Voice 16: three of us would be like an interview and kind of suboptimal conditions because you know the

[0:08:01] Voice 16: constraints around how you run these meetings are certainly to me they're new and I'm floundering a

[0:08:08] Voice 16: bit so I would support the delay because in fact we don't have three members voting members

[0:08:14] Voice 16: and I would propose that Trustee Luckham,

[0:08:21] Voice 16: I don't know if it's possible to do that,

[0:08:23] Voice 16: but continue in his role as interim trust council chair

[0:08:27] Voice 16: and take up the mantle for this meeting.

[0:08:30] Voice 16: Thank you.

[0:08:32] Voice 8: Trustee Peterson.

[0:08:36] Voice 9: Yeah, thank you.

[0:08:37] Voice 9: I support the idea of delaying the election

[0:08:42] Voice 9: of the permanent chair till we have the rest of the members.

[0:08:46] Voice 14: Okay, and Trustee Luckham.

[0:08:49] Voice 14: i'm sorry chair lincoln um

[0:08:51] Voice 3: yeah thank you um certainly um if it was desired that i chair i

[0:08:59] Voice 3: could um my uh health is not so great so i might end up losing my voice or coughing or something

[0:09:05] Voice 3: which might which i'm sure we could work through but i can't help but wonder that uh trying to

[0:09:11] Voice 3: respect the uh the the paul you know the policy and or the legislation that exists about in the

[0:09:17] Voice 3: the absence of a chair, it's a staff member that establishes chairing until a chair is properly

[0:09:30] Voice 3: present or elected. And I can't help but wonder, and given that in this particular case, it's maybe

[0:09:37] Voice 3: maybe administrative rather than political, whether or not actually the authority that's

[0:09:48] Voice 3: invested in typically it's a planning, senior planning staff person, but perhaps a legislative

[0:09:54] Voice 3: services manager in this particular case might be able to administrate us through the agenda

[0:10:01] Voice 3: to facilitate that but if that's not possible or questionable certainly I or somebody else that

[0:10:10] Voice 3: is not interested in being a chair and perhaps that is an executive committee member maybe not

[0:10:14] Voice 3: well yeah it would have to be an executive committee member that would be sort of more

[0:10:22] Voice 3: desirable on my part and I see the CAO is thrown

[0:10:26] Voice 14: yeah I guess I got some thoughts now but I'll just

[0:10:28] Voice 14: to ask the CAO and then Julia to...

[0:10:31] Voice 18: I think Julia was first and then I'll speak,

[0:10:34] Voice 18: but I'll speak briefly when I do.

[0:10:35] Voice 18: Go ahead, Julia.

[0:10:37] Voice 18: Go ahead, Julia.

[0:10:39] Voice 12: Thanks.

[0:10:40] Voice 12: I actually had the same thoughts as Trustee Luckham

[0:10:43] Voice 12: that perhaps it would be sort of administratively efficient

[0:10:47] Voice 12: and not outside of any regulatory guidelines

[0:10:50] Voice 12: for David to continue chairing.

[0:10:52] Voice 12: He is the corporate secretary for the organization

[0:10:55] Voice 12: and then we would simply skip elections for today

[0:10:58] Voice 12: day and take care of elections at the next meeting. I just wanted to make the committee aware

[0:11:01] Voice 12: that we will have chairs of regional planning committee and trust programs committee at the

[0:11:06] Voice 12: next meeting of financial planning committee in February as both of those committees are proposed

[0:11:11] Voice 12: to meet in advance of the next FPC. So we won't be in this space next meeting.

[0:11:16] Voice 14: Okay thank you CAO

[0:11:17] Voice 14: Hassanbella.

[0:11:18] Voice 18: Well what an exciting start we've got with FPC. This is right up the old island's

[0:11:23] Voice 18: trust alley um oh yeah we've got a long agenda here today so i encourage us to to move towards

[0:11:32] Voice 18: that as soon as possible all of the options seem reasonable here uh when we get to trust council

[0:11:38] Voice 18: though someone's gonna have to stand up and go fpc spoke and discussed and said this um we voted

[0:11:48] Voice 18: voted on the following and that's not david marler's job um because he would be left with

[0:11:55] Voice 18: that summarizing function so um yeah i think we should just pick a lane and get get to it as soon

[0:12:04] Voice 18: as we um you think is reasonable uh but i agree um the the the oddness of our schedule which will

[0:12:12] Voice 18: be relieved by the calendar past january and we'll get into a better rhythm um leaves you without

[0:12:18] Voice 18: your two members so i think that's wise let's postpone that but um i think it should be an

[0:12:23] Voice 18: elected official frankly um because ultimately you're all going to vote and then there would be

[0:12:30] Voice 18: some introductions or explanation of the conversation that would come from an elected

[0:12:35] Voice 18: official when you speak to trust council as a whole thanks and

[0:12:38] Voice 14: yeah so i think what i would

[0:12:40] Voice 14: like to comment to support um what the ceo just said there uh my additional concern is that the

[0:12:47] Voice 14: The provision for the staff to run the meeting in the absence of the chair and the vice chair.

[0:12:52] Voice 14: And actually, the policy actually does say that in the absence of a chair or vice chair,

[0:12:57] Voice 14: that the remaining elected individuals will select from amongst themselves to chair the meeting.

[0:13:04] Voice 14: The staff stepping in is just administrative, such as right now, to get us to a point where we do have a chair.

[0:13:11] Voice 14: the other thing is as a staff person I would feel uncomfortable chairing a meeting which is going to

[0:13:18] Voice 14: have a lot of very political decisions made around the budget and I don't want the public to feel

[0:13:24] Voice 14: that staff are in any way influencing that your discussion like I'm cutting you off or I haven't

[0:13:31] Voice 14: recognized somebody correctly so what I'm going to suggest is that we do the election and if we

[0:13:39] Voice 14: only have one person nominated and that person accepts then it's by acclamation if there's two

[0:13:46] Voice 14: then we can go to the election so if that's okay i would just like to proceed with that i see

[0:13:52] Voice 14: trustee bernardo and trustee graham trustee bernardo thank

[0:13:57] Voice 4: you um just to uh

[0:14:00] Voice 4: wrap up what i believe i'm hearing is an emerging consensus that it's not a good idea to have staff

[0:14:08] Voice 4: we ought to have an election uh but the election ought not to be uh the candidates for the election

[0:14:16] Voice 4: for this meeting ought not to be anybody who would be eligible for the permanent position

[0:14:20] Voice 4: that's a reasonable uh point i think for for the reasons that um had already been given

[0:14:27] Voice 4: so that leaves us with uh the executive committee uh chair luckham has indicated he's um under the

[0:14:36] Voice 4: the weather and has a preference not actually to do the job. So that leaves us with, I think,

[0:14:44] Voice 4: an emerging consensus that the chair of this meeting should be somebody from the executive

[0:14:50] Voice 4: meeting other than Chair Luckham. And I'm going to suggest if somebody steps forward, and as

[0:14:58] Voice 4: David said, nobody indicates that they want to compete for the glory of being the chair of this

[0:15:04] Voice 4: particular meeting that we can just uh get that done and then proceed and get on with the business

[0:15:10] Voice 4: thank you yeah

[0:15:10] Voice 14: and ever may you missed uh trustee scott is also um an appointee from the um island

[0:15:18] Voice 14: trust conservancy so would not be eligible for the bill of chair right right uh trustee graham

[0:15:25] Voice 19: yeah if uh trustee uh where did you go he's spinning around my uh

[0:15:31] Voice 19: Disappear.

[0:15:32] Voice 19: Thank you.

[0:15:33] Voice 19: Sorry, I was messing

[0:15:34] Voice 4: around, but I'm screwing up.

[0:15:36] Voice 19: I have not mentioned what he just mentioned.

[0:15:39] Voice 19: I was going to nominate him for interim chair.

[0:15:41] Voice 19: That doesn't sound like he wants that rather amazing job.

[0:15:46] Voice 4: Well, I'm going

[0:15:47] Voice 4: to respond to that.

[0:15:49] Voice 4: Given the drift of the conversation, I don't think I'm eligible because I think there's a consensus here that it's probably not a good idea to have anybody who is eligible for election.

[0:16:00] Voice 4: for the permanent position to be in the running for today so uh okay

[0:16:05] Voice 14: all right so is any okay

[0:16:08] Voice 14: trustee boland and then maybe i'll ask first and that okay so given that i think anybody's eligible

[0:16:14] Voice 14: it's rather not that person's comfortable running just the meeting today it doesn't preclude that

[0:16:20] Voice 14: person being eligible for um running for chair as permanent chair and in my mind but that's up to

[0:16:26] Voice 14: to you as individuals i would suggest

[0:16:28] Voice 14: trustee peterson if that's all right just to move this

[0:16:30] Voice 14: along okay so nomination for trustee peterson i need a second there and let's see trustee maud

[0:16:37] Voice 14: and trustee peterson would you stand to chair today's meeting and only today's meeting

[0:16:44] Voice 7: all right then i wasn't really anticipating that i'm still waiting for my web dev

[0:16:48] Voice 7: copy to oh there it is good this will make it easier um all right then so

[0:16:56] Voice 7: is that a yes uh trustee peterson uh yes i will yeah

[0:17:01] Voice 14: okay i do have to ask if there's any other

[0:17:03] Voice 14: nominations for chair asking a second time asking a third time seeing none then i'll declare that by

[0:17:12] Voice 14: acclamation trustee peterson is the chair for today's meeting and i'll pass the meeting over

[0:17:17] Voice 14: to chair peterson thank you uh chair peterson for doing that all right

[0:17:25] Voice 9: then so the first or the next

[0:17:29] Voice 9: item we have to look at is uh review of the agenda are there any suggested revisions

[0:17:38] Voice 9: to the agenda as presented i see trustee boland hi

[0:17:46] Voice 16: i would like to add i don't know what the

[0:17:48] Voice 16: appropriate time is uh to add this so i would like to add a motion that i will propose um

[0:17:57] Voice 16: towards the end would be ideal but I don't know when that would occur okay

[0:18:05] Voice 9: I'm gonna assume that

[0:18:10] Voice 9: perhaps that would go just having a look here um new business 11.1 sure and I'll and I'll that

[0:18:25] Voice 9: seems reasonable since I'm not sure what your motion is uh I see a couple of staff hands up

[0:18:32] Voice 9: So I'd like to go to Julia mobs first over maybe Robert Barlow first for process and then Julia mobs Robert

[0:18:41] Voice 13: Thank you chair just to indicate that I did send an email to the committee

[0:18:47] Voice 13: yesterday

[0:18:48] Voice 13: To late items, which is what you're discussing at the moment

[0:18:54] Voice 13: There's an

[0:18:55] Voice 7: RFD from trustee

[0:18:56] Voice 13: Yates to trust counsel and there's an RFD from the executive committee to FPC

[0:19:01] Voice 9: Right. Oh, I see that

[0:19:04] Voice 9: fbc late items for consideration and so those should go pardon me i didn't uh

[0:19:14] Voice 9: i didn't see that earlier so those are two rfds so those could also go into business

[0:19:20] Trustee Elliott (probable): i think we have to chair i think we have to approve the addition of those late items

[0:19:25] Trustee Elliott (probable): that's what i was gonna make a motion to do okay

[0:19:28] Voice 7: yeah sure um i'm just just a little on the fly

[0:19:32] Voice 7: here as I'm sure you will understand and please bear with me.

[0:19:36] Voice 9: So there's a that would be a total

[0:19:37] Voice 9: of three late items and I'm going to go over to Julia next please.

[0:19:47] Voice 12: Sure so we we jumped topics

[0:19:49] Voice 12: my comment was actually around Trustee Boland's wish to add a bring a motion forward so now we

[0:19:57] Voice 12: it's just a topic to the late items so i can hold my comments until we've uh wrapped up with late

[0:20:02] Voice 12: items okay

[0:20:05] Voice 7: let's go back to late items then and thank you for bringing that to our attention

[0:20:10] Voice 7: robert so we have two late items uh for potential

[0:20:14] Voice 9: addition to the agenda and i see cao ross

[0:20:20] Voice 9: yeah thank

[0:20:23] Voice 18: you so much uh trustee peterson i recommend all these go to 9.3

[0:20:30] Voice 18: because they're germane to 9.3 and you wouldn't want to make a decision first and then go to 11

[0:20:39] Voice 18: and re-talk the whole thing so i think they're all associated with the budget and where we land

[0:20:44] Voice 18: eventually and so um my uh my recommendation is you'd put them in 9.3 and then they'd be

[0:20:51] Voice 18: discussed at a certain point that being said when we get to 19.3 there's there's the danger of

[0:20:56] Voice 18: a motion overtaking the actual description and all of the work in 9.3 so it might be

[0:21:03] Voice 18: something you put at 9.36 or something like that so that at least you'd get the

[0:21:09] Voice 18: reporting out to you thank you

[0:21:11] Voice 7: okay so that is

[0:21:13] Voice 9: um specific do you think all of them should go

[0:21:17] Voice 9: at 9.36 then is that does that seem reasonable if in fact the committee decides to accept them

[0:21:24] Voice 9: well

[0:21:28] Voice 18: i think two out of three i'm not sure but what the third one is so

[0:21:31] Voice 3: three six three seven

[0:21:32] Voice 3: three eight would probably be the best way to manage six seven

[0:21:35] Voice 7: and eight so i'm gonna go perfect

[0:21:37] Voice 3: all right uh

[0:21:38] Voice 9: director marler uh

[0:21:42] Voice 14: yeah thank you i just wanted to remind you that it should be by

[0:21:46] Voice 14: resolution of the committee to add uh late items and it's a two-third majority vote so that would

[0:21:53] Voice 14: be six out of the um number of people at the meeting which is eight okay

[0:22:00] Voice 9: thank you for that

[0:22:02] Voice 9: and um at the discretion of the committee then we have the sorry i'm just jumping in between

[0:22:11] Voice 9: screens here we have the two late items um sent from robert this morning there is the rfd from

[0:22:22] Voice 9: trustee yates there's the rfd from executive committee to fpc and then there's a motion from

[0:22:31] Voice 9: trustee bullish we'll go through them one at a time for approval uh addition to the agenda then

[0:22:36] Voice 9: so i'll start with the rfd from trustee yates and uh i'll just look for if there's general consent

[0:22:44] Voice 9: to add that to the agenda then we won't need to vote on it but if there's any objection then we

[0:22:48] Voice 9: will vote on it if that is a reasonable way to approach it so is there a general consent to add

[0:22:54] Voice 9: the rfd from trustee yates i see yes and then the rfd from the ec is their general consent to add

[0:23:04] Voice 9: that to the agenda i'm seeing nods and finally the uh motion coming from trustee bull and is

[0:23:15] Voice 9: their general consent to add that to the agenda well

[0:23:18] Voice 3: has she told us what the motion is at this

[0:23:21] Voice 3: point she

[0:23:21] Voice 7: hasn't told us and in fact thank you for bringing it up because i was also going to mention

[0:23:27] Voice 7: uh julia i'll get to you in just a second i was going to mention trustee bulland um that in

[0:23:33] Voice 7: general it's it's especially if you're planning to do a motion it's nice to give the the committee

[0:23:39] Voice 7: that motion

[0:23:41] Voice 9: in advance if possible.

[0:23:42] Voice 9: And it's extremely helpful to get it to staff in advance

[0:23:46] Voice 9: so that when we do get there,

[0:23:48] Voice 9: staff can display it on the screen for us all.

[0:23:53] Voice 9: And Julia, did you want to say something?

[0:23:55] Voice 12: I do.

[0:23:57] Voice 12: If a motion that a trustee plans to bring forward

[0:24:00] Voice 12: relates to a business item that's already on the agenda,

[0:24:03] Voice 12: I don't believe there's a requirement to add a new item.

[0:24:07] Voice 12: it's only uh additions of new items is for new business so if trustees have motions planned that

[0:24:13] Voice 12: relate to the budget for example you would not need to add that to the agenda you would just

[0:24:16] Voice 12: make those motions when we're talking about the budget yeah

[0:24:20] Voice 9: thank you for that clarity

[0:24:23] Voice 9: and so i'm going to go to trustee boland then

[0:24:27] Voice 16: um yeah i'm happy with that i'm new to this whole

[0:24:31] Voice 16: process so um forgive me if i am pushing the boundaries or making mistakes um so i have a

[0:24:41] Voice 16: motion and um what i'd really like is a robust discussion um around what i propose as an idea

[0:24:51] Voice 16: more than anything else so you know maybe there's a way to put things on the agenda for discussion

[0:24:57] Voice 16: as opposed to actually pushing it to a motion.

[0:25:02] Voice 16: But I haven't understood that process yet.

[0:25:06] Voice 16: I did send out the motions at the time.

[0:25:08] Voice 16: I sent out two possible motions, Tim, in Trustee Pearson.

[0:25:13] Voice 16: I sent it to the Financial Planning Committee

[0:25:18] Voice 16: and I sent them also to staff.

[0:25:21] Voice 16: And I sent the one that I chose of the two

[0:25:24] Voice 16: and to staff member barlow this morning

[0:25:31] Voice 9: okay yes i do recall that and so one of those you have sent

[0:25:36] Voice 9: to uh robert barlow today that's that's good um so if you know do

[0:25:49] Voice 7: you think this is going to relate

[0:25:50] Voice 7: directly to the budget do you think that putting it under 9.3 as item 9.8 is an appropriate spot

[0:25:56] Voice 7: for it

[0:25:57] Voice 16: definitely okay

[0:25:59] Voice 7: thank you so if there's general consent to put that item um well trustee

[0:26:05] Voice 3: peterson yes um yes apologies for interrupting you

[0:26:09] Voice 3: but um i think

[0:26:11] Voice 7: i'm totally prepared to chair

[0:26:13] Voice 7: this meeting yeah well thank you

[0:26:15] Voice 3: for stepping up um and these are challenging moments and hopefully

[0:26:18] Voice 3: it'll get easier as we go forward um but just for transparency for public information who

[0:26:23] Voice 3: who are not aware of what the motion is.

[0:26:25] Voice 3: I think it would be ideal for Trustee Boland

[0:26:28] Voice 3: just to tell us what the topic is or what the motion is

[0:26:32] Voice 3: so that it's clear where we're going.

[0:26:36] Voice 3: I certainly am in support of it being added to the agenda.

[0:26:39] Voice 7: Okay, I think

[0:26:40] Voice 9: that's an excellent notion

[0:26:42] Voice 9: and thank you for that Chair Locke.

[0:26:44] Voice 9: Trustee Boland, do you want to maybe just read us the motion

[0:26:48] Voice 9: so we've got clarity for the public

[0:26:50] Voice 9: as we consider putting it adding it to the agenda sure

[0:26:55] Voice 16: i have no problem with that but i also wonder

[0:26:58] Voice 16: have the other two rfds gone to the public already just

[0:27:04] Voice 11: a question uh let the

[0:27:07] Voice 9: staff on that yes

[0:27:15] Voice 9: sure

[0:27:15] Voice 7: yeah they're on the web so they were part of the they got added to the agenda so they're

[0:27:20] Voice 7: Okay.

[0:27:20] Voice 16: Okay, that's great. So my motion that I hope to propose in some shape or form is that the FPC recommends to trust council that the 2023-24 budget be constrained to last year's budget, plus an increase in line with inflation, which is approximately 6.4% as of October.

[0:27:43] Voice 16: And that would mean that the budget would be $9,897,708, so effectively $9.9 million, which is the budget from last year, 9.3 plus 6%. Thank you.

[0:27:59] Voice 9: Okay, thank you. And I'm just going to look to committee, their general consent to add that item and add 9.3%. I'm not seeing any objections, so we're going to do that.

[0:28:14] Voice 9: Peter Haslund, And when we get there so back to if you can please put your hand down trustee Poland and we'll go back to and so we're going to look for by general consent approval of the agenda as amended not seeing any big objections to that wonderful.

[0:28:35] Voice 9: And then we're going to go on to committee orientation piece. I'm juggling my items here, but who's taking that for us? Is that you, David?

[0:28:49] Voice 14: Yeah, I'll just check with Director Mobs if she would like to take this or if she wants me to do this one. You're okay with me doing it? Okay.

[0:28:57] Voice 14: Yeah, so this is the Financial Planning Committee Terms of Reference. It's established by Trust Council.

[0:29:03] Voice 14: and at the beginning of the term it's um probably a good idea for fpc uh like most committees to

[0:29:11] Voice 14: review the terms of reference um for fpc they're pretty well driven by the uh the necessity to

[0:29:19] Voice 14: develop budgets um but you may want to look at them and if you've got any recommendations to

[0:29:25] Voice 14: council for amendments that's definitely something that could be considered i think just for today

[0:29:30] Voice 14: though it's just be aware that these exist and that um the work that you do um is generally

[0:29:38] Voice 14: directed through these roles and responsibilities so i don't really have anything more to say on

[0:29:43] Voice 14: this unless there's any questions or unless uh director mobs or the ceo of any additional

[0:29:49] Voice 14: comments okay

[0:29:52] Voice 8: so back to the chair

[0:29:55] Voice 9: okay then so that is

[0:29:59] Voice 7: is

[0:30:00] Voice 7: Is everything we wanted to

[0:30:01] Voice 7: address under section four?

[0:30:05] Voice 14: It's just for information of the, yeah.

[0:30:09] Voice 14: Excellent.

[0:30:10] Voice 7: Okay.

[0:30:10] Voice 7: I just

[0:30:10] Voice 14: wanted

[0:30:11] Voice 7: to double check.

[0:30:13] Voice 7: Yeah.

[0:30:13] Voice 7: I

[0:30:14] Voice 12: think that was 4.1.

[0:30:16] Voice 12: I

[0:30:16] Voice 7: don't know if there's any.

[0:30:17] Voice 7: Okay.

[0:30:18] Voice 7: All right.

[0:30:18] Voice 7: So on to 4.2 then.

[0:30:21] Voice 14: Yeah.

[0:30:21] Voice 14: So 4.2, this is the council committee toolkit.

[0:30:25] Voice 14: kit so this is a lot of information in here to help you as members of the financial planning

[0:30:32] Voice 14: committee and any other committee really to do your job so as the table of contents indicates

[0:30:40] Voice 14: here you'll see that the policies of council committee systems is in here as well as the

[0:30:46] Voice 14: terms of reference that we just talked about provides the legislation and how requests for

[0:30:53] Voice 14: decisions and communication advocacy and staff support meetings. Pretty well just an overview

[0:31:00] Voice 14: of the kinds of things that you'll need to know. So I'm not going to go through this in detail

[0:31:05] Voice 14: but I am available to answer questions you know as you're looking through this in the next weeks

[0:31:13] Voice 14: or two. You can just email me or phone me if you've got any questions or if something in here

[0:31:20] Voice 14: here isn't clear enough for you and we can find more information.

[0:31:25] Voice 14: So I'm going to leave it at that.

[0:31:27] Voice 14: I do have a PowerPoint in the next section

[0:31:29] Voice 14: that deals with some of the things raised in the toolkit.

[0:31:32] Voice 14: And that is intended just to get you going today.

[0:31:37] Voice 14: So as those as any questions, I'll

[0:31:39] Voice 8: pass it back to the chair.

[0:31:40] Voice 8: No

[0:31:45] Voice 9: questions for the director.

[0:31:46] Voice 8: OK, all right.

[0:31:47] Voice 9: Then we'll move on to meeting orientation.

[0:31:50] Voice 14: OK, I'd like to share my screen here, if that's OK, Robert.

[0:32:02] Voice 11: Okay, thank you.

[0:32:04] Voice 11: Just give me a minute to get myself set up.

[0:32:20] Voice 11: Almost there, just a minute.

[0:32:21] Voice 11: All right, where am I?

[0:32:29] Voice 11: Okay.

[0:32:34] Voice 11: Okay, so

[0:32:35] Voice 14: I would just like to take you through

[0:32:37] Voice 14: a little bit of orientation around

[0:32:43] Voice 14: the meeting procedures mostly and open meetings.

[0:32:48] Voice 14: So I'm gonna just take you through

[0:32:50] Voice 14: what a quorum is for financial planning committee,

[0:32:52] Voice 14: Committee, how you get items onto the Financial Planning Committee's agenda, a little bit

[0:32:58] Voice 14: about making motions, a little bit about rules of order, and then open meetings.

[0:33:06] Voice 14: David,

[0:33:06] Voice 9: just before we go ahead, just for a moment, just for anyone, if there's anyone

[0:33:11] Voice 9: that's new to this platform, to look at your PowerPoint, and I'm not just trying not to

[0:33:19] Voice 9: assume that everyone is, if you want to see the PowerPoint larger, if you put your mouse

[0:33:24] Voice 9: over the presentation part, a line shows up,

[0:33:28] Voice 9: you can drag it to the right

[0:33:30] Voice 9: and the PowerPoint will be much easier to see.

[0:33:33] Voice 9: Sorry, go ahead.

[0:33:35] Voice 14: Yeah, if you're in side by side view, that works.

[0:33:37] Voice 14: Okay, no problem, thank you.

[0:33:40] Voice 14: So a quorum is defined in Interpretation Act,

[0:33:44] Voice 14: which applies to all enactments, including your bylaws

[0:33:49] Voice 14: in the province of British Columbia.

[0:33:51] Voice 14: And it's defined as half the membership.

[0:33:54] Voice 14: So for a committee like financial planning committee that has a defined number, which is 10, then your quorum is always going to be five.

[0:34:02] Voice 10: It's

[0:34:03] Voice 14: always going to be five people. And that will be the minimum that you need to make decisions or have the meeting.

[0:34:10] Voice 14: Now, if the quorum, if your quorum drops below that, the option is to recess the meeting until somebody returns.

[0:34:19] Voice 14: returns the chair could end the meeting or the chair could continue it as an informal discussion

[0:34:26] Voice 14: knowing that you would not be able to make any decisions right so i'm just going to jump to

[0:34:32] Voice 14: getting items on the agenda so this is really best practices so if possible certainly give

[0:34:39] Voice 14: notice of motion for a future meeting so if you would like to bring something to the next

[0:34:43] Voice 14: the financial planning committee meeting then do that as a notice of motion say today's meeting

[0:34:50] Voice 14: for example. Provide the written motions with as much bright background as possible to staff

[0:34:57] Voice 14: and a couple weeks before the meeting allows us to get it onto the agenda and then it allows the

[0:35:03] Voice 14: members of the FPC time to read it and staff are happy to work with you to get the motion correct

[0:35:12] Voice 14: or at least make it understandable, has clarity and help you a little bit just to make sure the

[0:35:19] Voice 14: the background is clear. We have a request for a decision format. So if you just ask us for that,

[0:35:25] Voice 14: we can help you to get it onto that format. The RFD format just allows council to receive or

[0:35:33] Voice 14: committee to receive the request for decisions, the motions in a standardized format. There's

[0:35:40] Voice 14: also an option there for staff to provide some implications of the motion. So just to help

[0:35:47] Voice 14: inform the discussion a little bit more and we can provide like what the impact could be on staff

[0:35:52] Voice 14: for example as an as an implication or you know there could be implications for first nations that

[0:36:00] Voice 14: we need to consider as well and then it makes sure that whatever you're bringing forward is

[0:36:05] Voice 14: something that the committee can actually deal with in other words it's it's in the terms of

[0:36:09] Voice 14: reference um and if you're not sure you can certainly ask staff and uh you know I may

[0:36:15] Voice 14: may direct you to a different committee for that particular issue. What you should be avoiding is

[0:36:22] Voice 14: just walking items into the meeting with no notice. I mean, you know, coming in with a motion

[0:36:28] Voice 14: for something that's already on the agenda, I think that's totally fine. You're obviously going

[0:36:34] Voice 14: to get the agenda, you're going to see what's on it, and start thinking about how you want to

[0:36:38] Voice 14: respond to it. And that's okay. Just give us as much notice of those motions as possible. But

[0:36:44] Voice 14: But walking a new item in that's not on the agenda,

[0:36:48] Voice 14: you just come to a meeting and like,

[0:36:50] Voice 14: oh, I wanna talk about this today.

[0:36:52] Voice 14: That's where there's been no real ability

[0:36:55] Voice 14: for the members to think about it

[0:36:58] Voice 14: and for staff to even help you with providing advice.

[0:37:04] Voice 14: Yeah, and then verbally asking for an item

[0:37:06] Voice 14: to be on the agenda,

[0:37:07] Voice 14: but not providing anything in writing

[0:37:09] Voice 14: should also be avoided if possible.

[0:37:11] Voice 14: and then other ways to get items on the agenda is for the local trust committee to pass a motion to

[0:37:19] Voice 14: ask the financial planning committee to consider a specific issue trust council could do the same

[0:37:26] Voice 14: so as council you could say well let's ask financial planning committee to provide advice

[0:37:32] Voice 14: on this or you as a trustee could just simply write to the financial planning committee with

[0:37:37] Voice 14: your concerns or issues and this is probably more for trustees that are not actually on financial

[0:37:42] Voice 14: planning committee but you could do this for any of the committees you could write to regional

[0:37:46] Voice 14: planning committee or trust programs committee and and it would be received as correspondence

[0:37:51] Voice 14: and dealt with that way so i got this section called meeting etiquette and making motions

[0:38:01] Voice 14: and i just wanted to raise this because i think it will just help you to make sure the meeting

[0:38:06] Voice 14: runs smoothly so the one principle to keep in mind is that the chair runs the meeting according

[0:38:12] Voice 14: first of all and this is in order the legislation then the bylaws and then robert's rules of order

[0:38:18] Voice 14: and what you should be doing is only speak through the chair so don't just have a discussion don't

[0:38:26] Voice 14: you know if somebody's talking don't just respond to that and then somebody else responds that just

[0:38:30] Voice 14: put your hand up wait for the chair to recognize you and then have you say so it always goes through

[0:38:35] Voice 14: the chair and respect the process so don't interrupt let the person have the same if you

[0:38:41] Voice 14: completely disagree with them just put your hand up the chair recognize you and then you can have

[0:38:46] Voice 14: your say and then if you have a concern about something is going wrong maybe um the person

[0:38:54] Voice 14: talking is completely off topic or is is going down a different road you can certainly put your

[0:39:00] Voice 14: hand up to raise a point of order and that point of order could rule on it so a point of order is

[0:39:07] Voice 14: that you know this isn't really what the issue is about can we bring it back to the issue that's an

[0:39:12] Voice 14: example of a point of order and it's up to the chair as to whether or not um they would rule on

[0:39:19] Voice 14: that um so that's the etiquette side of things and at december trust council will have elamina

[0:39:30] Voice 14: a parliamentarian who will be going into a lot more information and more depth in these issues so

[0:39:38] Voice 14: think about questions you might have for him around meeting etiquette and you know the role

[0:39:44] Voice 14: of the chair so make an emotion then you move and then state what your motion is and when you think

[0:39:53] Voice 14: about your motion say who is asking it and who is being asked so always start with move that the

[0:39:59] Voice 14: financial planning committee request and then who so normally it could be staff but it might be the

[0:40:06] Voice 14: chair it might be request the chair write a letter for example but always have the who and

[0:40:13] Voice 14: and whom is asking it and then the motion should be self-explanatory and it should stand alone so

[0:40:19] Voice 14: there is a staff report don't say oh send you know i move the fpcl staff to send a staff report

[0:40:25] Voice 14: I think you need to specify what it is like staff report dated such and such or titled this

[0:40:32] Voice 14: with this date but make sure that the motion stands alone because the reader may not understand

[0:40:40] Voice 14: the context of where the motion came from. The motions always need a secondary so

[0:40:47] Voice 14: the chair would ask for a secondary but you don't really have to wait for the chair you could

[0:40:51] Voice 14: hear the motion and put your hand up and say second and hopefully the chair will hear that

[0:40:56] Voice 14: and and then the chair will then ask for the debate usually starting with the mover

[0:41:03] Voice 14: and then once the debate's concluded and it's not necessarily a chair that determines it it's

[0:41:10] Voice 14: council it determines that the debate's concluded but the chair will facilitate that

[0:41:14] Voice 14: will probably ask okay I'm not hearing anything new so I would like to move the vote and then

[0:41:21] Voice 14: somebody puts a hand up the chair will have to check in with them to make sure that everything

[0:41:25] Voice 14: everything's been heard. And then the chair will call the vote. The voting, so in person, make sure

[0:41:33] Voice 14: you put your hand up really high so that you can be counted easily, not only by the chair, but staff

[0:41:39] Voice 14: to assist, especially in close votes. And when you're asked to, you know, is anybody against the

[0:41:47] Voice 14: same thing, put your hand up. In Zoom meetings, use the raise hand function. The chair will usually

[0:41:54] Voice 14: that ask you to do that and there's a way to do that on the phone as well. The main thing here

[0:42:01] Voice 14: though is under the legislation if you do not vote it's called abstaining and an abstain vote

[0:42:11] Voice 14: in local government is considered a vote in favor. So that is really important to keep in mind

[0:42:19] Voice 14: because and that's why it's important to chair to count the votes against because we can't assume

[0:42:28] Voice 14: that people that voted for it we don't know how many abstained so we need to know that

[0:42:34] Voice 14: the other thing that's important and this comes back to the quorum rule a little bit

[0:42:39] Voice 14: is in a meeting you have to let the the minute taker know when you're leaving the meeting so

[0:42:46] Voice 14: that they can record that you've left and that then has an effect on the quorum. In an electronic

[0:42:52] Voice 14: meeting you need to do the same thing so either if the chat's active use the chat to let the

[0:42:58] Voice 14: minute taker know I have to step out of the room

[0:43:00] Voice 14: that's all you need to say you don't have to tell

[0:43:02] Voice 14: us why just that you're not going to be here and then let them know when you come back because we

[0:43:07] Voice 14: can't physically see you if you don't tell us that we're going to assume you're there you may have

[0:43:12] Voice 14: just turned off your camera, but you're still there. And then that's important for this vaulting

[0:43:18] Voice 14: because if we think you're there and you're not, and you don't vault, your vault would actually be

[0:43:24] Voice 14: an abstained vault and then it would count in favor. If we know you're not there, then we won't

[0:43:29] Voice 14: be counting you in the vault and we won't be counting you as an abstained either. So keep that

[0:43:34] Voice 14: in mind that protects your right to vault by letting the minute taker know that you're stepping

[0:43:41] Voice 14: no way. And as it says here, most bolts are simple majority. There's only a few reasons why we need

[0:43:48] Voice 14: a two-thirds bolt. I talked about abstain bolts and then when the motion's on the floor, keep

[0:43:55] Voice 14: the discussion to that motion. You could request an amendment to that motion. I'm not going to go

[0:44:00] Voice 14: into the details of that. If that comes up today, I can help

[0:44:03] Voice 14: out with that. Friendly amendments to

[0:44:08] Voice 14: motions are okay, but keep them simple. Usually it's to correct grammar or to make the motion

[0:44:13] Voice 14: and more clear so if you think by adding some words it would make the motion clearer just

[0:44:19] Voice 14: suggest a friendly amendment otherwise it should be by making the move and then the other thing is

[0:44:27] Voice 14: the by consent which we've used earlier today that's okay for things that don't require any

[0:44:35] Voice 14: action in other words we're not asking staff to undertake any work by it so if there's any work

[0:44:40] Voice 14: involved it has to be a motion because then we have a record of it and we're very clear as to

[0:44:46] Voice 14: exactly what it is that we're asking so if in doubt make a motion and then the last slides

[0:44:53] Voice 14: is just on open meetings so I just wanted to just remind you this is not so much to do with today

[0:44:59] Voice 14: but just generally so all meetings definitely have to be open to the public this came in in 1999

[0:45:07] Voice 14: 1999, Jenny Kwan was a councillor in Vancouver. She was in the minority. And the Vancouver Council

[0:45:14] Voice 14: larger group would get together, they'd have a quorum, they'd have a meeting, they'd make

[0:45:19] Voice 14: decisions. Jenny didn't know about it, staff didn't know about it, public didn't know about it.

[0:45:25] Voice 14: And that was a norm before 1999. So when she became the Minister of Municipal Affairs,

[0:45:30] Voice 14: first thing she did was bring in the open meeting rules to make sure that there's transparency

[0:45:36] Voice 14: transparency, not only for the public, but also that all members of the committee or council

[0:45:43] Voice 14: know that the meeting is going to happen and they have a right to understand what the issue is and

[0:45:48] Voice 14: a right to vote on it as well. So that's why we'll keep telling you, please do your business in open

[0:45:56] Voice 14: meetings. There is in the toolkit a, is this a meeting flowchart, which takes you through

[0:46:03] Voice 14: through a whole bunch of questions about what you're doing and whether or not that should be

[0:46:08] Voice 14: considered a meeting so everything should be open and anything that you do and it could be by email

[0:46:16] Voice 14: could be by phone could be by text that involves a quorum and advances business is really a meeting

[0:46:23] Voice 14: and we need to call a meeting for the public for that purpose so yeah so keep the meetings this is

[0:46:30] Voice 14: is your time to have those discussions. It is in public. Don't worry about airing your dirty

[0:46:36] Voice 14: laundry because that's what this is about, is you as trustees working together or discussing

[0:46:43] Voice 14: and getting your points of view out and hopefully coming to some decisions. And then finally,

[0:46:49] Voice 14: I just wanted to remind you the FPC is an advisory body. So whatever you do is you don't have the

[0:46:56] Voice 14: final say you don't make the decisions you will be deciding on what to recommend to trust council

[0:47:02] Voice 14: so whatever budget for example for fpc you recommend it's up to trust council ultimately

[0:47:09] Voice 14: whether or not to accept those recommendations or they could come up with something different

[0:47:14] Voice 14: but you're an advisory body but all the rules of meetings and open meetings and public scrutiny

[0:47:20] Voice 14: certainly apply to you exactly the same as it were to trust council or a local trust committee

[0:47:26] Voice 14: and then finally as i said earlier elamina is a parliamentarian and he'll be at december trust

[0:47:31] Voice 14: council to talk a lot more detail probably i'll give you a lot more information than i could in

[0:47:36] Voice 14: a few minutes today okay i'm going to end there and uh back to the chair but if there's any

[0:47:42] Voice 14: questions please ask them through the chair thank

[0:47:48] Voice 9: you david i see trustee boland uh

[0:47:51] Voice 16: just a quick

[0:47:52] Voice 16: one I have several but I can just they're just you know personal clarification things so I won't

[0:47:57] Voice 16: bore everyone with them but one I think is important which is in the case of abstentions

[0:48:03] Voice 16: in an electronic environment I would have thought and that just counting votes against

[0:48:10] Voice 16: is not enough you should call a vote specifically to say who is abstaining because somebody could

[0:48:19] Voice 16: could indeed be not present but you don't necessarily know well

[0:48:25] Voice 14: that was my comment

[0:48:26] Voice 14: you have to let the chair know when you're not going to be there otherwise the question is those

[0:48:32] Voice 14: are affirmative and those against and then what

[0:48:35] Voice 16: if somebody doesn't let you know and you do you

[0:48:39] Voice 16: assume that they're present until they let you know that they are not if

[0:48:45] Voice 14: they got the camera

[0:48:45] Voice 14: turned off and we assumed they're there unless they've told us that they're stepping out

[0:48:50] Voice 14: okay

[0:48:52] Voice 16: well thank you for the answer but i i think that's something that i would

[0:48:58] Voice 16: question okay thank you thank

[0:49:03] Voice 9: you trustee boland trustee lockham chair lockham oh yeah

[0:49:08] Voice 3: um trust council chair um uh just to differentiate between fbc chair um you know uh

[0:49:16] Voice 3: Thank you for that question, Maureen, because, indeed, we've struggled with that very question at previous council meetings when people come and go for a variety of reasons, just simply bad connections.

[0:49:33] Voice 3: In fact, I don't know if anybody noticed, but my connection was lost for about a minute or two minutes, and, indeed, that could be a voting situation.

[0:49:41] Voice 3: situation. And the open meeting rules and legislation and all the rest of it never

[0:49:48] Voice 3: actually accounted for the concepts of electronic meetings in this way. And we have actually in

[0:49:54] Voice 3: situations where we were concerned about it done a roll call style vote. And so where the majority

[0:50:02] Voice 3: is not necessarily 100% clear or it's close, it may be that we should consider doing a roll call

[0:50:09] Voice 3: style vote to be sure but of course we want to be efficient and all that stuff so I just wanted to

[0:50:16] Voice 3: say that that's certainly an area that and maybe David might have some comment that there might be

[0:50:23] Voice 3: some policy amendments necessary to account for that as we move forward in this electronic realm

[0:50:29] Voice 14: and if I may through the chair I think that would be a really good question

[0:50:33] Voice 14: and trustee bowling to ask elimina so keep that

[0:50:38] Voice 8: one okay

[0:50:43] Voice 9: uh so any other questions for director

[0:50:46] Voice 9: marler i am not seeing any so then the next item on our agenda is public comment period i'm just

[0:51:00] Voice 9: going to double check i do not see any attendees at the meeting uh so we'll move on we have no

[0:51:08] Voice 9: delegations and then on to item 7.1 correspondence letter from the outgoing fpc chair is there uh

[0:51:18] Voice 9: staff want to have any comments on this or is it just here for information i'll

[0:51:25] Voice 12: speak to this one

[0:51:26] Voice 12: it's primarily here for information the letter is addressed addressed to the the new chair of fpc

[0:51:32] Voice 12: uh but of course the information is now publicly available um and all committee members can read

[0:51:38] Voice 12: it and hopefully it's useful as we don't yet have an official chair elected for financial planning

[0:51:42] Voice 12: committee i would recommend that this piece of correspondence come uh to the next meeting as well

[0:51:46] Voice 12: for the new chair so

[0:51:51] Voice 9: uh generally i would assume that we would look for a resolution to to uh

[0:51:57] Voice 9: include this piece of correspondence in the next meeting that uh someone would like to

[0:52:07] Voice 9: make that motion or i i will i move that the letter from the fbc chair uh under 7.1 be uh

[0:52:18] Voice 9: added to the next fbc agenda i'll

[0:52:24] Voice 11: second that thank you trustee scott

[0:52:29] Voice 9: did you want to comment

[0:52:32] Voice 6: no just i think it's a good idea to table and as i said earlier uh there'll be a new

[0:52:37] Voice 6: representative from uh the conservancy uh at this meeting next time so i think it'll be good for

[0:52:43] Voice 6: them to see that thank you great

[0:52:46] Voice 9: any further comments on the motion move the second no further

[0:52:52] Voice 9: comments so i will look for a vote of electronic hands please and all

[0:53:00] Voice 11: those in favor okay

[0:53:09] Voice 9: i'm seeing

[0:53:10] Voice 9: seven in favor so if you please lower your electronic hand wonderful and any opposed i

[0:53:22] Voice 9: I don't think there are any more veteran voting members.

[0:53:25] Voice 9: Okay, that passes unanimously.

[0:53:28] Voice 9: Thank you for that.

[0:53:32] Voice 9: We'll move on to section eight,

[0:53:35] Voice 9: 8.1, draft of previous minutes.

[0:53:42] Voice 9: Any staff on that?

[0:53:44] Voice 9: This is just for information.

[0:53:48] Voice 9: Oh, Julia Mops.

[0:53:51] Voice 12: So the previous meeting minutes were actually approved

[0:53:53] Voice 12: approved by the outgoing financial planning committee

[0:53:56] Voice 12: by RWM.

[0:53:57] Voice 12: And so they're not on this agenda package.

[0:53:59] Voice 12: We do however, have a notice of that RWM included.

[0:54:05] Voice 9: Thank you very much for that.

[0:54:07] Voice 9: And those RWMs are 8.2.1 and 8.2.2.

[0:54:15] Voice 9: And then our next item is 8.3, the follow-up action list.

[0:54:20] Voice 9: And is there staff willing to speak to this item?

[0:54:23] Voice 9: it? I

[0:54:25] Voice 12: certainly can. Thanks, Interim Chair. My practice with the Financial Planning Committee

[0:54:30] Voice 12: has been to speak to items that are still currently listed as in progress. So I'll do

[0:54:36] Voice 12: the same today. We're absolutely open to questions on any of the items, however, even those that are

[0:54:41] Voice 12: listed as completed. So I'll start speaking to the items that are listed in progress that are

[0:54:46] Voice 12: specifically assigned to myself, and then I'll turn to my colleagues so that they can speak to

[0:54:50] Voice 12: to their items still in progress.

[0:54:52] Voice 12: So on page 40 of the agenda package,

[0:54:55] Voice 12: item number three speaks about trust council policy 651

[0:54:59] Voice 12: around reserves and surplus that's currently under review.

[0:55:03] Voice 12: Outgoing financial planning committee has weighed

[0:55:05] Voice 12: into the amendments to this policy

[0:55:07] Voice 12: and has some other suggestions.

[0:55:09] Voice 12: My plan is to bring forward the revisions to that policy

[0:55:13] Voice 12: to financial planning committee in February.

[0:55:15] Voice 12: This agenda felt very full for a new FPC

[0:55:17] Voice 12: given that we had first draft of the budget.

[0:55:19] Voice 12: it. So I've isolated that in for the February meeting. On page 41 of the agenda, we see that

[0:55:26] Voice 12: the special property tax requisition is also under review. And the plan is to take that to December

[0:55:31] Voice 12: Trust Council meeting if we can find space. Otherwise, it would be going back to the

[0:55:36] Voice 12: subsequent meeting of Trust Council for review. Trustee remuneration policy is also under review.

[0:55:42] Voice 12: That one has less urgency attached to it. And so the target date for completion of that work to

[0:55:47] Voice 12: to come back to a financial planning committee

[0:55:49] Voice 12: is August of 2023.

[0:55:52] Voice 12: And I'll turn it over to my colleagues

[0:55:54] Voice 12: to speak to their items.

[0:55:55] Voice 12: Back on page 40 of the agenda package,

[0:55:58] Voice 12: there's an item that's with our CAO

[0:56:01] Voice 12: that's talking about building permit cost recovery review.

[0:56:04] Voice 12: So I'll toss it over to you, Russ.

[0:56:07] Voice 18: Thanks, not much to report here.

[0:56:09] Voice 18: And I think we might want to bring this back

[0:56:11] Voice 18: for a discussion of FPC.

[0:56:14] Voice 18: see um you know um we i have done some initial reporting i'll bring that report back to you

[0:56:21] Voice 18: it's really about is there a cost recovery function that we could organize with the

[0:56:25] Voice 18: regional districts around um building permitting reviews uh and i don't think you'll be able to

[0:56:34] Voice 18: wade into it without that having that reporting piece back to you but um i think you can

[0:56:39] Voice 18: reasonably get it in the next three or four months and figure out which direction you want to go

[0:56:44] Voice 18: It also ties into a potential ask of the ministry to change some regulation.

[0:56:49] Voice 18: And so it needs a bit of a think.

[0:56:54] Voice 10: Thanks.

[0:56:57] Voice 12: And there's also some items on the follow-up action list under the responsibility of Director

[0:57:02] Voice 12: Frater.

[0:57:04] Voice 15: Good morning, committee.

[0:57:06] Voice 15: You'll see under, if we could scroll up there, we talk about bringing back a, first of all,

[0:57:13] Voice 15: that we there's an advocacy request to investigate um options around um sorry just under uh where's

[0:57:21] Voice 15: it gone here a little bit further up i believe oh further up sorry

[0:57:24] Voice 2: um

[0:57:27] Voice 15: yeah number one there under

[0:57:28] Voice 15: 31st of may is around uh advocacy request to explore the options for potential legislative

[0:57:34] Voice 15: changes to support a revised distribution of special property tax requisitions in the trust

[0:57:39] Voice 15: area essentially what can happen is that for example on salt spring there's been an ongoing

[0:57:43] Voice 15: ongoing special property tax requisition that primarily benefits Salt Spring Island itself,

[0:57:49] Voice 15: yet Piers Island and other associated islands contribute to that fund, even though they may

[0:57:53] Voice 15: not see a direct impact. And that would be the case for other local trust areas that have

[0:57:57] Voice 15: associated islands, if the project is just meant to benefit sort of the major island of that island

[0:58:03] Voice 15: grouping. So that's a request that will take us some time to explore. I've put a target date here

[0:58:08] Voice 15: of February we'll just have to see how workloads are and we'll bring that back to you also you'll

[0:58:14] Voice 15: see under number one of October 12th here we had discussed at the last meeting that we would

[0:58:19] Voice 15: attempt to get you a draft survey as you'll note in this agenda package that has not happened

[0:58:23] Voice 15: just due to the timing around the budget development so we'll have to bring you that

[0:58:28] Voice 15: in January for comment and we'll make the changes you request at that time prior to going out to the

[0:58:33] Voice 15: public with it um on the next one at the last meeting the um so number two there on october 12th

[0:58:39] Voice 15: oh sorry the um committee approved the public consultation materials so we're proceeding with

[0:58:43] Voice 15: preparing with those advertisements uh to place them um in december for publication in january

[0:58:48] Voice 15: and in anticipating that we'll be going out for public engagement in january on the draft budget

[0:58:55] Voice 15: and then further down i think there was just one final thing which was around um at the last

[0:59:00] Voice 15: meeting the committee approved or reviewed language for a frequently asked question sheet

[0:59:04] Voice 15: around special property tax requisitions and asked for some edits. Those have been done and the sheet

[0:59:09] Voice 15: is in your agenda today I believe and also we've posted it to the website for anyone who's interested

[0:59:14] Voice 15: in learning more about that tool. I

[0:59:17] Voice 11: think that's it and I'm happy to take any questions.

[0:59:24] Voice 9: Dusty Bernardo. Thank you. I'm wondering if you could clarify or

[0:59:32] Voice 4: give us a bit more information

[0:59:34] Voice 4: about this survey, about exactly what that survey is all about

[0:59:39] Voice 4: and the details, because I'm not aware of them.

[0:59:41] Voice 15: Sure. So later in your agenda package, we'll discuss the public engagement plan

[0:59:46] Voice 15: for this year for the draft budget.

[0:59:48] Voice 15: And essentially, the primary tool by which we seek public feedback

[0:59:52] Voice 15: on the draft budget is through a survey that we develop.

[0:59:55] Voice 15: Through the years, we've refined down to a number of standard questions

[0:59:59] Voice 15: that are asked.

[1:00:00] Voice 15: but each year depending on the themes of the budget or any particular request of this committee

[1:00:05] Voice 15: we can add additional questions but perhaps we can talk about that under 9.4 when we get down

[1:00:10] Voice 15: to that item later in the agenda thank

[1:00:13] Voice 4: you yeah

[1:00:14] Voice 11: trustee ellett uh thank you chair um

[1:00:26] Trustee Elliott (probable): i'm just um i just wanted to clarify so the the special property tax requisition

[1:00:31] Trustee Elliott (probable): is salt spring the only um lta that has done that and so the swipa water fund which benefits only

[1:00:44] Trustee Elliott (probable): salt spring island what you'll be looking at is not impacting the other islands within that lta

[1:00:50] Trustee Elliott (probable): as in they would not be taxed because they don't get the benefit from that tax

[1:00:54] Trustee Elliott (probable): And so the implications for exploring this would be if Gabriela Island has an OCP review, but the other two islands associated Mudge and DeCourcy are not going to get their OCPs reviewed, that they would not be taxed because they're not going to be, if a special property tax requisition was done for this area, then those two other islands wouldn't be taxed.

[1:01:21] Trustee Elliott (probable): Is that what this would mean?

[1:01:24] Trustee Elliott (probable): Yeah, so

[1:01:24] Voice 15: currently, so there's two things. So currently, the whole local trust area gets taxed. And until there's legislative change, that will be the case. So the, so I just want to be clear about that, that the request of the committee was for staff to investigate options in terms of what the legislature might be able to do. And then the feasibility is the legislature likely to do it.

[1:01:44] Voice 15: this would probably be you know we'd need to look at that and then come back to you with advice on

[1:01:49] Voice 15: is this a reasonable advocacy ask or not of the province so right now if you're to undertake a

[1:01:55] Voice 15: special property tax requisition for example for a project that benefits only gabriela

[1:01:58] Voice 15: it the tax would apply to much for example awesome thank you

[1:02:07] Voice 9: any further questions on the follow-up

[1:02:10] Voice 9: action list okay i'm not seeing any uh so let's move on to section nine uh we have an rfd under

[1:02:24] Voice 9: 9.1 uh september 30th financial report staff uh remember going to introduce it for us

[1:02:35] Voice 9: yeah

[1:02:36] Voice 12: i've asked nancy to take this on today i think you guys will get to hear enough of me

[1:02:40] Voice 12: me later on so Nancy will report out on how we're doing for quarter two results.

[1:02:45] Voice 1: Hi everyone my

[1:02:47] Voice 1: name is Nancy Rogers and I'm the finance officer here so I'm going to present the Q2 financial

[1:02:53] Voice 1: report. So I've put it up on the screen here for you as of September 30th 2022 we've consumed 47%

[1:03:04] Voice 1: of our annual approved budget and that's um just slightly below our um our approved or what we

[1:03:12] Voice 1: would expect at this time of year so we would normally expect 50 we're halfway through the year

[1:03:17] Voice 1: we're at 47 percent um and so i'm just going to speak to the separate sections here so as you can

[1:03:25] Voice 1: can see the revenue is at 96%. And that's primarily due to the fact that we receive

[1:03:34] Voice 1: our general property tax levy, our special property tax requisitions, and our municipal

[1:03:40] Voice 1: property tax levies all in quarter two, we recognize the entire revenue when we

[1:03:47] Voice 1: receive them. So you can see that they're, you know, at 100% received. There's also

[1:03:54] Voice 1: um an amount an additional amount that we received from the provincial government

[1:04:01] Voice 1: um so normally our um provincial grant is 180 000 and this year they um transferred us an

[1:04:13] Voice 1: additional 48 000 um that they you know they had some additional fund grant funds and they

[1:04:21] Voice 1: They distributed those equally to the different districts, and our share was the $48,000.

[1:04:33] Voice 1: Investment income is also higher than budget, and that's due to, of course, the increase we've been

[1:04:40] Voice 1: seeing in interest rates. So what we do is we take our general property tax funds when we receive

[1:04:48] Voice 1: them and we will make investments in order to maximize any interest and income for us so you

[1:04:56] Voice 1: know when we did the budget the interest rates were very low over the last few years and of course

[1:05:03] Voice 1: we would have based our budget on those because we had no idea that they would increase to the

[1:05:08] Voice 1: to the rates that they are today so that's the major difference there and then I'm going to move

[1:05:16] Voice 1: on to the council services so the council services are reported at 41 percent of the budget

[1:05:22] Voice 1: and that's lower than the benchmark of 50 percent by nine percent which equals 138 thousand dollars

[1:05:31] Voice 1: lower and that is primarily due to trust council spending which is going to happen further on in

[1:05:39] Voice 1: the year so trust council has um a budget in order to hold their trust council meetings in-person

[1:05:46] Voice 1: meetings and those in-person meetings will happen further on in the year so we haven't seen those

[1:05:51] Voice 1: expenditures come through yet um and trust area services is lower by um around 26 000 or sorry

[1:06:03] Voice 1: sorry, $266,000. They're at 43% of the budget. And that's due to unspent funds relating to

[1:06:13] Voice 1: secretarial functions and stewardship education. And these expenditures are planned for later part

[1:06:19] Voice 1: of the year, as well as a reconciliation action plan funds that to date have been unspent. And

[1:06:33] Voice 1: oversees that program. So the staff vacancies as well as the vacancy and the communication

[1:06:41] Voice 1: specialist role have also meant that there's lower than planned spending in trust area

[1:06:48] Voice 1: services salaries because the salaries are included there. Okay. In the local trust

[1:06:56] Voice 1: committees um section it's at 47 of the budget and that's lower by 194 000 which is three percent

[1:07:06] Voice 1: below what we would expect um this is primarily due to planning projects that are um either

[1:07:15] Voice 1: scheduled to um happen later in the fiscal period or will not happen at all so for instance um the

[1:07:24] Voice 1: The heritage overlay mapping budget of $74,000 is not going to be spent this year because we don't have the senior intergovernmental advisory person in place.

[1:07:37] Voice 1: And they're the person that is overseeing that project.

[1:07:40] Voice 1: So you'll see when we go to the forecast that we're forecasting that that money is not going to be spent.

[1:07:47] Voice 1: The other expenditure that's below budget is the staff salaries due to vacancies in some of the positions, primarily planning on Salt Spring Island.

[1:08:05] Voice 1: And, you know, we were without a regional planning manager for a period of time this year.

[1:08:11] Voice 1: So those amounts are showing as underspent.

[1:08:16] Voice 1: um so under the trust conservancy position they're showing as just one percent over budget

[1:08:25] Voice 1: just slightly slightly over budget um and it only equals around nine thousand dollars that they're

[1:08:31] Voice 1: over um this is due to um an increase in staff travel and overtime that's associated with the

[1:08:41] Voice 1: species at risk programming that they're undertaking and the majority of that work

[1:08:47] Voice 1: happens in the nicer weather in the warmer months so of course those expenditures are in the first

[1:08:53] Voice 1: two quarters of the year so you know they'll even out quote you know in the last two quarters

[1:08:59] Voice 1: and the property management the property management expenditures are you see you can

[1:09:08] Voice 1: see that they're underspent at 26 only 26 percent there um and again this is due to some property

[1:09:15] Voice 1: management work that has been delayed in the year just due to a slow start for the spring season

[1:09:21] Voice 1: because of all the rain that we had and everything in the spring season so i i suspect in quarter

[1:09:27] Voice 1: three we're going to see more expenditures there they've been they've been trying to get you know

[1:09:33] Voice 1: those things done i mean it has started raining now but we we had a fairly nice um early part of

[1:09:39] Voice 1: the third quarter so and then under general administration um as you can see it's 54

[1:09:47] Voice 1: percent um spent and if so that's higher than what we would expect and that is primarily due to um

[1:09:58] Voice 1: some staffing where a staff member was on leave and a person was hired to cover for them so we

[1:10:10] Voice 1: would have been paying two salaries at the same time for the person who was on leave and the

[1:10:15] Voice 1: person to cover the the work of that position and the office operations are slightly underspent

[1:10:26] Voice 1: while they're at 40%. And that's primarily due to underspending in contract service funds and

[1:10:34] Voice 1: audit fees. And both of those are expected to be incurred in the later part of the year.

[1:10:42] Voice 1: Information systems is slightly over budget. And that area is due to staffing overtime and

[1:10:52] Voice 1: unused leave balances um they've been they've been a very busy group um especially getting

[1:10:59] Voice 1: everybody um up and running and the electronic part some new things that they're doing in is

[1:11:07] Voice 1: and the computer furniture and equipment is overspent this is due to um additional purchases

[1:11:16] Voice 1: this for the new trustee laptops um over and above what was budgeted for um so that i that was

[1:11:25] Voice 1: voted i believe at um trust council to or ec one of the two sorry to add um additional funding there

[1:11:33] Voice 1: for the trustee laptops and um and so that's accounting for the higher than normal expenditures

[1:11:43] Voice 1: to date um and then i'm just gonna quickly go through a different view of the um i think it's

[1:11:55] Voice 1: on sorry i just want to bring it up here for you it's difficult to speak to you and run this at

[1:12:02] Voice 1: the same time sometimes um so this consolidated expenses by object section is just looking at

[1:12:11] Voice 1: our financials from a different perspective based on large like based on different categories so

[1:12:19] Voice 1: you know the you know our biggest expenditure is staff salaries and benefits so it's showing you

[1:12:27] Voice 1: know that we're underspent on staff salaries and benefits and that's primarily to due to the

[1:12:32] Voice 1: vacancies i was talking about senior intergovernment policy advisor rpm planning positions um director

[1:12:40] Voice 1: director, we've had, you know, multiple vacancies through the year for portions of the year, or in

[1:12:46] Voice 1: case of senior intergovernment policy advisor, the entire year. Office operations are just slightly

[1:12:54] Voice 1: above, and that is due to,

[1:12:59] Voice 11: sorry, just give me a second here.

[1:13:15] Voice 2: Oh, the costs

[1:13:16] Voice 1: associated with,

[1:13:17] Voice 1: again, with the audit and the contract services that haven't been spent.

[1:13:23] Voice 1: Council and trustee costs are slightly lower, again, due to trust council costs that I spoke about earlier for meetings.

[1:13:35] Voice 1: And the election costs have not come through yet.

[1:13:39] Voice 1: Of course, the election didn't take place until quarter three.

[1:13:42] Voice 1: So we'll be expecting those costs to come through during quarter three, and we'll see them later in the year.

[1:13:49] Voice 1: under the program so the programs are all of our strategic projects and and and local trust

[1:13:56] Voice 1: committee projects all of the projects so those are to date and are spent and you know again I

[1:14:04] Voice 1: talked I spoke to some delays and some issues and projects where funds will not be spent and we can

[1:14:12] Voice 1: go into more detail on that when we look at the forecast and then the legal is broken down into

[1:14:19] Voice 1: three different sections where we spend funds on legal but legal to date overall is tracking

[1:14:32] Voice 1: basically at the 50 percent it may I believe it's I believe it yeah I believe it's actually

[1:14:41] Voice 1: right on here yeah expected at 50 percent of the budget so um so we're looking good there you know

[1:14:50] Voice 1: in some years we're we're over by this time of year it depends on what legal issues are going

[1:14:55] Voice 1: on what bylaw enforcement issues are going on what things are going to litigation through bylaw

[1:15:01] Voice 1: enforcement and the travel training and recruitment is higher than what we would expect to see right

[1:15:08] Voice 1: right now. And this is primarily due to increase in planning staff travel for public hearings and

[1:15:16] Voice 1: community information meetings that took place before the end of the term. You know, local trust

[1:15:22] Voice 1: committees were trying to get their business completed before the end of the term. So there

[1:15:29] Voice 1: was there was more costs in that quarter. And then additional costs are also being incurred for staff

[1:15:36] Voice 1: training as you know we catch up on for you know two years two and a half years um staff have not

[1:15:44] Voice 1: taken any in-person training so you know they're I mean we're still trying to remain in budget but

[1:15:50] Voice 1: of course as soon as we can travel people want to get back to the in-person training so um I think

[1:16:00] Voice 1: that's the end of the q2 overview

[1:16:03] Voice 2: is there any are there any questions i

[1:16:09] Voice 9: see uh julian monster hand

[1:16:11] Voice 9: up uh

[1:16:14] Voice 12: thanks mr chair i just want to let the committee know um you know we've given you a

[1:16:19] Voice 12: fair amount of detail interviewing this report today most of the detail is contained in the

[1:16:23] Voice 12: written report that's in the agenda package we do want to make sure that the committee is

[1:16:27] Voice 12: understanding the material that they're receiving recognizing that most of you are new but at future

[1:16:33] Voice 12: meetings we may not provide as much detail with the expectation that

[1:16:37] Voice 12: committee members have actually read the agenda but we'll always take questions I

[1:16:41] Voice 12: do see there's a question in the chat from trustee Elliott for the purposes of

[1:16:46] Voice 12: public transparency if trustee Elliott is willing to pose her question verbally

[1:16:51] Voice 12: the members of the public are not able to see the chat and so that way we can

[1:16:55] Voice 12: have that question asked and answered publicly so I'll turn it back to the

[1:16:59] Voice 12: chair to take that on uh

[1:17:02] Voice 9: thank you for that and i was going to mention that as well so um just in

[1:17:07] Voice 9: general chat is discouraged uh in terms of public transparency uh when we are meeting electronically

[1:17:14] Voice 9: uh so trustee elliott uh

[1:17:17] Trustee Elliott (probable): thank you chair i mostly wrote it so that i would remember to ask it

[1:17:20] Trustee Elliott (probable): there's a lot of information here um so yeah i was asking whether the job postings for the

[1:17:26] Trustee Elliott (probable): communications coordinator and the senior intergovernmental policy advisor roles have

[1:17:31] Trustee Elliott (probable): been advertised that's the first part uh and do we know how long it might take to fill them

[1:17:36] Trustee Elliott (probable): second part and the third question actually is um would the unused uh portion of the salaries

[1:17:45] Trustee Elliott (probable): from this fiscal be rolled into next year or how does that go into surplus funds if those roles

[1:17:54] Trustee Elliott (probable): have not been filled like what happens to that money that's been budgeted for those

[1:17:59] Trustee Elliott (probable): salaries that were not filled thank you so

[1:18:03] Voice 1: so i'll ask julia to answer your questions um as

[1:18:07] Voice 1: the director of hr then she's more familiar with um where the where things are at with the postings

[1:18:13] Voice 1: that you're referring to uh

[1:18:17] Voice 12: so through the chair um as far as the postings i can tell you that

[1:18:21] Voice 12: neither of these positions have been posted right now. We are waiting for updated job descriptions

[1:18:27] Voice 12: and plans from the Director of Trust Area Services, and Director Frader can speak to

[1:18:31] Voice 12: when she's going to be putting those things together. I will address your question around

[1:18:35] Voice 12: what happens to the unspent funds. Where we have unspent monies in the fiscal year,

[1:18:40] Voice 12: those funds will automatically, at the end of the year, roll into the Islands Trust General

[1:18:45] Voice 12: general surplus fund. And they sit in that fund until Trust Council makes a decision to draw from

[1:18:51] Voice 12: that fund potentially in next year's budget.

[1:18:58] Voice 11: If I might, Chair, can I supplement that answer?

[1:19:00] Voice 15: Please do.

[1:19:01] Voice 15: All right, thank you. So just as a small correction, the communication specialist

[1:19:05] Voice 15: position has been posted and has now closed. And I'm sitting with resumes to screen,

[1:19:10] Voice 15: which I hope to do shortly, with the anticipation that we'd have someone in the role in January.

[1:19:15] Voice 15: So that's for communications.

[1:19:17] Voice 15: The senior intergovernmental policy advisor role

[1:19:19] Voice 15: is close to being posted.

[1:19:21] Voice 15: Simply need to get through final approvals

[1:19:23] Voice 15: on a slightly revised job profile.

[1:19:25] Voice 15: But again, hope to have someone in place

[1:19:27] Voice 15: towards the end of January or in early February

[1:19:29] Voice 15: would be ideal.

[1:19:32] Voice 11: Thank you.

[1:19:34] Voice 11: Thanks for the correction, Claire.

[1:19:36] Voice 11: Yeah.

[1:19:37] Voice 9: And thank you for that staff members

[1:19:40] Voice 9: and Council Chair Luckom, I see your hand now.

[1:19:45] Voice 3: Yeah, thank you.

[1:19:46] Voice 3: I got disconnected there again.

[1:19:48] Voice 3: answer i don't know if anybody's said this already or not but i just think that it's just

[1:19:53] Voice 3: absolutely remarkable nancy rogers how you have your finger on the pulse of the island's trust

[1:20:01] Voice 3: that the detail is amazing and i thank you for that thank you

[1:20:09] Voice 9: okay so uh i'll look for further

[1:20:13] Voice 9: further questions and then there is a resolution on page oh I think where did I go oh sorry 43.

[1:20:26] Voice 9: uh so any further questions and would someone like to uh oh I see trustee Poland

[1:20:35] Voice 16: um just a quick question about the legal costs I see there are three line items which come to

[1:20:41] Voice 16: approximately uh three hundred thousand dollars um i'm just curious i mean uh i understand that

[1:20:49] Voice 16: you can't name names etc but are there people looking at those and challenging that spend

[1:20:57] Voice 16: the internals of it and how processes might mitigate or reduce those costs because it's

[1:21:07] Voice 16: It's quite a large piece of money, which is opaque to the rest of us

[1:21:14] Voice 16: in terms of what it actually represents.

[1:21:18] Voice 16: And I would love to think that, you know, an analysis of the bylaw compliance

[1:21:25] Voice 16: or perhaps, you know, where people actually take the trust

[1:21:31] Voice 16: or the trust goes to law or people take the trust to law,

[1:21:36] Voice 16: um you know are there opportunities to reduce that and i see that you know there are people

[1:21:42] Voice 16: out and about in the trust area who would perhaps agree that you know are all steps being taken

[1:21:50] Voice 16: around um mediation etc etc anyway that's a bit of a vague suggestion but i genuinely have an

[1:21:58] Voice 16: interest in understanding how that 300 000 could be reduced thank you i wonder if

[1:22:08] Voice 9: Oh, sorry. Go

[1:22:09] Voice 7: ahead and then I'll recognize the director.

[1:22:12] Voice 1: Sorry, I just want, did you want us to answer her question?

[1:22:17] Voice 9: Yes, please.

[1:22:18] Voice 1: Okay. I actually think that Director Cermak maybe could step in and speak to legal. He oversees

[1:22:27] Voice 1: the majority of the legal expenditures and funds and oversees bylaw enforcement. Stefan, are you

[1:22:35] Voice 1: there?

[1:22:37] Voice 5: i am let me push my buttons can you see me can you hear me yeah excellent uh thank you to the chair

[1:22:48] Voice 5: the legal budget is sort of spread across the organization as a whole and litigation is

[1:22:57] Voice 5: recommended by where the majority of the cost your recording comes from by each ltc and then approved

[1:23:04] Voice 5: for action by the executive committee and so I don't have an answer about how to change that

[1:23:11] Voice 5: allotment or how it goes but I can say that it is scrutinized through both the LTC that's requesting

[1:23:17] Voice 5: the litigation and through the EC who approves the litigation and honestly going to court it is

[1:23:25] Voice 5: a small number for considering the number if you may recall my presentation had 584 open

[1:23:30] Voice 5: open investigations and Warren Dingman,

[1:23:35] Voice 5: the manager of file law enforcement described the process

[1:23:37] Voice 5: of how few actually get to litigation.

[1:23:40] Voice 5: It just happens to be extremely expensive to do so.

[1:23:43] Voice 5: And it's only followed up at the approval

[1:23:46] Voice 5: of executive committee.

[1:23:48] Voice 5: I hope that's a good enough answer for now.

[1:23:52] Voice 9: Thank you.

[1:23:53] Voice 9: Thank you, Director Sumat.

[1:23:58] Voice 9: And I see Council Chair Luckum's hand up there.

[1:24:02] Voice 9: yeah

[1:24:05] Voice 3: thank you uh chair peterson um i just wanted to just um um

[1:24:12] Voice 3: speak to um what you may be suggested there and uh trustee uh reed or sorry trustee bowen

[1:24:23] Voice 3: um that the uh information is opaque i wouldn't want it to be misunderstood that

[1:24:29] Voice 3: that it is actually opaque because in fact there is full in-camera reporting about all of the

[1:24:37] Voice 3: expenses that are associated with legal action that you wouldn't not being a trustee would have

[1:24:43] Voice 3: not had the privilege to see in the past um and and it um and it is considered in camera reporting

[1:24:52] Voice 3: out from bylaw enforcement um because it specifically names individuals in the and

[1:24:58] Voice 3: and reveals the legal position of council.

[1:25:01] Voice 3: So just wanted to say

[1:25:03] Voice 3: that you will be seeing reporting on this.

[1:25:07] Voice 3: And if the staff have a different assumption on that,

[1:25:10] Voice 3: please step in.

[1:25:13] Voice 9: Thank you, Mr. Luckum.

[1:25:14] Voice 9: I see Julie Mops.

[1:25:17] Voice 12: Thanks, Mr. Chair.

[1:25:18] Voice 12: Just for the information of the new committee,

[1:25:21] Voice 12: legal general costs are primarily associated

[1:25:23] Voice 12: when we reach out to lawyers for legal opinions.

[1:25:25] Voice 12: It's usually when we're engaging in work

[1:25:28] Voice 12: and we need to understand the legalities

[1:25:31] Voice 12: of what we're working in so as workloads increase as we take on more projects we do tend to see

[1:25:36] Voice 12: those legal costs rising and of course as the environment that we work in becomes more complex

[1:25:42] Voice 12: we also see rising legal costs in legal general by law enforcement costs legal costs really driven

[1:25:49] Voice 12: by local trust committees and how much enforcement they are directing staff to undertake on their

[1:25:54] Voice 12: islands of course more enforcement we may see more legal litigation there and so that's influenced by

[1:26:00] Voice 12: by local trust committees and their work.

[1:26:01] Voice 12: And then legal litigation is litigation against the trust,

[1:26:04] Voice 12: which is primarily related

[1:26:06] Voice 12: to local trust committee decisions.

[1:26:08] Voice 12: And that can be a hard one to budget for.

[1:26:11] Voice 12: And so we do often see year over year deviations from budget

[1:26:15] Voice 12: because it's hard to estimate

[1:26:17] Voice 12: what litigation might come before us

[1:26:18] Voice 12: and what activity might be generated on existing claims

[1:26:22] Voice 12: that we do know about.

[1:26:24] Voice 12: So I just wanted to give the committee

[1:26:25] Voice 12: some background on that.

[1:26:30] Voice 9: thank you very much uh are there any further questions on this section

[1:26:35] Voice 9: and if not then perhaps someone is ready to make the motion on page top of page 43.

[1:26:48] Voice 11: anyone for the motion i

[1:26:50] Voice 9: see i see uh trustee elliot and i

[1:26:53] Trustee Elliott (probable): second it i move the financial

[1:26:56] Trustee Elliott (probable): planning committee forward the september 30th 2022 financial report to september 30th 2022

[1:27:03] Trustee Elliott (probable): 2022 is that a mistake for the september 30th 2022 oh to trust council for approval

[1:27:12] Trustee Elliott (probable): oh

[1:27:14] Voice 1: it looked it looks like to september 30th 2022 is in there twice we'll have to we'll have

[1:27:19] Voice 1: to make that adjustment okay

[1:27:21] Trustee Elliott (probable): so uh forward i move that the financial planning committee

[1:27:26] Trustee Elliott (probable): forward the september 30th 2022 financial report to trust council for approval i second that thank

[1:27:35] Voice 9: thank you for that and i would just um i was just going to mention uh trustee boland this as a

[1:27:42] Voice 9: matter of um process uh please wait until the motion has been made uh to second and so that is

[1:27:50] Voice 9: uh that is moved by uh trustee elliott seconded by trustee boland i see trustee scott's hand up

[1:28:00] Voice 9: yeah

[1:28:04] Voice 11: thank you i just

[1:28:06] Voice 6: um semantics thing i guess is it does it send to trust council for approval

[1:28:11] Voice 6: or for consideration uh

[1:28:16] Voice 9: so this is uh this is it sends for approval and i uh i see my director

[1:28:23] Voice 9: mobs has her hand up maybe she'll give us some uh yes it is for

[1:28:27] Voice 12: it it is for approval trust council

[1:28:30] Voice 12: uh has the oversight for financial management at the organization um and so they do need to

[1:28:35] Voice 12: to approve these financial reports.

[1:28:38] Voice 9: Okay, thank you for that clarity.

[1:28:40] Voice 9: Any further comments on the motion before us?

[1:28:45] Voice 9: And Trustee Scott, if you would just lower your hand

[1:28:48] Voice 9: unless you wanted to speak again.

[1:28:52] Voice 6: But yeah, it's just,

[1:28:54] Voice 6: I'm sorry, just for,

[1:28:56] Voice 6: I mean, the first note I had here

[1:28:58] Voice 6: is the financial committee's advisory.

[1:29:02] Voice 6: So I'm just wondering, okay,

[1:29:04] Voice 6: I mean, you folks understand this stuff better than I do.

[1:29:07] Voice 6: so i i guess approval is the right word but it just seems like um we're advisory and yet we're

[1:29:14] Voice 6: telling them uh they gotta it's for approval not for consideration one way or the other but

[1:29:19] Voice 6: i'll just leave it at that thank you yeah

[1:29:23] Voice 9: so my understanding there trustee scott is that we we

[1:29:27] Voice 9: are advisory we often make recommendations to trust council and then once that uh recommendation gets

[1:29:34] Voice 9: to trust council it is up to council to uh to determine whether they're going to make that

[1:29:39] Voice 9: approval or make some change okay with that is there any further discussion on the motion

[1:29:49] Voice 9: i'm not seeing any more hands besides trustee scott's residual hand up there

[1:29:56] Voice 9: uh thank you for taking that down so i'm going to call the question on the motion form

[1:30:00] Voice 9: us all those in favor please raise your

[1:30:02] Voice 11: digital excellent

[1:30:10] Voice 9: and i see seven in favor and please

[1:30:14] Voice 9: lower your digital hand uh excellent and i just have the habit of calling for any opposed

[1:30:27] Voice 9: although i believe that was unanimous thank you very much that motion carries

[1:30:33] Voice 9: and we are now on to section 9.2 financial forecast briefing and i will note that there is a

[1:30:45] Voice 9: motion in this section as well so over to staff uh

[1:30:53] Voice 2: so i'm going to present

[1:30:55] Voice 1: the financial forecast

[1:30:56] Voice 1: briefing. So this briefing comes to you. And historically, Financial Planning Committee has

[1:31:06] Voice 1: forwarded the financial forecasts to Trust Council for their information. So if FPC does wish to do

[1:31:14] Voice 1: that, then they would need to make the resolution once we've completed our discussion on this.

[1:31:20] Voice 1: um so our forecast to march 31st 2023 reflects a projected shortfall of 193 000 which is less

[1:31:32] Voice 1: than the budgeted short uh shortfall of 563 500 the revenue is forecasted to be higher than

[1:31:41] Voice 1: budgeted due to additional provincial grants and increased interest income associated with

[1:31:47] Voice 1: the rising increase interest rates that i spoke about earlier operating expenses are forecasted

[1:31:54] Voice 1: to be lower than budget as a result of salaries unspent due to staff vacancies unspent salaries

[1:32:02] Voice 1: are partially offset due to the higher than budgeted bcgu increase that came through

[1:32:09] Voice 1: as well as higher than budgeted increases for excluded staff members

[1:32:16] Voice 1: capital spending is forecasted higher than budget due to increased spending on new trustee laptops

[1:32:22] Voice 1: that were approved by the executive committee earlier in the year which we spoke to earlier

[1:32:28] Voice 1: and the project spending is forecasted lower than budget due to delays in projects or projects not

[1:32:36] Voice 1: moving forward at all in the year primarily as a result of vacancies and staff positions

[1:32:41] Voice 1: where those staff positions would normally take on the projects or their oversight.

[1:32:48] Voice 1: So in conclusion, the approved spending budget for fiscal year March 31st, 2023, is the $9.3 million.

[1:33:01] Voice 1: The current forecast spending for this year is projected to be $9.0 million.

[1:33:07] Voice 1: dollars. So that is less than budget by approximately $325,000 or 3.5%. The budget

[1:33:18] Voice 1: planned for a transfer from the surplus of $183,500. The current forecast estimates that

[1:33:27] Voice 1: there will be a contribution to the surplus fund of approximately $117,000. So you can see at the

[1:33:35] Voice 1: bottom here under the transfers um that we're projecting a transfer um to the oh no i'm sorry

[1:33:45] Voice 1: from the ltc projected reserve fund of 153 840 and we're projecting a transfer from the special

[1:33:56] Voice 1: special property tax uh reserve fund of sixty five thousand seven hundred dollars based on

[1:34:02] Voice 1: on our forecast to date.

[1:34:05] Voice 1: There will be another forecast generated after Q3

[1:34:09] Voice 1: and that will come to you at the February meeting.

[1:34:12] Voice 1: So you will be able to see updated results at that time.

[1:34:17] Voice 2: Are there any questions?

[1:34:23] Voice 11: I see Trustee Bulwark.

[1:34:27] Voice 16: So thank you very much.

[1:34:30] Voice 16: That was excellent.

[1:34:32] Voice 16: Although the last page was a little smaller

[1:34:35] Voice 16: than the earlier ones.

[1:34:36] Voice 16: So-

[1:34:37] Voice 16: Oh, sorry.

[1:34:38] Voice 16: No, I'm just curious. So you say that basically we may underspend by $300,000, but only $117,000 can be transferred to the surplus fund. So what will happen to those other unspent monies, theoretically?

[1:35:02] Voice 11: Julia, did you want to tackle that?

[1:35:04] Voice 11: um

[1:35:06] Voice 12: sure i can attempt to it is a little bit more complex um accounting speak i'll do do my best

[1:35:12] Voice 12: so what we present on page 51 of the agenda is actually a consolidated uh forecast so it's

[1:35:21] Voice 12: results of consolidated financial information which is the revenues and expenditures for all

[1:35:27] Voice 12: funds so that is for our special uh property tax requisition fund our local trust committee

[1:35:33] Voice 12: reserve fund as well as general operations which influence the general fund so the consolidated

[1:35:39] Voice 12: information uh collectively reflects an underspending of about 325 000 um but there's

[1:35:46] Voice 12: actually overspending in in other funds to to offset and that's why the other funds are actually

[1:35:52] Voice 12: seeing draws from surplus is because they are actually requiring funds and so less of that

[1:35:58] Voice 12: savings is being contributed to the general revenue surplus fund and the breakdown you can

[1:36:03] Voice 12: see the surplus and shortfall that's listed there in the chart and then it says how will that

[1:36:08] Voice 12: shortfall be funded um and it all equals out to zero um so it shows you how the allocation of um

[1:36:15] Voice 12: of that shortfall is being allocated between the various funds thank

[1:36:22] Voice 16: you julia i i think i'm going

[1:36:24] Voice 16: to need some sort of um surplus funds 101 course with you at some stage thank you thank

[1:36:33] Voice 9: you for the

[1:36:33] Voice 9: trust uh the question trustee bullard any further questions on this item okay i'm not seeing any and

[1:36:44] Voice 9: then i note that uh there is a uh potential resolution for the finance planning committee

[1:36:56] Voice 9: committee to forward this forecast to trust council is there anyone prepared to make that motion at

[1:37:02] Voice 9: this time I'm not seeing

[1:37:10] Voice 9: a huge rush on that perhaps that I was actually having a bit of

[1:37:14] Voice 9: difficulty finding in the body but it is uh written uh under 9.2 on the agenda section uh summary so

[1:37:26] Voice 9: So I'll just go ahead and move

[1:37:28] Voice 9: that financial planning committee forward

[1:37:30] Voice 9: the Q2 financial forecast and trust council for information.

[1:37:34] Voice 9: I see a couple of hands up now.

[1:37:38] Voice 9: Sorry, I had to go away to my other screen.

[1:37:42] Voice 9: I'll second that.

[1:37:44] Voice 9: Thank you, Chair Luckum.

[1:37:47] Voice 9: So that's moved and seconded any discussion on the motion.

[1:37:54] Voice 9: I'm not seeing any, so please raise your digital hands,

[1:37:59] Voice 9: All those in favor?

[1:38:01] Voice 11: I see seven in favor.

[1:38:09] Voice 11: Please lower your digital hands

[1:38:15] Voice 9: and I will call for any opposed.

[1:38:18] Voice 9: And I see none, so that carries unanimously,

[1:38:23] Voice 9: which moves us along to section 9.3.

[1:38:29] Voice 9: And we will, looks like we're gonna,

[1:38:32] Voice 9: there's also a resolution at the top of 9.3,

[1:38:36] Voice 9: but I think that we're gonna go into the discussion first.

[1:38:41] Voice 9: and i'm just going to check my notes here for the new agenda items uh okay they're not till later so

[1:38:50] Voice 9: 9.3.1 who's going to start us off on this please uh

[1:38:55] Voice 12: i can take us through that uh mr chair so

[1:38:58] Voice 12: 931 is the um the budget session outline for trust council so this is the intended plan for the

[1:39:06] Voice 12: budget session at december's trust council that will be the first time that trust council

[1:39:09] Voice 12: collectively has a chance to look at the budget and have discussions around it and direct changes

[1:39:14] Voice 12: to the budget. The session outline does mirror what we've done in previous fiscal years for the

[1:39:20] Voice 12: budget session outline. We have about two hours scheduled on the December agenda for this

[1:39:27] Voice 12: discussion. With a new council, it's possible there may be a desire for more time, in which

[1:39:33] Voice 12: case staff would have to go away and massage the agenda a little bit. But it's here for information

[1:39:38] Voice 12: of the committee and also to receive feedback

[1:39:40] Voice 12: if the committee sees any issues

[1:39:41] Voice 12: with the plan discussion at council as it's

[1:39:44] Voice 11: been set out.

[1:39:58] Voice 11: I think you're muted, Mr. Chair.

[1:40:03] Voice 11: Thank

[1:40:03] Voice 9: you, Director Mods.

[1:40:04] Voice 9: All right then, so any further questions on this section?

[1:40:10] Voice 9: And I'm not seeing any, so we'll move on

[1:40:12] Voice 9: to section 9.3.2, budget assumptions and principles.

[1:40:20] Voice 12: So the budget assumptions and principles document,

[1:40:23] Voice 12: We did touch on this at our Budget and Finance Orientation at Trust Council, so hopefully everyone remembers what this is all about.

[1:40:29] Voice 12: The Budget Assumptions and Principles document was reviewed by Financial Planning Committee at their August meeting and reviewed by Trust Council in September.

[1:40:39] Voice 12: Once approved by Trust Council in September, it was used as a guide for preparing the draft budget for next fiscal year.

[1:40:47] Voice 12: We did review this again, as I mentioned, at Trust Council. So my plan is not to review the elements in this document again. Council was fairly recently, so hopefully each of you remembers what was spoken about there.

[1:41:00] Voice 12: But I am certainly open to asking any questions if there are any on any particular item that's reflected in the document.

[1:41:07] Voice 11: I should trust the Elliott.

[1:41:23] Voice 11: Thank

[1:41:27] Trustee Elliott (probable): you, Chair. I just wanted to confirm something. Were there two items added to the assumptions and principles list, communications, budget, and First Nations engagement for projects? I just remember seeing that, but I can't remember where.

[1:41:48] Voice 12: If I may, through the chair, respond to that question. Those two items have been added. It's item number 14 and item number 15. So those were added before this went to Trust Council, I believe. So on page 61 of the agenda and then the top of page 62, we see discussion of both of those new items. And if you've got particular questions on the items, we can answer those as well.

[1:42:13] Voice 12: Yeah, if I may, chair,

[1:42:14] Trustee Elliott (probable): just to follow up there.

[1:42:19] Trustee Elliott (probable): yeah um if we could have could you give us a little summary of part of the rationale for this

[1:42:26] Trustee Elliott (probable): uh from previous financial planning committee because i'm assuming there was

[1:42:30] Trustee Elliott (probable): good discussion about it and um would just be helpful maybe to have an understanding of

[1:42:36] Trustee Elliott (probable): why that was added uh

[1:42:41] Voice 12: sure so i actually wasn't present at the meetings uh where this was added

[1:42:45] Voice 12: i was on leave so i'm going to have to turn to perhaps our cao to respond to that question

[1:42:52] Voice 18: So we're speaking about the First Nations Engagement and Reconciliation Editions?

[1:42:57] Voice 18: Yeah, well, thank you.

[1:43:00] Voice 18: Like any organization sort of taking on, I won't say a new thing, but learning new ways,

[1:43:06] Voice 18: let's maybe put it that way, we just did it as a discrete thing.

[1:43:11] Voice 18: So we brought in that position and filled it and began a process over the last number

[1:43:19] Voice 18: of years of working on reconciliation.

[1:43:22] Voice 18: But it was essentially putting funding and energy into one place and then it leaking out to various areas depending upon need. So a fair amount of it was reactive. And that's okay. It's a way to seed an organization with something.

[1:43:41] Voice 18: but as we've gone on over the last bit we would have development proposals we would have plans

[1:43:50] Voice 18: that are going out to nations for referral we'd have local area planning exercises and we didn't

[1:43:58] Voice 18: have referral funding built into any of these systems and we didn't have a large enough process

[1:44:08] Voice 18: that would cost dollars funneled into this system.

[1:44:12] Voice 18: And then the third thing I will say is this,

[1:44:15] Voice 18: and I think you will all be finding this out relatively soon,

[1:44:19] Voice 18: is that nations are also responding to the many requests that they're getting

[1:44:25] Voice 18: and they're setting up, and Claire might be able to join me here,

[1:44:28] Voice 18: they're setting up a cost recovery function.

[1:44:33] Voice 18: So they're establishing portals where, you know,

[1:44:36] Voice 18: if you want an application seen you put it you put it into our portal there's funding associated

[1:44:42] Voice 18: with that is and we were finding that we didn't have in our budget both that developing scenario

[1:44:54] Voice 18: where there's there may be financial costs or we won't get to getting first nations input on any

[1:45:02] Voice 18: given proposal or us being well down the road of some planning activity and have not considered

[1:45:11] Voice 18: funding or consultation early enough in the process. So the idea was is to do full cost

[1:45:18] Voice 18: accounting and to start to build and make the staff and the elected officials be aware at the

[1:45:23] Voice 18: outset of projects that this is something that you need to start considering not at the end

[1:45:28] Voice 18: and not two-thirds of the way through so that's the reason why this was here and i would say also

[1:45:34] Voice 18: from a communications and engagement point of view uh the policy statement process taught us a lot

[1:45:40] Voice 18: and it taught us that if um there's major projects that are going forward there's got to be some

[1:45:46] Voice 18: element of in public engagement built in or considered right off the beginning and so that's

[1:45:52] Voice 18: for item 15 so that's my recollection of fpc thanks thank

[1:45:58] Voice 9: you uh thank you cao

[1:46:00] Voice 9: um i'm going to recognize turkey graham thank

[1:46:06] Voice 19: you chair um i appreciate this is perhaps not the time

[1:46:09] Voice 19: for financial planning committee to be looking at the assumptions and making suggestions um when

[1:46:14] Voice 19: would that time because i i do have a suggestion or a concern about the fees and sales assumption

[1:46:19] Voice 19: I'm

[1:46:24] Voice 9: going to refer that one to staff, directly to us.

[1:46:29] Voice 12: Sure, thank you.

[1:46:30] Voice 12: Financial Planning Committee can make a recommendation

[1:46:33] Voice 12: that the council amend this document at any point.

[1:46:35] Voice 12: If you put forward a recommendation now,

[1:46:38] Voice 12: Trust Council will have the opportunity

[1:46:39] Voice 12: to review it in December and potentially capture

[1:46:43] Voice 12: any changes that may come from that

[1:46:45] Voice 12: in future iterations of the budget.

[1:46:48] Voice 12: So welcome any motions at this time.

[1:46:52] Voice 19: Thank you.

[1:46:52] Voice 19: Thank you. Perhaps I'll just share it with you, my concerns. So I do have the advantage of having been a trustee on the executive a number of years ago, and it seemed pretty clear that the cost of processing has never been covered on development costs.

[1:47:11] Voice 19: And so simply looking at the historical average of previous years isn't really an accurate way to determine a cost recovery.

[1:47:23] Voice 19: It's a big chunk of money that we could be capturing from certain very expensive fees where the outcome of that application is usually a profit for somebody.

[1:47:33] Voice 19: somebody. So I just put it out there that this is something that I think we need to

[1:47:39] Voice 19: dive deeper into and stop supporting very expensive fees for development on our ticket

[1:47:49] Voice 19: as opposed to the

[1:47:50] Voice 9: developer's ticket. Thank you.

[1:47:56] Voice 9: Thank you, Trustee Graham. Any further questions on this section? I see Trustee Muller.

[1:48:04] Voice 16: i'm just wondering um for future if not right now we make a financial plan and it's updated

[1:48:13] Voice 16: in march would it not be appropriate to have in this budget assumptions and principles

[1:48:19] Voice 16: elements of that as a target for the budget like um you know the financial plan is based on the

[1:48:30] Voice 16: following assumptions and therefore you know all things being equal you know there's a and you know

[1:48:40] Voice 16: a finger in the air here here's a number well it's not it's a calculated number based on assumptions

[1:48:45] Voice 16: but to actually advertise those numbers explicitly in the assumptions thank you

[1:49:01] Voice 11: just

[1:49:01] Voice 12: a point of clarity was that a a proposed direction for change or just a comment at this

[1:49:07] Voice 12: point

[1:49:08] Voice 16: it's kind of a comment but i'm questioning whether it would it would fit in there whether

[1:49:13] Voice 16: it would be appropriate to have it in there to take the numbers from the financial plan

[1:49:18] Voice 16: and actually you know write them into the assumptions i

[1:49:26] Voice 12: think um if i may through the

[1:49:28] Voice 12: the chair, I can respond. The Trust Council can include any assumption and any principle that

[1:49:37] Voice 12: they would like to embrace in the following fiscal year budget. If Trust Council wishes to

[1:49:43] Voice 12: have a budget at a certain level that reflects what was in the former financial plan,

[1:49:47] Voice 12: they could insert that as a principle in the assumptions document. The challenge becomes

[1:49:54] Voice 12: comes when trust bodies are putting forward their budget requests, they are doing so in isolation

[1:50:01] Voice 12: without knowing what the rest of the budget is going to look like. So individual corporate

[1:50:06] Voice 12: entities or trust bodies will not be able to help achieve that type of outcome. However,

[1:50:14] Voice 12: it would give some guidance to financial planning committee. When financial planning committee gets

[1:50:18] Voice 12: together, they look at the consolidated budget with all of the requests. If they see that the

[1:50:23] Voice 12: the total budget is falling outside of this principle

[1:50:26] Voice 12: that Trust Council has directed to be embraced,

[1:50:28] Voice 12: then changes could be made to bring the budget

[1:50:32] Voice 12: in line with that principle.

[1:50:34] Voice 12: So certainly anything that is either an assumption

[1:50:36] Voice 12: or a principle that Council wishes to embrace

[1:50:38] Voice 12: can land in this document.

[1:50:45] Voice 11: Thank you for that.

[1:50:48] Voice 9: Any further questions on this section?

[1:50:52] Voice 9: And then I believe that we're next into 9.5.

[1:51:00] Voice 9: point three point three um i'm wondering that uh if we want to just take a break for lunch a little

[1:51:08] Voice 9: early and come back at uh we just go ahead and make it uh 11 25 if that's acceptable for everyone

[1:51:20] Voice 9: i'm seeing some thumbs up from staff so we will recess until 11 25 and come back right into it

[1:51:28] Voice 9: thank

[1:51:29] Voice 2: you sir thank

[1:51:30] Voice 9: you thank you uh committee and staff you

[1:51:33] Voice 3: must be meaning 12 25 and unless i

[1:51:39] Voice 3: my distortion of time uh boundaries is completely off key you're

[1:51:45] Voice 7: you're you're exactly correct uh

[1:51:47] Voice 7: thank

[1:51:48] Voice 9: you for catching that yes indeed uh 12 25 will return thank

[1:51:56] Voice 3: you yeah it it's been my

[1:51:57] Voice 3: biggest struggle is to trying to figure out when west coast canada mornings and evenings are and

[1:52:04] Voice 3: so i'm glad i was right on this occasion anyway thank you we'll see you all back here at 12 25.

[2:13:25] Voice 11: hello just

[2:23:18] Voice 9: remind uh returning community members if you turn your camera on then i can assess uh

[2:23:24] Voice 9: better whether we have quorum or not i see you do have quorum but i'm just going to give a couple

[2:24:11] Voice 9: moments to allow uh trustee elliott and chair luckham to return i know he may be having some

[2:24:21] Voice 9: issues i see trustee elliott there and i see mr luckin's return or is returning

[2:24:31] Voice 9: Wonderful. So let's re-end our recess and restart our session here. I believe we were at 9.3.3 and getting into the budget, the draft 2023-24 budget overview and then into the details. So I'm going to turn it over to Director Mobs, I believe.

[2:24:56] Voice 9: leave that

[2:24:58] Voice 12: is correct um i'll be walking us through uh the proposed budget for next year

[2:25:03] Voice 12: the draft budget uh so the report that is uh intended to go to trust council related to the

[2:25:09] Voice 12: draft budget uh begins on page 65 of the agenda package uh it's here for obviously feedback from

[2:25:17] Voice 12: the committee related to the numbers that are in the proposed budget and we'll receive direction

[2:25:21] Voice 12: from financial planning committee for any changes to the numbers that you wish to make

[2:25:25] Voice 12: If there's also changes you wish to make to the report itself as far as format

[2:25:29] Voice 12: or clarification of information for the new trust council we'd welcome those comments as well.

[2:25:36] Voice 12: The report begins with a background on page 65 which simply provides an outline of the activities

[2:25:42] Voice 12: that have taken place to date to get to the current draft budget. So that is to say that

[2:25:47] Voice 12: council bodies, the Conservancy Board as well as local trust committees have all met, submitted

[2:25:51] Voice 12: their budget requests, staff have reviewed department budgets, and all of that information

[2:25:55] Voice 12: has been consolidated into what you have today. Page 66 of the agenda begins a discussion of the

[2:26:05] Voice 12: draft budget in its current form. So the draft budget for 2023-24 has planned spending of $10

[2:26:12] Voice 12: million. Included in that is the operating budget of $8.8 million, projects budget of $1.1 million,

[2:26:18] Voice 12: and $127,000 on capital spending.

[2:26:21] Voice 12: This level of spending generates a proposed tax increase

[2:26:24] Voice 12: to local trust areas of 10.55%,

[2:26:27] Voice 12: a proposed tax levy increased

[2:26:28] Voice 12: to Bowen Island municipality of 11.47%.

[2:26:33] Voice 12: And to balance the budget,

[2:26:35] Voice 12: it does include draws from surplus and reserve.

[2:26:38] Voice 12: That is a $290,000 draw

[2:26:40] Voice 12: from the General Revenue Surplus Fund

[2:26:42] Voice 12: and a $52,000 draw

[2:26:45] Voice 12: from the Local Trust Committee Surplus Fund.

[2:26:47] Voice 12: When we compare next year's draft budget to the current year, so the year we're in now, we are comparing it to the current year forecast, which can help us understand spending trends.

[2:26:58] Voice 12: We see that there is an increase in the operating budget of about 8%, that's $657,000, primarily driven by an increase in staff salaries and wages, as well as smaller increases in other areas.

[2:27:10] Voice 12: There are, of course, areas that are seeing a decrease, which are offsetting some of the areas of increase.

[2:27:15] Voice 12: increase. The project's budget is seeing a 49% increase over the current year. So that's fairly

[2:27:20] Voice 12: substantial at $350,000. And that is primarily due to some sizable projects that are being put

[2:27:28] Voice 12: forward by the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee. The capital budget in the draft budget

[2:27:33] Voice 12: is increasing by $37,000, which is 41%. And that's primarily as a result of a planned replacement of

[2:27:41] Voice 12: three of our servers, related licensing and also contracted support to help make those projects a

[2:27:46] Voice 12: reality. When we look at the real meat and potatoes of the agenda and break it down even further into

[2:27:53] Voice 12: the details, we start with a look at our planned revenues. You'll remember from council orientation

[2:27:58] Voice 12: planned revenues of course come from external sources and also internal sources. So external

[2:28:04] Voice 12: sources of revenue is our fees revenue, grant funding, property taxes, levies and investment

[2:28:09] Voice 12: income and our internal sources, of course, from surplus and reserve. Our primary source of

[2:28:16] Voice 12: external revenue is local trust area taxes. Those are budgeted at $8.2 million and represents an

[2:28:22] Voice 12: 11.9 or 11.8% increase over last year's budget. The full amount of that increase is not anticipated

[2:28:30] Voice 12: to be levied against existing properties. The anticipated increase to existing property owners

[2:28:35] Voice 12: is 10.5%. And the additional 1.25% is expected to be generated on new construction development

[2:28:43] Voice 12: and land use changes. Bowen Island, the levy to them is increasing by approximately 12.4%

[2:28:51] Voice 12: over the current year. So that's an increase of $40,000. It's calculated at $364,000 in the budget.

[2:28:58] Voice 12: That represents an increase of 11.5% to existing property owners with an anticipated

[2:29:04] Voice 12: approximately one percent increase coming from new construction and development.

[2:29:08] Voice 12: The percentage that relates to new construction and development, we refer to that as non-market

[2:29:12] Voice 12: change. Those numbers are going to be updated when we have new information from BC assessment

[2:29:17] Voice 12: in December. The percentages that are used in the current draft of the budget are last year's

[2:29:22] Voice 12: percentages and we'll be updating that when we've got new information. There is one request from the

[2:29:29] Voice 12: Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee for a special tax requisition and we do have a place

[2:29:33] Voice 12: in the agenda where we'll be reviewing their request separately. Their request is for $75,500,

[2:29:39] Voice 12: which is reflective of current year numbers, I believe. We have a total of grant revenues

[2:29:44] Voice 12: in the draft budget of $547,000, primarily from the provincial government. We are budgeting our

[2:29:52] Voice 12: annual unrestricted provincial grant at historical levels, as we don't yet have new information about

[2:29:57] Voice 12: whether or not they will choose to give us.

[2:30:00] Voice 12: additional funding if we make that request. The Species at Risk grant that is awarded to the

[2:30:04] Voice 12: Conservancy has a budget of $220,000 in revenues for next year. Of the $367,000 grant that's been

[2:30:15] Voice 12: awarded to us for local government development applications processing, a portion of that will

[2:30:20] Voice 12: be spent in the current fiscal year and a portion in next fiscal year. The plan is to spend $125,000

[2:30:25] Voice 12: of those grant monies next year and so that's being pulled into revenues for the next year's

[2:30:30] Voice 12: budget. Fees and sales revenue is set at approximate values in the current year budget,

[2:30:36] Voice 12: no change there at $262,000. And we are expecting to see a rise in interest income as, of course,

[2:30:42] Voice 12: interest rates have increased. And I do have a bit of a typo related to that in the report,

[2:30:46] Voice 12: which indicates that interest rates will remain low. I will be amending that before this report

[2:30:51] Voice 12: goes on to Trust Council. To balance the budget, we're in a space of requiring a draw from surplus

[2:30:57] Voice 12: and a draw from reserve fund.

[2:30:59] Voice 12: So the proposed budget has a draw from surplus

[2:31:02] Voice 12: of just under 300,000 and a proposed draw

[2:31:05] Voice 12: from the local trust committee reserve fund of $52,000.

[2:31:11] Voice 12: When we move into discussion of planned spending,

[2:31:14] Voice 12: we do see that once again,

[2:31:16] Voice 12: the largest planned area of spending

[2:31:17] Voice 12: at Islands Trust remain salaries and benefits.

[2:31:20] Voice 12: We are planning for 62 full-time equivalent staff

[2:31:24] Voice 12: in next year's budget.

[2:31:25] Voice 12: And that comes at a cost of $6 million

[2:31:27] Voice 12: dollars compared to the current year budget of 5.5 million dollars there's a number of factors

[2:31:32] Voice 12: that influence this number there is a request for one new full-time equivalent staff member

[2:31:37] Voice 12: a local trust committee meeting administrator that is a new staff member that's been proposed

[2:31:43] Voice 12: and reviewed by executive committee there is a business case in this agenda which speaks to

[2:31:48] Voice 12: the reasons why this new staff member is being proposed and we'll have a chance to review that

[2:31:51] Voice 12: later on in the agenda. There's also a proposed reclassification of six planning staff members.

[2:31:57] Voice 12: These are admin staff members which would result in higher duties that these staff members are

[2:32:03] Voice 12: performing and subsequently higher salaries and that would result in a $30,000 increase to next

[2:32:08] Voice 12: year's budget. We are also expecting increases associated with our usual annual increases for

[2:32:16] Voice 12: staff. So most of the staff at Islands Trust belong to a union. That union agreement has

[2:32:21] Voice 12: has been signed with the province of BC and the union,

[2:32:24] Voice 12: and it governs the increases

[2:32:26] Voice 12: that we are bound to give to staff.

[2:32:29] Voice 12: So for next year, the approved increase for union staff

[2:32:32] Voice 12: is anywhere from 5.5% to 6.75%.

[2:32:36] Voice 12: It could land anywhere in that range.

[2:32:38] Voice 12: Staff have used the midpoint of that range

[2:32:41] Voice 12: to inform the budget.

[2:32:42] Voice 12: So that's 6.1% that's being applied

[2:32:45] Voice 12: to all union staff in the organization.

[2:32:48] Voice 12: There's also 22 union staff

[2:32:50] Voice 12: staff that will be moving up an additional 3% in their salary grids. And again, that's also

[2:32:55] Voice 12: something that's governed by the union agreement. Staff overtime has a budget of just around $50,000

[2:33:02] Voice 12: in next year's budget. This is based on an analysis on staff overtime that was performed

[2:33:06] Voice 12: a number of years ago. And we hope to be updating that analysis as we move through the budget cycle.

[2:33:13] Voice 12: So that number may change slightly. Our benefits expense is usually around 25% of base salaries.

[2:33:20] Voice 12: This is the percentage that we are required to pay to the public service agency, and we don't receive the final percentage from them until later on in the budget cycle.

[2:33:30] Voice 12: So for the current budget draft, we've included the benefit percentage at current rate, so it's just 25.4%.

[2:33:37] Voice 12: And we've made no allowance in the budget to account for potential staff turnover.

[2:33:42] Voice 12: Trustee remuneration is increasing as well due to the factors that we all talked about at the trustee remuneration webinar the other day.

[2:33:49] Voice 12: There is an increase for inflation that's built into that calculation.

[2:33:53] Voice 12: The increase right now is built in at 5.2%.

[2:33:56] Voice 12: So that's the CPI figure from July.

[2:33:59] Voice 12: We are seeing more recent figures for October at 6.4%.

[2:34:03] Voice 12: And so we may see this figure increasing in future drafts of the budget.

[2:34:08] Voice 12: The trustee remuneration policy governs that we will use the December inflation figure.

[2:34:13] Voice 12: And so once we've got December numbers in January, we'll be updating this number.

[2:34:18] Voice 12: There's also increased costs for moving trustees to the enhanced benefit plan,

[2:34:22] Voice 12: formerly was on the standard benefit plan and so there's an increased premium associated with that.

[2:34:30] Voice 12: Trust council meeting costs. This has been a fun one to budget for over the last number of years

[2:34:34] Voice 12: is of course meeting format is really important to this budget line. It is much more expensive to

[2:34:38] Voice 12: hold trust council meetings in person than it is to hold them electronically. The current budget

[2:34:43] Voice 12: is making the assumption that two trust council meetings will be held in person and two will be

[2:34:47] Voice 12: be held electronically. There is a request for decision being put forward by Trustee Yates that's

[2:34:53] Voice 12: been added to this agenda as a late item, where she's specifically requesting that Trust Council

[2:34:57] Voice 12: plan for four in-person Trust Council meetings. So that would double the cost of what's in the

[2:35:03] Voice 12: budget now. And actually, I think it would more than double the cost. Right now, we've got each

[2:35:08] Voice 12: Trust Council meeting budgeted at about $25,000. If we think about inflation, we're likely to see

[2:35:13] Voice 12: costs closer to $27,000 or $28,000 per in-person trust council meeting. And so we'll be looking

[2:35:20] Voice 12: to financial planning committee to provide some recommendations on this line specifically.

[2:35:25] Voice 12: Executive committee is intending to meet a little bit more in person next year than they have

[2:35:30] Voice 12: historically as new EC gets to know one another, but the budget is still reduced over historical

[2:35:36] Voice 12: levels with the assumption that they will be meeting electronically as much as possible.

[2:35:40] Voice 12: When we look at LTC direct expenses, these are all of the costs that local trust committees incur directly in their work.

[2:35:49] Voice 12: So the costs of renting out meeting venues to hold local trust committee meetings, the cost of any notices for local trust committee meetings, as well as the minute-taking function for local trust committee meetings.

[2:36:00] Voice 12: So this budget line has been reduced over previous years, and that is to reflect the fact that we are asking for a new FTE.

[2:36:08] Voice 12: And the new FTE, as proposed, would take on the responsibility for all minute-taking at all local trust committees, with a couple of exceptions.

[2:36:17] Voice 12: And so we would expect to see a reduction in this line because we are going to see an increase in salaries instead.

[2:36:27] Voice 12: Local trust committee project expenses, listed on page 70, total $498,000.

[2:36:33] Voice 12: And so these are the projects that have come forward from various local trust committees for work that they wish to undertake.

[2:36:37] Voice 12: take. You will see that Salt Spring Island is the primary driver of the increase in this line.

[2:36:44] Voice 12: I won't be going through right now each of these individual projects. There are business cases

[2:36:48] Voice 12: in this agenda that have been submitted by each local trust committee. Financial planning committee

[2:36:53] Voice 12: does hold the responsibility of reviewing the local trust committee proposals to recommend to

[2:36:58] Voice 12: council if any should be funded out of a special property tax requisition instead of out of the

[2:37:04] Voice 12: general budget. We do have a another RFD in this agenda package where we'll be going through that

[2:37:09] Voice 12: but as you're reading through the local trust committee proposals it's always good to keep in

[2:37:13] Voice 12: mind there is an opportunity to pull these out of the general budget and fund them instead just

[2:37:18] Voice 12: from that local trust area and that will have an impact on the general tax increase to local trust

[2:37:24] Voice 12: areas in the general budget. The Conservancy Board every year puts forward a request for the budget

[2:37:32] Voice 12: items that they need. We are seeing their request exclusive of salaries amount to $297,000 in the

[2:37:41] Voice 12: budget which is a slight increase over last year's budget and that represents an increase in property

[2:37:47] Voice 12: management work primarily. We do see an increase in office leases. We've renewed the lease for our

[2:37:54] Voice 12: Gabriola office space as well as Victoria and both of those leases are seeing increases purely in

[2:37:59] Voice 12: in line with inflation and also our tenants or our landlords, sorry, are experiencing higher

[2:38:06] Voice 12: insurance costs, which they are then passing on to us. We have a couple of new budget lines in

[2:38:13] Voice 12: next year's budget. There's one for freedom of information and records management, recruitment

[2:38:17] Voice 12: and labor relations, as well as payroll processing. These lines are new in next year's budget.

[2:38:23] Voice 12: Formerly, we had a line in the budget called contracted services, and most of these items

[2:38:27] Voice 12: were budgeted for there. I've never been a fan of that line. Contracted services, it was a bit

[2:38:33] Voice 12: slushy and it represents more how we procured something than what that thing actually is.

[2:38:40] Voice 12: And so we're doing away with that line and we've moved those budget areas to other places. So these

[2:38:46] Voice 12: look like they're increases in the budget, but they're actually not true increases. It's just

[2:38:51] Voice 12: new lines for existing dollars. We are still at the mercy of the insurance market. So for our new

[2:38:59] Voice 12: trustees benefit, we have been seeing increases in our insurance premiums quite substantially over

[2:39:07] Voice 12: the number of years. It is a result of the hardened insurance market, which everyone is

[2:39:13] Voice 12: experiencing, as well as the claims history of Islands Trust. So we're not expecting to see any

[2:39:19] Voice 12: reduction to that cost next year. We are seeing an increase from $192,000 in the current year

[2:39:26] Voice 12: budget. We're estimating $208,000 in next year's budget. Legal costs. So we talked a bit about

[2:39:34] Voice 12: legal when we were reviewing the quarterly financial results. We've got our total legal

[2:39:38] Voice 12: costs budgeted at $222,000, which is a slight increase over the current year. And that's to

[2:39:44] Voice 12: reflect the ongoing and increasing complexity of our work primarily in legal general. Although we

[2:39:49] Voice 12: We do wish to increase rigor around this area of spending.

[2:39:56] Voice 12: Software support and licensing has seen a significant jump.

[2:39:59] Voice 12: So the world is going more digital.

[2:40:01] Voice 12: We are following that trend.

[2:40:03] Voice 12: And so with the move to a new software program for process and planning applications, that's

[2:40:10] Voice 12: CityView, that work is funded by grants.

[2:40:13] Voice 12: However, we are now going to be incurring new maintenance costs on an annual basis associated

[2:40:18] Voice 12: with that new system.

[2:40:19] Voice 12: And that comes with a price tag of $38,000 each year.

[2:40:23] Voice 12: And so that's a cost that's new next year.

[2:40:26] Voice 12: That's a significant driver.

[2:40:27] Voice 12: We also have ongoing costs to run Zoom meetings.

[2:40:30] Voice 12: That's budgeted at $16,000.

[2:40:32] Voice 12: And then there's new software costs for client relationship management built into the budget

[2:40:37] Voice 12: at $9,000.

[2:40:38] Voice 12: And all of those factors are contributing to the increase.

[2:40:43] Voice 12: Computer hardware and software budgeted at $122,000.

[2:40:47] Voice 12: dollars. We've got three server replacements and associated costs next year. Those do come with a

[2:40:52] Voice 12: hefty price tag. So that's why we're seeing an increase in that budget. Strategic plan projects.

[2:40:59] Voice 12: I don't have the total on this page, actually, but they're all listed on page 72. They total

[2:41:06] Voice 12: $328,000 approximately. Again, I won't speak to those now. Most of them have business cases

[2:41:12] Voice 12: included in the agenda. So you'll be able to understand what's included in each of these

[2:41:16] Voice 12: projects and what their intended outcomes are and there's a few dollars for operational projects as

[2:41:23] Voice 12: well so 125 000 of the project related to local government development approvals program is

[2:41:31] Voice 12: anticipated to be spent next year that's included in the operational project that is fully funded

[2:41:36] Voice 12: by grant money so no impact to taxpayers and there's a very modest amount twenty five hundred

[2:41:40] Voice 12: dollars for an accessibility plan development that's a legislated uh exercise that we will

[2:41:45] Voice 12: have to undertake when we do the fun exercise of revenues minus expenditures we do again find

[2:41:53] Voice 12: ourselves in a place of deficit that needs to be funded from surplus and reserve and so we do have

[2:42:00] Voice 12: a proposed draw from surplus funds of just under 300 000 proposed draw from the reserve fund of 52

[2:42:06] Voice 12: 000 and that does leave us in a healthy place with our surplus balance so we do have a policy minimum

[2:42:13] Voice 12: that's required to be maintained.

[2:42:15] Voice 12: And with the planned draws in the budget

[2:42:17] Voice 12: as they currently stand,

[2:42:19] Voice 12: we would still have enough in the surplus fund

[2:42:21] Voice 12: to meet those minimum balances.

[2:42:24] Voice 12: I feel like I flew through that.

[2:42:27] Voice 12: Most of the information that I've given you

[2:42:29] Voice 12: is already in the report,

[2:42:31] Voice 12: but for the committee's benefit first time around,

[2:42:34] Voice 12: we want to make sure you've got all the information

[2:42:36] Voice 12: that you may need.

[2:42:37] Voice 12: So I can happily take questions on this

[2:42:39] Voice 12: before we dive into details.

[2:42:40] Voice 12: else thank

[2:42:43] Voice 9: you director mobs i see trustee bernardo hi

[2:42:47] Voice 4: i've got a question about the um

[2:42:49] Voice 4: the insurance coverage uh that's a big number uh for what looks like dno insurance or something

[2:42:58] Voice 4: equivalent to it uh and you mentioned the reason it's that big is related to in part to the claims

[2:43:05] Voice 4: history i'd like you to explain exactly what that means and related to that uh what are the real

[2:43:12] Voice 4: world risks we're actually insuring against um and uh those

[2:43:20] Voice 11: are my questions thank you

[2:43:25] Voice 12: um through the chair i can i can lead off in responding and then we'll probably pass things

[2:43:30] Voice 12: over to director marler who has been in charge of all of our legal claims historically um so

[2:43:36] Voice 12: the insurance market um it has been hardening in general and a couple of years ago the

[2:43:43] Voice 12: our insurers started looking at a 10-year claims history as opposed to a five-year claims history.

[2:43:49] Voice 12: So they're looking at the number of claims that are being made against Islands Trust to assess

[2:43:54] Voice 12: our risk profile. What is the risk to them of incurring costs when they insure us? So what

[2:43:59] Voice 12: happened a number of years ago, they started looking at a 10-year claims history instead of

[2:44:02] Voice 12: five, which of course shows that we have more claims in that scenario. We do have a number of

[2:44:08] Voice 12: of claims or we did have a number of claims against us that fell into that earlier five-year

[2:44:13] Voice 12: window. So as those claims fall off of the list, we do hope that we will become less of a risky

[2:44:20] Voice 12: client to our insurers and then we may see reduced rates. However, we can't predict what new claims

[2:44:26] Voice 12: may come about. So that's what we talk about when we talk about claims history is our insurers

[2:44:32] Voice 12: looking at previous claims to see how risky we might be and I'll have Director Myler respond to

[2:44:38] Voice 12: the latter part of your question.

[2:44:40] Voice 14: Yeah I'm not going to go into details and when we

[2:44:46] Voice 14: meet at Trust Council in camera we will do a litigation report and we can talk more about

[2:44:52] Voice 14: the specific files that we've had to deal with but generally what happens here is that we can get

[2:45:00] Voice 14: get challenged on bylaws. That's usually the more common one where somebody doesn't like

[2:45:06] Voice 14: particular bylaw and challenges it. Or the actions of a trustee or the actions of a staff

[2:45:15] Voice 14: person as well. So those would become insured. There's a deductible and then the insurance

[2:45:21] Voice 14: company would come in once the deductible has happened. The dollars can add up. We have very

[2:45:27] Voice 14: little control over those um somebody decides to go after us um you know we have to make a decision

[2:45:35] Voice 14: whether or not we're going to defend it and if it's a staff person or a trustee or a trust committee

[2:45:41] Voice 14: generally would like to if it's a bylaw then there's going to be questions around should we

[2:45:47] Voice 14: defend it or not those are all questions for executive committee to consider before um

[2:45:53] Voice 14: you know, we go ahead and do that.

[2:45:58] Voice 14: So, yeah, the dollars can add up because, you know,

[2:46:01] Voice 14: once you go to the Supreme Court and you get a decision,

[2:46:05] Voice 14: you could always challenge that decision at the BC Court of Appeal.

[2:46:10] Voice 14: So these litigations can go on for years,

[2:46:13] Voice 14: and we've had some that would go on for 10 years or more.

[2:46:17] Voice 14: So I'm happy to talk to you more in camera about the specifics.

[2:46:23] Voice 14: uh but that's where the um that's what those dollars are for is for that purpose a follow-up

[2:46:30] Voice 4: i appreciate that this isn't the forum for discussing the specifics about any given case

[2:46:38] Voice 4: that that's something that needs to be discussed in camera but i'm still uh i don't think that

[2:46:44] Voice 4: restricts us from being informed as to uh the character of some of these claims you can set

[2:46:52] Voice 4: aside the ones that deal with litigation relating to bylaw infractions that carry on but uh i'd like

[2:47:00] Voice 4: to know how much of you know rough sense um how many of these claims uh represent claims in respect

[2:47:09] Voice 4: of um allegations of fault made against either any element to the island's trust whether it's staff

[2:47:18] Voice 4: or trustees or anything like that and again we don't have to get into the specifics of that

[2:47:26] Voice 4: but I'd like to know what that breakdown is.

[2:47:29] Voice 14: Yeah it's actually difficult to give you a specific

[2:47:32] Voice 14: number and the reason for that is a lot of the challenges are multifaceted. The challenge could

[2:47:40] Voice 14: go after a bylaw but also could go after the process that was undertaken or a staff individual

[2:47:47] Voice 14: vigil it's people tend to try everything in litigation they'll throw everything into the

[2:47:55] Voice 14: initial claim and then we have to defend that quite a few of them they may be baseless but we

[2:48:03] Voice 14: still have to spend substantial money to go to court to get them squashed or thrown out or

[2:48:11] Voice 14: defended in some way i don't have specific numbers for you right now so i can't give you that

[2:48:16] Voice 14: information here um but can certainly i can work with warren to provide that generally uh to um

[2:48:24] Voice 14: press council mr

[2:48:26] Voice 18: chair sorry just to support trustee bernardo's question okay

[2:48:34] Voice 18: so i mean oh since my time here there would be five or six cases um they're relatively narrow

[2:48:43] Voice 18: um or wide let's put it that's they're they're wide they're you know development permits

[2:48:47] Voice 18: permits that uh um either we're requiring too much from the whoever has not fulfilled their

[2:48:57] Voice 18: development um permit obligations um that um the remedial auctions they would undertake they feel

[2:49:06] Voice 18: this is a bigger investment so we've had a number of those so these are very in terms of the local

[2:49:10] Voice 18: government palette it's land use planning challenges is is driving those costs uh if

[2:49:19] Voice 18: you were in another jurisdiction it would be more conventional liability like you know with um pools

[2:49:25] Voice 18: and um and all those kinds of things we've got a fairly narrow area and it's at least in my

[2:49:31] Voice 18: experience it's been um a number of litigants who are willing to stick it out uh for years and

[2:49:42] Voice 18: We win every time or almost every time in my experience,

[2:49:49] Voice 18: but nevertheless, in defending those bylaws,

[2:49:52] Voice 18: it's been extended.

[2:49:53] Voice 18: And then once you're two or three years into it,

[2:49:56] Voice 18: you have to carry that conversation, as David said.

[2:49:59] Voice 18: So that's really how it's characterized.

[2:50:02] Voice 18: It's just basic land use challenges.

[2:50:05] Voice 18: And David and the rest of the team here

[2:50:07] Voice 18: can provide you a more detailed version.

[2:50:09] Voice 18: And then insurance costs have just gone shockingly up

[2:50:12] Voice 18: over the last two or three years um without question it's something that the staff have

[2:50:17] Voice 18: wrestled with uh we've changed providers and we've asked for analysis a number of times that there's

[2:50:23] Voice 18: ongoing options to potentially join the municipal insurance agency um association i mean so it's

[2:50:31] Voice 18: it's a it's a challenging area for sure uh

[2:50:37] Voice 9: thank you cao i i'm gonna recognize uh director mobs

[2:50:42] Voice 12: Thanks. I just wanted to provide additional information about the breakdown of that cost

[2:50:47] Voice 12: in case it's helpful for trustees. Commercial general liability portion of the cost is about

[2:50:52] Voice 12: $57,000. $132,000 relates to our public officials liability. And then we've got $16,000 for building

[2:51:01] Voice 12: and contents insurance as well. That's also rolled into that figure. And then small amounts

[2:51:06] Voice 12: for crime and theft and accidental death and dismemberment okay

[2:51:12] Voice 9: thank you for that uh did

[2:51:15] Voice 9: you want uh one more follow-up trustee bernardo and then i'll move on or if it's a different

[2:51:19] Voice 9: subject i'll move on no

[2:51:21] Voice 4: it's the same subject uh just one last question um uh have there been

[2:51:28] Voice 4: discussions in the past uh about um self-insuring in the sense of putting aside i mean that's a big

[2:51:38] Voice 4: number of year, $200,000. And I await to be educated on what we can expect our global legal

[2:51:49] Voice 4: bill to be from year to year. But from the previous information you provided us, I think

[2:51:55] Voice 4: the projection for this year is somewhere in the $170,000 or something under $200,000, I think.

[2:52:01] Voice 4: So have there been discussions about budgeting on an annual basis, a set aside of a couple hundred thousand or whatever it is, the equivalent amount that you're paying for insurance, maybe something more or less, and banking that against the risks that we might need coverage for in the future?

[2:52:23] Voice 4: sure. I appreciate that may not be workable given the nature of some of the claims, but it might be

[2:52:32] Voice 4: workable if the claims have a natural ceiling of a sort. Anyhow, has that discussion taken place

[2:52:41] Voice 4: about self-insuring in that fashion, budgeting the money, setting it aside, and then having it

[2:52:44] Voice 4: available if and when it's needed? Thank you. Last question.

[2:52:50] Voice 9: Director Mobbs?

[2:52:52] Voice 12: So that is definitely

[2:52:54] Voice 12: an option that's available is to self-insure. You're absolutely correct that in a self-insurance

[2:53:00] Voice 12: situation, you would want to have ample reserves set aside so that if there is legal action that's

[2:53:07] Voice 12: required or you need to pay out on a legal claim that you've got funds available. Self-insurance

[2:53:14] Voice 12: would have to be directed by trust counsel as it is directly tied to the risk appetite of the

[2:53:20] Voice 12: council of the day. Self-insuring can present greater risks than having insurance. It can come

[2:53:31] Voice 12: with reduced costs annually, and it can come with increased and significant costs periodically.

[2:53:38] Voice 12: And so if there is an appetite at trust council, if the risk appetite is such that they would want

[2:53:44] Voice 12: to step into a self-insurance space, they could make that request of staff to do that assessment,

[2:53:49] Voice 12: and we could bring forward our results of that assessment

[2:53:52] Voice 12: and look forward to any decisions around that.

[2:53:55] Voice 12: We haven't been asked to do that exercise to date.

[2:54:02] Voice 9: Thank you, Director Bonds.

[2:54:03] Voice 9: I see Council Chair Luckum and then Trustee Muller.

[2:54:10] Voice 3: Thank you, Tim.

[2:54:13] Voice 3: Yeah, I got my microphone on.

[2:54:15] Voice 3: Well, I had a couple of questions,

[2:54:18] Voice 3: but I'll just stick with this insurance thing for a moment.

[2:54:24] Voice 3: Um, it might sound, um, but although the CAO actually specifically said that we win a lot

[2:54:32] Voice 3: of cases, because it certainly may sound like we lose a lot of cases because it costs so

[2:54:36] Voice 3: much money.

[2:54:37] Voice 3: But the trouble is, is that when we are successful winning a case and indeed the courts award

[2:54:44] Voice 3: us, um, cost recovery, we get, uh, and David probably knows the numbers, the language actually,

[2:54:52] Voice 3: But we get the lowest possible rate of recovery, which means that we get, you know, I don't know what it might be, 10 or 15 at the most, I think.

[2:55:01] Voice 3: It's 10%.

[2:55:02] Voice 3: Yeah, so

[2:55:03] Voice 3: we get 10% of what it actually cost us when we find, when the case goes in our favor and we're awarded costs, we don't get anywhere remotely close to what it cost us to win it.

[2:55:14] Voice 3: And that's a challenge.

[2:55:15] Voice 3: I want to ask specifically, because it's come up a couple of times, about the Municipal Finance Authority, because in fact, in that municipal, the Municipal Finance Authority question, I think, came up when we did have a fairly lengthy discussion about self-insuring a few years back, and COVID has sort of taken over the world there for a little bit, and maybe we're getting that back now.

[2:55:39] Voice 3: now. And so it strikes me that we had to fund or maybe somebody was funding a little bit of

[2:55:49] Voice 3: an analysis report on claims or something at one time. And then I did have a conversation

[2:55:55] Voice 3: with the municipal finance authority staff at a recent UBCM event. And I had the impression that

[2:56:03] Voice 3: maybe they were looking upon us favorably at this time, as opposed to in previous years,

[2:56:09] Voice 3: they weren't looking at us favorably and I wonder if we have an update or whether we just simply

[2:56:13] Voice 3: need to follow up with that um now that we're coming out of this uh COVID thing and then I

[2:56:20] Voice 3: have one more question I have to comment actually after that but some questions around that municipal

[2:56:25] Voice 3: finance authority would be great I

[2:56:29] Voice 9: see uh director bobs uh

[2:56:33] Voice 12: thanks for that chair or that question uh

[2:56:35] Voice 12: TC Chair Luckham. That work has begun. It's been underway for quite some time now. So I have been

[2:56:42] Voice 12: working directly with the actuaries that have been engaged to do this work. My role primarily

[2:56:49] Voice 12: has been to provide them with some information on our insurance levels and insurance policies

[2:56:55] Voice 12: that we've been engaged in over the number of years. Their questions now have become more around

[2:57:00] Voice 12: are legal claims themselves and they've been directed to to other staff so um i would have

[2:57:05] Voice 12: to turn to either the cao um or director marler for an update on that front i'm

[2:57:12] Voice 18: happy to comment

[2:57:14] Voice 18: yeah we've uh we've lost momentum here and and uh it's unfortunate um we can't seem to

[2:57:19] Voice 18: complete this project i think it's important um but uh we haven't been able to uh to deliver here

[2:57:26] Voice 18: There isn't an opportunity. We had a good CEO who very much saw the opportunities of the trust and actually of its municipal insurance agency and them moving into the space of offering that to First Nations governments as well.

[2:57:46] Voice 18: And so I think it's an evolving space for us. And if we can find the time and dedicate our minds to it, I think we'll be able to report back to you at some point.

[2:57:56] Voice 18: And

[2:57:57] Voice 3: maybe just a follow-up remark is, if I'm not mistaken, in respect of Trustee Bernardo's question, this is actually essentially a self-funded insurance program that's offered to all local governments in British Columbia.

[2:58:16] Voice 3: As usual, we just get left out of these things.

[2:58:18] Voice 3: So if that's not accurate, you can...

[2:58:21] Voice 3: That's right.

[2:58:22] Voice 18: Generally accurate.

[2:58:23] Voice 3: Yeah, thank you.

[2:58:24] Voice 3: So I'll just go to my first question then.

[2:58:26] Voice 3: so on page 70 of your report under projects um it says major ocp and ocp i'm guessing that that must

[2:58:35] Voice 3: actually mean ocp and lub uh ongoing housing in in coastal douglas ford i always like to see those

[2:58:43] Voice 3: things spelled out um uh just in case it hasn't been it isn't obvious to the reader um so just

[2:58:52] Voice 3: that remark on that one and uh that's it for me thank

[2:58:58] Voice 12: you for that catch i'll make that change

[2:59:00] Voice 12: before this report heads to council and

[2:59:02] Voice 3: i'm guessing this isn't at the time we're just

[2:59:05] Voice 3: receiving that report it's not necessarily the time to speak to any of the items in the project

[2:59:11] Voice 3: expenses i

[2:59:15] Voice 18: think we're getting close to any times the time are we not julia uh

[2:59:20] Voice 12: yeah historically

[2:59:21] Voice 12: Historically, we've polled the committee to understand which business cases for individual projects they would like staff to speak to.

[2:59:31] Voice 12: We can take the same approach again this year or at this meeting where we don't automatically speak to all the business cases and instead find out what the committee wants to hear about specifically.

[2:59:41] Voice 12: That's generally the way to go about it that saves time.

[2:59:45] Voice 12: being a new committee if you want to hear about all of the business cases we can accommodate that

[2:59:50] Voice 12: as well it will just add time to the meeting uh

[2:59:56] Voice 9: thank you for that um charlotte

[3:00:00] Voice 9: if you are done with your hands would you put it down please and i'm going to recognize trustee

[3:00:04] Voice 9: hello

[3:00:08] Voice 16: um thank you uh so uh just uh i want to talk about uh the use of the surplus funds

[3:00:17] Voice 16: and in fact it kind of builds on something just one thing that i was triggered by trustee bernardo's

[3:00:25] Voice 16: um questions and discussion is the surplus fund or the reserve fund whatever we want to call it

[3:00:32] Voice 16: is that not would that not be an appropriate use for the unexpected costs and triggered by more

[3:00:40] Voice 16: than usual litigation and or claims against us is that not actually what that kind of fund is for

[3:00:49] Voice 16: regardless of whether it's set at 20 percent or whatever and the second thing that that was just

[3:00:56] Voice 16: just triggered by the discussion but my first question my first primary question or discussion

[3:01:01] Voice 16: around the surplus fund is so I asked you a question Julia and thank you for um responding

[3:01:08] Voice 16: so quickly but it's something that we should uh think about I think in the context of constraining

[3:01:15] Voice 16: budgets um if you plan to spend the surplus fund um that is you know dipping into the surplus fund

[3:01:25] Voice 16: regardless of the level. Now it is possible to constrain yourself to not use the surplus fund

[3:01:33] Voice 16: but to call on that surplus fund through the year against a line item that is in the budget

[3:01:39] Voice 16: where you have gone over. So it can act as a kind of a safety blanket and it might make it more

[3:01:48] Voice 16: more palatable to actually challenge the amounts we're planning because at the moment you hard

[3:01:56] Voice 16: code you know this project x that project y and and you know if if they underspend I'm not sure

[3:02:05] Voice 16: how easy it is to redistribute that money but if you leave the money in the surplus fund then any

[3:02:13] Voice 16: Any project line item that goes over could draw on that surplus fund without having to move money in a way that doesn't necessarily suit.

[3:02:25] Voice 16: I may be overly egging the cake and speaking beyond my competence in this field, but that I'd like to have a discussion about that,

[3:02:34] Voice 16: that if we saved the surplus fund for in my mind it's true use which is um you know to to give

[3:02:42] Voice 16: people a sort of a bailout that's one thing and the second thing and just throw something in and

[3:02:49] Voice 16: it doesn't have to be asked answered right now is um are there specific deadline dates with respect

[3:02:56] Voice 16: to the preparation of business cases and and then in order to help us with planning and analyzing

[3:03:03] Voice 16: is there other time is there a time writing system for staff and um are there project

[3:03:11] Voice 16: reporting requirements is there a project reporting um system in place however primitive

[3:03:18] Voice 16: spreadsheet whatever thank

[3:03:20] Voice 11: you director

[3:03:26] Voice 9: mobs uh

[3:03:28] Voice 12: sure so i heard a lot of things in there um i'll

[3:03:32] Voice 12: address uh your your final question the first part of your final question first which is around

[3:03:38] Voice 12: the timelines of when staff and committees need to be submitting information. Each year,

[3:03:46] Voice 12: financial planning committee meets in August, and they set the timelines for the coming budget cycle.

[3:03:52] Voice 12: So in August, there's an approved budget cycle timelines that are publicly available to staff

[3:03:59] Voice 12: as well. And those are the timelines that should be followed. What they include is that local trust

[3:04:06] Voice 12: committees and committees are meeting to discuss the requests for next fiscal year in the summer

[3:04:11] Voice 12: months and making sure that any requests come forward to finance by the end of September or

[3:04:17] Voice 12: early October. And that gives staff time to consolidate all of the information to then

[3:04:22] Voice 12: present a first draft budget to financial planning committee in October. That's the first time that

[3:04:29] Voice 12: FPC would review a first draft of the budget. And so information needs to be received by that date.

[3:04:35] Voice 12: there is the opportunity for committees local trust committee staff to bring forward business

[3:04:41] Voice 12: cases for new funds throughout the budget cycle as well uh so for example if a committee decides

[3:04:48] Voice 12: later on in the budget cycle you know what there's this new project we didn't think about we think

[3:04:52] Voice 12: it's important we'd like to undertake it they can submit a business case uh for that funding at any

[3:04:57] Voice 12: point in the business cycle and financial planning committee will receive it review it and trust

[3:05:01] Voice 12: Council, and it will go on to Trust Council then for their thoughts as well. There's a little bit

[3:05:07] Voice 12: of a sort of nuance around that with local trust committee projects. So local trust committee

[3:05:13] Voice 12: projects, if they are going to be funded by a special requisition, the proposed project does

[3:05:18] Voice 12: need to land at Trust Council in December. This is the time when Trust Council would look at a

[3:05:23] Voice 12: local trust committee project and choose whether or not they want to fund it from the general

[3:05:27] Voice 12: budget. If they do not wish to fund it from the general budget and a special property tax

[3:05:32] Voice 12: requisition is requested, it is required that the local trust committee engage with the community

[3:05:38] Voice 12: on that work. This is going to be a project funded just locally. And so there's a requirement that

[3:05:43] Voice 12: they can engage with the community. That engagement would have to happen in January and February

[3:05:47] Voice 12: before the budget is approved in March. So a little bit of a rushed timeline for local trust

[3:05:52] Voice 12: committees or

[3:05:53] Voice 18: you could cancel the project so the second option just to assist julia but if there

[3:05:59] Voice 18: was a

[3:05:59] Voice 18: large project you could either have a special tax requisition or you could go we don't want to

[3:06:04] Voice 18: do that right now that's the that's the other option

[3:06:08] Voice 12: that's right and

[3:06:09] Voice 12: i have forgotten what

[3:06:11] Voice 12: the remainder of your question was i

[3:06:15] Voice 16: i asked about um time writing and project reporting but

[3:06:20] Voice 16: But actually, my first element was building on the surplus fund, you know, explaining that process whereby we can actually draw on the surplus fund through the year.

[3:06:29] Voice 16: Thank you.

[3:06:31] Voice 12: Yes. So any draws from surplus or reserves must be approved by Trust Council.

[3:06:37] Voice 12: So if the budget is amended in such a way that spending is reduced and therefore no draws from surplus or reserve are needed to balance the budget,

[3:06:48] Voice 12: you would have more in the surplus funds more in the reserve funds that could be drawn on in the

[3:06:56] Voice 12: subsequent fiscal year if needed however any of those draws would have to be approved by trust

[3:07:01] Voice 12: council so if there was a project that was going to need money throughout the year or a budget line

[3:07:07] Voice 12: item where it's identified we're going to overspend we need to draw from surplus council would have to

[3:07:12] Voice 12: approve that typically council approves draws from surplus and reserve as part of the budget cycle so

[3:07:18] Voice 12: So when they approve the budget, the approval is included there.

[3:07:21] Voice 12: The draws are included in the budget bylaw.

[3:07:23] Voice 12: If there is no planned draw from surplus and there is no planned draw from reserve, then, of course, council has to approve that throughout the year.

[3:07:32] Voice 12: And I will also note the magnitude of withdrawals that happen in the year trigger different events.

[3:07:40] Voice 12: So if there were to be a planned draw from surplus

[3:07:44] Voice 12: of about, I think it's $100,000 or more,

[3:07:47] Voice 12: we would have to inform the minister.

[3:07:56] Voice 9: Thank you, Director Moves.

[3:07:58] Voice 9: I'm going to recognize Trustee Scott next.

[3:08:04] Voice 6: Yes, thank you.

[3:08:05] Voice 6: Excuse me, there was a discussion earlier

[3:08:07] Voice 6: about whether there would be expanded discussions

[3:08:12] Voice 6: on some of these issues today.

[3:08:15] Voice 6: And I would much prefer to have that

[3:08:18] Voice 6: table till the next meeting because these are number one i'm sitting here basically holding

[3:08:24] Voice 6: the seat for the next person coming from the conservancy um and these are not this is not my

[3:08:31] Voice 6: kind of expertise whatever that is so i'd appreciate this being tabled if there is going

[3:08:37] Voice 6: to be some decision made on this thank you uh

[3:08:41] Voice 9: recognized cao hudson pillar so

[3:08:44] Voice 18: yeah that's a

[3:08:45] Voice 18: a good time to just um step back perhaps just a moment the decisions you make today and those

[3:08:53] Voice 18: decisions would be this goes forward as it is or this goes forward with the following changes

[3:09:01] Voice 18: based on whatever you think is appropriate would then be put together by julia and forwarded to

[3:09:07] Voice 18: trust council for their consideration and what they're deciding in december is do we consult

[3:09:14] Voice 18: with the public on this budget, at this number.

[3:09:19] Voice 18: That's what this process is.

[3:09:21] Voice 18: So out of today, you're going to be providing to Trust Council your opinion as to where

[3:09:28] Voice 18: we should be, and then they have to go in December.

[3:09:33] Voice 18: We're referring this to the public for their feedback.

[3:09:36] Voice 18: So there isn't really an opportunity, a functional opportunity to delay the discussions you're

[3:09:42] Voice 18: having right now around the budget.

[3:09:43] Voice 18: um the next really big moment is in january and julie knows this very well and explain it to you

[3:09:51] Voice 18: when we begin to get real tax implications um as she gets the information for the prop from the

[3:09:59] Voice 18: province um so that that's the sequence of events just want to make sure we're super clear this is

[3:10:06] Voice 18: your opportunity to look through this budget and go you know i'm not comfortable let's make these

[3:10:10] Voice 18: changes recommend these changes julia will work on those amend them and put them into what goes

[3:10:15] Voice 18: goes out on Monday. Thanks.

[3:10:20] Voice 6: I'm going to recognize Director Mobs.

[3:10:23] Voice 12: I just want to follow up to what

[3:10:24] Voice 12: the CAO has mentioned. There is sometimes a tendency or a desire for financial planning

[3:10:33] Voice 12: committee to defer a topic to Trust Council to say, you know, we don't want to make a decision

[3:10:39] Voice 12: on this. We are going to leave the discussion and the decision to Trust Council. But the role of

[3:10:44] Voice 12: financial planning committee is to make recommendations to trust council so trust

[3:10:48] Voice 12: council is looking to financial planning committee to have a recommendation on the budget as a whole

[3:10:54] Voice 12: and on individual items within the budget um so that is the it is in the terms of reference for

[3:11:00] Voice 12: fpc and so that is um what we're trying to achieve today thank

[3:11:08] Voice 9: you director mobs i'm going to

[3:11:10] Voice 9: recognize trustee elliott um

[3:11:14] Trustee Elliott (probable): thank you chair um i do have a question about planning services but

[3:11:18] Trustee Elliott (probable): but maybe that can wait until we,

[3:11:21] Trustee Elliott (probable): are we going to cover the briefing a little later on?

[3:11:25] Trustee Elliott (probable): Sorry, I've just lost the agenda package.

[3:11:27] Trustee Elliott (probable): So I don't have the reference number for it.

[3:11:31] Trustee Elliott (probable): There's a planning services briefing.

[3:11:32] Trustee Elliott (probable): And so I just wanted to ask some questions about that,

[3:11:35] Trustee Elliott (probable): but I think there might be a mistake

[3:11:37] Trustee Elliott (probable): in the business case summaries, if I'm not mistaken.

[3:11:43] Trustee Elliott (probable): The summary of the, and I've just lost my agenda.

[3:11:48] Voice 10: what's the topic

[3:11:49] Voice 10: um

[3:11:50] Trustee Elliott (probable): it's the wow my brain uh fifteen thousand dollars for the secretariat

[3:11:56] Trustee Elliott (probable): function is reflected as twenty thousand in the actual budget i think and there was another one

[3:12:04] Trustee Elliott (probable): a difference of five thousand dollars i'm sorry i'm just trying to find it

[3:12:09] Trustee Elliott (probable): there on page here it is housing was it the housing one

[3:12:13] Voice 16: toby age

[3:12:14] Trustee Elliott (probable): 80 secretariat services

[3:12:16] Trustee Elliott (probable): Services program is $15,000. Stewardship education program is $15,000, but they're $20,000 and $25,000

[3:12:23] Trustee Elliott (probable): respectively up top on page 77. So I was just not sure which those are.

[3:12:32] Voice 12: I see what you're saying.

[3:12:34] Voice 12: The actual budget numbers, the numeric budget numbers, those are different to what's listed

[3:12:38] Voice 12: in my report. So we'll definitely amend that. I'm just going to check we've got the correct

[3:12:45] Voice 12: numbers in the the actual budget itself um but i can do that while while conversation uh continues

[3:12:55] Voice 12: if there's no further questions on or discussion topics on the actual uh information that's in in

[3:13:02] Voice 12: the briefing which is primarily around operating budget numbers uh we can move into uh business

[3:13:09] Voice 12: case discussions um but that's at the will of the the committee and the chair thank you director

[3:13:17] Voice 9: Director Mops, I'm gonna recognize Council Chair Luckham,

[3:13:21] Voice 9: and then perhaps we can indeed move on next.

[3:13:26] Voice 3: Yeah, I just wanna clarify one thing.

[3:13:30] Voice 3: Another question that was in Trustee Boland's ask there

[3:13:36] Voice 3: that maybe didn't get specifically addressed.

[3:13:39] Voice 3: And then I have another remark.

[3:13:42] Voice 3: It's just to do with the surplus being used specifically

[3:13:47] Voice 3: specifically for legal expenses, unanticipated legal expenses. And I do believe that that is

[3:13:54] Voice 3: one of the intentions of the surplus. That's part of the reason the surplus is there,

[3:14:00] Voice 3: is one, to cover employee or payroll, I would say, in the event that the funding doesn't come

[3:14:07] Voice 3: through the province in a timely fashion. But if there are significant legal expenses,

[3:14:11] Voice 3: I always had the impression that that ability was intended to also be a purpose of the surplus fund.

[3:14:22] Voice 3: Is that true or not?

[3:14:23] Voice 9: I can answer that.

[3:14:29] Voice 12: Yes, we did do or former FPC did undertake some analysis on surplus balances.

[3:14:35] Voice 12: And as part of that exercise, we did look at some historical documents around what was the original intent for the surplus fund.

[3:14:42] Voice 12: You are correct.

[3:14:43] Voice 12: One of the primary intentions is to fund operations from the start of the fiscal year to when we receive the property taxes in July.

[3:14:51] Voice 12: But certainly it's there also as a safety net for any significant legal claims that might come through.

[3:14:57] Voice 12: I do think if Trust Council were to move to any sort of self-insurance model, it would probably be prudent to do some assessment and determine how much might be needed in a specific legal reserve fund.

[3:15:09] Voice 3: Right. Okay, thank you. And then just a bit of clarity on our process that we're in, so that I make sure that I understand it and that we have a common understanding as a financial planning committee, in that we've got all these business cases that have ended up here now.

[3:15:28] Voice 3: And the question, as was articulated, I think, by the CAO, is, is the financial planning committee comfortable with forwarding this for public comment to say, this is the big picture?

[3:15:41] Voice 3: And then, of course, that goes to council for that endorsement as well.

[3:15:50] Voice 3: But it's the initial role out here, this budget, is for it to go to the public to say, this is what we're planning.

[3:15:56] Voice 3: Tell us what you think.

[3:15:58] Voice 3: And then based upon that feedback that we get through that survey process, financial planning, kidding me, will then have the opportunity to go, well, boy, the public didn't like that or, yeah, they thought we should spend more money.

[3:16:11] Voice 3: And then the real adjustments on the budget happen at that point.

[3:16:17] Voice 3: And then that's a new recommendation that would go to council.

[3:16:20] Voice 3: council and then council then uh you know as we actually saw last go-round is council decides that

[3:16:27] Voice 3: well no we've got a different idea and so then it gets amended another time um in or before it

[3:16:35] Voice 3: actually becomes a a budget that gets advanced and adopted in march so just wanted to be clear

[3:16:42] Voice 3: that this at this point this is the budget that's going out for public consultation and based upon

[3:16:47] Voice 3: public feedback there will be amendments where projects may be removed or others added accordingly

[3:16:53] Voice 3: is that correct yes go ahead

[3:17:03] Voice 2: julia uh

[3:17:05] Voice 12: that is correct um the financial planning committee

[3:17:09] Voice 12: is isn't an opportunity or there is opportunity today to make changes to the budget

[3:17:14] Voice 12: if financial planning committee does not believe that this is a budget that should be put forward

[3:17:19] Voice 12: to council if they believe this budget represents uh tax increases that are too high if there's

[3:17:24] Voice 12: items in here they don't believe should be funded now is the time to provide staff with that

[3:17:28] Voice 12: direction um so that you can provide a recommended budget to council uh to indicate what you recommend

[3:17:35] Voice 12: should be put forward to public consultation so i would concur with your understanding for that

[3:17:43] Voice 9: director mob just before i continue with the speakers i'll just note that i did get a chat

[3:17:49] Voice 9: from trustee scott that he is uh had to leave the meeting so let's keep that in mind and uh

[3:17:57] Voice 9: I may have lost my place, but I'm going to go to Trustee Bernardo, Poland, and then Graham.

[3:18:07] Voice 9: Thank you.

[3:18:09] Voice 9: I've got a couple of related questions.

[3:18:17] Voice 4: I don't know anything about how this survey is conducted, and I'd like to know a little bit about that.

[3:18:26] Voice 4: But the point of that is to find out, are we actually satisfied on objective evidence that all of the taxpayers in the Islands Trust area are actually being contacted?

[3:18:38] Voice 4: And where I'm going with that is I think we have to be mindful of how much weight we can put on a survey.

[3:18:45] Voice 4: And I certainly wouldn't hope that the fact that we conduct a survey like that isn't treated as some kind of reason not to, for us as a committee, to try to put forward for public consultation, the most responsible and practical budget that we think is within reach.

[3:19:14] Voice 4: speech. I'm getting a little ahead of ourselves, but I think it's the right time to observe that,

[3:19:26] Voice 4: you know, this, we're going through a whole bunch of stuff today, but there's really a big question

[3:19:30] Voice 4: here. You know, if all of us have read the material, and we all know what that question is,

[3:19:34] Voice 4: we're looking at a 10% shortfall in revenue. And, you know, we can talk around the details,

[3:19:41] Voice 4: but that's the big question. And I don't think it makes a heck of a lot of sense for us to be

[3:19:49] Voice 4: submitting for public consultation a budget that has that big a shortfall without some kind of

[3:19:57] Voice 4: fairly clear indication about how we intend to meet it. Alternatively, we could come up with

[3:20:05] Voice 4: with a budget that doesn't have the shortfall. This is where that's all going is we have real

[3:20:13] Voice 4: work to do here in terms of coming up with a budget that gives the trust counsel the information

[3:20:24] Voice 4: it needs to exercise responsible judgment. I'm a little uneasy with, and forgive me if I'm

[3:20:32] Voice 4: misunderstanding anybody, but I'm a little uneasy with the idea that somehow we're going to present

[3:20:40] Voice 4: the trust council with an either or option. Here's the budget. If you don't like it, well,

[3:20:45] Voice 4: we don't have anything else. I think we can provide guidance, informed guidance, but I think

[3:20:51] Voice 4: we have to be respectful of the fact that actually this budget is going to be a decision of the trust

[3:20:56] Voice 4: Council. And when we're facing a situation with a 10% revenue shortfall, it seems to me

[3:21:06] Voice 4: it's not sufficient to simply bring a budget forward and say, oh, look, we need a 10%

[3:21:11] Voice 4: increase. Or as we're going to discuss later, we ought to have no increase at all except for

[3:21:16] Voice 4: inflation. I don't think either option is particularly responsible in this context.

[3:21:23] Voice 4: It is the job of the Trust Council to set the priorities for the organization.

[3:21:28] Voice 4: um by short-circuiting that debate and i and i'm not saying anybody's doing that it's just a

[3:21:35] Voice 4: concern i have because i'm not entirely sure about where this is all going but i wouldn't

[3:21:39] Voice 4: want to short-circuit that debate in front of the trust council um there certainly seems to

[3:21:45] Voice 4: be plenty of room for a committee like ours to make um uh recommendations at the margins or to

[3:21:53] Voice 4: make decisions at the margins about how we construct the budget but on a fundamental

[3:21:59] Voice 4: mental big picture question uh it seems to me a consultation with the trust trust council

[3:22:04] Voice 4: and getting its views on the record as to what its priorities are we've heard a number of times

[3:22:10] Voice 4: here that there's a number of ways we can skin this cat one of which is that wish list that the

[3:22:16] Voice 4: trust council has come up with may not we may not have the capacity to satisfy it and the trust

[3:22:23] Voice 4: Council needs to know that one option it has available to it is to get in there and deal

[3:22:31] Voice 4: with these business cases and ask itself whether or not this is the time to do a thing if we can't

[3:22:36] Voice 4: afford it. Now, if the Trust Council decides no, it's really important, then that's fine. That

[3:22:42] Voice 4: provides you with a rational basis for justifying a tax increase. But I don't think it's responsible

[3:22:49] Voice 4: to either recommend a tax increase or to recommend a freeze

[3:22:52] Voice 4: unless we have, unless we give the trust council

[3:22:57] Voice 4: a realistic option, other options about how to deal

[3:23:01] Voice 4: with these expenditures.

[3:23:04] Voice 11: Thank you.

[3:23:09] Voice 11: Thank you, Trustee Bernardo, Trustee

[3:23:13] Voice 9: Boland and then Graham.

[3:23:18] Voice 16: Yeah, thanks Trustee Bernardo.

[3:23:20] Voice 16: I echo everything you have said, but with the caveat

[3:23:24] Voice 16: yet that I have worked through the budget cycle over the last 18 months or so and my experience

[3:23:34] Voice 16: is that the public feedback survey results come too late to actually take any kind of coherent

[3:23:42] Voice 16: action and they are presented I think possibly 10 days two weeks maximum to a financial planning

[3:23:51] Voice 16: Committee that precedes the March Trust Council. So that public feedback is received two weeks

[3:24:01] Voice 16: before the Trust Council have to approve a final budget. So in the last year or so, I think

[3:24:10] Voice 16: the numbers that responded to that feedback were actually 1,000, 1,100, which statistically

[3:24:17] Voice 16: is generally agreed to be significant.

[3:24:22] Voice 16: So I'll park all of that and go back and say I agree with you

[3:24:28] Voice 16: that the Trust Council, we should look line by line

[3:24:31] Voice 16: at whether those business cases are robust.

[3:24:37] Voice 16: And I can certainly see, you know, and look at the hours

[3:24:41] Voice 16: that have been assigned and the fact that immediately

[3:24:45] Voice 16: regional planning identified a shortfall of 700 hours against estimates needed and I think the

[3:24:54] Voice 16: addition of the staff hours to the business cases is a huge step forward that wasn't always there

[3:25:02] Voice 16: I believe it really helps to sort of quantify the true whole cost of an activity. I think

[3:25:14] Voice 16: I think, you know, looking at the number of contractors that have to be hired to deliver, because that's not, you know, hiring contractors is not a get out of jail clause, because they have to be hired, they have to be interviewed, they have to be supervised, the contract has to be managed.

[3:25:31] Voice 16: so there are a lot of things like that that we should look at in terms of the work scope

[3:25:36] Voice 16: being more than we can potentially afford and I do take your point that it is about

[3:25:42] Voice 16: setting priorities so unfortunately I think you know the governance review pointed out

[3:25:49] Voice 16: that the financial plan is really the last step in your corporate business planning process

[3:25:55] Voice 16: process and um i do think that you know next year for sure we should have a better

[3:26:04] Voice 16: uh strategic plan or corporate plan whatever we want to call it to actually sit below or above

[3:26:13] Voice 16: depending on how you want to uh to describe it to underpin um the budget so that we really

[3:26:21] Voice 16: really understand and can can I mean a good budget you should be easily able to defend

[3:26:28] Voice 16: every item in it or somebody should be able to defend it and at the moment partly I suppose

[3:26:35] Voice 16: because we've transitioned from one to another over the election but some of the items I'm not

[3:26:42] Voice 16: sure if you really say you know this is our budget in terms of we have this much money

[3:26:46] Voice 16: and people can really defend them and so anyway that's that's really to speak to you know um

[3:26:55] Voice 16: the fact that i proposed um a constraint or i intend to propose that's really a shortcut to

[3:27:03] Voice 16: really focusing people on okay we have to go through this and really analyze what's in here

[3:27:10] Voice 16: Chair and really prioritize. Thank you.

[3:27:17] Voice 9: Thank you, Trustee Boland. I recognize

[3:27:19] Voice 9: Trustee Graham and then Elliot. And I'm just going to remind us that we do have a time limit here and

[3:27:28] Voice 9: a fair bit to get through. So please try not to repeat other points. And let's try and get back

[3:27:37] Voice 9: into the rest of it. But I definitely want everyone to have a chance this week.

[3:27:44] Voice 19: Thank you, Chair.

[3:27:44] Voice 19: Chair. We touched on it briefly when we met a few days ago at Trust Council. Trust Council

[3:27:51] Voice 19: relies on its committees to do the bulk of the work. I think it behooves us, financial committee,

[3:27:58] Voice 19: to do the best that we can. And my personal feeling is a 10% tax increase, well, I will need

[3:28:05] Voice 19: security to protect my personal being on Denman. I'm not being flippant. There is a strong, growing

[3:28:15] Voice 19: anti-trust movement throughout the islands and fair enough it's being fueled by social

[3:28:20] Voice 19: media which is you know easy to ignore but um i can't remain on on this committee and and present

[3:28:30] Voice 19: a 10 tax increase it just that's just untenable my my my background is in small business every

[3:28:38] Voice 19: dollar i spent was a dollar i made as a small business person and so i have a real tough time

[3:28:43] Voice 19: spending money uh could be my scottish heritage anyway i didn't want to take up too much time but

[3:28:47] Voice 19: i'm i'm i think we need to do the work thank

[3:28:54] Voice 9: you for that trustee graham uh trustee elliott

[3:29:01] Trustee Elliott (probable): thank you chair um i'm not feeling very well so i forgive me if this isn't coming out terribly

[3:29:07] Trustee Elliott (probable): coherently um but if i understand it correctly we've seen a move at least within the regional

[3:29:15] Trustee Elliott (probable): planning team to towards dedicating regional planner hours to broad trust-wide projects

[3:29:24] Trustee Elliott (probable): and sort of getting everybody organized in in different ways so that they're more they're doing

[3:29:32] Trustee Elliott (probable): the work that they're effectively paid to do and and we we're now allocating those hours

[3:29:37] Trustee Elliott (probable): um in a more coherent way is this the year perhaps with everything else going on that we could look

[3:29:49] Trustee Elliott (probable): again at the regional planning approach and i'm just floating this for discussion it's i don't

[3:30:00] Trustee Elliott (probable): really even know how to phrase it but that local projects um that aren't already underway could be

[3:30:10] Trustee Elliott (probable): put on a pause and we could re-look at the regional planning strategy so that we can allocate those

[3:30:16] Trustee Elliott (probable): resources more effectively and not spend the money on i don't want to say it but not spend the money

[3:30:26] Trustee Elliott (probable): on projects that are not going to benefit the trust as a whole with the understanding that

[3:30:31] Trustee Elliott (probable): we're going to come back with a better strategy in a year where we've got a better fiscal outcome

[3:30:37] Trustee Elliott (probable): or a healthier outlook does this make any

[3:30:43] Voice 11: sense can somebody would

[3:30:48] Voice 9: anyone like to take a stab at

[3:30:50] Voice 9: that well

[3:30:52] Voice 3: i um put up my hand there because i want to endorse exactly what trustee elliott has

[3:31:01] Voice 3: that attempted to move us towards right in this moment in that um today is the day and now is the

[3:31:10] Voice 3: time that if we want to reduce the budget by 10 then we need to make specific recommendations

[3:31:16] Voice 3: and decisions here today to do that um and you know this is how our business gets done is uh

[3:31:25] Voice 3: motions come forward to take some particular action and if there's projects as uh trustee

[3:31:30] Voice 3: Elliott has indicated that have not begun and that we're not able to do then that indeed that's

[3:31:38] Voice 3: the recommendations and the responsibility of this financial planning committee to take those

[3:31:43] Voice 3: recommendations to council to say this is too rich we don't think we can fund these and what I was

[3:31:50] Voice 3: going to so why do I want to say that specifically but of course the thing that we found over the

[3:31:57] Voice 3: the years, it's remarkable really, is Trust Council's appetite is way bigger than the meal

[3:32:04] Voice 3: that's put before them. And last year was a really great example where, in fact, although it was a

[3:32:11] Voice 3: difficult process, the recommendation came forward in the 11th hour to reduce the budget to the

[3:32:18] Voice 3: the previous year's levels, and staff very amazingly and bravely came back the next day

[3:32:28] Voice 3: with an improved budget that met those numbers. And then council put stuff back in again that was

[3:32:34] Voice 3: taken out because they wanted to get those things done. And I think the reality check that we have

[3:32:41] Voice 3: What we have to do here is to determine what it is we can really do, because indeed, thank you, Trustee Bernardo, for starting us off on this path, that if we're not comfortable with a 10%, not necessarily a tax increase, right, because we draw from surplus and all that magic stuff, but nonetheless increasing the base budget, that percentage, then now's the time to make those cuts.

[3:33:09] Voice 3: and staff need specific direction from us

[3:33:13] Voice 3: to determine what those cuts are.

[3:33:15] Voice 3: So it's tough time.

[3:33:17] Voice 3: This is the hardest work that we do

[3:33:19] Voice 3: and we have to make those things.

[3:33:21] Voice 3: So thank you.

[3:33:22] Voice 3: That's my remarks.

[3:33:23] Voice 3: I don't have a motion I'm going to make,

[3:33:24] Voice 3: but maybe there are some ideas that are there

[3:33:30] Voice 3: and I'm not well either.

[3:33:34] Voice 9: Thank you, Chair Luckin, for that.

[3:33:35] Voice 9: I'm going to recognize the CEO, Hudson Miller.

[3:33:38] Voice 18: Well, thanks very much.

[3:33:39] Voice 18: just following that uh thread um and really appreciating the conversation you're you're

[3:33:44] Voice 18: walking into exactly the conversation you're needing to have and and beginning to sequence it

[3:33:50] Voice 18: by all means you can look at if if this is unpalatable at this time you can go or ask staff

[3:33:58] Voice 18: or suggest things yourself to recommend to trust council you know this level of taxation isn't

[3:34:04] Voice 18: appropriate, we recommend it should be more like this. And these are the projects that would either

[3:34:09] Voice 18: be postponed till later, or let's give them a reframe or whatever it might be. So I think the

[3:34:15] Voice 18: short answer to Trustee Elliott's question is, yes, it's obviously better to do those things

[3:34:21] Voice 18: with new proposals relative to things that are halfway down the line. And just for your math,

[3:34:29] Voice 18: and julio i think will nod if you make a 77 000 reduction that's a one percent lowering of

[3:34:35] Voice 18: the tax rate so if you look on page 78 and um at some of the proposed bigger ltc projects

[3:34:47] Voice 18: and um yeah and of course some of the strategic there's some strategic planning business cases

[3:34:59] Voice 18: that you would look through you would look and go do I need more information could we make a

[3:35:05] Voice 18: reasonable postponement or reconsideration of some of that work and then speaking to

[3:35:10] Voice 18: trustee Barnardo's point absolutely this does go to trust counsel but you're providing wise

[3:35:17] Voice 18: counsel to them so that they don't start from scratch with here's 10 percent and what are we

[3:35:24] Voice 18: going to do about it you're the learned group that's going you know that didn't feel right to

[3:35:29] Voice 18: us this is our recommendation to you um here's the four or five areas we think that you should

[3:35:35] Voice 18: um discuss to affect a lowering if that's the interest thanks thank

[3:35:45] Voice 9: you cao i'm gonna

[3:35:52] Voice 9: i'm gonna recognize trustee bernardo and then trustee boland thank

[3:35:57] Voice 4: you um i want to be clear

[3:36:00] Voice 4: that I don't have any, well, I do have one specific budget item that I could whine and

[3:36:06] Voice 4: complain about, but I'll put that to a side for assuming we might have that discussion another

[3:36:10] Voice 4: time. I want to be clear that where I'm coming from is the essential thing is, and I respect

[3:36:17] Voice 4: what the CAO is saying, which is that we do have a function here to provide substantive material

[3:36:23] Voice 4: material guidance to the, to the trust council as a whole. But the fact of the matter remains

[3:36:30] Voice 4: that the trust council has a, has a responsibility to execute. And it is a responsibility to set

[3:36:40] Voice 4: priorities and it needs to do that on an informed basis. I think we can do the work of making it

[3:36:46] Voice 4: informed, but I think the essential thing is based on what I've heard about what's gone in previous

[3:36:52] Voice 4: previous years and looking at this draft the essential thing is we need to go to the trust

[3:36:57] Voice 4: council and in some fashion tell them look it's fisher cut bait time you've got this long shopping

[3:37:04] Voice 4: list of wish lists things that it feels great to to to propose that we'd like to do every one of

[3:37:11] Voice 4: them has merit the fact is though you can't have everything you want and maybe we should

[3:37:18] Voice 4: spend a little money on getting a license from the rolling stones so that we can sort of send

[3:37:22] Voice 4: that song along you know uh these um issues i think we could together with staff come up with

[3:37:30] Voice 4: a proposal where we say look based on what we know and when i say we i'm really talking about

[3:37:36] Voice 4: the staff based on the the priorities that the trust council appears to have emphasized in the

[3:37:42] Voice 4: past there's these top five things are not really likely been negotiable they're too important

[3:37:50] Voice 4: important everything else uh is for all practical purposes realistically is secondary therefore

[3:37:59] Voice 4: let's consider whether or not you know the trust council wants to raise taxes to fund them or

[3:38:05] Voice 4: whether it thinks it ought to cut them so i think we could be in a position to provide them with

[3:38:10] Voice 4: some options of things to cut and the reasons for it uh based on historical knowledge of the

[3:38:17] Voice 4: the emphasis that trust councils put on it, but however we do it, the essential question that,

[3:38:23] Voice 4: that the trust council needs to be seized with and needs to be aware of, which is, is that we

[3:38:31] Voice 4: can make recommendations, but there is a hard decision to be made here. We either raise taxes

[3:38:38] Voice 4: or we cut spending and we can provide guidance, but we, we, we can't put our thumbs on the scale

[3:38:45] Voice 4: on a question that's that big i mean that's fundamental to where the trust council is coming

[3:38:50] Voice 4: from they actually we have to do work to prepare them they have to do the work of having the nerve

[3:38:56] Voice 4: to actually make a decision to say look we really think it'd be great to have this particular

[3:39:01] Voice 4: project we just can't afford it it's going to go into the freezer until we can thank you uh trustee

[3:39:11] Voice 11: thank you

[3:39:15] Voice 16: uh yeah we're in a very difficult situation and you know don't forget that

[3:39:22] Voice 16: most of the budget is actually operating expenses salaries and um office so the amount that we have

[3:39:32] Voice 16: that we can actually achieve reductions in is relatively limited um that wasn't obvious to me

[3:39:41] Voice 16: when I began this journey so um so I'll just go straight out of the blocks with an example

[3:39:49] Voice 16: really of a suggestion so the regional planning committee in anticipation of their new planning

[3:39:57] Voice 16: committee uh working out the work plan have a placeholder of a hundred thousand dollars

[3:40:03] Voice 16: and the regional planning services group have assigned an estimated uh 400 hours to that

[3:40:13] Voice 16: 400 hours i might add that they don't have they say they're in a deficit of 700 hours

[3:40:20] Voice 16: and there's no business case for that 100 000 um placeholder so i would question the validity of

[3:40:33] Voice 16: that being in that budget because what we're talking about is $100,000 plus 400 hours of

[3:40:41] Voice 16: staff time which is $40,000 so that's $140,000 which is a placeholder without a business case

[3:40:47] Voice 16: for it so I would see that that should be questioned. Thank you.

[3:40:56] Voice 9: Thank you for that and I've

[3:40:57] Voice 9: just put my hand up because I just want to respond to that and of course this would be to raise a

[3:41:02] Voice 9: good point um in fact what that number should be as a placeholder is a good question obviously we

[3:41:11] Voice 9: don't have the priorities of the the new regional planning committee or any business cases and so i

[3:41:20] Voice 9: do think it's appropriate for the the outgoing committee to make some reserve some space in the

[3:41:27] Voice 9: the budget for the work that may want to do it.

[3:41:31] Voice 9: Whether that's the accurate number that it should be

[3:41:35] Voice 9: is a difficult question for all of us

[3:41:38] Voice 9: in the absence of what those priorities might be.

[3:41:41] Voice 9: And with that, I'm going to go to Trustee Breriam.

[3:41:48] Voice 9: Thank you, thank you, Chair.

[3:41:49] Voice 19: One thing that would really help me is if I knew

[3:41:52] Voice 19: what are we looking at if we removed

[3:41:54] Voice 19: all discretionary expenses?

[3:41:56] Voice 19: In other words, what's our baseline here

[3:41:59] Voice 19: of non-discretionary increases?

[3:42:01] Voice 19: And that really gives us perhaps in Trust Council a starting point to start adding things and as Trust Council wants to add things in that there is a, there's a cost to that.

[3:42:11] Voice 19: And so that cost will just start to grow. And at a certain point Trust Council will say that's enough.

[3:42:17] Voice 19: That's a very simplistic thing, but if I knew what the where we were with all discretionary expenses removed. That would give me a starting place. Thank you.

[3:42:27] Voice 19: Over

[3:42:30] Voice 11: to trustee Elliott.

[3:42:31] Voice 11: it thank you chair so

[3:42:38] Trustee Elliott (probable): when i made my suggestion it's it's this is a discussion so please bear

[3:42:43] Trustee Elliott (probable): with me i'm still trying to understand the process and then um offer some perspective

[3:42:50] Trustee Elliott (probable): so when i when i talked about new projects the only new project that's listed

[3:42:55] Trustee Elliott (probable): um as an ltc major project is the gabriela ocp review sixty thousand dollars if we remove that

[3:43:02] Trustee Elliott (probable): It's not going to make a huge, you know, it's not going to change too much in the budget. So how can we reallocate funds so that we direct more resources towards regional planning that benefit the LTCs, that benefit more LTCs than just a single local trust area?

[3:43:26] Trustee Elliott (probable): So it seems to me like we're fighting for crumbs in this annual budget process. But yet what we've been trying to do is move to a regional planning approach so that we synchronize OCPs, the DAI, the model bylaws and model fee bylaws.

[3:43:45] Trustee Elliott (probable): this is all so that we can actually spend less money down the road and so is this the year to

[3:43:51] Trustee Elliott (probable): pull back on some of these individual projects that are just going to benefit an area cap it at

[3:43:59] Trustee Elliott (probable): three hundred thousand dollars and allocate those resources to the regional planning team

[3:44:04] Trustee Elliott (probable): and say let's address regional planning approaches so that in the next year we can sort of have a

[3:44:11] Trustee Elliott (probable): a fresh start and work more effectively.

[3:44:14] Trustee Elliott (probable): Does that make any sense?

[3:44:17] Voice 9: Go to Director Mobbs.

[3:44:22] Voice 12: Thanks, so planning is not my world.

[3:44:25] Voice 12: So I will look to Director Cermak

[3:44:27] Voice 12: and former Director Planner Marler if I misspeak.

[3:44:33] Voice 12: Primarily the regional planning work

[3:44:34] Voice 12: is the work of the Regional Planning Committee.

[3:44:37] Voice 12: So as Vince mentioned, we don't have a sense

[3:44:41] Voice 12: of what projects might be brought forward

[3:44:43] Voice 12: by the new regional planning committee they haven't formed yet they haven't met yet um there

[3:44:48] Voice 12: can be built into local trust committee projects elements of work that will have benefit to the

[3:44:54] Voice 12: trust area as a whole if it is sort of information or research that can be used to other projects

[3:45:00] Voice 12: that would benefit the trust area as a whole um my mind as you're speaking is thinking about

[3:45:07] Voice 12: out special property tax requisitions again um and the policy does indicate that local trust

[3:45:13] Voice 12: committee projects that have trust-wide benefit as a general default are generally funded out of

[3:45:19] Voice 12: the general budget if they are projects that have benefit primarily to that local trust area a

[3:45:25] Voice 12: special property tax requisition might be quite appropriate and what that would mean is the

[3:45:30] Voice 12: funding for these projects would come out of the budget which would reduce the tax increase

[3:45:34] Voice 12: increase and then the individual community would get to have a say during consultation as to

[3:45:39] Voice 12: whether or not they see value in this individual project such that they would fund it from local

[3:45:44] Voice 12: monies only um i i see the list you're looking at and we have indicated uh which local trust

[3:45:52] Voice 12: committee project proposals are currently ongoing and which are new i do believe a lot of these

[3:45:57] Voice 12: projects are phased projects so while something might be currently ongoing we may be at the end

[3:46:03] Voice 12: of a particular phase and it could be paused um with the phase you know the

[3:46:09] Voice 12: second phase third

[3:46:09] Voice 12: phase whatever phase they're in picked up at a later date i am not the person to speak to the

[3:46:13] Voice 12: implications of that as planning is not my world um so if i've misspoke i would look to the planners

[3:46:19] Voice 12: to correct me um otherwise that's all i have to offer uh

[3:46:25] Voice 9: thank you uh director marlin yeah thank

[3:46:28] Voice 14: you i'm not going to uh repeat what julia said that was correct i do want to just comment though

[3:46:33] Voice 14: that at the islands trust it is limited on how much you can do um what's the word for it um

[3:46:42] Voice 14: centrally and the reason for that is every single trust committee has its own ability to adopt a

[3:46:48] Voice 14: bylaw and that is the way we enact the islands trust object is through the land use planning

[3:46:55] Voice 14: so the benefit is regional when you look at each local each local trust committee's lcp

[3:47:02] Voice 14: is intended to enact what the islands trust object is about so the the review the the change

[3:47:09] Voice 14: in the way we do it is intended to reduce the staff um duplication by assigning staff to more

[3:47:19] Voice 14: than one project that could have similar things on each island such as housing on one or shoreline

[3:47:26] Voice 14: you know look for those synergies and also try and reduce it down so that we can get into a series of

[3:47:36] Voice 14: updating the LCPs there's 20 of them out there we could start two a year and I think we'd be good

[3:47:42] Voice 14: and then have some kind of an overlap and ongoing and that's where we're heading

[3:47:46] Voice 14: we're not quite there yet in planning so that's how we get the synergies the other piece though

[3:47:54] Voice 14: is you know council could say that there's only so much money available for doing this and this

[3:48:03] Voice 14: is how much is available and this is how we're going to distribute it between the islands like

[3:48:07] Voice 14: by population or by need or something like that and and then if if a project is above that

[3:48:15] Voice 14: the remainder could be through a special tax levy or the trust committee decides not to do it or

[3:48:22] Voice 14: defers it. So there's a lot you could do. I don't think you have to look at these numbers as a whole

[3:48:28] Voice 14: and say yes or no to that number. I think you could ask for, for example, the ongoing housing

[3:48:34] Voice 14: of 227,000. If you look in a business case, it'll break that down for you. So you could look at that

[3:48:41] Voice 14: and determine what portions of that really should be funded and which maybe shouldn't,

[3:48:46] Voice 14: or it should be by a special tax levy.

[3:48:50] Voice 8: Thank you.

[3:48:53] Voice 9: Thank you, Director Marler.

[3:48:55] Voice 9: I'm going to recognize CAO Houghton-Piller.

[3:49:00] Voice 18: Thanks.

[3:49:01] Voice 18: I'm just going to the discretion,

[3:49:03] Voice 18: you know, what are the list of discretionary items?

[3:49:05] Voice 18: And I'm just wondering,

[3:49:06] Voice 18: would you be open to just some general advice

[3:49:09] Voice 18: as a committee?

[3:49:14] Voice 18: I think you should all get two things.

[3:49:19] Voice 18: Synchronizing the financial planning function

[3:49:21] Voice 18: with the complexity of land use planning

[3:49:23] Voice 18: at the Islands Trust is extremely difficult and it's not perfect. And we know that. And we have

[3:49:30] Voice 18: to undertake an exercise that addresses exactly what you're talking about. The governance report

[3:49:35] Voice 18: kind of indicated that that's the area of focus. But I don't think you're going to achieve it in

[3:49:42] Voice 18: the next two months. I think in this first year, as you get to know each other and plan out for a

[3:49:50] Voice 18: a very strong budgeting sequence next year where you're applying some

[3:49:54] Voice 18: principles that you've come together over the next year and,

[3:49:57] Voice 18: and determined are how we're going to address this because the,

[3:50:03] Voice 18: the challenge we have at the trust is we have regional decision-making on a

[3:50:07] Voice 18: budget level,

[3:50:07] Voice 18: but independently all the local trust committees still want to do their own

[3:50:11] Voice 18: things.

[3:50:12] Voice 18: And they keep returning to the table with those things because they're

[3:50:15] Voice 18: important. It's not that those things aren't important.

[3:50:17] Voice 18: important so i don't think we've got this uh we i think we do a very good job budgeting

[3:50:23] Voice 18: given the structure and challenges we've got uh the cost drivers why you're seeing a 10 percent

[3:50:29] Voice 18: budget lift aren't really discretionary items it's easy to find a half a million dollars on

[3:50:34] Voice 18: page 78 but we've just had a um an employment contract at seven percent and inflation is at

[3:50:41] Voice 18: at 8%. Those are real externalized factors that don't lend themselves to take a project off

[3:50:49] Voice 18: because it's equal to an input. You've got a systemic tax increase regime. So you're going

[3:50:56] Voice 18: to have to consider, if we want to buffer that, we're going to be bringing these projects down.

[3:51:02] Voice 18: My recommendation to you and to Trust Council would be, be project light in this first year

[3:51:09] Voice 18: and build those projects into whether you want to call it a larger corporate financial

[3:51:14] Voice 18: strategic plan that's that really gets implemented and you discuss it this year

[3:51:19] Voice 18: and then you put it into place in the coming years that's fine but I think that's your most

[3:51:25] Voice 18: likely chance of success I don't think you're going to crack the code in a matter of a couple

[3:51:30] Voice 18: of months and it's probably 10 is too high a number to reasonably walk in front of the public

[3:51:36] Voice 18: look with thanks thank

[3:51:42] Voice 11: you for that um

[3:51:43] Voice 9: i'm gonna recognize uh director mobs in just a moment i'm

[3:51:48] Voice 9: just going to point out that we're uh very nearly at two o'clock already we still have a number of

[3:51:52] Voice 9: things on the agenda so director mobs uh

[3:51:57] Voice 12: thanks mr chair just to offer up some info uh we're

[3:52:00] Voice 12: talking about local trust committee projects specifically and if i understood uh trustee

[3:52:04] Voice 12: elliott's discussion there was a proposal to perhaps move those out of the budget they

[3:52:08] Voice 12: represent approximately six percent of the

[3:52:10] Voice 11: increase for information so in total that would

[3:52:17] Voice 11: leave a four

[3:52:19] Voice 18: percent tax increase if they were all with

[3:52:23] Voice 12: quick uh back the envelope math i think so um

[3:52:25] Voice 12: there's some allocations and strangeness that happens with bone island but approximately would

[3:52:30] Voice 12: be in the six percentage percentage range that would come down to four that's right

[3:52:35] Voice 12: uh

[3:52:38] Voice 9: thank you for that i recognize uh uh council chair luck well

[3:52:45] Voice 11: thank you for that

[3:52:48] Voice 3: julia um

[3:52:51] Voice 3: it helps me formulate some of my thoughts and you know i i sort of kind of said this a few

[3:53:02] Voice 3: times in the past you know is that in these moments the financial planning committee does

[3:53:07] Voice 3: does need to be bold in order to paint the picture for councils about what this really means.

[3:53:13] Voice 3: And what you just said there is essentially being bold. Thank you for that, being bold, by the way.

[3:53:22] Voice 3: And because when the CEO, Hudson Pillars, said 1% is $70,000, so I'm thinking about, oh, so we've

[3:53:29] Voice 3: got to take $700,000 out of the budget in order to reduce that 10%. And so, you know, it doesn't

[3:53:36] Voice 3: you have to nix everything in order to achieve that and that we wouldn't be very popular

[3:53:42] Voice 3: but not that we should be popular we should be bold and so you know I sort of bristle a little

[3:53:51] Voice 3: bit with and I wasn't sure who said that about taking out the hundred thousand dollars out of

[3:53:57] Voice 3: the regional planning thing I think actually it's the opposite I think that that hundred thousand

[3:54:03] Voice 3: and needs to stay in there, and it's all this other stuff and it needs to go, because to some

[3:54:08] Voice 3: extent, and I won't be very popular for saying this, is that we're undermining that federation-wide

[3:54:14] Voice 3: regional planning by trying to capture those costs and maximize the efforts and the benefits

[3:54:22] Voice 3: to the whole, and yet we're still doing these other things. And so, you know, typically, you

[3:54:28] Voice 3: you know, and there's sort of elements of that here already on our agenda, is you put freezes

[3:54:35] Voice 3: on things. And so, you know, you could freeze any future OCP project until we figure this out,

[3:54:40] Voice 3: right? And that wouldn't make up, that would make a few people unhappy, that's for sure.

[3:54:47] Voice 3: So, you know, we have an, you know, whatever, I lost track of the numbers here. I had it just up

[3:54:55] Voice 3: on my screen. Yeah, at about 9.3, 9.3.3.8, I think, we have a proposal from Trustee Boland to

[3:55:06] Voice 3: maintain a budget level only 6% over what the previous year was. Well, indeed, if we take

[3:55:13] Voice 3: some of the ideas just tossed out there by Director Mobbs, that would, that would, to some

[3:55:19] Voice 3: extent, get us into that ballpark. And so the question in my mind right now is, and I realize

[3:55:25] Voice 3: as i'm jumping ahead of the game and i'm sorry about that tim is do we think that what trust

[3:55:31] Voice 3: trustee boland is something that we can take to council right is that closer is that close enough

[3:55:39] Voice 3: or do we need more than that because then we're going to have to really think hard

[3:55:43] Voice 3: um and um and then of course the that begs the question because the motion is kind of like what

[3:55:50] Voice 3: What happened last year at budget time in the 11th hour is we said, we've got to take X percent off the top of the budget.

[3:55:59] Voice 3: And miraculously, staff went away and came back and they trimmed any little bit of fat they could find anywhere and managed to bring that back.

[3:56:08] Voice 3: And so and essentially that's what needs to happen, if I'm not mistaken, Julia, by Friday, because that needs to go into the agenda package to get out.

[3:56:19] Voice 3: So we have to be realistic about what we can do and how we can do it.

[3:56:23] Voice 3: And I thank you for all the overtime between now and then that you're going to have to

[3:56:26] Voice 3: do to get that done.

[3:56:28] Voice 3: And I'm being realistic about that, too.

[3:56:30] Voice 3: And so, you know, how much wiggle room is there?

[3:56:35] Voice 3: How much direction do you need?

[3:56:37] Voice 3: And then I'm asking this body, that's for Julia, and then I'm asking this body, and

[3:56:43] Voice 3: I'm getting ahead of the game, I admit that, is what Trustee Boland proposing, is that

[3:56:49] Voice 3: that's something that we can work with to take to council uh

[3:56:55] Voice 9: thank you for those thoughts and uh

[3:56:57] Voice 9: apologies except for jumping ahead because i would actually like us to get further along in the agenda

[3:57:03] Voice 9: and to build substantive decision points i i see uh director surmax uh hands i'm going to recognize

[3:57:11] Voice 9: director surmax good

[3:57:15] Voice 5: afternoon everybody so an interesting debate that's uh well anchored in

[3:57:21] Voice 5: in planning services and as my first go around at this at these types of meetings it's a it's a

[3:57:27] Voice 5: difficult one for me to participate in trying to balance giving you advice versus trying to

[3:57:33] Voice 5: understand the direction you're going and impacts but bear with me as I try a little bit I'm going

[3:57:39] Voice 5: to balance it out and perhaps the CAO will jump in if I'm going too far one way or you guys will

[3:57:44] Voice 5: say thanks but no thanks if I go the other and that is some some practical advice looking at

[3:57:49] Voice 5: these projects which are focused on and I'd like to start with the RPC. Later on the agenda

[3:57:58] Voice 5: you're going to see that I did a feasibility assessment. I believe that's been quoted a few

[3:58:03] Voice 5: times and I note that the RPC $100,000 budget is not fully allocated but I also indicate

[3:58:10] Voice 5: success at the regional planning committee level for the freshwater sustainability strategy

[3:58:15] Voice 5: and I'm aware that staff are coming forward with the business case that RPC has not seen

[3:58:19] Voice 5: but are aware that that's supposed to come as per the resolutions.

[3:58:23] Voice 5: So that's half the price of the RPC budget that's been put forward.

[3:58:28] Voice 5: And as well, I think it's pretty clear I worked for Salt Spring for several years.

[3:58:33] Voice 5: I know the genesis of their requests here, but I wasn't there for these particular requests.

[3:58:39] Voice 5: I was not working for the trust.

[3:58:42] Voice 5: And as I look to try to help you find ways to trim the fat, as you say,

[3:58:47] Voice 5: I can see a lot of places that could easily be trimmed, especially in the salt spring budget, which is kind of the elephant in the room for projects.

[3:58:55] Voice 5: And they haven't had a chance to input on this.

[3:58:58] Voice 5: So this is where I'm skating on thin ice, I think, in my mind.

[3:59:02] Voice 5: But there's a few places to trim in terms of, you know, merging the First Nations engagement costs between the two, removing the sort of $100,000 contract for technical analysis that has no real merit to it in terms of, I mean, that always has merit, but there's nothing behind it.

[3:59:22] Voice 5: And a few other things like that.

[3:59:24] Voice 5: So if you add up the math, so to speak, for Salt Spring, I think we could reduce their budget if they merge the two 75% and effectively move forward if they focused on First Nations engagement in this next phase of their OCP amendment projects.

[3:59:39] Voice 5: And while at the same time, the RPC could probably trim the budget in half. And I think that those two collective savings would go a long way to where you're trying to go. So that's my merging of advice versus whatever it is.

[3:59:53] Voice 5: So, does that help?

[3:59:56] Voice 6: Thank you.

[4:00:00] Voice 9: you for that uh i'm going to recognize trustee boland and thanks

[4:00:05] Voice 16: i'll just uh be quick i realize

[4:00:08] Voice 16: time is of the essence um building on what everybody has said so one angle on it could be

[4:00:15] Voice 16: that these uh projects local trust committee projects could they be overseen by the regional

[4:00:24] Voice 16: planning committee as the core of their work so you bring those projects under one umbrella

[4:00:31] Voice 16: admitting that they all have different elements when you get back to the island but make an

[4:00:37] Voice 16: attempt at some kind of you know alignment and efficiency and use of common resources and

[4:00:46] Voice 16: relearning as you go and I realize that you know that in addition to the money that's here

[4:00:53] Voice 16: there's 2 000 hours of planning services assigned to that just as a heads up so we really understand

[4:01:01] Voice 16: what the costs are of these projects and those are 2 000 hours that actually they have as opposed

[4:01:07] Voice 16: to the 700 hours that they don't have so it might be um a way forward thank you and director sir

[4:01:19] Voice 9: are back.

[4:01:20] Voice 5: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just would like to remind you guys are going really quick.

[4:01:27] Voice 5: The policies in 2022 just changed in terms of how local trust committees in the RPC

[4:01:34] Voice 5: manage their work programs, how they make top priorities, how we assign resources and the

[4:01:40] Voice 5: creation of these teams. In that time, we've adopted those policies. We've lost a significant

[4:01:46] Voice 5: regional planning manager who helped champion those over there and of course myself as a new

[4:01:51] Voice 5: director so certainly the direction for regional or for regional planning committee is to help

[4:01:58] Voice 5: coordinate the resources of the regional planning team and they will monitor the progress of that

[4:02:04] Voice 5: as well as the policies and the overall work and distribute the communications to trust council

[4:02:11] Voice 5: council, and then out to LTCs. But the planners will still report to the individual LTCs in

[4:02:18] Voice 5: regards, obviously, to the projects. And that process of changing policy, changing teams,

[4:02:24] Voice 5: and changing staff persons is going to take time to roll out and happen throughout this term.

[4:02:30] Voice 5: So I don't think it's feasible to do it now. But we will certainly see it as we progress through

[4:02:37] Voice 5: the year and i think that'll be um but it needs time to mature it needs time to be discussed it

[4:02:41] Voice 5: needs time it needs much more time this term to do it i don't think we can do it today or even by the

[4:02:47] Voice 5: end of this fiscal it'll only be inching forward uh

[4:02:56] Voice 9: thank you i see trustee bernardo elias and

[4:03:01] Voice 9: charlotte bernardo please thank

[4:03:04] Voice 4: you uh what i'm hearing uh is that there is an emerging

[4:03:08] Voice 4: consensus here that the planning process needs to be put on a more fiscally rational footing

[4:03:16] Voice 4: in the sense that project planning can't come first, and then there's some kind of scrutiny by

[4:03:25] Voice 4: financial planning. The planning in the first instance, the regional planning or the local trust

[4:03:34] Voice 4: activities, when they're devised, when they're conceived, have to be within a kind of fiscally

[4:03:40] Voice 4: sound framework. As other people have said, we're not going to come up with that today or even in a

[4:03:46] Voice 4: couple of months. That's going to take some real organizational process work. And so we're kind of

[4:03:54] Voice 4: getting a little bit into the weeds here that isn't going to help us for the immediate task

[4:03:59] Voice 4: that's before us today and in the near future, which is, again, we're facing this huge revenue

[4:04:05] Voice 4: a new shortfall and we don't know how to deal with it um and um i don't think we're going to

[4:04:12] Voice 4: deal with it by talking about planning you know you know potential planning efficiencies

[4:04:19] Voice 4: um and i think trustee graham has already given us the right guidance on how to go about this which

[4:04:24] Voice 4: is uh recognizing that much of the budget in fact the majority of the budget is essentially fixed

[4:04:30] Voice 4: overhead. Let's look at what's available to us in terms of discretionary spending and then

[4:04:39] Voice 4: basically start from that baseline and add on whatever we think in our best judgment

[4:04:46] Voice 4: is consistent with what the trust counsel is likely to want that gets us up, you know,

[4:04:52] Voice 4: no further up than, you know, than the balanced budget or maybe perhaps a small percentage above

[4:05:00] Voice 4: above it, but start from that baseline of what is essentially non-negotiable and then work up

[4:05:08] Voice 4: our way until, you know, until we're actually spending, you know, we've reached the limit of

[4:05:12] Voice 4: what we're prepared to spend. That seems to me like a sensible way for us to proceed for this

[4:05:20] Voice 4: year in any case. And as I'm in danger of being overly repetitive about this, I think it's just

[4:05:29] Voice 4: Just in terms of managing the process, I think it's really important that we don't leave or we don't make a proposal in front of to the trust council that leaves them with a misapprehension that somehow they're just facing a straight up yes, no vote.

[4:05:47] Voice 4: And if they don't like something, they can just follow their preferences.

[4:05:51] Voice 4: No, they actually have to do some heavy lifting here.

[4:05:55] Voice 4: They have a hard decision to make.

[4:05:56] Voice 4: they are going to have to accept things that they want done aren't going to get done if we want to

[4:06:04] Voice 4: have something that approximates a balanced budget it's up to them if they don't want a balanced

[4:06:09] Voice 4: budget that's fine but they had better buck up it's going to be tax time and uh just managing

[4:06:15] Voice 4: that i am concerned that we manage that process in a very direct way so that they know that that

[4:06:21] Voice 4: that um they can't have their cake and eat it too and let's not indulge um uh illusions about what's

[4:06:31] Voice 4: affordable and what isn't um and in terms of you know coming boiling things down to what

[4:06:39] Voice 4: uh is non-negotiable and what is negotiable in terms of expenditures obviously we're going to

[4:06:45] Voice 4: be heavily reliant on staff in that respect but um i certainly think hiring outside consultants

[4:06:51] Voice 4: to do things that we might be able to do ourselves yeah let's think about getting rid of that um

[4:06:58] Voice 4: yes let's think about you know what do we do with these ltc projects uh but we don't have a huge

[4:07:05] Voice 4: amount of time we we you know we've been talking kind of a mixed theory and practice thing but

[4:07:12] Voice 4: we're actually stuck on the practice um we we need to actually come up with some practical

[4:07:18] Voice 4: that we can then bring back to Trust Council.

[4:07:21] Voice 4: And I would hope that we could get focused on that.

[4:07:24] Voice 4: Thank you.

[4:07:29] Voice 9: Thank you for that.

[4:07:30] Voice 9: And just before I go to Council Chair Lacombe,

[4:07:36] Voice 9: I'd just like to remind everyone

[4:07:39] Voice 9: that we're going to discourage the use of chat

[4:07:42] Voice 9: because of public transparency.

[4:07:47] Voice 9: And so I'd like

[4:07:50] Voice 7: you to stick your hands up

[4:07:51] Voice 7: and share these ideas in a way that you can

[4:07:53] Voice 7: but also personally, I find it a little distracting

[4:07:56] Voice 7: when chat pops up, which is

[4:07:58] Voice 9: a different issue,

[4:07:59] Voice 9: but I'm going to go to Luckum and then Elliott.

[4:08:03] Voice 3: Thank you, Chair Peterson, good chairing,

[4:08:08] Voice 3: because indeed I find the chat distracting

[4:08:11] Voice 3: and it is not transparent.

[4:08:13] Voice 3: Excellent.

[4:08:15] Voice 3: Excellent conversation here.

[4:08:18] Voice 3: I just want to say,

[4:08:19] Voice 3: I, you know, it's so much involved in this conversation.

[4:08:26] Voice 3: I'm really glad we're having this conversation.

[4:08:28] Voice 3: But I just want to say that, you know, this isn't just about projects, although certainly

[4:08:33] Voice 3: projects is an important component and how we advance that as a federation is really

[4:08:41] Voice 3: significant.

[4:08:43] Voice 3: I had a question, when I put my hand up, I had a question for Stefan Cermak, but I'm

[4:08:47] Voice 3: going to hold off on that question for a moment because I'd say it's not just projects, it's

[4:08:54] Voice 3: communications. There's all this pressure from every single person I talk to, every new person,

[4:09:01] Voice 3: every past trustee, is we need to do more in communication. And indeed, that's one of the

[4:09:07] Voice 3: elements in the budget that we need to fund and get it rolling. And then the other thing that's

[4:09:13] Voice 3: out there. And these are all the expectations that people have. We should do better communication

[4:09:17] Voice 3: and we should do better meeting delivery. And we lost the argument last budget cycle

[4:09:25] Voice 3: to invest in a staff resource to do the electronic, full-on electronic in-person meetings.

[4:09:32] Voice 3: And we just can't do that. It's not sustainable. And so if we want projects, if we want communication,

[4:09:39] Voice 3: if we want meeting delivery, we have to determine where the priorities are. And that's what

[4:09:44] Voice 3: everybody's saying here. But my, so, yeah. So, you know, my question to Stefan then,

[4:09:53] Voice 3: and what he said there was paraphrasing, we're not ready to deliver the full meal deal,

[4:10:02] Voice 3: or we don't have the resources. I'm not totally sure what it was, but what he said is not ready

[4:10:07] Voice 3: yet and so I can't help but want to get to the place that says okay let's forget all these things

[4:10:15] Voice 3: that are actually thank you for reintroducing word discretionary and non-discretionary David

[4:10:20] Voice 3: what do you need Stefan how can we get your regional planning team up and running and get

[4:10:30] Voice 3: this stuff done so that we don't have individual LTCs coming to council and asking for money to

[4:10:37] Voice 3: work outside of the regional planning that's the way i see it working outside of the regional

[4:10:42] Voice 3: planning function that council has invested in for i don't know the last three years or four years

[4:10:51] Voice 3: um and so that's that's my question and there was another thought that popped up there that's

[4:10:58] Voice 3: important so i have to come back to that if i remember um but how could we get there stefan

[4:11:05] Voice 3: Ron, what do you need?

[4:11:08] Voice 5: Well, thank you.

[4:11:10] Voice 5: And through the chair,

[4:11:11] Voice 5: I think you're seeing an evolving process

[4:11:16] Voice 5: whereby you have business cases

[4:11:18] Voice 5: of major and extraordinary projects

[4:11:21] Voice 5: over $5,000 being submitted

[4:11:23] Voice 5: for approval by Trust Council.

[4:11:25] Voice 5: So that is the first step in what we need.

[4:11:29] Voice 5: It doesn't mean that those projects won't happen

[4:11:32] Voice 5: if they don't get funding.

[4:11:34] Voice 5: They could either go via the route

[4:11:35] Voice 5: of special tax requisition

[4:11:36] Voice 5: or they could go through, I forget the term of it, but it's the minor project, minor active project, and they could be under $5,000.

[4:11:46] Voice 5: So your question, if I understand it correctly, is more about how do we get the regional planning team up and running and running all these projects?

[4:11:53] Voice 5: We're heading towards that by getting fully staffed.

[4:11:55] Voice 5: And there's interviews last week, for example, and so on and so forth.

[4:11:59] Voice 5: So we're heading towards getting that regional planning team fully staffed.

[4:12:03] Voice 5: it's just a very difficult time to retain to to attract and retain staff right now so that but

[4:12:10] Voice 5: that's happening and that's been reported to trust council for quite some time as you said over the

[4:12:15] Voice 5: last year it's been reported that we anticipate that fully staffed by the beginning of the fiscal

[4:12:19] Voice 5: April 1st and so that's what we're we're aiming for and that also allows me as a new director to

[4:12:25] Voice 5: get a decent terms of reference out for that regional planning team because indeed that

[4:12:30] Voice 5: that regional planning team has been informal and not formal.

[4:12:33] Voice 5: It only became formal with the adoption of policy this summer before I was

[4:12:38] Voice 5: hired. And, and so if you want to know how I can go faster,

[4:12:41] Voice 5: it is to quit having meetings and allow me time to create those terms of

[4:12:46] Voice 5: reference and meet with my staff, but I'm being cheeky. So,

[4:12:50] Voice 5: but there's other things you could do as a group. We could, you know,

[4:12:54] Voice 5: again, in the feasibility study,

[4:12:55] Voice 5: Mayor Mrakas, It says that 75% of the project requests are for third party contracts and that might be a simple other place to just call and say all work done by staff and no third third party contracts so not sure if I fully answer your question but i'm going to leave it there for now.

[4:13:16] Voice 9: Mayor Mrakas, Thank you for that CEO awesome pillar.

[4:13:18] Voice 9: um

[4:13:20] Voice 18: if in your situation if you're asking for some specific project advice i'd take fifty thousand

[4:13:28] Voice 18: dollars out of the regional planning committee budget and knock that down to fifty or forty

[4:13:32] Voice 18: thousand dollars or thirty thousand dollars i'm not sure what it'd be something in that area and

[4:13:36] Voice 18: stefan can um gesture as i'm saying these things i would also go to page 78 i would um i would honor

[4:13:48] Voice 18: the denman island housing project that's ongoing work um gambier's been waiting for years and

[4:13:54] Voice 18: finally got some work going on its ocp it's halfway through it same with hornby island

[4:13:59] Voice 18: so those are three fairly low cost projects that have been invested in um and you'd leave um salt

[4:14:09] Voice 18: spring to do as it sees fit with its um watershed allowance funding and i think altogether that

[4:14:15] Voice 18: that would render you $340,000 or $50,000 of savings,

[4:14:19] Voice 18: which is something like 4%.

[4:14:22] Voice 18: And those things could go on the table

[4:14:26] Voice 18: at December Trust Council.

[4:14:28] Voice 18: And if an elected official from one of these,

[4:14:32] Voice 18: from your sponsoring jurisdiction wants to stand up and say,

[4:14:36] Voice 18: no, now is the time for my project to go forward,

[4:14:38] Voice 18: they can make the case to their colleagues.

[4:14:42] Voice 18: But that would be a first blush at...

[4:14:46] Voice 18: getting something into sort of a more palatable range

[4:14:50] Voice 11: uh

[4:14:54] Voice 9: thank you for that cao and uh before i

[4:14:57] Voice 9: go to trustee elliott i just want to remind everyone we're now at quarter past two

[4:15:02] Voice 10: uh

[4:15:05] Voice 7: just go just for a second russ i'll be right over about quarter past two

[4:15:09] Voice 7: uh

[4:15:09] Voice 9: if we're going to make some substantive recommendations to trust council uh please

[4:15:15] Voice 9: Please put your pen to paper and start formulating motions so that we can get there.

[4:15:20] Voice 7: We have a number of items left that we have not got to on the agenda and rusts.

[4:15:26] Voice 7: Please go ahead.

[4:15:27] Voice 18: Yeah, I misspoke.

[4:15:28] Voice 18: The numbers I just quoted you still leaves the Ganges Village plan there because some significant work's being done on that moving into.

[4:15:38] Voice 18: and the first part that the next part that needs to happen is sustained discussions with first

[4:15:44] Voice 18: nations communities around that very important area and those monies weren't budgeted appropriately

[4:15:50] Voice 18: last time out so when i quoted you those monies i already had factored in the ganges village plan

[4:15:55] Voice 18: being included and

[4:16:00] Voice 11: uh i was

[4:16:04] Voice 3: just going to chime in um and i'm not looking for sympathy but it's

[4:16:07] Voice 3: quarter past 10 here and i'm gonna die soon

[4:16:10] Voice 10: go

[4:16:13] Voice 9: ahead trustee elliott okay

[4:16:16] Trustee Elliott (probable): i'll be quick um that

[4:16:18] Trustee Elliott (probable): was pretty much in line with what i was thinking um cao russ recommended moving the projects that

[4:16:26] Trustee Elliott (probable): are not in critical and ongoing um from the budget um i and fifty thousand dollars from the rpc

[4:16:34] Trustee Elliott (probable): placeholder funding my second recommendation i don't know if this is a motion but that the

[4:16:40] Trustee Elliott (probable): regional planning team be given the task of coming up with options and or recommendations

[4:16:45] Trustee Elliott (probable): for a regional approach in 2024 2025 that would bring online these projects that have been listed

[4:16:54] Trustee Elliott (probable): so the ocp review for gabriola um

[4:16:58] Voice 7: pause you for a moment please that's sounding very very close

[4:17:02] Voice 7: to a resolution and so I just want to encourage you to write that send it to Robert Barlow because

[4:17:10] Voice 7: it sounds like you're really really close to proposing a motion there and that would actually

[4:17:14] Voice 7: get us something on the table to discuss and and make a decision around sounds good you have other

[4:17:21] Voice 9: other comments then that's totally fine otherwise I'm going to go to trustee Graham

[4:17:25] Voice 9: am

[4:17:29] Voice 19: um i i just wanted to thank um ceo austin pillar sorry if i mispronounce

[4:17:36] Voice 19: your name for

[4:17:37] Voice 19: keeping the denman i don't want to speak for the denman local trust committee but i can tell you

[4:17:40] Voice 19: there's very little appetite on my island to continue this project um and i will be putting

[4:17:45] Voice 19: a motion forward so i will draft that and send it off to robert thank you very much chair um

[4:17:50] Voice 19: peterson uh

[4:17:54] Voice 9: thank you for that uh russ i see maybe it's a vestigial hand still up there

[4:18:00] Voice 9: okay so um i'm it sounds like we've got a couple of motions uh underway uh that will

[4:18:08] Voice 9: be approaching us soon i wonder um director mobs uh would you like to uh move us along for a few

[4:18:18] Voice 9: more minutes down our agenda i should

[4:18:25] Voice 12: turn my microphone on if the committee has if the

[4:18:29] Voice 12: committee has concluded discussion on the budget overview i'm happy to move us along whenever

[4:18:35] Voice 12: you wish i

[4:18:36] Voice 9: i think that's appropriate i think we're we need to be mindful of the time we've

[4:18:41] Voice 9: got about 40 minutes left left and let's move along and hopefully we'll get some decisions

[4:18:46] Voice 9: made before we are locked out okay

[4:18:49] Voice 12: we'll wait for uh the coming resolution then uh so we have

[4:18:56] Voice 12: completed review of the briefing overview of the budget in general there is numeric information

[4:19:04] Voice 12: about the budget included at agenda 9.3.3.1 so that's just all the numbers in financial format

[4:19:12] Voice 12: glory page 77 78 we have reviewed on page 79 I just want to point out an error a typo it indicates

[4:19:22] Voice 12: indicates that the total for new staffing requests is $201,000. That should actually

[4:19:27] Voice 12: be $111,000. It was pulling in an incorrect number. The proper number for the salaries

[4:19:34] Voice 12: is included in the actual budget itself. The error is only reflected on this summary page,

[4:19:39] Voice 12: so it doesn't find us new savings magically. We're now moving into the part of the agenda

[4:19:46] Voice 12: where we're looking at the business case summaries and all the individual business cases. Typically,

[4:19:51] Voice 12: we'd be pulling the committee to see which they would like to receive additional information on

[4:19:55] Voice 12: if there's particular projects or business cases they'd like staff to speak directly to

[4:19:59] Voice 11: or if

[4:20:06] Voice 12: we're moving right past that into future parts of the agenda i can i can take us wherever

[4:20:11] Voice 12: we need to go okay

[4:20:12] Voice 9: i see uh i see trustee boland and i'm going to assume uh trustee

[4:20:17] Voice 9: graham that your hand just didn't get pulled down uh after your last thoughts so trustee boland

[4:20:24] Voice 9: Yeah,

[4:20:26] Voice 16: two quick ones. One is the Secretariat Services provision of to outside agencies. Given that it requires, I think it's 30 hours or so of administrative staff time and we're embarking on hiring extra staff into that administrative function,

[4:20:47] Voice 16: function then I would question that we should be extending ourselves in that way and you know

[4:20:55] Voice 16: what is the point of providing the services outside when we actually have to we can't do it

[4:21:00] Voice 16: ourselves internally and the other one that I would quickly draw attention to is that there's a

[4:21:07] Voice 16: budget in the islands trust conservancy for a first nations engagement plan and I just wonder

[4:21:14] Voice 16: that they should have one that's standalone.

[4:21:16] Voice 16: If there is an engagement plan,

[4:21:18] Voice 16: it should be for the Ireland's Trust as a whole,

[4:21:21] Voice 16: even if it means one element creates it

[4:21:24] Voice 16: and the other element goes, that's good enough for me,

[4:21:27] Voice 16: I adopt it.

[4:21:28] Voice 16: But it's just two quick items that I came across

[4:21:32] Voice 16: where I thought, these don't make complete sense to me.

[4:21:36] Voice 11: Thank you.

[4:21:41] Voice 9: Any staff want to respond to that?

[4:21:43] Voice 9: I'll quickly, I'm going to recognize

[4:21:46] Voice 9: I recognize Director Frater.

[4:21:51] Voice 15: Thanks, Chair Peterson.

[4:21:52] Voice 15: So just on background for the Secretariat Service Request,

[4:21:56] Voice 15: this is coming from Trust Programs Committee

[4:21:58] Voice 15: and is in support of a council policy

[4:22:00] Voice 15: around Secretariat Services.

[4:22:02] Voice 15: And this is where Trust Area Services

[4:22:04] Voice 15: will contract an administrative person

[4:22:06] Voice 15: or will pay website hosting costs

[4:22:09] Voice 15: or generally support coordination bodies

[4:22:12] Voice 15: that work in the trust of which the trust is a member.

[4:22:14] Voice 15: So these include things like the Howe Sound Forum and the Southern Gulf Islands Forum, Bainsound Labrador Channel Forum.

[4:22:23] Voice 15: The other one would be Rural Island Secretariat, which puts on an annual conference.

[4:22:28] Voice 15: And I know there's another I'm forgetting right now.

[4:22:30] Voice 15: And essentially, these allow for dialogue on a regular basis, often twice a year between MPs, MLAs, electoral area directors, trustees, and sometimes the public around issues relating to that intersection of community.

[4:22:43] Voice 15: This service came about because particularly in the Southern Gulf Islands, the 2014-18 term was an awful lot of attention paid to what was called service integration issues, simply because it was sort of diagnosed that different levels of government and representatives weren't speaking with each other.

[4:23:01] Voice 15: And they valued having like a defined opportunity to do so.

[4:23:05] Voice 15: It is a discretionary program of trust council delivered through trust programs and primarily the staff work is in establishing contracts and then the coordination groups themselves, much as the Salt Spring Island Water Protection, the SWPA one is also a coordination function.

[4:23:22] Voice 15: So I'm happy to answer questions around that. With regard to the Islands Trust Conservancy point that was made, what it is, is they have a statutory responsibility to undertake a five-year plan or a plan for the Conservancy every five years as required in the Act.

[4:23:38] Voice 15: What's been proposed is putting funds aside to undertake engagement with First Nations about the next proposed plan, such that when it arrives, much as you do on bylaws.

[4:23:48] Voice 15: So this would be akin to engaging on a bylaw.

[4:23:50] Voice 15: You're engaging on the major document

[4:23:53] Voice 15: that guides the acquisition

[4:23:54] Voice 15: and disposition decisions of the board.

[4:23:57] Voice 15: So that's what that one is.

[4:23:58] Voice 15: It is not for a generic engagement plan.

[4:24:00] Voice 15: It's essentially to support developing a bylaw

[4:24:03] Voice 15: or a plan for engaging around that document

[4:24:07] Voice 15: that really does meet our intentions

[4:24:09] Voice 15: for early and meaningful engagement.

[4:24:12] Voice 15: Happy to answer any questions.

[4:24:16] Voice 9: Thank you, Director Prater.

[4:24:17] Voice 9: and I'll just chime in briefly on the secretariat role.

[4:24:21] Voice 9: There's a number of those functions have really,

[4:24:27] Voice 9: pardon me, really helped raise the trust profile

[4:24:31] Voice 9: and help the coordination.

[4:24:34] Voice 9: I think anyone from Denman that's paying attention,

[4:24:37] Voice 9: Bain Sound Forum might echo that.

[4:24:41] Voice 9: So just, it's not a huge budget.

[4:24:45] Voice 9: It's one that I think we get a lot of value

[4:24:47] Voice 9: value from them. Go back to Director Prater at this moment.

[4:24:55] Voice 15: Thank you. I just realized I was negligent in mentioning that First Nation leadership

[4:24:59] Voice 15: is also present at those coordination groups in almost all circumstances. Thank you.

[4:25:10] Voice 9: Okay. Back to Director Mobs.

[4:25:19] Voice 11: So I'll actually turn to you, Chair, to ask where you'd like me to step next in the agenda.

[4:25:24] Voice 11: Okay, so we have looked through the

[4:25:32] Voice 9: numeric detail. I guess that was those questions were based on the next, those next sections 9.3.1, I suppose all the way up to 5.

[4:25:52] Voice 9: I know that we do have three items that were added to the agenda.

[4:25:57] Voice 9: And I see the ever-helpful Robert Barlow has come in to assist me here.

[4:26:04] Voice 13: Thank you, Jerry.

[4:26:05] Voice 13: I just wanted to let you know that I have now received four motions.

[4:26:09] Voice 13: And whenever you want to see them, please let me know.

[4:26:16] Voice 9: Thank you for that.

[4:26:19] Voice 7: I just would perhaps like to ask a process question for a little bit of advice here in

[4:26:29] Voice 7: terms of the sequencing here it would be my inclination to go ahead and address 9.67 and 8

[4:26:37] Voice 7: and then look

[4:26:38] Voice 9: to new motions um and that would be my inclination and and uh if anyone feels that

[4:26:48] Voice 9: that's uh not the appropriate uh sequence then i'd love to hear that otherwise i think that

[4:26:56] Voice 9: i'd like just to go to nine point uh three point six and then seven and then eight that seem

[4:27:08] Voice 9: acceptable i'm seeing a thumbs up i'm not seeing any um issues with that so nine point three point

[4:27:16] Voice 9: six i have as the uh where have i got it now recommendation from trustee yates rfd from trustee

[4:27:27] Voice 9: to trust council this regarding in-person meetings okay

[4:27:46] Voice 11: uh just

[4:27:49] Voice 9: having a quick another look at that

[4:27:50] Voice 9: this is uh directed the rfd is directed to trust council so i'm gonna go to chair leckham in a

[4:27:59] Voice 9: minute but i then would assume that we're either going to just forward it to trust council or make

[4:28:05] Voice 9: some kind of recommendation and mr leckham please go ahead um

[4:28:11] Voice 3: that well it's interesting what you've

[4:28:12] Voice 3: just said there about forwarding it to council but i think um that it uh in order to be able to

[4:28:19] Voice 3: provide the opportunity of the and julia could correct me if i'm wrong but in order to be able

[4:28:25] Voice 3: to provide the information council needs to determine whether or not to include it

[4:28:29] Voice 3: it might be that we need to direct staff to provide uh options or information with regards

[4:28:38] Voice 3: with regards to including in the budget

[4:28:41] Voice 3: for in-person council meetings.

[4:28:44] Voice 3: I'd seek some advice and I'd be happy to make a motion

[4:28:46] Voice 3: based on that, just to get this moving along.

[4:28:50] Voice 9: Wonderful, I appreciate that, Director Mobs.

[4:28:55] Voice 12: So if all trust council meetings

[4:28:58] Voice 12: are held in person next year,

[4:28:59] Voice 12: we'd be increasing the budget by about $57,000.

[4:29:03] Voice 12: So that would of course put extra pressure

[4:29:06] Voice 12: on the issues we're currently facing.

[4:29:08] Voice 12: thank

[4:29:11] Voice 9: you for that um uh trustee so then we need

[4:29:16] Voice 9: to yeah

[4:29:16] Voice 18: we need direction to make that change or

[4:29:18] Voice 18: not all

[4:29:20] Voice 3: right so i'm going to just fish a motion out of my hat here i'm going to move that financial

[4:29:25] Voice 3: planning committee ask uh or direct staff to present to include the budget uh uh in in budget

[4:29:36] Voice 3: necessary to allow for four in-person council meetings in the 2023-2024 at

[4:29:48] Voice 11: budget okay

[4:29:52] Voice 9: thank you for that that is moved Robert have you got that

[4:30:00] Voice 11: sorry for not sending it to you robert it's pretty

[4:30:09] Voice 18: straightforward i think everyone knows

[4:30:11] Voice 18: so i think you

[4:30:12] Voice 7: could just discuss it you got there there okay and uh i've seen i saw david

[4:30:16] Voice 7: maude seconding i believe yeah

[4:30:18] Voice 3: that's

[4:30:19] Voice 9: correct all right so discussion well

[4:30:23] Voice 3: maybe i'll speak

[4:30:23] Voice 3: to the motion just to um please do get us off to a good start um you know i think that the

[4:30:32] Voice 3: The discussions that we've been having here right now today is why I think we need to really invest in ourselves this first year of the term and have more conversation, more opportunity for more casual conversations that avail themselves in in-person meetings at council.

[4:30:51] Voice 3: And granted, you know, that's a $50,000 we're putting in when we just took $50,000 out.

[4:30:56] Voice 3: But to some extent, we want to rush into getting the work done before we're actually ready to do the work.

[4:31:04] Voice 3: And I think we should be investing in ourselves to prepare ourselves to do the work.

[4:31:09] Voice 3: So I think this is a reasonable tradeoff and it will cost more.

[4:31:14] Voice 3: but I support both Trustee Yates and others in council

[4:31:21] Voice 3: that have said to me that we need to actually get together

[4:31:24] Voice 3: and talk this stuff through, that's it.

[4:31:30] Voice 9: Thank you, Trustee Bernardo on the motion.

[4:31:35] Voice 4: Thank you, I support the motion

[4:31:39] Voice 4: and I agree with what Trustee Luckum has just articulated.

[4:31:43] Voice 4: related. Although we've just had a lengthy discussion about the fact that we're under

[4:31:50] Voice 4: a revenue crunch, I agree that this is a sensible type of trade-off just because we're,

[4:31:57] Voice 4: again, this is one of those questions, like all of the things that we're looking at,

[4:32:02] Voice 4: considering whether we're going to cut them or keep them or add things to it, as in this case.

[4:32:08] Voice 4: In every instance, it's – the simple fact that we're in a revenue shortfall doesn't mean we just stop thinking.

[4:32:17] Voice 4: It means that we have to constantly be thinking about the value of everything that we're doing.

[4:32:23] Voice 4: And this proposal, it seems to me, is worth the money for the reasons that Trustee Luckham put forward and also for improving our profile in the trust.

[4:32:38] Voice 4: or public credibility rather of the island's trust we need to get out there and those we need to have

[4:32:45] Voice 4: those discussions we need to have these practical discussions amongst ourselves to be able to take

[4:32:49] Voice 4: the temperature of what we're prepared to do or not do uh and uh for those reasons i'm i'm

[4:32:55] Voice 4: supportive thank you uh

[4:32:59] Voice 11: thank you trustee bernardo trustee boland i'm still undecided

[4:33:08] Voice 16: i agree that

[4:33:09] Voice 16: that it's good to meet face-to-face,

[4:33:14] Voice 16: but I have a couple of questions or provisos.

[4:33:16] Voice 16: One is, I wonder if the cost and the impact on staff is in that,

[4:33:23] Voice 16: or if that's purely costs of hotels, et cetera, et cetera,

[4:33:28] Voice 16: if the uplift on staff resources required to run an in-person meeting is in it.

[4:33:34] Voice 16: And the second thing is, if we were to go,

[4:33:38] Voice 16: then I would recommend going to the same place each time as an efficiency because

[4:33:45] Voice 16: trailing staff and equipment around the place would be quite onerous. Thank you.

[4:33:53] Voice 9: Thank you for that. I put myself on the list. I'm going to speak in favour of the motion. I think

[4:33:59] Voice 9: there is an incalculable value to meeting in person, to all of the informal time that we have

[4:34:06] Voice 9: and I just want to voice my support for that trustee Elliott please thank

[4:34:12] Trustee Elliott (probable): you chair um I would

[4:34:14] Trustee Elliott (probable): like to offer a friendly amendment to the motion or um I don't support this motion its entirety

[4:34:21] Trustee Elliott (probable): we're talking about cutting critical projects to LTAs um at the cost of trying to save a hundred

[4:34:29] Trustee Elliott (probable): thousand dollars so adding in two in-person meetings at twenty seven thousand dollars each

[4:34:33] Trustee Elliott (probable): I think the optics of that for the public would be pretty harsh, especially in my area so I'd like to suggest that we allow for three in person meetings, it's a compromise gets us meeting together more frequently, but would save some money.

[4:34:53] Trustee Elliott (probable): So, okay,

[4:34:55] Voice 9: in the interest of expediency I'm going to say that's certainly not a friendly amendment because it changes the emotion.

[4:35:02] Voice 9: the motion quite considerably so if you'd

[4:35:05] Voice 9: like to make an amendment a proposed amendment to the

[4:35:07] Voice 9: motion that's perfectly acceptable okay

[4:35:10] Trustee Elliott (probable): i would make a propose an amendment to the motion that

[4:35:15] Trustee Elliott (probable): financial planning committee direct staff to include in the budget uh necessary to allow for

[4:35:20] Trustee Elliott (probable): three in-person meetings in the 2023-24 budget and

[4:35:25] Voice 3: thank you for that a

[4:35:25] Voice 9: seconder i'll second it

[4:35:28] Voice 9: okay the motion has been uh made in second uh any further discussion on the amendment

[4:35:37] Voice 9: I'm not seeing any so I'm going to go ahead and call for the question all in favor of the amended motion or the amendment

[4:35:46] Voice 10: electronic

[4:35:50] Voice 9: hands if you can please it's just much easier to keep the tally going on on this end okay I see two in favor of the

[4:35:59] Voice 9: amendment and hands down please and

[4:36:05] Voice 11: then those opposed okay

[4:36:14] Voice 9: i see four opposed uh hands down

[4:36:17] Voice 9: please thank you very much and oh okay great and then back to the original motion uh i'm gonna go

[4:36:29] Voice 9: ahead and call the question sorry sorry

[4:36:31] Voice 14: the may is that uh what was their count there that was

[4:36:35] Voice 14: three four and four opposed i

[4:36:37] Voice 7: i'm sorry there was two two two

[4:36:41] Voice 9: in favor yes okay

[4:36:42] Voice 14: two in favor

[4:36:43] Voice 14: and four opposed so yeah just call indicate the uh outcome i'm

[4:36:48] Voice 7: sorry it's definitely getting

[4:36:50] Voice 7: towards the end of the day for me yeah

[4:36:52] Voice 14: okay thank you i

[4:36:53] Voice 7: didn't prepare myself to chair this meeting

[4:36:57] Voice 7: uh okay so back back to

[4:36:59] Voice 9: the original motion then i'm going to call the question on that all those

[4:37:02] Voice 9: and favors please raise your electronic hands okay

[4:37:10] Voice 11: i'm seeing five in favor so please lower them

[4:37:17] Voice 11: and any opposed i

[4:37:23] Voice 9: see one opposed so that motion does carry thank you for that um oh why am i lower

[4:37:33] Voice 9: i'm raising along my hand sorry to confuse everyone so with that i think we should move on

[4:37:39] Voice 9: on to the next item under 9.3.7 from the executive committee,

[4:37:51] Voice 9: a recommendation that the financial planning committee

[4:37:54] Voice 9: amend the budget to include $75,250

[4:37:58] Voice 9: for administrative counts, coordinator position.

[4:38:02] Voice 9: And it's someone else definitely to speak to this item or.

[4:38:06] Voice 9: Well, I'd

[4:38:11] Voice 3: be happy to speak to it as the chair of the executive committee and seek some staff support.

[4:38:20] Voice 3: But ostensibly, this is something that other staff are doing and not doing their work.

[4:38:26] Voice 3: And it's necessary to meet the goals of the organization overall, touches on many different departments.

[4:38:39] Voice 3: and it's just a serious shortfall in enabling us to get work done and staff

[4:38:48] Voice 3: might want to speak to the specifics of that thank

[4:38:53] Voice 9: you for that I don't see

[4:38:55] Voice 9: staff jumping in right at the moment but I will just add my recollection that one

[4:39:03] Voice 9: of the important functions that this position is intended to help support is

[4:39:08] Voice 9: is that of the governance committee.

[4:39:10] Voice 9: I think I saw CAFO Hudson-Pillers' hand there.

[4:39:15] Voice 18: Yeah, in 30 seconds, Mr. Chair.

[4:39:18] Voice 18: There's two things that we've never accounted for

[4:39:21] Voice 18: financially at the organization post-pandemic,

[4:39:24] Voice 18: that is someone to organize electronic meetings,

[4:39:26] Voice 18: just like the one we have right here.

[4:39:28] Voice 18: So we've just been doing it off the side

[4:39:30] Voice 18: of each other's desks.

[4:39:32] Voice 18: And the second is, every time you add a new committee

[4:39:36] Voice 18: to the islands trust you can add in x thousands of dollars of organization and meeting all these

[4:39:43] Voice 18: types of attendant requirements we are low on administrative staff if you look back in the

[4:39:48] Voice 18: history of the trust we have not had a new administrative positions here for a long time

[4:39:54] Voice 18: and um we need some relief this is a middle pitched position that will relieve some of

[4:40:03] Voice 18: the pressure lower down um on the ground level the people who are dealing with uh citizens and

[4:40:08] Voice 18: so forth so um you'll see on page 171 is the analysis that and this may go forward for

[4:40:16] Voice 18: discussion at trust council i'm not sure thanks thank

[4:40:20] Voice 9: you for that uh director marler did you

[4:40:23] Voice 9: want to have something to add there uh no okay no

[4:40:27] Voice 8: i'm good thank you all

[4:40:29] Voice 9: right um so uh committee

[4:40:32] Voice 9: committee members uh any action uh desired by the committee at this point I'm not seeing anyone

[4:40:45] Voice 9: thrusting a hand Skyward for a motion and

[4:40:55] Voice 11: I'm still

[4:40:55] Voice 3: not seeing uh I'm sorry I I didn't realize

[4:41:00] Voice 3: we need a motion there so um does somebody else want to make that motion or should I make the

[4:41:05] Voice 3: much uh

[4:41:08] Voice 9: you have floor please please go ahead i

[4:41:12] Voice 8: just asked robert if you can put that back up on

[4:41:15] Voice 8: the screen for you yeah that

[4:41:16] Voice 3: that would be helpful uh

[4:41:20] Voice 13: sorry chair uh could you direct me what it is

[4:41:23] Voice 13: that you were wanting to see on the screen oh that's

[4:41:26] Voice 9: showing it we have a okay that's it right

[4:41:30] Voice 3: there yeah so i'm going to move the financial planning committee amend the draft budget to

[4:41:35] Voice 3: to include $75,250 for administrative coordinator position.

[4:41:42] Voice 9: Thank you.

[4:41:42] Voice 9: So moved.

[4:41:44] Voice 9: And do I see a seconder?

[4:41:48] Voice 9: Trustee Elliot second.

[4:41:52] Voice 9: Anyone who wants to speak to the motion?

[4:41:55] Voice 3: Well, maybe I'll just speak to it briefly.

[4:42:00] Voice 3: If we don't do this,

[4:42:02] Voice 3: we're gonna have to make some serious choices

[4:42:04] Voice 3: about what we're not going to do.

[4:42:06] Voice 3: And the electronic meeting administration

[4:42:09] Voice 3: is definitely one of them.

[4:42:11] Voice 3: When we didn't anticipate coming out of the pandemic

[4:42:15] Voice 3: out of necessity to do electronic meetings,

[4:42:18] Voice 3: to set a new standard at the Allen's Trust

[4:42:20] Voice 3: where now people and trustees expect us to do

[4:42:24] Voice 3: electronic meetings and in-person meetings,

[4:42:27] Voice 3: and we simply don't have the resources to do it.

[4:42:30] Voice 3: And that's just part of it.

[4:42:32] Voice 3: That's my spiel.

[4:42:35] Voice 9: Thank you.

[4:42:35] Voice 9: I'm just going to recognize Director Mobs

[4:42:38] Voice 9: before i get to you trustee bernardo uh

[4:42:41] Voice 12: just for clarity this position being proposed for added

[4:42:44] Voice 12: being added back to the position is different to the local trust committee meeting administrator

[4:42:50] Voice 12: position the local trust committee meeting administrator position has a cost of about

[4:42:54] Voice 12: 60 000 it's already in the draft budget this is a separate uh administrative position that would be

[4:43:01] Voice 12: uh directed at all of the items listed um bullets one through five uh primarily process uh within

[4:43:08] Voice 12: in the organization just wanted to make sure everyone is clear on what's being voted on here

[4:43:11] Voice 12: thank

[4:43:13] Voice 9: you for that clarity trustee

[4:43:14] Voice 11: bernardo thank you my understanding then is that

[4:43:24] Voice 4: this motion proposes to add 75 250 to the budget is that right

[4:43:31] Voice 9: do

[4:43:32] Voice 4: we have do we have i mean given

[4:43:35] Voice 4: the tenor of the previous discussion i can recognize this is an important operational

[4:43:42] Voice 4: position, but it seems to me we need a trade-off. I'm in favor of this thing because of this thing,

[4:43:54] Voice 4: I'm sorry, but I'm in favor of this proposal to add an employee to do valuable coordinating work.

[4:44:02] Voice 4: It sounds reasonable what we're being asked to approve, but it's in the context of the fact

[4:44:12] Voice 4: that we're running this revenue shortfall so where's the um do we have any suggestions from

[4:44:19] Voice 4: staff or elsewhere as to uh what we can um where we can find the money what we can cut from the

[4:44:25] Voice 4: budget to make room for this position thank you uh

[4:44:29] Voice 9: director robs sure

[4:44:32] Voice 12: i'll dive into the uh dark

[4:44:35] Voice 12: potentially unsafe space of the political realm um one of the things that trust council did cut

[4:44:41] Voice 12: cut from the budget in March of this year was about $100,000 from the overall salaries budget.

[4:44:49] Voice 12: This was to acknowledge that every year we do have staff turnover, and that results in temporary

[4:44:55] Voice 12: vacancies and staff positions. So every year we do tend to have some savings as a result of that.

[4:45:01] Voice 12: So the current budget is budgeted for staff salaries with the assumption that we are fully

[4:45:06] Voice 12: staffed all year long. If we choose to take the assumption that we will not be fully staffed all

[4:45:13] Voice 12: year long and we are likely to have vacancies as we historically have, we can include an amount

[4:45:18] Voice 12: for that turnover in the budget. If we look to historical values of that turnover savings,

[4:45:24] Voice 12: it would be around $100,000 or just over. So financial planning committee could recommend

[4:45:30] Voice 12: or ask staff to make an allowance to salaries to reduce it by $100,000 or whatever number you see

[4:45:37] Voice 12: fit to account for staff turnover. And that would offset this particular position if you are to add

[4:45:45] Voice 12: it in. So that's one thought about how you could achieve adding this position without an impact to

[4:45:52] Voice 12: the overall budget.

[4:45:53] Voice 4: Just quick follow-up. So does that mean that implicit with this motion,

[4:45:59] Voice 4: if it's approved there's going to be an amendment to the assumptions in the budget

[4:46:03] Voice 4: that that text will have to be changed uh

[4:46:08] Voice 12: that's a good point yes we could make uh an amendment to

[4:46:11] Voice 12: the assumption there that we assume we're going to have some staff vacancies one thing i'll take

[4:46:16] Voice 12: the opportunity to point out uh this position or this request is for about seventy five thousand

[4:46:22] Voice 12: dollars that makes the assumption that this staff person would be hired and begin part way into the

[4:46:27] Voice 12: year the ongoing annual cost for this position is closer to ninety thousand dollars uh so there is

[4:46:34] Voice 12: the opportunity to hire this person on a temporary basis or a permanent basis if permanent we would

[4:46:39] Voice 12: have an ongoing cost of ninety thousand not seventy five uh

[4:46:44] Voice 9: thanks for that clarity i just

[4:46:46] Voice 9: wonder procedurally if we're talking about balancing here if the motion does is not um

[4:46:53] Voice 9: I'm explicitly stating that if that's correct to assume.

[4:47:04] Voice 12: So the staff who are probably more versed in process

[4:47:08] Voice 12: can correct me if I'm wrong,

[4:47:10] Voice 12: but you could put this motion on hold,

[4:47:12] Voice 12: bring forward a different motion to reduce salaries

[4:47:15] Voice 12: for anticipated turnover,

[4:47:16] Voice 12: and then bring this back to the table.

[4:47:18] Voice 12: That's one option.

[4:47:19] Voice 12: And

[4:47:21] Voice 9: I suppose the other option would be

[4:47:23] Voice 9: to complete this motion and then bring a motion to.

[4:47:26] Voice 9: uh that's right um this motion is on the floor so uh i'll just look for any further speakers

[4:47:38] Voice 9: on this motion i i think um trust yell it if

[4:47:43] Trustee Elliott (probable): i may um i'll speak to this motion because

[4:47:46] Trustee Elliott (probable): that executive committee i was the one that suggested that this be added back in so it

[4:47:51] Trustee Elliott (probable): It was originally removed, and staff did say that they were not in favor of any of the removals, but looking for cost savings.

[4:48:03] Trustee Elliott (probable): The reason I felt it was important that this is added in is because our in-house staff know where these relationships are at with the individual LTAs and First Nations in the trust area.

[4:48:21] Trustee Elliott (probable): The risk that we could undo some of the good relationship building because of lack of administrative oversight, to me, is not worth not doing this job well.

[4:48:42] Trustee Elliott (probable): If you can scroll down to the reasons why, I think the trust has put us in a good position of putting reconciliation first, but the details and the minutiae of how that is done is individual relationship building between the LTAs and the nations in the trust area.

[4:49:02] Trustee Elliott (probable): And that needs a dedicated person and oversight. So to me, the potential cost of not doing that well because we've missed information and we have overloaded our senior staff, Claire Frater is doing a lot, is not worth not having someone in this position.

[4:49:21] Trustee Elliott (probable): So that's why I asked for it to be added on. I think it's in line with an investment in the efficiency and the good over the administration of this of this organizing organization rather than outsourcing things like this.

[4:49:39] Trustee Elliott (probable): So it's something I'd like to see built in overall. But, yeah, I think it's really important.

[4:49:49] Voice 9: okay thank you for that i i'm gonna note that we're almost at ten to three we have a number

[4:49:55] Voice 9: of items we haven't got some yet i'm certainly going to look to the committee and staff on uh

[4:50:01] Voice 9: what we might want to finish accomplishing today but in the interest in uh in the interest of

[4:50:08] Voice 9: moving us along i'm going to go ahead and call the question on the motion on the floor at this time

[4:50:12] Voice 9: I'd ask you all to use your electronic hands, everyone is clear on the motion that is on

[4:50:20] Voice 9: the floor.

[4:50:20] Voice 9: I'm going to ask those in favour to raise your electronic hands.

[4:50:29] Voice 9: Okay, I see seven in favour, so please lower your hands.

[4:50:35] Voice 9: And that is in fact unanimous.

[4:50:39] Voice 9: I will call for those, oh sorry, those opposed.

[4:50:45] Voice 9: And I see none opposed.

[4:50:47] Voice 9: Okay, that is in fact unanimous.

[4:50:48] Voice 9: So I realized that I have inadvertently skipped ahead of section 9.3.5, which was Salt Spring Island special tax requisition request.

[4:51:04] Voice 9: request and I apologize for for jumping over that I I'd like us to uh to deal with that and then we

[4:51:12] Voice 9: will get on to uh back to 9.3.8 which is uh the motion from Trustee Bullock so uh is there any

[4:51:24] Voice 9: need for staff to give us any background on the on this um motion to bring this to our council I see

[4:51:35] Voice 9: Trustee Graham, please.

[4:51:38] Voice 19: I'd like to make the motion if there's any,

[4:51:42] Voice 19: if anyone, thank you.

[4:51:44] Voice 19: I move that the Financial Planning Committee

[4:51:46] Voice 19: recommend to Trust Council that the Salt Spring Island

[4:51:48] Voice 19: Local Trust Committee request for 2324

[4:51:50] Voice 19: special tax requisition to fund work

[4:51:52] Voice 19: associated with delegated powers under bylaw number 154

[4:51:54] Voice 19: be approved in concept in the amount of 75.5

[4:51:58] Voice 19: and that the project be put forward for public consultation.

[4:52:03] Voice 9: Thank you for that.

[4:52:04] Voice 9: and is that a second from chair luckham i believe it is uh any desire to speak to this motion from

[4:52:11] Voice 9: anyone uh that being the case let's go ahead and use our electronic hands those in favor please

[4:52:30] Voice 11: okay i'm seeing five in favor uh please lower your hands still see two hands up still one hand up

[4:52:44] Voice 9: any opposed i

[4:52:47] Voice 4: i'm sorry to barge in like this but um sorry i

[4:52:50] Voice 4: don't i you know uh maybe it's

[4:52:53] Voice 4: my fault but i don't know what i'm being asked to vote on here uh i'm sorry

[4:52:57] Voice 4: could this be explained

[4:52:59] Voice 4: to me please uh

[4:53:01] Voice 7: if if

[4:53:03] Voice 9: everyone's all right with it i'll quickly say this is a special tax

[4:53:07] Voice 9: requisition requested by salt spring to be paid by the taxpayers of salt spring it's uh for their

[4:53:13] Voice 9: uh this is for their their water oh

[4:53:21] Voice 4: okay so this

[4:53:22] Voice 4: is all right all right

[4:53:22] Voice 9: asked us to to approve this

[4:53:25] Voice 9: send it to trust council so uh this will go before trust council for final approval right okay

[4:53:31] Voice 4: yeah it is helpful i i when i read the material i saw that item but i didn't realize that this

[4:53:38] Voice 4: was the specific they were actually specifically voting on that one which is if salt spring wants

[4:53:43] Voice 4: to do it that's up to them i'm fine with it so count my vote please count my vote included in

[4:53:49] Voice 4: those that approve it all

[4:53:53] Voice 9: right and in any case that that does carry and i apologize for uh

[4:53:58] Voice 9: rushing us a little bit i i recognize that we're we're very much challenged by time and over to

[4:54:06] Voice 9: director mobs please uh

[4:54:10] Voice 12: thanks so i didn't want to move past the second part of this uh request

[4:54:13] Voice 12: for decision, which is around the other local trust committee projects. So this is what we've

[4:54:18] Voice 12: mentioned to the committee previously. There is language in trust council's policy around special

[4:54:24] Voice 12: requisitions that says financial planning committee makes recommendations to trust council

[4:54:29] Voice 12: regarding budget proposals made by LTCs, identifying any LTC proposals that it recommends

[4:54:35] Voice 12: be funded through special property tax requisition instead of through the general islands trust

[4:54:41] Voice 12: trust budget. So we've been looking at the local trust committee projects throughout the budget

[4:54:46] Voice 12: discussion. If there are any that this committee would like to recommend to trust council to fund

[4:54:51] Voice 12: by a special requisition instead of the general budget, now is the time to put that motion

[4:54:56] Voice 12: forward. We have included an option for a motion on page 178 of the agenda package. You can insert

[4:55:04] Voice 12: the name of any local trust committee project and dollar amount there. And the director of planning

[4:55:09] Voice 12: services can speak to the projects and help you make an assessment of whether or not you want

[4:55:13] Voice 12: these to be funded by a special requisition. I just wanted to make sure we didn't skip that part

[4:55:18] Voice 12: because both components are in this report.

[4:55:23] Voice 9: Thank you for that. And I apologize for

[4:55:26] Voice 9: both skipping over this earlier and rushing us a little bit here. Mr. Lockham, please go ahead.

[4:55:36] Voice 3: Well, I am going to apologize because I missed that subtlety in there, and I've had the impression that this is a complex and lengthy process,

[4:55:53] Voice 3: And that simply suggesting that a project be included as a special tax requisition would require the public consultation, endorsement by trust counsel in a number of factors, the delegation of power and the like.

[4:56:12] Voice 3: or maybe that's just different with this particular thing and that that was possibly not

[4:56:17] Voice 3: necessarily able to achieve the outcomes of completing a project within a specific within

[4:56:24] Voice 3: a time limit or with any fiscal year can you uh help me with that gosh

[4:56:31] Voice 12: sure thanks so there is

[4:56:34] Voice 12: a very there's a distinction between delegated powers um and just regular local trust committee

[4:56:42] Voice 12: projects. So the Islands Trust has a history of special requisitions when it relates to work

[4:56:48] Voice 12: that local trust committees are undertaking under delegated authorities with SWPA.

[4:56:54] Voice 12: Setting up that kind of a process can take some time. All of the local trust committee projects

[4:56:59] Voice 12: that are submitted this year with the exception of SWPA would not require a delegated authority

[4:57:04] Voice 12: from trust council to the local trust committee. As such, if there's a recommendation to fund any

[4:57:10] Voice 12: project by a special requisition. It would simply be the responsibility of the local trust committee

[4:57:15] Voice 12: to undertake consultation with the community in January and February of next year. And then trust

[4:57:22] Voice 12: council would review that feedback and approve the special requisition with a budget in December

[4:57:26] Voice 12: if they so wish to do so. So it's certainly

[4:57:33] Voice 12: possible to have a project funded by a special

[4:57:36] Voice 12: requisition in this timeframe.

[4:57:39] Voice 3: Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I think we need to have a conversation

[4:57:42] Voice 3: a council about the whole concept and but that's another story and

[4:57:47] Voice 12: we would for sure yeah

[4:57:49] Voice 3: um thank

[4:57:51] Voice 7: you trustee boland um

[4:57:53] Voice 16: perhaps you could just quickly as a quick flavor go to the section

[4:57:57] Voice 16: where it explains the basis of the decision because that's kind of illuminating and um

[4:58:04] Voice 16: just quickly run past that i just scroll you know i looked at it myself here we go

[4:58:10] Voice 16: So basically, if the project doesn't meet the criteria 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, then the LTC can propose a request.

[4:58:26] Voice 16: And I don't know how often something would fall outside that,

[4:58:32] Voice 16: but it's just useful to skip to this

[4:58:35] Voice 16: if we are going to discuss this right now,

[4:58:37] Voice 16: but if we're not going to discuss it, that's fine.

[4:58:39] Voice 16: I just thought it would be useful to highlight this.

[4:58:48] Voice 11: CAO Watson, Pilar.

[4:58:50] Voice 18: Well, it's not that I'm confused,

[4:58:52] Voice 18: but I think you're about to consider some proposals

[4:58:54] Voice 18: for amending the budget.

[4:58:58] Voice 18: is

[4:58:58] Voice 8: that true i thought

[4:59:03] Voice 18: there were a series of i thought there were some motions that were being

[4:59:07] Voice 18: worked on just before the group flags that were to come that were about to come up here that was

[4:59:12] Voice 18: going to amend the budget maybe i lost track of the of the conversation i apologize but i i i

[4:59:18] Voice 18: thought that was the potential

[4:59:20] Voice 9: emotions but i'm not mistaken i i believe uh uh robert barlow said

[4:59:26] Voice 9: that he had received four oh

[4:59:29] Voice 18: okay so those are pending those

[4:59:32] Voice 9: are pending um okay

[4:59:34] Voice 9: i again i

[4:59:35] Voice 9: apologize for skipping past uh this section and in my no

[4:59:40] Voice 18: apologies necessary

[4:59:41] Voice 9: no

[4:59:43] Voice 18: i think you should

[4:59:46] Voice 9: i'm gonna go to trustee bernardo and then um and then i'd like to move uh back on track to

[4:59:55] Voice 9: to 9.3.8.

[5:00:00] Voice 4: sorry for this, but I'm confused. We had a fairly in-depth discussion about the need to

[5:00:07] Voice 4: address the budget shortfall or the revenue shortfall. And now we're just sort of,

[5:00:12] Voice 4: from my impression as a new person, we're bouncing from resolution to resolution,

[5:00:16] Voice 4: motion to motion, and I feel like I've lost the thread. And I'm hearing some things that suggest

[5:00:23] Voice 4: that, well, this is your chance to amend the budget, which is, if I'm misunderstanding that,

[5:00:30] Voice 4: I apologize, but it's ludicrous to think that we can amend the budget in a responsible way on the fly with an eye to the clock, even though it's been a long day.

[5:00:41] Voice 4: I mean, the budget, if we're seriously considering going to the Trust Council with a budget that considers making serious cuts to previously programs or initiatives that the Trust Council has previously identified as something that we want to do, and we're saying, no, you really got to reconsider whether these are priorities.

[5:01:04] Voice 4: authorities, don't we need some sort of more structured and orderly process where we go

[5:01:09] Voice 4: through the budget line by line and try to figure out what is reasonable to cut and what isn't?

[5:01:15] Voice 4: What am I missing here? And by the way, with respect to this particular thing,

[5:01:19] Voice 4: given the tenor of the previous discussion, it seems to me that all those LTC projects ought

[5:01:23] Voice 4: to be going into this, you know, like if they want them, that's fine. They can pay for them.

[5:01:28] Voice 4: The money just isn't there.

[5:01:33] Voice 9: Thank you for that, Trustee Bernardo. And I want to just check in

[5:01:37] Voice 9: with staff on what our options are we have a number of items that we haven't got to i i i

[5:01:45] Voice 9: don't want us to feel like we're rushing and uh so i'm just going to turn to cao hotspiller for some

[5:01:52] Voice 9: advice how much more time could we allocate today is there any potential for coming back

[5:01:59] Voice 9: activist discussion at another time before trust council well

[5:02:05] Voice 18: julia it's really this is more julia

[5:02:09] Voice 18: focused question mr chair um there um

[5:02:13] Voice 18: i i can't tell which way you want to go so one could be

[5:02:21] Voice 18: you could just re-engage in this conversation again on monday but then you wouldn't provide

[5:02:26] Voice 18: Mayor Mrakas, provide opportunities for Julia to provide some amendment, but you might not want to provide any significant amendment.

[5:02:35] Voice 18: Mayor Mrakas, Like previously had conversations around some of the specific projects that you may or may not want to amend them or not, or make a recommendation for trust Council to consider that these are the ones that would be the more.

[5:02:52] Voice 18: Mayor Mrakas, The kind of products that are are not critical at this time.

[5:03:00] Voice 18: um other than that i mean could you stay here till five or six tonight i mean i

[5:03:03] Voice 18: i expect you could um i i might have to leave in about half an hour um because i have a hard

[5:03:13] Voice 18: to move appointment but um it's really up to the committee i think

[5:03:17] Voice 18: you're frankly i think you're

[5:03:19] Voice 18: getting to the end of a long day so to a certain degree the the quality of your deliberations may

[5:03:25] Voice 18: may suffer like it would for anybody that's uh into hour eight or nine um talking about a complex

[5:03:30] Voice 18: topic like this so um julia do you have any other thoughts um

[5:03:36] Voice 12: just just to emphasize your point that

[5:03:39] Voice 12: you know the intention was to receive direction from the committee today and then i was going to

[5:03:43] Voice 12: work over the weekend to make the changes to the budget so we could include the revised budget

[5:03:48] Voice 12: in the trust council package that's going out on monday um we could delay the trust council package

[5:03:54] Voice 12: going out for a day if we needed to recess and reconvene I guess that would

[5:03:59] Voice 12: have to be on the weekend but you know you know I might my time is is fully

[5:04:07] Voice 12: dedicated to this today so so I'm good if this meeting runs a little longer but

[5:04:12] Voice 12: ideally the sooner we get direction the better but certainly we do want good

[5:04:16] Voice 12: direction as well so facilitating conversation we need to make sure that

[5:04:21] Voice 12: happens okay

[5:04:23] Voice 9: thank you i'm going to make a proposal and then i'd like to hear from the

[5:04:26] Voice 9: committee members on that uh i'm going to propose that we would uh continue this discussion for

[5:04:34] Voice 9: let's say around another hour today and that before that we might want to avail ourselves of

[5:04:41] Voice 9: perhaps like a five minute break and then come back so uh i see a number of hands up of 10

[5:04:48] Voice 9: minutes i'm saying um this so i'm just gonna uh uh ask if you're in favor of that proposal

[5:04:56] Voice 9: of continuing today either uh give me a wave i see a bunch of hands electronic hands up and

[5:05:03] Voice 9: assuming you want to talk but is everyone good for a five minute break and then we'll come back

[5:05:07] Voice 9: and buckle down some more our 10 minute break we're gonna so we're gonna come back at 3 17 here

[5:05:14] Voice 9: here and plug away. Thank you very much, committee.

[5:05:17] Voice 9: Thank

[5:15:26] Voice 11: you, Tim, for doing such an amazingly good job.

[5:15:31] Voice 9: Thanks for your vote of confidence, Mayreid.

[5:15:35] Voice 9: You know, this is really important stuff.

[5:15:38] Voice 9: I was actually just reflecting to myself how even more difficult this might have been

[5:15:45] Voice 9: had the election been delayed, as some people were discussing before all of this.

[5:15:53] Voice 9: uh right um so i we have a regrets from david graham who's going to be away for 45 minutes

[5:15:59] Voice 9: and he says he will check back in when he returns with his apologies um i'm looking around and see

[5:16:10] Voice 9: one two three four five we have uh other six members here so we do have a quorum

[5:16:16] Voice 9: so uh let us go ahead and get back on track uh i believe that i had indicated before

[5:16:29] Voice 9: our break that i was hoping we would get on to 9.3.8 i'm willing to take some suggestions

[5:16:36] Voice 9: from the committee uh about where we proceed now yeah it's

[5:16:41] Voice 9: just

[5:16:42] Voice 16: a quick suggestion tim and

[5:16:45] Voice 16: it's nothing to do with a specific item but I wondered whether just a question for Julia to

[5:16:52] Voice 16: avoid working over the weekend and burning midnight oil do we have to get the agenda package to the

[5:16:58] Voice 16: to the trust council like what about late next week I mean they have the financial

[5:17:04] Voice 16: they have the budget and what we have to come up with the suggestions to reduce it

[5:17:08] Voice 16: so just a suggestion that you know do we have to hold that line everything else all the other

[5:17:15] Voice 16: lines have gone out the window so far so why not that one thank you so

[5:17:22] Voice 12: i would have to look to the

[5:17:25] Voice 12: cao who's uh taking charge of the trust council agenda package to see what he thinks about

[5:17:31] Voice 12: timelines but

[5:17:34] Voice 16: we can carry on with the current agenda

[5:17:36] Voice 11: for the moment and come back to that later

[5:17:39] Voice 11: Thank you.

[5:17:47] Voice 9: Russ, did you want to make a comment at this time?

[5:17:50] Voice 18: I'm not sure what the, I'm struggling with the question.

[5:17:56] Voice 18: If you're not comfortable today making any recommendations,

[5:18:04] Voice 18: you would have to schedule a time to deliberate further in the near future.

[5:18:09] Voice 18: And at that point, we could figure out when we could get the Trust Council agenda forward.

[5:18:15] Voice 18: forward um it's planned to go out on the 28th this is the really the main business segment

[5:18:23] Voice 18: of the of the agenda the rest of it is pro forma in a way it's orientation um 75 percent of it

[5:18:31] Voice 18: you've got one till three in the on the first day to do some new business uh other than that it's

[5:18:36] Voice 18: it's budget focused so it's how long does trust council uh do the trustees get with the package

[5:18:43] Voice 18: to review the budget is the question.

[5:18:48] Voice 18: And they should, I think to be fair to them,

[5:18:50] Voice 18: they have to get it in as much totality as possible.

[5:18:53] Voice 18: They shouldn't get a version and then two days later get,

[5:18:56] Voice 18: hey, here's some potential amendments to it.

[5:18:58] Voice 18: I don't think that's good so early

[5:19:00] Voice 18: in the trust counsel cycle.

[5:19:04] Voice 18: If you wanted to delay a day and it goes out on the 29th,

[5:19:10] Voice 18: You know, I think that that's six days for Trust Council to consider matters.

[5:19:15] Voice 18: That puts tremendous, if you put a lot of changes forward, that puts a lot of pressure on Julia then to flip in a very short time frame a new budget forward.

[5:19:25] Voice 18: Ultimately, maybe you're transferring this conversation if you can't come to some, you know, if the status quo as it's presented can go forward to Trust Council,

[5:19:35] Voice 18: and they will start having the conversation that you're having now around what should be in and

[5:19:40] Voice 18: what shouldn't be in and what tax levels would be appropriate and that's simply the outcome if

[5:19:45] Voice 18: there isn't anything specific from the committee uh

[5:19:51] Voice 9: thanks for that russ i'm going to go to the

[5:19:55] Voice 9: amazingly alert uh chair luckham oh

[5:19:59] Voice 3: sorry that was my name um a little a little humor um

[5:20:05] Voice 3: You know, I think with respect to Trustee Boland's suggestion there, I think it's really critically important to protect the process.

[5:20:15] Voice 3: And to me, the process is that the work of the committee is to give council as much information as we can and what we know in order to allow them to be in a place to be able to make an informed decision.

[5:20:29] Voice 3: decision and I follow exactly what the CAO has said it you know honestly it would be unfair to

[5:20:35] Voice 3: provide additional amendments after the fact because trustees crack the package so to speak

[5:20:43] Voice 3: and they dig into it and then they go oh well why didn't they tell me that from the beginning so I

[5:20:47] Voice 3: think we need to protect the process and then just I really want to thank Joe for flagging what he

[5:20:57] Voice 3: he did just before we went into the break i think we need to i don't really know what these other

[5:21:01] Voice 3: motions are but i think we need to take that message and let's not add things back in but

[5:21:06] Voice 3: let's just see if we're what we're doing is providing maybe some direction and i'm thinking

[5:21:10] Voice 3: that one of them might not necessarily need money associated with it but to provide the direction to

[5:21:17] Voice 3: consider some actions and i'm thinking about the reconciliation committee because what we've made

[5:21:22] Voice 3: is a decision there that has already made that decision

[5:21:25] Voice 3: about funding something

[5:21:26] Voice 3: that might help potentially fund that.

[5:21:28] Voice 3: And I don't know what the others are,

[5:21:30] Voice 3: although one of them is to reduce it

[5:21:32] Voice 3: to last year's level at 6 point whatever percent.

[5:21:37] Voice 3: And maybe there's some corners that can be cut.

[5:21:39] Voice 3: So I'd say let's march on

[5:21:42] Voice 3: and let's push through this

[5:21:43] Voice 3: and get this to council

[5:21:45] Voice 3: so that Julia, who has dedicated the time I know

[5:21:49] Voice 3: through the weekend here to get this done,

[5:21:52] Voice 3: um isn't being shortchanged in any way shape or form um and we'll uh she'll be happy with

[5:22:00] Voice 3: getting that work done so the council's well informed so let's move on thank

[5:22:07] Voice 9: you for that

[5:22:07] Voice 9: trustee bernardo uh

[5:22:11] Voice 4: trustee luckham should be careful about what he thanks me for uh you may

[5:22:14] Voice 4: regret it the uh i agree we need to sort of um i i confess this has been an odd meeting for me

[5:22:25] Voice 4: We oscillate between, frankly, vague generalities and then specifics, and I find it disorienting.

[5:22:32] Voice 4: As far as I understand it, we have a problem.

[5:22:36] Voice 4: We have a 10% revenue shortfall.

[5:22:39] Voice 4: We have some loose ideas about what to do with it.

[5:22:43] Voice 4: Let's get on with it.

[5:22:45] Voice 4: Let's just do it.

[5:22:46] Voice 4: And then Julia will have whatever lousy information we give her.

[5:22:51] Voice 4: She will struggle with it, turn it into something that can go to trust counsel, and then we

[5:22:55] Voice 4: we can hash it out at trust council but uh i very much like the idea of that has been discussed

[5:23:04] Voice 4: uh in a manner that suggests that people are a little tentative about it so i'll be a little

[5:23:08] Voice 4: less tentative let's just take all these local trust projects that look like they're going to

[5:23:13] Voice 4: cost us quite a bit of money we don't have amend the budget so that they're all going in

[5:23:21] Voice 4: as special purpose projects to be funded by the places that want them. And if I am sure that's

[5:23:31] Voice 4: going to create a certain amount of energy, excitement, disappointment, anger on the part

[5:23:38] Voice 4: of the LTCs, that's fine. That's how we have the discussion at Trust Council about the dilemma

[5:23:44] Voice 4: we're in. So we could do that. But let's find other things to cut so that we're somewhere close

[5:23:50] Voice 4: close to a balanced budget uh and i've got to say i've got to i've and this is no way by the way

[5:23:57] Voice 4: what we're doing today this ought to never happen again this is the worst way to come up with the

[5:24:04] Voice 4: budget with minutes to spare before the information is supposed to go to the ultimate deciding people

[5:24:09] Voice 4: and we're just plucking stuff out of the air now i appreciate that the election has thrown a spanner

[5:24:17] Voice 4: are into the works but um this type of discussion i would like to think going forward the like this

[5:24:26] Voice 4: focused discussion on what we ought to be doing with the money is something that ought to be

[5:24:30] Voice 4: happening a much more disciplined way much earlier with that off my chest you've heard me about the

[5:24:37] Voice 4: ltc there's another item uh about the that uh somewhere in the budget there's a request for

[5:24:44] Voice 4: for $105,000 to fund the hiring of a consultant to assist in the amendment of the policy statement.

[5:24:56] Voice 4: Now, the policy statement is a big deal. It's not something we necessarily want to slow down,

[5:25:04] Voice 4: but I'm not confident it makes any sense at all to hire consultants to work on revising

[5:25:11] Voice 4: the policy statement. It's not a collection of words that needs a copy editor. It's our formal

[5:25:17] Voice 4: statement on the record. It's an expression of our goals. And actually, it is the bench,

[5:25:22] Voice 4: should be at least, the benchmark against which we will be held accountable by the public and

[5:25:27] Voice 4: other levels of government. And I don't know why we think a consultant can help us. I mean,

[5:25:35] Voice 4: in order to come up with a policy statement that makes any kind of sense for the Islands Trust,

[5:25:41] Voice 4: trust. It needs to be drafted by people who've got subject matter expertise. There aren't any

[5:25:47] Voice 4: except us. I mean, there aren't people out there who know better than the people in the Islands

[5:25:52] Voice 4: Trust about what the Islands Trust is all about. That policy statement should be in our voice,

[5:26:00] Voice 4: not in that of some consultant that is just going to be putting up boilerplate,

[5:26:04] Voice 4: not a consultant that has experience dealing with regional districts and municipalities that

[5:26:08] Voice 4: a completely different form of government. And it seems to me that the policy statement is an

[5:26:13] Voice 4: expression of where we're at as an organization. And I would consider simply striking that item

[5:26:19] Voice 4: altogether, not because we're going to give up on revising the policy statement, but that we're

[5:26:25] Voice 4: going to look and there's an alternative way of doing it. Now, I'm not proposing that we strike

[5:26:29] Voice 4: a select committee to do it, but that's one option that may come up at the trust council meeting.

[5:26:35] Voice 4: and a select committee that's representative of all the diverse voices on the trust council and

[5:26:40] Voice 4: i think we need to acknowledge there are different voices that from different perspectives

[5:26:45] Voice 4: have a representative committee and uh it's kind of amazing what happens when you lock people in

[5:26:52] Voice 4: a room and you tell them they got to do something six months after they've you know six months of

[5:26:56] Voice 4: that they'll get what they need to get off their chest and then they're in a position to figure

[5:27:01] Voice 4: out what they agree on and come back to trust council, the policy statement that, or at

[5:27:08] Voice 4: least a draft statement that's potentially worth something.

[5:27:10] Voice 4: So that's my suggestion, a bit long winded, I apologize, but let's knock out that funding

[5:27:16] Voice 4: for the consultant.

[5:27:18] Voice 4: And if there's other areas in the budget that people can identify where we're basically

[5:27:24] Voice 4: offloading something that really is within our competency, let's take it back.

[5:27:29] Voice 4: and if it means that we as trustees actually have to do some heavy lifting that we are actually the

[5:27:33] Voice 4: people are going to have to work on the policy statement and other things well that's that's

[5:27:37] Voice 4: fine as far as i'm concerned thank you uh

[5:27:41] Voice 9: thank you for that trustee bernardo and i'm going to

[5:27:44] Voice 9: encourage you to consider formulating some of those suggestions into motions that you could

[5:27:50] Voice 9: uh email to robert barlow and i'm hoping that we're going to get to motions

[5:27:57] Voice 4: My suggestion is this. If we have a plan to amend this budget, let's not hobble ourselves by having to do it piecemeal with one motion after another. Why don't we just have an open discussion about what's feasible, see if we can get some sort of consensus about it, and if we've got a collection of items to do, we can just all put it in one item, one motion, and then go from there. That's my suggestion.

[5:28:21] Voice 4: Okay,

[5:28:24] Voice 9: I hear what you're saying. My experience suggests that omnibus motion is actually sometimes

[5:28:30] Voice 9: difficult to put together. I

[5:28:32] Voice 9: want to recognize that Director Frater has her hand up and I'd

[5:28:36] Voice 9: like to hear from her. And I'm going to go to Elliot and Luckum and we'll move on from

[5:28:42] Voice 9: there. So Director Frater, please.

[5:28:45] Voice 15: Certainly, Chair Peterson, I'm willing to wait until after the trustee Luckum or Elliot

[5:28:49] Voice 15: have spoken if you wish.

[5:28:52] Voice 9: okay uh all right let's go out to trustee elliott then thank

[5:29:00] Trustee Elliott (probable): you chair um i have three motions

[5:29:04] Trustee Elliott (probable): in to um robert barlow and so i wonder if we could move to them because i think we've got

[5:29:14] Trustee Elliott (probable): i think i've been hearing what what needs to be cut and perhaps could offer um three

[5:29:23] Trustee Elliott (probable): ways that we could perhaps do that. I don't know. So my first was that if you could put the motion

[5:29:33] Trustee Elliott (probable): that the budget for specific projects be capped at $250,000, not including the special tax

[5:29:42] Trustee Elliott (probable): requisition of $75,000 for the SWPA, and that the Regional Planning Committee work with the

[5:29:48] Trustee Elliott (probable): Director of Regional Planning to allocate those funds. And further, and maybe this is an omnibus motion, that

[5:30:00] Trustee Elliott (probable): or there's a second one that the rpc placeholder amount be reduced from a hundred thousand dollars

[5:30:04] Trustee Elliott (probable): to fifty thousand dollars so this is in reference to the work that needs to be done

[5:30:12] Trustee Elliott (probable): in regional planning getting staff up to date and the fact that reach that the planning committee

[5:30:20] Trustee Elliott (probable): has not had a chance to meet there are some of these projects in some of those specific projects

[5:30:26] Trustee Elliott (probable): that we don't know where they're at um they might be ready to move forward they might need to have

[5:30:33] Trustee Elliott (probable): the business cases revised we just don't have that information yet and so what i'm suggesting is we

[5:30:38] Trustee Elliott (probable): set a cap of 250 000 um and that we let the regional planning committee go to work on

[5:30:48] Trustee Elliott (probable): figuring out which projects need to be advanced so that would save i think a hundred thousand

[5:30:56] Trustee Elliott (probable): The second one is that the RPC placeholder amount be reduced from $100,000 to $50,000.

[5:31:04] Trustee Elliott (probable): Where did that one go?

[5:31:08] Trustee Elliott (probable): The third, and this is just in, I had just sent this, so maybe Robert didn't have a chance to put it up yet,

[5:31:17] Trustee Elliott (probable): is to do with what you just mentioned, Joe, Trustee Bernardo.

[5:31:22] Trustee Elliott (probable): The Policy Statement Amendment Project.

[5:31:24] Trustee Elliott (probable): project um this is a really important project but again the current trust programs committee

[5:31:33] Trustee Elliott (probable): has not even had a chance to meet and perhaps there is some of that work that could be done

[5:31:40] Trustee Elliott (probable): in-house did that get up there so i was going to recommend that um there's an option 10 that

[5:31:50] Trustee Elliott (probable): we not proceed at this time and we postpone until a future fiscal year and that trust programs

[5:31:58] Trustee Elliott (probable): committee come up with a revised communication plan for the fourth phase of public engagement

[5:32:02] Trustee Elliott (probable): and the fourth phase of early and meaningful engagement with first nations so basically that

[5:32:07] Trustee Elliott (probable): 105 000 if we don't think that that's just ready to go and we can't recommend to trust council that

[5:32:15] Trustee Elliott (probable): that should be moved can that project be pushed down the line and reassessed by programs committee

[5:32:35] Voice 9: I'm going to thank you for that and I just want to I just want to pause before we get into you actually making those motions and looking for seconders and I want to quickly refer to Director Frater because she had an answer or a comment on one of those items and then I'm going to go to

[5:32:52] Voice 9: Julia Mobb, Chair Leckham and then I'm hoping we're going to come right back and start through

[5:32:58] Voice 9: those motions. So Director Frater.

[5:33:01] Voice 15: Okay thank you Chair. So just responding to the questions around

[5:33:05] Voice 15: the policy statement project. So at this time I just want to clarify we have like detailed direction

[5:33:11] Voice 15: from Council from their September meeting that's an outcome of the extensive engagement that was

[5:33:16] Voice 15: undertaken from public engagement First Nations and referral agencies to produce a draft that

[5:33:22] Voice 15: it would then come back to council in March.

[5:33:24] Voice 15: I think, I'm not sure where Trustee Bernardo was referring,

[5:33:28] Voice 15: but we do have in the budget $25,000

[5:33:30] Voice 15: for implementation of a communication strategy,

[5:33:33] Voice 15: which is intended to be developed this year.

[5:33:36] Voice 15: Much of the difficulties that were had

[5:33:42] Voice 15: with the policy statement last time

[5:33:43] Voice 15: were really as a result of the lack of understanding

[5:33:45] Voice 15: and the lack of communications capacity

[5:33:47] Voice 15: that we have in-house.

[5:33:49] Voice 15: And once again, we'll be heading into the next phase

[5:33:52] Voice 15: with a brand new communications person who will still be learning about the trust so this was

[5:33:56] Voice 15: intended to really help the business case is on page 82 of your agenda and at the top there we've

[5:34:01] Voice 15: got a breakdown of where the funding would be going so if you're looking for trims in this area

[5:34:06] Voice 15: um one so in terms of cancelling the project altogether i would just ask you to consider

[5:34:11] Voice 15: the extensive amount of funding that just went into it last year to seek public engagement and

[5:34:15] Voice 15: all that feedback essentially you would have to go back out again if you have a big lag of time

[5:34:20] Voice 15: between the conversations you've had and then meaningfully addressing it you'll

[5:34:25] Voice 15: then have to go back out again I would suggest if you delay it for a year or

[5:34:28] Voice 15: more if you choose to proceed some places if you want to look at some cuts

[5:34:33] Voice 15: the plain language editing is one spot where potentially if we can write it and

[5:34:38] Voice 15: you can help us craft it into the language you want it to be that may not

[5:34:41] Voice 15: be necessary graphic design would be another so that's 10,000 there and then

[5:34:46] Voice 15: then the other one is what we've proposed is bringing in part-time backfilling for 20,000

[5:34:51] Voice 15: to allow the senior policy advisor to really be dedicated to the project and that we would then

[5:34:56] Voice 15: retain some capacity to take on the other work that that position usually does for council

[5:35:01] Voice 15: so this would include everything from advocacy to agreements to all the other projects that TPC

[5:35:07] Voice 15: might want to undertake or so on so if you took that out you would reduce the flexibility of

[5:35:12] Voice 15: council to have any sort of other initiatives going on but certainly those are places where

[5:35:16] Voice 15: you could reduce the budget. On page 84 of your agenda you'll see we've put forward various

[5:35:23] Voice 15: options. Another option of course is to have less public engagement under the assumption that you've

[5:35:28] Voice 15: heard from your communities already and then the new draft is likely to reflect all the values that

[5:35:33] Voice 15: you've been told about and that you wouldn't necessarily need to go out again. So with that

[5:35:39] Voice 15: I hope that helps with the conversation and I stand by for more questions if there are any.

[5:35:46] Voice 9: thank you for that uh claire i'm going to go to director bobs and then uh mr uh

[5:35:52] Voice 12: so my comment

[5:35:53] Voice 12: was

[5:35:54] Voice 9: around the

[5:35:55] Voice 12: elliott's uh motions

[5:35:57] Voice 9: that she was

[5:35:57] Voice 12: putting forward it was simply a point of clarity

[5:35:59] Voice 12: the first motion

[5:36:00] Voice 12: around having projects i just wanted to be clear you mean local trust committee

[5:36:05] Voice 12: projects maybe we could amend the motion to include that as we do have several different

[5:36:11] Voice 12: types of projects operational so if you're open it would be great to amend that to read

[5:36:16] Voice 12: local trust committee project local

[5:36:18] Trustee Elliott (probable): trust committee project so i was looking at the um

[5:36:21] Trustee Elliott (probable): specific projects that's perfect yeah i know exactly what that is okay yeah thank you okay

[5:36:30] Voice 9: thank you for that and uh we can do that amendment in a moment and uh mr luckham please go ahead

[5:36:37] Voice 11: okay

[5:36:44] Voice 3: thank you um you've got a terrible echo there julia that suddenly happened so i don't

[5:36:49] Voice 3: don't know if you've got another computer on in the room or something. You know, I thank you very

[5:36:58] Voice 3: much, Toby, for the bold move. I think that that's what we need to do is give counsel, be bold,

[5:37:06] Voice 3: give counsel the true story that we think is what needs to happen. And I agree. I agree with

[5:37:15] Voice 3: with the characterization you've done

[5:37:18] Voice 3: or the motions you'd like to advance.

[5:37:21] Voice 3: I would recommend that you just,

[5:37:24] Voice 3: because I agree with Chair Peterson,

[5:37:26] Voice 3: it's easier to quickly go through the motions.

[5:37:32] Voice 3: Maybe there's three motions there

[5:37:33] Voice 3: rather than doing them all together,

[5:37:35] Voice 3: because if somebody doesn't agree with one of them,

[5:37:37] Voice 3: it just splits the boat and then you end up splitting it

[5:37:39] Voice 3: and it just takes more time.

[5:37:40] Voice 3: We've been down that road.

[5:37:42] Voice 3: um you know i'm glad that claire had a chance to speak there that was important for me about

[5:37:49] Voice 3: the policy statement and i'm going to be frank if if we don't continue the work on the policy

[5:37:58] Voice 3: statement we will lose it we will lose everything we've invested in it we'll leave we'll lose

[5:38:03] Voice 3: confidence in first nations from first nations in the work that we're doing and i'm not speaking

[5:38:07] Voice 3: for First Nations, but we've made significant outreach and we're developing trust, I hope,

[5:38:15] Voice 3: and we risk that if we don't pursue this. But I want to say one thing, and I'm not going to ask

[5:38:24] Voice 3: Clare to articulate any more, but just to consider a couple of things. For the most part, the

[5:38:32] Voice 3: The policies, the previous draft and this current draft, the draft that we're working on is actually happening inside the Islands Trust and it does have Islands Trust's voice on it.

[5:38:44] Voice 3: It's not so much that we're giving that part up other than seeking some plain language, which we are being told has a professional skill level that we don't have internally to be able to do that.

[5:38:58] Voice 3: that. But we could still do it the Islands Trust way, the Highland way, and maintain the character

[5:39:05] Voice 3: and language that we've got. If we can do it for half the budget by removing some of those options

[5:39:11] Voice 3: has been indicated, then I can live with that. But I really don't want to push this off because

[5:39:18] Voice 3: we pushed this off, help me out, Claire, eight years ago, maybe more, and we never came back to

[5:39:25] Voice 3: it and it's so important that we move the dial um so i think that's really all there is but let's um

[5:39:35] Voice 3: let's do the three motions and i think capping the projects is a great way of resolving it and

[5:39:43] Voice 3: then ltcs can speak to the projects with the regional director about what's important um

[5:39:48] Voice 3: cutting the the 50th you know it's going to be tough there as well if that rpc you want to cut

[5:39:53] Voice 3: that um and then cutting the programs committee and let's try not to add anything else in

[5:40:01] Voice 3: so over to trustee elliott thank you trustee elliott

[5:40:04] Voice 9: uh thank you chair luckham and i'm i'm

[5:40:08] Voice 9: just going to echo my support for uh continuing the the trust program or the trust policy statement

[5:40:16] Voice 9: work an awful lot has been done we're way behind and i think if we push it off we're just making

[5:40:23] Voice 9: the problem much worse as well as uh the resources that have already been expended i'm going to go

[5:40:29] Voice 9: over to trustee elliott and i'm hoping that you're ready to uh start moving the first motion

[5:40:36] Voice 3: one more thing quickly it's a context thing um because maybe trustee bernardo's not aware

[5:40:46] Voice 3: the the trust policy statement statement was handled by a committee

[5:40:50] Voice 3: internally trust programs committee and so we don't need to create another select committee

[5:40:57] Voice 3: to do that it was in the hands of trust programs committee admittedly we may need to figure out

[5:41:02] Voice 3: how we're going to do that because actually the trust policy statement belongs to the executive

[5:41:06] Voice 3: committee i made the commitment four years ago that we were going to work with trust programs

[5:41:10] Voice 3: committee and allow trust programs committee to do that rather than doing it the way that it is

[5:41:15] Voice 3: was determined in policy and so just wanted to put that into context so that work was done

[5:41:21] Voice 3: and it even had subcommittees and you know we've learned a lot there you go sorry back to you guys

[5:41:32] Trustee Elliott (probable): feature to that third motion there so considering and and this was in no way meant to negate the

[5:41:40] Trustee Elliott (probable): work that's been done this is critical to move forward what I was imagining was could we

[5:41:47] Trustee Elliott (probable): put half of that anticipated budget in this fiscal and push half into the next year and i

[5:41:52] Trustee Elliott (probable): didn't see an option for that offered uh it's on page 84 if anybody wants to take a look um

[5:42:00] Trustee Elliott (probable): this project is critical and and so what director freighter said um if we leave it for more than a

[5:42:07] Trustee Elliott (probable): year we'd essentially have to start the public engagement again that is concerning to me because

[5:42:13] Trustee Elliott (probable): that's just not efficient um we've got the the work put into it the communities are talking

[5:42:18] Trustee Elliott (probable): about it so um if somebody's got an idea of um what we could do i'm certainly open to that uh

[5:42:27] Trustee Elliott (probable): that was just my thoughts on where there was a significant budget item so uh if everybody feels

[5:42:34] Trustee Elliott (probable): comfortable i could go back to the first motion that on the screen there all right let's do that

[5:42:42] Trustee Elliott (probable): Okay. So I'm

[5:42:44] Voice 9: going to read it out and make it.

[5:42:46] Trustee Elliott (probable): Okay. So I move that financial planning committee.

[5:42:49] Voice 9: I just want to pause you for just a sec. I'm just going to let trustee Bernardo comment and then

[5:42:55] Voice 9: we'll go into the motions and let's, yeah, as briefly as possible.

[5:43:01] Voice 4: I want to be clear about

[5:43:02] Voice 4: something. And it's not that I'm saying that the rewriting of the trust policy statement be

[5:43:11] Voice 4: put off for a year what i'm saying is let's look really hard at what we're spending money on in

[5:43:18] Voice 4: that project i agree uh

[5:43:20] Voice 4: i'm not sure i agree that you have to redo public consultation because

[5:43:27] Voice 4: you've missed a year i'm not by the way i'm not advocating what we miss a year but there's a lot

[5:43:32] Voice 4: lot of people on in the end uh the the trustees are going to decide what that policy is they're

[5:43:42] Voice 4: plugged in with their communities the consultation has happened uh we're talking about a multi-year

[5:43:48] Voice 4: issue uh we know what the community wants uh my concern is mostly on the consultant side i don't

[5:43:54] Voice 4: understand why we need to hire consultants to do work that we can do ourselves and maybe somebody

[5:44:01] Voice 4: can explain to me what what what that particular light line item uh the consultant side of it

[5:44:08] Voice 4: is all about like why why is that even necessary okay

[5:44:12] Voice 9: and i'm just going to pause you there because

[5:44:14] Voice 9: we do have a motion that's coming up that's specifically on that so i'm going to hold any

[5:44:19] Voice 9: more conversation on policy statement until we get to that and i'm going to go to trustee

[5:44:25] Voice 9: Elliot for your first motion please and then we can work on that okay

[5:44:31] Trustee Elliott (probable): um I move that financial

[5:44:33] Trustee Elliott (probable): planning committee recommend to trust council that the RPC placeholder mount placeholder amount

[5:44:40] Trustee Elliott (probable): be reduced from a hundred thousand dollars to fifty thousand dollars and

[5:44:45] Voice 9: I'm looking for a

[5:44:46] Voice 9: seconder see trustee Poland uh did you want to speak any further to that motion trustee LA

[5:44:56] Voice 9: way nope

[5:44:59] Voice 11: okay

[5:45:01] Voice 9: uh chair

[5:45:05] Voice 11: luck um

[5:45:07] Voice 3: all right i'm inclined not to push the decision necessarily

[5:45:14] Voice 3: push the decision making off the council i think we need to make a recommendation and i i would

[5:45:19] Voice 3: personally prefer to see this and i can make an amendment if you wish that the financial planning

[5:45:25] Voice 3: the Planning Committee ask the budget to be adjusted

[5:45:29] Voice 3: for the RPC request from $100,000 to $50,000.

[5:45:35] Voice 3: And then council can just take that

[5:45:37] Voice 3: and then they can roll with it

[5:45:38] Voice 3: or they can push it back up again.

[5:45:40] Voice 3: I think, isn't that the motion?

[5:45:42] Voice 3: No.

[5:45:43] Trustee Elliott (probable): No, I think you're right.

[5:45:45] Trustee Elliott (probable): I didn't, I think that adds an extra step.

[5:45:48] Trustee Elliott (probable): So I agree with that amendment.

[5:45:50] Trustee Elliott (probable): Thank you, Chair Locke.

[5:45:51] Voice 3: So then maybe I'll just move an amendment

[5:45:54] Voice 3: and it's just how this process works

[5:45:56] Voice 3: because once the committee owns it, it owns it.

[5:45:58] Voice 3: I moved an amendment that the motion read

[5:46:02] Voice 3: the financial planning committee direct staff

[5:46:08] Voice 3: to adjust the regional planning committee placeholder amount

[5:46:14] Voice 3: to

[5:46:14] Voice 9: $50,000.

[5:46:19] Voice 9: That's maybe that's a total rewrite actually, but

[5:46:22] Voice 3: yeah.

[5:46:25] Voice 9: Well, that's nice and clear.

[5:46:28] Voice 3: thank you

[5:46:28] Voice 9: and and so can i have a second on the uh amendment i see trustee mod seconding

[5:46:37] Voice 9: uh any further discussion on the amendment uh then i'm gonna ask for electronic hands

[5:46:45] Voice 9: in favor please and i see seven in favor so hands down please and perform uh my hands to them

[5:47:01] Voice 9: uh trustee bernardo is your hand still up

[5:47:06] Voice 11: are

[5:47:09] Voice 9: you opposed okay so not opposed then so the motion

[5:47:14] Voice 9: carries thank you for that and on to the next motion please dr elliott

[5:47:20] Voice 14: uh if i may uh sure

[5:47:25] Voice 14: yeah sorry somebody's talking um so that was just on the amendment so you've agreed to change the

[5:47:33] Voice 14: resolution from what it originally read to now be untouched we voted on it's kind of a technicality

[5:47:41] Voice 14: but you only voted on the amendment so you should just vote on the original as amended

[5:47:44] Voice 14: thank

[5:47:46] Voice 9: you for that uh and and that's uh what precisely what we should and what we will do now

[5:47:53] Voice 9: so we'll let's have electronic hands in favor of the amended

[5:47:57] Voice 11: motion and i'm seeing six seven

[5:48:12] Voice 11: 7

[5:48:13] Voice 9: in favor. Okay, thank you. It took a moment and hands down, please, and

[5:48:20] Voice 3: i'm sure trustee Elliot is going to reword that second motion.

[5:48:24] Voice 3: So it kind of says the same thing.

[5:48:25] Trustee Elliott (probable): Yes, thank you, Sir.

[5:48:27] Voice 9: Yes. Okay. So once our hands are all down i'm one of them

[5:48:34] Voice 9: Then i'm gonna declare that that has carried and trustee Elliot.

[5:48:41] Voice 9: it

[5:48:44] Trustee Elliott (probable): fantastic um so if you could amend the wording to reflect um the motion above direct staff

[5:48:55] Trustee Elliott (probable): so that i move that financial planning committee direct staff to adjust the budget for specific

[5:49:06] Trustee Elliott (probable): or to cap specific projects but specific ltc projects did you say director mobs

[5:49:17] Trustee Elliott (probable): ltc projects the budget for ltc project be capped at 250 000 not including the special

[5:49:26] Trustee Elliott (probable): tax requisition of 75 000 for swipa and that the regional planning committee

[5:49:32] Trustee Elliott (probable): committee work with the director of planning or the planning regional planning team perhaps

[5:49:39] Trustee Elliott (probable): to allocate those funds and

[5:49:44] Voice 8: if i may just um wording after ltc projects i'll just get rid of

[5:49:52] Voice 8: to be yeah so that it be capped so keep b yeah thank you and

[5:50:02] Trustee Elliott (probable): perhaps um if we could change

[5:50:04] Trustee Elliott (probable): regional planning committee work with regional planning team or director of regional planning

[5:50:09] Trustee Elliott (probable): i i don't know if that's necessary but that there'd be some discussion for how to allocate

[5:50:16] Trustee Elliott (probable): those funds okay

[5:50:21] Voice 11: so

[5:50:27] Voice 9: are you happy with the way that reads now trustee elliott

[5:50:31] Trustee Elliott (probable): yes i am thank

[5:50:33] Trustee Elliott (probable): you so much and uh

[5:50:35] Voice 14: through the chair just one more yeah it shouldn't be director of

[5:50:41] Voice 14: regional planning oh i'm sorry leave it yeah no

[5:50:45] Voice 18: just just let the let these guys

[5:50:47] Voice 18: yeah

[5:50:47] Voice 14: sorry about that

[5:50:49] Voice 8: okay

[5:50:52] Voice 9: so trustee ellett you're happy with the motion as it is

[5:50:55] Voice 9: i'm gonna i'm going to look for a second uh to the motion i see trustee bernardo

[5:51:03] Voice 9: and uh do we should speak to the motion and i'm going to get right to you in a in a second um

[5:51:11] Voice 9: julia go ahead

[5:51:13] Voice 9: see you later for

[5:51:14] Trustee Elliott (probable): discussion no let's go go for it

[5:51:16] Voice 9: okay so uh director mobs and

[5:51:19] Voice 9: and then we'll see if anyone else wants to discuss this before we get to the vote

[5:51:23] Voice 9: uh just want

[5:51:26] Voice 10: to make sure my audio is improved

[5:51:27] Voice 10: no no it

[5:51:29] Voice 9: hasn't you're very echoey uh am i

[5:51:33] Voice 12: understandable or should I log off and log on? I can understand you. Yeah.

[5:51:37] Voice 12: Okay. I will use a few words.

[5:51:40] Voice 12: The way that I interpret this motion would be I'm unable to reduce the budget now by particular

[5:51:48] Voice 12: projects. So I would just be doing a minus, you know, X number of

[5:51:53] Voice 1: dollars and it's not going to

[5:51:55] Voice 12: be specifically assigned to projects. Not typically how we would do it, but until we get that direction

[5:52:01] Voice 12: from regional planning committee that's how i intend to achieve that outcome yeah just want

[5:52:06] Voice 9: to

[5:52:06] Voice 12: make sure the committee is we have the same understanding that's great thank you

[5:52:11] Voice 9: thank you for that clarity and uh if there's no further discussion on the motion i'm going

[5:52:17] Voice 9: to ask for a show of electronic hands in favor okay i

[5:52:33] Voice 9: see six in favor at this moment

[5:52:36] Voice 9: so please lower your electronic

[5:52:38] Voice 11: hands and any opposed I

[5:52:49] Voice 9: see one opposed uh so the motion carries

[5:52:54] Voice 9: thank you for that and uh there is one more there and I wanted to give uh director freighter

[5:53:06] Voice 9: an opportunity to uh she wanted to address us uh before we get into this one yes hello there we are

[5:53:17] Voice 9: Hi

[5:53:18] Voice 15: there. I'm just wondering would it benefit the committee to have you walk through the

[5:53:21] Voice 15: business case just so I can explain what the various pieces are to help you sort of craft

[5:53:27] Voice 15: auctions for yourselves? Certainly focusing on the first page of it. So if you'd like that I'll

[5:53:33] Voice 15: take a few minutes and walk you through where we're at. How does the committee

[5:53:37] Voice 9: feel about this?

[5:53:38] Voice 9: Can I get a show of thumbs up if we would like that? I see two thumbs up.

[5:53:47] Voice 8: I have a question.

[5:53:47] Voice 9: a couple shake i see three thumbs up so that's yes go for uh mr luckham and

[5:53:54] Voice 3: and clare just yes

[5:53:56] Voice 3: or no might be the best way because i'm trying to think about how we can get this done today um

[5:54:02] Voice 3: i kind of thought that what came out of that was a simple reduction in the budget from a hundred

[5:54:09] Voice 3: thousand hundred and ten or whatever it is just call it 55. um and with that budget you would

[5:54:15] Voice 3: determine how it is you can best achieve the goals that this council might want with respect

[5:54:22] Voice 3: to advancing the policy statement and maybe not doing some of the elements that maybe

[5:54:28] Voice 3: seem like an extra piece rather than that that seems to me to be too complicated the

[5:54:36] Voice 3: motion that Christy Elias put out but to advance it continue to advance it but just with a

[5:54:42] Voice 3: limited amount of budget yes or no and then you can go through the thing or not um

[5:54:54] Voice 15: well i would

[5:54:54] Voice 15: say if as in anything it's a it's a it's a maybe it would depend where you're putting the cuts as

[5:54:59] Voice 15: to what's achievable it's not as easy as a yes or no yeah

[5:55:02] Voice 3: that would be for you to decide okay

[5:55:08] Voice 9: okay

[5:55:09] Voice 15: uh chair peterson i see um trustee boland has her hand up

[5:55:13] Voice 9: yes trustee boland

[5:55:15] Voice 9: uh

[5:55:16] Voice 16: i am really in favor of what trustee bernardo suggested that we should own this policy and we

[5:55:27] Voice 16: should take it to the communities as trustees the same as the ocps are that they are owned and

[5:55:36] Voice 16: you know communicated to the i mean that that's really what the complaint was and some of that

[5:55:43] Voice 16: that was driven by COVID. And some of it was driven by, you know, centralization, because

[5:55:50] Voice 16: it's a policy statement that covers, you know, the entire trust area. But I feel really strongly

[5:55:56] Voice 16: that, you know, we should really own it, we should, we should know what's in it. And we

[5:56:01] Voice 16: should have communicated that well, I think a lot of work has been done. And there are a lot

[5:56:06] Voice 16: of recommendations and you know i i do believe that we should cut the budget we should do it

[5:56:14] Voice 16: ourselves and you know maybe this is one of those items where if we needed money later in the year

[5:56:22] Voice 16: we could draw on a surplus fund thank you uh

[5:56:28] Voice 9: thank you for those thoughts uh just to get clarity again

[5:56:34] Voice 9: was there uh was there interest in having clear uh director freighter walk us through the business

[5:56:40] Voice 9: case or do we want to get on to uh the motion uh walk through the business case thumbs up

[5:56:46] Voice 9: i see

[5:56:48] Voice 9: one i see two yes trustee ellen i

[5:56:51] Trustee Elliott (probable): just if i may i think this is not a great exercise to do

[5:56:57] Trustee Elliott (probable): right now because if we get a communication specialist and if timing works out to

[5:57:04] Trustee Elliott (probable): work with director freighter on the communications plan that budget could change could we not do the

[5:57:10] Trustee Elliott (probable): same thing and set a cap at fifty thousand dollars and then to be determined how those funds are

[5:57:18] Trustee Elliott (probable): spent and if that's first nations engagement you know i'm going to trust those who've been

[5:57:23] Trustee Elliott (probable): working on this project for a really long time um that's where the money would go if it's

[5:57:30] Trustee Elliott (probable): communications plan that communication i don't know i know a lot of work's been done but uh

[5:57:36] Trustee Elliott (probable): that's my suggestion okay

[5:57:40] Voice 9: and and i recognize we're we're at uh four o'clock here so um uh

[5:57:47] Voice 9: trustee elliott are are you uh are you happy with the motion as it stands on the there's been some

[5:57:54] Voice 9: discussion about that did you want to reform like that

[5:57:58] Voice 9: in some way or you're happy to move it as it

[5:57:59] Voice 9: it is

[5:57:59] Trustee Elliott (probable): no this motion doesn't work for me now um given the input so if anybody else has any other

[5:58:07] Trustee Elliott (probable): ideas please i don't

[5:58:10] Voice 9: want to so it in the interest of keeping us moving uh trustee bernardo hi

[5:58:18] Voice 4: uh i

[5:58:19] Voice 4: think um what trustee elliott just um suggested sounds um pragmatic and efficient uh i think we

[5:58:27] Voice 4: can come up with a motion where we simply uh copy i think some of the other language that we used in

[5:58:35] Voice 4: that capping language and we uh for this particular project we cap it at fifty thousand dollars as

[5:58:40] Voice 4: suggested and um the allocation of how that gets what it gets spent on um that'll come out in the

[5:58:48] Voice 4: wash later on i don't think it has to necessarily be specifically allocated in the budget itself but

[5:58:54] Voice 4: if uh so i'd be fine with a motion uh uh that just capped everything uh for this particular project

[5:59:02] Voice 4: of fifty thousand dollars okay

[5:59:05] Voice 9: thank you for that and uh is anyone prepared to take a stab at a

[5:59:09] Voice 9: motion uh uh yes sir yeah

[5:59:16] Voice 14: the motion is on the floor correct uh

[5:59:19] Voice 9: no it hasn't been moved okay

[5:59:21] Voice 14: Okay, thank you.

[5:59:26] Voice 9: And so is someone going to work on that?

[5:59:29] Voice 9: And I know that earlier Trustee Graham said

[5:59:33] Voice 9: that he had a motion that he had forwarded to,

[5:59:37] Voice 9: which I believe is a different,

[5:59:40] Voice 9: but also budgetary than the one we've looked at.

[5:59:44] Voice 9: So I'm wondering if we can look at that

[5:59:46] Voice 9: and someone can formulate the motion regarding that.

[5:59:48] Voice 3: Well, could we scroll up to the previous motion?

[5:59:51] Voice 3: because I think as we could just use that and I'll let trustee Graham

[6:00:00] Voice 3: run with it or i'll make a motion okay

[6:00:03] Voice 9: i'm gonna go to trustee graham and then uh that gives you

[6:00:06] Voice 9: an extra moment to uh to consider so trustee graham

[6:00:09] Voice 19: thank you chair um so so i made the motion

[6:00:13] Voice 19: um but subsequent to that it sounds like the committee is doing uh the work that makes my

[6:00:22] Voice 19: motion um no so i will withdraw my motion my suggestion of emotion okay

[6:00:29] Voice 9: thank thank you for

[6:00:32] Voice 9: that yeah and i i i think that i see that yeah uh ceo i think with

[6:00:38] Voice 18: regard i think with regards

[6:00:39] Voice 18: to the policy statement uh the motion would simply be that the uh policy statement project be capped

[6:00:44] Voice 18: at fifty thousand dollars exactly it's it's that simple yeah i'll move if that's what claire's

[6:00:51] Voice 18: advice was that as we went through it it would be that simple

[6:00:54] Voice 3: yeah yeah the financial planning

[6:00:56] Voice 3: direct staff to adjust the budget for the island's trust policy statement to

[6:01:06] Voice 3: be

[6:01:06] Voice 11: capped at fifty thousand dollars okay

[6:01:18] Voice 9: and uh trusty mod you're seconding

[6:01:21] Voice 3: sorry actually before

[6:01:23] Voice 3: that seconded and yes and this was i know claire this will be tough because you weren't planning

[6:01:28] Voice 3: I'm working all weekend along with Claire, but that the scope of work should be adjusted.

[6:01:38] Voice 15: Chair, might

[6:01:38] Voice 15: I respond to that? Yes.

[6:01:42] Voice 15: I really think the decision about how to amend the scope of work is a political one.

[6:01:46] Voice 15: To what extent do you want support communicating with communities? And to what extent do you want

[6:01:51] Voice 15: to re-engage communities? I think is part of the question. And to what extent do you want

[6:01:55] Voice 15: want to offer capacity funding to First Nations. Those aren't particularly staff considerations,

[6:02:01] Voice 15: so a bit of direction there would be somewhat helpful. Certainly, as

[6:02:04] Voice 15: I've advised, I thought

[6:02:06] Voice 15: we could cut the plain language editorial services, graphic design, and some of the backfilling

[6:02:12] Voice 15: without, that's the staff place where I certainly can advise. What's

[6:02:15] Voice 18: that total, Claire? That was

[6:02:17] Voice 15: 30,000. We could certainly trim the communications consultant, but what I'll say is that proves to

[6:02:22] Voice 15: to be quite full-time work.

[6:02:24] Voice 15: Our communications specialist position,

[6:02:26] Voice 15: the one position we have is completely maxed

[6:02:29] Voice 15: with regular duties of the trust,

[6:02:31] Voice 15: producing annual reports, news releases, social media,

[6:02:34] Voice 15: maintaining the website, et cetera.

[6:02:35] Voice 15: There isn't really space in that position

[6:02:37] Voice 15: for any kind of project support.

[6:02:39] Voice 3: So can I suggest then that this actually then say,

[6:02:43] Voice 3: and that options be provided to adjust the scope of work

[6:02:52] Voice 3: before the work is um begun or something like that because i think that what we're wanting

[6:03:00] Voice 3: to do is give you the money and then you can say this is what i can do for that money and then

[6:03:04] Voice 3: council can endorse that as a project yeah

[6:03:07] Voice 15: happy to come back with revisions okay that

[6:03:10] Voice 9: that seems

[6:03:11] Voice 9: reasonable okay and then so we're happy with the motion uh mr luckham yeah

[6:03:16] Voice 3: okay

[6:03:17] Voice 9: so then i see david

[6:03:19] Voice 9: seconding and discussion on the motion uh see trustee boland

[6:03:27] Voice 16: um i think that uh toby's original

[6:03:31] Voice 16: motion was you know that a communications person is uh that is being hired i believe and that the

[6:03:39] Voice 16: scope of work i i don't think it's appropriate to change the scope of work right now because

[6:03:44] Voice 16: there are a number of discussions ongoing about trustees working on it themselves etc etc

[6:03:51] Voice 16: do we need a plain language you know writer do we need this do we need that i i don't think that

[6:03:58] Voice 16: we should put in there that the scope of work should be adjusted right now it could be adjusted

[6:04:03] Voice 16: later but not right now thank you okay

[6:04:07] Voice 9: thank you for that comment uh chair luckham i don't think

[6:04:12] Voice 3: it would be fair to um take the the business case that's provided and cut the budget in half because

[6:04:22] Voice 3: then the expectation will be that that all that work would get done and that's simply not going

[6:04:27] Voice 3: to happen so i think that the if we if staff bring back options to council maybe it should

[6:04:33] Voice 3: say options to council be provided to adjust the scope of work that can happen later exactly as

[6:04:38] Voice 3: you've said and that that can be a decision

[6:04:44] Voice 11: made to that effect okay and

[6:04:54] Voice 9: uh trustee bowler did you

[6:04:56] Voice 9: you want to speak again or is your head still up uh

[6:04:59] Voice 16: just a quick response i fully take the case

[6:05:02] Voice 16: that we cannot expect the same scope of work to be done for half the amount and that the scope of

[6:05:08] Voice 16: work would have to be adjusted and discussed that's not a problem and if you want to capture

[6:05:13] Voice 16: that that's fine but i thought it was more specific than that that we were going to be

[6:05:20] Voice 16: be given another roadmap before the trust council I think through the year the same as with the

[6:05:27] Voice 16: LTA projects there needs to be some thought and planning around how to do things differently

[6:05:35] Voice 16: and so that's where I'm going with that I don't want to overload people and assume they do the

[6:05:40] Voice 16: work for half the money that wasn't my intention thank you

[6:05:43] Voice 3: understood so then just to put back

[6:05:47] Voice 3: clarity then that i would just adjust the end of that that says and that options be provided to

[6:05:54] Voice 3: council to adjust the scope of the work uh post uh um

[6:06:01] Voice 9: uh pending the

[6:06:04] Voice 3: approval of the the budget

[6:06:07] Voice 3: how about in due course yeah that's better yeah in due course yeah thank you

[6:06:13] Voice 9: yeah perfect

[6:06:20] Voice 3: okay so i think that helps get us all in the same place

[6:06:22] Voice 3: we're

[6:06:23] Voice 9: getting to the clarity that we're looking for and it's okay i saw dressy bernardo's hand

[6:06:28] Voice 9: has gone down so if we are happy with the wording now or happy enough i'm going to look for

[6:06:36] Voice 9: electronic hands in favor please and i'm seeing five in favor so please lower your electronic

[6:06:54] Voice 9: of hands and any opposed

[6:07:01] Voice 11: and i see

[6:07:05] Voice 9: two opposed so that carries okay so that was the uh the

[6:07:19] Voice 9: chair luckum yeah

[6:07:20] Voice 3: i just want to um thank uh trustee elliott and and trustee bernardo

[6:07:26] Voice 3: as well but um to for being bold and taking us in this direction this is what we need so thank you

[6:07:32] Voice 3: uh

[6:07:35] Voice 9: thanks for that comment now to i believe that we still had a notice of motion from trustee boland

[6:07:47] Voice 9: under 9.3.8 so if the committee feels that's appropriate then i think that was where we

[6:07:54] Voice 9: should probably go next trustee boland to

[6:08:01] Voice 16: be honest i would like to if it's appropriate

[6:08:06] Voice 16: withdraw that because i see that we are heading in the right direction and i in recognition of that

[6:08:14] Voice 16: um and yeah i think we're doing a good job and heading in the right direction and in recognition

[6:08:23] Voice 16: of that i would remove that motion okay

[6:08:26] Voice 9: uh that's easy enough because we haven't actually it hasn't

[6:08:30] Voice 9: actually been made yet so yeah uh

[6:08:32] Voice 7: on we go so i

[6:08:34] Voice 16: might i might be forced to put it back in later

[6:08:37] Voice 16: if you don't just keep up the pace okay okay

[6:08:42] Voice 7: so

[6:08:43] Voice 9: uh that being the case uh

[6:08:54] Voice 9: um i believe that brings us to 9.4 the 2023-24 budget consultation program briefing

[6:09:05] Trustee Elliott (probable): that

[6:09:06] Voice 9: seem correct

[6:09:07] Trustee Elliott (probable): i made sure um there's two motions that i could put forward but i'm not

[6:09:12] Trustee Elliott (probable): sure if this is the time or the place for them um these are maybe more political ones and not

[6:09:18] Trustee Elliott (probable): to do with specific are

[6:09:20] Voice 9: those up on the board now or on

[6:09:23] Trustee Elliott (probable): the screen um everyone wants to take

[6:09:26] Trustee Elliott (probable): a quick look but

[6:09:27] Voice 9: i'm happy to defer to the will of the committee at this at this time so everyone

[6:09:33] Voice 9: just take a little moment and then we'll decide uh the straw

[6:09:38] Voice 11: ball robert barlow

[6:09:46] Voice 9: robert barlow please i just

[6:09:48] Voice 13: want to make sure that you understand there i have received

[6:09:51] Voice 13: three or four other motions oh

[6:09:54] Voice 9: in addition okay thank you for that information so i i am if i'm

[6:10:06] Voice 9: reading the room correctly i believe that what we're uh hoping to accomplish in the next bit

[6:10:12] Voice 9: bit here is to go through motions that actually address

[6:10:15] Voice 9: potential reductions to the budget.

[6:10:17] Voice 9: I'm going to recognize Chair Locke.

[6:10:23] Voice 3: Yeah, you've essentially said what I'm thinking,

[6:10:26] Voice 3: both of these topics, I think need some discussion,

[6:10:29] Voice 3: particularly the second one,

[6:10:31] Voice 3: and that it's not pertinent to advancing the budget

[6:10:34] Voice 3: at this time.

[6:10:36] Voice 3: So I'd

[6:10:36] Voice 9: say that's-

[6:10:37] Voice 9: I would tend to agree.

[6:10:39] Voice 9: Yeah.

[6:10:39] Trustee Elliott (probable): So,

[6:10:40] Voice 9: so-

[6:10:43] Trustee Elliott (probable): i'm not going to move these it's just uh i

[6:10:46] Voice 9: was just recognizing

[6:10:47] Trustee Elliott (probable): that we need a process to address

[6:10:49] Trustee Elliott (probable): some of the things that are dropped off the budget but now it's not the time to do it

[6:10:53] Voice 9: yeah uh and

[6:10:55] Voice 9: thank you for that and those are those are good thoughts that we definitely need to address and

[6:10:59] Voice 9: maybe that's a trust council so um i think process wise maybe robert will uh could go ahead and put

[6:11:09] Voice 9: put up some of the next motions

[6:11:12] Voice 9: and then whoever owns those can raise their hands

[6:11:15] Voice 9: and I'll get them to make the motion.

[6:11:20] Voice 8: I'm not sure that this is relevant at this time.

[6:11:29] Voice 8: We

[6:11:29] Voice 18: could have the motions just put up on the screen

[6:11:32] Voice 18: in totality, the four of them,

[6:11:34] Voice 18: and you could see

[6:11:35] Voice 13: which ones are

[6:11:36] Voice 18: budget related

[6:11:37] Voice 18: and which ones aren't.

[6:11:38] Voice 18: And then is that possible, Robert?

[6:11:40] Voice 18: Robert.

[6:11:43] Voice 13: Yes, but I'd have to make it smaller for you to see them.

[6:11:48] Voice 14: Robert, just to help you, put the cursor between the pages and it'll turn to a line.

[6:11:55] Voice 14: Go down there. Scroll down.

[6:11:58] Voice 8: OK, double click or click. It should get rid of the.

[6:12:03] Voice 8: There you go. Now you should be able

[6:12:06] Voice 14: to see both pages together.

[6:12:07] Voice 14: other uh

[6:12:09] Voice 13: so the question is are there any other motions that i've received that you have not

[6:12:15] Voice 13: considered is that correct chair yes

[6:12:20] Voice 9: i believe and

[6:12:22] Voice 13: it appears to be these three would you zoom

[6:12:28] Voice 16: back in again please great

[6:12:32] Voice 11: thank you well we just discussed

[6:12:45] Voice 11: the first two sorry yeah okay so it

[6:12:55] Voice 9: looks to me like the third one is definitely budget related and i'm going to recognize trustee

[6:12:59] Voice 9: Graham up there waving his hat uh

[6:13:02] Voice 19: thank you chair yeah that third one I I tried to remove it I don't

[6:13:05] Voice 19: think Robert caught that so I have removed uh the requirement to uh that be considered as a motion

[6:13:14] Voice 9: okay so are we then caught up on motions directly related to the budget I just want to be clear

[6:13:21] Voice 16: yeah

[6:13:22] Voice 9: uh okay uh trustee poland um

[6:13:25] Voice 16: i sent one to you robert just in the last 10 minutes it was

[6:13:30] Voice 16: catching up on the expensing the salaries item um the hundred thousand which would require an

[6:13:39] Voice 16: adjustment to the um budget assumptions and principles the one that was discussed in the

[6:13:46] Voice 16: the context of the new staff position yeah

[6:13:51] Voice 11: great thank you okay do you wish to go ahead and make

[6:14:04] Voice 11: that motion uh

[6:14:06] Voice 16: yes i'll just read it uh financial planning i move that financial planning committee

[6:14:12] Voice 16: direct staff to reduce the salaries budget by 100 000 to acknowledge anticipated staff turnover

[6:14:19] Voice 16: over in periodic vacancies in line with historic staffing realities and that the

[6:14:26] Voice 16: budget assumptions and principles be amended to reflect this assumption thank

[6:14:33] Voice 9: you for that i see

[6:14:34] Voice 9: david maude seconding you wish to speak

[6:14:37] Voice 11: to the motion any further no okay there's any would

[6:14:47] Voice 9: anyone else like to speak to the motion i'm not seeing any hands so i'm oh all right now i've

[6:14:54] Voice 9: seen some hands that trustee elliott could

[6:14:57] Trustee Elliott (probable): i ask for some clarification so is this assuming that

[6:15:01] Trustee Elliott (probable): we're going to continue having staff vacancies and that we're actually considering incorporating this

[6:15:09] Trustee Elliott (probable): as an operational reality like what's the point of budgeting for staff and then assuming they're

[6:15:18] Trustee Elliott (probable): going to be vacant positions uh

[6:15:22] Voice 9: i see russ well

[6:15:24] Voice 18: julia can answer the question but okay

[6:15:26] Voice 18: sure so

[6:15:29] Voice 12: historical practice has been to budget for full staff you know we always hope we're

[6:15:34] Voice 12: going to have full staffing in reality the islands trust in its entire history of being

[6:15:38] Voice 12: has not had a year where we do not have vacancy for a portion of the year so we did some analysis

[6:15:44] Voice 12: um a number of months ago and identified sort of average historical underspending on the salaries

[6:15:50] Voice 12: budget tends to be in the range of, I think, $120,000 or $150,000. So looking at real spending

[6:15:56] Voice 12: trends can be a valuable thing to do in your budgeting processes. It can identify places

[6:16:01] Voice 12: where your budgeting methodology maybe needs some adjustment. So if we end up in a place where we

[6:16:06] Voice 12: are fully staffed for the full year, we may end up overspending on the salaries line. But that's

[6:16:12] Voice 12: not been historical reality. Very little risk of that.

[6:16:17] Voice 11: Thank you so much for explaining. That's

[6:16:19] Voice 11: clear now okay thank you uh chair luckham

[6:16:26] Voice 3: yeah you know just the lot to me the logic of it doesn't

[6:16:31] Voice 3: seem right but i i understand the intent and but i just wonder about adjusting the budget

[6:16:40] Voice 3: and assumptions saying that um i know years ago we talked a few years back anyway we talked about

[6:16:48] Voice 3: But actually, we have no surplus capacity in the staff envelope and that what we should actually do if we need 13 employees, we should hire 14 so that there's always another person to fill those gaps.

[6:17:02] Voice 3: And so this kind of does the same thing in a roundabout way and just seems like an odd logic to actually create a business argument on.

[6:17:13] Voice 3: on but i'm not going to oppose it um uh and obviously if something went wrong and all of a

[6:17:20] Voice 3: sudden we did have that then that would be apparent fairly early on in the as in your quarterly

[6:17:26] Voice 3: reporting and we would have to withdraw money from the surplus if that was the case so as long

[6:17:32] Voice 3: as we know that um i'm trying to go ahead thank

[6:17:38] Voice 11: you trustee bernardo um in

[6:17:44] Voice 4: response to uh trustee

[6:17:45] Voice 4: luckham's remarks uh i i think the answer to his dilemma is in what director mobs has already told

[6:17:55] Voice 4: us which is um doesn't happen this is actually a reflection of uh fiscal reality it's taking out

[6:18:04] Voice 4: actually a false assumption and if we're dealing with a revenue shortfall and we stick with some

[6:18:14] Voice 4: some ancient assumption, which is basically not true, that means that we're and we've got

[6:18:19] Voice 4: a bottom line that says we're spending $100,000 more than we actually are, then, you know,

[6:18:26] Voice 4: we're just creating problems for ourselves in terms of trying to get somewhere close to balancing

[6:18:30] Voice 4: the budget. And I hope you can all recall that the context for this amendment or this motion

[6:18:37] Voice 4: motion was the fact that we all agreed that we need to have a new hire of this assistant

[6:18:47] Voice 4: meeting assistant and we've got to find the money for it someplace well it turns out the money is

[6:18:51] Voice 4: actually there it's just been buried under this assumption that's why we're getting that's why

[6:18:58] Voice 4: we're amending it thank

[6:19:02] Voice 9: you for that and any further discussion before we go to the vote

[6:19:09] Voice 9: I'm not seeing any hands up so I'm going to look for electronic hands in favor on the motion.

[6:19:24] Voice 11: Okay, I see six in favor, please lower your hands.

[6:19:39] Voice 9: You'll see one up there.

[6:19:44] Voice 9: And that's, I think

[6:19:46] Voice 16: he's actually, he's possibly an abstention now, is he not?

[6:19:51] Voice 16: and uh

[6:19:52] Voice 9: here he's back now so we can ask him directly uh peter are you uh abstaining or

[6:19:59] Voice 9: voting in favor or voting against it wasn't there because you left the table and you're muted i am

[6:20:07] Voice 3: voting in favor sorry i thought i'd passed the button didn't that's

[6:20:11] Voice 9: that's a okay thank you very

[6:20:13] Voice 9: much so that passes unanimously and uh so are there any further motions before we move on to the

[6:20:23] Voice 9: budget consultation program briefing i'm not seeing any so oh julia mobs please take it away

[6:20:33] Voice 12: i don't have any motions that would not be appropriate i just want to summarize

[6:20:38] Voice 9: i i

[6:20:39] Voice 12: just want to summarize what i've heard if this is the finality of the amendments that are

[6:20:45] Voice 12: being made to the draft budget i'd like to make sure that i've captured them all and let the

[6:20:50] Voice 12: committee know where things have landed um so i have captured what was a mistake in the original

[6:20:56] Voice 12: budget not uh a directed change the secretariat services were originally at 20 000 should be 15

[6:21:01] Voice 12: so that was a magic 5 000 we found uh we've added in funding for four trust council meetings in

[6:21:08] Voice 12: person as opposed to two that increased the budget 56 000. uh we've added back in the administrative

[6:21:14] Voice 12: coordinator position at around $75,000, reduce the RPC placeholder funds down to $50,000,

[6:21:22] Voice 12: reduce local trust committee projects down to $250,000, reduce the policy statement project

[6:21:27] Voice 12: to $50,000, and have reduced salaries expense for turnover by $100,000. If I've missed anything,

[6:21:34] Voice 12: please let me know. That's what I've captured. In totality, that generates a budget change of

[6:21:39] Voice 12: of just over $250,000 in reduced spending.

[6:21:44] Voice 12: It's because those two items were added back in

[6:21:46] Voice 12: for council meetings and staff.

[6:21:48] Voice 12: So that represents about 3.45% reduction to the budget.

[6:21:53] Voice 12: Thank

[6:21:57] Voice 9: you for that reporting

[6:21:59] Voice 9: and your math on the fly, much appreciated.

[6:22:06] Voice 9: Trustees, shall we then move on to 9.4,

[6:22:14] Voice 9: for the budget consultation program briefing.

[6:22:20] Voice 9: Director Mobs.

[6:22:22] Voice 12: Sorry to interrupt again.

[6:22:23] Voice 12: I was just wondering if the committee wanted to return

[6:22:26] Voice 12: to the item on special property tax requisitions

[6:22:29] Voice 12: or if the amendments made to local trust committee projects

[6:22:33] Voice 12: is considered sufficient at this point.

[6:22:37] Voice 9: Committee members, anyone want to address that?

[6:22:45] Voice 9: Trustee Elliot.

[6:22:46] Voice 9: This

[6:22:47] Trustee Elliott (probable): is a really tough decision to consider a property tax requisition when we haven't even held our first LTC meeting. So much as I would love to say that. So what are we risking and not advancing that?

[6:23:03] Trustee Elliott (probable): So basically, Gabriel Island has now killed its own business case for a $60,000 OCP review.

[6:23:11] Trustee Elliott (probable): If I don't come forward with a request for special tax requisition by December, I can't present that.

[6:23:22] Trustee Elliott (probable): I can't do the consultation with my community as to what the appetite is for that.

[6:23:28] Trustee Elliott (probable): So I guess I'm just looking for some advice here because I don't know what I risk.

[6:23:35] Trustee Elliott (probable): I know I can't do it again until next December.

[6:23:37] Trustee Elliott (probable): So thanks.

[6:23:40] Voice 9: Okay.

[6:23:41] Voice 9: I'm going to recognize Director Cermak.

[6:23:44] Voice 5: Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[6:23:46] Voice 5: Just as an alternative, we still have, I believe, the possibility of making it a minor active project.

[6:23:55] Voice 5: You have the $5,000 you could put to that.

[6:23:57] Voice 5: And you could focus some of those monies into, you could also use some of the LTC meeting expenses.

[6:24:04] Voice 5: So you could host special business meetings.

[6:24:06] Voice 5: You could use that $5,000 for, you know, project-related costs.

[6:24:11] Voice 5: So you could advance the discussion and you could be creative with staff time to do in-house generated work.

[6:24:17] Voice 5: You just wouldn't be able to get the third-party contracts.

[6:24:21] Voice 5: That's where you would fall apart.

[6:24:22] Voice 5: part but you could get staff to do that work reasonably well thank

[6:24:30] Voice 9: you director marler yeah

[6:24:33] Voice 14: if i may just add to that um as you probably are aware you can at the ltc meeting knowing the budget

[6:24:40] Voice 14: decision you could just put forward a special tax requisition for december trust council

[6:24:45] Voice 14: and

[6:24:48] Voice 9: director mobs uh

[6:24:52] Voice 12: so just to address uh trustee elliott's question on the timing um

[6:24:57] Voice 12: And if Trust Council does turn down a Local Trust Committee project at their upcoming meeting in December, the Local Trust Committee can choose to move forward with proposing a special requisition and undertake the consultation in January, bring the feedback back to Council in March, and potentially fund the work under special requisition.

[6:25:20] Voice 12: You don't look completely satisfied with my response, so I'm very happy to clarify further if necessary.

[6:25:28] Voice 9: um thanks

[6:25:30] Voice 18: uh this needs a substantial conversation and and the reason i point that out is that half

[6:25:37] Voice 18: of the local trust committees can afford to do something and the other half can't if you're on

[6:25:43] Voice 18: saturn island you don't have an unless you're going to borrow for the next 20 years you don't

[6:25:48] Voice 18: have the ability to get a hundred thousand dollars unless you have a fairly chunky um

[6:25:54] Voice 18: um hit so it would a lot of this conversation needs to be drawn out around what is a need in

[6:26:01] Voice 18: a particular ltc versus the capacity of that ltc to pay for it that's why the allen's trust is a

[6:26:09] Voice 18: federation really is to even out the differences between the local trust areas so that everyone

[6:26:16] Voice 18: gets a modicum of modern planning if we can achieve it um on a somewhat regular basis so um

[6:26:24] Voice 18: that's a thought in terms of any ltc just you know particularly one of some of the smaller

[6:26:29] Voice 18: ones going it alone um what what's the what's the function of the project and how much does

[6:26:35] Voice 18: it cost an ocp costs you know tends to cost between well i won't even hazard a guess but

[6:26:41] Voice 18: it's more than five thousand dollars thanks uh

[6:26:47] Voice 9: director mobs did you want to say something else

[6:26:52] Voice 12: uh no i think that's fine um just that we would be looking for a resolution from the committee if

[6:26:57] Voice 12: If there are specific projects, they recommend to council to be funded with special requisition

[6:27:01] Voice 12: based on policy criteria.

[6:27:05] Voice 9: Okay, thank you for that.

[6:27:06] Voice 9: Trustee Boland.

[6:27:08] Voice 16: Just quickly, I may be misunderstanding things here.

[6:27:11] Voice 16: So we agreed a cap of 250 and we would roll all of those LTA project costs into that effectively

[6:27:22] Voice 16: pending the regional planning people deciding how to allocate those funds and monies are we

[6:27:30] Voice 16: talking about something different is this a separate gabriola project that might go out to a

[6:27:36] Voice 16: special tax requisition or are we talking about that one that was a line item in the special

[6:27:43] Voice 16: projects i just got a bit confused about what's going on apologies director mobs uh

[6:27:50] Voice 12: so we're

[6:27:52] Voice 12: We're talking about all of the local trust committee projects that have specific budget

[6:27:58] Voice 12: requests. So that was on page 78 of the agenda a long time ago in this meeting. Any one of those

[6:28:04] Voice 12: projects financial planning committee could recommend be funded by special requisition.

[6:28:08] Voice 12: If there were one of these projects, for example, I'm just going to choose the first one on the list,

[6:28:12] Voice 12: the Denman Island housing project, $18,000. If financial planning committee wanted to recommend

[6:28:18] Voice 12: in to trust council that this particular project be funded as a special requisition

[6:28:22] Voice 12: that $250,000 reduction that was in the previous resolution or sorry cap would be applied to the

[6:28:28] Voice 12: other projects this one would be removed in totality to be funded by special requisition

[6:28:33] Voice 12: we could go about it that way but it is in in policy specifically that financial planning

[6:28:39] Voice 12: committee will make recommendations to trust council about any projects it thinks should be

[6:28:44] Voice 12: funded with requisition if there's none the committee feels um comfortable recommending

[6:28:49] Voice 12: uh for that then we just won't have any recommendations specifically so

[6:28:55] Voice 16: am i correct

[6:28:56] Voice 16: then in saying that what toby is asking is is her project in that 250 cap at risk of not being

[6:29:06] Voice 16: funding funded and therefore she wants the option to go to a special requisition

[6:29:12] Voice 16: or should i just be quiet and stop asking questions perhaps

[6:29:18] Trustee Elliott (probable): i can speak to that i do

[6:29:20] Trustee Elliott (probable): i don't have questions about what's going to be included because i think that's a discussion to

[6:29:25] Trustee Elliott (probable): be held by the rpc which hasn't met yet um but i do understand now thank you uh director mobs

[6:29:32] Trustee Elliott (probable): that if it was decided that by the regional planning committee that the gabriella l-o-c-p

[6:29:39] Trustee Elliott (probable): project should be funded by a special tax requisition that can still happen i'm just

[6:29:43] Trustee Elliott (probable): not comfortable advancing that right now because i haven't had any conversation with my community

[6:29:48] Trustee Elliott (probable): about it so got it thank you i'm happy to move on okay

[6:29:55] Voice 9: i'm gonna recognize chair luckham

[6:29:58] Voice 9: Thank you for watching.

[6:30:01] Voice 3: Yeah, you know, I don't want to take this meeting any longer than it's already been. And so I'm just going to say that I think that what was hinted at earlier, that there needs to be a conversation at council more broadly about this, because indeed, as the CEO has pointed out, I think this is taking us out on a direction that we've not explored before.

[6:30:28] Voice 3: and what the implications of the federation work is

[6:30:32] Voice 3: if we go out in this for the have and the have not,

[6:30:36] Voice 3: so to speak.

[6:30:38] Voice 3: On the surface, I support the idea

[6:30:40] Voice 3: and I wouldn't actually hesitate going out

[6:30:43] Voice 3: because ultimately you have to consult with the community

[6:30:46] Voice 3: to get support for it to happen.

[6:30:48] Voice 3: And it doesn't actually have to happen this year,

[6:30:51] Voice 3: it could happen next year.

[6:30:53] Voice 3: And maybe that's, if it's something we wanna do

[6:30:55] Voice 3: as a council then we could set ourselves up for good communication strategy to facilitate

[6:31:03] Voice 3: community support for projects that communities want to take on because i've always thought there

[6:31:08] Voice 3: is some value but there's some very good questions that need to be answered so i just say let's

[6:31:13] Voice 3: continue on for the moment and see how it plays out i look forward to that conversation on gabrielle

[6:31:21] Voice 3: or just saying okay

[6:31:25] Voice 9: thank you for that um now potentially we can go to the budget uh

[6:31:32] Voice 9: consultation program briefing and i am going to declare at least for myself a five minute bio

[6:31:40] Voice 9: Mayor Mrakas, So if we can be ready to go in that for 38 let's just say for 40 and and, hopefully, we can wrap this up relatively quickly is that okay committee great.

[6:32:01] Voice 11: Mayor Mrakas,

[6:32:01] Voice 8: chair pederson.

[6:32:02] Voice 8: Mayor Mrakas, Oh he's gone.

[6:32:05] Voice 9: Mayor Mrakas, Yes,

[6:32:05] Voice 7: Sir, I

[6:32:06] Voice 18: was just gonna say, I think the staff can.

[6:32:10] Voice 18: land the ship with you um and i i need to excuse myself for a for a unmovable meeting

[6:32:18] Voice 9: okay uh i

[6:32:20] Voice 9: think that's okay we still have some other staff support for the rest of the meeting yeah and

[6:32:25] Voice 18: certainly

[6:32:25] Voice 9: if there's a

[6:32:26] Voice 18: crisis which won't develop you could certainly uh one of the staff could

[6:32:29] Voice 18: phone me

[6:32:29] Voice 14: okay thank you thank

[6:32:32] Voice 18: you for very much everyone yeah

[6:32:34] Voice 8: i'm able to stay so thanks thanks

[6:32:37] Voice 8: okay great

[6:32:40] Voice 9: so we'll just take a couple minutes and we'll come back and hopefully finish this up

[6:32:43] Voice 11: okay how are you feeling toby are you feeling better or worse

[6:36:51] Voice 16: or thanks

[6:36:52] Trustee Elliott (probable): yeah i i am feeling

[6:36:54] Trustee Elliott (probable): better i was really like felt faint or something for about an hour and i don't know i've eaten well

[6:37:01] Trustee Elliott (probable): and not typically low blood sugar it was just it was maybe just really intense but i just

[6:37:07] Voice 16: and financial planning Toby you're allergic oh

[6:37:10] Trustee Elliott (probable): this is great no I love this stuff it's just the

[6:37:13] Trustee Elliott (probable): the pressure I think you know as Jo said this is not the way to to make decisions it's way way way

[6:37:20] Trustee Elliott (probable): too there's too much on the line and we haven't had any time to talk about it so to come in as a

[6:37:25] Trustee Elliott (probable): committee is it's a bit it

[6:37:29] Voice 16: is it's very hard and it's very um yeah as Jo said let's not be in this

[6:37:35] Voice 16: situation again and um but i'm glad you're feeling better i hope peter i hope that you're going to

[6:37:42] Voice 16: survive you look like you're you're failing there what time what is it midnight one o'clock in the

[6:37:50] Voice 16: morning

[6:37:50] Voice 3: it's uh i think 11 30 no it's 12 30 oh

[6:37:55] Voice 16: well you're probably you're probably still on

[6:37:59] Voice 16: british columbia time so we shouldn't have any sympathy for you

[6:38:03] Voice 3: and now i've been here for

[6:38:05] Voice 3: almost a week now so no okay i was

[6:38:09] Voice 3: up at five o'clock this morning oh okay where

[6:38:12] Voice 3: are you peter

[6:38:13] Voice 3: i'm in the uk okay visiting

[6:38:18] Voice 16: my mom i think we should mute you from now on because you're likely

[6:38:22] Voice 16: I'm lucky to be incoherent.

[6:38:29] Voice 16: Okay,

[6:38:30] Voice 9: committee, I'm going to call us back to order.

[6:38:33] Voice 9: And thank you all for your endurance here today

[6:38:37] Voice 9: and staff as well.

[6:38:39] Voice 9: Really appreciate it.

[6:38:40] Voice 9: So let us forge ahead and see if we can't wrap this up.

[6:38:45] Voice 9: Reasonably so.

[6:38:46] Voice 9: I believe it's over to Julia for the briefing

[6:38:51] Voice 9: or is it Claire for the briefing?

[6:38:53] Voice 15: I'm happy to take this one okay thank you

[6:38:57] Voice 15: okay so as I was speaking earlier about your one

[6:39:00] Voice 15: communications position and how busy they might be this is one of the things that they'll be

[6:39:04] Voice 15: working on along with our program coordinator so each year there is an we undertake a public

[6:39:10] Voice 15: consultation about the draft budget that trust council approves in December and financial

[6:39:15] Voice 15: planning committee has already considered a project charter to sort of guide this year's

[6:39:19] Voice 15: activities, which we'll scroll to in a little bit here. And earlier in your meeting, it was

[6:39:25] Voice 15: discussed that the committee might at some point want to consider changing that scheduling of how

[6:39:30] Voice 15: and when public engagement happens. If you're interested in that, we did provide a briefing

[6:39:34] Voice 15: to Financial Planning Committee in June of this year, sort of outlining the implications of

[6:39:39] Voice 15: different decisions. So certainly encourage you to go back there. With regard to the next

[6:39:43] Voice 15: engagement, simply we've provided you with some generic background to sort of set the stage

[6:39:48] Voice 15: for this engagement it's essentially what we're planning to do is after trust council decides on

[6:39:53] Voice 15: a draft budget we will place advertising throughout all the local papers undertake social media

[6:39:59] Voice 15: promotion and email all the non-profit groups that we know of in the in the region and then

[6:40:06] Voice 15: empower all of you to also go out and speak with people to seek feedback the primary tool by which

[6:40:11] Voice 15: we get feedback is a survey that's administered through survey monkey so through that tool people

[6:40:16] Voice 15: People can fill out a survey, and it is anonymous.

[6:40:19] Voice 15: And unfortunately, there isn't a way to prevent duplicate responses, but we just have to trust in everyone's better natures.

[6:40:26] Voice 15: Through that, we then have it open for 17 days, and then we generate a report for Financial Planning Committee around the feedback you've received.

[6:40:36] Voice 15: You then have an opportunity at your February meeting to contemplate that input, make changes based on what you've heard, and then provide it all to Trust Council.

[6:40:46] Voice 15: We also receive some email responses that we will also package up and provide.

[6:40:51] Voice 15: If we could scroll down now to the project charter, I'll just sort of let you know what's in scope and out of scope here, just so you can provide any commentary.

[6:41:01] Voice 15: So essentially, we are just going to recommend that you sustain similar questions in the survey to previous years, as that allows you to compare year over year changes.

[6:41:13] Voice 15: And we do recommend at this time that you sustain that as your primary engagement tool, you'll see on the out of scope section here that we've suggested that we not do town halls and in person or virtual engagements as standalone events.

[6:41:27] Voice 15: What we did start last year was a webinar that we would hold just before the survey opens to answer people's questions and we had people submitting questions in advance and then a panel was available to take their questions and at the front end we provided

[6:41:40] Voice 15: added a little bit of Islands Trust 101 type information to set the stage so we're recommending

[6:41:44] Voice 15: that that proceed again as well so as you scroll down you'll see there's a timeline there the

[6:41:50] Voice 15: timelines are a bit tight because we're a bit compressed not wanting to engage over the holiday

[6:41:53] Voice 15: period and also wanting to have you amend both the survey and any tweaks you might want to make

[6:42:01] Voice 15: in January actually that's not true actually we aren't making changes in January except perhaps

[6:42:06] Voice 15: perhaps for the non-market change numbers

[6:42:08] Voice 15: because council have endorsed it.

[6:42:10] Voice 15: So with that, I guess I will scroll you down to the survey.

[6:42:14] Voice 15: We're just proposing so far this year,

[6:42:16] Voice 15: the changes would be to demographic questions

[6:42:18] Voice 15: as per the recommendations we got

[6:42:21] Voice 15: from the ISL engineering consultants

[6:42:23] Voice 15: who came in and helped us

[6:42:24] Voice 15: with the last policy statement engagement.

[6:42:26] Voice 15: And then we will look to you

[6:42:28] Voice 15: once council has drafted the budget,

[6:42:30] Voice 15: we will then take those themes and that background,

[6:42:33] Voice 15: I'll draft this for you again

[6:42:34] Voice 15: to bring to the January meeting.

[6:42:35] Voice 15: and at that meeting you can then advise what other types of questions you might like to ask

[6:42:40] Voice 15: or how else you would like the survey structured. That said, happy to receive your input now if

[6:42:44] Voice 15: you've got thoughts already on how you might like to do this differently or how you'd like to word

[6:42:48] Voice 15: the survey differently. I'm keeping it as concise as I can here knowing I'm sitting between everyone

[6:42:53] Voice 15: and dinner. Thank you.

[6:43:07] Voice 11: Are there any questions? Yeah, I do have a question, Chair. Hello, Chair.

[6:43:13] Voice 4: there

[6:43:14] Trustee Elliott (probable): are you there oh

[6:43:15] Voice 7: sorry i had muted myself here i was recognizing trustee elliott and uh

[6:43:21] Voice 7: my microphone was turned off go ahead trustee um

[6:43:23] Trustee Elliott (probable): is this a policy do we need to do public

[6:43:28] Trustee Elliott (probable): consultation on the budget um that's my first question and in a fiscally tight year where

[6:43:36] Trustee Elliott (probable): this is going to be a tough conversation is it wise to do public consultation or defer it for a

[6:43:44] Trustee Elliott (probable): year not wanting to kibosh the process i'm not in favor of one or the other just wanted to know

[6:43:50] Voice 15: um yes council does have a budget process policy um outlining that the intention to get feedback

[6:43:56] Voice 15: from the public but certainly that's at um this this committee is tasked with sort of outlining

[6:44:01] Voice 15: that process so I think we would take your direction on how you might like to seek any

[6:44:06] Voice 15: feedback and to what scale you'd like that to happen. The primary costs involved are advertising

[6:44:11] Voice 15: generally when we do trust-wide advertising with half-page ads or quarter-page ads it's in the

[6:44:17] Voice 15: range of about $4,000-$4,500.

[6:44:21] Voice 11: Okay thank you.

[6:44:24] Voice 9: I'm going to recognize Director Mobs.

[6:44:28] Voice 12: I believe

[6:44:29] Voice 12: you know what Director said is true this isn't trust council policy I don't believe it exists

[6:44:34] Voice 12: in legislation anywhere is that true Claire it's

[6:44:38] Voice 15: not it's not a legislative requirement

[6:44:39] Voice 15: um that's right yeah

[6:44:41] Voice 15: so it's there's definitely discretion here it's

[6:44:44] Voice 12: at the will of council

[6:44:45] Voice 12: that's right thanks just wanted to clarify

[6:44:47] Voice 10: uh

[6:44:49] Voice 9: thank you for that trustee Bernardo uh I'm going

[6:44:52] Voice 4: to ask the uh annoying value for money question um to what extent have previous budgets been

[6:45:01] Voice 4: amended as a result of the public consultation uh

[6:45:05] Voice 15: generally not a great deal so

[6:45:08] Voice 4: like i said i'm

[6:45:10] Voice 4: going to be annoying what's the point well

[6:45:12] Voice 15: i think that's a political question i think it will be to

[6:45:15] Voice 15: this council to weigh to what extent they want to change the budget and let

[6:45:18] Voice 4: me rephrase the question

[6:45:19] Voice 4: let me rephrase the question how has the point how has the point been explained to you by previous

[6:45:26] Voice 4: councils uh

[6:45:28] Voice 15: that there is an expressed desire to hear feedback on the budget but it's feedback

[6:45:34] Voice 4: It's feedback that we typically don't act on.

[6:45:37] Voice 15: That's right.

[6:45:39] Voice 15: But there's still

[6:45:40] Voice 15: an interest in hearing that.

[6:45:42] Voice 15: And I would suggest often council hears about other things in this survey than simply budget

[6:45:47] Voice 15: to around values, around strategic planning priorities and that sort of thing.

[6:45:51] Voice 4: Well, as we go forward on this process, I think it becomes one of those questions where

[6:46:01] Voice 4: if we're really feeling the pinch, we're going to have to ask ourselves whether there

[6:46:05] Voice 4: There are other things that our limited money could be best spent on.

[6:46:10] Voice 4: I don't actually have an opinion on this yet.

[6:46:12] Voice 4: I just think the kind of annoying questions I'm asking about this, I think we have to

[6:46:17] Voice 4: ask about a lot of different things, and I hope we're not considering the kind of our

[6:46:24] Voice 4: attempt at line item examination today.

[6:46:26] Voice 4: I hope that's not the end of the debate.

[6:46:27] Voice 4: I hope that when we do go to Trust Council, we have a fuller discussion of that there.

[6:46:34] Voice 4: Thanks.

[6:46:37] Voice 9: Thank you, Trustee Boland.

[6:46:40] Voice 16: Well, as you all probably know, I do have some very, very strong opinions on this feedback survey.

[6:46:48] Voice 16: But anyway, I think that there is little value in doing it.

[6:46:55] Voice 16: I think there's a lot of value in doing the kind of survey where, you know, you are working on a strategic plan and you want to know if people are happy with your service.

[6:47:05] Voice 16: this um i think the best thing we could do over the next three months is demonstrate that we are

[6:47:12] Voice 16: working really hard to make a good attempt at you know making it a fit for purpose value for money

[6:47:21] Voice 16: budget i also think claire that um you know there's probably a huge staff resource buried

[6:47:29] Voice 16: behind that feedback survey that is probably something you could time you could spend more

[6:47:35] Voice 16: usefully and I would support not having a feedback survey you know maybe go out late when the budget

[6:47:44] Voice 16: is approved with here's what we did to achieve this budget and here's the deal and what it is

[6:47:52] Voice 16: just a kind of information pack because the feedback just people go bananas I mean they're

[6:47:57] Voice 16: not going to turn up and go oh you know we think you should increase the budget you're not spending

[6:48:02] Voice 16: enough so um i think we know the answers and we should just demonstrate that we've heard or

[6:48:10] Voice 16: anticipated those answers and then consider what we do later thank you sir

[6:48:19] Voice 15: peterson would you like

[6:48:20] Voice 15: me to respond to that suggestion uh

[6:48:22] Voice 7: please go ahead um

[6:48:25] Voice 15: certainly yeah this is discretionary

[6:48:26] Voice 15: right, what I would suggest is without a survey or a tool to receive feedback, because inevitably

[6:48:31] Voice 15: people are going to want to offer feedback, it may very well, you'll see in the chart,

[6:48:35] Voice 15: if in the budget we sort of get in the realm of, you know, 50, 40 emails, I would think the risk

[6:48:39] Voice 15: would be that without a survey tool to capture like the thousand people that commented on the

[6:48:45] Voice 15: survey, they might then email instead, and then there's a huge amount of staff effort, I would

[6:48:50] Voice 15: suggest a lot more than what's required for this program rollout, to then manage all those emails,

[6:48:54] Voice 15: emails, PDF them, redact them, collate them into an agenda, and it might be somewhat overwhelming

[6:48:59] Voice 15: for trustees to then read in their next agenda.

[6:49:01] Voice 15: So that's something that I would ask you to weigh as a possible outcome of not having

[6:49:06] Voice 15: a survey.

[6:49:07] Voice 15: This survey is long, but it's also, we found a very high completion rate.

[6:49:12] Voice 15: So people do actually make their way through it at a high level to provide feedback.

[6:49:19] Voice 9: And I have a question for clarity, which is that, as by understanding this is a briefing

[6:49:25] Voice 9: and a final decision on these materials we made at a further financial planning committee is that

[6:49:32] Voice 9: correct yeah

[6:49:33] Voice 15: financial planning committee did approve the project charter at their last meeting

[6:49:36] Voice 15: with the intention that we would bring you a revised survey given the state of the budget

[6:49:40] Voice 15: that wasn't possible so we'd be the intention was as per the approved project charter we would bring

[6:49:45] Voice 15: it back to you in January but certainly there's been an election you may want to give different

[6:49:49] Voice 15: direction we're open to that and certainly we'll be as responsive as we can. That said as I say

[6:49:56] Voice 15: there is a risk to not having a survey that you'll just get this unfiltered feedback by email that

[6:50:01] Voice 15: could result in more staff effort. This is an annual activity so we are fairly efficient in

[6:50:05] Voice 15: placing the ads and administering the survey.

[6:50:10] Voice 9: Okay I just wanted to define that

[6:50:13] Voice 9: that we don't have a request for decision before us on this topic today and that we could

[6:50:18] Voice 9: potentially move on as it will be on our agenda on our next meeting correct absolutely unless

[6:50:25] Voice 15: there's a direction to do something different we'll proceed as per the direction we've already

[6:50:28] Voice 15: been given okay

[6:50:31] Voice 9: so if i don't see anyone wildly waving their hand with a motion for direction

[6:50:37] Voice 9: uh then i'm going to suggest that we move on to the next item uh which is uh other business

[6:50:44] Voice 9: this under 10.1 we have the we do have a request for decision on the financial planning committee

[6:50:50] Voice 9: draft meeting schedule for 2023 and who's taking that?

[6:50:58] Voice 11: I can speak

[6:50:59] Voice 12: to that chair.

[6:50:59] Voice 9: Thank you very

[6:51:00] Voice 9: much.

[6:51:01] Voice 12: So about this time of year all committees are making their decisions around their meeting

[6:51:06] Voice 12: dates for the coming calendar year financial planning committee of course is no different

[6:51:10] Voice 12: staff have worked very hard in the background to make sure that the proposed schedule for

[6:51:16] Voice 12: financial planning committee meetings falls in line with the scheduling of trust council meetings

[6:51:21] Voice 12: and also related executive committee meetings so all of the work of financial planning committee

[6:51:26] Voice 12: does flow to council but first has to flow through the executive committee as they approve the

[6:51:32] Voice 12: agendas for trust council so there's a bit of juggling that has to happen to get these dates

[6:51:36] Voice 12: all organized uh the proposed dates before you are all on wednesdays as is typical for financial

[6:51:42] Voice 12: planning committee with the exception of the February meeting date which is proposed for a

[6:51:47] Voice 12: Tuesday. The Wednesday February 15th is the local government learning academy or leadership academy

[6:51:54] Voice 12: training and we believe a number of trustees may want to attend that. We don't want to restrict

[6:52:00] Voice 12: FPC members from the ability to attend that and so we've proposed that meeting date beyond the 14th

[6:52:05] Voice 12: which is a Tuesday. We also look to the committee to set their meeting format for the year that does

[6:52:12] Voice 12: have budget implications of course in-person meetings come with a cost electronic meetings

[6:52:16] Voice 12: are free it also helps staff with planning the meetings and so staff are proposing that financial

[6:52:23] Voice 12: planning committee continue with its current practice which is to hold all meetings electronically

[6:52:28] Voice 12: but it's at the will of the committee what they'd like to do we do have proposed motions

[6:52:34] Voice 12: two recommendations in the rfd one around the meeting dates and the other around the meeting

[6:52:38] Voice 12: So we welcome any questions from the committee as they look to both of those items.

[6:52:47] Voice 9: Any questions for the Director or anyone wishing to make the first of those two motions?

[6:52:56] Voice 9: I see Trustee Graham.

[6:52:59] Voice 19: No question. Happy to make that first motion.

[6:53:02] Voice 9: Were there any other concerns?

[6:53:05] Voice 9: I'll just check in with Trustee Boland before we do that.

[6:53:09] Voice 9: I

[6:53:09] Voice 16: was just wondering if you had put in an estimate of the cost of a face-to-face meeting?

[6:53:16] Voice 16: I don't know if you can just give us a ballpark number.

[6:53:20] Voice 12: So historically we had budgeted around $800 to $1,000 for an in-person meeting, primarily for

[6:53:26] Voice 12: trustee travel and then catering of lunch. Of course it changes with a new term, we've got

[6:53:32] Voice 12: trustees traveling from different places and so that may be a little different this term,

[6:53:36] Voice 12: we haven't calculated the exact number for new trustees that's

[6:53:39] Voice 16: okay it's not going to be 25 000

[6:53:41] Voice 16: anyway that's good thanks

[6:53:43] Voice 12: okay

[6:53:44] Voice 9: thanks for that so i'm going to go back to trustee graham uh for the

[6:53:48] Voice 9: motion very

[6:53:49] Voice 19: good i move that the financial planning committee adopt the proposed meeting schedule for

[6:53:53] Voice 19: the 2023 calendar year with amendments uh what amendments were they there were no amendments

[6:54:02] Voice 19: just the dates as as published that's

[6:54:06] Voice 11: presented yes as

[6:54:07] Voice 19: presented thank you uh

[6:54:11] Voice 9: are you seconding

[6:54:12] Voice 9: trustee boland yes yes thank you wonderful uh any further discussion on this item i'm going to go

[6:54:21] Voice 9: ahead and call the question use your electronic hands please

[6:54:24] Voice 11: all in favor i'm seeing five in

[6:54:33] Voice 9: favor plus a physical pad from mr. Luckum so hands down please sorry so I

[6:54:46] Voice 11: say sorry are you

[6:54:49] Voice 9: trying to get your hand down or yes

[6:54:51] Voice 10: okay

[6:54:52] Voice 9: all right and then

[6:54:53] Voice 9: any opposed and the motion carries thank you for that and would someone like to

[6:54:59] Voice 9: have a go at the second motion and or propose an alternative trustee Graham I

[6:55:12] Voice 19: I move that the Financial Planning Committee direct staff to schedule only 2023 FPC meeting dates as published as electronic meetings.

[6:55:24] Voice 9: Can I have a second for that, please?

[6:55:32] Voice 9: You're welcome. Thank you.

[6:55:34] Voice 9: Any further discussion on this motion?

[6:55:37] Voice 9: Not seeing any.

[6:55:39] Voice 9: Are you discussing, Trustee Boland?

[6:55:41] Voice 9: So, yes,

[6:55:45] Voice 16: I just think in view of the fact that we have a bit of a challenge around process and how to, you know, get started next year on a better footing.

[6:55:56] Voice 16: I'm just wondering if we could have, is it easy to just opt for a non-electronic when it's only $1,000, you know, rather than cast it in stone here?

[6:56:09] Voice 16: I'm asking, like, if we could just, okay, do we have to explicitly say all electronic?

[6:56:14] Voice 16: electronic do we need that motion at all can we just decide as we go because they are expenses

[6:56:20] Voice 16: i think

[6:56:21] Voice 9: there's some scheduling issues and uh i'm going to refer to to to director mobs i'm

[6:56:28] Voice 9: starting to lose my words here but i believe it's much easier to to we need to schedule in advance

[6:56:33] Voice 9: for in person sorry go ahead julia um

[6:56:37] Voice 12: that is right the the meeting logistics are a lot easier

[6:56:40] Voice 12: zero-win staff um have an update you know we're not fighting for the boardroom potentially there

[6:56:45] Voice 12: is an opportunity for financial planning committee to make changes to meeting format as the year goes

[6:56:50] Voice 12: on if you identify you'd like to have a meeting in person you could conduct a a resolution without

[6:56:55] Voice 12: meeting to schedule that um and then you could make that happen

[6:56:58] Voice 16: okay i'm happy with that thank

[6:57:01] Voice 16: you

[6:57:01] Voice 3: yeah we could have that discussion at our next meeting

[6:57:04] Voice 16: okay i'll second the motion then

[6:57:06] Voice 16: if it's oh it's been seconded yeah okay okay

[6:57:09] Voice 7: fabulous i'm going

[6:57:11] Voice 9: to go ahead and ask for a

[6:57:13] Voice 9: show of electronic hands in favor please there

[6:57:17] Voice 3: you go i'm cooperating now thank

[6:57:21] Voice 9: you sir i'm not

[6:57:25] Voice 9: seeing anything from oh there's trustee elliot all right so hands down please seven in favor

[6:57:32] Voice 9: uh pro forma any opposed uh that carries and i believe that takes us to new business which i

[6:57:46] Voice 9: don't believe we have any and then on to item 12 the work program i

[6:57:54] Voice 12: can speak to this one as well

[6:57:55] Voice 12: uh so quarterly all of council committees uh submit their work programs to trust council

[6:58:02] Voice 12: for council's approval of course the committees are doing the work of council and so council

[6:58:05] Voice 12: Council approves their plans for the coming quarter FPC does do a lot of cyclical work so

[6:58:10] Voice 12: the work plans do look fairly similar uh year over year and each quarter um so there's not a lot of

[6:58:18] Voice 12: room for the committee to make changes uh to the work program specifically we do see on the work

[6:58:25] Voice 12: program three different items right now the first one is related to continuing the budget draft and

[6:58:31] Voice 12: that review that's an activity that of course we'll continue to move ahead with draft public

[6:58:38] Voice 12: consultation planning that's also on the work program item and then the third item there is

[6:58:43] Voice 12: related to financial policy review and this is an item where maybe there is a bit more discretion

[6:58:48] Voice 12: for the committee you could choose to delay or defer policy reviews in favor of other work if

[6:58:54] Voice 12: you feel there's other work that is more pressing however if the committee is happy with this work

[6:58:59] Voice 12: program it can be forwarded to trust council for their approval thank

[6:59:05] Voice 9: you director mobs uh any

[6:59:07] Voice 9: questions and if we don't have any questions uh we could get a motion to forward this work program to

[6:59:16] Voice 9: trust council for approval one

[6:59:18] Voice 12: other comment if i may um the format of this report is a little wonky

[6:59:23] Voice 12: our reports don't usually look like this the formatting is usually a lot better we were having

[6:59:27] Voice 12: trouble with our system that generates the reports and so we we had to go with a workaround but it's

[6:59:32] Voice 12: the content of the report that is most important that you'll be approving i

[6:59:37] Voice 3: move that we forward

[6:59:38] Voice 3: the uh work program report to council as presented uh

[6:59:43] Voice 9: thank you i see seconded by trustee maude uh

[6:59:47] Voice 9: electronic hands in favor please oh sorry

[6:59:54] Voice 3: now vote all

[6:59:58] Voice 9: right i see seven

[7:00:00] Voice 9: favor so hands down please and any opposed none opposed uh the motion carries thank you for that

[7:00:12] Voice 9: uh moving on our next meeting i believe we uh approved wednesday january 18th 2023 at 10 a.m

[7:00:24] Voice 9: uh following item is closed beauty meeting i don't believe we have a closed meeting today

[7:00:29] Voice 9: which means that we have no rise in report and committee we have gotten to item 16 everyone's

[7:00:37] Voice 9: favorite today which is adjournment i would happily entertain a motion to adjourn and i

[7:00:43] Voice 9: want to thank

[7:00:44] Voice 9: all of you for sticking through this uh very long but good day

[7:00:51] Voice 9: so move

[7:00:53] Voice 9: to

[7:00:55] Voice 19: adjourn and big thanks to trustee peterson for being our

[7:00:58] Voice 19: did an excellent job bravo not

[7:01:03] Voice 7: too bad for on the fly thanks so much everyone we'll see you

[7:01:06] Voice 7: thank

[7:01:06] Voice 3: you thank you

[7:01:08] Voice 16: everybody that was a good

[7:01:09] Voice 3: mission and i can call for the vote all those

[7:01:12] Voice 3: in favor yes yes but

[7:01:15] Voice 16: we're not

[7:01:16] Voice 3: on the boat

[7:01:17] Voice 16: okay

[7:01:18] Voice 3: thank you so much thank you everybody