Gabriola Island Local Trust Committee special meeting, November 28, 2023

[0:00:00] Voice 10: so i've just sent a text thank you marissa i'll do these as required okay well

[0:00:19] Trustee Luckham: it looks like we're

[0:00:19] Trustee Luckham: live and recording uh we're running a tiny bit late here and uh just want to welcome everybody

[0:00:28] Trustee Luckham: to the gabriella island local trust committee special meeting of november the 28th special

[0:00:35] Trustee Luckham: special meeting today means the only item on our agenda for discussion is the major project

[0:00:40] Trustee Luckham: gabriela visioning engagement process and water balance assessment and uh want to acknowledge that

[0:00:49] Trustee Luckham: it's a joy and a pleasure to be able to live here in coast salish territory and work on the islands

[0:00:54] Trustee Luckham: and have the opportunity to learn and understand and know the history of this place um not all of

[0:01:03] Trustee Luckham: it is joyful and I want to recognize that there's a lot of sadness and and the like amongst all

[0:01:11] Trustee Luckham: people that have lived here but indeed opportunity exists for us to reconcile those things and come

[0:01:18] Trustee Luckham: to understanding and move forward and and we can do the work on the islands that's been handed down

[0:01:27] Trustee Luckham: to us by the province in light of this being First Nations territory. So my name is Peter

[0:01:37] Trustee Luckham: Lacombe and I'm elected on Thetis Island and that is in Laiaksin and Penelakut territory

[0:01:42] Trustee Luckham: and pleasure to work here. I'll just introduce Susan Yates, your locally elected trustee.

[0:01:50] Voice 5: Thank you Chair Lacombe and I too am very grateful to be working on Snuneymux territory

[0:01:55] Voice 5: and grateful almost every day to consider the history and the culture of the land and the

[0:02:02] Voice 5: waters here and to be learning more all the time because I feel that I did not get to learn most

[0:02:11] Voice 5: of this information when I was younger and I really regret that. So every opportunity to learn

[0:02:18] Voice 5: and more, I sure appreciate.

[0:02:21] Trustee Luckham: Well, thank you very much for those thoughtful words, Susan.

[0:02:26] Trustee Luckham: Trustee Elliott, Toby Elliott, has not joined us yet. She's been delayed. Hopefully everything's

[0:02:31] Trustee Luckham: all right with her. We are expecting her shortly, and we'll acknowledge her when she arrives. So

[0:02:38] Trustee Luckham: joining me from the staff side of things is Planner Nerissa Chadwick. Good afternoon.

[0:02:44] Trustee Luckham: in we have planners uh steven bow with us also uh both uh yeah out of the victoria are you out

[0:02:52] Trustee Luckham: of victoria or out of gabriola office i can never keep track of where folks are

[0:02:56] Voice 8: i'm on gabriela

[0:02:57] Voice 8: right nice to be here with you okay

[0:03:00] Voice 1: and steven if i would add is is gabriel is um uh planner right

[0:03:06] Voice 1: now at the moment that's correct yeah and

[0:03:08] Trustee Luckham: we're glad that he stepped up to that opportunity

[0:03:10] Trustee Luckham: So William Schubler is our freshwater specialist, and he's going to do a lot of the heavy lifting here today, so I appreciate that.

[0:03:21] Trustee Luckham: Excellent reporting for us and looking forward to what you have to say today.

[0:03:26] Trustee Luckham: Lisa Millard is our minute taker in the background and also want to recognize Will Cottingham, who also looks after our technology and makes sure these Zoom meetings happen and does the live streaming and broadcasting.

[0:03:39] Trustee Luckham: and it's a team effort and I want to thank everybody for that spirit of the team so

[0:03:44] Trustee Luckham: excellent work everybody so we have an agenda before us and I'm prepared just to move to

[0:03:52] Trustee Luckham: adopt that agenda as presented unless there's something that is necessary for us to add to

[0:03:58] Trustee Luckham: today's agenda I'm not seeing any hands and jump up so let's adopt the agenda as presented

[0:04:05] Trustee Luckham: and the first and only item on today's agenda is the major project Gabriella visioning engagement

[0:04:13] Trustee Luckham: process and water balance assessment we have a lovely report here from William Shoba and

[0:04:19] Trustee Luckham: are you going to take the lead on this or does Stephen Bauer want to take to

[0:04:26] Trustee Luckham: introduce this or how are we going to start off today

[0:04:28] Voice 2: yeah thank you I think I'll let Narissa

[0:04:32] Voice 2: uh um start us off in a good way here i think i won't let her we just we we have discussed that

[0:04:40] Voice 2: she

[0:04:40] Voice 1: would take the lead on this

[0:04:41] Voice 1: yeah because actually

[0:04:44] Voice 9: there are actually

[0:04:46] Voice 1: there are actually

[0:04:47] Voice 1: two items on the agenda even though they were sort of put together in in one item um and one

[0:04:52] Voice 1: is just an update on the engagement and then the second item would be the the water balance

[0:04:56] Voice 1: discussion and that's um that that's uh that's williams um right so the is

[0:05:04] Trustee Luckham: just a verbal update

[0:05:05] Trustee Luckham: um

[0:05:07] Voice 1: yes so oh i would just also add that i i just received a text message um that chair uh uh

[0:05:14] Voice 1: trustee elliot is will be joining okay so we should see her soon um um yeah so what i just

[0:05:22] Voice 1: wanted to do is just give you you know take the this opportunity to just give you a bit of an

[0:05:27] Voice 1: update on what's happening with the engagement process you will receive at the meeting on

[0:05:35] Voice 1: thursday a list of the recipients of the funding that we have available for the community-led

[0:05:45] Voice 1: engagement process so if you recall we put a a call out for folks that would like to lead

[0:05:52] Voice 1: community community groups group discussions and we had funding of up to

[0:05:58] Voice 1: $500 available for those groups so we had 15 groups that have now been

[0:06:08] Voice 1: allocated funding and so that list will be available to you it is available

[0:06:13] Voice 1: currently in the agenda package if you yeah you've had a look at it yet you'll

[0:06:17] Voice 1: you'll have seen them but um if you're curious who they are there's a memo in

[0:06:21] Voice 1: in there and it's got the list of of who's receiving that funding um we did have a um apc

[0:06:27] Voice 1: member um have have some conversation with staff uh last week about concerns that there were perhaps

[0:06:34] Voice 1: some gaps um with those that were um and maybe some allocations that um some some um community

[0:06:43] Voice 1: members that weren't really being um accessed in that perspective so we actually have now um

[0:06:50] Voice 1: a plan for for staff to to help facilitate some of that engagement um with um and the list that

[0:06:58] Voice 1: we've got of the target for for that engagement is um seniors youth uh food bank participants

[0:07:04] Voice 1: library patrons and teens um so i would ask also um if there if you if you feel like there are other

[0:07:12] Voice 1: um potential gaps let us know and we'll try and sort of factor that into our our work program

[0:07:20] Voice 1: to reach out to those groups um and uh yeah so so chloe is going to help us to um engage those

[0:07:29] Voice 1: other groups as she's got very she's very connected in the community and um and so we're

[0:07:34] Voice 1: lucky in that way um the other thing i was going to just give you a little sense of is um how our

[0:07:42] Voice 1: communications planning is going. So we have the community engagement process that will be

[0:07:56] Voice 1: moving forward. We're going to be speaking with those that are receiving funding at an event

[0:08:02] Voice 1: an evening next week to see if they have questions and that sort of thing. We've got the other

[0:08:09] Voice 1: process now that that will be happening we've had our Morgana our communication specialist has been

[0:08:16] Voice 1: very hands-on with us which has been great so we have a plan to do a series of videos on topics

[0:08:24] Voice 1: that have been identified to be of importance to the community and that includes you know what is

[0:08:31] Voice 1: an engage so that we've got four one is like what is a community vision another one is what is what

[0:08:38] Voice 1: is land use another one is what is a an ocp and what is a land use bylaw so that's those will be

[0:08:46] Voice 1: um filmed and then um and then they'll go out sort of once a month sort of thing leading up to um

[0:08:55] Voice 1: you know throughout the visioning process so that when we enter into the the ocp uh process um you

[0:09:02] Voice 1: know, the community will have access to that information in a

[0:09:06] Voice 1: very sort of simple way. We've also got Morgana has helped us

[0:09:12] Voice 1: with some send outs, she's going to be putting postcards into the

[0:09:19] Voice 1: Gabriel sounder. In a couple of weeks, that will have the QR

[0:09:25] Voice 1: code to the to the website, the project website, as well as QR

[0:09:32] Voice 1: our code that will take people specifically to the survey that we have out there for um for

[0:09:38] Voice 1: community members so um so yeah so there's a lot that's going on um again we've been extremely

[0:09:45] Voice 1: fortunate that um morgana has been working very very in step with us on this project so um

[0:09:52] Voice 1: yeah so it's quite exciting so um let me know if you've got questions on that process i'm happy to

[0:09:57] Voice 1: to um answer them okay

[0:10:01] Trustee Luckham: thank you very much uh planner chadwick for that detailed report uh

[0:10:06] Trustee Luckham: welcome uh trustee elliott i'm glad that you were able to join us um we delayed a little bit

[0:10:13] Trustee Luckham: but thought it was better to press on we were advised that you'd been updated on the um on the

[0:10:18] Trustee Luckham: engagement process already so i'm glad i'm

[0:10:22] Voice 4: literally in the library because i have office

[0:10:25] Voice 4: hours at 4 p.m. So I thought I would be here, but the library is so full that I was having

[0:10:31] Voice 4: trouble finding a corridor. So I'm sort of standing back behind a bookstore, stack of books here.

[0:10:36] Voice 4: But apologies for being late. Thanks for carrying on.

[0:10:40] Trustee Luckham: Okay. That's great. So are there any questions

[0:10:46] Trustee Luckham: for Planner Chadwick on the engagement process, Trustee Yates or Trustee Elliott? No. Okay. Good

[0:10:54] Trustee Luckham: Good job.

[0:10:54] Trustee Luckham: All right, so let's move on to the next topic

[0:10:57] Trustee Luckham: then on our agenda, which is the water assessments.

[0:11:02] Voice 10: Great, thank you, Chair.

[0:11:05] Voice 10: And

[0:11:06] Voice 2: thank you to the Gabriola Local Trust Committee

[0:11:10] Voice 2: for facilitating this conversation.

[0:11:16] Voice 2: I'll start up to say that I do not have

[0:11:18] Voice 2: a PowerPoint presentation prepared.

[0:11:21] Voice 2: So I will be speaking in general about

[0:11:28] Voice 2: the briefing that I provided the regional planning committee that is in your agenda package

[0:11:34] Voice 2: and for fear of hiding all your wonderful faces I won't share my screen either so if

[0:11:41] Voice 2: if you have it available open to you you can follow along that way and we can you can ask

[0:11:50] Voice 2: me questions about it as well. I think that I'll just start off to discuss around just

[0:12:01] Voice 2: the nomenclature around it and then briefly describe what a water balance is and discuss

[0:12:13] Voice 2: discuss the availability of data that is on Gabriola that we can utilize to undertake a

[0:12:25] Voice 2: water balance, can talk a little bit about budgeting. If there's any questions that

[0:12:33] Voice 2: are related to those aspects, I'm more than willing to field them. If there's more questions

[0:12:40] Voice 2: related to more along the lines of like next steps and how we're going to undertake this

[0:12:48] Voice 2: type of work on gabriola um i'll likely defer that to either likely to planner chadwick um

[0:12:58] Voice 2: especially around granting and another funding avenues um and yes please stop me at any time

[0:13:07] Voice 2: This is a special meeting, but I wouldn't really want to say it's not formal, but feel free to engage with me in conversation if there's something that I say that you'd like me to elaborate on, because I'm going to present this in brief, I guess.

[0:13:26] Voice 2: I guess I would like to hear more from the local trust committee and your questions surrounding what a water balance would mean for Gabriel Island.

[0:13:37] Voice 2: um so water balance water balance is um a term that is often used for this type of assessment

[0:13:47] Voice 2: uh another word for it is water budget in the southern gulf islands in 2020 2021

[0:13:59] Voice 2: we undertook uh groundwater availability assessments which can be related to water

[0:14:07] Voice 2: water balance. However, the groundwater availability assessments is one piece of a

[0:14:15] Voice 2: water balance. A water balance is a holistic view of the amount of water that is available

[0:14:24] Voice 2: on a particular island that has many different facets of water productivity and also

[0:14:37] Voice 2: water use and so the reason why uh there is this push to use the term water balance rather than

[0:14:48] Voice 2: water budget is water budget can provide analysis of present day uh water availability

[0:15:03] Voice 2: where I believe water balance is more speaking towards the sustainability of the water and

[0:15:10] Voice 2: and future use and allocations so in that context I would assume that water budgeting is then a

[0:15:23] Voice 2: component of a larger water balance I would say water balance is the is the umbrella term for

[0:15:30] Voice 2: the entire project. And the reason why I bring that up is that I believe that Islands Trust

[0:15:39] Voice 2: is in a good space to engage in a project that involves consultants, as well as staff,

[0:15:49] Voice 2: and discussions with trustees in the community about the methodology to determine water budget,

[0:15:57] Voice 2: it, which is in the simplest terms, how much water comes into the island from precipitation

[0:16:06] Voice 2: mostly, well, in totality, actually, that's where all of the water comes from, in different

[0:16:13] Voice 2: forms of precipitation, not just rain, but snow and fog, and how much is used.

[0:16:20] Voice 2: And the use is just beyond human use, it's how much the ecosystems use, and how much

[0:16:28] Voice 2: For lack of a better term, how much the ocean uses, how much the ocean receives in a given year. So that's the out part of it. And like I mentioned in my briefing, that water balance is an accounting of how much water goes in and out of an area, and an area we can define as a watershed.

[0:16:51] Voice 2: watershed and a watershed simply is is that if a droplet of water falls on the landscape that

[0:16:59] Voice 2: eventually it flows down the terrain to a common outlet and on Gabriel Island there's there's many

[0:17:07] Voice 2: watersheds the the islands are quite unique with with the delineation of watersheds for the fact

[0:17:18] Voice 2: that there is um the the landscape is is quite small compared to the lower mainland or or main

[0:17:28] Voice 2: like like vancouver island uh and the amount of coastline that's associated with the landmass

[0:17:36] Voice 2: is is disproportional to essentially anywhere else in the world uh if if you look across the

[0:17:45] Voice 2: Nanaimo and say to the Englishman River watershed the the amount of coastline that's associated with

[0:17:53] Voice 2: with that massive watershed is is is a lot um is limited compared to the amount of coastline

[0:18:03] Voice 2: that surrounds uh Gabriel and um so on on Gabriel there can be uh I get we call them non-basin

[0:18:13] Voice 2: watersheds. They're quite smaller watersheds that may or may not even have a permanent creek

[0:18:21] Voice 2: or even a temporary creek associated with them. It's just an area that runs off water in the

[0:18:27] Voice 2: winter when there's excess water to the ocean. So when I speak of watershed, it's often just a

[0:18:36] Voice 2: a collection of adjacent watersheds that are surrounded by a significant surface water

[0:18:43] Voice 2: feature.

[0:18:45] Voice 2: So a water balance is an accounting of water, and we can think of it as simply as a bank

[0:18:54] Voice 2: account that water is put into the system and stored, and then water is used from that

[0:19:05] Voice 2: storage. So I often think about my early days of being a geoscientist, where I worked a lot in the

[0:19:16] Voice 2: winter and not so much in the summertime, because I usually worked on frozen terrain in Arctic

[0:19:23] Voice 2: Canada. You couldn't really go up there in the summertime that easily. And so I would make an

[0:19:29] Voice 2: abundance of money in the wintertime, and I would have to then budget that to spend it in the

[0:19:35] Voice 2: the summer. And water balance and water budgeting is really similar on the coast where we are

[0:19:44] Voice 2: provided precipitation in the wintertime that is stored. And then in the summertime, we're using

[0:19:53] Voice 2: that stored water much beyond the amount of water that's coming in in the summer.

[0:19:59] Voice 2: and that storage can be natural storage or it could be engineered storage so natural storage

[0:20:06] Voice 2: is in lakes and in wetlands and in aquifers and engineered storage is in reservoirs and tanks

[0:20:16] Voice 2: i am leaving out water recycling out of this question right now it's it's a pardon the pun

[0:20:23] Voice 2: a drop in the bucket on the amount of water that's used across the island's trust area so

[0:20:27] Voice 2: So return flows from septic fields and water recycling.

[0:20:33] Voice 2: I'm just, for the sake of convenience,

[0:20:36] Voice 2: leaving this out of the conversation right now.

[0:20:39] Voice 2: So the largest storage container that we have

[0:20:43] Voice 2: in the Island Trust area is the islands themselves.

[0:20:48] Voice 2: Subterranean storage in what is generally known as aquifers

[0:20:53] Voice 2: is is by far the the main provider of stored water um and um we we have a very small percentage of

[0:21:08] Voice 2: stored water in in engineered reservoirs and and plastic for lack of better term

[0:21:18] Voice 2: across the island trust area to to provide summertime water um and i just want to reach

[0:21:29] Voice 2: back to a previous point that i wanted to make that what i described to you the the ins and outs

[0:21:38] Voice 2: this water accounting is is mostly water budgeting and i think the overall water balance is is for us

[0:21:46] Voice 2: to uh to to look at at the at the data and the information and the knowledge that comes from this

[0:21:56] Voice 2: water accounting and then apply it to to water authorizations and future use and and i believe

[0:22:06] Voice 2: that that ties into water balance and and to to think about how we allocate water and how we

[0:22:18] Voice 2: we provide those authorizations and the impacts of land use planning on water use, if we were

[0:22:28] Voice 2: to take a significant look at the Islands Trust Climate Emergency and Reconciliation

[0:22:38] Voice 2: Declaration, it's without a doubt that that conversation and that work needs to deeply

[0:22:49] Voice 2: consider the impacts of climate change and have the involvement of First Nations, not

[0:23:00] Voice 2: only band and council, but also traditional knowledge to understand what are the water

[0:23:12] Voice 2: needs for that type of activity, for that vision, for the future of the islands that

[0:23:23] Voice 2: that is, you know, that's a step beyond the scientific aspect of that.

[0:23:31] Voice 10: So to round

[0:23:38] Voice 2: off my nomenclature point of this introduction to this topic,

[0:23:44] Voice 2: is I think that the Islands Trust is well suited for undertaking a project with a particular budget

[0:23:51] Voice 2: and hiring a consultant and perhaps some other auxiliary staff like a co-op student or something

[0:23:58] Voice 2: like that to determine for Gabriel Island as the main case study a modern day methodology

[0:24:08] Voice 2: for determining water budget for the island's trust area for a particular island.

[0:24:15] Voice 2: um the the overall engagement of that tool the the the holistic water balance approach

[0:24:25] Voice 2: would require deep coordination with um with first nation and and with with climate change

[0:24:37] Voice 2: professionals to to truly understand if if if the approach to our water budget has sustainability

[0:24:48] Voice 2: ability built into it and if it is not sustainable if our current case is not sustainable into a

[0:24:55] Voice 2: changing climate then we need to understand that and and approach mitigation measures to

[0:25:02] Voice 2: to avoid serious issues in the

[0:25:06] Voice 10: future um so i

[0:25:12] Voice 2: hope that provides a little bit of context for

[0:25:16] Voice 2: or what water balance is and how Islands Trust can approach the first steps with this in isolation, for lack of a better term.

[0:25:29] Voice 2: But the overall application of this work is going to require some significant coordination.

[0:25:38] Voice 2: nation and for us as as onshore staff to to do due diligence in that we would need to have

[0:25:45] Voice 2: um staff to staff and also political pathways to to engage with with um with partners that that are

[0:25:54] Voice 2: directly affected by land use planning and how that directly affects water availability in the

[0:26:00] Voice 2: future um there's a lot of regulatory considerations around that in the water

[0:26:06] Voice 2: sustainability act there is a tool called water reserves where water can be allocated for future

[0:26:13] Voice 2: use has been not engaged in the south coast yet there is deep considerations now of environmental

[0:26:24] Voice 2: flow needs and the impacts of water allocations on salmon and salmon habitat and currently there's a

[0:26:33] Voice 2: lot of work on that in the coaxial uh river watershed which is a tributary to the cowichan

[0:26:40] Voice 2: river um and and and all of those stories and and um analysis are quite complex but there there are

[0:26:52] Voice 2: some simple uh fundamental data and information challenges that that island trust can play a role

[0:27:02] Voice 2: role into solving to help answer those questions. Yeah, so if I were to, actually, I'm going to

[0:27:16] Voice 2: stop there and ask if there's any questions about what I just said, and hopefully that was

[0:27:24] Voice 2: somewhat clear.

[0:27:26] Trustee Luckham: Wow, the brave Susan Yates has her hand up.

[0:27:31] Voice 5: That's a wonderful presentation,

[0:27:33] Voice 5: William, thank you so much. And the briefing is excellent. A couple of things. I have

[0:27:41] Voice 5: traditionally never called any of the water catchment areas on Gabriola watersheds. I've

[0:27:49] Voice 5: always called them water catchment areas because having worked in northern BC and mountainous

[0:27:58] Voice 5: areas I think of those areas and even Salt Spring Island I think of as having true watersheds

[0:28:05] Voice 5: so I don't know whether that's accurate or not and then just a real quick question I guess this

[0:28:12] Voice 5: would go to Planner Chadwick so looking at all of these ideas and sort of the complicated

[0:28:21] Voice 5: complicated things that we must do to accomplish what we know we need to do are we still looking

[0:28:28] Voice 5: at a budget of approximately fifty thousand dollars uh

[0:28:35] Voice 9: yeah so that's the budget that we've

[0:28:36] Voice 9: got uh

[0:28:38] Voice 1: requested and yes we like we need to go we need to see i mean in an ideal in the ideal

[0:28:45] Voice 1: deal scenario, Gabriola will be able to get that that money allocated from Trust Council. And in

[0:28:53] Voice 1: addition, we'll be able to get this additional funding from the Complete Communities Grant.

[0:28:58] Voice 1: And so essentially, Gabriola will be the LTC that the methodology that will essentially then be

[0:29:12] Voice 1: applied to the other LTCs will be able to be applied. So at minimum, we need the $50,000.

[0:29:18] Voice 1: If we get more, then we'll be able to, you know, likely do more detailed work. And I mean, I think

[0:29:25] Voice 1: William will have a better sense of that. But I would say, like, to do, like, to do an excellent,

[0:29:33] Voice 1: like, to do that, to really nail this methodology, my understanding is that

[0:29:37] Voice 1: but we'll be able to enhance it

[0:29:40] Voice 1: if we get the additional money

[0:29:43] Voice 1: from the Complete Communities Grant.

[0:29:46] Voice 5: And provide a really good template

[0:29:49] Voice 5: for future OCPs in the trust area.

[0:29:52] Voice 5: And it sounds like perhaps Denman

[0:29:55] Voice 5: might be the next one as well.

[0:29:58] Voice 5: So thank you very much.

[0:29:59] Voice 1: That's right, yeah.

[0:30:00] Voice 1: and we've got i'd also add you know we do have the suitable land analysis that is providing an

[0:30:04] Voice 1: an excellent um uh template essentially for for grounding all of this information and identifying

[0:30:12] Voice 1: it how how all of the information that we have available to us um can be brought together to

[0:30:17] Voice 1: make decision making and so this the the water balance is definitely a critical piece um in that

[0:30:22] Voice 1: whole conversation around balancing um you know density needs for example with um with uh water

[0:30:30] Voice 1: preservation as well as um as well as the environmental protection considerations um

[0:30:37] Voice 2: yeah and through the chair i i also wanted to have a comment on on the cost um i think in the

[0:30:44] Voice 2: island's trust area the uh cheapest island to do this analysis on is gabriola for the specific

[0:30:54] Voice 2: reason that the regional district of nanaimo's drinking water and watershed protection program

[0:30:59] Voice 2: has been collecting information on gabriola water use for over a decade um and and that

[0:31:11] Voice 2: That piece of information is the most difficult one to obtain for this analysis.

[0:31:22] Voice 2: We know more of how much the ecosystems are using than humans are using.

[0:31:28] Voice 2: It's more predictable.

[0:31:30] Voice 2: We've done some pretty good estimates for the Southern Gulf Islands,

[0:31:36] Voice 2: but that's where the challenge is.

[0:31:40] Voice 2: that's where the data gap is and so we would um we would heavily rely on on the regional district

[0:31:50] Voice 2: of Nanaimo's program to provide us critical information from water use assessments and

[0:31:57] Voice 2: their surveys which is like you know like qualitative work and then they have quantitative

[0:32:03] Voice 2: data from groundwater monitoring locations across the island. And I have a closer relationship with

[0:32:11] Voice 2: that team. I've been participating in their technical advisory committee since I started

[0:32:16] Voice 2: Islands Trust. So they are really excited that their work can be applied to something like this.

[0:32:25] Voice 2: Of course, the RDN has done a lot of work on water balance. So they're a great partner

[0:32:33] Voice 2: to to work with i would hope that we can encourage them to even be an external partner on this

[0:32:40] Voice 2: project um because they have the expertise well not the expertise but the the experience in

[0:32:47] Voice 2: and undertaking this they just finished the french creek watershed um water balance i think

[0:32:53] Voice 2: get the tune it was north of a hundred thousand dollars for that project um and that's and that's

[0:33:01] Voice 2: working off their existing information so it just gives a good idea of how much this this work costs

[0:33:09] Voice 2: to do um and and that's what makes if i may be so bold besides the positive political wins from the

[0:33:21] Voice 2: local trust committee um having having that that information um is is already filling a data gap on

[0:33:29] Voice 2: Denman Island is the opposite. Denman Island only has one observation well from the province, and the water demand is, well, we don't really know the water use that well.

[0:33:49] Voice 2: I think they've done a little bit of work on agricultural water demand, which is by far the biggest water, agricultural practices, by far the biggest water user across the Island's Trust area.

[0:33:58] Voice 2: I have a co-op student this term and we just did a little bit of analysis on rainwater harvesting and to put in perspective for just a traditional market garden at a hectare, the amount of square footage for a roof to support that hectare, one hectare garden just from rainwater catchment was mind-boggling.

[0:34:24] Voice 2: I had to go check our math a few times, but it was large, like as large as like a horse riding

[0:34:33] Voice 2: rink. Like I know that, I know that many gardeners find ways to lower their, their irrigation demand

[0:34:41] Voice 2: on the islands, but I was just like comparing it to a typical mainland market garden. The amount

[0:34:49] Voice 2: amount of water is is immense compared to domestic use um so that that's that's always been a

[0:34:57] Voice 2: challenge and but the regional district in Nanaimo does have an agricultural water demand model of

[0:35:03] Voice 2: the RDN but it was from 2013 so that method would have to be looked at again um and and hopefully

[0:35:11] Voice 2: RDN would would would partner with us in that to determine agricultural water demand I'm not sure

[0:35:17] Voice 2: i'm not i don't want to make promises for them but um what i'm trying to say is that is that

[0:35:23] Voice 2: there's a really good partner there that that they're they're aware and and have the mandate

[0:35:30] Voice 2: really because of the program to to help us with this work and and we'll leverage their data

[0:35:36] Voice 2: greatly um yeah i'm i'm wondering where we should go to next for this um special meeting

[0:35:47] Voice 2: meeting. Maybe I'll get some direction from Planner Chadwick.

[0:35:55] Trustee Luckham: I see Trustee Elliott's hand.

[0:35:57] Voice 2: Oh, sorry, Trustee Elliott. I didn't see your hand there.

[0:35:59] Voice 4: It's all

[0:35:59] Voice 4: good. I have a couple of questions. And yeah, thank you for bringing up the RDN's

[0:36:06] Voice 4: watershed program. So there was in our September LTC meeting a package with a lot of information,

[0:36:15] Voice 4: staff report from the RDN. And so I guess I'm wondering a couple of things. I see that

[0:36:25] Voice 4: Gabriel has six monitoring wells. And is that considered sufficient for an area of this size

[0:36:34] Voice 4: and complexity? Because I know from personal experience and just from talking to a lot of

[0:36:40] Voice 4: people how much even within a neighborhood which might be understood to be on the same watershed or

[0:36:49] Voice 4: aquifer water flow can be radically different and so I guess is there a potential for this project

[0:37:03] Voice 4: is is you know if it goes forward that the data monitor or the the data collection the picture

[0:37:11] Voice 4: gets more and more more complex and we end up having to gather more and more data and

[0:37:19] Voice 4: creating a methodology is is going to be very good and specific for gabriola but is there a

[0:37:26] Voice 4: danger it might not be useful for other islands like because i'm just wondering the more we go

[0:37:31] Voice 4: into this the more there is to learn and to know and and it it seems like an incredibly complex

[0:37:37] Voice 4: topic i'm super grateful that the rdn has got these well so i i guess i have a number of

[0:37:44] Voice 4: questions and i'm not at all challenging the premise that we should embark on this project

[0:37:49] Voice 4: i'm super grateful that we'd be considered as sort of a pilot or a leader because of um how

[0:37:56] Voice 4: how we're situated in position, but I wonder, do we have assurance that it's going to be useful

[0:38:04] Voice 4: across the trust area and sort of worth the investment? I guess that is my, because that's

[0:38:09] Voice 4: what we'll have to defend to trust counsel for spending this money and really focusing

[0:38:13] Voice 4: and developing the methodology. So I'm just looking for supporting arguments in that vein.

[0:38:22] Voice 4: um

[0:38:25] Voice 2: yeah uh thank thank you for that question um i'll try to unpack it the best i can um so uh

[0:38:34] Voice 2: you asked if six wells is is sufficient better than nothing i know i'm being facetious um

[0:38:44] Voice 2: Um, it, it, it, it, it's not bad actually.

[0:38:48] Voice 2: Um, I, I, ideally, uh, there would be a, a monitoring location and in every, um, like

[0:38:59] Voice 2: major collection of watersheds, or we call them sometimes groundwater regions.

[0:39:05] Voice 10: Um,

[0:39:08] Voice 2: um, aside from the pilot project that I've done on South spring Island, that has

[0:39:15] Voice 2: has 13 monitoring wells across the island.

[0:39:20] Voice 2: Gabriela by far has the most groundwater monitoring.

[0:39:25] Voice 2: So to say that the methodology that will be developed

[0:39:30] Voice 2: to determine, or I should say the resolution

[0:39:38] Voice 10: or

[0:39:38] Voice 2: the completeness of the analysis on Gabriela

[0:39:46] Voice 2: is the same across the island stress area? Of course not. Is the methodology will be robust

[0:39:54] Voice 2: enough to be applied to the major islands? Yeah, that's the approach. For example,

[0:40:05] Voice 2: Golder Associates did their water balance on Salt Spring Island and just used the three wells.

[0:40:11] Voice 2: wells and they used what's called a water table fluctuation method and i was highly critical of

[0:40:20] Voice 2: it still am because it was just not the right fit um because they were using real far away wells to

[0:40:30] Voice 2: to do analysis on distant regions of of the island and completely different aquifers and

[0:40:37] Voice 2: in geological regions I just didn't understand that approach and so we're aware of that challenge

[0:40:46] Voice 2: and this is the reason why we're focused on Denman next because Denman is the opposite case

[0:40:56] Voice 2: with doesn't have the monitoring like Gabriela has and that will be in in the the not just in

[0:41:06] Voice 2: in the minds but in the scope of work for consultants taking on this work um so are we

[0:41:13] Voice 2: developing a methodology that will be used across the island's trust area yes will the quality of

[0:41:21] Voice 2: the output be the same for areas that we have no idea how much water people are using and we have

[0:41:28] Voice 2: no idea on on the the water levels and and in the majority of areas of each island well no

[0:41:36] Voice 2: No. And will the ultimate recommendations be to set fire to some of the regional districts that are doing absolutely nothing for the islands?

[0:41:51] Voice 2: yes like this is especially on the chairs island how there's not anything going on there

[0:42:01] Voice 2: after the regional district has collected millions of dollars over five years now chair

[0:42:09] Voice 2: since you passed through the the um the what do you call that when you ask the public for

[0:42:16] Voice 2: something can you help me the yeah

[0:42:18] Trustee Luckham: it's three to five years and it was a community water assessment

[0:42:25] Trustee Luckham: process and indeed the question that existed when that taxation model was being created was how were

[0:42:33] Trustee Luckham: they going to um how was it going to benefit theater sounders i think we only have one maybe

[0:42:38] Trustee Luckham: two wells on thetis that are actually monitored and indeed the uh topology is uh is again different

[0:42:45] Trustee Luckham: different numerous watershed potentials so uh yeah i haven't seen anything and uh that is a

[0:42:53] Trustee Luckham: tax line item yeah

[0:42:55] Voice 2: do you call that when you go to vote on something can you help me

[0:43:00] Trustee Luckham: um

[0:43:01] Trustee Luckham: referendum it was

[0:43:03] Voice 2: a referendum it was because it's uh now because the cap or the couch and

[0:43:09] Voice 2: valley regional district has a drinking water and watershed protection program they went to

[0:43:13] Voice 2: referendum and they get $750,000 a year. And I would say, I'm not aware, I haven't been made

[0:43:24] Voice 2: aware of that funds being directly put to use on Thetis beyond maybe just like in the regional

[0:43:33] Voice 2: context. I

[0:43:34] Trustee Luckham: have not seen your report. It's entirely possible I could go to the regional district

[0:43:38] Trustee Luckham: website and see if there's a section associated with Thetis, but certainly it's not been brought

[0:43:43] Trustee Luckham: to our attention right

[0:43:44] Voice 2: and so that that's my point exactly right like like um denman um island uh is

[0:43:51] Voice 2: in the couch and valley regional district and and they they did a couch in valley region district

[0:43:56] Voice 2: doesn't have a drinking water water protection program um so so that that is an an obvious

[0:44:04] Voice 2: spot of improvement but in areas where where it has been implemented like on for thetis island

[0:44:12] Voice 2: We haven't seen that. And really, it is the function of the regional district to provide that. I've been providing that service, per se, on Salt Spring Island, and it's totally unsustainable for me to do it.

[0:44:30] Voice 2: like for for the regional district of Nanaimo they have a full-time person just running their

[0:44:35] Voice 2: groundwater monitoring project program and and so there's one part of this work that is is is

[0:44:46] Voice 2: looking at the ins and outs of water and undertaking a methodology but then there's an

[0:44:50] Voice 2: another part of this work is to describe the story and and expose the information

[0:44:59] Voice 2: and information gaps data gaps regulatory gaps around this work and and and find pathways to

[0:45:08] Voice 2: solve them because if we don't well then our it's not sustainable we don't have sustainable

[0:45:17] Voice 2: water practices if that if that's the case um and and and and for me as a practitioner and like

[0:45:25] Voice 2: you know in the sweet spot of my career and and and i i look for areas to to develop knowledge

[0:45:35] Voice 2: and and to and to move the silent science along and that's really all that's really good right

[0:45:41] Voice 2: if we can create a methodology that can be at some point in the future implemented across the

[0:45:47] Voice 2: island's trust area that's great if we can accomplish a water balance that makes sense

[0:45:55] Voice 2: in 2023 for gabriola then that is a huge win right so i think i think it's both i think

[0:46:04] Voice 2: i think we can look to see how this um this methodology does get pushed out to the rest

[0:46:11] Voice 2: of the island stress area and that is definitely a main focus of this but but really we want to

[0:46:16] Voice 2: get it right for gabriola with with the the data that we have today the partnerships that we have

[0:46:21] Voice 2: today and and you know the energy that island stress staff are bringing to it today that that's

[0:46:27] Voice 2: all really important right because like trust me i've looked back on the water work and and seeing

[0:46:38] Voice 2: similar eras in in water policy in bc in the last 30 to 40 years and observed moments in time like

[0:46:48] Voice 2: this especially in the late 90s early 2000s where all of the islands got water allocation plans you

[0:46:55] Voice 2: had you had very um uh dedicated water professionals you had a good political environment

[0:47:06] Voice 2: and then in the early 2000s it all went away and we went dark for a long period of time until

[0:47:14] Voice 2: until the the what did they call it like uh it was like the precursor to the water sustainability

[0:47:23] Voice 2: act it was like the the bc's water plan i can't i can't really it when it started in 2008 and

[0:47:29] Voice 2: finally got this momentum and then look we're just implementing the water sustainability act now

[0:47:35] Voice 2: and so two decades of lost time and and and what happened with climate and and economy and and

[0:47:43] Voice 2: and population growth in the island's trust area over that time with largely unregulated water.

[0:47:53] Voice 2: So, yeah, I think that, like, now's the time to really act on this because we have the

[0:47:59] Voice 2: Watershed Security Strategy and Fund. The Water Sustainability Act has now been handed over to

[0:48:06] Voice 2: water uh water land and not not and resource stewardship out of ministry of forest so

[0:48:14] Voice 2: there's like there's there's a lot of good policy going on around this work and then i think that if

[0:48:22] Voice 2: we engage in a project in a good way i think that will then attract more interest for

[0:48:32] Voice 2: for for for the areas of trust area that are going to be inherently much more problematic

[0:48:38] Voice 2: to undertake this work like Laskiti and and like Denman and like Thetis where where we we don't

[0:48:46] Voice 2: have the same partnerships and and the data is not there and to identify a strategy to to start

[0:48:52] Voice 2: filling those data gaps I think generally with this work we just wait till the conditions are

[0:48:59] Voice 2: right and luckily the conditions are right for gabriola but the conditions may not be right for

[0:49:04] Voice 2: the rest of the island's trust area and we should take the time to identify those data gaps and

[0:49:08] Voice 2: strategies to start to fill them to undertake this work so do i envision that we would have

[0:49:16] Voice 2: a water balance assessment for every island across the island's trust area in this term no way

[0:49:23] Voice 2: i i there's just no way it's it'd be way too much money and there and we just don't have the data

[0:49:30] Voice 2: for it so i'm not sure maybe i just maybe that was a political bomb that i just dropped because

[0:49:37] Voice 2: we want to but it the whole idea is like we just have to i mean trying to say this with like

[0:49:49] Voice 2: political correctness but like we need to be the adults in the room here and address the challenges

[0:49:54] Voice 2: that we have to undertake this work and and I think this is a really good start for it because

[0:50:00] Voice 2: I think that for Gabriola by the end of this term we can have a finished product for water balance

[0:50:08] Voice 2: that that that involves our partners and and engages all of us in discussions on how to

[0:50:15] Voice 2: to engage the province for water allocations and and and for to give some really good tools

[0:50:21] Voice 2: to land use planners yeah and

[0:50:28] Voice 2: i have to remind myself this is recorded

[0:50:30] Trustee Luckham: questions out there so

[0:50:31] Trustee Luckham: oh

[0:50:31] Voice 2: yeah yeah let's let's let's go for it

[0:50:33] Trustee Luckham: so thank you for your passionate uh yeah

[0:50:36] Voice 2: i have to

[0:50:37] Voice 2: continuously remind myself that this is a public recorded meeting and not we're just sitting around

[0:50:41] Voice 2: having a a think tank discussion but no

[0:50:44] Trustee Luckham: yeah

[0:50:45] Voice 2: and

[0:50:46] Trustee Luckham: so i think i'm going to go to susan yates and then

[0:50:49] Trustee Luckham: back to trustee elliott and then narissa chadwick do you need to chime in at this juncture no okay

[0:50:55] Trustee Luckham: Okay, so let's go to Susan then.

[0:50:57] Voice 5: Thank you, Chair Luckham.

[0:50:59] Voice 5: I love listening to you, William.

[0:51:02] Voice 5: I would say also that the current Local Trust Committee

[0:51:06] Voice 5: is pretty on board for being the right time to.

[0:51:11] Voice 5: So, you know, I love your comment about 2001.

[0:51:15] Voice 5: It was the beginning of the dark ages for environmentalists,

[0:51:18] Voice 5: for schools, and for libraries.

[0:51:20] Voice 5: and I'm glad you said that because I still think about 2001 and how bad it got after that

[0:51:29] Voice 5: but I do have a question relating directly to that really good diagram on page three of your

[0:51:37] Voice 5: briefing on water balance with productivity and demand so considering that you know you mentioned

[0:51:44] Voice 5: You mentioned that agriculture by far across the trust area, and I'm sure elsewhere, is the biggest user in the on the right hand side under conservation, we have uses like landscaping and gardening, but agriculture is not in that list.

[0:52:02] Voice 5: And I wrote it in myself, a while ago, and I'm just wondering if there's a reason that you, you didn't put it on the, you know, on the list of uses.

[0:52:12] Voice 5: uses?

[0:52:13] Voice 2: Great question. It's most like agriculture and all other non-domestic use is all, and I

[0:52:24] Voice 2: should have maybe described this, is all contained within license limits. Irrigating anything beyond,

[0:52:36] Voice 2: I think a quarter acre I got that right yep is uh is deemed a non-domestic use right so you can

[0:52:43] Voice 2: have your garden you can water it with your just under your own domestic water um uh deemed right

[0:52:51] Voice 2: which is not you don't have to get a license for that um but any commercial or industrial or

[0:52:57] Voice 2: agricultural use needs a license and so there's license limits put on that from the province from

[0:53:02] Voice 2: the authorizations of that and so that that's why i put it into that conservation maybe that's

[0:53:08] Voice 2: not the best title for that i guess what i was trying to say there when you when you change the

[0:53:16] Voice 2: conservation of those bullet points that you can move the water demand up and down same with

[0:53:25] Voice 2: efficiencies and um and when i when i said license requirements on the efficiency side that's that's

[0:53:32] Voice 2: how much the the or what the province requires um for a particular license if the say if it's a

[0:53:39] Voice 2: like a better example laundromat and and the province like well i have a laundromat in the

[0:53:45] Voice 2: gulf islands you need to have high efficiency you know washers which they don't do but i'm

[0:53:50] Voice 2: just saying like within the water requirement or license requirements you can there can be

[0:53:55] Voice 2: efficiencies built into that water use um and thank you for turning our minds to to this

[0:54:01] Voice 2: diagram here um for the most part we on gabriola we have the productivity done we have recharge

[0:54:15] Voice 2: mapping uh we we have climate change assessments for for our climate change models um we know the

[0:54:24] Voice 2: well density um we have a decent understanding of of like ecosystem drift and and the and the

[0:54:32] Voice 2: impacts of a change in climate uh evapotranspiration how much the ecosystems use and

[0:54:38] Voice 2: push back out to the atmosphere um so there's a lot of work that's been done since you know

[0:54:47] Voice 2: since i've been here and and and from previous um work from from the province and the regional

[0:54:52] Voice 2: district um so really the the for the water balance will be focused a lot on on the demand

[0:54:59] Voice 2: and use side um so we have a really good step forward like when a consultant comes into this

[0:55:05] Voice 2: they'll be getting a world of data to to work with it's not they won't be starting from scratch at

[0:55:10] Voice 2: all um

[0:55:12] Voice 11: yeah

[0:55:13] Voice 2: and i

[0:55:14] Voice 10: think

[0:55:16] Voice 2: i'll leave that that

[0:55:17] Voice 10: unless you have if you have a follow-up question

[0:55:18] Voice 10: i'll answer it so following on that chair

[0:55:29] Voice 4: if i may ask a question um yeah so that's that's actually

[0:55:35] Voice 4: really wonderful because i i wanted to ask a question about what we know and where we need

[0:55:42] Voice 4: to go on gabriela in terms of telling the story and i think that's um i'm fascinated by the

[0:55:49] Voice 4: science i i really love um learning everything you've articulated so thank you for that

[0:55:56] Voice 4: um what i'm interested in more is how to tell the story to the public and to fellow trustees about

[0:56:04] Voice 4: the need and the, I guess there's three parts, where we're at, you know, what we know, what we

[0:56:12] Voice 4: need to know, sort of the critical issues that face us if we don't address this, and how can

[0:56:24] Voice 4: people engage ordinary citizens? How can they feel part of the solution? Because I think

[0:56:31] Voice 4: I think the multiple challenges of increasing density, climate change, First Nations returning home, a lot of the confluence of issues that communities are facing today, if they don't have an avenue to plug into and feel like they're part of the solution, they're just going to be critical.

[0:56:52] Voice 4: And especially if things are, we're studying things and, you know, a report comes out every year or so, it'll be, there's always the criticism, well, what's the Islanders Trust doing? We're budgeted money for this.

[0:57:07] Voice 4: So I'm just sort of standing in this place going, how can we help our communities understand where to plug in?

[0:57:15] Voice 4: So one question is, is there an opportunity for people to put volunteer monitoring gauges on their wells in different areas?

[0:57:24] Voice 4: Can we beef up the data collection?

[0:57:29] Voice 4: What is the opportunity to engage citizen scientists or folks in this kind of work?

[0:57:41] Voice 4: You say we've got a lot of data collection or data already, and we need to determine the usage.

[0:57:48] Voice 4: And so how can people participate in that?

[0:57:52] Voice 4: Yeah, and I know this is a longer, that's, we're not there yet, but that's the direction I'm thinking.

[0:58:00] Voice 2: Yeah, thanks for that. I'll definitely defer to Narissa for the main chunk of your questions there, especially relating to like where do we go from here and planning and what happens if we don't do this work.

[0:58:16] Voice 2: For respect to this particular project, it is at a scope to increase the amount of data collected, I would think.

[0:58:23] Voice 2: We just don't have, there just wouldn't be the budget for that.

[0:58:27] Voice 2: So this is really processing data that we already have with the recommendations coming out of that for filling in data gaps.

[0:58:36] Voice 2: um and and that would that would then lead to future work and and perhaps um maybe even a

[0:58:44] Voice 2: critical analysis of of the drinking water watershed protection program um that they could

[0:58:50] Voice 2: you know facilitate better data collection for this type of work and and then that could be

[0:58:56] Voice 2: applied to other islands that that are maybe building a program or don't have it um

[0:59:00] Voice 2: um uh yeah i however i want to uh yeah about citizen science and engaging community and and

[0:59:13] Voice 2: i think that's really great i think we could do that for this project i think we can do that within

[0:59:17] Voice 2: a year especially like just understanding more about how much water people use so it could that

[0:59:24] Voice 2: could be through a survey that could be through a like a community information meeting it could be

[0:59:31] Voice 2: be through um i don't know like a booth at the sunday market or saturday market something like

[0:59:40] Voice 2: that to to start getting to the conversation of of how much water people use it's the biggest

[0:59:48] Voice 2: challenge and it's definitely something that a consultant we would burn up their budget if they

[0:59:55] Voice 2: went to the islands and started poking around to try to find out how much water people use it just

[0:59:59] Voice 2: just that wouldn't be.

[1:00:00] Voice 2: of their scope of work so but their scope of work could be working with a community group or working

[1:00:05] Voice 2: with staff that works with the community group or working with a coordinator however the project

[1:00:09] Voice 2: gets set out and how much budget we have for it uh to to undertake a a a water use survey would be

[1:00:18] Voice 2: ideal because within that survey we can provide information um it gives a point of contact for

[1:00:27] Voice 2: for residents to engage with the project, which is exactly what's needed for these projects. We

[1:00:34] Voice 2: did the Southern Gulf Islands Groundwater Availability Assessment. Like that was just

[1:00:39] Voice 2: a tag on to the recharge work. Put it this way, we did those five islands and did the recharge work

[1:00:47] Voice 2: and this Groundwater Availability Assessment and learned from that. And then the following year,

[1:00:53] Voice 2: we did gabriola damon and hornby just the recharge for the same amount of money and and that's just

[1:01:01] Voice 2: how much work our consultant put in that was essentially unpaid for the southern gulf islands

[1:01:07] Voice 2: it was a lot of work and and so we realized like the scope of this work is so large and and what

[1:01:12] Voice 2: what didn't happen there is we didn't have a lot of we we had zero on island coordination

[1:01:16] Voice 2: nation so so something like that would be like really essential to to the efficacy of this work

[1:01:24] Voice 2: and something that we'd want to work with like the likely the trustees with or or online or

[1:01:31] Voice 2: on island coordinator or something like that i don't know how that looks yet as part of a project

[1:01:37] Voice 2: but but i would say that's that's definitely a way to generate new data uh and within the scope

[1:01:43] Voice 2: scope of a one-year project I I think they're that's totally feasible um yeah so that's my

[1:01:52] Voice 2: comment on that and then Nerissa do you think you want to touch base on the other bit of uh

[1:01:59] Voice 2: Trustee Elliott's yeah

[1:02:00] Voice 1: sure yeah yeah so through the chair I was so yeah so I was just gonna say

[1:02:04] Voice 1: um um I mean what we have this is part of the OCP uh process um generally right so um so

[1:02:15] Voice 1: out of the visiting process I imagine there will be some discussion about water so already we'll

[1:02:22] Voice 1: be able to you know indicate that we're moving forward to understand that piece a bit more

[1:02:29] Voice 1: we've got and I keep on bringing up the the suitable land analysis because I think that

[1:02:33] Voice 1: really does provide a way of like illustrating how the data that we will generate can be used

[1:02:39] Voice 1: and we may uh if i'm understanding this correctly um william um be able to

[1:02:48] Voice 1: uh get like a sort of a more general sense of things um like there are layers of understanding

[1:02:55] Voice 1: that we can kind of get to like what you're talking about i think um toby is a much more

[1:03:00] Voice 1: detailed analysis and i'm thinking like where we can get without uh what we can get to a place

[1:03:09] Voice 1: where where we have sort of a general sense of things and even with the sort of ad hoc work that

[1:03:14] Voice 1: was done for um the southern gulf islands we were um we were able to like when we were looking at

[1:03:22] Voice 1: um increased increasing density in areas we were able to to um identify the areas that were

[1:03:30] Voice 1: um of most concern and and so the there's the opportunity there if you want to dig into it

[1:03:37] Voice 1: to get a little bit more more detailed depending on where the community wants to go with that right

[1:03:43] Voice 1: so i think the the first cut will allow us to get um a level of data at us you know at a certain

[1:03:52] Voice 1: level and it'll it'll be useful because of what it'll can what it'll measure is order of magic

[1:03:58] Voice 1: magnitude essentially like these are the really critical areas these are the less critical areas

[1:04:02] Voice 1: And that's enough to use at a higher, from a higher level, like land use planning perspective, like if we were looking pretty good in this area, we're not looking good in this area so let's concentrate on this area if you want to go there, right.

[1:04:20] Voice 1: And then yeah I mean we can we can choose to go further.

[1:04:23] Voice 1: depending on how the project goes but the opportunity with the OCP reviews is already

[1:04:29] Voice 1: there I think and the communications that we've got going on like as we move out of this sort of

[1:04:36] Voice 1: initial visioning stage into the finer focused OCP phases we can start to do communications that

[1:04:44] Voice 1: are very specific and that's where we can do the communications related like most specifically to

[1:04:50] Voice 1: to the water piece and there'll be other pieces.

[1:04:52] Voice 1: I think that'll emerge as we move forward.

[1:05:03] Voice 10: Chair Luckom, I think you're talking, but you're muted.

[1:05:10] Voice 10: Yeah, my apologies.

[1:05:11] Voice 10: I've

[1:05:12] Trustee Luckham: had a page out and I'm trying to monitor the call

[1:05:14] Trustee Luckham: in case there's some intervention required,

[1:05:17] Trustee Luckham: but it's all going fine.

[1:05:19] Trustee Luckham: Anyway, just keeping an eye on the time here.

[1:05:22] Trustee Luckham: We've got 20 minutes remaining in this.

[1:05:23] Trustee Luckham: This has gone quite quickly

[1:05:25] Trustee Luckham: and is certainly quite interesting and fully absorbing.

[1:05:30] Trustee Luckham: I'm just thinking about the recommended next steps as noted in the briefing and follow-up.

[1:05:37] Trustee Luckham: And so can we maybe look to Narissa for remarks on whether or not you need any direction out

[1:05:47] Trustee Luckham: of this meeting today and how we should provide that to you in order to facilitate the work,

[1:05:54] Trustee Luckham: if indeed that's what the trustees want to do, which I gather.

[1:05:57] Trustee Luckham: there sure

[1:05:58] Voice 1: yeah so i'm also seeing um uh susan's hand up but i'll i'll be brief here um um so this

[1:06:06] Voice 1: uh next step that's related so that was a briefing for the the regional planning committee is what

[1:06:11] Voice 1: is what you received today um so for for this ltc essentially um you know the the the focus is on

[1:06:21] Voice 1: really trying to get that that money in the budget in your budget so that you can be guaranteed to

[1:06:27] Voice 1: be able to support this work because this work from my perspective um william's perspective is

[1:06:32] Voice 1: quite critical to your ocp review like if you want to do your ocp review right and have that

[1:06:37] Voice 1: information and and um i think it's it's a really important and critical piece um we don't know if

[1:06:45] Voice 1: we're going to be able to to get the complete communities grant we're going to apply for it

[1:06:49] Voice 1: i was told that they're likely going to be oversubscribed this this um this round and

[1:06:56] Voice 1: because salt spring got it previously they may be looking at that as oh well you know islands

[1:07:01] Voice 1: trust got one so you know who knows how they're going to be looking at it but we'll staff will

[1:07:05] Voice 1: do our best to to try and get that funding but that funding is not guaranteed i think is the key

[1:07:10] Voice 1: and this work is is very very important and being able to have that methodology that can then be

[1:07:17] Voice 1: easily you know can be used by other uh local trust committees it's not just a um a value to

[1:07:24] Voice 1: gabriela but um across the the trust area so so next step is really to to get that funding and

[1:07:31] Voice 1: then once that once we know that it's supported we'll create a work plan and um and then move

[1:07:37] Voice 1: forward from there okay

[1:07:39] Trustee Luckham: so one last thing if you don't mind choosing i'll come immediately to you

[1:07:42] Trustee Luckham: just remind me what's the uh time frame for announcements with respect to funding will

[1:07:49] Trustee Luckham: that happen before budget cycle here's uh debate happens not this month but by march

[1:07:55] Trustee Luckham: um

[1:07:57] Voice 1: i mean i think you'd you'd you've been through it more than i haven't it seems very complicated

[1:08:02] Voice 1: but um i mean from what i understand i mean there's some sort of preliminary decisions that

[1:08:07] Voice 1: will be made at trust council related to the budget and then final

[1:08:11] Trustee Luckham: i mean about getting the

[1:08:13] Trustee Luckham: grant from the oh

[1:08:14] Voice 1: the grant oh well that's always uncertain so that the um the um deadline is i

[1:08:19] Voice 1: think it's the 12th of january okay

[1:08:21] Trustee Luckham: that's what i wanted to know

[1:08:23] Voice 1: so yes yeah okay

[1:08:25] Trustee Luckham: susan over to you

[1:08:27] Voice 5: thank you chair luck i did put something in the chat you can all read it but there is a very gung

[1:08:33] Voice 5: ho independent ad hoc group on gabriola that has um sort of one of the spokes on the wheel

[1:08:41] Voice 5: of Sustainable Gabriola, which is our transition group here on this island. One of these folks is

[1:08:47] Voice 5: completely obsessed with water, and they will do anything they can to help us in our quest to get

[1:08:56] Voice 5: this work done. And in fact, today I stopped in at the trust office to pick up this fabulous

[1:09:01] Voice 5: pamphlet, Groundwater, Our Shared Responsibility, and I'll be handing it out to them this evening.

[1:09:07] Voice 5: so i think we're going to have good citizen participation when we get to the ocp for for

[1:09:14] Voice 5: the water thank you chair

[1:09:19] Voice 4: i just have one more question about um sort of responsibility for the

[1:09:23] Voice 4: work um i i just looked in through your report and then saw the reference to the phase one that

[1:09:33] Voice 4: the rdn did i think 2014. it's fascinating i've never seen that before great gonna take a look

[1:09:40] Voice 4: at it uh water budget project i'm sorry 2012. um so frequent criticism is well that's the rdn's job

[1:09:48] Voice 4: and and so i'm still trying to understand who's you know we work in cooperation um they're doing

[1:09:56] Voice 4: the work to collect the data it's our job as land use planning um the the authority of land

[1:10:04] Voice 4: use planning so how do we um i'm just trying to understand this the relationship i guess um

[1:10:14] Voice 4: between the regional districts and and our yeah our role thanks

[1:10:19] Trustee Luckham: marissa's got a hand up yeah i

[1:10:21] Voice 1: mean i i mean my response is we're trying we're trying to figure it out um that's that's that's

[1:10:27] Voice 1: seems to be my experience when i have conversations with different regional district uh staff is that

[1:10:35] Voice 1: there's interest in in supporting the trust but there there isn't a sense of how and there isn't

[1:10:42] Voice 1: necessarily allocated staff resources to do that so in a way my feeling is that if if we can

[1:10:48] Voice 1: show some leadership demonstrate some leadership on this stuff um that we can encourage that

[1:10:55] Voice 1: that relationship. I mean, William understands a little bit more on the details of the water

[1:11:03] Voice 1: program. But I think when we have a better sense of where we're going, it's much easier for us to

[1:11:11] Voice 1: develop those relationships with people who can help us.

[1:11:14] Voice 4: I think it would be helpful. Maybe we

[1:11:17] Voice 4: can tease this out later, not in this meeting, but I really want a mental model and a graphed out

[1:11:24] Voice 4: different regional districts and for the example that you gave with Thetis and Cowichan Valley

[1:11:29] Voice 4: regional district and sort of where that has dropped in terms of delivery for for the island

[1:11:36] Voice 4: community that we need to understand from a trust-wide perspective that all those relationships

[1:11:41] Voice 4: are at different places and so the strength of this project I think can be best displayed by

[1:11:51] Voice 4: here's what the regional district of Nanaimo has undertaken now we take that data and we're going

[1:11:56] Voice 4: to use it for land use planning which we know and we're we have the authority to do so we need sort

[1:12:03] Voice 4: of a leaderboard um I just it's all about communication it is all communication and so

[1:12:10] Voice 4: understanding that all areas are not equal first of all that yes now I get it that we can apply

[1:12:18] Voice 4: apply the methodology on gabriela but it's going to be adapted to each island here's the strength

[1:12:22] Voice 4: of you know gabriela but denman's weak in this area so we got to test it out in a on an island

[1:12:28] Voice 4: that doesn't have the data and so that's now thank you for this conversation it's clear to me but i

[1:12:34] Voice 4: think we need a a really good articulation of where the different relationships are at and

[1:12:40] Voice 4: those responsibilities and the the the moral responsibility or the moral imperative to do

[1:12:49] Voice 4: this work is you have to do it when when the um the opportunity presents and this is that

[1:12:54] Voice 4: opportunity as you said william so um okay

[1:12:58] Voice 2: yeah also i mean it's we have a responsibility to the

[1:13:03] Voice 2: islands trust act the regional districts don't neither does provincial water authorization staff

[1:13:12] Voice 2: either. Water authorizations is handing out water whenever they get asked for it. And there is a

[1:13:24] Voice 2: lack of definition and responsibility on how land use planning is supporting those water

[1:13:34] Voice 2: authorizations. And beyond that, we have a reconciliation declaration. That's the responsibility

[1:13:43] Voice 2: trust right we said we're taking on this role and and the regional districts won't won't address

[1:13:53] Voice 2: that for us it's not their responsibility right so i i agree with you but you know trustee elliot

[1:13:58] Voice 2: i've been asking for a very long time for even through the freshwater sustainability strategy

[1:14:05] Voice 2: development what define the roles and responsibilities of the different governing

[1:14:12] Voice 2: organizations and agencies around water and it's nothing but deflection because it's very difficult

[1:14:22] Voice 2: to to say yes that's our role and over here yes that's our role for for determining for for going

[1:14:30] Voice 2: out there and and having the the ability to to have to to own infrastructure and and go out and

[1:14:37] Voice 2: and measure groundwater levels i do believe that's the responsibility of the regional district

[1:14:42] Voice 2: but doing undertaking a water balance for this for the sake of planning the regional district

[1:14:48] Voice 2: is doing that for the municipalities and and yes they did do the phase one for gabriola but i can

[1:14:54] Voice 2: tell you that was 10 years ago and since then they've done a lot more work on the areas that

[1:14:59] Voice 2: the regional district is planning for like french creek right where the majority of it

[1:15:04] Voice 2: is rural residential and it's actually the regional district planners that are planning

[1:15:08] Voice 2: out that area, not like the City of Nanaimo planners, right, where they have responsibility

[1:15:15] Voice 2: over. So for the sake of land use planning, yes, I mean, I think Islands Trust has the

[1:15:23] Voice 2: responsibility for determining intensity and density and figuring out like domestic water

[1:15:32] Voice 2: allocation, sure. But I think we can take a hard look at like, what is the Islands Trust Act? What

[1:15:38] Voice 2: are we doing here and and and how does water sustainability uh relate to that and and and how

[1:15:46] Voice 2: we are the responsible agency to protect these islands and ecosystems it's really interesting

[1:15:53] Voice 2: that's where it gets okay there's a lot of overlapping jurisdiction there because

[1:15:58] Voice 2: you know if you talk about just salmon populations how many agencies have responsibility over making

[1:16:04] Voice 2: making sure that salmon are healthy.

[1:16:06] Voice 2: If the feds in the marine waters have the province for RIR,

[1:16:11] Voice 2: and then you have the local governments

[1:16:13] Voice 2: that are responsible for enacting the RIR,

[1:16:17] Voice 2: the riparian area regulation, it's very,

[1:16:20] Voice 2: I mean, not to continuously say what Trustee Patrick says,

[1:16:25] Voice 2: but water is messy, right?

[1:16:27] Voice 2: Water is muddy.

[1:16:27] Voice 2: It's a very difficult and complex regulatory environment.

[1:16:33] Voice 2: And I think whenever the opportunity arises that an agency can take the leading role, especially if it's coordinated with other agencies, that that agency needs, has the responsibility to take it, I think.

[1:16:44] Voice 2: Because we're all trying to trend towards water sustainability and now watershed security.

[1:16:49] Voice 2: And I'm really excited about watershed security and fund.

[1:16:53] Voice 2: I think it's, I mean, there's going to be some really progressive policies coming out of that.

[1:16:59] Voice 2: And I just want Islands Trust to be in a good space to, sure, accept funding and money for it, but also just be a responsible partner so we can look back in this moment in time on the 100th anniversary of the Islands Trust and say, right, that was a watershed moment, the 50th year of the Islands Trust, right?

[1:17:20] Voice 2: Right. Like there's something that happened there that that turned the tides on on water sustainability.

[1:17:28] Voice 2: I mean, I I've been here for seven years almost. And my forecast of of water sustainability is lukewarm.

[1:17:40] Voice 2: There's some really significant challenges and and we're dealing with some historical poor planning.

[1:17:47] Voice 2: and um i just i professionally and personally i just think we're not doing our due diligence with

[1:17:57] Voice 2: ensuring that there's water for our first nation partners it's just something that we're just have

[1:18:03] Voice 2: not even talked about so i think that's where the responsibility lies with the islands trust

[1:18:09] Voice 2: yeah

[1:18:12] Trustee Luckham: that's a complex topic topic many of those things of which we've only become

[1:18:17] Trustee Luckham: you know

[1:18:18] Trustee Luckham: more broadly aware of those responsibilities and so the historic

[1:18:23] Trustee Luckham: land use matters have not considered any of this let alone water sustainability right so

[1:18:31] Trustee Luckham: um yep so uh what else is there anything else for us to know or provide direction we're just

[1:18:40] Trustee Luckham: absorbing this information uh clearly what you're saying is that we need to garner support at the

[1:18:46] Trustee Luckham: council table um for this piece of the budget to support this project on gabriela and denman

[1:18:52] Trustee Luckham: um so yeah the challenge is before us yeah

[1:18:58] Voice 2: thanks chair and also just to complete my because i i

[1:19:03] Voice 2: know that i i'm trying to balance the positive and not so positive of this work that like you're

[1:19:12] Voice 2: right we in the past when we land use plan this wasn't even considered and and all of this is

[1:19:19] Voice 2: knowledge and progress and i'm not laying blame on

[1:19:21] Voice 2: anybody of course um i think uh we're just

[1:19:25] Voice 2: faced with some significant challenges and and i think we're in a good spot to reflect back on

[1:19:33] Voice 2: on those shortcomings to to plan for a more sustainable future but yeah indeed i'm not

[1:19:39] Voice 2: i'm not placing blame on anybody i i wish the regional districts would be more proactive though

[1:19:45] Voice 2: that's for sure but yeah um i think for next steps and and moving this to trust council and stuff i

[1:19:53] Voice 2: would defer that to narissa but i would like to thank you chair and and and i appreciate the that

[1:19:59] Voice 2: you are giving staff the the space to to express our i think you can tell that narissa and i are

[1:20:07] Voice 2: both trying to balance our professionalism and passion around this and and i think sometimes my

[1:20:12] Voice 2: passion gets away from me. But yeah, I appreciate this conversation and thank you to the LTC as

[1:20:20] Voice 2: well.

[1:20:22] Trustee Luckham: Hey, Nerissa, do you have some closing words for us? Go team. Go team. Okay. Trustee,

[1:20:30] Trustee Luckham: is there anything you'd like to add?

[1:20:32] Voice 4: Passion is a good thing and it is the only thing that's

[1:20:35] Voice 4: going to get us through this hard work. It's going to be a tough slog. I think this is,

[1:20:40] Voice 4: if we don't address this now the the critical issues of jurisdiction over water and

[1:20:47] Voice 4: authorizations and use is going to be the battleground for the next 50 years and it's

[1:20:55] Voice 4: going to be ugly and we don't want that to happen so i think proactive communication is

[1:21:02] Voice 4: has got to be and good planning has got to be at the forefront sorry narissa no

[1:21:07] Voice 1: that's fine i i did

[1:21:08] Voice 1: have my opportunity earlier um but i did also want to mention that um it it is gathering this data is

[1:21:16] Voice 1: also a really um good opportunity for tangible conversation with um with first nations with the

[1:21:23] Voice 1: nation um because we will have we will be able to demonstrate that we're wanting to do um evidence

[1:21:30] Voice 1: based decision making and we'll have the kind of data that we need to have conversations around

[1:21:36] Voice 1: water allocation, like an actual tangible offering, essentially. So that's another,

[1:21:43] Voice 1: you know, huge value to this exercise.

[1:21:48] Trustee Luckham: So thank you for using that phrase,

[1:21:51] Trustee Luckham: evidence-based decision-making. I don't think I heard anybody say that yet today. And that's

[1:21:56] Trustee Luckham: critical in our decision-making, is do we have evidence, the facts to support, to ask, you know,

[1:22:02] Trustee Luckham: And indeed, I've been reading up on meeting procedures and methodologies and what's the

[1:22:08] Trustee Luckham: problem and is this the right solution and do we have the information to undertake it?

[1:22:14] Trustee Luckham: So I appreciate that.

[1:22:16] Trustee Luckham: Susan, any last remark?

[1:22:20] Voice 5: No, but I think this has been a really good meeting.

[1:22:23] Voice 5: Thank you all very much.

[1:22:25] Trustee Luckham: And Stephen, I hope this has been helpful to you and in your future support for the

[1:22:32] Trustee Luckham: LTC here.

[1:22:33] Trustee Luckham: do you have any remarks no

[1:22:35] Voice 8: i i don't but yeah it hasn't been able to be here so thanks all right

[1:22:40] Trustee Luckham: so um does that conclude our conversation today it's certainly today this conversation but

[1:22:46] Trustee Luckham: obviously there's a lot more conversations in the future and uh indeed uh if if we don't

[1:22:53] Trustee Luckham: manage to find the support we need to advance this particular product what what is the alternate

[1:22:58] Trustee Luckham: alternate solution to like to consider what our plan B might be in order to continue this what

[1:23:06] Trustee Luckham: is important work just

[1:23:09] Voice 4: before we close um is a future action perhaps to articulate and I know

[1:23:15] Voice 4: Marissa you're going to take this forward and you're reporting to the LTC but to articulate

[1:23:21] Voice 4: with the notes from today's meeting, sort of a one-page case for why Gabriela is the ideal

[1:23:31] Voice 4: candidate. It's not because, you know, the chair is the chair of this LTC and Toby Elliott has a

[1:23:37] Voice 4: loud voice at council and Susan Yates is very seasoned and wise trustee. This isn't a political

[1:23:43] Voice 4: decision. I would love to hear or just have a write-up of why this is the way to go.

[1:23:51] Voice 4: that would help support um our work at council speaking

[1:23:56] Trustee Luckham: notes would help yeah um

[1:24:01] Trustee Luckham: yeah

[1:24:01] Voice 1: so would you like to pass a motion to direct staff to do so because then we've got it

[1:24:06] Voice 1: formal love

[1:24:09] Voice 4: to um so i guess with the minutes come out from this conversation um

[1:24:19] Voice 4: because i think it'd be helpful to have the a little bit of the feedback from the trustees and

[1:24:23] Voice 4: and the direction that we're thinking and why we support this but um what am i thinking and

[1:24:30] Voice 4: time frame would be well

[1:24:33] Trustee Luckham: you're a limited amount of time and energy between now and council if you

[1:24:36] Trustee Luckham: want

[1:24:36] Voice 4: no not for this council no no um i don't really know yeah just

[1:24:43] Voice 4: a summary um requesting

[1:24:46] Voice 4: staff to provide a summary for the basically to fill out the reason the recommendation of

[1:24:57] Voice 4: why Gabriela and Denman would be the ideal first or not first but what is I got to go back to so

[1:25:05] Voice 1: can I help you with a resolution please do I suck at

[1:25:08] Voice 1: this so I think it would be to for to direct

[1:25:11] Voice 1: staff to provide a memo outlining the rationale behind supporting, behind funding, or funding

[1:25:24] Voice 1: support from Trust Council for water balance assessments. And

[1:25:31] Voice 4: why the, why Gabriel and Denman

[1:25:33] Voice 4: are good

[1:25:33] Voice 1: candidates for methodology

[1:25:35] Voice 4: development. I think that's, so basically articulating what's

[1:25:39] Voice 4: in your recommendation there why the next steps i'd like to see that fleshed out as um as a memo

[1:25:45] Voice 4: would be great sorry lisa millard we're doing it to you

[1:25:50] Voice 5: again um toby if you move that i'll

[1:25:56] Voice 5: second it once we've got it figured out oh sure uh

[1:26:01] Voice 6: the gabriel island local trust committee direct

[1:26:04] Voice 6: staff to provide a memo outlining rationale behind funding support from trust council for water

[1:26:10] Voice 6: balance assessments and why gabriola and denman islands are chosen for as ideal

[1:26:17] Voice 4: candidates for

[1:26:19] Voice 4: the methodology development yeah

[1:26:22] Voice 7: chosen as ideal candidates for methodology development

[1:26:31] Voice 7: methodology development you're

[1:26:33] Voice 4: amazing yeah

[1:26:35] Voice 7: thanks lisa yes i

[1:26:37] Voice 5: so move i'll second and then i have a

[1:26:41] Voice 5: question okay

[1:26:43] Trustee Luckham: so are you clear on that motion lisa yes all right i moved and seconded any further

[1:26:50] Trustee Luckham: discussion yes

[1:26:52] Voice 5: i have a question um so who this is great we'll get this done and then who are we

[1:26:57] Voice 5: directing it to are we going to direct it to ec or to council like who are we who do we need this for

[1:27:06] Voice 10: this is a tool for you i think okay i'm good with that okay all those in favor

[1:27:19] Voice 10: any opposed nobody's opposed that's a good thing right that carries is

[1:27:25] Trustee Luckham: there any further business

[1:27:26] Trustee Luckham: today then i'll call for the meeting adjournment i want to thank all of you especially uh william

[1:27:33] Trustee Luckham: and Nerissa for your passionate sharing of the evidence and the rationale for this work.

[1:27:43] Trustee Luckham: And we'll see you all next time.

[1:27:46] Voice 4: In two days, we'll see you, Peter and

[1:27:49] Trustee Luckham: most

[1:27:50] Voice 4: of you. Okay. Take care, everyone.

[1:27:53] Voice 4: Thank you again.

ADOPTED 
 
 
 
Gabriola Island ADOPTED 1 
Local Trust Committee Special Meeting Minutes 
November 28, 2023 
 
Gabriola Island Local Trust Committee 
Minutes of Special Meeting 
 
Date:  
Location:  
November 28, 2023 
Electronic Meeting 
 
Members Present: Peter Luckham, Chair 
 Tobi Elliott, Trustee 
 Susan Yates, Trustee 
  
Staff Present: Narissa Chadwick, Island Planner 
 Stephen Baugh, Island Planner 
 William Shulba, Freshwater Specialist 
 Lisa Millard, Recorder 
  
Others Present: There were 0 members of the public and 0 members of the media in 
attendance. 
 
1. CALL TO ORDER 
“Please note, the order of agenda items may be modified during the meeting. Times are provided 
for convenience only and are subject to change.” 
 
Chair Luckham called the meeting to order at 2:35 pm. He acknowledged that the meeting was 
held on the territory of the Coast Salish First Nations. 
2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA 
 
By general consent the agenda was approved as presented. 
 
3. BUSINESS ITEMS 
Planner Chadwick provided a brief update on the engagement phase of the Gabriola Island Local 
Trust Committee (LTC) Official Community Plan (OCP) and Land Use Bylaw (LUB) Review Project 
and noted the following: 
 Fifteen groups have been allocated funding to host discussion about the visioning process 
and staff will facilitate meetings with some groups that are underrepresented; 
 There will be a series of videos released which will focus on specific topics of interest to the 
community such as identifying what a community vision is, what an OCP is, and what an LUB 
is; and 
 Postcards with QR codes directing people to the project website, as well as a survey, will be 
sent out. 

 ADOPTED 
 
 
 
Gabriola Island ADOPTED 2 
Local Trust Committee Special Meeting Minutes 
November 28, 2023 
3.1 Major Project: Gabriola Visioning Engagement Process and Water Balance 
Assessments 
Freshwater Specialist William Shulba summarized a briefing and highlighted the 
following: 
 A water balance assessment is a holistic view of the amount of water that is 
available in a particular area and includes many facets of water productivity and 
water use; 
 The Southern Gulf Islands undertook groundwater availability assessments in 2021 
and these assessments form part of a water balance; 
 A water budget can provide an analysis of present-day water availability while a 
water balance speaks to sustainability and future use allocations; 
 The water balance is an accounting of how much water comes into the island from 
precipitation, and how much water is used; 
 Water use includes human and ecosystem use as well as how much the ocean 
receives; 
 On Gabriola Island most of the water is provided by winter precipitation which is 
then stored and used primarily in the summer months when minimal precipitation is 
coming in; 
 The primary storage containers on Gabriola are the island itself by means of 
subterranean storage within aquifers; 
 It will be important to look at the data that comes from the water accounting and 
apply this information to water authorizations and future use; 
 Consideration of the impacts of climate change will be critical as will the 
involvement of First Nations Bands and Councils and their traditional knowledge; 
 The holistic water approach would require significant coordination with First 
Nations and climate change professionals; 
 Ultimately, if the current case is not sustainable in relation to the current climate 
trends, then we need to understand this and implement mitigation measures to 
avoid future issues. 
 
Discussion ensued and the following points were made: 
 The budget ask of Trust Council will be $50,000 and a funding application will also 
be made through the Complete Communities grant; 
 The existing suitable land analysis can be used as a template for grounding the 
available information and the water balance will be a critical piece to balance 
density needs, water preservation, and environmental protection considerations; 
 The Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) has been collecting information on water 
use for over ten years including water use assessments, surveys, and ground water 
monitoring on Gabriola and there is opportunity for the RDN to be an external 
partner on the project; 
 While the project will focus on Gabriola and Denman islands, the methodology will 
be useful across the Trust Area; 

 ADOPTED 
 
 
 
Gabriola Island ADOPTED 3 
Local Trust Committee Special Meeting Minutes 
November 28, 2023 
 The project will focus on domestic use versus commercial, agricultural, and 
industrial uses which require water licenses; 
 There is ability to engage the community in the project through community 
information meetings or surveys; 
 Communication about water balancing can also become part of the aspects of the 
OCP review project related to water usage; 
 While some might consider it the RDN’s responsibility to undertake a water 
balancing project it becomes the Islands Trust responsibility, within its mandate to 
preserve and protect, to act when other parties do not; and 
 Gathering this data is a good opportunity to have conversation with First Nations 
because we will be able to demonstrate that we want to do evidence-based 
decision-making, and will have the data needed to have conversations about water 
allocation. 
 
GB-2023-081 
It was MOVED and SECONDED  
that the Gabriola Island Local Trust Committee direct staff to provide a memo 
outlining the rationale behind funding support from Trust Council for water balance 
assessments and why Gabriola and Denman are chosen as the ideal candidates for 
methodology development.  
 
CARRIED  
  
4. ADJOURNMENT 
 
By general consent the meeting was adjourned at 4:02 pm. 
 
 
_________________________ 
Peter Luckham, Chair 
 
Certified Correct: 
 
 
_________________________ 
Lisa Millard, Recorder