Denman Island Local Trust Committee regular meeting, September 24, 2024

[0:00:00] Voice 31: Coast Salish people.

[0:00:03] Voice 43: Good afternoon.

[0:00:05] Voice 43: Susan Yates from the Gabriola Local Trust Area,

[0:00:07] Voice 43: territory of the S'Ni'Nemoch people.

[0:00:12] Voice 19: Hi, I'm Alex Allen from Hornby Island,

[0:00:14] Voice 19: the unceded traditional territory of Komox First Nations

[0:00:18] Voice 19: and other Coast Salish people.

[0:00:23] Voice 20: Ken Hunter, Betas Island.

[0:00:28] Voice 32: Hi, I'm Sue Ellen Fast from N'Kleil O'Kwem,

[0:00:31] Voice 32: or Bowen Island, over in Howe Sound, Alkitsom,

[0:00:34] Voice 32: and territory of Squamish Nation.

[0:00:39] Voice 4: Judy Getty, and Sue Ellen pronounces it much better than I do, Bowen Island.

[0:00:43] Voice 4: L'Kweli'kum.

[0:00:53] Voice 46: L'Kaila Laroni, L'Skidi Island, Hoyete.

[0:00:57] Voice 39: Hello, Toby Elliott on Gabriela Island in Snanamik First Nation Territory.

[0:01:05] Voice 16: David Maude, I'm from Maine Island, traditional home of the Wistanik people.

[0:01:10] Voice 22: Tim Peterson, elected on Hoyete, L'Skidi Island,

[0:01:14] Voice 22: territory of many Coastalist peoples and the treaty territory of the Tla'amn Nation.

[0:01:19] Voice 22: Christina

[0:01:22] Voice 26: Evans from Sudeo South Panda, home of many Coast Salish people.

[0:01:29] Voice 25: Hi, welcome. My name is Joe Bernardo. I'm from the Gambier Trust area,

[0:01:33] Voice 25: located in the ancestral lands and waters of Squamish Nation, specifically from Lake Tyne,

[0:01:40] Voice 25: which some of us call Keats Island. Thank you.

[0:01:46] Voice 45: Hello, I'm Rae Boland from Saturna Island, home of Coast Salish people.

[0:01:51] Voice 45: people.

[0:01:53] Voice 18: Ben Maberly, Galeano Island, home of the Inulka tribe and the Georgeson family.

[0:02:04] Voice 10: Brad Scott, Hornby Island, along with my friend Alex over there.

[0:02:11] Voice 23: And I'm noticing that David Graham on the screen there. Good afternoon, David.

[0:02:16] Voice 6: Good afternoon, everyone. David Graham from the Denman Local Trust Committee,

[0:02:19] Voice 6: quarantined for obvious reasons. I wish I was with you on the traditional territory of the

[0:02:24] Voice 6: Comox First Nations and Pentecostal people. Thank you.

[0:02:28] Voice 23: And I think I see Sam Borswick.

[0:02:32] Voice 24: Yes, similarly from Denman, also recovering from a cold, unfortunately. Yeah,

[0:02:37] Voice 24: Denman Island, Tastec, traditional territory of the Comox First Nation.

[0:02:42] Voice 23: And Jamie Harris.

[0:02:46] Voice 12: Jamie Harris, feeling fine here today on Salt Spring Island.

[0:02:52] Voice 23: Very good. And I think probably regrets from, is he on the screen? Oh, I see. Okay.

[0:03:06] Voice 23: Okay. Somebody else there on Zoom that hasn't got a video on?

[0:03:13] Voice 23: Oh, there you go. Rita Smith. Thank you.

[0:03:19] Voice 23: And Janine Dodds also online from Maine Island.

[0:03:24] Voice 23: And Rita's from Galliano, of course.

[0:03:27] Voice 23: And then likely regrets from Susan Morrison.

[0:03:31] Voice 23: I don't see her there, and I don't see Aaron Campbell either.

[0:03:36] Voice 23: So that's terrific.

[0:03:37] Voice 23: Terrific. Just very quickly, staff, contingent, CEO, Julia Mobs, Laurie Foster, looking after our tech and media management, Claire Freider, Trust Area Services, Stefan Cermak, Regional Planning Services, and Lisa Millard, looking after our minutes.

[0:03:56] Voice 23: Thank you, everybody. So thank you. So without further ado, Elder Lawley, I want to thank you for coming and joining us today and welcoming us in such a warm and wonderful way.

[0:04:08] Voice 23: And I've enjoyed my conversations with you. And I know you're very busy with lots of these kinds of activities.

[0:04:14] Voice 23: So really appreciate you taking the time out for us. So I'm going to turn it over to you.

[0:04:28] Voice 29: good day it is good to see you all as an elder from the community i have a protocol i'm just

[0:04:37] Voice 29: going to go right ahead uh with my protocol

[0:05:11] Voice 29: Honored friends,

[0:05:12] Voice 29: Friends, I was born and raised S'nanaimoch, extended family root seashell.

[0:05:18] Voice 29: S'nanaimochi, CME, Mosdimo, Tlashetamak'u'u'che'che'tamak.

[0:05:25] Voice 29: S'nanaimochi, Chief Mike Wisen, Council, invite you all to our sacred lands.

[0:05:32] Voice 29: I acknowledge worldwide all frontline workers who risk their lives on a daily basis

[0:05:39] Voice 29: in support of their city, town, and countries.

[0:05:41] Voice 29: Creator, protect them all and their families.

[0:05:46] Voice 29: As I do this blessing, I ask that you think of others.

[0:06:20] Voice 29: Creator, thank you for this day.

[0:06:23] Voice 29: Please look after those who are grieving and for those who are sick.

[0:06:28] Voice 29: Thank you for the food today.

[0:06:30] Voice 29: Please bring blessed medicine to our tables.

[0:06:33] Voice 29: Creator, please help us all today and every day.

[0:06:37] Voice 29: As requested, I have created an uplifting little song out of the phrase,

[0:06:46] Voice 29: it's a really good day not every day is a good day it isn't we know that however if we can

[0:06:54] Voice 29: for less than 10 minutes uplift ourselves it does something here and here i'm going to ask you to

[0:07:03] Voice 29: come and stand and come we're going to kind of join a circle over here i have my hand instruments

[0:07:10] Voice 29: please come and select your own hand instrument and let's get under underway and start your

[0:07:16] Voice 29: You're gathering off in a good way.

[0:07:18] Voice 29: Hi, Sapka.

[0:07:19] Voice 29: You

[0:07:24] Voice 28: get your instrument, start making noise.

[0:07:26] Voice 28: You're making a virtual instrument as an infant.

[0:08:15] Voice 28: There you go.

[0:08:17] Voice 28: Your back is in a rattle again.

[0:08:20] Voice 28: Okay, for some of you that may not know my Hi, Squirrel song,

[0:08:25] Voice 28: you are also going to sing out.

[0:08:27] Voice 28: When you see me raise my hand up like this,

[0:08:30] Voice 28: this is when you're going to sing out Hi, Squirrel.

[0:08:32] Voice 28: I swear out means good day in my language called Aminah.

[0:08:37] Voice 28: Okay, let's have a practice.

[0:08:40] Voice 28: I swear out.

[0:08:41] Voice 28: Who said?

[0:08:42] Voice 28: I swear out.

[0:10:37] Voice 28: I have to carry on with this when you're at home with your own family.

[0:10:42] Voice 28: Have your own family.

[0:10:44] Voice 28: Or you get up in the morning and you want to wake everybody up and start singing I swear out.

[0:13:31] Voice 23: Well, counsel, certainly that's uplifts our spirits into a good place to conduct our good work here together.

[0:13:39] Voice 23: Before we begin, I just want to provide David Marlin an opportunity to introduce one of our newest staff members, which all of you are going to be very keen to know.

[0:13:48] Voice 23: And over to you, David.

[0:13:50] Voice 23: Yeah,

[0:13:51] Voice 11: thank you. So the last couple of months we've had Jeffrey Lloyd is our new coordinator for information services.

[0:13:59] Voice 11: So he's here today to learn about trust counsel and to meet all of you.

[0:14:03] Voice 11: I'm just going to ask him just to ask you to consider some privacy concerns.

[0:14:09] Voice 11: So, guys,

[0:14:13] Voice 17: when you step away from your chairs, I just appreciate it if you locked your laptops, okay?

[0:14:20] Voice 17: It's for privacy reasons.

[0:14:23] Voice 17: But all seriousness aside, I'm really happy to be here, really happy to meet you all.

[0:14:28] Voice 17: And at any point, if you want to have a chat, I'm around.

[0:14:34] Voice 17: And again, wonderful to be here.

[0:14:36] Voice 17: Wonderful to join the team.

[0:14:38] Voice 17: Appreciate it, guys.

[0:14:42] Voice 11: Yeah, thanks, Jeffrey.

[0:14:43] Voice 11: Yeah, just seriously, though, it's a public space and your laptops do have

[0:14:48] Voice 11: balanced trust data on them, like emails, for example.

[0:14:50] Voice 11: So just lock it, Windows, L, or put the laptop down.

[0:14:56] Voice 11: Appreciate that.

[0:14:57] Voice 11: Thank you.

[0:14:58] Voice 23: Thank you, David.

[0:14:59] Voice 23: And when I was introducing staff earlier, it reminded me that Daphne back here, of course, whom you all know, that is what keeps this show on the road.

[0:15:10] Voice 23: So thank you very much, Daphne.

[0:15:15] Voice 23: Well, here we are.

[0:15:16] Voice 23: Welcome.

[0:15:19] Voice 23: I just want to make a remark coming back from UBCM just recently.

[0:15:26] Voice 23: And thank you, Council, for helping us attend those events with budget.

[0:15:31] Voice 23: It's much appreciated.

[0:15:32] Voice 23: It's a very important event in my mind.

[0:15:35] Voice 23: But the takeaway for me that I want to share with you as we begin our meeting is governance is a team sport.

[0:15:45] Voice 23: And, you know, that's the kind of message that, you know, in a little bit more elaboration, we need to work together, we win together, we lose together, we struggle together, but playing as a team, playing the game fairly and respectfully with each other and grieving with times when maybe we made a bad play together and celebrating together when we've had successes.

[0:16:13] Voice 23: I think this is how we need to work together. Let's look to our coaches. That's the staff who provide us professional advice. And we play that out as best we can. And they support us in playing that out as best we can. So enough for me.

[0:16:27] Voice 23: me. Let us look to our agenda here. Again, very much thankful for Elder Lawley being

[0:16:35] Voice 23: here to start us off in Sonoma Territory. And we have an agenda before us, and I'm going

[0:16:40] Voice 23: to, there is one addendum that has been added at 6.2.3, I think it is, yeah, 6.2.3. That's

[0:16:52] Voice 23: a separate package that's included in the agenda already um is there anything else that needs to be

[0:16:57] Voice 23: added or removed at this time um laura patrick well

[0:17:03] Voice 33: i note an error uh in nine two one motion

[0:17:09] Voice 33: number two does not match the staff it's if it's incorrect so just people should note not not that

[0:17:14] Voice 33: one okay

[0:17:17] Voice 23: so that's 9.2 in the discussion the bylaw is not correct or the motion is not correct

[0:17:25] Voice 23: okay so let's sort that out before we get there so the staff can uh so that we can prepare prepared

[0:17:30] Voice 23: to make that motion another item then is uh lee middleton thanks

[0:17:36] Voice 13: jerry that country but i'm going

[0:17:37] Voice 13: to suggest this that we we uh change the order of the agenda i i think we've got a lot here i

[0:17:44] Voice 13: appreciate the challenge in getting um all the material before us but i i'm actually i'll just

[0:17:51] Voice 13: just come straight to a motion for the sake of efficiency.

[0:17:53] Voice 13: I move that we delay consideration

[0:17:56] Voice 13: until another meeting of the strategic plan

[0:17:59] Voice 13: and the section three of the Allens Trust object discussion

[0:18:03] Voice 13: and the rationale is to give more time

[0:18:05] Voice 13: for the provincial request for review of Allens Trust,

[0:18:07] Voice 13: which seems to me to have very, very little time

[0:18:09] Voice 13: given the importance of the topic.

[0:18:13] Voice 23: Okay, so just help us out here.

[0:18:15] Voice 23: Do we have that?

[0:18:15] Voice 23: Did you give that motion to staff?

[0:18:17] Voice 13: No, unfortunately I didn't.

[0:18:18] Voice 13: I just was told there would be a revised agenda presented, so I was just waiting to see that.

[0:18:24] Voice 13: It just was sort of like I'm just

[0:18:27] Voice 23: trying

[0:18:28] Voice 13: to think of a way to be efficient,

[0:18:30] Voice 13: and it didn't really come to me until the last minute that I think without harm we could move those two items to December.

[0:18:38] Voice 23: Right, so you're talking about 6.2.4. Is that correct?

[0:18:59] Voice 23: Yeah, so obviously we need some clarity here.

[0:19:03] Voice 23: 6.2.1 is the provincial review.

[0:19:05] Voice 23: I think we want to discuss that today.

[0:19:10] Voice 13: Yeah, and I guess my suggestion is if we move 6.2.4,

[0:19:14] Voice 13: and it's basically just what I'm seeing is a way we could generate more time

[0:19:19] Voice 13: for the discussion for the request of the province.

[0:19:23] Voice 13: So I would say that we defer 6.2.4,

[0:19:27] Voice 13: and then um the uh where whatever the item on the agenda is where we discuss

[0:19:36] Voice 13: the object of the of the trust that's

[0:19:39] Voice 23: at 6.2.3

[0:19:41] Voice 13: okay

[0:19:44] Voice 23: yeah

[0:19:44] Voice 13: so that that would be the two i suggest we defer not to diminish

[0:19:48] Voice 13: their importance but

[0:19:49] Voice 13: i think they can be dealt with um later in the year and we can focus more time on

[0:19:56] Voice 13: on the policy statement and the request of the province

[0:19:59] Voice 13: with that adjustment.

[0:20:01] Voice 13: Thank you.

[0:20:03] Voice 23: All right, I think that that's not an unreasonable request.

[0:20:08] Voice 23: In an ideal situation, we have these things,

[0:20:10] Voice 23: just a reminder, get the motions to staff

[0:20:13] Voice 23: in a timely fashion, because this also takes time.

[0:20:17] Voice 23: If it's all right, Lee, I would suggest

[0:20:20] Voice 23: that we not change that at this time,

[0:20:22] Voice 23: but when we get to that item,

[0:20:23] Voice 23: if it looks like we don't have time for it,

[0:20:26] Voice 23: Let's defer it then.

[0:20:28] Voice 23: But if the wish by two-thirds vote to make that amendment to the agenda is kind of a change of business, I would be happy to support that.

[0:20:39] Voice 23: What is your consideration?

[0:20:41] Voice 23: Do you want to advance this motion at this time?

[0:20:43] Voice 13: Well, it just looks to me already that we know we won't have very much time just because of the point, the position it is on the agenda, which is, if I'm not mistaken,

[0:20:54] Voice 13: And it's about just how we've given it just about a half hour, maybe 45 minutes.

[0:20:58] Voice 13: So to me that already looking at that, that won't be enough time for the full discussion.

[0:21:02] Voice 23: And that's true. And we've sort of thought about that at executive committee already, considering that we have only one delegation this go around.

[0:21:10] Voice 23: And certainly we don't know how many public speakers there might be.

[0:21:12] Voice 23: But perhaps there's actually slack at the beginning of the agenda to pick up for that.

[0:21:17] Voice 23: But I don't want to elaborate on this any further.

[0:21:20] Voice 13: I'm happy to accept that. If towards the end of the discussion we realize we're really not in hand with enough time to make meaningful progress there, then by all means, I would bring the motion forward at that point.

[0:21:37] Voice 23: And we're going to kind of have a huddle at the break at 3.15 to determine what's achievable. So if that's okay with everybody, sort of general nodding, then we'll just proceed according to that. So, Mary Boland?

[0:21:48] Voice 23: uh

[0:21:50] Voice 45: further to um laura's uh discussion about the error in the rfd etc as presented

[0:21:58] Voice 45: around the bylaw compliance um i went through that with the fine tooth comb i think there are

[0:22:04] Voice 45: several errors in the material that's presented um you know documents that are referenced that

[0:22:10] Voice 45: aren't there documents that are there that aren't referenced uh the recommendations at the top and

[0:22:16] Voice 45: the response options at the bottom are at odds because the response options at the bottom are

[0:22:22] Voice 45: from the RPC agenda. I would suggest that that material is removed in its entirety and deferred

[0:22:28] Voice 45: to December Trust Council, because I think it's confusing. Thank you.

[0:22:38] Voice 23: Thank you. Again, I'm inclined to want to deal with that at the time that we actually address

[0:22:43] Voice 23: it. But is there somebody on the staff side that would like to address that? Do you concur that

[0:22:48] Voice 23: that that document is not ready for council?

[0:22:51] Voice 15: Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[0:22:52] Voice 15: No, I don't concur.

[0:22:53] Voice 15: I do agree that there are some translation errors

[0:22:56] Voice 15: going from the RPC to the trust council.

[0:23:00] Voice 15: There's obviously some administrative errors.

[0:23:02] Voice 15: I can easily address those questions

[0:23:04] Voice 15: when it comes up for discussion.

[0:23:06] Voice 23: Yeah.

[0:23:07] Voice 23: And so that's it, just to answer the question,

[0:23:09] Voice 23: I think that's item 6.2.

[0:23:11] Voice 23: No,

[0:23:12] Voice 15: it's 9.2.1.

[0:23:13] Voice 15: Oh,

[0:23:13] Voice 23: sorry, yeah, exactly.

[0:23:15] Voice 23: 9.2.1, the documents attached to that.

[0:23:21] Voice 23: And you're suggesting we address that when we get there.

[0:23:24] Voice 23: Okay.

[0:23:27] Voice 23: Trustee Boland, do you want to make a motion?

[0:23:32] Voice 45: No, I'm happy with that.

[0:23:33] Voice 23: Okay, thank you.

[0:23:34] Voice 45: But one other point.

[0:23:36] Voice 45: Can we just clarify, if we're removing things from the agenda, do we still need a two-thirds vote to change it?

[0:23:43] Voice 45: I thought that the two-thirds vote was to add a new item to the agenda.

[0:23:48] Voice 23: That's a great question, David Marley.

[0:23:50] Voice 23: It's an amendment to the agenda.

[0:23:53] Voice 11: Yeah, it's only for adding to the agenda.

[0:23:55] Voice 11: You need a two-third vote.

[0:23:56] Voice 11: So if you're taking things off, it's just a simple majority.

[0:24:01] Voice 11: Okay, stand corrected.

[0:24:05] Voice 23: So back to the agenda for adoption.

[0:24:08] Voice 23: Is there anything that needs to be added or removed from the agenda today?

[0:24:13] Voice 23: All right.

[0:24:13] Voice 23: Right. I'm going to take it by general consent that the agenda be adopted as presented.

[0:24:19] Voice 23: All right. Thank you. This brings us to Section 3, the consent agenda items.

[0:24:27] Voice 23: Items on pages 12 through 42. Well, it actually goes all the way to 59.

[0:24:36] Voice 23: items 3.11 through 3.1.5.6 they are here for adoption adopting the recommendation presented

[0:24:48] Voice 23: in those reports by general consent but i want to provide you the opportunity now to ask for any of

[0:24:55] Voice 23: these to be removed if you wish to speak to them and so christina evans i'd like to talk to 313

[0:25:03] Voice 23: 3, please. Okay. Is there anything else

[0:25:07] Voice 23: on the consent agenda items that anybody wishes to address?

[0:25:11] Voice 23: Tim Peterson.

[0:25:13] Voice 21: Yeah, a quick comment on 3.1

[0:25:16] Voice 21: point, 3.1.55.

[0:25:20] Voice 23: 3.1.55. Okay, thank you.

[0:25:25] Voice 23: Anything else? Laura Patrick. Just confused here.

[0:25:30] Voice 33: The verbal reports from each chair,

[0:25:32] Voice 33: are those how can they be approved through general consent if we haven't given them

[0:25:36] Voice 33: you

[0:25:37] Voice 23: know what um you're absolutely right and i stand corrected there i knew that was going to

[0:25:43] Voice 23: catch me too is that the verbal reports in 3.1.5 will be provided to you but are essentially after

[0:25:53] Voice 23: the report is given they would be adopted by general consent as recommended so let's assume

[0:26:01] Voice 23: that all those items 3.1.5 will turn to the chairs of the standing committees to provide

[0:26:09] Voice 23: a summary report. So anything else then in 3.11 to 3.14? Okay. Thank you, Laura, for catching that.

[0:26:20] Voice 23: I knew it was going to get me. So I'm going to take it then, just to advance this, that items

[0:26:24] Voice 23: 3.11, 3.12, and 3.14 be adopted, adopt the recommendations as presented in those items

[0:26:34] Voice 23: by general consent. And now I'm going to go to 3.1.3. Trustee Evans, you asked to speak to that

[0:26:41] Voice 23: one.

[0:26:42] Voice 26: Thank you. I have a couple of questions for various people around the room. So the first one

[0:26:47] Voice 26: is on page 29 for David Mahler. It says that the progress chart on the review of Trust Council

[0:26:54] Voice 26: council policies and to take review and recommend updates and consolidation of policies bring one

[0:26:59] Voice 26: or more policies back to each trust council and work with the relevant director um it says it's

[0:27:03] Voice 26: zero percent complete but we've already had some come back i'm just wondering how much more is

[0:27:10] Voice 26: there if this is still at a zero percent um or has that bar actually moved and i have a few other

[0:27:17] Voice 26: the questions yeah

[0:27:19] Voice 11: council currently has 91 policies um it's probably less than five percent

[0:27:25] Voice 11: complete if you consider we've done a few of them i can update that perfect

[0:27:32] Voice 26: thank you that's exactly

[0:27:32] Voice 26: what i wanted to know if it was less than five percent because that would make sense um so yeah

[0:27:42] Voice 26: and then there was there's another one for you on page 30 which is number seven um and i noticed

[0:27:49] Voice 26: us that so this one is the drafting of the cao performance evaluation policy and there is

[0:27:55] Voice 26: materials in this package to start addressing that it this this is at 10 percent that's correct to

[0:28:02] Voice 26: you yeah

[0:28:03] Voice 11: i just allocated my time to draft that so um i think it's pretty accurate and then the

[0:28:13] Voice 26: My next one is for Stefan on page 31.

[0:28:20] Voice 26: So this is at 0%, but there is a report in this package about the tracking of planning staff time and applications with regards to cost recovery.

[0:28:29] Voice 26: Is that accurate at 0%?

[0:28:34] Voice 15: No, it is not.

[0:28:36] Voice 15: It's roughly about 15, 20%.

[0:28:39] Voice 15: So

[0:28:50] Voice 26: I think in general, there's a bunch of zeros in here.

[0:28:53] Voice 26: year. I'm not going to go through them all, but I think we need to make sure that the people

[0:28:58] Voice 26: working on these are actually updating them to be reflective. So it's item,

[0:29:07] Voice 26: there's quite a few of them in the director of trust area services are all at 0%.

[0:29:10] Voice 26: Some are marked as completed, but they're still showing at 0%. So I think they need to be updated

[0:29:15] Voice 26: and worked on now.

[0:29:19] Voice 23: Okay. Thank you. Sierra, you've got your hand up and perhaps you want to speak to

[0:29:23] Voice 23: the zero percent number that pops up but okay great thank you uh

[0:29:28] Voice 9: just a brief comment you know

[0:29:30] Voice 9: this is a new addition so you know i agree we need to pay a little bit more attention to how

[0:29:34] Voice 9: we're updating that there's also a move to amend the status options in these follow-up action lists

[0:29:41] Voice 9: so right now there's two options we either indicate that work is in progress or work is completed

[0:29:45] Voice 9: oftentimes work may not have started or it might be on hold so we are looking to amend the

[0:29:51] Voice 9: application so that we can actually indicate when work is not started and then if there's a zero

[0:29:55] Voice 9: percent and something says not started you can be assured that that zero percent is

[0:30:00] Voice 9: accurate. So that's something that hopefully we can have done for next council. And yes,

[0:30:03] Voice 9: there's a lot of work on everyone's plates right now. So indeed, there are some follow-up action

[0:30:08] Voice 9: list items here that are at zero percent. Trust Area Services, of course, has been suffering from

[0:30:13] Voice 9: some staff vacancies. So we see most of them there.

[0:30:17] Voice 23: Very good. Anything else? I think that

[0:30:20] Voice 23: covers it. So then I'm going to then take it by general consent that three point. Oh, there is a

[0:30:27] Voice 23: a hand up. Sorry, Joe Bernardo, missed that.

[0:30:29] Voice 25: Thank you. Since we're on the topic, I do have

[0:30:32] Voice 25: a couple of questions here for Director Marler. The first one relates back to the review of the

[0:30:41] Voice 25: Trust Council policies. I see the target date for completion is December 2025. And could you

[0:30:53] Voice 25: clarify, is that the target date for the completion of the review of all of the policies?

[0:31:07] Voice 11: No, I don't think that's actually possible.

[0:31:09] Voice 11: The target there is to get a substantial stat on them and at least get a program in place

[0:31:16] Voice 11: about how council wants to update and amend its policies, so some structure around that.

[0:31:25] Voice 11: That's the goal.

[0:31:26] Voice 11: I think actual work with 91 policies is going to take a lot longer than a year.

[0:31:33] Voice 11: Do

[0:31:34] Voice 25: you think it's feasible to, first of all, thank you for the clarification. It sounds practical. I'm just wondering if, you know, December 2025 is, you know, it's 14 months or so away. Do you think it's feasible to accelerate the review to get to that point of getting a structure in place before that?

[0:31:57] Voice 25: uh

[0:32:00] Voice 11: yeah there's um governance committee um has a business case going forward which i'm just

[0:32:06] Voice 11: drafting in its early stages uh to get some resources to do exactly that which is to

[0:32:12] Voice 11: do the work up front to get a structure that we can agree to and uh resources um and also

[0:32:20] Voice 11: triaging of the policies so that we know which ones need to be done first and which ones can wait

[0:32:26] Voice 11: So, yeah, I'd agree with doing something up front.

[0:32:29] Voice 25: And last question.

[0:32:30] Voice 25: The first item there, I appreciate the progress percentage meter on the left is a new thing,

[0:32:37] Voice 25: but I'm a little perplexed.

[0:32:38] Voice 25: On the first item, it says, you know, progress, we're 49% there.

[0:32:41] Voice 25: And then you look at the status, it's completed.

[0:32:43] Voice 25: That's confusing.

[0:32:45] Voice 25: So maybe clarify.

[0:32:46] Voice 25: Thanks.

[0:32:48] Voice 11: Yeah, that's just hitting a complete button and not updating the percentage and the not linked together.

[0:32:53] Voice 11: others, so we just need to be more diligent about that.

[0:33:02] Voice 23: Thanks for those questions. If there's

[0:33:05] Voice 23: nothing further, then I'm going to adopt the recommendations, which is received for information

[0:33:13] Voice 23: by general consent, and thank you for your diligence on reviewing those topics. This brings

[0:33:19] Voice 23: us to section 3.1.5, starting on page 37, and this is the committee reporting. The executive

[0:33:27] Voice 23: committee felt that it was more as helpful more helpful to trust council to have these reports

[0:33:32] Voice 23: at the outset so that you'd have a status report on the different areas so that when we're making

[0:33:37] Voice 23: decisions later on you can do it in the context of the work that's underway so uh the first item

[0:33:43] Voice 23: there is executive committee of course and uh those items as i said are listed on page 40 a

[0:33:49] Voice 23: number of these are on um today's uh well this council's agenda particularly the uh follow-up

[0:33:55] Voice 23: with review of the Islands Trust by the Minister of Municipal Affairs, improvements in trust

[0:34:02] Voice 23: programs committee to coordinate the review of the policy statement. Of course, that's ongoing as

[0:34:08] Voice 23: well. Developing the Islands Trust for Association of Reconciliation, also ongoing. And then the

[0:34:16] Voice 23: active projects, development and implementation of the strategic plan, also in the agenda and

[0:34:23] Voice 23: is ongoing and thank all of the staff for all the work future projects here are listed um out of uh

[0:34:30] Voice 23: interest some of the dates are a bit uh they've obviously been on the list for some time but is

[0:34:36] Voice 23: work that ultimately as the active projects gets freed up we would we would start to deliver on

[0:34:43] Voice 23: those and so if there's any questions with respect to the executive committee work program report

[0:34:49] Voice 23: I'd be happy to provide some answers or ask staff to answer them accordingly.

[0:34:53] Voice 23: Are there any questions?

[0:34:58] Voice 23: Mary Boland.

[0:35:01] Voice 45: I'm actually on the active projects chart.

[0:35:04] Voice 45: And I see that the first top level is Island Trust Council goals.

[0:35:10] Voice 45: And I'm assuming that that ties in with the existing strategic plan.

[0:35:18] Voice 45: but i think it would be good to reference things where they exist or is it tied into some sort of

[0:35:27] Voice 45: intermediate so

[0:35:28] Voice 23: which one are you speaking with or just broadly on

[0:35:31] Voice 45: the page i think the other is

[0:35:33] Voice 45: the executive executive committee those really are not goals those are actually work program

[0:35:38] Voice 45: activities or work projects but the goals at the top are without context now that broadly speaking

[0:35:48] Voice 45: and you go through them and you see, yeah, this is what crops up all the time.

[0:35:51] Voice 45: But it would be helpful, I think, to reference the strategic plan

[0:35:56] Voice 45: or whatever that this comes from.

[0:36:01] Voice 23: Okay, so that's the priorities chart on page 37.

[0:36:05] Voice 23: And so I think that, David, we can take that under advisement.

[0:36:10] Voice 23: Who's going to address that? Julia Mobs?

[0:36:13] Voice 9: Yes, so the Islands Trust Council goals that are listed there

[0:36:17] Voice 9: are pulling from the strategic plan.

[0:36:19] Voice 9: So the strategic plan is where Trust Council documents its goals.

[0:36:24] Voice 9: We can certainly make that amendment to change the heading to say Islands Trust Council strategic plan goals, if that will help for clarity.

[0:36:32] Voice 9: The rest of the council committees reflect initiatives that they are undertaking on behalf of council, which are also coming from the strategic plan, as well as any additional items council has approved the committees to work on.

[0:36:45] Voice 23: Okay. So thank you, Mary, for that. And so we don't need to provide you direction. You'll capture that and work on that accordingly. All right. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Mary.

[0:36:56] Voice 23: So I'm going to, so 37 through 42, the priorities chart and the executive committee work program, if you're satisfied, we'll continue on to the other committees.

[0:37:06] Voice 23: Okay, so the next committee report then would be the Governance Committee Work Program Report.

[0:37:13] Voice 23: And Chair Getty, thank you for your leadership there. Over to you.

[0:37:18] Voice 4: Since the June Trust Council meeting, there's been four Governance Committee meetings,

[0:37:23] Voice 4: plus quite a lot of work that's been done by a working group that was formed at our August meeting.

[0:37:31] Voice 4: So June the 24th, we talked about the code of conduct that had last been before Trust Council. We identified various areas of concern to members of the Governance Committee. We did not come to any consensus or agreement, and we golfed it back to Executive Committee and suggested that we create yet another select committee. That comes up for discussion on this agenda 10.2.4 on the last day in terms of what we want to do with that.

[0:37:58] Voice 4: in July we talked about the letter of request to the province and a working

[0:38:04] Voice 4: group was created so there were some questions with respect to how many

[0:38:08] Voice 4: people could be on that in terms of voting members and quorum and such so

[0:38:11] Voice 4: that we had trustee Bernardo trustee Harris trustee Patrick and trustee

[0:38:19] Voice 4: Gavreau because at the last council meeting we voted that trustee Gavreau

[0:38:24] Voice 4: not be a voting member on the governance committee then we were able to put her on this

[0:38:29] Voice 4: working group because we didn't want to um quorum of voting members so they met i'm told uh one

[0:38:38] Voice 4: meeting with everybody together and then a multiple number of um interactions and questions

[0:38:45] Voice 4: and and emails between them and they came up with uh the um eventually we had another meeting later

[0:38:54] Voice 4: on in August about the results of their work in July we also talked about

[0:39:00] Voice 4: remuneration and started a little bit of work on that and got up to date on the

[0:39:05] Voice 4: corporate plan we met in August and we looked at a letter from the chair of the

[0:39:12] Voice 4: Nanaimo Regional District with respect to legislative change that proposals

[0:39:17] Voice 4: that were going through UBCM and we got a report from the working group with

[0:39:24] Voice 4: respect to our request to the province and we saw a CAO briefing paper that had

[0:39:30] Voice 4: been given to the working group and that we had the opportunity to look at there

[0:39:36] Voice 4: were certain amendments that were made to the proposal from the working group

[0:39:39] Voice 4: and it was forward to Trust Council for discussion.

[0:39:44] Voice 4: So again, there was some strong feelings

[0:39:49] Voice 4: in terms of trying to present a unanimous agreement with respect

[0:39:54] Voice 4: and that first motion was not passed as approved

[0:39:59] Voice 4: and it came here as for discussion.

[0:40:02] Voice 4: So there's some very, again, more strong feelings around that

[0:40:07] Voice 4: and that will be the bigger part of our discussion today and September 9th we

[0:40:14] Voice 4: did a review of the outstanding work we looked at our work matrix I believe

[0:40:21] Voice 4: that's on page 47 of this agenda and had a little bit of discussion in terms of

[0:40:28] Voice 4: whether or not we want to work more with bylaw 101 and the meeting procedures and

[0:40:33] Voice 4: And we had a new RFD from Trustee Fass with respect to ongoing leadership training.

[0:40:41] Voice 4: And there was a change that with respect to the representation of the delegate to the financial planning committee.

[0:40:51] Voice 4: And we also ended up with four, no, three budget requests that we want to have.

[0:40:58] Voice 4: And we've asked staff to help us build them up with respect to a consultant for compensation, work on the policies, and research on the secretariat position.

[0:41:09] Voice 4: So those will come back to governance committee in terms of whether we want to go ahead with those business proposals.

[0:41:17] Voice 4: proposals um so our matrix shows uh again on page 47 of this agenda the things that we're going to

[0:41:26] Voice 4: continue to work on things some things that have been completed and others that were in the process

[0:41:30] Voice 4: so working hard um

[0:41:36] Voice 23: joe bernardo and then mary boland oh sorry oh

[0:41:44] Voice 25: here we go uh chair getty

[0:41:46] Voice 25: perhaps you could clarify something i'm not sure i heard you properly because um when you were

[0:41:51] Voice 25: were talking about the Governance Committee reviewing the work of the working group, my

[0:41:58] Voice 25: recollection is that, yeah, there were some minor amendments to the text after some discussion

[0:42:03] Voice 25: about it, but the resolution to recommend it, to bring it to Trust Council, was unanimous

[0:42:11] Voice 25: that there wasn't a conflict or differences of view.

[0:42:15] Voice 25: Am I missing something?

[0:42:18] Voice 25: Good.

[0:42:19] Voice 25: The

[0:42:20] Voice 4: original motion was to have it brought before this committee as approved by the Governance Committee, and that was changed.

[0:42:29] Voice 4: And the motion that was actually passed was that it come here and be forwarded for discussion.

[0:42:34] Voice 4: There's a distinction.

[0:42:41] Voice 7: Okay, thank you.

[0:42:54] Voice 23: And, of course, we're going to be picking up the conversation about the review of the Adams Trust at 6.2 in our agenda later.

[0:43:01] Voice 23: May we go on?

[0:43:02] Voice 23: Thank you, Michael.

[0:43:09] Voice 45: So, number four, Secretariat and or in-house legal counsel and consider opportunities.

[0:43:18] Voice 45: David Marler and it's due for December 2024. Is this seriously under investigation? Can we expect

[0:43:27] Voice 45: something that will inform us in december 2024 um yeah fine oh

[0:43:41] Voice 4: i'm not sure what you're referring

[0:43:44] Voice 4: to in terms of the number four but uh what we the step that we've taken at this point is to

[0:43:50] Voice 4: have a budget item to see whether or not we can get the time and the talent to help us um do the

[0:43:57] Voice 4: research so it stayed on our matrix as meeting research so which the budget request if it's

[0:44:03] Voice 4: passed would give us the opportunity to do that research so it may be on the agenda for december

[0:44:11] Voice 4: 24 in terms of what our priorities are for the budget requests thank

[0:44:18] Voice 45: you and i have one other

[0:44:20] Voice 45: which is um make the mandate of the conservancy more important and my question is should we not

[0:44:28] Voice 45: merge it. It's better than ours and nobody questions it. Thank you.

[0:44:35] Voice 4: The items on the

[0:44:36] Voice 4: matrix were directly pulled from the recommendations from the governance review and we need to have a

[0:44:43] Voice 4: discussion and we want to have a discussion in terms of whether those are still our priorities

[0:44:47] Voice 4: and whether or not there's other things other than the items coming from the governance review.

[0:44:52] Voice 4: But yes, merging it and valuing it and having something to say about that is definitely on

[0:44:59] Voice 4: the agenda at some point all

[0:45:04] Voice 23: right so is that it on the governance committee work program report

[0:45:10] Voice 23: okay so let us move on to the financial planning committee work program report joe bernardo over

[0:45:15] Voice 25: to you thank you chair welcome um the nature of the fbc's work is cyclical as you all know

[0:45:23] Voice 25: every year we go through a process of following more or less the same sequence of events as we

[0:45:29] Voice 25: develop the next year's budget. And the regularity of what we do is, I think, reflected in the

[0:45:36] Voice 25: relatively spartan work program. There's three items on it. They're all very familiar. They're

[0:45:44] Voice 25: all part of the routine. And later on, on Thursday at item 13, we'll be addressing the details of the

[0:45:51] Voice 25: next steps in the budgetary process. One thing that is different this year is that in addition

[0:45:57] Voice 25: to recommending the assumptions and principles that staff should follow in developing the budget,

[0:46:02] Voice 25: and we do that every year and every cycle.

[0:46:05] Voice 25: This year, FPC is also recommending that Trust Council adopt certain guidelines for the budget development process.

[0:46:13] Voice 25: You've heard both Julie and myself refer to the usefulness of those types of guidelines before.

[0:46:19] Voice 25: We've talked about developing them.

[0:46:21] Voice 25: Again, we'll get into the details on Thursday, but as a reminder, guidelines differ.

[0:46:27] Voice 25: from assumptions and principles in that guidelines are prescriptive in the sense that

[0:46:32] Voice 25: they provide direction on where the budget should land at the end of a process. It's guidance to

[0:46:39] Voice 25: the staff and the development of the budget. FPC, with Julie's help, put in some solid work

[0:46:46] Voice 25: thinking through the guidelines we believe are appropriate for the trust, and we look forward to

[0:46:51] Voice 25: explaining them to you on Thursday. Finally, last item. What I've just talked about is the

[0:46:58] Voice 25: traditional budget development process, which we're still following. But as you all know,

[0:47:02] Voice 25: and as we've discussed before, and as the governance review established, our planning

[0:47:07] Voice 25: process is out of date. What we do at FPC is not a good fit in terms of where the organization is.

[0:47:15] Voice 25: It's inadequate for an organization that has grown in complexity, as we have over the decades.

[0:47:22] Voice 25: You know, this does intersect with Director Marla's project of updating the policies, but some policies are enormous in scope in terms of the attention they need.

[0:47:33] Voice 25: And that's really what we're talking about when we talk about corporate planning.

[0:47:37] Voice 25: The need to update our financial planning and strategic planning is why Trust Council committed the organization to establishing a proper corporate planning regime to bring us into alignment with modern operational practices that are followed by other local governments.

[0:47:55] Voice 25: So it was the Governance Committee that secured that commitment from the Trust Council and then promptly handed the heavy lifting over to Financial Planning Committee because we're the body that, you know, is best positioned to think about how to bring about strategic and financial planning together.

[0:48:16] Voice 25: We formed a working group comprised of Trustees Evans, Patrick, and Boland, supported by CEO Hudson-Peller and Julia.

[0:48:25] Voice 25: And after some preliminary work, I have to be honest with you all that the work has stalled.

[0:48:32] Voice 25: Without belaboring the details, the key staff support just hasn't been there.

[0:48:37] Voice 25: The staff hasn't been able to bring the right level of attention to the project.

[0:48:41] Voice 25: I'm not saying that in a critical way whatsoever.

[0:48:43] Voice 25: whatsoever. I'm afraid it's the usual business of the staff not having the necessary logistical

[0:48:50] Voice 25: carrying capacity to meet the expectations of Trust Council. In fact, it's kind of like

[0:48:58] Voice 25: Exhibit 1 as to why we need corporate planning, because we keep stumbling over this dilemma.

[0:49:03] Voice 25: That was compounded by, really, and aggravated by the fact that, you know, Russ originally was

[0:49:09] Voice 25: going to provide the core support on the staff side, but to be honest, he faced a steep learning

[0:49:14] Voice 25: running curve, as this kind of planning was new to him, and then after he announced his intention

[0:49:18] Voice 25: to retire, it, you know, more or less fell off his plate. The knock on effect has been that Julia can

[0:49:23] Voice 25: only do so much. We have to be realistic about that. She's serving as interim CAO while still,

[0:49:29] Voice 25: unfortunately, fulfilling needs to fulfill, because the backfilling has turned out to be

[0:49:34] Voice 25: impossible. It's fulfilling the director of administrative services role. Result, no surprise,

[0:49:39] Voice 25: is that the working group hasn't met this quarter at all

[0:49:42] Voice 25: and the project isn't moving forward.

[0:49:45] Voice 25: Julia briefly advised me that we would be smart

[0:49:50] Voice 25: to revisit the organization of how we're doing this project

[0:49:54] Voice 25: and to rethink how we're going to move it forward,

[0:49:58] Voice 25: and I agree with her.

[0:49:59] Voice 25: I don't have any great ideas about how to do that quite yet,

[0:50:02] Voice 25: but we have to get corporate planning in place

[0:50:04] Voice 25: if we hope to address the effectiveness challenges

[0:50:08] Voice 25: we all recognize.

[0:50:09] Voice 25: So we have some work to do to get the project back on track, but let's remember this persistent

[0:50:19] Voice 25: challenge that we have.

[0:50:20] Voice 25: Once again, our inability to manage working capacity and set operating priorities has

[0:50:26] Voice 25: tripped us up.

[0:50:28] Voice 25: If we fix anything this term, it has to be that.

[0:50:31] Voice 25: Thank you.

[0:50:51] Voice 33: First, I'd like to thank for the reorganization of the agenda.

[0:50:54] Voice 33: planning falls at the very end of the agenda historically which I think

[0:50:59] Voice 33: planning is the most important thing for this agency I've prepared a verbal

[0:51:03] Voice 33: report every meeting and it gets cut because we run out of time so thank you

[0:51:07] Voice 33: for putting this to the front the Regional Planning Committee has met once

[0:51:12] Voice 33: since June as chair I've been working really hard to draw awareness to the

[0:51:19] Voice 33: the limitations of what a standing committee is, and that unless we've had delegated authority by

[0:51:27] Voice 33: bylaw, and we have not, we have a terms of reference, then we are advisory bodies and we

[0:51:33] Voice 33: make recommendations to you. So that's why you see Agenda Item 921. That got ahead of the committee

[0:51:40] Voice 33: a little bit. You've probably seen it on some of your local trust committees asking for the LTC

[0:51:47] Voice 33: bylaw compliance and enforcement policy uh so that's why that's here today so you may have

[0:51:51] Voice 33: seen it and go well i've already seen that but this is to endorse it from trust council perspective

[0:51:57] Voice 33: um the did it did it sorry i'm gonna find my own notes um i really want to thank as well uh

[0:52:08] Voice 33: vice chair sam bothrick he stepped into the chairing the last meeting i was 10 time zones

[0:52:13] Voice 33: zones away and had just tested positive for COVID. So I was running on empty in that meeting

[0:52:18] Voice 33: and really appreciate him stepping up. Also from a housing perspective, housing needs assessments,

[0:52:24] Voice 33: you may have seen there was a recent RFP that is out on the streets and not out anymore. I think

[0:52:30] Voice 33: the staff are going to be selecting a consultant to do the housing needs assessment, which is a

[0:52:34] Voice 33: legislative requirement. I'll talk a little bit more about that as a Salt Spring perspective in

[0:52:38] Voice 33: the round table um the third thing of our highest priority is the water assist water sustainability

[0:52:45] Voice 33: and we're working on a water implementation plan which is a kind of an outstanding from the last

[0:52:50] Voice 33: term and before i leave it here sam do you have or trustee barthrock do you have anything you

[0:52:57] Voice 33: wish to add as you stepped in as chair catch him off guard is he awake uh

[0:53:04] Voice 24: thank you uh trustee

[0:53:07] Voice 24: you, Patrick. Not especially. It was a great experience to get to do it. And I'm grateful to

[0:53:13] Voice 24: the other members of our committee for bearing with me on that first ride. I think it went

[0:53:19] Voice 24: reasonably well. And yeah, I mean, the work we're doing is central to our purpose. So I'm

[0:53:27] Voice 24: honored to be able to be part of that facilitation.

[0:53:39] Voice 23: Thank you very much, Chair Patrick and your

[0:53:42] Voice 23: your committee for their great work um trust programs committee uh report next christina

[0:53:48] Voice 23: evans over to you oh sorry uh

[0:53:52] Voice 45: just a quick question the web page devoted to implementation

[0:53:56] Voice 45: of the fresh water sustainability strategy um i remember the discussion last year when we approved

[0:54:02] Voice 45: that and there was a student approved and it was all going to be done in-house and um i have asked

[0:54:10] Voice 45: about a number of things with respect to the fresh water sustainability strategy

[0:54:14] Voice 45: and I did get a response from Mr. Schober but he doesn't put dates he

[0:54:22] Voice 45: refers to the end of the fiscal year as being when things would be done it would

[0:54:28] Voice 45: be very helpful if we had dates that were more specific and that one there in

[0:54:33] Voice 45: particular was a kind of an information portal that would give us really an

[0:54:39] Voice 45: an insight into the work that has been done and is being planned.

[0:54:43] Voice 45: And it was to involve the student.

[0:54:47] Voice 45: So I'm just wondering if there's any specific progress

[0:54:51] Voice 45: report on that particular item. Thanks.

[0:54:54] Voice 23: Defer to staff. OK.

[0:54:56] Voice 23: Yeah, if I'm sure, Mac, the microphone off, please, maybe.

[0:55:02] Voice 23: Oh, sorry.

[0:55:04] Voice 15: Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[0:55:05] Voice 15: I don't have a specific date.

[0:55:07] Voice 15: I, you know, I to talk to the staff about, you know, when when certain

[0:55:11] Voice 15: deliverables going to be done and I got the same answer. I do know that the contractor that we

[0:55:19] Voice 15: hired in the summer did help produce some really good mapping deliverables and products and

[0:55:23] Voice 15: communication materials that are being drafted. It's just a matter of competing priorities right

[0:55:27] Voice 15: now, but we're on track to get it at the end of this fiscal. That's the best I can give you for

[0:55:31] Voice 15: now.

[0:55:35] Voice 23: All right. Any other questions on the planning committee, regional planning committee

[0:55:40] Voice 23: committee program. All right, let's then go to Christina Evans, Trust Programs Committee.

[0:55:47] Voice 26: Thanks. So Trust Programs Committee met once since the last meeting on August 26.

[0:55:52] Voice 26: And we've been primarily focused on the stewardship education program. And the committee has decided

[0:55:59] Voice 26: to move forward with four more webinars. And that's going to focus on living with fire in

[0:56:05] Voice 26: the northern islands removing invasive plant species planting with native plant species and

[0:56:12] Voice 26: salt water intrusion and groundwater conservation we've also supported the continuation of a mailing

[0:56:18] Voice 26: packet of information to new residents within the islands trust area and support staff for

[0:56:24] Voice 26: trust programs committee continued to support the delivery of the secretariat services program

[0:56:29] Voice 32: program.

[0:56:32] Voice 26: So at our last meeting in August, we voted to forward the business cases for the stewardship

[0:56:38] Voice 26: education program and secretariat services.

[0:56:41] Voice 26: So those business cases have been forwarded, I guess, onto financial planning.

[0:56:47] Voice 26: And I'm noticing on the active reports, and I'm just going to ask Staff Ray to, so one

[0:56:55] Voice 26: of the things that we're going to be doing is taking a look at the policy statement amendment

[0:56:59] Voice 26: amendment policy to provide advice to trust counsel for future amendment projects on the

[0:57:06] Voice 26: trust policy statement and I'm just wondering I don't see it on the future or the current

[0:57:11] Voice 26: and I think it's supposed to be somewhere did it just accidentally fall off

[0:57:16] Voice 23: director fader

[0:57:17] Voice 23: at

[0:57:18] Voice 26: this time it's sitting on the follow-up action list

[0:57:22] Voice 26: thank you I knew it was somewhere I just couldn't see it thank you so much

[0:57:25] Voice 26: all

[0:57:27] Voice 23: right tim peterson you had a question i think um

[0:57:30] Voice 22: more of a comment uh on page 55 uh the trust

[0:57:33] Voice 22: programs committee uh future projects list um the first item there update crown nine agreements

[0:57:40] Voice 22: uh it's quite clear from the date of 2014 that this has been sitting around for a while um

[0:57:47] Voice 22: and i think uh just from the language in this it's clear that's been sitting around for a while

[0:57:52] Voice 22: because i would expect that um uh engaging first nations in um in the discussion around upgrading

[0:58:01] Voice 22: uh updating uh crown land agreements would be essential uh given where we're at um

[0:58:08] Voice 22: in committee it was uh suggested that maybe this should be removed from the future projects list

[0:58:13] Voice 22: um i disagree i think this should actually be um find its way i'm not sure exactly how but onto

[0:58:20] Voice 22: to the strategic plan so that it can be actioned at some point thank you so

[0:58:31] Voice 26: is that just a comment

[0:58:32] Voice 26: or was there a question in there all

[0:58:36] Voice 23: right thank you for that any other questions or comments on

[0:58:39] Voice 23: trust program committee work program report okay so then we'll receive that accordingly so the

[0:58:47] Voice 23: final report in this section reporting out chair risa smith the allen's trust conservancy the

[0:58:53] Voice 23: the floor is yours. Thank you for joining us.

[0:58:57] Voice 36: Thanks a lot for having me. So you have a report

[0:59:01] Voice 36: from the staff, and I'm not going to go through it in detail because you can read it. If you have

[0:59:06] Voice 36: any questions, I can answer it. I just want to highlight a few issues that have come up since

[0:59:11] Voice 36: that report was written. The first is that we have a new board member. I wanted to make everybody

[0:59:16] Voice 36: aware of it. His name is Tanner Timothy, and we will welcome him at our upcoming meeting on

[0:59:21] Voice 36: October 1st. As is usual, his appointment by the ministers for one year. We had a vacancy on our

[0:59:29] Voice 36: board as Ken Thomas decided not to renew his appointment. Ken was a very influential member

[0:59:35] Voice 36: of our board, providing a First Nations perspective to our decisions and he will be missed. We're all

[0:59:42] Voice 36: appreciative of the time he spent with us and the wisdom that he shared. Also, as you're likely

[0:59:48] Voice 36: likely aware, Carolyn Stewart, who's been acting as the manager of ITC for the past few months,

[0:59:53] Voice 36: will be leaving when her assignment is up mid-January. Although her time with us

[1:00:00] Voice 36: was very short. We appreciate her willingness to step up so quickly. Carolyn was quick to pick up

[1:00:06] Voice 36: on what was needed to be done and provided the board with some improved means of helping us make

[1:00:12] Voice 36: better decisions. She too will be missed. You can see that the competition for the acting manager

[1:00:18] Voice 36: appointment from mid-January to the end of September has been posted, which is for the

[1:00:23] Voice 36: remaining eight months of Kate Emming's leave. One of our biggest challenges relates to our ability

[1:00:29] Voice 36: to follow up on work that is in addition to the already full plates of staff and you can see from

[1:00:37] Voice 36: what we've achieved in the last quarter how full their plates are. I know as I listen to the verbal

[1:00:44] Voice 36: reports that we just heard from committees this appears to be an ongoing problem for the Islands

[1:00:49] Voice 36: Trust in general and ITC as a part of the Islands Trust has the same problem. As an example in the

[1:00:57] Voice 36: planned activities for this next quarter, you'll note that ITC is starting the initial First

[1:01:04] Voice 36: Nations engagement for our 2026-2030 plan. As this is due in 2025, time is short for us to follow up

[1:01:15] Voice 36: on the Minister's request to engage First Nations in the trust area on this plan. We're hoping that

[1:01:23] Voice 36: that we can learn from the trust council engagement process

[1:01:25] Voice 36: and particularly from the feedback back

[1:01:28] Voice 36: that you've already received to facilitate our process.

[1:01:32] Voice 36: Thanks very much.

[1:01:33] Voice 36: And are there any questions?

[1:01:35] Voice 36: Any

[1:01:37] Voice 23: questions out there?

[1:01:41] Voice 23: Mary Boland.

[1:01:43] Voice 45: I learned to use my microphone better,

[1:01:46] Voice 45: but in the context of replacements and backfilling

[1:01:52] Voice 45: and advertising jobs,

[1:01:53] Voice 45: And this is more for the director.

[1:01:57] Voice 45: You know, I looked at the organisation chart, which was updated on the 19th of September, and I appreciate that chart very much.

[1:02:05] Voice 45: It's very informative.

[1:02:06] Voice 45: There are eight vacancies and there are five temporary assignments.

[1:02:11] Voice 45: and I find it quite a high level and it doesn't help that one of the vacancies

[1:02:19] Voice 45: sits actually directly behind director Bob's old job so theoretically she's

[1:02:27] Voice 45: actually carrying three jobs at the moment. We approved that but it seems

[1:02:32] Voice 45: to have been impossible to fill that vacancy. The temporary assignments puzzle

[1:02:38] Voice 45: me because three out of the four regional planners are now on temporary assignment

[1:02:42] Voice 45: and I don't understand how that plays out. I don't understand how it affects us being asked

[1:02:52] Voice 45: for new staff positions. I don't see people who are on temporary assignment in if it's a learning

[1:02:58] Voice 45: broadening opportunity. I would expect that we would in due course receive people on temporary

[1:03:05] Voice 45: pre-assignment so in in summary we now have 13 vacancies which is a heavy load to carry for staff

[1:03:13] Voice 45: and for all of us and i really would appreciate at some stage a proper discussion about that

[1:03:21] Voice 45: and especially the temporary assignments what is an appropriate number to allow in an organization

[1:03:27] Voice 45: organization and how it's managed thanks yeah

[1:03:33] Voice 23: that's maybe not specific to the conservancy

[1:03:36] Voice 23: report um yeah so um i'm not sure director or cao mobs would like to address that temporary

[1:03:48] Voice 23: assignment option which is yeah i

[1:03:53] Voice 9: can provide some generic comments um we do often see temporary

[1:03:58] Voice 9: assignments happening internally with Islands Trust. So if we have one staff position that

[1:04:03] Voice 9: is vacated, for example, that staff position leaves or that staff person leaves us or takes

[1:04:07] Voice 9: a temporary assignment with the province, we will often make the choice to backfill that position

[1:04:12] Voice 9: internally, which creates a bit of a domino effect within Islands Trust. However, it is the more

[1:04:18] Voice 9: efficient way for us to fill the higher level vacancies to keep our work moving. It's also a

[1:04:23] Voice 9: way for us to offer advancement opportunities for our staff which in a small organization can

[1:04:29] Voice 9: be challenging and so where we can identify those opportunities we do make use of them approval of

[1:04:35] Voice 9: temporary appointments is always at the director's discretion in many cases so those have all been

[1:04:43] Voice 9: approved thank

[1:04:44] Voice 23: you ben maberly yeah

[1:04:47] Voice 18: hi risa um as as you know and you just announced that ken thomas

[1:04:53] Voice 18: had stepped down with the Islands Trust Conservancy but we're all aware that Adam

[1:04:57] Voice 18: Olson is no longer running for MLA I was wondering what the process is for approaching a new member

[1:05:04] Voice 18: for the Islands Trust Conservancy board oh

[1:05:08] Voice 36: um there is a process that the provincial government

[1:05:11] Voice 36: has a process we went through that process people apply and the person that our new person is an

[1:05:19] Voice 36: Indigenous person so we're pretty excited about that actually he's also a youth so that should

[1:05:24] Voice 36: provide a kind of exciting perspective. Yeah, but losing Ken is huge. Thanks for asking that.

[1:05:37] Voice 36: So they have a process, we review all the applicants, we have criteria. In this case,

[1:05:43] Voice 36: because we were replacing Ken, we really badly wanted an Indigenous person. And there were a

[1:05:51] Voice 36: couple that applied and we ranked them all but particularly we chose this particular one um

[1:05:58] Voice 36: yeah so it's exciting that he he accepted does that answer your question yeah

[1:06:07] Voice 18: no that's fine

[1:06:08] Voice 18: is there any reason you wouldn't have more than one indigenous person on your board

[1:06:12] Voice 36: absolutely no reason in fact it would be great it's just that we only had one vacancy in this

[1:06:17] Voice 36: case but if we had another vacancy um i think you raise a really good question because um

[1:06:24] Voice 36: Myself, I've been on other boards, particularly, for example, the Arctic Council, and we learned there that having one Indigenous person doesn't totally work because they need a colleague to talk to.

[1:06:38] Voice 36: So absolutely, from my perspective, it would be great to have more than one Indigenous person should we have another vacancy.

[1:06:46] Voice 36: Yeah.

[1:06:47] Voice 36: Great point.

[1:06:48] Voice 36: Thanks.

[1:06:52] Voice 23: Anything else?

[1:06:56] Voice 23: No.

[1:06:56] Voice 23: No. So I'll just add that when there are vacancies for the appointments on the conservancy,

[1:07:02] Voice 23: any one of us and anybody can encourage somebody to put their name in.

[1:07:08] Voice 23: I think I helped Ken put his name in. Others contributed to that as well.

[1:07:13] Voice 23: And it was a successful appointment. And so please, when there's a vacancy, encourage folks to make applications.

[1:07:21] Voice 23: I just want to pause for a moment, and Council, I'm sure that you agree with me, is I would

[1:07:29] Voice 23: like to thank Ken Thomas and Carolyn Stewart for the work that they have done and spending

[1:07:33] Voice 23: the time with us, and I appreciate that very much.

[1:07:37] Voice 23: On both of their parts it was quite significant, and so we'll continue on with the new appointments

[1:07:44] Voice 23: and others that fill in those vacancies.

[1:07:47] Voice 23: All right. That, I believe, concludes the reports. So I'm going to take it by general consent that all of those reports through that section 3.15 be received as presented.

[1:08:05] Voice 23: and thank you all very much for contributing to that.

[1:08:09] I

[1:08:09] Voice 23: hope this was useful.

[1:08:10] Voice 23: Any time and opportunity for feedback

[1:08:12] Voice 23: on how we flow these meetings is much appreciated.

[1:08:15] Voice 23: Helps us steer this in the right direction

[1:08:18] Voice 23: for better conversations.

[1:08:19] Voice 23: So at 1.30 here now, thank you, council.

[1:08:22] Voice 23: We're pretty close to being on time.

[1:08:25] Voice 23: We're gonna move into the trustee round table.

[1:08:27] Voice 23: So we're just gonna go round the table as we do

[1:08:28] Voice 23: to speak to local topics of interest

[1:08:31] Voice 23: that you'd like to share with us.

[1:08:33] Voice 23: And I ask you to manage your own time. Two minutes is kind of the allotment, because with 26 trustees, that's an hour.

[1:08:40] Voice 23: And certainly, as you know, I'm generous, but others encourage me to be less generous.

[1:08:46] Voice 23: So I will be monitoring. And so let us start. And I think I'm going to begin at this end of the table here.

[1:08:53] Voice 23: And Ben Maybilly, why don't you start us off? And we'll just go around. Please just pick up the mic when you see a vacancy.

[1:09:00] Voice 18: Yeah, thanks. Well, good to be here. Been a pretty quiet summer on Galliano. It's nice to have that sort of summer break and get the time off. And so not a ton to report from the staff point of view. Looking forward to meeting with the CRD on a housing project on actually on Thursday, I think I'm meeting with them.

[1:09:22] Voice 18: So that's sort of the highlight of, you know, moving ahead with some housing.

[1:09:29] Voice 18: I know Lisa has been so important in that, putting forward the housing strategy on Galliano.

[1:09:34] Voice 18: And so, yeah, kind of looking forward to 5 o'clock this afternoon, to tell you the truth, see what comes out of that.

[1:09:42] Voice 18: So I'll move it on to Lee.

[1:09:46] Voice 13: Thank you. I'll keep this brief.

[1:09:48] Voice 13: we've had a summer focusing on conservation activities with great work from the planner and

[1:09:55] Voice 13: generous people in the community and we're on the verge of being able to announce another 35 hectares

[1:10:00] Voice 13: of ecologically significant land adjacent to the national park reserve and some other nature trust

[1:10:07] Voice 13: of bc land holdings will be um donated for conservation and um i think that's probably the

[1:10:15] Voice 13: more significant thing i'll speak to and and look forward to kind of our federation-wide

[1:10:20] Voice 13: responsibilities for the rest of uh the meeting here thank you yeah

[1:10:28] Voice 45: we're determined to get over

[1:10:29] Voice 45: that 50 again uh lee we lost our standing at 50 when somebody actually checked all the numbers

[1:10:38] Voice 45: so that's our goal so anyway um at the last trust meeting on saturn the issue of the

[1:10:46] Voice 45: the request to the province came up.

[1:10:48] Voice 45: That's where my request for the web page came from.

[1:10:52] Voice 45: I will deem this meeting to be a success

[1:10:55] Voice 45: if we manage to land that giant slippery fish.

[1:11:00] Voice 45: So I am focused on that

[1:11:03] Voice 45: and I am hopeful that it will be a positive

[1:11:08] Voice 45: and constructive step forward.

[1:11:12] Voice 45: And I'd also like to thank Adam Olsen

[1:11:14] Voice 45: for everything he did for the Southern Gulf Islands

[1:11:17] Voice 45: in a very general way.

[1:11:18] Voice 45: He's just been a terrific MLA

[1:11:21] Voice 45: and also for his guidance,

[1:11:25] Voice 45: how he spoke at the last Trust Council

[1:11:28] Voice 45: with respect to that issue.

[1:11:30] Voice 45: So thanks, everybody.

[1:11:37] Voice 25: Thank you.

[1:11:38] Voice 25: With respect to what's happening in the Gambier local trust area,

[1:11:44] Voice 25: we've got two main things happening,

[1:11:47] Voice 25: a major project and minor project.

[1:11:48] Voice 25: The major project is the rewrite of the Gambier Island OCP.

[1:11:53] Voice 25: That work is continuing.

[1:11:54] Voice 25: After extensive First Nation engagement, staff sought and obtained revisions to the project charter from us on the LTC so that staff can develop options for potential changes that will respond in the OCP to First Nation interests.

[1:12:12] Voice 25: And staff's working on that now.

[1:12:13] Voice 25: Now, that project in particular, getting it resourced over the years, and it has been years, has been a challenge.

[1:12:22] Voice 25: I think all of you are familiar with that pattern in terms of, you know, the land use planning really comes from the LTCs, comes from that's the node where that work happens.

[1:12:34] Voice 25: And inexplicably, LTCs getting resourced staff and money to do them is always seems to be the runt of the litter, which is kind of weird considering what the purpose of the organization is.

[1:12:48] Voice 25: So after setting aside that little whine, moving on to the minor project, which is the Keats Island Shoreline Protection Project, not so minor.

[1:12:56] Voice 25: Once the LTC started getting into the details, there's been a process of going through it.

[1:13:05] Voice 25: But, you know, frankly, just I'll be honest, it's mostly me sort of applying a lot of critical thought to this thing,

[1:13:13] Voice 25: which has led to the local trust committee approving a collection of amendments.

[1:13:18] Voice 25: Some originating with me, quite a few originating from the staff after it's reviewed the document for clarity.

[1:13:24] Voice 25: And the local trust committee gave the proposed bylaws second reading.

[1:13:28] Voice 25: And these would amend the Keats Island OCP and land use by-law to introduce a new development permit area of 15 meters from the natural boundary of the sea and would introduce protections in that framework.

[1:13:43] Voice 25: Following that, we've had a public hearing.

[1:13:47] Voice 25: And consistent with every other public engagement meeting we've had regarding the proposed by-laws received, we received both written and oral submissions.

[1:13:57] Voice 25: To be honest, they were largely critical.

[1:13:59] Voice 25: And from my perspective as a trustee, who is also a Keaton resident, that's been the big challenge from the start.

[1:14:09] Voice 25: Crafting legislation that strikes the balance between advancing environmental protection and respecting the reality of what life is like on the ground in that particular area.

[1:14:20] Voice 25: We have work to do. Next meeting at the LTC will be October 1st, and that will be a topic we're going to discuss.

[1:14:27] Voice 25: us. Thank you.

[1:14:31] Voice 10: Grant. Thank you. I'd like to do something a little different. I think it's

[1:14:40] Voice 10: important, not just to Hornby, but to all of our islands. I'd like to speak to these two books

[1:14:45] Voice 10: that I brought. I don't know if you can see them, but they're both written by Chief Robert Joseph,

[1:14:52] Voice 10: who's from the North Island. And he's an absolutely amazing person that I had a good

[1:14:57] Voice 10: fortune to work with him in the 1980s and this first book is about his life and it's called

[1:15:05] Voice 10: nam wayut we are all one and it's the story of his life and how he got to where he was he was taken

[1:15:13] Voice 10: to the residential school in alert bay st michael's university and i went to meetings in that when the

[1:15:21] Voice 10: namgis band took it over and i went to meetings in there and i'll tell you i've never been on a

[1:15:26] Voice 10: a spookier place in my life like i just couldn't handle i had to get out of there so of course it's

[1:15:31] Voice 10: now torn down but um this is an amazing book about his life about him going into that school as a

[1:15:37] Voice 10: six-year-old and how he look at the picture of his face he's such a beautiful individual somehow

[1:15:43] Voice 10: he came through all that and still came out as as this person so chief joseph also wrote this book

[1:15:52] Voice 10: which is incredibly informative it's it's all 21 things you may not know about the indian act

[1:15:59] Voice 10: and it goes right back to 1864 prior to confederation and how the whole indian

[1:16:05] Voice 10: where the whole indian act came from and it traces all the key points the potlatch banning in 1921

[1:16:12] Voice 10: 1951 women's disenfranchisement then bill c-31 that brought women back in all these kind of

[1:16:19] Voice 10: I think if you could do as part of reconciliation, you can get these two books.

[1:16:26] Voice 10: They're just really incredible, all by this one amazing Canadian.

[1:16:32] Voice 10: So my report. Thank you.

[1:16:40] Voice 26: Maybe you can send us an email with those names as well. That'd be awesome.

[1:16:43] Voice 26: Thank you.

[1:16:44] Voice 26: If you can send us all an email with the names of the books, that'd be great.

[1:16:47] Voice 26: Thank you.

[1:16:49] Voice 26: So for Southpender, I'm not sure if Dag is online or not, if he sent his regrets.

[1:16:56] Voice 26: he is online okay um so for south panda i'm just going to give a quick dip progress update

[1:17:05] Voice 26: so it used to be that uh the dip was closed from 10 to 2 six days a week it is now seven days a

[1:17:12] Voice 26: week um so from 10 to 2 you can't get through at all and from 7 a.m to 7 p.m it's opened every 20

[1:17:18] Voice 26: minutes to allow cars through and when it starts raining it will be one car at a time which will

[1:17:23] Voice 26: mean it can be hours of wait to get through um for our local trust committee we're working on a

[1:17:35] Voice 26: minor land use bylaw amendment and two elements of that have gone over to the apc for their so the

[1:17:42] Voice 26: the advisory planning committee for their input and recommendations back to us so they have come

[1:17:49] Voice 26: back to us with one of the items which is which is regarding setbacks and they are currently working

[1:17:55] Voice 26: on house size recommendations and this is based on all of the community work that we've been doing

[1:18:00] Voice 26: the input that we've had from people the letters the workshops the meetings all of that so um we

[1:18:06] Voice 26: are looking forward to receiving that back and uh and uh working together on finding something that

[1:18:13] Voice 26: um people feel comfortable living with so that's us thank you uh

[1:18:23] Voice 22: skitty hasn't met uh ltc hasn't

[1:18:26] Voice 22: met since um july but we are going to be meeting again and next month uh also looking forward to

[1:18:33] Voice 22: um meeting with the uh sninos um nation and hopefully working towards uh signing the

[1:18:42] Voice 22: the protocol agreement approved by Trust Council and the Minister.

[1:18:46] Voice 22: And other than that, still chugging away on our OCP project

[1:18:52] Voice 22: and hope to be moving into completion of the present phase end of this fiscal

[1:19:02] Voice 22: or at the latest, hopefully in the early part of this next fiscal.

[1:19:06] Voice 22: And also in terms of the OCP, because we had to scale back based on the major project, minor project criteria, we had to scale back last year.

[1:19:18] Voice 22: So we do have another phase in planning and a budget business case coming to financial planning and ultimately to trust council to complete that work coming up.

[1:19:35] Voice 22: So that's that.

[1:19:41] Voice 26: I hate to do this, can I just, I forgot to mention one other thing, can I do that quickly?

[1:19:45] Voice 26: So the other thing that we had was the next installation of the First Nations

[1:19:52] Voice 26: wheels at Poets Cove, and Chief Penelope came out, there was a huge turnout for that,

[1:19:57] Voice 26: it was phenomenal, so I just, that was really important, I just wanted to say that, thank you.

[1:20:05] Voice 16: Well, Main Island, it continues to thrive, we, this summer has been very, very busy,

[1:20:12] Voice 16: We started off with the Camel Bay Music Festival shortly after Trust Council, which was a roaring success.

[1:20:19] Voice 16: We've had little things like dog shows, the Fall Fair, have an Apple Fest coming up.

[1:20:26] Voice 16: It really is truly a vibrant community.

[1:20:29] Voice 16: The influx of new families, like our staff was in the last census, 37% increase in population.

[1:20:38] Voice 16: And it was really great people came to our island.

[1:20:42] Voice 16: Families came to our island.

[1:20:43] Voice 16: It went from being a bunch of old retired people to a bunch of teenagers.

[1:20:51] Voice 16: It really has been a change to the island.

[1:20:55] Voice 16: It has been so positive that, you know, it really warms the heart.

[1:21:00] Voice 16: You go by the school on Tuesday night, there's like 40 kids playing soccer.

[1:21:03] Voice 16: And we're talking kids from 6 to like 26.

[1:21:06] Voice 16: All-inclusive, all-engaging, all-wonderful.

[1:21:09] Voice 16: I'm so proud of our community.

[1:21:13] Voice 16: We're, I think the other highlight of us is that we have a sunken tug in a place called Horton Bay, which the government now has recognized and it's going to be taking away, which I know Trustee Dodds and myself have been lobbying quite extensively with the government to take care of that.

[1:21:28] Voice 16: And my goodness, they are.

[1:21:30] Voice 16: So we're very, very pleased about that.

[1:21:32] Voice 16: So it does show that, you know, as a trustee, you can poke away and sometimes people do listen.

[1:21:37] Voice 16: And so positive outcomes all around and looking forward to a fall and a winter that's going to be great.

[1:21:45] Voice 16: And I'm sure Trustee Dawes is going to want to tell you about all the extra deer that we've got.

[1:21:49] Voice 16: If you want any, we can ship them to you. Thank you.

[1:21:56] Voice 23: Thank you. I'm not sure if it's Tim or yourself that are responsible for the members, colleagues online here.

[1:22:02] Voice 23: But I would like to shift to our colleagues online here midstream and I'll pick up with that.

[1:22:07] Voice 23: that. So Tim, can I ask you to do a call out there?

[1:22:13] Voice 21: Sure. Let's start with Trustee Dodds.

[1:22:15] Voice 21: Are you available?

[1:22:16] Voice 44: I am. My ferry's an hour late and we're just going to dock in about five minutes.

[1:22:21] Voice 44: So somebody's going to be unhappy today. Anyway, so following up on what Dave said,

[1:22:27] Voice 44: now I've completely forgotten what I was going to say. Getting, oh, the Miners Bay,

[1:22:32] Voice 44: Village Bay Trail, they're busy putting the fencing up today on the trail. So I'm assuming

[1:22:37] Voice 44: me we're almost getting to the actual official opening of our bike and walking trail. It was a

[1:22:43] Voice 44: bit disappointing at the beginning when the trail was pretty much in place to see how many bicycles

[1:22:49] Voice 44: were choosing not to use the gravel trail. Hopefully that will, people will get over

[1:22:55] Voice 44: themselves and we'll switch to the trail. The road is not the best road from the ferry into Miners Bay.

[1:23:00] Voice 44: It was a busy summer. Our school has certainly, population has gone up considerably. As Dave said, we have a lot more young people. That's a bonus. What we did see this summer, at the tail end of summer, considerable number of complaints about short-term vacation rentals.

[1:23:17] Voice 44: So that's kind of blown up again, and that was unfortunate for our tourist accommodation, our properly zoned tourist accommodation properties struggled a bit this summer.

[1:23:28] Voice 44: Well, people chose to go into the non-permitted vacation rentals, but otherwise it was a good summer.

[1:23:35] Voice 44: and the only other issue we always have besides the deer is our water districts. We have numerous

[1:23:41] Voice 44: small water districts and some of them are struggling to maintain sufficient supplies.

[1:23:47] Voice 44: These water districts were created when the properties were subdivided in the 1960s

[1:23:52] Voice 44: and were not properly organized to deal with build-out and we are almost at build-out so

[1:23:59] Voice 44: certainly there's going to be ongoing issues in some of the districts if they can't find funding

[1:24:05] Voice 44: need to increase storage or to put in meters or to actually upgrade water lines that were put in

[1:24:11] Voice 44: in the 60s by developers and not put in well so I see that becoming more and more of an issue

[1:24:17] Voice 44: but otherwise my I'm almost ready to drive off the ferry and I may get the important stuff done

[1:24:23] Voice 44: and I'll I'll be here listening to you bye bye great

[1:24:29] Voice 21: thank you uh trustee

[1:24:30] Voice 7: Falk yeah thank you

[1:24:33] Voice 7: I don't really have any updates. Christina covered quite well what's happening on our island, and I'm not in a really good spot here right now, so I'll pass from there. Thanks.

[1:24:46] Voice 22: Thank you. Trustee Harris?

[1:24:49] Voice 22: Thanks.

[1:24:50] Voice 12: Can you hear me okay?

[1:24:52] Voice 12: Yes.

[1:24:52] Voice 12: Great. Unfortunately, the picture isn't so rosy here on Salt Spring. It's good to hear, you know, these feel good stories from the other islands.

[1:25:03] Voice 12: You know, unfortunately, Salt Spring is still reeling from the expansion of the homeless shelter via the community services and the CRD, which continues to invite, enable and support, for lack of a better word, an East Hastings element to the island.

[1:25:22] Voice 12: Um, and fortunately there's been some, uh, numerous violent assaults, um, and then, you

[1:25:29] Voice 12: know, not too distant, uh, past including some, um, some awful, uh, cruelty against,

[1:25:34] Voice 12: uh, animals, um, cases, which is, um, you know, it's hard to, uh, to ignore these things.

[1:25:41] Voice 12: Um, you know, I hear people talk about housing and, and, you know, the workforce ownership

[1:25:47] Voice 12: housing crisis still, um, looms very, very heavy here on Salt Spring.

[1:25:51] Voice 12: members of the workforce are having to leave the island on a regular basis um for lack of

[1:25:57] Voice 12: affordable homes as more affluent um people come to the island and um and displace them

[1:26:03] Voice 12: um so you know i hear people talking about this housing needs assessment thing and

[1:26:09] Voice 12: and clearly we already know we don't um we don't need to make an assessment we know and um the

[1:26:15] Voice 12: The Islanders Trust can't do housing, but we can do the zoning that would facilitate workforce ownership housing projects.

[1:26:23] Voice 12: I think that kind of gets lost in the shuffle here that, you know, we're land use planning.

[1:26:27] Voice 12: We can create the zoning and we're not going to be doing housing.

[1:26:32] Voice 12: So on a happier note, you know, I was a member of the working group that helped draft this letter to the province, which would help Salt Spring greatly.

[1:26:46] Voice 12: Um, and I'm, I'm, you know, the working group went so well, I thought, as did the governance

[1:26:52] Voice 12: committee meeting there, it wasn't, I didn't seem that contentious to me there.

[1:26:55] Voice 12: Um, we managed to have a unanimous vote, um, to bring this letter to the trust council.

[1:27:01] Voice 12: Um, I'm pretty, um, optimistic that everybody should be able to get behind it.

[1:27:05] Voice 12: Um, it's, it's pretty straightforward.

[1:27:08] Voice 12: Um, there's two motions.

[1:27:10] Voice 12: I'm just hoping we can pass them and maybe get on with some other business.

[1:27:13] Voice 12: business. With that, I'll leave it there. Thank you.

[1:27:19] Voice 12: Trustee Graham.

[1:27:22] Voice 6: Thank you, Trustee Peterson and Chair Luckham. So carrying on from last term's initiation of

[1:27:29] Voice 6: the housing review, that was with Trustee Boucherkin and Trustee Critchley and Trustee

[1:27:34] Voice 6: Chair Fast, my co-trustee Sam and I and our wonderful Chair David Mudd are waiting with

[1:27:42] Voice 6: with bated breath to see the draft changes to our LUB and OCP that we can start the conversation

[1:27:49] Voice 6: with our community. And I know that it just dropped today, I think, the opportunity to see

[1:27:55] Voice 6: our agenda for October, our next local trust committee meeting. I haven't looked at it. I'm

[1:28:00] Voice 6: leaving that for a surprise later this evening, and I'm going to come back, I'm sure, with a big

[1:28:04] Voice 6: smile on my face. But that's my hope. That's our major project. And our minor project,

[1:28:10] Voice 6: which was part of the the housing we were also taking advantage of the fact that we've got two

[1:28:16] Voice 6: planners hopefully working on this this rather momentous change to denman and housing is the

[1:28:22] Voice 6: big one for denman i mean we did supply we did survive our summer um we we call denman the

[1:28:27] Voice 6: highway to hornby and fortunately nobody was run over uh thanks sam for for providing a bus um but

[1:28:34] Voice 6: to be quite honest i don't mean to make light of it that's a big concern for us is that the

[1:28:40] Voice 6: the number of people that want to party and holiday on Hornby

[1:28:43] Voice 6: have to cross Denman, and that's just a reality.

[1:28:47] Voice 6: So I'm going to leave any other updates to my co-trustee, Sam Borthwick.

[1:28:52] Voice 6: Thank you.

[1:28:55] Voice 6: Trustee Tamford?

[1:28:59] Voice 34: Thank you.

[1:29:01] Voice 34: Hello, everyone.

[1:29:02] Voice 34: Hello, Council.

[1:29:03] Voice 34: Sorry I couldn't be there this time.

[1:29:07] Voice 34: Gambier has come off another busy summer.

[1:29:10] Voice 34: I think people are discovering us year by year.

[1:29:15] Voice 34: I'm really impressed with the activity level of our Gambier Island Community Association.

[1:29:23] Voice 34: They received significant funding from the Rural Economic Diversification Infrastructure Project.

[1:29:30] Voice 34: And using that money, they have really activated a number of projects around the island.

[1:29:37] Voice 34: A lot of them are to do with fire suppression and protection.

[1:29:42] Voice 34: One of the highlights has been Brigade Bay Community, which is water access only and not on the grid.

[1:29:50] Voice 34: They are the first fire smart designated community on the Sunshine Coast.

[1:29:56] Voice 34: So we celebrated that a couple of weeks ago.

[1:30:00] Voice 34: And it's just the beginning for them.

[1:30:01] Voice 34: The projects that they have lined up are just so exciting

[1:30:07] Voice 34: and really help with the overall safety for that remote area community.

[1:30:16] Voice 34: Last week, I was at UBCM with several members of the executive committee.

[1:30:24] Voice 34: I attended a couple of meetings as regional district representative.

[1:30:30] Voice 34: specifically around the new brighton dock i'd love to say that the government stepped up and

[1:30:35] Voice 34: said sure we'll help you wasn't quite that straightforward but um continue to get staff

[1:30:42] Voice 34: encouragement from two different ministries that a solution is in the works um someday i will be

[1:30:52] Voice 34: able to come and tell you that my my dock concern is is finished that's my ambition um and then i

[1:31:00] Voice 34: I just would be a little bit remiss.

[1:31:02] Voice 34: Trustee Bernardo mentioned the work that's being done on the minor project on Keats,

[1:31:07] Voice 34: the Keats forshore protection.

[1:31:09] Voice 34: I totally agree.

[1:31:12] Voice 34: Trustee Bernardo has done a huge amount of work on that, but it would be remiss if I

[1:31:16] Voice 34: didn't also acknowledge the work that the previous local trust committee had done last

[1:31:21] Voice 34: term.

[1:31:22] Voice 34: We worked very hard to bring it to a stage and worked a lot with the community on engagement

[1:31:29] Voice 34: month it's it's lots of difficult subjects and i too look forward to october 1st to see where we

[1:31:35] Voice 34: can go with it thank you thank

[1:31:38] Voice 22: you trustee borfolk hello

[1:31:42] Voice 24: trust council uh yes and thanks for to david

[1:31:46] Voice 24: graham for for teeing me up there um yeah likewise i'm really looking forward to hearing uh i'm

[1:31:52] Voice 24: looking forward to our next uh local trust committee meeting and i'm very hopeful to see

[1:31:57] Voice 24: uh some the the hopefully some rubber will be hitting the road pretty soon with with making

[1:32:03] Voice 24: some change um we've been been working on it for a while and it's it's exciting to see that happen

[1:32:09] Voice 24: um summer's a crazy time for me uh between the various different aspects of this job and the

[1:32:17] Voice 24: several other jobs that i have so it's been pretty breakneck um and uh burnout cold is the reason

[1:32:26] Voice 24: and that I'm not with you right now.

[1:32:28] Voice 24: One of the big things of that is, as always, the ferries.

[1:32:32] Voice 24: And I wanted to thank David Graham for chairing our last LTC meeting,

[1:32:38] Voice 24: which unfortunately our usual wonderful chair, Trustee Maude,

[1:32:43] Voice 24: was in Vancouver or in Burnaby sitting through BC Ferries AGM.

[1:32:49] Voice 24: So, you know, we certainly are at the whims of BC Ferries here, as are all the islands,

[1:32:58] Voice 24: and we continue to feel the lack of responsiveness to our concerns pretty systemically within

[1:33:08] Voice 24: that dynamic.

[1:33:11] Voice 24: The other major thing that I'd want to talk about since our last meeting was at the end

[1:33:17] Voice 24: of July, Trustee Graham and I were invited...

[1:33:21] Voice 24: by the Comox First Nation and Qualicum First Nations

[1:33:25] Voice 24: to conduct a site visit on a major First Nations site.

[1:33:34] Voice 24: And there's a number of properties along there,

[1:33:36] Voice 24: one of which has been in legislation about disturbance

[1:33:40] Voice 24: to significant midden deposits since 2019.

[1:33:44] Voice 24: And we got to see sort of how that process was in motion.

[1:33:48] Voice 24: ocean. We got to see a property nearby there that was handling it, uh, in a much more proactive and

[1:33:54] Voice 24: effective and respectable way. Uh, and, uh, it was very moving. Um, the, the impact there and

[1:34:03] Voice 24: the importance of, um, bringing that conversation forward and bringing that awareness into our

[1:34:09] Voice 24: communities and into our processes of how we develop, how we choose to do land use planning,

[1:34:14] Voice 24: planning, um, was extremely meaningful. And it was, uh, it's also down to in no small part,

[1:34:21] Voice 24: a lot of really excellent work from director Freider and other others on her team in helping

[1:34:27] Voice 24: build that relationship with the Comox First Nation. Um, it was, it was a huge honor to be

[1:34:33] Voice 24: invited and we wouldn't necessarily otherwise have been offered that I think without the

[1:34:37] Voice 24: beginnings of that work that, uh, they've done and that we've been trying to do, uh, also with,

[1:34:42] Voice 24: uh trustees grant and alan um there's trustee scott pardon me um so yeah very grateful to to

[1:34:50] Voice 24: the others in this organization who are helping sort of build that relationship and giving us

[1:34:55] Voice 24: the opportunity to uh engage in this way and and you know build our practices to be better and i

[1:35:01] Voice 24: think we are doing that and there's a lot of work still to do um that's extremely clear thanks well

[1:35:13] Voice 23: Well, thank you very much for our colleagues joining us online.

[1:35:16] Voice 23: Very much appreciated to have you here.

[1:35:19] Voice 23: So from Thetis Island, local trust area, I just want to actually say that perhaps kindred spirits come to the table with similar ideas.

[1:35:31] Voice 23: Thank you, Grant, for yours.

[1:35:33] Voice 23: And indeed, I have brought a book.

[1:35:34] Voice 23: And this is Lusjean's, Dr. Arvid Charlie's book on traditional indigenous foods, materials and medicines.

[1:35:44] Voice 23: It's an encyclopedia of knowledge and wisdom from the elders and from the work that Lusjean has done.

[1:35:50] Voice 23: I have had the great honor and privilege to work and help with the technology at Cowichan Tribes when I was there.

[1:36:00] Voice 23: And certainly, this is a book that's available at the BC ferries, terminals and on the vessel, easily acquired. And I would recommend if you want to know anything about local indigenous plants, this is it. So thank you, Arvid, for your great work, Lusjean. That's it from me.

[1:36:25] Voice 39: so um hello everyone i i'd like to give two sort of reflections one of which is local and one is

[1:36:33] Voice 39: is sort of um provincial just a reflection after ubcm so from the local level i'm sure most of you

[1:36:40] Voice 39: have heard we've been having real challenges with um one of the islands uh in the gabriel

[1:36:46] Voice 39: local trust area mudge island has received an inordinate number of complaints that are being

[1:36:51] Voice 39: investigated. And this has actually led to a really good process and understanding for me

[1:36:59] Voice 39: anyways, as to when we legislate change, like the change of an LUB for a community,

[1:37:08] Voice 39: and if there isn't communication and an implementation plan and an understanding

[1:37:14] Voice 39: by the community why those changes were made, there will eventually be a blow up. And so

[1:37:21] Voice 39: So Mudge has been, it's a no ferry access community, about 100 residents live there full time, 200 lots, and about 65 complaints have been received over spring and summer.

[1:37:36] Voice 39: And so it's really given us a very clear view of what's problematic in our bylaw investigation, which is a Trust Council held policy.

[1:37:47] Voice 39: So that's why some of the work here today, it's been informed by that and sort of the blow up in that community. But it's also some of the problems have come out with how their land use bylaw was was revised. And talking about shoreline protection, they have a 30 meter back from the sea setback.

[1:38:11] Voice 39: So it's one of the largest in the trust area because their bylaw was revised more lately.

[1:38:16] Voice 39: And so more environmental protection, that's a great thing.

[1:38:20] Voice 39: But if there is an understanding from the local residents, there is huge pushback.

[1:38:24] Voice 39: Why are we different? Why are we treated differently than the rest of the islands?

[1:38:28] Voice 39: And so it's made me think about when we're legislating changes, how we have to bring community along and do it together.

[1:38:36] Voice 39: And I just want to thank the Mudge Island community. They are fierce. They are strong. They look out for one another. But really, they've actually engaged with us with a deep willingness to work together and to collaborate. And I think that is going to strengthen our processes immensely.

[1:38:55] Voice 39: immensely um so that's the local level um gabriel is ocp review is is marching on but i might let

[1:39:01] Voice 39: my co-trustee fill you in on that um i just wanted to touch on an address by um jody wilson raybold

[1:39:09] Voice 39: so some of us went to ubcm and we had this community to community forum which is sponsored

[1:39:17] Voice 39: by the province um to bring together first nations leaders and local governments to talk

[1:39:23] Voice 39: about reconciliation. So her talk was on governing and politics in uncertain times, advancing

[1:39:31] Voice 39: reconciliation and UNDRIP at the local level. And I'll just leave you with some images that

[1:39:38] Voice 39: she conveyed. She said, she referred to Joe Mathias, who's of Squamish, an incredible leader

[1:39:45] Voice 39: and a chief, early constitutional talks in the 1980s. And she said, quoting him,

[1:39:51] Voice 39: behold the turtle he moves forward when he sticks his neck out and then she talked about DRIPA

[1:39:59] Voice 39: and the DRIPA legislation which has actually transformed how I think of it because I've

[1:40:04] Voice 39: been pounding the table saying we need to update our legislation to align with DRIPA

[1:40:09] Voice 39: and she said DRIPA sticks its neck out just a little it actually does not do enough and the

[1:40:19] Voice 39: the provincial and federal governments are moving very slowly.

[1:40:24] Voice 39: And as we've been seeing, the action plan to implement DRIPA

[1:40:28] Voice 39: and to transform all of our different statutes and pieces of legislation,

[1:40:34] Voice 39: that is not even on the 10-year plan,

[1:40:36] Voice 39: and we're midway through the first five years.

[1:40:39] Voice 39: So what she really brought home to me is that it is your ability

[1:40:48] Voice 39: as local governments to build collaborative processes with nations that can then inform

[1:40:57] Voice 39: the legislative change that we need to see. Because it's as you talk about those touch

[1:41:03] Voice 39: points, what is important to a nation? We talked about neighbor to neighbor, how do our children

[1:41:08] Voice 39: grow up in a place that they feel safe, strong, celebrated? We're all working together towards

[1:41:14] Voice 39: towards that end. So imposing DRIPA, which is the turtle sticking its neck out just a little,

[1:41:21] Voice 39: it actually doesn't go far enough to enshrine Indigenous rights, is not the goal. Creating

[1:41:28] Voice 39: good collaborative governance models and agreements, which there was about six examples

[1:41:34] Voice 39: in this forum, and I'll share out those notes, everything from Fort Alberni with their

[1:41:41] Voice 39: Reconciliation Committee and Chief Ken Watts from West Kelowna and the West Bank First Nation,

[1:41:49] Voice 39: which is an autonomous nation, and how they're structuring their agreements and working together

[1:41:54] Voice 39: and then bringing in the province to say, here's where we need your support. We need grant funding.

[1:41:59] Voice 39: We need a specific agreement to let us do this work together, or we're going to advocate for

[1:42:05] Voice 39: this change so that a first nation can be at the board of the regional district so she said you

[1:42:11] Voice 39: local governments can stick your necks out a lot and that was her challenge to us so i've i've

[1:42:17] Voice 39: written up those notes i'll share it with everyone but um i'm really enthused about this arena and um

[1:42:24] Voice 39: i'm not so worried about drip it anymore i don't think it's the end goal thanks um

[1:42:31] Voice 23: thank you

[1:42:32] Voice 23: watching the time there prolific note taker um and but i won't let this opportunity pass to

[1:42:40] Voice 23: why myself and grant were on the topic of books josey jody wilson reibold three books

[1:42:47] Voice 23: absolutely worth every minute of your time to read those books as well let's continue on

[1:42:52] Voice 23: and

[1:43:00] Voice 46: well um skidi has been crazy busy this summer with festivals and fairs and it's it's been insane

[1:43:07] Voice 46: same um we had a lot of people come together for our fall fair we had a toddler race and a

[1:43:14] Voice 46: caterpillar race and a um we have a having it for years a tug of war between the north and south

[1:43:21] Voice 46: end everybody positions themselves on where they live on the island i think the north end usually

[1:43:25] Voice 46: wins only in the summer though um yeah and there was a um with what um trustee um stanford said

[1:43:34] Voice 46: there was a fire recently a house fire and the house was mostly gone but because the resident

[1:43:42] Voice 46: had prepared her property with using fire smart principles the fire didn't spread it was just her

[1:43:49] Voice 46: home it was contained there was there was no brush around it it was so it was a really good thing to

[1:43:55] Voice 46: see how implementation of practices can really be helpful because we've had fires before where

[1:44:00] Voice 46: where it's just been everything, completely devastated.

[1:44:03] Voice 46: And we have a very small fire department.

[1:44:05] Voice 46: There's about a dozen members, and most of them are not firefighters,

[1:44:08] Voice 46: they're first responders, and the whole community comes together to fight a fire.

[1:44:11] Voice 46: So, yeah, as we all know, it's an island.

[1:44:14] Voice 46: There's not much we can do if it really starts going.

[1:44:17] Voice 46: So I encourage everybody to think about that for their property.

[1:44:22] Voice 46: And that's about it.

[1:44:28] Voice 4: We had such a busy summer that we got the Ministry of Transportation

[1:44:32] Voice 4: to agree that ours was the worst run on the bc ferries network in terms of the number of

[1:44:37] Voice 4: sailings that were canceled and and delayed and i think we had no no i think we beat you

[1:44:46] Voice 4: no they were quite pleased with how they'd worked with the community between denman and hornby and

[1:44:51] Voice 4: sorting out your problems in terms of marshalling and they have no solutions for us uh working

[1:44:56] Voice 4: backwards in time last night we had or yesterday afternoon we had a bim council meeting and then

[1:45:03] Voice 4: then and also during UBCM when we had a meeting with the ministry, I'm always quite surprised

[1:45:09] Voice 4: in terms of the people that dig into some of our agendas and actually read things in detail and

[1:45:15] Voice 4: start asking questions. So at the end of our meeting, we have an update on Islands Trust

[1:45:21] Voice 4: reports to the council and we said that, you know, the quarterly meeting was coming up and

[1:45:26] Voice 4: the mayor started asking questions about our request to the province. So we're reporting

[1:45:30] Voice 4: reporting more detail about that once we get into that discussion, but it's quite interesting the

[1:45:36] Voice 4: numbers of people that go in depth in terms of the work that we're doing. At UBCM, BIM Council had

[1:45:45] Voice 4: meetings with the Minister of Transportation, Jobs and Innovations, and Municipal Affairs.

[1:45:54] Voice 4: We had a very, very good meeting with Transportation, and we later had a meeting with

[1:45:58] Voice 4: some representatives from BC Ferries and I remember our mayor described it as

[1:46:03] Voice 4: spicy and the our brand-new CAO that started on September the 9th came out of

[1:46:11] Voice 4: that meeting with BC Ferries going oh I didn't know you'd be like that so I took

[1:46:17] Voice 4: them to task a little bit more than they were expecting but that was kind of fun

[1:46:21] Voice 4: we also had a meeting with the parliamentary secretary about fresh

[1:46:25] Voice 4: freshwater and gave the conservancy a plug with respect to the survey that's been done with

[1:46:32] Voice 4: respect to freshwater on Bowen and the other islands. We're not, if you look at the map for

[1:46:39] Voice 4: the islands community economic trust, which is IST coming out of the municipal government,

[1:46:47] Voice 4: the map goes all the way around all the Gulf Islands and skirts all the way around Bowen.

[1:46:52] Voice 4: And we've been working hard to try and get included in that, and that seems to have had some shifting, possibly.

[1:47:00] Voice 4: And that was really, really busy.

[1:47:03] Voice 4: We had two meetings with the CAO hiring committee, plus all the meetings with the ministers, plus a social that we organized with all the trust representatives, plus banquets and delegations and all the rest of it, and going to – it's a marathon.

[1:47:20] Voice 4: on. That UBCM is quite packed, but very, very interesting. I have, I'm not sure how much time

[1:47:28] Voice 4: I've got left, but I personally have been working on a federal grant to fund some transportation

[1:47:35] Voice 4: to try and do some green things to increase a bus route on Bowen, and some baby steps and

[1:47:43] Voice 4: really beginning conversations about community forest management, because we've got about half

[1:47:49] Voice 4: Half of Bowen is crown land.

[1:47:51] Voice 4: So busy, fun.

[1:47:58] Voice 32: Hi, everybody.

[1:47:59] Voice 32: Also from Bowen Island, for anybody listening,

[1:48:02] Voice 32: I'm going to pick up some points that my colleague Judy hasn't covered in depth.

[1:48:08] Voice 32: Our new CAO is from Sechelt.

[1:48:10] Voice 32: So also in Howe Sound, Alkitsom, and familiar with ferry

[1:48:17] Voice 32: and all the kind of coastal issues and water treatment plants.

[1:48:21] Voice 32: Bless his heart.

[1:48:23] Voice 32: Summer visitors, we were overwhelmed again this summer, I guess every island is.

[1:48:30] Voice 32: Levels, according to the tourism Bowen Island folks from their stats, were about the same as last year,

[1:48:36] Voice 32: but I think it's more bicyclists and walkers, more bicycles on the road.

[1:48:41] Voice 32: Anyway, we'll see what new comes with that, but it's starting to be a bigger and bigger issue every year.

[1:48:49] Voice 32: we had our first annual meeting with the Bowen Island Conservancy about the biodiversity strategy

[1:48:55] Voice 32: we have a speaking as a member of Bowen Island Council we have a memorandum of understanding

[1:49:01] Voice 32: with them to work on some of our ecosystem protection work and first you have to identify it

[1:49:08] Voice 32: we have working on our housing side because we're under bill 44 so we're required to

[1:49:16] Voice 32: build housing or produce the plans that would allow enough housing to meet our

[1:49:23] Voice 32: housing needs assessment unlike other islands anyway we've got our OCP

[1:49:29] Voice 32: committee is underway and a report from the planner showed that our current OCP

[1:49:34] Voice 32: does have the capacity already to meet those housing needs assessments so that

[1:49:40] Voice 32: was good that we didn't have to rework our OCP to meet those targets. So, happy to announce that

[1:49:51] Voice 32: the cleaner Salish Sea is still going ahead according to Metro Vancouver Regional District,

[1:49:57] Voice 32: who are still working on the sewage treatment plants on the North Shore of Vancouver and

[1:50:03] Voice 32: Iona Island. So those projects are still going ahead and that'll lead to way fewer pollutants

[1:50:10] Voice 32: in the Salish Sea

[1:50:11] Voice 32: and then my last thing, Judy's covered UBCM

[1:50:14] Voice 32: I'll just say I got some help from

[1:50:16] Voice 32: freshwater specialist William

[1:50:18] Voice 32: Shulba, so

[1:50:20] Voice 32: thank you for that, Claire I'm looking at

[1:50:22] Voice 32: you just to make sure he knows I mentioned

[1:50:24] Voice 32: him because he really produced a lot

[1:50:26] Voice 32: of information for me, thank you very much

[1:50:28] Voice 32: when I was trying to figure out what to say that I hadn't already

[1:50:30] Voice 32: said and

[1:50:33] Voice 32: that's it, thank you

[1:50:36] Voice 32: oh the

[1:50:37] Voice 32: slug race is what we have on

[1:50:39] Voice 32: Bowen Island at Bofest

[1:50:42] Voice 20: Thank you.

[1:50:43] Voice 20: We probably have one of the best ferry services on the whole coast,

[1:50:47] Voice 20: just to brag a little bit.

[1:50:50] Voice 20: What did we do?

[1:50:51] Voice 20: The property cleanup there, the bylaw enforcement one, is going ahead.

[1:50:57] Voice 20: They have some numbers.

[1:50:58] Voice 20: I haven't heard them yet.

[1:51:00] Voice 20: Maybe we'll hear on Thursday in the closed session.

[1:51:03] Voice 20: I don't know.

[1:51:05] Voice 20: Also, we had a delegation.

[1:51:06] Voice 20: We had a meeting earlier this month.

[1:51:08] Voice 20: We had the LIAX and had a delegation come over and sort of semi-politely reminded us that we weren't actually living up to our protocol agreement, which we all realized, oh, yeah, I guess.

[1:51:24] Voice 20: So they're trying to get a fiber optic cable to the island on Valdez, and it goes through the waterway, the 1,000-meter waterway around it, so we have to bless it.

[1:51:38] Voice 20: So after they came and did their presentation, we realized, yes, they really need that.

[1:51:44] Voice 20: So we found a way to fast track it.

[1:51:47] Voice 20: And hopefully that will happen sooner than later.

[1:51:50] Voice 20: That's about it.

[1:51:51] Voice 20: Thank you.

[1:51:56] Voice 19: Got to figure out this microphone.

[1:51:58] Voice 19: Okay, there.

[1:51:59] Voice 19: So, yeah, I had dinner with John and Millie Helliwell on the weekend, and I got chastised for writing an article on toxic positivity.

[1:52:08] Voice 19: And if you're familiar with John Helliwell, he's one of the lead authors of the World

[1:52:13] Voice 19: Happiness Report.

[1:52:14] Voice 19: So on that note, I've got two Hornby Island happiness reports.

[1:52:21] Voice 19: The most exciting thing is Beulah Creek, the Hornby Island Housing Society, Beulah Creek,

[1:52:27] Voice 19: we finally, finally have put the shovel to the ground.

[1:52:30] Voice 19: This has been in, let's just tell you the timeline of this.

[1:52:34] Voice 19: back in 2008 2005 islanders secure land association that's we created and in 2010

[1:52:43] Voice 19: a resident bernard weiss donated uh 14 acres is it current 18 18.5 acres and so here we are at 2024

[1:52:55] Voice 19: where we're finally having it happen um and because it's called beulah creek housing you can

[1:53:00] Voice 19: understand the challenges because it's raw it's totally all around there it's

[1:53:06] Voice 19: some very challenging the property it's gonna have 13 rent geared to income

[1:53:12] Voice 19: units five low income units eight market rental units common green space so it's

[1:53:18] Voice 19: gonna be studios one bedroom two bedroom three bedroom homes and McCalla housing

[1:53:23] Voice 19: it's the gonna be the operator of the development and as you know all the

[1:53:27] Voice 19: islands are uh it's really expensive to build and so it's now basically hornby island probably like

[1:53:33] Voice 19: all your other islands is you know 35 more it costs to build than on the mainland on the big

[1:53:39] Voice 19: island so you know we've had you know kinds of lack of infrastructure and the cost of

[1:53:43] Voice 19: transporting materials and on that note in 2018 we actually received 2.8 million dollars

[1:53:49] Voice 19: in funding from the government to help us with the housing so that's actually happening and our

[1:53:54] Voice 19: Our local contractor, AFC, who built the school and the gas bar and pretty much every building on Hornby is a contractor.

[1:54:03] Voice 19: And the other great happiness report is the Hornby Island Farmland Trust Society, which was created in 2013.

[1:54:11] Voice 19: It's a community farm and community farm garden.

[1:54:14] Voice 19: It's got a chicken coop.

[1:54:18] Voice 19: There's 44 allotment gardens covering one and a half acres.

[1:54:22] Voice 19: In total, it's 12 acres that was donated by a local.

[1:54:27] Voice 19: So it's underground gravity-fed irrigation and six cisterns with a 30,000-gallon capacity.

[1:54:33] Voice 19: It drilled well up.

[1:54:34] Voice 19: And then they also have – they've just finished building the food storage and food processing building that's going to have a commercial kitchen, et cetera.

[1:54:41] Voice 19: Unfortunately, it's only – it's at lockup.

[1:54:43] Voice 19: But now they're going to apply for a grant to go to the next stage, which is the interior of the building, a rural development grant.

[1:54:53] Voice 19: And they asked for support from us, Grant and I, and Tim, for funding, and there you go.

[1:55:00] Voice 19: There's the happiness reports from Hornby. Thank you.

[1:55:10] Voice 43: Susan Yates from the Gabriola Local Trust Area.

[1:55:12] Voice 43: And I just have to say, as I have before, this is my favorite part of council.

[1:55:17] Voice 43: I know it goes on, but it makes me, it reminds me of how we really are tied together.

[1:55:24] Voice 43: And the three books that were mentioned today, I can't think of a better way to engage in reconciliation in a more rewarding way.

[1:55:34] Voice 43: Those three books that were mentioned, two by Grant and one by Peter, are amazing, are amazing.

[1:55:42] Voice 43: And of course, as a retired librarian, who could like book reports better than me?

[1:55:47] Voice 43: So thank you for that.

[1:55:50] Voice 43: I have to make a quick comment about the South Pender dip.

[1:55:53] Voice 43: Because when I was on South Pender last time, I had a long wait.

[1:55:57] Voice 43: I was sure I was going to miss the ferry.

[1:56:00] Voice 43: And all I could think about was building another canal.

[1:56:04] Voice 43: I mean, honestly, I cannot believe that that has gone on for as long as it hasn't.

[1:56:10] Voice 43: You have my total sympathy.

[1:56:11] Voice 43: so again you know we it holds us together thank you very much to my fellow trustee

[1:56:19] Voice 43: Toby Elliott for mentioning the um those fortitudinous mudge islanders who are

[1:56:28] Voice 43: forced to be dealt with but they're also really fun to work with and um we've had some good

[1:56:35] Voice 43: meetings with them and they are one engaged community so i really appreciate that um we

[1:56:44] Voice 43: weren't expecting that work to be kind of on our work program this year but it is and we're doing

[1:56:49] Voice 43: we're doing quite well with it so the other major thing though on our work program is we're entering

[1:56:55] Voice 43: the third phase of our official community plan review with lots of help from nurse chadwick

[1:57:01] Voice 43: and local planner, Stephen Bao.

[1:57:04] Voice 43: And we are just about to get into the focus group discussions.

[1:57:09] Voice 43: So the discussions focusing on things like suitable land analysis,

[1:57:14] Voice 43: housing policy, density bank transfer, ecosystem policies,

[1:57:19] Voice 43: village core, transportation, that kind of thing.

[1:57:21] Voice 43: So we hope to get through those focus groups with our community

[1:57:25] Voice 43: in the next six months or so.

[1:57:28] Voice 43: And we'll have more to report at the next council meeting.

[1:57:31] Voice 43: Very briefly, the Gabriola Housing Society, another happy story, just got word from BC Housing that their funding is going through.

[1:57:40] Voice 43: They will be breaking ground in January for 24 housing units, different levels of affordability.

[1:57:48] Voice 43: So they've been working on this for more than six years.

[1:57:51] Voice 43: Great news.

[1:57:52] Voice 43: And the very last thing is our amazing community of Gabriola has just produced a 47-page report

[1:58:00] Voice 43: called the Gabriola Health and Well-Being Report 2024.

[1:58:04] Voice 43: And I mention this because when it first came out and I read through it, it's so beautifully

[1:58:10] Voice 43: organized.

[1:58:11] Voice 43: I'm going to be using it for planning purposes.

[1:58:13] Voice 43: It includes a section on local government and civic engagement.

[1:58:17] Voice 43: It has all the levels of health you can expect, environment, social, economic health, and it made good use of Ireland's trust infographics when they were working on this report.

[1:58:31] Voice 43: So, yeah, I guess that's another good news.

[1:58:34] Voice 43: Thank you all.

[1:58:38] Voice 31: Thank you.

[1:58:39] Voice 31: Since last June Trust Council meeting, the Galliano LTC has had two meetings.

[1:58:46] Voice 31: Currently, we're reviewing an application for a small-scale cidery on the island.

[1:58:51] Voice 31: And we're moving our major project, groundwater sustainability project, to a public hearing scheduled for October 8th during our next business meeting.

[1:59:01] Voice 31: Additionally, we're also working through two rezoning applications related to F1 lots.

[1:59:06] Voice 31: The application proposes a combination of rural residential zoning, F3, park dedications, and land transfer.

[1:59:16] Voice 31: And this is particularly noteworthy because the land transfer associated with these applications would be transferred to the Penelakut tribe, making this a significant step towards collaboration within Indigenous communities.

[1:59:32] Voice 31: Summer on Galliano is always like having your best summer yet. That's what it's like. I've heard that a few times at the restaurant this year from tourists.

[1:59:41] Voice 31: um our island's about just over 1300 people as well as about 6 000 in the summer months

[1:59:49] Voice 31: many business owners have told me that they found it the beginning of the season

[1:59:53] Voice 31: unusually slower than usual but still overall profitable season

[2:00:00] Voice 31: end of this um yeah at the end of the season our annual galliano community picnic happens and i had

[2:00:08] Voice 31: the delightful honor to serve in official capacity as a judge for the galliano world-class zucchini

[2:00:15] Voice 31: races congratulations all the winners and i'm happy to share that in the adult modified category

[2:00:24] Voice 31: The winner was Jane Wolverton with her zucchini roller skate racer.

[2:00:33] Voice 31: And then lastly, I would like to express my respect for Rose Longini, a longtime Galliano resident that passed away earlier this month.

[2:00:43] Voice 31: Her dedication to conservation on Galliano is remarkable.

[2:00:47] Voice 31: She has a great loss for our community.

[2:00:49] Voice 31: Through her efforts working with the Islands Trust Conservancy and the Galleon Conservancy Association, she protected 24 hectares of ARL land via a registered and very complex covenant.

[2:01:04] Voice 31: Covenant. The Green Frog Farm Covenant protects riparian habitat along McDonald Brook, and there's

[2:01:13] Voice 31: two adjacent ponds. It prevents further subdivision, and this area is an important part of South

[2:01:20] Voice 31: Galeano's watershed. Rose, who has also been known to be cared compared to the Energizer Bunny,

[2:01:28] Voice 31: showed how you can balance agriculture land and with protection protecting nature. She also went

[2:01:34] Voice 31: on to register another covenant on an eight-hectare residential lot outside the ALR.

[2:01:40] Voice 31: This second covenant ensures that the lot will never be subdivided, permits only one residential

[2:01:46] Voice 31: dwelling, and protects the natural wooded area. This is including a stand of 200-year-old guardian

[2:01:53] Voice 31: maples. There you go. Her work has left a lasting legacy on Galliano Island and we'll miss her

[2:02:00] Voice 31: tireless spirit thank you thank

[2:02:10] Voice 33: you lisa well i guess everyone went so fast i get 30 minutes to

[2:02:14] Voice 33: get my talk so thank you zucchini racing i think was founded on salt spring i don't know i'll have

[2:02:20] Voice 33: to see who was first salt spring or galliano hmm big history and uh for reconciliation books i'd

[2:02:27] Voice 33: say go read adam olson's blog of all of his speeches that he gave in hand and uh legislation

[2:02:32] Voice 33: you don't have to go through the answer just go to his blog site lots of learning there the housing

[2:02:38] Voice 33: Housing Needs Assessment, legislatively required, is now based on a methodology that is legislatively

[2:02:46] Voice 33: required.

[2:02:47] Voice 33: And the province has worked with, or UBC has worked with the province to create a calculator

[2:02:53] Voice 33: called the HART.

[2:02:55] Voice 33: So it's UBC HART, H-A-R-T.

[2:02:58] Voice 33: And it, like the methodology, it relies on the census data for running the Housing Needs

[2:03:04] Voice 33: Assessment.

[2:03:04] Voice 33: So I ran my Salt Springs on the HART model, and let's just say the data is a little wonky.

[2:03:12] Voice 33: For example, apparently, in the next 20 years, we only need 16 units to get 3% vacancy rate for rental on Salt Springs.

[2:03:21] Voice 33: So we know that number isn't right, and I know we know it's not right.

[2:03:24] Voice 33: I know Trustee Elliott, Trustee Bothrick and I, back last June during Trust Council, accepted a tour from a local Islander.

[2:03:35] Voice 33: We just went to four properties, just four, that contained over 100 RVs, housing workers.

[2:03:43] Voice 33: I can tell you that's probably 10 times that amount that are hidden out of sight on Salt Spring.

[2:03:50] Voice 33: These types of situations are not captured in the census data.

[2:03:54] Voice 33: The census does not capture multiple households sharing one address. So the

[2:04:01] Voice 33: illegal suites, cottages, tiny homes, and RVs are completely unrepresented in the

[2:04:08] Voice 33: data. So I'm really concerned that without supplemental data our housing

[2:04:13] Voice 33: needs assessment report on Salt Spring is not going to be very useful. I know

[2:04:17] Voice 33: the CRD is going to participate with the Islands Trust to do a rental survey in

[2:04:22] Voice 33: Salt Spring and the Southern Gulf Islands, but not till after the housing

[2:04:25] Voice 33: these assessments are done. So, like Bowen, you might want to take a look at the methodology. I

[2:04:33] Voice 33: think we have an opportunity here to, you know, as islands, if we're exempt from the legislation,

[2:04:38] Voice 33: or I should say local trust committees are exempt from the legislation, not Bowen Municipality,

[2:04:45] Voice 33: we should make sure we have methodologies that are appropriate. We can't have, argue two sides.

[2:04:51] Voice 33: um so there's work to be done um salt spring staffing resources remain challenging trustees

[2:05:01] Voice 33: from last term might remember we used to report regularly on salt spring island water protection

[2:05:06] Voice 33: authority uh alliance uh it's been silent this term because we haven't it's not been staffed

[2:05:15] Voice 33: since august of 22 we had a brief moment where we had some staff resources but gone again

[2:05:20] Voice 33: Again, I'm apprehensively waiting for the results of the Complete Communities Project.

[2:05:27] Voice 33: That was a $150,000 grant from the province.

[2:05:29] Voice 33: I'm envisioning a lot of geospatial data to help inform our OCP and land use bylaw.

[2:05:35] Voice 33: I'm really hoping that we can have really informed public engagement with a lot of very useful data to inspire thoughts.

[2:05:44] Voice 33: spots. However, legislatively required, every municipality in the province has to update their

[2:05:53] Voice 33: OCPs before the end of the year. So that's probably going to impact our project on trying

[2:05:58] Voice 33: to get consultants to do an OCP on Salt Spring. But let's hope. On a good note, Salt Spring was

[2:06:08] Voice 33: selected as a community to participate in a pilot project called Connext. It's a climate preparedness

[2:06:14] Voice 33: Hub training program. It's going to share information and training

[2:06:20] Voice 33: and island stress staff, myself, and

[2:06:22] Voice 33: other community organizations are going to be participating.

[2:06:27] Voice 33: That's my report.

[2:06:35] Voice 23: Very good. Thank you everyone for that

[2:06:38] Voice 23: 1,000 foot flyover of the Gulf Islands.

[2:06:41] Voice 23: It's terrific to hear your stories and share your stories.

[2:06:46] Voice 23: It gives us a real snapshot of what's going

[2:06:50] Voice 23: going on let us uh and thank you for managing your time effectively we are a wee bit ahead so

[2:06:57] Voice 23: i'm going to um uh i'm going to do uh the delegations of course on time when we return

[2:07:02] Voice 23: from our break um but i'm going to advance correspondence and see if we can't move the

[2:07:07] Voice 23: consent agenda items ahead um but um let's see how that goes all right uh yes susan yates just

[2:07:17] Voice 43: Just a really quick comment on Trustee Patrick's report in that I completely sympathize with

[2:07:26] Voice 43: the lack of the data you need from Stats Canada, which is partly why these 52 agencies put

[2:07:34] Voice 43: this report together for Gabriola, because it acknowledges the fact that things like

[2:07:41] Voice 43: homelessness, underhousing, that kind of thing, it just doesn't come out in Stats Canada.

[2:07:47] Voice 43: because of the way they count households thank

[2:07:53] Voice 23: you for that acknowledgement certainly salt spring

[2:07:58] Voice 23: struggles um let us go to correspondence we have two pieces um one from s brands section three

[2:08:09] Voice 23: wording and the second one from trustee boland web page for the request of the province project

[2:08:16] Voice 23: project, ask you, other than receiving those for information, is there any other direction

[2:08:23] Voice 23: you'd like to take with respect to the correspondence at this time? Mary Boland?

[2:08:34] Voice 45: What would be an appropriate way for me to move this along other than just receive

[2:08:39] Voice 45: it? How could I make it happen?

[2:08:44] Voice 45: then.

[2:08:47] Voice 23: Is there some advice from staff on this particular item? Director Frager, are you going

[2:08:53] Voice 23: to pick that up?

[2:08:57] Voice 27: Yes, I'm just catching up with you. Is this regarding the webpage? Yep. So

[2:09:01] Voice 27: certainly you could ask us to create a webpage and we can do so. I will let you know that the

[2:09:06] Voice 27: current website structure is currently somewhat formed around the last strategic plan. So once

[2:09:11] Voice 27: you take a look at the next strategic plan, we're going to be looking at that structure and

[2:09:15] Voice 27: potentially adjusting it somewhat to match the new themes of this council so there are some changes

[2:09:19] Voice 27: coming but certainly if council would like to ask for a new page we can certainly create it

[2:09:22] Voice 27: we try to generally create pages around lasting programs but certainly can take on anything that

[2:09:29] Voice 27: council requests so

[2:09:37] Voice 23: not having a new business item at this time i would suggest that this is

[2:09:42] Voice 23: the opportunity to uh perhaps make a motion associated with this item and we could possibly

[2:09:50] Voice 23: bring this back after the break to give you time to work with staff toward that trying to be okay

[2:09:57] Voice 45: as

[2:09:57] Voice 23: open as possible yeah

[2:09:59] Voice 45: sure i also thought that perhaps it could be discussed um during the

[2:10:08] Voice 45: discussion around the request to the province because there is an element in there of communication

[2:10:14] Voice 45: communication. So I could put some words together and bring it forward at that time.

[2:10:21] Voice 23: Okay, that's a good solution. I think let's embrace that there. That would be great.

[2:10:27] Voice 45: Thank you.

[2:10:27] Voice 23: And so then at this moment in time, then on those two pieces of correspondence,

[2:10:32] Voice 23: if there's nothing further, I'll just receive those for information. And we'll anticipate

[2:10:36] Voice 23: a motion when we get to the conversation about the letter to the province. That's great.

[2:10:44] Voice 23: I'm going to jump a little bit ahead here now and go to a consent agenda items at 6.1 page 66 to 83 are two items interim chief administrators officers report and the strategic plan quarterly report.

[2:11:09] Voice 23: report. And the recommendation is to receive those for information, but want to provide the

[2:11:14] Voice 23: opportunity for the CAO to make any remarks, or if you have any questions specifically

[2:11:19] Voice 23: for the CAO who I, there you are. I said, oh my gosh.

[2:11:25] Voice 23: She's ready. I think we have a little

[2:11:27] Voice 23: thing going back and forth not to abandon each other. And so I just thought to myself, oh my

[2:11:32] Voice 23: gosh. So, and I see some hands up around the table. Let's give the CAO, seeing as she stepped

[2:11:38] Voice 23: stepped up there, opportunity to speak, and then I'll go to the questions. Go ahead.

[2:11:43] Voice 9: Thanks, Chair. So I always assume trustees read every word I write, so I won't go into detail of

[2:11:50] Voice 9: the CAO report. I do want to say I'm quite honoured to be standing here before you as the interim CAO.

[2:11:55] Voice 9: I recognise that was a lot of trust that's been placed in me, and I've been really honoured to

[2:11:59] Voice 9: carry the torch over the last three months. It's been a lot. I've been also still undertaking the

[2:12:05] Voice 9: the director of admin services role. So lots of late nights. If the bags under my eyes look a

[2:12:10] Voice 9: little darker than usual, that is why. That's an accurate observation. I do want to publicly thank

[2:12:15] Voice 9: my colleagues. They've been really supportive of me as I've stepped into this role. My leadership

[2:12:20] Voice 9: style is different to the former CAO, and they've really handled the transition with grace and

[2:12:26] Voice 9: professionalism. And I think that should be commended. I'm happy to take questions on anything

[2:12:30] Voice 9: thing in my report.

[2:12:35] Voice 23: Christina Evans and I think Susan Yates you had your hand up.

[2:12:38] Voice 26: I just want to

[2:12:39] Voice 26: say yes I have read every word in here and I want to say thank you for writing such a well-written

[2:12:46] Voice 26: easy to read captivating article or report it's it was it's it was great and and really

[2:12:55] Voice 26: thank you. Thank

[2:12:58] Voice 23: you Susan Yates.

[2:13:00] Voice 43: Ditto what Trustee Evans just said and I love how you

[2:13:03] Voice 43: started it with council being this particular council not being for the faint of heart.

[2:13:08] Voice 43: Thank you for that. I did have a quick question with regard in your meetings section. I'm curious

[2:13:15] Voice 43: about your meeting with the merit commissioner. I wonder if that had something to do with flooding

[2:13:20] Voice 43: or fire or anything?

[2:13:23] Voice 9: So that meeting is in the works, but haven't yet had that meeting. We're

[2:13:27] Voice 9: in the process of setting that up. The merit commissioner is responsible for auditing the

[2:13:31] Voice 9: public service for to make sure that our hiring practices are sound and we are following a

[2:13:36] Voice 9: meritorious process when we are actually um seeking new staff members um so they actually

[2:13:42] Voice 9: reached out and offered a connection and i thought that would be a really um great thing to take

[2:13:48] Voice 9: advantage of so hopefully hoping to meet um in october

[2:13:51] Voice 36: yeah indeed yes

[2:13:57] Voice 9: apologies okay

[2:14:01] Voice 23: um toby

[2:14:03] Voice 23: Thank you.

[2:14:05] Voice 39: I had a question about the committee of the whole process. So you say that we're perhaps going to trial a new approach of conducting RWMs to trust counsel or executive committee after each committee of the whole to formalize those recommendations into directions.

[2:14:24] Voice 39: actions um i just wanted to have a little conversation about this because if we're

[2:14:31] Voice 39: discussing without a view to giving action or making a decision in committee of the whole

[2:14:39] Voice 39: but then get an rwm that is not going to allow discussion that presumes that we've reached

[2:14:48] Voice 39: consensus somehow at the committee of the whole and that recommendation is just there's a formal

[2:14:54] Voice 39: process to turn it into action is that am i understanding it correctly you're

[2:15:03] Voice 9: not far off

[2:15:03] Voice 9: so what we're experiencing now of course committee of the whole is all of council sitting as a

[2:15:09] Voice 9: committee committee doesn't have the authority to give direction it can only provide recommendations

[2:15:13] Voice 9: to the council body so what's happening right now is recommendations are being advanced from

[2:15:18] Voice 9: committee of the whole and staff then have to prepare a report about those recommendations

[2:15:23] Voice 9: from Committee of the Whole and advance it to a meeting of executive committee to have executive

[2:15:28] Voice 9: committee pass a formal resolution to give the direction to action what Committee of the Whole

[2:15:33] Voice 9: is recommended. So it makes our processes a little bit cumbersome. Generally, where there's been good

[2:15:42] Voice 9: consensus or large majority in favor of recommendations from Committee of the Whole,

[2:15:48] Voice 9: it's unlikely executive committee would choose not to formalize that resolution into an action.

[2:15:54] Voice 9: Where an issue might be more contentious, we could still follow the lengthier approach of

[2:16:01] Voice 9: actually preparing a report and taking it to executive committee or council for formal

[2:16:05] Voice 9: direction. And Director Marler may have some additional comments. Shaking his head no.

[2:16:14] Voice 39: I'm just puzzled then, like, what is the point of the committee, the whole process?

[2:16:19] Voice 39: And so if we're supposed to air out discussion, there's no pressure to make a decision, but

[2:16:26] Voice 39: then we're going to assume that that recommendation ends up in an RWM at which there is no discussion.

[2:16:34] Voice 39: It just doesn't make sense.

[2:16:36] Voice 39: Like, shouldn't we just have council meetings or special meetings?

[2:16:40] Voice 39: Because that's just an extra administrative step.

[2:16:43] Voice 39: So in RWM, we can't have discussion, but normally it would come back to a council meeting going,

[2:16:49] Voice 39: going, OK, everyone has had a chance to learn some more about the topic.

[2:16:54] Voice 39: We've had a week. Do you still feel the same? And now we're ready to vote.

[2:16:58] Voice 39: But you don't get that option with an RWM.

[2:17:00] Voice 39: So I don't think that the Committee of the Whole function is going to be served if we're just going to end up with an RWM.

[2:17:13] Voice 11: Yeah, so it's a good comment because the intent of the Committee of the Whole is that because you're not going to be making decisions,

[2:17:21] Voice 11: it's all about the discussion so most of the recommended you might get recommendations to

[2:17:26] Voice 11: council to say approve a bylaw or to make changes to a bylaw and and do that and that I think

[2:17:34] Voice 11: definitely should go to a council meeting which would be normal because then council would have

[2:17:38] Voice 11: to decide whether it wants to advance that bylaw in whatever way so the recommendation will go to

[2:17:44] Voice 11: council for that I think what we're seeing though is the committee as a whole is asking for maybe

[2:17:49] Voice 11: be additional information where staff will have to do some work to come back to committee of the

[2:17:54] Voice 11: whole so because committee hall is not ready to make a recommendation they would like to see more

[2:18:00] Voice 11: information i think those things are things that could just go by resolution through the executive

[2:18:06] Voice 11: to staff so that the executive's directing staff not committee of the whole i think that is the

[2:18:11] Voice 11: intent of what the cao is saying all

[2:18:16] Voice 23: right uh joe bernardo oh go ahead he's

[2:18:24] Voice 9: on oh there we go um so

[2:18:26] Voice 9: yeah thank you director marler that is accurate it's it's really playing out with the policy

[2:18:31] Voice 9: statement because what we're seeing right now is a lot of requests from committee of the whole to

[2:18:34] Voice 9: you know make some wording changes or get some more information or you know just come back with

[2:18:39] Voice 9: um additional pieces it's more direction to staff as opposed to making decisions to approve things

[2:18:44] Voice 9: as director marlo has said um there is also consideration to move into an executive community

[2:18:49] Voice 9: meeting or a trust council meeting after committee of the whole if you do it immediately after again

[2:18:54] Voice 9: you lose that opportunity to sort of stew in what you've heard um but this is new for us so we are

[2:19:00] Voice 9: trialing different ways of of advancing this um so that it can best serve us joe

[2:19:07] Voice 23: bernardo yeah i

[2:19:09] Voice 25: mean let's not lose sight of um the original purpose and value of why we're doing the committee

[2:19:15] Voice 25: of the whole you know about the procedural fine points i've got nothing to say about that but the

[2:19:20] Voice 25: value of having committee the whole type meetings for deliberation and discussion is that it uh

[2:19:29] Voice 25: locks in the fact that this is a focus on deliberation and discussion

[2:19:35] Voice 25: it is a mechanism for preventing meetings from getting derailed by enthusiastic trustees who've

[2:19:40] Voice 25: decided they've got the resolution that's going to solve anything how many times have we seen

[2:19:44] Voice 25: meetings go spiraling in all sorts of different directions and you know not as if i've been

[2:19:49] Voice 25: responsible for any of that no but but you see what i mean i mean the community of the whole

[2:19:56] Voice 25: is a focusing exercise for us so that we can actually deliberate at the level that we should

[2:20:03] Voice 25: and you know the details about you know how we make decisions at uh at the trust council level

[2:20:11] Voice 25: You know, I think Director Marlowe is quite right. You know, when we get into the substance of it. Yeah, we're not going to do that by way, RWN. We need to be doing that face to face.

[2:20:23] Voice 23: Okay, Trustee Harris online.

[2:20:26] Voice 12: Yeah, you know, the way I take it, the purpose of the committee, the whole is to allow trustees to speak more openly and freely and have a have a big discussion and maybe sort of repetitive here as to what some previous trustees have said, but maybe it's in a bit more simpler fashion.

[2:20:41] Voice 12: um you know so yeah if it's if it allows for more open conversation um without the decision making

[2:20:48] Voice 12: um i'm completely in support of it thank you any

[2:20:55] Voice 23: other speakers on this topic all right so we'll

[2:21:00] Voice 23: receive your uh report for information thank you julia so the other item is to plan quarterly

[2:21:06] Voice 23: report anything there did you wish to address that julia um

[2:21:12] Voice 9: nothing in particular so this is

[2:21:13] Voice 9: the same format that you've seen time and time again. I personally am not a fan of it. I think

[2:21:20] Voice 9: it could use some improvement. You know, we've been focused on some other areas of improvement

[2:21:25] Voice 9: over the last three months. Certainly this will be one to focus on once we are further along in

[2:21:30] Voice 9: strategic planning elements for the current term. But I think there's some improvements that can be

[2:21:34] Voice 9: made in how we're reporting out on strategic plan initiatives to create some consistency across the

[2:21:40] Voice 9: organization and make things a bit clearer for trustees and the public to understand where we're

[2:21:44] Voice 9: at with various pieces. But for now, it's the same format. I'm happy to take questions on any of those

[2:21:48] Voice 9: pieces of info.

[2:21:50] Voice 23: Right. Thank you. So, Mairead Boland, Ken Hunter.

[2:21:55] Voice 45: I have a couple of questions.

[2:21:56] Voice 45: The first one is the header of each section. It says Policy Statement Goal A, which kind of

[2:22:04] Voice 45: surprised me because I didn't really know that the strategic plan was, like, I'm not sure that

[2:22:10] Voice 45: there's a direct link yet or perhaps i missed something in the past i went back and looked at

[2:22:15] Voice 45: the original you know 2018 2022 strategic plan i don't see anything that says policy statement

[2:22:22] Voice 45: goal a but let's park that and you can um come back to answer me um the one that i have a huge

[2:22:32] Voice 45: issue with and i sound like a broken record but if we go to um the water budgets so i'm on saturn

[2:22:42] Voice 45: island and the southern gulf islands including saturn island is stuck with a report which is

[2:22:48] Voice 45: called groundwater availability assessment there are three reports the first two are reasonable

[2:22:54] Voice 45: the third one is fundamentally flawed and i've been asking about it for three years four years

[2:23:02] Voice 45: and I've had various responses which I can dig out if required that the methodology used in that

[2:23:10] Voice 45: report would be challenged and reviewed so I want to know what is going to be the process

[2:23:15] Voice 45: to take those reports and either update them or put a note in them that particular one

[2:23:21] Voice 45: groundwater availability assessment now recast as water budget which is you know in the other

[2:23:29] Voice 45: Islands it's moving on to underpin the land use, what is it, suitability analysis. So it's a key

[2:23:37] Voice 45: element going forward and yet the ones that were done initially in the Southern Gulf Islands are,

[2:23:45] Voice 45: I believe, flawed. So in the very beginning of the water processes there was a peer review

[2:23:53] Voice 45: and that was asked for by the Regional Planning Committee and the results of that peer review as

[2:23:59] Voice 45: available although it was in a very shortened form it was kind of notes i would suggest that

[2:24:05] Voice 45: that particular report should be peer-reviewed before other methods and other reports are

[2:24:13] Voice 45: created for other islands because the last time i asked i was told that the methodology is changing

[2:24:20] Voice 45: and being updated well if it is go back and fix the southern gulf islands because we were

[2:24:25] Voice 45: we're stuck with a report and maps which are flawed.

[2:24:29] Voice 45: And there were a number of recommendations in that report

[2:24:32] Voice 45: about actions that could be taken,

[2:24:35] Voice 45: engage with the communities,

[2:24:37] Voice 45: figure out exactly what the water use is, etc., etc.

[2:24:41] Voice 45: And as far as I know, none of those have been actioned.

[2:24:45] Voice 45: So we're moving on into this water budget analysis on other islands,

[2:24:50] Voice 45: which will be a fundamental thing that will control

[2:24:54] Voice 45: suitable land and I believe that the Southern Gulf Islands initial groundwater assessment

[2:25:00] Voice 45: availability assessment is flawed and should be corrected.

[2:25:05] Voice 23: So Mairead sort of taking us a

[2:25:09] Voice 23: little deeper than perhaps the overall strategic plan element it seems strikes me that this is

[2:25:14] Voice 23: something that the LTC needs to take up with the Director of Regional Planning Services to

[2:25:20] Voice 23: figure that out.

[2:25:23] Voice 45: I've asked the questions multiple times

[2:25:25] Voice 45: and I don't get an answer to it. How we can actually address this issue.

[2:25:30] Voice 23: Thanks. Yeah, so I don't know the full history of that, but

[2:25:34] Voice 23: Stefan, I'm presuming that your office is open

[2:25:37] Voice 23: to that conversation. Yep. Well,

[2:25:43] Voice 23: no, you know, I think offline would be better because you've raised the issue

[2:25:47] Voice 23: and appreciate that. I think that needs a conversation with Stefan,

[2:25:50] Voice 23: on. But we could drill into this a little deeper than I think is maybe necessary in this particular

[2:25:57] Voice 23: conversation on this particular quarterly report. And I wonder, see if there's any other questions.

[2:26:02] Voice 23: Ken Hunter, right. Thank you, Ken.

[2:26:05] Voice 20: Yes, on page 70 there at 1.4. I thought that

[2:26:11] Voice 20: Trust Council decided not to go ahead with that. And I'm curious to why it's still on the page,

[2:26:16] Voice 20: or are we going to look into that again at some point so

[2:26:23] Voice 23: i'm not seeing where

[2:26:25] Voice 23: that is page seven

[2:26:26] Voice 23: zero you said

[2:26:27] Voice 20: yes yeah oh

[2:26:29] Voice 23: it says on

[2:26:30] Voice 20: hold so does that mean we're going to be looking at it in the

[2:26:33] Voice 20: future who can answer that question stephan

[2:26:38] Voice 7: 1

[2:26:46] Voice 20: .4 the bottom of page 70 okay no worries yes please

[2:26:57] Voice 7: please.

[2:26:58] Voice 9: So the comments there do indicate exactly what you've said, that Trust Council is given

[2:27:03] Voice 9: direction to not advance this work. It remains here because it was never formally removed from

[2:27:09] Voice 9: the strategic plan. We just said, you know, we're not going to advance it. So it's a nuance. But

[2:27:15] Voice 9: certainly, you know, it's not advancing unless Council resurrects it.

[2:27:20] Voice 23: Right. Okay. Does that

[2:27:22] Voice 23: answer the question? Is there anything else on the strategic plan? But

[2:27:26] Voice 25: just on that last point,

[2:27:28] Voice 25: i mean do we have to do something to get rid of this particular line item that is now irrelevant

[2:27:32] Voice 25: or will it be removed next time um

[2:27:35] Voice 23: so it that is there an answer to that question then i'll go to

[2:27:38] Voice 23: ben made burley julia i

[2:27:43] Voice 9: i don't think we need to you know make any motion to remove it we're moving

[2:27:48] Voice 9: into the next strategic strategic plan iteration so all this is going

[2:27:53] Voice 23: to be replaced very soon

[2:27:54] Voice 23: that's right right

[2:27:55] Voice 18: okay ben maberly yeah it was my understanding i think ken is right that we

[2:28:01] Voice 18: actually did make a motion to remove it way back

[2:28:05] Voice 23: yeah so i think it's in due course it

[2:28:09] Voice 23: presumably just hasn't happened for some reason the

[2:28:12] Voice 20: actual motion was to remove it from the

[2:28:14] Voice 20: follow-up action plan that was in the motion right and this is the

[2:28:18] Voice 23: strategic plan not the

[2:28:19] Voice 23: a follow-up action plan.

[2:28:21] Voice 23: So yeah, it's just a different process.

[2:28:25] Voice 23: So it's an oversight probably I'd say.

[2:28:28] Voice 23: Julia, do you have anything else to add?

[2:28:29] Voice 9: I think it's a nuance, not an oversight,

[2:28:31] Voice 9: but for the sake of clarity, we'll take it off.

[2:28:33] Voice 23: Perfect, okay.

[2:28:35] Voice 23: Trustee Harris.

[2:28:37] Voice 23: Oh, Trustee Harris, and then I wanna go to our break

[2:28:40] Voice 23: to try and keep us on time.

[2:28:42] Voice 12: Well, I'm happy to hear that that will be removed.

[2:28:45] Voice 12: That's great, thank you.

[2:28:46] Voice 23: Oh, okay, great.

[2:28:48] Voice 23: Council, thank you.

[2:28:49] Voice 23: let's go to our break come back at 3 30 we'll have delegations and then we're going to march

[2:28:54] Voice 23: into item 6.2 yeah

[3:01:32] Voice 40: Sorry, Peter, we cannot hear you.

[3:01:39] Voice 40: One, two, three. Can

[3:01:42] Voice 23: you hear me now?

[3:01:44] Voice 24: Yep, we can hear you now.

[3:01:46] Voice 23: Oh, there we go. So I don't know if you copied. Dinner's at adjournment at 530, dinner at 630.

[3:01:53] Voice 23: And we're now going to go to delegations. And the first delegate is Elsie Bourne, Salt Spring Island Poultry Club, protecting agricultural land and supporting local farmers.

[3:02:03] Voice 23: And Elsie, we're going to promote you to speaker.

[3:02:07] Voice 23: And you have 10 minutes.

[3:02:10] Voice 23: Thank you very much.

[3:02:11] Voice 23: Can you hear me?

[3:02:12] Voice 23: Yeah.

[3:02:13] Voice 2: Excellent.

[3:02:13] Voice 2: Hello.

[3:02:15] Voice 2: Good afternoon.

[3:02:17] Voice 2: I am Elsie Bourne.

[3:02:19] Voice 2: And I am here today to urge you to protect all land that you have zoned for agriculture.

[3:02:25] Voice 2: This is land that you have already identified as suitable for farming,

[3:02:29] Voice 2: reflecting thoughtful consideration of its potential and the needs of our community.

[3:02:36] Voice 2: It is time to stand behind your zoning choices and ensure that these areas are safeguarded

[3:02:41] Voice 2: against conflicts of purpose, redefinition, and overreach. Agricultural land is vital

[3:02:48] Voice 2: to our community's food security, economy, tourism, and cultural heritage. Your decision

[3:02:55] Voice 2: Decision to zone specific areas for agricultural use were made with careful attention to these factors.

[3:03:01] Voice 2: And by zoning these areas for farming, you've acknowledged their importance and suitability for agricultural activities.

[3:03:09] Voice 2: Therefore, the land you have zoned for agricultural purposes deserves the same level of protection as land within the Agricultural Land Reserves, the ALR, which has built in safeguards for farming and food production.

[3:03:23] Voice 2: The right to farm legislation within the ALR boundaries plays a critical role in supporting farmers' activities and protecting farmers' rights.

[3:03:33] Voice 2: On Salt Spring Island, supporting small-scale farming and agricultural production would require developing similar standards and guidelines for non-ALR land.

[3:03:41] Voice 2: land. Establishing these guidelines would create a clearer understanding of farming practices on

[3:03:48] Voice 2: smaller acreages, supporting local farmers and fostering sustainable food production and

[3:03:53] Voice 2: preserving the rural character of our island. Recent actions by the Capital Regional District

[3:04:02] Voice 2: to redefine agricultural areas solely to include ALR land threatens the integrity

[3:04:07] Voice 2: of your previous zoning decisions. This redefinition would exclude many farms currently

[3:04:14] Voice 2: zoned rural by Islands Trust, yet these farms are essential to our community. They contribute

[3:04:21] Voice 2: significantly to our agricultural activities and are critical to our local food supply.

[3:04:27] Voice 2: The majority of farms on Salt Spring Island and across the Gulf Islands are not on ALR land,

[3:04:33] Voice 2: but are instead zoned rural. These farms play a pivotal role in our food system and local economy.

[3:04:39] Voice 2: redefining agricultural production to exclude non-ALR land contradicts your original zoning

[3:04:45] Voice 2: intentions and risks undermining the livelihoods of many farmers. Agriculture is a major tourist

[3:04:53] Voice 2: attraction on Salt Spring Island. Visitors come here to experience local farms, enjoy fresh produce

[3:04:58] Voice 2: and participate in agritourism activities. Protecting agricultural land supports this

[3:05:04] Voice 2: unique aspect of our tourism industry and generating economic benefits and fostering

[3:05:09] Voice 2: a deeper appreciation for sustainable farming practices. We must ensure that all agricultural

[3:05:16] Voice 2: land as defined by your zoning is protected from restrictive redefinitions. This protection is

[3:05:22] Voice 2: crucial not only for our economic well-being of our farmers but also for maintaining the resilience

[3:05:27] Voice 2: and sustainability of our local food systems. In times of crisis having diverse and accessible

[3:05:33] Voice 2: food sources within our community is invaluable. I propose the following actions. Number one,

[3:05:42] Voice 2: initiate a consultation process. Engage with local farmers, landowners, and stakeholders

[3:05:47] Voice 2: to gather input on the current challenges faced by the agricultural community. Number two,

[3:05:53] Voice 2: develop guidelines for non-ALR land. Establish standards similar to those within the ALR

[3:05:58] Voice 2: to support sustainable farming practices on

[3:06:01] Voice 2: rurally zoned land. Form an

[3:06:04] Voice 2: agricultural advisory committee. Create a committee

[3:06:07] Voice 2: to advise on policies, initiatives that support sustainable

[3:06:11] Voice 2: agriculture and food security. And review

[3:06:14] Voice 2: and revise policies. Examine current regulations

[3:06:17] Voice 2: to ensure that they align with the goal of protecting and

[3:06:20] Voice 2: promoting farming on all agricultural lands.

[3:06:24] Voice 2: In conclusion, I implore you to

[3:06:27] Voice 2: uphold and defend your zoning decisions. Protect

[3:06:30] Voice 2: Protect the land designated for agriculture and support farmers who rely on it.

[3:06:34] Voice 2: By doing so, you will affirm the values and priorities that guided your initial zoning decisions and ensure that the continued vitality of our agricultural community.

[3:06:44] Voice 2: It is time for some action to protect small farms on Salt Spring Island.

[3:06:48] Voice 2: And I thank you very much for your time and consideration.

[3:06:53] Voice 23: Great. Thank you very much, Elsie, for your presentation.

[3:06:57] Voice 23: I appreciate it. And I'll just ask if trustees have any questions for you. Are there any

[3:07:03] Voice 23: questions for the delegate? Alex Allen from Hornby Island.

[3:07:08] Voice 19: Yeah, hi, thanks, Elsie, for your presentation. We have a scenario in Hornby where a lot of

[3:07:15] Voice 19: the farms, in terms of agritourism, farming is just a tiny little segment and it's more

[3:07:22] Voice 19: emphasis on their so-called quotation ancillary activities, which is having yurts for tourists

[3:07:27] Voice 19: just to uh camp in and um so just wondering whether you have that issue on hornby i'm sorry

[3:07:34] Voice 19: on hornby that's okay on salt spring and also um you know we had somebody who bought 80 acre farm

[3:07:41] Voice 19: and it's and it's not a farm it's um it's a football fields rugby field now being built on it

[3:07:48] Voice 19: and uh so it's and i've been complaining to lr about that but apparently it's okay so i'm just

[3:07:54] Voice 19: wondering um i guess my question is in terms of the agritourism is that balanced in terms of

[3:08:00] Voice 19: farming and tourism on farms in your island i

[3:08:04] Voice 2: think it's slightly underdeveloped on salt spring

[3:08:07] Voice 2: in my opinion um we don't have the yurts tend to go on the coastline and not on

[3:08:14] Voice 2: the rural farmlands i haven't seen it hasn't been such a problem here

[3:08:22] Voice 23: Okay, thank you. Any further questions? Otherwise, we'll move on to...

[3:08:27] Voice 23: Oh, there we go. Ben Maberly.

[3:08:30] Voice 18: Yeah, I do just want to point out that the Island Trust does not have any jurisdiction on ALR lands.

[3:08:36] Voice 18: No, this is provincial legislation, so I just want to clarify that.

[3:08:43] Voice 18: Yeah,

[3:08:43] Voice 23: yeah. All right, Judy Getty and Christina. No, Judy Getty.

[3:08:49] Voice 23: Well,

[3:08:51] Voice 4: we may not have jurisdiction. I think that there's definitely an interest in our communities. And certainly on Bowen, it's the Food Resilient. I can't remember what the last part of their name is, but I think that your presentation would be very welcome also with the Rural Island Economic Partnership when they have their conference.

[3:09:14] Voice 4: and that I think that this is, I don't like chickens myself, but I think that it's a wonderful

[3:09:22] Voice 4: idea what you're promoting. Thank you.

[3:09:27] Voice 23: Yeah. Oh, Christine Evans.

[3:09:30] Voice 26: I didn't have a question,

[3:09:31] Voice 26: but now I've got a statement. I just want to clarify and ask the question to Elsie. I believe

[3:09:37] Voice 26: what you're saying is not necessarily to challenge or go after ALR to look after this, but rather

[3:09:45] Voice 26: the zonings that we have done in each of our local areas that have zoned areas for farming

[3:09:54] Voice 26: or for agriculture, but these pieces that are not part of the ALR, those are the pieces that

[3:10:00] Voice 26: you're asking the trustees to protect. Is that correct? That

[3:10:03] Voice 2: is correct. I wasn't asking you

[3:10:05] Voice 2: to interfere with anything on the ALR. I'm just saying that rurally zoned lands where one of the

[3:10:10] Voice 2: principal things that you can do is farming have no protection in our communities and are subject

[3:10:16] Voice 2: to a whole host of harassments and overreach by other governing bodies okay

[3:10:26] Voice 23: thank you again

[3:10:28] Voice 23: not seeing any other questions thank you for coming today and your presentation i'm going to

[3:10:36] Voice 23: go now to a public comment period and i know there's a few people in the room and a few people

[3:10:40] Voice 23: people online. I'm just going to specifically ask those that are online to raise your hands

[3:10:46] Voice 23: so that we can acknowledge you. And perhaps what we'll do is we'll just alternate between people

[3:10:52] Voice 23: in the room and people online to give a fair balance. It looks like all the folks that are

[3:10:57] Voice 23: online wish to speak. So that's terrific. We'll work through that in order. And why don't we

[3:11:04] Voice 23: We start off with online, and then we'll go to, if you guys raise your hands, who wants to speak over there?

[3:11:12] Voice 23: Okay, so just order yourself, self-organize yourselves there at the podium, and then they'll give you an opportunity.

[3:11:20] Voice 23: We'll sequence through each of you.

[3:11:23] Voice 23: And, of course, it's important that in the public comment period that we be respectful of everybody in the room, the community at large that's listening and watching.

[3:11:33] Voice 23: It needs to be a safe place for employees and our friends and families that are observing or participating.

[3:11:41] Voice 23: And keep your comments at a federation-wide level.

[3:11:48] Voice 23: The Trust Council itself can't influence local trust committees as autonomous local governments.

[3:11:54] Voice 23: So when you're here at Trust Council, it's activities and jurisdiction of council and what they can do from a broader policy perspective.

[3:12:04] Voice 23: So let's begin online. Who is the first person?

[3:12:08] Voice 23: Jennifer Margerson.

[3:12:09] Voice 23: OK, Jennifer Margerson, can we promote her and then we'll go to the first speaker at the podium?

[3:12:17] Voice 42: Good afternoon, trustees, staff and attendees. Can you hear me all right?

[3:12:21] Voice 40: Yes.

[3:12:22] Voice 23: Okay.

[3:12:23] Voice 42: I don't seem to be showing up on video, but that's okay.

[3:12:29] Voice 23: You need to put your video on if that's what you want.

[3:12:32] Voice 23: No, she's not on.

[3:12:34] Voice 23: Oh, okay. Go ahead.

[3:12:36] Voice 42: I'll just carry on. My name is Jennifer Margison. I live on Galliano Island,

[3:12:43] Voice 42: and I'm speaking on behalf of the Friends of the Gulf Islands Society.

[3:12:46] Voice 42: society. During the trustee roundtable, I was very interested in hearing Trustee Dodds refer to

[3:12:53] Voice 42: Main Island as almost at build-out, that a number of water districts are struggling as they're

[3:13:00] Voice 42: apparently not designed to accommodate the current level of build-out, if I heard you correctly,

[3:13:06] Voice 42: Trustee Dodds. This very much ties into what I want to say today. It seems to us that good planning

[3:13:14] Voice 42: planning anywhere requires a clear understanding of what you have already planned for in any given

[3:13:21] Voice 42: location, or in our case, the trust area islands. As LTCs and the Executive Committee consider new

[3:13:29] Voice 42: bylaws for rezoning for higher densities, and as Trust Council engages in a review of the trust

[3:13:35] Voice 42: policy statement, would we all not be better equipped to have informed conversations based

[3:13:42] Voice 42: based on some basic information.

[3:13:45] Voice 42: If every lot were built out to its currently zoned maximum,

[3:13:50] Voice 42: a house, a house and cottage, or subdivision potential,

[3:13:55] Voice 42: what would our islands look like?

[3:13:58] Voice 42: This is actually identified as tool five,

[3:14:01] Voice 42: potential build out analysis

[3:14:03] Voice 42: in the Islands Trust Housing Toolkit,

[3:14:06] Voice 42: which states that a draft map can be prepared

[3:14:08] Voice 42: by information systems using GIS and information from the BC Assessment Authority for review by

[3:14:16] Voice 42: the designated planner on any island. While suitable land analysis for development such

[3:14:22] Voice 42: as affordable housing as specified in the housing toolkit is indeed important, this is not the whole

[3:14:29] Voice 42: picture. We would like to ask that all trustees and the Trust Council consider obtaining build-out

[3:14:37] Voice 42: or development potential projections and maps for all the major islands.

[3:14:43] Voice 42: This would be hard data on what will be at some future date.

[3:14:48] Voice 42: And so, what beyond that might be supportable?

[3:14:54] Voice 42: Time and money from the Islands Trust budget has already been spent on this project.

[3:14:59] Voice 42: In 2021, the Gabriola Planner provided a build-out map for that island.

[3:15:04] Voice 42: The program that the planner established with help from system staff was to be made publicly available and extended to other islands, but that has not happened.

[3:15:16] Voice 42: The lack of such data for all the islands was also referenced in the governance report.

[3:15:21] Voice 42: report. Could this not give us necessary hard data and a good platform from which to plan from

[3:15:28] Voice 42: for both worker housing and necessary services such as health care, as well as the all-important

[3:15:36] Voice 42: water sustainability as referred to by Trustee Dodds? Otherwise, it seems to be that we are all

[3:15:45] Voice 42: just feeling our way in the dark and decisions are being made with little consideration or

[3:15:51] Voice 42: knowledge of the entirety of the development picture on our islands. So Friends of the Gulf

[3:15:58] Voice 42: Islands Society asks you all to please give the need for this critical baseline information

[3:16:06] Voice 42: your attention. Thank you very much.

[3:16:11] Voice 23: Thank you very much, Jennifer, for coming today.

[3:16:14] Voice 23: and I'll just ask if there's any questions of the speaker no okay so let

[3:16:22] Voice 23: us continue on so the first speaker in the room please your name for the record

[3:16:27] Voice 23: and where what island you're from

[3:16:29] Voice 5: and you

[3:16:33] Voice 23: just hit the button on the

[3:16:34] Voice 23: microphone so the light comes on perfect there okay

[3:16:37] Voice 5: thank you thank you for the

[3:16:39] Voice 5: opportunity to speak my name is Nigel Stoodley and I'm a director with the

[3:16:42] Voice 5: Mudge Island Community Association. I want to share some of the experience of Mudge Island

[3:16:47] Voice 5: residents pertaining to bylaw enforcement. Over the past year, we on Mudge have seen a rash of

[3:16:53] Voice 5: complaints submitted across our island, which have been submitted by a small number of community

[3:16:58] Voice 5: members in batches across a variety of properties. While we respect the anonymity of the

[3:17:05] Voice 5: complainants, we're concerned about the seemingly targeted nature of these complaints and the lack

[3:17:10] Voice 5: of bylaw enforcement application of discretion. When presented of examples of potentially

[3:17:16] Voice 5: defamatory language reused in multiple complaint letters, which we obtained through Freedom of

[3:17:22] Voice 5: Information, it was admitted that some of these complaints might be vexatious, despite previously

[3:17:31] Voice 5: being told there was no vexatious complaints. The core issue that we see is how bylaw enforcement

[3:17:38] Voice 5: enforcement policies are applied. While there are other options available to get compliance,

[3:17:42] Voice 5: the practice that we have seen on our island is that every property with a complaint needs to

[3:17:48] Voice 5: have some form of inspection as part of the investigation, regardless of the nature of the

[3:17:54] Voice 5: complaint. These visits are, especially for small island residents with no ferry service and which

[3:18:01] Voice 5: are quite quiet little islands, are often seen as intrusive. They're unpleasant and they do

[3:18:07] Voice 5: do instill fear in our residents.

[3:18:10] Voice 5: It has been reported that bylaw officers will normally look for additional infractions

[3:18:16] Voice 5: and can come across regularly as unfriendly, overbearing, and creating an atmosphere of intimidation.

[3:18:22] Voice 23: Excuse me a second.

[3:18:23] Voice 23: I'm just going to say we've had this discussion before on the topic of bylaw enforcement officers

[3:18:30] Voice 23: looking for other infractions, and we know that that's not true.

[3:18:33] Voice 23: So just rephrase your language to not be...

[3:18:38] Voice 28: thank you

[3:18:43] Voice 23: just going to ask the delegate to rephrase this

[3:18:47] Voice 23: there

[3:18:51] Voice 7: is

[3:18:59] Voice 5: also concerns that during these visits officers might identify issues at neighboring

[3:19:03] Voice 5: properties even when there is no complaint was made so people are intimidated by these visits

[3:19:08] Voice 5: the approach and i'm going to get to my point very quick by bylaw enforcements seems to be

[3:19:14] Voice 5: be more like prosecution than helping the owners achieve compliance. For instance, Mudge Island has

[3:19:20] Voice 5: the largest setback from the sea in the Gulf Islands at 30 meters. Yet letters from bylaw

[3:19:26] Voice 5: enforcement simply state that a site visit is needed to confirm a violation without informing

[3:19:31] Voice 5: the homeowners that if you're built prior to 2008, that doesn't apply. Or if you have a geotechnical

[3:19:38] Voice 5: report, that can be reduced to 7.5 meters. They're not helping people through the process,

[3:19:44] Voice 5: they're persecuting the process. This lack of guidance forces homeowners to navigate the

[3:19:49] Voice 5: complex rules, which are not written for public consumption, on their own. I draw your attention

[3:19:56] Voice 5: to the recommendations of the CAO's report last year in 2023 to this council, and particularly

[3:20:04] Voice 5: items 2 and 7. These call for proportionality and discretion in bylaw enforcement, as well as

[3:20:10] Voice 5: reducing unnecessary interactions by bylaw enforcement through standing resolutions.

[3:20:14] Voice 5: My request is straightforward. You're being provided 5.1.1 to vote on this week. I don't

[3:20:22] Voice 5: think it achieves your goals of the bylaw of the ombudsman's report, and it has been rushed through.

[3:20:28] Voice 5: group. It does not solve the problem of vexatious complaints or provide any discretion for bylaw

[3:20:36] Voice 5: enforcement not to investigate. So we would ask that you reject that. I would also ask that you

[3:20:42] Voice 5: grant local trust committee the discretion to determine when complaints may not warrant

[3:20:48] Voice 5: investigation. This is currently held by this council and not by the local trust

[3:20:58] Voice 5: councils, but it could be delegated. This would prevent a few people from causing chaos in our

[3:21:04] Voice 5: communities. Also, we would like to see a code of conduct for bylaw enforcement office to ensure

[3:21:10] Voice 5: positive interactions with residents. Lastly, I urge you to separate compliance and enforcement.

[3:21:16] Voice 5: A dedicated compliance team focused on achieving voluntary compliance rather than prosecution

[3:21:22] Voice 5: could foster better relationships with the trust in the community. The mandate of the

[3:21:27] Voice 5: the island trusts is important, but the weaponization of the bylaws and policy by a few

[3:21:32] Voice 5: residents against the community is possible, and you can fix that with your policy. I also think

[3:21:38] Voice 5: it distracts you from the real work of preserving and protecting our islands. Thank you.

[3:21:44] Voice 23: Thank you. And I'm going to ask a few other speakers to keep their

[3:21:50] Voice 23: their point within three minutes,

[3:21:53] Voice 23: which is the normal for community comment.

[3:21:59] Voice 23: And I'm also just gonna read it.

[3:22:01] Voice 23: I didn't interrupt any further,

[3:22:02] Voice 23: but I wanna reiterate attacks,

[3:22:05] Voice 23: unfounded attacks on staff about their behavior

[3:22:10] Voice 23: is an attack on staff.

[3:22:11] Voice 23: And I have a responsibility to speak out about that.

[3:22:16] Voice 23: Yes, I don't control that.

[3:22:23] Voice 25: is that okay i'm on i just want to register an objection to the chair's uh remarks um i don't

[3:22:32] Voice 25: think it's fair or accurate to characterize what we heard from the public as an attack

[3:22:37] Voice 25: on the staff it's a critical analysis and a presentation there wasn't any personal attack

[3:22:44] Voice 25: against any uh specific person i don't i just don't think that's a way to have a conversation

[3:22:48] Voice 25: what it is it's a way of blowing off a complaint so you don't have to deal with it and i think

[3:22:52] Voice 25: that's wrong trustee

[3:22:55] Voice 23: borswick actually this is a moment period that's about go back to that

[3:23:01] Voice 23: but trustee borswick do you have a remark that you need to make uh

[3:23:05] Voice 24: yeah just very briefly i wanted to

[3:23:07] Voice 24: i wanted to thank the speaker for for coming forward and speaking about this i'm on the

[3:23:11] Voice 24: regional planning committee and we received your letters and your feedback and in sort of coming

[3:23:15] Voice 24: forward about this i think there's no question since the beginning of this term by law enforcement

[3:23:20] Voice 24: and and how that's perceived uh and the difference between what happens and what is perceived to

[3:23:25] Voice 24: happen is very very important and i am not going to comment on whether things are happening or not

[3:23:30] Voice 24: that's not my place i'm not there i don't know but um i would you know with slightly less emphasis

[3:23:38] Voice 24: agree with with trustee bernardo and in terms of i don't think that i think the the uh the delegate

[3:23:44] Voice 24: was or the the delegate was clear in saying that this was the perception of what is happening

[3:23:51] Voice 24: and there is the feeling that this is happening and i think that it is important for us as trust

[3:23:55] Voice 24: council to not blow off those perceptions of our public whether that's true or not that's a

[3:24:01] Voice 24: different question and i totally agree with the chair that we need to make sure that staff are

[3:24:04] Voice 24: not being unfairly prosecuted but uh or or accused of things but also it's important for us to be

[3:24:09] Voice 24: be conscious of our perception within community.

[3:24:14] Voice 24: And I thank him for his presentation.

[3:24:15] Voice 24: And I wanted to say that I think it's very important

[3:24:18] Voice 24: and there are a number of trustees who feel strongly

[3:24:20] Voice 24: on this subject and wanna be supportive.

[3:24:23] Voice 24: We value your feedback.

[3:24:24] Voice 24: Thank you.

[3:24:26] Voice 24: Indeed. Thank you.

[3:24:27] Voice 23: So let us go to our next speaker.

[3:24:30] Voice 35: John Ronsley.

[3:24:32] Voice 35: Oh yeah.

[3:24:33] Voice 35: Can you hear me okay?

[3:24:34] Voice 35: Yep.

[3:24:35] Voice 35: Okay.

[3:24:36] Voice 35: Thank you for hearing my presentation today.

[3:24:41] Voice 35: My name is John Ronsley, and I'm a resident of Galliano Island.

[3:24:45] Voice 35: My question is about the Draft Trust Policy Statement.

[3:24:50] Voice 35: I have talked to board members of the Friends of the Gulf Island Society about this subject.

[3:24:56] Voice 35: I am concerned about the definition of environment, which is in the glossary of the Draft Trust Policy Statement.

[3:25:05] Voice 35: The draft trust policy statement defines environment as the components of the earth, including, number one, land, water, and air, including all layers of the atmosphere, number two, all organic and inorganic matter, and number three, living organisms and the interacting natural systems that include components referred to in number one and number two.

[3:25:35] Voice 35: The problem is with inclusion of the phrase, all organic and inorganic matter. This means literally everything. There is nothing in existence at all that falls outside of this definition.

[3:25:53] Voice 35: definition. Yes, the natural environment is part of it, the trees, wildlife, and geology

[3:26:00] Voice 35: of the Trust Islands, but so are the people, the buildings, the roads, etc. Even substances

[3:26:08] Voice 35: well known to be harmful or toxic to the natural environment must be included as part of the

[3:26:16] Voice 35: environment if we adopt this definition. This is not just an academic problem. There are

[3:26:23] Voice 35: at least two and possibly more practical implications for the Trust if this definition

[3:26:30] Voice 35: is retained in the final version of the Trust Policy Statement. Firstly, it is not what was

[3:26:36] Voice 35: intended by the Framers of the Trust Act, which was drafted in response to threats from commercial

[3:26:42] Voice 35: interests to unique ecosystems of the Southern Gulf Islands. There is much that has been written

[3:26:49] Voice 35: on this and I would refer you to the 1986 position paper of the Islands Trust Executive entitled

[3:26:56] Voice 35: The Object of the Islands Trust Renewing the Consensus. Secondly and most importantly by being

[3:27:04] Voice 35: extremely overly general this definition of environment will not effectively guide decision

[3:27:12] Voice 35: making or prioritize the diverse objectives and directive policies of the draft trust policy

[3:27:21] Voice 35: statement, when inevitably they will come into conflict with one another. Not only is the natural

[3:27:28] Voice 35: environment not a specific priority, but the meaning of guiding principle and priority 2.1.2

[3:27:36] Voice 35: to prioritize environmental protection is unnecessarily ambiguous and in the end

[3:27:44] Voice 35: meaningless as a safeguard for environmental protection. Therefore, I request that the

[3:27:51] Voice 35: current definition of environment in the draft policy statement not be adopted. It should be

[3:27:57] Voice 35: replaced with a new definition that is limited to the natural environment of the Trust Islands.

[3:28:02] Voice 35: In order to do this, the phrases, the components of the earth, but especially all organic and inorganic matter, should be removed from the proposed definition.

[3:28:16] Voice 35: Thank you for your consideration.

[3:28:20] Voice 23: Thank you.

[3:28:23] Voice 23: The next speaker in the room.

[3:28:34] Voice 14: Good afternoon.

[3:28:36] Voice 14: My name is Rich Brooks.

[3:28:40] Voice 14: Good afternoon.

[3:28:43] Voice 14: My name is Rich Brooks.

[3:28:44] Voice 14: I'm a resident of Mudge Island for 30 years, and I'm one of the committee members for the Mudge Island Community Association, commonly referred to as MICA.

[3:28:58] Voice 14: So the Islands Trust has been created and it's done many, many good things over the years.

[3:29:05] Voice 14: But during its existence, we feel that changes should be considered and improved upon through time.

[3:29:18] Voice 14: And we think that these changes can come through a public consultation process.

[3:29:24] Voice 14: We think it's important that the public gets an opportunity to work with not only our local trust, but also the trust committee.

[3:29:35] Voice 14: So I'd like to talk to you today about the pending bylaw enforcement policies and would like to would like you to consider my comments as a member of the Mudge Island Community Association representing the island residents.

[3:29:51] Voice 14: First, we're acutely aware of the Ombudsman's report and all the recommendations.

[3:30:00] Voice 14: details in that report. And if you stand back, one's got to wonder why the ombudsman has been

[3:30:06] Voice 14: brought in and why there is a need for so many policies and why enforcement and legal costs

[3:30:13] Voice 14: are probably skyrocketing and why communities are starting to become concerned as to where all of

[3:30:21] Voice 14: this is going. And maybe in a lot of senses and why trust issues exist. So I can share with you

[3:30:33] Voice 14: a couple of things. One is where we've recently been aware of a higher level policy that's come

[3:30:41] Voice 14: before Trust Council, and that policy has been worked through the RPC in a recent RPC meeting,

[3:30:53] Voice 14: and we participated in that process. But our island community was a little bit caught off

[3:31:02] Voice 14: guard in the sense that we didn't think there was any public consultation involved through that

[3:31:07] Voice 14: development of policy. And yet the Ombudsman report specifically identifies public consultation

[3:31:14] Voice 14: should be done. So, you know, our community is concerned about that. We felt left out.

[3:31:22] Voice 14: And that disappointed us. We also, through our local trust committee, we've also discussed

[3:31:31] Voice 14: some policies local policies and um we were aware that some should be created and worked on

[3:31:42] Voice 14: and lo and behold a policy was developed uh by staff and presented to trust without our community

[3:31:52] Voice 14: having opportunity to to look at it first and and so again this becomes another problem of trust

[3:31:59] Voice 14: So, we finally had an opportunity to meet with our local trust and talk about the policy, but we still have concerns, you know, as to how that will work out.

[3:32:14] Voice 14: So, these are some of the concerns that we're really aware of.

[3:32:20] Voice 14: um so getting back to the new policies that are before you um we believe one of the main

[3:32:27] Voice 14: contributing factors is that um to these problems is in the in the bylaw enforcement problem

[3:32:34] Voice 14: is that there's no discretion and um the discretion should should be available and and from what we

[3:32:42] Voice 14: understand staff interprets there is no discretion that can be given but if there's no discretion to

[3:32:49] Voice 14: be given, these files and these complaints are going to just skyrocket and keep going

[3:32:55] Voice 14: on and on and on.

[3:32:57] Voice 14: And so we think that a discretion component is extremely important, not only to enforcement,

[3:33:04] Voice 14: but also in the investigations.

[3:33:07] Voice 14: It's fundamental to the process of trying to maybe make things easier for people and

[3:33:16] Voice 14: trying to find solutions.

[3:33:18] Voice 14: so um there's and and and if you look at it we're still arguing through the process of a man must

[3:33:27] Voice 14: terminology um staff feel that the word uh may in the in the bylaws that say they may be able to

[3:33:37] Voice 14: open a uh a file and that's interpreted as must this may must discussion has been going on for

[3:33:48] Voice 14: months and there's no clarity on it and we're hoping that u.s trust council can step in and

[3:33:57] Voice 14: look at it and and and have some decisive direction for staff what the difference between may and must

[3:34:06] Voice 14: means it's that important okay so um as you are aware uh many of the much uh residents uh we've

[3:34:16] Voice 14: We've had an unprecedented number of complaints in 2024, and it's targeting a lot of the active members of the community.

[3:34:23] Voice 14: The Mudge Island Mix Association, which is responsible for the volunteer fire department, the marina facility directors, and members of the marina, and fundraisers, and key service providers in our community.

[3:34:44] Voice 14: They're targeted.

[3:34:45] Voice 14: And through freedom of information requests, many of these complaints are of vexatious nature.

[3:34:54] Voice 14: And in several situations, they're defamatory, including aggressive dialogue directed at people and IT members, island trust members.

[3:35:09] Voice 14: It's upsetting. It's extremely upsetting.

[3:35:12] Voice 14: setting and so what we find is that there's a couple of people that have provided these

[3:35:24] Voice 14: complaints and we've been told there's no vexatious complaints by staff none and that

[3:35:34] Voice 14: all of these complaints are real but yet when we go through freedom of information requests

[3:35:39] Voice 14: and look at them we're shocked we're speechless and uh it's unconscionable some of the things

[3:35:50] Voice 14: that have been said in these these complaints it's unconscionable and we don't understand we're at a

[3:35:59] Voice 14: loss the the mica community our members of the community are at a loss as to why this has kept

[3:36:07] Voice 14: kept on going. And the costs now are going through the roof, you know, meeting with us,

[3:36:15] Voice 14: trying to figure out policies and all of these issues. And we go, why? Where is it broken?

[3:36:21] Voice 14: There's something broken. We believe that U.S. trustees need to look at the ombudsman's report

[3:36:30] Voice 14: and read it, really read it and understand what they're getting at, because it's not happening.

[3:36:36] Voice 14: The public consultation isn't happening, and the ombudsman's requirements and suggestions, I don't believe it's happening.

[3:36:48] Voice 14: It's just being, you know, sort of set aside.

[3:36:52] Voice 14: So we really encourage you to have a second read of that report.

[3:36:57] Voice 14: And I, you know, we as a community, we really would prefer that you do not adopt this current policy that's coming before you.

[3:37:10] Voice 14: So, Rich, you've gone significantly over time.

[3:37:13] Voice 14: Yeah, and I apologize.

[3:37:16] Voice 14: So if I could have just another couple of seconds here.

[3:37:20] Voice 23: Yeah, you go ahead, Rafa.

[3:37:25] Voice 14: Yeah, I think the key thing I think Trust Council has to consider is to introduce discretion into the bylaw enforcement in order to be cognizant of practicality costs.

[3:37:37] Voice 14: And really, if the issues are really worth an enforcement fight, because I think not only the Mudge community and the public would like to see more of that,

[3:37:50] Voice 14: likely all the public in all the Gulf Islands may want to see that.

[3:37:55] Voice 14: And thank you very much for giving me an extra couple of minutes to share our story.

[3:38:02] Voice 14: And I hope you'll consider

[3:38:04] Voice 23: what we have to say.

[3:38:06] Voice 23: Thank you for your work with your community.

[3:38:08] Voice 23: It looks like we have a question.

[3:38:10] Voice 23: Sure.

[3:38:15] Voice 23: Yeah, turn your microphone off.

[3:38:17] Voice 23: You may read, Bolin.

[3:38:18] Voice 45: I just wanted to draw everyone's attention.

[3:38:21] Voice 45: Oh.

[3:38:25] Voice 45: So I did read the ombudsman's report in some detail.

[3:38:31] Voice 45: You know, relatively recently, I went through it with the fine-tooth comb.

[3:38:35] Voice 45: And I agree with you that there's a huge amount of information in there that isn't being really readily adopted.

[3:38:43] Voice 45: You know, it is very full of good advice.

[3:38:46] Voice 45: And I would point you to one link within the document, which is about administrative fairness and discretion.

[3:38:54] Voice 45: And in there, most of their documents are excellent.

[3:38:58] Voice 45: They're very short.

[3:38:59] Voice 45: they are graphically well presented so it's easy to read. There is something

[3:39:04] Voice 45: called what is discretion? Discretion in administrative decisions making involves

[3:39:11] Voice 45: the power to choose between two or more possible actions. Anyway dum dum dum dum

[3:39:15] Voice 45: dum. Discretion is indicated by the use of the word may as opposed to must or

[3:39:22] Voice 45: So that information is in one of the guides that's linked within the ombudsman's report.

[3:39:30] Voice 45: And I was really struck by it.

[3:39:32] Voice 45: Like, it's very clear, and we need to be doing this properly.

[3:39:37] Voice 45: Yeah.

[3:39:37] Voice 45: Thanks.

[3:39:38] Voice 23: Thank you.

[3:39:41] Voice 23: I'm going to go to the next speaker online.

[3:39:44] Voice 22: Michael Sketch.

[3:39:49] Voice 16: Hello.

[3:39:51] Voice 1: Can you hear me?

[3:39:52] Voice 1: Michael Sketch speaking.

[3:39:54] Voice 1: Yes.

[3:39:56] Voice 1: My name, again, is Michael Sketch, and I live on North Pender Island.

[3:40:02] Voice 1: Councillors, this meeting agenda addresses important opportunities for Council to restructure both the Trust Policy Statement, the TPS, and Trust Federation governance.

[3:40:16] Voice 1: Better to carry out or implement the Trust Object.

[3:40:20] Voice 1: The agenda package includes significant contributions from the interim CAO and an agenda change to place the public opportunity to address Council on these matters before Council deliberates.

[3:40:38] Voice 1: Thank you.

[3:40:39] Voice 1: And on that theme, Trust Executive at last addresses Council policy on the submission of delegation requests and the delivery, or not, of same.

[3:40:53] Voice 1: It is difficult for the public to prepare a finished submission three weeks before a Council meeting without seeing relevant material in the corresponding agenda package.

[3:41:06] Voice 1: Again, thank you.

[3:41:07] Voice 1: Further amendment to the current TPS is before Council.

[3:41:16] Voice 1: TPS structure was agreed by Council in September 1993 and has remained the status quo, whereas

[3:41:27] Voice 1: the Act requires that the Council's TPS be a general statement of policies for the trust

[3:41:34] Voice 1: area, in 1993 and in 2024, TPS structure delegates implementation of TPS policies

[3:41:43] Voice 1: to the local area jurisdictions. Whereas the Act directs that the TPS implement the object,

[3:41:52] Voice 1: the current TPS relies on a supplementary TPS implementation policy. There, an LTC can take

[3:42:01] Voice 1: take, or, with reason, leave, a particular trust area policy.

[3:42:08] Voice 1: The potential for trust area policy implementation is less effective than it should be.

[3:42:16] Voice 1: I have submitted a draft TPS to Council for your consideration, one which, in my view,

[3:42:22] Voice 1: corrects the structure of the TPS so as to be more effective in carrying out the object.

[3:42:28] Voice 1: Further, I have submitted to Council a correction to trust governance which would properly implement

[3:42:36] Voice 1: the advantage of a federation intended in the Act, i.e., a two-level hierarchical governance

[3:42:45] Voice 1: structure.

[3:42:47] Voice 1: I submit these are fundamental changes needed to effectively carry out the Object.

[3:42:54] Voice 1: object. Please recall Section 4 of the Act, which requires that trust decision-makers

[3:43:02] Voice 1: carry out the object. There is no such definite direction in the instruction of the Local

[3:43:09] Voice 1: Government Act for municipalities. In that respect, the Islands Trust Act is unique.

[3:43:18] Voice 1: In prospect, thank you, Councillors, for your direction to more reasonably and more effectively

[3:43:24] Voice 1: effectively carry out the object. Thank you.

[3:43:29] Voice 23: Thank you, Michael. Another speaker from the

[3:43:34] Voice 23: audience here. Please, your name and island for the record.

[3:43:39] Voice 37: Thank you. My name is Lana Exley. I'm

[3:43:40] Voice 37: a resident of Mudge Island for the last 15 years. Very nervous. I'm not good at this.

[3:43:47] Voice 37: All right. I'm here today aware that my presence and comments may lead to further speculative and false complaints against my property and complaints may or must be investigated by bylaw enforcement officers.

[3:44:07] Voice 37: However, I have two key points I want to leave you with.

[3:44:13] Voice 37: First, in my experience, the bylaw office has not been using discretion, reasonableness, and fairness through the intake and investigation process when receiving complaints against the residents of Mudge.

[3:44:31] Voice 37: Although there are many examples today, I will share only my personal experience.

[3:44:36] Voice 37: The by-law office is reluctant to close files even when sufficient evidence has been provided.

[3:44:45] Voice 37: Keeping these files open leaves a threat hanging over our heads, which is both intimidating and unsettling, and I'll give you an example.

[3:44:55] Voice 37: I've submitted photographs, evidence showing that my craft studio is not a rental property, and yet that complaint has not been closed.

[3:45:04] Voice 37: I provided evidence that the setback complaint was addressed and closed several years ago, but the bylaw office has accepted a new complaint and refuses to close that complaint, and it remains open for the same issue.

[3:45:21] Voice 37: and I have shown reasonable evidence that we are not in violation of site

[3:45:27] Voice 37: coverage regulations because we own the adjacent lot and some of the structures

[3:45:32] Voice 37: are on that lot yet that complaint has not been closed it's been several months

[3:45:38] Voice 37: the second point I would like to make is that under the Freedom of Information

[3:45:43] Voice 37: Act I have read over 50 complaints written about mudge I'm not part of

[3:45:50] Voice 37: Micah. Hearing from the bylaw office that many of these complaints are valid and not vexation in

[3:45:58] Voice 37: nature shocks me. There are two opposing opinions regarding the nature and validity of these

[3:46:06] Voice 37: complaints and because Island's Trust doesn't have access to the original complaint letters

[3:46:11] Voice 37: they are left to navigate between the interpretation of the bylaw officers and the voice of the people

[3:46:18] Voice 37: of Mudge. The residents of Mudge are asking the bylaw office to operate with discretion,

[3:46:23] Voice 37: reasonableness, and fairness, so I'm prepared to ask the residents of Mudge to stand before you

[3:46:29] Voice 37: and read each of their complaint letters so you can hear it. You can hear the vexatious nature

[3:46:40] Voice 37: of many of the complaints being investigated, which often attack the personal character of

[3:46:45] Voice 37: the property owner, and you can also hear the allegations that are speculative in nature,

[3:46:50] Voice 37: which are being investigated. These complaints are phrases like, this may be a violation of

[3:46:56] Voice 37: setbacks, this could be an oversight coverage, this might be a rental property, or this might

[3:47:01] Voice 37: be a health and safety concern. You see, in my opinion, these types of comments are not based

[3:47:07] Voice 37: on fact and are intended to launch an island-wide fishing expedition. This is where the by-law

[3:47:13] Voice 37: office could exercise some discretion and determine which complaints need not be opened

[3:47:18] Voice 37: in the first place. So I leave you with a request that you empower bylaw officers to expedite the

[3:47:25] Voice 37: closing of all files where evidence has been provided that refutes the allegation. I ask you

[3:47:32] Voice 37: to consider directing the bylaw office to take a second look at the original complaint letters

[3:47:37] Voice 37: and close all complaints that contain speculative and frivolous language. I finally ask that you

[3:47:44] Voice 37: you ask bylaw officers to close all letters of complaint

[3:47:48] Voice 37: that are vexatious in nature,

[3:47:50] Voice 37: as their very existence is rooted in a personal attack.

[3:47:54] Voice 37: Thank you.

[3:47:56] Voice 23: Thank you.

[3:48:00] Voice 23: Did you have a question for the speaker?

[3:48:05] Voice 10: Can I just ask you,

[3:48:07] Voice 10: have you brought these issues up with a local trust committee?

[3:48:12] Voice 10: Yes, I have.

[3:48:15] Voice 37: But it's the interpretation of the bylaw office.

[3:48:20] Voice 37: Oh,

[3:48:20] Voice 23: can you turn your microphone back on?

[3:48:22] Voice 23: Sorry.

[3:48:22] Voice 23: Yeah.

[3:48:23] Voice 37: We have. And it's the interpretation of the bylaw office that every single complaint must be investigated.

[3:48:30] Voice 37: So we're asking for clarity around discretion.

[3:48:33] Voice 37: Their interpretation, the bylaw officers, is they must open an investigation for every complaint they receive.

[3:48:42] Voice 37: So we're prepared to read them in front of you so you can hear.

[3:48:46] Voice 37: They don't need to.

[3:48:49] Voice 23: Thank you.

[3:48:51] Voice 23: Any other speakers from the public wish to address Trust Council?

[3:49:13] Voice 23: Turn your microphone on.

[3:49:16] Voice 45: Could we ask in the statistics for bylaw enforcement that complaints made that where discretion was exercised and those were effectively rejected or put to bed immediately, could we know how many of those exist, if any?

[3:49:35] Voice 23: Thanks.

[3:49:36] Voice 23: So this is a public comment period.

[3:49:39] Voice 23: but Director Cermak, could you have an answer for that question from trustee?

[3:49:45] Voice 15: I don't believe we track such information.

[3:49:48] Voice 23: Thank you. So I'm going to go back to the speaker. Please, your name.

[3:49:52] Voice 38: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Suzanne Jacobson.

[3:49:56] Voice 38: I have been a property owner since 1987 on Mudge Island. I'm also a director on the Mudge Island

[3:50:05] Voice 38: and Community Association. And I'm here today to speak on behalf of a resident who could not be

[3:50:11] Voice 38: here today, who just recently, as of yesterday, received further information on the Freedom of

[3:50:17] Voice 38: Information Act. And this refers to Policy 5.51, Bylaw, Compliance and Enforcement. So I will read

[3:50:25] Voice 38: what Mr. Giesburg has provided. So I'll leave out some of it. He goes to say, my name means

[3:50:33] Voice 38: everything to me and having read all these defamatory statements, painting my good name

[3:50:39] Voice 38: in such an ugly manner is very hurtful. It certainly makes me ill. I did not sleep well

[3:50:44] Voice 38: last night as this weighs heavily on me. I've had a very slow start to my day. I'm about an hour and

[3:50:51] Voice 38: a half behind where I should be. And to think that the impressions that these statements are making

[3:50:56] Voice 38: not only on my reputation and therefore my means to make a living, but also the impression that it

[3:51:03] Voice 38: makes to the Islands Trust. An Islands Trust representative who seems to be a very kind and

[3:51:12] Voice 38: well-meaning person, but in the information that has come through statements in the Freedom of

[3:51:18] Voice 38: Information Acts, clearly shows that they see me as a horrible man because of the statements

[3:51:26] Voice 38: written. Not only myself, but the committee and our community have been affected this way.

[3:51:34] Voice 38: I wish you all the luck today because I wish you all the luck today and I hope there are not too many others that see me in this tainted light.

[3:51:43] Voice 38: They say it takes a lifetime to earn a good name, but it can all be gone in minutes.

[3:51:48] Voice 38: I know for a fact that some love me and clearly there is someone that does not.

[3:51:54] Voice 38: I love my community and I hope this virus does not run too deep.

[3:51:58] Voice 38: I don't feel well about this at all.

[3:52:00] Voice 38: I just want our community to go back to the love we once had.

[3:52:05] Voice 38: This isn't a healthy environment for anyone.

[3:52:08] Voice 38: Let's focus on the mental health of our community.

[3:52:10] Voice 38: Thank you.

[3:52:14] Voice 23: Thank you.

[3:52:15] Voice 23: Is there anybody else who wish to address the Alms Trust today?

[3:52:22] Voice 23: Well, I want to thank you all.

[3:52:25] Voice 23: It's a serious situation.

[3:52:27] Voice 23: I certainly acknowledge that.

[3:52:28] Voice 23: that. And we're working through it to try and sort out how not to repeat maybe some of the things

[3:52:36] Voice 23: that have transpired. So I want to thank you very much for being here today. I think that concludes

[3:52:43] Voice 23: our public comment period. I would like to move on on our agenda to 6.2 is I think where we're at.

[3:52:52] Voice 23: uh the provincial review of the island's trust uh requested as an rfd here um this

[3:53:00] Voice 23: came from the governance committee and the governance committee has asked trustee

[3:53:08] Voice 23: patrick to lead off in introducing this item i also want to note that trustee elliott has worked

[3:53:17] Voice 23: I've worked with staff and have recently, all of us attended UBCM and garnered some information from provincial staff. And I'd like to provide her the opportunity to provide that information to you. The CEO wishes to address the CEO comments in the RFD. And then I think we need to have an opportunity to debate this and have this conversation broadly to determine what actions we want to take.

[3:53:44] Voice 23: So if that's all right, I'm going to start off with Laura Patrick.

[3:53:55] Voice 23: So what do we

[3:53:56] Voice 40: want to continue?

[3:54:06] Voice 33: All right. Well, it's a page. Oh, it's page 80. I'm talking to page 90 on the agenda package.

[3:54:15] Voice 23: Yeah. 84 is the beginning of it. And page 90 is the briefing.

[3:54:20] Voice 33: I can I can tell you, I think it's amazing what we just heard.

[3:54:25] Voice 33: And I think all of us trustees have heard one thing or another from how we are perceived, because it's how we are perceived, how the agency is perceived in our community and vitally important.

[3:54:37] Voice 33: So it's just the emotion of hearing that and not talking.

[3:54:43] Voice 33: So I was intending to make the resolution after speaking, but I understand there's a parade now of people who would like to talk.

[3:54:52] Voice 33: So I will consider holding that off.

[3:54:55] Voice 33: But I wanted to mention the trustees who brought this exact same resolution before Trust Council two years ago in June of 2022, which resulted in an overwhelming 21 to 2 vote.

[3:55:11] Voice 33: Trustees Scott Colburn and Paul Brent seldom agreed on anything, but they did agree that it was time for a review of the Islands Trust.

[3:55:22] Voice 33: They talked about the dysfunction and strife that existed and how it was bogging down the good work we all wanted to do to preserve and protect the islands.

[3:55:37] Voice 33: They also spoke of the mistrust of the trust within our island communities.

[3:55:45] Voice 33: Scott and Paul, who are about as far apart as you can be on the political spectrum, agreed that only the province has the authority to bring clarity to our mandate and ensure that the Islands Trust Act aligns with the province's commitments to the climate in DRIPA.

[3:56:05] Voice 33: MLA Adam Olson has done his level best over the past several years to plead our case to a variety

[3:56:12] Voice 33: of ministers but respecting that trust council is a democratically elected body the premier the

[3:56:19] Voice 33: ministers all want to hear it straight from us so after trying earnestly to work together to resolve

[3:56:26] Voice 33: the challenges we face and coming to the realization that we cannot do this properly

[3:56:31] Voice 33: ourselves because it's hard to see our own blind spots. The previous Trust Council voted

[3:56:38] Voice 33: overwhelmingly to ask the province for help. A short two months later, the then Minister of

[3:56:45] Voice 33: Municipal Affairs, Nathan Cullen, replied to us that since the local election was imminent,

[3:56:50] Voice 33: the ministry wanted to wait and understand the perspectives and opinions that the newly elected

[3:56:56] Voice 33: Trust Council has on the requested review. That election was two years ago, folks.

[3:57:01] Voice 33: folks. For some of us, it feels like a very long time. And now we have a provincial election in

[3:57:08] Voice 33: full swing. Now is our opportunity to ask every candidate in our ridings how they will support

[3:57:16] Voice 33: a request of the province for review. I'm sure you all wish your MLA was as invested as Adam

[3:57:25] Voice 33: has been in seeing the islands preserved and protected into the future in cooperation with

[3:57:30] Voice 33: and respect of the many Indigenous governing bodies who have great interests in the islands.

[3:57:37] Voice 33: The dysfunction and lack of cohesion between the trust and other governance structures and

[3:57:42] Voice 33: jurisdiction on the islands is the one thing that can be agreed upon by a wide spectrum of people

[3:57:48] Voice 33: who have differing views on everything from the environment to agriculture to economic development.

[3:57:54] Voice 33: This is important. Decisions being made by the trust today within, let's face it, an outdated and incomplete governance system has neither preserved or protected the islands or its communities, and instead has led to some unintended and negative consequences.

[3:58:17] Voice 33: consequences. We're seeing an increasing environmental degradation and fragmentation

[3:58:23] Voice 33: of our ecosystems. The disappearance of the unique amenities and the rural character that

[3:58:29] Voice 33: this trust was tasked with preserving. Accelerated non-residential real estate speculation, luxury

[3:58:36] Voice 33: home development, and rural sprawl. Island economies and essential services shrinking due

[3:58:42] Voice 33: to the severe lack of workforce housing and the lack of employees. Vibrant island arts and

[3:58:49] Voice 33: farming communities are failing to renew because artists and farmers are getting old and younger

[3:58:54] Voice 33: generations cannot afford to live here. Working families are leaving the islands because of the

[3:59:01] Voice 33: scarcity of housing options and the lack of viable economic opportunities. The governance of these

[3:59:07] Voice 33: islands is disconnected group of jurisdictions and authorities and as things stand we're not

[3:59:16] Voice 33: preserving and protecting the islands. Let's be clear about this. Doing nothing

[3:59:22] Voice 33: does not equal preserving and protecting. Our Governance Act is 50 years old and

[3:59:30] Voice 33: did not anticipate many of the issues that we're being asked to manage today.

[3:59:34] Voice 33: It needs a refresh and we need a clear understanding of our mandate. I did want

[3:59:41] Voice 33: to ask staff to put up the motion, not the motion, the picture. I don't know if

[3:59:46] Voice 33: If they have it, I did send it in from our dot-mocracy last June.

[3:59:50] Voice 33: I think we remember after Adam spoke, we did our strategic planning and we had charts up

[3:59:55] Voice 33: and we were given dots.

[3:59:56] Voice 33: I did note a couple of you did double dot.

[4:00:00] Voice 33: But we don't have dot police.

[4:00:03] Voice 33: It was a well-covered, and it recognized that this work was really important.

[4:00:09] Voice 33: And I want to bring you back and remember what that was like.

[4:00:14] Voice 33: Apparently, EC didn't approve it, I guess.

[4:00:16] Voice 33: I don't know.

[4:00:19] Voice 33: It's the photo I took of the wall.

[4:00:20] Voice 33: It was just a photo from our wall.

[4:00:23] Voice 33: Oh, well.

[4:00:25] Voice 33: I can pass around my phone.

[4:00:29] Voice 33: So I will leave it there, or I'd be willing to put the motion on,

[4:00:33] Voice 33: but I think there's other speakers.

[4:00:34] Voice 33: So

[4:00:52] Voice 39: this is going to be a good conversation.

[4:00:59] Voice 39: When I got into this position, I have to say that I was pounding the table as fervently as anybody else to say we need to amend our legislation because there's things that we cannot do.

[4:01:13] Voice 39: We need to align with DRIPA, basically.

[4:01:16] Voice 39: And you folks know me that I'm pretty fervently an advocate for respecting Indigenous rights and enshrining that in law.

[4:01:27] Voice 39: What I've not understood is how the province actually works and how to get things done.

[4:01:32] Voice 39: And it's been a process to understand that.

[4:01:37] Voice 39: And I have to say that this latest, this one meeting at UBCM with Ministry of Municipal Affairs staff, and they're listed in the notes that I circulated to everyone.

[4:01:49] Voice 39: These are the people who would ultimately receive a letter from us and give advice to the minister what to do with it.

[4:01:57] Voice 39: And some of them have been watching the Islands Trust for a long time.

[4:02:00] Voice 39: um so as we talked and uh you'll see in the notes i i tried to capture actual quotations

[4:02:10] Voice 39: they were trying to grasp what the ask was so our first our first positioning of this ask was

[4:02:18] Voice 39: how do we make this a success we'd like to ask the province to engage with us to review the

[4:02:24] Voice 39: islands trust act there's a number of challenges that we're facing how would this be successful

[4:02:30] Voice 39: And they said, well, what exactly are you asking?

[4:02:33] Voice 39: What are you challenged with?

[4:02:35] Voice 39: We said, well, we're struggling with the definition of unique amenities.

[4:02:39] Voice 39: It keeps tripping us up.

[4:02:41] Voice 39: And so there is a section where they responded, unique amenities, we're not going to define it for you.

[4:02:50] Voice 39: What we believe that the authors of the Islands Trust Act is that there are aspects of the islands that are unique.

[4:02:57] Voice 39: unique and it is up to you to define those so they said probably not going to venture into that

[4:03:04] Voice 39: space um and then when we got into well is it on the docket to amend our legislation

[4:03:15] Voice 39: the province said basically we're not going to amend the local government act

[4:03:19] Voice 39: until communities are ready and so this gets to the heart of do we need to ask

[4:03:27] Voice 39: ask for an amendment to our act to align with DRIPA. We are made from pieces of the Local

[4:03:34] Voice 39: Government Act, the Community Charter, and of course the Islands Trust Act, and all of these

[4:03:39] Voice 39: would need to shift to allow First Nations to have a much greater voice in governance and

[4:03:45] Voice 39: decision-making. So the principle of what they were saying, please do read the notes because I

[4:03:53] Voice 39: I don't want to mischaracterize it, is that they're not touching legislation until they see

[4:03:59] Voice 39: readiness at the local level. And readiness means to me that we have permission to engage

[4:04:11] Voice 39: with nations, community to community, and government to government, to structure processes

[4:04:18] Voice 39: that respect their interests and future plans and goals for the islands.

[4:04:28] Voice 39: And from those conversations, legislation can then be created rather than the other way around.

[4:04:37] Voice 39: The top-down model, what these policy advisors seem to say,

[4:04:43] Voice 39: would be to force a legislative change before communities are ready for it and before nations

[4:04:50] Voice 39: have actually articulated this is what we are asking. And the conclusion is that if you come

[4:04:58] Voice 39: to us in partnership with First Nations together, that will be a powerful ask. They would never be

[4:05:06] Voice 39: be able to turn that down. The horizon for that is a long way away. And so this ask, which I believe

[4:05:15] Voice 39: I'm not saying that we're not facing challenges or that we don't have things to do and a house

[4:05:21] Voice 39: to clean up, but the path to that has to be strategized in reality, in conversation with

[4:05:29] Voice 39: nations and with our own communities so that it can be received in a good way rather than

[4:05:35] Voice 39: from a top-down imposed structure.

[4:05:39] Voice 39: So I'll just leave it there.

[4:05:41] Voice 39: The notes are there for you to read.

[4:05:43] Voice 39: If anybody hasn't had them, I can send them to you.

[4:05:46] Voice 39: Thank you.

[4:05:46] Voice 39: We've

[4:05:55] Voice 23: got on the stage here, and you have your CAO comments in the RFD there.

[4:06:01] Voice 23: And then we'll come to the table here, and we'll have a full discussion.

[4:06:06] Voice 9: Thanks, Chair.

[4:06:07] Voice 9: So, indeed, this RFD was prepared by trustees as part of the Governance

[4:06:12] Voice 9: committee working group advancing to trust council through governance committee as per trust council

[4:06:17] Voice 9: policy all requests for decision coming to this table must have comments from the cao so i have

[4:06:23] Voice 9: provided comments in line with policy these comments did travel to the governance committee

[4:06:27] Voice 9: they weren't received with warm fuzzies i'll say that however when we met with ministry staff

[4:06:34] Voice 9: last week they were really echoing all of what is in the cao comments so one of the things that

[4:06:41] Voice 9: they did share with us, which are in my CAO comments, is a question around the timing of

[4:06:45] Voice 9: advancing this letter during the election period. So we are now in an interregnum period with the

[4:06:50] Voice 9: provincial government. No work is advancing. Any correspondence is going to sit in a pile

[4:06:55] Voice 9: when a new government is formed or post-election. All of that information will then be advanced,

[4:07:01] Voice 9: and our letter could potentially be lost. If our letter is going to be submitted now

[4:07:06] Voice 9: and it untouched for many months it's wiser to take didn't lose my signal connection trustee

[4:07:15] Voice 9: dodds you're you're not muted

[4:07:20] Voice 41: um

[4:07:22] Voice 9: so given we're in the interregnum period it may be wiser to take

[4:07:27] Voice 9: time to refine this letter to the province to refine exactly what it is that we are requesting

[4:07:33] Voice 9: such that there's a greater chance that some our requests may achieve success um so that messaging

[4:07:38] Voice 9: was very clear from ministry staff is that, you know, the timing is curious. They were also

[4:07:45] Voice 9: expressing a little bit of lack of understanding with some of what this letter is requesting.

[4:07:52] Voice 9: They said it's a little bit vague when we said, oh, you know, there's a request to re-evaluate

[4:07:56] Voice 9: our governance structure and governance model. They said, are you saying you don't want locally

[4:08:01] Voice 9: elected trustees? I don't think that's what this group is saying, but the letter is unclear. And

[4:08:08] Voice 9: And they were highlighting that for us, that a lot of these requests in this letter are a bit vague and we are much more likely to achieve success if we can be clearer in what the problem is that we're requesting provincial assistance with.

[4:08:23] Voice 9: So that was also a message we heard loud and clear.

[4:08:26] Voice 9: I think Trustee Elliott has summarized quite well some of the comments that we heard around aligning our act with DRIPA.

[4:08:32] Voice 9: We do need to consider some of the protocol agreements that Islands Trust has with other bodies.

[4:08:39] Voice 9: So we do a protocol agreement with the Islands Trust Conservancy Board as well as Bowen Island Municipality to discuss with them if we are making any requests for legislative change.

[4:08:50] Voice 9: So depending on what this letter looks like, we may actually need to consider those protocol agreements.

[4:08:54] Voice 9: events. We did actually run into the Mayor of Bowen Council last week, who I think had expressed

[4:09:00] Voice 9: a desire to share his thoughts on this. We were hoping to see him today, but we didn't see him at

[4:09:06] Voice 9: public comment period. But that displays an interest in this particular topic and in this

[4:09:11] Voice 9: conversation, and we've not yet had a chance to hear from him. I don't think there's too much

[4:09:18] Voice 9: else I need to reiterate. Certainly, as conversation happens, I can absolutely respond to

[4:09:24] Voice 9: questions on any of the comments that are in the CAO report. Otherwise, it's over to trustees to

[4:09:29] Voice 9: discuss and debate and engage in good governance to see how you want to advance this piece of work.

[4:09:37] Voice 23: Thank you very much, CAO Mobs. And so let's open up the floor. Obviously,

[4:09:43] Voice 23: there's potentially questions or comments or motions, and the floor is open to your wishes.

[4:09:49] Voice 23: wishes. And Trustee Maude is going to look after the speaker list and maybe also toggle

[4:09:55] Voice 23: that over to Tim Peterson at Juncture if he wishes to speak also. So please raise your

[4:10:00] Voice 23: hands if you wish to speak so that we can get you on the list.

[4:10:04] Voice 16: So Trustee Bowman.

[4:10:08] Voice 16: Yeah.

[4:10:08] Voice 16: Sorry,

[4:10:09] Voice 45: that's going back. Yeah. My question is that, thank you, Toby, for this summary.

[4:10:14] Voice 45: and I admire your typing skills they're phenomenal and what were the speaking notes that you went to

[4:10:23] Voice 45: that meeting with because it seems as though the discussion is around a lack of understanding so

[4:10:29] Voice 45: the only one I saw was in the EC last meeting there was a reference to the request which I

[4:10:38] Voice 45: think got mixed up with the other First Nations discussion because the request was to only address

[4:10:44] Voice 45: stress aligning you know it was please review the trust with the view with the object of aligning

[4:10:52] Voice 45: with uh dripper i believe after that it the the conversation broadened and there were speaking

[4:11:00] Voice 45: notes created asking for advice so i can see the response in the discussion but we haven't seen

[4:11:08] Voice 45: those speaking notes it would be helpful thank you i

[4:11:14] Voice 39: could circulate that but honestly we just

[4:11:17] Voice 39: left it to chair luckham to ask one question what would best position this request for success

[4:11:23] Voice 39: we are we would like to ask for a provincial review of the admins trust act what would

[4:11:30] Voice 39: position that for success and then we got into well what are the what components of the act do

[4:11:35] Voice 39: you want reviewed governance structure and i think a few few trustees spoke to the issues that we're

[4:11:42] Voice 39: speaking to trustee

[4:11:47] Voice 25: bernardo thank you um i'm puzzled about something i've got a question

[4:11:51] Voice 25: really i've got a whole bunch of comments but i'll keep them to myself for now uh it's curious

[4:11:56] Voice 25: to me that the provincial staff has such strong and developed critique of the proposed letter

[4:12:03] Voice 25: before we even sent it can trustee elliott or the interim cao explain how that came about

[4:12:15] Voice 25: we've heard a lot of comments about what the um provincial representatives or staff

[4:12:23] Voice 25: their views about the letter okay that means then they never saw the letter is that right so the ask

[4:12:34] Voice 25: and their response to it is about the oral representations that were made at that meeting

[4:12:39] Voice 25: is that right see you there

[4:12:46] Voice 9: we go um so the resolutions in this they saw the previous letter

[4:12:51] Voice 9: right the previous letter that was advanced from previous trust council um landed at the ministry

[4:12:56] Voice 9: they've seen that previous letter they were involved in the response they are very aware

[4:13:00] Voice 9: that council is now turning its minds to responding to that letter um the draft letter is in the public

[4:13:09] Voice 9: public realm with the governance committee agenda. This is conversation that I know the

[4:13:15] Voice 9: former CAO had had with some provincial staff when handover happened and I was introduced to

[4:13:22] Voice 9: provincial staff that came up, hey, what's going on with that? So they're keeping an eye on what's

[4:13:26] Voice 9: going on with Trust Council. They are interested in the work of Trust Council. And so I think they

[4:13:33] Voice 9: they are quite well informed. And given that the resolution, the proposed resolution is unchanged

[4:13:40] Voice 9: from what advanced two years ago, they've had a lot of time to think about that.

[4:13:48] Voice 25: So you're saying they had access to the letter through the public record and that's what they're

[4:13:51] Voice 25: responding to?

[4:13:58] Voice 9: There was no question posed of them whether or not that's what their comments

[4:14:03] Voice 9: were informed on. We didn't specifically ask the question if they had read the letter.

[4:14:07] Voice 9: my assumption is that that they've been keeping an eye on it well

[4:14:13] Voice 25: how do we weigh their critique

[4:14:15] Voice 25: how much weight do we give to their their questions and frankly they're casting doubt

[4:14:22] Voice 25: on our effort when we're not sure they've even seen the letter i mean they're going on basis of

[4:14:29] Voice 25: the resolution is one thing but the resolution is explained by the letter so how how do we know

[4:14:39] Voice 25: um what their ultimate assessment is going to be until we've actually seen the letter trustee

[4:14:52] Voice 16: campbell

[4:14:54] Voice 31: i'd say that we have uh we have a lot of unique amenities but this letter isn't unique

[4:14:59] Voice 31: most municipalities across bc are asking them the same question right now

[4:15:06] Voice 16: trustee campbell

[4:15:08] Voice 3: i'm just

[4:15:10] Voice 3: Just in reading this letter and what I think the intention of, I'm wondering if we don't have two different things on the table in this letter with the alignment with DRIPA being something that needs to be addressed separately.

[4:15:32] Voice 3: separately from what i know i hear from the local people on pender is that

[4:15:40] Voice 3: they want to know what can be done about the trust is is a fairly common theme uh people view

[4:15:51] Voice 3: that this is broken and the system the way that it sits right now doesn't function the way that

[4:15:58] Voice 3: it was intended to. And I think that that is where people see a request to the province to review the

[4:16:07] Voice 3: trust. And I don't believe that Adam Olson's comments were that we need to have this done by

[4:16:15] Voice 3: the time the election finishes. It was that we need to be positioning ourselves to ask for this

[4:16:25] Voice 3: review of the new person that gets put in place and he even mentioned paying some money to have

[4:16:31] Voice 3: somebody lobby to take this to the right people so we're talking about this as though this is the

[4:16:39] Voice 3: finished product and we're going to send it uh before you know middle of october i think that

[4:16:49] Voice 3: we need to be thinking about strategically what pieces we're asking for as far as we want there

[4:16:57] Voice 3: there to be a review of the trust and then take and then how are we going to get that to the right

[4:17:03] Voice 3: place in four to six months after the election is completed that's my opinion trustee fast thank you

[4:17:20] Voice 32: i'm um uh was also at the meeting as a bowen island municipal counselor and as an islands

[4:17:28] Voice 32: trustee registered at UBCM. But my comments aren't specific to that meeting with municipal affairs

[4:17:37] Voice 32: staff. I do have with me, for anybody who's interested, the request for the meeting with

[4:17:45] Voice 32: the minister. That was turned down. That's why, luckily, Islands Trust was redirected to a meeting

[4:17:52] Voice 32: with municipal staff, which I think it's good that we got a meeting, and somebody can correct

[4:17:58] Voice 32: me if that's wrong. I've got the topic and the request here. The request that was written and

[4:18:07] Voice 32: sent in, that presumably was also part of what they were discussing, or what they were thinking

[4:18:12] Voice 32: about, was that the provincial government review the Islands Trust mandate governance structure

[4:18:16] Voice 32: and opportunities to align decision-making processes and structures with the UN Declaration

[4:18:20] Voice 32: on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. Just for clarity. For me, I had a number

[4:18:29] Voice 32: of reality checks coming out of that meeting, adding up to what Trustee Govros

[4:18:39] Voice 32: just said about we're not alone among local governments. Union of BC

[4:18:44] Voice 32: Municipalities is all kinds of municipalities from all over BC and

[4:18:49] Voice 32: and regional districts, and First Nations communities, and Islands Trust,

[4:18:55] Voice 32: all kinds of elected local representatives,

[4:18:58] Voice 32: and they're all asking for the same kinds of help with pressures that Trustee Patrick described.

[4:19:08] Voice 32: Although I differ from Trustee Patrick in that I don't think we're failing to protect and preserve ecosystems and things.

[4:19:17] Voice 32: I'll go quickly here.

[4:19:20] Voice 32: We're not alone.

[4:19:22] Voice 32: If you would like to see the resolutions book, you might look up NR66, which is about agricultural

[4:19:32] Voice 32: landowners not being able to pay the extra costs and needing some help to protect agricultural

[4:19:40] Voice 32: land for the province as a whole.

[4:19:44] Voice 32: Agricultural Land Commission was set up around the same time as the Islands Trust.

[4:19:47] Voice 32: they're going to other communities for support and advice and coming to the

[4:19:52] Voice 32: province together that's what I think might be a suggestion for us there's

[4:19:59] Voice 32: also in our 40 for the Policing Act lots of these acts don't get a total overhaul

[4:20:04] Voice 32: they're strategic asks as trustee Campbell mentioned another reality check

[4:20:13] Voice 32: I wouldn't know. I'm going to skip those and just go straight to Bowen Island needs to be consulted and the Bowen Island Conservancy and First Nations and as well as other communities.

[4:20:28] Voice 32: UBCM, Union of BC Municipalities, is a venue for communities to come together and share in the work.

[4:20:36] Voice 32: And that's a suggestion. I think we could take something to UBCM.

[4:20:43] Voice 32: We often do. They're often successful, but they're limited and they're not a full review where the province would go out and collect input that might not be the same input we would ask for.

[4:21:00] Voice 32: Thank you.

[4:21:04] Voice 16: Trustee Harris.

[4:21:10] Voice 12: Pretty concerning.

[4:21:13] Voice 12: I don't I really don't understand.

[4:21:15] Voice 12: stand um i have i have my um my theories as to what's sort of going on here but um i don't see

[4:21:25] Voice 12: a problem with sending this letter now as we've said right from the start this is the beginning

[4:21:30] Voice 12: of a conversation even if we send it before the election there will be another letter sent again

[4:21:38] Voice 12: gain once um you know the there's once the shuffling of the cabinet is done now i i realize

[4:21:46] Voice 12: that there's probably some reluctance from some um that there'll be a change of power and so that's

[4:21:54] Voice 12: what's happening here is what i see um but i i think that's sad that that would be used to stall

[4:22:03] Voice 12: all this this can only be good whichever however it pans out um and and i really don't understand

[4:22:11] Voice 12: the fearfulness um from sending this you know i hear this talk about the municipalities asking

[4:22:17] Voice 12: the same thing well we're not a municipality yes they may be asking for um you know changes

[4:22:23] Voice 12: legislatively um in regards to drippa as we are but they're not asking for a restructuring of

[4:22:29] Voice 12: of their governance and and a lens put on the undemocratic representation aspect of it like

[4:22:37] Voice 12: these are real things that are happening salt spring's no joke like you know you hear me talking

[4:22:41] Voice 12: but you know salt spring has the largest population of the gulf islands i was elected here

[4:22:49] Voice 12: there there's serious things happening on this island it's not good and the way the structure

[4:22:55] Voice 12: of the island's trust is now it's not going to get better anytime soon even if the best case

[4:23:01] Voice 12: scenario it'll be years before we can get this straightened out but in the meantime people's

[4:23:06] Voice 12: lives are are being affected very negatively the social well-being of this community is

[4:23:10] Voice 12: is in tatters this is so important that this gets sent now i'm completely in support of sending this

[4:23:20] Voice 12: right away and i would hope everybody would see this you know do the same thing we made it a

[4:23:25] Voice 12: priority at the last trust council to focus on this so other things can go to the side we can

[4:23:31] Voice 12: can send this letter prior to the election and then after the election however that pans out

[4:23:36] Voice 12: we send it again and we follow adam wilson's um advice about possibly spending money and to get

[4:23:44] Voice 12: it in front of the right people this can only be good this isn't something to be afraid of

[4:23:48] Voice 12: um i'll leave it there for now um i'm in support of these uh you know the resolutions of sending

[4:23:53] Voice 12: these letters asap thank you jesse

[4:23:57] Voice 16: stanford thank

[4:24:02] Voice 34: you um i also happen to be in the room listening

[4:24:07] Voice 34: to their responsive staff to uh how do we most effectively uh position ourselves for a review um

[4:24:17] Voice 34: i tend to agree that the letter has a purpose i'm not sure if sending it during the election

[4:24:25] Voice 34: is hugely effective, but it might be effective for those specific areas that are looking for

[4:24:32] Voice 34: this to be an election issue. So it might help in those areas. One of the things I would suggest

[4:24:40] Voice 34: that I did hear from the meeting was specificity. Like what, if you could just give an example of

[4:24:47] Voice 34: what you are unable to do in these areas that you could be able to do with an appropriate review.

[4:24:54] Voice 34: That was one of the things I heard. Another thing I asked specifically is, would any Islands Trust review be in conjunction with the regional district reviews, which is also something that is being looked at and is an initiative of UBCM?

[4:25:13] Voice 34: And it did not seem like that was possible. And I'm hoping that we can, in our advocacy, to move forward into the future with the Islands Trust, that we consider joining our initiatives where appropriate with the UBCM initiatives to get real legislative modernization of the regional districts, which we have more alignment with than, say, municipality.

[4:25:40] Voice 34: So that's another suggestion. We have to really consider what we're asking and what the implications of those asks are. I'm not afraid of it, but we have to consider what the alternatives could be by asking these questions, asking for that review.

[4:25:59] Voice 34: you um the the possibility of well what about the Haida Gwaii um model came up um you know there's

[4:26:09] Voice 34: no response to that but that is the kind of possibilities that we need to understand um

[4:26:16] Voice 34: how we move forward so whether we send it now or later I do agree this is a um a beginning of a

[4:26:26] Voice 34: process. It's, it's not one off. So yeah, this is the start. We can always do more later. Thank you.

[4:26:36] Voice 16: Thanks.

[4:26:40] Voice 26: I heard what CAO Mops said about sending this now, it may just get lost in the shuffle

[4:26:50] Voice 26: and not be seen or reviewed. So rather than rushing this through at this point, I'd rather

[4:26:55] Voice 26: that we spend a bit of time and do a little cleanup on the letter itself. One of the things

[4:27:00] Voice 26: that I'm looking at is point number two, where we've got A, B, C, D, E, F. That is not following

[4:27:07] Voice 26: the order of the letter that we've got behind it. And I'd like to see that renumbered so that

[4:27:12] Voice 26: either the content of the letter follows this section or the section gets renumbered so that

[4:27:20] Voice 26: that it follows the content of the letter either or because reading it is it it doesn't flow well

[4:27:30] Voice 26: so one of my questions is section a and section c are they essentially the same thing because i

[4:27:38] Voice 26: don't understand the difference of these two so an assessment of the optimum government's model

[4:27:43] Voice 26: to preserve and protect the trust area pursuant to the province's vision for the future of the

[4:27:47] Voice 26: the trust area and the governance structure of the organization. Are they different? How are

[4:27:53] Voice 26: they different? I can't tell. If I can't tell, I don't think the province is going to be able to

[4:27:58] Voice 26: tell. The other one, section E, the geographic scope of the organization and in particular

[4:28:03] Voice 26: authority over marine areas, there is no expanding paragraph on that. What do we mean? What are we

[4:28:10] Voice 26: asking um going into a couple of these elements um so where it says the islands trust governance

[4:28:20] Voice 26: review section on page 95 um that's really good words but um i would recommend reducing that a

[4:28:30] Voice 26: little bit if possible and bringing out instead what have we done what are we working on what

[4:28:36] Voice 26: what changes are we making? The funding model above it, again, good words, but what is the ask?

[4:28:45] Voice 26: We haven't said what we're asking. If they're asking for clarity, we need to know what we're

[4:28:52] Voice 26: saying, because all we're saying is this is a problem. We haven't stated an ask in here.

[4:28:58] Voice 26: The governance section, I'm not sure that I'm in agreeance with that. And I think as a trust

[4:29:05] Voice 26: us counsel, we need to agree on that portion first. Because what we're saying here is that

[4:29:12] Voice 26: we're all in agreement that Salt Spring gets more trustees sitting around the table here.

[4:29:19] Voice 26: I don't think we've had that conversation. If we have, I wasn't here. Maybe it was headed a

[4:29:23] Voice 26: different one. So before we send this, I'd like to have that conversation. So those are, in summary,

[4:29:30] Voice 26: read my comments. Thanks,

[4:29:36] Voice 9: Trustee Evan. Those are good comments that echo a lot of what we did here

[4:29:40] Voice 9: for ministry staff as well. And you reminded me of one other thing that they shared with us,

[4:29:44] Voice 9: which is prioritization is key to helping them help us. Right now, the draft letter advances a

[4:29:51] Voice 9: number of different topics in no particular order. The letter doesn't identify which is

[4:29:56] Voice 9: is top of mind for trust counsel, where should they

[4:30:00] Voice 9: focus their energy first if they are going to step in and assist and that was a very clear piece of

[4:30:06] Voice 9: advice was prioritize your requests um and also as trustee evan said being much more clear and direct

[4:30:14] Voice 9: in what the actual issue is what the actual problem is how a problem is hindering your

[4:30:22] Voice 9: ability to achieve your objectives and really more deeply analyzing those things and um my

[4:30:29] Voice 9: comments also do pick up on the fact that some of the bullet points in the resolution aren't

[4:30:33] Voice 9: then expanded on in the letter which is confusing at the governance committee the first meeting that

[4:30:39] Voice 9: they had to talk about this particular topic there was discussion and questions raised

[4:30:44] Voice 9: around what's the difference between governance model and governance structure

[4:30:48] Voice 9: and there wasn't clarity among trustees at the committee and that was never really resolved

[4:30:56] Voice 9: And I agree that if we don't have clarity here, it's unlikely the province will have clarity.

[4:31:02] Voice 9: If this is a really important issue for us, and I'm hearing this is important, and we need to be going to the province and requesting help, we want to advance a request in a way that will expedite the conversation, that will help them help us.

[4:31:17] Voice 9: So where we can restructure this letter in that way, I think that would be really valuable.

[4:31:24] Voice 16: Trustee Borczyk.

[4:31:25] Voice 16: um

[4:31:30] Voice 24: yeah so i mean in listening to and and sort of you know my own thoughts going in but also

[4:31:37] Voice 24: in listening to other people speak it's i mean it's clear to me that there's not a lot of opposition

[4:31:42] Voice 24: along on trust council in general to sending a letter um i think that there's some you know

[4:31:50] Voice 24: concerns with how it's phrased what's brought up how that's being addressed um and i would also

[4:31:56] Voice 24: you know agree with with the point that trustee harris brought up which is that this is about

[4:32:00] Voice 24: starting the conversation not about you know coming up with the whole plan whole cloth um

[4:32:06] Voice 24: that being said i don't know that uh sending this you know again and again is going to be the way to

[4:32:14] Voice 24: get it to to top of mind we are a very different body than a lot of other municipalities and

[4:32:21] Voice 24: regional districts. We are, we are a different structure and we are a particular creature of

[4:32:28] Voice 24: this, of this province. Um, we were, we were created for the places that we are. And, uh,

[4:32:36] Voice 24: as such, you know, our, our reviews are probably not going to immediately mirror any review of any

[4:32:42] Voice 24: other body. And I think it is important that the trust that the province, you know, be, uh, you

[4:32:50] Voice 24: you know, made to be involved or be invited to be involved to it in doing that. They have the

[4:32:55] Voice 24: power to make the changes that we know that we don't have. And while it is on us to do part of

[4:33:00] Voice 24: that work and be heavily involved in that process, ultimately, the decisions are going to be theirs.

[4:33:06] Voice 24: And the sooner we can involve them in that discussion, the sooner we're going to get to

[4:33:10] Voice 24: having really well thought out changes. That being said, I think it's important to, you know,

[4:33:18] Voice 24: to make sure that this letter arrives uh best poised to be effective as possible because we

[4:33:25] Voice 24: do need this change there are serious democratic you know struggles that happen with this they're

[4:33:30] Voice 24: they're broader broad implications of of you know of of how we are functioning that we agree need

[4:33:38] Voice 24: some review and and the province also has a duty to all of us to support the work that we do to the

[4:33:45] Voice 24: to the fullness of their ability that's we're we're part of their structure for governing the

[4:33:50] Voice 24: province um it is important they're involved i i i'm very much in favor of sending a letter

[4:33:56] Voice 24: i agree that it needs to be on their on their desk as soon as possible i and and if it is

[4:34:01] Voice 24: more effective to make sure that this is an election issue by all means go for it i don't

[4:34:07] Voice 24: know that the province uh and and the people running for those ministries are going to be

[4:34:13] Voice 24: as affected. I don't know how much

[4:34:17] Voice 24: of an effective platform the election will be to move

[4:34:21] Voice 24: these things forward, but I'd be hesitant to send it prematurely.

[4:34:28] Voice 16: Trustee Scott has to leave, so just bump him up and lift us if that's

[4:34:31] Voice 16: okay. Thank you.

[4:34:37] Voice 10: There's something I'm missing here.

[4:34:39] Voice 10: We hire very good people

[4:34:42] Voice 10: with a lot of legislative knowledge, administrative

[4:34:46] Voice 10: administrative officer who's looks sounds to me like she's looked into this. We've got a governance

[4:34:53] Voice 10: committee who seem to be on top of this. We have an executive committee. I don't know why we can't

[4:35:01] Voice 10: get a letter structured by our staff, a draft that comes maybe working with the governance committee

[4:35:10] Voice 10: that then can be brought to the executive

[4:35:15] Voice 10: and then to the trust council.

[4:35:18] Voice 10: There seems to be so much drama going on around this thing

[4:35:21] Voice 10: more than actual, let's get the draft letter.

[4:35:25] Voice 10: If this one's not right, thank you.

[4:35:35] Voice 16: Sure, welcome.

[4:35:42] Voice 23: Thank you, everyone.

[4:35:48] Voice 23: You know, we were disappointed not to meet with the minister,

[4:35:52] Voice 23: say that, to have this conversation at the highest level.

[4:35:59] Voice 23: Um, we went in to the meeting with staff as a good alternative.

[4:36:05] Voice 23: Well, let's find out what's, because we're not asking now for political direction, which

[4:36:09] Voice 23: was what we would have been asking for the minister.

[4:36:11] Voice 23: We want you to handle this.

[4:36:14] Voice 23: Um, and of course we knew what the content was and it's different, but similar to the

[4:36:19] Voice 23: previous letter.

[4:36:20] Voice 23: And the message conveyed to the staff was that trust council is very much interested

[4:36:27] Voice 23: in a review of the honest trust and that two years ago you sent us a response to our first request

[4:36:35] Voice 23: and this is now a second uh effort at reinstituting that request um with there's probably there's

[4:36:45] Voice 23: probably some refinement there um but because it was at a staff level the question was um

[4:36:57] Voice 23: And indeed, it was presented that council is very interested in doing this.

[4:37:02] Voice 23: And I'm in support of us doing it with the right question and at the right time.

[4:37:07] Voice 23: And so we wanted to seek staff's advice.

[4:37:11] Voice 23: And as Toby indicated, the question was, what do you need from us?

[4:37:15] Voice 23: How can we make this successful?

[4:37:17] Voice 23: How can you make the minister interested in this, you know, whenever that happens to be?

[4:37:22] Voice 23: And it was I was quite surprised, actually.

[4:37:26] Voice 23: It was immediate.

[4:37:27] Voice 23: not now it was that not now and then then we sort of pushed it to to say well you know we

[4:37:37] Voice 23: really want to get on this and it's been two years already and we were rebuffed on the initial go

[4:37:42] Voice 23: around and we've done some work on our governance committee etc etc all that kind of stuff

[4:37:47] Voice 23: not that there was a lot of words but anyway um so the question became more specific from them

[4:37:52] Voice 23: because we were pushing well what is it that you actually want to do and so indeed this list of

[4:37:59] Voice 23: eight items here was not necessarily every one of them but generally governance decision making

[4:38:08] Voice 23: funding actually was also part of that those are the types of things as originally requested

[4:38:13] Voice 23: earlier and so then the conversation started to move around and we sort of talked about how we

[4:38:21] Voice 23: can work with them to facilitate this and there's definitely an openness to have a conversation with

[4:38:26] Voice 23: the answers and participate and think about how we can get from where we are at the honest trust and

[4:38:31] Voice 23: with the province more broadly um particularly around land use you know you're all familiar

[4:38:38] Voice 23: with the land act was an advancing to some uh amendments and then that was pulled back because

[4:38:45] Voice 23: because it was obvious to the province

[4:38:46] Voice 23: that that was a lot more complex

[4:38:48] Voice 23: than what was initially perceived.

[4:38:52] Voice 23: And the Islands Trust Act is just another land act

[4:38:55] Voice 23: specifically to do with the trust area.

[4:38:58] Voice 23: And so I would suggest there's some reluctance

[4:39:01] Voice 23: to open these up too much

[4:39:05] Voice 23: for conservative reasons of determining

[4:39:07] Voice 23: how that's going to look more broadly on the landscape.

[4:39:10] Voice 23: so they did dig into some of the questions with some responses particularly around

[4:39:19] Voice 23: the unique amenities you know they didn't think it actually needed any more explanation unique

[4:39:25] Voice 23: amenities it's those things that are unique on the islands fair enough so when when pushed

[4:39:31] Voice 23: i asked the question specifically so what is your advice the advice is not now make the ask more

[4:39:38] Voice 23: more specific. And I don't think that's unreasonable. And like I said, it's not a

[4:39:44] Voice 23: matter of if we send a letter, it's when we send the letter and what it is that we're asking for.

[4:39:53] Voice 23: And it's absolutely up to you what you want to do. If you want to send the letter now,

[4:39:57] Voice 23: sure, no harm done. And we can send another one later. Although, you know, to some extent,

[4:40:05] Voice 23: you've got to realize that when we asked about what help can we take, and they said,

[4:40:09] Voice 23: don't send it now and make it more clear and then we ignore that advice and send it anyway

[4:40:14] Voice 23: it's not going to be received well so it's up to you i'm happy to do what you wish

[4:40:21] Voice 23: um but the advice was not now and make it more clear that's it trustee grant thank

[4:40:32] Voice 6: you so much

[4:40:32] Voice 6: uh chair luck i'm i i feel blessed to be able to follow you because uh and we've heard some really

[4:40:39] Voice 6: Really wonderful arguments. Trustee Elliott, you weren't wrong when you said this is an interesting conversation. So the staff that you talk to, they will have a new boss, perhaps after the end of the election, but that group of people will be advising the minister. And that's really important. So you talk to the right people. I don't think it was important that you talk to the minister.

[4:41:03] Voice 6: minister. You talk to the people that are going to be advising the minister, and they said,

[4:41:07] Voice 6: don't do it now. So it would be ridiculous to send a letter now. That's point one from my

[4:41:13] Voice 6: perspective. Timing is very important. There's no use putting all this energy and repeat what

[4:41:20] Voice 6: happened the last time Trust Council sent a letter. That was, you know, that was unfortunate.

[4:41:25] Voice 6: But I think it wasn't a prepared letter. It wasn't specific in the ask. And that's another

[4:41:32] Voice 6: Another absolutely critical aspect. This has to be very, very specific. And so specific to whom? Well, actually, it depends who you ask. I mean, if you ask our conservation groups, they say, well, we've failed them on so many levels. We haven't protected forests and we haven't protected foreshores. We haven't protected this and we haven't protected that.

[4:41:51] Voice 6: So they have to be involved in crafting the ask. First Nations, absolutely. I think Trustee Elliott

[4:41:59] Voice 6: hit one of the nails on the head. Having them as a co-asker is, I mean, that's kind of like

[4:42:06] Voice 6: showing up at the party in the Rolls Royce as opposed to a Volkswagen. If you ask the youth,

[4:42:12] Voice 6: they'll say, well, we can't afford to live on the Gulf Islands. So they have a perspective.

[4:42:15] Voice 6: perspective business business is struggling to find people that will work for them because the

[4:42:20] Voice 6: workers can't afford to live on the island so they have a perspective retirees well absolutely they

[4:42:26] Voice 6: are watching the tax uh dollar creep up and that's because the province doesn't fund us i would say

[4:42:32] Voice 6: 50 is what they should be funding us because that's part of the mandate that we're doing all

[4:42:37] Voice 6: this protection uh of these beautiful islands for the benefit of the people of british columbia not

[4:42:42] Voice 6: not just the 30,000 people of us that are lucky enough to live here.

[4:42:45] Voice 6: If we ask the large islands, Salt Spring, good grief,

[4:42:49] Voice 6: they've had two referendums because they are so politically underrepresented

[4:42:53] Voice 6: that they are so frustrated with their political system

[4:42:57] Voice 6: and they deserve to have better political representation.

[4:43:01] Voice 6: They didn't like the municipal model because there's obviously the cost of roads,

[4:43:05] Voice 6: but an increased political representation for Salt Spring

[4:43:08] Voice 6: would go a long ways to making them happy.

[4:43:12] Voice 6: The small islands, to be quite honest, we're okay with the trust.

[4:43:16] Voice 6: I mean, that's just the way it is.

[4:43:18] Voice 6: So the ask has to be specific.

[4:43:22] Voice 6: The timing has to be not now, obviously.

[4:43:26] Voice 6: And who's asking with us?

[4:43:28] Voice 6: Well, it should be those groups that we are tasked in our mandate to work with.

[4:43:37] Voice 6: That's the regional districts, the improvement districts, other persons and organizations,

[4:43:41] Voice 6: First Nations and municipalities. Everybody needs to have a little piece in this ask, and it has to be so that the work has not been done, in my mind, to craft the ask so that we get the result that we want, period.

[4:44:04] Voice 8: Yes, thank you. Yeah, I seem to be out of sync here with the discussion. I'm not sure if I can put my finger on it exactly, but I believe in bottom-up rather than top-down, and to ask a body that's above what you want us to do or how do you want us to interpret this, that, and the other thing, whatever, is backwards to me.

[4:44:34] Voice 8: I believe in telling, you know, the grassroots, which is us, we're on the bottom, there is no government lower than us.

[4:44:44] Voice 8: We should be figuring it out.

[4:44:45] Voice 8: And I kind of feel like that's what their response is kind of saying is, you tell us what you need.

[4:44:53] Voice 8: And it's just philosophically maybe, but the whole idea of asking to me is the wrong frame.

[4:45:01] Voice 8: We should be telling them what we need.

[4:45:04] Voice 8: and for us to do that we need to do the work to figure that out and i think that's

[4:45:12] Voice 8: kind of what needs to happen and so i'm not in support of sending a letter asking i i think we

[4:45:18] Voice 8: got to do more work figure out exactly what it is we want like what structural change do we need

[4:45:25] Voice 8: if we're in order to achieve the goals that we have and then go to them and say this is what we

[4:45:31] Voice 8: need and we just won't be quiet about it then there'll be letter writing till the cows come

[4:45:34] Voice 8: home you know until we get it kind of thing but it's not asking it's telling anyway i'm

[4:45:40] Voice 8: probably alone so you know i just feel like i need to express it and yeah that's where

[4:45:47] Voice 8: what i did thank you trustee

[4:45:50] Voice 18: maverly yeah i'm going to try and wade through this mess that's

[4:45:56] Voice 18: going on in my mind um i don't personally care whether we send a letter or not and i'm going

[4:46:06] Voice 18: I'm going to sort of try and explain why.

[4:46:11] Voice 18: Whenever things like this are brought forward, I sort of go, okay, let's take it home.

[4:46:16] Voice 18: Let's figure out what we're going to do at home, right?

[4:46:20] Voice 18: Violence Trust has been around since 1976.

[4:46:24] Voice 18: Never asked First Nations whether they wanted to be a part of it, right?

[4:46:29] Voice 18: They've been talking about reconciliation for a long time, but they've never had First Nations at the table with power-sharing agreements.

[4:46:38] Voice 18: We have protocol agreements, and they're great, right?

[4:46:42] Voice 18: Leschitti with the Sonatas and those.

[4:46:44] Voice 18: And I really think you're going to really enjoy sitting at the table and starting to have that conversation, starting to discover what the ask is going to be.

[4:46:57] Voice 18: I think on Galliano, we're fortunate in a way that we've had, for the first time in 50 years, chief and council come to our table.

[4:47:18] Voice 18: For the first time in 50 years, chief and council came to our table.

[4:47:22] Voice 18: And Pam Jack came and she spoke humbly.

[4:47:29] Voice 18: And she spoke about not being adversaries, about being partners.

[4:47:33] Voice 18: And she was incredibly respectful to an organization that had shunned them for 50 years.

[4:47:43] Voice 18: We just finished celebrating 50 years, right?

[4:47:47] Voice 18: But she was clear about one thing.

[4:47:52] Voice 18: If we are going to be co-managing, or if we are going to be partners, that takes legislative change, right?

[4:48:03] Voice 18: Right. My ask, I'm sitting here representing constituents, but a pile of the constituents that I represent are First Nations, my family, all my friends, relatives.

[4:48:19] Voice 18: Right. The ask is pretty clear. We want change so that First Nations are sitting at our local tables with the power to vote.

[4:48:32] Voice 18: right and i see a lot of language and you know i mean we got legal opinions and we got

[4:48:40] Voice 18: the memo from toby and with language that say be careful what you're what you wish for and

[4:48:48] Voice 18: and and language like that anti-powered anti-co-management language in this in this

[4:48:56] Voice 18: letter i i look at the first four bullet points or five bullet points a through e

[4:49:07] Voice 18: You can't do any of them unless First Nations are sitting at the table with you.

[4:49:13] Voice 18: They're irrelevant unless First Nations are sitting at the table with you, right?

[4:49:18] Voice 18: So you have to decide amongst yourselves, are you willing to share power?

[4:49:22] Voice 18: Because if you're not, fine, but just say it.

[4:49:27] Voice 18: Don't have long conversations around the room about how reconciliation is the number one thing.

[4:49:33] Voice 18: Is there a number one goal?

[4:49:35] Voice 18: Number one?

[4:49:36] Voice 18: I think it's number one.

[4:49:38] Voice 18: At least have the courage to take it off, right?

[4:49:43] Voice 18: That's fine.

[4:49:44] Voice 18: If this trust council doesn't honestly believe that they want to co-manage, that's fine.

[4:49:55] Voice 18: Just say it, right?

[4:49:58] Voice 18: So the ask is pretty clear for me.

[4:50:01] Voice 18: We want legislative change so that when I'm sitting and when Trustee Gavro is sitting at a table

[4:50:08] Voice 18: and when Trustee Peterson is sitting at a table, and when Trustee McAuliffe, when you guys are

[4:50:14] Voice 18: sitting at a table with First Nations, it's different. It's fundamentally different.

[4:50:21] Voice 18: That's the ask. I want to be sitting at a table that's fundamentally different.

[4:50:28] Voice 18: But I will say this, and Trustee Stamford was pretty clear when she talked about the

[4:50:33] Voice 18: the Haida Gwaii Agreement. Don't think for one second that other nations are looking at the Haida

[4:50:42] Voice 18: Gwaii Agreement and going, yeah, that's what we want. Then the province just decides it for you.

[4:50:49] Voice 18: And quite frankly, and I've said this to Joe, I'm good either way, right? We will get there

[4:50:58] Voice 18: one way or the other. But if we honestly want to have a good, honest, sharing partnership,

[4:51:08] Voice 18: Not as adversaries, but as partners, as Chief Pam Jack said, then let's ask for it, right?

[4:51:19] Voice 18: That is the legislative change.

[4:51:21] Voice 18: To me, that's the only ask.

[4:51:24] Voice 18: If we don't want to share power, fine, then don't do it.

[4:51:28] Voice 18: But that's my message.

[4:51:33] Voice 16: Trustee Getty.

[4:51:39] Voice 4: Just to pick up on that last point first, I've got a list here.

[4:51:48] Voice 4: okay so one of the points that came out was that what we're doing is probably in some ways better

[4:51:56] Voice 4: than what the province has been able to accomplish in terms of our protocol agreements and the whole

[4:52:02] Voice 4: business in terms of trying to figure out how we can transition from what has been happening in the

[4:52:09] Voice 4: the past to the ideal is that we might be able to lead the way and that we might be able to get

[4:52:17] Voice 4: you know with some of the other provisions I don't I'm not sure of what people are referring

[4:52:22] Voice 4: to but there was a section 7 and a section 9 I believe in UNDRIP in terms of if we had

[4:52:29] Voice 4: more money and we could explain how to spend more money to do capacity to help

[4:52:35] Voice 4: help get our local decision making into a better situation what we're our end goal is what you're

[4:52:44] Voice 4: talking about then be more specific about that we've got x amount and we're using it this way

[4:52:51] Voice 4: if we had this we could do this and you know we could do so much more in terms of archaeological

[4:52:56] Voice 4: studies and you know capacity building and all the rest of it so we're positioning ourselves

[4:53:03] Voice 4: ourselves as leaders in a lot of the transition that's happening so if we had more resources if

[4:53:10] Voice 4: we had more time how could we speed that up how could we help how could we be the um you know at

[4:53:16] Voice 4: the head of the parade kind of thing okay and and move it along so you know funding is tied to

[4:53:24] Voice 4: what are your ideas what are your plans what do you want to do and we haven't had those discussions

[4:53:28] Voice 4: Okay, so I think that there's time there. The timing issue, I think we need more time to be better prepared, to be really clear, following the conversations that we've had with the minister, following the information that we're getting from our staff, I think we need to be very clear, much more clear on what it is we're looking for.

[4:53:49] Voice 4: Two of the things that the previous minister asked for was wait until your councils had some experience and see whether or not you repeat it.

[4:53:57] Voice 4: But also, the other point that he made was you have a lot of instruments that you're not using to your best advantage and, you know, explore those.

[4:54:08] Voice 4: So what we haven't done, and the governance committee has had a lot of work on its plate, you know, the reports of the committees, we had four meetings over the summer.

[4:54:17] Voice 4: thank you very much three hour meetings that's plenty but we haven't made a list of what

[4:54:22] Voice 4: specifics are there that and what i said to the to the group of the of the staff was

[4:54:31] Voice 4: i'm an amateur at this i have lots and lots of skills i'm smart enough but i'm not haven't done

[4:54:35] Voice 4: this before so how do i ask the questions and how do we get you know some help and they said

[4:54:41] Voice 4: you've got you know they basically they didn't say it outright but we've got good staff and they

[4:54:46] Voice 4: have good rapport and we need to get more support and ask more questions so that it's there and

[4:54:52] Voice 4: they're they're keen to help us so it's you know figuring that out and being clear clearer in

[4:54:57] Voice 4: ourselves so the election we got the um suggestion from adam before and unfortunately that what was

[4:55:08] Voice 4: the june meeting that's very late in terms of getting all of this up and moving and running

[4:55:11] Voice 4: so that we can you know have this grand plan in terms of having pointed questions and making an

[4:55:17] Voice 4: election you know the what they were talking about at UBCM was that this is not an election issue

[4:55:22] Voice 4: and it's going to be really really hard for us to make it an election issue and the vast majority

[4:55:28] Voice 4: of people that are running don't have any idea what the problems are what the trust is or what

[4:55:33] Voice 4: any of the um you know the issues that we're dealing with and we're in we're in deep but

[4:55:40] Voice 4: they don't have a clue so there's in terms of funding there's it's common problems across

[4:55:47] Voice 4: all levels of government in terms of what's coming from the feds what's coming from the province and

[4:55:52] Voice 4: what's available to you know municipalities islands trust regional districts and there's a

[4:55:58] Voice 4: governance whatever coalition that they had at UBCM is now looking at ministerial funding so

[4:56:06] Voice 4: So that's a group that we haven't been involved with.

[4:56:08] Voice 4: And I've sent out personally letters to try and explore how to get involved with that

[4:56:14] Voice 4: so we can find out what that working group at UBCM is doing.

[4:56:19] Voice 4: The MOU with Bowen Island, as I said, we didn't ask the ministry people specifically what they had read

[4:56:29] Voice 4: and whether or not they had watched the video of the governance committee.

[4:56:34] Voice 4: But they clearly read our agenda.

[4:56:37] Voice 4: So if that's all they've done and they didn't see the amendments that we made, then we had toned down some of the more controversial language that was in our original letter.

[4:56:47] Voice 4: So if all they've seen is the original letter, then it's, you know, pretty detailed and basic and they understand our frustrations.

[4:56:56] Voice 4: But when our mayor has read that, and that surprised me a little bit, he said very strongly yesterday at our council meeting that this has significant ramifications for Bowen Island and that we have a memorandum of understanding and they want and expect and would demand that this come to Bowen in terms of what it is we're asking for and give us a chance as a council to think about what ramifications there would be.

[4:57:24] Voice 4: So there's that.

[4:57:25] Voice 4: And we've also got the same sort of agreement

[4:57:27] Voice 4: with the Conservancy that we have to consider.

[4:57:30] Voice 4: The whole business about the Federation

[4:57:35] Voice 4: and the democratization and all of this,

[4:57:39] Voice 4: one of the things that I'd never heard before

[4:57:40] Voice 4: was that there was a similar question

[4:57:42] Voice 4: that was raised in 2007.

[4:57:43] Voice 4: There was a referendum and it was turned down

[4:57:46] Voice 4: in terms of having increased representation on Salt Spring.

[4:57:49] Voice 4: So I personally would like to know

[4:57:51] Voice 4: what led up to that what the reports were what the support from the ministry

[4:57:57] Voice 4: staff and what the if there was a you know any kind of findings afterwards in

[4:58:02] Voice 4: terms of what the reaction was why that got turned down what the problem was in

[4:58:07] Voice 4: terms of not being accepted by Salt Spring to have four representatives and

[4:58:12] Voice 4: the whole thing about unique amenities we ask that they help us clarify section

[4:58:18] Voice 4: Section 3, and in particular, unique amenities, you know, we went through that with the governance

[4:58:24] Voice 4: committee. I think we made a whole bunch of mistakes in terms of how that got rolled out

[4:58:29] Voice 4: in terms of our communication. But we've got quite a decent, helpful report from staff for

[4:58:38] Voice 4: this afternoon and a lengthy conversation about that. And I think that we need to have more

[4:58:42] Voice 4: more clarity. And I don't particularly want to hand this over to a government that I don't have

[4:58:49] Voice 4: a clue who's going to be in power. I don't know who the minister is going to be. I don't know

[4:58:52] Voice 4: what their priorities are going to be. And, you know, if they're different from what we want,

[4:58:57] Voice 4: I think we have to tailor our message and be more strategic in terms of how to present this so that

[4:59:02] Voice 4: we get some buy-in. The result that we had after meeting with the staff, both in the formal

[4:59:08] Voice 4: meeting informal discussions out in the hallway you know staff to staff it was very positive it

[4:59:14] Voice 4: was very strong and you know i think that if we can figure out how to ask them for help we can

[4:59:21] Voice 4: get more help before we take it to the minister and see what we you know demand in terms of changes

[4:59:27] Voice 4: so i'm not in favor of sending the letter now or this letter now

[4:59:41] Voice 23: so uh david maude thank you very

[4:59:44] Voice 23: much david for managing the speakers list we've got eight more people on the list

[4:59:47] Voice 23: um we're approaching 5 30 you know

[4:59:51] Voice 23: we could extend another 15 20 minutes it'd still give

[4:59:54] Voice 23: you enough time to wash up and clean up before dinner um would like to just ask what

[5:00:00] Voice 23: your wish is but you know um this is kind of almost like community of the whole at this point

[5:00:06] Voice 23: um but and we don't have a motion on the table and you know to some extent i was just trying

[5:00:11] Voice 23: to look up what the other options were associated with this motion um because we're kind of like

[5:00:16] Voice 23: between a rock and a hard place and that um maybe there's support for this maybe there's not support

[5:00:21] Voice 23: for this but there's no alternative so would really um if you want to put a motion on the

[5:00:27] Voice 23: table put a motion on the table but uh just sort of a a nod or or not of approval should we go

[5:00:34] Voice 23: another 15 pardon me i've

[5:00:36] Voice 12: had my hand up for quite a long time and i haven't been nobody's said

[5:00:40] Voice 12: anything well that's

[5:00:41] Voice 23: because jamie everybody at council wants to address this and he's got

[5:00:45] Voice 23: david's got a very long list and he's still working through that and your name there's some there's

[5:00:50] Voice 12: some points that were brought up that i'd really like to um address that it's i've got plenty to

[5:00:55] Voice 12: to say here.

[5:00:56] Voice 23: So Jamie, others have the same concern, myself included, that they would like

[5:01:00] Voice 23: to address it again, but we need to go through the list accordingly. So I sort of got a nod of

[5:01:05] Voice 23: consent. Let's keep going. What did you say? 15 or 20 minutes. Somebody tell me. 15. I'm going to

[5:01:14] Voice 23: go 15. And then we're going to cut it off at 545. And we can pick it up again tomorrow, right?

[5:01:23] Voice 23: that is not over we can pick it up again tomorrow but obviously there's more business ahead of us

[5:01:27] Voice 23: tomorrow that and as there was a suggestion or ready to get go maybe some of those items need

[5:01:32] Voice 23: to be deferred and that would definitely be the time to make that decision so back to you david

[5:01:38] Voice 23: for the speakers list trustee middleton oh so okay

[5:01:48] Voice 16: i'm doing first speakers now second speakers yeah

[5:01:53] Voice 13: Yeah. So I guess this could, Dr. Wilders, hopefully send me some wording in regards

[5:02:00] Voice 13: making a motion to defer those agenda items. I'm not so sure we're going to power through

[5:02:07] Voice 13: this in 15 minutes. So like we're chronically known for getting people weary, trying to finish

[5:02:13] Voice 13: an item of business right at the end of the day. And the quality of our decisions is not good

[5:02:18] Voice 13: because of it so i i'm almost of the view with your pleasure chair that maybe we make that motion

[5:02:23] Voice 13: now to um defer those other business items um oh well are i see you're you're you're perhaps

[5:02:32] Voice 13: you're offering that there's some time tomorrow but what will that time be how much time will

[5:02:36] Voice 13: there be first thing in the morning if

[5:02:38] Voice 23: you like but i would say let's conclude this conversation

[5:02:40] Voice 23: today people can think about it and

[5:02:43] Voice 23: otherwise there's going to be a totally different level

[5:02:45] Voice 23: of discussion and it would break the theme here i personally think do i have consent around that

[5:02:50] Voice 23: let's finish this conversation today or we're not going to finish it let's get it to somewhere in 15

[5:02:56] Voice 23: minutes where we're going to decide what we're going to do tomorrow there's been some amazing

[5:03:00] Voice 23: thoughts put on the table and i don't want to lose that okay

[5:03:04] Voice 13: thank you yeah thank you i'll go

[5:03:05] Voice 23: with that then thank you lee yeah um

[5:03:07] Voice 23: you want to speak to the topic yes

[5:03:09] Voice 13: i will please um i would

[5:03:11] Voice 13: would ask you all to cast your minds back to the evening Mr. Olson spoke to us, right? And I saw

[5:03:17] Voice 13: around the table, I think universally, you can tell me if I'm wrong, there was a seed of hope,

[5:03:22] Voice 13: there was an element of vision, there was something that was probably unique to each of you

[5:03:27] Voice 13: that his talk captured. Now keep in mind where that's coming from. That's coming from a

[5:03:31] Voice 13: long-standing Indigenous MLA who has deep experience with the mechanics of the provincial

[5:03:38] Voice 13: government from both the operations of the machinery of government, as well as an indigenous

[5:03:44] Voice 13: person trying to seek reconciliation through the legislature. So clearly, that perspective

[5:03:51] Voice 13: came through to us and triggered something, I would say, in us. Now, it was sort of a vision

[5:03:58] Voice 13: of hope that we saw, right? And, you know, we've heard like, well, we need to get the minister,

[5:04:04] Voice 13: we need to project a political vision that can excite a minister and his or her political staff

[5:04:13] Voice 13: who inform the bureaucrats of the direction legislatively they want to take. That's what

[5:04:22] Voice 13: we're doing with this letter. If we wanted to have administrative smoothness and work with

[5:04:28] Voice 13: the bureaucracy yes we would take our ceo and staff's concerns uh seriously we would take the

[5:04:35] Voice 13: the bureaucrats that senior bureaucrats in the ministry comes seriously that's not the letter

[5:04:40] Voice 13: we're writing that's not what we set out to do that's not what adam olson asked um us to do he

[5:04:46] Voice 13: asked us to seize the moment at the start of an election when something can become politically

[5:04:52] Voice 13: politically charged when ideas can fly. And I tell you, in Sandwich and the Islands, it will

[5:04:58] Voice 13: be an election issue, which I remind you, 18,000 people in the trust area live in that riding and

[5:05:05] Voice 13: will be part of that conversation. So I want to reiterate, that's what we're asking for. And we

[5:05:11] Voice 13: don't want to get into specifics because that's not what the purpose of the letter is. The purpose

[5:05:17] Voice 13: The purpose of the letter is to ask the province to conduct a wide-ranging review and bring

[5:05:22] Voice 13: in all of the voices that some of you have mentioned.

[5:05:25] Voice 13: We don't want to curtail what a governance vision for the trust might be for the next

[5:05:31] Voice 13: 50 years because we don't know.

[5:05:32] Voice 13: Why would we be struggling around the table if we knew?

[5:05:35] Voice 13: If we had the answers, we wouldn't be having these conversations.

[5:05:38] Voice 13: That's not to fault us.

[5:05:40] Voice 13: We're not experts.

[5:05:41] Voice 13: You know, this is time, I think, to bring in voices from First Nations, from community members, all the people that some of you have spoken about.

[5:05:51] Voice 13: And that is what Olson said this letter is asking the province to do, to create that kind of open forum for all the voices.

[5:06:00] Voice 13: Now, is it a faint hope? It may be. It may be.

[5:06:04] Voice 13: Like at this point, if we launch something into the, you know, the political milieu, is it going to succeed?

[5:06:12] Voice 13: Of course, I couldn't, I am in good conscience, sit here and tell you it would.

[5:06:15] Voice 13: I honestly don't know.

[5:06:18] Voice 13: Would it harm us?

[5:06:19] Voice 13: I mean, we're not asking, we're not going against anybody.

[5:06:22] Voice 13: We're not seeking to undermine the bureaucracy or our own staff.

[5:06:25] Voice 13: We don't work for the ministry.

[5:06:27] Voice 13: Our staff don't work for the ministry.

[5:06:30] Voice 13: We are partners in this.

[5:06:31] Voice 13: And so if we can engage some kind of vision of governance reform, or be that what it may, I mean, you all know what it meant to you around the table when we heard Mr. Olson speak, right? That meant probably something a little bit different for each of us. That's why we're not asking for specifics.

[5:06:51] Voice 13: So, and I would say now is the time, like Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia, there's all these letters coming to them now at this key window to say, share the $2 billion surplus you have in your insurance fund, give us premium relief.

[5:07:08] Voice 13: leave. They're not waiting for a new minister or waiting to say, you know, if senior staff and

[5:07:13] Voice 13: workers' compensation would be so kind as to share out this $2 billion. No, it has to be a

[5:07:19] Voice 13: politically energized conversation. And what we're asking for the trust at this level is a

[5:07:27] Voice 13: politically energized conversation. Will it work? Could we have had more time? Could the letter be

[5:07:32] Voice 13: better crafted? Absolutely. But do we have that luxury? I don't think we do. I think we need to

[5:07:38] Voice 13: send it in thank you trustee out trustee alan

[5:07:44] Voice 19: geez i almost forgot what i said are you gonna say um

[5:07:49] Voice 19: i'm gonna agree with uh trustee evans and trustee stanford that i don't think the letter is

[5:07:54] Voice 19: um ready um i think we should be more as kale we'll call you kale kale mob says um you know

[5:08:03] Voice 19: they wanted specifics and um all of you have said they've wanted specifics so we're you know it's

[5:08:08] Voice 19: It's basically saying we're not happy in this letter and help us out.

[5:08:11] Voice 19: And I will speak that in the years of being a trustee, it was always about just the money.

[5:08:18] Voice 19: It was always about the funding.

[5:08:19] Voice 19: You know, $180,000 is not enough.

[5:08:21] Voice 19: It's never about unique amenities.

[5:08:23] Voice 19: Help us define this.

[5:08:24] Voice 19: If you want a definition of unique amenities, look at this thing, 1982.

[5:08:29] Voice 19: It's all about environment.

[5:08:31] Voice 19: It's not about, you know, and if you want to know what we are all about, let's go back to the beginning and figure it out.

[5:08:37] Voice 19: Because there it is right here.

[5:08:38] Voice 19: So it's really frustrating to hear that you guys, nobody knows what unique amenities are.

[5:08:43] Voice 19: Just go back and look at the history.

[5:08:45] Voice 19: It's really easy.

[5:08:46] Voice 19: If you don't, I'll show this to you or I'll read it out loud tomorrow.

[5:08:50] Voice 19: So, yeah, it's too bad we didn't draft a proper letter earlier.

[5:08:55] Voice 19: I agree that we can't let this go, but I just don't think it's ready right now.

[5:08:59] Voice 19: And let's just craft something really terrific in December and get it out.

[5:09:06] Voice 20: Trustee Hodger.

[5:09:08] Voice 20: Thank you.

[5:09:09] Voice 20: Thank you.

[5:09:10] Voice 20: I'm not in favor of the letter. I don't know why we have to send a letter to the government.

[5:09:16] Voice 20: We are the Islands Trust. When you look in the mirror, when you get washed up, the person looking back at you is the Islands Trust.

[5:09:24] Voice 20: If we can't figure out from the rules that have been in place since 1974, and all of a sudden, oh, we don't know how to do this anymore.

[5:09:34] Voice 20: now why is that is that because we're trying to reconcile and in order to reconcile we need

[5:09:45] Voice 20: legislative power but that's that's the province's job why why are they going to write back and say

[5:09:51] Voice 20: oh yeah you can make treaties with uh any first nation you want it's not going to happen so

[5:09:58] Voice 20: we really need and i think it's partly because we have such a varied group here

[5:10:03] Voice 20: we've got everyone from Mother Teresa to Attila the Hun

[5:10:07] Voice 20: you know and we can't agree on anything

[5:10:11] Voice 20: so that makes it difficult in my mind I mean I was here

[5:10:15] Voice 20: eight years ago people voted for everything

[5:10:19] Voice 20: and everything was fine but it's not happening now so I think we need to

[5:10:24] Voice 20: look inward and say look let's really try

[5:10:28] Voice 20: to see what the rules are and maybe we can make it work

[5:10:33] Voice 20: without the government telling us how to do it.

[5:10:36] Voice 20: Thank you.

[5:10:38] Voice 20: Trustee Bernardo.

[5:10:42] Voice 25: Thank you.

[5:10:48] Voice 25: It's been very frustrating to listen to this discussion.

[5:10:51] Voice 25: It's not clear to me that people have read the letter

[5:10:59] Voice 25: as closely as it deserves,

[5:11:00] Voice 25: because what I'm hearing discussed today

[5:11:03] Voice 25: bears very little resemblance to the letter we actually wrote,

[5:11:08] Voice 25: which was written further to a responsibility

[5:11:13] Voice 25: responsibility you know handed down to us by trust council trust council made the decision

[5:11:17] Voice 25: that this letter was necessary and asked governance committee to draft it and then we do what we

[5:11:23] Voice 25: always do talk big deliver nothing and that's where we're at because there's always really

[5:11:30] Voice 25: good reasons not to do anything because what that involves is i think somebody was talking

[5:11:36] Voice 25: about sticking their necks out well we wouldn't want to do that would we is anybody around this

[5:11:42] Voice 25: this table surprised that the province is giving this story to us,

[5:11:49] Voice 25: that they're pushing back.

[5:11:51] Voice 25: This is a hot potato.

[5:11:53] Voice 25: They don't want it.

[5:11:55] Voice 25: The minister didn't meet with us for a reason,

[5:11:59] Voice 25: fobbed it off on staff for a reason.

[5:12:03] Voice 25: They don't want to get their hands scalded.

[5:12:05] Voice 25: And it's pretty clear to me,

[5:12:07] Voice 25: ministry staff did what they were told to do,

[5:12:10] Voice 25: which is pour cold water on those clowns over at the Islands Trust,

[5:12:14] Voice 25: Because this is the last thing we want at an election.

[5:12:19] Voice 25: Well, guess what?

[5:12:20] Voice 25: This is what we want during an election.

[5:12:23] Voice 25: The purpose of this letter is not to ask for anything.

[5:12:30] Voice 25: So when we talk around this table, oh, we need to be more specific.

[5:12:33] Voice 25: You're playing the province's game.

[5:12:36] Voice 25: This letter is a political instrument.

[5:12:39] Voice 25: The point of it is to create pressure.

[5:12:41] Voice 25: It's to create a dialogue.

[5:12:43] Voice 25: It's to compel a conversation.

[5:12:45] Voice 25: compensation we heard earlier trustee elliott talking about how you know we don't want to have

[5:12:51] Voice 25: a process we're imposing anything on on on first nations that's wrong top down of course it's wrong

[5:12:57] Voice 25: but if you actually read the letter you will see that it doesn't propose to impose anything it's

[5:13:05] Voice 25: not asking the government to come up with the solution what it's doing is saying we want to

[5:13:13] Voice 25: get together with you, First Nations, and the communities for a wide-ranging examination

[5:13:20] Voice 25: of what we need.

[5:13:22] Voice 25: Why are we doing that?

[5:13:24] Voice 25: Why didn't we, further to what the staff is asking, why didn't we come up with this really

[5:13:29] Voice 25: specific list of asks?

[5:13:30] Voice 25: Well, I'll tell you why.

[5:13:31] Voice 25: We're not up to it.

[5:13:33] Voice 25: We haven't got a clue.

[5:13:35] Voice 25: We don't know how to fix it.

[5:13:37] Voice 25: If we did, why would we be limping along like we are?

[5:13:42] Voice 25: We're asking the government, because this is bigger than we are, when we're talking about rewriting legislation and rewriting the structure of the Act and making room, like proper legislative room for reconciliation.

[5:13:55] Voice 25: Those are really big things. We're not intellectually or professionally equipped to do all of that work.

[5:14:03] Voice 25: What we are equipped to do is talk about our experience, talk about the needs of the islands and work with others.

[5:14:09] Voice 25: and the other groups that we have to work with are First Nations.

[5:14:14] Voice 25: There's a reason why we lead off with that.

[5:14:16] Voice 25: We didn't address everything that's in the resolution in the letter

[5:14:19] Voice 25: because there's just a limit to how much attention you can expect

[5:14:22] Voice 25: to get from the government.

[5:14:24] Voice 25: The whole purpose of this is to be an initial foray

[5:14:27] Voice 25: to start the conversation,

[5:14:30] Voice 25: anticipating that we would meet with,

[5:14:32] Voice 25: eventually, if we got some success with this,

[5:14:35] Voice 25: that we would meet with government representatives

[5:14:37] Voice 25: And that we would start the process of developing a process where we could incorporate First Nations, other communities, and ourselves into this large collective effort to rethink the trust.

[5:14:53] Voice 25: And we lead off with reconciliation because we have to ask ourselves this question.

[5:14:58] Voice 25: Are we serious about it or not?

[5:15:00] Voice 25: I'm going to ask all of you to remember something that just happened a little while ago.

[5:15:04] Voice 25: we get the first draft finally of the trust policy statement uh and then we see there's a bunch of

[5:15:13] Voice 25: things in there that some of us are a little uneasy about we're thinking are you sure we can

[5:15:16] Voice 25: do that so what do we do well we go we ask our lawyers to have a look at it and lawyers say look

[5:15:22] Voice 25: guys uh some of these things gotta come out you don't have the jurisdiction to do it let me remind

[5:15:29] Voice 25: you what those things are those are things that first nations in the trust area wanted and in

[5:15:36] Voice 25: In fact, they want them because they think they need them.

[5:15:38] Voice 25: And all of those things, if you line them up, they're all going in the direction of co-management.

[5:15:43] Voice 25: And we have to take them out.

[5:15:46] Voice 25: Now, when Trustee Elliott talks about how, well, you know, we've got to work with people, we've got to talk to them, we've been doing it.

[5:15:51] Voice 25: We did it in connection with the trust policy statement.

[5:15:53] Voice 25: We got the input.

[5:15:55] Voice 25: We can't act on it.

[5:15:58] Voice 25: We can't act on it because we haven't got the jurisdiction.

[5:16:00] Voice 25: That's why it comes out of the trust policy statement.

[5:16:02] Voice 25: That's why we need to have a conversation with the province about changing our structure so that we can get the jurisdiction, so that we can actually have a credible conversation.

[5:16:11] Voice 25: So that we're not just having these friendly go nowhere conversations with First Nations, but we actually have conversations that take us a step forward and we get some results.

[5:16:21] Voice 25: And provincial resistance, it shouldn't be a surprise.

[5:16:27] Voice 25: I mean, the nature of our request is that we are raising the stakes.

[5:16:33] Voice 25: this is where the rubber hits the road for the province on reconciliation and they don't want

[5:16:37] Voice 25: to do it not on our not certainly not on our timeline and not on the schedule for for other

[5:16:43] Voice 25: local governments they're afraid of it they you know they had a blow up in pender harbour when

[5:16:50] Voice 25: they're trying to co-manage enter into co-management agreement with respect to docs

[5:16:54] Voice 25: they know this is a dangerous topic for them in the election which is exactly why we need to get

[5:17:00] Voice 25: it out there and get it out there now so it does become an election issue no it's not going to be

[5:17:05] Voice 25: a provincial election issue but it will be an election issue in Saanich it will be an election

[5:17:09] Voice 25: issue for those districts where that intersect with the island's trust and that's the purpose of

[5:17:18] Voice 25: it it's not about getting it to the attention of the right minister this isn't you know it's wrong

[5:17:24] Voice 25: to think of this as if this is some sort of hail mary pass that is supposed to once it goes you

[5:17:28] Voice 25: you know, into the hands of the receiver. This is it. We win. No, no, no. This is just the very

[5:17:34] Voice 25: beginning of the idea of having a conversation. So all this talk about, oh, we should have a

[5:17:39] Voice 25: specific ask, all the rest of it. Look, it's a waste of time and money if we try to do that.

[5:17:44] Voice 25: You don't start out something like this by dropping a white paper on them. And we're not

[5:17:50] Voice 25: equipped to do it. We don't have it. Come on. I mean, let's be realistic. We've struggled to try

[5:17:55] Voice 25: to get uh corporate planning underway think of all the other things that we know that we have

[5:17:59] Voice 25: to get done but somehow we can't get our hands around it that's the problem and underlying all

[5:18:08] Voice 25: of this problem is uh a fundamental problem that i believe is the reason why the islands trust and

[5:18:18] Voice 25: let's face it is held in such low regard by our constituents and it's that this body is

[5:18:30] Voice 25: is undemocratic.

[5:18:32] Voice 25: It's unrepresentative.

[5:18:33] Voice 25: And it's not just about Salt Spring.

[5:18:34] Voice 25: And the whole idea of, oh, let's go back to Salt Spring.

[5:18:36] Voice 25: You know, they have another referendum.

[5:18:37] Voice 25: Maybe they have a municipality, and then we can get those jerks off their backs.

[5:18:41] Voice 25: No, no, no.

[5:18:42] Voice 25: The whole structure of this, every local trust area has two representatives.

[5:18:48] Voice 23: So, Joe, we've gone beyond the time the council wanted to spend on this.

[5:18:52] Voice 23: We can pick it up tomorrow.

[5:18:54] Voice 23: All right.

[5:18:56] Voice 23: I'll Zoom tomorrow, then.

[5:18:57] Voice 23: Thank you, Joe.

[5:18:58] Voice 23: Thank you.

[5:18:58] Voice 23: that. I appreciate that. Thanks. Okay, let's recess. We're going to be back here at 8.30

[5:19:05] Voice 23: tomorrow morning. Dinner is going to be served at 6.30. Lori, where?

[5:19:16] Voice 12: Excuse me, will this speakers

[5:19:18] Voice 12: list be picked up tomorrow morning?

[5:19:28] Voice 11: Say what again? Oh,

[5:19:33] Voice 23: Jamie, we will pick up the speakers

[5:19:36] Voice 23: list accordingly tomorrow thank you