Islands Trust Programs Committee regular meeting, April 16, 2025

[0:00:00] Voice 9: Perfect. I'm just going to quickly organize my screen. There we go. Good morning, everybody.

[0:00:09] Voice 9: I'm convening the meeting of the Trust Programs Committee and thank everyone for joining us today.

[0:00:15] Voice 9: My name is Christina Evans and I'm elected on Sudea South Pender and I'm the chair of the

[0:00:20] Voice 9: Trust Programs Committee. And I'd like to start with the meeting with acknowledging that we are

[0:00:26] Voice 9: are fortunate today to be gathered in locations across the traditional territories of the Coast

[0:00:31] Voice 9: Salish peoples. For myself, I recognize that I'm an uninvited guest, living and residing and

[0:00:39] Voice 9: playing on beautiful Sudea South Panda. I heard from one of the chiefs who would come and talk

[0:00:49] Voice 9: to our communities a lot of the stories about his experiences growing up and his fathers and

[0:00:58] Voice 9: grandfathers and some of the lovely histories that they've had on Sudea South Panda and I'm

[0:01:05] Voice 9: looking out now as it's spring and everything's coming up and then some of the stories that we've

[0:01:10] Voice 9: heard about like the camas fields that we've got here as well on Sudea and we've got the chocolate

[0:01:17] Voice 9: lilies coming up and we have a lot of protections in place around those areas and it just gives me

[0:01:27] Voice 9: hope and and feelings of goodwill for our relationships together and that we can continue

[0:01:34] Voice 9: to blossom and bloom and get to know each other and areas of safety and yeah so a little bit about

[0:01:44] Voice 9: me as part of my introduction as we get to know each other. This is something that we've been

[0:01:49] Voice 9: doing a little bit on the Trust Programs Committee as we give a little bit about our

[0:01:54] Voice 9: background, who we are, and our connections to where we live and how we kind of came here.

[0:02:04] Voice 9: For myself, as I said, I'm Christina Evans, formerly Christina Peschel. I have two daughters.

[0:02:11] Voice 9: I have one daughter living in Salmon Arm with her husband and two grandchildren.

[0:02:15] Voice 9: I have another daughter living in Vancouver.

[0:02:17] Voice 9: I have a stepdaughter who is also in Vancouver and a stepson who is in Victoria.

[0:02:25] Voice 9: My mother was, her maiden name was Lali Jørgensen and my father was Eric Watson.

[0:02:31] Voice 9: And on my mother's side, the Jørgensens from the very north of Norway with ties to Sweden as well.

[0:02:46] Voice 9: Well, myself, I was born in Singapore and I was raised in Asia, the Mediterranean and Europe.

[0:02:54] Voice 9: So I've lived in a lot of different cultures and countries.

[0:02:58] Voice 9: But I have to say this is by far one of my favorite places, just with the.

[0:03:05] Voice 9: There's there's nothing to say about South Panda, except if you feel stressful, come here and it will melt away.

[0:03:11] Voice 9: So I'm going to now move around the table and feel free to introduce yourselves as you like.

[0:03:16] Voice 9: like. I'm not saying that you have to do this format. It's just a good way for us all to get

[0:03:21] Voice 9: to know each other. So feel free if you'd like to. And I'll move over to Trustee Fast.

[0:03:26] Voice 12: Good morning, everybody. It's Sue Ellen Fast here, zooming in from Nuhlelequem, which is

[0:03:32] Voice 12: Bowen Island in Alcatsum House Hound. This is, the island is territory of Squamish Nation

[0:03:41] Voice 12: and the lands uh and the waters around it uh shared with slail what tooth as i understand

[0:03:47] Voice 12: and uh feeling very fortunate to be here i grew up in northern ontario um uh shared a school

[0:03:56] Voice 12: uh classroom and uh playing fields and a hockey rink a skating rink uh with uh shingwa call

[0:04:04] Voice 12: residential school uh next door sue saint marie and uh happy to be here thank you yeah i'm the

[0:04:12] Voice 20: to move over to Trustee Yates. Thank you, Chair Evans. I am zooming in today from

[0:04:21] Voice 20: Snuneymuxw territory, and I was elected for the Gabriola Local Trust Area, which includes

[0:04:27] Voice 20: De Courcy and Wedge Islands. And I too have recently been admiring and being so appreciative

[0:04:33] Voice 20: of some of the First Nations food sources like chocolate lily, rice root, and camas bulbs.

[0:04:42] Voice 20: And I'm so grateful to see a lot of those areas are protected.

[0:04:47] Voice 20: Thank you.

[0:04:49] Voice 9: Thank you.

[0:04:50] Voice 20: Trustee Gaviria?

[0:04:55] Voice 14: Good morning, everyone.

[0:04:57] Voice 14: Happy to be here.

[0:04:58] Voice 14: My name is Lisa Goveru.

[0:05:00] Voice 14: I am elected on beautiful Galliano Island.

[0:05:04] Voice 14: I've been living here for about 25 years now.

[0:05:08] Voice 14: I moved here from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where I grew up.

[0:05:11] Voice 14: I am the mother of two beautiful 16-year-old twins and I am currently the chair for the

[0:05:22] Voice 14: Islands Trust Conservancy. I also sit on the Accessibility Committee with the Islands Trust

[0:05:26] Voice 14: and I'm very happy to be involved with this committee here.

[0:05:30] Voice 14: Like a moratorium meeting today. Good to see everybody.

[0:05:35] Voice 10: Thank you so much. Trustee Peterson?

[0:05:37] Voice 10: Morning

[0:05:41] Voice 21: from beautiful Hueyte, Laskete Island. Spring is springing. Had the opportunity to do a little bit of travel down to Galliano in Salt Spring last week as part of my LTC chair role.

[0:05:58] Voice 21: And wow, what an amazing, amazing part of the world we are privileged to work, live and play in.

[0:06:07] Voice 21: I come from a background, my father, Larry Peterson's side goes back to Norwegian roots.

[0:06:16] Voice 21: And on my mother, Judith Arne's side goes back to roots from Germany and England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

[0:06:26] Voice 21: and born in the territory of the Shoshone and Washoe peoples,

[0:06:33] Voice 21: south of the border.

[0:06:35] Voice 21: Good morning, everyone.

[0:06:37] Voice 9: Good morning, and thank you.

[0:06:39] Voice 9: Trustee Graham.

[0:06:43] Voice 6: Good morning, everyone.

[0:06:45] Voice 6: David Graham, elected on Denman Island,

[0:06:48] Voice 6: traditional territory of the Coast Salish people,

[0:06:50] Voice 6: the Comox and the Qualicum.

[0:06:52] Voice 6: I've lived here in the center of Denman Island,

[0:06:55] Voice 6: what we call Middle Farm, for 32 years,

[0:06:57] Voice 6: And we share this property, large property, with five other families.

[0:07:03] Voice 6: And this is my fourth term as a trustee.

[0:07:07] Voice 6: And when I came to Denman, I needed a job.

[0:07:10] Voice 6: And I was a home baker.

[0:07:12] Voice 6: And I thought, well, why don't I become an island baker?

[0:07:15] Voice 6: So we did that for about seven years.

[0:07:17] Voice 6: That was lots of fun, baking hundreds and hundreds of loaves of bread.

[0:07:21] Voice 6: And happy to be a trustee.

[0:07:22] Voice 6: And happy to be a member of Trust Programs Committee.

[0:07:27] Voice 9: Thanks so much.

[0:07:28] Voice 9: um trustee elliott hello

[0:07:33] Voice 11: everyone i'm coming to you from the name of territory on beautiful

[0:07:37] Voice 11: gabriela island um i my name is toby lee don elliott i was born and raised in the territory

[0:07:45] Voice 11: of the sumas and matskwe first nations of the stotlow people in what's now known as abbotsford

[0:07:52] Voice 11: my father is the late robert roy elliott and my late mother is donna blanche hawkin

[0:07:58] Voice 11: and I just wanted to share, it's the season of the thimbleberry fruit. So these shoots are

[0:08:07] Voice 11: eaten by many, many Coast Salish peoples, and there's a very short two, sort of two-week window.

[0:08:14] Voice 11: It's sort of the fresh fruit that you can get, and I think it's called t'aquam, t'aquam.

[0:08:22] Voice 11: But I've just seen one growing naturally in my little patch of alders there.

[0:08:29] Voice 11: So very excited to see it turn into shoots and see what it tastes like.

[0:08:35] Voice 9: That's very exciting. Thank you.

[0:08:39] Voice 9: Trustee Maud.

[0:08:41] Trustee Maude: Good morning. Greetings from sunny and beautiful and gorgeous Maine Island.

[0:08:46] Trustee Maude: Home of the fallow deer, which is the reason that we don't have camas or chocolate lilies or thimbleberries

[0:08:52] Trustee Maude: or any of those other wonderful native species that reside on many of the other islands.

[0:09:00] Trustee Maude: Happy to be here today and looking forward to a very productive meeting. Thank you.

[0:09:05] Voice 9: Thank you very much. And I'd like to introduce our Trust Council Chair,

[0:09:09] Voice 9: who's here in the next VCO capacity, Chair Patrick.

[0:09:13] Voice 5: Well, good morning, everyone. I'm coming to you from Salt Spring Island,

[0:09:18] Voice 5: which is the territories of the Tsenchathin and Hul'q'u'minim speaking peoples.

[0:09:23] Voice 5: I too, like many of you, came from immigrant parents, so I'm honored to be here today.

[0:09:30] Voice 9: Thank you very much.

[0:09:31] Voice 9: And I'm going to go and ask our staff to introduce themselves as well.

[0:09:35] Voice 9: I'm going to go as I see you on the screen, and I'll start with Staff Barlow.

[0:09:44] Voice 22: Good morning.

[0:09:45] Voice 22: I'm Robert Barlow, the Legislative Services Clerk and the recorder today, and delighted

[0:09:50] Voice 22: to be born, live, and work in the Lekwungen-speaking people territory.

[0:09:59] Voice 9: Thank you.

[0:10:00] Voice 9: you. Staff

[0:10:01] Voice 15: Freighter. Good morning, everyone. Claire Freighter, title at Adams Trust as Director

[0:10:08] Voice 15: of Trust Area Services. Born in the Treaty 7 territory and have grown up in the territory

[0:10:13] Voice 15: of the Wissanich peoples where I live with today with my family. My family roots go back to the

[0:10:19] Voice 15: United Kingdom with my parents, Susan Rumble, or Susan Garnett and Michael Rumble. So such a

[0:10:26] Voice 15: pleasure to be here today with you. Looking forward to a good and productive meeting.

[0:10:29] Voice 15: thank you very much uh staff elliot yeah

[0:10:34] Voice 2: it's well my which originates from my um

[0:10:39] Voice 2: grandmother married into couch and she uh lived in that well just a quick short story

[0:10:45] Voice 2: had a soccer team called the wanderers but in the late 1800s and early 1900s and they played at

[0:10:51] Voice 2: at the top level with some of the top teams um and unfortunately they didn't win based as a result

[0:10:58] Voice 2: of racism in a hard game um but our first nations you know when they when they gather on the islands

[0:11:04] Voice 2: and they're waiting for the tides they would uh they would make a soccer ball out of their shirts

[0:11:08] Voice 2: or so they'd make it out of cloth and play soccer on some of the fields on some of the islands and

[0:11:12] Voice 2: it's uh just to share that story and then they you know they they created this team that had

[0:11:17] Voice 2: great capacity and some of their players were selected to go to the province provincials with

[0:11:22] Voice 2: the Nanaimo at that time were the the champs I guess and they so they went to the province with

[0:11:27] Voice 2: this um enamel team um both my wife's my wife's great great grandfather and my great great

[0:11:34] Voice 2: grandfather played and a few other players from the wanders this enamel team and they were the

[0:11:39] Voice 2: scorers of the uh of winning those the champs at that time and um and but just to acknowledge also

[0:11:46] Voice 2: for to play at the capacity when the wanders were playing the enamel team that when they

[0:11:50] Voice 2: walked into the field or the stadium they got spat on they got called names but they

[0:11:55] Voice 2: they continued playing the game for the love of the sport and even when they played for the

[0:12:00] Voice 2: the Nanaimo team to go to the provincials and further their own teammates would uh discriminate

[0:12:06] Voice 2: or say racist comments against them and so you know so you look at our capacity in regards to

[0:12:12] Voice 2: you know the racism that was towards people and that was and that was you know that was quite

[0:12:18] Voice 2: common for the indigenous people 125 years later Violet's great-grandfather got inducted to the

[0:12:25] Voice 2: the hall of fames both in the canada and the province in another hall of fame so three hall

[0:12:30] Voice 2: of fames to get knowledge for his uh his sports and his uh skills and i so when we're talking

[0:12:36] Voice 2: about the islands i just want to you know remind our our our everybody that's working that our

[0:12:41] Voice 2: first nations when they're out there on the islands that's where they and probably from

[0:12:45] Voice 2: residential school but that's where they built their skills is uh making a soccer ball out of

[0:12:50] Voice 2: cloth and playing in the in the fields and some of the islands out out there so hi chad thank you

[0:12:54] Voice 2: Thank

[0:12:55] Voice 9: you for that story. Thank you so much. Staff, Shaw, please.

[0:13:04] Voice 9: Straw?

[0:13:06] Voice 9: Straw, yes.

[0:13:09] Voice 1: Thank you. My name is Chloe Straw. I'm the new program coordinator for Trust Area Services.

[0:13:15] Voice 1: Very excited to be attending my first Trust Programs Committee meeting. I'm joining you

[0:13:19] Voice 1: from the territory of the Sdenemo, beautiful Gabriel Island, and very fortunate to have

[0:13:27] Voice 1: grown up on Tsleil-Waututh territory in North Vancouver.

[0:13:30] Voice 1: Thank you.

[0:13:31] Voice 9: Thank you.

[0:13:32] Voice 9: Staff Yeoman.

[0:13:36] Voice 13: Good morning, trustees.

[0:13:39] Voice 13: I'm Jason Yeoman, Senior Policy Advisor with the Islands Trust, coming to you today from Lekwungen Territory, these days known as Victoria, BC.

[0:13:47] Voice 13: I'll just mention briefly, I live next door to Meechan, which today is known as Beacon Hill Park in the city.

[0:13:53] Voice 13: And while it is a manicured landscape, highly manicured landscape these days, there's pockets of it that really give you a sense of what the landscape would have looked like before we placed all the cement upon it,

[0:14:05] Voice 13: when it was manicured and managed in a different way by the Indigenous people who have always lived here.

[0:14:11] Voice 13: And grateful to live so close to such a jewel. Thanks.

[0:14:15] Voice 10: Thank you. Steph Cermak?

[0:14:17] Voice 10: Good

[0:14:20] Voice 3: morning, everybody. Stefan Cermak, Director of Planning Services. I'm coming to you from Salt Spring Island, the unceded territory of many Coast Salish First Nations.

[0:14:31] Voice 3: I am especially lucky to come to you from a low bank waterfront area with fresh water running all year round, good harvesting of shellfish,

[0:14:41] Voice 3: and grateful every day just to walk on the beach

[0:14:45] Voice 3: and know that this was the home

[0:14:47] Voice 3: of thousands of years of harvesting.

[0:14:49] Voice 3: And thank you.

[0:14:52] Voice 9: Thank you.

[0:14:53] Voice 9: And I see Staff Shulba.

[0:15:04] Voice 18: Hello, I'm William Shulba.

[0:15:05] Voice 18: I'm Senior Freshwater Specialist at the Alliance Trust.

[0:15:08] Voice 18: Coming to you from Salt Spring Island,

[0:15:10] Voice 18: which is the territories of many

[0:15:16] Voice 18: and sacred lands of many Coast Salish people.

[0:15:20] Voice 18: I live close to the village of Wacom,

[0:15:23] Voice 18: which is in the Cowchin territory,

[0:15:25] Voice 18: and it's a place of a resurgence of spiritual

[0:15:30] Voice 18: and cultural activities and efforts into restoring wetlands

[0:15:37] Voice 18: and providing a different perspective on the land there.

[0:15:42] Voice 18: And so I'm happy to be here at the Trust Programs Committee to speak about freshwater sustainability.

[0:15:50] Voice 18: Thank you.

[0:15:56] Voice 9: Thank you.

[0:15:57] Voice 9: Sorry, I think I froze there.

[0:15:59] Voice 9: I also see CAO Brony.

[0:16:03] Voice 17: Good morning.

[0:16:04] Voice 17: Thank you.

[0:16:05] Voice 17: Ruben Brony, Chief Administrative Officer for the Islands Trust and fortunate to live and work in the territory of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations.

[0:16:12] Voice 17: Thank you.

[0:16:13] Voice 9: Thank you.

[0:16:14] Voice 9: If I've missed anybody, please let me know.

[0:16:17] Voice 9: um otherwise i will move on and um ask if there's any additions or changes to the agenda

[0:16:28] Voice 9: and i understand that there is a late delegation request so i'd like to um ask the committee if

[0:16:37] Voice 9: they are okay with adding this delegation to the agenda as a late item which i do believe requires

[0:16:44] Voice 9: requires a three-quarter vote on it, and I'll check in with staff if that is correct.

[0:16:56] Voice 9: Robert Barler or anybody, if that's correct.

[0:17:03] Voice 22: I'll defer to Director Marler, if that's all right.

[0:17:09] Voice 9: Sure. I think I missed Director Marler on my list as well. I didn't see that he was there.

[0:17:16] Voice 19: Well, hi, good morning. Yeah, David Marler. I'm from Lugongan territory and happy to be here.

[0:17:24] Voice 19: Sorry, I just missed a question there through the chair from Robert.

[0:17:28] Voice 19: What was that?

[0:17:29] Voice 9: The question was, I believe we have a late delegation request.

[0:17:34] Voice 9: In order to add it to the agenda, I believe it's a three-quarter vote that's required.

[0:17:38] Voice 19: It's a two-third vote, correct?

[0:17:40] Voice 9: Two-third.

[0:17:40] Voice 19: Yeah, it's a new item to put onto the agenda.

[0:17:43] Voice 9: Okay.

[0:17:44] Voice 9: So if I can just double-check with staff,

[0:17:47] Voice 9: I believe the late agenda item was from the office of, oh, I've forgotten his name.

[0:17:57] Voice 9: I'm drawing a blank on his name.

[0:17:59] Voice 9: I know him.

[0:18:00] Voice 9: Emily Botterill?

[0:18:02] Voice 9: Thank you.

[0:18:04] Voice 9: So are we okay?

[0:18:06] Voice 9: And I've got a thing with names.

[0:18:09] Voice 9: I do apologize.

[0:18:10] Voice 9: apologize. So I'd like to put it to the vote if the committee is okay with adding this delegation

[0:18:21] Voice 9: to the agenda. So I'm going to ask, yes, Trustee Fast, you have a question?

[0:18:27] Voice 12: I believe it's Rob Botterill's office. And is this regarding the Southern Gulf Island

[0:18:33] Voice 12: Forum? Correct. This is with regards to the Secretariat

[0:18:37] Voice 9: Services funding.

[0:18:38] Voice 12: understanding great thank you i'm in favor

[0:18:40] Voice 9: and uh i'll wait for you to call the vote thank you

[0:18:44] Voice 9: does anybody else have any clarifying questions before we move to the vote

[0:18:47] Voice 9: okay all those in favor of allowing the delegation to join the agenda please raise your hand okay

[0:18:59] Voice 9: thank you very much please lower your hand okay me too any opposed not seeing any we will add that

[0:19:13] Voice 9: the agenda as a late item as and i think one of the no we're all fine so we'll add that as number

[0:19:21] Voice 9: two under section four uh rob botterill's office perfect and thank you so much for putting the

[0:19:30] Voice 9: agenda on the screen are there any other changes to the agenda not seeing any hands raised

[0:19:43] Voice 9: by general consent can we adopt the agenda if anyone has an issue with that please raise

[0:19:49] Voice 9: raise your hand in opposition. Otherwise, we'll take this as general consent, as amended. Perfect.

[0:19:58] Voice 9: So with the amended agenda, we're going to move down into the public comment period. Do we have

[0:20:05] Voice 9: anyone from the public online at the moment?

[0:20:09] Voice 22: No, we don't. We only have Patricia Pearson

[0:20:14] Voice 22: from the constituency outreach office of Rob Botterall who is going to be the delegate

[0:20:22] Voice 22: for the next agenda item representing the Southern Gulf Islands. That's the only person

[0:20:27] Voice 22: in attendance at this point.

[0:20:29] Voice 9: Okay. So is Ruth Simmons running behind?

[0:20:34] Voice 22: I'm not aware of her status. We were expecting her this morning.

[0:20:38] Voice 22: Okay.

[0:20:39] Voice 9: So we will then allow Rob Botterdall's office to go first. And should Ruth Simmons

[0:20:46] Voice 9: join a little late, then we will permit her to speak too. Sound good?

[0:20:53] Voice 9: She is

[0:20:54] Voice 22: now promoted to being a panelist. She can speak now.

[0:20:59] Voice 9: Perfect. Welcome.

[0:21:01] Voice 4: Please go ahead.

[0:21:03] Voice 4: Thank you, Chair Evans. Can you hear me clearly?

[0:21:06] Voice 4: Yes, we can. Thank you.

[0:21:07] Voice 4: Thank you. So thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. My name is Patricia Pearson. I'm the Outreach Coordinator for MLA, Rob Botterill, who, as you mentioned, is a member of the Southern Gulf Islands Forum.

[0:21:22] Voice 4: And the Southern Gulf Islands Forum is requesting continued support of $3,000 from the Trust for this year, as you have in the past, which is an agenda item today.

[0:21:32] Voice 4: So I thought I would come and just quickly speak to that on behalf of the forum members.

[0:21:36] Voice 4: I'm joining you from our office in Sydney, which is in the WSANISH territory of the Sunchothan

[0:21:43] Voice 4: speaking people, and I'm thankful to live and work and play here.

[0:21:49] Voice 4: Most of you probably know the SGI Forum much better than I do.

[0:21:53] Voice 4: Many of you have been part of it for some time.

[0:21:56] Voice 4: I did spend some time last night going through minutes and reports, so just thought I would

[0:22:01] Voice 4: provide a quick overview.

[0:22:03] Voice 4: This was an idea that was championed by former MLA Emily Olson in 2021 with broad support from other levels of government.

[0:22:11] Voice 4: The purpose of the forum was to bring together all elected officials and stakeholders in the Southern Gulf Islands, including First Nations, Federal Provincial Representatives, Island Trust, CRD, to find common ground, to build relationships and find a common story to raise up.

[0:22:27] Voice 4: And as I listened to you all provide your introductions, it struck me as sort of a very

[0:22:32] Voice 4: similar forum that, as far as I know, is one of the only that exists for various levels of

[0:22:39] Voice 4: government in the Southern Gulf Island to get together, to know each other well, and to share

[0:22:44] Voice 4: common concerns and try to strategize around solutions. The purpose was to gather and

[0:22:51] Voice 4: coordinate and advocate on behalf of economic, environment, cultural, social well-being of the

[0:22:56] Voice 4: the communities in the Gulf Islands. It has been an opportunity for members to build relationships,

[0:23:01] Voice 4: brainstorm and share ideas, learn from each other on a wide range of topics.

[0:23:08] Voice 4: Often experts have been brought in to share their expertise in various areas and to develop

[0:23:14] Voice 4: coordinated and strategic approach to solving complex multi-jurisdictional problems.

[0:23:19] Voice 4: As I looked through the minutes from the last four years, some of the topics that came up

[0:23:24] Voice 4: And some of that I heard raised this morning, for example, fallow deer, transportation, roads and ferries, community engagement and how to better communicate with our communities, reconciliation, first nations engagement and referrals, foreshore management, anchorages, moorage, housing, tiny homes, the list goes on.

[0:23:49] Voice 4: One of the comments I saw in the minutes, which I think is probably a common feeling amongst members, is that I appreciate this forum. I deeply miss, at the Trust Council level, having a conversation to just start things off. Even in this short little hour, so much information and pieces of the puzzle have been solved. Very valuable.

[0:24:09] Voice 4: The forum has typically been held once a month or every other month with two half-day in-person

[0:24:18] Voice 4: forums.

[0:24:19] Voice 4: It has resulted in countless letters and meetings with federal, provincial, and local government

[0:24:25] Voice 4: officials, improved communication with constituents, and even more recently, a new cross-border

[0:24:31] Voice 4: Forum with our U.S. counterparts to look at a response to tariffs and economic concerns.

[0:24:41] Voice 4: So the funding provided by the Islands Trust is vital in helping to do things such as hosting

[0:24:46] Voice 4: a website, which is the public-facing component of the SGI Forum, to help with coordination

[0:24:51] Voice 4: and support staff support for facilitation and note-taking and hosting meetings and providing

[0:24:58] Voice 4: refreshments.

[0:24:59] Voice 4: So I appreciate the opportunity to share a bit more about the SGI Forum today and look forward to the discussion with regards to the funding later on. Thanks for your time.

[0:25:11] Voice 9: Thank you very much. I appreciate you taking the time to come out today and to speak with us.

[0:25:17] Voice 9: Thank you.

[0:25:18] Voice 9: Does anyone have any questions for Patricia before we move on to another item? Yes, Trustee Yates, go ahead.

[0:25:25] Voice 9: Yes,

[0:25:27] Voice 20: thank you so much for that. I'm really helpful. I have to say, although I'm not in the Southern Gulf Islands area, I always, always look forward to the Southern Gulf Islands report that we get at Trust Council. And it is just, it's just so heartening and so uplifting to read that report. I think it's probably my favorite part of Council. So thank you for that.

[0:25:54] Voice 20: Thank you.

[0:25:55] Voice 8: Thank you.

[0:25:56] Voice 9: I put my own hand up. I'm going to make a personal comment as well. I used to be on the Southern Gulf Island Forum as well. And I found it very, very useful. And the information, the conversations that went on in there were really good, especially starting things for provincial request discussions.

[0:26:17] Voice 9: discussions um so while i'm no longer part of that forum due to other commitments i really did

[0:26:23] Voice 9: appreciate the value of starting some of these conversations from um from the base level and

[0:26:29] Voice 9: and uh being part of the movement to get some things on the go so i i definitely um appreciated

[0:26:36] Voice 9: that does anybody else have any comments or questions for patricia okay not seeing any we

[0:26:46] Voice 9: we will, I'm just going to ask if Ruth has joined yet.

[0:26:52] Voice 15: I confirm I just spoke with her and she will

[0:26:55] Voice 15: be joining as quickly as she can.

[0:26:57] Voice 9: Okay, so if it's okay, we will continue on down the agenda items

[0:27:01] Voice 9: and once once she joins us, if you just let us know, and we will pause and allow her to step in

[0:27:08] Voice 9: at the next moment. Does that work for everyone? Perfect. So the next item on the agenda is item

[0:27:15] Voice 9: Item number five, when I don't believe we have any correspondence, I'm just going to

[0:27:20] Voice 9: confirm that with staff, that none has come in.

[0:27:25] Voice 22: That is correct, sure.

[0:27:27] Voice 9: Perfect.

[0:27:28] Voice 9: Thank you.

[0:27:28] Voice 9: So item number 6.1 will be the approval of the draft minutes.

[0:27:34] Voice 9: And we had the regular meeting on February 12th, and we had a special meeting April 2nd,

[0:27:40] Voice 9: 2025.

[0:27:41] Voice 9: Does anyone have any edits or comments on the minutes of those two meetings?

[0:27:49] Voice 9: And I will start with February 12th first. If we don't have any comments, I'll ask if we can approve by general consent. I'm just giving people time in case I want to raise their hand and can't find the button. I see Trustee Fast raising her hand.

[0:28:07] Voice 9: Just to let you know, Ruth Simons has joined us online.

[0:28:10] Voice 9: line perfect thank you so i'm just gonna i'm just gonna finish these two pieces of uh work first

[0:28:17] Voice 9: so uh by general consent then we will approve the minutes of february 12th 2025

[0:28:25] Voice 9: and i ask for the special meeting minutes of april 2nd 2025 does anyone have any changes edits or

[0:28:34] Voice 9: comments and if not can we approve this by general consent i'm just giving people time to

[0:28:41] Voice 9: raise their hand not seeing any therefore by general consent we will approve the special

[0:28:49] Voice 9: meeting of April 2nd 2025 minutes we also have resolutions without meeting and that's in here

[0:28:57] Voice 9: for our information only so I am going to pause there before we get to the follow-up action list

[0:29:04] Voice 9: and move back to 4.1 with Ruth Simmons and she's joining us from the somehow sound

[0:29:12] Voice 9: Biosphere Region Initiative Society. So if we can promote her so she can speak and we take the

[0:29:21] Voice 9: agenda down. Thank you. And I'll turn it over to Ruth Simmons to introduce herself.

[0:29:27] Voice 9: Hi,

[0:29:36] Voice 8: good morning, everyone.

[0:29:39] Voice 8: Yes, apologize. Juggling a few things here. So thank you for having me.

[0:29:46] Voice 8: and so chair Evans and was trust board I'm very happy to share a little bit

[0:29:55] Voice 8: information and background about our how sound community forums

[0:30:00] Voice 8: that we've been hosting for many years should i just go ahead and absolutely okay i'll give you a

[0:30:07] Voice 8: quick overview i'm sorry it's a bit dark here uh and i so i am calling in from skohomish

[0:30:15] Voice 8: okamea territory and akatsum hausound i'm actually in toloquia territory at the moment but

[0:30:21] Voice 8: uh to be honest it's uh my pleasure to be they have been able to lead the

[0:30:27] Voice 8: the House Sound Biosphere Region Initiative Society for the last many years towards what

[0:30:34] Voice 8: we achieved in 2021, which is the UNESCO Biosphere Region designation. A big reason for

[0:30:43] Voice 8: our success in becoming a biosphere region was the fact that we convene people and we bring people

[0:30:49] Voice 8: together. We have, I think it's eight municipalities, three regional districts, two

[0:30:55] Voice 8: two provincial jurisdictions in a federal area

[0:31:01] Voice 8: that we realized was a challenge of managing

[0:31:06] Voice 8: and looking at an area holistically.

[0:31:10] Voice 8: Our watershed area was a challenge.

[0:31:15] Voice 8: And part of the, so a really important role that we play

[0:31:18] Voice 8: is in bringing people together through one of the forums,

[0:31:21] Voice 8: which is the Howe Sound Community Forum.

[0:31:24] Voice 8: And we've appreciated the funding that Trust Council has been able to direct our way in the role of Secretariat Services.

[0:31:37] Voice 8: We make sure that all the work that we do and the meetings that we host are transparent.

[0:31:44] Voice 8: Everything is on our website.

[0:31:48] Voice 8: We host these forums twice a year.

[0:31:51] Voice 8: and of course the funding from trust council is a contributing amount a lot of our work is done

[0:31:58] Voice 8: by myself who i'm still a volunteer but it does help us to have support for you know all the

[0:32:07] Voice 8: different tasks that go along with convening meetings and without this financial support we

[0:32:12] Voice 8: would be we wouldn't be in as good a place so we do really appreciate it the other forum that

[0:32:20] Voice 8: we convene four times a year is well it's the ocean watch action committee so this committee

[0:32:26] Voice 8: works again brings people together on zoom to share what actions we can take to continually

[0:32:35] Voice 8: improve ocean health in a katsum house sound and the squamish nation um participate we have a co

[0:32:42] Voice 8: chair on our board um squamish nation co-chair joyce williams uh and we continue to try and do

[0:32:49] Voice 8: the work in a good way with the Squamish Nation and the islands are a very big important beautiful

[0:32:57] Voice 8: part of our territory of our of our region so we're very pleased to be able to to do this work

[0:33:04] Voice 8: and I could go on and on about all the good things that have come out of it but Sue Ellen

[0:33:08] Voice 8: Councillor Fass, Trustee Fass I should say and Trustee Stanford can attest for

[0:33:15] Voice 8: their experience with that. I'll leave it at that, and if you have questions, but we really

[0:33:21] Voice 8: appreciate any ongoing financial support.

[0:33:25] Voice 9: Brilliant. Thank you so much. So, for questions,

[0:33:29] Voice 9: Trustee Graham, go ahead.

[0:33:31] Voice 6: Thank you. Thank you for that update. It is a beautiful part of the

[0:33:35] Voice 6: world, for sure. I'm just curious, what percentage of your overall budget is our small but important

[0:33:42] Voice 6: contribution. I'm just kind of curious.

[0:33:44] Voice 8: Yes. Of the forums themselves,

[0:33:51] Voice 8: good question. I'm going to say that it would be about 10% of the overall cost for two forums

[0:34:03] Voice 8: a year and for Oceanwatch action committees. Yeah.

[0:34:12] Voice 9: Thank you so much. Does anyone else have

[0:34:15] Voice 9: any other questions okay not seeing any thank you very much ruth i appreciate your time thank you

[0:34:24] Voice 9: for joining us yes and thank you for the thumbs up all the best thank you bye bye bye now bye

[0:34:33] Voice 9: okay so with that if we can bring the agenda back up on the screen we are now moving into 6.3 which

[0:34:45] Voice 9: which is our follow-up action list.

[0:34:49] Voice 9: And I'm going to turn this over to Staff Freighter

[0:34:53] Voice 9: to talk us through these items.

[0:34:56] Voice 9: And I see that we should have a bit of a discussion

[0:34:58] Voice 9: on the first item,

[0:34:59] Voice 9: but I'll turn it over to Staff Freighter to start us off.

[0:35:03] Voice 15: Okay, thank you, Chair.

[0:35:04] Voice 15: So yes, I was hoping to prompt a discussion

[0:35:06] Voice 15: or have you hold this in your mind

[0:35:07] Voice 15: as you go through your Secretariat Services decision today,

[0:35:11] Voice 15: as this has been lingering since 2021.

[0:35:13] Voice 15: 2021, it's been a request to staff that we bring you criteria to use for these decisions around

[0:35:21] Voice 15: your Secretariat Services decisions. There was, back in the day, some discussion that this was

[0:35:27] Voice 15: difficult. Trustees found it difficult to sort of, with a limited pool of funding, to determine which

[0:35:32] Voice 15: group should get the support. That said, staff have found it difficult, A, due to lack of staff

[0:35:38] Voice 15: capacity to dedicate the effort to this, but also at the end of the day, it's largely a political

[0:35:42] Voice 15: local consideration around what value you see in the groups and how they how you believe they

[0:35:48] Voice 15: further the implementation of the mandate um so certainly this could we are hiring a new policy

[0:35:53] Voice 15: advisor this year there's something we could look at but i wanted this group to reflect as you go

[0:35:57] Voice 15: through your decision today is this resolution still necessary is do you still wish to have

[0:36:02] Voice 15: criteria for future decisions on these topics or really is it a purely political consideration

[0:36:08] Voice 15: that you'd like to have flexibility within as you move forward so we haven't done any work but we

[0:36:15] Voice 15: certainly with a new policy advisor coming in this year could turn our minds to this but want you to

[0:36:20] Voice 15: reflect is it still needed so perhaps you could let us know should you reach the end of your

[0:36:26] Voice 15: decision today if you don't feel that criteria would have served you you could rescind this

[0:36:29] Voice 15: motion make them have a motion to rescind this motion or simply leave it there and then we'll

[0:36:33] Voice 15: try and get to it later in the year and bring something back to you with amendments to the

[0:36:36] Voice 15: a policy.

[0:36:40] Voice 9: So I'm just going to remind, because we have had discussion on this in this committee

[0:36:48] Voice 9: before and during this term as well. So part of the criteria that we've looked at is the funding

[0:36:56] Voice 9: that we're providing is purely for administrative services and what that looks like. We were also

[0:37:03] Voice 9: looking at what types of organization would fit within the um like if there would be any additional

[0:37:10] Voice 9: criteria that should fit making sure that the organizations that we're supporting fall in line

[0:37:16] Voice 9: with the mandate that we are supporting for the islands trust area so i think it would be a good

[0:37:22] Voice 9: idea to is i guess my question right now is do we have anything that um provides information

[0:37:28] Voice 9: on how to allocate the funds for the Secretariat funding?

[0:37:32] Voice 15: So you have criteria in terms of which coordination groups are eligible,

[0:37:36] Voice 15: and that is set out in the Secretariat Services Policy.

[0:37:39] Voice 15: In terms of how you rank importance or priority setting

[0:37:44] Voice 15: around how you wish to allocate it, you don't have that guidance.

[0:37:48] Voice 15: So that's the piece.

[0:37:49] Voice 15: So once they're deemed to be eligible,

[0:37:51] Voice 15: we don't have any further criteria for you in terms of saying,

[0:37:55] Voice 15: you know, this is land-based versus marine-based,

[0:37:57] Voice 15: or this has a larger number of memberships

[0:38:00] Voice 15: or this includes this coordination group

[0:38:02] Voice 15: includes nonprofits and another doesn't

[0:38:04] Voice 15: or whatever it might be that you'd like to have as a criteria.

[0:38:08] Voice 15: There's a number we could suggest to you,

[0:38:10] Voice 15: but really from the staff's perspective,

[0:38:14] Voice 15: it ultimately is a bit political at times

[0:38:16] Voice 15: as to how you deem to see that value.

[0:38:20] Voice 15: But yes, happy to bring you a briefing if you'd like one.

[0:38:22] Voice 15: I think we're now staffed up sufficiently

[0:38:24] Voice 15: that we could provide that to you

[0:38:26] Voice 15: should you still wish it.

[0:38:27] Voice 15: And I

[0:38:28] Voice 9: think maybe what we can do then is maybe on the next regularly scheduled meeting, bring that document forward.

[0:38:37] Voice 9: We can review it and see if anything is needed in addition to what's currently there as a body.

[0:38:43] Voice 9: And then if we deem that perhaps we should, we can make that decision then.

[0:38:47] Voice 9: If not, at that point, we can rescind this.

[0:38:50] Voice 9: But I don't feel comfortable rescinding it today without having the opportunity as a body to review the document and how it currently sits.

[0:39:00] Voice 9: But I appreciate the conversation coming forward.

[0:39:03] Voice 9: Does anybody have any questions or comments or thoughts that they'd like to raise regarding this item?

[0:39:12] Voice 9: Trustee Graham?

[0:39:15] Voice 6: Thank you, Chair.

[0:39:16] Voice 6: Chair. I'm recalling the conversation that we had at Trust Council when it seemed to be a topic

[0:39:23] Voice 6: which was poorly understood by many of us, and there was no strong desire to proceed. That was

[0:39:31] Voice 6: my taking from that conversation. And as you say, this is an administrative function. And I'm also

[0:39:37] Voice 6: remembering the wise words of our new CAO, who assured us that his strength was in administration.

[0:39:44] Voice 6: administration. So I would be quite happy to remove this from the overworked, understaffed

[0:39:54] Voice 6: team at Trust Programs Committee, but I'm happy to defer your suggestion, although I don't think

[0:40:02] Voice 6: I'm going to change my mind. I'd be quite happy to rescind this at this point.

[0:40:07] Voice 9: Thank you. Appreciate

[0:40:08] Voice 9: Appreciate that. Does anyone have anything else to say?

[0:40:15] Voice 12: Trustee Fast?

[0:40:16] Voice 12: I'm with Trustee Graham on this one, but I'm happy to wait till the next meeting if people want to look more carefully at that secretariat policy.

[0:40:28] Voice 9: Perfect. Thank you. OK, so let's defer a decision on this to the next meeting.

[0:40:37] Voice 9: we'll bring the policy forward so we can have a quick look at it see if there are any gaps

[0:40:42] Voice 9: and if there aren't then we can make an informed decision as a as a full body because i know that

[0:40:47] Voice 9: there's a lot of new members on here too so i think it would just be fair that they have the

[0:40:51] Voice 9: opportunity to look at this as well before making a decision um thank you okay so moving on to the

[0:40:57] Voice 9: next um item on the follow-up action list uh staff rita thank

[0:41:03] Voice 15: you chair you'll see i've noted

[0:41:04] Voice 15: of the target date for your next meeting um i will work with um director marler to see if we can

[0:41:09] Voice 15: bring you some amendments to that policy for consideration um this is the policy statement

[0:41:13] Voice 15: amendment policy that guides how the process by which trust council amends the policy statement

[0:41:19] Voice 15: certainly um you can consider this now it might be something you want to reflect on at the end

[0:41:23] Voice 15: of term once you've actually been through the amendment process again but we'll bring you back

[0:41:27] Voice 15: the requested edits for you to review at your next meeting appreciate that and then if you like

[0:41:35] Voice 15: would you like me just to move down and speak to each one absolutely okay so this next one again

[0:41:39] Voice 15: you'll see it coming to your next meeting at your next meeting we'll bring you a briefing

[0:41:43] Voice 15: or a request for decision about which stewardship education activities you'd like us to prepare

[0:41:48] Voice 15: project charters for this year so this resolution from trust council will feed into that process for

[0:41:54] Voice 15: you at your next meeting this one is completed you have a very fulsome briefing on your agenda

[0:41:59] Voice 15: today around housing options for the policy statement so that has been completed and again

[0:42:05] Voice 15: all of these here are the first two are relating to the stewardship education

[0:42:10] Voice 15: program which will come back on your next agenda so no update today and finally this is just we'll

[0:42:18] Voice 15: mark this completed after this meeting you have been assigned the work now to amend the document

[0:42:21] Voice 15: so we're just providing that resolution to you for information happy to take any other questions

[0:42:30] Voice 9: they're not seeing anybody raising their hand i think we can move on okay so let me see

[0:42:39] Voice 9: did we so i'm trying to follow through here yes so those are done all right so the next item on

[0:42:49] Voice 9: our agenda is getting into the business work program uh so 7.1 is the secretariat services

[0:42:58] Voice 9: coordination groups in the trust area and we've got a few decisions to make today with regards

[0:43:04] Voice 9: to how we allocate the funding that we received in the budget. So I'm going to turn this again

[0:43:12] Voice 9: over to Staff Rater. We have in previous years remained pretty close to the same numbers

[0:43:23] Voice 9: that were being requested. I don't believe that the requests this year are really exceeding the

[0:43:29] Voice 9: budget that we have received so um we don't necessarily have to um have the big discussion on

[0:43:36] Voice 9: um how to how to manage that but i'll turn it over to staff rater and let her carry on

[0:43:42] Voice 15: okay thank you um before i head off i just want to acknowledge um program coordinator straw new

[0:43:47] Voice 15: in the role has done a great job of setting you up today with all getting all the letters in and

[0:43:51] Voice 15: getting everything organized so just want to thank her for that and so great to have someone in that

[0:43:55] Voice 15: that role after a year and a half gap so yeah appreciating that very much. I'm going to provide

[0:44:00] Voice 15: just a very short overview for you today because many of you have done this a number of years in

[0:44:05] Voice 15: a row now but there are a few new people I think but essentially this is the proposed motion and

[0:44:12] Voice 15: we would be looking to the committee if you wish to support all of these groups you would be

[0:44:16] Voice 15: someone would be tabling a motion with suggested amounts to fill in the gaps there depending on

[0:44:20] Voice 15: how you'd like to allocate it out. I'll just highlight for you, you're guided by the policy

[0:44:26] Voice 15: that is linked on the website. The impassed allocation amounts are all given on that webpage

[0:44:32] Voice 15: around what's been given historically. This is what has been requested, which it does not

[0:44:38] Voice 15: at this point total the $17,000 budget that has been requested. That said, additional groups may

[0:44:45] Voice 15: come forward during the year. It's really up to you how you wish to allocate. I'll note that the

[0:44:49] Voice 15: The Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities Climate Leadership Steering Committee was not in a position to advance a request right now.

[0:44:55] Voice 15: They still have adequate funding at this point.

[0:44:57] Voice 15: But two years ago when they did have a request, it came in in the fall.

[0:45:00] Voice 15: So you might want to hold a little bit in reserve should that happen again.

[0:45:04] Voice 15: So I'll leave it at that.

[0:45:06] Voice 15: But if there are people who are new to the committee that aren't familiar with the process, please let me know if you'd like more background.

[0:45:11] Voice 15: Otherwise, I'll turn it back to the chair.

[0:45:14] Voice 9: Thank you.

[0:45:15] Voice 9: So I'll give everybody a second if they've got any questions on the process here, or

[0:45:20] Voice 9: if they've got any questions on the requests.

[0:45:24] Voice 9: Oh, could we enlarge the screen a bit, please?

[0:45:34] Voice 9: Make it just a little bit bigger.

[0:45:36] Voice 9: That would be great.

[0:45:39] Voice 9: There we go.

[0:45:40] Voice 9: Thank you.

[0:45:43] Voice 9: Okay, I'm not seeing anyone having any questions.

[0:45:47] Voice 9: So as was mentioned, the requests have come in.

[0:45:52] Voice 9: There is the potential for a late item in the fall.

[0:45:57] Voice 9: So I personally am happy with meeting the requests as have been noted and reserving a little in case we do get that late request in the fall again.

[0:46:09] Voice 9: Trustee Fast?

[0:46:11] Voice 12: Yeah, thank you, Chair Evans.

[0:46:13] Voice 12: I'm with you on this.

[0:46:15] Voice 12: I was at the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities a couple of days ago.

[0:46:21] Voice 12: and heard the panel from the Vancouver Island

[0:46:27] Voice 12: and Coastal Communities Climate Leadership Steering Committee

[0:46:30] Voice 12: that haven't, that's where they are.

[0:46:34] Voice 12: They were just presenting their recommendations

[0:46:37] Voice 12: to the convention.

[0:46:41] Voice 12: Now that Bowen is a member, we can come there,

[0:46:45] Voice 12: be part of all those recommendations and decisions

[0:46:49] Voice 12: as well as taking in the sessions.

[0:46:51] Voice 12: um so they're uh that's the way their cycle works um and uh so i'm not surprised that they don't

[0:46:58] Voice 12: have funding ready yet um but all of these other uh groups um i'm active mostly with the i'll get

[0:47:05] Voice 12: somehow sound on both the community forum which is like next friday up in squamish and um also the

[0:47:13] Voice 12: the Ocean Watch Action Committee, which was two weeks ago.

[0:47:17] Voice 12: And so lots happening there.

[0:47:20] Voice 12: I'm happy to provide information, but I'm happy to move the motion

[0:47:24] Voice 12: so we can get on to the meaty agenda ahead.

[0:47:27] Voice 9: Yeah.

[0:47:28] Voice 9: Okay.

[0:47:29] Voice 9: I don't see anyone else lined up behind you,

[0:47:31] Voice 9: so feel free to make the motion.

[0:47:32] Voice 12: Okay.

[0:47:33] Voice 12: Thank you.

[0:47:33] Voice 12: I move that Trust Programs Committee allocate for fiscal year 2025-26

[0:47:39] Voice 12: $1,800 to support the coordination of the Rural Island Economic Partnership

[0:47:45] Voice 12: $2,500 to support the coordination of the Bain Sound Lambert Channel Ecosystem Forum

[0:47:52] Voice 12: $3,000 to support the coordination of the Coastal Douglas Fir Conservation Partnership

[0:47:58] Voice 12: $4,000 to support the coordination of the Alketsamhoff Sound Community Forum

[0:48:03] Voice 12: and $3,000 to support the coordination of the Southern Gulf Islands Forum.

[0:48:09] Voice 12: Thank you very much.

[0:48:14] Voice 9: Any comments or edits to the motion as made? Not seeing any hands going up. So at this point, I'd like to ask for a seconder to the motion. Trustee Graham, thank you very much. Any discussion or further comments on the motion? Trustee Patrick?

[0:48:39] Voice 5: No, thank you. I know that sometimes we look at these amounts when we're busy doing budgets for bigger dollar items, but these amounts make a huge difference to these small organizations. And I'm glad that we have this program and are able to support them in this way.

[0:48:56] Voice 9: Absolutely. Thank you. Any other comments or not seeing any, I'm going to call the vote. All those in favor of the motion as presented, please raise your hand. Thank you very much. If you can lower your hands.

[0:49:22] Voice 9: any opposed not seeing any that motion is carried thank you very much and um so that will then leave

[0:49:33] Voice 9: us 27 and 100 in reserve for um any late items that come in so that would be great okay so next

[0:49:45] Voice 9: on the agenda we're two and now this is patient okay let me just get through some of this here

[0:50:02] Voice 9: here if

[0:50:02] Voice 15: I might share I've been sharing screen so I'm going to unshare and pass it over to planner

[0:50:08] Voice 15: humans or senior policy advisor humans to then take over from here sounds good so

[0:50:18] Voice 9: I think once once we get this up on the screen this is um he's done a great job I don't know

[0:50:24] Voice 9: if you if you if everybody's read this there's a lot of information in here there was a lot of

[0:50:29] Voice 9: overlap in different areas. He's done an amazing job of separating things out and linking them

[0:50:37] Voice 9: together. And I just want to say thank you very much. This was a huge task. And what I'm going

[0:50:45] Voice 9: to do is maybe just ask that we deal with them item by item rather than and I'm asking if people

[0:50:54] Voice 9: are okay with that, or if you want to have the entire discussion up front, and then come back

[0:50:58] Voice 9: and deal with the resolutions.

[0:51:01] Voice 9: He will give an overview first,

[0:51:03] Voice 9: and then I'm asking that we go item by item.

[0:51:06] Voice 9: If anyone has a different suggestion

[0:51:08] Voice 9: on how you would like this to go,

[0:51:10] Voice 9: please let me know.

[0:51:14] Voice 9: Okay.

[0:51:15] Voice 9: So I'm going to turn this over to Staff Yeomans.

[0:51:17] Voice 9: If you can give us your overview and high level,

[0:51:23] Voice 9: and then we will get into depth item by item.

[0:51:26] Voice 9: Does that work for you?

[0:51:28] Voice 13: It does.

[0:51:29] Voice 13: Thank you, Chair Evans.

[0:51:30] Voice 13: Kevin. First, can I just check and make sure that my screen share is functioning here and that

[0:51:35] Voice 13: you're all seeing the staff report? Okay. Could

[0:51:39] Voice 9: we make it a little bit bigger just so that people

[0:51:42] Voice 9: who have smaller screens can have a little easier time reading it as well?

[0:51:46] Voice 13: Of course. I'm used to

[0:51:47] Voice 13: working on my giant office screens here. Thank you.

[0:51:52] Voice 13: That might be a little too much.

[0:51:54] Voice 13: much. Back off by one here. All right, there we go. I'll also note that it appears that while

[0:52:01] Voice 13: I'm sharing my screen, I can't raise my hand. So presumably at the outset here, I'll be doing quite

[0:52:07] Voice 13: a bit of the talking for a few minutes anyways. But once I'm done talking, I'm going to mute

[0:52:12] Voice 13: myself and potentially turn off my video screen. I won't be able to raise my hand. So if I feel the

[0:52:17] Voice 13: urge to say something, I may just like frantically wave my hand on screen. So if somebody can be

[0:52:22] Voice 13: be aware of that and flag it for the chair if they see me in the background waving my hand.

[0:52:27] Voice 13: I may need that to happen.

[0:52:29] Voice 9: And you feel free as well to just speak up and say,

[0:52:33] Voice 9: I'd like to go on the speakers list. Then I can jot you in. That would be

[0:52:39] Voice 9: very helpful to me,

[0:52:40] Voice 9: because as you mentioned, I don't necessarily see you, especially if you turn your screen off,

[0:52:44] Voice 9: I can't see you.

[0:52:45] Voice 13: Of course. Okay. Thank you, chair. All right. So I'll just dive right in

[0:52:50] Voice 13: here. I think that typically when I present a report to a committee, I will often say something

[0:52:56] Voice 13: along the lines of, you've got the report before you. I think it's fairly self-explanatory. I'm

[0:53:01] Voice 13: here to answer any questions. I don't know if that's entirely the case today. So I'm just going

[0:53:05] Voice 13: to take a moment to talk about how this report is structured so that it makes sense to everybody,

[0:53:10] Voice 13: if anybody was confused by the way that it was presented here today. At your, well, at your,

[0:53:18] Voice 13: not your meetings, but at the number of Committee of the Whole meetings in February and March,

[0:53:23] Voice 13: requests were made to staff to report back with information on a couple of different topics.

[0:53:29] Voice 13: And so this report before you today is our response to those requests for that further

[0:53:35] Voice 13: policy advice. Coming out of the February 6th meeting, a resolution was passed requesting

[0:53:44] Voice 13: staff advice on six different topics related to housing. In appendix one of this request for

[0:53:52] Voice 13: decision, you will find each of those housing topics discussed in its own discrete box.

[0:54:01] Voice 13: And then appendix two of this request for decision contains our suggestion for how you might want to

[0:54:10] Voice 13: revise the policies related to housing that are currently in the policy

[0:54:15] Voice 13: statement in the draft policy statement to address the issues that for which

[0:54:22] Voice 13: further advice was requested hopefully that makes sense so appendix 2 is

[0:54:30] Voice 13: actually really where where the rubber hits the road with suggested policy

[0:54:34] Voice 13: revisions and appendix 1 is where you'll find all of the discussion about why you

[0:54:40] Voice 13: you might want to consider those particular revisions. Also bundled into this request for

[0:54:45] Voice 13: decision is some policy advice, and this occurs in your package as Appendix 4, related to

[0:54:53] Voice 13: transportation infrastructure that's potentially at risk due to climate change-related hazards.

[0:54:58] Voice 13: So we put that into this request for decision as well. In addition to the proposed amendments

[0:55:07] Voice 13: to the housing policies. Staff have made a couple of other recommendations here

[0:55:15] Voice 13: that relate to those housing policies. So recommendation two here for the need for a

[0:55:20] Voice 13: new definition of housing diversity responds directly to a policy about housing diversity,

[0:55:26] Voice 13: and we need to sort of explain to future trustees or to the general public what we mean by housing

[0:55:31] Voice 13: diversity when we say that. We are suggesting a minor amendment to policy 3.4.2 which is indirectly

[0:55:41] Voice 13: related to housing. It's more about how we develop on the islands generally. You'll find that there

[0:55:47] Voice 13: is an explanation in the RFD about why we're suggesting the changes we are. One of the

[0:55:59] Voice 13: The request for additional information that we had received was around potential zoning

[0:56:07] Voice 13: changes in areas of our islands or your islands, all of our islands together, where current

[0:56:13] Voice 13: development potential does not necessarily align with the Islands Trust Mandate and the

[0:56:17] Voice 13: Islands Trust Object.

[0:56:19] Voice 13: This policy is addressed discreetly here as a recommendation and not in Appendix 2 because

[0:56:24] Voice 13: it's not, it wouldn't live in the housing policies.

[0:56:26] Voice 13: It would rather live in the growth management policies.

[0:56:29] Voice 13: of the draft policy statement. We are suggesting that you request some information from us

[0:56:36] Voice 13: around how the policy statement can support housing for Indigenous peoples. This is a request

[0:56:41] Voice 13: that we've heard a number of times from the Indigenous governing bodies with whom we have

[0:56:45] Voice 13: regular discussions, both about the policy statement and about other issues, Islands Trust

[0:56:51] Voice 13: related. And finally, as noted, Appendix 4 contains some discussion and recommendations around

[0:56:56] Voice 13: around vulnerabilities in our transportation network, and that's framed here as a discrete

[0:57:00] Voice 13: resolution as well. I think that's all I will say for now. Obviously, I'm here to answer questions

[0:57:09] Voice 13: about the substance of our recommendations, but I just wanted to give you that overview of how

[0:57:13] Voice 13: the report is structured in case there was any confusion about that. Thank you.

[0:57:19] Voice 9: Thank you for your overview. So I'm not going to ask for questions on the overview right now.

[0:57:24] Voice 9: I'm going to suggest that we start with recommendation number one, which is with

[0:57:33] Voice 9: regards to the directive policies housing section. So if we can start there, I'm going to ask

[0:57:40] Voice 9: staff yeomans to walk us through that particular item in a little bit more detail.

[0:57:46] Voice 9: And at that point, we'll take questions on that section. And then we can move forward

[0:57:52] Voice 9: on the decision i'm going to ask if anyone on the committee has a different route that they'd like

[0:58:02] Voice 9: to take or are we good to move forward this way going to be scrolling to page 54 i think it's

[0:58:11] Voice 9: also on page um 39 there is a there is an overview there as well so we can we can

[0:58:23] Voice 9: And maybe Staff Yeomans can do the overview on 39, and then we can get into the meat of it in Appendix 2.

[0:58:32] Voice 13: Sure, I will scroll down there momentarily.

[0:58:35] Voice 13: Maybe I'll just linger here on Resolution 2025-016, which are the six topics for which Committee of the Whole had previously requested additional information.

[0:58:48] Voice 13: So those were information to explain housing diversity, some policy options that encourage alternative approaches to rural residential density, policy options that encourage alternative types and forms of buildings to the traditional wood frame construction that we see on the islands, policies related to clustering residential development in appropriate locations,

[0:59:10] Voice 13: regulations policies related to potential for flexibility in housing agreements and policies

[0:59:16] Voice 13: to provide advisory policy options and analysis that supports consideration of down zoning for

[0:59:21] Voice 13: development that is not in the best interest of the community let

[0:59:28] Voice 7: me on

[0:59:37] Voice 13: the topic of housing

[0:59:40] Voice 13: diversity staff are generally supportive of a diversity of housing in the island communities

[0:59:48] Voice 13: communities in order to meet the needs of those communities.

[0:59:51] Voice 13: We have a policy recommendation here that derives a directive policy that Island Municipalities

[1:00:00] Voice 13: shall, in the preparation of their OCPs and in the preparation of their land use bylaws,

[1:00:04] Voice 13: support a range of housing types and tenures to help meet the identified housing needs

[1:00:08] Voice 13: of the island community. We are also recommending a new definition of housing diversity

[1:00:20] Voice 13: added to the glossary of the policy statement, such that housing diversity refers to the range

[1:00:24] Voice 13: of housing types and tenures in a community that allow people to find appropriate housing as their

[1:00:29] Voice 13: Their needs change over time and at all stages of life.

[1:00:33] Voice 13: So I think it's important that you have types of housing in your communities that can accommodate the types of people who live in your communities now and who may want to live in your communities in the future.

[1:00:50] Voice 13: It will save you the long-winded explanation that's associated with those recommendations.

[1:00:57] Voice 13: On the second topic of policy options that encourage alternative approaches to rural residential density, you know, staff largely took this to be a response to a desire, well, a recognition that the traditional form of housing that we have had on the islands is now out of reach for certainly for working class people and indeed probably for many middle class people.

[1:01:29] Voice 13: as well and that there may be other ways that we could live on the islands and

[1:01:36] Voice 13: potentially live together on the islands that have a smaller financial cost

[1:01:42] Voice 13: associated with them potentially a smaller environmental footprint depending

[1:01:46] Voice 13: on how that development moves forward and as such our recommendation is that

[1:01:55] Voice 13: that if you were to want a directive policy related to this, the policy statement could

[1:02:01] Voice 13: say something along the lines of support alternatives to traditional single detached

[1:02:06] Voice 13: dwellings by establishing policies to permit clusters of small dwelling units in suitable

[1:02:11] Voice 13: areas. So rather than zoning that simply allows for one large house, maybe there is a way that

[1:02:18] Voice 13: our zoning could allow for a number of smaller dwelling units on what typically would be a lot

[1:02:24] Voice 13: that simply allowed for one larger dwelling unit.

[1:02:27] Voice 13: We're suggesting that at the current time,

[1:02:33] Voice 13: the direction to LTCs and to island municipalities

[1:02:36] Voice 13: might want to limit this to policies in your OCP.

[1:02:40] Voice 13: So basically setting the table for future land use bylaw changes

[1:02:45] Voice 13: that might allow this to come to fruition,

[1:02:49] Voice 13: rather than directing that local trust committees

[1:02:53] Voice 13: and island municipalities zone for this today.

[1:02:56] Voice 13: because each island is probably going to want to develop its own unique regulatory response to this

[1:03:03] Voice 13: in a way that works best for it, I think.

[1:03:07] Voice 13: So we think we are recommending that this sort of be kept at the OCP level for the time being,

[1:03:12] Voice 13: at least as far as direction in the policy statement is concerned,

[1:03:15] Voice 13: and that local trust committees can then decide what their regulatory response is going to be.

[1:03:21] Voice 9: I was just going to ask, before we move on to the next item,

[1:03:24] Voice 9: because these are these are all quite large topics let's go back to the first one sure

[1:03:28] Voice 7: the

[1:03:29] Voice 9: discussion and see how people feel um about the recommendation and if we're comfortable then

[1:03:35] Voice 9: we can move on to the next one and if we need to have a discussion we can have the discussion

[1:03:38] Voice 9: after the explanation does that is that okay

[1:03:40] Voice 13: that's totally fine now would it also would it

[1:03:43] Voice 13: be helpful for me now to flip to uh appendix two so that everyone can see what the policy looks like

[1:03:53] Voice 13: as it would appear in the policy statement if it were to be.

[1:03:57] Voice 9: I think if you have the page number handy to flip there,

[1:04:01] Voice 9: if somebody asks to look at it, we can absolutely do that.

[1:04:06] Voice 9: So just be ready to flip back and forth between these two pages

[1:04:09] Voice 9: as the individual requests.

[1:04:12] Voice 9: So I'm going to ask how people feel about recommendation number one

[1:04:16] Voice 9: with regards to adding the glossary term

[1:04:22] Voice 9: and 3410, the housing diversity wording.

[1:04:27] Voice 9: How are we feeling there?

[1:04:28] Voice 9: Trustee Fast.

[1:04:30] Voice 12: Thank you.

[1:04:31] Voice 12: I support the idea of adding a definition of housing diversity.

[1:04:38] Voice 12: I think that's a great idea.

[1:04:40] Voice 12: And I'm wondering if, just based on my experience of Bowen Island

[1:04:45] Voice 12: and over the past two and a half terms,

[1:04:49] Voice 12: whether it could include the word size,

[1:04:56] Voice 12: because right now it says support a range of housing types and tenures.

[1:05:02] Voice 12: If it could include the word sizes,

[1:05:04] Voice 12: I think that would help people understand the small dwelling units

[1:05:09] Voice 12: as part of the diversity.

[1:05:11] Voice 12: that just i'm looking at at page 54 the two um new policies one clustered small dwelling units

[1:05:21] Voice 12: would follow housing diversity in the definitions and i just think um uh on bowen here the

[1:05:29] Voice 12: types people understand types um tenures they understand uh but the idea of uh size um has been

[1:05:41] Voice 12: something that I've had to suggest to Bowen Council as being something to consider because

[1:05:53] Voice 12: otherwise people's just minds just run to big single family houses larger and so I'm wondering

[1:06:00] Voice 12: what do trustees think about in the suggestion to add the word size or staff if they've got a

[1:06:07] Voice 12: comment. Thank you.

[1:06:11] Voice 9: Do you still have a comment on that? I

[1:06:16] Voice 13: think that sounds like a reasonable

[1:06:18] Voice 13: addition to the policy.

[1:06:21] Voice 9: I'm going to speak, I put myself on the speaker's list. With regards to size,

[1:06:26] Voice 9: I would be, I feel tentative about adding the word size in because once you add size in,

[1:06:34] Voice 9: you're now including extra large homes as well as extra small homes. And without that definition,

[1:06:41] Voice 9: definition if you're going to say that size is part of the diversity then somebody can come and

[1:06:47] Voice 9: say well i want to have a 12 000 square foot house and it's in the ocp as a diversity of size

[1:06:55] Voice 9: therefore you are now not following the ocp by not allowing it uh that makes me reluctant

[1:07:02] Voice 9: reluctant. You persuaded

[1:07:05] Voice 12: me. Pardon me? I am persuaded. Thank you. Okay, thank you.

[1:07:13] Voice 12: Trustee Elliott?

[1:07:16] Voice 11: Yeah, I don't think this needs to be complicated any more than it is.

[1:07:21] Voice 11: A range of housing types would include a range of housing sizes. So types and forms,

[1:07:29] Voice 11: sizes, that's all in the variety of housing typology that we're looking for.

[1:07:36] Voice 11: The focus of this policy should be on supporting a range of diverse housing. So I don't think adding size actually would do anything. Thanks.

[1:07:50] Voice 9: Okay. And as I understand it, Trustee Fast has withdrawn her request for that. Okay. So I think, are we comfortable with this? And we can move on to the next item if there's no further discussion on this item.

[1:08:04] Voice 9: I think most people are quite comfortable, but I think we should have a little bit more discussion on number two, which Staff Yeomans was just walking us through with regards to alternative approaches to rural residential density, of which there were four options and they're recommending option two.

[1:08:25] Voice 9: So I think we should have a little discussion here, see how we feel, and any other thoughts or suggestions.

[1:08:39] Voice 9: So I'm not seeing any comments here.

[1:08:50] Voice 9: So are we comfortable with staff's suggestion of going with item number two or option number two, Trustee Graham?

[1:08:59] Voice 6: Yeah, thank you, Chair.

[1:08:59] Voice 6: Sure. As Demond is involved with a rather in-depth housing review at the moment, and we're also looking at some of the unique opportunities that popped out of Maine Island's housing review.

[1:09:14] Voice 6: I actually like that number two option. It's broad enough, but it opens the door for people to start thinking about a different use for single residential lots.

[1:09:25] Voice 6: thoughts and uh yeah if only i hate my committee to be or my community to be as excited about it

[1:09:31] Voice 6: as i am perfect

[1:09:34] Voice 9: thank you very much uh trustee elliot um

[1:09:38] Voice 11: so yeah this is i'm generally supportive

[1:09:42] Voice 11: of this policy uh just a few questions about how it's worded is the word traditional um does that

[1:09:50] Voice 11: have any values attached to it we might want to think about conventional um i'm not attached to

[1:09:58] Voice 11: either one but um i think we want to describe the the trend rather than um a sort of historical

[1:10:10] Voice 11: anyway i think you get what i mean hopefully um and then permit clusters of small dwelling units

[1:10:19] Voice 11: it's um so the word actually the word discreet had occurred to me but i'm gonna withdraw that

[1:10:31] Voice 11: i don't think it's necessary i like the way it's worded i like suitable areas um and we might

[1:10:40] Voice 11: consider something like where groundwater supply is sufficient oh no that's going into too much

[1:10:49] Voice 11: Okay. This is just discreet, Charlie. Sorry, I had to talk that through. It's great as is. I would just suggest traditional, maybe conventional is a better term. Thanks.

[1:11:01] Voice 11: And Trustee Graham.

[1:11:03] Voice 6: Yeah, thank you, Trustee Elliott. Why have the word there at all? Does it not work to say support alternatives to single detached dwellings and not worry about whether they're conventional or traditional or common or any of these other words?

[1:11:26] Voice 9: We can maybe ask Steph what the implications are when it comes to, I'm going to use the word, plenaries, and what it means once it hits our bylaws.

[1:11:38] Voice 9: If I can ask us.

[1:11:40] Voice 9: Steph Yeomans?

[1:11:41] Voice 13: Sure.

[1:11:41] Voice 13: Thank you, Chair Evans.

[1:11:42] Voice 13: I think it is important to add some sort of qualifier before the single detached dwellings, only because a very small dwelling unit on a foundation, let's say a 500 square foot dwelling unit on a foundation, is still a single detached dwelling.

[1:12:05] Voice 13: dwelling. So I think if we use a word like conventional, and I actually am quite supportive,

[1:12:10] Voice 13: I think of that change in verbiage from traditional to conventional, that at least has a connotation

[1:12:19] Voice 13: for people, right? When we think of a conventional single detached dwelling, 1,500 square feet,

[1:12:24] Voice 13: 2,500 square feet, something like that. And so by adding that word, it sort of indicates what it is

[1:12:32] Voice 13: that we're perhaps trying to steer away from, I think.

[1:12:35] Voice 13: Whereas if we don't have that word there, clusters of, well, yeah, sorry.

[1:12:45] Voice 9: Thank you for the explanation.

[1:12:47] Voice 9: Trustee Fast?

[1:12:49] Voice 12: I support Trustee Elliott's idea of the word conventional,

[1:12:57] Voice 12: partly because I think clusters of small single detached dwellings,

[1:13:05] Voice 12: they could also be single detached dwelling. So I think it needs a qualifier. And I like

[1:13:10] Voice 12: conventional better than traditional because traditional could also is sometimes interpreted

[1:13:16] Voice 12: as, for example, a big house in a First Nations community can be called traditional sometimes by

[1:13:25] Voice 12: people. So I like the word conventional and I support the idea of having a qualifier in front

[1:13:31] Voice 12: of the words single detached. Thank you.

[1:13:37] Voice 9: Perfect. It sounds like we've reached a bit

[1:13:39] Voice 9: of a consensus there. I'm seeing nods around the room. Any further comments on this? Otherwise,

[1:13:46] Voice 9: it looks like we're all leaning towards option two. And I'd like that marked for when we come

[1:13:54] Voice 9: come to the resolutions later perfect sure

[1:13:58] Voice 13: and and option two is what is proposed policy

[1:14:06] Voice 13: 3 4 11 in appendix 2 of this of this package which if uh the trustees want to take trustee

[1:14:14] Voice 13: elliott up on her suggestion of replacing traditional with conventional you can address

[1:14:18] Voice 13: that when we get to appendix 2 and a resolution as to whether you want to um make those revisions

[1:14:27] Voice 9: Perfect. And I think that that's what the route that we're planning on taking. So thank you very much. Okay, so now on to number three, which is the traditional wood frame and alternative types and forms.

[1:14:41] Voice 13: Sure. Thank you, Chair Evans. Definitely, many of you who've lived on the islands much longer than I have know that building in alternative ways is the way of building on the islands, or at least it had been traditionally.

[1:14:59] Voice 13: So indicating support for that continued way of building in some way or form, I think, is appropriate in a document like the policy statement.

[1:15:15] Voice 13: Now, we live in a more regulated world now than, you know, 50 years ago on the islands. And so a potential tension or a collision exists if this body, I think, were to start to mandate particular ways that we want to see buildings get built.

[1:15:40] Voice 13: Because, I mean, we all know anybody who's done any building knows that the building code these days is very prescriptive about how buildings are expected to be built.

[1:15:48] Voice 13: So I think were the Islands Trust to advocate for alternative approaches to building construction, you are probably best to do so in an advisory way, encouraging your communities to do it while recognizing the limitations to doing it that the building code currently impedes.

[1:16:15] Voice 13: a lot of those traditional forms of development or alternative forms of development.

[1:16:19] Voice 13: Not that it's impossible.

[1:16:22] Voice 13: Maybe it's appropriate for accessory buildings, perhaps not for single-family dwellings.

[1:16:27] Voice 13: Maybe there are ways that you can do it within the building code, for sure.

[1:16:32] Voice 13: But as a result of that sort of lens through which we've viewed this, we are recommending

[1:16:39] Voice 13: an advisory policy, which is that local trust committees and island municipalities

[1:16:44] Voice 13: should encourage construction of buildings and structures using local natural building materials and techniques and minimize barriers to their use.

[1:16:53] Voice 13: I do know that an exercise was done at the Islands Trust a number of years ago looking to see whether we had any existing regulatory barriers to more progressive or alternative forms of building.

[1:17:11] Voice 13: And it was identified that the way that we measured floor area in cottages in particular impeded people from using more energy efficient wall construction, for example, you know, where you might want a much thicker wall on one or more sides of the building.

[1:17:33] Voice 13: We were measuring floor area from the outer edge of the wall. And so anybody who was building a thicker wall was losing floor area because we were measuring floor area from the outer edge of the wall. And so our definition of how floor area was measured was changed in accordance with that to accommodate those types of building techniques.

[1:17:52] Voice 13: So we recommend an advisory policy to encourage construction and building construction using local natural building materials and techniques and minimize barriers to their use.

[1:18:00] Voice 13: Thank you.

[1:18:03] Voice 11: Trustee Elliott?

[1:18:33] Voice 11: So there's an equity piece in here that's sort of embedded, but not explicit.

[1:18:39] Voice 11: And so if we're going to talk about encouraging diverse forms of housing that allow diversity

[1:18:45] Voice 11: of community members, building with local materials, earth, clay, sand, straw is actually

[1:18:56] Voice 11: going to end up being a cheaper form, and it may be well regulated in the future.

[1:19:01] Voice 11: so i support this um and thank you for the wording jason yeah

[1:19:08] Voice 9: and i've put myself on the

[1:19:09] Voice 9: speaker's list as well because um i was the one that brought this forward originally

[1:19:14] Voice 9: um and it was meant to it was meant to be a request for um uh an advisory policy not

[1:19:22] Voice 9: a directive policy so i'm glad that it is advisory um and we also on south panda we have

[1:19:29] Voice 9: on North Pender, I mean, there are Cobb houses.

[1:19:33] Voice 9: So I know that they can be built to code.

[1:19:36] Voice 9: I know that it's difficult to do.

[1:19:38] Voice 9: And I know that the building inspector has a hard time working with it.

[1:19:41] Voice 9: But I do know that these can be done.

[1:19:44] Voice 9: And I would just like to have it recognized as an important enough element by Trust Council

[1:19:52] Voice 9: Council to support less carbon footprint by using natural materials. So I'm glad to see it and I

[1:20:03] Voice 9: support it the way that it is. Trustee Fast?

[1:20:07] Voice 12: Thank you, Chair. I'm going to introduce something that

[1:20:13] Voice 12: I thought might fit under the housing diversity heading. And it's a kind of different view.

[1:20:21] Voice 12: And maybe it's because I was part of a November 2023, I was part of an early adopter off-site housing dialogue, and this was to do with a PPP construction, and it stands for pre-zoned, pre-approved, pre-fab.

[1:20:49] Voice 12: And I wanted to bring up the prefab idea, because we already here on Bowen Island have a small construction company creating panels. So these, rather than being built on the site, they are moved from where they're constructed here on Bowen to another location on Bowen, as far as I know, they're all on Bowen, and used to put in, for example, walls.

[1:21:19] Voice 9: I'm just going to interrupt.

[1:21:21] Voice 9: I'm sorry, trusty fast. If you're bringing in a new item, can we wait until we've actually gone through the items that we've currently got on the agenda?

[1:21:28] Voice 9: Not a new item.

[1:21:30] Voice 12: This is about natural building materials, but I'm proposing that the idea of keeping that if someone wanted to use prefab materials or even a wet wall pod or a whole bathroom pod, these are things that are already available or are coming soon, even in Squamish.

[1:21:53] Voice 12: And they can be more affordable and very environmentally friendly because they can be reused 30 years from now.

[1:22:04] Voice 12: And anyway, I just want to put that out there as they're not, you know, of the island and from the island and natural building materials, but they can be part of the solution to affordable, sustainable housing on the islands.

[1:22:25] Voice 12: as anybody who's built from a kit or has used some prefab panels or I don't, you know, it's not my

[1:22:35] Voice 12: field, but this was new directions. I was provided through a workshop of the Zero Emissions Innovation

[1:22:43] Voice 12: Center, these kinds of groups. So I just wanted to put that out there because it seems to go

[1:22:50] Voice 12: against this idea of natural building materials, would this policy preclude these other alternative

[1:22:57] Voice 12: options that may be good for people and the islands? Thank you.

[1:23:02] Voice 9: I hear your question. I

[1:23:04] Voice 9: believe what you're asking is, should this advisory policy go into the OCP? Would that then preclude

[1:23:12] Voice 9: the prefab off-site use of other off-site, off-island,

[1:23:25] Voice 9: environmentally friendly options.

[1:23:27] Voice 9: I don't believe it would.

[1:23:29] Voice 9: This is advisory specifically for encouraging this type of build.

[1:23:34] Voice 9: I don't believe that that as an advisory policy would preclude people

[1:23:38] Voice 9: from going for a prefab.

[1:23:40] Voice 9: we can also take a look at the end please keep this in mind and bring it forward again as we

[1:23:47] Voice 9: look at the how this sits and whether or not there is a suitable place to add some wording in to

[1:23:54] Voice 9: cover that that might be something to take a look at when we get um to that that point in the meeting

[1:24:01] Voice 9: does that work for you sure

[1:24:04] Voice 12: i'm just bringing it up to encourage discussion and to uh bring out if

[1:24:08] Voice 12: If we're talking about alternatives and options in housing and trying to increase the diversity, and this one is kind of pointing in one direction.

[1:24:21] Voice 12: I wondered if it might preclude anything, but as an advisory one, it does say encourage, and there's no corresponding one.

[1:24:31] Voice 12: I wondered if anybody else had thoughts about prefab panels, prefab pods, log homes that come on a truck.

[1:24:40] Voice 12: Thank you.

[1:24:41] Voice 9: I'm going to just ask Steph Yeomans if he sees any issue with the question raised.

[1:24:51] Voice 13: I don't see that as an advisory policy, I don't see that this precludes people from engaging in other forms of construction.

[1:25:02] Voice 13: This would not prevent somebody from building just a conventional stick-built home, for example, if they so choose to, or indeed through the use of prefabricated modular materials as well.

[1:25:13] Voice 13: Now, if this body wanted to specifically encourage the use of those types of prefabricated off-site components, then that too could be an advisory policy in addition to this one, if this body felt that that was something that they wanted to specifically highlight as something that they see as a positive approach to building on the island.

[1:25:40] Voice 13: Thank

[1:25:43] Voice 20: you. I'm going to go to Trustee Yates.

[1:25:47] Voice 20: Thank you. I do want to support this, natural building materials. I'm pretty familiar with

[1:25:53] Voice 20: several homes, not just on Gabriola, but in this area that have been built with natural

[1:26:01] Voice 20: building materials. And in fact, they don't actually meet building code, but they do meet

[1:26:05] Voice 20: engineering standards. And invariably, they're so much easier on the environment,

[1:26:14] Voice 20: Thank you. Thank you. Trustee Elliott?

[1:26:20] Voice 11: Oh, was that Elliott? Okay. I would support another policy if we want to talk about

[1:26:26] Voice 11: innovative technologies. I think this one's pretty specific to natural building materials.

[1:26:34] Voice 11: So perhaps like innovative modular technology or building technology is a different advisory

[1:26:43] Voice 11: advisory policy. I just I'm struggling with how to combine them. But trustee fast, maybe you want

[1:26:52] Voice 11: to suggest and drafted one that's different. I

[1:26:57] Voice 12: just wanted to bring it up as part of this

[1:26:59] Voice 12: discussion. Couldn't see where else to bring it up. And thanks. I'm going to pipe down for now

[1:27:04] Voice 12: and see what happens. And maybe I will later.

[1:27:12] Voice 9: Sorry, trustee Graham, I think I froze right as

[1:27:14] Voice 9: right as I said, to call you in.

[1:27:17] Voice 6: Thank you. I do like 3.4.16. But I caution advising people to

[1:27:28] Voice 6: do these other technologically advanced building techniques. They are rarely done on island and

[1:27:36] Voice 6: you will be removing work from your local carpenters. I hear this all the time.

[1:27:42] Voice 6: people want to build the way we've always built david we don't want people to bring these panels

[1:27:47] Voice 6: from wherever and yes they're they're maybe cheaper and yes they may be more environmental

[1:27:52] Voice 6: but we we don't make a dollar when that happens so keep that in mind thank

[1:27:58] Voice 9: you okay so it sounds

[1:28:01] Voice 9: for the most part that we're we're pretty good with with this and we understand uh what what

[1:28:08] Voice 9: what it's doing. So unless there's any further comments on this, I'll turn it back over to staff

[1:28:12] Voice 9: UMNs to talk about number four, clustering residential development in appropriate locations.

[1:28:20] Voice 13: Thank you, Chair. I will admit that what staff have delivered here may not sort of answer

[1:28:32] Voice 13: answer um the call that was that was made upon us on this topic um insofar as we probably need

[1:28:41] Voice 13: a little more direction and a little more detail to come back with with a policy that that does

[1:28:46] Voice 13: whatever uh it is that trust programs committee would like this policy to do because when you

[1:28:51] Voice 13: think about clustering or at least when i think about clustering i think about it happening at

[1:28:56] Voice 13: at three different scales one is at the lot scale right where do buildings on a lot get built

[1:29:02] Voice 13: Are they spread all over the lot or are they all concentrated in a small footprint on that lot?

[1:29:08] Voice 13: Think about clustering at the subdivision scale, which is to say, let's say when a new subdivision

[1:29:14] Voice 13: goes in, is there a building in the middle of each of those large lots or are the lots designed in

[1:29:24] Voice 13: such a way that there is maybe a number of small lots and a larger area of protected space around

[1:29:32] Voice 13: those, so clustering development within a smaller area of a proposed subdivision.

[1:29:36] Voice 13: And then, of course, there's clustering at the island scale. Does development

[1:29:42] Voice 13: sprawl throughout the island or is development concentrated in certain

[1:29:46] Voice 13: pockets or nodes? I know in the Salt Spring Island OCP, for example, they're

[1:29:52] Voice 13: called villages or indeed hamlets. The Salt Spring OCP anticipates potential

[1:29:57] Voice 13: future development of new hamlets on the island.

[1:30:00] Voice 13: which would be these little pockets of more intense residential and or commercial development

[1:30:05] Voice 13: outside of the village areas, but still contained within a smaller footprint rather than sprawling

[1:30:11] Voice 13: a little further afield. We do note in the analysis here that the previous draft version

[1:30:24] Voice 13: of the policy statement, the one that was received by Committee of the Whole in May

[1:30:29] Voice 13: of last year contained at that time this policy headed sustainable development which said that

[1:30:36] Voice 13: ensure development is compact energy efficient and appropriately situated on the island and on

[1:30:41] Voice 13: the site in order to do a bunch of things that are deemed to be good from a land use planning

[1:30:47] Voice 13: perspective this policy was revised by committee of the whole at its october 24 meeting such that

[1:30:53] Voice 13: it now says consider site capabilities environmental and protected areas and existing development

[1:30:58] Voice 13: patterns when determining the land use designation and appropriate locations and intensities of

[1:31:03] Voice 13: various uses on the land. So a policy decision was made by Committee of the Whole to actually

[1:31:10] Voice 13: kind of get away from some of the language that would have directed a more clustered approach.

[1:31:17] Voice 13: Not that this new policy language precludes it from happening necessarily, but it's not quite

[1:31:23] Voice 13: as explicit as it had previously been. So on the basis of that policy change, I think staff were

[1:31:28] Voice 13: just left a little bit uncertain as to when we are being asked to provide policy advice around

[1:31:38] Voice 13: clustering residential development in appropriate locations. I think we were still just a little bit

[1:31:42] Voice 13: confused about at what scale Committee of the Whole was looking for policy advice on at that

[1:31:51] Voice 13: Or indeed, what is the desired outcome that you are looking for? What is your vision for the island that you want to achieve through a policy around clustering? Thanks. So sorry, I don't have a recommendation for you.

[1:32:08] Voice 9: Thank you very much. I'm going to turn this over to questions or comments. Trustee Patrick?

[1:32:18] Voice 5: This is an interesting conversation. That's why we're at this committee, to have conversations. So I think this is good. I think of like the San Juans have made containment areas in each island and said, well, that's where additional density goes. So that to me would be sort of the island scale that they're identifying.

[1:32:37] Voice 5: They pre-identify a box and say this is the box where this type of housing would be developed.

[1:32:47] Voice 5: So I think it would be an interesting conversation to hear from others.

[1:32:50] Voice 5: Are we more interested in the lot-specific or home plate I've also heard used and subdivision level?

[1:33:01] Voice 5: That would be a real interesting conversation to hear what people think.

[1:33:05] Voice 5: i'm

[1:33:11] Voice 9: not seeing any other speakers i'm going to put myself on i'm going back to some of the

[1:33:16] Voice 9: conversation that i recall at some of these meetings and i think part of the clustering

[1:33:23] Voice 9: conversation that was had was if you if we were to identify lots that would be appropriate for

[1:33:30] Voice 9: small clusters of housing for like a cluster of tiny homes that kind of thing um i'm reluctant

[1:33:38] Voice 9: to go to the level of developing home plates per lot.

[1:33:46] Voice 9: I think that might be encroaching a little bit too much

[1:33:49] Voice 9: on property owners' rights to say,

[1:33:51] Voice 9: you can only build on this portion of your lot.

[1:33:56] Voice 9: And I may be misunderstanding that

[1:33:59] Voice 9: because it's saying that the home plate

[1:34:01] Voice 9: means a contiguous boundary of maximum permitted area

[1:34:04] Voice 9: that everything can be contained within,

[1:34:06] Voice 9: in, especially given topography on some of the islands, that could be difficult. So

[1:34:15] Voice 9: again, I'm going to turn this over. I see other hands up. I would like to hear how this

[1:34:21] Voice 9: conversation goes. But I'm not in favor yet of home plates. And I may be misunderstanding that.

[1:34:29] Voice 9: So I will turn this over to Trustee Peterson.

[1:34:37] Voice 21: Thank you, Chair.

[1:34:38] Voice 21: It's certainly an interesting topic for discussion and to think about.

[1:34:46] Voice 21: I note that the staff report does identify some uncertainty of the appropriateness in the Islands Trust context.

[1:34:58] Voice 21: And so there is that note of caution there.

[1:35:03] Voice 21: I think the question for me is around, we can suggest essentially anything in an advisory policy, but we do need to be careful about what the wording of directive policies are.

[1:35:27] Voice 21: So how we proceed with any consideration of home plate.

[1:35:33] Voice 21: I think it is interesting.

[1:35:36] Voice 21: I think in terms of the potential for conservation of high value areas on specific lots, it could be extremely an important tool.

[1:35:50] Voice 21: but noting the caution stated in the staff report

[1:35:56] Voice 21: as far as the approach that we take with us.

[1:36:02] Voice 21: So appreciate the conversation.

[1:36:04] Voice 21: Thank you.

[1:36:06] Voice 9: Thank you.

[1:36:07] Voice 9: Trustee Elliott.

[1:36:10] Voice 11: Thank you.

[1:36:11] Voice 11: This is something that we're thinking about a lot on Gabriola

[1:36:14] Voice 11: as we go through a comprehensive OCP review.

[1:36:17] Voice 11: And so considering all of the potential implications

[1:36:22] Voice 11: of the limited ability we have left to direct development

[1:36:26] Voice 11: in both the lots and where on the island it would be appropriate.

[1:36:34] Voice 11: So I don't have any conclusive answers except to say

[1:36:38] Voice 11: we should have all LTCs review their OCPs

[1:36:45] Voice 11: and determine through the methods that they best see fit

[1:36:52] Voice 11: for their community, ways to increase options for clustering development in appropriate locations.

[1:37:04] Voice 11: And so Jason and I had this conversation, oh, back in January, and I did some digging

[1:37:13] Voice 11: and there was a islands trust housing toolkit from 2020 from 2010 actually and i'll just put

[1:37:22] Voice 11: one of the um policies that it had in there as an example so just reading it out this was a

[1:37:31] Voice 11: recommendation um one of our many housing reviews i guess that local trust committees review their

[1:37:38] Voice 11: OCPs and LUBs to ensure that they include provisions that allow increased density, or we

[1:37:44] Voice 11: could say intensity, for diverse housing forms, perhaps, in appropriate locations and circumstances

[1:37:52] Voice 11: with well-defined valuation models using bonus density, mixed-use zoning, amenity zoning,

[1:37:59] Voice 11: home plate zoning. And so my question was to Jason, and we didn't really settle it, of course,

[1:38:06] Voice 11: And this is where I think we need to go with the discussion is, can we include directive policies at this level to say that local trust committees need to look at this and there's going to be a range of options that they can exercise, including potentially home plate zoning, amenity zoning, whatever it is, to increase inappropriate areas.

[1:38:37] Voice 11: clusters of homes and that could be at the lot level um it could be at the you know village or

[1:38:43] Voice 11: hamlet level and there's yeah so there i think there's a lot of places we could go with this

[1:38:47] Voice 11: i think staff appropriately identify that we haven't given good enough direction

[1:38:52] Voice 11: um but this is really the key question we have very little left in terms of proactive planning

[1:39:02] Voice 11: planning of where to put people in ways that make sense. A lot of this has already been done.

[1:39:08] Voice 11: We have historical land use planning models to work with. So we need to encourage or perhaps

[1:39:16] Voice 11: direct LTCs to put their minds to thinking about where can we add people without impacting the

[1:39:25] Voice 11: environment. And there's a number of tools to do that. I don't think it's appropriate to list them

[1:39:30] Voice 11: all, but they should be thinking about it. So turn it back over to you. I have more questions

[1:39:35] Voice 11: and answers, but this is a really important point. Thanks. Thank you. Trustee Fast?

[1:39:44] Voice 12: Thank you. My question is a little different. I haven't heard the term home plate

[1:39:53] Voice 12: used before, and I'm wondering if it's a common term. To me, it sounds like baseball,

[1:39:58] Voice 12: ball so it's a bit distracting i've i've heard the term building envelope used uh on bowen and

[1:40:06] Voice 12: in the islands trust conservancy but i think there um that's an older um conservation covenant up the

[1:40:15] Voice 12: hill here where uh all clearing is uh the entire lot is is protected uh uh as uh stay natural

[1:40:29] Voice 12: except for the building envelope, which was very defined.

[1:40:33] Voice 12: And is home plate a common term, but it doesn't mean the same?

[1:40:41] Voice 12: Is it the same as a building envelope?

[1:40:44] Voice 12: Thank you.

[1:40:46] Voice 9: I'm going to go to Staff Yeomans or someone to explain the use of home plate.

[1:40:50] Voice 9: I've not heard it before myself either.

[1:40:53] Voice 13: Sure. Thank you, Chair.

[1:40:56] Voice 13: Given that neither of you have heard the term before,

[1:40:59] Voice 13: I think I would be hard-pressed to say that it is a common term, but it is a term that is used in land use planning and has become more commonly used, particularly in relation to agricultural land and the regulations of the Agricultural Land Reserve.

[1:41:15] Voice 13: reserve um i do i think in this document note a couple of examples in the lower mainland where

[1:41:24] Voice 13: they specifically have home plate zoning in their farming areas to establish now it's interesting

[1:41:32] Voice 13: your use of building envelope because when i think of the building envelope i don't think of

[1:41:36] Voice 13: i don't think of the ground i think of the physical structure like you're inside of the

[1:41:41] Voice 13: the building envelope okay

[1:41:44] Voice 12: I may thank you that's that's really helpful and that satisfies me thanks

[1:41:52] Voice 9: I've put myself back on the speaker's list again I'm not sure at this point that we're necessarily

[1:41:59] Voice 9: ready to include this section based on the lack of clarity provided by the trustees to staff on

[1:42:10] Voice 9: on what's required here i'm also going to throw out a word of caution that while

[1:42:16] Voice 9: something along these lines regarding home plates or like clustering of hamlets is appropriate for

[1:42:22] Voice 9: some islands we have to bear in mind that what we put in the ocp is applied to all islands and so

[1:42:28] Voice 9: if we can just make sure if it's if it would be more applicable to uh four or five islands due

[1:42:36] Voice 9: due to size that they have put this in their own OCP rather than applying it to all islands and

[1:42:42] Voice 9: having all islands having to have this directive policy directed at them where it may not be

[1:42:47] Voice 9: appropriate um so yeah I'm just gonna I don't necessarily feel that we're ready to make a

[1:42:57] Voice 9: decision on this today um due to staff not having clear direction and we're still we still don't

[1:43:06] Voice 9: quite know what our question is to them uh trustee fast actually before i go to trustee fast trustee

[1:43:12] Voice 9: is a first-time speaker so i'll go to her thank

[1:43:17] Voice 14: you i appreciate it uh it's mostly a question of

[1:43:20] Voice 14: clarity um i have so many screens open right now could somebody uh tell me if um cluster

[1:43:26] Voice 14: clustering is defined is it in the glossary for the trust policy statement i'm trying to figure

[1:43:32] Voice 14: out exactly what does it mean because it seems like there's three different land use

[1:43:37] Voice 14: principles that would guide it amongst all of our islands. So I know that if we maybe have a

[1:43:42] Voice 14: definition that we can all agree on what clustering means, it might help us move forward a bit.

[1:43:48] Voice 9: I appreciate the question. Steph Yeomans, do we have a definition in the glossary?

[1:43:54] Voice 13: We have not defined the term cluster or clustering in the glossary up to this point,

[1:44:01] Voice 13: um assuming that there is a i guess the a common sense understanding that it means

[1:44:09] Voice 13: grouping things in in close proximity to one another but ali but then allowing some latitude

[1:44:15] Voice 13: for some discretionary decision making about what exactly that might mean in your island

[1:44:21] Voice 13: circumstance thank

[1:44:24] Voice 9: you and trusty fast um

[1:44:27] Voice 12: thank you i just wanted to uh follow up chair evans on

[1:44:31] Voice 12: your suggestion that not all islands because Gambier for example is a mostly a summer place

[1:44:40] Voice 12: they don't have a lot of year-round residents and and they're not looking for affordable

[1:44:47] Voice 12: housing they don't have a post office I just wonder whether clustering might be interpreted

[1:44:57] Voice 12: there differently, like you can have thick clusters. I don't know if that would, for Gambier,

[1:45:09] Voice 12: I don't think that would probably be felt as appropriate, but it might be confusing to see it in

[1:45:16] Voice 12: as something that they must do in their OCP. So just to follow up with that.

[1:45:20] Voice 12: Thank

[1:45:22] Voice 9: you. So are we in agreeance that this item needs further discussion and work and should be excluded from the decision today? I'm seeing a few nods. Okay. So we're going to put a pin in this. And we're going to go into number five potential for flexibility and housing agreements.

[1:45:46] Voice 9: Sure.

[1:45:49] Voice 13: Thank you, Chair Evans. Before I move to that, maybe I'll just note that some of the themes that emerged from the discussion on the previous item are already reflected in various ways in the proposed policies around housing and around growth management that you'll find in Appendix 2 and elsewhere in the draft policy statement.

[1:46:14] Voice 13: So, for example, a policy around clustering small dwelling units addresses, to some extent, the notion of clustering at the lot scale, though it doesn't take into account accessory buildings as well.

[1:46:26] Voice 13: And then proposed policy 349 in appendix two directs local trust communities and island municipalities to identify suitable locations that could support increased density for the development of safe, secure and diverse housing.

[1:46:46] Voice 13: which I think gets in part way, at least, to some of the ideas that Trustee Evans brought up here today.

[1:46:53] Voice 13: So this idea that local trust committees should and island municipalities should be compelled through the policy statement

[1:46:58] Voice 13: to think about where on their islands more growth is appropriately situated.

[1:47:06] Voice 13: It stops short of an urban containment boundary, for example, of the sort that Trustee Patrick mentioned,

[1:47:13] Voice 13: But it does direct local trust committees to do a little bit of, to look inward and think about where, well, outward actually, but where on the island is the best place for more development to be entertained, if indeed more development is going to be entertained.

[1:47:28] Voice 13: So, thank you.

[1:47:30] Voice 9: I'm just going to interject there.

[1:47:31] Voice 9: So, once we come to look at this at the end, we can determine whether or not more work is actually required.

[1:47:38] Voice 13: Definitely.

[1:47:39] Voice 9: Thank you.

[1:47:40] Voice 9: Go ahead.

[1:47:40] Voice 9: All

[1:47:43] Voice 13: right. Potential for flexibility in housing agreements. This seemingly innocuous topic actually elicited quite a lot of staff discussion and back and forth about what advice to best give to Trust Programs Committee and ultimately Trust Council in order to how to facilitate this.

[1:48:03] Voice 13: And this is a policy idea born out of what we often hear from nonprofit organizations who are trying to build affordable housing on the island, which is that both housing agreements that they're required to enter into and the zoning that establishes the land uses that they're permitted to achieve, they find them to be too restrictive some of the time.

[1:48:29] Voice 13: In so far as there's often a long gap between when the housing agreement is entered into, when the zoning is finalized, and when that housing actually gets built, right?

[1:48:41] Voice 13: Like sometimes it's, you know, on Salt Spring, we've had some land zoned for affordable housing for, I want to say, at least 20 years and no housing has ever been built on it.

[1:48:51] Voice 13: And so these nonprofit organizations find that by the time they want to put shovels in the ground, that that housing agreement that was entered into, or even the zoning that they at the time were advocating for, no longer reflects a project that is actually financially viable for them to do.

[1:49:11] Voice 13: And then they have to come back to the local trust committee and request changes to either the zoning and or the housing agreement.

[1:49:19] Voice 13: So, staff did a considerable amount of thinking on this about ways to sort of help facilitate

[1:49:28] Voice 13: the good work that non-profit organizations on the islands do.

[1:49:32] Voice 13: And where we arrived at, particularly on the housing agreement side of things, is that

[1:49:42] Voice 13: – and this is sort of the experience shared by the Director of Planning and from one of

[1:49:49] Voice 13: of the regional planning managers that often the seemingly restrictive zoning and restrictive

[1:49:55] Voice 13: housing agreements into which non-profit organizations are required to enter actually

[1:50:00] Voice 13: reflect community feedback. Like it's sometimes the local trust committee is making decisions

[1:50:07] Voice 13: to create a fairly tight box based on the information that they're receiving from the

[1:50:14] Voice 13: community at the time that these projects are proposed. And so there wasn't a lot of support

[1:50:19] Voice 13: at the staff level, I think, for fettering local trust committees' ability to make zoning or housing

[1:50:29] Voice 13: agreements restrictive if indeed they felt that was the appropriate thing to do for their

[1:50:35] Voice 13: communities to reflect the community interest or community concern about the project that was being

[1:50:41] Voice 13: proposed. And so the sort of halfway measure to indicate that this was an issue of concern,

[1:50:48] Voice 13: But maybe not going all the way to the degree of maximum flexibility that nonprofit housing providers might like us to entertain is including a policy that we will prioritize the processing of rezoning applications from nonprofit housing providers and public agencies and prioritize the processing of housing agreement bylaws for affordable and special needs housing.

[1:51:09] Voice 13: So signaling that these projects are of considerable importance to the local community and that local trust committees and other municipalities should make them a priority, but not going so far as sort of opening those housing agreements too wide so that the project that actually gets built isn't the one necessarily that the community had necessarily wanted.

[1:51:39] Voice 13: it to be. So that's one part of it. And then the other part of it is a new advisory policy

[1:51:48] Voice 13: around zoning. And my fellow staff members will have heard me use this example a bunch of times,

[1:51:55] Voice 13: so forgive me for anybody who's heard this before. But sometimes zoning winds up being

[1:52:01] Voice 13: based on the project that was proposed at a given time. So let's say a non-profit housing provider

[1:52:06] Voice 13: provider has enough money to build a development with two triplexes. So let's say two buildings

[1:52:13] Voice 13: with three units in each of those buildings, right? 10 years goes by, economy changes. By the

[1:52:21] Voice 13: time they're actually able to finance this, they find that two buildings with three units doesn't

[1:52:27] Voice 13: work. One building with six units, they can make a pencil out, right? So I think, and this is

[1:52:38] Voice 13: something we've heard a number of times as well, that zoning is supposed to be about

[1:52:44] Voice 13: use and density. It's not supposed to necessarily be about the form and character of what gets

[1:52:49] Voice 13: developed. You can control the form and character through development permit areas, but zoning

[1:52:54] Voice 13: could potentially just be about the number of units that's permitted, that you are allowed six

[1:52:59] Voice 13: dwelling units on this property. How you as the developer choose to configure those six dwelling

[1:53:04] Voice 13: units, is at your discretion subject to a good development permit area around forming character

[1:53:09] Voice 13: to control how that ultimately looks. So we're suggesting here an advisory policy

[1:53:13] Voice 13: around multi-unit residential development, both of the non-profit variety and potentially of the

[1:53:19] Voice 13: market variety, if it is to this body's agreement, to ensure that land use regulations for affordable

[1:53:26] Voice 13: and special needs housing and other multi-unit residential development allows for a range of

[1:53:31] Voice 13: potential configurations on the site to accommodate changing construction conditions

[1:53:34] Voice 13: with form and character controlled through development permit areas.

[1:53:38] Voice 13: And the reason we're proposing this as an advisory policy rather than a directive

[1:53:42] Voice 13: is, again, because we recognize that sometimes those more restrictive forms of zoning,

[1:53:49] Voice 13: such as the two-triplex scenario, are actually a direct reflection of community feedback

[1:53:56] Voice 13: about what kind of development they're willing to entertain.

[1:54:00] Voice 13: Like maybe the neighbours really would only be supportive of two triplexes and they would not be supportive of a single building with six units, for example, you know, a larger building with six units.

[1:54:13] Voice 13: So recognising that interest, I guess, in local trust committee autonomy and the way that some of these conversations take place in communities, we figured that this might be better suited as an advisory policy rather than a directive.

[1:54:25] Voice 13: perspective, insofar as we think, you know, from the planning shop perspective, more flexibility

[1:54:32] Voice 13: is better. It allows developers, ideally of the non-profit side, but maybe even of the market side

[1:54:39] Voice 13: to change their plans as circumstances change, but also recognizing that that may not be something

[1:54:48] Voice 13: the local trust committees or other municipalities actually want to entertain. And that is the

[1:54:55] Voice 13: the conclusion of that monologue thank you thank you trustee govra

[1:55:00] Voice 9: okay i'm going to put my own

[1:55:05] Voice 9: hat oh there's trustee patrick go ahead oh

[1:55:09] Voice 5: no well uh thank you planner yeomans i think you did an

[1:55:12] Voice 5: excellent job pulling all this together and explaining it and uh i can tell you our experience

[1:55:16] Voice 5: here on salt spring is just that and i think that's where probably planner yeomans saw some of

[1:55:21] Voice 5: this. The whole world of financing these projects is not going to be getting easier. It's only going

[1:55:30] Voice 5: to be getting more complex and harder. And we're even seeing projects, you know, they have to stack

[1:55:36] Voice 5: the funding. They have to find multiple funders. And some of those funders themselves have their

[1:55:43] Voice 5: own agreements that they have to enter into on the properties as well. So I like this idea of,

[1:55:50] Voice 5: you know trying to become a bit you know we need yes you need to have enough protection to the

[1:55:55] Voice 5: community that if this if this application falls apart um that you don't end up with the zoning

[1:56:02] Voice 5: that you know could become something else that uh wasn't intended or expected but also we look at

[1:56:11] Voice 5: timing i mean there all these organizations on our islands are waiting any moment for the province

[1:56:17] Voice 5: to drop its opening of its latest funding stream and those windows are short and if their zoning

[1:56:26] Voice 5: is not in place or something's not in place or or the housing agreement is too too hard and now it

[1:56:32] Voice 5: has to be changed i can tell you it's not easy we have a property here on salt spring that we've had

[1:56:37] Voice 5: to it's now in bankruptcy um and it has a housing agreement on it that is you know getting in the

[1:56:44] Voice 5: the way of the sale. And just removing that has been over a year. So these things are really

[1:56:53] Voice 5: complex. And, you know, having that flexibility, I think, is great. So I support it.

[1:57:00] Voice 9: Thank you. I'm going to put myself at the end of the speakers. So, Trustee Graham, go ahead.

[1:57:08] Voice 6: Thank you, Chair. Boy, this speaks exactly to what's happening on Demet also.

[1:57:14] Voice 6: So the non-profit was very excited to prepare a very complicated application.

[1:57:22] Voice 6: The community was all excited and the non-profit was going to build all these great things.

[1:57:27] Voice 6: And unfortunately, they don't have any money.

[1:57:29] Voice 6: So it's zoned.

[1:57:31] Voice 6: And I don't think, I think you've hit the nail on the head.

[1:57:35] Voice 6: The zoning needs to be really specific to use without all of the bells and whistles

[1:57:41] Voice 6: that the non-profit thinks they're going to do.

[1:57:43] Voice 6: in the hope that we can get people actually living on these lots

[1:57:48] Voice 6: instead of waiting and waiting.

[1:57:50] Voice 6: And in fact, what happens is they leave.

[1:57:51] Voice 6: They leave our islands because there's no hope.

[1:57:54] Voice 6: And I mean, I think it's painful for a community to go through a rezoning

[1:57:58] Voice 6: and spend all that time and money and not realize the affordable housing.

[1:58:05] Voice 6: And also the housing agreement also needs to be firm

[1:58:12] Voice 6: in that it has to be rent controlled or purchase controlled, but it has to have the flexibility

[1:58:17] Voice 6: built in so that when the plans change, they don't have to go back to the lawyers, you know,

[1:58:22] Voice 6: back and forth. These are all really big costs for nonprofits. So advisory, yes. Directive,

[1:58:29] Voice 6: possibly no. I thank you for your work on this one. And it is complicated.

[1:58:38] Voice 9: So if I understand your comments correctly, Trustee Graham, you are not in favor of

[1:58:42] Voice 9: of the directive policy surrounding affordable

[1:58:45] Voice 9: and special needs houses, only the advisory one?

[1:58:49] Voice 6: Sorry, I like that one.

[1:58:51] Voice 6: Obviously, we should always prioritize those applications.

[1:58:55] Voice 6: I'm just saying the ones that are advising,

[1:59:02] Voice 6: and they're actually advising nonprofits

[1:59:03] Voice 6: as they build their application.

[1:59:05] Voice 6: So let's give them as much good information

[1:59:09] Voice 6: as we can through that process.

[1:59:10] Voice 6: Thank

[1:59:12] Voice 9: you for the clarification.

[1:59:13] Voice 9: Trustee Gavreau.

[1:59:16] Voice 14: Well, there's not really a lot I can say that hasn't been said here, other than this is solid.

[1:59:21] Voice 14: This is great.

[1:59:22] Voice 14: I've worked in trying to bring non-profit housing and affordable housing to the Galeano community for over a decade, I can tell you.

[1:59:31] Voice 14: A housing agreement.

[1:59:33] Voice 14: I spent personally a year of my life with lawyers and fees trying to draft something that would work.

[1:59:40] Voice 14: We, housing agreements need to be, I would phrase it as a, it was a by Galliano for Galliano agreement.

[1:59:49] Voice 14: That's how it should be because it works for our communities.

[1:59:52] Voice 14: They're not going to be templated.

[1:59:53] Voice 14: What works on Gabriola is not going to work on Maine and so on, especially with the funding.

[2:00:00] Voice 14: um portions of it but um i'd like these policies they are solid they reduce red tape in a way that

[2:00:08] Voice 14: means money for the non-profit societies one of our projects started over a decade ago it was

[2:00:15] Voice 14: supposed to be for six units back then you can't build six units now it's just not cost the economy

[2:00:22] Voice 14: of scale you have to build 12 even 12 is it still is it still worth it those units aren't built yet

[2:00:29] Voice 14: so i'm really excited to see this thank you thank

[2:00:36] Voice 9: you um i appreciate everyone's comments um and i

[2:00:39] Voice 9: myself am in favor of both of these as well i would like to um ask for indulgence so in the

[2:00:47] Voice 9: advisory policy the first two words ensure that um and this is just me coming from more of a

[2:00:53] Voice 9: contracts background could we change that because this is meant to be advisory and ensure is not an

[2:00:59] Voice 9: advisory word can we change ensure that to as applicable amend land use regulations

[2:01:07] Voice 9: would that sit with people because this is meant as an advisory policy not a directive policy

[2:01:16] Voice 13: um i'll just note chair that other and you're you're correct thank you for pointing that out

[2:01:22] Voice 13: um other advisory policies in the document tend to use the word encourage for example so you could

[2:01:28] Voice 13: would encourage local trust committees and island municipalities.

[2:01:33] Voice 13: And I'll have to find a way to phrase that that makes grammatical sense.

[2:01:38] Voice 9: Thank you. Trustee Fast?

[2:01:41] Voice 12: I was just going to say the same, suggest the word encourage.

[2:01:45] Voice 9: Perfect. I'm happy with the word encourage. That makes life easy.

[2:01:52] Voice 9: Awesome. Great job, Steph Yeomans.

[2:01:56] Voice 13: Can I just touch on one more topic that came up in the context of the significant staff discussion

[2:02:02] Voice 13: that we had on this issue is, and we ultimately determined that perhaps the policy statement is

[2:02:07] Voice 13: not necessarily the place for it. But one of the areas where we find these non-profit housing

[2:02:15] Voice 13: providers and the housing agreements getting hung up is on definitions of what constitutes

[2:02:20] Voice 13: affordable housing. And in many of our OCPs and land use bylaws, I think it's defined as

[2:02:26] Voice 13: is housing that costs no more than 30% of the median household income on the island.

[2:02:34] Voice 13: And having such a prescriptive definition of what constitutes affordability

[2:02:44] Voice 13: can potentially create some challenges.

[2:02:46] Voice 13: So I just want to plant the seed that a future topic of conversation,

[2:02:49] Voice 13: maybe for the Regional Planning Committee or something,

[2:02:51] Voice 13: is determining whether it would be appropriate for the Islands Trust

[2:02:55] Voice 13: trust to sort of re-examine its definition of what constitutes affordable housing. And if there is

[2:03:02] Voice 13: a more flexible or open interpretation to that, that that may also help with the flexibility

[2:03:11] Voice 13: issue within housing agreements, if what constitutes affordability is not so tightly

[2:03:17] Voice 13: constrained.

[2:03:19] Voice 9: Yeah. And I did, I did read, oh, sorry,

[2:03:22] Voice 12: go ahead, Trustee Fast. Probably the same

[2:03:24] Voice 12: Amos, you, I did read the discussion about using, replacing it with the word attainable.

[2:03:30] Voice 12: And I've heard that word used in housing discussions where the minister, the provincial minister was present and that kind of thing.

[2:03:40] Voice 12: So I think it might be coming, attainable might be becoming a more useful and helpful and accepted term.

[2:03:52] Voice 9: Yeah, and I'm in support of using the word attainable as well.

[2:03:55] Voice 9: Um, if we don't have further discussion on this, I'm going to suggest that we break for lunch

[2:04:02] Voice 9: and that we would people like to have an hour or 45 minutes. Does anyone have a preference?

[2:04:14] Voice 9: There's 45. I'm seeing 45. Okay. So why don't we come back then at 10 to one? Um, we'll then have

[2:04:26] Voice 9: a little over an hour to finish going through the remainder of the agenda.

[2:04:30] Voice 9: does that work for everybody okay so let's break then until 12 50 and i ask that the uh

[2:04:41] Voice 9: the live streaming be paused or or whatever it is that we do and

[2:04:50] Voice 10: okay um

[2:04:57] Voice 22: chair could you tell me

[2:04:59] Voice 22: once i just needed to clarify the time that the committee was expected to resume 12

[2:05:08] Voice 9: 50 50 all

[2:05:09] Voice 22: All right. Thank you very much.

[2:05:11] Voice 9: Thank you. It's just a 45-minute break.

[2:50:12] Voice 10: Okay. Looks like we're all just getting back. Okay.

[2:50:23] Voice 9: Everybody have a good lunch. I think we're

[2:50:29] Voice 9: back to quorum. So let's dive right back in again. We were about to start on section six

[2:50:42] Voice 9: to provide advisory policy options and analysis that supports consideration of downsizing for

[2:50:50] Voice 9: development that is not in the best interest of the community and that's on page 51 and I'll just

[2:50:56] Voice 9: wait for staff yeomans to get caught up here and pop it on the screen and we can have a discussion

[2:51:02] Voice 9: on this section all

[2:51:09] Voice 13: right great is my screen sharing at the moment yes all right fantastic

[2:51:17] Voice 13: so this little bit of policy advice flows from a request from committee of the whole to provide

[2:51:24] Voice 13: advisory policy options and analysis that supports consideration of down zoning for

[2:51:29] Voice 13: development that is not in the best interest of the community. We begin with just a brief review

[2:51:36] Voice 13: of the fact that, you know, local trust committees and island municipalities are in control of their

[2:51:41] Voice 13: zoning and they can choose to zone land as they see fit. That can be up zoning or indeed that

[2:51:47] Voice 13: can be down zoning. Typically, in situations of down zoning, local governments are not required

[2:51:54] Voice 13: to compensate landowners for any perceived loss of their property value if indeed they lose some

[2:51:58] Voice 13: of their subdivision potential, so long as some use of the property remains. You can't turn

[2:52:04] Voice 13: people's private residential property to park necessarily without having to pay some sort of

[2:52:10] Voice 13: compensation for that. So if indeed Trust Policy Committee or Programs Committee is looking for

[2:52:18] Voice 13: an advisory policy in the policy statement related to this we are

[2:52:22] Voice 13: proposing one framed as follows identify land where existing development

[2:52:26] Voice 13: potential is not suitable and consider policy and or regulatory options to

[2:52:31] Voice 13: reduce development potential or minimize the impacts of future development so

[2:52:36] Voice 13: that's not as explicit well certainly it's not directive so we are not

[2:52:41] Voice 13: directing local trust committees to undertake a review and down zoning

[2:52:45] Voice 13: zoning, though Trust Council certainly could direct local trust committees and island

[2:52:52] Voice 13: municipalities to undertake such an exercise. Rather, including it as an advisory policy as

[2:52:58] Voice 13: requested by Committee of the Whole signals to local trust committees that they should undertake

[2:53:02] Voice 13: some sort of, when they're doing a major OCP update or it could be a discrete project, to

[2:53:07] Voice 13: undertake an inventory of the land on the island and determine where development is potentially

[2:53:15] Voice 13: potentially possible under existing zoning and where that might not actually be desirable

[2:53:19] Voice 13: now given changing community preferences or interest in environmental protection or climate

[2:53:24] Voice 13: change or whatever it happens to be.

[2:53:29] Voice 13: We do identify here that if you wanted to make it directive, you could indeed identify

[2:53:39] Voice 13: land where existing development potential is not suitable and amend its zoning to minimize

[2:53:45] Voice 13: further subdivision.

[2:53:46] Voice 13: So actually undertake a proactive exercise in downzoning properties to achieve broader policy ends.

[2:53:54] Voice 13: Thanks.

[2:53:55] Voice 13: Happy to answer any questions.

[2:53:57] Voice 10: Thank you.

[2:53:58] Voice 10: Trustee Yates?

[2:54:00] Voice 20: Oh, thank you for that.

[2:54:03] Voice 20: Can you just put the screen up a little bit again so I can see both of those?

[2:54:08] Voice 20: Like the more, the one about subdivision and then the one about just development.

[2:54:14] Voice 20: Yeah.

[2:54:14] Voice 20: Yeah. So is it possible to have both of these?

[2:54:20] Voice 20: So because it might not be subdivision potential, but it could be some sort of human development,

[2:54:29] Voice 20: like some sort of human impact on the land that's not necessarily subdivision.

[2:54:36] Voice 20: So I wonder if we could have both.

[2:54:45] Voice 9: That's an interesting question. I think that should come for debate here.

[2:54:54] Voice 9: So feel

[2:54:55] Voice 9: free to answer the question as well.

[2:54:57] Voice 13: Well, maybe I would just ask if Trustee Yates can elaborate on that a little bit.

[2:55:02] Voice 13: Like, are you suggesting, I mean, I understand what you're saying, that the sort of latent development potential might not be subdivision, but could be either the density for which the land is already zoned is too much, or indeed, the fact that it's a very sensitive ecosystem and there's no protection of that ecosystem on the property.

[2:55:24] Voice 13: for example, and it's open to being cut down. So are you suggesting combining those into a

[2:55:31] Voice 13: single policy or is it two policies?

[2:55:35] Voice 20: I'm not really sure. I'm thinking that the larger one,

[2:55:39] Voice 20: 3.4.9, could include subdivision because, you know, it doesn't actually say subdivision. It's

[2:55:47] Voice 20: just minimize the impacts of future development. So that could include subdivision. But I don't

[2:55:53] Voice 20: know whether we and i like that one because it could be just about anything but i don't know

[2:55:58] Voice 20: whether we also need to have a more specific one regarding subdivision so i'll just leave that as

[2:56:05] Voice 20: all

[2:56:14] Voice 9: right um i'm not sure if your answer if your question has been answered to your satisfaction

[2:56:19] Voice 9: or if you want uh further information

[2:56:21] Voice 20: or um maybe the discussion the ensuing discussion

[2:56:25] Voice 20: will probably work it out for us.

[2:56:28] Voice 20: Perfect.

[2:56:29] Voice 20: Trustee Patrick?

[2:56:32] Voice 5: Again, I want to thank,

[2:56:35] Voice 5: I don't even know your title, Jason.

[2:56:38] Voice 5: It's so much easier

[2:56:39] Voice 5: for putting this in here

[2:56:42] Voice 5: because most of our islands,

[2:56:45] Voice 5: the zoning that's underpins everything today

[2:56:48] Voice 5: is from the early 1970s,

[2:56:50] Voice 5: prior to even the Islands Trust existing.

[2:56:52] Voice 5: And, you know, there was a lot of factors that weren't taken into consideration in 1971 when that was, you know, mapped here on Salt Spring.

[2:57:03] Voice 5: So I think having it just in this way, I think it's 349 as it's presented would include subdivision as being there.

[2:57:17] Voice 5: there um so i i think it's a good it's a good start to help local trust committees at least

[2:57:24] Voice 5: turn their mind to this uh underlying zoning and and uh thinking of how there could be changes

[2:57:32] Voice 5: go

[2:57:39] Voice 12: ahead trustee fast sure i'll just um the thing about 3.4.9 is it's presented here as an advisory

[2:57:49] Voice 12: one I wonder if it might not be better to be a directive one that has more that would include

[2:58:02] Voice 12: subdivisions as being suggested because we have some of those old lots here on Bowen very small

[2:58:11] Voice 12: too small to actually build on anyway so I don't know how much they're worth to the owners let

[2:58:16] Voice 12: let alone whether the owners have ever been to Bowen

[2:58:19] Voice 12: now that 50 years have passed or whatever.

[2:58:24] Voice 12: But I'm also thinking this could be like for land

[2:58:31] Voice 12: that's zoned for a golf course or a resort or a marina

[2:58:36] Voice 12: or something like that, that is no longer, I don't know.

[2:58:42] Voice 12: What do people think about the idea of 3.4.9

[2:58:47] Voice 12: becoming a directive policy?

[2:58:49] Voice 12: Or if staff have something they want to interject here, by all means.

[2:58:56] Voice 12: So

[2:58:57] Voice 9: she's asked for staff.

[2:58:59] Voice 9: If staff don't have a comment, then I will, as I've got my hand on the speaker's list, I'll speak next.

[2:59:07] Voice 9: Does staff have anything to say on Trustee Fass' request?

[2:59:12] Voice 13: No, other than I think the policy works as well as a directive.

[2:59:18] Voice 13: perspective, and if we sort of play out what that looks like, let's say that Bowen Island

[2:59:28] Voice 13: municipality, for example, is doing an OCP review,

[2:59:30] Voice 7: as

[2:59:32] Voice 13: you are, you would need to, you know, at the

[2:59:36] Voice 13: conclusion of that document, when it's referred for policy statement consistency, in the hopes

[2:59:42] Voice 13: that perhaps the policy statement will cross the line before your OCP, your amended OCP arrives,

[2:59:47] Voice 13: You will need to demonstrate to executive committee that through this OCP amendment process, you have identified land where existing development potential is not suitable and considered.

[3:00:00] Voice 13: policy. Well, okay. Sorry, I'm going to stop midway through there. Currently, the fact that

[3:00:06] Voice 13: it says consider policy options makes it more advisory than directory. And a directive policy

[3:00:14] Voice 13: would not say consider policy options. It would say do something like reduce development potential

[3:00:20] Voice 13: and minimize impact. So if we were to make it directive, we would need to do a little

[3:00:27] Voice 13: uh rephrasing on that and and get rid of the word consider because theoretically um trust council

[3:00:33] Voice 13: would be asking more of local trust committees or island municipalities than just their consideration

[3:00:37] Voice 13: they would be telling them to do something thank

[3:00:40] Voice 9: you so i'm going to as i'm on the speakers list

[3:00:45] Voice 9: i'm going to um say i would not support that becoming a directive policy again we have to

[3:00:52] Voice 9: look at all of the islands and all of their layouts and how they work if that became a

[3:00:58] Voice 9: directive policy then for example where i am on south pender we only really have residential

[3:01:04] Voice 9: got managed forests we've got parkland and agriculture if we were to then say we have to

[3:01:09] Voice 9: identify land that um where we're going to reduce development that would mean we'd have to turn

[3:01:16] Voice 9: around to some of the undeveloped lots and say you can't develop there anymore because of abnc

[3:01:22] Voice 9: that is not something i could get behind i would prefer that to remain as an advisory

[3:01:28] Voice 9: so for the islands that it's not as applicable to we could choose to do it versus being directed

[3:01:37] Voice 9: to do it and what we had to do so i would i would support this as an advisory policy i could not

[3:01:45] Voice 9: support this as directive um trustee peterson oh

[3:01:52] Voice 21: thank you chair and that uh sets up nicely

[3:01:55] Voice 21: for the comments i had i would love to see um this turned into um directive policy however

[3:02:05] Voice 21: i'm concerned that doing so um would generate uh quite a bit of um upset

[3:02:16] Voice 21: upset from the public because it's not clear.

[3:02:21] Voice 21: And in the absence of clarity, I can see all types of panic ensuing around that potential.

[3:02:31] Voice 21: So because I'm interested in getting this policy statement advanced to trust counsel,

[3:02:41] Voice 21: council out the door to referrals and hopefully, hopefully, hopefully finished up, tied up

[3:02:48] Voice 21: nicely by the end of the term.

[3:02:50] Voice 21: I would support it as an advisory policy, and I think converting it at some future point

[3:02:58] Voice 21: to a directive policy might be, it might be a worthy discussion, but in the context of

[3:03:06] Voice 21: so much that's in this particular review, I think it would be divisive and not conducive to

[3:03:14] Voice 21: achieving the goals I just set out there. So those are my thoughts.

[3:03:19] Voice 12: Thanks. And I'm convinced if you don't want to take more time on this, I'll withdraw the idea.

[3:03:26] Voice 12: No worries. Thank you. Trustee Graham?

[3:03:29] Voice 6: I just, I certainly agree with most of the people that have spoken. So I won't belabor the point.

[3:03:35] Voice 6: advisory yes directive no thank

[3:03:38] Voice 9: you trustee elliott uh

[3:03:43] Voice 11: thank you uh i disagree actually i

[3:03:46] Voice 11: think there is a strong contingent of uh gulf island residents and landholders who want to

[3:03:52] Voice 11: see existing potential reduced and there are continuing calls for that um i think this is

[3:03:58] Voice 11: one of those questions that we need to mark as let's ask the public um maybe put it as an advisory

[3:04:06] Voice 11: policy now um but in the survey that's going out um we need feedback on this should it be directive

[3:04:15] Voice 11: that's a good suggestion

[3:04:17] Voice 9: okay so as this body though and today are we satisfied to move forward

[3:04:26] Voice 9: with 349 as an advisory policy and at a future date um should the public come back and say that

[3:04:33] Voice 9: they want this more as a directive we can address it at that point seeing some nods okay so that

[3:04:43] Voice 9: gets us to the end of appendix one um I'm going to ask let's see so I'm going back up to what was

[3:04:56] Voice 9: it I can't remember the page number right now um where we had the six things that we were going to

[3:05:04] Voice 9: to do the first one being uh so page 37 i think it was um that trust programs committee recommend

[3:05:12] Voice 9: to trust council that's the section titled directive policies housing in the draft policy

[3:05:18] Voice 9: statement be revised in accordance with appendix 2 to the request for decision provided to trust

[3:05:24] Voice 9: programs committee at its meeting of april 16th 2025 so as we go through appendix 2 we'll go

[3:05:32] Voice 9: go through those elements that have been amended, see if we are in agreeance with them. I have a

[3:05:39] Voice 9: couple of notes for a couple of changes that we were looking at. And then we can move to a vote

[3:05:45] Voice 9: on number one of this section. So I think the first one that we had to change to was 3411,

[3:05:56] Voice 9: 2011, where we were going to change the word traditional to conventional.

[3:06:06] Voice 9: I don't know if you need a motion to, I'm asking staff at this point, do you need a motion

[3:06:14] Voice 9: to do that? Or is that something that we can,

[3:06:18] Voice 13: would

[3:06:19] Voice 9: you like us to do that?

[3:06:21] Voice 13: I think a motion would be helpful. So if the resolution that trustees eventually pass is that

[3:06:28] Voice 13: you are going to revise the housing policies in accordance with Appendix 2, then we should make

[3:06:33] Voice 13: sure that Appendix 2 reflects all the wording that you would like it to. So your first motion

[3:06:41] Voice 13: or first resolution here could be to revise proposed policy 3411 to replace the word

[3:06:49] Voice 13: traditional with conventional um yeah okay as

[3:06:56] Voice 13: shown in appendix two of the rfd in the april

[3:07:00] Voice 13: 16th agenda package or something like that if we we really want to get completely accurate for

[3:07:05] Voice 13: transparency okay

[3:07:07] Voice 9: so do we have someone that's going to be uh be able to put the motion up on

[3:07:11] Voice 9: the screen so we can work with it sure

[3:07:16] Voice 13: i think uh mr barlow you can seize control from me i think

[3:07:20] Voice 13: i don't need to stop sharing perfect there you go

[3:07:24] Voice 9: and i'll go over to trustee elliott

[3:07:26] Voice 9: so

[3:07:28] Voice 11: i move the trust programs committee recommend to trust council that the proposed policy 9.4.11

[3:07:41] Voice 11: uh

[3:07:43] Voice 9: 3.4.11 thanks

[3:07:46] Voice 11: 3.4.11 be amended to replace the word traditional with conventional

[3:07:58] Voice 11: as per discussion at the april 16th 2023 meeting what year am i in 2025 wow 2023 toby my goodness

[3:08:24] Voice 11: Can we say the Trust Programs Committee meeting?

[3:08:27] Voice 10: Yeah.

[3:08:33] Voice 10: Perfect.

[3:08:35] Voice 9: Does anyone have any other changes, recommendations, or comments on the wording before we get a seconder?

[3:08:46] Voice 9: Chair,

[3:08:47] Voice 22: if I may ask?

[3:08:48] Voice 10: Yes.

[3:08:49] Voice 22: I'm not sure of the significance of the phrase, as per discussion at DPC.

[3:08:56] Voice 22: These resolutions are being made at this meeting.

[3:09:00] Voice 22: I'm not sure what value that phrase is to the resolution at hand, the motion.

[3:09:08] Voice 9: Sounds good to me.

[3:09:09] Voice 9: Trustee Elliott, are you okay if that gets removed?

[3:09:11] Voice 9: Oh, yeah, totally.

[3:09:13] Voice 9: Thanks.

[3:09:14] Voice 13: And just in the interest of sort of accurate wordsmithing here,

[3:09:18] Voice 13: I don't think in this case that this recommendation is to TC or to Trust Council,

[3:09:23] Voice 13: but rather Trust Programs Committee revise proposed policy 3.411 as shown in Appendix 2

[3:09:34] Voice 13: of the agenda package. And I think you can kind of leave it there. And then so that change will

[3:09:43] Voice 13: presumably be made in Appendix 2. And then potentially you are going to recommend to

[3:09:48] Voice 13: Trust Council that they revise the policy statement as shown in Appendix 2 as amended.

[3:09:56] Voice 9: But wouldn't that be a separate that would be the that would be the the motion that we make once these changes have been made?

[3:10:02] Voice 13: Totally. That would be your ultimate motion. But I think for the purposes of tinkering with Appendix 2 at the moment, you don't need to recommend to trust council that they do that.

[3:10:10] Voice 13: You're doing it right now. And then.

[3:10:13] Voice 9: And I guess that's my question. Like, if you're able to to move to change that word in there right now, because right now, if we make this motion, we have to we have to we have to ask staff to go away and do that.

[3:10:26] Voice 9: change and then come back?

[3:10:28] Voice 13: No, it's happening right now because these, so 3411 is not currently

[3:10:33] Voice 13: in the draft policy statement. If it were in the draft policy statement, you would have to

[3:10:37] Voice 13: recommend that change to Trust Council.

[3:10:42] Voice 13: But this is a new wording that staff are proposing. So it

[3:10:45] Voice 13: doesn't exist anywhere except for in Appendix 2 of this staff report.

[3:10:50] Voice 9: Which is why I'm asking,

[3:10:51] Voice 9: why do we need to make a motion to ask staff to make this change if you can do it right now and

[3:10:56] Voice 9: we can pass the motion at the at the end with the changes in it um

[3:11:02] Voice 13: because it is referencing

[3:11:06] Voice 13: appendix two of the report like you okay i don't know anybody else i see director freighter's hand

[3:11:14] Voice 13: up here so save me claire go

[3:11:16] Voice 15: ahead um i oh i have been multitasking a little bit here but what i

[3:11:21] Voice 15: would suggest is that the motion could be to add the policy to the policy statement and when you

[3:11:25] Voice 15: make that motion you would simply use the word conventional rather than traditional right because

[3:11:33] Voice 15: if it's not yet in the document we have to have a motion to add it to the document at some stage

[3:11:38] Voice 9: yeah so that that motion is coming later that's the that's the motion number one so

[3:11:43] Voice 15: i would think

[3:11:43] Voice 15: you could hold this motion and when you propose that motion you just the person who reads it out

[3:11:48] Voice 15: would simply say conventional instead of traditional uh

[3:11:51] Voice 9: well no because it just says um

[3:11:52] Voice 9: that in accordance with appendix two so i'm i wanted to say in accordance with appendix two

[3:11:58] Voice 9: as amended yeah so if we say appendix two as amended we can amend it in this meeting as we're

[3:12:05] Voice 9: doing it without having to make motions on every single thing that we're doing typically committees

[3:12:09] Voice 15: don't amend staff briefings is the thing so it

[3:12:13] Voice 15: might be cleanest in that motion right there then

[3:12:15] Voice 15: And if that's the way you want it to do, it would be to, you know, say with the exception of in the second motion there would be something in accordance with Appendix 2, you know, with the exception of the word traditional being replaced by the word conventional.

[3:12:31] Voice 15: Something like that might get about it more efficiently.

[3:12:33] Voice 9: There are a couple of changes to the to the Appendix 2.

[3:12:37] Voice 9: So that was OK.

[3:12:39] Voice 9: So if we have to

[3:12:39] Voice 15: or you could have a series of bullets below the motion and just note those changes, maybe would be the other way to do it.

[3:12:45] Voice 15: I think

[3:12:45] Voice 9: that would be the better way.

[3:12:46] Voice 15: Proposing a change to a staff report.

[3:12:48] Voice 15: So that's

[3:12:49] Voice 9: where I would

[3:12:49] Voice 15: just caution you.

[3:12:50] Voice 9: Okay.

[3:12:51] Voice 9: So let's do it that way instead.

[3:12:53] Voice 9: I think that would be cleaner.

[3:12:55] Voice 9: Yeah, so as amended, and then we'll go bullet one.

[3:13:04] Voice 9: In 3.4.11, replacing the word traditional with conventional.

[3:13:32] Voice 9: And Trustee Fast, your hand was going up and down through this.

[3:13:36] Voice 9: I'm not sure if you had another comment.

[3:13:39] Voice 12: I was just going to say, it needs to say Appendix 2 somewhere.

[3:13:42] Voice 12: you've solved that by doing this so that's fine perfect um

[3:13:47] Voice 9: the other item that we had was

[3:13:50] Voice 9: adding in um 3 4 16 with regards to the advisory natural building i have somebody wants to

[3:14:00] Voice 9: add wording there or i'm happy to if so we add new advisory policy 3 4 16 natural building

[3:14:11] Voice 9: holding, whatever

[3:14:14] Voice 13: it was. Oh, Chair, that is already captured in Appendix 2, unless there is

[3:14:19] Voice 13: a proposed wording change to what appears.

[3:14:22] Voice 9: Okay, okay, okay. I see it. I didn't scroll

[3:14:24] Voice 9: down far enough. Never mind. And 3, 4, 15. Right. So 3, 4, 15 was replace the word ensure with

[3:14:34] Voice 9: encourage. Right.

[3:14:37] Voice 12: And then after the word development, it could say that allows.

[3:14:57] Voice 9: Yes, so it'll be replace the words, ensure that. So I'm just going to read this out to make sure that Trustee Fast's language makes sense. Encourage land use regulations for affordable and special needs housing and other multi-unit residential development that allows for a range of potential configurations. I think it reads okay both ways. Trustee Fast?

[3:15:31] Voice 12: well if we're saying encourage that land use encourage land use regulation land use regulations

[3:15:39] Voice 12: for affordable and special needs housing and other multi-unit residential development allows

[3:15:45] Voice 12: encourage allows i think it should say that allows but okay sorry

[3:15:55] Voice 22: chair could you clarify

[3:15:56] Voice 22: what the direction of the committee is at this point i

[3:16:00] Voice 9: trustee fast would like to add the word

[3:16:02] Voice 9: word that after development.

[3:16:06] Voice 22: And that's still in 3.4.15.

[3:16:10] Voice 9: Correct. So we replace the word

[3:16:12] Voice 9: that with encourage and add the word that after development, that at the word that

[3:16:27] Voice 9: after development. And I'm not sure if it's appropriate here. The other item that I had

[3:16:52] Voice 9: was a request for a definition of the of the word clustering would that be applicable here or would

[3:17:00] Voice 9: that go somewhere else i'm asking staff humans um

[3:17:10] Voice 13: you could make that resolution at this time

[3:17:13] Voice 13: um though i i as staff i don't recommend a definition of the word clustering as i i think

[3:17:19] Voice 13: it can reasonably be understood and interpreted without uh without defining it

[3:17:26] Voice 9: okay so we'll

[3:17:27] Voice 9: leave this one as is and if we want to make a separate motion with regards to that we can do

[3:17:32] Voice 9: that because that might be um uh complicating things were there any other changes that that

[3:17:41] Voice 9: have that that were discussed or are we happy with with what we've captured here seeing thumbs up

[3:17:51] Voice 9: okay so can i get somebody to move this motion once it's okay

[3:18:01] Voice 12: I move that Trust Programs Committee recommend to Trust Council that the section titled Directive

[3:18:10] Voice 12: Policies Housing in the draft policy statement be revised in accordance with Appendix 2

[3:18:15] Voice 12: to the request for decision provided to Trust Programs Committee at its meeting April 16,

[3:18:22] Voice 12: 16th, 2025, amended by, as amended by, in 3.4.11, replace the word traditional with

[3:18:33] Voice 12: conventional. In 3.4.15, replace the words ensure that with encourage, and also add the word that

[3:18:43] Voice 12: after the word development.

[3:18:45] Voice 10: Thank you. That

[3:18:46] Voice 9: was a long one. Do I have any other comments,

[3:18:49] Voice 9: Trustee Yates? Um

[3:18:51] Voice 20: there's um you could say instead of saying and also get rid of one of those it's

[3:18:59] Voice 20: redundant.

[3:19:04] Voice 10: Perfect. Any

[3:19:06] Voice 9: other comments or discussion on this? Okay then I can get a

[3:19:11] Voice 9: seconder for it. Thank you Trustee Yates. Are we good to move to the vote? Not seeing anybody.

[3:19:22] Voice 9: Okay so I call the vote on the motion as presented on the screen. All those in favor please raise

[3:19:28] Voice 9: your hand thank you please lower your hand any opposed not seeing any that carries thank you

[3:19:42] Voice 9: very much okay so that was a big chunk of this and i'm scrolling back up so we have

[3:19:55] Voice 9: we have a couple of others in here as well the next one is uh number two on page 37 that says

[3:20:09] Voice 9: that trust programs committee recommend to trust council that a new definition of housing diversity

[3:20:14] Voice 9: be added to the draft policy statement glossary as follows.

[3:20:18] Voice 9: Housing diversity refers to the range of housing types

[3:20:21] Voice 9: and tenures in a community that allows people

[3:20:22] Voice 9: to find appropriate housing as their needs change over time

[3:20:26] Voice 9: and at all stages of life.

[3:20:31] Voice 9: Do we have anyone that would like to move this first?

[3:20:40] Voice 10: Trustee Graham?

[3:20:45] Voice 6: I'm happy to move that.

[3:20:47] Voice 6: I move that Trust Programs Committee recommend

[3:20:50] Voice 6: to Trust Council that a new definition of housing diversity

[3:20:52] Voice 6: to be added to the draft policy statement glossary as follows housing diversity refers to the range

[3:20:58] Voice 6: of housing types and tenures in a community that allow people to find appropriate housing as their

[3:21:03] Voice 6: needs change over time and at all stages of life thank

[3:21:07] Voice 9: you are there is there any um changes to the

[3:21:14] Voice 9: wording are we happy with the wording yep seeing nods okay can i call for a second trustee peterson

[3:21:23] Voice 9: Thank you. Any discussion on this? Any further discussion? Not seeing any. I'm going to call the

[3:21:34] Voice 9: vote. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you. That was very fast. Please lower your

[3:21:42] Voice 9: hand. Any opposed? Seeing none, that also carries. Thank you. Moving on to number three. This is the

[3:21:57] Voice 9: one regarding growth management and uh okay if i can have somebody uh trustee peterson

[3:22:10] Voice 9: just

[3:22:13] Voice 21: um i know we uh amended appendix two but did we go through the motion that then recommended it

[3:22:22] Voice 21: to trust council not yet the

[3:22:24] Voice 21: first one on the section okay just wanted to make sure we don't

[3:22:27] Voice 21: miss that thank you oh

[3:22:28] Voice 9: yes uh number one was recommended to trust council and number two

[3:22:31] Voice 9: was recommended to trust council they both they both had the recommendation to trust to recommend

[3:22:38] Voice 9: to trust council yeah same so this one is now number three regarding growth management

[3:22:50] Voice 9: would somebody like to make this motion trustee

[3:22:59] Voice 20: yates i move that trust programs committee

[3:23:03] Voice 20: recommend to trust council that draft directive policy 3.4.2 be revised to read as follows

[3:23:10] Voice 20: Growth management. Manage community growth and its associated impacts by directing residential, commercial, and industrial development into suitable locations to prevent sprawl, relief growth pressures in surrounding rural areas, and to help safeguard protected area networks.

[3:23:29] Voice 20: works i'm going

[3:23:30] Voice 9: to put a pin in this for a second because i just realized that the discussion of

[3:23:36] Voice 9: this was held on page 39 and we didn't have the discussion here right now okay so

[3:23:42] Voice 9: while we've read

[3:23:43] Voice 9: the motion i'm not going to call for a seconder right now um and i do apologize for for this

[3:23:51] Voice 9: um i'm gonna just roll this back a little bit i'm gonna have staff yeomans quickly walk us through

[3:23:58] Voice 9: it, see how we sit with this. Then I can see if there's any changes to the wording before calling

[3:24:04] Voice 9: a seconder. So my apologies. Staff, do you want to quickly walk us through the section regarding

[3:24:10] Voice 9: growth management?

[3:24:11] Voice 13: Sure. Thank you, Chair Evans. I appreciate the opportunity to do so, particularly

[3:24:15] Voice 13: as this was something that emerged from staff's own review of the document rather than something

[3:24:21] Voice 13: that was directed by Committee of the Whole or by Trust Programs Committee. I framed this. I don't

[3:24:27] Voice 13: know if the language survived in the request for decision, but I initially framed this as a

[3:24:31] Voice 13: housekeeping amendment, essentially, making sure that there was some consistency between the title

[3:24:37] Voice 13: of this policy and the thing that the policy does. So within the current draft policy statement,

[3:24:47] Voice 13: this policy reads as follows. Density limits manage community growth and its associated

[3:24:52] Voice 13: impacts by directing residential and mixed-use development into appropriate locations to prevent

[3:24:57] Voice 13: sprawl and relieve growth pressures in the surrounding rural areas and to help safeguard

[3:25:01] Voice 13: protected area networks. Staff are proposing that if indeed this is what the policy does,

[3:25:07] Voice 13: then it likely shouldn't be titled density limits because density limits refer to something else.

[3:25:12] Voice 13: This is now a growth management policy rather than a policy about density limits. So we're

[3:25:18] Voice 13: suggesting that the title of the policy align with the content of the policy. And then it also

[3:25:24] Voice 13: changes what is currently framed as mixed-use development in the policy to residential,

[3:25:34] Voice 13: commercial, and industrial development. And the reason that we suggest this is that mixed-use

[3:25:39] Voice 13: development has a very specific connotation in land use planning. Mixed-use development is

[3:25:43] Voice 13: combining two uses on a single site. So often it's thought of as like light industrial development

[3:25:48] Voice 13: with residential development up above. And I don't think that's what was meant by the use of mixed

[3:25:54] Voice 13: use in this case. I think what was meant by mixed use was a mix of the mix of uses that we see

[3:26:00] Voice 13: taking place on our islands. Now, I stand to be corrected by any of the trustees if you want to.

[3:26:06] Voice 13: But given that, yeah, given the specificity of the term mixed use in land use planning,

[3:26:10] Voice 13: unless that's what you actually mean is mixed use development, I think maybe you just

[3:26:14] Voice 13: I mean, development generally put it in the right place. That is the background of this.

[3:26:21] Voice 9: Thank you. And I apologize for putting you on the spot. And if I am putting you on the spot and you don't feel comfortable, please speak out.

[3:26:30] Voice 9: Trustee Elliott, I believe that this was something that you had brought forward.

[3:26:33] Voice 9: And I just want to check in with you that the intent of the original change still remains the same.

[3:26:40] Voice 9: So I'll turn it over to you if you have any comments. And if not, I fully understand.

[3:26:44] Voice 9: and if i got it wrong i also understand no

[3:26:48] Voice 11: thank you chair um it's it's tricky because

[3:26:53] Voice 11: the previous draft policy and and i don't want to stray too much into the clustering

[3:27:01] Voice 11: conversation again oh sorry this isn't sustainable development considering site capabilities

[3:27:08] Voice 11: capabilities oh okay sorry i lost where we are no i think it it no it's housekeeping it satisfies

[3:27:18] Voice 11: the intent growth management is the language that um we need to be using and so yeah i fully support

[3:27:24] Voice 11: this thanks thank you trustee fast may

[3:27:28] Voice 12: i just uh ask um policy advisor yeomans uh which page

[3:27:34] Voice 12: is this discussed on because I'm looking at 3.4.2 on page 48 and it says clustering rural density

[3:27:41] Voice 12: and I'm afraid I'm looking in the wrong place and I'm missing something here because there was no

[3:27:45] Voice 12: recommendation on page

[3:27:47] Voice 9: 39 it starts yeah

[3:27:49] Voice 13: 30 39 of the RFD thank you

[3:27:51] Voice 9: apologies I should have

[3:27:56] Voice 9: specified which page I was moving to there so I'll give you a second okay I'll code up are we

[3:28:05] Voice 9: Are we good with the language as presented in the motion?

[3:28:13] Voice 9: No changes to the language.

[3:28:15] Voice 9: Okay, perfect.

[3:28:16] Voice 9: And thank you so much.

[3:28:17] Voice 9: Annie, can I get a seconder and then we can hold our discussion?

[3:28:23] Voice 9: Trustee Fass, thank you.

[3:28:25] Voice 9: Is there any discussion on this motion or are we happy to move to a vote?

[3:28:34] Voice 9: Perfect.

[3:28:35] Voice 9: Not seeing any.

[3:28:36] Voice 9: I'm going to call the vote on the motion.

[3:28:40] Voice 9: All those in favor, please raise your hand.

[3:28:42] Voice 9: thank you please lower your hand you're also responsive it's awesome any opposed seeing none

[3:28:55] Voice 9: this is also carried thank you now um the next item number four this had to do with the managing

[3:29:04] Voice 9: growth and development section this is where we said we were going to put a pin in this and not

[3:29:09] Voice 9: have um move the motion at this time um and if somebody feels strongly that they want to move

[3:29:17] Voice 9: this motion now feel free to do so but we had asked that we come back and clarify what the

[3:29:24] Voice 9: intent was from us so that staff could come back with a better option for us or recommendation

[3:29:33] Voice 9: trustee elliott

[3:29:34] Voice 11: i think there was actually two parts to this section if i'm not mistaken that's

[3:29:41] Voice 11: what i was referring to before the clustering question in number four which does speak to

[3:29:48] Voice 11: sustainable development i thought that was what we needed to specify or give more direction to staff

[3:29:58] Voice 11: as to what

[3:29:59] Voice 11: What?

[3:30:00] Voice 11: kind level of clustering we're talking about um and so i just didn't want to skip that have you

[3:30:07] Voice 11: gotten to i'm actually not sure i thought yeah this is on page 52 the existing development

[3:30:13] Voice 11: potential so i just didn't want to skip item four which is back on page 47.

[3:30:27] Voice 13: yeah i'll just note this

[3:30:29] Voice 13: This is the recommendation four in the RFD relates to the downzoning advisory policy, not to item number four about clustering.

[3:30:46] Voice 13: Oh, thank you.

[3:30:47] Voice 11: Sorry.

[3:30:48] Voice 11: Okay, my mistake.

[3:30:49] Voice 11: Thanks for clarifying.

[3:30:52] Voice 9: Yeah, so I also need to figure out where I am in here as well.

[3:30:58] Voice 9: Just give me one second.

[3:30:59] Voice 9: second

[3:31:00] Voice 13: so this okay so recommendation four which is on the screen now in the rfd relates to

[3:31:05] Voice 13: discussion item number six in appendix one yes

[3:31:13] Voice 10: go back down to appendix one

[3:31:16] Voice 10: yep

[3:31:21] Voice 9: um and we were looking at hold on let me just right so there was no recommendation regarding

[3:31:30] Voice 9: number four which was a clustering residential development in appropriate locations we put a

[3:31:35] Voice 9: pin in that we're going to come back to that um yes that's that's where we are so number four in

[3:31:42] Voice 9: here is the existing development potential and this is currently as an advisory policy

[3:31:53] Voice 9: and the discussion that we held was should um the community come back with a strong voice saying

[3:31:59] Voice 9: that they would like to see this as directive at that point we can change the language and look at

[3:32:04] Voice 9: directive policy to put in its place but for now we're just going to move forward with the first

[3:32:11] Voice 9: step of an advisory policy okay is there somebody who would like to move the motion number four on

[3:32:19] Voice 9: the screen

[3:32:23] Voice 20: trustee yates certainly i move that the trust programs committee recommend to trust

[3:32:31] Voice 20: council that a new advisory policy 3.4.9 be added to the managing growth and development section

[3:32:38] Voice 20: as follows. 3.4.9 existing development potential. Identify land where existing development potential

[3:32:47] Voice 20: is not suitable and consider policy and or regulatory options to reduce development

[3:32:53] Voice 20: potential or minimize the impacts of future development. Thank you. Is

[3:33:01] Voice 9: everybody happy

[3:33:01] Voice 9: with the wording on the screen? Once it's there, there we go. Trustee Yates?

[3:33:09] Voice 10: Sorry.

[3:33:25] Voice 9: Sorry about that, I froze. Sorry, Trustee Yates, did you have

[3:33:30] Voice 9: something to add or was I frozen with your hand up?

[3:33:33] Voice 20: No, I froze. I didn't put my

[3:33:34] Voice 20: hand down and then you froze.

[3:33:37] Voice 9: Okay, do I have a seconder for the motion? Trustee

[3:33:41] Voice 9: Peterson, thank you very much. Is there any further discussion on this before I

[3:33:45] Voice 9: call the vote not seeing any i'm going to call the vote for the motion on the screen and it was

[3:33:57] Voice 9: seconded right yes yes okay all those in favor please raise your hand thank you please lower

[3:34:06] Voice 9: your hand any opposed not seeing any this carries okay so then number five is and we haven't had a

[3:34:29] Voice 9: discussion on this. So we should maybe open up the discussion so we understand where this is coming

[3:34:35] Voice 9: from and why we brought it forward. And I know we've had conversations in the past on a lot of

[3:34:42] Voice 9: different topics in this area. So I'm just going to turn it back over to Staff Yeomans to give us a

[3:34:47] Voice 9: quick intro into this because we haven't had this discussion yet.

[3:34:53] Voice 13: Thank you, Chair. My comments will

[3:34:55] Voice 13: be very fairly brief um insofar as this is a topic that has emerged through our engagement with

[3:35:02] Voice 13: indigenous governing bodies not only on the policy statement project but on a number of other land

[3:35:08] Voice 13: use planning projects for local trust committees they often ask us you know something something to

[3:35:14] Voice 13: the effect of well what are you you know you're interested in more housing what are you doing

[3:35:19] Voice 13: for housing for Indigenous people on the islands.

[3:35:23] Voice 13: I don't know the extent to which we will be able to provide

[3:35:28] Voice 13: a satisfactory policy response through the policy statement,

[3:35:32] Voice 13: but at the very least, I think it's a question worth asking

[3:35:36] Voice 13: and exploring a little bit to see whether there is any potential policy response

[3:35:41] Voice 13: that the policy statement can apply to advance that objective.

[3:35:49] Voice 10: Sounds good. Thank you. Is there somebody who would like to move the motion? Trustee Best?

[3:35:58] Voice 12: Yeah, I'm happy to move it. I move that Trust Programs Committee direct staff

[3:36:03] Voice 12: or request staff to provide advice regarding policy options. Thank you. Policy options to

[3:36:12] Voice 12: support housing for Indigenous peoples in the draft policy statement.

[3:36:17] Voice 9: And before I ask for a

[3:36:18] Voice 9: seconder is there any changes to the wording trustee graham

[3:36:24] Voice 6: thank you chair i just thought

[3:36:26] Voice 6: there would be an opportunity to discuss this before we started through the process of moving

[3:36:32] Voice 6: it and seconding it so um i was so if there's no opportunity to speak i will just lower my hand no

[3:36:42] Voice 9: we'll have i'm going to have the discussion after moving and seconding this time around

[3:36:49] Voice 9: so if there's no changes to the wording can i get a seconder trustee yates thank you

[3:36:57] Voice 9: and now we're going to open up for discussion and trustee graham you had something that you

[3:37:03] Voice 9: wanted to share um yeah

[3:37:06] Voice 6: um i'm wondering when that question is asked and it's a it's a reasonable

[3:37:11] Voice 6: question for first nations to ask you know here you are on you on these islands and you're you're

[3:37:16] Voice 6: You're looking at housing.

[3:37:17] Voice 6: What are you doing for us?

[3:37:19] Voice 6: Why wouldn't the answer be, well, none of the housing that we're building excludes the

[3:37:25] Voice 6: opportunity for First Nations to apply?

[3:37:28] Voice 6: I don't think that's disrespectful.

[3:37:30] Voice 6: I think that's exactly how we go about our work.

[3:37:34] Voice 6: And so, and the color, the color, no, I can't say that word, but you know what I mean.

[3:37:39] Voice 6: The other side of the coin is, are we asked to provide housing that is exclusive for First

[3:37:47] Voice 6: I don't think that seems appropriate either. So I'm really confused as to where this is coming from.

[3:37:56] Voice 9: Thank you. I'm not sure if Steph Yeomans has anything that he'd like to add there or if we'll just carry on down the speaker's list.

[3:38:03] Voice 13: Yeah, thanks, Trustee Graham, for the question. I think you may find that staff's analysis comes to a similar conclusion to that, which is we know that we can't people zone, right?

[3:38:16] Voice 13: Right. Like we can't zone for a particular class of people to the exclusion of some other class of people.

[3:38:23] Voice 13: So I can I can almost foresee that perhaps this will emerge as an advisory policy, you know, something to signal support for.

[3:38:34] Voice 13: Or, you know, it may very well be the case that sometime further down the road, a nation with territory in the islands trust area comes upon money that enables them to build some Indigenous-led or, you know, housing for Indigenous people in the Gulf Islands again.

[3:38:50] Voice 13: And perhaps they need to rezone the property in order to facilitate that. If there is an advisory policy that encourages local trust committees to be supportive of that sort of application, then that may be the type of policy that emerges from this.

[3:39:05] Voice 13: It's difficult to foresee at this point that Trust Council can direct local trust committees around the municipalities to do anything in this regard.

[3:39:16] Voice 13: But we've heard it enough times from Indigenous governing bodies that it's something that's on their minds, that it warrants at least a policy analysis and some sort of response.

[3:39:26] Voice 13: Thanks.

[3:39:27] Voice 10: Thank you for your explanation.

[3:39:29] Voice 10: Trustee Elliott?

[3:39:30] Voice 10: So

[3:39:32] Voice 11: two points to consider. And thank you, Jason, for saying, yeah, we're just being asked for options. We've been asked to develop some policies and consider the place that Indigenous peoples rightfully have in the trust area.

[3:39:50] Voice 11: So I think we need to do the work and come up with some options.

[3:39:53] Voice 11: But the options could be around not discriminating to Indigenous groups or people representing Indigenous folks because, let's say, an OCP has placed a density limit of this is the number of dwellings that may be built on this island.

[3:40:20] Voice 11: And then, like you say, Jason, there's a group that has a proposal on their own reserve lands or what have you, and those should not be subject to discrimination through our OCPs.

[3:40:34] Voice 11: So there might be an advisory policy that articulates that that discrimination should not happen just because settlers, you know, developed and built housing does not mean Indigenous people cannot be.

[3:40:49] Voice 11: And so placing density limits may not be possible.

[3:40:52] Voice 11: And the second thing is that housing agreements can be encouraged or directed to specifically create spots for people with rights and title in the island.

[3:41:08] Voice 11: And so on Gabriola, it was the Gabriola Housing Society that set aside some spots in the new housing development, first the NAMOC.

[3:41:16] Voice 11: And I don't think that should be a directive, but it would be definitely a supportive policy that would remind everyone who and how we all belong here.

[3:41:31] Voice 11: Thank you.

[3:41:34] Voice 12: Thank you.

[3:41:35] Voice 11: Trustee Gavri.

[3:41:36] Voice 9: Thank you.

[3:41:40] Voice 14: What a great conversation to be having.

[3:41:43] Voice 14: I think that at minimum, even a basic policy indicating like an advisory policy, indicating our nod, our support of development of safe, like culturally appropriate housing for additional people needs to be in the trust policy statement.

[3:42:03] Voice 14: even a basic policy. Yeah, I think if it's not in there, the omission of it is a bigger statement

[3:42:15] Voice 14: and could possibly be something, an error. It doesn't need to be a prescriptive advisory policy

[3:42:28] Voice 14: trying to get everything all into one, doesn't need to be a masterpiece, but it needs to say

[3:42:33] Voice 14: something that we support these types of endeavors and that the working in collaboration with these

[3:42:40] Voice 14: partners to make make this happen in our communities i think would be a strong uh strong

[3:42:46] Voice 14: statement in the policy thank

[3:42:50] Voice 12: you trustee fast thank you chair um i'm not going to repeat every

[3:42:55] Voice 12: everything and or um or attempt to put words into staff's mouths staff's mouths i uh i just support

[3:43:05] Voice 12: this motion. I think I did a quick search for the word Indigenous in our agenda package today,

[3:43:12] Voice 12: 43 of 136 matches. Anyway, I just think we talk a lot about Indigenous

[3:43:24] Voice 12: reality of presence and long-time stewardship and belonging in and among the islands,

[3:43:33] Voice 12: and i think we should have a policy about it or at least get some options from staff

[3:43:39] Voice 12: so that people can see that they've got a way to return to island living and however

[3:43:47] Voice 12: staff wish to advise us i'm sure we'll have more discussion later but for now we're just asking

[3:43:51] Voice 12: staff to come back with policy options and so i'm in support of that thank you thank

[3:43:58] Voice 9: you very much

[3:43:59] Voice 9: I'm not seeing any other speakers at the moment. So if there are no further comments,

[3:44:07] Voice 9: I'm going to call the vote on the motion on the screen. All those in favor, please raise your hand.

[3:44:15] Voice 9: Thank you. Please lower your hand. Are there any opposed? Seeing none. This carries. Thank you.

[3:44:28] Voice 9: And I think this is an important thing for us to dig into and have a look at. So I appreciate that.

[3:44:34] Voice 9: The next item we haven't discussed yet. This is item number six in 7.2. So this is with regards to 3.4.17, transportation network vulnerabilities. So I'm going to turn this over. And in the package, this is on page 58 of the agenda, Appendix 4. I'm going to turn this over to Staff Yeomans again to discuss the findings that he had when he looked into this.

[3:45:01] Voice 9: Thank

[3:45:03] Voice 13: you, Chair Evans. So this policy discussion flows from a committee of the whole request of staff to come back with policy options regarding identification of parts of the local transportation network at risk of damage, degradation, deterioration and erosion and options for their mitigation or relocation.

[3:45:21] Voice 13: um first thing i would say totally valid and important issue on the islands i know this from

[3:45:29] Voice 13: my my many years on salt spring watching isabella point road and walkers hook road

[3:45:33] Voice 13: gradually slumped towards the ocean and have to be propped up by mounds of boulders um thanks to

[3:45:39] Voice 13: the ministry of transportation and infrastructure however the the conclusion we came to around this

[3:45:45] Voice 13: is that it is not except with with the exception of bowen island municipality which owns all of

[3:45:51] Voice 13: its own road infrastructure um this is not an issue on which islands trust takes the lead like

[3:45:58] Voice 13: this is primarily an engineering issue and one i don't know the extent to which the ministry of

[3:46:03] Voice 13: transportation and infrastructure or the regional districts that have a hand in managing our um our

[3:46:07] Voice 13: active transportation infrastructure on the island um it's it's primarily with them now islands trust

[3:46:13] Voice 13: absolutely has a role to play and should through its land use planning processes be part of any

[3:46:22] Voice 13: discussion about any relocation work that is required but to suggest that islands trust

[3:46:31] Voice 13: necessarily is the body responsible for identifying parts of the local transportation network at risk

[3:46:36] Voice 13: of damage degradation deterioration and erosion like that's that's an engineering project not

[3:46:41] Voice 13: not a land use planning project.

[3:46:43] Voice 13: So to that end, we're recommending,

[3:46:45] Voice 13: like recognizing the importance of the issue

[3:46:47] Voice 13: because it is happening in real time.

[3:46:50] Voice 13: We're recommending that it be an advisory policy

[3:46:52] Voice 13: and that that advisory policy

[3:46:54] Voice 13: be that we cooperate with relevant agencies

[3:46:56] Voice 13: to identify parts of the local transportation network

[3:46:58] Voice 13: at risk of damage or deterioration

[3:47:00] Voice 13: and participate in planning to address mitigation

[3:47:03] Voice 13: or infrastructure relocation where necessary.

[3:47:06] Voice 13: necessary so rather than um rather than islands trust doing the work we are part of the team

[3:47:13] Voice 13: doing the work

[3:47:16] Voice 10: um thank you so much uh trustee fast um

[3:47:20] Voice 12: thank you i uh i support uh this idea

[3:47:25] Voice 12: uh advisory um policy even here on bowen i think this would fit even though we're a municipality

[3:47:33] Voice 12: holiday and we own our own infrastructure. We do lots of things in cooperation. I specifically

[3:47:38] Voice 12: wanted to speak about the senior policy advisors use the word infrastructure relocation rather than

[3:47:46] Voice 12: road relocation as it's there. And I support that idea. So in the last line, address mitigation or

[3:47:57] Voice 12: infrastructure relocation where necessary. And I just wanted to confirm with the policy advisor

[3:48:02] Voice 12: Is that what the motion should read? Because I would be in support of that because we have some pedestrian causeways and things that are vital parts of getting to the ferry. They're not necessarily roads, but they might be underwater soon. Did you mean to use the word infrastructure there? I like that.

[3:48:21] Voice 12: I

[3:48:22] Voice 13: just realized there is an inconsistency between the way I phrased the resolution in Appendix 4 and the way it appears here in the recommendation in the request for decision. In Appendix 4, it indeed says infrastructure. So I'm supportive of replacing road with infrastructure, which would also be inclusive of roads.

[3:48:49] Voice 9: Thank you. Trustee Patrick?

[3:48:51] Voice 9: I

[3:48:53] Voice 5: don't think we have to debate too far here, but I think I was the one that sort of raised this originally with a very different intent. But I think we could probably find our way there with the other policies.

[3:49:06] Voice 5: And that is, if you did have a, you know, a one-way road into a part of an island that is vulnerable to disappearing, and there's subdivision potential or other development potential beyond that point.

[3:49:25] Voice 5: point and and we've given ministry of i guess ministry of highways and transportation i guess

[3:49:32] Voice 5: would have the subdivision approving potential so i i guess they would factor in that if a road

[3:49:42] Voice 5: if you can't access that anymore or may not be able to access it into the future dependably

[3:49:48] Voice 5: you know would they be factoring that into their decisions to subdivide or not

[3:49:53] Voice 5: in a vulnerable part of an island i'm

[3:50:04] Voice 9: not sure if staff has a response to your statement um

[3:50:10] Voice 13: no i

[3:50:11] Voice 13: don't think you know that was not the spirit with in which we entered into this analysis but i'm

[3:50:17] Voice 13: interested to hear that okay

[3:50:22] Voice 9: so yeah i do i do recall the conversation that was had and um yeah

[3:50:27] Voice 9: Yeah. Okay. So I also think it's interesting that we do have a letter of agreement with MOTI

[3:50:34] Voice 9: that calls for an annual meeting. And is that just with staff or is that with trustees as well,

[3:50:40] Voice 9: out of curiosity, just because that would have been good to know in advance. I'm just thinking

[3:50:45] Voice 9: like with South Panda, where we've got the dip work that's going on, trustees were not involved

[3:50:50] Voice 9: in any discussion. And I don't know if staff at Island's Trust were involved in the discussions.

[3:50:56] Voice 9: I know that we had they had meetings between the seven engineering firms, parks and First Nations.

[3:51:07] Voice 9: But I was just curious, like, where do where does Island's trust or trustees fall into into this?

[3:51:17] Voice 13: Sure. I've actually I've just cracked open the agreement.

[3:51:21] Voice 13: So if you want to give me a minute to to review it.

[3:51:24] Voice 13: I mean, typically it's just been staff to staff, given that your equivalent at the Ministry of Transportation is the Minister of Transportation, right, at the political level.

[3:51:36] Voice 13: And I doubt the Minister of Transportation is going to be attending our meetings to discuss Islands Trust Road related matters.

[3:51:44] Voice 13: Like many of our agreements, these meetings have been sporadic.

[3:51:50] Voice 13: Like, I don't think there is or has been an annual meeting with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. I could be corrected by the directors, but certainly it's something we should be looking to do. But if you'll just bear with me, I will.

[3:52:07] Voice 9: I'm just going to say, because we've only got like eight minutes left of the meeting, we can put a pin in that and I can ask that question at a later date. I don't need to take up time with that right now.

[3:52:16] Voice 9: I'll tell

[3:52:17] Voice 9: you right now.

[3:52:17] Voice 13: Annual meeting of Ministry of Transportation and Highway staff and Islands Trust planning staff held in the fall at the call of the manager.

[3:52:26] Voice 9: I will. I'll ask my other question later. Trustee Peterson.

[3:52:30] Voice 9: Oh,

[3:52:32] Voice 21: yeah, I was just going to mention that a few trustees met with the operations manager and some mindless trust staff last spring, which was meant to kick off further meetings in the future.

[3:52:48] Voice 21: So there is opportunity at our elected level to meet with representatives from the ministry below the minister level.

[3:52:58] Voice 9: And I'm just going to ask everybody, just cognizant of time, because I'm seeing more hands going up. Are people willing to stay an extra 10, 15 minutes until this item is closed? We do have one more item on here, but I think that we can move that to the next agenda item, like the next meeting. Are people okay going over about 5-10 minutes?

[3:53:23] Voice 9: Chair, aren't we scheduled to end at 3?

[3:53:25] Voice 9: i thought we're scheduled to end at two am i incorrect there we had you scheduled until

[3:53:32] Voice 9: three o'clock today oh perfect then we've got time i will never mind okay let's carry on the

[3:53:39] Voice 9: conversation um sorry who's who's so so staff reader you had your hand up and somebody else

[3:53:45] Voice 9: had their hand up i

[3:53:47] Voice 15: i did have my hand up i can just speak to that certainly um requests for

[3:53:51] Voice 15: meetings with political like elected officials with modi staff come through the executive

[3:53:55] Voice 15: executive committee. There has been a delay. There's been certainly we hosted one meeting

[3:53:59] Voice 15: within the south. There was an interest in hosting one in the north. I'm waiting to hire the new

[3:54:03] Voice 15: policy advisor. So we have someone to undertake. It's quite a bit of logistics to organize that

[3:54:08] Voice 15: number of people. So I'm waiting on that new policy advisor to be hired and then we'll see

[3:54:11] Voice 15: about initiating one for the north. But certainly if you have a request or something you'd like done,

[3:54:15] Voice 15: please channel that through the executive committee.

[3:54:18] Voice 9: I think my question was more related

[3:54:20] Voice 9: like when the act of work is being done the trustees were not uh kept in the loop um of the

[3:54:28] Voice 9: work the scope of work and the timing of the work so um and also like we wound up with a lot of

[3:54:36] Voice 9: concerns from the community with regards to how the mandate was being taken into consideration

[3:54:41] Voice 9: with the work and i understand all the logistics of how moti has their safety and engineering and

[3:54:49] Voice 9: everything else that goes into it um but we're left at the end or getting close to the end of

[3:54:56] Voice 9: a project and like it would have been good if if staff or or someone from the irons trust could

[3:55:03] Voice 9: have had a say in there as to how far back things needed to get cut you know how much needed to be

[3:55:09] Voice 9: removed things like that it would have been good i don't know if there is any room for that um but

[3:55:18] Voice 9: but I think there'll be something good going forward.

[3:55:20] Voice 9: It's not something that we need to fix today,

[3:55:24] Voice 9: but it was just, you know, after having gone through it,

[3:55:27] Voice 9: and I know some other islands have also gone through

[3:55:29] Voice 9: where the scope of work was a little surprising

[3:55:34] Voice 9: for the request of the action,

[3:55:37] Voice 9: it might be good for us to have a little louder of a voice

[3:55:41] Voice 9: at the beginning, if possible.

[3:55:45] Voice 11: Trustee Elliott?

[3:55:47] Voice 11: There are lots of problems on all the islands. The fact is, we cannot get ourselves into enough meetings with MOTI to address them. And so I think that's what Director Freider is saying. The protocol agreement's there. The intent is there. We haven't been able to staff because I understand that we're the ones that are supposed to do this administratively.

[3:56:08] Voice 11: When Executive Committee met with Minister of Transportation, Rob Fleming, at UBCM in 2023, he was very enthusiastic about having island-specific transportation plans.

[3:56:20] Voice 11: Let's meet and get this all together.

[3:56:23] Voice 11: Getting those people in the room with all of our various issues in the north and the south is really a challenge, and we just don't have the staff to do it.

[3:56:34] Voice 11: So I hear you, Chair, that there's a lot of problems, but this isn't new.

[3:56:39] Voice 11: It's just we can't seem to get to those meetings.

[3:56:44] Voice 9: I think what I'm asking for here is the ability for the trustees of that island, when the work is happening on their island, to have a bit more transparency of the scope of work and the impact to the island.

[3:56:59] Voice 9: That would be nice.

[3:57:02] Voice 9: So, Trustee Peterson?

[3:57:04] Voice 21: Yeah, and I would just note that the meeting last year with the regional manager was driven by that kind of issue.

[3:57:14] Voice 21: There was an arbitrary change in parking regulations at Montague Harbour on Galliano and no explanation to the public and a fair bit of upset.

[3:57:25] Voice 21: set and that was one of the drivers of of getting um that meeting going um certainly that manager

[3:57:35] Voice 21: um expressed a willingness to hear directly from trustees around these types of concerns so

[3:57:42] Voice 21: um i mean i'm happy to share the the email with with with you uh uh for that manager of the

[3:57:51] Voice 21: southern region there um they expressed that they didn't want to have uh you know the personal

[3:57:58] Voice 21: cell phones that uh um uh bombarded by members of the public but certainly were open and willing

[3:58:05] Voice 21: to hearing from elected representatives so i think there is there is some pathways there

[3:58:11] Voice 21: um that may not necessarily require um staff direct staff involvement in all cases especially

[3:58:21] Voice 21: if it's a case-by-case thing and that said yes the the sort of more official

[3:58:29] Voice 21: broader meetings with elected and staff from from both sides are something I

[3:58:35] Voice 21: encourage and of course as director Frieder mentioned if you have thoughts

[3:58:44] Voice 21: about about wanting to get some direction on that talk to EC and then

[3:58:50] Voice 21: And also, we might consider, from a budgetary standpoint, how we want to address the capacity issues around those meetings where we do want staff and elected all engaged in the same conversation.

[3:59:07] Voice 21: So, just my thoughts.

[3:59:09] Voice 12: Thank you.

[3:59:10] Voice 12: Trustee Fast?

[3:59:12] Voice 12: Thank you, Chair.

[3:59:13] Voice 12: I'm just wondering if policy 3.4.17 that we're discussing here, does this have anything to do with the discussion that's happening now, or would it help if this was rather than a new advisory policy, that it be a directive policy?

[3:59:27] Voice 12: Would that help? Or should we have another? Would something additional in the trust policy statement assist with this collaboration bottleneck? Or can we return to the agenda?

[3:59:45] Voice 12: agenda.

[3:59:46] Voice 9: I think it's all part and parcel of this discussion as to how we cooperate with the

[3:59:52] Voice 9: relevant agencies. And this was just a couple of examples of things that we've come across.

[4:00:00] Voice 9: the issues that we've been faced with so having this advisory policy in here is good because it'll

[4:00:06] Voice 9: open up the door for us to look at ways that we can communicate can cooperate with these various

[4:00:13] Voice 9: agencies if we don't have anything in here then it's not a priority for for us and we may not

[4:00:23] Voice 9: not proceed down different avenues of looking at different policies with regards to cooperating

[4:00:30] Voice 9: with the various agencies. Trustee Yates?

[4:00:35] Voice 20: I agree having this in here could be helpful.

[4:00:39] Voice 20: Certainly every year in early spring, we have the moat comes over here and does what they call the

[4:00:46] Voice 20: verge clearing or the the roadside clearing and they they just brutalize the they just brutalize

[4:00:53] Voice 20: the ditches and the the sides of the roads and shrubs native shrubs get just mangled and every

[4:01:01] Voice 20: year people contact the local trustees to say what can we possibly do about this so it's good to have

[4:01:09] Voice 20: at least an opening where we might be able to talk to highways um you know highways people about that

[4:01:17] Voice 20: kind of thing thank

[4:01:22] Voice 9: you so yeah i'm seeing various applications that this advisory policy can be used

[4:01:28] Voice 9: for so i think this the way that it's written it addresses a lot of these different issues that

[4:01:36] Voice 9: each of the islands are being faced with so um did we i'm sorry i did we have somebody move

[4:01:46] Voice 9: this yet or did we just open with discussion i think we just open with discussion this time

[4:01:50] Voice 9: so i'm going to ask if there's nobody else that's got any discussion on this if somebody would like

[4:01:58] Voice 9: to move it trustee

[4:02:04] Voice 20: yates sure i move that trust programs committee recommend to trust council

[4:02:10] Voice 20: that a new advisory policy 3.4.17 be added to the transportation section as follows.

[4:02:18] Voice 20: 3.4.17 Transportation Network Vulnerabilities. Cooperate with relevant agencies to identify

[4:02:25] Voice 20: parts of the local transportation network at risk of damage or deterioration and participate

[4:02:31] Voice 20: in planning to address mitigation or infrastructure relocation where necessary.

[4:02:39] Voice 20: Thank

[4:02:40] Voice 9: you. Are there any changes to the wording or are we happy with the wording? Let's give you a second for that. Not seeing anybody raise their hands. Can I call for a seconder? Trustee Gavereau, thank you. Any further discussion on this item? Not seeing any, I'm going to, oh wait, Trustee Fast.

[4:03:10] Voice 9: just

[4:03:11] Voice 12: that um it looks like this one is about uh at risk of damage or deterioration of the

[4:03:18] Voice 12: transportation network and speaks to infrastructure maybe at some point we want to consider another

[4:03:23] Voice 12: one that speaks to damage or deterioration of the verges and ecosystems or uh next to these or

[4:03:32] Voice 12: where parking, anyway, it just looks like maybe there's another one eventually, but nothing

[4:03:40] Voice 12: towards this. I support this. Thank you.

[4:03:44] Voice 20: Thank you, Trustee Yates. I agree with Trustee Fast,

[4:03:47] Voice 20: but I'm happy just to have some kind of opening here where we can just talk to Ministry of

[4:03:52] Voice 20: Transportation.

[4:03:55] Voice 9: Perfect. Thank you. Any further comments or discussion on this? Not seeing any,

[4:04:03] Voice 9: I'm going to call the vote on the motion on the screen all those in favor please raise your hand

[4:04:10] Voice 9: thank you so much please lower your hands are there any I'm just going to wait a second

[4:04:21] Voice 9: trustee Elliott are you able to lower your hand I'm not sure if trustee Elliott has frozen

[4:04:31] Voice 9: but she did there we go um any opposed not seeing any this carries thank you all right

[4:04:42] Voice 9: The next item on the agenda is 7.3, saltwater intrusion policy, and this is on page 59 of

[4:04:51] Voice 9: the agenda, and I'm going to turn this again over to Staff Yeomans for discussion.

[4:04:58] Voice 13: Thank you, Chair Evans.

[4:04:59] Voice 13: Let me just bring up my screen here.

[4:05:08] Voice 13: All right.

[4:05:09] Voice 13: Is everybody seeing that?

[4:05:13] Voice 13: All right.

[4:05:14] Voice 13: Fantastic.

[4:05:15] Voice 13: At the last Trust Programs Committee meeting, you will all recall that one of the sections

[4:05:20] Voice 13: that you encountered but we decided to save for another day was around freshwater policy

[4:05:24] Voice 13: as we were hoping that we could be joined by our senior freshwater specialist William Shulba.

[4:05:31] Voice 13: I believe he is still on here with us today. Yes, we see him.

[4:05:35] Voice 13: Okay, great. So should we wish

[4:05:38] Voice 13: to expand the discussion beyond the policy option that is in front of you as a recommendation? I

[4:05:44] Voice 13: think that option is available but let's start with saltwater intrusion policy and see where

[4:05:50] Voice 13: where the discussion goes from there. So the direction that staff were given at the last

[4:05:55] Voice 13: Trust Programs Committee was to request staff to provide analysis of adding saltwater intrusion

[4:06:01] Voice 13: to draft policy statement section directive policies freshwater. Staff went away and did

[4:06:08] Voice 13: a little bit of research. You'll find that as appendix one to the request for decision that's

[4:06:13] Voice 13: in your agenda package. The reality is, and I'm sure you all know this well, that the islands or

[4:06:20] Voice 13: areas of the islands are at risk of saltwater intrusion. They are low-lying, they are rocky,

[4:06:25] Voice 13: and they are all very close to the seashore. All a recipe for potential saltwater intrusion

[4:06:31] Voice 13: and definitely an issue for which a directive policy is well warranted. As such, staff are

[4:06:39] Voice 13: recommending a directive policy phrased as follows. Saltwater intrusion identify areas

[4:06:45] Voice 13: at elevated risk of saltwater intrusion and restrict development within them.

[4:06:50] Voice 13: This language of restricting development within them is similar to that which is currently in the draft policy statement related to hazard areas.

[4:06:59] Voice 13: So identifying areas that are at risk of climate change or natural hazard and restricting development within them.

[4:07:06] Voice 13: It doesn't mean an absolute prohibition on development in areas of potential saltwater intrusion risk.

[4:07:13] Voice 13: It simply means that local trust committees or island municipalities should not be contemplating increases, I guess, in development opportunity in areas where that risk is high or likely to be exacerbated by whatever development is being entertained or proposed.

[4:07:34] Voice 13: Thank you.

[4:07:35] Voice 13: Okay.

[4:07:41] Voice 9: I have a question. So is it possible rather than using the words restricting development

[4:07:50] Voice 9: within them just because of how that can be perceived and reinterpreted by future trustees?

[4:07:58] Voice 9: And I'm thinking like there's a few islands that are more vulnerable to the salt water intrusion,

[4:08:06] Voice 9: pandas i think it was gabriela and maine are more vulnerable to this um and in some some lots are

[4:08:16] Voice 9: already experiencing some saltwater intrusion is there a different wording that could be used

[4:08:20] Voice 9: rather than restricting development within them to say uh no further density um would be permitted

[4:08:29] Voice 9: or something along that line instead just because i don't i also like was mentioned before i'm

[4:08:35] Voice 9: I'm cognizant of the scrutiny that the policy statement is going to be going under with the

[4:08:44] Voice 9: public as well. So I just thought I'd throw that out and ask the question. I'm not sure if

[4:09:01] Voice 9: Staff Yeomans heard the question.

[4:09:03] Voice 13: Oh, I did. I feel as though that is more of a political

[4:09:11] Voice 13: discussion then about the potential reaction either of your communities that you represent

[4:09:19] Voice 13: or future trustees and how they choose to interpret is a little more of a political issue.

[4:09:25] Voice 13: From a consistency standpoint, we like the word restrict insofar as we've already

[4:09:29] Voice 13: used it elsewhere in the document. However, I'm sorry, I'm just furiously flipping through my

[4:09:35] Voice 13: paper copy here i am aware that elsewhere in the fresh water policies we do talk about density and

[4:09:44] Voice 13: intensity of use so you could again it would be consistent to say something along the lines of

[4:09:51] Voice 13: ensure that neither the density nor intensity of land use is increased in areas at

[4:09:58] Voice 13: elevated risk of salt water intrusion i think if

[4:10:01] Voice 7: you were to

[4:10:01] Voice 13: frame it that way it would it would

[4:10:03] Voice 13: still remain consistent with other directive policies but i see that um freshwater specialist

[4:10:08] Voice 13: also has his hand up so perhaps has a thought on that thank

[4:10:12] Voice 9: you i appreciate you looking that up

[4:10:13] Voice 9: because i couldn't think of it off the top of my head um so i'm just going to ask trustee graham

[4:10:19] Voice 9: because he had his hand up first i'm not sure if he's got a question that perhaps um staff

[4:10:23] Voice 9: will be able to answer for him if we just had a comment oh

[4:10:28] Voice 6: i'm happy to defer to um

[4:10:31] Voice 6: William, first. Thank you.

[4:10:33] Voice 9: Thank you so much. Excellent.

[4:10:35] Voice 9: Staff Shulbert, go ahead.

[4:10:37] Voice 18: Hi, thank you.

[4:10:39] Voice 18: Through the Chair, I think that the term development

[4:10:43] Voice 18: is a little bit more broad.

[4:10:45] Voice 18: Increasing the intensity of density

[4:10:49] Voice 18: is a particular planning, I guess, scope of the Honours Trust,

[4:10:54] Voice 18: usually relating to rezoning applications or subdivision.

[4:11:00] Voice 18: However, in the future, I imagine this policy statement will have some legs and it's going to go on into a future that development can also lead to other activities such as groundwater well drilling.

[4:11:13] Voice 18: So if there is an area of the island's trust area and I wouldn't, to go back, I wouldn't say that there's one island that is of more risk than another.

[4:11:24] Voice 18: There are high saltwater intrusion risks on every island that we have.

[4:11:29] Voice 18: So it's a very area-based risk and its potential to restrict development in those areas that may not relate directly to density increases.

[4:11:40] Voice 18: It could relate to an activity like water well drilling or say like a geothermal development or something like this.

[4:11:49] Voice 18: I guess you could define that as intensity. I just find that development is a little bit more broad in that case.

[4:11:55] Voice 18: thank you

[4:11:57] Voice 9: so for me my question was uh future trustees reading this um and while making their

[4:12:06] Voice 9: bylaws or coming across a development application for and and i believe and and this is me just

[4:12:14] Voice 9: thinking out loud i'm just working things out in my little brain um if an undeveloped property

[4:12:21] Voice 9: that is residential use only, regardless of this directive policy, they would still be permitted to

[4:12:29] Voice 9: build a new dwelling on that property, even if there was saltwater intrusion on there, if they

[4:12:36] Voice 9: were able to drill a new well, but would drilling the new well then fall under this and they couldn't

[4:12:41] Voice 9: drill a new well? I'm just wanting to make sure that people that have owned property for 20, 30,

[4:12:46] Voice 9: 40 years and haven't developed it with a dwelling on it yet, that they'd still be able to regardless

[4:12:53] Voice 9: of this and how this gets interpreted in the future. I just don't want this directive policy

[4:13:00] Voice 9: to be interpreted in the future by another trustees by saying, you cannot develop your

[4:13:06] Voice 9: property to have a dwelling on it anymore. That's my concern.

[4:13:11] Voice 9: Sure.

[4:13:16] Voice 13: If I may, Chair. So this policy would not change anybody's current zoning. So if somebody today is zoned for a house and the source of water that they have available to service that house is groundwater, and if they are indeed in a risk or in an area deemed to be at risk, an elevated risk of saltwater intrusion,

[4:13:45] Voice 13: this policy does not preclude them from going ahead and building that house and drilling that

[4:13:51] Voice 13: well. Now if that property for example had subdivision potential let's say you could turn

[4:13:59] Voice 13: that property into three properties all of which could potentially be serviced by a well then once

[4:14:06] Voice 13: this policy is in place the local trust committee might want to consider amending its bylaws to

[4:14:14] Voice 13: reduce the subdivision potential in that area such that those two additional lots serviced

[4:14:20] Voice 13: by groundwater wells could not be completed.

[4:14:24] Voice 13: They're not obligated to do so under this policy, but it does give them some guidance

[4:14:29] Voice 13: that that might want to be something that they considered.

[4:14:35] Voice 13: Now if that landowner, currently zoned for a dwelling unit and a well, wanted to rezone

[4:14:42] Voice 13: owned their property, so had to come to the local trust committee to amend the land use bylaw to

[4:14:46] Voice 13: get additional subdivision potential, then the local trust committee, once this policy is in

[4:14:52] Voice 13: place, should not entertain that application because it would seem to fly directly in the

[4:14:57] Voice 13: face of the policy.

[4:15:01] Voice 10: Okay, thank you for the clarification. Trustee Peterson? Thank you,

[4:15:06] Voice 21: chair yeah and my reading of of this proposed policy is uh really hinges on the difference

[4:15:16] Voice 21: between restriction and prohibition um it's not it's not enjoining local trust committees to

[4:15:24] Voice 21: prohibit development but to restrict it and and there is a number of different ways to approach

[4:15:31] Voice 21: approach restricting development so i think this leaves plenty of um uh plenty of discretion up to

[4:15:39] Voice 21: the local trust committee from my point of view and i'm comfortable with this language thank you

[4:15:44] Voice 21: perfect

[4:15:46] Voice 9: thank you so much trustee graham yeah

[4:15:49] Voice 6: thank you chair i think it's quite probable

[4:15:52] Voice 6: considering um climate change and sea level rise that those areas that are at risk of saltwater

[4:16:00] Voice 6: intrusion are going to be incapable of drilling a well and not hitting saltwater. And a lot of,

[4:16:07] Voice 6: let's face it, that's the most desirable land when people choose to live on an island. They

[4:16:13] Voice 6: want to be able to look at the ocean. And so most of the waterfront on most of the islands

[4:16:19] Voice 6: has already developed. There's already houses on them. So I wouldn't want this policy to prevent

[4:16:25] Voice 6: a landowner who can no longer drink their salty water from putting a cistern outside their house

[4:16:32] Voice 6: and collecting rainwater? And can you continue to enjoy the life that they've had for the 20,

[4:16:38] Voice 6: 30, 40, 50 years that they've lived there? So that's my only concern.

[4:16:44] Voice 9: Thank you. Would you like staff to address that concern? Yeah. Would staff, Shilpa or

[4:16:52] Voice 9: or Yeomans have an answer for the question?

[4:16:57] Voice 18: I can make a brief statement here, Chair.

[4:17:03] Voice 18: I agree that for the existing user that, yeah,

[4:17:08] Voice 18: restricting something like the development

[4:17:10] Voice 18: of a rainwater capture system would likely not be aligned

[4:17:15] Voice 18: with preserving groundwater resources.

[4:17:17] Voice 18: That would be a proponent of that.

[4:17:24] Voice 18: to meet the preserve and protect mandate.

[4:17:27] Voice 18: I think a part of this statement here

[4:17:31] Voice 18: is to identify areas of risk.

[4:17:33] Voice 18: So that'll be liaising with our provincial partners

[4:17:36] Voice 18: who they hold in the Water Sustainability Act Section 58,

[4:17:42] Voice 18: that it's unlawful to use a groundwater well

[4:17:46] Voice 18: that has saltwater intrusion.

[4:17:48] Voice 18: So in order to identify those areas

[4:17:51] Voice 18: areas and then restrict the development within them is protecting the existing user.

[4:17:58] Voice 18: Because if a new use or more intense use occurs in these areas, saltwater intrusion may not

[4:18:06] Voice 18: just be felt by the biggest user, it can contaminate the aquifer in that area, especially low-lying

[4:18:14] Voice 18: areas and peninsulas.

[4:18:15] Voice 18: And then that can create a saline intrusion on a well owner that has rainwater capture and is using their well to maximum efficiency.

[4:18:28] Voice 18: And if they have saltwater intrusion, they need to stop using the well because it would be unlawful.

[4:18:38] Voice 18: So the province is really dedicated on undertaking saltwater intrusion risk mapping and the mitigation of it.

[4:18:48] Voice 18: Every single ACFER in the Southern Gulf Islands has an ACFER notation on saltwater intrusion.

[4:18:55] Voice 18: So that is the first kind of active step of the province.

[4:18:59] Voice 18: and so part of restricting development it may come from um the provincial side in in the ways

[4:19:06] Voice 18: that they can engage um restriction of development like drilling authorizations where they will own

[4:19:13] Voice 18: where they will then have the ability to authorize if if um a water well can be drilled in an area or

[4:19:21] Voice 18: not that hasn't happened yet in the province but if it's anywhere it'll be areas of high risk of

[4:19:26] Voice 18: saltwater intrusion on so um that's just part of this statement i think that uh it the restricted

[4:19:33] Voice 18: development um does give the local like chair peter trustee peterson said that uh gives the

[4:19:40] Voice 18: local trust committees a lot of leverage and leeway and interpretation to engage this uh policy on

[4:19:47] Voice 18: on their islands through land use file or ocp updates or just adjudicating rezonings but also

[4:19:54] Voice 18: i i think that it does provide some direction to the federation as a whole as a regional planning

[4:19:59] Voice 18: team to undertake more work and to coordinate with the province more and how they perhaps see

[4:20:06] Voice 18: restriction of development in areas of high salt water intrusion thanks thank

[4:20:13] Voice 10: you trustee mode

[4:20:16] Trustee Maude: thank you chair um a couple of concerns of mine um one is this is assuming that any development

[4:20:25] Trustee Maude: development would be based on groundwater.

[4:20:28] Trustee Maude: There are many, many options for vision of water,

[4:20:32] Trustee Maude: including cisterns, desalinization, blah, blah, blah.

[4:20:36] Trustee Maude: There's a lot of other things that can be done

[4:20:41] Trustee Maude: if somebody wishes to develop.

[4:20:44] Trustee Maude: And sort of weighing on Mr. Shilpa's statement

[4:20:50] Trustee Maude: about the provinces, you know,

[4:20:51] Trustee Maude: is that that's more the restriction of well development should more be within the purview

[4:20:59] Trustee Maude: of the province not the trust um and i just i just think this is a directive policy that that

[4:21:08] Trustee Maude: you know it we're we're sort of saying well that they they may or may the local trust may or may

[4:21:14] Trustee Maude: may not use it, directive's directive.

[4:21:18] Trustee Maude: And the way that I read the policy,

[4:21:23] Trustee Maude: it's saying that restrict development,

[4:21:26] Trustee Maude: it doesn't say consider.

[4:21:30] Trustee Maude: And so I'm very uncomfortable with this

[4:21:33] Trustee Maude: because I think that we're making an assumption

[4:21:37] Trustee Maude: that any development would be based on groundwater

[4:21:39] Trustee Maude: and that's not necessarily the case.

[4:21:42] Trustee Maude: so I'm not in support of this thank you thank

[4:21:47] Voice 10: you trustee Patrick I

[4:21:50] Voice 12: see Jason's got his hand up

[4:21:52] Voice 12: I'll let Jason go next oh

[4:21:55] Voice 13: thank you trustee fast for watching my flailing arms it's funny I've

[4:22:01] Voice 13: trustee fast is often right below me on the screen and that's why I keep on being careful

[4:22:04] Voice 13: to mention island municipalities and not limit my conversation to local trust committees because

[4:22:08] Voice 13: I'm always looking at trustee fast here on the screen.

[4:22:12] Voice 13: To trustee Maud's point, in Appendix 1 of this RFD item, I did sort of anticipate that question or that concern.

[4:22:24] Voice 13: So there is a policy option here, and I don't know the extent to which I stand behind it necessarily.

[4:22:31] Voice 13: necessarily, but the local trust committee or island municipality could identify areas

[4:22:36] Voice 13: at elevated risk of saltwater intrusion and restrict development serviced by groundwater

[4:22:40] Voice 13: within them, if that is a concern of the body that you wish clarified within the policy.

[4:22:56] Voice 9: I was just trying to get my thing off.

[4:22:58] Voice 9: Trustee Patrick, thank you for that clarification.

[4:23:00] Voice 9: Staff Yeomans as well.

[4:23:02] Voice 9: Trustee Patrick.

[4:23:03] Voice 5: A couple things.

[4:23:04] Voice 5: things. In the CRD, if you apply for a building permit, you could be in a saltwater intrusion

[4:23:14] Voice 5: area. You would still be forced to drill a well, even if you had a rainwater collection system as

[4:23:19] Voice 5: your primary water service. So it kind of leads me to thinking that we should also consider

[4:23:25] Voice 5: an advocacy policy. I know we were trying to avoid advocacy policies, but I think this is an area

[4:23:32] Voice 5: where advocacy is going to become even more important in the years to come.

[4:23:40] Voice 5: And this is not a little issue of, you know,

[4:23:44] Voice 5: once an area is impacted with saltwater intrusion,

[4:23:47] Voice 5: it's going to start impacting the neighbors and the broader area

[4:23:50] Voice 5: and the larger area, and the opportunities of recovery are small.

[4:23:55] Voice 5: So I think this is a very important issue.

[4:24:00] Voice 5: you um if it makes folks a little more comfortable the second the the alternative may be better for

[4:24:09] Voice 5: the directive policy um but i would also consider wanting to hear from staff on potential for

[4:24:15] Voice 5: advocacy policy um in this same area as well in addition to the directive policy thank you

[4:24:26] Voice 10: Trustee Maud?

[4:24:28] Trustee Maude: Thank you, Chair. Just to follow up from Jason's comments, I think that, you know,

[4:24:37] Trustee Maude: we need to talk definitions because a lot of our, on Main Island, our water systems are all

[4:24:44] Trustee Maude: groundwater fed. So you might have a lot within a saltwater intrusion area that is being supported

[4:24:52] Trustee Maude: supported by a water system that is outside of that.

[4:24:56] Trustee Maude: So I just, I really don't like the way that this is worded.

[4:25:01] Trustee Maude: It either needs to be more broad

[4:25:04] Trustee Maude: or it needs to be not a directive policy

[4:25:08] Trustee Maude: because it doesn't take into consideration

[4:25:11] Trustee Maude: all the potential options.

[4:25:14] Trustee Maude: And I absolutely agree with Chair Patrick,

[4:25:17] Trustee Maude: is that we need to be working on advocacy

[4:25:20] Trustee Maude: for rainwater catchment.

[4:25:22] Trustee Maude: because the concept um that you have to drill well in order to to get a subdivision

[4:25:29] Trustee Maude: um not necessarily a building permit i know in our area um is that's the wrong default

[4:25:37] Trustee Maude: you know if we had something in the policy statement saying that no more ground no more

[4:25:42] Trustee Maude: wells can be drilled to support development fine i'm fine with that um but the the way it's written

[4:25:50] Trustee Maude: um we're making assumptions and assumptions i don't support thank you thank

[4:25:58] Voice 9: you um yeah i'm

[4:25:59] Voice 9: personally still uncomfortable with the way that this is worded this is very directive we've got

[4:26:05] Voice 9: directive policies that are softer this is extremely directive um and it doesn't leave

[4:26:11] Voice 9: any wiggle room um so the direction is that the local trust area must identify areas elevated risk

[4:26:21] Voice 9: and restrict development within them there is like once you've identified that area you've

[4:26:25] Voice 9: got to restrict development within them that's the way this is written that is too directive

[4:26:30] Voice 9: and that is too impactful um i can't support it the way it's written um i would like to see it

[4:26:38] Voice 9: either made a little softer or um have something that is a little like like the discussion has

[4:26:47] Voice 9: has been going.

[4:26:47] Voice 9: It's something that is a little bit more explanation

[4:26:50] Voice 9: as to what restrictions we are talking about,

[4:26:53] Voice 9: not just restrict development.

[4:26:57] Voice 9: Go ahead, Trustee Fast.

[4:26:59] Voice 12: Thank you, Chair.

[4:27:01] Voice 12: I'm in support of the way it's written here.

[4:27:04] Voice 12: I don't mind if it says it includes the words

[4:27:09] Voice 12: restrict development service by groundwater within them.

[4:27:12] Voice 12: It's been pointed out that restrict does not mean prohibit.

[4:27:18] Voice 12: Personally, I think as an Islands Trust, we're mandated to preserve and protect the community and nature and the environment,

[4:27:30] Voice 12: which includes, I think, freshwater resources underground.

[4:27:36] Voice 12: So I think identify areas of elevated risk of saltwater intrusion.

[4:27:42] Voice 12: If there are some, they should be identified and then restrict development within them,

[4:27:49] Voice 12: especially if they're serviced by groundwater.

[4:27:51] Voice 12: To me, that's what the Islands Trust is all about.

[4:27:56] Voice 12: I'm not here to protect and preserve development rights of private property owners.

[4:28:04] Voice 12: I want to make sure all the people in that neighborhood can have their groundwater protected.

[4:28:14] Voice 12: And whether they're several lots away or whatever the mapping and research data shows, because as somebody said, it's very difficult to recover once saltwater has infiltrated, sea level is rising, things are changing, more wells are going in.

[4:28:41] Voice 12: I think climate change is continuing.

[4:28:46] Voice 12: Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise.

[4:28:49] Voice 12: Nothing is getting better yet in that department,

[4:28:53] Voice 12: although I hope for a clean, nature-filled, wonderful future.

[4:28:59] Voice 12: Right now, I think this policy is very important.

[4:29:03] Voice 12: It was important 20 years ago, and I don't know that there was one then,

[4:29:10] Voice 12: But saltwater intrusion is a reality. And I think for all of the trees and the underwater sea creatures that may depend on some water seeping out through the lenses of gravel into the intertidal and near shore areas, there's a whole complex ecosystem there.

[4:29:36] Voice 12: there. And, and I think, I think I support this policy as it's, as it's written. And when we get

[4:29:48] Voice 12: to that point, I'd be glad to move it. Thank you. Thank you, Trustee Peterson. You're muted.

[4:30:02] Voice 9: Trustee Peterson, you're muted.

[4:30:07] Voice 21: Thank you.

[4:30:08] Voice 21: It must be my turn.

[4:30:11] Voice 21: Yeah, similar to a previous policy where we're looking at,

[4:30:15] Voice 21: when I see restrict development, to me that leaves a lot of discretion

[4:30:21] Voice 21: to the local trust committee on how to approach restricting development.

[4:30:28] Voice 21: So I disagree with some of what I've heard about this not being appropriate.

[4:30:35] Voice 21: it um i think it's it's completely appropriate and and and the the approach uh still leaves that

[4:30:47] Voice 21: leeway um to the local trust committee on how how to restrict and what is appropriate restriction

[4:30:53] Voice 21: for their island so i'm perfectly comfortable with this as it's written thank you thank you

[4:30:59] Voice 9: um so i'm coming at this from a slightly different position so as i read this we are directed to

[4:31:07] Voice 9: identify the areas at elevated risk and once we've identified them we are directed to restrict

[4:31:12] Voice 9: development within them it's not as appropriate it's not to consider whether it's appropriate or

[4:31:19] Voice 9: not you have you are directed to restrict development within it so that's that's the

[4:31:25] Voice 9: the issue that i have um we don't have the leeway to choose not to restrict development within it

[4:31:30] Voice 9: if it's not appropriate we have to we're directed to that's so i i feel more comfortable if it said

[4:31:38] Voice 9: restrict development as appropriate or something along those lines thanks uh trustee yates thank

[4:31:47] Voice 20: you i support it exactly as it's written i feel like that is one of the most important parts of

[4:31:54] Voice 20: of our job is to protect groundwater. And we are doing so much work right now to identify

[4:32:00] Voice 20: groundwater risks. And one of the really big ones is saltwater intrusion. And I would want this

[4:32:07] Voice 20: in the policy statement in order to guide our OCP work and our land use bylaw work. And as far as I

[4:32:15] Voice 20: can see, restriction is not prohibiting. And one of the restrictions might be that you request a

[4:32:22] Voice 20: developer to put rainwater catchment in, for example. But I can't see any way of going forward

[4:32:30] Voice 20: as an island's trust in our communities if we're not restricting development in places that either

[4:32:37] Voice 20: have saltwater intrusion or are bound for saltwater intrusion. Thank you. Thank you. Trustee Peterson?

[4:32:44] Voice 20: Jason?

[4:32:46] Voice 21: Yeah, thank you, Chair. And I was just going to say that while this would enjoin LTCs

[4:32:54] Voice 21: to restrict, it's the leeway in how that restriction is applied. I think there's lots

[4:33:01] Voice 21: of room there. That said, if it's more palatable for a wider number of the trustees to add the

[4:33:09] Voice 21: words as appropriate uh into it i'm okay with that um but i i'm not i'm i'm fine with it how

[4:33:18] Voice 21: it is but if if adding as appropriate uh brings us closer to consensus i'm okay with that too

[4:33:24] Voice 21: thank you thank

[4:33:26] Voice 10: you trustee graham thank

[4:33:28] Voice 6: you chair great great suggestions um i i'm

[4:33:32] Voice 6: I'm okay with the policy as long as the development is tied to groundwater requirements.

[4:33:41] Voice 6: So in other words, that explains where the restriction comes in.

[4:33:46] Voice 6: You're restricting development that relies on groundwater, and that gives some comfort to those people who are going to be commenting on this policy statement after we get to first reading.

[4:33:58] Voice 6: And you do not want to live in the world you did last term when certain statements tripped up the entire community.

[4:34:08] Voice 6: And this is one of those statements that if you do not qualify what that restriction means, you are walking into a hornet's nest.

[4:34:15] Voice 6: That's my opinion anyway.

[4:34:18] Voice 9: Thank you.

[4:34:19] Voice 9: Staff, Shulba?

[4:34:23] Voice 18: Yes, thank you, Chair.

[4:34:25] Voice 18: Chair and to, I guess, comment on and perhaps strengthen Trustee Graham's position there.

[4:34:34] Voice 18: Increasing the risk of saltwater intrusion, it is related to climate change and it is related

[4:34:47] Voice 18: to sea level rise and it is related to larger systems that can influence saltwater intrusion,

[4:34:53] Voice 18: including existing groundwater demand. For acute saltwater intrusion, which usually on a seasonal

[4:35:03] Voice 18: level we are more concerned with, the increasing of the risk is from the activity of using

[4:35:12] Voice 18: groundwater. So if there is an increase in groundwater in those areas, then that would

[4:35:20] Voice 18: would increase the vulnerability for if there is an increase in, you know, in a activity that

[4:35:29] Voice 18: doesn't involve the increased use of groundwater, then it's the likelihood is lower that that's

[4:35:38] Voice 18: going to have an increase in the vulnerability of that area and saltwater intrusion. So I

[4:35:42] Voice 18: agree with that. There's other aspects of the freshwater system that are much more tied

[4:35:48] Voice 18: together like the protection of groundwater recharge has there's many different activities

[4:35:52] Voice 18: that can happen in on a landscape that can influence groundwater recharge including groundwater

[4:35:57] Voice 18: withdrawals but also just the land development and roads and everything can can influence

[4:36:03] Voice 18: groundwater recharge but for solar intrusion it is really tied to the to the um to the use of

[4:36:11] Voice 18: of removal groundwater is is the biggest driver to increasing the risk of solar intrusion

[4:36:18] Voice 18: Thanks.

[4:36:21] Voice 10: Trustee Fast?

[4:36:22] Voice 12: Thank you, Chair.

[4:36:24] Voice 12: I think saltwater intrusion has a lot of potential to restrict development.

[4:36:30] Voice 12: But I'm wondering if the staff can, I'm not as familiar with other islands.

[4:36:40] Voice 12: In terms of options for local trustees to restrict development,

[4:36:46] Voice 12: Do you have the ability to put on conservation guidelines or about how much groundwater you can use in different seasons for a household?

[4:37:06] Voice 18: Yeah, so through the chair, the Water Sustainability Act determines the restrictions of water use and for domestic groundwater wells.

[4:37:19] Voice 18: There are very basic restrictions, like every parcel is deemed the right of 2,000 liters per day.

[4:37:30] Voice 18: And there's usually no restrictions of them withdrawing that.

[4:37:36] Voice 18: The restrictions do come in wells that are considered non-domestic.

[4:37:40] Voice 18: So these are industrial wells, but also commercial wells and multifamily wells and and water systems where they have to apply for a groundwater license.

[4:37:51] Voice 18: So and then that water source is then managed in a way to then meet those requirements.

[4:37:59] Voice 18: And we have seen that that the management of a groundwater source lowers the per parcel water requirement, say, in a subdivision.

[4:38:11] Voice 18: that's why a lot of stratas do have these common water sources and there's a few of them on salt

[4:38:15] Voice 18: spring island on the coast that have in areas of at risk of salt water intrusion that they have a

[4:38:22] Voice 18: strata that has a managed groundwater water supply system and and in that case that instead of having

[4:38:31] Voice 18: every property have their own well and every property has the ability to take 2 000 liters

[4:38:35] Voice 18: per day that um that every property is is managed to 1200 liters per day or some sort of something

[4:38:43] Voice 18: less than that and then it's managed by a water system and if that water system is big enough

[4:38:48] Voice 18: then it could be a utility um we don't have many of those in the island trust area um so that that's

[4:38:54] Voice 18: also um yeah so so that's a way to restrict water use and perhaps restricting development is that

[4:39:01] Voice 18: like development of well per lot is more development than having one or two wells

[4:39:05] Voice 18: under a water management system that is providing a water service. Yeah. So there is a distinction

[4:39:12] Voice 18: there. And so just to summarize that the restrictions on domestic water supply,

[4:39:18] Voice 18: especially existing users is very low, except if they are experiencing saltwater intrusion

[4:39:23] Voice 18: and under the law, they're supposed to stop using their well immediately.

[4:39:29] Voice 18: Thank

[4:39:30] Voice 12: you. So, if I understand that a local trust area or committee, one of the restrictions they could place is by approving a layout that had to have a water strata where there was an agreement and things like that. Could that happen?

[4:39:50] Voice 12: It's different here on Bowen in the municipality, I know, but I'm not familiar.

[4:39:56] Voice 12: Could that be, could water use layout and agreements be tools that the local trust committee

[4:40:05] Voice 12: could use to restrict development while still letting it go ahead?

[4:40:12] Voice 18: Yeah, so through the chair, I can answer that.

[4:40:14] Voice 18: So say if it's a larger parcel and that parcel is zoned for multiple lot densities, then

[4:40:21] Voice 18: then they can go into a subdivision.

[4:40:23] Voice 18: And yeah, I'm like unsure of,

[4:40:28] Voice 18: this is where I'll let Jason jump in to like,

[4:40:30] Voice 18: if there is something in zoning that would require that.

[4:40:32] Voice 18: I know that on Galliano Island,

[4:40:35] Voice 18: there are water management areas that require certain,

[4:40:41] Voice 18: like they have some requirements of new development,

[4:40:43] Voice 18: like catchment.

[4:40:43] Voice 18: And there's some areas I think,

[4:40:45] Voice 18: I believe on Saturn Island do the same.

[4:40:47] Voice 18: um and if if we want to look to a future where say there's an area of the island's trust area

[4:40:54] Voice 18: that is experiencing saltwater intrusion and it's and it's impossible to hide it

[4:40:59] Voice 18: and and there needs to be some proactive work done um there can be what's called a water

[4:41:07] Voice 18: sustainability plan on the water sustainability act that they have not been used yet in the

[4:41:11] Voice 18: the province where either the province or an initiating local government can say like we need

[4:41:20] Voice 18: to remove the density of groundwater wells in this area and combine them into a community water

[4:41:25] Voice 18: system or do something different to mitigate the the impact from a saline aquifer and stop that

[4:41:32] Voice 18: from propagating to other wells that aren't experiencing that solid intrusion yet that

[4:41:37] Voice 18: That would have to be done through a water sustainability plan, which that goes all the way to the minister.

[4:41:42] Voice 18: That's like a big it's like an OCP size thing to undertake to do something like that.

[4:41:49] Voice 18: Yeah. So I'm not saying anytime soon in the Amish Trust area or in the Amish Trust area, but I know in areas of like with big industry where they have serious problems that they these like in the Fraser Valley that these tools are being looked at right now.

[4:42:04] Voice 18: thanks thank

[4:42:05] Voice 10: you thanks trustee gaffer well

[4:42:11] Voice 14: i think the uh the bottom line for this policy

[4:42:14] Voice 14: is that we were trying to minimize the degradation of our groundwater so is this policy is it putting

[4:42:20] Voice 14: on too thick is it not thick enough uh for me as is worded here it fits the bill i think we'll be

[4:42:27] Voice 14: able to move forward with it we are still at first reading so there's lots of time to get community

[4:42:31] Voice 14: any input on it and maybe that would be helpful thanks beautiful thank you trustee fest

[4:42:39] Voice 12: um i'd

[4:42:42] Voice 12: like to move the motion please

[4:42:43] Voice 9: go ahead i

[4:42:46] Voice 12: move that trust programs committee recommend that trust

[4:42:48] Voice 12: council add a new directive policy 3.5.4 to the draft policy statement as follows 3.5.4 saltwater

[4:42:57] Voice 12: intrusion identify areas at elevated risk of saltwater intrusion and restrict development

[4:43:03] Voice 12: serviced by groundwater within them yeah

[4:43:11] Voice 7: are

[4:43:12] Voice 9: there any changes to the wording and i'm just

[4:43:15] Voice 9: going to wait for um the revised wording to come up on the screen because it is different to what

[4:43:20] Voice 9: was recommended um any other changes not seeing any can i get a seconder for the motion trustee

[4:43:44] Voice 9: graham thank you any further discussion on this not seeing any i'm going to call the vote

[4:43:54] Voice 9: all those in favor of the motion as presented on the screen please raise your hand

[4:44:00] Voice 9: thank you please lower your hand are there any opposed i see one opposed that carries thank you

[4:44:14] Voice 9: you very much okay

[4:44:18] Voice 10: so trustee

[4:44:22] Voice 11: elliott yes um i know we didn't discuss the alternatives very much

[4:44:28] Voice 11: in terms of an advocacy policy um but i do think that the area-based regulations for groundwater

[4:44:37] Voice 11: protection might be a worthy point of conversation with the province do we want to consider that

[4:44:43] Voice 11: I know it's a bit late, but in addition to this directive policy, having an advocacy policy could

[4:44:52] Voice 11: support where the work needs to go.

[4:44:57] Voice 9: I'm going to ask staff to speak to this. And I'm just going

[4:45:02] Voice 9: to remind, we don't have any advocacy policies in here at the moment. We have some advisory

[4:45:07] Voice 9: advisory policies but no advocacy based on a previous uh trust um a committee of the whole

[4:45:13] Voice 9: um motion so yeah I'm going to turn it over to staff silver oh

[4:45:21] Voice 18: thank you chair yeah um

[4:45:23] Voice 18: uh you know I having an advocacy policy is one thing but we do have the Island's trust

[4:45:29] Voice 18: freshwater sustainability strategy which is the vehicle to undertake this work and that's really

[4:45:34] Voice 18: The implementation of that is broadly laid out in the strategy, and it's really up to the trustees of the day to direct the implementation of that.

[4:45:53] Voice 18: There's several organizational structures in there that the Island Trust hasn't undertaken, like a technical advisory group, which would include the province.

[4:46:02] Voice 18: So on a staff-to-staff level, there's some actions in the strategy, and there's also government-to-government, somewhat directive actions in there that can be interpreted in a way to be more proactive in advocating for, say, groundwater protection.

[4:46:20] Voice 18: And that work would likely be directed through the Regional Planning Committee right now.

[4:46:26] Voice 18: Thanks.

[4:46:27] Voice 11: Okay. Sounds good. Thanks.

[4:46:29] Voice 11: Thank

[4:46:32] Voice 9: you. And while we have Steph Schulbe here, in our last meeting, there were some fresh water questions with regards to some of the policies and directives that we had.

[4:46:47] Voice 9: We've only got about 10 minutes left, unfortunately. Is there any pressing question that we want to ask Steph Schulbe while we have him?

[4:46:56] Voice 9: not seeing any okay so we do have oh trustee graham um

[4:47:08] Voice 6: great idea but at the end of the day

[4:47:11] Voice 6: i don't know about the rest of you but my brain can't can't dive through what's left of it to

[4:47:15] Voice 6: formulate a good question for uh director shelva sorry yeah

[4:47:19] Voice 18: um thanks uh through the chair thanks

[4:47:22] Voice 18: trustee graham i appreciate that um it you know if i'm offered a moment here i i could go through

[4:47:29] Voice 18: through the top three freshwater policies that we're addressing in the draft island stress policy

[4:47:35] Voice 18: statement i do have the history behind how they got there like with the previous policy analysts

[4:47:42] Voice 18: going through and all the work that we've done um and i could just briefly just just talk about

[4:47:49] Voice 18: them and then if there's any questions that arise from that feel free to say now or i'm sure through

[4:47:54] Voice 18: the chair that they can be provided to me at a later date um so yeah this is changing our beloved

[4:48:01] Voice 18: 4.4.2 from our honest trust policy statement i think one of the strongest policies in the honest

[4:48:06] Voice 18: trust policy statement to date um on i mean i i'm not biased i'm just involved in all the

[4:48:13] Voice 18: applications that do involve 4.4.2 which are many you know lot line adjustments don't apply but most

[4:48:19] Voice 18: as things do and um so so this has been really interesting to um provide better direction to

[4:48:27] Voice 18: local trust committees um to to implement these these directives um so yeah i will just close

[4:48:37] Voice 18: the checks this one makes a little bit bigger uh there we go um so 3.351 here um there was a

[4:48:47] Voice 18: change so before if you do recall from the old policy statement uh it said ensure that neither

[4:48:52] Voice 18: a density or intensity of land use increase in areas so areas was problematic what's an area

[4:48:58] Voice 18: and so we went through this thing where it's like well maybe we can use water management areas well

[4:49:02] Voice 18: what's that well across the island trust area there is a domain called a groundwater region

[4:49:08] Voice 18: um that and and they're defined on every single island and and um yeah they've been updated for

[4:49:15] Voice 18: this year and they'll be in the freshwater atlas when we release that this year um so for for your

[4:49:21] Voice 18: information and perusal there will be that available to you and a description of what

[4:49:25] Voice 18: groundwater regions are however that's just speaking about groundwater is very prescriptive

[4:49:31] Voice 18: to groundwater even though it can be used as a general water management unit so we chose the

[4:49:37] Voice 18: or at least we are recommending the the term air watersheds and due to the nature of the islands

[4:49:44] Voice 18: being uh smaller islands surrounded by a lot of coastline very complex coastline and on areas

[4:49:51] Voice 18: like say salt spring island bow

[4:49:53] Voice 18: and like very tall mountains um this results in many many

[4:49:57] Voice 18: watersheds compared to other regions and so um watersheds can be prioritized and and combined

[4:50:04] Voice 18: so there is a way to undertake that complexity um and so where the quality and quantity of water

[4:50:12] Voice 18: supply of fresh water is likely to be inadequate or unsustainable.

[4:50:17] Voice 18: And I believe that inadequate was, I think it was problems.

[4:50:21] Voice 18: I don't know if both of those words were added, but I know that unsustainable is a new term

[4:50:27] Voice 18: and that creates a lot of perspective and analysis and I guess not leeway, but room

[4:50:38] Voice 18: room for interpretation by a local trust committee to identify if an area has the

[4:50:46] Voice 18: likelihood of being unsustainable. To this point, Chair, if I may, I know that there has been a

[4:50:52] Voice 18: suggestion to look at this statement by saying if a development is to increase the inadequacy or

[4:51:01] Voice 18: unsustainability of water supply in an area, that is a much more difficult process because

[4:51:07] Voice 18: Because not only does the Island Trust have to provide some type of tools to undertake that,

[4:51:13] Voice 18: we're basically being reactive to developments that are coming in to then try to understand

[4:51:18] Voice 18: if that development will have a detriment to the groundwater supply,

[4:51:22] Voice 18: which sometimes will take monitoring for many years beyond the development.

[4:51:27] Voice 18: In this way, we're identifying vulnerable areas of the landscape and then addressing it from that perspective.

[4:51:35] Voice 18: So the responsibility is on the Islands Trust to undertake that work.

[4:51:43] Voice 18: And the other two are largely self-explanatory.

[4:51:48] Voice 18: 5.3 is relating to largely on off-island imports of water to satisfy an island.

[4:52:00] Voice 18: And so there's a lot of discussion around there because there are off-island imports of bulk water on many islands throughout the drier season.

[4:52:09] Voice 18: So, I mean, that's just, it's a good policy to have within the discussion of this, like, say, an OCP update.

[4:52:19] Voice 18: And we're discussing this very significantly in our work with the Gabriola Local Trust

[4:52:27] Voice 18: Committee and their official community plan and our freshwater footprint project that's

[4:52:30] Voice 18: embedded within that work.

[4:52:33] Voice 18: Yeah, I think I can leave it from there.

[4:52:35] Voice 18: I just, really, the meat of this is 351, and I just wanted to kind of just describe some

[4:52:44] Voice 18: of the history on that.

[4:52:45] Voice 18: Thanks.

[4:52:47] Voice 9: Thank you.

[4:52:47] Voice 9: so part of the discussion that we had on this which we did want to come to you with a question

[4:52:53] Voice 9: it was we recommended that um the last three words inadequate or unsustainable be replaced

[4:53:00] Voice 9: with adversely affected and um it was suggested that you weigh in on that change um

[4:53:11] Voice 18: i think i did

[4:53:12] Voice 18: um that would be relating to a development adversely and impacting a an area which um

[4:53:18] Voice 18: would be largely that's a significant undertaking it's largely out of the scope of say

[4:53:24] Voice 18: a non-for-profit trying to develop a an area say go and they have a groundwater well there

[4:53:31] Voice 18: the the majority of their effort should be to pump testing and ensuring that that that well is

[4:53:37] Voice 18: is appropriate for the use rather than undertaking like significant research style

[4:53:47] Voice 18: analysis that um you know that it's just too it's kind of too late at that time um this is a much

[4:53:54] Voice 18: more proactive approach of of identifying watersheds um identifying the sustainability

[4:54:01] Voice 18: and security of watersheds um ahead of development to inform the development um

[4:54:09] Voice 9: it's okay so i'm

[4:54:10] Voice 9: sorry i didn't quite understand if you were okay with that change or not so the recommendation

[4:54:15] Voice 9: recommendation was to replace the words inadequate or unsustainable with the words

[4:54:20] Voice 9: adversely affected so that it would read, ensure that neither the density nor intensity of land

[4:54:26] Voice 9: use is increased in watersheds where the quality or quantity of the supply of fresh water is likely

[4:54:32] Voice 9: to be adversely affected.

[4:54:35] Voice 18: Well, I don't know how to speak. I'm speaking for myself, not all staff.

[4:54:39] Voice 18: i'm not supportive of that okay i i would say that that leads to more difficult adjudication

[4:54:46] Voice 18: process for planning stuff in the ltcs than it is presently um provided in the draft policy statement

[4:54:54] Voice 9: thank you i didn't i wasn't clear on on your response before um so i appreciate that um

[4:55:01] Voice 9: and i think that addressed the topic that we had at our last discussion um and i don't think that

[4:55:09] Voice 9: I see anything else in my notes for you. So I do appreciate your time. And as you mentioned,

[4:55:18] Voice 9: if anyone does have any other questions regarding the freshwater policies, and advisory policies to

[4:55:24] Voice 9: reach out to you.

[4:55:27] Voice 18: Yes, thank you, Chair.

[4:55:29] Voice 9: Thank you. Okay, so I think this has been a very productive

[4:55:34] Voice 9: day with regards to what we've been able to accomplish and it was a lot of of information

[4:55:42] Voice 9: a lot of discussion a lot of understanding i appreciate um everyone's focus and with that

[4:55:50] Voice 9: i'm going to say that our next um special meeting is scheduled for april 29th from 9 a.m to 2 p.m

[4:56:01] Voice 9: and i'm going to go to staff rata she's got her hands up thank

[4:56:08] Voice 15: you chair i was wanting to ask

[4:56:10] Voice 15: about um how far ahead this committee would like that agenda you've asked for a number of staff

[4:56:14] Voice 15: briefings but because we have a four-day weekend coming there are a limited number of working days

[4:56:19] Voice 15: available between now and then um so i was wondering the meeting falls on the 29th which

[4:56:24] Voice 15: is a tuesday i believe i'm just going to check and we were wondering if you could receive how

[4:56:29] Voice 15: how it would land for you to receive the agenda as late as Friday such that we

[4:56:34] Voice 15: had most of next week to do the work. Yeah. You were on,

[4:56:37] Voice 15: the meeting would be on a Tuesday. If you received it on a Friday,

[4:56:40] Voice 15: is that sufficient amount of time to review?

[4:56:44] Voice 9: I'm seeing lots of nods. I'm going to ask the question is,

[4:56:46] Voice 9: would that not work for anybody? Not seeing any hands going up.

[4:56:53] Voice 9: I think that's a thumbs up for you. Staff Rater, please.

[4:56:57] Voice 9: By Friday and at the end of day, Friday would be great.

[4:57:00] Voice 15: Okay. Thank you.

[4:57:01] Voice 15: And we may take the same approach for the next one as well.

[4:57:03] Voice 15: just to try and keep this process moving as well as possible.

[4:57:07] Voice 15: If you're willing to, you know, have fewer days for review,

[4:57:09] Voice 15: it gives us more time to feed the agendas.

[4:57:12] Voice 15: Perfect. I appreciate that.

[4:57:13] Voice 15: Thank you.

[4:57:15] Voice 9: Okay. And so before we close,

[4:57:18] Voice 9: is there anything anybody else would like to say?

[4:57:23] Voice 9: I see hands waving. I think that's a goodbye.

[4:57:27] Voice 9: So thanks again, everybody.

[4:57:28] Voice 9: And we will see you on Tuesday, April 29th.

[4:57:31] Voice 9: Thank you very much.

[4:57:32] Voice 9: Great

[4:57:33] Voice 20: job, Chair Evans. Thank you.

[4:57:35] Voice 9: thank you with that i adjourn the meeting thank you thank you have a great day everybody everyone

ADOPTED 
Trust Programs Committee  
Minutes of a Regular Meeting ADOPTED 
April 16, 2025 Page 1 of 6 
Trust Programs Committee 
Minutes of a Regular Meeting 
 
  
Date: 
Location: 
April 16, 2025 
Electronic Meeting 
 
Members Present:  Kristina Evans, Chair/South Pender Island Local Trust Area (LTA) Trustee 
Tobi Elliott, Gabriola Island LTA Trustee 
Sue Ellen Fast, Bowen Island Municipal Trustee 
Lisa Gauvreau, Galiano Island LTA Trustee 
David Graham, Denman Island LTA Trustee 
David Maude, Mayne Island LTA Trustee 
Tim Peterson, Lasqueti Island LTA Trustee (EC Representative) 
Susan Yates, Gabriola Island LTA Trustee 
Laura Patrick, Islands Trust Council Chair and Salt Spring Island LTA  
Trustee (Ex Officio) 
 
Member Regrets  Alex Allen, Vice-Chair/Hornby Island LTA Trustee 
    Deb Morrison, North Pender Island LTA Trustee 
 
Members Absent:  Jamie Harris, Salt Spring Island LTA Trustee 
 
Staff Present: Rueben Bronee, Chief Administrative Officer  
Clare Frater, Director, Trust Area Services 
Stefan Cermak, Director, Planning Services 
David Marlor, Director, Legislative and Information Services 
Joe Elliott, Senior Indigenous Relations Advisor 
William Shulba, Senior Freshwater Specialist 
Chloë Straw, Program Coordinator 
Jason Youmans, Senior Policy Advisor 
Robert Barlow, Legislative Services Clerk/Recorder 
 
1. CALL TO ORDER 
 
Chair Evans called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. and acknowledged that attendees of the 
meeting were in locations across the territories of the Coast Salish people. Trustees and Staff 
introduced themselves. 
 
2. AGENDA 
 
2.1 Review of Agenda 
 
The following addition to the agenda was presented for consideration: 
• a late delegation request from Patricia Pearson, Constituency Outreach, Office of Rob  , 
MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, who would like to be a delegate representing 
the Southern Gulf Islands Forum – to be agenda item 4.2 under Delegations. 

ADOPTED 
Trust Programs Committee  
Minutes of a Regular Meeting ADOPTED 
April 16, 2025 Page 2 of 6 
 
TPC-2025-019 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that Trust Programs Committee approve the late delegation request of Patricia 
Pearson representing the Southern Gulf Islands Forum. 
CARRIED 
 
2.2 Approval of Agenda 
 
By general consent the agenda was approved as amended. 
 
3. PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD 
 
No member of the public was present. 
 
4. DELEGATIONS 
 
4.1  Ruth Simons, Executive Director, Átl’ka7tsemHowe Sound Biosphere Region Initiative 
Society 
 
Ruth was not present at the meeting at the time this agenda item was addressed. She 
joined the meeting later in the agenda. 
 
4.2.  Patricia Pearson, Constituency Outreach, Office of Rob Botterell, MLA for Saanich 
North and the Islands, representing the Southern Gulf Islands Forum 
 
Patricia Person described the value of the Southern Gulf Islands Forum.   
 
5. CORRESPONDENCE 
 
None 
 
6. ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATION 
 
6.1 Draft Minutes of Previous Meeting 
 
6.1.1 Trust Programs Committee (TPC) Minutes of February 12, 2025 
 
 By general consent the minutes were approved as presented. 
 
6.1.2 Trust Programs Committee (TPC) Minutes of April 2, 2025 
 
 By general consent the minutes were approved as presented. 
 
6.2 Resolutions Without Meeting 
 
None. 

ADOPTED 
Trust Programs Committee  
Minutes of a Regular Meeting ADOPTED 
April 16, 2025 Page 3 of 6 
 
The Committee returned to agenda item 4.1 as Ruth Simons arrived in the meeting at 10:29 a.m. 
 
4.1.  Ruth Simons, Executive Director, Átl’ka7tsemHowe Sound Biosphere Region Initiative 
Society 
 
Ruth Simons described the value of the Society.  She noted that Islands Trust 
contributes to approximately 10% of their total budget. 
 
The Committee then continued with the agenda as presented. 
 
6.3 Follow Up Action List 
 
Director Frater spoke to the FUAL items that were in progress. Committee discussion 
included: 
• There are no guidelines available to support the Committee in ranking importance 
or setting priorities of the applications that are received in regards to the Secretariat 
Service. 
• The Committee deferred further discussion of the request for staff to provide 
suggestions for criteria for future Secretariat Services applications to the next 
regular meeting and requested to review the Secretariat Services policy at that time. 
 
7. BUSINESS - WORK PROGRAM ITEMS 
 
7.1 Secretariat Services to Coordination Groups in the Trust Area - Request For Decision 
 
Director Frater introduced the Request For Decision. Committee discussion included the 
value of the program to all the groups. 
 
TPC-2025-020 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that Trust Programs Committee allocate for fiscal year 2025/26:  
•    $1,800 to support the coordination of the Rural Island Economic Partnership, 
•    $2,500 to support the coordination of the Baynes Sound Lambert Channel 
Ecosystem Forum, 
•    $3,000 to support the coordination of the Coastal Douglas-fir Conservation 
Partnership, 
•    $4,000 to support the coordination of the Átl'ka7tsem/Howe Sound 
Community Forum, and  
•    $3,000 to support the coordination of the Southern Gulf Islands Forum. 
CARRIED 
 
7.2 Housing Policy Options – Policy Statement Amendment Project - Request For Decision 
Senior Policy Advisor Youmans introduced the Request For Decision. Committee 
discussion included: 
• possibility of adding the word “size” to the definition of housing diversity 

ADOPTED 
Trust Programs Committee  
Minutes of a Regular Meeting ADOPTED 
April 16, 2025 Page 4 of 6 
• possibility of deleting the word “traditional”, or replacing it with “conventional”, in 
3.4.11 Clustered Small Dwelling Units 
• potential policies to support buildings homes with local and alternative materials 
and methods 
• use of the terms “homeplate”, “building envelope” and “clustering” 
• zoning is a tool to control use and density of development, not form and character 
of that development 
• the challenge of housing agreements with non-profit societies in the context of 
rapidly changing economic situations 
• use of the word “attainability” rather than “affordable” 
 
The Committee recessed at 12:04 p.m. and resumed at 12:50 p.m. 
 
Committee discussion continued: 
• consideration whether potential policy 3.4.9 Existing Development Potential should 
be advisory or directive 
 
TPC-2025-021 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that Trust Programs Committee recommend to Trust Council that the section 
titled Directive Policies – Housing in the draft Policy Statement be revised in 
accordance with Appendix 2 to the Request For Decision provided to Trust 
Programs Committee at its meeting of April 16, 2025, as amended by: 
• In 3.4.11, replace the word “traditional” with “conventional” 
• In 3.4.15, replace the word “ensure that” with “encourage” and add the 
word “that” after the word “development”. 
CARRIED 
 
TPC-2025-022 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that Trust Programs Committee recommend to Trust Council that a new 
definition of “Housing Diversity” be added to the draft Policy Statement glossary 
as follows: “Housing diversity refers to the range of housing types and tenures 
in a community that allow people to find appropriate housing as their needs 
change over time and at all stages of life.” 
CARRIED 
 
TPC-2025-023 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that Trust Programs Committee recommend to Trust Council that draft directive 
policy 3.4.2 be revised to read as follows: 
3.4.2 Growth Management 
Manage community growth and its associated impacts by directing residential, 
commercial and industrial development into suitable locations to prevent 

ADOPTED 
Trust Programs Committee  
Minutes of a Regular Meeting ADOPTED 
April 16, 2025 Page 5 of 6 
sprawl, relieve growth pressures in surrounding rural areas, and to help 
safeguard protected area networks.  
CARRIED 
 
TPC-2025-024 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that Trust Programs Committee recommend to Trust Council that a new 
advisory policy 3.4.9 be added to the Managing Growth and Development 
section as follows: 
3.4.9 - Existing Development Potential 
Identify land where existing development potential is not suitable and consider 
policy and/or regulatory options to reduce development potential or minimize 
the impacts of future development.  
CARRIED 
 
TPC-2025-025 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that Trust Programs Committee request staff to provide advice regarding policy 
options to support housing for Indigenous Peoples in the draft Policy Statement.  
CARRIED 
 
TPC-2025-026 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that Trust Programs Committee recommend to Trust Council that a new 
advisory policy 3.4.17 be added to the Transportation section as follows: 
3.4.17 – Transportation Network Vulnerabilities 
Cooperate with relevant agencies to identify parts of the local transportation 
network at risk of damage or deterioration and participate in planning to 
address mitigation or infrastructure relocation where necessary. 
CARRIED 
 
7.3 Saltwater Intrusion Policy - Request For Decision 
 
Senior Policy Advisor Youmans presented the Request For Decision. Committee 
discussion included: 
• use of the words “restrict development” 
• the difficulty of restoring wells once saltwater has intruded 
• the potential impact on one well experiencing saltwater intrusion on neighbouring 
wells 
 
TPC-2025-027 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that Trust Programs Committee recommend that Trust Council add a new 
Directive Policy 3.5.4 to the draft Policy Statement as follows: 
3.5.4 Saltwater Intrusion 

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Trust Programs Committee  
Minutes of a Regular Meeting ADOPTED 
April 16, 2025 Page 6 of 6 
Identify areas at elevated risk of saltwater intrusion and restrict development 
serviced by groundwater within them. 
CARRIED 
 
Committee discussion continued: 
• Senior Freshwater Specialist Shulba provided a summary of the development of 
some Freshwater directive and advisory policies  
 
7.4 Islands Trust Policy Statement Draft Bylaw No. 183 - Discussion 
 
Not addressed. 
 
8. BUSINESS - NEW 
 
None. 
 
9. NEXT MEETING 
 
Tuesday, April 29, 2025, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., electronic (Zoom) meeting 
 
11. CLOSED MEETING 
 
The meeting was not closed. 
 
12. RISE AND REPORT 
 
As the meeting was not closed, there was no need to consider this. 
 
13. ADJOURNMENT 
 
By general consent the meeting adjourned at 2:57 p.m. 
 
 
 
_________________________ 
Kristina Evans, Chair 
 
Certified Correct: 
 
 
 
_________________________ 
Robert Barlow, Legislative Services Clerk/Recorder