Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee regular meeting, May 22, 2025

[0:00:00] Voice 11: There we go. I see live streaming. Excellent.

[0:00:05] Voice 11: Well, thank you, everybody, for joining us at this joint meeting of the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee and the Local Community Commission for May 22nd, 2025.

[0:00:22] Voice 11: I want to begin the meeting today by acknowledging that we're fortunate to be able to gather in the territory of Coast Salish peoples, the stewards of these lands and waters since time immemorial.

[0:00:33] Voice 11: I reflect every day on the displacement of First Nations people from their homes on these islands and really any active work towards redressing those wrongs, however incremental, as a work of utmost importance.

[0:00:51] Voice 11: I think it's important we all strive to do better, to build meaningful relationships with individuals and Indigenous governing bodies, to listen carefully to their concerns, and above all, to be good neighbours.

[0:01:09] Voice 11: My name is Tim Peterson. I'm elected on Laskete Island, and I am the chair of the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee, and I'll be chairing this joint meeting today.

[0:01:19] Voice 11: I want to start by introducing the members of the Salt Spring Local Trust Committee team.

[0:01:30] Voice 11: Laura Patrick, Salt Spring trustee, is here with us.

[0:01:34] Voice 11: I see our regional planning manager, Chris Hutton, is here.

[0:01:42] Voice 11: Our meeting administrator, Lisa Millard, is doing the web hosting and keeping track of

[0:01:49] Voice 11: that good stuff for us carly blini is our recorder i think we have uh kaylin so silva kumar is also

[0:01:59] Voice 11: on staff with us today have i got everyone there um chris yeah okay uh

[0:02:10] Voice 8: that's everyone from the

[0:02:11] Voice 8: island trust the staff yeah

[0:02:13] Voice 11: great okay so then i'll turn it over to lcc chair uh earl rook to

[0:02:19] Voice 11: to introduce your team.

[0:02:21] Voice 7: Well, it looks like we have a full compliment here.

[0:02:24] Voice 7: We have local area director, Gary Holman,

[0:02:28] Voice 7: commissioner Ben Cordo, commissioner Gail Baker.

[0:02:32] Voice 7: Looks like we've got commissioner Brian Webster.

[0:02:36] Voice 7: We also have local senior manager, Dan Ovington

[0:02:41] Voice 7: and Steven Henderson.

[0:02:48] Voice 11: Great, thank you for that.

[0:02:52] Voice 11: So we have an agenda before us

[0:02:54] Voice 11: and I'll just look to see if there are any amendments needed to the agenda.

[0:02:59] Voice 11: Otherwise, we'll just proceed.

[0:03:03] Voice 11: So we'll take it by general consent.

[0:03:05] Voice 11: We'll proceed with the agenda.

[0:03:06] Voice 11: And first off, we have a verbal discussion on drinking water

[0:03:12] Voice 11: and watershed protection.

[0:03:13] Voice 11: Who's going to lead us off on this one?

[0:03:19] Voice 6: Chris, do you want me to take that or do you want me to take that?

[0:03:28] Voice 7: You're muted, Chris.

[0:03:30] Voice 8: Sorry, Stephen.

[0:03:30] Voice 8: I was just going to come off mute to say if you wanted to start it off,

[0:03:33] Voice 8: Stephen, please go ahead.

[0:03:34] Voice 8: Okay.

[0:03:35] Voice 6: The CRD has been reviewing the 2023 version of the Salt Spring Island

[0:03:45] Voice 6: Water Protection Plan. Within the Watershed Protection Plan, there's a Table 2 that has 19

[0:03:53] Voice 6: actions. We reviewed them and feel that we're doing very well on many of them, and many of

[0:04:00] Voice 6: them are in progress um action 19 is actually one to continue to convene a multi-organizational

[0:04:05] Voice 6: forum for communication and coordination about watershed protection activities

[0:04:11] Voice 6: crd is identified as the lead agency however um islands trust is actually the um the uh kind of

[0:04:19] Voice 6: the lead in it as far as they've been um they have some collecting some requisition money and

[0:04:23] Voice 6: they've kind of been leading this and um they kind of were leading this report i believe as well

[0:04:27] Voice 6: Well, I've been communicating with Chris about progressing ahead with that Action 19, about

[0:04:37] Voice 6: holding a workshop or a roundtable, something similar to what we've been doing with the

[0:04:43] Voice 6: short-term rentals and housing and harbors, to get the people together to review the action

[0:04:49] Voice 6: plan and how we're doing and status on how we're doing.

[0:04:53] Voice 6: And Chris, we were looking to the Islands Trust to lead putting together that roundtable and action plan.

[0:05:00] Voice 6: However, I know they have a capacity.

[0:05:03] Voice 6: They don't have a full staff complement.

[0:05:04] Voice 6: So Chris and I have been communicating on how we can progress ahead with that.

[0:05:09] Voice 6: But that was the intention was to try to get a workshop or roundtable to occur in 2025.

[0:05:18] Voice 6: We don't have a month on that.

[0:05:19] Voice 6: We have a year.

[0:05:20] Voice 6: That's as far as we've narrowed it down to so far.

[0:05:23] Voice 6: um and that's um that's what that's all we have that's all i have to comment

[0:05:28] Voice 6: under this um topic i'm not sure if other commissioners or trustees had questions

[0:05:36] Voice 10: patrick

[0:05:39] Trustee Patrick (probable): yeah no it's um i'm it has been a bit frustrating and it's it's not certainly chris's uh

[0:05:45] Trustee Patrick (probable): he you know there was we we lost us a long-term staff person that had sort of ushered um um the

[0:05:52] Trustee Patrick (probable): the former predecessor, the Salt Spring Island Watershed Protection Alliance, through.

[0:05:58] Trustee Patrick (probable): But I do know we had that person back temporarily, and we had done a bit of framing out what that meeting could look like and how to hold it.

[0:06:09] Trustee Patrick (probable): So there should be some notes somewhere we can look for.

[0:06:14] Trustee Patrick (probable): Our consultant that was working with us on the watershed protection plan, I like the phrase he used.

[0:06:20] Trustee Patrick (probable): He called it the big tent.

[0:06:22] Trustee Patrick (probable): that, you know, we have a lot of good organizations on Salt Spring that are doing a lot of work

[0:06:30] Trustee Patrick (probable): themselves, and it was getting them together to as well share what they were doing, and as well

[0:06:36] Trustee Patrick (probable): as give an update on the various action items in the report. One of the action items in that report,

[0:06:43] Trustee Patrick (probable): though, that we as a group need to work on is sort of the governance piece. There is an action

[0:06:49] Trustee Patrick (probable): there that does need to have some looking at for long-term maintenance of governance. And I think

[0:06:56] Trustee Patrick (probable): when it says here, the drinking water and watershed protection, that is a service that's been brought

[0:07:02] Trustee Patrick (probable): into a number of regional districts in the area, the Cowichan Valley Regional District,

[0:07:06] Trustee Patrick (probable): Regional District of Nanaimo, and several in the interior also have. It's whether or not

[0:07:13] Trustee Patrick (probable): uh there's a service that could be created in the future um and how we could maybe you know look at

[0:07:22] Trustee Patrick (probable): working toward that i know we had a meeting uh gary was attendance um prior to you steven

[0:07:27] Trustee Patrick (probable): i want to say i don't even know when that was gary to a year and a half ago now um that we

[0:07:32] Trustee Patrick (probable): had a meeting um with the various major players and we that's as far as we got uh

[0:07:44] Voice 10: gary yeah thanks

[0:07:46] Voice 5: Thanks. Well, in my view, the trust should still take the lead.

[0:07:54] Voice 5: This is an issue that definitely requires interagency action.

[0:08:01] Voice 5: I guess that's the reference to the Big Tent.

[0:08:04] Voice 5: By nature, responsibility and jurisdiction over watersheds and drinking water is a shared jurisdiction.

[0:08:15] Voice 5: jurisdiction trust obviously as the land use authority surity primarily um uh delivery of

[0:08:24] Voice 5: potable drinking water we do have a stormwater service that has supported swipa um over the

[0:08:30] Voice 5: years so for example one of the things we're doing is the um rainwater uh catchment rebate

[0:08:37] Voice 5: which has been underway for a few years uh i still have some issues with the plan itself

[0:08:44] Voice 5: itself. In my view, SWPA or the participants in SWPA should be reconvened to look at the plan

[0:08:56] Voice 5: and to provide comments on the plan and on governance going forward. SWPA itself never

[0:09:03] Voice 5: reviewed the final plan, nor did I, quite frankly. So senior staff were involved. I believe our

[0:09:13] Voice 5: former senior manager. I'm not sure if other CRD staff on the call were involved

[0:09:20] Voice 5: in reviewing the final plan. But in my view, the first step should be to go back to the

[0:09:28] Voice 5: organizations that had been a part of SWPA and get feedback from them. That includes the

[0:09:36] Voice 5: provincial government, includes CRD, includes North Salt Spring. So in my view, that would

[0:09:42] Voice 5: be the next logical step uh to reconvene that uh that that group and uh get some recommendations

[0:09:52] Voice 5: from them about how to move forward commissioner

[0:10:04] Voice 10: webster uh

[0:10:08] Voice 9: thanks um so uh in the the nearly two

[0:10:15] Voice 9: years that i've been an elected commissioner um i have had uh more conversation with chair patrick

[0:10:24] Voice 9: than I've had with our commission on this topic.

[0:10:29] Voice 9: And so my one suggested slightly different first step

[0:10:37] Voice 9: would be for the local community commission

[0:10:40] Voice 9: to have this topic on the agenda of an LCC meeting

[0:10:44] Voice 9: because Gary's been very involved

[0:10:48] Voice 9: and is very knowledgeable on the topic.

[0:10:50] Voice 9: And I'm sure staff have picked up a fair bit.

[0:10:53] Voice 9: it, but the LCC per se has not. And, you know, whether the LCC concurs with the opinions that

[0:11:03] Voice 9: Gary just expressed, I can't, I couldn't tell you. And I would suggest that the LCC should

[0:11:11] Voice 9: be doing that. So I guess my request would be to Chair Rook to get the topic on the agenda,

[0:11:20] Voice 9: Because personally, I don't think it would be appropriate to go trundling ahead with any particular action with CRD involved without the LCC even having any conversation about it beforehand.

[0:11:40] Voice 9: So

[0:11:46] Voice 5: they're not mutually exclusive.

[0:11:50] Voice 5: The SWPA could be put on the agenda of the LCC.

[0:11:54] Voice 5: But again, in my view, the first step should be to reconvene the organizations that were actually comprised of SWPA to get their view of the plan.

[0:12:07] Voice 5: It's not even clear to me that all of the organizations would support the recommendations of the plan.

[0:12:12] Voice 5: That doesn't mean it can't be presented to the LCC.

[0:12:15] Voice 5: At this point, there is no, as Laura was kind of implying, there is no service that's been delegated to the LCC that's relevant to SWPA, at least at this point.

[0:12:31] Voice 5: But they're not mutually exclusive. SWPA could definitely be on the agenda.

[0:12:35] Voice 5: But in my view, the first step should be to reconvene the organizations that comprised and participated in SWPA for about a decade as a very first step to talk not just about the plan itself, but also about governance.

[0:12:58] Voice 5: Because at this point, the local trust committee has supported the plan.

[0:13:05] Voice 5: I think perhaps North Sellspring has, but CRD has not formally approved it.

[0:13:13] Voice 5: I haven't as an elected official.

[0:13:16] Voice 5: The senior staff that were involved in finalizing the plan had very little to do with SWPA over the years.

[0:13:22] Voice 5: years and of course the province uh doesn't sign on because their their staffer is not elected

[0:13:29] Voice 5: official so those two steps are not mutually exclusives uh but it it seems only appropriate

[0:13:37] Voice 5: uh and a simple matter of courtesy to reconvene the group that uh that dealt with watershed

[0:13:44] Voice 5: protection issues for the last decade yeah

[0:13:52] Voice 7: thank you um first i would like to say um as to

[0:13:55] Voice 7: to Commissioner Webster's recommendation, I think that makes perfect sense to put it on the agenda

[0:13:59] Voice 7: for the LCC. It's been floating around in the background, but we haven't really addressed it

[0:14:05] Voice 7: directly. My question would be, to what extent is there a difference between the membership

[0:14:10] Voice 7: of SWPA and the likely participants in the proposed roundtable meeting that Stephen was

[0:14:18] Voice 7: was talking about and can we somehow deal with those together in some fashion yeah

[0:14:30] Voice 5: in my view

[0:14:31] Voice 5: the roundtable participants should be SWPPP members I mean put whatever label you want

[0:14:38] Voice 5: and for that matter the LCC could attend that meeting as well but to my mind that would be the

[0:14:44] Voice 5: the first step so for example the plan itself uh my read of it is there was no mention of the water

[0:14:53] Voice 5: moratorium which in my view is the in terms of water issues is probably the single most

[0:15:00] Voice 5: important issue on salt spring uh north salt spring is dealing with that in uh in the best

[0:15:07] Voice 5: way they can but that's an act that's a an example of something that in my view was missing from the

[0:15:14] Voice 5: the plan i didn't see any explicit references to watershed uh land use protection so for example

[0:15:21] Voice 5: uh development permit areas stronger development permit areas for drinking watersheds or

[0:15:26] Voice 5: as the fire district has requested a a fire uh dpa because a fire in a drinking watershed would

[0:15:35] Voice 5: be catastrophic those those sorts of things in terms of the plan i i think we're we're missing

[0:15:43] Voice 5: aside from the governance issue.

[0:15:46] Voice 5: And just to Laura's point about regional districts,

[0:15:51] Voice 5: it is true that other regional districts

[0:15:54] Voice 5: have convened interagency creatures,

[0:15:59] Voice 5: SWPA-like creatures.

[0:16:01] Voice 5: Those regional districts have land use authority.

[0:16:04] Voice 5: So there's sort of two key elements.

[0:16:06] Voice 5: One is land use authority,

[0:16:08] Voice 5: as the label watershed protection would suggest,

[0:16:13] Voice 5: that land use authority is vested

[0:16:16] Voice 5: in those regional districts

[0:16:17] Voice 5: where here it's vested in the trust.

[0:16:20] Voice 5: And so the trust obviously has to be part

[0:16:22] Voice 5: of any kind of interagency group.

[0:16:28] Voice 5: So that's a key point to make there.

[0:16:36] Voice 5: Trustee Patrick.

[0:16:38] Trustee Patrick (probable): Yeah, I think what's missing here

[0:16:40] Trustee Patrick (probable): is there's a whole complimentary document called salt spring island watershed stewardship protection

[0:16:45] Trustee Patrick (probable): coordination situation analysis options and identification report and that one lays out

[0:16:51] Trustee Patrick (probable): the potential options for the governance so that that was done first before the

[0:16:55] Trustee Patrick (probable): the plan the salt spring local trust committee took the effort and the expenditure to do

[0:17:03] Trustee Patrick (probable): this protection plan we did involve north salt spring the province the crd and the local trust

[0:17:09] Trustee Patrick (probable): trust committee. This is the approach we took. We've endorsed the plan. The next steps were,

[0:17:16] Trustee Patrick (probable): you know, and I absolutely agree, it fell apart on our side due to lack of resources to organize

[0:17:22] Trustee Patrick (probable): a big tent meeting. But the biggest step there was to talk about the governance and look at the

[0:17:31] Trustee Patrick (probable): long-term future for what would be the appropriate governance. But this is the approach that we've

[0:17:36] Trustee Patrick (probable): We've taken it to the local trust committee, and that's what it is.

[0:17:44] Trustee Patrick (probable): Commissioner Baker,

[0:17:47] Voice 11: you're muted.

[0:17:58] Voice 2: Sorry.

[0:17:59] Voice 2: I think we're all talking pretty much in the same thing, and in my mind, we're going back to a roundtable that involves the people that were involved in SWIPA for many, many years.

[0:18:10] Voice 2: I was on it for a very short period of time representing TSS, and I know how complicated, how difficult.

[0:18:17] Voice 2: I know so little.

[0:18:18] Voice 2: It would be very hard for me to read the report and make a recommendation that was strong enough without having the roundtable first with the people who were involved, talking about the plan, talking about recommendations, governance, the whole bit.

[0:18:36] Voice 2: So I would really like to go back to Stephen's recommendation of a roundtable involving those who were involved for years, know a lot about it.

[0:18:44] Voice 2: And after that, do as we have with other things, take it to the LCC after the roundtable, after the information, and then have some recommendations.

[0:18:53] Voice 2: I think doing it first, as Brian's recommended or did recommend, is I don't feel prepared to do that.

[0:19:00] Voice 2: I need the feedback from those involved.

[0:19:06] Voice 5: So, Chair Peterson, the only comment I'd make on that is there would be, I agree with that, obviously, but there's no reason why the LCC couldn't be invited to that meeting.

[0:19:16] Voice 5: And then after the meeting, if the item was put on the LCC agenda, the LCC would have already heard the discussion of longtime participants in SWPA.

[0:19:31] Voice 5: And so it would be better informed when it was put on the LCC agenda. So that's just a modest variant of what's been suggested. And I would hope the trust would continue with support of SWPA and at least take this initial step of reconvening SWPA.

[0:19:54] Voice 5: But then the trust may want to invite others like First Nations, for example.

[0:19:59] Voice 5: But certainly the LCC could participate in that as a prelude to putting it on the agenda.

[0:20:06] Voice 11: OK, and that that leads to the question I was going to ask our regional planning manager in terms of our capacity to convene a roundtable in in 2025.

[0:20:22] Voice 11: What's realistic?

[0:20:24] Voice 8: I would say that's I mean, I think looking at the next quarter, I'm not optimistic and I'd be I'd be happy to discuss this at a future quarterly meeting, a joint meeting that that might be one good step for now.

[0:20:40] Voice 8: And I think we you know, we do have work going on on the wider freshwater file at this time.

[0:20:45] Voice 8: And we're we're looking to bring staff into that process. And our staffing situation is expected to change in that period of time.

[0:20:53] Voice 8: So, but as to the remainder of the year, it's, you know, as LTC is aware, we're on the cusp of entering into a contract for our OCP LEB. It's a significant undertaking. Any funding department in the province will tell you that the OCP projects do tend to monopolize time, along with the very large number of development applications and affordable housing.

[0:21:16] Voice 8: So I do think that it would require discussion of our work plan and the priorities in that work plan in order to address it meaningfully.

[0:21:26] Voice 8: It's sort of where it ought to be at this point in terms of the most recent conversations we've had.

[0:21:32] Voice 8: And this roundtable, you know, I think it's a hard one.

[0:21:35] Voice 8: It's a very important thing, but it's hard to put it ahead of other very important things at this point.

[0:21:40] Voice 8: So that's, you know, every respect for the work that went into it.

[0:21:45] Voice 8: it and undertaking and implementing the plan, that importance, but we do have some work

[0:21:51] Voice 8: to do.

[0:21:53] Voice 8: And the wider discussion of freshwater at this table is really important, I think.

[0:21:57] Voice 8: So I think it is a very positive thing that we're talking about ways to work on it.

[0:22:01] Voice 8: So, you know, overall, I'm not super happy, though, but it's the end of the year.

[0:22:05] Voice 8: So the rest of the year for this at this point, I can't give you much of an optimistic view.

[0:22:11] Voice 8: Thanks

[0:22:12] Voice 10: for the realism there, Commissioner Baker.

[0:22:14] Voice 10: And

[0:22:15] Voice 2: I apologize. I assumed we would be invited. That's how we learn is going to roundtables, listening to people. So, of course, you know, that would be for me the basis of really getting a good understanding. And I just hate to put Dan and Stephen on the spot, but you have been so great pulling together roundtables last. You did it in like seven days.

[0:22:38] Voice 2: I mean, so if it's going to take a year to do this through Ireland's Trust, I would hope that there can be conversation between Dan and Stephen and Trust and getting it done sooner.

[0:22:48] Voice 2: I think we need the information.

[0:22:50] Voice 2: We need to get moving and make some plans.

[0:22:53] Voice 2: So if CRD can do it and are willing to do it, I'm hopeful.

[0:23:03] Voice 11: Does anyone else have anything to add on this before we move on?

[0:23:09] Voice 11: Commissioner Webster.

[0:23:12] Voice 9: yeah so just to um follow on the uh likelihood that there wouldn't be a round table at least

[0:23:21] Voice 9: organized uh by islands trust um for at least six months um i think the onus is on lcc members

[0:23:32] Voice 9: to do a little bit of reading a little bit of chatting and the conversation that i talked about

[0:23:38] Voice 9: that doesn't imply anything in terms of future directions, et cetera, I think is really important.

[0:23:47] Voice 9: I'm coming from a place where if we're talking about CRD responsibilities,

[0:23:53] Voice 9: particularly island-wide CRD responsibilities on Salt Spring, that the LCC must be involved,

[0:24:02] Voice 9: not as an invitation to somebody else's meeting, not as a tag-along,

[0:24:07] Voice 9: but as the central responsible group and so you know the request that i i made to chair rook

[0:24:17] Voice 9: um i i stand by that thanks i

[0:24:24] Voice 7: think we'll be looking to get on an agenda upcoming thank you

[0:24:28] Voice 7: brian and

[0:24:30] Voice 11: we can certainly plan to have that uh an update of where we're all at um and our next

[0:24:35] Voice 11: joint agenda okay are we good to move on to the next item here seeing some nods uh so next is

[0:24:46] Voice 11: bc ferries advocacy and who'd like to start us off on this one director

[0:24:57] Voice 6: woman did you want to

[0:24:58] Voice 6: speak to this one or we we did have a you

[0:25:01] Voice 5: know sorry my phone went off right at that moment um

[0:25:07] Voice 5: Might even be the ferries person.

[0:25:12] Voice 5: So, yeah, everybody is aware of Laura Patrick was on the FAC.

[0:25:18] Voice 5: Everybody's aware the FACs were dissolved unceremoniously and arbitrarily by BC Ferries.

[0:25:28] Voice 5: The Salt Spring FAC was invited to a meeting in the morning and informed by BC Ferries that the FACs would be dissolved and there would be a public announcement of that in the afternoon.

[0:25:43] Voice 5: So that's how it happened.

[0:25:46] Voice 5: There is an LCC motion put forward by Brian that the LCC is approved, where the LCC is suggesting it can and should play a role in advocacy with BC Ferries.

[0:26:02] Voice 5: And at this point, I think the most, you know, since then, BC Ferries has actually announced what that public process is going to be.

[0:26:12] Voice 5: There's a heavy reliance on websites, virtual communications, and the key concern and issue there is that rather than face-to-face meetings between the FIC,

[0:26:31] Voice 5: which included elected officials, it included stakeholders like the Chamber,

[0:26:35] Voice 5: and face-to-face meetings with senior management,

[0:26:39] Voice 5: meetings at which even the CAO occasionally attended,

[0:26:44] Voice 5: is being replaced by this more arm's length, virtual, sort of broader based getting out to the public.

[0:26:53] Voice 5: And it's understandable that BC Ferries wants to broaden their input from beyond a few appointed members, but what's missing is that face-to-face.

[0:27:05] Voice 5: So I think what the other thing is that I put forward a motion at the CERD board requesting, and the board approved it, requesting BC Ferries to reinstate some form of face-to-face engagement.

[0:27:19] Voice 5: And so that's consistent with the LCC recommendations. So one could imagine, for example, a joint CRD trust body, let's call it an interagency body, that could also involve the Chamber and other stakeholders meeting directly with BC Ferries.

[0:27:42] Voice 5: My understanding is what they've announced does include, they do mention the possibility of annual meetings with local governments, which in our case would be basically the trust and the CRD.

[0:27:56] Voice 5: But they're called by BC Ferries. So it's basically them informing us, as opposed to the FAC model, which was at least meeting twice a year, and we would put together the agenda.

[0:28:13] Voice 5: And in any case, there could still be a possibility of, and even the BC Ferries new system appears to allow for some face-to-face engagement with locally elected officials.

[0:28:29] Voice 5: More recently, and Brian actually alerted me to this or had a question about this.

[0:28:37] Voice 5: After the FEC was dissolved, BC Ferries announced that at the Vesuvius-Crofton route, where we're expecting two hybrid ferries to be deployed in 2027, which will be an improvement in service, that they would be home ported at Crofton.

[0:28:59] Voice 5: So that raises a real concern about the possibility of employment loss on Salt Spring.

[0:29:06] Voice 5: So I've reached out to BC Ferries with the request for a meeting about that and also to the Ferries Union to get their view of that proposal by BC Ferries.

[0:29:23] Voice 5: So that's the state of play as I know it at this point.

[0:29:29] Voice 10: Mr. Webster?

[0:29:32] Voice 9: Thanks.

[0:29:33] Voice 9: Yeah, just adding to that, I mean, I think there's some urgency here.

[0:29:40] Voice 9: My understanding is there's not just the potential for job losses.

[0:29:44] Voice 9: BC Ferries is already advertising to hire people based in Crofton, not based on Salt Spring.

[0:29:50] Voice 9: And if there's any truth to what people are saying on social media, we're looking at upwards of 30 Salt Spring.

[0:30:00] Voice 9: Island families that essentially would be lost to the island because they would no longer

[0:30:04] Voice 9: be able to be employed by BC Ferries and be based on Salt Spring because all of that employment

[0:30:13] Voice 9: would be based out of Crofton.

[0:30:15] Voice 9: So I think there's some urgency here for local government representatives on Salt Spring

[0:30:23] Voice 9: to be proactively reaching out to BC Ferries

[0:30:27] Voice 9: and unless people have some really good arguments

[0:30:31] Voice 9: that I haven't heard, pressing quite strongly

[0:30:35] Voice 9: for them to alter that decision

[0:30:39] Voice 9: because a community our size, 30 families

[0:30:43] Voice 9: is especially in many cases young families

[0:30:47] Voice 9: is no insignificant loss.

[0:30:55] Voice 10: Well,

[0:30:57] Trustee Patrick (probable): I think it's, I don't think we're going to change BC Ferries approach. But what we can do is organize how we advocate to BC Ferries.

[0:31:12] Trustee Patrick (probable): and I think with the LCC with your transportation service that you have I think there's many of the

[0:31:21] Trustee Patrick (probable): activities you know ferry schedules and and and traffic management issues and all of those type

[0:31:29] Trustee Patrick (probable): of things obviously are in your you know direct authority and I think you know if we could have

[0:31:36] Trustee Patrick (probable): have sort of like a decision tree of when you need to advocate, we can be supportive of you

[0:31:43] Trustee Patrick (probable): for those issues. And for us, it's going to be more design and, you know, longer term planning

[0:31:49] Trustee Patrick (probable): issues that would fall into the local trust committee. So I think if we could have a,

[0:31:56] Trustee Patrick (probable): you know, perhaps just do some internal decision tree type of things. And because as I understand

[0:32:04] Trustee Patrick (probable): it uh for projects which is going to be more our side of the issues they would convene a

[0:32:14] Trustee Patrick (probable): engagement or a you know group just for that project um and be very specific uh versus i

[0:32:23] Trustee Patrick (probable): don't know what happens for like schedules and things like that is it just being pressure

[0:32:27] Trustee Patrick (probable): the elected officials need to put pressure on them and demand a meeting um you know so we're

[0:32:32] Trustee Patrick (probable): We're going to have to figure out what this new process looks like.

[0:32:35] Trustee Patrick (probable): I think we're seeing some mayors from like Gibson's and others, you know, really getting quite loud and using the news to get their attention across.

[0:32:46] Trustee Patrick (probable): And maybe we have to be a bit more sophisticated and see what's what's happening out there in these other groups.

[0:32:53] Trustee Patrick (probable): But I think we absolutely should align and support one another in the advocacy.

[0:32:57] Trustee Patrick (probable): Yeah,

[0:33:00] Voice 11: I just sort of follow up that with based on the conversations I have been able to have with some staff at BC Ferries.

[0:33:12] Voice 11: Again, there are contacts that I've made at some of the conventions and stuff that are quite responsive when I send them emails.

[0:33:22] Voice 11: else um but the the notion that there's sort of a semi-formal um advocacy plan out of salt

[0:33:34] Voice 11: spring involving local trust committee lcc crd i guess when when appropriate um but around those

[0:33:41] Voice 11: types of things that the scheduling um the servicing uh and just sort of have have a plan

[0:33:49] Voice 11: Because we know issues are going to arise. That's certainly going to be the case. And having a sort of a, I don't know, maybe it's even within sort of within the protocol to have a plan of when action needs to be taken, when letters need to be jointly sent or that sort of thing. So that we've kind of got a go to when the hot buttons are pushed there. Commissioner Kordo.

[0:34:16] Voice 11: yeah

[0:34:19] Voice 4: brian i was curious if you were able to divine or like put the pieces together or maybe

[0:34:24] Voice 4: it was in the communication that you read about why it was that um bc ferries has made the decision

[0:34:29] Voice 4: to port in crofton i could make some assumptions but i'm curious if there was information about

[0:34:34] Voice 4: that i

[0:34:37] Voice 9: i would just be guessing um because i've learned about it from bc ferries staff

[0:34:48] Voice 9: staff uh raising it on social media so there's not a lot of uh detail and i think if anything

[0:34:55] Voice 9: that's just an indication of uh how important it is for us to get our act together on it that bc

[0:35:02] Voice 9: ferries would make a decision that has such a a big impact on a community and just act on it you

[0:35:12] Voice 9: like no um uh clear or obvious announcement consultation etc christy patrick

[0:35:22] Trustee Patrick (probable): um i'm not

[0:35:24] Trustee Patrick (probable): not defending bc ferries but um uh gabriel had this when they brought on the two ferry system

[0:35:29] Trustee Patrick (probable): to gabriola they did the same thing they modified the port over on the nanaimo side to put the two

[0:35:35] Trustee Patrick (probable): ships next to each other at night and when we when uh the meeting that gary and i were at

[0:35:42] Trustee Patrick (probable): they essentially indicated that it's sort of a maintenance thing when the ships are parked at

[0:35:48] Trustee Patrick (probable): night they they can have the maintenance done right there so

[0:35:54] Voice 5: on quadra Campbell River my

[0:35:58] Voice 5: understanding is which also have the two ferry system they had one home ported on quadra one

[0:36:08] Voice 5: on at Campbell River. So this is what Harold Squaringa has told me. So I will get back to

[0:36:16] Voice 5: folks as soon as I am a little clearer about that rationale. I think part of the rationale

[0:36:22] Voice 5: is recruiting from a bigger pool on Vancouver Island versus Salt Spring. I'm not entirely sure

[0:36:29] Voice 5: that this does mean the loss of 30 jobs. That's something to clarify. And that's why I wanted

[0:36:34] Voice 5: to talk to the union uh president to clarify that and actually their position on the issue

[0:36:41] Voice 5: and i think before we can uh advocate we need to understand you know what the rationale is what the

[0:36:49] Voice 5: implications are but absolutely and i think everybody's agreed we should be jointly advocating

[0:36:55] Voice 5: i i don't i think advocacy in my view uh is under the purview of both the trust and the crd

[0:37:02] Voice 5: Like there's our service responsibilities, our jurisdiction, but I think as advocates for the community, I think we share that. I think also a group like the Chamber, it would also be important to hear their voice. But the first step is to understand their rationale, understand what the possible impacts are, and then go from there.

[0:37:28] Voice 5: there

[0:37:34] Voice 11: thank you certainly there's uh it's a live uh topic all up and down the coast these days with

[0:37:40] Voice 11: bc ferries and the getting rid of the facs uh certainly i've i've heard assurances from bc

[0:37:48] Voice 11: ferries that their local governments are definitely one of the stakeholders that they want to have

[0:37:54] Voice 11: contact with um but other than other than some individuals that are willing to talk i haven't

[0:38:01] Voice 11: seen anything more formal come out yet uh commissioner baker you're muted um just as

[0:38:11] Voice 2: we're i think we're concluding this um and i don't want to set up nicholas jimenez for you

[0:38:16] Voice 2: know lots and lots of um frustrating and deep conversation but he will be at assall spring

[0:38:23] Voice 2: june 27th it's a great way to at least start a conversation in a um a less specific way and so

[0:38:30] Voice 2: So I would hope many of you would like to come and at least begin.

[0:38:35] Voice 2: We've tried to get extra meetings with him that day.

[0:38:38] Voice 2: He's basically voting in and voting out.

[0:38:42] Voice 2: So it's only going to be 11 to 1.

[0:38:43] Voice 2: But it should be an interesting, at least, he did a really good job last time.

[0:38:50] Voice 2: He was at Assault Spring being honest and open.

[0:38:54] Voice 2: And maybe it'll happen again.

[0:38:59] Voice 11: Trustee Patrick.

[0:39:00] Trustee Patrick (probable): May I recommend that we probably carry the BC Ferries advocacy, I guess, as a standing item on our joint meetings? I think that would be a wise thing.

[0:39:12] Voice 11: Yeah, that makes sense to me.

[0:39:15] Voice 5: Tim, just one other possible reason that I've heard about home porting at Crofton is that these are hybrid electric ferries.

[0:39:28] Voice 5: So they're not pure electric, they're hybrids and they'll probably run on diesel.

[0:39:32] Voice 5: What's required in order to electrify them is having appropriate charging facilities at one or both terminals.

[0:39:41] Voice 5: And so I think maybe one of the reasons as well is that I suspect that upgrading the power supply at Crofton may be a simpler matter than on Salt Spring.

[0:39:56] Voice 5: But again, that's what we need to find out.

[0:40:00] Voice 11: Yeah, no, that is a good point.

[0:40:01] Voice 11: And I'm sure that you're correct on that.

[0:40:04] Voice 11: Chairbrook.

[0:40:06] Voice 7: Yeah. Have we seen a formal announcement from BC Ferries as to their plans on this particular route upgrades, or are we just hearing it through employees and social media? Because if we have anything formal from them, then we could at least review that and respond with questions for clarification, if that would be appropriate.

[0:40:27] Voice 7: well

[0:40:30] Voice 11: we did have that um we did have that engagement session i know uh laura and gary

[0:40:36] Voice 11: uh were both uh with that amy broney was uh part of that i can't remember who all also on the bc

[0:40:43] Voice 11: ferry staff but um that was sort of more as sort of more them telling us what's going on than a

[0:40:54] Voice 11: consult consultation that's for sure i i think

[0:40:57] Voice 5: uh it may actually be on their website like on

[0:41:00] Voice 5: On their website, there's a component that's dedicated to the various upgrades, including Vesuvius Crofton Terminals.

[0:41:09] Voice 5: And I'm pretty sure on BC Ferries' website, where they're providing an update for the upgrades to those terminals, they do refer to home porting at Crofton.

[0:41:21] Voice 5: So it's pretty clear what their proposal is.

[0:41:25] Voice 5: okay that

[0:41:30] Voice 7: would give us a basis for raising questions if we felt that appropriate and we

[0:41:39] Voice 7: could certainly put it on one of our meetings in the near future to review that yeah

[0:41:47] Voice 11: and and i

[0:41:48] Voice 11: think laura's suggestion to have um this as a standing item for our joint meetings seems

[0:41:55] Voice 11: reasonable and and uh i could go again yeah laura

[0:42:02] Trustee Patrick (probable): i just checked it says the two quadra the

[0:42:05] Trustee Patrick (probable): the ferries home birth on quadra both of them at night but that's what i got off

[0:42:11] Trustee Patrick (probable): of bc ferries

[0:42:12] Trustee Patrick (probable): website

[0:42:15] Voice 11: yeah and maybe they have a better um better hydro connection there because i know

[0:42:21] Voice 11: uh some discussions i've had in the past about the the charging um requires some

[0:42:29] Voice 11: some big upgrades in terms of the electrical capacity

[0:42:34] Voice 11: at the charging port.

[0:42:39] Voice 11: And that may just, it may just be costly.

[0:42:43] Voice 11: I would assume it's probably just comes down to finances

[0:42:47] Voice 11: to pull that off of Vesuvius as opposed to Crofton.

[0:42:55] Voice 5: Tim, going forward, I know we've done it before,

[0:42:58] Voice 5: But in terms of advocacy, to have, you know, a joint letterhead might be a useful, simple tool to have when the CRD and the trust want to advocate to the province or whoever that that that joint letterhead would be useful to have.

[0:43:23] Voice 5: Yeah.

[0:43:26] Voice 11: And obviously, joining our voices in advocacy, you know, formally on the same letter rather than having separatists. It's a good idea. So anything further on this today? Not seeing any more waving hands. 3.3, we have housing updates. Who's going to start us off on this?

[0:43:57] Voice 6: I can post the um we have a spreadsheet or like a little table that we show each time um

[0:44:01] Voice 6: and for continuity I'll just I'll share my screen um let's see did that that should work

[0:44:15] Voice 6: um so this is a I believe no one said they can't I'm just going to keep going unless someone can't

[0:44:21] Voice 6: isn't able to see it uh the housing needs assessment these so this is the list of things

[0:44:26] Voice 6: that are going on in a timeline of when these events are occurring.

[0:44:30] Voice 6: I think it's a really good example of how we're working together

[0:44:35] Voice 6: with CRD, LTC, and North Salt Spring Water Works

[0:44:38] Voice 6: in a complementary way, and things are getting done.

[0:44:42] Voice 6: So that first thing, housing needs assessment, LTC.

[0:44:45] Voice 6: Chris, do you want to speak to the ones that are LTC,

[0:44:47] Voice 6: and I can speak to the CRD ones?

[0:44:49] Voice 8: Sure, yep.

[0:44:50] Voice 8: So we do have the housing needs assessment now.

[0:44:53] Voice 8: Now, I don't know.

[0:44:54] Voice 8: It's got to go to the June Island Trust Council meeting, I believe.

[0:45:01] Voice 8: So I'm not entirely – I have not had a chance to review that one myself yet.

[0:45:05] Voice 8: So I'd say it's going into June.

[0:45:08] Voice 8: This is dynamic.

[0:45:11] Voice 8: It's a bit dynamic, yeah.

[0:45:12] Voice 8: I think getting to an end product will be, you know, as is often the case with these kinds of projects and sort of putting a bow on it, it takes a bit of time.

[0:45:21] Voice 8: so um then the complete community assessment is mostly done uh we're expecting to publish that

[0:45:27] Voice 8: ltc had last asked us to um to produce an executive summary and like a covering report to go on that

[0:45:36] Voice 8: um that that report we just wanted to finalize the grant reporting so we're just going through

[0:45:42] Voice 8: the very last bits of that right now we expect to be doing putting that up very shortly so it's it's

[0:45:47] Voice 8: coming so that's the the first two items i'm seeing on the list there steven sure and crd

[0:45:53] Voice 6: is the next uh two so housing now that's continuing um that's a program where we're

[0:45:57] Voice 6: trying to match um bedrooms with people looking for um accommodations or a place to live uh lcc

[0:46:06] Voice 6: approved their funding for 2025 um the last meeting um earlier this month that's a program

[0:46:13] Voice 6: that's ongoing rural housing program crd a program launched in uh in april um they're receiving um

[0:46:20] Voice 6: expressions of interest uh justine stark is leading that program and they are receiving

[0:46:26] Voice 6: people are submitting um and then there'll be a selection process i think it's in june that the

[0:46:32] Voice 6: deadline is for receiving applications uh next thing is the ocp chris yep

[0:46:39] Voice 8: uh so as i mentioned

[0:46:40] Voice 8: earlier alluded to earlier we are on the cusp of issuing a contract for um the ocp leb project uh

[0:46:46] Voice 8: so we're we're uh we're looking to launch uh that with our our contractor very soon uh we'll have

[0:46:53] Voice 8: an updated timeline there so um we're so that'll that'll be coming certainly have a lot more to

[0:46:59] Voice 8: talk about that at the next meeting um a quarterly meeting um it's the the process is going to be a

[0:47:07] Voice 8: little bit complicated by the fact we need to figure out how to engage uh you know and there's

[0:47:11] Voice 8: a lot of um analysis work that needs to be undertaken and probably a lot of direct engagement

[0:47:16] Voice 8: with groups like a technical working group first nations and government agencies that we can do

[0:47:21] Voice 8: through the summer um but finding ways to engage the public is really challenging through the

[0:47:26] Voice 8: summer months so we'll be looking to to navigate that process and come up with a work plan and an

[0:47:31] Voice 8: an engagement plan that addresses that so that's um that's certainly on its way and we'll have a

[0:47:38] Voice 8: lot more details on it next time around

[0:47:41] Voice 3: water

[0:47:43] Voice 6: supply moratorium north salt spring waterway

[0:47:45] Voice 6: mark boyce and um is not not in attendance today we should have maybe invited them to

[0:47:49] Voice 6: but i think we are aware of where that's at um and the recent referendum so and then the next

[0:47:55] Voice 6: thing is short-term rentals and there's a it's actually the next thing on the agenda um i'll

[0:48:01] Voice 6: I'll speak, well, I think we don't, you know, thank you, Islands Trust has opted in

[0:48:07] Voice 6: back in March. That initiates in November 2025, but when we did our short-term rental

[0:48:15] Voice 6: roundtable workshop back in January, there was a couple other action items that were outcomes from

[0:48:20] Voice 6: that. One was a desire to opt in, and that was Islands Trust has taken that role, but we, I think

[0:48:25] Voice 6: we also kind of established some partnerships with some other groups. One was data collection.

[0:48:29] Voice 6: So the Southern Gulf Islands Tourism Partnership has initiated a contract with the same company that did the analysis for Parksville and Policum on the data of short-term rentals.

[0:48:41] Voice 6: So SGITP is initiating that contract for the data analysis.

[0:48:46] Voice 6: That was one of the questions at the workshop roundtable for many participants was we need more data.

[0:48:51] Voice 6: We need a better analysis of data.

[0:48:53] Voice 6: So that is occurring.

[0:48:55] Voice 6: So that's a second item under this topic.

[0:48:57] Voice 6: topic and a third is a review of business licenses um CRD myself I'm working on a report for the

[0:49:04] Voice 6: business licenses I have it in draft and I've done a spreadsheet up that looks at um like it's a bit

[0:49:10] Voice 6: of a business plan when you're looking at business licenses because you're looking at cost recovery

[0:49:14] Voice 6: from the users the challenge with doing that business plan is I don't um necessarily know

[0:49:20] Voice 6: the true numbers of short-term rentals uh that are on Salt Spring but I'm anticipating because

[0:49:25] Voice 6: of the new process that the province just implemented back in February with the deadline,

[0:49:30] Voice 6: I think it was May and then extended to June, we're going to know the true number of short-term

[0:49:36] Voice 6: rentals on Salt Spring or at least a more accurate number because of that the process that they all

[0:49:43] Voice 6: have to get registered with the province. I did not want to do a business licensing staff report

[0:49:47] Voice 6: analysis and like guesstimating that there's 400 short-term rentals on Salt Spring or 200 or 300

[0:49:54] Voice 6: hundred when i know in july um i'm communicating with um hannah at the province uh she'll provide

[0:50:01] Voice 6: me the true number of actual uh it's not licenses that she has a different name for it escapes me at

[0:50:06] Voice 6: the moment but we'll have a more accurate number of short-term rentals on salt spring i'll then

[0:50:10] Voice 6: take that up and i'll be able to prepare a proper analysis of business licenses on salt spring so

[0:50:18] Voice 6: that's in the queue so there was kind of three things we talked about in january um that were

[0:50:22] Voice 6: were kind of key one was the opting in done data analysis it's in process uh the business report

[0:50:29] Voice 6: on business licensing uh also in process all should all three of those should be uh by november

[0:50:35] Voice 6: they should all be uh we should have numbers that will have the information on all three of those i

[0:50:41] Voice 6: hope by november is the intent um and the next thing on the list is uh chris did you want to

[0:50:48] Voice 6: say anything about the opting in or or chair patrick we've

[0:50:53] Voice 8: we've more or less confirmed that

[0:50:55] Voice 8: we've that's been received so there's a process that'll go through um so but it's it's basically

[0:51:01] Voice 8: in the uh in the bowels of the province right now how to uh to process administratively and

[0:51:07] Voice 8: get us opted into it all

[0:51:10] Voice 6: right uh integrated housing strategy that's a crd initiated

[0:51:16] Voice 6: It's been issued to Urban Matters, the lead person on that is Isha, Isha has been on Salt

[0:51:24] Voice 6: Spring last week.

[0:51:26] Voice 6: She's meeting with several key stakeholders.

[0:51:30] Voice 6: She's met with Janice Gauthier, she met with, discussed, talked to Chair, or to Chris Hutton,

[0:51:36] Voice 6: I'm not sure if she's met with, talked to Chair Patrick, but she's talked to Chris Hutton,

[0:51:40] Voice 6: talked to Transitions on Salt Spring.

[0:51:42] Voice 6: she's met with the lcc she's doing a stakeholder list and she's going to be trying to put the

[0:51:49] Voice 6: stake many stakeholders into groups so that she doesn't have to meet with them all individually

[0:51:53] Voice 6: she had a very extended day last thursday meeting with people in person i'm meeting with her

[0:52:01] Voice 6: tomorrow just to get a reflection on where she's at and ensuring that she has all the data that

[0:52:06] Voice 6: she needs from me so that she can keep this path moving forward the desired deadline or her intended

[0:52:11] Voice 6: deadline for completion is around November uh as well in 2025 that's some people suggest that

[0:52:20] Voice 6: might be ambitious but we're um we're she's a very um she's kind of picked up the project

[0:52:25] Voice 6: a couple five days ago she's sprinting with it to get it going she has uh supportive staff that

[0:52:30] Voice 6: are working with her urban matters as a company that's um they've actually done a housing needs

[0:52:34] Voice 6: assessment on Saltsbury Island before and they've worked with us with the CRD on the the rural

[0:52:39] Voice 6: housing program. So they know the CRD, they know the Southern Gulf Islands. We think they're going

[0:52:43] Voice 6: to do a great job and that's in progress. And you may find Isha contacting you to ask you some

[0:52:50] Voice 6: questions or you may meet Isha in a meeting in the near future to talk about the integrated

[0:52:55] Voice 6: housing strategy and the action plan that she's trying to develop. Back to you, Chair. That's all

[0:53:15] Voice 6: from me on those topics. And sorry, I went into the short-term vacation rentals, but it was just

[0:53:20] Voice 6: timely it was in my table i hope you don't mind there trustee pearson can

[0:53:27] Voice 11: you guys hear me

[0:53:29] Voice 10: a little quiet a little quiet okay um trustee patrick yeah

[0:53:38] Trustee Patrick (probable): thanks i have listened into your

[0:53:40] Trustee Patrick (probable): uh meeting there to hear uh the presentation from urban matters and i know we talked a bit about

[0:53:45] Trustee Patrick (probable): data. And the housing needs assessment, you know, while meeting the province's data formats is not

[0:53:56] Trustee Patrick (probable): very helpful to us. And I think there's an opportunity for us to collaborate with your

[0:54:03] Trustee Patrick (probable): rural housing program to work toward a collaborative data set, because I think,

[0:54:10] Trustee Patrick (probable): you know, having, we should all have the same numbers that we're working toward. And I think

[0:54:15] Trustee Patrick (probable): of two sets of numbers in particular that would be useful one is just the the the lay of the land

[0:54:21] Trustee Patrick (probable): how many of each type of housing do we have right now um whether it's single family um you know

[0:54:30] Trustee Patrick (probable): renting uh owners renters subsidized housing and all these things we should have the percentages

[0:54:36] Trustee Patrick (probable): of the housing stock for these things and then there's the next sort of um

[0:54:42] Trustee Patrick (probable): um numbers that would be useful sort of the need um based on you know where where are the areas

[0:54:49] Trustee Patrick (probable): that we need to be working on and focusing on and you know um and have those targets so i i would

[0:54:56] Trustee Patrick (probable): really hope and i um that we could work collaboratively with your with your rural housing

[0:55:02] Trustee Patrick (probable): um program i do know you're you're in gonna have a coordinator retained soon and i think we should

[0:55:10] Trustee Patrick (probable): be like said working toward a collaborative data set for both salt spring and the southern gulf

[0:55:15] Trustee Patrick (probable): islands a process in which we can get numbers agree to numbers and have one set of numbers

[0:55:24] Voice 3: gary all

[0:55:31] Voice 5: right yeah thanks uh on the housing front uh the king's lane project uh the 50 unit

[0:55:41] Voice 5: proposal for king's lane by gizra is our next best bet i think most people are aware of that

[0:55:49] Voice 5: And they've been in discussion slash negotiations with BC Housing regarding funding.

[0:55:55] Voice 5: I know they're talking to the trust about needed land use adjustments for the site.

[0:56:07] Voice 5: And I know the trust is working with them on that.

[0:56:10] Voice 5: They'll also be applying to the Rural Housing Program for the pre-development or so-called PDF funding.

[0:56:19] Voice 5: to allow them to do more uh due diligence uh prepare a detailed grant application for bc

[0:56:26] Voice 5: housing um i think they might be applying for up to a hundred thousand dollars and i guess we'll

[0:56:33] Voice 5: find out later in the summer uh i think that's the only proposal at least at this point there

[0:56:41] Voice 5: may be others i'm unaware of but the only proposal coming from salt spring at this point um

[0:56:49] Voice 5: Yeah, I did want to remind everyone about the LCC request about understanding existing development potential in the Maxwell Lake service area.

[0:57:01] Voice 5: And my understanding is Trust are indicating that, again, there's a capacity issue there.

[0:57:10] Voice 5: there and if it's not something that trust staff are able to do wondering if there's another way

[0:57:17] Voice 5: to approach it um but uh in my view we really do need to understand what that existing development

[0:57:24] Voice 5: potential is because north salt spring uh uh my they cannot say no if you're in the service area

[0:57:33] Voice 5: and you've got the zoning and we need to understand what that uh what that existing demand is because

[0:57:40] Voice 5: Because the 300, estimated 300 multifamily units is their estimate of the additional water supply.

[0:57:48] Voice 5: A portion of that may already be taken up.

[0:57:51] Voice 5: So, for example, Swanson's Pond already has the zoning for about 30 units.

[0:57:57] Voice 5: And my understanding is in the service area.

[0:57:59] Voice 5: There's suites and cottages within the service area.

[0:58:04] Voice 5: So, I guess the good news on that front is that the Drake Road supported housing development is going to continue to rely on groundwater, so they won't be seeking community water from North Salt Spring, but we do need to understand what that existing demand is that we really can't say no to.

[0:58:25] Voice 5: because otherwise we potentially get in the position of that limited supply being oversubscribed again.

[0:58:33] Voice 5: So I'm just wondering if there's another way to approach that if the trust staff don't have the capacity to do the assessment.

[0:58:47] Voice 11: Mr. Hutton, do you like

[0:58:49] Voice 8: to offer anything on that?

[0:58:51] Voice 8: Yeah, no, the bill out map has taken a little bit of time.

[0:58:55] Voice 8: it's not a question of Islands Trust like the Salt Spring staff that we would

[0:59:00] Voice 8: put on other tasks it's been kind of our challenge there has really been a sort

[0:59:05] Voice 8: of a complete rebuild of our GIS team and then subsequently a fairly

[0:59:10] Voice 8: substantial rebuild of our GIS system so we are nearing completion though I know

[0:59:16] Voice 8: that one of my planners has been working closely with the GIS tech so we're

[0:59:19] Voice 8: looking to have that build out map uh shortly um but i don't at this time have that for you

[0:59:25] Voice 8: but we we expect to have it and definitely will be informing our um the ocp leb process and um

[0:59:32] Voice 8: we can certainly i know that when i met with isha last week we talked a little bit about um

[0:59:38] Voice 8: a letting her know once we have a contract in place for the ocp leb uh and we'll we'll look

[0:59:45] Voice 8: to get her any information she needs that's sort of parallel to that project or any ways that those

[0:59:52] Voice 8: projects align. We'll be looking to make sure that we're working from the same pot of data

[0:59:56] Voice 8: as much as we can.

[0:59:58] Voice 5: So Chris, thank you for that.

[1:00:00] Voice 5: that so then uh when you get the gis system you know updated revamped then that's that that you'll

[1:00:11] Voice 5: be able to do that kind

[1:00:13] Voice 8: of analysis it's it's in development right now it's actually just being

[1:00:16] Voice 8: checked um but it's like it's very near completion um the the back end of the system though basically

[1:00:23] Voice 8: collapsed so we weren't able to do the kind of table work that we need to do in order to

[1:00:26] Voice 8: to produce that information for you.

[1:00:29] Voice 8: So we could have given you something,

[1:00:30] Voice 8: but it wouldn't have been very good.

[1:00:32] Voice 8: So this is a more truthful output to what you'll get.

[1:00:39] Voice 5: Thanks, and I did want to mention, Tim,

[1:00:42] Voice 5: that apparently Minister Ravi Kalan is coming to Salt Spring

[1:00:48] Voice 5: and there are, and I believe that's been organized

[1:00:54] Voice 5: or arranged by Amelie Botterill.

[1:00:57] Voice 5: And I think he's working with Transition and others,

[1:01:01] Voice 5: including myself, about kind of the itinerary.

[1:01:04] Voice 5: What do we want the minister to see on Salt Spring?

[1:01:08] Voice 5: What do we want him to be aware of?

[1:01:11] Voice 5: So I don't think there's a date being set,

[1:01:17] Voice 5: but it would be later this spring.

[1:01:19] Voice 5: And that could be quite important that we are we use his time efficiently and that we hone in on on, you know, the kind of the priorities for Salt Spring.

[1:01:32] Voice 5: I think it would be dangerous to throw too many things at him.

[1:01:37] Voice 5: One of the things that he obviously should be aware of is the Kings Lane project, because that's that's the project where there are active discussions with his staff about funding.

[1:01:48] Voice 5: But that could be quite helpful. And just going to the STVR issue, as people know, the CRD board has requested the province to include Salt Spring in the speculation and vacancy tax.

[1:02:03] Voice 5: So again, that's something that I would intend to raise with the minister. But at this point, despite a number of other smaller municipalities on Vancouver Island, much smaller than Salt Spring, some of them, Salt Spring is yet to be included and we need to understand why that is.

[1:02:31] Voice 5: Just recently, I found out, and others may be aware of this, there actually is a foreign buyer's tax that's applied to the CRD, including Salt Spring.

[1:02:44] Voice 5: So my understanding is, if you're a foreign buyer, that you pay an additional 20% property transfer tax.

[1:02:58] Voice 5: And it came up, I was informed by this buyer real estate agent who was a little bit concerned about that.

[1:03:06] Voice 5: But just for people's information, I wasn't aware that that was in place.

[1:03:14] Voice 5: Yeah, I guess that's it for me, Chair, except there are a whole number of things happening on the housing front.

[1:03:22] Voice 5: One thing that Stephen didn't mention is the CRD, the $85 million fund that has now been established for another affordable housing program within the region.

[1:03:39] Voice 5: So that would be the fund, for example, with Kings Lane, Gisra would be applying to, to provide matching funding for BC Housing.

[1:03:48] Voice 5: So that $85 million, a million of that is going to the Rural Housing Program, and the remainder is going to region-wide projects, and it's up to Salt Spring to be getting ourselves on the list in terms of projects, and Kings Lane would be our best bet in that regard.

[1:04:09] Voice 5: Thanks, Chair.

[1:04:10] Voice 5: Mr. Baker.

[1:04:14] Voice 5: Baker?

[1:04:16] Voice 2: We had a very energetic conversation at the LCC when we were discussing some

[1:04:23] Voice 2: motions of Gary concerning some, well, I'll use one example, one relatively minor thing,

[1:04:35] Voice 2: which would have the CRD building requirements meet for rooming boarding houses to be the same

[1:04:43] Voice 2: as Islands Trust, you know, and so I, you know, I don't know a lot of the details about it, but

[1:04:48] Voice 2: there is there does appear to be a difference. And so at that conversation, there was some thought

[1:04:55] Voice 2: that we should do absolutely nothing in terms of smaller things to do with housing until we've had

[1:05:02] Voice 2: the OCP conversation, we've been part of it, we've been part of that input, and that we should be

[1:05:08] Voice 2: be part of the process. There were other people, other LCC members that said that we thought that

[1:05:14] Voice 2: we were told that we could use an off ramp. And I guess I'm asking you this, Laura, is if there's

[1:05:19] Voice 2: something that comes up that feels really important, that could make a difference, we can

[1:05:23] Voice 2: start talking about it right now before the OCP review is completed. So I guess in terms of

[1:05:29] Voice 2: process, we did decide to wait. The LCC is going to spend a lot of time really discussing it on

[1:05:35] Voice 2: their own but it is a a good for me it's it's something i need to know and that's if something

[1:05:42] Voice 2: comes up especially about housing can we start talking about you know these minor fixes um or

[1:05:50] Voice 2: do we wait until a process is done but

[1:05:54] Voice 8: i could probably answer that if i may mr chair go ahead

[1:05:58] Voice 8: um so the um the ocplab terms of reference actually one of the early deliveries is that

[1:06:06] Voice 8: That is a gap analysis, so part of that is identifying work to be done in the project itself, but there is also a specific ask that they identify any type of small works that can be undertaken in the immediate term.

[1:06:19] Voice 8: So I know that there are certain projects that some have identified as being some of that low-hanging fruit, and those opportunities will certainly be brought back to LTC, and we'll provide them with sort of options and sort of another approach to looking at the work plan to address that.

[1:06:39] Voice 8: that. However, it is something that we've made sure that, you know, we don't have our entire

[1:06:42] Voice 8: department on the planet on the OCPT project. And we are building some space around that too

[1:06:51] Voice 8: in anticipation of that, because we certainly do think that there's a number of small tasks

[1:06:55] Voice 8: that could be undertaken. And we're looking forward to a wholesome review and assessment

[1:07:02] Voice 8: of that to address that. So yes, that's in the plans, in the works right now.

[1:07:09] Voice 2: so do you welcome lcc feedback um you know on some low-hanging fruit or are you more comfortable

[1:07:18] Voice 2: kind of getting it through your process and and working that way well

[1:07:22] Voice 8: part of the terms of

[1:07:24] Voice 8: references like the our consultation pro our engagement process does include engaging with

[1:07:29] Voice 8: a technical working group so um we would be part of like so part of the what informs that that

[1:07:35] Voice 8: that overall analysis does come from that group.

[1:07:38] Voice 8: So that would be ideally people like Mr. Ovington

[1:07:41] Voice 8: and Mr. Henderson would be providing that feedback

[1:07:46] Voice 8: and identifying opportunities

[1:07:47] Voice 8: that the CRDC sees as being opportune.

[1:07:50] Voice 2: Okay, great.

[1:07:51] Voice 2: Thank you.

[1:07:58] Voice 11: Okay, so we, oh, Laura.

[1:08:01] Trustee Patrick (probable): I just don't want to lose this.

[1:08:05] Trustee Patrick (probable): If we should think of next steps

[1:08:07] Trustee Patrick (probable): for working collaboratively on a data set,

[1:08:09] Trustee Patrick (probable): I mean, our local trust committee meeting

[1:08:11] Trustee Patrick (probable): is going to be meeting, I guess, week after next in June, I was contemplating working on a

[1:08:17] Trustee Patrick (probable): resolution for us to kind of at least give some indication that we'd like to work collaboratively

[1:08:22] Trustee Patrick (probable): with you on establishing a data set. So I don't know what next steps make sense. We want to make

[1:08:27] Trustee Patrick (probable): sure we're not just shooting, you know, resolutions toward each other. How do we make sure we're

[1:08:31] Trustee Patrick (probable): structured and kind of ourselves toward the same direction?

[1:08:41] Voice 11: And staff advice?

[1:08:44] Voice 8: From an island

[1:08:46] Voice 8: trust perspective i i think it's in terms of the common data set um any data sharing we're talking

[1:08:51] Voice 8: about you know geo data um that's that's just basic data sharing agreements we have gis staff

[1:08:57] Voice 8: that can do that so uh trustee patrick wants to clarify her request though i'm

[1:09:02] Trustee Patrick (probable): talking about how

[1:09:03] Trustee Patrick (probable): you know like the housing needs assessment did not get us data that's useful how to if we were

[1:09:08] Trustee Patrick (probable): to work toward a useful data set of sort of where you know what are our goals what are our housing

[1:09:12] Trustee Patrick (probable): needs where you know numbers of that are you know translatable to our need um we should both be

[1:09:21] Trustee Patrick (probable): working from the same set so that you know if we think we need 200 rental units uh we you know

[1:09:27] Trustee Patrick (probable): we're both using the same number we don't have different sets i

[1:09:31] Voice 8: could suggest i mean from an um

[1:09:35] Voice 8: an island trust perspective there i think it's probably the application data and what we're

[1:09:39] Voice 8: approving and and what's getting built but the the building you know if you're asking about

[1:09:45] Voice 8: how we're actually meeting like a housing goal i mean you look at building starts would be the

[1:09:51] Voice 8: biggest indicator of that right how

[1:09:53] Voice 8: many houses that went into what value are they being constructed

[1:09:57] Voice 8: um that should be generated from the crd through the like to it should be reported to the government

[1:10:04] Voice 8: to canada that should be available but one more shot it's

[1:10:09] Voice 8: one more shot yeah okay well we have

[1:10:14] Trustee Patrick (probable): we have to think of you know we've got people living in rvs and all of these things these are

[1:10:17] Trustee Patrick (probable): numbers that don't exist and we're going to have to create those data sets like how do we estimate

[1:10:23] Trustee Patrick (probable): you know our our need based on what's happening in the community and that's not being picked up

[1:10:28] Trustee Patrick (probable): in census it's not being picked up in housing starts it's not it's not in any readily available

[1:10:32] Trustee Patrick (probable): data set, we're going to have to work together to create some numbers so that we're, you know,

[1:10:39] Trustee Patrick (probable): we've got some quantifiable numbers on a very complicated, you know, housing issue.

[1:10:50] Voice 8: I can only suggest, you know, standard like survey metrics and engagement metrics. So

[1:10:55] Voice 8: as much as we can be inclusive and we can drive inclusion in our engagement, how much are we

[1:11:00] Voice 8: capturing? But overall, I mean, those are really hard numbers to capture and they're especially

[1:11:04] Voice 8: hard for two government agencies that don't have really strong social chops. It's really much

[1:11:12] Voice 8: better left in the hands of the ideal if the nonprofit sector was conducting things like

[1:11:16] Voice 8: point-in-time counts on a regular basis and tracking that. That might be something where

[1:11:21] Voice 8: we need to look for community partnership as well.

[1:11:28] Voice 5: Tim, could I suggest that perhaps Stephen

[1:11:31] Voice 5: and and perhaps myself uh talk to the rural housing folks about uh about data analysis there

[1:11:41] Voice 5: they i have not heard that that's one of their uh priorities there's three elements to the the

[1:11:49] Voice 5: program i haven't heard data analysis being one of them but we could clarify whether uh they have

[1:11:56] Voice 5: have the interest and or the capacity but yeah I think the first step uh would be to um

[1:12:01] Voice 5: yeah clarify exactly what it is that we're after um the the needs assessment uh I can understand

[1:12:11] Voice 5: the misgivings about the outcome of that report uh it did indicate over five years the need for

[1:12:18] Voice 5: For 821 units, population growth was the key driver there.

[1:12:24] Voice 5: I noticed like the 3% vacancy rate standard, that was one input into that 821 number.

[1:12:36] Voice 5: And I think, Laura, that's the number you particularly honed in on where they identified only two units required over five years, which just doesn't make any sense.

[1:12:48] Voice 5: sense. The overall number was 821, but it was primarily driven by population growth. They also

[1:12:55] Voice 5: had a part of that 821 was their homeless estimate. And rather than using the homeless

[1:13:02] Voice 5: count for Salt Spring, which does exist, community services does do that point in time count every

[1:13:09] Voice 5: year. The last number I heard was about 160. The study estimated 57 over a five-year period. So

[1:13:16] Voice 5: So, yeah, the methodology, I would agree, seemed a bit hinky and because they were dealing with so many trust areas and because of the lack of data for smaller rural areas,

[1:13:30] Voice 5: they kind of use some regional data that they extrapolated to the smaller local trust areas, which I think was a bit questionable.

[1:13:41] Voice 5: I agree there is, given the concerns about that report, there is a need for more data, but I would suggest that perhaps Stephen and I ask the Rural Housing Program what, if anything, they think they contribute there.

[1:14:00] Voice 5: One thing that Chris mentioned, you know, building permit data, that absolutely is available.

[1:14:07] Voice 5: That's generated by CRE building inspection as a matter of course.

[1:14:12] Voice 5: So we should be able to get that data on the supply end.

[1:14:17] Voice 5: You know, I think we need to do a better job of assessing need and for that matter,

[1:14:24] Voice 5: uh supply uh that employers are like we know some of our larger employers are actually

[1:14:32] Voice 5: uh providing housing of various kinds um but i i think we could get more and better information

[1:14:39] Voice 5: from them about um you know what their needs are so anyway long story short i do agree with laura

[1:14:45] Voice 5: that uh more helpful data would be useful and in terms of the suggestion about the rhp let's see

[1:14:55] Voice 5: whether they have the capacity or the mandate to do that.

[1:14:59] Voice 5: But if not, there can be other ways to try and improve that data.

[1:15:09] Voice 11: Housing needs assessments are definitely a little wonky

[1:15:12] Voice 11: for their numbers for the islands,

[1:15:15] Voice 11: the ones I've seen that I'm familiar with.

[1:15:18] Voice 11: Commissioner Webster.

[1:15:23] Voice 9: Thank you.

[1:15:24] Voice 9: Following up on what Gail mentioned,

[1:15:28] Voice 9: And the LCC has a bunch of motions, I think all of them from Gary, I'm not sure, it doesn't matter, relating to the OCP.

[1:15:42] Voice 9: And we essentially deferred discussing them until the LCC could clarify the mechanism by which the LCC will be providing input to the OCP review.

[1:16:01] Voice 9: And so, you know, I guess the question in my mind, not just the low hanging fruit that Gail was talking about, but there were some other points that were more, you know,

[1:16:14] Voice 9: overarching points of principle, etc.

[1:16:17] Voice 9: et cetera, and specific ones relating to housing and development where the LCC at some point

[1:16:27] Voice 9: before too long is going to be discussing with a mind to providing input to the OCP

[1:16:34] Voice 9: and potentially also to the integrated housing strategy.

[1:16:38] Voice 9: So I'm wondering how we're going about doing that, how that is going to work so that it

[1:16:46] Voice 9: It doesn't distract or undermine the process that the LTC has set out for the OCP review,

[1:16:56] Voice 9: but that makes certain that the LCC is able to provide its recommendations and advice.

[1:17:03] Voice 9: Do

[1:17:13] Voice 11: you want to carry away on that,

[1:17:17] Voice 8: RPM?

[1:17:19] Voice 8: Nothing for me, sir.

[1:17:21] Voice 8: I don't really have a clear...

[1:17:22] Voice 8: I see Laura.

[1:17:23] Voice 8: Yeah.

[1:17:24] Trustee Patrick (probable): Well, I think...

[1:17:25] Trustee Patrick (probable): Go ahead, Laura.

[1:17:26] Voice 8: Yeah,

[1:17:26] Trustee Patrick (probable): because we've been talking to a number of organizations that say, just be patient a little bit longer. I really wish we'd started, you know, this sooner, but we've got a consulting team about to start. Part of what they're going to do is sort of a gap assessment. I imagine they're going to kind of narrow down the field of questions so that we're not talking about, you know, the world, we're talking about, you know, a smaller scope.

[1:17:48] Trustee Patrick (probable): And I think if we can just let them get started and then, you know, they are going to be introduced to who you are, what roles you play.

[1:17:57] Trustee Patrick (probable): And then, Taylor, you know, your input is absolutely going to be wanted and needed, as well as your contact lists and pressure that you can push people into the process.

[1:18:09] Trustee Patrick (probable): everyone's tired of being engaged and asked questions and surveyed but this is going to

[1:18:14] Trustee Patrick (probable): be an important time uh to to be heard and your voice is going to matter a lot so i'm just saying

[1:18:19] Trustee Patrick (probable): be patient um just a little bit uh we will you will be top of the list of uh who needs to be

[1:18:26] Trustee Patrick (probable): communicated with on how you can communicate with this process um chair

[1:18:34] Voice 10: rook thank

[1:18:35] Voice 7: you laura yeah

[1:18:36] Voice 7: we'll look forward to that i know it takes time to get these things set up um and we're going to

[1:18:41] Voice 7: to try and do it in a way, from our side anyway, that's organized enough that we can, like Brian

[1:18:47] Voice 7: said, feed in useful information in the appropriate time to not disrupt the process, but instead to

[1:18:53] Voice 7: help to speed it along or at least provide good information. Going back to data, I just want to

[1:19:01] Voice 7: reiterate, I think it's critical that we have a shared sense of what we're dealing with out there,

[1:19:06] Voice 7: They're particularly on the fringes where we've got people who are living in substandard housing who have no good data.

[1:19:14] Voice 7: And I'm not sure what the best way to do that is, whether it's a third-party nonprofit that's got trust of people that can go out there and do some surveys that are reasonably accurate.

[1:19:25] Voice 7: But to go into this, even for our integrated housing strategy alone, never mind the OCP, not really knowing how many people are living in substandard conditions on this island and not having a data to drill down on for people living on the water, people living out in the woods in campers or tents or in substandard conditions on farms.

[1:19:51] Voice 7: I mean, if we don't understand what we're dealing with there, it's going to be really hard to put together a meaningful strategy and action plan.

[1:20:10] Voice 11: Before we move into short-term vacation rental management, anything else on the housing front?

[1:20:17] Voice 8: Not that they're not related, but...

[1:20:19] Voice 8: I would just add, Mr. Chair, I know that when I spoke with Isha, we had talked about, again, talking about getting her connected with a consultant.

[1:20:24] Voice 8: So it will be a priority for them to get together.

[1:20:26] Voice 8: I'm sure they will talk a lot about the common data points and these studies, and I'm pretty sure that they'll definitely be looking for ways to address this.

[1:20:35] Voice 8: But I think it's something that there's probably a need to have some more to increase the level of coordination across our works, and this is a really good opportunity.

[1:20:48] Voice 8: It's something we can do more work on.

[1:20:52] Voice 8: Thank you.

[1:20:53] Voice 8: Commissioner Baker.

[1:20:53] Voice 10: And

[1:20:54] Voice 2: I know when we talk about data, you know, we have in our mind kind of what it is and how to get it. But it occurs to me that there are people on our island who have a very good sense of who are living rough or living with insecure housing, who are living on a boat, not because they love it, but because they have no other choices.

[1:21:13] Voice 2: And that's something, you know, some of our nonprofits like Joanne, you know, you talk to them, talk to a few other people and you won't get all the data of everything and you won't get it in, you know, formal and wonderful format.

[1:21:30] Voice 2: But we can get a pretty good sense, at least to start off from those who are on the ground doing it, in my opinion.

[1:21:38] Voice 2: So I would start there, and then we can get the other data if we can.

[1:21:44] Voice 2: But we do need to talk to the nonprofits who are working with them all the time.

[1:21:51] Voice 11: Trustee Patrick?

[1:21:53] Trustee Patrick (probable): I just think it's important.

[1:21:54] Trustee Patrick (probable): Like I said, what we need is a complete data set.

[1:21:58] Trustee Patrick (probable): You know, there's a spectrum of housing, and we need to make sure, you know, we're not just lumping numbers of units, that we really understand the kinds of units that we're needing.

[1:22:08] Trustee Patrick (probable): Because, you know, shelter and supported beds and houses is a very different group of delivery than, you know, supplemented rental or, you know, so I think that's where we need to get the clarity and get the numbers so that we're looking at a complete picture.

[1:22:25] Trustee Patrick (probable): we should know how many people live in single family houses do either of our organizations

[1:22:31] Trustee Patrick (probable): need to spend a lot more time on single family houses on this island no you know so i think well

[1:22:36] Trustee Patrick (probable): it's where do we need to be putting our effort and energies and i think that's where the the

[1:22:41] Trustee Patrick (probable): value is going to come from the communications and getting that data okay

[1:22:54] Voice 11: are we ready to move

[1:22:55] Voice 11: on to the short-term vacation rental management piece if so who's going to get us started i can

[1:23:04] Voice 6: I kind of went through the short-term vacation rentals

[1:23:07] Voice 6: when I was going through the list in the spreadsheet.

[1:23:10] Voice 6: I don't have much more to add

[1:23:12] Voice 6: other than the Islands Trust has opted in.

[1:23:15] Voice 6: We're getting some data collection

[1:23:16] Voice 6: through the Southern Gulf Islands Tourism Partnership

[1:23:19] Voice 6: and a report on business licensing

[1:23:21] Voice 6: is scheduled for the fall

[1:23:22] Voice 6: when I get some better data from the province

[1:23:25] Voice 6: on the number of short-term rentals

[1:23:26] Voice 6: that exist on Salt Spring.

[1:23:29] Voice 6: I think that's all we have as far as what's going on.

[1:23:33] Voice 6: There's many things are going on

[1:23:35] Voice 6: since our roundtable and workshop we had in in january and that i think we're in a lot different

[1:23:40] Voice 6: space uh than we were five months ago and we've done a lot yeah

[1:23:48] Voice 11: and certainly that provincial

[1:23:49] Voice 11: registry will provide us some data um gary yeah

[1:23:57] Voice 5: and and uh thanks again to the trust for taking

[1:24:00] Voice 5: that step and I had a question about in terms of trust enforcement of short-term

[1:24:13] Voice 5: vacation rental on Salt Spring has there been any because of the creation of the

[1:24:21] Voice 5: registry the other aspects of the legislation I'm assuming the

[1:24:27] Voice 5: the implications or impacts haven't like flowed through yet,

[1:24:30] Voice 5: but have there been any impacts on the enforcement of STVRs on Salt

[1:24:39] Voice 5: Spring resulting from a provincial registry or legislation?

[1:24:48] Voice 8: Mr.

[1:24:49] Voice 8: Joe,

[1:24:50] Voice 8: I will just say that the number of STVRs cases,

[1:24:53] Voice 8: cases, the amount of new ones and the amount of ones has gone down and the number of overall

[1:25:05] Voice 8: cases, active cases has gone down mostly because they've by and large been resolved.

[1:25:09] Voice 8: So we're really sort of getting down to a point where we're not as worried about it.

[1:25:15] Voice 8: You know, it's something we'll have to continue to monitor and we'll work with the province

[1:25:21] Voice 8: as best we can um through the portal but as you say um you know november december is really when

[1:25:26] Voice 8: that stuff starts to become very clear and um and the province sort of has this data this more

[1:25:32] Voice 8: complete data set that they can start to action

[1:25:34] Voice 5: yeah thanks kristen uh just another question

[1:25:38] Voice 5: around the speculation and vacancy tax so the seerity board is formally requested inclusion um

[1:25:50] Voice 5: My understanding of the trust position at this point is that it should be considered or reviewed and can tell me if I'm wrong.

[1:26:00] Voice 5: And if that is the case, could the trust more explicitly advocate for inclusion of Salt Spring in the SVT?

[1:26:13] Voice 5: Sorry, I think I missed the last part of your question there.

[1:26:16] Voice 5: My understanding of the current trust position conveyed to the province about including Salisbury in the SVT is that it should be reviewed, considered, but not necessarily explicitly advocating for inclusion.

[1:26:34] Voice 5: And just am I wrong on that? But if not, could there be a more explicit advocacy on inclusion?

[1:26:49] Voice 8: Mr. Chair, I defer back to possibly Trustee Patrick as the chair of the Trust Council.

[1:26:54] Voice 8: I believe this is a wider advocacy issue that impacts more of a Trust Council discussion.

[1:27:00] Voice 8: So you may both know more than I do at this point on this topic.

[1:27:06] Trustee Patrick (probable): Well, no, we did pass a motion at Salt Spring and we took the advice of our minister, Ravi Kaelin, asked us to make a motion asking that it be considered.

[1:27:15] Trustee Patrick (probable): And that was the motion that we made.

[1:27:17] Trustee Patrick (probable): We've also asked for additional data that being an adjacent community, the province has talked about the data and the effects of being adjacent communities, and that that would be useful to hear from them.

[1:27:29] Trustee Patrick (probable): And how do they, what data do they use that triggers them to pick a community? What is it? We're 80, what, 83% permanent residents. What are the numbers? What are things like that?

[1:27:45] Trustee Patrick (probable): So I think that's what we were hoping to get from the province with some information on the data that they use to trigger those decisions when they expand it.

[1:27:57] Trustee Patrick (probable): But I wanted to go back and talk about the short-term rentals.

[1:28:02] Trustee Patrick (probable): As we start our OCP project, we know we're going to hear from the short-term rentals.

[1:28:10] Trustee Patrick (probable): We've already heard from them in the roundtable, and we know they made their interest in opting in, also made it very clear that they want us to revisit the regulations.

[1:28:21] Trustee Patrick (probable): So that's going to be another piece that we hopefully will be doing as part of the OCP project is looking at the land use bylaw regulations for short-term rentals and the home-based businesses of the bed and breakfasts.

[1:28:34] Trustee Patrick (probable): And I think that's the only piece of data missing from what I hear will be collected from the Southern Gulf Island Tourism Partnership and others is more about sort of what's happening today.

[1:28:47] Trustee Patrick (probable): day. The registry and all of this will give us numbers of what exists, but there's still the

[1:28:52] Trustee Patrick (probable): question from kind of an economic development standpoint of how many should there be for our

[1:28:57] Trustee Patrick (probable): community this size, for our ferries, for our businesses to be able to survive. What kind of

[1:29:05] Trustee Patrick (probable): numbers should we have? Because the opting in just is the permanent residence. And as I said,

[1:29:12] Trustee Patrick (probable): We've got 83% of the island is permanent residents.

[1:29:16] Trustee Patrick (probable): So we need to be thinking about criteria down the road as to who gets to operate a short-term rental or bed and breakfast.

[1:29:31] Voice 10: Commissioner Korno.

[1:29:34] Voice 4: Yeah, this is probably a question for Chris.

[1:29:36] Voice 4: Chris, I guess I was just looking for some kind of like anecdotal information about kind of since the creation of the provincial registry.

[1:29:47] Voice 4: What is it that what is it that triggers the local trust committee, the Islands Trust to to, I guess, identify a.

[1:30:00] Voice 4: non-registry non-registered um stvr like is that a weekly thing is it a monthly thing

[1:30:07] Voice 4: is it a is you know that's one question and then also anecdotally like have you seen have you seen

[1:30:15] Voice 4: many listings without the registry number um do you see yeah kind of curious about what you've

[1:30:23] Voice 4: seen so far so

[1:30:24] Voice 8: what what has historically been used is the the presence of a listing um so there's

[1:30:29] Voice 8: been ongoing monitoring of of stvr sites and where we're noting them where they are documented and

[1:30:35] Voice 8: as well as any any complaints um it's something that we always respond to um however um with the

[1:30:44] Voice 8: requirement to get registered in order to um to post on those sites once that that comes on that

[1:30:50] Voice 8: that really simplifies that process so what that looks like come november i'm really not too sure

[1:30:55] Voice 8: um and that's something that um our bylaw enforcement officer may be able to better

[1:30:59] Voice 8: answer for you um but that's and you can certainly connect you with them or um we can we can look for

[1:31:06] Voice 8: some ways to kind of share that information out but um and i'm not too sure what the crd and island

[1:31:11] Voice 8: trust are doing collaboratively on that top file as well um if there's any um collaboration across

[1:31:16] Voice 8: the board there yeah

[1:31:21] Voice 10: okay follow up there uh

[1:31:24] Voice 4: i guess so maybe just to clear it up this is

[1:31:27] Voice 4: like an this is an action that will begin later in the year or it's something you'll have more

[1:31:32] Voice 4: information about in the year for

[1:31:34] Voice 8: the well the the use of the uh the requirement for the

[1:31:38] Voice 8: registration number my understanding is it comes in in november right okay sorry

[1:31:42] Voice 8: if you if you

[1:31:43] Voice 8: don't have that number um you and you try to post on on uh any any of the rental sites um it's it

[1:31:49] Voice 8: the the platforms no longer are able to post your your listing so that's effectively

[1:31:56] Voice 8: effectively uh pretty big pretty important marketing tool for those groups so those users

[1:32:01] Voice 8: got it

[1:32:02] Voice 4: thanks for clearing that up no problem

[1:32:04] Trustee Patrick (probable): actually the registry goes in effect now in june

[1:32:08] Trustee Patrick (probable): um so they have to have a registered number to have their um listing on a on a website what

[1:32:13] Trustee Patrick (probable): happens in november is the principal residence requirement trips in for salt spring so that will

[1:32:20] Trustee Patrick (probable): be either an update of their registry but there will be something that we'll be working with the

[1:32:26] Trustee Patrick (probable): province on to merge that right now. They don't have that principal residence requirement, but

[1:32:31] Trustee Patrick (probable): they must register. But in November, the registration of principal residence kicks in.

[1:32:37] Trustee Patrick (probable): So I think the province is working with everybody very diligently and to update the systems. I think

[1:32:43] Trustee Patrick (probable): the key thing is this is all brand new. It's happening in front of us. We haven't even seen

[1:32:49] Trustee Patrick (probable): a report off the registry yet, what that's going to look like. So I think we're in flux,

[1:32:54] Trustee Patrick (probable): I think is a way to look at it. I think it's a good time to be looking at our regulations as we understand all of this better. I think it's all good timing.

[1:33:09] Voice 10: Gary?

[1:33:09] Voice 10: it

[1:33:13] Voice 5: uh yeah in terms of what's the appropriate number of stvrs uh my personal perspective and

[1:33:21] Voice 5: i'm only speaking for myself a i'm not sure how you would objectively uh determine that

[1:33:29] Voice 5: uh for salt spring um i suppose perhaps comparing to other communities but it's just not clear to me

[1:33:36] Voice 5: how you would would come up with this is the right number uh whether it's 100 200 whatever

[1:33:44] Voice 5: but the other thing is that the uh the principal residence requirement of provincial legislation

[1:33:51] Voice 5: which essentially mirrors that of the current land use bylaw as i understand it do we really care

[1:33:59] Voice 5: about the number i mean within reason uh if the property is uh i mean the the whole purpose of

[1:34:09] Voice 5: that land use bylaw constraint and provincial principal residence requirement is that the

[1:34:15] Voice 5: property is not alienated completely from housing uh so if the property is still providing permanent

[1:34:22] Voice 5: housing either to an owner or a permanent renter it's not clear to me and i'm just expressing my

[1:34:29] Voice 5: personal view here uh it to my mind it makes the the number issue less important the the key issue

[1:34:37] Voice 5: was whether you're actually completely alienating properties from providing permanent housing

[1:34:45] Voice 11: well i just comment uh that uh having these discussions on what the appropriate numbers are

[1:34:53] Voice 11: certainly uh that's a live uh live issue on hornby and one of the uh one of the approaches is is

[1:35:00] Voice 11: is looking at ratios um and when there's send you all types of data on this carry if you wanted

[1:35:07] Voice 11: different approaches uh from different jurisdictions but it generally does come

[1:35:12] Voice 11: down to ratios and and how many uh how many stvrs um per per residence kind of thing is is often how

[1:35:21] Voice 11: it's framed uh laura well

[1:35:25] Trustee Patrick (probable): we also you know there's commercial operators hotels and things and i think

[1:35:29] Trustee Patrick (probable): we have to look at the you know we don't have economic development in ours that looking to you

[1:35:34] Trustee Patrick (probable): you would have to look at um understanding the full market out there and what is you know

[1:35:41] Trustee Patrick (probable): saturation what's too much you know and then ferries i mean the over tourism is real you know

[1:35:46] Trustee Patrick (probable): do we want to have everybody on the island have short-term rentals um or not and i think we have

[1:35:51] Trustee Patrick (probable): the fact it's going to be complicated it has to be looked at and it may not be a problem today

[1:35:56] Trustee Patrick (probable): but it could be a problem in the future and i think it's something we have to pay attention to

[1:36:01] Trustee Patrick (probable): okay

[1:36:08] Voice 11: are we ready oh i see commissioner webster yeah

[1:36:17] Voice 9: really it's the the same the same point

[1:36:20] Voice 9: uh short-term rentals are relevant to the housing issue but they're also relevant

[1:36:26] Voice 9: to the economic development economic sustainability issue and potentially to

[1:36:32] Voice 9: concerns around congestion etc so um yeah i'm there is more to it than the housing impact which

[1:36:41] Voice 9: is obviously really important um but it very much is in the lcc's ballpark uh to be talking about

[1:36:51] Voice 9: you know should our community be encouraging more like an argument could be made particularly with

[1:36:58] Voice 9: the new provincial system where there undoubtedly will be a significant decline in at least some

[1:37:06] Voice 9: types of operators as they are removed from the system. The question then, you know, is legitimately

[1:37:17] Voice 9: do we have enough visitor accommodation or do we have too much as, you know, a lot of concerns over

[1:37:24] Voice 9: over congestion, et cetera.

[1:37:26] Voice 9: So that's a discussion to follow,

[1:37:29] Voice 9: which I think is a legitimate one

[1:37:31] Voice 9: and is also relevant to the question

[1:37:34] Voice 9: when we get there of talking about

[1:37:36] Voice 9: the costs and benefits of business licensing.

[1:37:43] Voice 11: Yeah, and certainly the Islands Trust lens

[1:37:45] Voice 11: would of course include environmental impacts

[1:37:48] Voice 11: of the numbers of short-term vacation rentals,

[1:37:53] Voice 11: things like water

[1:37:54] Voice 11: and other sort of carrying capacity issues.

[1:37:57] Voice 11: as well but uh i felt i'd be remiss if i didn't throw that into the mix here um so are we ready

[1:38:05] Voice 11: to move on to the next topic now not seeing any hands up so that is next is the harbor management

[1:38:14] Voice 11: discussion who's going to lead off i know that lcc lcc steven you have uh yourself on mute i'm on

[1:38:22] Voice 6: mute sorry about that uh i i can start it off uh we had uh you know the roundtable workshop um

[1:38:28] Voice 6: I guess a couple months back now, I guess, we've, we collected the information.

[1:38:34] Voice 6: There is some, we've had some good, we felt it was well-received.

[1:38:39] Voice 6: We felt there were some good connections within the community and some

[1:38:42] Voice 6: activities that were going on as far as beach cleanups and people getting

[1:38:46] Voice 6: together and coordinating. We've also had a,

[1:38:52] Voice 6: there's a group, I guess I'd say they're forming as far as to become a bit more

[1:38:56] Voice 6: organized around the residents and around the beach cleanups i guess i think there's a lot of

[1:39:01] Voice 6: informal things occurring and they're also trying to source some uh grant funding there is a there

[1:39:08] Voice 6: was a motion made uh commissioner webster made a motion at the recent meeting to have for the lcc

[1:39:14] Voice 6: to host another uh uh repeat of the workshop roundtable meeting in in the fall and later in

[1:39:23] Voice 6: in 2025. A specific date was not mentioned, but the intent is for us to have another meeting in

[1:39:28] Voice 6: 2025. And before I pass it on to the others, one of the key stakeholder groups that was not in

[1:39:37] Voice 6: attendance at the last meeting was the federal government, but they had kind of sent regrets

[1:39:41] Voice 6: because there was a federal election they were not able to attend. We're hoping that we'll be

[1:39:47] Voice 6: able to get them to attend the next meeting because they're obviously a very, very kind of

[1:39:51] Voice 6: of the key stakeholder and when it comes to the foreshore but i will leave it to others if they

[1:39:57] Voice 6: want to comment and add to that that was just the background mr

[1:40:10] Voice 10: webster uh

[1:40:13] Voice 9: yeah just uh um adding to

[1:40:16] Voice 9: that uh um the uh suggestion of holding a follow-up um was not one of just trying to repeat

[1:40:25] Voice 9: the exact thing that we have already done, but rather to try to provide a bit more of

[1:40:33] Voice 9: a focus because really beyond just general expressions of concern, the discussion tended

[1:40:46] Voice 9: to focus on the one hand on services or the need for services, and on the other hand,

[1:40:53] Voice 9: And the view of some that regulation is, I guess most people recognize that functionally there is very little regulation at the moment.

[1:41:07] Voice 9: And so trying to focus the discussion on those two areas to see where we can move forward, if at all, on those is what we were looking for.

[1:41:28] Voice 2: I've been away I was in Paris yesterday so I haven't done a whole lot of follow-up but just

[1:41:34] Voice 2: before I left I got it excuse me I got a pretty complete and responsive answer from Transport

[1:41:45] Voice 2: Canada with an individual named Rebecca who's willing to help she may be willing to come to

[1:41:51] Voice 2: another round table so i will follow up and and find out but i we finally have a real person that

[1:41:58] Voice 2: seems to be willing to communicate to have

[1:42:09] Voice 11: contact with the the federal end and certainly the i know

[1:42:15] Voice 11: one of the considerations that came up through the uh the crd workshop last year is really around

[1:42:22] Voice 11: whatever regulatory regime um comes into play is that the the enforcement um the cost cost of

[1:42:34] Voice 11: bringing an enforcement regime is it's going to be really something considerable so uh director

[1:42:40] Voice 10: holman thanks

[1:42:45] Voice 5: um just on the round table that did happen i i was really encouraged by that

[1:42:54] Voice 5: meeting that yeah certainly a lot of people attended a lot of voices a lot of uh you know

[1:43:00] Voice 5: a little bit chaotic but uh it really for me was the first time where we had most like we didn't

[1:43:10] Voice 5: have senior governments but we had uh most of the players that we needed to have in the room

[1:43:15] Voice 5: in the room and that includes first nations who seem to um be quite engaged i noticed after the

[1:43:21] Voice 5: After the meeting, we'll continue to talk to staff and others.

[1:43:25] Voice 5: So that also was a good sign.

[1:43:28] Voice 5: And Stephen mentioned the things that are happening now, like garbage collection, which I think in my view really changed the channel.

[1:43:38] Voice 5: So I think that roundtable was quite useful.

[1:43:42] Voice 5: I do agree the next one, if it can be more solutions focused.

[1:43:46] Voice 5: focused. I'm not sure how successful that's going to be with 50 people in the room. I may be

[1:43:54] Voice 5: overestimated, but we have to think of a format that is going to enable the discussion around

[1:44:05] Voice 5: solutions to be a little more focused. It would be good to have senior government representation

[1:44:11] Voice 5: presentation there um i'll note that one of the um motions i brought to the lcc in terms of a

[1:44:20] Voice 5: possible land use bylaw change was the possibility of liveaboards at the marinas and there's not only

[1:44:26] Voice 5: a housing uh link there but in the winter there's a safety link and uh i i doubt that a high

[1:44:37] Voice 5: A high percentage of folks would take advantage of that because there's a cost, but even the ability to come into the dock for a few months over winter months when you've got the storm season, when people are most at risk in terms of health and safety, I think would be useful.

[1:44:56] Voice 5: And I hope the trust would consider that.

[1:45:00] Voice 5: that um the i did have a question about um i want to and somebody mentioned i think that the

[1:45:08] Voice 5: the group uh doing the garbage collection did come as we suggested at the roundtable

[1:45:14] Voice 5: they did come to the lcc and the lcc did approve some funding for garbage collection so uh it

[1:45:21] Voice 5: that's also good in in that uh the the group is starting to reach out to uh local government

[1:45:29] Voice 5: like to reach out to the you know the powers that be and I think that's a good thing so that

[1:45:38] Voice 5: they I think are beginning to see that we can be we can be helpful the opening the washrooms later

[1:45:45] Voice 5: in Centennial Park we've got a water fountain there like there are things that we are are doing

[1:45:50] Voice 5: and continue to improve on those one question I had and I think I raised it during the meeting

[1:45:57] Voice 5: was um uh do we have and and apologies maybe chris even answered it during the meeting

[1:46:05] Voice 5: do we have mapping on sensitive areas eelgrass estuary uh in in the harbor does does that exist

[1:46:13] Voice 5: and if it doesn't exist is that something we could think about uh developing so

[1:46:20] Voice 8: we we do have

[1:46:22] Voice 8: some data set that have not been finalized right now uh or eelgrass uh as far as estuaries and

[1:46:28] Voice 8: sensitivities i don't have that information at my fingertips but i can certainly find out for you

[1:46:33] Voice 8: um the yeah it's it's it's not implemented in our our planning and policies um but this is probably

[1:46:41] Voice 8: one of those areas where you know i i know we sort of talked about the um the manion bay example where

[1:46:46] Voice 8: they put up signage around eelgrass areas and at bowen island so um that it's it's not so much about

[1:46:53] Voice 8: about imposing regulation but by and large people on boats are respectful of environmentally

[1:46:58] Voice 8: sensitive areas if you provide them with um some degree of guidance it's hard to know what's

[1:47:03] Voice 8: sensitive and what's not so um so that's that's something that that we can look into and um into

[1:47:10] Voice 8: providing that information if that's something that we need to do uh that would that would help

[1:47:14] Voice 8: the lcc um our our limitation isn't like we don't own tools um so we don't we don't typically do

[1:47:22] Voice 8: We're not in the business of managing even signage and that type of thing.

[1:47:26] Voice 8: And that more programmatic, it's more in the space programming that I think would probably fit more with the CRD's function.

[1:47:35] Voice 8: And that's a conversation we can have going forward as well.

[1:47:39] Voice 5: Yeah, thanks, Chris.

[1:47:40] Voice 5: But I agree, even understanding where those sensitive areas are, I suspect that there'd be a fair number of people who would be respectful of that.

[1:47:49] Voice 5: And that in itself could be helpful. Just on the CRD side, unfortunately, the sub-regional CRD service, in which the three peninsula municipalities had established, the service still exists, but it has a zero requisition for 2025.

[1:48:08] Voice 5: 25. That was the funding that was used to fund that larger workshop roundtable with CRD staff.

[1:48:16] Voice 5: And it went over my head. I didn't realize during budgeting that that requisition was being reduced

[1:48:22] Voice 5: to zero and that it would, at least for this year, I intend to raise it for budget next year,

[1:48:28] Voice 5: at least for this year, CRD writ large is kind of backed out. And I think in part,

[1:48:36] Voice 5: uh they zeroed out their requisition because they weren't getting uh support from senior

[1:48:43] Voice 5: governments i'm not entirely clear about that but that that's unfortunate and just the other

[1:48:48] Voice 5: thing i wanted to mention and laura is aware of this as well as as uh earl rook um there is a

[1:48:55] Voice 5: group um from orcas island proposing a hands across the water event uh they've even suggested

[1:49:02] Voice 5: us the dates of september 19th to 21 which i think is a a weekend it's past labor day so

[1:49:08] Voice 5: into the off season where they would like to bring a a fair number of boats across the border to

[1:49:16] Voice 5: ganges harbor to uh hold uh uh i don't know kind of a reconciliation event um um making clear that

[1:49:27] Voice 5: that they do not support the current U.S. administration's trumpeting around 51st State and all of that.

[1:49:42] Voice 5: So Earl, I think actually, because of a connection with the sailing club,

[1:49:47] Voice 5: who are also connected with this group, is going to work with the sailing crew

[1:49:53] Voice 5: and maybe with the marinas to identify what's our capacity to deal with a larger number of vessels.

[1:50:00] Voice 5: The number 100 came up. We'll see. We'll have to get clear on that, both the demand and the supply.

[1:50:09] Voice 5: But just to let people know that that's being proposed, there's kind of an informal working group that's being established around that.

[1:50:17] Voice 5: I think it could be very positive for several reasons, including, you know, economic development and tourists spending it in the off season.

[1:50:28] Voice 5: Thanks, Chair.

[1:50:31] Voice 10: Thank you. Commissioner Corno.

[1:50:33] Voice 4: Yes. I definitely understand the importance of like pulling back on enforcing against people living on boats as a form of housing.

[1:50:44] Voice 4: I'm curious if there's ever been discussions or if there's sort of thoughts about the sort of numerous boats that are out there that aren't currently being used as housing, but are rather just empty vessels or storage vessels or, you know, big floating decks that are just being, like I say, just used to hold garbage.

[1:51:04] Voice 4: um that like when we took our tour i was maybe just as sort of i don't know how to call this

[1:51:11] Voice 4: like activated uh over the visibility of that um because i mean it appears like neither of those

[1:51:19] Voice 4: things is really allowed the living or the just mooring for uh like a long period of time um

[1:51:28] Voice 4: like a reasonable period of time do you make any distinction between those things has it ever been

[1:51:33] Voice 4: discussed our

[1:51:38] Voice 8: our officers are not on the water at this time um they haven't been going out um

[1:51:43] Voice 8: it's it's not safe uh they've tried to coordinate with that um about it but it is a you know some

[1:51:50] Voice 8: of the regulations you're referencing there are federal runs around like the length of

[1:51:54] Voice 8: and that type of thing so um you know boats that are unoccupied or not occupied with uh

[1:52:01] Voice 8: with humans are are generally derelict so that you know I think it was really eye-opening that

[1:52:09] Voice 8: that roundtable was very eye-opening about the challenges and the liabilities of removing that

[1:52:15] Voice 8: and it's just it's incredibly complicated and the government you know I think to its credit

[1:52:20] Voice 8: is is really focused on that aspect from an environmental perspective but I think they're

[1:52:26] Voice 8: they're looking more to the province and local government from a more human level you know

[1:52:31] Voice 8: know, social perspective. Unfortunately, that's, you know, there's a bit of a disconnect there,

[1:52:36] Voice 8: but like that, that's sort of my observation of it. So, but I don't, I don't think that we're out

[1:52:43] Voice 8: on the water and I don't know if that's something we're going to be able to do. It's, you know,

[1:52:50] Voice 8: it's a challenging situation. So I think the relationship though, like that round table

[1:52:54] Voice 8: did a lot for that to improve that, the discussions and our desire to kind of address issues that

[1:52:59] Voice 8: we're we're seeing so well

[1:53:04] Voice 4: hopefully hopefully gail's drive to get attendance from the federal

[1:53:08] Voice 4: government could be some progress that way

[1:53:10] Voice 8: yeah and the garbage funding i'm sure will make a big

[1:53:13] Voice 8: difference um you know and just you know at least it's just an empty boat rather than a boat full

[1:53:17] Voice 8: of garbage um that'd be ideal we

[1:53:24] Voice 11: really need to do everything we can to get the the feds and the

[1:53:28] Voice 11: province working with uh with us on these um i'll go to gary i'm just going to note that we're

[1:53:34] Voice 11: We're getting close to the end of our scheduled time.

[1:53:37] Voice 11: So, and we do still have the protocol to talk about,

[1:53:40] Voice 11: but over to you, Gary.

[1:53:42] Voice 5: Just quickly, and it doesn't,

[1:53:45] Voice 5: I think another round table approach would be useful,

[1:53:49] Voice 5: but I think also it would be useful,

[1:53:52] Voice 5: an interagency meeting.

[1:53:54] Voice 5: So trust CRD, maybe we can entice CRD writ large,

[1:54:00] Voice 5: at least their staff people,

[1:54:01] Voice 5: people, maybe even folks from the peninsular municipalities,

[1:54:05] Voice 5: but definitely the senior governments and possibly First Nations as well,

[1:54:10] Voice 5: to have a more focused discussion about, well, what are the current rules?

[1:54:15] Voice 5: Who's doing what?

[1:54:16] Voice 5: What are the protocols for dealing with abandoned vessels?

[1:54:21] Voice 5: I would really appreciate a more detailed, focused conversation,

[1:54:26] Voice 5: particularly with senior governments, about what they're doing now.

[1:54:30] Voice 5: And, you know, compared to a few years ago, the federal government has been more engaged.

[1:54:35] Voice 5: There are two, you know, there are abandoned vessels being dealt with.

[1:54:39] Voice 5: The Coast Guard does respond if a boat goes down to determine if there's contamination, you know, that kind of thing.

[1:54:47] Voice 5: But I would really appreciate a more focused interagency meeting in addition to the broader roundtable.

[1:54:56] Voice 5: Thanks, Chair.

[1:54:56] Voice 5: The

[1:55:02] Trustee Patrick (probable): reminder, the CRDs, what we heard report from that roundtable they held over a year ago, excellent next steps. It's all there. So I think we have a place to start, not have to rehash it.

[1:55:20] Voice 11: Moving on to the protocol agreement. I see Chair Rook, but I was going to assume that was probably Stephen and Chris, but go ahead, Earl.

[1:55:31] Voice 11: Earl.

[1:55:31] Voice 7: Yeah, so we have a limited amount of time, but I think it's really important that we

[1:55:36] Voice 7: circle about and back to the protocol agreement. There's been some discussion amongst commissioners

[1:55:42] Voice 7: to the extent lately that we think that the existing protocol, which is between the CRD

[1:55:47] Voice 7: writ large and the trust writ large, isn't really necessarily the thing we need to work on,

[1:55:53] Voice 7: but maybe we need to create a protocol agreement, memorandum of understanding,

[1:55:57] Voice 7: the equivalent of that between the local trust committee on Salt Spring and the LCC at the

[1:56:04] Voice 7: level where we're working and get something very solid, very local to talk about how we

[1:56:10] Voice 7: cooperate, how we work together, commitments to each other on a professional level to make

[1:56:19] Voice 7: progress on issues that overlap our jurisdictions.

[1:56:29] Voice 8: I'll say off the bat, if you don't mind, Mr. Chair, I haven't had a chance to bring this review back in recommendations.

[1:56:35] Voice 8: So I think, to Chair Rick's point, though, that we all agree that it's really that we're talking at the South Spring level here.

[1:56:46] Voice 8: And that may be a quicker route for us, given that we have this, and I have to get my terminology right,

[1:56:56] Voice 8: but basically there are certain things that LTC simply cannot enter into in terms of agreements

[1:57:00] Voice 8: and that's what we what we sort of have right now with our protocol agreement and then we have MOUs

[1:57:05] Voice 8: that the CAO could enter into on behalf of the LTC so that is then I can't remember what exactly the

[1:57:12] Voice 8: terms are but we can we can certainly shift focus to a more direct agreement and explore that

[1:57:21] Voice 8: possibility as well so um if that's something you'd like to to shift towards we can certainly

[1:57:26] Voice 8: move away from the existing protocol agreement if that's something that is agreeable on on both

[1:57:32] Voice 8: sides of the table here so yeah i say all around the table maybe it would be a better way to put

[1:57:38] Voice 8: that oops

[1:57:46] Trustee Patrick (probable): i haven't

[1:57:48] Voice 6: been taking that approach actually but i could um i could pivot on the

[1:57:51] Voice 6: approach mentioned by uh commissioner rook as far as i we have uh comments back from the lcc

[1:57:58] Voice 6: commissioners. I'd sent that to our legal support to get their comments, and I haven't followed up

[1:58:06] Voice 6: aggressively enough, and I don't have anything to provide you today. However, based on what was

[1:58:13] Voice 6: just suggested, maybe I could talk about having a separate sub-agreement or sub-protocol or sub-memorandum

[1:58:21] Voice 6: of understanding amongst um the islands trust um the local trustees and the lcc i think that's

[1:58:29] Voice 6: maybe what you were suggesting um chair as far as um we can do a pivot on that if you'd like

[1:58:42] Trustee Patrick (probable): um i don't have the wording in front of me but i know we passed a motion at the local trust

[1:58:46] Trustee Patrick (probable): committee um again for the second time because i know peter grove and i did it back in august of

[1:58:52] Trustee Patrick (probable): 22 before this even became to become an entity but we did it again at the local trust committee

[1:58:58] Trustee Patrick (probable): recently we do need an agreement between these you know to lay out that but it's between our

[1:59:03] Trustee Patrick (probable): two uh groups and i whatever we call it whatever it is whatever's in it we need one it would be

[1:59:10] Trustee Patrick (probable): good to have stir

[1:59:15] Voice 9: um yeah so uh i mean i agree with what everyone said although i don't think

[1:59:25] Voice 9: we can just drop the existing one and move to another because the existing one for example

[1:59:32] Voice 9: refers specifically to the salt spring local trust committee and it does not acknowledge

[1:59:38] Voice 9: because it predated the existence of the lcc at all so at a minimum it needs to be tweaked

[1:59:47] Voice 9: to acknowledge the existence of the lcc which has delegated authority over a whole bunch of services

[1:59:54] Voice 9: that are directly relevant to the LTC.

[2:00:00] Voice 9: The gist of what Earl said, I agree with completely in the sense that just, you know, a nice, clear, clean Salt Spring Local Trust Committee, Salt Spring Local Community Commission, here's how we work together, is sort of at the center of what we need.

[2:00:21] Voice 9: Thanks.

[2:00:23] Voice 11: It's more of a question of and rather than or.

[2:00:26] Voice 11: I know there were some historical bits in the existing one

[2:00:30] Voice 11: that really sort of need some updating,

[2:00:33] Voice 11: so maybe it's more about and than or.

[2:00:36] Voice 11: Anyone else?

[2:00:40] Voice 11: No?

[2:00:43] Voice 11: Okay, well, we're darn close to our scheduled finish here,

[2:00:50] Voice 11: so I want to appreciate everyone for good conversation

[2:00:54] Voice 11: and getting us towards a timely finish.

[2:00:57] Voice 11: Is there anything else before we go today?

[2:01:02] Voice 11: All right, then.

[2:01:03] Voice 11: Let's call this adjourned and enjoy the rest of your, I guess,

[2:01:09] Voice 11: late afternoon, early evening, I suppose.

[2:01:11] Voice 11: These long days, it's hard to tell anymore, hey?

[2:01:17] Voice 8: It's a nice one, though.