Islands Trust Conservancy Board regular meeting, May 27, 2025

[0:00:02] Voice 7: Good morning, everyone. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Today is the Honest Trust Conservancy's regular business meeting. The date is May 27th, and the time is 10 a.m.

[0:00:17] Voice 7: I'd like to begin the meeting with acknowledging the lands that we're on today is unceded ancestral lands to many Indigenous nations who have lived and steward these lands for thousands of years.

[0:00:32] Voice 7: In particular, I'm zooming in from Galliano Island, which is a core territory to the Penelope tribe.

[0:00:37] Voice 7: tribe. At the Islands Trust Conservancy, we are committed to building respectful and meaningful

[0:00:44] Voice 7: relationships with the Indigenous nations. And we understand that this work is part of an ongoing

[0:00:51] Voice 7: journey of reconciliation and that our actions must be guided by listening and by a willingness

[0:00:57] Voice 7: to learn and by a willingness to change. And on that note, let's have a great meeting.

[0:01:04] Voice 7: I'd like to start with a little bit of a round of introductions of the board and staff.

[0:01:09] Voice 7: We have representatives from KMPG at 10.30 today, so Sharps would like to make sure we're on time for that.

[0:01:18] Voice 7: My name is Lisa Goverill. I'm elected on Galliano Island, where I live with my 16-year-old twins.

[0:01:24] Voice 7: A little fun fact about Galliano is that it's 27.5 kilometers long and at its widest point, it's six kilometers wide.

[0:01:36] Voice 7: So it's basically like a super scenic hiking trail disguised as an island.

[0:01:42] Voice 7: Great. Let's move on to more introductions.

[0:01:46] Voice 7: We'll start with, how about Trustee Timothy, the Vice Chair?

[0:01:53] Voice 11: Good morning, everyone. My name is Tanner Timothy. I'm traditionally from Sliam and First Nation, but I'm calling in from Tsleil-Waututh Traditional Territory today in North Burnaby, where I reside.

[0:02:07] Voice 11: Yeah, just thank you so much. I'll just pass it on to maybe Trustee Smith.

[0:02:11] Voice 11: I'm

[0:02:13] Trustee Smith: Theresa Smith, and I am a board member. I was interested in Lisa's piece in the annual report because I learned how long I've been on the board from that. I forgot.

[0:02:30] Trustee Smith: gone uh and i am in uh what is generally the territory of penelope people i'm at the north

[0:02:36] Trustee Smith: end of galliano island and um i've been on the board for a while i'm a provincial pointy and

[0:02:41] Trustee Smith: have lots of other roles but uh that's my story short version thank

[0:02:48] Voice 12: you uh let's hear from trustee

[0:02:50] Voice 12: yates thank you chair govro and i was delighted about your description of galliano just being one

[0:03:00] Voice 12: one big hiking trail, because a couple of times I've hiked from east to west and west to east

[0:03:05] Voice 12: from one side of the ocean to the other side of the ocean, and it is entirely doable in one nice

[0:03:12] Voice 12: long hike. So I'm elected for the Gabriola Local Trust Area, and it is in Snenemoch territory,

[0:03:21] Voice 12: which I think about pretty much every day, and I'm very happy to be here with you all.

[0:03:30] Voice 7: Awesome. And let's pass it over to our other Gabrielian, Trustee Elliott.

[0:03:36] Voice 17: Hello. Good to be with you all. I'm on, it's the name of the territory on Gabriel Island,

[0:03:44] Voice 17: Toby Elliott, and elected as the executive or on the executive committee liaison to the

[0:03:49] Voice 17: Conservancy Board.

[0:03:51] Voice 7: Thank you. And last but not least,

[0:03:54] Voice 7: up on the board would be Charles Conn from Salisbury Island.

[0:03:57] Voice 7: Hi,

[0:03:58] Voice 9: I'm on Salisbury Island, and we have a number of First Nations who have claims on Salisbury Island, but we do have a reserve here, the Sawit Reserve, which we're very fortunate to be able to walk in, thanks to the generosity of the Sawit people.

[0:04:21] Voice 9: And we're very, very grateful to be here. Thank you.

[0:04:27] Voice 7: thank you we'll pass it over to staff i see uh staff member mike richards is he there

[0:04:39] Voice 7: perhaps he stepped away from his computer yes uh we'll move on to um he's back oh

[0:04:45] Voice 7: he's there i'm

[0:04:47] Voice 1: here just had trouble turning my camera on um mike richards uh

[0:04:51] Voice 1: uh in uh Sonamook territory on Gabriola Island um and working on the strategic fund development for

[0:05:02] Voice 1: the Conservancy excellent

[0:05:05] Voice 7: thank you and then we have our recorder today Coraline thank you Lisa

[0:05:15] Voice 3: our chair Gavro um yeah my name is Coraline Strachan I'm the administrative assistant for

[0:05:21] Voice 3: for helping out the Islands Trust Conservancy.

[0:05:24] Voice 3: I'm coming to you from the Lekwungen speaking peoples

[0:05:29] Voice 3: on the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations lands.

[0:05:32] Voice 3: Thank you.

[0:05:34] Voice 7: Thank you.

[0:05:35] Voice 7: And then we have Acting Manager, Wendy Tyrrell.

[0:05:39] Voice 16: Good morning.

[0:05:40] Voice 16: Thank you, Chair Gubro.

[0:05:42] Voice 16: My name is Wendy Tyrrell,

[0:05:43] Voice 16: Acting Manager of the Conservancy,

[0:05:45] Voice 16: Islands Trust Conservancy,

[0:05:46] Voice 16: and I'm coming here from the Coast Salish lands,

[0:05:49] Voice 16: and particularly from the Lekwungen and St. Chawton-speaking peoples,

[0:05:54] Voice 16: and very happy to be here. Thank you.

[0:05:58] Voice 7: Thank you.

[0:05:59] Voice 2: Next up is Specialist Murphy.

[0:06:03] Voice 2: Hello and good morning. My name is Nuala Murphy,

[0:06:05] Voice 2: and I'm the Property Management Specialist with the Islands Trust Conservancy,

[0:06:09] Voice 2: and I am coming to you from the Lekwungen-speaking lands of the Esquimalt

[0:06:14] Voice 2: and Songhees First Nations. Thanks.

[0:06:16] Voice 2: Thanks.

[0:06:17] Voice 7: Thank you. Next up would be specialist Martel.

[0:06:25] Voice 18: Hi, Squachil. My name is Catherine Martel, and I'm the Ecosystem Protection Specialist with Islands Trust Conservancy.

[0:06:31] Voice 18: I am currently living and working near Pakols, which is an overlap zone in the territories of Hosenich and Lekwungen-speaking peoples, and is an area that was very important to all of the nations who lived around here. I need to continue to live around here.

[0:06:55] Voice 18: Wonderful,

[0:06:56] Voice 7: thank you. Next up is Specialist Yanni.

[0:06:59] Voice 15: Hi, good morning everyone. I'm the communication specialist for the Conservancy and I am calling

[0:07:09] Voice 15: in today from the lands of the Lekwungen speaking people, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations. Thanks.

[0:07:16] Voice 7: Thank you. And then we have our Senior Indigenous Relations Advisor, Joe Elliott.

[0:07:23] Voice 10: Yeah. My name is Joe Elliott and I'm from Tlalocolt which originates from Tlalocolt.

[0:07:29] Voice 10: or Prolocton originated from

[0:07:31] Voice 10: Tawalkolt originates from the

[0:07:33] Voice 10: islands and you know the

[0:07:35] Voice 10: possibly Salt Spring or Galliano

[0:07:36] Voice 10: my great grandmother

[0:07:39] Voice 10: Latithia was from

[0:07:41] Voice 10: Penelakut so there's a strong connection to

[0:07:43] Voice 10: Penelakut and Hulalt

[0:07:45] Voice 10: and I'm calling from

[0:07:47] Voice 10: the traditional territories Couchin and I

[0:07:49] Voice 10: continue to acknowledge the

[0:07:51] Voice 10: land protocol even being indigenous

[0:07:53] Voice 10: I do it for the purpose of being

[0:07:55] Voice 10: a voice for ancestors who have gone before us

[0:07:57] Voice 10: but also a voice for the ones that are not born and also a voice for my grandchildren so we're

[0:08:03] Voice 10: building relationship for uh cooperation and to continue to work and to create a better place for

[0:08:09] Voice 10: our indigenous first nations people thank you thank

[0:08:12] Voice 7: you thank you and then i see uh staff

[0:08:15] Voice 7: director

[0:08:16] Voice 6: freighter there good morning everyone um my uh claire freighter i'm in the role of

[0:08:22] Voice 6: director of trust area services and i'm pleased to be joining you today from the territory of

[0:08:27] Voice 6: the Lekwungen peoples of the Esquadalton Songhe Nations. I'll be with you today with camera off.

[0:08:32] Voice 6: I've got to multitask a few things, but I'll certainly be available to assist on a few items.

[0:08:36] Voice 6: Thank you. Great. Thank you. Did I miss anyone?

[0:08:40] Voice 7: I think we got everybody there.

[0:08:43] Voice 7: Fantastic. Well, let's move on to item three, which would be the approval of the agenda.

[0:08:49] Voice 7: Are there any additions to the agenda today? I see Trustee Smith.

[0:08:55] Trustee Smith: Yeah, I think it's just one.

[0:08:56] Trustee Smith: It looks like a correction to me.

[0:08:58] Trustee Smith: It's on page 10 of our agenda, but page 7 of the minutes.

[0:09:08] Trustee Smith: And it just says it's in relation to the discussion on the Financing Conservation on Private Lands Conference.

[0:09:15] Trustee Smith: And under discussion ensued, it says the first point is that the province should fund this on a larger tax roll.

[0:09:22] Trustee Smith: but actually the discussion was that the capital regional district should fund

[0:09:26] Trustee Smith: conservation on their tax roll not the province okay

[0:09:31] Voice 7: fantastic all right I've

[0:09:33] Voice 7: made a note to that thank

[0:09:35] Voice 16: you I see that yeah

[0:09:38] Voice 7: was there anything else I have one

[0:09:45] Voice 16: addition I would like to put in for a staffing update staffing update

[0:09:51] Voice 7: fantastic we'll do that in the in-camera portion or will we do that um

[0:09:57] Voice 16: i think we can do that in

[0:09:59] Voice 16: regular meeting

[0:10:00] Voice 7: fantastic so we'll add that under under nine under new business sure

[0:10:05] Voice 7: fantastic uh resell your hands still up anything i'm sorry sorry fantastic uh wendy your head

[0:10:20] Voice 7: it great um is there are there any more amendments not seeing any then let's adopt the agenda as uh

[0:10:34] Voice 7: amended um let me double check that i have another note here uh in today's meeting the

[0:10:43] Voice 7: open camera portion will be from 9 a.m till about 1 p.m sorry i have it written down here

[0:10:51] Voice 7: yeah from 9 a.m to 1 p.m followed by a 30-minute lunch break and when we reconvene we'll be in our

[0:10:57] Voice 7: in-camera portion um and then i have to schedule the break this morning at uh 11 15

[0:11:06] Voice 7: um and i'd also like to mention the fact that uh seven uh 7.1.4

[0:11:13] Voice 7: pertains to a galliano rezoning application so i'll be stepping away from the meeting for a

[0:11:19] Voice 7: moment, and Trustee Timothy will step in and chair that portion of the meeting. Thank you.

[0:11:26] Voice 7: Awesome. All right, we'll move on to item number four, which is rise and report decisions,

[0:11:31] Voice 7: and there's none right now. And then we'll move into item number five, which is the adoption

[0:11:36] Voice 7: of the minutes from March 18th. Are there any amendments that the board wishes to make to the

[0:11:43] Voice 7: the minutes oh

[0:11:46] Trustee Smith: my amendment was to that i thought we were on yeah okay fantastic then

[0:11:55] Voice 7: we will see

[0:11:56] Voice 7: no other further amendments then we will what will we do i guess we will are we amending the

[0:12:02] Voice 7: minutes again no we'll we'll um actually we've already amended the minutes in the previous

[0:12:09] Voice 7: section. So we will adopt the minutes under general consent. Thank you. Moving on to item

[0:12:18] Voice 7: number six, which is a follow-up action list for our information. Are there any questions?

[0:12:30] Trustee Smith: Trustee Smith? Yeah, I just have one question. I think I'm always confused about this follow-up

[0:12:35] Trustee Smith: action list, but there are a couple actions that I don't see here, but maybe they don't belong here.

[0:12:40] Trustee Smith: here and one has to do with you know we have on our we've deferred um this work on climate change

[0:12:46] Trustee Smith: and i don't see it here but maybe it appears somewhere else um or i'm missing something

[0:12:52] Trustee Smith: that

[0:12:55] Voice 16: is a good question is it not in camera staff martel may be able to answer that question

[0:13:06] Trustee Smith: why would that be in camera it's like on our work anyways sorry yeah i'll shut up

[0:13:20] Voice 18: oh sorry you

[0:13:21] Voice 18: cut out we said so i couldn't hear what the question was

[0:13:24] Voice 18: oh

[0:13:25] Voice 7: um reesa did you want to state your inquiry well

[0:13:29] Trustee Smith: sure can you hear me now

[0:13:31] Trustee Smith: yes yes yeah uh it relates to the uh follow-up action report and i don't see anything on the

[0:13:40] Trustee Smith: we were we had decided to defer our work on the climate action plan and I forget exactly what we

[0:13:48] Trustee Smith: called it and I don't see it here maybe it doesn't belong here maybe it's somewhere else

[0:13:52] Trustee Smith: but just to keep a record that that's our intention although we've deferred it for a while

[0:13:57] Trustee Smith: I believe

[0:13:58] Voice 18: we'd have to dig out the original motion I believe that was specifically related

[0:14:04] Voice 18: to the work plan for a specific year, like for last year when the work plan was presented by

[0:14:13] Voice 18: manager Emmings. And so that's probably why it's not on there. Although I will agree,

[0:14:19] Voice 18: I don't really understand how fuel works either.

[0:14:24] Trustee Smith: I think we should put it here just so that we

[0:14:26] Trustee Smith: don't forget that that's our intention sometime in the future. Fantastic.

[0:14:32] Voice 16: Do we want to create

[0:14:35] Voice 16: a motion or do you want to have it I

[0:14:38] Voice 7: think we would need to create a briefing on our we need

[0:14:42] Voice 7: a briefing I think before that before we create a motion around it maybe recap or retouch on that

[0:14:47] Voice 7: again I see um uh

[0:14:49] Voice 6: director freighter stand up uh thank you I've just found the motion from may of

[0:14:53] Voice 6: 2024 which had the board remove the current climate change impacts project from the ITC work

[0:14:59] Voice 6: program and directing staff to explore options and research potential climate change projects

[0:15:04] Voice 6: to address the climate change emergency once itc has a new property management team lead

[0:15:09] Voice 6: so that should actually be on the fuel so certainly we can just add that if you'd like to

[0:15:13] Voice 6: like approve a look at the fuel we can certainly just direct staff to amend it and that can be

[0:15:18] Voice 6: re-added if it's gotten lost great

[0:15:23] Voice 7: thank you that's reasonable to me so we'll leave that with

[0:15:27] Voice 7: staff to add for the next agenda great awesome moving on any other uh questions or inquiries for

[0:15:35] Voice 7: the follow-up action report i see no hands and it's 20 after 10 do we have our representatives

[0:15:49] Voice 7: from uh kpmg waiting perhaps we can join a little early they're

[0:15:59] Voice 3: not quite here yet but i can send a

[0:16:02] Voice 3: email to her. So just give me a minute for that. Thank you.

[0:16:09] Voice 7: We're ahead of time. Nicely done.

[0:16:16] Voice 7: Yeah, we'll move into item seven, now regular business. Perhaps we have about 12 minutes before

[0:16:30] Voice 7: the KPMG was scheduled to be here. Perhaps there's something on that list we could

[0:16:36] Voice 7: cover quickly. Perhaps, anybody have a suggestion? I was thinking item 17, or sorry, 7.1.5 was the

[0:16:50] Voice 7: observation well briefing, which I felt was pretty straightforward. Does that sound

[0:16:57] Voice 7: agreeable to everybody? All right, then we will proceed to 7.1.5, Elder Cedar Nature Reserve in

[0:17:07] Voice 7: Galeano Observation Well. And then that would be Specialist

[0:17:10] Voice 7: Murphy that will introduce

[0:17:12] Voice 2: us. Yes, thank you very much.

[0:17:15] Voice 2: So the Ministry of Water, Lands and Resource

[0:17:18] Voice 2: Stewardship have asked to upgrade Groundwater Observation Well Network

[0:17:24] Voice 2: which is part of the network which is

[0:17:26] Voice 2: number 197 is located on Sullivan's Bay

[0:17:30] Voice 2: Elder Cedar Nature Reserve. This upgrade requires

[0:17:34] Voice 2: requires current equipment replacement and the addition of new satellite telemetry equipment.

[0:17:40] Voice 2: Both covenant holders, who are the Gabriola Land and Trails Trust and Nanaimo and Area Land Trust,

[0:17:48] Voice 2: have been contacted and have no opposition to replacing this equipment

[0:17:51] Voice 2: or to allowing a more formal well access agreement for the maintenance of this equipment and the visits,

[0:18:00] Voice 2: which up until now there hasn't been, even though the well has been there since the 1970s.

[0:18:07] Voice 2: And so, yes, I think everything else is straightforward, but I'm happy to answer any questions.

[0:18:12] Voice 7: Any questions from the board?

[0:18:17] Voice 2: I

[0:18:17] Voice 12: see Trustee Yates.

[0:18:19] Voice 12: Thank you, Chair Govro, and thank you, Specialist Murphy.

[0:18:23] Voice 12: not a question but just how beautifully this works into our current water

[0:18:29] Voice 12: balance studies that we're doing for the official community plan review and very

[0:18:35] Voice 12: happy to see this happen thank you great well

[0:18:39] Voice 7: we have two motions here with any

[0:18:41] Voice 7: board member be willing to make the motion I see you trustee Timothy sorry I

[0:18:55] Voice 11: I was just trying to find the mute button.

[0:19:01] Voice 11: So the Islands Trust Conservancy recommends that the Islands Trust

[0:19:05] Voice 11: Conservancy Board approve the request from the Ministry of Water, Lands.

[0:19:09] Voice 11: Is that where I'm going off?

[0:19:10] Voice 11: I'm sorry.

[0:19:12] Voice 7: I'm sorry.

[0:19:13] Voice 7: Yep.

[0:19:14] Voice 7: Water, Lands, Resource Stewardship.

[0:19:16] Voice 7: Yeah, to upgrade to Provincial Observation Wealth.

[0:19:18] Voice 7: That one.

[0:19:19] Voice 7: Sorry,

[0:19:20] Voice 11: that the Islands Trust Conservancy Board approve the request from

[0:19:24] Voice 11: the Ministry of Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship.

[0:19:27] Voice 11: to upgrade Provincial Groundwater Observation Well 197 in Sewolfin Ekhpe Elder Cedar Nature Reserve

[0:19:35] Voice 11: with the new well box and the addition of equipment for satellite telemetry.

[0:19:41] Voice 11: And that the Islands Trust Conservancy Board request staff to begin negotiations for a well access agreement

[0:19:47] Voice 11: with the Ministry of Water, Lands and Resources Stewardship

[0:19:50] Voice 11: and the two covenant holders,

[0:19:52] Voice 11: Gabriela Island Land and Trails Trust

[0:19:56] Voice 11: and Nanaimo and Area Land Trust.

[0:19:59] Voice 7: Thank you.

[0:20:00] Voice 7: I'm looking for a seconder.

[0:20:03] Voice 7: I see Trustee Yates, the seconder.

[0:20:06] Voice 7: Any further discussion?

[0:20:10] Voice 7: Seeing none, I'll call the vote.

[0:20:12] Voice 7: All those in favor?

[0:20:19] Voice 7: Fantastic.

[0:20:20] Voice 7: I declare the motion carried.

[0:20:21] Voice 7: Thank you.

[0:20:24] Voice 7: Fantastic.

[0:20:25] Voice 7: We're killing it for timing today, guys.

[0:20:27] Voice 7: This is wonderful.

[0:20:28] Voice 7: That one's done.

[0:20:29] Voice 7: And then maybe I'll suggest that we move on to 7.1.3.

[0:20:36] Voice 7: That would be the salt.

[0:20:37] Voice 16: Chair Grover, I believe our auditors have arrived.

[0:20:42] Voice 7: Hey, wonderful.

[0:20:43] Voice 16: All

[0:20:44] Voice 7: right.

[0:20:47] Voice 16: Let's move on.

[0:20:49] Voice 16: I can start with the request for decision.

[0:20:54] Voice 16: We are recommending that the Islands Trust Conservancy Board

[0:20:57] Voice 16: approve the audited financial statements

[0:20:59] Voice 16: for the 2024-25, and it's being scrolled, fiscal year, and refer to the statements to

[0:21:07] Voice 16: the IONS Trust Council for information pending this report from KPMG.

[0:21:17] Voice 7: Great.

[0:21:18] Voice 7: Welcome.

[0:21:19] Voice 7: I see we have Winnie Tam and Lenore Lee.

[0:21:24] Voice 7: Welcome to our meeting today.

[0:21:26] Voice 7: We just did introductions quite fulsome at the beginning of our meeting.

[0:21:30] Voice 7: maybe we won't we won't do that again right now for a safer time um yeah could you please uh

[0:21:37] Voice 7: please begin sure

[0:21:40] Voice 14: sounds good thank you for having us at your meeting uh this morning

[0:21:45] Voice 14: we thought we would take you through the draft financial statements as included in your package

[0:21:51] Voice 14: with a few highlights and then similarly some of the highlights from our audit findings report

[0:21:57] Voice 14: report. Feel free to ask questions along the way if you do have any as they come to mind

[0:22:03] Voice 14: and happy to address them in real time. Overall, we can start with the status of our audit.

[0:22:09] Voice 14: We are substantially complete our work for the audit of the Islands Trust Conservancy.

[0:22:16] Voice 14: We began the audit not that long ago, about middle of April, and so a pretty quick turnaround

[0:22:22] Voice 14: around to get these to the board for review. At this time there's no substantial items that

[0:22:31] Voice 14: remain outstanding. We have been able to complete all of our work and the only matter that remains

[0:22:37] Voice 14: at this point is review of the statements with the board and approval of the statements. At that time

[0:22:43] Voice 14: we'll be in a position to finalize our audit opinion and provide a final set of financial

[0:22:49] Voice 14: statements to the board. The auditor's report is included in the next pages. So in the next

[0:22:58] Voice 14: document 7.1.1 ITC, the first few pages here are the auditor's report. It indicates that these

[0:23:07] Voice 14: statements present fairly in accordance with public sector accounting standards, which are

[0:23:12] Voice 14: the accounting rules that the conservancy is required to follow, and that there's no material

[0:23:16] Voice 14: errors within them. So this is what's commonly referred to as a clean audit opinion, which is

[0:23:22] Voice 14: the cleanest result, the best result you can get that indicates there's no material errors.

[0:23:28] Voice 14: In the fiscal 2025 year, there was no changes to the accounting standards. So all of the rules

[0:23:35] Voice 14: have been applied consistently on a year over year basis. The audit report also indicates that

[0:23:42] Voice 14: the financial statements are management's responsibility to prepare

[0:23:46] Voice 14: and the auditor's responsibility is to audit them in accordance with our

[0:23:51] Voice 14: professional standards. That includes things such as reviewing the going

[0:23:57] Voice 14: concern presumption of the organization as well as the disclosures within the

[0:24:02] Voice 14: financial statements. The first set of numerical figures on the financial

[0:24:08] Voice 14: statements, maybe about three pages down, is the statement of financial position.

[0:24:12] Voice 14: position. Just as a reminder, the Conservancy uses a fund method of accounting, which means that

[0:24:21] Voice 14: there's a number of columns on the Statement of Financial Position, two pages further down.

[0:24:28] Voice 14: So the Conservancy has its day-to-day operations within the Opportunity Fund.

[0:24:35] Voice 14: The Restricted Fund represents monies that have been contributed for maintenance of certain

[0:24:40] Voice 14: properties. So it's not permitted to be used for day-to-day operations, and it only can be used on

[0:24:46] Voice 14: specific properties for maintenance of them. And then the capital and endowment fund represent the

[0:24:52] Voice 14: land, as well as any funds that had been received that must be held in perpetuity.

[0:24:59] Voice 14: Overall, in fiscal 2025, it was a fairly stable year. You know, there was no land purchases,

[0:25:05] Voice 14: there was no land donations and so you'll see that in the capital fund and endowment fund

[0:25:10] Voice 14: there was actually fairly little to no activity within them and all of the transactions during

[0:25:18] Voice 14: the year took place in the opportunity and the restricted fund. In terms of total assets at the

[0:25:24] Voice 14: end of 2025, those are in the first subtotal about a third of the way down $20,035,000.

[0:25:32] Voice 14: This year, there was a small surplus of about $40,000.

[0:25:36] Voice 14: So that represents the balance of the increase year on year, and that's held within cash.

[0:25:42] Voice 14: There were some investments that matured during the year,

[0:25:45] Voice 14: and so you will see short-term investments decline during the year to $490,000 from $661,000,

[0:25:52] Voice 14: and you'll see a larger increase in cash as a result.

[0:25:56] Voice 14: Current liabilities represent funds that have been received in advance

[0:26:01] Voice 14: that are restricted for spending on certain purposes,

[0:26:04] Voice 14: as well as some of the day-to-day operating payables,

[0:26:08] Voice 14: expenses incurred in 2025 but not yet paid until 2026.

[0:26:13] Voice 14: So in this area, you'll see a reduction,

[0:26:16] Voice 14: and that's primarily in the Duda Islands Trust line,

[0:26:20] Voice 14: where there's just simply less owing at the end of the year

[0:26:23] Voice 14: for the transactions that have been paid for by the trust.

[0:26:28] Voice 14: Deferred contributions, no changes there.

[0:26:31] Voice 14: the year but there are two balances that remain their amounts received and that

[0:26:37] Voice 14: are restricted for spending on Hornby Island and screech owl donations asset

[0:26:44] Voice 14: retirement obligations again no change significant change year-over-year what

[0:26:48] Voice 14: this represents is in certain properties owned by the Conservancy there's either

[0:26:55] Voice 14: remediation costs that will need to be incurred in the future or with one of

[0:27:00] Voice 14: the donated properties there's actually a structure on link island that needs to be demolished after

[0:27:06] Voice 14: the term of the donors usage of that property and so asset retirement obligations represents

[0:27:13] Voice 14: the estimated cost to complete both of those activities no changes in the identification

[0:27:20] Voice 14: of what those are simply passage of time it becomes a little bit more expensive year to year

[0:27:27] Voice 14: as inflation increases to incur those costs what's left is what's remaining in

[0:27:33] Voice 14: fund balances so these are presented in a number of different line items so no

[0:27:39] Voice 14: change as I mentioned in investment and land and restricted for endowment

[0:27:43] Voice 14: purposes in the year the surplus that was realized in the year is represented

[0:27:49] Voice 14: in both unrestricted and externally restricted and we'll see a little bit

[0:27:54] Voice 14: bit more detail on that in the next page but essentially some of the surplus was

[0:27:58] Voice 14: was earned in the unrestricted or day-to-day balances of the opportunity

[0:28:03] Voice 14: fund and then some of it was earned in the internal sorry externally restricted

[0:28:08] Voice 14: fund and what that represents is mostly interest earnings on both cash and

[0:28:13] Voice 14: short-term investments because the monies are split between two funds the

[0:28:18] Voice 14: interest income gets split between the two funds as well overall the statement

[0:28:24] Voice 14: of financial position does show a pretty healthy position there is enough cash and investments on

[0:28:30] Voice 14: hand to pay all of the current liabilities or bills that are owing at the end of the year

[0:28:37] Voice 14: the next page shows the statement of operations so this is revenues and expenses for the year

[0:28:43] Voice 14: the bottom line number in the 2025 total shows the forty thousand seven hundred and seventy six

[0:28:50] Voice 14: dollars so that's the annual surplus for this year and as mentioned it's split

[0:28:55] Voice 14: between the opportunity fund seven thousand and restricted fund thirty

[0:28:59] Voice 14: three thousand you'll see that the amounts very much mimic the investment

[0:29:04] Voice 14: income the grant revenue and grant expense represents essentially the

[0:29:11] Voice 14: species at risk grant that's been in the name of the Conservancy but the costs

[0:29:17] Voice 14: are incurred in islands trust and so it is an in and out in this particular entity to move that

[0:29:23] Voice 14: money or grant over to islands trust where the costs are incurred other than that you know you'll

[0:29:30] Voice 14: see cash donations are about 16 000 most of that was one larger bequest of about 10 000 a final

[0:29:39] Voice 14: payout on Tempest. And then the investment income, you'll see fairly stable year over year.

[0:29:48] Voice 14: Interest rates did decline year over year, but there was also reinvestment of prior year earnings,

[0:29:53] Voice 14: which resulted in a fairly stable amount overall. Grants to external parties.

[0:30:00] Voice 14: in the expenses section was about $14,000 this year. And so there was two larger grants issued

[0:30:06] Voice 14: to Gabriola Land and Trails Trust, and then also one on Bowen Island too. So those would be the

[0:30:14] Voice 14: key highlights on the statement of operations. Without any significant donations of land,

[0:30:20] Voice 14: this is about the amount that we see in those types of years, and certainly sufficient revenue

[0:30:26] Voice 14: revenue and interest to pay all of the expenses with a small surplus at the end of the year.

[0:30:32] Voice 14: The next page, statement of changes in fund balances. No particular new information on this

[0:30:38] Voice 14: page. Essentially, what it highlights is the changes in fund balances are all related to

[0:30:43] Voice 14: the surplus for the year. There was no transfers between the funds, which is the main purpose of

[0:30:48] Voice 14: the statement is to also highlight that kind of information. And then the last page, statement of

[0:30:54] Voice 14: cash flows this categorizes the transactions into operating investing and capital activity

[0:31:03] Voice 14: most of the activity of the conservancy is related to day-to-day operations this year

[0:31:09] Voice 14: you'll see in investing that's where the investment matured and generated 171 000 of cash

[0:31:16] Voice 14: on maturity and it was not reinvested into another short-term investment in that same category so

[0:31:24] Voice 14: that contributed mostly to the large increase in cash year-on-year. The notes to the statements I

[0:31:32] Voice 14: won't go through in a lot of detail in that they are very consistent year-over-year given that

[0:31:37] Voice 14: there's been no changes to the accounting policies. So note one is essentially identical to prior

[0:31:43] Voice 14: prior years. It describes the accounting rules that are followed in terms of preparation of

[0:31:49] Voice 14: these financial statements. And all of these standards are consistent with organizations

[0:31:54] Voice 14: that follow public sector accounting standards similar to the Conservancy. Note three on page

[0:32:01] Voice 14: nine, a few pages down, shows the details of what's held in land. Again, this will be exactly

[0:32:09] Voice 14: the same as last year because there was no additions or disposals during the year but it

[0:32:13] Voice 14: does have an itemized list of all the components. Note 4 on the next page provides a little bit more

[0:32:20] Voice 14: information about that asset retirement obligation noting the liability or future payment relates to

[0:32:27] Voice 14: remediation on Ruby Alton as well as the structure on Link Island. Restricted fund balances so these

[0:32:35] Voice 14: are the monies that are held specifically for um properties and maintenance of those properties

[0:32:42] Voice 14: so the monies are not permitted to be used on any other property other than what it has been

[0:32:48] Voice 14: either donated for or generated income for and so this shows the breakdown by property of those

[0:32:54] Voice 14: cash balances held note 7 shows the transactions with islands trust so the costs of operations are

[0:33:05] Voice 14: are incurred by Islands Trust and are not charged through the Conservancy, so this chart shows the

[0:33:12] Voice 14: amounts that had been paid on behalf of Conservancy information and transactions. Lastly, note 10,

[0:33:21] Voice 14: there is a subsequent event note that's been added and new this year. So a subsequent event

[0:33:26] Voice 14: is activity that occurs after March 2025 that could have an impact on future transactions.

[0:33:33] Voice 14: transactions and really what's described here is that the new tariffs between Canada and US trade

[0:33:40] Voice 14: became effective on April 4th. Management has assessed the impact and considered it to be

[0:33:47] Voice 14: fairly low given that there are not a lot of cross-border activities and transactions that

[0:33:52] Voice 14: take place. However, they have indicated that they continue to prioritize purchases from Canadian

[0:33:59] Voice 14: Canadian suppliers and monitor the impact to respond accordingly to any risks that may arise.

[0:34:07] Voice 7: Sorry to interrupt, but I see the trustee's hands up. Yeah.

[0:34:13] Trustee Smith: Well, thanks. I just had a quick question. It's on page nine on the

[0:34:16] Trustee Smith: note where you have land. And

[0:34:19] Trustee Smith: I really love this because it lists everything that we have. But I don't see the Ruby Alta

[0:34:24] Trustee Smith: to nature reserve there unless i'm somehow missing it yeah

[0:34:27] Voice 14: so that's um on page uh 11

[0:34:32] Voice 14: um note six oh

[0:34:37] Trustee Smith: so it's not considered uh land

[0:34:40] Voice 14: that we have uh well historically you've had

[0:34:43] Voice 14: two different funds like one capital and one endowment in that you're not permitted to dispose

[0:34:49] Voice 14: of that and it needs

[0:34:50] Voice 14: to be held in perpetuity so that's really the only distinction between

[0:34:54] Voice 14: why it's in a separate chart.

[0:34:56] Trustee Smith: Oh, I see. Okay. So, okay. So also like McFadden is in that chart

[0:35:01] Trustee Smith: and Lindsay Dixon, they're all not in the original one. Thanks a lot. Yeah.

[0:35:08] Voice 14: Okay. Any other questions

[0:35:10] Voice 14: before we take a quick look at the audit findings report? Okay. So the next document in your package

[0:35:21] Voice 14: is the audit findings report. And this document, the purpose here is to provide you with information

[0:35:26] Voice 14: as to our areas of focus in conducting the audit as well as the outcomes of

[0:35:32] Voice 14: those procedures. So I did touch on a few of these items already which we won't go

[0:35:37] Voice 14: through again in detail but we'll focus our attention on the types of procedures

[0:35:42] Voice 14: that we perform as part of our audit work. The first page that we'll touch on

[0:35:47] Voice 14: is on page 7, materiality. So we've discussed in prior years that we use a

[0:35:53] Voice 14: materiality threshold in performing our work evaluating the scope of our

[0:35:58] Voice 14: procedures as well as what we call a posting threshold and it's based off of

[0:36:02] Voice 14: a benchmark so the audit standards and provide us with a range as to where we

[0:36:08] Voice 14: can establish materiality based on a benchmark of revenues is what we've used

[0:36:13] Voice 14: for the Conservancy because it is not a profit generating organization we don't

[0:36:19] Voice 14: believe that surplus is an appropriate value because it's not really in the business of

[0:36:25] Voice 14: generating surplus so we've used revenue consistently on a year-over-year basis

[0:36:31] Voice 14: and we've we've we have not changed materiality year-over-year that we've continued to apply

[0:36:37] Voice 14: 12 000 which is about a 1.8 percent measure of revenues so what that means is that you know

[0:36:45] Voice 14: when we spoke about a clean audit opinion, there's no material errors greater than 12,000 that we've

[0:36:51] Voice 14: noted that would suggest that the statements are not materially correct. When we do audit

[0:36:56] Voice 14: individual streams of transactions, we are auditing to a much lower level of detail. So if we do find

[0:37:02] Voice 14: an audit difference or an audit error greater than $600, we would recommend it for adjustment

[0:37:07] Voice 14: in the statements prior to them coming to the board for review. So just a little bit of grounding

[0:37:13] Voice 14: as to what those couple numbers mean and how it impacts the scope of our work um we have also

[0:37:19] Voice 14: provided that in the um planning report to islands trust uh which was presented earlier in february

[0:37:25] Voice 14: i'll maybe just pause there for the question i see again yeah

[0:37:31] Trustee Smith: i just had a question it was

[0:37:32] Trustee Smith: way back there oh sorry uh chair was that my question or uh

[0:37:37] Voice 7: my apologies i didn't see your

[0:37:39] Voice 7: your hand up there um okay so it's

[0:37:41] Trustee Smith: way yeah it's way back uh on page uh this is a simple question

[0:37:45] Trustee Smith: i gotta find the page now oh my goodness um oh it's on page 12 12 of your report okay and it's

[0:37:56] Trustee Smith: note number seven and you have operations and property management the board and administration

[0:38:03] Trustee Smith: and i'm just not clear on what the difference between operations and administration is

[0:38:11] Voice 14: Operations would be property operations, so related to land, while administration is activities of administering the Conservancy.

[0:38:28] Voice 8: Okay. Thank you.

[0:38:33] Voice 14: Does that answer your question?

[0:38:34] Voice 14: Yep.

[0:38:35] Voice 14: Good question. Thank you.

[0:38:36] Voice 14: Great. So, on page eight of the findings report, there's only one significant risk that we've noted, and it's required by the audit standards. So, you'll see this in our report every year. It relates to management override of controls. And what that means is that management is in a position to be able to record year-end journal entries that might bypass the day-to-day operations.

[0:39:00] Voice 14: preparations. So, you know, while there might be strong check signing authorities, dual signatures,

[0:39:05] Voice 14: separation of duties, when it comes to preparation of the statements, there still is an opportunity

[0:39:10] Voice 14: to record a separate entry outside of those day-to-day transactions. As a result, that becomes

[0:39:16] Voice 14: the focus of our attention as part of the audit process. You know, what is different than day-to-day

[0:39:22] Voice 14: and why were those types of transactions recorded? So, in response to that risk, which exists in all

[0:39:29] Voice 14: organizations we test journal entries around year-end we review any

[0:39:35] Voice 14: significant estimates that are incorporated into the financial

[0:39:39] Voice 14: statements and review the rationale for any unusual transactions in performing

[0:39:44] Voice 14: those procedures we have not noted any issues to bring to the board's attention

[0:39:48] Voice 14: the next page we do ask annually if you have any particular concerns about known

[0:39:54] Voice 14: or suspected instances of fraud that we do request at any time during the year

[0:40:00] Voice 14: you bring that to our attention so that we can incorporate it into our audit approach accordingly.

[0:40:05] Voice 14: In our inquiries with management, they have not noted any items of this type,

[0:40:10] Voice 14: and so we do ask both management as well as the governance body. I'll turn it over to Winnie here,

[0:40:17] Voice 14: who's going to speak about the next couple slides, which are our main areas of focus in auditing the

[0:40:21] Voice 14: numbers in the statements.

[0:40:23] Voice 7: Great, I see we have

[0:40:23] Trustee Smith: a question from Trustee Smith. Yes, it's on page

[0:40:27] Trustee Smith: page nine where you have required inquiries I found this really good little section makes you

[0:40:32] Trustee Smith: think um you've mentioned something there now I've sort of lost it about uh do you have a whistleblower

[0:40:39] Trustee Smith: program which we don't should we or maybe we do that I don't know about and it's not that I see

[0:40:48] Trustee Smith: it's under inquiries regarding authority processes and um I uh it's not that I have any

[0:40:55] Trustee Smith: problems to report. I'm just wondering if that's something that would be wise to have or not.

[0:41:04] Voice 14: We generally do recommend as good practice, it doesn't need to be called a whistleblower policy,

[0:41:10] Voice 14: but some mechanism for employees to understand how concerns can be escalated,

[0:41:18] Voice 14: either on a named or anonymous basis many times in the collective agreement there will be language

[0:41:27] Voice 14: around what the process is for reporting grievances or concerns and so while it may not

[0:41:34] Voice 14: be called a whistleblower policy we generally do recommend some type of process in place for that

[0:41:39] Voice 14: type of communication so

[0:41:42] Trustee Smith: this is meant for staff but should there be a whistleblower policy for

[0:41:47] Trustee Smith: the board for example i just i just don't know if this is practice or not yeah

[0:41:54] Voice 7: it's an interesting

[0:41:56] Voice 7: question um with um acting manager tyrell would you like a comment on that it's certainly something

[0:42:06] Voice 7: we could look at i think in the future yeah

[0:42:09] Voice 16: i think i think that's worth looking at yeah

[0:42:12] Voice 16: both for the board and i know there is staff julia mobs uh financial director may know of

[0:42:20] Voice 16: a policy in place regarding staff. I am not familiar enough, haven't been here long enough

[0:42:27] Voice 16: to be able to call that off the top of my head.

[0:42:32] Voice 7: Fantastic. Then perhaps I'll mark that down as

[0:42:35] Voice 7: something needing some follow-up. Oh, I see. Director Mobbs. Good morning.

[0:42:41] Voice 4: Good morning. I found my camera on button just in time. So I do know historically there's been

[0:42:47] Voice 4: some conversations at Financial Planning Committee. This is very, very long time ago

[0:42:50] Voice 4: prior to my time with Islands Trust looking at whether or not the Islands Trust would undertake

[0:42:56] Voice 4: development of an internal whistleblower policy. The decision was made not to do that with the

[0:43:01] Voice 4: understanding that we would be leaning into BCPSA's policies that they have around whistleblowing.

[0:43:08] Voice 4: So there is guidance there that's provided provincially that, you know, is available for

[0:43:14] Voice 4: staff. Certainly if we want to be, you know, making this specific to Islands Trust in particular,

[0:43:20] Voice 4: to you know incorporating how appointed board members or elected officials might uh work within

[0:43:27] Voice 4: a policy like that it's work we can undertake it would need to be added to our future work program

[0:43:30] Voice 4: thank

[0:43:33] Voice 7: you very much very helpful uh reset do you have a follow-up question there

[0:43:36] Voice 7: you're

[0:43:40] Trustee Smith: muted sorry buttons just uh so uh from this the previous so what julia's saying is there

[0:43:52] Trustee Smith: is no like there's guidance for staff provincially there might be guidance for the board but we don't

[0:43:59] Trustee Smith: know and so from the previous just like two minute ago discussion it seems like this is something

[0:44:06] Trustee Smith: that we could look into or will look into is that the correct decision here am i understanding this

[0:44:16] Trustee Smith: uh you're on mute now trustee gavro my apologies uh

[0:44:22] Voice 7: uh director moss um

[0:44:26] Voice 4: certainly if this is work

[0:44:27] Voice 4: that the board thinks is worthy for us to undertake that would need to be direction given

[0:44:31] Voice 4: to staff right the historical direction was that we would be looking to provincial guidance trustees

[0:44:38] Voice 4: and elected board members or sorry appointed board members could also be looking to that same

[0:44:43] Voice 4: provincial guidance we would seek direction from this body or from another body if we wanted to

[0:44:50] Voice 4: have something more specific developed in house

[0:44:57] Voice 7: thank you fantastic it sounds to me that we need

[0:44:59] Voice 7: need some more background information as a board, I think, before proceeding with some direction,

[0:45:04] Voice 7: maybe look historically at what was said there. It does seem there's some type of, from the

[0:45:14] Voice 7: union, I can't remember, sorry, I can't remember the acronym of that, of the BPPSA,

[0:45:20] Voice 7: that's the organization. There's some guidelines there as well. So perhaps we can add this to a

[0:45:25] Voice 7: feature agenda item and look at it. We have some time before later this year to dig more deeply

[0:45:33] Voice 7: into this. How does that sound,

[0:45:36] Trustee Smith: Risa? That sounds good. I don't even know how I feel about it. It

[0:45:41] Trustee Smith: just came up there and I thought always better to look at these things before there's a problem

[0:45:46] Trustee Smith: than after this problem.

[0:45:49] Voice 7: Fantastic. Then we'll move back to our friends from the auto report.

[0:45:55] Voice 7: work. Thank you.

[0:45:56] Voice 14: Okay, great. Winnie, do you want to take on the next couple pages on audit focus?

[0:46:07] Voice 14: Oh, you're on mute, Winnie.

[0:46:11] Voice 13: Thanks. On page 10 of our report and page 47 of your package,

[0:46:17] Voice 13: you will see our discussion over the Species Set Risk Grant, and we have a discussion over this

[0:46:22] Voice 13: given its significance and dollar value. This is a grant from the Environment and Climate

[0:46:27] Voice 13: Climate Change Canada, ECC, in the amount of $220,000. What we have done as an audit procedure

[0:46:34] Voice 13: is inspecting the costs incurred by island trusts and billed to the Conservancy and assess the

[0:46:41] Voice 13: appropriateness of the amount being recognized in the current year. We noted no issues as a result

[0:46:47] Voice 13: of our testing and the treatment as well as the analysis is consistent with last year. The next

[0:46:54] Voice 13: Next page, on page 11 of our report, you will see a few of our procedures performed over

[0:46:59] Voice 13: the other financial statement items that Lenora highlighted earlier.

[0:47:04] Voice 13: For revenue, we substantively test a sample of revenues received during the year and we

[0:47:09] Voice 13: agree it to supporting documents such as grant letters as well as cash receipt in the bank.

[0:47:16] Voice 13: We also perform trend analysis and determine if variances are reasonable.

[0:47:21] Voice 13: same thing over your expenses we do some variance analysis comparing prior year figures to current

[0:47:28] Voice 13: year figures and taking a look at the variances to see whether it is consistent with our understanding

[0:47:34] Voice 13: of the conservancy's business for the year we also select a sample of payments made after

[0:47:41] Voice 13: year end to make sure that the expenses are captured in the correct year whether they

[0:47:45] Voice 13: they relate to 2024, fiscal 2024, fiscal 2025, or fiscal 2025. Six. For cash and investments,

[0:47:54] Voice 13: we confirm these balances directly with your third parties. So that could be the bank institutions,

[0:47:59] Voice 13: as well as Victoria Foundation for your endowment funds. In this area, we did identify an area of

[0:48:06] Voice 13: adjustment, which we proposed to management and management accepted and corrected. It is in the

[0:48:12] Voice 13: amount of $1,782 in order to reflect the market value of the endowment investment held. And this

[0:48:20] Voice 13: is primarily due to the Victoria Foundation issuing a late investment statement for the

[0:48:29] Voice 13: Conservancy. So staff had already completed the year-end reconciliations and closing journal

[0:48:35] Voice 13: no entries at this point. So what we have done is just propose an adjustment to bring the balance

[0:48:42] Voice 13: up to market value. Remainder of the financial statements, we assess the presentation of the

[0:48:49] Voice 13: transactions, as well as the financial statement disclosure to make sure that it is appropriate

[0:48:54] Voice 13: and consistent with accounting standards. We noted no other issues as a result of our testing.

[0:49:00] Voice 13: If you scroll to the next page of the report, page 12, this is just our explanation of the

[0:49:12] Voice 13: corrected misstatement, purpose of management, and the impact on your statement of operations

[0:49:17] Voice 13: and your financial position. So it decreases your income and your investment value by $1,782.

[0:49:27] Voice 13: dollars. On page 13, this is our discussions of control deficiencies. We did not identify any

[0:49:36] Voice 13: significant deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting. Our audit is number space,

[0:49:43] Voice 13: but as a part of the process, as a part of the audit process, we do have discussions with

[0:49:48] Voice 13: management and obtain an understanding of certain processes in place, such as financial reporting,

[0:49:55] Voice 13: your cash procedures, your disbursement procedures, and there weren't any significant

[0:50:00] Voice 13: deficiencies noted. Next page is our discussion of accounting policies and practices. This is on

[0:50:09] Voice 13: page 14. As Lenora mentioned, there were no new accounting standards applicable for fiscal 2025,

[0:50:15] Voice 13: so everything remains consistent with the prior year. And then on the next page, you'll see a

[0:50:24] Voice 13: series of appendices that we have included for your reading and consideration. Maybe I'll

[0:50:30] Voice 13: I'll let Lenora comment on them and highlight any applicable ones.

[0:50:34] Voice 14: Sure. Thanks, Winnie.

[0:50:35] Voice 14: We weren't going to go through these in detail,

[0:50:37] Voice 14: but you'll see any future accounting standards that are applicable.

[0:50:44] Voice 14: There won't really be anything on the radar until fiscal 2027.

[0:50:48] Voice 14: And so there is a bit of a reprieve after a few big sections

[0:50:52] Voice 14: that have been introduced in the last few years.

[0:50:56] Voice 14: Overall, I think you can see that the audit process was a really clean process.

[0:51:00] Voice 14: There was really only one adjustment due to some late receipt of information, but in all of the information that we reviewed, it was very complete, very organized, and we did receive very timely responses to any of the questions that we asked.

[0:51:15] Voice 14: So I wanted to express our appreciation to management and the team at the Conservancy for all of their assistance with the audit process.

[0:51:23] Voice 14: Happy to address any other questions, Iheath.

[0:51:26] Voice 14: Fantastic. I see Trustee Smith.

[0:51:29] Trustee Smith: Hi thanks again I read this in detail I found it fascinating so first of all thank you to the

[0:51:35] Trustee Smith: auditors because I think this is so presented so clearly and that's why I can ask questions

[0:51:40] Trustee Smith: I do have two questions on the appendices one relates to AI and thank you for putting this

[0:51:48] Trustee Smith: section in there and I think it just highlights to us I don't know if we're using AI we could

[0:51:55] Trustee Smith: could be using it for minutes for example I don't know but you've highlighted you know the pros and

[0:52:00] Trustee Smith: cons of AI and things we have to watch out for so thanks for that and I hope maybe we could have a

[0:52:06] Trustee Smith: discussion on that at the board level at some point because it's coming and I've personally

[0:52:11] Trustee Smith: played around with AI to see you know the pros and cons and what kind of erroneous information

[0:52:16] Trustee Smith: you get what kind of good information you get so that's the first one the second one is an appendix

[0:52:21] Trustee Smith: six where i know that you have a board leadership center and i wonder if this is something that

[0:52:29] Trustee Smith: you know is this something that's just online that the board would uh benefit from i don't know

[0:52:35] Trustee Smith: so i don't feel there's a lot of it's appendix six actually um uh where is it oh no it's on page

[0:52:44] Trustee Smith: age 27. Yeah. Oh, there seems

[0:52:49] Voice 14: to be a lot

[0:52:51] Trustee Smith: of appendix sixes.

[0:52:53] Voice 14: These are primarily online resources. So what I find quite beneficial is, you know, there's a

[0:53:00] Voice 14: summary annually of hot topics on boards agenda or on the radar. So you know, we attend a number

[0:53:06] Voice 14: of board meetings throughout the year. And there are certainly some commonalities that come up in

[0:53:12] Voice 14: our trends in terms of areas of focus. So I find that quite beneficial. And then the other resource

[0:53:19] Voice 14: we use fairly often is around, you know, if there are common terms of reference or common areas of

[0:53:25] Voice 14: scope for an audit committee or a finance committee, there's some general trends and

[0:53:31] Voice 14: good practice information related to that topic as well.

[0:53:36] Trustee Smith: Thank you. So this is just to the board.

[0:53:39] Trustee Smith: I think we should look at this just

[0:53:40] Voice 8: it's

[0:53:41] Trustee Smith: not a requirement but it might be useful since we do as

[0:53:45] Trustee Smith: the ITC board have very little training on what we're supposed to do as a board and so this could

[0:53:50] Trustee Smith: be useful so thank you for highlighting that that's all I have to say thank

[0:53:55] Voice 7: you and I agree

[0:53:57] Voice 12: fantastic I'll definitely be taking a look in that I see Trustee Yates thank you Chair Govro

[0:54:02] Voice 12: And I just wanted also to thank Lenora and Winnie so much for such an amazingly clear and understandable and yet detailed report.

[0:54:14] Voice 12: Every year, I'm just so impressed by how you do this for us.

[0:54:18] Voice 12: And I want to also thank Islands Trust staff for obviously contributing to such a great report and to Director Mobs for helping out in all the ways that she does as well.

[0:54:29] Voice 12: And like Chair Smith, I also, or Board Member Smith, I also wanted to note, I really appreciate that notation on artificial intelligence. It certainly came up at the last Islands Trust Council meeting. And I really, I think we should be really paying close attention to that as well. Thank you.

[0:54:52] Voice 12: Thank you. Well said.

[0:54:55] Voice 7: Manager Trill.

[0:54:55] Voice 7: I

[0:54:57] Voice 16: also wanted to definitely put a send out thank you to Director Mobs and Director Grater for all their assistance on this audit and the countless hours that go behind this beautiful report. Thank you. And thank you to KPMG folks too.

[0:55:15] Voice 7: I love the gratitude

[0:55:17] Voice 7: fantastic

[0:55:18] Voice 7: keep an eye on the time here we need to move forward

[0:55:21] Voice 7: with our agenda so I see there is

[0:55:22] Voice 7: a motion recommendation

[0:55:25] Voice 7: is there a board member

[0:55:26] Voice 7: seeing if maybe there's no more questions

[0:55:29] Voice 7: perhaps somebody would like to make the motion

[0:55:32] Voice 7: Trustee Smith

[0:55:34] Trustee Smith: yeah so that is the one that says

[0:55:36] Trustee Smith: the Island Trust Conservancy Board approve

[0:55:37] Trustee Smith: the audited financial statements

[0:55:39] Trustee Smith: for the 2024-25 fiscal year

[0:55:42] Trustee Smith: and refer the statements to the

[0:55:44] Trustee Smith: the islands trust council for information yes

[0:55:47] Voice 7: it is yep it's moved i'm looking for a seconder

[0:55:50] Voice 7: i see trustee yates uh is there any discussion trustee elliot anyone then i will call the vote

[0:56:04] Voice 7: all those in favor and the motion carries thank you very much yeah obviously yes a huge thanks to

[0:56:22] Voice 7: KPMG for attending our meeting today, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

[0:56:27] Voice 7: You too. Thank you. Thank you so much.

[0:56:33] Voice 7: Well done. We're going to move on to item 7.1.2, and that's the annual report,

[0:56:43] Voice 7: RFD, and that would be Specialist Yanni.

[0:56:52] Voice 15: Yes. Hi. Can you hear me?

[0:56:55] Voice 15: Yes. Okay, wonderful. So the preparation for the ITC annual report is required under Section 46 of the Islands Trust Act. Staff have prepared a draft of the Islands Trust Conservancy 2024-25 annual report text for ITC Board review and approval.

[0:57:13] Voice 15: And timely approval of text will ensure smooth delivery of the Islands Trust Annual Report.

[0:57:18] Voice 15: So the recommendation is that the Islands Trust Conseguency Board approve the attached text for inclusion in the 2024-25 Annual Report for approval by Trust Council and submission to the Minister of Municipal Affairs.

[0:57:31] Voice 15: Happy to take any questions.

[0:57:33] Voice 7: Do

[0:57:34] Voice 12: we have any questions?

[0:57:36] Voice 12: I see Trustee Yates.

[0:57:38] Voice 12: Thank you, Chair Govro.

[0:57:39] Voice 12: And thank you, Staff Yanni.

[0:57:42] Voice 12: no questions but the photographs are so beautiful thank you glad you like them

[0:57:52] Trustee Smith: trustee smith i just have one uh question is this finished already so there's no chance for

[0:57:59] Trustee Smith: changes or i'm not clear on that no there there is an opportunity for changes so the only and

[0:58:07] Trustee Smith: it's not that important but it is a little bit it's on page 72 and you say uh you talk about the

[0:58:14] Trustee Smith: the 30% goal, which is a Canada, BC, and an international goal. And you say that the last

[0:58:24] Trustee Smith: sentence is an area where only 20% of the land is in protected status. But that goal isn't really

[0:58:30] Trustee Smith: meant that every single organization would have 30 by 30. So I would just take out the word only,

[0:58:37] Trustee Smith: because obviously we want more, but I don't think we're responsible for 30%.

[0:58:43] Trustee Smith: You'd probably like that, but just to highlight what the goal means and where you might say at the beginning, the United Nations and governments of Canada and British Columbia, because that is where that goal comes from.

[0:58:59] Trustee Smith: It's a UN goal, actually, which we've adopted.

[0:59:05] Voice 14: Thank you.

[0:59:08] Trustee Smith: It's not critical, just thought I'd point it out and maybe be good to know.

[0:59:14] Trustee Smith: Thank you. Any more comments from the board?

[0:59:22] Voice 7: Seeing no comments, I would welcome a motion.

[0:59:31] Voice 7: I

[0:59:32] Voice 17: see Trustee Elliott.

[0:59:34] Voice 17: Thank you, Chair.

[0:59:35] Voice 17: I move that the Islands Trust Conservancy Board approve the attached text for inclusion in the 2024-25 annual report for approval by Trust Council in submission to the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs.

[0:59:50] Voice 7: Looking for a seconder.

[0:59:52] Voice 7: I see Trustee Yates.

[0:59:54] Voice 7: Any more discussion on this section?

[1:00:00] Voice 7: I will call the vote. All those in favor? And with that, the motion carries. Thank you. All right.

[1:00:14] Voice 7: And then we're moving on to item seven. Oh, Risa Smith, your hand's still up. Okay, thank you.

[1:00:20] Voice 7: Great. We'll move on to 7.1.3. Salt Spring Island LTC development permit referral. And I'm looking

[1:00:30] Voice 7: for Specialist Martel, or Murphy, sorry.

[1:00:35] Voice 16: I will be stepping in to present this on behalf of Gemma.

[1:00:38] Voice 16: staff green yes and so the first one is the salt spring island is that right yes

[1:00:50] Voice 7: it is okay i i

[1:00:51] Voice 16: just wanted to make sure we were on the same page okay so the purpose of

[1:00:55] Voice 16: yeah the purpose of this

[1:00:57] Voice 16: um request for decision is to review and provide comment for a development variance permit

[1:01:03] Voice 16: application which has been referred by the salt spring island local trust committee and as

[1:01:09] Voice 16: background uh the conservancy board under policy 3.3.1 and islands trust conservancy and local

[1:01:17] Voice 16: planning services coordination requires that dvp applications be referred to islands trust

[1:01:22] Voice 16: conservancy board for comment if a property adjacent to an itc covenant is directly affected

[1:01:28] Voice 16: and in this case we have some details in the report that this provide this proposal provided

[1:01:35] Voice 16: provided the attached an attached memo from the local planning services potential environmental

[1:01:41] Voice 16: impacts were discussed in the biologist report included in the attachment and in consideration

[1:01:46] Voice 16: of these facts it appears that little to no disturbance to the terrestrial environment

[1:01:51] Voice 16: including at-risk plant communities or species are expected and two lot 31 Covenant is located

[1:01:57] Voice 16: some distance from the proposed project area because it does not extend to the shore it

[1:02:02] Voice 16: protects the easternmost 76 or so hectares of the parcel only and the ITC board's interests are

[1:02:09] Voice 16: expected to be unaffected by this DVP. One comment that I wanted to note oh that's in the other one

[1:02:19] Voice 16: so I'm not going to say that so we have a recommendation.

[1:02:24] Voice 7: Trustee Smith you

[1:02:26] Trustee Smith: have a question?

[1:02:29] Trustee Smith: I do it's on page I guess 86 under First Nations and I see that you know they're looking at

[1:02:37] Trustee Smith: archaeological sites but I just maybe I need some clarification. This is quite a big expansion of a

[1:02:44] Trustee Smith: deck so it's a very a dock it's a very large dock and I thought it was the First Nations who

[1:02:50] Trustee Smith: had requested that the islands trust in general not have any more docks and I'm not saying they

[1:03:00] Trustee Smith: would be against this or it's nothing to do with my opinion but I don't see they've been consulted

[1:03:04] Trustee Smith: on that issue. And I'm just wondering, maybe I'm misunderstanding and they have been.

[1:03:12] Voice 7: That's an interesting point of view. We are, as a trustee, we're working through the trust policy

[1:03:17] Voice 7: statement right now where we have feedback around that very thing. And there is, I wouldn't say

[1:03:22] Voice 7: conflicting, but there's certainly different points of view from the nations around whether

[1:03:27] Voice 7: to restrict docks or to be more, to request more fulsome reports around the impacts of

[1:03:35] Voice 7: allowing more more dogs but with this application here considering the

[1:03:41] Voice 7: biologist report I think that and the referral nature of the whole process I

[1:03:45] Voice 7: think that nations have been involved and I there is no response yet no

[1:03:52] Voice 7: referral response yet that we've seen to indicate that there would be an issue

[1:03:56] Voice 7: okay

[1:03:58] Trustee Smith: so they haven't responded to that yet for this specific doctor is the

[1:04:02] Trustee Smith: the statement you're making um

[1:04:05] Voice 7: well as far as itc interest in that i don't uh yeah i can see your

[1:04:10] Voice 7: point um yeah it would be part of are you saying that we should do our own referral process for

[1:04:22] Trustee Smith: no i'm just asking since we have a goal about first nations and the ministers told us to do that

[1:04:29] Trustee Smith: that we have a referral, and they might have done this.

[1:04:32] Trustee Smith: I don't know.

[1:04:33] Trustee Smith: But there's just no indication in this report

[1:04:37] Trustee Smith: that that question has been addressed to First Nations.

[1:04:41] Trustee Smith: So I don't think we should be doing anything.

[1:04:43] Trustee Smith: I just think that the proponents of the project

[1:04:47] Trustee Smith: or the local trust committee on Salt Spring,

[1:04:50] Trustee Smith: I think our due diligence would be to point out

[1:04:53] Trustee Smith: that we've noticed that.

[1:04:55] Trustee Smith: And it doesn't affect us, but I don't know.

[1:04:58] Trustee Smith: oh, I think we're responsible to point out things

[1:05:00] Trustee Smith: that people might have missed, that's all.

[1:05:02] Trustee Smith: And maybe they didn't miss it.

[1:05:04] Trustee Smith: It's just not in our report.

[1:05:05] Trustee Smith: Yep.

[1:05:06] Voice 7: That's a very, very considerate view.

[1:05:09] Voice 7: It also is within our purview as well to make a note

[1:05:12] Voice 7: to send along with that.

[1:05:13] Voice 7: But let's get some more background on that to see.

[1:05:16] Voice 7: I see Director Freighter-Sands.

[1:05:19] Voice 6: Certainly, yes.

[1:05:20] Voice 6: We've had feedback from nations around concerns

[1:05:22] Voice 6: around proliferation of dogs.

[1:05:25] Voice 6: However, there has been no changes to our trust policy statement.

[1:05:27] Voice 6: certainly it would be appropriate for the board to make comment in its referral response if it

[1:05:32] Voice 6: wished and either noting that it was unclear if infestation engagement has happened or encouraging

[1:05:37] Voice 6: it to happen noting that the planning services department is currently looking at processes

[1:05:44] Voice 6: around referral of discretionary decisions such as development for variance permits is there any

[1:05:52] Voice 7: further comment there from the rest of the board how are we feeling about this oh trustee yates

[1:06:08] Voice 7: thank you yeah

[1:06:10] Voice 12: i have the same concerns regarding any additional docs anywhere in the trust area

[1:06:19] Voice 12: especially if we could get more information from local first nations if they if they do have any

[1:06:25] Voice 12: additional comments i think that would be really helpful all

[1:06:34] Voice 7: right then let's really i guess we're

[1:06:36] Voice 7: looking for some direction we would like to get the staff uh trustee smith

[1:06:42] Trustee Smith: i might this is just

[1:06:44] Trustee Smith: a recommendation we have a recommendation and i don't think our interests are affected and i think

[1:06:49] Trustee Smith: that's true in the recommendation um so maybe we could just have a second sentence um something to

[1:06:56] Trustee Smith: the effect that uh the island trust conservancy board um would like to highlight the need for

[1:07:05] Trustee Smith: for First Nations opinion on dock expansion,

[1:07:11] Trustee Smith: on this dock expansion or something.

[1:07:14] Trustee Smith: And then it could have been done already.

[1:07:16] Trustee Smith: We're just highlighting it to them.

[1:07:18] Trustee Smith: So I see the recommendation.

[1:07:20] Trustee Smith: I think that's true.

[1:07:21] Trustee Smith: We're not affected, but we're just raising an issue.

[1:07:25] Trustee Smith: I don't know if we can even do that, maybe.

[1:07:27] Trustee Smith: I think Director Frater said we could just raise an issue.

[1:07:32] Trustee Smith: So it's like a note, we're raising an issue.

[1:07:34] Voice 7: that sounds uh reasonable to me um looking at the for the rest of the board um trustee timothy

[1:07:44] Voice 7: uh charles any suggestions well

[1:07:52] Voice 9: my feeling was that the um the dock seemed incredibly large

[1:07:56] Voice 9: considering the standard it's about three times the standard um so i was i know i know where this

[1:08:04] Voice 9: This is the resident here on Salisbury Island.

[1:08:07] Voice 9: It's a small strata, I think, of 10 properties,

[1:08:10] Voice 9: and they're obviously planning to have a little marina with some large boats

[1:08:16] Voice 9: because it's a fairly affluent area.

[1:08:20] Voice 9: I just didn't see the need for such a large dock there.

[1:08:24] Voice 9: There are already a couple of other smaller docks in the same set of properties,

[1:08:30] Voice 9: But this is a subset, this is a subset strata of 10 properties within a larger property in this development.

[1:08:45] Voice 7: Fantastic. Well, I hear in that, Charles, thank you for that.

[1:08:49] Voice 7: The impacts of maybe cumulative effects to the approval of docs over doc over time can lead to a greater impact overall.

[1:08:59] Voice 7: Trustee Elliott, any comments?

[1:09:05] Voice 7: no fantastic okay let's move towards a motion here then guys i think we have um partial

[1:09:12] Voice 7: consensus on the emotion that is there with a caveat that um we'll be looking for some wording

[1:09:20] Voice 7: risa on what you're stating yeah

[1:09:24] Trustee Smith: so i'll put this out there corlin you could capture it i'll try and

[1:09:28] Trustee Smith: talk slowly and make it short. It would be a second paragraph that the ITC board recommends

[1:09:36] Trustee Smith: that the Salt Spring LTC ensure that effective First Nations have been asked to comment

[1:09:45] Trustee Smith: on this dock expansion. And

[1:09:54] Voice 7: I won't call for a seconder yet, but I'll call for comment.

[1:09:56] Voice 7: comment.

[1:09:58] Voice 3: Sorry, Reza, could you please just reread that one more time?

[1:10:02] Trustee Smith: Yeah, sorry. The ITC

[1:10:04] Trustee Smith: board recommends that the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee, LTC, ensure that affected

[1:10:13] Trustee Smith: First Nations have been asked to comment on this dock expansion. So it's not on all dock

[1:10:20] Trustee Smith: expansions, but on this dock expansion.

[1:10:31] Voice 3: Can you see the resolution?

[1:10:33] Trustee Smith: Yeah, it would be a second

[1:10:34] Trustee Smith: paragraph like a second resolution because we we do want to say we're not i think we want to say

[1:10:39] Trustee Smith: we're not affected but then we're just adding this they don't have to do it we're just recommending

[1:10:47] Trustee Smith: right okay are you happy with that uh trustee smith that it's not effective first nations that

[1:10:54] Trustee Smith: uh affected first nations i think it's uh i think that's correct maybe someone who's better grammar

[1:11:03] Trustee Smith: or mic chat. Then I look to the rest of the board. What do you think of the grammar board?

[1:11:16] Voice 6: Director Freider? You might just want to consider adding the word proposed before doc expansion.

[1:11:22] Voice 6: Oh, yes. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that.

[1:11:27] Voice 7: Fantastic. Then seeing no more discussion,

[1:11:29] Voice 7: then I will move to looking for a seconder. I see Trustee Yates. Oh, Director Freider's hands up.

[1:11:37] Voice 7: nope no longer um all right i see trustee yates is seconder and is there any more discussion on

[1:11:45] Voice 7: this motion nope seeing none then i will call the vote all those in favor and i believe that's

[1:11:58] Voice 7: unanimous well done everybody motion carries and then we'll move on now to um 7.1.4 which is the

[1:12:14] Voice 7: one that i will step out for because it's uh to do with the rezoning on galliano that i am involved

[1:12:19] Voice 7: involved with i see trustee elliott's hand i'm

[1:12:23] Voice 17: just wondering if we could um take our break uh

[1:12:26] Voice 17: now since we're just about to enter our new business item oh

[1:12:30] Voice 7: i love it that's a great idea

[1:12:32] Voice 7: how does the rest of the board feel that's great yes let's do it great fantastic then we will take

[1:12:42] Voice 7: a break now and we'll come back in 15 minutes does that work i ask

[1:12:48] Voice 9: for a little help i can't

[1:12:50] Voice 9: find the um hand up symbol on my screen that's why i've been putting my hand up

[1:12:57] Voice 7: oh it should be a

[1:12:59] Voice 7: heart shape thing it says reactions yeah

[1:13:02] Voice 9: okay click on the heart oh i see i was clicking on

[1:13:07] Voice 9: the thing girl hide the heart

[1:13:08] Voice 7: i've done

[1:13:09] Voice 9: that so then raise hand yeah oh i see so i have to i have

[1:13:14] Voice 9: have to do that each time yeah and

[1:13:16] Voice 9: then you have

[1:13:17] Voice 11: to select it again to lower okay i get it thank

[1:13:22] Voice 11: you and i'll

[1:13:23] Voice 7: keep a better eye because you're kind of you're listed kind of just off screen

[1:13:27] Voice 7: a little bit so i have to scroll to find you but i'll i'll keep

[1:13:30] Voice 9: oh i'm i'm i'm really big here on

[1:13:32] Voice 9: on the screen right beside you right we all see things that differently don't we i love it

[1:13:39] Voice 7: all right the

[1:13:40] Voice 16: world of virtual

[1:13:41] Voice 7: yes right now we're eating into our break great we'll see everyone

[1:13:46] Voice 7: back here 11 30 this

[1:13:52] Voice 8: is break first and then

[1:14:10] Voice 7: everybody has their microphone

[1:14:11] Voice 8: off we might

[1:16:33] Voice 7: just proceed anyway because i'm being mindful of time here and we do have quorum still um all right

[1:16:39] Voice 7: so we are going to move on to item uh 7.1.4 which is uh uh bylaw referral from galliano island and

[1:16:47] Voice 7: And initially at the beginning of the meeting, I stated that I would be stepping away because of a conflict of interest because I'm also the trustee for that island.

[1:16:55] Voice 7: But I'm also the chair for ITC and I'm going to be, I've chosen to wear two hats here.

[1:17:00] Voice 7: So I will stay and chair this portion of the meeting.

[1:17:04] Voice 7: Thank you.

[1:17:05] Voice 7: And then this bylaw referral would be from Specialist Murphy.

[1:17:10] Voice 7: Would you like to introduce?

[1:17:12] Voice 16: Actually, this is also a referral from Specialist Green, and I will be presenting on her behalf.

[1:17:20] Voice 16: She is away

[1:17:21] Voice 16: in the field today.

[1:17:24] Voice 16: So this is the Galliano LTC By-law 291 referral.

[1:17:29] Voice 16: The purpose is to provide review and provide comment on the by-law, which has been referred by the Galliano Island Local Trust Committee.

[1:17:36] Voice 16: community. As a quick background, Finley Lake Covenant is located to the east of the subject

[1:17:43] Voice 16: property, and if we scroll down to figure one on the next page, the changes that would result from

[1:17:50] Voice 16: the proposed rezoning would not impact the area of the subject property that shares a boundary

[1:17:55] Voice 16: with ITC's covenant. Number one, the current F1 zoning also permits timber production,

[1:18:01] Voice 16: harvesting and accessory forestry uses. Number two, the area with four existing dwellings that

[1:18:07] Voice 16: would be legalized with the creation of the deep developed area is located approximately 300 meters

[1:18:13] Voice 16: north of the northwest corner of the Findlay Lake Covenant and with no existing driveways

[1:18:18] Voice 16: on the subject property passing near the covenant. And three, the proposed FLB, FLB, FLB forest

[1:18:27] Voice 16: industrial zone is located at the opposite side of the subject property

[1:18:32] Voice 16: and the other thing i wanted to highlight here is that on the next yeah thank you um

[1:18:39] Voice 16: the 20 know that the yes thank you that map there the 2023 local planning services staff report

[1:18:47] Voice 16: notes that the galliano official community plan ocp parks and trail map on figure 2 identifies

[1:18:53] Voice 16: a proposed multi-use trail that route is undetermined at this point through the subject

[1:18:59] Voice 16: property in this figure a formalized trail across the subject property could be a condition of

[1:19:05] Voice 16: rezoning and staff could report would like to report back on options to the LTC if requested

[1:19:11] Voice 16: the Finland Lake Covenant Agreement restricts the landholder from laying out or constructing

[1:19:16] Voice 16: any new roads or paths on the land and so for this reason and possibly others the Galliana

[1:19:21] Voice 16: Conservancy Association can be expected to decline any requests for a multi-use path to be rooted

[1:19:27] Voice 16: through this covenant lands and as covenant holders ITC would also likely decline any

[1:19:33] Voice 16: request to waive that covenant term and I'm happy to take any questions.

[1:19:41] Voice 7: I'll put it up to the board

[1:19:43] Voice 7: comments I'm seeing no hands uh no discussion then perhaps we're going straight to the

[1:19:58] Voice 7: the recommendations. Perhaps somebody would like to make the motion. I see Trustee

[1:20:11] Voice 12: Yates. Thank you.

[1:20:14] Voice 12: Thank you, Chair Govro. And yeah, it takes me a while to do that two-step process of

[1:20:18] Voice 12: raising and lowering my hand too. So I move that the Islands Trust Conservancy Board direct staff

[1:20:26] Voice 12: to notify the Galliano Island Local Trust Committee that Islands Trust Conservancy's

[1:20:32] Voice 12: interests are unaffected by bylaw 291 and

[1:20:38] Voice 7: looking for a seconder i see charles trustee khan thank

[1:20:43] Voice 7: you uh any more discussion sorry

[1:20:46] Voice 3: excuse me chair gavro um just with the resolution

[1:20:50] Voice 3: we've been requested that with the resolution it should actually state a request staff not direct

[1:20:58] Voice 3: staff. Oh, okay. That's better. Thank

[1:21:04] Voice 16: you for that. Yeah. Moving forward on staff reports,

[1:21:10] Voice 16: we'll be sure to include that.

[1:21:12] Voice 7: Great. Thank you. And Charles, you're still okay seconding that?

[1:21:21] Voice 9: Yes.

[1:21:22] Voice 7: Thank you very much. Great. All right. Any more discussion on this? Trustee Yates?

[1:21:28] Voice 12: Yes. Just to thank staff for such an excellent and very helpful report.

[1:21:33] Voice 12: for it.

[1:21:36] Voice 16: I will pass that on. Thank you.

[1:21:39] Voice 7: Thank you. Then I'll call the vote. All those in favor.

[1:21:46] Voice 7: And that carries. Thank you very much. All right, let's move on. We'll move on to item

[1:21:55] Voice 7: 7.1.6, which is ITC budget requests. And that would be Manager Terrell.

[1:22:02] Voice 7: I

[1:22:04] Voice 16: see Trustee Smith's hand up.

[1:22:06] Voice 16: Yes.

[1:22:07] Voice 16: Okay.

[1:22:10] Voice 16: So this request for decision is regarding the Islands Trust Conservancy's

[1:22:15] Voice 16: 2026-27 budget submission request.

[1:22:20] Voice 16: We have some recommendations that the Islands Trust Conservancy Board direct

[1:22:27] Voice 16: staff to prepare an Islands Trust Conservancy budget request,

[1:22:30] Voice 16: including the following bullet points.

[1:22:33] Voice 16: An increase to the property management budget to reflect new nature reserves and covenants, archaeological assessments, and increasing costs, and renaming this budget line item to property management operations budget.

[1:22:47] Voice 16: The second is the creation of a property management planning budget line, separate from that.

[1:22:54] Voice 16: And another is to increase the IT staff's travel budget to accommodate, again, additional travel costs.

[1:23:01] Voice 16: It hasn't been updated in some time, needed for not only new covenants and nature reserves, but also existing ones with increases in costs and travel.

[1:23:13] Voice 16: Consideration of increasing multiple ITC budget lines associated with engagement and relationship building with First Nations, and the potential payment of referral fees requests from nations as we move into some serious, more serious and meaningful relationships.

[1:23:31] Voice 16: In addition, a separation of budget and line items, separating out conservation planning and land securement, conservation planning being focused on the planning aspect, the RCP and other things, and development of a business case, considering that it is likely, I would say likely, that our species at risk funding may be coming to an end at March 2026.

[1:23:57] Voice 16: the development of a business case for conservation planning two or more or one or two co-op positions

[1:24:05] Voice 16: or seasonal conservation technician positions for field staff and the development of a business case

[1:24:11] Voice 16: for a permanent full-time Indigenous relations position for the Conservancy. I am open to

[1:24:21] Voice 16: questions and recommendations. Thank you. I open

[1:24:25] Voice 7: it up to the board. Any comments, questions?

[1:24:33] Voice 7: i see

[1:24:33] Voice 17: trustee elliott uh wendy can you expand a little bit more on the separation of the land

[1:24:39] Voice 17: securement um oh sorry i just moved around there the land securement budget line items

[1:24:47] Voice 17: and

[1:24:48] Voice 16: conservation planning yeah

[1:24:50] Voice 17: exactly i know we

[1:24:51] Voice 16: had a discussion

[1:24:52] Voice 17: about that um

[1:24:54] Voice 17: as we prepared for this budget cycle so um yeah thanks yeah

[1:24:59] Voice 16: i think um these are two quite

[1:25:03] Voice 16: distinct action items that we work on. Conservation planning does not happen. It is typically

[1:25:13] Voice 16: project-based and land securement is something that is ongoing. It happens every year. There is

[1:25:22] Voice 16: some, we never know what type of land securement projects we're going to get, whether they're

[1:25:30] Voice 16: NAPTAP acquisitions or what have you. So the budgets fluctuate some in these. So separating

[1:25:35] Voice 16: out these two line items allows us to be clearer with our budget pertaining to planning for

[1:25:42] Voice 16: conservation and for actual securement projects that are happening. And perhaps Director Frater

[1:25:49] Voice 16: might be able to provide additional clarity to that.

[1:25:53] Voice 6: I think you covered that quite well. This

[1:25:55] Voice 6: was at my request just for more clarity and transparency and easier production of business

[1:26:00] Voice 6: cases as required for the bigger conservation planning projects when they arrive thank you

[1:26:12] Voice 7: uh toby i'm trustee elliott does that answer your question it

[1:26:15] Voice 17: does um and so could could we then

[1:26:19] Voice 17: talk a little bit more about the business case for a permanent indigenous relations position

[1:26:24] Voice 17: and what um what need this will address i

[1:26:30] Voice 16: think as we're moving forward in

[1:26:33] Voice 16: in sending out referral letters to nations

[1:26:36] Voice 16: and beginning a process of reconsidering the pathway

[1:26:41] Voice 16: that we've taken in the past

[1:26:42] Voice 16: and looking at policy, procedure,

[1:26:45] Voice 16: working with nations closer on management,

[1:26:48] Voice 16: co-management and management planning.

[1:26:51] Voice 16: Those concepts, having guidance and direction

[1:26:56] Voice 16: and someone present on our staff

[1:26:59] Voice 16: as relationships begin to appear.

[1:27:03] Voice 16: And I think that support, extra support,

[1:27:07] Voice 16: would be very beneficial for the Conservancy.

[1:27:10] Voice 16: And yeah, I'll leave it at that.

[1:27:15] Voice 7: Thank you.

[1:27:16] Voice 7: I think that also keeps a good momentum happening

[1:27:20] Voice 7: with the good work that's happening right now.

[1:27:23] Voice 7: I see Director Freider's hand up.

[1:27:25] Voice 7: I'm going to move to her

[1:27:29] Voice 6: comments first.

[1:27:30] Voice 6: Okay, thank you. If I might just supplement that answer. I'll let you know that we brought this in, you know, as a fairly last minute briefing for you to consider as an option to ask us to produce a business case. In that business case, we'll also be providing a series of alternatives so that we can sort of explore the rationale more deeply.

[1:27:49] Voice 6: I would also say this is being provided in the context that the chief administrative officer here is looking at an offer an organizational review of violence trust, which includes staffing and organizational design.

[1:28:01] Voice 6: So there, you know, we're on shifting sands in terms of whether that recommendation might hold.

[1:28:06] Voice 6: But for now, we thought might as well get the work started. And then you can operate sort of in real time as new information arrives.

[1:28:12] Voice 6: We can shift and change that advice, both in the production of the business case, but also through the budget cycle.

[1:28:19] Voice 6: But we thought, given the extent of work before you, and I guess you'll be the first body that

[1:28:24] Voice 6: will advise publicly. We now have four new nations that we're engaging with. So now it's now 31

[1:28:29] Voice 6: nations in the trust area. We'll be advising trust counsel at their next meeting. It just

[1:28:33] Voice 6: seems prudent to have more bandwidth. You have a very busy team, I would say. So it's hard to

[1:28:39] Voice 6: accomplish all the good work and all the good relationship building from the side of the desk.

[1:28:44] Voice 7: amazing thank you thank you i'll return to the speakers list now uh trustee yates

[1:28:49] Voice 7: thank

[1:28:52] Voice 12: you and thank you director freighter for that information um 31 nations that we are working

[1:28:58] Voice 12: with i that yeah that would give us every reason to ask for this position we're definitely moving

[1:29:05] Voice 12: in the right direction with that i'm wondering if there were any problems with requesting this

[1:29:13] Voice 12: being full-time whether we you know might want to back it up to part-time but I don't see how

[1:29:20] Voice 12: that could be with the amount of work that needs to be done and I'm wondering also whether any of

[1:29:26] Voice 12: that work might be shared with Islands Trust in general with Trust Council but I really like the

[1:29:34] Voice 12: idea of asking for someone dedicated to the conservancy and full-time so I also wanted to

[1:29:41] Voice 12: To comment on bullet number three, increase to staff travel budget, because I witnessed this firsthand yesterday when we were monitoring covenants on Gabriola, and we had four to do.

[1:29:57] Voice 12: We started at 930.

[1:30:00] Voice 12: ended at 5.30. Well, I left at 5.30 because I had a meeting and they were still going strong

[1:30:06] Voice 12: and we didn't quite get that last one done, but we know we can do it when we have a special

[1:30:13] Voice 12: celebration later in June. And without having overnight accommodation covered, it would just

[1:30:21] Voice 12: be impossible. So I'm glad we're asking for that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Christy Smith.

[1:30:30] Voice 12: Oh, sorry,

[1:30:31] Voice 7: did you have something to say?

[1:30:32] Trustee Smith: Yeah, no, I also had a comment about the business case

[1:30:37] Trustee Smith: and thanks, Director Frater,

[1:30:39] Trustee Smith: for sort of giving us a bit of an update.

[1:30:42] Trustee Smith: I also was happy to see this as a potential

[1:30:46] Trustee Smith: because I think that we just don't have the capacity

[1:30:51] Trustee Smith: to do what the minister has asked us to do

[1:30:54] Trustee Smith: and the new letter from the new minister

[1:30:57] Trustee Smith: is also asking us to do.

[1:30:59] Trustee Smith: So I'm happy to see this. I just wonder if this position would report then to, like you said, there'll be an organization of structure, would it then report to the trust, to the other position on Indigenous relations for the Trust Council? Like would somehow this be integrated?

[1:31:27] Voice 6: So as I mentioned, this was a fairly last minute addition to your briefing.

[1:31:31] Voice 6: We have not thought those thoughts yet.

[1:31:33] Voice 6: I am cognizant of the number of direct reports that the manager has, which is one of the

[1:31:37] Voice 6: reasons we proposed the team lead position.

[1:31:40] Voice 6: So we will be looking at that and we'll provide that advice to you through the business case

[1:31:44] Voice 6: that comes in.

[1:31:44] Voice 6: And I think the CAO would be contemplating this as part of the organizational review.

[1:31:48] Voice 6: Certainly having two people with that specialty will be, you know, there'll be a necessity

[1:31:52] Voice 6: for teamwork and coordination will also nicely provide an opportunity for you know resiliency

[1:31:58] Voice 6: but yeah we don't have that specific answer for you yet great

[1:32:03] Voice 7: thank you thank you uh any more

[1:32:05] Voice 7: comments or questions it's cognizant of the time here um perhaps we have a recommendation for a

[1:32:14] Voice 7: motion perhaps we're ready at the point to make a motion knowing that we will see business cases

[1:32:20] Voice 7: further down the road uh trustee yates i'd

[1:32:26] Voice 12: be happy to make that motion thank you so i move

[1:32:31] Voice 12: that the islands trust conservancy board direct staff to prepare an islands trust conservancy

[1:32:37] Voice 12: 2026-27 budget request including an increase to the property management budget to reflect

[1:32:45] Voice 12: new nature reserves and covenants archaeological assessments and increasing costs and rename this

[1:32:52] Voice 12: budget line item to property management operations budget, creation of a property management planning

[1:32:59] Voice 12: budget line, an increase to the ITC staff travel budget to accommodate additional travel needs

[1:33:06] Voice 12: for newly acquired covenants, nature reserves, and increasing costs in travel, consideration of

[1:33:14] Voice 12: increases to multiple ITC budget lines associated with engagement and relationship building with

[1:33:20] Voice 12: First Nations, and potential payment of referral fee requests from nations, separation of budget

[1:33:27] Voice 12: lines for conservation planning and land securement, development of a business case for a

[1:33:33] Voice 12: conservation technician co-op position and or a seasonal conservation technician position,

[1:33:39] Voice 12: and lastly, development of a business case for a permanent Indigenous relations position.

[1:33:45] Voice 12: Thank you. I'll

[1:33:49] Voice 7: be looking for a seconder. Second by Trustee Kahn. Great. Any discussion?

[1:34:00] Voice 12: Trustee Yates?

[1:34:02] Voice 12: Not directly related to this motion, but certainly tangential to this motion, is every year that I'm able to go out with staff on covenant monitoring and property monitoring, I really see the value of the co-op student.

[1:34:19] Voice 12: student i know we all do we get like so much more than our money's worth with that co-op student

[1:34:26] Voice 12: so if that ever comes up again i know i'll be supporting that thank you thank

[1:34:32] Voice 7: you right on uh

[1:34:33] Voice 7: and then i'll call the vote then all in favor so let me just see some hands there we got four

[1:34:50] Voice 7: there we go fantastic uh the motion is carried thank you good job guys 10 to 11 um and then

[1:34:59] Voice 7: that concludes that section correct so we're moving on to section 7.2 and items for discussion

[1:35:08] Voice 7: oh trustee smith your hands up did you have a comment okay thank you

[1:35:12] Voice 7: uh we're moving on to item 7.2.1 which is uh ecitc uh joint session this is basically i'm going to

[1:35:22] Voice 7: give a little bit of a recap on it i think we're all in attendance except for trustee khan when i

[1:35:26] Voice 7: I took the liberty of sending my notes along to him.

[1:35:32] Voice 7: Where is it?

[1:35:33] Voice 7: These are my notes from the meeting.

[1:35:35] Voice 7: Just to recap, refresh our memories,

[1:35:37] Voice 7: because this might come up later in the meeting as well.

[1:35:41] Voice 7: The meeting was April 23rd.

[1:35:43] Voice 7: We discussed three items on the agenda.

[1:35:46] Voice 7: Conservation fund discussion.

[1:35:49] Voice 7: The fund would allow that property owners to apply for grants

[1:35:52] Voice 7: for conservation and restoration projects.

[1:35:54] Voice 7: And it started, it kind of began with a workshop that Trustee Smith and Chair Patrick attended.

[1:36:02] Voice 7: What was that?

[1:36:03] Voice 7: It was called the Coastal Douglas Fir Conservation.

[1:36:06] Voice 7: Yeah, focused on conservation funding on private lands.

[1:36:12] Voice 7: There were points that were raised about what would be ITC's role in the fund.

[1:36:18] Voice 7: suggestions were made around for it to be a partner rather than a recipient of it and there

[1:36:28] Voice 7: was a motion that was proposed and carried that we develop a vision for a conservation fund

[1:36:34] Voice 7: a form an informal working group with the interested first nations and with others

[1:36:43] Voice 7: We also discussed the idea of having a guest speaker, perhaps at our next July meeting.

[1:36:50] Voice 7: We flowed around the idea of having Brodie Guy from Islands Coastal Economic Trust,

[1:36:57] Voice 7: Bonnie Norton, a UBC professor that focuses on storytelling,

[1:37:03] Voice 7: and Eli Ennis, an expert in Indigenous protected and conserved areas.

[1:37:08] Voice 7: us. The goal is to inspire and educate the board around conservation efforts, but also around the

[1:37:17] Voice 7: collaboration, how we get better at collaborating with First Nations. And then our third topic that

[1:37:25] Voice 7: we discussed was promoting the Islands Trust and discussions on strategies around how to promote

[1:37:31] Voice 7: the ITC and it's 35th. Yeah, some of the ideas that we floated around engaging local LTCs and

[1:37:43] Voice 7: including ITC in their updates at their meetings. What that means is that basically

[1:37:50] Voice 7: at next Salt Spring meeting on July 5th, I will be giving the quarterly update via Zoom and I

[1:37:57] Voice 7: I look forward to doing that.

[1:37:59] Voice 7: We also talked about utilizing local events

[1:38:02] Voice 7: and creating a presentation for LTCs

[1:38:06] Voice 7: to become more aware of ITC work.

[1:38:12] Voice 7: We passed a motion that LTC chairs

[1:38:15] Voice 7: to recognize and celebrate the ITC's anniversary

[1:38:18] Voice 7: and their future agendas.

[1:38:21] Voice 7: And I see Trustee Elliott's hand there.

[1:38:22] Voice 7: Might be timely to...

[1:38:26] Voice 17: Yeah, sure.

[1:38:27] Voice 17: Thank you, Chair.

[1:38:27] Voice 17: Just following on that note, I did flag this to all executive committee members so that they could have it on their minds again.

[1:38:42] Voice 17: And just as a reminder, in agenda preparation, and I had sent a quick request to Michaela asking if we could do something for an upcoming meeting on Thetis.

[1:38:56] Voice 17: And she was very gracious to quickly put a one pager together to highlight the, I guess the Heron edition has just come out with the front cover being the 35th anniversary celebration.

[1:39:11] Voice 17: So just a little one pager on that that can go in the agenda as sort of a colorful signal to bring that recognition to the fore.

[1:39:21] Voice 17: So, yeah, I am trying to remind vice chairs and have them keep bringing that up for their local trust committees because we've got so much on the go sometimes it's going to be missed.

[1:39:33] Voice 17: But thanks to Michaela for accommodating that request for Thetis and looking forward to promoting it at all the LTCs that I serve on.

[1:39:43] Voice 7: Wonderful. Wonderful.

[1:39:45] Voice 7: Trustee Smith?

[1:39:47] Trustee Smith: Yes, thank you.

[1:39:48] Trustee Smith: I just wanted to raise this, it's on page 176, the motion to create this informal working group on conservation fund.

[1:40:00] Trustee Smith: And I know that the chair of the Islanders Trust is quite anxious to get this working group going.

[1:40:05] Trustee Smith: It's 15 point whatever, one.

[1:40:10] Trustee Smith: And she had invited me to be on it, but that's just because I happened to go to that workshop with her.

[1:40:17] Trustee Smith: and I had suggested we should open it up to the board and see if perhaps there's someone else who

[1:40:22] Trustee Smith: would like to be on that working group instead of me so I didn't see another place where we could

[1:40:28] Trustee Smith: address that see if anybody wants to be on it to get it going so I'm just raising it here unless

[1:40:33] Trustee Smith: it's somewhere else that I don't see I

[1:40:35] Voice 7: think yeah it would be under the yeah this is just a recap

[1:40:39] Voice 7: for the whole meeting and then 7.4.9 is the conservation fund it says committee here but

[1:40:46] Voice 7: but it's actually supposed to be a working group.

[1:40:47] Voice 7: Yeah.

[1:40:48] Voice 7: And I have a verbal update on that too.

[1:40:51] Voice 7: I think we can discuss it then.

[1:40:53] Voice 7: Okay, perfect.

[1:40:54] Voice 7: Thank you.

[1:40:55] Voice 7: Okay, fantastic.

[1:40:57] Voice 7: And then just to close off this section, this item too, sorry,

[1:41:02] Voice 7: my action items from that meeting were to follow up with the establishment

[1:41:06] Voice 7: of a working group and coordinate with staff to identify and invite guest

[1:41:11] Voice 7: speakers.

[1:41:12] Voice 7: I guess we're having some guest speakers in our July meeting.

[1:41:17] Voice 7: and ensure that LTCs are promoting ITCs in the 35th anniversary,

[1:41:22] Voice 7: which I'll be doing at my ITC,

[1:41:24] Voice 7: and I'm so happy to hear that Chessie Elliott's doing the same

[1:41:28] Voice 7: at the executive committee level.

[1:41:29] Voice 7: That's great.

[1:41:30] Voice 7: Call on me.

[1:41:31] Voice 7: I would love to zoom in and give the reports in person,

[1:41:35] Voice 7: and anything ITC, I'd love to spread the word.

[1:41:40] Voice 7: All right, so we'll move on.

[1:41:42] Voice 7: We don't need any more direction for staff there, correct?

[1:41:44] Voice 7: It's just the recap.

[1:41:45] Voice 7: cap. And we'll move on to item 7.2.2.

[1:41:52] Voice 16: Chair Gouffreau, I'm sorry to interrupt. Is there

[1:41:54] Voice 16: direction to the staff to assist in finding a speaker for that meeting?

[1:42:01] Voice 7: That we covered at

[1:42:02] Voice 7: the meeting? I'd have to look at the motion from that meeting. I see Director Frater there

[1:42:06] Voice 7: for clarity. Thank you, Claire.

[1:42:08] Voice 6: It wasn't assigned by motion, but I think it was understood that I

[1:42:11] Voice 6: I would be taking that on, which I have not started yet.

[1:42:14] Voice 7: We have time.

[1:42:16] Voice 6: Yeah.

[1:42:17] Voice 16: Great.

[1:42:17] Voice 16: Thank you.

[1:42:20] Voice 7: All right.

[1:42:21] Voice 7: So we'll move on to 7.7.2.

[1:42:23] Voice 7: And then for this item, we have Specialist Richards to present.

[1:42:30] Voice 1: Thanks very much, Chair Gavreau.

[1:42:33] Voice 1: Yeah, this is a fairly simple one for information.

[1:42:37] Voice 1: It's essentially that we have money with the Victoria Foundation

[1:42:40] Voice 1: for the Ruby Alton Endowment.

[1:42:43] Voice 1: fund ruby alton property endowment fund and um we've been there since with them with 2000 since

[1:42:52] Voice 1: 2005 um this is the first time that they have um had an increase to their management fees for their

[1:43:03] Voice 1: endowment fund and it's this briefing is just to inform you that they have gone from um 0.25 percent

[1:43:12] Voice 1: to a 0.75% management fee,

[1:43:19] Voice 1: which became effective on March the 1st this year.

[1:43:25] Voice 1: So, yeah, just essentially for you, your information,

[1:43:28] Voice 1: and we'll be keeping an eye on that as to what it actually means

[1:43:32] Voice 1: in real numbers as we move into the next year.

[1:43:41] Voice 7: Great. Thank you very much.

[1:43:42] Voice 7: Any comments from the board?

[1:43:44] Voice 7: Trustee Smith?

[1:43:46] Trustee Smith: Yeah, I just thank you for this briefing.

[1:43:48] Trustee Smith: I appreciated it.

[1:43:49] Trustee Smith: I just want to raise that we get very little disbursement, $7,178,

[1:43:57] Trustee Smith: and yet the fund is like greater than 10% of what the disbursement is.

[1:44:04] Trustee Smith: This may be normal, and I'm just wondering if that's efficient for us,

[1:44:08] Trustee Smith: and I'm sure that staff is looking into that.

[1:44:13] Trustee Smith: It's not that I disagree with the Victoria Foundation having to raise their fees,

[1:44:17] Trustee Smith: it's just I'm wondering if maybe this is the best place for us to have our

[1:44:22] Trustee Smith: endowment fund when the disbursements are so small.

[1:44:31] Voice 1: I'm not sure if you're needing a response to that or not, but it's certainly something we

[1:44:36] Voice 1: could look at.

[1:44:38] Voice 7: Thank you. Any other comments from the board? I'm looking at the time and

[1:44:45] Voice 7: I think we'll move on. Thank you very much. Next item is 7.3 correspondence and 7.3.1

[1:44:55] Voice 7: letter regarding MOU between Islands Trust Council and the WSANIC Leadership Council

[1:45:01] Voice 8: and I

[1:45:02] Voice 7: believe Director Frater will be introducing

[1:45:05] Voice 6: this. Yes I'm happy to. This is being forwarded

[1:45:09] Voice 6: to you by the Executive Committee which will also be providing the letter to the Islands Trust

[1:45:13] Voice 6: Trust Council. I met with the staff at WSANISH Leadership Council and advised them that their

[1:45:20] Voice 6: request for an MOU would likely have been better if it had been provided one to the board and one

[1:45:25] Voice 6: to Trust Council, because they already had political direction, it was expedient to just

[1:45:28] Voice 6: send it as they had previously understood, with the understanding staff to staff that probably

[1:45:33] Voice 6: there would be the need for two different agreements to cover the full breadth of topics

[1:45:37] Voice 6: that they've raised. So this is being provided to you sort of, you know, in that vein, that you

[1:45:42] Voice 6: you might like to pass a motion asking staff to work with Wasanage Leadership Council to undertake

[1:45:49] Voice 6: development of an agreement for working together, particularly around the areas of authority for

[1:45:53] Voice 6: the board. So it could be as simple as, you know, requesting staff to undertake development of an

[1:45:57] Voice 6: agreement for the board. And I would let you know that Executive Committee has already directed

[1:46:04] Voice 6: staff to do so for Trust Council. So it'd be efficient for us if we could do both at once.

[1:46:12] Voice 7: I like the sound of that. All right, open up to the board. I see Trustee Elliott.

[1:46:22] Voice 7: You're muted.

[1:46:24] Voice 17: Thank you. I just muted myself.

[1:46:26] Voice 17: So, yeah, just reviewing the action that was taken by Executive Committee.

[1:46:31] Voice 17: The request was that staff cooperate with SARTLIP First Nation and SACIM First Nation via the West St. Niche Leadership Council Society to develop an agreement for trust council consideration.

[1:46:43] Voice 17: So if that wording is correct, Director Frater, is that correct?

[1:46:53] Voice 17: Yeah, that suffices a motion.

[1:46:57] Voice 17: That suffices a motion. Yeah.

[1:46:59] Voice 17: Okay, so that Islands Trust Conservancy request staff. So I'll just put it in the chat there.

[1:47:09] Voice 17: So yeah, cooperate with

[1:47:12] Voice 7: SARTLIP First Nation.

[1:47:13] Voice 7: Yeah,

[1:47:14] Voice 17: that ITC request staff cooperate with SARTLAB First Nation and SACIM First Nation via the West St. Natch Leadership Council Society to develop an agreement for Allen's Trust Conservancy Board consideration, if that works.

[1:47:33] Voice 7: That works for me. I won't look for a seconder yet, but I'd like to see the motion written there. Did you get that, Carly?

[1:47:48] Voice 3: Sorry, I'm just still working on that.

[1:47:50] Voice 3: Just give me a minute.

[1:47:51] Voice 6: Oh, absolutely.

[1:47:54] Voice 6: So I will let you know we are looking at a meeting with them late June, early July.

[1:48:01] Voice 10: And just to let the board know that WLC is also going to consult with the Wilsonics Land Society

[1:48:09] Voice 10: because apparently they already have an agreement with LTC.

[1:48:14] Voice 10: Is that right?

[1:48:16] Voice 6: I think it was that the Wilsanich Leadership Council has a land trust.

[1:48:20] Voice 6: and that they indicated has a good working relationship

[1:48:23] Voice 6: with conservancy staff already.

[1:48:26] Voice 6: That's what you're referencing, Joe?

[1:48:27] Voice 10: Yes, that's right.

[1:48:28] Voice 10: Yeah, that's right.

[1:48:29] Voice 6: So they're hoping to, the staff that want to work with us

[1:48:31] Voice 6: want to better understand that relationship.

[1:48:33] Voice 6: So they've postponed a meeting until later in the month of June.

[1:48:38] Voice 16: This might be my misunderstanding,

[1:48:41] Voice 16: but the motion ends with develop an agreement

[1:48:46] Voice 16: for trust council consideration?

[1:48:49] Voice 7: No, it was changed at the last minute.

[1:48:51] Voice 7: Okay, thank you.

[1:48:53] Voice 16: thank you

[1:48:53] Voice 16: yeah i was just reading it in the chat great can

[1:49:31] Voice 7: you see that now yes we can yeah

[1:49:35] Voice 7: and then so at the end where it says trust council consideration it would say um islands

[1:49:40] Voice 7: trust conservancy consideration uh toby how does that read to you yep

[1:49:58] Voice 17: do you know i'm learning

[1:50:00] Voice 17: conservancy should we have board island stress conservancy board yes at the end yeah just at

[1:50:12] Voice 16: at the end after Honest Trust Conservancy board consideration.

[1:50:19] Voice 10: Hey, Claire.

[1:50:20] Voice 16: Yes.

[1:50:21] Voice 10: I just got a question.

[1:50:22] Voice 10: What if WSANIC, LTC, what if they decide to have the MAU

[1:50:27] Voice 10: through WSANIC Lands Conservancy Society versus,

[1:50:33] Voice 10: do we need to cover that or?

[1:50:35] Voice 6: I think we can simply bring that advice back to the board.

[1:50:38] Voice 6: So our understanding is likely for Trust Council,

[1:50:41] Voice 6: there's a need to sign with the nations.

[1:50:43] Voice 6: It may be different for the board.

[1:50:45] Voice 6: And so, but if that's the advice

[1:50:46] Voice 6: that you can simply have an agreement

[1:50:48] Voice 6: with the nonprofit society,

[1:50:49] Voice 6: we'll bring that advice back to you.

[1:50:51] Voice 6: We might have to check in with legal counsel

[1:50:53] Voice 6: as we're developing the agreement.

[1:51:05] Voice 7: How was that reading to everyone?

[1:51:09] Voice 17: Again, sorry, just after Islands Trust Conservancy

[1:51:12] Voice 17: and before consideration,

[1:51:14] Voice 17: we have board consideration.

[1:51:24] Voice 3: Sorry, just bear with me.

[1:51:26] Voice 3: I'm having some mouse issues.

[1:51:28] Voice 7: No worries.

[1:51:29] Voice 7: Take your time.

[1:51:30] Voice 7: Appreciate this so much.

[1:51:32] Voice 7: I

[1:51:34] Voice 9: think you need a tea in Sartlip.

[1:51:38] Voice 6: Well, Lynn, I will just run mine over to you.

[1:51:44] Voice 3: Yeah, it's doing strange things.

[1:52:07] Voice 16: We have a mouse being delivered as we speak.

[1:52:11] Voice 16: That will come in for the day to put a tea in Sartlip and board after conservancy.

[1:52:16] Voice 16: It's tricky enough to do this on the fly.

[1:52:23] Voice 16: It is.

[1:52:25] Voice 7: Yeah.

[1:52:25] Voice 7: I

[1:52:34] Voice 3: don't know what's going on there, but maybe a battery issue.

[1:52:44] Voice 8: Yeah.

[1:52:54] Voice 3: Oops.

[1:52:54] Voice 3: okay trust conservancy board oh yes that's a much better mouse hey

[1:53:04] Voice 7: excellent all right toby how does

[1:53:09] Voice 7: that read for you is that your intent yes thank you thank you all right then i'm looking for a

[1:53:17] Voice 7: please i see trustee smith thank you for seconding any more discussion from the board

[1:53:27] Voice 7: seeing none i will call the vote all in favor carried that motion is carried great

[1:53:38] Voice 7: All right. Great work. Right on. We'll move on to item 7.3.2, which is the letter from the minister to Chair Patrick.

[1:53:49] Voice 7: And then, Director Frater, your name's beside that one, too.

[1:53:56] Voice 6: Once again, this has just been referred by the executive committee. This is simply being provided for the board's information.

[1:54:04] Voice 8: Great.

[1:54:04] Voice 6: Any comment from the

[1:54:05] Voice 7: board? Trustee Smith?

[1:54:08] Voice 7: Sorry, Jay Charles, your hand's up still. Is that the question for us?

[1:54:14] Voice 7: Thank you. Trustee Smith, go ahead. Oh, you're muted.

[1:54:23] Trustee Smith: Yes. Thanks a lot. Thanks for providing this letter. And I found this letter to be actually

[1:54:32] Trustee Smith: quite amazing. And so and I think many people on many islands are talking about this letter. So

[1:54:40] Trustee Smith: it's publicly posted and lots of people have seen it. It particularly mentions, among others,

[1:54:46] Trustee Smith: I think you're muted I'm not muted can you hear me now I

[1:54:54] Voice 12: can hear her I could hear her trustee

[1:54:55] Voice 12: I

[1:54:56] Trustee Smith: can hear you

[1:54:57] Voice 12: now I turned off my video thank you thank you oh

[1:55:02] Trustee Smith: my god living on the gulf islands

[1:55:04] Trustee Smith: and you know this amazing um uh this letter specifically mentions the islands trust

[1:55:11] Trustee Smith: conservancy and that um uh there should be consultation with us as well as many others

[1:55:18] Trustee Smith: and that's good because we wrote that letter about this letter and

[1:55:22] Trustee Smith: but I think that this letter really highlights that the purpose of the trust

[1:55:29] Trustee Smith: in the opinion of the minister is preserve and protect and he and outlines quite specifically

[1:55:38] Trustee Smith: what that means so my question is does this letter affect revisions to the policy statement

[1:55:47] Trustee Smith: which we haven't actually seen yet, or to best my knowledge, the Islands Trust Conservancy

[1:55:52] Trustee Smith: hasn't seen revisions to the policy statement. And because this letter is defining what preserve

[1:55:59] Trustee Smith: and protect means, I'm asking Director Frater if this letter will affect what's in the policy

[1:56:08] Trustee Smith: statement.

[1:56:11] Voice 6: So I'll do my best to answer that question. At this time, I would say no. I mean,

[1:56:15] Voice 6: I think the policy statement as drafted reflects the current state of understanding around what

[1:56:21] Voice 6: the vision is for protecting the trust area. Certainly, the phrase around building towards

[1:56:25] Voice 6: consensus with nations and community may require some additional changes to ensure that we are

[1:56:33] Voice 6: reaching as far towards consensus as possible. I think when the document comes out of Trust

[1:56:39] Voice 6: Programs Committee over to Committee of the Whole, there'll be renewed reflection on whether

[1:56:43] Voice 6: whether the document is sufficient in terms of prioritizing environmental and cultural

[1:56:48] Voice 6: Heritage protection um but that that's a political consideration at this time there are no further

[1:56:54] Voice 6: there's no different staff advice around um the drafting of the document um if you wish to look

[1:57:00] Voice 6: at the trust programs committee agenda for Thursday um in there are a number of new recommendations

[1:57:05] Voice 6: for changes to reflect a comprehensive review we've done of the First Nation feedback but

[1:57:10] Voice 6: But essentially, it wouldn't change the trajectory so far.

[1:57:15] Voice 7: Thank you.

[1:57:17] Voice 7: Trustee Elliott.

[1:57:23] Voice 17: Yes.

[1:57:23] Voice 17: So this is going to June Trust Council to discuss.

[1:57:30] Voice 17: There are a number of really good points in it, of course.

[1:57:33] Voice 17: But I would be cautious about that this is the ministry's sort of that they've grounded this conclusion about the core responsibility of the Islands Trust in that the ministry has not had a conversation with Trust Council about that.

[1:57:59] Voice 17: And so I don't know if this should be taken as a directive or if this is maybe the minister's sort of attempt to reconcile some of the stronger voices, which have come through, I think, with the MLA that was cc'd on it, MLA Botterill for the Green Party.

[1:58:27] Voice 17: And so I think council is going to definitely have a debate about this.

[1:58:31] Voice 17: I would push back, and I have done some research on the term carrying capacity.

[1:58:38] Voice 17: That's not a term used in land use planning.

[1:58:42] Voice 17: And so I can offer to those who are interested some of the research that I've done on that

[1:58:51] Voice 17: and the limits of that term and that really my caution is that we should not just accept this as

[1:58:59] Voice 17: the final um word on the the matter from the ministry's perspective thank

[1:59:08] Voice 7: you trustee elliott

[1:59:09] Voice 12: trustee yates oh thank you chair govro um i guess i have a little bit of a different take on this

[1:59:17] Voice 12: than my co-trustee, Elliot, I do take this as somewhat of a mandate letter. I think it's very

[1:59:26] Voice 12: carefully written. I really appreciate how Minister, how Ravi Kalan has emphasized working

[1:59:36] Voice 12: towards consensus and working with First Nations and certainly working with the Islands Trust

[1:59:41] Voice 12: Trust Conservancy. And I think in lieu of reviewing the Islands Trust Act, which he clearly states

[1:59:51] Voice 12: they're not in a position to do right now, I think that the third paragraph in that letter

[1:59:58] Voice 12: is telling us

[2:00:00] Voice 12: willingness to reflect on the ecological mandate of the trust and that we have a role to play in

[2:00:06] Voice 12: local environmental stewardship. And he clearly says in the last sentence of that third paragraph

[2:00:13] Voice 12: that we have to think about unspoiled natural amenities. And of course, the conservancy,

[2:00:21] Voice 12: the work that we do with the conservancy, that is our prime, you know, that is our prime work.

[2:00:27] Voice 12: so I'm really glad that he did send this letter and I imagine there will be great discussion

[2:00:34] Voice 12: trying to interpret it but I read it exactly as he has written it and I'm very happy to get it

[2:00:42] Voice 12: thank you

[2:00:45] Trustee Smith: uh trustee Smith more comments yeah I just I have to make a comment to trustee Elliott's

[2:00:52] Trustee Smith: comment uh because we as the island trust board did receive a letter from the minister you know

[2:00:59] Trustee Smith: telling us this is actually more than a year ago telling about our five-year plan and what we had

[2:01:04] Trustee Smith: to do and we did take that as a mandate i think as we should have if not a letter from the minister

[2:01:09] Trustee Smith: being a mandate what is actually so i would really strongly uh encourage the um trust council to

[2:01:20] Trustee Smith: consider this a mandate. I don't know what it means for their revisions to the policy statement

[2:01:29] Trustee Smith: because I haven't seen that. But just to say that I consider this, personally, I consider this a

[2:01:34] Trustee Smith: mandate letter. And I know that obviously there'll be a discussion at Trust Council, but it's my

[2:01:40] Trustee Smith: belief, I guess I don't know this for sure, but I think that many in the communities on the Gulf

[2:01:46] Trustee Smith: file and see this as a mandate letter and welcome it so i'll just i don't have to say any more about

[2:01:52] Trustee Smith: it but i'll just raise that yeah

[2:01:54] Voice 7: certainly hear a lot about the letter in public as uh i have a

[2:01:58] Voice 7: question as a matter of process once the uh trust policy statement does reach uh first reading it

[2:02:04] Voice 7: will come to itc for referral will it not yes

[2:02:09] Voice 6: so we'll see uh i can certainly answer that um

[2:02:12] Voice 6: currently it's with trust programs committee for you know sort of final editing and review of staff

[2:02:17] Voice 6: recommendations from there it travels to committee of the whole um in early i'm trying to think about

[2:02:23] Voice 6: our structure then it goes travel committee the whole and then we're planning for first reading

[2:02:26] Voice 6: ideally in early july is our is our hope um so but it's all all subject to discussion you know

[2:02:33] Voice 6: by the various bodies ensuring that it's ready for engagement after that it will be referred out

[2:02:37] Voice 6: to the conservancy board and about 100 other agencies and first nations um for lots of comment

[2:02:43] Voice 6: There is lots of time yet for changing the document in response to what's heard back.

[2:02:49] Voice 6: The draft that's being produced is just that.

[2:02:51] Voice 6: It's for engagement.

[2:02:52] Voice 6: It's for further conversation and further refinement.

[2:02:55] Voice 7: Great.

[2:02:56] Voice 7: Thank you very much.

[2:02:57] Voice 7: All right.

[2:02:58] Voice 7: Then I'd like to move on.

[2:03:00] Voice 7: There's no direction.

[2:03:01] Voice 7: This is for our information.

[2:03:03] Voice 7: We will move on to 7.3.3, which is a letter to the minister regarding the ITC five-year plan.

[2:03:12] Voice 7: Anne, and I look to Manager Turrell.

[2:03:17] Voice 16: This is also provided for your information. This is

[2:03:20] Voice 16: the third and final version that was sent out to the minister on the 23rd of this month. So if

[2:03:29] Voice 16: there's any questions, I'm happy to answer. I do appreciate all the feedback from the board

[2:03:39] Voice 16: to create, I think, a more fulsome letter. It's quite long, but I think fulsome and good.

[2:03:46] Voice 7: Great. I'm noticing a theme of better letter through collaboration. I like that.

[2:03:53] Voice 7: That's great. All right, then we'll move on to updates for information. Section 7.4 and 7.4.1,

[2:04:02] Voice 7: public acquisitions report. Specialist Martel, are there any questions from the board?

[2:04:13] Voice 18: I'm just going to get my video going. Apparently my video is not going to go. You

[2:04:19] Voice 18: This is why I had it paused earlier. I'm happy to answer any questions.

[2:04:24] Voice 7: Any questions from the board? And then we'll move on to 7.4.2, while I have

[2:04:32] Voice 7: Specialist Martel here. Public Covenant Report. Are there any questions from the board on that

[2:04:37] Voice 7: section? Not seeing any hands. Then I will move on. I'll move on to 7.4.3, Budget Report.

[2:04:49] Voice 7: board. And then, yeah, Manager Terrell, your name's beside that.

[2:04:59] Voice 16: I'm happy to answer any questions

[2:05:01] Voice 16: you might have on the budget, which shows the fiscal year spending.

[2:05:09] Voice 7: Any questions from the

[2:05:11] Voice 7: board on that? Anyone's had a chance to take a look at it? All right, we'll move on then.

[2:05:19] Voice 7: Oh, there we go. Hey, Trustee Smith, thank you.

[2:05:22] Trustee Smith: Yeah, just a quick question.

[2:05:26] Trustee Smith: so this is the final year end budget correct that's what you just said right yes so there's

[2:05:33] Trustee Smith: a lot of categories where like um we have only spent like uh 49 in safety although there's small

[2:05:44] Trustee Smith: amounts training and conferences um travel we're asking for more travel money but we didn't spend

[2:05:52] Trustee Smith: last year's travel money so I just want to highlight that communications we didn't spend

[2:05:58] Trustee Smith: we only spent 60 percent of the communication so in the previous uh thing on the budget for next

[2:06:06] Trustee Smith: year we're asking for more money but I'm just a bit worried that we'll um be criticized because

[2:06:14] Trustee Smith: we didn't spend

[2:06:15] Voice 8: all

[2:06:16] Trustee Smith: of our money this year and I just want to I'm just curious if you are you

[2:06:21] Trustee Smith: worried about that or maybe that's the unnecessary concern no

[2:06:26] Voice 16: those are very good considerations and

[2:06:27] Voice 16: i think it it should flag that there was some underspending this year um and breaking it down

[2:06:34] Voice 16: um one of our uh as far as salaries benefits we had the team lead position uh was supposed to

[2:06:43] Voice 16: start in september of 2024 and that the lack of filling that position has reduced the budget many

[2:06:50] Voice 16: budget line items so that is a fairly large contributor to some of the underspending

[2:06:57] Voice 16: in communications some unusual delays that is quite a significant underspending and

[2:07:03] Voice 16: communications absolutely we have three celebrations being planned for covenants

[2:07:07] Voice 16: and due to weather situations and other capacity issues we've extended those into this fiscal

[2:07:13] Voice 16: we had a species at risk publication that was budgeted to go out as a print and it was shifted

[2:07:20] Voice 16: into a blog post instead so that reduced some spending and then we had a significant spending

[2:07:27] Voice 16: in communications to hold space for advertisement for the next fiscal year April May June and

[2:07:35] Voice 16: however those charges were actually billed out for this current fiscal. For training conferences

[2:07:43] Voice 16: and travel this is actually due to staff workloads preventing the ability to engage in training

[2:07:50] Voice 16: opportunities um that's the the big one and i think the team lead vacancy also um would have

[2:07:57] Voice 16: contributed significantly to that um i think the other significant reduction would be um in

[2:08:07] Voice 16: conservation planning and land securement again another reason to separate out these two line

[2:08:12] Voice 16: items um policy with the policy that we currently have is we are not allowed to provide funding

[2:08:20] Voice 16: for NAPTEP assistance um to landholders with NAPTEP uh covenants and so that funding that's

[2:08:27] Voice 16: put in there um did not get spent for covenant uh projects and then also the climate related

[2:08:34] Voice 16: projects were put on hold and other projects on hold due to the um the uh team lead position not

[2:08:41] Voice 16: being felt thank

[2:08:46] Voice 7: you i see trustee khan question

[2:08:48] Voice 9: uh yes i'd like to congratulate the um staff at

[2:08:52] Voice 9: underspending um i always think it's it's unnecessary that by the end of march government

[2:08:59] Voice 9: organizations always feel they have to spend whatever they've got left on no matter what

[2:09:04] Voice 9: just to um guarantee access as a taxpayer i really feel that this is a very good thing and

[2:09:10] Voice 9: so i congratulate you on underspending

[2:09:16] Voice 12: Wonderful, Charles. Awesome. Trustee Yates.

[2:09:20] Voice 12: Yes, I should have mentioned this with regard to the five-year plan letter to Minister Collin, but I really appreciate that in that letter, we thanked the provincial government for the funding from the province to help us engage with First Nations.

[2:09:37] Voice 12: and any chance we get to thank the government for help with that endeavor is really good.

[2:09:45] Voice 12: And I'm really hoping when we move forward into more engagement with First Nations

[2:09:51] Voice 12: that the province will help us wherever possible.

[2:09:56] Voice 12: So thanks for that, Chair Govro.

[2:09:58] Voice 12: Thank you.

[2:10:00] Voice 16: That was Trustee Elliott's recommendation to add that.

[2:10:03] Voice 16: Excellent recommendation.

[2:10:04] Voice 12: Recommendation.

[2:10:07] Voice 7: Any more comments or questions for Manager Turrell?

[2:10:13] Voice 7: Then we'll move on then.

[2:10:15] Voice 7: We'll move on to 7.4.4, quarterly report, October 2025-2026.

[2:10:22] Voice 7: Any questions or comments on that?

[2:10:27] Voice 7: Not seeing any, we will move on.

[2:10:29] Voice 7: I hope I'm not going too quick for everyone.

[2:10:31] Voice 7: But 7.4.5, executive committee update.

[2:10:35] Voice 7: That would be Trustee Elliott.

[2:10:39] Voice 17: Hello.

[2:10:40] Voice 17: Yes.

[2:10:41] Voice 17: Yes. So Executive Committee met last, I believe it was May.

[2:10:48] Voice 17: Sorry, flipping between agendas here. Sorry, give me a second.

[2:10:55] Voice 17: Where, when, which agenda are we in? Okay. March 25th. No. April 23rd. Sorry.

[2:11:06] Voice 17: Sorry. And following shortly after that, we had our joint meeting with Bowen Island Municipality on April 30th.

[2:11:17] Voice 17: I was able to go in person. Never been to Bowen, actually, and attended in person with Director Frater and Chair Laura Patrick.

[2:11:27] Voice 17: I'll get to that in a bit. But some items to note from executive committee.

[2:11:33] Voice 17: committee, there was direction given to staff about two professional development workshops

[2:11:44] Voice 17: on addressing Indigenous-specific racism for 20 participants. So that will include,

[2:11:53] Voice 17: this is sort of the cultural safety program that Indigenous Relations Advisor Joe Elliott

[2:12:01] Voice 17: had proposed and is part of our reconciliation action plan i believe and so priority will be

[2:12:08] Voice 17: given to the chair vice chairs conservancy chair and trustees in the reconciliation learning group

[2:12:14] Voice 17: so that's uh i anticipate i think it's going to come out in october november if i'm not mistaken

[2:12:21] Voice 17: uh and then the proposed agreement with startlep first nation and second first nation um uh was

[2:12:28] Voice 17: staff was given direction to work with those nations to develop that agreement

[2:12:33] Voice 17: so that's really good work. The policy statement amendment project we

[2:12:43] Voice 17: considered basically it's been moving through Trust Programs Committee more

[2:12:48] Voice 17: quickly than than it had been through committee the whole so backing up a bit

[2:12:53] Voice 17: At March Trust Council meeting, it was discussed during our strategic plan discussion that we had such a difficulty getting quorum of trustees, the full council of 26.

[2:13:09] Voice 17: We needed quorum of 13 in our meetings at Committee of the Whole.

[2:13:13] Voice 17: So the work was just, the meetings weren't happening.

[2:13:14] Voice 17: And so the work was then delegated to Programs Committee, which has been meeting frequently in a Herculean effort to go through the rest of the policies.

[2:13:27] Voice 17: And the last Trust Programs Committee to consider policy advice is going to be May 29th in two days.

[2:13:35] Voice 17: And so staff had brought back to Executive Committee a revised plan to get to first reading and referrals.

[2:13:42] Voice 17: referrals uh it was anticipated i guess originally in june and now it's looking like end of july

[2:13:49] Voice 17: uh so the letters going out to bowen island municipality and other bodies requiring first

[2:13:55] Voice 17: reading notice should be going out end of june um and then with final revisions in a town hall

[2:14:02] Voice 17: end of july and first reading july 30th so uh it's been it's going to be a a lot of meetings

[2:14:11] Voice 17: this summer um and i think that's it for my report oh yes uh if you want i can give a bit

[2:14:17] Voice 17: of a bowen island joint meeting update or did we have that later in the agenda there

[2:14:23] Voice 7: is the last

[2:14:24] Voice 7: item here 7.11 all right i'll hold that there

[2:14:28] Voice 7: um and then while i have you maybe um uh is uh

[2:14:34] Voice 7: what is the trust council update is anything to report on that yet actually

[2:14:41] Voice 17: i think trustee

[2:14:42] Voice 17: Yates is the um more appropriate person I'm I'm the executive committee update person maybe you

[2:14:50] Voice 17: can give an update from trust council should

[2:14:52] Voice 12: think trustee Yates uh yeah well the last trust

[2:14:56] Voice 12: council we had of course was March in Nanaimo and um I think we've already covered that at one of

[2:15:04] Voice 12: our previous conservancy meetings I I can't say I have anything to report here because it was such

[2:15:12] Voice 12: a long time ago um and i'm looking forward already to the june trust council meeting on salt spring

[2:15:19] Voice 12: me too i

[2:15:21] Voice 7: think yeah pertinent for us is that that's the 35th and there'll be a celebration

[2:15:24] Voice 7: plan there yeah

[2:15:26] Voice 12: well maybe the only thing i could say is that we did meet with bc ferries

[2:15:31] Voice 12: on one of the evenings and we did talk about their new engagement plan and we did think there was

[2:15:38] Voice 12: is still some hope for some of the ferry advisory committees up and down the coast but we know now

[2:15:43] Voice 12: that there isn't so i'll leave it at

[2:15:46] Voice 12: that thank you all

[2:15:49] Voice 7: right moving on to 7.4.7

[2:15:54] Voice 7: financial planning committee that would be trustee yates again and

[2:16:01] Voice 12: we have a financial planning

[2:16:02] Voice 12: committee coming up very soon so nothing to report um from the last one but i'm really happy to see

[2:16:09] Voice 12: these proposed budget items for 26 that the staff have put together and I will fully support them

[2:16:17] Voice 12: when it comes to the financial planning committee meeting. Wonderful thank you for that

[2:16:22] Voice 7: and then

[2:16:24] Voice 7: moving on to 7.4.8 which is my report update on the governance committee which unfortunately I

[2:16:30] Voice 7: didn't attend the last meeting I was but the next meeting is on August 10th which I will attend and

[2:16:37] Voice 7: and I'll have a pretty fulsome update by then.

[2:16:41] Voice 7: Next item is 7.4.9, Conservation Fund Committee.

[2:16:47] Voice 7: It's actually not a committee, it's a working group,

[2:16:50] Voice 7: we'll call it, and it's new.

[2:16:52] Voice 7: I'll give a little update on what it is,

[2:16:54] Voice 7: the particulars of it.

[2:16:57] Voice 7: Conservation Fund Working Group, informal, informal,

[2:17:01] Voice 7: joint initiative for the Island Trust Conservancy

[2:17:03] Voice 7: and the executive committee has formed to explore the creation

[2:17:09] Voice 7: of a new regional conservation fund for the Allens Trust area.

[2:17:14] Voice 7: Say again, it's not a committee, it's a working group.

[2:17:19] Voice 7: It's still in the early exploratory stages.

[2:17:22] Voice 7: Nothing's really been decided yet.

[2:17:24] Voice 7: We're looking for a meeting date for a brainstorming session.

[2:17:27] Voice 7: The goal is to begin to develop a shared vision,

[2:17:31] Voice 7: what this conservation fund could look like is the aspiration is that it's co-created

[2:17:38] Voice 7: with First Nations raises many questions in the trust area are for us and in the trust area so

[2:17:48] Voice 7: who is going to manage the fund will it serve all parts of the trust area not just the CRD parts and

[2:17:55] Voice 7: and how will the partnerships take shape?

[2:17:58] Voice 7: How do we ensure that First Nations

[2:18:00] Voice 7: are meaningfully involved at the beginning stages

[2:18:04] Voice 7: rather than added in later?

[2:18:07] Voice 7: And how does this new fund and the conservation goals

[2:18:12] Voice 7: help us achieve our conservation goals

[2:18:15] Voice 7: in our regional plans?

[2:18:17] Voice 7: So the idea is about rethinking about protection,

[2:18:22] Voice 7: uh protection funding land protection and stewardship um in long-term and collaborative

[2:18:30] Voice 7: like meaningful ways with the nations around us now we don't have a meeting uh date next but i

[2:18:36] Voice 7: did hear from trustee or sorry from chair patrick that uh ned taylor from masonic leadership council

[2:18:43] Voice 7: was invited to attend and i think we're all sort of feeling that until we actually do have

[2:18:49] Voice 7: have everybody at the table that that's when the conversation will kind of come together and maybe

[2:18:55] Voice 7: that's at that point we'll think about it becoming a committee or an assembly of some sort it's a

[2:19:00] Voice 7: very exciting prospect um and i open it up to the board any questions or comments trustee smith

[2:19:12] Trustee Smith: i've raised the issue that um somebody from the board should um what are we calling it a working

[2:19:19] Trustee Smith: It's

[2:19:19] Voice 7: a working group,

[2:19:20] Trustee Smith: yeah, that somebody should be appointed, and I don't know how much interest there is, but I would ask maybe you could call for interest and see if we can appoint somebody. Thanks.

[2:19:31] Trustee Smith: Fantastic.

[2:19:33] Voice 7: And perhaps we should have this added to the next agenda as well for an update for the rest of the board as well, to keep everybody in the loop on what's happening.

[2:19:42] Voice 7: um i think if there is any interest in it uh trustees or board members can reach out to me

[2:19:50] Voice 7: particularly i intend on learning everything i can about this working group and supporting it

[2:19:55] Voice 7: in any way i can if my capacity is not that i can actually function on a working group

[2:20:01] Voice 7: then i would like to maybe vice chair uh timothy if you would like to if he's shown interest in

[2:20:07] Voice 7: this i believe he was at the ec itc joint liaison meeting and he's heard firsthand about this

[2:20:13] Voice 7: particular new venture uh do you have any comments trustee uh timothy uh

[2:20:21] Voice 11: no not at this time i

[2:20:22] Voice 11: haven't given it too much more thought so i'm not really certain to if that's something i am

[2:20:29] Voice 11: able to do at this time but great

[2:20:32] Voice 7: fantastic well i'll keep everybody in the loop then

[2:20:35] Voice 7: how

[2:20:36] Voice 11: does

[2:20:37] Voice 7: that sound so sorry

[2:20:40] Trustee Smith: are you going to be the representative is that what you're saying

[2:20:42] Trustee Smith: uh

[2:20:42] Voice 7: no but i think i could be the contact person to get there it's very uh i think the

[2:20:48] Voice 7: there's a nimbleness that needs to happen right now so that the this working group can move forward

[2:20:54] Voice 7: in a way that is meaningful that we're not going ahead and setting an agenda and deciding what this

[2:20:59] Voice 7: one's going to be out without hearing from the nations around us i think the phrase nothing

[2:21:04] Voice 7: Nothing about us without us is front and center.

[2:21:10] Voice 12: Trustee Yates.

[2:21:12] Voice 12: Yeah, and thanks, Chair Govro,

[2:21:14] Voice 12: for offering to have a regular update at our ITC meetings.

[2:21:18] Voice 12: That would be really helpful.

[2:21:22] Voice 7: So, Trustee Smith, I assume that you are interested as well, right?

[2:21:27] Voice 7: I think you're cc'd on an email.

[2:21:29] Trustee Smith: Yes, but I just want to be sure that somebody from the Island Trust Board

[2:21:34] Trustee Smith: is there at the beginning.

[2:21:35] Trustee Smith: I don't care if it's me.

[2:21:36] Trustee Smith: if you're going to be able to be at the meetings i'm happy with that um if you're not then why

[2:21:43] Trustee Smith: don't i just be your backup or something

[2:21:44] Voice 7: fantastic i love it good plan all right let's move on now

[2:21:51] Voice 7: uh 7.4 uh 0.10 um what is this a verbal update on um the yeah itc 35th anniversary

[2:22:02] Voice 7: Anniversary Communications Plan. And I look to Specialist Yoni.

[2:22:09] Voice 7: Yes, thank you.

[2:22:10] Voice 15: I was just finding you on mute. I'll be quick here. I just yeah, I just wanted

[2:22:15] Voice 15: to give an update as this year is very exciting. We are celebrating our 35th anniversary. So

[2:22:21] Voice 15: in January, we launched our new logo, which includes a badge. You'll see it in my Zoom here

[2:22:28] Voice 15: and other ITC staff zooms which includes a nice badge highlighting that we are celebrating 35

[2:22:33] Voice 15: years of conservation and we also launched that on our website and social media. We also launched in

[2:22:39] Voice 15: January with a news release that went out to various media. Just this week our Islands Trust

[2:22:45] Voice 15: Conservancy journal which is our new blog is launching which is very exciting and I already

[2:22:50] Voice 15: have 10 blog posts lined up which will go live over the course of the next few months. Two stories

[2:22:56] Voice 15: is being directly connected to celebrating the 35th anniversary and the rest connected to,

[2:23:02] Voice 15: as Manager Cho mentioned, Species at Risk and some of our donors. We celebrated ITC's 35th

[2:23:10] Voice 15: anniversary with a social media awareness campaign this past winter, which reached over 40,000

[2:23:15] Voice 15: people. We promoted ITC in multiple newspapers across the islands this past winter and into the

[2:23:21] Voice 15: the rest of the year those ads will go live as well we are hosting a presentation um by you uh

[2:23:27] Voice 15: trustee uh by chair govro at uh june trust council um and there'll be cupcakes as well just very

[2:23:33] Voice 15: exciting um yes and uh we will be hosting um as well some some booths at uh some fall fairs this

[2:23:42] Voice 15: coming august and september and hopefully some community events as well to connect with people

[2:23:46] Voice 15: people in person. And then our spring Heron newsletter just launched yesterday, or sorry,

[2:23:52] Voice 15: this morning. So you can you read that and all of our Heron newsletter additions will be

[2:23:59] Voice 15: specifically highlighting our 35th anniversary and, and our e-news as well. And that goes out

[2:24:08] Voice 15: to over 100, over 150 households and organizations and over into over 800 subscribers as well. So

[2:24:17] Voice 15: happy to take any questions or comments

[2:24:19] Voice 12: amazing um trustee yates oh thank you um mckayla that was

[2:24:27] Voice 12: that was great i have to tell you that that i think i get 10 copies of the heron in the mail

[2:24:32] Voice 12: and i live in a condominium mostly with older folks even older than me and they love the heron

[2:24:41] Voice 12: so i was thinking i gave i left two for people to read and they said no no no we want our own copies

[2:24:48] Voice 12: but i have been taking it to you know a couple of different meetings and groups

[2:24:54] Voice 12: that i meet with regularly and um it's i think because it's so beautiful and maybe because it's

[2:25:01] Voice 12: so short people really do appreciate it and uh chair govro your message in that particular

[2:25:08] Voice 12: Heron was very beautiful. So again, that was quite touching. So the other question I had, though,

[2:25:16] Voice 12: I'm glad we're going to be celebrating at the June council meeting. Can we also celebrate

[2:25:22] Voice 12: at the September council meeting on Gabriola? That's an interesting idea.

[2:25:30] Voice 15: I'm going to direct that to Manager Tyrrell. I

[2:25:36] Voice 16: think that's something we would love to look

[2:25:37] Voice 16: into thank you that's a great suggestion i'm

[2:25:41] Voice 12: thinking of someone who could make a beautiful

[2:25:43] Voice 12: cake or cupcakes okay more

[2:25:47] Voice 7: cupcakes excellent idea i second that motion all right um and then

[2:25:55] Voice 7: we'll return back to the agenda if everyone's all right with that i'm keeping an eye on the time

[2:26:00] Voice 7: i'm here uh 7.4.11 um bowen island municipality and executive committee uh meeting uh from april

[2:26:09] Voice 7: 30th uh trustee elliot did you want to give us a few words on that there

[2:26:14] Voice 17: are a few words um

[2:26:16] Voice 17: happy to do that um so yeah as i said we attended in person with the two other executive committee

[2:26:24] Voice 17: committee members uh online and uh in bowen island or bowen municipalities new council chambers it

[2:26:32] Voice 17: it was a pleasure they've just been open for about one month and uh so i think each each member

[2:26:39] Voice 17: or each body took uh about half the well actually we had a little bit more than um to sorry just

[2:26:47] Voice 17: just going back to to discuss our relevant topics so the islands trust policy statement project

[2:26:54] Voice 17: update director freighter presented the background and the current status

[2:26:59] Voice 17: i should note that bowen island municipality had already written a letter at the direction

[2:27:09] Voice 17: of their council that they would not be engaging on further work on the policy statement

[2:27:16] Voice 17: statement in terms of a referral um until and unless there were was sort of more of a spirit

[2:27:24] Voice 17: of cooperation um this came out of the request to the province that was made without consulting

[2:27:30] Voice 17: with bone island municipality and we had uh some conversations about that and mayor leonard

[2:27:36] Voice 17: really just framed it as take us along with you we they have um they're you know well positioned

[2:27:45] Voice 17: and being on the board of Metro Vancouver as well and have a strong voice.

[2:27:50] Voice 17: And, you know, I definitely agree that we should have consulted

[2:27:54] Voice 17: and been in agreement with Bowen Island Municipality as we made that request.

[2:27:59] Voice 17: So it's a bit of a delicate balance, but we're working on that relationship

[2:28:05] Voice 17: and they're very open to working together.

[2:28:08] Voice 17: We also gave an update from the Conservancy on nature reserves

[2:28:15] Voice 17: reserves and management plans and touched on the NAPTEP program. It was noted that there are no

[2:28:23] Voice 17: NAPTEP covenants on Bowen Island. And so we had a bit of a discussion on that because it was kind

[2:28:30] Voice 17: of a surprise to them. So I think we could do a little more outreach on the potential of that plan.

[2:28:37] Voice 17: And then we discussed the Islands Trust Provincial Review. So on the Bowen Island side,

[2:28:42] Voice 17: they gave their updates on their strategic plan 2025 it's honestly it's a it's it's a beautiful

[2:28:51] Voice 17: plan I see the value of having a really strong strategic plan that you follow and you can tick

[2:28:59] Voice 17: off each quarter as you advance through it and I do think that's sort of a model for how local

[2:29:09] Voice 17: government work should be done. Islands Trust has a ways to go in that regard. Bowen Island,

[2:29:16] Voice 17: they are entering their official community plan update and we discussed sharing resources

[2:29:23] Voice 17: as Gabriel and Salt Spring Islands are also conducting OCP reviews and then finally we

[2:29:30] Voice 17: discussed some issues on ferry performance. The mayor had sort of issued a call to the province

[2:29:40] Voice 17: to, you know, deliver better service to island communities

[2:29:45] Voice 17: because coming into summer and there's really going to be an emphasis,

[2:29:49] Voice 17: there is an emphasis on local tourism and people traveling locally

[2:29:54] Voice 17: and there just has not been a really cohesive.

[2:30:00] Voice 17: plan to to support um the added um the tourism and traffic and so bowen's quite concerned they're

[2:30:11] Voice 17: going to get a lot of pressure and it was suggested that the trust could be a convener of a

[2:30:16] Voice 17: conversation bringing together ferry authorities and small communities and elected officials

[2:30:21] Voice 17: to try to find solutions with the province um i think director frader he had some

[2:30:28] Voice 17: ideas about yeah i'm not sure what to say about that because we just don't have the ability to

[2:30:37] Voice 17: to do any more meetings or any you know bringing anyone together but really the islands trust

[2:30:43] Voice 17: would be an ideal um agency to talk about these shared concerns and priorities for

[2:30:50] Voice 17: fairy dependent communities so it was a great discussion and yeah the minutes are now posted

[2:30:58] Voice 17: it online i'll just put them in the chat if you want to review director freighter is there anything

[2:31:04] Voice 17: else that i should highlight there i think

[2:31:09] Voice 6: that covered that it

[2:31:10] Voice 7: was a good meeting

[2:31:11] Voice 7: great ah thank

[2:31:15] Voice 7: you for that update i see that the um the link to the actual recording of the meeting is there

[2:31:21] Voice 7: there are any board members that wish to watch i managed to make it most of the way through i

[2:31:25] Voice 7: finished plan on finishing it and i commend everyone that spoke so so highly in such high

[2:31:30] Voice 7: regard of the ITC well done everyone all right so let's move on oh sorry

[2:31:36] Voice 12: I see trustee Yates

[2:31:37] Voice 12: just very quick um thank you so much Toby for that and I I'm very glad you mentioned the NAPTEP

[2:31:44] Voice 12: um because it would seem to me that Bowen Island could be ripe for some NAPTEP covenants uh so

[2:31:52] Voice 12: good I'm glad we may be able to follow up on that I love it great

[2:31:58] Voice 7: all right we'll move on to item

[2:31:59] Voice 7: Item number eight, public comments and delegations.

[2:32:02] Voice 7: Do we have any of the public watching today?

[2:32:07] Voice 3: No, we're not showing any attendees,

[2:32:09] Voice 3: but it doesn't mean that someone's not watching.

[2:32:12] Voice 7: Thank you.

[2:32:13] Voice 7: Great.

[2:32:14] Voice 7: We'll move on to item nine, new business.

[2:32:17] Voice 7: And I'll turn it over to Amanda.

[2:32:19] Voice 7: Oh, I see Charles Conhan.

[2:32:23] Voice 9: Yeah, I just need to get some clarification on where we're at

[2:32:27] Voice 9: with our First Nations plans and our five-year plan being accepted by the

[2:32:38] Voice 9: Minister as far as I could as far as I know I think I know we've always said

[2:32:48] Voice 9: that we don't have the staff capacity to work on the reconciliation statement or

[2:32:55] Voice 9: or whatever that we really should be providing.

[2:33:00] Voice 9: And the minister seems to have said

[2:33:04] Voice 9: that we need to have that

[2:33:06] Voice 9: before they'll accept our five-year plan.

[2:33:09] Voice 9: Have I got that right?

[2:33:10] Voice 9: Or we seem to be at an impasse there

[2:33:13] Voice 9: and it seems to me that's a fairly important thing

[2:33:17] Voice 9: that we should be putting more priority on.

[2:33:22] Voice 7: um i'll just my my comment would be that um that work is underway sometimes it doesn't look like

[2:33:28] Voice 7: it's moving but it actually is um we've had a lot of transition at the our board as well um when you

[2:33:35] Voice 7: try to build relationships with nations it's great to have continuity with the people um we do know

[2:33:40] Voice 7: that um perhaps that um and we'll see a change in manager in set uh october i believe so there

[2:33:48] Voice 7: There is another change coming up.

[2:33:50] Voice 7: But getting the letter back to the minister that was in the agenda package today is a good step forward to understanding intentions and where that path is going to lead us.

[2:34:01] Voice 7: But that's just my opinion.

[2:34:02] Voice 7: Maybe we can hear from Manager Terrell or Director Frater and

[2:34:06] Voice 16: comment for Charles.

[2:34:09] Voice 16: Thank you.

[2:34:09] Voice 16: No, I think that's really important to bring up.

[2:34:14] Voice 16: And the letter is out to the minister.

[2:34:17] Voice 16: Minister, we are working on the First Nation referral letters as well, and the concordance

[2:34:24] Voice 16: tables have been completed from 2022, and we're consulting with, I am not good at staff

[2:34:35] Voice 16: Elliot, Joe Elliot's title, my apologies, working with our First Nations Indigenous

[2:34:42] Voice 16: Indigenous advisor on crafting a strong meaningful letter to send out to the nations. And we do have

[2:34:51] Voice 16: that capacity this year to move forward with engagement. We have that capacity funding

[2:34:57] Voice 16: available to nations that rolled over from last fiscal. And so there will be a very strong focus

[2:35:04] Voice 16: this year in initiating that and building those relationships. I'm confident of that.

[2:35:13] Voice 16: Director Frater, did you want to add?

[2:35:16] Voice 6: Yes, if I could. The intention was to hire a senior,

[2:35:20] Voice 6: a second senior policy advisor position of which, you know, 25% to half would be available for this

[2:35:25] Voice 6: work. Due to my workload, I've been unable to complete that recruiting process. So we're sort

[2:35:31] Voice 6: of in the dilemma of we have too much work to do the recruitment to relieve the too much work.

[2:35:35] Voice 6: So certainly we're doing it as we can. And I will certainly be hoping that as we get the letters out,

[2:35:42] Voice 6: will be recruiting for that position who would then be available to help with the actual execution

[2:35:46] Voice 6: of the engagements as well trustee smith

[2:35:50] Voice 6: you're

[2:35:52] Trustee Smith: muted it's on another item so if i'll wait till

[2:35:57] Trustee Smith: this one is this one finished i think it is yep okay um i just also uh just sort of a follow-up

[2:36:05] Trustee Smith: to that about the problems with staffing and filling positions um we know that our position

[2:36:10] Trustee Smith: position for the um for a new manager um also went to competition no one was found and i just

[2:36:19] Trustee Smith: would really like to have an update on that what's the status of that we

[2:36:24] Voice 16: actually have a staffing

[2:36:25] Voice 16: update um coming up next under new business

[2:36:28] Voice 16: yes oh i didn't see i don't see that on my agenda

[2:36:32] Trustee Smith: that's weird okay new

[2:36:33] Trustee Smith: business yeah

[2:36:34] Voice 8: yeah um

[2:36:35] Voice 7: and we can move on to that now if you like

[2:36:37] Voice 7: if the board wishes. Any more comments? Nope. And we'll move on to item number nine,

[2:36:45] Voice 7: new business. And I'll turn it over to Manager Terrell.

[2:36:49] Voice 16: Thank you. Beginning with Trustee Smith's

[2:36:54] Voice 16: question about the team lead, or not the team lead, the acting manager position,

[2:37:00] Voice 16: we have no new updates on that. So currently as it stands, my position is to the end of October,

[2:37:09] Voice 16: possibly into the first week end of September possibly the first week of October and we have

[2:37:17] Voice 16: no other updates for that it stands as is and then moving on to the administrative assistant

[2:37:27] Voice 16: position as you know Coraline has moved into executive admin position and we are looking for

[2:37:35] Voice 16: for fulfilling that position, we had quite a good strong list of six candidates, all of whom were

[2:37:43] Voice 16: not available for the position any longer. So we are back at the drawing board. And I have to say

[2:37:50] Voice 16: that I'm entering, I'm ending my third month here as acting manager, and two board meetings,

[2:37:57] Voice 16: an audit, end of fiscal and start of fiscal. And so staff positioning has become a very big

[2:38:04] Voice 16: highlight in the coming months along with those First Nation engagement letters getting out.

[2:38:10] Voice 16: So my hope is to get an administrative assistant. Coraline has been a fantastic

[2:38:16] Voice 16: striding two positions at the same time which is a lot of pressure and I'd like to relieve some of

[2:38:21] Voice 16: that. We have onboarded and provided orientation to our new co-op student who is in the field for

[2:38:29] Voice 16: the rest of the summer. Carly Aston, I was hoping that I could introduce her today but she is

[2:38:37] Voice 16: transitioning today, yesterday on Gabriela and today they are in Denman and I think just Denman.

[2:38:44] Voice 16: So Carly's a fantastic addition to that team this summer as it's been highlighted.

[2:38:51] Voice 16: The team lead position, the update is that we went back to PSA and we reclassified the position.

[2:38:59] Voice 16: And we reposted the position internally, and we received two applicants, and we are currently, which have both passed screening, and we're currently looking at scheduling interviews for those two applicants, which is very exciting.

[2:39:16] Voice 16: The hope is to start transitioning that position coming up at the end of summer for the team lead, which is going to be really great.

[2:39:25] Voice 16: and last i want to bring up um a little bit of a sad um position change that we are coming into

[2:39:34] Voice 16: which is for our communication specialist who has submitted her resignation um staff yanni is going

[2:39:42] Voice 16: to be moving on she's got um a year of education then she's moving back home and she will be with

[2:39:51] Voice 16: us until the end of June but definitely we have a lot to thank Specialist Yanni

[2:40:01] Voice 16: about in the communications role. We won't have another opportunity. The next

[2:40:07] Voice 16: board meeting is July 22nd and she won't be with us then so I just wanted to

[2:40:11] Voice 16: highlight that at this time and maybe Makayla you would turn your camera on

[2:40:16] Voice 16: for a moment thank you no

[2:40:20] Voice 7: thank you for all your work much

[2:40:24] Voice 16: appreciated yeah yeah oh that um we will

[2:40:31] Voice 16: be looking at um bringing that position to posting soon yeah

[2:40:36] Voice 8: that's

[2:40:39] Voice 16: the end of my staff update

[2:40:41] Voice 7: thank

[2:40:42] Voice 7: you very much for that um any questions i'm taking note of the time here 12 57 we're going

[2:40:49] Voice 7: going to be going to lunch pretty soon. And with the more discussion that would conclude our

[2:40:54] Voice 7: morning portion of the agenda. Trustee Yates.

[2:41:02] Voice 12: Sorry. Thank you, Chair Govro. And oh, I will

[2:41:06] Voice 12: really miss Specialist Yanni. She's just been amazing. I just wanted to say that having

[2:41:12] Voice 12: accompanied the staff in their fieldwork the last couple of days of nature reserve monitoring and

[2:41:19] Voice 12: and covenant monitoring. I don't know if I've ever seen anybody work such long hours and do such

[2:41:25] Voice 12: amazing detailed work. It is such an honor to be able to accompany them. Thank you.

[2:41:33] Voice 7: Thank you. Great. So our next meeting date would be July 22nd at 10 a.m. in person.

[2:41:43] Voice 7: Good to see everybody. Yes. And then before we move on to closing the meeting, I'll be looking

[2:41:50] Voice 7: for a motion to close the meeting unless there's anything else from anyone i don't think so

[2:41:55] Voice 7: uh but yes i did just want to say i thank staff for their excellent work in preparing this agenda

[2:42:02] Voice 7: um yeah thank you uh so i'm looking for a motion to close the meeting

[2:42:09] Voice 7: anybody like to make the motion i see trustee khan thank you i'd

[2:42:16] Voice 9: like to move to close the meeting

[2:42:19] Voice 7: yes please do

[2:42:21] Voice 9: i have to oh i have to read that uh yes

[2:42:24] Voice 7: yes okay

[2:42:26] Voice 9: that the islands trust

[2:42:27] Voice 9: conservancy meeting be closed to the public in accordance with the community charter part four

[2:42:34] Voice 9: division three section 91 90-1 uh the acquisition disposition or appropriation of land or

[2:42:45] Voice 9: improvements if the board considers that disclosure could reasonably be expected to harm the interests

[2:42:51] Voice 9: of the islands trust conservancy board when the receipt of advice that is subject to solicitor

[2:42:59] Voice 9: client privilege including communications necessary for that purpose j information that is

[2:43:06] Voice 9: prohibited or information that if it were presented in a document would be prohibited

[2:43:12] Voice 9: from disclosure under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information

[2:43:17] Voice 9: and Protection of Privacy Act, and the staff remain in the meeting.

[2:43:22] Voice 7: Thank you.

[2:43:23] Voice 7: I'm looking for a seconder.

[2:43:27] Voice 7: My trustee Yates.

[2:43:29] Voice 7: And I'll call the vote.

[2:43:31] Voice 7: All in favor?

[2:43:35] Voice 7: And that's carried.

[2:43:37] Voice 7: Thank you very much, everyone.

[2:43:38] Voice 7: The meeting is closed.

[2:43:44] Voice 7: Good morning.

[2:43:45] Voice 7: I'd like to call the meeting to order.

[2:43:49] Voice 3: Oh, sorry, Lisa.

[2:43:50] Voice 3: Just give me a hang on a sec.

[2:43:52] Voice 3: It's live streaming.

Adopted 
Islands Trust Conservancy Board 
Regular Meeting Minutes 
May 27 2025 Adopted Page 1 of 11 
Islands Trust Conservancy Board 
     Minutes of a Regular Meeting 
 
Date:  
Location:  
Tuesday, May 27, 2025 
Electronic Meeting, and physical location to view the livestream of the meeting:   
Islands Trust Victoria Office 
#200 - 1627 Fort Street 
Victoria, BC V8R 1H8 
 
Members Present: Lisa Gauvreau, Chair 
 Tanner Timothy, Vice Chair 
 Charles Kahn, Trustee 
 Risa Smith, Trustee 
 Susan Yates, Trustee 
 Tobi Elliott, Trustee 
  
Staff Present: Clare Frater, Director, Trust Area Services 
 Corlynn Strachan, Administrative Assistant/Recorder 
 Erica Wheeler, Species at Risk Program Coordinator 
 Joe Elliott, Senior Indigenous Relations Advisor, Trust Area Services 
 Kathryn Martell, Ecosystem Protection Specialist 
 Micaela Yawney, Communications Specialist 
 Mike Richards, Strategic Fund Development Specialist 
 Nuala Murphy, Property Management Specialist 
 Wendy Tyrrell, Acting ITC Manager 
  
Guests Lenora Lee, KPMG 
 Winnie Tam, KPMG 
  
Staff Regrets: Jemma Green, Covenant Management and Outreach Specialist  
 Carlie Aston, Conservation Technician Coop 
  
Members of the Public Present: No members of the public were in attendance 
 
1. CALL TO ORDER 
The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. 
2. TERRITORIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
Chair Gauvreau acknowledged that the meeting was being held in traditional territory of the 
Coast Salish First Nations and initiated introductions. 
3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA 
3.1 Review of Agenda and Introduction of New Items 

Adopted 
Islands Trust Conservancy Board 
Regular Meeting Minutes 
May 27 2025 Adopted Page 2 of 11 
The following item was added from the agenda: 
• Item 9.1 Staffing Updates under 9.0 New Business 
3.2 Approval of Agenda 
By general consent the agenda was approved as amended 
4. RISE AND REPORT DECISIONS FROM PREVIOUSLY CLOSED MEETING 
There were no items for rise and report. 
5. ADOPTION OF MINUTES 
5.1 Draft ITC Board Meeting Minutes of March 18, 2025 
The following amendment to the minutes was presented for consideration: 
On page seven of the minutes, item 7.4.9 Funding our Future: Financing Conservation on 
Private Lands Conference Highlights, replace the word “province” with “Capital Regional 
District”. 
By general consent the minutes of the March 18, 2025 meeting were adopted as 
amended. 
6. FOLLOW UP ACTION LIST 
Board members noted that direction from the Board about exploring options and researching 
potential climate change projects, to address the climate change emergency on ITC Protected 
Areas, was not included in the FUAL report, and requested that staff reinstate the item for 
inclusion on the next agenda. 
7. BUSINESS 
7.1 Items for Approval 
7.1.1 ITC 2024-25 Audited Financial Statements - KPMG Presentation and Request for 
Decision 
KPMG representatives Lenora Lee and Winnie Tam reviewed the draft financial 
statements and presented highlights from the audit findings, noting that the 
audit is now complete. 
 
Discussion took place on: 
• If an internal whistleblower policy exists, and if not, should they consider 
the establishment of a process for staff, elected officials, and Board 
members to report concerns. The Board requested that this topic be added 
to a future meeting agenda. 
• On the use of artificial intelligence (AI). A suggestion was made to have a 
Board discussion on the topic.  

Adopted 
Islands Trust Conservancy Board 
Regular Meeting Minutes 
May 27 2025 Adopted Page 3 of 11 
• Reference was made to Appendix 6 of the audit report – Board Leadership 
Center training opportunities. KPMG staff commented there are online 
resources available, including common terms of reference, good practices, 
and trend information. It was suggested that the ITC Board members explore 
these resources further. 
ITC-2025-016 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that the Islands Trust Conservancy Board approve the Audited Financial 
Statements for the 2024/25 fiscal year, and refer the statements to Islands Trust 
Council for information.  
CARRIED 
7.1.2 Islands Trust Conservancy Submission for 2024-2025 Annual Report - Request for 
Decision 
Communications Specialist Yawney presented the request for decision. 
Trustee Smith suggested revising the paragraph on page 72 of the agenda 
package, under the section on the protected area goal. The proposed changes 
included removing the word “only” before “20%” and replacing “The 
Government of Canada and British Columbia” with “The United Nations and the 
Government of Canada.” 
 
ITC-2025-017 
It was MOVED and SECONDED,  
the Islands Trust Conservancy (ITC) Board approve the attached text for inclusion 
in the 2024/25 Annual Report for approval by Trust Council and submission to 
the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs. 
CARRIED 
7.1.3 DVP/DP Referral - 212 Narrows West, Salt Spring Island - Request for Decision 
A/Manager Tyrrell presented the request for decision. 
Discussion took place regarding First Nations archaeological sites and the 
proposed significant expansion of a dock. Concerns were raised about the 
addition of new docks, considering a request from First Nations that the Islands 
Trust not support further dock developments. A question was raised as to 
whether First Nations have been consulted on this matter as the staff report 
does not indicate whether this development variance permit has been referred 
to First Nations for comment. 
 
It was suggested that the ITC Board would like to make note of this potential gap 
in consultation. The Board agreed it would be appropriate for ITC staff to include 
a comment in the response back to the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee 
specifically regarding the importance of receiving feedback from First Nations for 
expansions and additions of docks in the Islands Trust Area. 
 
ITC-2025-018 

Adopted 
Islands Trust Conservancy Board 
Regular Meeting Minutes 
May 27 2025 Adopted Page 4 of 11 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that the Islands Trust Conservancy Board request staff to notify the Salt Spring 
Island Local Trust Committee that Islands Trust Conservancy’s interests are 
unaffected by Development Variance Permit Application PLDVP20250029. 
 
The Islands Trust Conservancy Board recommends that the Salt Spring Island 
Local Trust Committee ensure that affected First Nations have been asked to 
comment on this proposed dock expansion. 
CARRIED 
7.1.4 Galiano LTC Bylaw 291 Referral – Request for Decision 
A/Manager Tyrrell presented the request for decision. 
Staff advised that the wording of resolutions should use “request” staff rather 
than “direct” staff. 
 
ITC-2025-019 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that the Islands Trust Conservancy Board request staff to notify the Galiano 
Island Local Trust Committee that Islands Trust Conservancy’s interests are 
unaffected by Bylaw 291. 
CARRIED 
7.1.5 S’ul-hween X’pey (Elder Cedar) Nature Reserve, Gabriola Island - Provincial 
Groundwater Observation Well - Request for Decision 
Property Management Specialist Murphy presented the request for decision. 
There was no discussion. 
ITC-2025-020 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that the Islands Trust Conservancy Board approve the request from the Ministry 
of Water, Lands and Resource Stewardship to upgrade Provincial Groundwater 
Observation Well 197, in S’ul-hween X’pey (Elder Cedar) Nature Reserve, with a 
new well box and the addition of equipment for satellite telemetry. 
CARRIED 
ITC-2025-021 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that the Islands Trust Conservancy Board request staff to begin negotiations for 
a Well Access Agreement with the Ministry of Water, Lands and Resource 
Stewardship (WLRS) and the two covenant holders Gabriola Land & Trails Trust 
and Nanaimo & Area Land Trust. 
CARRIED 
7.1.6 2026/27 ITC Budget Request Update – Trust Council Resolution – Request for 
Decision 

Adopted 
Islands Trust Conservancy Board 
Regular Meeting Minutes 
May 27 2025 Adopted Page 5 of 11 
A/Manager Tyrrell presented the request for decision. 
Discussion ensued on: 
• Board members expressed support for separating the budget lines for 
Conservation Planning and Land Securement and for splitting 
Management budget into Property Management Planning and Property 
Management Operations. 
• There was discussion on the recommendation for a business case for a 
permanent Indigenous Relations position for the Islands Trust 
Conservancy, noting the recent addition of new Nations the Islands Trust 
engages with. It was acknowledged that the organizational structure and 
reporting lines for the position still need to be determined. 
• Support was expressed for the proposed increase to the staff travel 
budget, recognizing the need for accommodation during extended 
monitoring work and the value of co-op student positions. 
 
ITC-2025-022 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that the Islands Trust Conservancy (ITC) Board request staff to prepare an Islands 
Trust Conservancy 2026/27 budget request, including: 
• An increase to the property management budget to reflect new nature 
reserves and covenants, archeological assessments, and increasing 
costs; and rename this budget line item to Property Management 
Operations budget; 
• Creation of a Property Management Planning budget line; 
• An increase to the ITC staff travel budget to accommodate additional 
travel needs for newly acquired covenants/nature reserves, and 
increasing costs in travel; 
• Consideration of increases to multiple ITC budget lines associated with 
engagement and relationship building with First Nations, and potential 
payment of referral fee requests from Nations; 
• Separation of budget lines for Conservation Planning and Land 
Securement; 
• Development of a business case for a conservation technician co-op 
position and/or a seasonal conservation technician position; and 
• Development of a business case for a permanent Indigenous relations 
position. 
CARRIED 
7.2 Items for Discussion/Direction 
7.2.1 Executive Committee - Islands Trust Conservancy Joint Meting Discussion 
Chair Gauvreau provide a recap of the Executive Committee/ IslandsTrust 
Conservancy joint session held April 23
rd
 including: 
• Discussion about a potential conservation fund that would allow property 
owners to apply for grants for conservation and restoration projects.  

Adopted 
Islands Trust Conservancy Board 
Regular Meeting Minutes 
May 27 2025 Adopted Page 6 of 11 
Executive Committee passed a resolution to work with ITC Board to strike an 
informal working group with members from each respective body to start 
developing a vision for a conservation fund, with the intent to expand the 
working group to interested First Nations and others.  
• Arranging a guest speaker for the July 22
nd
 ITC/EC liaison meeting. 
Suggestions were Brodie Guy – Islands Coastal Economic Trust, Bonnie 
Norton a UBC Professor-storytelling, and Eli Ennis, expert in Indigenous 
Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA). 
• The goal is to inspire and educate the Board around conservation efforts and 
collaboration, and how we can enhance our approach on collaborating with 
First Nations. 
• Promoting the Islands Trust and the 35
th
 Anniversary, engaging local trust 
committees with ITC updates at meetings, including quarterly reports. 
• Director Frater will assist with finding a speaker for the July 22
nd
 liaison 
meeting. 
7.2.2 Victoria Foundation – Administration Fee Increase to Ruby Alton Property 
Endowment Fund – Briefing  
The Strategic Fund Development Specialist Fundraising Specialist provided the 
briefing. 
Board members commented on the minimal disbursements received by the 
Islands Trust Conservancy from the Victoria Foundation, and whether the 
Victoria Foundation is the most suitable institution to manage the ITC's 
endowment fund. Staff can review this. 
7.3 Correspondence 
7.3.1 2025-03-11 Letter regarding MOU between Islands Trust Council and the 
W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council 
Director Frater explained that the letter from the Executive Committee will be 
shared with Trust Council. 
 
ITC-2025-023 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that the Islands Trust Conservancy Board request staff to cooperate with Tsartlip 
First Nation and Tseycum First Nation, via the W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council 
Society, to develop an agreement for Islands Trust Conservancy Board 
consideration. 
CARRIED 
7.3.2 2025-04-28 Letter from Minister Kahlon to Trust Council Chair Patrick regarding 
Islands Trust Review 
Received for information. 
Discussion ensued on: 

Adopted 
Islands Trust Conservancy Board 
Regular Meeting Minutes 
May 27 2025 Adopted Page 7 of 11 
• If the letter should be considered a mandate letter. 
• The letter’s impact on revisions to the Policy Statement. 
• That the Ministry has not yet communicated with Trust Council regarding 
this matter. 
 
7.3.3 2025-05-23 ITC Board Chair Letter to Minister Kahlon regarding ITC Five-Year 
Plan Requirement 
Received for information. 
7.4 Updates for Information 
7.4.1 Public Acquisitions Report 
Received for information. 
7.4.2 Public Covenants Report 
Received for information. 
7.4.3 Budget Report: April 1, 2024 - March 31, 2025 
Received for information. 
Discussion ensued regarding underspending in certain line items. 
A/Manager Tyrrell noted that the delay in filling the Team Lead position has 
contributed to the underspending. Additionally, three planned celebrations were 
postponed due to capacity constraints and weather conditions. Staff training 
initiatives have also been impacted, as current workloads have limited staff 
participation in training opportunities. Several projects remain on hold pending 
the recruitment of the Team Lead. 
7.4.4 ITC Quarterly Report to Trust Council - 1st Quarter 2025-2026 
Received for information 
7.4.5 Executive Committee Update (verbal) 
Trustee Elliott provided on the following topics: 
• There was a joint Meeting with Bowen Island Municipality held on April 30, 
in person. Update to follow. 
• Direction given to proceed with two professional development workshops 
on addressing Indigenous-specific racism. These workshops, proposed by 
Indigenous Relations Advisor Joe Elliott, are part of the Reconciliation Action 
Plan and the Cultural Safety Program. Workshops will accommodate 20 
participants, with priority for the Chair, Vice Chairs, Conservancy Chair, and 
members of the Reconciliation Learning Group. Target timeframe is 
October–November. 

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Islands Trust Conservancy Board 
Regular Meeting Minutes 
May 27 2025 Adopted Page 8 of 11 
• Staff were requested to work with Tsartlip and Tseycum First Nations, via the 
W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council Society, to develop a proposed agreement. 
• Policy Statement Amendment Project - Progress was slowed due to quorum 
challenges in Committee of the Whole. However, final Trust Programs 
Committee meeting for policy advice is scheduled for May 29. There is a 
revised timeline: 
o Town hall and final revisions in late July. 
o First reading anticipated for July 30. 
o Letters to Bowen Island Municipality and other referral bodies to go out 
early August. 
o A significant number of meetings are expected to support this work. 
7.4.6 Trust Council Update (verbal) 
Trustee Yates advised the last Trust Council meeting was held in March in 
Nanaimo, an update was provided at the last ITC meeting, including highlights of 
a meeting with B.C. Ferries on their engagement plan. 
The next Trust Council is scheduled from June 17-19, 2025 on Salt Spring Island 
and will include the ITC 35
th
 Anniversary celebration. 
7.4.7 Financial Planning Committee Update (verbal) 
Trustee Yates advised there was no report from the last meeting and that she 
will support the proposed ITC budget items going to the committee. 
7.4.8 Governance Committee Update (verbal) 
Chair Gauvreau advised the next meeting August 10
th
. 
7.4.9 Conservation Fund Working Group – Chair Gauvreau (verbal) 
Chair Gauvreau advised this is an informal joint working group between 
Executive Committee and Islands Trust Conservancy Board members, in an early 
exploratory stage. The goal is to develop a shared vision, co-created with First 
Nations. A meeting date has not been set yet. Ned Taylor (W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership 
Council Society) has been invited to attend. 
Discussion ensued on: 
• Appointing an ITC Board member to the working group. 
• Adding this to the next agenda. 
• Trustee Smith offered to be back up for Chair Gauvreau to attend 
meeting. 
7.4.10 ITC 35th Anniversary Communication Activities and Promotion Update (verbal) 
ITC Communications Specialist Yawney provided the following updates on the 
Islands Trust Conservancy 35
th
 Anniversary: 
• A news release was issued in January, featuring a newly designed 
anniversary logo for use on the website and social media. 

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Islands Trust Conservancy Board 
Regular Meeting Minutes 
May 27 2025 Adopted Page 9 of 11 
• The new ITC blog “The Journal” was launched this week - 
https://islandstrust.bc.ca/welcome-to-the-journal/ . 
• A winter social media awareness campaign celebrating the 35
th
 Anniversary 
reached over 40,000 people. 
• A celebration is planned at the June Trust Council meeting, including 
cupcakes. 
• Plans are underway for ITC booths at fall fairs and community events in 
August. 
• The Spring edition of the Heron newsletter was launched this month, 
reaching over 150 households and 800 online subscribers. 
 
Board members suggested celebrating again at the September Trust Council on 
Gabriola Island.  Staff will consider. 
7.4.11 Bowen Island Municipality/Executive Committee April 30th Meeting Update 
(verbal) 
Minutes and recording are posted on the BIM website: 
https://bowenislandmunicipality.ca/events/on/2025/04/30/  
Trustee Elliott provided a summary of topics: 
• Director Frater presented the background and the current status on the 
Policy Statement Amendment Project. 
• Bowen Island Municipality had written a letter advising that they are not 
engaging on further Policy Statement amendment work, in terms of a 
referral, until there is further spirit of cooperation, as they were not 
consulted on the request to the Minister for a provincial review of the 
Islands Trust. 
• An update from the Conservancy was provided on nature reserves, 
management plans, and the Natural Area Protection Tax Exemption Program 
(NAPTEP).  
• Currently there are no NAPTEP properties on Bowen, which could be an 
opportunity to explore. 
• Bowen Island Municipality topics of note were: 
o Strategic Plan 2025 
o Official Community Plan update 
o BC Ferries - issues on ferry performance and delivery of better 
service to island communities – for residents and tourists 
8. PUBLIC COMMENTS AND DELGATIONS 
No members of the public were in attendance. 
9. NEW BUSINESS 
9.1 Staffing Updates  
A/Manager Tyrrell provided the following updates: 

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Islands Trust Conservancy Board 
Regular Meeting Minutes 
May 27 2025 Adopted Page 10 of 11 
• A/Manager Tyrrell’s auxiliary position is scheduled to end September 26, 2025; no new 
updates at this time. 
• The ITC Administrative Assistant has moved to a temporary assignment as the Executive 
Administrative Assistant; staff are currently working on finding a replacement. 
• Carlie Aston has been hired for the summer co-op student Conservation Technician position 
and is currently assisting the Property Management Specialist and the Covenant 
Management and Outreach Specialist with monitoring. 
• The initial Team Lead position competition was unsuccessful, the job profile was reclassified 
by PSA and the position was posted internally. Applicants were screened in and staff are 
scheduling interviews. 
• Communications Specialist Yawney has submitted her resignation and will complete her 
term at the end of June 2025.  Staff will move forward with posting the Communication 
Specialist position in June. 
10. NEXT MEETING 
The next meeting will be held in-person on July 22, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. at the Victoria office. 
11. CLOSED MEETING 
11.1 Motion to Close the Meeting 
ITC-2025-024 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that the Islands Trust Conservancy meeting be closed to the public in accordance with 
the Community Charter, Part 4 Division 3, section: 90 (1) (e) the acquisition, disposition 
or expropriation of land or improvements, if the board considers that disclosure could 
reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the Islands Trust Conservancy board; (i) 
the receipt of advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including 
communications necessary for that purpose; j) information that is prohibited, or 
information that if it were presented in a document would be prohibited, from 
disclosure under section 21 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act; 
and that staff remain in the meeting. 
CARRIED 
12. ADJOURNMENT 
By general consent, the meeting adjourned at 12:58 p.m. 
 
 
_________________________ 
Lisa Gauvreau, Chair 
 
Certified Correct: 
 
 

Adopted 
Islands Trust Conservancy Board 
Regular Meeting Minutes 
May 27 2025 Adopted Page 11 of 11 
_________________________ 
Corlynn Strachan, Administrative Assistant/Recorder 
Minutes are not official until adopted at a subsequent meeting.