Islands Trust Council regular meeting, July 10, 2025

[0:00:00] Voice 5: and recording.

[0:00:02] Voice 5: All right. I'm just going to pull up the agenda here. I think that's the right one.

[0:00:09] Voice 5: Yeah. There we go. Okay. So you should see the agenda on the screen. Yes, we do. Yep. Bye.

[0:00:17] Voice 4: Oh, great. Thank you and welcome everyone. This is the regular business meeting of the

[0:00:25] Voice 4: executive, or sorry, the accessibility committee. The date is July 10th. The time is 632.

[0:00:33] Voice 4: I'd like to begin by acknowledging that the land that we're meeting on today is the ancestral and unceded territory to many First Nations and Coastal.

[0:00:47] Voice 1: Sorry.

[0:00:48] Voice 4: No worries.

[0:00:51] Voice 4: These indigenous people have stewarded these lands and waters since time immemorial, and that is still evident to us today.

[0:00:58] Voice 4: We honor the enduring connection to this place, and we are grateful to gather on and to work on and to learn on.

[0:01:05] Voice 4: And as we meet today, we will carry the spirit of respect, responsibility, and reconciliation

[0:01:11] Voice 4: in our work together.

[0:01:13] Voice 4: Thank you.

[0:01:15] Voice 4: Moving on to the agenda, we have a review of the agenda items.

[0:01:19] Voice 4: Are there any additions to the agenda for today?

[0:01:26] Voice 4: Not seeing any.

[0:01:28] Voice 4: No hands up.

[0:01:29] Voice 4: Yeah, feel free to put your hand up if you want to add anything to our agenda.

[0:01:32] Voice 4: that but not seeing any additions then we can um uh what is that approve the agenda uh by general

[0:01:39] Voice 4: consensus and we'll move on to item number three 3.1 which are minutes from the january 16th

[0:01:50] Voice 4: meeting and other has everybody had a chance to read over the the minutes those back in january

[0:02:01] Voice 4: so it's quite quite a while ago i reread them just before this meeting so yes and they all

[0:02:06] Voice 4: a motion to accept the minutes we can do that by general consent if everyone approves sounds good

[0:02:14] Voice 4: thumbs up great right on all right and then moving on to the minutes from that we actually

[0:02:20] Voice 4: don't have minutes from our last meeting because we didn't have quorum so we didn't have a meeting

[0:02:25] Voice 4: um i noticed that there's no actual follow-up action list attached to the agenda which is

[0:02:30] Voice 4: fine i think we're we're still in the uh initial stages of this committee so that works out fine

[0:02:35] Voice 4: line. So moving on to item number four, which is business. Item 4.1. I'm going to turn this over to

[0:02:43] Voice 4: David to introduce. Yeah,

[0:02:45] Voice 5: thanks. So all these business items, just items that we put on here

[0:02:50] Voice 5: to get started. And we've just been looking for some direction from the Accessory Committee on

[0:02:56] Voice 5: priorities. So the first item here is Trust Council March 13th, 2025. Past the resolution

[0:03:04] Voice 5: that you see there on the screen.

[0:03:06] Voice 5: So it recommends that local trust committees

[0:03:09] Voice 5: consider how to respond to concerns

[0:03:12] Voice 5: raised about accessibility of meetings

[0:03:14] Voice 5: by members of the public.

[0:03:16] Voice 5: And this is in terms of times of day,

[0:03:19] Voice 5: the day of the week of the meetings

[0:03:21] Voice 5: and other engagement opportunities.

[0:03:23] Voice 5: So we're asked to add this to accessibility committee

[0:03:26] Voice 5: because this is something that probably could be dealt with

[0:03:30] Voice 5: through an accessibility plan.

[0:03:33] Voice 5: plan and something to think about. So I don't think you need to debate it, unless you want

[0:03:40] Voice 5: to talk about it now, but I just wanted to make sure that it's something that's not missed,

[0:03:45] Voice 5: so it's on here. And just a little bit more context, especially for Lisa and Theresa.

[0:03:52] Voice 5: The local trust committees tend to meet in the daytime during normal business hours,

[0:04:00] Voice 5: hours, which makes it difficult for certain people to attend. They do hold them in person,

[0:04:07] Voice 5: but usually with a streaming and an online ability to connect and at least listen. So

[0:04:14] Voice 5: that's just a little bit of context for I think what this is getting at here. Back to

[0:04:20] Voice 5: the chair. Thank you.

[0:04:22] Voice 4: Thank you. Does the committee wish to take any direction with that at this time? I see

[0:04:28] Voice 4: see Tracy have your

[0:04:29] Voice 2: hand up I just have a couple of thoughts like I think um in the interim time

[0:04:34] Voice 2: before because a plan will take a while to develop and to create a process for this and there are

[0:04:39] Voice 2: some like steps and I know this because I've worked in this area but there's they're also

[0:04:43] Voice 2: kind of available online but like we could develop um potentially like a simple it looks like you

[0:04:49] Voice 2: know somebody experiences a barrier so they report it to who you decide who that person is just

[0:04:54] Voice 2: having an identified person um so it's reported and then then you assess is there a barrier here

[0:05:00] Voice 2: and that can come to this committee like that's the kind of thing that this committee was designed

[0:05:04] Voice 2: to do or is supposed to do according to the legislation and then you decide

[0:05:08] Voice 2: is there a

[0:05:09] Voice 2: barrier yes no and then the next step would be to like then how do you act um is it reasonable

[0:05:14] Voice 2: without undue hardship yes or no and that also can be that's something that the accessibility

[0:05:21] Voice 2: that's what's in the provincial legislation as well too.

[0:05:23] Voice 2: So that's something that, something a simple kind of,

[0:05:25] Voice 2: well, it's not that simple.

[0:05:26] Voice 2: You still have to, who's in charge?

[0:05:28] Voice 2: Who does the email go to?

[0:05:29] Voice 2: You need a process for that.

[0:05:30] Voice 2: How and when does it come to the committee?

[0:05:32] Voice 2: We only meet four times a year.

[0:05:33] Voice 2: Do we do this stuff on email?

[0:05:35] Voice 2: Because I think it would be reasonable

[0:05:38] Voice 2: and just for the public as well too,

[0:05:39] Voice 2: if you're already getting these, you know,

[0:05:42] Voice 2: there's evidence of a barrier for some people.

[0:05:44] Voice 2: Is it a barrier that's, you know, insurmountable?

[0:05:47] Voice 2: Is it something that can be addressed?

[0:05:48] Voice 2: So just wanted to share that.

[0:05:49] Voice 2: that.

[0:05:50] Voice 4: Thank you for that. Thank you so much. That's great

[0:05:53] Voice 4: insight.

[0:05:54] Voice 4: If

[0:05:55] Voice 5: I made sure, could I add some commentary? I can't raise my

[0:06:01] Voice 5: hand because I'm on the screen here. So it's, yeah, so one

[0:06:07] Voice 5: thing I just can't do. I still

[0:06:09] Voice 5: think I can. Anyway, um, yeah, I

[0:06:12] Voice 5: think that's a wonderful idea. And that's something the

[0:06:14] Voice 5: committee could ask staff to look into. So if you wanted to

[0:06:19] Voice 5: do that you could ask staff to look into a means to receive feedback about accessibility so what

[0:06:27] Voice 5: i'm thinking is we have a web page for accessibility or we should and we could probably

[0:06:33] Voice 5: add some information on there we can create an email address accessibility islandstress.bc.ca

[0:06:40] Voice 5: for example uh that myself and probably robert and a few other staff could monitor and then we

[0:06:47] Voice 5: could establish a process like a you know an internal procedure about how we deal with it

[0:06:52] Voice 5: likely we would probably email it to the accessibility committee and add it to your

[0:06:56] Voice 5: next agenda and then we take direction at the meetings and if something's urgent you could

[0:07:01] Voice 5: always ask for a special meeting to be called and we can deal with it at that point so i think there

[0:07:07] Voice 5: is some action items and i really like that idea because it will take a while to get a plan in

[0:07:12] Voice 5: place so any actions we can take that are not going to be a lot of work but we're able to

[0:07:18] Voice 5: action them i think would be good can

[0:07:21] Voice 2: i ask oh sorry go ahead um

[0:07:24] Voice 3: just a thought on that the

[0:07:25] Voice 3: email address is a great idea but i think it's also important to have a specific point person

[0:07:30] Voice 3: i don't know if like one of you guys could be that person because email is not accessible to

[0:07:34] Voice 3: everyone right um

[0:07:36] Voice 3: in written language for example uh they might not be able to communicate um you

[0:07:41] Voice 3: know the accessibility challenges so to have someone that they might be able to reach out to

[0:07:46] Voice 3: whether it be by phone or in person or something of the sort would would probably be a good addition

[0:07:52] Voice 5: yeah yeah we can do you know all that is something we can do if you want us to look into i'd say um

[0:08:00] Voice 5: look into it because we just have to assess what we physically can and can't do at least now and

[0:08:05] Voice 5: and whether we need to request some budget to, you know,

[0:08:10] Voice 5: implement it more fully in the next fiscal year.

[0:08:13] Voice 5: But I think we can get started with some basic stuff. So, yeah.

[0:08:17] Voice 4: Would

[0:08:18] Voice 2: you need a motion from us?

[0:08:19] Voice 5: Yeah, I think that'd be good.

[0:08:21] Voice 5: A

[0:08:21] Voice 2: quick follow-up quickly too, like this, and sorry,

[0:08:25] Voice 2: I forget maybe this already,

[0:08:26] Voice 2: do we already have an accessibility mechanism for the Islands Trust?

[0:08:29] Voice 2: Was that part of, because all the institute,

[0:08:31] Voice 2: all the organizations that had to create an accessibility committee all had

[0:08:34] Voice 2: had to make a plan have a feedback mechanism and have a committee so if we don't if you don't have

[0:08:38] Voice 2: an accessibility mechanism yet then you would maybe want to that could be what you would be

[0:08:43] Voice 2: thinking about like what what is this and I'm just going to share in the chat I used to work at SFU

[0:08:47] Voice 2: and this is the one that we developed and it has phone address to mail contact thing email exactly

[0:08:55] Voice 2: what you do with feedback and this is a more like this took a lot of work but this is an example of

[0:08:59] Voice 2: of what I would assess as a good feedback mechanism

[0:09:03] Voice 2: that has a variety of ways to provide information.

[0:09:06] Voice 2: Cause where are people gonna find it?

[0:09:07] Voice 2: Like, so it'd be good to have an accessibility,

[0:09:09] Voice 2: you know, a little button somewhere on the main page

[0:09:11] Voice 2: and maybe there already is that.

[0:09:13] Voice 2: Yeah,

[0:09:13] Voice 5: and if I may through the chair,

[0:09:16] Voice 5: no, you're correct, we have not got that yet.

[0:09:18] Voice 5: That's what this is, I'm trying to get that established.

[0:09:22] Voice 5: So we're a bit behind, we realize that.

[0:09:24] Voice 5: And I think it's a good point.

[0:09:26] Voice 5: We don't wanna wait for the accessibility plan.

[0:09:28] Voice 5: I think there's things we can be doing now

[0:09:29] Voice 5: and should be doing now so yeah a resolution to our staff to look into um accessibility feedback

[0:09:36] Voice 5: and i would also ask um if any members have examples that you that the one you've just sent

[0:09:42] Voice 5: to us you can email those to me or robert we'll pull those together and then when we report back

[0:09:47] Voice 5: to you we can use that as a means to make some recommendations this is what we think we can do

[0:09:54] Voice 3: great uh lisa i was just going to say some time ago i actually emailed robert uh community living

[0:10:00] Voice 3: living BC's accessibility plan and being an agency the government agency that

[0:10:05] Voice 3: works with adults with developmental disabilities and autism it's really well

[0:10:09] Voice 3: focused on that lens of accessibility so do you want me to resend that to both of

[0:10:16] Voice 3: you Robert

[0:10:17] Voice 5: did you I'll let Robert answer that one through the

[0:10:26] Voice 1: chair I do

[0:10:27] Voice 1: believe that we did receive it but no it's not part of the agenda today but it

[0:10:33] Voice 1: as you wish we could provide it are you hoping to see that right now no no no

[0:10:40] Voice 3: just as an example for what they've done for you know having like contacts for

[0:10:45] Voice 3: people with you know for accessibility and reporting of issues or barriers it's

[0:10:52] Voice 3: just a good reference plan for a lot of the pieces so and what was that called

[0:10:58] Voice 3: for community living bc it's the crown corporation that funds all services for

[0:11:05] Voice 3: adults with developmental disabilities and autism i

[0:11:08] Voice 2: used to work there up until january of this year

[0:11:11] Voice 2: actually i worked i helped um action the plan i didn't help write it but i was working there

[0:11:15] Voice 2: when we were like putting it into action wow

[0:11:17] Voice 3: i just i just did a few month term with them again

[0:11:21] Voice 3: and now i'm i'm off for a little while oh

[0:11:23] Voice 2: interesting you say you and i should connect

[0:11:27] Voice 4: this is great well let's give the staff some direction here through a motion

[0:11:32] Voice 4: um i can kind of somebody wants to try it i can take a stab at it on the fly here

[0:11:38] Voice 4: um i move that the accessibility committee requests staff to look into means uh for

[0:11:44] Voice 4: receiving feedback i'll second the motion okay

[0:11:48] Voice 5: just add on accessibility issues

[0:11:51] Voice 5: choose trust and yeah something like that would be great

[0:11:56] Voice 4: robert will be writing down the motion

[0:12:00] Voice 1: would you like me to show that to trustee uh

[0:12:04] Voice 4: no i'm applying with uh okay

[0:12:08] Voice 1: yeah we're all right

[0:12:10] Voice 3: here i threw the link in the chat as well so that you got both the links there

[0:12:14] Voice 4: amazing great thank

[0:12:16] Voice 5: you fantastic

[0:12:20] Voice 4: so we had a motion on the floor it's been seconded is there any more discussion

[0:12:23] Voice 4: around it nope they don't call the vote although all in favor and sweet sorry I

[0:12:34] Voice 4: can't see everybody they're all good Teresa awesome right all right motion

[0:12:37] Voice 4: carried yes thank

[0:12:41] Voice 5: you great

[0:12:42] Voice 4: job some good business that's fantastic should we

[0:12:45] Voice 4: move on to another section of the agenda now is everyone ready or understand the

[0:12:50] Voice 4: the ask from 4.1 like it stemmed from a delegation that we had well didn't stem

[0:12:56] Voice 4: from a delegation but it did come up again um as part of a delegation to trust committee where we

[0:13:01] Voice 4: had some people attend and uh give us a uh a delegation around how um the hours of the meetings

[0:13:09] Voice 4: that affect them personally they had to take time off work and coming and stuff there's a little bit

[0:13:14] Voice 4: of background there um yeah so it was pretty great uh excellent we'll move on i think we got some

[0:13:23] Voice 4: good direction uh 4.2 so uh the local committee accessibility grants so this discussion i think

[0:13:30] Voice 4: we're going back over to uh director marler yes

[0:13:34] Voice 5: uh we can get my video to turn on there we go

[0:13:37] Voice 5: took a while yeah so this is um a program and maybe i'll ask robert just to clarify with me

[0:13:44] Voice 5: because there's more than one program out there but i believe this program um is um

[0:13:51] Voice 5: um, what's the word for it, will allow us to ask for funding to help with the creation

[0:13:58] Voice 5: of an accessibility plan. One of the problems I'm having is, is really capacity given all

[0:14:07] Voice 5: of the other work that we have in the organization. And this one, you know, I kind of started

[0:14:13] Voice 5: with this draft, which we'll get to at 4.4. It's not really great, but it's just a starting

[0:14:19] Voice 5: point but what would be ideal is if we can find a consultant so we can find

[0:14:25] Voice 5: some funds find a consultant that we can then get a contract with them and and

[0:14:31] Voice 5: then have them give them a terms of reference and then have them do a draft

[0:14:36] Voice 5: work you know present something's committee take some feedback and then we

[0:14:40] Voice 5: can figure out a way with this committee on how to get public comment on it which

[0:14:47] Voice 5: is a requirement under the act before making a recommendation to trust council so we are behind

[0:14:53] Voice 5: schedule i mean this is probably should have been done over a year ago but uh here we are

[0:14:59] Voice 5: so robert do you have anything to add to what i said through

[0:15:06] Voice 1: the chair no i don't uh the um

[0:15:09] Voice 1: in the agenda are is an overview an extensive overview of of the program and the application

[0:15:16] Voice 1: for so

[0:15:18] Voice 5: I'm looking for is if the committee thinks it's worthwhile you may

[0:15:23] Voice 5: know more about these grants than I do so looking for your direction if you

[0:15:28] Voice 5: want us to apply for it then a resolution to ask us to to submit an

[0:15:33] Voice 5: application and I'm assuming it's still open and available to us I'm not sure

[0:15:37] Voice 5: what the timelines were on this thank you great

[0:15:42] Voice 4: any comments from the

[0:15:44] Voice 4: committee I

[0:15:47] Voice 3: think a grant would be fantastic it would either you know

[0:15:50] Voice 3: whether you can use it to I don't know specifically in there right the accessibility plan but I know

[0:15:55] Voice 3: it outlined things like community communication and engagement and stuff so it could also be used

[0:16:01] Voice 3: to create like even once we have a plan um a different format for it whether it be uh some

[0:16:08] Voice 3: kind of video format for it or um accessible language formats it could be used for all sorts

[0:16:14] Voice 3: sorts of things.

[0:16:16] Voice 4: Yeah, I agree. I was looking at it as well. That stream too seems really kind of

[0:16:21] Voice 4: interesting because I think it allows for that fact that we're not, we don't have a project in

[0:16:26] Voice 4: mind yet so much. So it'll help us kind of get there. And it does look like the funding is

[0:16:33] Voice 4: available up till like March of next year, right? 2026, I think.

[0:16:39] Voice 5: Yeah, that's my understanding.

[0:16:41] Voice 4: Yeah. So it's a pretty good amount of time. Yeah. Any comments, Teresa? Sounds good, eh?

[0:16:54] Voice 2: That sounds good. I think it's a resourcing thing and I'm glad to see. I know the government and Disability Alliance BC have been planning for a while to have grants to help folks do this because if you don't have a person to put on it, how are you going to get it done?

[0:17:07] Voice 2: and it's amazing it'd be nice if the government had a bit more anyway a plan that we could all

[0:17:13] Voice 2: plug into a little bit more but that's it yeah yeah

[0:17:15] Voice 4: yeah i have a feeling because they know that

[0:17:18] Voice 4: they have uh this is all a starting point i think when we start looking at the um like the

[0:17:23] Voice 4: accessibility learning hub and all that work that they're doing that it's kind of all coming together

[0:17:27] Voice 4: in different pieces so it's it's very exciting time um i did craft the motion here if that's i

[0:17:35] Voice 4: Can I read it out to you?

[0:17:37] Voice 4: So would this motion be to direct the Islands Trust to apply

[0:17:41] Voice 4: or to direct staff to apply?

[0:17:44] Voice 5: I think recommend that staff apply might be a good way to do it.

[0:17:48] Voice 4: Recommend that staff apply.

[0:17:49] Voice 4: Okay, great.

[0:17:50] Voice 4: Fantastic.

[0:17:51] Voice 4: Yeah,

[0:17:51] Voice 5: and then we'll work with the executive committee on it.

[0:17:54] Voice 4: Pardon me?

[0:17:55] Voice 5: So then we'll work with the executive committee.

[0:17:58] Voice 5: We'll do the paperwork, and then we'll let executive committee know

[0:18:02] Voice 5: what the accessibility committee has requested.

[0:18:05] Voice 5: because i think it's a bit easy that i have to sponsor it

[0:18:08] Voice 4: great great i love it all right i

[0:18:11] Voice 4: move that the accessibility committee recommends that staff apply for the local community

[0:18:17] Voice 4: accessibility grant program i'll second that motion excellent any discussion

[0:18:28] Voice 4: nope is that motion satisfactory yes

[0:18:32] Voice 5: it is great

[0:18:33] Voice 4: thank you and then i'll call the vote

[0:18:35] Voice 4: All in favor? Yes.

[0:18:37] Voice 4: All right. That's approved.

[0:18:40] Voice 4: Unanimous. Great. And then, yes, we also have the LCGAG

[0:18:48] Voice 4: application form. Do we want to talk about that? I think

[0:18:54] Voice 5: it's just placed there for your

[0:18:56] Voice 5: information. Yeah,

[0:18:58] Voice 5: it's just the form that we'll apply for. So yeah, unless you got any comments

[0:19:02] Voice 5: for us.

[0:19:02] Voice 4: Not too much. I did try

[0:19:04] Voice 4: I'm doing a working it up a little bit just to sort of kind of hone my my own ideas of how this

[0:19:09] Voice 4: would all kind of a learning bit to learn how it all kind of puts together around it right

[0:19:19] Voice 4: great all right so we'll move on to item 4.3 which is a budget request for 2026

[0:19:25] Voice 4: six yeah

[0:19:26] Voice 5: so thinking about this right I mean we're going to do what we can this

[0:19:34] Voice 5: year but I don't think it's I don't think we'll get a an accessibility plan

[0:19:41] Voice 5: by the end of the fiscal with the way we're going right now because it's the

[0:19:46] Voice 5: timing so I'm kind of in two minds here because it kind of depends on the LC AG

[0:19:56] Voice 5: accessibility grant and whether or not we're successful with that but this was

[0:20:01] Voice 5: a thought that we could at least start drafting and get a budget request ready

[0:20:06] Voice 5: for next fiscal for some dollars to get a consultant and the consultant I think

[0:20:12] Voice 5: we could write it in a way to complete an accessibility plan or and that would

[0:20:19] Voice 5: would include undertaking the public consultation piece as well as looking at providing it in

[0:20:32] Voice 5: different formats. So whether that's, you know, video or written or, you know, a whole bunch of

[0:20:39] Voice 5: things, audio, whatever it happens to be. So I think we can at least get a budget request ready

[0:20:46] Voice 5: and we can certainly take it to financial planning committee and then it

[0:20:52] Voice 5: was successful with the application with the grant application we can build that

[0:20:57] Voice 5: into the into the budget request as well because it will offset some of the cost

[0:21:02] Voice 5: or you know pieces of it may be covered by the grant and other pieces would be

[0:21:07] Voice 5: covered by Trust Council so to me it's not I think it's a good idea to make the

[0:21:15] Voice 5: a request and then it just keeps us kind of ready to see what happens down the road and where we're

[0:21:22] Voice 5: at. I mean, I may be able to do more on this plan than I think in the next year and we'll be further

[0:21:27] Voice 5: ahead or maybe not. I don't know. But I do think we'll need a consultant anyway because there's

[0:21:32] Voice 5: going to be skill sets required that I don't have and that will be, you know, converting it into

[0:21:37] Voice 5: different formats as an example and you know there's some nuances that I will

[0:21:44] Voice 5: miss you you will probably pick up on it but having a consultant with experience

[0:21:48] Voice 5: in this area might be very helpful hey so back to the chair thanks great

[0:21:54] Voice 4: thank you very much now any comments from the committee no

[0:22:01] Voice 3: I think it's a

[0:22:01] Voice 3: great idea having a consultant or someone with a disability background

[0:22:06] Voice 3: ground. Because it really does change the languaging of things.

[0:22:13] Voice 2: We'll say from my experience, this is a very busy area. And a

[0:22:17] Voice 2: lot of the consultants I know are very busy. So like, we might

[0:22:20] Voice 2: want to start looking at folks sooner than later, or just

[0:22:23] Voice 2: asking around who has time and availability. One one place I'll

[0:22:28] Voice 2: recommend is untapped accessibility. I've worked with

[0:22:30] Voice 2: them and they do this exact thing. Organizations develop

[0:22:34] Voice 2: accessibility plans. And then there's the kind of do it

[0:22:37] Voice 2: yourself toolkit on disability alliance bc you've probably found that one it's like unavailable for

[0:22:41] Voice 2: a long time but yeah there's other consultants but i just know from working in the sector like

[0:22:46] Voice 2: it's uh it may not be easy to find somebody but it doesn't mean it's not possible but just to put

[0:22:52] Voice 2: that out there that it's uh it's a very busy just because it's being legislated in this province

[0:22:57] Voice 2: right now so there's a lot of folks working on it yeah

[0:23:00] Voice 3: interestingly enough i know someone who um

[0:23:02] Voice 3: Another board that I sit on, we just got a grant for research for accessible language.

[0:23:09] Voice 3: So we might be able to pull in someone there.

[0:23:12] Voice 5: So that's awesome.

[0:23:15] Voice 3: Yeah.

[0:23:16] Voice 5: So if you decide to go this route, when the draft, the business case can certainly bring something back to the next meeting.

[0:23:24] Voice 5: So you can have a look at what we're asking and we can build all of that in there.

[0:23:28] Voice 5: So, you know, if it is difficult to find somebody, I think we need to make sure that's clear, which means we probably should make sure the ask for dollars is high enough to attract somebody because if they're in demand, they're going to be charging higher rates, I would imagine.

[0:23:45] Voice 4: Yep, fantastic.

[0:23:47] Voice 4: Shall I make a motion for this then?

[0:23:52] Voice 4: Fantastic.

[0:23:52] Voice 4: Fantastic. I move that the Accessibility Committee request staff to create a business case.

[0:24:05] Voice 5: Yeah, to draft a business case.

[0:24:07] Voice 4: Yeah, to draft a business case for funding to hire a consultant for the accessibility plan.

[0:24:13] Voice 4: Yeah, that's good.

[0:24:15] Voice 4: Yeah, great.

[0:24:16] Voice 5: Yeah.

[0:24:18] Voice 4: Fantastic. That was kind of a funny motion. Does everyone understand my ask? Does it make sense to everybody?

[0:24:24] Voice 4: Yeah.

[0:24:24] Voice 4: Great.

[0:24:25] Voice 3: budget request budget

[0:24:26] Voice 4: request yeah 2026 budget yeah great all right uh do i have a seconder

[0:24:31] Voice 4: second second yeah great thanks um and then i call the i'll call the vote all in favor yes

[0:24:39] Voice 4: right on motion carried unanimous right

[0:24:42] Voice 5: with three for three yeah

[0:24:44] Voice 4: um all right so we'll move on now

[0:24:47] Voice 4: Now to item 4.4, which is trust council, yes, it's the accessibility plan to date.

[0:24:57] Voice 4: The draft.

[0:24:58] Voice 5: Yeah.

[0:24:59] Voice 5: This was drafted up really quickly.

[0:25:03] Voice 5: It's based on other accessibility plans that are out there.

[0:25:07] Voice 5: It has not had much thought about how it really fits with the Islands Trust.

[0:25:14] Voice 5: so I put it together more as a template or an outline as to what it could look

[0:25:21] Voice 5: like and what I was looking to this committee for is is anything missing so

[0:25:28] Voice 5: don't worry too much about what it says specifically but more about the

[0:25:33] Voice 5: headlines or the the section headers and what should be included in those

[0:25:38] Voice 5: sections because what I was thinking here is once we have kind of an analysis or an understanding

[0:25:46] Voice 5: of what the plan should have in it so you know we're not clear what we mean by accessibility

[0:25:54] Voice 5: then we need to make that clear in here we need to know we're talking physical mental or all of

[0:26:00] Voice 5: them which is fine we just need to know that but we're talking about accessibility for the public

[0:26:06] Voice 5: only or accessibility for staff and the public and trustees because a slight

[0:26:10] Voice 5: difference there so you know this plan could get really far-reaching and that's

[0:26:16] Voice 5: why I think we might need a consultant to help to to define it so I'm thinking

[0:26:23] Voice 5: taking a step back here what I really need to do is is develop a project

[0:26:31] Voice 5: charter for this and what that would do is it would define the scope we can use

[0:26:37] Voice 5: that to define what this accessibility plan is and what it is not and then use

[0:26:45] Voice 5: that to help us to guide what should go in there so I may have jumped the gun a

[0:26:49] Voice 5: bit by bringing this to you but it's here so I am interested if you got any

[0:26:54] Voice 5: feedback or comments but I don't want you to take this as like a starting

[0:26:59] Voice 5: starting document that's, you know, 90% done, I would say it's 10% there. And we need to really

[0:27:07] Voice 5: go through each section and fill it in much more completely. And a piece that may be missing is

[0:27:14] Voice 5: feedback. I think the plan should address that in some way. The legislation requires that

[0:27:20] Voice 5: the plan be reviewed and updated by Trust Council on every three years. And that requires some

[0:27:28] Voice 5: public consultation as well and that's what this committee would be helping

[0:27:32] Voice 5: with on a on a three-year basis essentially okay so yeah I'm not

[0:27:38] Voice 5: necessarily looking for any direction here but I am just looking for your

[0:27:41] Voice 5: comments feedback that Robert can capture in the minutes that will just

[0:27:45] Voice 5: help us when we start looking at this document a little bit more fully but as

[0:27:49] Voice 5: I said I really think I missed a step with not doing a project charter for it

[0:27:53] Voice 5: and I think that is something I would definitely do next and then bring a

[0:27:58] Voice 5: drafted that to this committee for discussion and i think if you've got any thoughts around

[0:28:03] Voice 5: this it'll help to fill in a project charter so scope and uh things like that thank you

[0:28:10] Voice 2: thank you great theresa yeah sorry i didn't i put my hand up too soon i thought you were done

[0:28:15] Voice 2: um a couple of things first the um accessibility itself is already defined by the province of bc

[0:28:21] Voice 2: so we and i don't i wouldn't recommend i've worked in some areas where we've tried to define

[0:28:25] Voice 2: find uh let's say equity diversity and inclusion for ourselves and it is a fool's errand that you

[0:28:30] Voice 2: it will never end and you know and when there's already accessibility for us to plug into um you

[0:28:35] Voice 2: know that accessibility is already defined and as is the scope the accessibility plan is for

[0:28:40] Voice 2: everybody who works for the trust anybody who interacts with your organization so that's already

[0:28:44] Voice 2: there um and i think this is a it's a good start to start thinking about it what i would say is

[0:28:48] Voice 2: missing is your headings or priorities or focus areas whatever you want to call it those should

[0:28:54] Voice 2: should come from your audit and your consultation.

[0:28:56] Voice 2: Like for example, when you look at the Community Living BC

[0:29:00] Voice 2: document that Lisa referenced earlier,

[0:29:02] Voice 2: they have four focus areas and one's employment,

[0:29:06] Voice 2: one's communication, one's, I can't remember them all now,

[0:29:10] Voice 2: but they have like, you know, some big, big buckets.

[0:29:12] Voice 2: And then within those big focus areas, those big headings,

[0:29:15] Voice 2: then they have, you know, more localized objectives.

[0:29:17] Voice 2: And then behind the scene,

[0:29:18] Voice 2: there's quite a detailed action plan

[0:29:20] Voice 2: on how you meet those objectives.

[0:29:21] Voice 2: And the goal is of doing the audit

[0:29:23] Voice 2: it and talking to people is that you're finding evidence of barriers and then trying to come up

[0:29:27] Voice 2: with ways to address those barriers so that your objectives and actions should be in furtherance

[0:29:33] Voice 2: of kind of removing those barriers so i think that's sort of what's missing so i think like

[0:29:37] Voice 2: what you've identified here is really good there's a lot of the stuff that will come out

[0:29:40] Voice 2: that definitely will be there but you might find and as you said it just doesn't have the islands

[0:29:45] Voice 2: trust community um itself actually you know in there yet so and that um and then part of that

[0:29:51] Voice 2: like feedback um will come through consultation will be driving this to

[0:29:55] Voice 2: start with as well too so that feedback should be part of

[0:29:58] Voice 2: um creating the plan so

[0:30:00] Voice 2: those are mine excellent

[0:30:05] Voice 4: thank you very much Lisa did you have any comments yeah

[0:30:10] Voice 3: I was actually thinking the exact same thing with that community living one

[0:30:14] Voice 3: like they have those action areas like one is like relationships are important

[0:30:18] Voice 3: it doesn't need to be so formally written either as especially being an

[0:30:23] Voice 3: accessibility plan and then explaining what that means and I think it's also

[0:30:28] Voice 3: important because in the act itself it also refers to the indigenous lens of it

[0:30:33] Voice 3: as well that that's added in there something um one thing i also notice we don't have a person

[0:30:39] Voice 3: with a disability i don't know maybe someone does on this committee but we should have people with

[0:30:43] Voice 3: various disabilities um and yeah the topic should be um something that is a barrier for people not

[0:30:50] Voice 3: things that we assume are uh just for one thought like service animals more or less aren't so much

[0:30:57] Voice 3: of a barrier these days anymore more people it's become a better understanding that people are

[0:31:01] Voice 3: allowed to bring service animals into a place um or any governmental organization it's it's almost

[0:31:08] Voice 3: a given uh but there's there's things like various types of communication that aren't happening that

[0:31:13] Voice 3: are always barriers to people uh another thing i noted in the plan is it uses the words person

[0:31:18] Voice 3: with disability a lot and that's very non-inclusive language and it needs to be an inclusive plan

[0:31:26] Voice 3: versus saying we're going to create materials for people with disabilities how about we're going to

[0:31:30] Voice 3: create accessible language for all people or accessible materials for all

[0:31:36] Voice 3: people so just a thought Wow

[0:31:42] Voice 4: excellent work thank you yeah hey yeah

[0:31:47] Voice 4: never

[0:31:48] Voice 5: made through the chair yeah both excellent I'm really appreciating your

[0:31:52] Voice 5: input and thoughts in this and yeah I actually I can't tell which municipality

[0:31:56] Voice 5: I stole this from so somebody out there is using that language so just so you

[0:32:00] Voice 5: but it's good uh this is

[0:32:04] Voice 5: uh you know next iteration we learn right and we we don't do the

[0:32:08] Voice 5: same mistakes that other people have done yeah i noted in the

[0:32:11] Voice 3: community living bc one they actually

[0:32:13] Voice 3: use the word person with disabilities only one time in their entire plan yeah yeah

[0:32:17] Voice 3: so you know

[0:32:19] Voice 5: it's

[0:32:19] Voice 3: it's not necessarily inclusive language because people don't always identify as having

[0:32:24] Voice 3: a disability um and it's not always a disability uh if someone who might be illiterate for example

[0:32:29] Voice 3: it's not necessarily a disability it might be a lack of learning to read or

[0:32:34] Voice 3: education but it creates that barrier that they speak about that we're trying

[0:32:38] Voice 3: to remove barriers rather than

[0:32:41] Voice 3: focus on an actual disability it's the focus on

[0:32:43] Voice 3: the barrier that we need to have yeah

[0:32:45] Voice 5: and he's totally get it I mean if you

[0:32:47] Voice 5: think about that by mentioning that you're creating a almost like a

[0:32:53] Voice 5: of segregation yeah it's kind of othering

[0:32:55] Voice 3: people yeah when

[0:32:57] Voice 3: you do it too many times yeah

[0:32:59] Voice 5: it's about

[0:33:00] Voice 5: being inclusive and using language that everybody can kind of relate to so it's

[0:33:06] Voice 5: neutral essentially

[0:33:07] Voice 5: it's not identifying one or another it's everybody is in this together yeah

[0:33:14] Voice 2: and i'll say like the

[0:33:15] Voice 2: persons with a disability is like the official like definition language but like like lisa said

[0:33:20] Voice 2: it's the framing in this particular document which I know that you didn't mean whatever but

[0:33:24] Voice 2: it is about like let's say at my local grocery store they have signs that say disabled parking

[0:33:28] Voice 2: instead of this accessible parking yes you know or you know like there's a lot that's just a very

[0:33:33] Voice 2: simple example but um and like what it does is it kind of shifts the focus from you know like the

[0:33:38] Voice 2: problem isn't that the person has a disability it's the problem is that we didn't design with

[0:33:42] Voice 2: them in mind so it shifts it around and um disability of all of the barriers that people

[0:33:48] Voice 2: experience whether it's um being because a racialized or a woman like it's not being a

[0:33:52] Voice 2: woman that's a barrier it's you know misogynistic attitudes that's the barrier so it's the same

[0:33:56] Voice 2: thing with disabilities it's not like no trees of the disability now we have to do you know it's

[0:34:00] Voice 2: like no we didn't plan with her in mind in the first place so now and and i'll say like one

[0:34:05] Voice 2: thing that um just to feedback and things that i just um are remembering now that i saw in

[0:34:09] Voice 2: legislation is that in the future when we do get feedback about a barrier you're meant to fix it

[0:34:14] Voice 2: forever for everybody so yes

[0:34:15] Voice 2: let's have that kind of in mind that it's this is all about improving

[0:34:19] Voice 2: the organization for everyone and like lisa said it's not all disability not all disabilities are

[0:34:23] Voice 2: what are prov what are making a barrier for people that there are other things as well

[0:34:28] Voice 2: and accessibility is like a bigger thing sometimes wow

[0:34:34] Voice 4: this is by far my

[0:34:38] Voice 4: favorite committee

[0:34:40] Voice 5: as i said uh i'm not looking for any direction on this one because i think we got a few other

[0:34:48] Voice 5: pieces to work on first uh but um definitely the comments we've already heard today i think

[0:34:55] Voice 5: robert's captured those um i would also maybe ask if you are reading through it and you see

[0:35:01] Voice 5: something please email me i can just email me directly at my email address which is

[0:35:07] Voice 5: demile at islandstrust.bc.ca and we can send that out to you if you need to and copy Robert Barlow

[0:35:16] Voice 5: as well until we get an email account that we can use and you can send it there instead but

[0:35:23] Voice 5: we'll collect it because if you see something send us an email tell us what you think we

[0:35:28] Voice 5: should be saying in here what's missing all that and we'll just keep that in a file and

[0:35:37] Voice 5: And then whoever is writing this document, whether it's a consultant, me or somebody

[0:35:41] Voice 5: else, will have that as a little bit of help.

[0:35:46] Voice 5: And yeah, so I will bring back a project charter.

[0:35:54] Voice 5: And just for Lisa and Teresa, you probably come across them, but the Islands Trust, we

[0:36:00] Voice 5: We use them as a means to establish the scope, a budget, and the timelines for any project.

[0:36:07] Voice 5: And I think if we do that for this, it will help us to establish what we're going to do, when we're going to do it, and the dollars that we need to support it and the resources, whether that's staff resources or dollar resources.

[0:36:22] Voice 5: And we'll bring that back to you at the next meeting.

[0:36:25] Voice 5: And then we can have a look through it.

[0:36:27] Voice 5: And yeah, look at the language of that too.

[0:36:30] Voice 5: we might as well practice what we're going to be preaching right so make sure the project chart is

[0:36:35] Voice 5: using the correct language as well so that we're not uh not starting off on the wrong foot well

[0:36:41] Voice 5: so yeah i don't need any direction to do that i think that's just the thing that we should do

[0:36:45] Voice 5: it's a legislative requirement to have this document so i don't need direction to get the

[0:36:50] Voice 5: process going i just need you to be guiding staff essentially on the content and the um

[0:36:58] Voice 5: the consultation uh process as well and obviously comment on the the general process too

[0:37:06] Voice 5: so hope is that okay to the chair that

[0:37:09] Voice 4: is wonderful to me committee feel sounds great yeah

[0:37:13] Voice 4: yeah

[0:37:14] Voice 2: sounds good and i'll just share in the chat not for direction but just for guidance as um like

[0:37:18] Voice 2: lisa was saying the way the clbc accessibility plan is written it's written as in plain language

[0:37:22] Voice 2: and they even have a more uh plain language one so i'll just share there's a province the province

[0:37:26] Voice 2: of BC has a page and there's lots and lots of other things but Robert if you want to think

[0:37:30] Voice 2: about it when you're writing your project charter around plain language um some of these might be

[0:37:34] Voice 2: helpful there's just some really simple tips sometimes and right

[0:37:37] Voice 5: that would be really helpful

[0:37:39] Voice 5: thank you yeah

[0:37:40] Voice 4: thank you that's very helpful I'm uh trying to learn as much as I can right now too

[0:37:45] Voice 4: I did manage to make it to that um uh Disability BC Alliance um uh workshop that was offered a few

[0:37:54] Voice 4: was it last week oh yeah it was june 26th i managed to make it to that and so that kind of

[0:38:00] Voice 4: led me to the bc accessibility hub and that's there's so much online e-learning there for me

[0:38:06] Voice 4: and i'm really appreciative of that workshop thank you for uh for highlighting that for us to go to

[0:38:15] Voice 5: awesome that's good

[0:38:16] Voice 4: very good um all right we are at what time we're at 7 10. I know we uh slated a

[0:38:25] Voice 4: full um two hours for our meeting I think but we kind of whizzed through it all well

[0:38:32] Voice 5: if I may

[0:38:32] Voice 5: through the chair um there's a standard length of meeting which uh we figured probably wouldn't use

[0:38:38] Voice 5: it all tonight but there might be evenings where you want to take some time looking at maybe working

[0:38:44] Voice 5: with a consultant on some language or going through line by line of a document so you know

[0:38:50] Voice 5: don't feel bad that we haven't used it all i don't think it's necessary you've provided direction on

[0:38:55] Voice 5: three items so we've done a lot of work tonight actually in the time that we've had here so yeah

[0:39:02] Voice 5: Yeah, I think it's been very valuable, definitely.

[0:39:06] Voice 5: So, yeah, the next meeting there, Chair,

[0:39:08] Voice 5: and unless there's any other businesses, I'll leave it with you.

[0:39:11] Voice 4: Thank you.

[0:39:13] Voice 4: Does anybody have anything else they wish to discuss?

[0:39:16] Voice 3: No, other than we need some people with disability

[0:39:19] Voice 3: or access issues on our committee.

[0:39:21] Voice 3: Well,

[0:39:21] Voice 5: actually, thank you for raising that,

[0:39:24] Voice 5: and maybe if I may through the Chair,

[0:39:26] Voice 5: we do have vacancies on the committee.

[0:39:28] Voice 5: When we first advertised for it,

[0:39:30] Voice 5: Trust Council established a criteria for a membership part of it from the

[0:39:37] Voice 5: legislation you know obviously somebody with a disability would be nice somebody

[0:39:42] Voice 5: that works with people with disability or one or the other or both is nice

[0:39:46] Voice 5: somebody with First Nations or is First Nations and then I think it was Robert I

[0:39:54] Voice 5: don't have it in front of me one or two members of Trust Council so that you

[0:39:59] Voice 5: you know trustee gavro is covering that and then i think a member of the public at large is

[0:40:04] Voice 5: something i can't remember exactly how it was set up but anyway there is room for more members on

[0:40:09] Voice 5: this committee and so what we could do if you would like us to and the committee would like

[0:40:14] Voice 5: us to is we could beat the bush by going back out and re-advertising we did uh have a grant i think

[0:40:23] Voice 5: it was and assistance with the initial advertising but i think this time around we could probably use

[0:40:29] Voice 5: the same sources and uh and if you know of other sources you could let us know where we should be

[0:40:35] Voice 5: advertising so we won't be able to do it in the next month but uh probably in september we could

[0:40:44] Voice 5: get the advertisement out and then see if we can find one or two other members to join us

[0:40:49] Voice 5: and get trust council to appoint them to the committee that sounds great

[0:40:54] Voice 2: Teresa yeah I just

[0:40:57] Voice 2: want to share and I don't mind sharing and I shared this when I applied that I identify as

[0:41:00] Voice 2: a person with a disability I have a invisible disability so oh just like that they can be

[0:41:05] Voice 2: invisible sometimes and not obvious so just put that up yeah

[0:41:09] Voice 5: absolutely I'm not making any

[0:41:11] Voice 5: assumptions about who and

[0:41:12] Voice 2: that's good we

[0:41:13] Voice 5: appreciate

[0:41:14] Voice 2: the comment Lisa too and it's actually a mandate

[0:41:17] Voice 2: that we should have 50 percent of the members are meant to be people who

[0:41:19] Voice 2: either work with someone with a disability or support someone with a

[0:41:22] Voice 2: disability or identify as a person with a disability.

[0:41:25] Voice 2: Yeah,

[0:41:25] Voice 4: I'll just

[0:41:27] Voice 4: point out at that workshop that I attended too, one of the common

[0:41:31] Voice 4: challenges for accessibility committees was recruitment and keeping that

[0:41:36] Voice 4: balance. So it's not just us having problems.

[0:41:39] Voice 2: People don't want to

[0:41:41] Voice 2: self-disclose. I used to work in academia and it seems on

[0:41:45] Voice 2: the surface that academics with disabilities are underrepresented in the universities but

[0:41:49] Voice 2: actually they're not they're just not sharing their their disability they're not asking for

[0:41:53] Voice 2: support because they're feeling so there's often a lot of people who just don't feel comfortable

[0:41:57] Voice 2: disclosing and that's part of the work that we all have to do around not making it because right now

[0:42:02] Voice 2: we make disability an individual like i'm saying like oh she says a disability what are we going

[0:42:06] Voice 2: to do now instead of like how come we haven't created more inclusive classrooms and libraries

[0:42:11] Voice 2: and homes or whatever for everybody to assume because a disability is the one

[0:42:15] Voice 2: intersection of oppression and barriers that we can all experience

[0:42:20] Voice 2: anyone experience a disability tomorrow and that's something that we kind of I

[0:42:24] Voice 2: think is really important to keep in the back of our minds too yeah

[0:42:28] Voice 5: yeah and just

[0:42:30] Voice 5: you know I'll share this my disability is I'm deaf without hearing aids in both

[0:42:33] Voice 5: ears and i can't hear anything so if they don't work i am screwed so yeah so anyway um so you're

[0:42:43] Voice 5: right um disability can be anything and affects people differently so yeah okay um yep i think

[0:42:51] Voice 5: yeah i think we'll you won't need a resolution i think we'll just take it uh probably by general

[0:42:57] Voice 5: consent that we should probably try and get some more members robert and i have talked about it we

[0:43:01] Voice 5: just haven't had the opportunity to get going with that again so we'll do it when um probably

[0:43:09] Voice 5: in september is when we'll have some time to have a look at doing that

[0:43:11] Voice 4: yeah and i do remember there

[0:43:13] Voice 4: was an age limit on it as well which i yeah i

[0:43:17] Voice 4: i don't remember the particulars of the

[0:43:20] Voice 4: the makeup of the committee but um yeah i do remember there's the age limit but

[0:43:25] Voice 4: yeah well fantastic that's great yeah

[0:43:28] Voice 2: okay thanks for

[0:43:29] Voice 4: the merrier uh well then if there's no more

[0:43:31] Voice 4: business oh sorry teresa your hands up oh

[0:43:33] Voice 2: no it's just still up from before sorry fantastic anything

[0:43:36] Voice 4: any last comments from anybody no i'll just say what i what a productive meeting thank you very

[0:43:43] Voice 4: much um great our next meeting is october 7th i hope everybody here has an amazing summer um

[0:43:52] Voice 4: um he gets uh gets some nice downtime october

[0:43:59] Voice 5: 7 will be two days after i get back from uh

[0:44:02] Voice 5: a trip to ireland nice

[0:44:06] Voice 4: oh from ireland no way

[0:44:08] Voice 5: yeah yeah head over there and uh end of september

[0:44:12] Voice 5: the day after trust council ends i'll be on a plane yeah

[0:44:17] Voice 4: oh fantastic good stuff well good

[0:44:20] Voice 4: Good. Yeah. Thank you, everybody, for your for your work tonight, too.

[0:44:25] Voice 4: Very informative. Very inspiring. Thank you.

[0:44:28] Voice 4: Yeah.

[0:44:28] Voice 5: Thank you. I really I really do appreciate what you've contributed.

[0:44:33] Voice 5: I think we've done a lot tonight and I'm feeling really good about where we're heading.

[0:44:37] Voice 5: So thank you so much. Appreciate your time. And just reach out to me if you need to.

[0:44:42] Voice 5: Just email me. Happy to chat with you or email you or send you information.

[0:44:48] Voice 5: just let me know okay awesome

[0:44:50] Voice 4: great all right have a great night everybody thank you bye