Islands Trust Regional Planning Committee special meeting, September 8, 2025

[0:00:03] Voice 2: Okay, good morning everybody. This is a special meeting of the Regional Planning Committee, and we're kicking off now at 10am. We have quorum just, and we are meeting virtually on the lands of where people from the Coast Salish resided, and we are glad to be here.

[0:00:32] Voice 2: so uh call to order so anybody everybody's comfortable everybody's fairly happy

[0:00:40] Voice 2: so we will go on to the agenda and the review of the agenda so late items new items reordering

[0:00:50] Voice 2: excuse me does anybody want to add or comment on the agenda i saw your email uh toby and i saw that

[0:01:00] Voice 2: but we would agree that it would be a different meeting.

[0:01:07] Voice 2: No? Okay, by consent, I say that we've approved the agenda.

[0:01:14] Voice 2: Public comment period, is there anybody for the public here, Rob?

[0:01:22] Voice 5: No attendees from the public currently, Chair Boland.

[0:01:25] Voice 2: Okay, fair enough.

[0:01:27] Voice 2: Right, let's move on into the main body of the agenda then.

[0:01:32] Voice 2: so there is a revised uh business case request for decision and uh would you like to speak to it

[0:01:41] Voice 2: please stephen sure

[0:01:44] Voice 9: thank you chair i'll keep my comments brief i i know that you've all read the

[0:01:48] Voice 9: reports and um the regional planning committee uh had three business cases submitted to it in july

[0:01:56] Voice 9: It forwarded one of those, the Freshwater Strategic Assistance, forwarded one to the Financial Planning Committee.

[0:02:04] Voice 9: It requested feedback on two.

[0:02:07] Voice 9: Those two have returned to you, but with very minor amendments to it.

[0:02:11] Voice 9: I did sort of tackle them and start amending them.

[0:02:14] Voice 9: However, as you can see through the report, that the recommendations are, one, with the eelgrass to proceed no further.

[0:02:23] Voice 9: And I'll explain that in a moment.

[0:02:25] Voice 9: And number two is that the Trust Programs Committee took the Regional Planning Committee's feedback, adopted it, and ran a more robust process whereby they suggested a placeholder of some funds that would accomplish the goals of the Regional Planning Committee, seek future cooperation with the Regional Planning Committee, and do so with also further consideration of funds for GIS resources.

[0:02:55] Voice 9: resources. So starting with eelgrass mapping, you know, I'm delighted to report back that

[0:03:02] Voice 9: staff's recommendation is to proceed no further. And that is largely due to staff had really been

[0:03:09] Voice 9: engaging with non-profit organizations and the province, but not with the federal government.

[0:03:17] Voice 9: And so two key pieces of communications came in. One, thank you to Chair Patrick,

[0:03:24] Voice 9: who sent me off on Hatfield's staff and communications,

[0:03:29] Voice 9: and I can talk more about that if you like.

[0:03:31] Voice 9: And then secondly, we talked to Dr. Tara Martin from UBC,

[0:03:35] Voice 9: who is working with also the federal government for blue carbon.

[0:03:39] Voice 9: And both these groups are planning on mapping eelgrass

[0:03:43] Voice 9: and or kelp forests further in the next period of time.

[0:03:49] Voice 9: So much so that I think it's reasonable to say

[0:03:53] Voice 9: that this group has been very clear that they don't you know really want to support further

[0:03:56] Voice 9: funding or or rather they would rather get that information from other sources so um i think

[0:04:03] Voice 9: that's now evident that that's available we're going to become available so staff recommend

[0:04:08] Voice 9: proceeding no further i can talk more about that if you want or i can move on to um the other one

[0:04:14] Voice 9: the growth uh management framework

[0:04:15] Voice 2: why don't we pause and just ask for comments on that then

[0:04:19] Voice 2: uh anybody want to raise their hand and speak to the eelgrass mapping uh go ahead sam yeah um

[0:04:32] Voice 1: thanks and i you know obviously you know this is a this is a big piece of news and i know

[0:04:36] Voice 1: hopefully uh for director sermac uh this is a relief because i know the work is important

[0:04:42] Voice 1: um and this is you know i want to be really clear uh in in sort of the like

[0:04:48] Voice 1: Like my perception of, of like where RPC has felt about this over the course of the time

[0:04:55] Voice 1: is not, has never been a question of not wanting this work to get done in some form, but also

[0:05:02] Voice 1: there's been, you know, some question about how that was going to take place.

[0:05:05] Voice 1: And, and, and, you know, if there were opportunities to do this in, in, you know, conjunction or,

[0:05:10] Voice 1: you know, through other bodies.

[0:05:13] Voice 1: And, you know, that was something that, that we had sort of, we had asked questions about

[0:05:17] Voice 1: And I'm really pleased to see that this is going to come this way, because, again, I really want the work to happen.

[0:05:23] Voice 1: And, you know, obviously, I understood the pressures of of the the timeline on that and making sure the data remains useful and accurate.

[0:05:33] Voice 1: And, you know, there was you know, there was some some sense that there probably are other people who are doing this.

[0:05:39] Voice 1: I'm glad that we've managed to sort of connect the dots on those things.

[0:05:43] Voice 1: uh and again this is the sort of duplication of effort that that we were worried about

[0:05:47] Voice 1: the island i you know that my concern was that the island's trust and i feel like this was a

[0:05:52] Voice 1: discussion that we had here at this body was that there was some concern that the trust was

[0:05:58] Voice 1: engaging in a duplication of efforts um with with our limited resources and what can we do to make

[0:06:05] Voice 1: sure that those other bodies are being involved or at least that we're aware of what others what

[0:06:09] Voice 1: what else is going on? So, um, yeah, I just, I'm, I'm glad to see this come forward. I really

[0:06:14] Voice 1: appreciate the work that's gone into that sort of communication and figuring out, and I'm glad

[0:06:18] Voice 1: that it's getting done. Um, and I, I look forward to us getting to benefit from this data. Um, and,

[0:06:24] Voice 1: and obviously if there's opportunities for, for the trust to contribute or be involved in those

[0:06:29] Voice 1: things in a way that's, you know, meaningful to those projects, great. Uh, and also the feds have

[0:06:35] Voice 1: budget on a different planet from ours so let's let them do the work

[0:06:40] Voice 2: thanks

[0:06:41] Voice 1: very much thanks sam

[0:06:44] Voice 2: i've just put my own hand up if that's okay yeah i think this is a great way to move this forward

[0:06:50] Voice 2: and i'm glad to see the research and the kind of networking that's taken place and i'd be keen to

[0:06:58] Voice 2: know if the federal project has a kind of a stakeholder engagement element to it but um

[0:07:04] Voice 2: generally, thanks for the work. And I think this is, I support this way forward, and I'm keen to

[0:07:12] Voice 2: see what happens next, where possible, if we can, you know, buy data rather than put people into the

[0:07:21] Voice 2: field to measure things, and then have to go back and do it again ourselves over and over, because

[0:07:26] Voice 2: you have to monitor the change. I think it's really, we're not scaled to cope with that kind

[0:07:32] Voice 2: of thing so this is a really good solution so thanks stefan for the work and thank you laura for

[0:07:38] Voice 2: pointing an arrow in the right direction thank you anybody else stefan go ahead

[0:07:46] Voice 9: thanks chair just to respond i i do have a little bit more follow-up i did have a an extended

[0:07:51] Voice 9: conversation with um hatfield they're they're going to make data publicly available in may of

[0:08:00] Voice 9: of 2027. And that's going to be eelgrass mapping at a 10 meter resolution. They do have, so they're

[0:08:07] Voice 9: using one satellite to do that. They're using a different satellite to map at a three meter

[0:08:11] Voice 9: resolution, but that's commercial data. And so that's a little bit more, I don't know, exclusive,

[0:08:18] Voice 9: I guess. They have indicated looking at Fulford estuary as a three meter resolution study,

[0:08:25] Voice 9: which of course personally i'm just delighted at that um but then we they also were willing to take

[0:08:33] Voice 9: some feedback about other potential areas now keeping in mind that this is province-wide so

[0:08:37] Voice 9: they were indicating places up and down the coast and we talked about those various places and so

[0:08:42] Voice 9: they have partnerships doing that and i suggested a partnership with ourselves and so internally

[0:08:48] Voice 9: Internally, I've been working with the trust team and others to throw out alternative ideas.

[0:08:55] Voice 9: And the main caveat being from Hatfield was they're developing a model which actually not only maps eelgrass, and this is something I share for Chair Patrick, and I think she'll be most keen on this, at least from previous communications.

[0:09:13] Voice 9: And that is modeling suitable habitat for eelgrass as well as just the eelgrass itself.

[0:09:19] Voice 9: And of course, that made me very happy to hear that.

[0:09:23] Voice 9: And so the satellite is developing AI modeling.

[0:09:27] Voice 9: They're taking historical data, developing model, and then they're comparing information,

[0:09:32] Voice 9: the 10-meter resolution scale and the 3-meter resolution scale and the 3-meter in select areas.

[0:09:37] Voice 9: So I'll be following up with them, making further recommendations about potential areas to map at a three-meter scale.

[0:09:44] Voice 9: And I've been engaging internally with our teams to consider where that might be with TAS and ITC and other planners, et cetera.

[0:09:52] Voice 9: So I think the main thing there is public information available May 2027 at the 10-meter scale, where we're looking to partnership to see if we can get more discrete data at a more fine resolution.

[0:10:03] Voice 9: solution.

[0:10:04] Voice 2: Great. That sounds great. And you've got the context now, so you can keep it going.

[0:10:11] Voice 2: Brilliant. Okay. So, yeah, we'll vote on the recommendations at the end, I think. So,

[0:10:21] Voice 2: would you like to carry on then into the next topic, please, Stefan?

[0:10:25] Voice 9: Sure, I'd love to. So, the last meeting, the Regional Planning Committee, you know, considered

[0:10:32] Voice 9: a growth management planning framework staff's attempt was to kind of rip the band-aid off get

[0:10:38] Voice 9: it all done in one meeting make it quick make it effective and then you can apply it sooner

[0:10:43] Voice 9: the regional planning committee said no thank you we'd like to spread that out a little bit

[0:10:47] Voice 9: further and spend a little bit more time in the early stage not focus so many resources at the

[0:10:52] Voice 9: beginning amongst other things sorry that's staff's interpretation of rpc's resolution

[0:10:56] Voice 9: Forgive me, read the resolution if you want more detail there.

[0:11:00] Voice 9: And so talked at length with Trust Area Services about the purpose of that, about creating indicators.

[0:11:11] Voice 9: Good morning.

[0:11:14] Voice 9: About the purpose of that, of creating indicators and metrics to monitor growth and to affect change via the strategic plan and the policy statement.

[0:11:24] Voice 9: and so they the trust programs committee after considering your resolution regional planning

[0:11:30] Voice 9: committee recommended that that work could be combined with a lot of strategic plan items

[0:11:39] Voice 9: it's in the report so i won't repeat it for you and so but put a lot of effort in building a

[0:11:45] Voice 9: business case to take all those indicators together as one project as opposed to the

[0:11:50] Voice 9: regional planning committee doing growth management and the islands trust conservancy

[0:11:53] Voice 9: doing their own work and TAS or TPC doing another.

[0:11:57] Voice 9: So the Trust Programs Committee passed a resolution.

[0:12:00] Voice 9: I've included their report here, so you could have read it in full

[0:12:03] Voice 9: so you know what I'm talking about.

[0:12:05] Voice 9: I'm not paraphrasing too much.

[0:12:06] Voice 9: And staff's recommendation is that we support

[0:12:10] Voice 9: or the Regional Planning Committee supports those efforts

[0:12:13] Voice 9: to develop a business case that thinks about the bigger picture

[0:12:16] Voice 9: of all those indicators and metrics together.

[0:12:18] Voice 9: And we report back in as soon as we can in the near future

[0:12:21] Voice 9: with the goal of heading towards the December Trust Council.

[0:12:25] Voice 9: I can talk more about it.

[0:12:26] Voice 9: I'm aware that Director Freyder was also going to be attending this if she could.

[0:12:32] Voice 9: I'm happy to answer any questions.

[0:12:34] Voice 9: And you can see the recommendations for what they are.

[0:12:36] Voice 9: Or perhaps, Chair, I'll add one more item.

[0:12:38] Voice 9: And that is that work of indicators and metrics, et cetera,

[0:12:45] Voice 9: are also dependent on having enough GIS resources.

[0:12:48] Voice 9: And you can see that the Executive Committee, the Islands Trust Committee,

[0:12:51] Voice 9: the Financial Planning Committee have all passed resolutions similar to supporting looking at

[0:12:57] Voice 9: ensuring that there's enough GIS resources to do this work. And I've made that recommendation that

[0:13:03] Voice 9: the RPC may wish to consider that as well. Thanks.

[0:13:07] Voice 2: Thank you. Anybody want to open the

[0:13:12] Voice 2: discussion?

[0:13:17] Voice 5: Go ahead.

[0:13:19] Voice 2: Oh, thank you. Yeah, I

[0:13:20] Voice 2: just had to scroll up a bit. Thank you for that.

[0:13:22] Voice 2: No worries. I

[0:13:25] Trustee Patrick (probable): have been giving this one a lot of thought. And part of this thought comes from our commitments to reconciliation, where we can work within the structure we have, where do we need assistance from the province for changes to be able to allow us to do what we would hope is a better approach into the future.

[0:13:51] Trustee Patrick (probable): Sure. And to me, this is a project that is an opportunity.

[0:13:59] Trustee Patrick (probable): We often have looked at our challenges as let's create something to monitor or to map or to do it.

[0:14:10] Trustee Patrick (probable): And it's very static. We do it. It sits. Sometimes it gets updated. Sometimes it gets out of date.

[0:14:18] Trustee Patrick (probable): Where we know that, you know, do we want to do the same thing again?

[0:14:22] Trustee Patrick (probable): And I think this is one of those moments for us to have one of those big, hairy, audacious goals.

[0:14:29] Trustee Patrick (probable): Can we create a model that's dynamic, something that could be created in or co-created with First Nations? Could it be based on partnerships and really about a new way of moving forward?

[0:14:54] Trustee Patrick (probable): word. And I looked up the definition of dynamic approach because I had to refresh myself with

[0:15:01] Trustee Patrick (probable): that. So a dynamic approach is an interactive, adaptable, and evolving method for solving

[0:15:07] Trustee Patrick (probable): problems or engaging with a situation characterized by flexibility, continuous monitoring, and quick

[0:15:12] Trustee Patrick (probable): decision-making in response to changing conditions. Instead of static, one-size-fits-all

[0:15:18] Trustee Patrick (probable): strategies. A dynamic approach acknowledges complexity and uses active experimental and

[0:15:24] Trustee Patrick (probable): responsive methods to achieve the best possible outcomes in a given moment. And I just think of

[0:15:30] Trustee Patrick (probable): our growth, you know, growth is that. Growth is dynamic in its own self. And if we have static

[0:15:36] Trustee Patrick (probable): methods, we're always not there. So I know the $150,000 item, no matter what we attach to it,

[0:15:44] Trustee Patrick (probable): is going to be a challenge to get through the budget process this year. We know it's going to be

[0:15:48] Trustee Patrick (probable): a difficult and battling year. And would we not be better off maybe spending this initial time to

[0:15:55] Trustee Patrick (probable): really dig into how we could approach this problem of monitoring growth in a really new

[0:16:04] Trustee Patrick (probable): and exciting way and in partnership with other organizations like what you just gave an example

[0:16:11] Trustee Patrick (probable): with the eelgrass working with other agencies,

[0:16:15] Trustee Patrick (probable): maybe we could really co-create something

[0:16:19] Trustee Patrick (probable): and really do something exciting.

[0:16:22] Trustee Patrick (probable): So that's my challenge.

[0:16:24] Trustee Patrick (probable): Is there that opportunity?

[0:16:25] Trustee Patrick (probable): What kind of business case and money would that look like

[0:16:29] Trustee Patrick (probable): to really develop something exciting?

[0:16:35] Voice 2: Thanks, Laura.

[0:16:37] Voice 2: Anybody else?

[0:16:38] Voice 2: Other hand up?

[0:16:39] Voice 2: Nope.

[0:16:41] Voice 2: Stunned silence.

[0:16:41] Voice 2: silence um so go ahead toby yeah

[0:16:48] Voice 5: um can you hear me okay yeah this is an area that needs a lot of

[0:16:53] Voice 5: thought and i i agree with um trustee patrick that the pre-planning is going to be really important

[0:17:02] Voice 5: the structuring of the project and so if we could have a little more discussion before we go into

[0:17:10] Voice 5: to yes or no about the projected results and deliverables and the risk assessments maybe if

[0:17:17] Voice 5: we go through those sort of one at a time to see have we covered everything and do we need to

[0:17:30] Voice 5: strategize the approach to deal with each of those risks like what what would be appropriate

[0:17:36] Voice 5: in each year and that's what i was hoping for is that a multi-year project would have sort of those

[0:17:45] Voice 5: um the projected deliverables but how and not exactly again sorry we can't predict like

[0:17:53] Voice 5: in that way it's it's more what are we going to achieve and how could we keep building on each

[0:17:59] Voice 5: stage of this growth management planning framework so that's the first part and

[0:18:06] Voice 5: the second is how do First Nations interests and concerns fit in with this

[0:18:14] Voice 5: planning strategy it's a question that I keep being asked

[0:18:23] Voice 5: um gabriela is about to have a growth management workshop on sunday september 14th and so we're

[0:18:35] Voice 5: talking about how can growth be reimagined redistributed so it's very local project

[0:18:40] Voice 5: but a big question always is how we can't talk about growth without talking about desire of

[0:18:47] Voice 5: nations to return to their homelands um and so where does that fit with our planning knowing

[0:18:55] Voice 5: that we cannot do the planning for nations but we can make space

[0:19:00] Voice 5: and plan for um or i guess

[0:19:07] Voice 5: we need to be aware that the opportunity is um yeah i don't i it's a very complex question

[0:19:19] Voice 5: because we don't know where everybody's at

[0:19:21] Voice 5: and

[0:19:21] Voice 6: each

[0:19:23] Voice 5: of our areas are in different places.

[0:19:25] Voice 5: Thanks, Toby.

[0:19:29] Voice 2: So David and your new assistant, I can see.

[0:19:35] Voice 2: It's rather like an alligator.

[0:19:36] Voice 2: I can only see their eyes.

[0:19:39] Voice 2: Go ahead, David.

[0:19:40] Voice 2: Thank you.

[0:19:41] Voice 8: I apologize for being late.

[0:19:44] Voice 8: I thought the meeting was tomorrow

[0:19:46] Voice 8: and uh that could be because we've been looking after our grandson for the week and i'm exhausted

[0:19:54] Voice 8: this idea of growth has really um i spent a lot of time last night awake thinking about

[0:20:01] Voice 8: the inevitability of growth or or does it have to be the inevitability of growth i mean these

[0:20:09] Voice 8: are finite islands we have a mandate to protect the natural environment we are the agents of

[0:20:16] Voice 8: of destruction. Humans, everything we do. I know that on, like, I just share a minute as to what

[0:20:24] Voice 8: Sam Borthwick and I and David Mott are doing on Denman with regards to growth. We've actually

[0:20:29] Voice 8: proposed to our community to remove subdivision potential from our island. And apparently we can

[0:20:37] Voice 8: do that without incurring being taken to court, et cetera, by people who've said,

[0:20:44] Voice 8: who will say that we're impacting their potential revenue

[0:20:50] Voice 8: if they had planned to subdivide their large parcels of land.

[0:20:54] Voice 8: Anyway, we're going to try,

[0:20:56] Voice 8: because this really speaks to stopping growth

[0:21:00] Voice 8: and basically living on an island with finite resources,

[0:21:07] Voice 8: easily defined its space,

[0:21:09] Voice 8: as opposed to a regional district or a municipality

[0:21:11] Voice 8: which can grow, you know, they can grow.

[0:21:14] Voice 8: Oh, they can keep growing.

[0:21:15] Voice 8: They could just keep spreading out.

[0:21:16] Voice 8: But we obviously can't.

[0:21:17] Voice 8: And we hear this a lot from our constituents, that they're worried that as these islands

[0:21:23] Voice 8: grow, we're losing some of the values that brought us to these islands.

[0:21:29] Voice 8: So is growth inevitable?

[0:21:31] Voice 8: I don't think it is, actually.

[0:21:32] Voice 8: I think we have the tools, as the local government in charge of land use planning, to control

[0:21:38] Voice 8: and, in fact, stop growth and really just accept the fact that these are the number

[0:21:43] Voice 8: of developable lots that we have on our island and that's that other than people changing ownership

[0:21:51] Voice 8: from time to time that works for me so i really questioned how useful this tool and i look at this

[0:22:00] Voice 8: you know this project as a tool to manage the inevitable inevitability of growth and i i

[0:22:09] Voice 8: reject that idea so that's just those are just some thoughts that have been going through my head

[0:22:15] Voice 2: Go ahead, Laura. Thanks, David.

[0:22:45] Trustee Patrick (probable): The times are changing so quickly with climate change and the effects that we're seeing that we're responding to data 10 years old when things are happening faster.

[0:22:59] Trustee Patrick (probable): And I think we were talking about what's going to happen with climate change, and we think it's going to happen even faster and faster.

[0:23:06] Trustee Patrick (probable): And so if we're creating static systems and we're monitoring what's going on in our ecosystems, because this is about looking at not just the human number of people, but what's going on on the land, that our islands are going to continue to change and develop in ways with or without subdivision potential.

[0:23:29] Trustee Patrick (probable): Potential people make bigger houses, smaller houses, knock them down, and all these other

[0:23:33] Trustee Patrick (probable): things that are going on.

[0:23:36] Trustee Patrick (probable): Human activity is what we manage.

[0:23:38] Trustee Patrick (probable): We will always be managing human activity going forward, and human activity evolves

[0:23:43] Trustee Patrick (probable): and adapts and changes quicker than we can.

[0:23:46] Trustee Patrick (probable): And I see this as being the project that is really trying to find a way to understand

[0:23:53] Trustee Patrick (probable): what's going on better, rather than just saying, let's do nothing and let it happen.

[0:23:58] Trustee Patrick (probable): you know are we monitoring what's what what's going on so that we can be responsive so what

[0:24:04] Trustee Patrick (probable): could it be called besides growth that's that's a good question thanks

[0:24:10] Voice 2: i'm gonna put my hand up

[0:24:11] Voice 2: and i find this uh an enormous topic because it's really sort of i don't know if the word

[0:24:21] Voice 2: would be the nexus where everything comes together and causes you to pause and consider

[0:24:26] Voice 2: consider like what is the islands trust here for what is it doing what can we do and um i think

[0:24:35] Voice 2: that i would think about the fact that you know and to speak to your point david uh we don't have

[0:24:43] Voice 2: a good really clear laid out you know what what the initial scope of subdivision was on all the

[0:24:53] Voice 2: islands what stage they are at we have that one that's about 30 you know ecosystem destruction

[0:25:00] Voice 2: thing but not like on saturn or any of the islands here's a map that lays out what the

[0:25:07] Voice 2: official community plan envisaged and that would have generated x development lots of y size

[0:25:15] Voice 2: and here's where we are right now should we put the brakes on yes or no

[0:25:20] Voice 2: you know should we you know remove the ability to have five acre lots despite the ministry of

[0:25:26] Voice 2: transport's insistence on drilling a well to prove water etc etc so i feel like we're about to jump in

[0:25:35] Voice 2: and go we're going to have all these indicators but maybe there are some that we need right now

[0:25:41] Voice 2: and that we should create almost as a way to map our path forward to the ones that we

[0:25:48] Voice 2: we need to add to those and that's the one that I feel really strongly about is that we don't have

[0:25:55] Voice 2: a very clean clear picture that says you know what the state is so I think this needs an awful

[0:26:03] Voice 2: lot of thought and whether we're talking about a change management framework and indeed to speak

[0:26:10] Voice 2: to what Toby said was what are we going to do with the indicators like are we going to look at

[0:26:15] Voice 2: something and use that as a hard stop you know um and and one of the you know if i look at that one

[0:26:22] Voice 2: you know the little bar chart where it says that basically main island has gone over the edge is

[0:26:28] Voice 2: that really really true right now because i believe that they lost like agricultural land

[0:26:33] Voice 2: has been allowed to go fallow so things like that i think are really important you know the actual

[0:26:40] Voice 2: actual on-the-ground data about human human occupation the habitation and the islands

[0:26:46] Voice 2: um would be to me a starting point for this discussion i've been hiking quite a bit over

[0:26:54] Voice 2: the last few days over saturn and you realize that um there are so many quite beautiful forested

[0:27:03] Voice 2: areas and that are being destroyed by deer and by by um goats uh but having said that these all

[0:27:11] Voice 2: recovered from clear-cut logging so that's another kind of rate of change that we don't take account

[0:27:18] Voice 2: of and one of the things i don't like and it's a graphic that was in the last um indicators by the

[0:27:29] Voice 2: way, I really liked the first, you know, indicators to the concept. I thought it was a really useful

[0:27:35] Voice 2: contribution to the Islands Trust kind of knowledge bank. But on page 22, there's a graph

[0:27:45] Voice 2: or a pie chart with 22% protected, not protected, 78%. And I really, really take issue with the

[0:27:54] Voice 2: the not protected, because if it's not protected, we are wasting our time. The Islands Trust is

[0:27:59] Voice 2: indeed here to protect that 78% that is in private ownership. Arguably, we have no control over the

[0:28:08] Voice 2: protected other than the peace owned by the Islands Trust Conservancy. So I really take issue

[0:28:14] Voice 2: with that because I think it implies that property owners and the trust are basically asleep at the

[0:28:21] Voice 2: the wheel and so i'd like that you know going forward to be reformatted to make it more uh

[0:28:28] Voice 2: more clear what those two categories mean and um you know it's quite an alarming kind of a graphic

[0:28:38] Voice 2: to put in front of people um so i i kind of i think i'm with laura and with toby and with the

[0:28:46] Voice 2: The fact that we need an awful lot more thought and I think we need to start small and build in layers to something more like a cake in that if we throw ourselves at this wide front of we're going to gather all of this data and we think it will show us things, trends and provide knowledge, I don't think it's going to work.

[0:29:12] Voice 2: I think we will end up with a very slow and overwhelming project.

[0:29:19] Voice 2: I think we need to really be clear about what we're trying to achieve.

[0:29:26] Voice 2: And we need to be clear who our partners are.

[0:29:29] Voice 2: And we need to start with the kind of fundamental information about how the land is being used right now.

[0:29:36] Voice 2: and how different or changed it is from the original official community plans

[0:29:44] Voice 2: that laid out what was expected or foreseen okay i'll stop thank you go ahead laura

[0:30:00] Trustee Patrick (probable): Just brainstorming here.

[0:30:01] Voice 6: Yeah, yeah.

[0:30:05] Trustee Patrick (probable): You know, I look at, you know, we, we,

[0:30:08] Trustee Patrick (probable): Stefan shared with us what Hatfield's doing.

[0:30:10] Trustee Patrick (probable): And I, you know, we don't know who the motivator,

[0:30:13] Trustee Patrick (probable): what's behind the funders that are funding that.

[0:30:15] Trustee Patrick (probable): What were, what was their motivations?

[0:30:17] Trustee Patrick (probable): We know Dr. Tara Martin's conservation lab.

[0:30:20] Trustee Patrick (probable): We know, well, like Dr. Ruth Waldick's work

[0:30:23] Trustee Patrick (probable): that they're doing up here on the watershed

[0:30:24] Trustee Patrick (probable): and all the wildfire work that's going on.

[0:30:27] Trustee Patrick (probable): There's a lot of work that is occurring.

[0:30:31] Trustee Patrick (probable): I wonder if we could coordinate, and I'm saying we as in the organization, not us as in the

[0:30:41] Trustee Patrick (probable): committee, coordinate some sort of a workshop with all these, you know, the partners at

[0:30:50] Trustee Patrick (probable): the universities and polis and all these folks to the table of kind of what's happening in

[0:30:55] Trustee Patrick (probable): their visions, as well as maybe First Nations invite them or somehow have a bit of a brainstorming

[0:31:02] Trustee Patrick (probable): workshop on what's going on and what what could be some of the visions for the um you know is it

[0:31:08] Trustee Patrick (probable): a coordinating issue is the data being collected and it's a coordinating issue or is there data

[0:31:14] Trustee Patrick (probable): that's missing that's not being collected um you know what is what's the problem for this region

[0:31:20] Trustee Patrick (probable): when i talk about these waters this large area of water um what what is the opportunity here

[0:31:28] Trustee Patrick (probable): And how can we brainstorm it and get some of these real thinkers that are doing this every day in their jobs to share with us?

[0:31:44] Voice 2: Okay, Stefan, go ahead. Thanks, Laura.

[0:31:47] Voice 9: Thanks, Chair.

[0:31:49] Voice 9: You know, I just want to return you back to the resolution that was passed and the purpose of it.

[0:31:54] Voice 9: As we all know, it takes a while for the work to get done, so to speak.

[0:31:59] Voice 9: week. And I'm hearing great ideas about coordination, about, you know,

[0:32:04] Voice 9: adaptation about being instead of,

[0:32:07] Voice 9: I keep thinking of the waterfall approach versus other types of management

[0:32:11] Voice 9: approaches. And,

[0:32:13] Voice 9: and I think that's where we were going with the staff recommendation in terms

[0:32:17] Voice 9: of trying to draft a business case that allows us to hire a consultant in

[0:32:23] Voice 9: order to get, to have somebody spend that time, because as it is,

[0:32:27] Voice 9: we don't really have the staff resources to go out and gathering all these

[0:32:30] Voice 9: people and get them together and what have you.

[0:32:32] Voice 9: And then that's part of the needs assessment.

[0:32:34] Voice 9: So talking to the regional planning community,

[0:32:36] Voice 9: talking to whomever the regional planning committee,

[0:32:39] Voice 9: trust programs, committee,

[0:32:40] Voice 9: trust council thinks is important to work with.

[0:32:43] Voice 9: And then what information do we need to know?

[0:32:45] Voice 9: How are we going to use it?

[0:32:47] Voice 9: Where are we going with it?

[0:32:48] Voice 9: And I think that was the point of the business case,

[0:32:50] Voice 9: at least the resolution to TPC.

[0:32:52] Voice 9: And so I'm hearing kind of support for the direction that staff were trying

[0:32:57] Voice 9: to go but perhaps not uh maybe as refined as as um as this group would like to see it but

[0:33:04] Voice 9: i think we're all in harmony to some degree but perhaps it's uh timing or

[0:33:08] Voice 9: um cost that i'm missing so or maybe i need we need more feedback i'm not sure go ahead sam

[0:33:16] Voice 2: thanks stephan yeah

[0:33:19] Voice 1: um so um the part of and i and i like i appreciate that we um

[0:33:29] Voice 1: um, the, the, I, I, there's a, there's a, there's a, uh, uh, rising of the hackles that comes a

[0:33:38] Voice 1: little with, uh, consultants and especially, and not, not, and I totally appreciate that. Like

[0:33:44] Voice 1: we have, there's a, there's a deficit in, in, in available staff time. And I'm not, I, I'm,

[0:33:49] Voice 1: and I, and I'm not, there's no, uh, intention to impugn that. That's not my, not my point.

[0:33:56] Voice 1: um the thing that i'm hearing though and and you know in terms of like what chair was saying in

[0:34:04] Voice 1: terms of you know having me walking around their island having you know observed these spaces

[0:34:08] Voice 1: firsthand um and and you know with that a bit of a nuanced understanding um i am what what seems to

[0:34:20] Voice 1: me uh and and it's you know there are lots of like experts in the field who are very valuable who

[0:34:26] Voice 1: have you know useful information from a technical standpoint we also have lots of people on the

[0:34:32] Voice 1: islands who are in many cases retired professionals with technical understanding or you know people

[0:34:39] Voice 1: who've been watching for a long time who are who who understand what's going on in the islands and

[0:34:43] Voice 1: this also ties into a major piece of criticism that we get a lot of the time and it it may be

[0:34:49] Voice 1: that this is just quite different up north because we are a lot further away from victoria

[0:34:53] Voice 1: um we see staff a lot less frequently um but there is this element of something will come forward

[0:35:05] Voice 1: and and will be you know information will be presented that's been gathered in whatever which

[0:35:09] Voice 1: way um and then what we're um you know that i get i get a number of people from community being like

[0:35:19] Voice 1: like, well, Hey, that doesn't, that's not at all what the thing is. Um, and I, you know, I know

[0:35:25] Voice 1: that, uh, planner Chadwick has been, you know, speaking a lot with, uh, a man named Steve Morgan,

[0:35:31] Voice 1: who has lots of experience around wetland mapping and is deeply involved with our conservancy here.

[0:35:36] Voice 1: I know that's been a part of developing the suitable land analysis tool, um, and, and sort

[0:35:42] Voice 1: of you know ground truthing that um and i think there's an opportunity here and i i i think there's

[0:35:50] Voice 1: an opportunity and a risk here there's an opportunity to um you know use this you know i'm

[0:35:56] Voice 1: i'm all for developing this is not a question that we need to develop our understanding in the on

[0:36:00] Voice 1: these things and i mean of all the bodies we ought to know uh you know what's happening in our

[0:36:06] Voice 1: communities what's how what's you know how things are being done um the the there's an opportunity

[0:36:12] Voice 1: to sort of dive into that.

[0:36:14] Voice 1: And I agree that there needs to be a methodology for that.

[0:36:17] Voice 1: And it may be that the best way to do that

[0:36:19] Voice 1: is through a consultant.

[0:36:21] Voice 1: And I also worry about,

[0:36:24] Voice 1: we've got this perception of being managed from away

[0:36:29] Voice 1: and that if we do this through a consultant,

[0:36:31] Voice 1: we will potentially lose the personal relationships

[0:36:33] Voice 1: of that person.

[0:36:34] Voice 1: If, for example, we send this person out

[0:36:37] Voice 1: to connect and gather information on the islands,

[0:36:40] Voice 1: when that person's contract is up,

[0:36:42] Voice 1: we lose that person's connection. And I think all of us know that personal connections with people

[0:36:48] Voice 1: are what really cuts through the xenophobia on the islands, to use an extreme term. But like,

[0:36:57] Voice 1: you know, there's people want to share people have this information, it would be good for us

[0:37:02] Voice 1: to have that it's vital for us as an organization to know what's happening on the lands where we

[0:37:08] Voice 1: work um and i i i know that it's tricky to to find a um staff time to do this but i would love if we

[0:37:17] Voice 1: could find a way to do this work in house i guess as part of it um and i think we need to focus

[0:37:23] Voice 1: uh i need i think we need to devote at least some of this energy to not necessarily just capturing

[0:37:29] Voice 1: information that exists elsewhere about what's happening here but like really dive down into

[0:37:33] Voice 1: what people know on these islands quite apart from anything else this would also do could be a really

[0:37:39] Voice 1: good opportunity for us to come forward and like confront the thing of the valid criticism that

[0:37:45] Voice 1: you guys don't know what the hell's going on here which is not true fully like i don't i don't i

[0:37:50] Voice 1: don't agree with that that characterization but it would give us an opportunity to really be like

[0:37:56] Voice 1: we're listening we're here to find out what all those things are we're going to use this

[0:37:59] Voice 1: information going forward and we're going to be ground truthing this from a place here

[0:38:03] Voice 1: and not just housing that knowledge acquisition in a consultant to develop deliver again another

[0:38:09] Voice 1: static report which will age um so i hope i know i've sort of rambled a little bit but

[0:38:14] Voice 1: i hope that that makes some sort of sense uh

[0:38:19] Voice 2: thanks sam and uh just i like the discussion

[0:38:22] Voice 2: i think we are kind of brainstorming so uh just free-flowing ideas thank you go ahead toby

[0:38:28] Voice 2: be.

[0:38:31] Voice 5: Yeah, that was really helpful, Sam, the way that you framed it. I don't think that a consultant

[0:38:38] Voice 5: is a bad idea. I mean, somebody needs to be hired to do the work, whether the work is convening,

[0:38:44] Voice 5: gathering information, the needs assessment. But I do think having it to arm's length and

[0:38:55] Voice 5: And for the public not to understand what's going on or to feel anxious that their work is not going to be included or what they've been seeing on the ground or

[0:39:08] Voice 5: what they've been working for, you know, everyone's going to be sort of saying, hey, don't forget us.

[0:39:12] Voice 5: So I took a look at the Puget Sound Vital Statistics Project, which is in the RFD for Trust Programs Committee.

[0:39:24] Voice 5: And it's really interesting if folks take a look through all the different vital signs and how they show up.

[0:39:32] Voice 5: And, you know, that's maybe a direction we want to go.

[0:39:36] Voice 5: But if you dig into who is involved in this partnership, many, many partners, including First Nations, well, I'm not sure how deep the First Nations partnership is or if it's academics who've done research with First Nations people who brought that back.

[0:39:59] Voice 5: But they've got a social science advisory committee to the Puget Sound Partnership Science Panel, and there's just a raft of people and agencies involved. And I'm thinking that's the kind of table we might need to set, because the issues are so complex, and there is so much going on.

[0:40:23] Voice 5: And to your point, Chair Boland, the last page of 22 and 23, those maps, I think they're actually useful to show this is what we have.

[0:40:38] Voice 5: this is the the poor version of what a single indicator uh this is this is the only this is

[0:40:47] Voice 5: the information we're working with unless you go into the conservancy and and there's there's much

[0:40:52] Voice 5: better baseline tracking for those nature reserves but in the nature reserves those are protected

[0:40:57] Voice 5: areas and we have information we don't have information about that 78 percent does not

[0:41:04] Voice 5: protected because it's in private hands um you go to the last map and i have to laugh important

[0:41:12] Voice 5: natural areas in the gabriel on local trust area the largest area is the 700 almost a thousand

[0:41:19] Voice 5: acres which was a three times logged devastated ecosystem that's great for biking and but even a

[0:41:30] Voice 5: A cursory review by the Regional District of Nanaimo for

[0:41:33] Voice 5: fire safety recommended that I think 78% of whatever is standing should be taken down because it's such a fire hazard.

[0:41:40] Voice 6: It's

[0:41:41] Voice 5: not a forest.

[0:41:42] Voice 5: It's not a great natural area.

[0:41:44] Voice 5: It's the largest area we have that has almost like incredibly low levels of biodiversity.

[0:41:50] Voice 5: diversity so it's complex and on the ground information is going to have to come out from

[0:41:57] Voice 5: each you know nature conservancy on each island such great work being done on galliano with the

[0:42:04] Voice 5: their indigenous food systems and how they're working to recover their devastated logging

[0:42:12] Voice 5: areas so back to how do we plan for a like a long-range significant piece of work that is

[0:42:26] Voice 5: accessible transparent convenes and gathers all those um knowledge holders educators

[0:42:37] Voice 5: first nations uh cultural knowledge holders and everyone and we don't get bogged down in

[0:42:45] Voice 5: the process right um could we spend the money at the sort of backing up from that 150 000

[0:42:55] Voice 5: question for a consultant is it better to spend the money to convene the table

[0:43:01] Voice 5: for the purpose of coordinating these different agencies and education hubs to do that needs

[0:43:06] Voice 5: assessment that's kind of the first step what needs to be done do we want 25 indicators are

[0:43:13] Voice 5: Are they different on each island?

[0:43:16] Voice 5: Is a nature conservancy on that island going to be useful

[0:43:20] Voice 5: or the education, whatever, the academics on this island?

[0:43:26] Voice 5: So I think the mapping out exercise for something of this complexity

[0:43:31] Voice 5: is going to be really important.

[0:43:33] Voice 5: Free planning will determine its success or not.

[0:43:40] Voice 2: Thanks, Toby.

[0:43:41] Voice 2: Laura, go ahead.

[0:43:43] Trustee Patrick (probable): Yeah, no, thank you very much.

[0:43:46] Trustee Patrick (probable): Toby, and I think that's the nut that we need to crack here. Do we just hire a consultant who

[0:43:53] Trustee Patrick (probable): doesn't really understand 100% of what we're trying to do? Nor do we right now. I think,

[0:43:58] Trustee Patrick (probable): let's be frank, the Islands Trust isn't the most popular thing in everyone's minds across all of

[0:44:04] Trustee Patrick (probable): our islands. And I think this project really has the potential to set us on a new direction that's,

[0:44:13] Trustee Patrick (probable): like I said, exciting, interesting, worthwhile, and really can embrace working in partnership

[0:44:21] Trustee Patrick (probable): with all of those that do need to be at the table. Something, you know, that we haven't

[0:44:28] Trustee Patrick (probable): necessarily been good at for the last 50 years. This is, we could really reset what the next 50

[0:44:34] Trustee Patrick (probable): years looks like. So how do we do that? And what is needed to kick off that ability to even begin

[0:44:43] Trustee Patrick (probable): in those conversations to shape this into what it could be yes consultants are going to be needed at

[0:44:49] Trustee Patrick (probable): some stage are they needed yet because we don't know what it is that we could be you know developing

[0:44:58] Trustee Patrick (probable): this into so exciting thoughts thanks

[0:45:04] Voice 2: laura sam and then i'll put my own hand up after that go

[0:45:08] Voice 2: ahead sam yeah

[0:45:10] Voice 1: and i'll be brief and i was i was going to sort of direct this a little bit towards

[0:45:14] Voice 1: director Cermak and just, and just be a question of like, you know, having, you know, in, in light

[0:45:19] Voice 1: of this. And again, like I do understand the utility of, of, of hiring a consultant to do it.

[0:45:25] Voice 1: And I do understand that we've got a lack of staff who can necessarily jump on this. Um,

[0:45:29] Voice 1: but it seems to me that it would be really valuable for us to make sure that if we are

[0:45:34] Voice 1: entering into these conversations, that at least one of the faces there isn't going to disappear

[0:45:39] Voice 1: peer subsequently um so that and because that's how you build trust over time you know that's

[0:45:45] Voice 1: that's you you have to be a regular person that these people know and they're like okay this is

[0:45:49] Voice 1: yes we've got a consultant here he's going to help us organize stuff but this is a person who lives

[0:45:54] Voice 1: within the organization they're going to know who you are what's going on you know to at least some

[0:45:58] Voice 1: degree um and then yeah i mean to sort of to what trustee elliot and uh chair patrick were saying

[0:46:05] Voice 1: You know, what occurs to me is that perhaps, you know, and I would hope again, this is

[0:46:10] Voice 1: this is also sort of directed towards Director Cermak.

[0:46:16] Voice 1: Well, so we know, you know, roughly what those needs assessments, you know, need to consist

[0:46:21] Voice 1: of, but like coming up with a list of like key metrics that we want to apply across and

[0:46:27] Voice 1: then with the option to have additional metrics based on different islands specific needs.

[0:46:34] Voice 1: Is that something that we should, you know, sit together and workshop a little bit, have a, have a, you know, sit down, hammer out a bit of a list and then, you know, work to, you know, apply that or, or to sort of start to fulfill those bits through, through a project.

[0:46:51] Voice 1: project um and yeah this is how that's shaping up in my brain but i also really want to just

[0:46:57] Voice 1: you know i want to hear from director sir mac in terms of what his thoughts are on sort of

[0:47:02] Voice 1: the discussion that's happening and and and um you know if he has any insights for us as a committee

[0:47:10] Voice 2: thanks sam i'll just say a couple things myself uh first of all again i think this is a really

[0:47:16] Voice 2: good discussion and I really like the idea of convening some kind of you know convention

[0:47:27] Voice 2: conference whatever we want to call it to bring all of the different groups that are interested

[0:47:34] Voice 2: on the island to get islands together and you know I actually think I haven't had a chance to

[0:47:40] Voice 2: go back but I think someplace in the governance report there was a recommendation that we should

[0:47:46] Voice 2: make more use of um you know local people who were experts in different fields and um i'll try

[0:47:57] Voice 2: and find that later um i do think that if if we did convene something and it is a good idea

[0:48:04] Voice 2: and for many reasons and some of them are about what what laura said which is to actually try

[0:48:11] Voice 2: and build a sense of maybe excitement and positive vibe maybe there was a really good positive vibe

[0:48:20] Voice 2: in the islands when they were creating the official community plans for instance you know

[0:48:24] Voice 2: people felt like okay i'm gonna show up and participate because it's important and we could

[0:48:33] Voice 2: recreate that but i do think that there would be quite a lot of work i feel like if the islands

[0:48:38] Voice 2: trust was to host this they should prepare um their sort of set of data insofar as they have it

[0:48:48] Voice 2: so they go okay here's our contribution our starting point this is what the landscape we're

[0:48:55] Voice 2: looking at and now where do we go from here and i'll stop with that okay stefan go ahead

[0:49:04] Voice 9: pardon me thank you chair um i just i'm going to pull us back and i'm going to invite director

[0:49:09] Voice 9: Director Frater, who is online to comment.

[0:49:12] Voice 9: I think she had a lot of work involved

[0:49:14] Voice 9: with creating that attached report

[0:49:16] Voice 9: and the resolution that TPC followed.

[0:49:19] Voice 9: Just remind you where we're at in the process.

[0:49:22] Voice 9: So you're considering a business case

[0:49:23] Voice 9: for a key initiative

[0:49:25] Voice 9: within this Trust Council strategic plan.

[0:49:28] Voice 9: And the purpose of this business case

[0:49:32] Voice 9: that staff are saying, pardon me,

[0:49:34] Voice 9: is so we can start these conversations

[0:49:36] Voice 9: that you're indicating.

[0:49:37] Voice 9: We don't know how yet.

[0:49:38] Voice 9: that's the point of creating the business case we haven't drafted that business case yet for

[0:49:42] Voice 9: your feedback i'm certainly hearing the feedback um you know we definitely in there is talk about

[0:49:48] Voice 9: needing a business case it's definitely or pardon me talk about needing a needs assessment and talk

[0:49:54] Voice 9: about engagement first nations we can certainly expand that scope we could trim it down so that

[0:49:59] Voice 9: maybe it's not such a a giant data analysis etc maybe we just keep it scaled down to the first

[0:50:05] Voice 9: year or next year business case being more of an engagement discussion or as Chair Patrick likes to

[0:50:11] Voice 9: say linger in the definition phase or something along those lines. But I just want to remind you

[0:50:17] Voice 9: that we're talking about a business case for next year and we're not going to have any resources to

[0:50:21] Voice 9: kind of brainstorm too much before then if that makes sense. So we can certainly talk about what

[0:50:26] Voice 9: the business case should or shouldn't have but it is for a business case for next term. With that

[0:50:31] Voice 9: maybe the chair is willing, I'd like to maybe invite Director Frater to make a few comments

[0:50:36] Voice 2: on what she's hearing

[0:50:37] Voice 9: and the report that's attached to the RPC agenda.

[0:50:40] Voice 2: Sure, go ahead, Claire. Thanks for joining us.

[0:50:43] Voice 3: Thank you. Certainly, I was the one that led the initial development of the State of the

[0:50:49] Voice 3: Islands report, which is available on the trend monitoring page on our website. It was created

[0:50:54] Voice 3: by a co-op student and was done with essentially no budget. So we had to work with data that was

[0:51:00] Voice 3: was freely available and largely already within Islands Trust control or available through our

[0:51:05] Voice 3: GIS system. So that was the way in which the indicators were selected is simply, you know,

[0:51:10] Voice 3: what was easily doable by a co-op student through freely available data. So it wasn't what was best

[0:51:17] Voice 3: for the region or what was most useful to trustees. It was simply that analysis of what could be done,

[0:51:22] Voice 3: you know, within an eight-month co-op term with what we had. So just want to make that clear,

[0:51:29] Voice 3: there was no overarching strategy per se it was simply got boiled down to what can we do um and

[0:51:35] Voice 3: then just reflecting on your conversation i just the the development of this program my encouragement

[0:51:41] Voice 3: to the committees will be let's do this well i think this is at the heart and soul of what is

[0:51:46] Voice 3: the islands trust it under the answers to these questions could underpin answers to so many of

[0:51:52] Voice 3: the questions our communities have about how is the islands just doing how are the islands doing

[0:51:57] Voice 3: you know, how are we managing growth or change as we choose to describe it? I think my encouragement

[0:52:03] Voice 3: would be to do this well, get it on a really good solid foundation and do it in a really informed

[0:52:08] Voice 3: way that deeply connects in with other experts and agencies that are doing this work. So that's

[0:52:13] Voice 3: my encouragement. With that in mind, I'm willing bringing in some additional resources to help us

[0:52:18] Voice 3: do this work for you to bring forward a business case with some, yeah, so I'm trying to work to

[0:52:25] Voice 3: see how we can get this done in a good way for you um that's not sort of a side of the desk effort

[0:52:29] Voice 3: which would be the result right now if i had to work with existing staff complement so just want

[0:52:34] Voice 3: to let you know those are sort of my initial thoughts about how to approach this initiative

[0:52:37] Voice 3: working closely with the director of planning services um but we know that many of those

[0:52:44] Voice 3: documents you're referencing like the island profiles that we have up on your website they're

[0:52:48] Voice 3: coming on i think almost a decade old now and some of the data underpinning them is 14 15 years old

[0:52:53] Voice 3: so we are somewhat due we're going to have to pull those off at some point because they'll just

[0:52:57] Voice 3: be too dated to be you know reasonably referenced um so regardless how you choose to scope the

[0:53:03] Voice 3: ultimate end work um i think this is a needed project for a variety of reasons um i'm pleased

[0:53:09] Voice 3: to be able to support you in bringing it forward but we're going to have to resource it properly

[0:53:13] Voice 3: and plan it carefully i would say thank you uh

[0:53:17] Voice 2: thanks claire i've put my own hand up first of

[0:53:19] Voice 2: i think i always liked that state of the islands indicator report and i'm really impressed that it

[0:53:25] Voice 2: was pulled together in the manner that you've described um and secondly i just like to ask you

[0:53:33] Voice 2: what do you think about the idea of convening a i don't know citizens assembly whatever you want to

[0:53:38] Voice 2: call it um to kind of build a future version of this like start with some groundwork and then

[0:53:48] Voice 2: then convene some kind of assembly to really put information together put it on the table and

[0:53:55] Voice 2: think about what's needed certainly

[0:53:59] Voice 3: I think there could be definite merit in that we know that these

[0:54:02] Voice 3: islands we have so many knowledgeable people in community on these islands that just are just a

[0:54:08] Voice 3: wealth of knowledge and experience and they know these islands so well and are connected in many

[0:54:13] Voice 3: cases to the academia folks what I would say if we're going to do that and we're going to ask

[0:54:18] Voice 3: people if that is you know what you would like to do my recommendation having been involved in

[0:54:23] Voice 3: numberless before is it's really good um to structure it make structure it so that you're

[0:54:28] Voice 3: using people's time efficiently and respectfully that we have a really good baseline of knowledge

[0:54:34] Voice 3: and some research done in advance um so that it can be an effective and useful event rather you

[0:54:40] Voice 3: know so i would suggest that there be a pre-stage of our of going out and talking to academic

[0:54:45] Voice 3: experts, talking to First Nations, gathering that baseline information first, and then using

[0:54:51] Voice 3: community to add value, and being respectful with them by sharing the resources we have in advance.

[0:54:56] Voice 3: That would, you know, I've just kept, I've arrived into your conversation late. But though, you know,

[0:55:00] Voice 3: if you're asking my opinion, based off limited information, that would be my initial instinct.

[0:55:04] Voice 3: Certainly, I think there's value, but you'd want to structure it carefully and respectfully.

[0:55:10] Voice 2: Thank you, Claire. Go ahead, Toby.

[0:55:11] Trustee Elliott (probable): I would not support right now a direction of convening a citizens assembly.

[0:55:20] Trustee Elliott (probable): I think while our communities know a lot of the problems and are really keen to engage, what I was suggesting is convening a table of the experts like Dr. Ruth Waldrick and Tara Martin, First Nations knowledge holders,

[0:55:40] Trustee Elliott (probable): who are have the data and information that we would be working with to help structure

[0:55:49] Trustee Elliott (probable): the framework it essentially is a um i'm sorry what what's the word give me give me a second here

[0:56:01] Trustee Elliott (probable): technical panel informed kind of a

[0:56:05] Trustee Elliott (probable): technical panel or a working group but who is going to

[0:56:08] Trustee Elliott (probable): to contribute to the project, like identifying the agencies that would contribute to the project

[0:56:14] Trustee Elliott (probable): and working with them, which I think would have to be a consultant to design the project to some

[0:56:21] Trustee Elliott (probable): degree. I agree with Director Frater, there needs to be a lot of forethought and pre-planning in

[0:56:26] Trustee Elliott (probable): terms of what do we know so that you're not going to have just a wide ranging discussion that

[0:56:33] Trustee Elliott (probable): doesn't really go anywhere. So establishing a base framework for what are we trying to accomplish,

[0:56:37] Trustee Elliott (probable): accomplish who are the um vested and knowledgeable parties and then working with them to design the

[0:56:46] Trustee Elliott (probable): the how we're going to develop this process i think so i wasn't thinking citizens assembly but

[0:56:52] Trustee Elliott (probable): um maybe that

[0:56:54] Voice 2: was okay i i wasn't really it was it was a loose use of the word i take your point

[0:56:59] Voice 2: completely which is you have to build a kind of a brain work before you just throw open the doors

[0:57:05] Voice 2: um but i i wonder at the process to identify the initial participants but that's fine

[0:57:13] Voice 2: that's further down the line but i i agree with what you said completely thanks um go ahead sam

[0:57:22] Voice 1: yeah and i'll i'll try and be brief i did wanted to sort of just echo a little bit of what i heard

[0:57:27] Voice 1: director zermak to be saying that again this is a business case for next year not

[0:57:32] Voice 6: not not anything

[0:57:34] Voice 1: thing we need to like hammer out all the details of now um and and the reality is is that you know

[0:57:39] Voice 1: we won't necessarily all be deeply involved in this immediately but i do think it's valuable

[0:57:44] Voice 1: with the experience that we have and and the knowledge that we have now to sort of lay that

[0:57:48] Voice 1: that groundwork out um and yeah i mean i'm i want this work to happen um and i guess just my my

[0:57:57] Voice 1: final like the thing that i sort of want to come back around to is and just check in with staff

[0:58:02] Voice 1: staff and obviously i know staff will be involved in this process and it sounds like maybe it'll

[0:58:07] Voice 1: fall a little bit more under director freighter's auspices um but i just wanted to sort of

[0:58:14] Voice 1: re-emphasize that i think it would be really valuable to have a key staff person who's

[0:58:18] Voice 1: who's involved on the ground with any of those discussions as they happen when when this when

[0:58:24] Voice 1: we get to that place uh and and is you know directly tied to to this work um and not just

[0:58:30] Voice 1: having it exist under a contractor's uh sort of responsibilities and quite apart from anything

[0:58:35] Voice 1: else you know it's it's

[0:58:37] Voice 2: better for us

[0:58:37] Voice 1: as an organization to maintain that knowledge in the

[0:58:39] Voice 1: long run um but it's also going to go a lot further in terms of when those conversations

[0:58:44] Voice 1: do start to happen in community having a face that's not going to like i say disappear is very

[0:58:50] Voice 1: very valuable and i know this is stuff that you guys know i just wanted to sort of reaffirm that

[0:58:53] Voice 1: that's certainly a priority for me. And yeah. Yeah.

[0:59:01] Voice 2: Thanks, Sam. Go ahead, Laura.

[0:59:06] Trustee Patrick (probable): Yeah. And I think, you know, as we're not going to have a lot of time because we don't know when

[0:59:11] Trustee Patrick (probable): the next, you know, when we're going to see this business case. And I think that's why it's good

[0:59:14] Trustee Patrick (probable): that we're having this, this conversation. What are the elements of it? And when I look at right

[0:59:19] Trustee Patrick (probable): now, if on page four, we sort of have the consultant capacity funding strategy developing,

[0:59:25] Trustee Patrick (probable): But I think we're really looking at this word co-create. How do we co-create this with the partners, the First Nations, the others that are involved in such a question, such a problem that we have before us?

[0:59:44] Trustee Patrick (probable): process um you know do we have we're we're talking about a methodology that we don't have

[0:59:51] Trustee Patrick (probable): it doesn't exist so i i want to see that in the business case that we are sort of before we go

[0:59:58] Trustee Patrick (probable): off and hire consultants before we

[1:00:00] Trustee Patrick (probable): plan round tables and set tables and invite people that we've really given serious thought

[1:00:06] Trustee Patrick (probable): to what co-creation is and involving um others in the design and even development of that so

[1:00:13] Trustee Patrick (probable): that we really set this up for success and we're really just creating a new approach as we go

[1:00:19] Trustee Patrick (probable): forward one that's you know that's going to bring us down to a a really like i keep using the word

[1:00:26] Trustee Patrick (probable): it exciting but i think we need something that's exciting um and this could really be it

[1:00:33] Voice 6: thanks

[1:00:35] Voice 2: uh just put my hand up so early on uh laura you suggested that we the name as in growth

[1:00:45] Voice 2: management wasn't necessarily um didn't really speak to it very well and i know indicators are

[1:00:53] Voice 2: are there as well and if i look at the um the key initiatives there's um growth management

[1:00:59] Voice 2: ecosystem health and climate change and really i suppose what we're looking for is something that

[1:01:06] Voice 2: will bring those three corners of the stool together so i'm just wondering if we should

[1:01:13] Voice 2: propose that this is the name of this has changed because if we don't change it it will become known

[1:01:19] Voice 2: as a growth management thing regardless you know to live with it going forward and maybe a key step

[1:01:26] Voice 2: at this stage is to rename it to you know a change management framework and that it would be developed

[1:01:35] Voice 2: in collaboration with partners across the islands something like that go ahead

[1:01:40] Voice 2: laura well-being

[1:01:42] Trustee Patrick (probable): well-being sustainability i think these are some of the more modern terms that

[1:01:47] Trustee Patrick (probable): um uh we're we're seeing because you know well-being being um you know it is integrated

[1:01:54] Trustee Patrick (probable): there is you know

[1:01:56] Trustee Patrick (probable): and and and even the term of it might need to be uh co-created when we look

[1:02:01] Trustee Patrick (probable): at it what is the right term terminology but i think well-being is the one of the modern terms

[1:02:09] Voice 2: that's uh and toby has made a suggestion you always uh have the right words quickly toby go

[1:02:15] Voice 2: go ahead.

[1:02:16] Trustee Elliott (probable): Yeah, I've been running through the Puget Sound partnership. I really like the idea

[1:02:22] Trustee Elliott (probable): of there should be, I feel coming out of this, we should direct the establishment of a partnership.

[1:02:30] Trustee Elliott (probable): Who needs to be involved? And then what are they going to be considering and looking at? Well,

[1:02:35] Trustee Elliott (probable): the Puget Sound health and well-being vital signs and indicators, it doesn't just focus on the human

[1:02:43] Trustee Elliott (probable): elements of human health but it's that acknowledgement that a healthy ecosystem

[1:02:50] Trustee Elliott (probable): which has certain indicators will lead to healthy outcomes for humans so we're looking for

[1:02:58] Trustee Elliott (probable): something that's not centered on humans and not centered on ecosystems because the two are

[1:03:03] Trustee Elliott (probable): interrelated the minute we get into this back and forth battle over what are we measuring for is it

[1:03:09] Trustee Elliott (probable): just ecosystem, leave the humans out of the equation. Going back to your point, David,

[1:03:14] Trustee Elliott (probable): if we don't plan for better outcomes, we will end up with status quo. Humans will just do

[1:03:20] Trustee Elliott (probable): what they want to do. The ecosystem will continue to degrade. So measuring the ecosystem for health

[1:03:27] Trustee Elliott (probable): and also understanding human health, such as air quality, livability, affordability, all of that.

[1:03:36] Trustee Elliott (probable): So I agree that growth management isn't a great term because it does assume we're going to continue to see growth in the way that we have, which is not healthy and not sustainable. I personally want to see some types of growth reduced and eliminated altogether. Like you were saying, the subdivision potential latent on some of the islands is an example of destructive growth.

[1:04:02] Trustee Elliott (probable): growth um some growth is good can we see anyway so i think vital signs or human and ecosystem

[1:04:10] Trustee Elliott (probable): indicators of health could be something we could play with but leave it to others what do you think

[1:04:16] Trustee Elliott (probable): thanks

[1:04:20] Voice 2: toby uh so where are we now is it reasonable to say that we have agreement

[1:04:27] Voice 2: i'm trying to summarize but jump in if you think i'm not summarizing properly

[1:04:33] Voice 2: properly that there is a feeling that the focus on growth management is it needs to be shifted

[1:04:42] Voice 2: to something that embraces more a kind of change management ethos and includes human and ecosystems

[1:04:48] Voice 2: and in fact that speaks to the three initiatives and strategic initiatives that this is about it's

[1:04:55] Voice 2: It's growth management, ecosystem, health and climate change.

[1:04:59] Voice 2: So that would be a better way to frame it.

[1:05:03] Voice 2: Then there's the idea of cooperation.

[1:05:06] Voice 2: And I like the idea of cooperation with specific partners like First Nations.

[1:05:13] Voice 2: But how about the idea of collaborating with knowledge holders effectively throughout the entire islands?

[1:05:26] Voice 2: and um i think are have we do you think we've settled on the idea that there would be a

[1:05:34] Voice 2: the initial business case would be about creating this um framework gathering information with the

[1:05:43] Voice 2: goal of having some kind of convention is that is it reasonable to say that in maybe not next

[1:05:51] Voice 2: year but the year after early the following year I'm thinking about the election and the timing of

[1:05:57] Voice 2: that uh Stefan and Claire would you like to weigh in

[1:06:04] Voice 3: trustee Bullen I might need to get you to repeat

[1:06:06] Voice 3: it sorry I was trying to capture something if you could just repeat the actual question I did hear

[1:06:10] Voice 3: the the substance of it

[1:06:12] Voice 2: I'm not sure if I can actually repeat it my question really was um

[1:06:17] Voice 2: I think we're settling on the idea that we might have some kind of like giant workshop I can't

[1:06:23] Voice 2: can't think of the right word, that would bring people to the table to consider something

[1:06:28] Voice 2: which I think Toby has spoken to, which is like human and ecosystem health, and that

[1:06:36] Voice 2: we would have to do a lot of groundwork to sort of put in place information that would

[1:06:40] Voice 2: kick the ball off.

[1:06:42] Voice 2: I like the idea of creating a title for it that indeed encompasses the three strategic

[1:06:49] Voice 2: elements, which is growth management and community resiliency, ecosystem health and integrity and

[1:06:56] Voice 2: climate change, rather than just at the moment, it's called either the indicator report or growth

[1:07:01] Voice 2: management. So making something and I think it's important to do it now before it sort of

[1:07:06] Voice 2: has legs and becomes by default known as that. And so that next year, there would be a kind of a

[1:07:15] Voice 2: preparation of information and laying out of of what would happen next so that was my question

[1:07:24] Voice 2: could you just comment on that yeah yeah

[1:07:27] Voice 3: so through the chair I can answer that even the

[1:07:29] Voice 3: even this morning my team was talking about the need for the name for this project so we're all

[1:07:33] Voice 3: in the same place there I think what we would like to do as staff is come back to you with some

[1:07:37] Voice 3: suggestions I think we've got a number of ideas around how this could be presented and certainly

[1:07:42] Voice 3: as we work on a business case we could present to the committees some potential names of the project

[1:07:48] Voice 3: so I think it's a bit premature to come up with something here but if you have ideas I'd certainly

[1:07:53] Voice 3: welcome you sending me an email or with the director of planning around what your thoughts

[1:07:58] Voice 3: might be for the name of the project and we could you know come back to the very the two committees

[1:08:02] Voice 3: with potential names for it and then see if that aligns with how people see it moving forward

[1:08:07] Voice 3: And

[1:08:09] Voice 2: what about the idea that, you know, next year with this business case, we work on the preparation of information and participants to work towards a kind of collaborative framework to do this?

[1:08:30] Voice 3: Well, Chair, would you like me to respond?

[1:08:33] Voice 2: Yeah, please.

[1:08:34] Voice 2: please. Okay.

[1:08:35] Voice 3: So you are the chair at this point. I'm looking at the wrong chair.

[1:08:38] Voice 3: I'm looking for, I think what we're going to be doing is building out alternatives for you,

[1:08:44] Voice 3: as well as a recommended approach. So within that, we're going to, if with any business case,

[1:08:49] Voice 3: we bring you, we bring you the staff recommendation, or in this case, it might be the two

[1:08:53] Voice 3: committees recommendation to council, but there'll also be some built out alternatives. So I think

[1:08:57] Voice 3: the staging of how this project rolls out will be both in, you know, one approach would be in

[1:09:02] Voice 3: the recommendations but alternate approaches we provided in the alternative section so it's a bit

[1:09:08] Voice 3: we're just so early here uh it's too early for me to tell you what a definitive recommendation

[1:09:12] Voice 3: would be because we just haven't done the hard thinking yet okay

[1:09:17] Voice 2: thanks claire um so toby go

[1:09:19] Voice 2: ahead

[1:09:20] Trustee Elliott (probable): sorry i was a bit lost at documents um i only wanted to say i i wouldn't want to see us

[1:09:28] Trustee Elliott (probable): create a deliverable of a an in-person gathering so when i when i talk about convening

[1:09:36] Trustee Elliott (probable): it's you know in the world of academia everybody relies on their research and papers and where

[1:09:43] Trustee Elliott (probable): they've presented something and they know the information they need to get so it convening is

[1:09:48] Trustee Elliott (probable): sort of a or setting the table sort of a metaphor for who's in the room who are the experts and

[1:09:57] Trustee Elliott (probable): what areas are they going to inform and so when I look at this Puget Sound which I really

[1:10:04] Trustee Elliott (probable): encourage everybody to look is they've got six of the proposed indicators we use data already

[1:10:09] Trustee Elliott (probable): collected regularly by public and private partners there's these other three indicators that have

[1:10:14] Trustee Elliott (probable): these specific people that are the lead on that drinking water has its own thing so it's not just

[1:10:21] Trustee Elliott (probable): one big session where everybody is in a room talking it's you you have a partnership of

[1:10:28] Trustee Elliott (probable): different agencies, somebody is perhaps, and this is the approach that Director

[1:10:33] Trustee Elliott (probable): Frater, staff might suggest an approach that would have a lead in each area that

[1:10:41] Trustee Elliott (probable): can then gather the information and pull it back. So I do see this as a

[1:10:46] Trustee Elliott (probable): multi-stage rolling out over several years. I think it's coming back to the

[1:10:51] Trustee Elliott (probable): the recommended motion. Do staff recommend now hearing the conversation that that $150,000 for

[1:11:04] Trustee Elliott (probable): a consultant to sort of frame it up? Is it more that we could spend, I don't know,

[1:11:13] Trustee Elliott (probable): I don't want to put a number on it, but whatever number would support a part-time person working

[1:11:20] Trustee Elliott (probable): Working with a dedicated staff person to do this initial research, find those different agencies, figure out which indicators we're going to be able to measure, which already have lots of data available, and then design the methodology with, you know, in partnership with, as Chair Patrick said, First Nations partners.

[1:11:44] Trustee Elliott (probable): We cannot do this as a design and then invite them to the table.

[1:11:49] Trustee Elliott (probable): Sorry, that was, again, long-winded.

[1:11:53] Voice 2: um no that was great i'm actually looking at puget sound and all the partners it would be interesting

[1:11:58] Voice 2: to know and maybe we could make an inquiry as to how they build or achieve those partnerships like

[1:12:06] Voice 2: what type of contribution they are making not technical data but just how they work together

[1:12:13] Voice 2: because the partners are all on that website which is a really powerful way

[1:12:18] Voice 2: to demonstrate how the collaboration is happening um but you know on a day-to-day basis what is

[1:12:26] Voice 2: their role exactly and how do they contribute and um backwards and forwards it just that's

[1:12:32] Voice 2: a bit of an aside thanks toby so uh go ahead david yeah

[1:12:37] Voice 8: thank you um how do um the two tools

[1:12:44] Voice 8: that we have been working on,

[1:12:46] Voice 8: the freshwater sustainability study

[1:12:48] Voice 8: and the suitable land analysis.

[1:12:50] Voice 8: How does all that data fit into this project

[1:12:56] Voice 8: that I keep hearing about that we need more data?

[1:12:58] Voice 8: We've got to get all this data.

[1:13:00] Voice 8: Like what's missing?

[1:13:01] Voice 8: And I guess that's my big question.

[1:13:03] Voice 8: I don't really understand what the point of this is.

[1:13:08] Voice 8: And I certainly want to frame the,

[1:13:10] Voice 8: if you're going to go down this road,

[1:13:12] Voice 8: then maybe add the words the next 50 years to whatever you're proposing.

[1:13:20] Voice 8: I'm sorry, that's just, I am still confused on this one.

[1:13:26] Voice 2: Go ahead, Claire.

[1:13:28] Voice 3: I'm happy to try and take an answer to that.

[1:13:31] Voice 3: So what's missing, part of it is that we don't have the answer to that question always around

[1:13:35] Voice 3: what data layers are available or needed to ensure that you have really excellent platform

[1:13:42] Voice 3: for preserve and protect decisions, right?

[1:13:44] Voice 3: Right. So you'll see on page we've got a listing of through the new proposed policy statement of mapping layers that would be needed to fully implement that process, some of which we have, some of which we don't, some of which we have.

[1:13:58] Voice 3: But they're 15 years old. So relying on those as you know, for current well-informed decision making, you know, will be unwise in a few years.

[1:14:07] Voice 3: right because they'll be so dated part of it too is the ability to what's missing sometimes is the

[1:14:13] Voice 3: ability to analyze that information to produce easy to understand information graphics or trend

[1:14:20] Voice 3: charts that help you can place preserve and protect decisions in an appropriate context so

[1:14:26] Voice 3: one of the looking at okay yes you've got lots of forest but does it contain biodiversity you know

[1:14:34] Voice 3: those types of information for you, looking at species at risk. Yes, you have lots of forest,

[1:14:39] Voice 3: but certain parts of that forest are the ones you really want to take care of because they are the

[1:14:44] Voice 3: habitat for, you know, known species at risk or species at risk occurrences. We want to be able

[1:14:49] Voice 3: to, I think, get those information there. But I want to be clear, this project was, as I put it

[1:14:53] Voice 3: forward, was not just about ecosystem indicators. I think we were looking broadly at social indicators

[1:14:59] Voice 3: as well such as the last state of the island report around community around how the land use

[1:15:05] Voice 3: decisions that we're making influence community well-being as well and then get some proxy measure

[1:15:10] Voice 3: for those looking at what data is available through census ferry ridership any of the others

[1:15:15] Voice 3: that we get um for that of course freshwater mapping and the algorithm that runs the land

[1:15:23] Voice 3: suitability tool would be considered and part of this project and i think that's part of it making

[1:15:28] Voice 3: making sure that we know how that land suitability tool is being used.

[1:15:32] Voice 3: Are the data sets it's pulling from the right ones?

[1:15:34] Voice 3: Are they, could there be other data that's fed in?

[1:15:37] Voice 3: How are the weighting that's going on in that system?

[1:15:41] Voice 3: Is it the right weight?

[1:15:43] Voice 3: All of that would happen, I think, through this project

[1:15:45] Voice 3: and hopefully bring in some real, you know, expert knowledge

[1:15:49] Voice 3: to help us do that in a world-class kind of way.

[1:15:53] Voice 2: Thanks, Claire. I just put my hand up.

[1:15:55] Voice 2: yeah i feel like i can take david's point and i can take yours and we're kind of someplace in

[1:16:03] Voice 2: the middle here of on the one extreme it's like should we attempt to boil the ocean and on the

[1:16:08] Voice 2: other what do we practically need on a day-to-day basis and it's quite hard at the moment we're sort

[1:16:14] Voice 2: of zigzagging backwards and forwards and so in the preparation of a new or revised business case

[1:16:23] Voice 2: I would love to see something that said this is some sort of minimum set of information.

[1:16:30] Voice 2: You know, we are land use planning primarily, and at a minimum, we need to know the following.

[1:16:37] Voice 2: And then we can expand the scope because, of course, all data is good and the trends and people are doing really good work.

[1:16:44] Voice 2: But it's hard to not overwhelm ourselves, basically, with data analysis and data layers.

[1:16:51] Voice 2: so finding some sort of minimum set might get us started and if we then began to understand

[1:16:59] Voice 2: the cost of implementing that it would give you a sort of a control over your ambitions to

[1:17:07] Voice 2: boil the ocean by bringing in every possible piece of data that was available so it would

[1:17:15] Voice 2: be good to see like what what we actually have just the problem is that doing those kind of

[1:17:20] Voice 2: inventories can absorb an awful lot of time as well so it would have to be done at a fairly

[1:17:26] Voice 2: high level or we would just drag ourselves under with that as well okay i'll stop go ahead anybody

[1:17:32] Voice 2: else want to jump in uh go ahead stephan

[1:17:38] Voice 9: i'll i'll defer

[1:17:39] Voice 8: to trusty graham thank you thank you stephan

[1:17:44] Voice 8: Thank you, Chair. Just one more question. And I know people will bristle when I mention artificial intelligence, but isn't that the tool that is built to analyze data? I mean, that's really, I believe, what AI does so well and so quickly.

[1:18:06] Voice 8: So, is that part of the solution, is to engage this gigantic data machine, distiller, distillery? Yeah. Thank you.

[1:18:23] Voice 2: You mean the great boiler of oceans?

[1:18:27] Voice 8: The great boiler of oceans. Thank you, Chair. I love that.

[1:18:32] Voice 3: Okay, go ahead, Claire.

[1:18:35] Voice 3: I would say certainly it could be. But the one thing I will remind everyone is the 1980s phrase of garbage in garbage out. Like, I think we need to ensure that we have really good data, and then talk with some experts around how could AI be useful in terms of interpreting the data. But until we have good data, and it's up to date, and it's relevant, I would caution on any, any big investment in analysis of it.

[1:19:01] Voice 3: So that, but yes, certainly I think that is the way of the future.

[1:19:04] Voice 3: And that is where we would need some external expertise to come in.

[1:19:09] Voice 2: Go ahead, Stephan.

[1:19:11] Voice 9: Thank you, Chair.

[1:19:14] Voice 9: Sorry, a lot of thoughts about boiling the ocean.

[1:19:17] Voice 9: So I'm hearing from the committee, certainly a desire to change the name for the indicator program,

[1:19:22] Voice 9: if it is to be developed or a business case to be advanced, to encompass more the breadth of it,

[1:19:29] Voice 9: You know, not just the growth planning management framework, but the more as you're indicating towards the Puget Sound's health of human and ecosystems.

[1:19:39] Voice 9: So I think we can certainly take that under consideration as we develop the business case, assuming that we're going to go forward with that.

[1:19:47] Voice 9: Or I guess TPC is already going forward with that.

[1:19:50] Voice 9: I just want to remind you again with the business case, you know, partnership development is part of the business case.

[1:19:55] Voice 9: and that you know whom we engage with how and when um that's all part of it and so we need to

[1:20:01] Voice 9: as uh director freighter said we need to spend a lot of time um in the prep work getting there

[1:20:08] Voice 9: and that's what we're proposing to do right now with developing this business case so um you know

[1:20:13] Voice 9: i'm conscious of time today and i'm just thinking that you know if you're what i'm hearing is um

[1:20:19] Voice 9: you know make sure that we go slowly and thoughtfully and engage with people make sure

[1:20:25] Voice 9: that we're being clear about what it is we're trying to accomplish and of course that's going

[1:20:28] Voice 9: through the strategic plan and I'm happy to go forward with that I just want to remind you that

[1:20:34] Voice 9: you know we're you know the partnership development is in there the conducting a needs assessment

[1:20:39] Voice 9: about why we're doing it that's all part of this business case to do so that that is captured in

[1:20:44] Voice 9: there to some degree so I just want to make sure I'm pulling us back and mainly because I'm trying

[1:20:49] Voice 9: to make sure I can get the work done on time for you when it comes time to present it so

[1:20:52] Voice 9: Sure.

[1:20:54] Voice 2: Can I just ask you, before I go to you, Laura, Stefan, can you just remind us of the kind of timeline for the work that you're about to do? And with respect to the last point you made about, actually, I've forgotten, it was to do with the collaboration.

[1:21:14] Voice 2: collaboration like was it to develop the business case or within the business case there'd be

[1:21:20] Voice 2: a scope around collaboration let's leave it at that for the moment if you could just give us a

[1:21:26] Voice 2: quick timeline like i need a business case by here i need that kind of recommendation from you

[1:21:31] Voice 2: just lay out our kind of responsibilities between now and the next 15 or 20 minutes and then i'll

[1:21:38] Voice 2: go to laura go ahead great

[1:21:39] Voice 9: okay well as per the staff report you know staff are currently assessing

[1:21:43] Voice 9: the amount of unspent salaries we had,

[1:21:45] Voice 9: meaning from Director Frater's department

[1:21:47] Voice 9: to get us some support in developing this business case

[1:21:51] Voice 9: because we're both noting that it's hard to find the time

[1:21:54] Voice 9: to do this, especially with Trust Council

[1:21:55] Voice 9: and all the other meetings and all the other projects

[1:21:58] Voice 9: we currently have going on.

[1:21:59] Voice 9: And that the depth of focus that this particular business case

[1:22:04] Voice 9: will require is substantive.

[1:22:07] Voice 9: And so I know Director Frater's working with some resources

[1:22:09] Voice 9: to hire somebody she has in mind to do that.

[1:22:12] Voice 9: And I don't think she can speak further about who and when and how much, but suffice to say, we're trying to get to the December Trust Council.

[1:22:19] Voice 9: And if we go backwards, you know, that's not a lot of time for us to get ready for the, I guess, November Executive Committee would be the cutoff for that agenda.

[1:22:30] Voice 9: How that works for this committee is an interesting question I haven't answered yet in my head is,

[1:22:36] Voice 9: Is do we get together with yet another special business meeting combined with TPC or not to vet that?

[1:22:41] Voice 9: Or do we just go straight to executive committee and then straight to trust counsel, which I suspect is not the wisest direction.

[1:22:47] Voice 9: But what we could use now is indication from the RPC, whether or not you support this general direction of merging indicators together and, you know, to work with, you know, a business case that considers future partnership development, data analysis and needs assessments.

[1:23:04] Voice 9: investments. And so that would be helpful today if you had any indication of at least endorsing

[1:23:11] Voice 9: the direction that we've proposed going forward and that TPC has already supported. And then

[1:23:16] Voice 9: timelines next, I think we would just have to get back to you as we develop the business case and

[1:23:22] Voice 9: the timelines that we are able to do so. So sorry, I can't give you more, but we really are

[1:23:26] Voice 2: against

[1:23:27] Voice 9: a wall for timelines and resources.

[1:23:30] Voice 2: It's okay. We need to kind of focus a bit indeed. Laura,

[1:23:33] Voice 2: Laura, go ahead.

[1:23:36] Voice 2: I mean, this

[1:23:37] Trustee Patrick (probable): is, so to me, the business case establishes the budget is the primary and

[1:23:43] Trustee Patrick (probable): sort of the general or high level scope that's associated with it.

[1:23:48] Trustee Patrick (probable): This is a big project.

[1:23:49] Trustee Patrick (probable): This is change management.

[1:23:51] Trustee Patrick (probable): This is really doing things in a way that's never been done before.

[1:23:55] Trustee Patrick (probable): And so there's a lot of steps.

[1:23:58] Trustee Patrick (probable): And I think this business case needs to outline that a little bit as well, that you're

[1:24:05] Trustee Patrick (probable): you know that there will be work plans there will be decision points there this is this is not okay

[1:24:12] Trustee Patrick (probable): 150 000 is approved now we just go off and start delivering this program um that you know that

[1:24:20] Trustee Patrick (probable): there are going there are going to be very detailed work plans created um that are going to

[1:24:26] Trustee Patrick (probable): have various decision making points or information points in there that bring trust council the

[1:24:34] Trustee Patrick (probable): the future trust council along on this development as it goes forward.

[1:24:40] Trustee Patrick (probable): So that's only my concern.

[1:24:43] Trustee Patrick (probable): Sometimes we go right from a business case to projects are underway

[1:24:46] Trustee Patrick (probable): and they get done if it gets approved through budget,

[1:24:51] Trustee Patrick (probable): if it survives and makes it to the budget phase.

[1:24:54] Trustee Patrick (probable): So I really want to see this worked out that if we're going to do things differently,

[1:24:59] Trustee Patrick (probable): We have to do things differently and really bring Trust Council along on that development path.

[1:25:11] Voice 2: Thank you. So, OK, go ahead, Claire.

[1:25:18] Voice 3: So certainly just wanted to address that as I'm mulling how to work with the director to get a business case done.

[1:25:25] Voice 3: done. I think what we want to provide is something to trust council for their December meeting at

[1:25:30] Voice 3: the contemplation of the first version of the draft budget sufficient to have confidence that

[1:25:34] Voice 3: this is something they want to have money in the budget for. I don't think because I just don't

[1:25:40] Voice 3: think we can have an abundance of detail ready for that meeting just because we work with such

[1:25:43] Voice 3: advanced meeting preparation timelines. But what I would expect is if I can hire someone to come in

[1:25:49] Voice 3: and help with this, we'd be able to feed more information in through January, February, such

[1:25:53] Voice 3: such that when council goes to consider a final budget in March, there'd be a robust more amount

[1:25:58] Voice 3: of data. And I think we'd be bringing this forward, as Trustee Patrick said, as a multi-year

[1:26:04] Voice 3: strategy. And this would be phase one of multi-phase strategy. And staff, I think as we

[1:26:09] Voice 3: prepare this, are cognizant there is an election coming as well. You do have a multi-year strategic

[1:26:13] Voice 3: plan, and we'll be leaning into that for the vision and direction of how we craft this.

[1:26:19] Voice 3: But I just want to caution everyone that I don't think that through the fall here,

[1:26:23] Voice 3: we're going to have you know a really robust built-out business case available for you

[1:26:27] Voice 2: so

[1:26:28] Voice 3: we'll do our best and to build it through the budget cycle thanks

[1:26:33] Voice 2: claire um laura as a chair

[1:26:37] Voice 2: do you think there's there could be an opportunity at trust council to do a sort of a

[1:26:43] Voice 2: a heads up for your information type thing in september i know it's a bit of an ask but i just

[1:26:50] Voice 2: thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to have people just think about it even direct them to the

[1:26:57] Voice 2: minutes of this meeting for instance um just a thought and yeah what do you think well

[1:27:04] Trustee Patrick (probable): uh it you

[1:27:05] Trustee Patrick (probable): have the opportunity as chair of regional planning committee to give a report

[1:27:09] Trustee Patrick (probable): so you can set this

[1:27:11] Trustee Patrick (probable): stage saying you know this committee you can you have a little bit of time to go into what detail

[1:27:17] Trustee Patrick (probable): until you need to and say that this is coming in December

[1:27:21] Trustee Patrick (probable): and this is sort of where we're going.

[1:27:23] Trustee Patrick (probable): So you have an

[1:27:24] Trustee Patrick (probable): opportunity, you can work with staff

[1:27:25] Trustee Patrick (probable): to sort of, how can you pitch this?

[1:27:27] Trustee Patrick (probable): This is your chance to pitch it.

[1:27:29] Trustee Patrick (probable): And you could ask people to,

[1:27:32] Trustee Patrick (probable): or talk to people through Trust Council

[1:27:35] Trustee Patrick (probable): in September on the side after you give,

[1:27:37] Trustee Patrick (probable): because that'll be early in the meeting

[1:27:39] Trustee Patrick (probable): that you'll have that opportunity to give that pitch.

[1:27:42] Trustee Patrick (probable): Thanks

[1:27:42] Voice 2: for bouncing that right back.

[1:27:45] Voice 2: Yeah, good point.

[1:27:46] Voice 2: okay um right let's i see that toby is proposing that she would submit a motion and you know what

[1:27:55] Voice 2: i would also recommend and we don't need it in the motion is that if you do manage to um you know

[1:28:03] Voice 2: use the unspent salaries to employ somebody that they would actually read the minutes of this

[1:28:09] Voice 2: meeting and or listen to the transcript so that um they'd have a flavor of the discussion because

[1:28:16] Voice 2: it's very easy to just read you know the business case as was presented and talk to you guys and of

[1:28:22] Voice 2: course you'll represent it up to a point but i think the breadth of the thoughts and the discussions

[1:28:28] Voice 2: and the ideas would come across from the minutes and or the recording better um okay uh so toby do

[1:28:37] Voice 2: Do you want to speak to what you're proposing?

[1:28:41] Voice 2: Thank you, Chair.

[1:28:43] Trustee Elliott (probable): Yeah, it's really just to indicate, as Director Cermak said, that we support this direction, whether the motion needs to state that it would be a project jointly held by RPC and TPC, or there could be envisioned a different committee.

[1:29:04] Trustee Elliott (probable): Like Regional Planning Committee has been looking at housing for a long time. We're turning our, you know, our focus is now on freshwater sustainability strategy. I don't know if this committee is the appropriate holder or if Trust Program's committee is or if there needs to be a select committee developed. So we could think about that a little bit.

[1:29:28] Trustee Elliott (probable): But just the, so the motion that I propose is that staff develop a business case with appropriate budget for phase one, initial development of a multi-year project related to ecosystem health and integrity indicators, scoping in relevant agencies, academics, First Nations partners that would, sorry, co-develop the project framework and methodology, you know, for 2020.

[1:29:58] Trustee Elliott (probable): the initialization

[1:29:59] Trustee Elliott (probable): and like in

[1:29:59] Trustee Elliott (probable): 2020,

[1:30:00] Trustee Elliott (probable): 26, 27, like indicating that the, so the proposal is pre-development now, scope in who's involved,

[1:30:09] Trustee Elliott (probable): what do we know? And then the next phase would be the work is co-developing that project framework.

[1:30:17] Trustee Elliott (probable): So 2026, 27, I think would be that phase two. You wouldn't actually start the work as in

[1:30:24] Trustee Elliott (probable): then everybody's at the table, I think until 27, 28, but that's, anyway, up to you. Rob,

[1:30:31] Trustee Elliott (probable): I did email that to you if you want to bring it on screen so people can see it.

[1:30:36] Voice 2: So Toby, I don't know whether it's just a slip of the pen, but your initial suggestion at the top

[1:30:42] Voice 2: was human and ecosystem. And now in this one, you just have ecosystem health and integrity

[1:30:49] Voice 2: integrity indicators

[1:30:50] Trustee Elliott (probable): i'm just using the language from the tpc briefing um so that's kind of the

[1:30:57] Trustee Elliott (probable): broadest yeah so we can add human and ecosystem health indicators of health um

[1:31:07] Trustee Elliott (probable): if that was a friendly amendment

[1:31:09] Voice 2: i would like that added in because i think it's important

[1:31:13] Voice 2: otherwise people see ecosystem and their blinkers come on effectively go ahead claire

[1:31:20] Voice 2: you're muted if

[1:31:24] Voice 3: i could i think this is all preliminary but i would suggest the word

[1:31:28] Voice 3: community over human um just easier for people to understand yeah

[1:31:34] Trustee Elliott (probable): so

[1:31:35] Voice 6: if we else

[1:31:36] Trustee Elliott (probable): yeah if we could

[1:31:36] Trustee Elliott (probable): change that to ecosystem health and community resiliency yeah

[1:31:44] Voice 2: that speaks to the strategic

[1:31:45] Voice 2: rather than

[1:31:46] Trustee Elliott (probable): integrity yeah or i don't know i don't know if the word integrity is important but

[1:31:51] Trustee Elliott (probable): um thanks claire i

[1:31:54] Voice 2: like that ecosystem health and community resiliency indicators i don't think the

[1:32:00] Voice 2: integrity is needed i think it's uh yeah i like that because that actually um relates back to the

[1:32:09] Voice 2: the strategic initiative um okay anybody else want to add to this go ahead david yeah i just

[1:32:21] Voice 8: want to thank uh the committee's discussion and um i support removing the word growth uh from this

[1:32:28] Voice 8: and that makes me feel better thank you yeah

[1:32:33] Voice 2: okay i think that was a really good discussion and i

[1:32:37] Voice 2: I think we've come to a good direction and I'm thinking back, you know, on things you said, Claire, about the, you know, basically everything we discussed you were thinking about as well.

[1:32:54] Voice 2: So that's really good. And Stefan, sorry, I really like the idea, Toby, of the select committee possibility,

[1:33:02] Voice 2: because really having it as a joint between the two committees

[1:33:08] Voice 2: just logistically isn't going to work very easily.

[1:33:11] Voice 2: You'll have to keep going backwards and forwards to one or the other.

[1:33:15] Voice 2: So I think that would be an important consideration.

[1:33:18] Voice 2: How do we actually manage this?

[1:33:20] Voice 2: And it is a very important project

[1:33:22] Voice 2: and it would be good to have people really focused on it

[1:33:26] Voice 2: rather than it got slotted in as number three in a packed agenda.

[1:33:29] Voice 2: agenda. Okay. Having said all of that, do you want to move your motion, Toby?

[1:33:39] Trustee Elliott (probable): I'll just look to staff. We haven't heard if this is appropriate. Does

[1:33:44] Voice 6: this give us

[1:33:45] Trustee Elliott (probable): enough direction and flexibility?

[1:33:50] Voice 9: Through the chair?

[1:33:52] Voice 2: Go ahead, Stefan. Yeah.

[1:33:53] Voice 9: Yeah. So, I mean, without being pedantic and worrying about that, it's referring to a specific

[1:33:58] Voice 9: business case. It just says that staff develop, you know, the way it's written, it says a

[1:34:02] Voice 9: new business case type thing that's what it's implying so what i'm seeing and for clarity of

[1:34:07] Voice 9: this direction you know you want the resolutions to be able to to speak for you know for some time

[1:34:12] Voice 9: this is referring to um you know the previous uh business case and i guess what i'm looking for

[1:34:22] Voice 9: maybe is i'm hearing support that the business case you know the regional planning committee

[1:34:27] Voice 9: the original resolution sorry is that the regional planning committee indicates support for trust

[1:34:31] Voice 9: programs committee resolution tpc 2025 063 and what i'm hearing is um sort of lukewarm support

[1:34:40] Voice 9: for that if it goes down this particular path and that is to develop a business case with the

[1:34:46] Voice 9: appropriate phase one so kind of hearing support for for the business case idea that was staff

[1:34:53] Voice 9: presenting via tpc but via this path does that make sense so i i guess i'm just look i just don't

[1:35:01] Voice 9: want to go away and make a brand new business case for you and it'd be the wrong one so i i

[1:35:05] Voice 9: understand the conversation and all that but i want to make sure that tpc

[1:35:10] Voice 2: how do we

[1:35:11] Voice 2: close the

[1:35:12] Voice 2: loop with tps effectively because we generally support it but we're wanting to redevelop or

[1:35:19] Voice 2: refine the business case and so how do we close the loop with tps and

[1:35:25] Voice 9: that well i'm glad you

[1:35:26] Voice 9: haven't passed the resolution yet. So I would recommend that for a resolution that

[1:35:30] Voice 9: staff's recommendation number two, the regional planning committee, the first part that says

[1:35:34] Voice 9: that the regional planning committee indicates support for trust programs committee resolution

[1:35:38] Voice 9: TPC 2025-063 by

[1:35:42] Voice 9: with the following amendments. And then da-da-da-da-da-da.

[1:35:47] Voice 9: So with staff amending the business case to be

[1:35:50] Voice 9: appropriate budget phase one, however, Trustee Elliott has

[1:35:54] Voice 9: does that make sense just it it

[1:35:56] Voice 9: stitches it together for for staff okay

[1:35:59] Voice 2: fair enough i can

[1:36:01] Voice 2: see where you're coming from but are do you want to take a five minute comfort break and we come

[1:36:08] Voice 2: back to the table and toby maybe you could work with stefan to reformat this would that be all

[1:36:13] Voice 2: right yeah that's great rather than we wordsmith it here okay everybody let's just take a quick

[1:36:19] Voice 2: breather and come back to this and hopefully lay trust is that okay everybody's okay with that

[1:36:28] Voice 2: thank you all

[1:36:32] Voice 9: right trustee pat or trustee elliot i guess we'll uh communicate by email exchanging

[1:36:36] Voice 9: sure

[1:36:37] Trustee Elliott (probable): i'll yeah just if you could reply to my last email with emotion that'd be great

[1:36:43] Trustee Elliott (probable): thanks hi

[1:44:55] Voice 2: everybody sorry i wasn't paying attention to the um time uh okay we're all back i

[1:45:02] Voice 2: I think. And have you got a new proposal?

[1:45:10] Trustee Elliott (probable): Yeah, thank you. And Rob got it up on the screen there.

[1:45:15] Trustee Elliott (probable): I changed just a small, the last sentence sort of scoping in relevant agencies. Okay, so I'll read

[1:45:23] Trustee Elliott (probable): it out. I move that regional planning committee indicate general support, and we could indicate

[1:45:29] Trustee Elliott (probable): strong support so the committee might choose to do that for trust programs committee resolution

[1:45:36] Trustee Elliott (probable): tpc 2025 063 and request staff to develop a business case with appropriate budget for phase

[1:45:44] Trustee Elliott (probable): one initial development of a multi-year project related to ecosystem health and community

[1:45:50] Trustee Elliott (probable): resiliency indicators scoping in relevant agencies academics first nations partners

[1:45:56] Trustee Elliott (probable): partners. And I think the wording might need to change. Is that it? That will? Oh, that will

[1:46:04] Trustee Elliott (probable): co-develop the project framework and methodology. Yeah, I think that's accurate. Thanks. Thanks,

[1:46:10] Voice 2: Rob. Thanks so much. I just have a question, which is, so you have a business case that has

[1:46:23] Voice 2: been to Trust Programs Committee. Is that right, Stefan? And are we redeveloping that or are we

[1:46:33] Voice 2: making oh i'm sorry

[1:46:35] Voice 2: yeah totally

[1:46:37] Voice 9: incorrect on my part there has been no business case created yet

[1:46:39] Voice 9: okay

[1:46:41] Voice 2: fair enough great okay that's fine uh thank you anybody else uh want to want to speak to this

[1:46:47] Voice 2: now uh so uh toby you did read it out but maybe you would move it now please i move

[1:46:58] Voice 2: the

[1:46:59] Trustee Elliott (probable): regional planning committee um do we want to indicate general support or broad support or

[1:47:05] Trustee Elliott (probable): strong support how

[1:47:08] Voice 2: about just support okay

[1:47:10] Trustee Elliott (probable): let's remove

[1:47:12] Voice 2: the general yeah indicate

[1:47:14] Trustee Elliott (probable): support for trust

[1:47:15] Trustee Elliott (probable): programs committee resolution tpc 2025 063 and request staff to develop a business case with

[1:47:22] Trustee Elliott (probable): appropriate budget for phase one initial development of a multi-year project related

[1:47:26] Trustee Elliott (probable): to ecosystem health and community resiliency indicators scoping in relevant agencies academics

[1:47:32] Trustee Elliott (probable): academics, First Nations partners, comma, that will co-develop the project framework and methodology.

[1:47:38] Trustee Elliott (probable): Thank you, Rob.

[1:47:40] Voice 2: Thank you. Okay, I open the floor. Anybody want to speak to this?

[1:47:46] Voice 2: It should probably be seconded, Chair. Yeah, so who would like seconded?

[1:47:57] Voice 1: I'll second it, Chair.

[1:48:00] Voice 2: Excuse me. Yeah, thank you. So seconded by Trustee Borthwick, moved by Trustee Elliott.

[1:48:09] Voice 2: it and now anybody want to discuss this do we still have we still have quorum yeah yeah okay

[1:48:19] Voice 2: um right i will call the vote then uh all those in favor uh raise your hands okay lower your hands

[1:48:34] Trustee Elliott (probable): sorry i don't know where my hand raise function just went i just was that you with the floating

[1:48:41] Voice 2: Was that the floating thumbs up?

[1:48:43] Voice 2: Okay.

[1:48:44] Voice 2: So, and lower your hands, including me.

[1:48:50] Voice 2: Anybody against, raise your hands.

[1:48:52] Voice 2: Not in favor.

[1:48:54] Voice 2: Okay.

[1:48:55] Voice 2: That passes.

[1:48:57] Voice 2: So, thanks.

[1:48:58] Voice 2: I think this was a good discussion, and I think we've come up with a good conclusion.

[1:49:03] Voice 2: And Stefan and Claire, thank you for contributing so much.

[1:49:07] Voice 2: it's quite a broad topic and you've both worked on it for some time so i appreciate that

[1:49:13] Voice 2: and gently guiding us without actually saying guys hurry up okay

[1:49:21] Trustee Elliott (probable): toby over to you go ahead

[1:49:24] Trustee Elliott (probable): i don't know if there's a need for the second motion but um you know this is a huge critical

[1:49:31] Trustee Elliott (probable): project if we're bringing in multiple partners and there will need to be capacity funding for

[1:49:36] Trustee Elliott (probable): First Nations to participate, we need to also think about that strategy for long-term funding.

[1:49:42] Trustee Elliott (probable): So I suggest a motion, if staff don't think it's too much at this point, that's basically just

[1:49:50] Trustee Elliott (probable): reiterating the third part of the TPC motion about developing a strategy for long-term funding,

[1:49:57] Trustee Elliott (probable): investigation of the use of reserve funds and potential grants.

[1:50:00] Trustee Elliott (probable): grants. So this may not be for this time right now. Director Cermak, what do you think about

[1:50:10] Trustee Elliott (probable): that? We could hold off until you come back with a business case, but this motion might also

[1:50:17] Trustee Elliott (probable): give the Trust Council some indication that it's not just going to be taxpayer-funded. Maybe we

[1:50:23] Trustee Elliott (probable): can find some other sources. Thanks, Toby.

[1:50:28] Voice 2: Stefan, do you want to respond?

[1:50:29] Voice 2: on?

[1:50:30] Voice 9: Sure. Thank you, Chair. You know, I do think this, if I understand correctly, you know, by

[1:50:34] Voice 9: regional planning committee passing a motion indicating support for TPC's resolution,

[1:50:40] Voice 9: those are captured in points two and three there, the capacity funding for support and strategy

[1:50:44] Voice 9: development for long-term funding, that's all captured in there. But

[1:50:48] Voice 9: I think what I'm hearing

[1:50:49] Voice 9: Trustee Elliott saying is maybe even shining a brighter light on searching for alternative

[1:50:55] Voice 9: Other than taxpayer funding, if that's what I'm hearing correctly. So if that's what you would, if that's, if I'm correct, then I think indicating that would be good. So that that makes us focus our efforts on seeking alternative funding if available.

[1:51:09] Voice 9: okay

[1:51:11] Voice 2: well um i don't know if it's correct uh protocol but i'm prepared to move move this motion

[1:51:19] Voice 2: uh somebody tell me if it's not correct but okay here it goes um i move that the regional

[1:51:26] Voice 2: planning commission requests staff to develop a strategy for long-term funding investigating

[1:51:32] Voice 2: investigation of the use of reserve funds and potential grants as indicated in resolution tpc

[1:51:37] Voice 2: c 2025 063 and who would like to second this chair

[1:51:44] Trustee Elliott (probable): before it seconded i just had one one thing that

[1:51:47] Trustee Elliott (probable): occurred to me as director sir mac was saying other sources of funding could be the other

[1:51:53] Trustee Elliott (probable): partnering agencies so often education you know academics have access to shirk funds for instance

[1:52:02] Trustee Elliott (probable): instance that are like they might be doing a project on longevity related to ecosystem health

[1:52:10] Trustee Elliott (probable): or something so that isn't included here i would suggest we could add instead of just reserve funds

[1:52:16] Trustee Elliott (probable): and potential grants it could be um and other sources from partnering agencies or other sources

[1:52:24] Trustee Elliott (probable): versus from, you know, potential partnering.

[1:52:28] Voice 2: Yeah, no,

[1:52:29] Voice 2: it's a good idea, because, so, investigation of the use of reserve funds,

[1:52:38] Voice 2: should we say, including partnership funding, or funding partnerships, would that cover it?

[1:52:49] Voice 2: and

[1:52:50] Trustee Elliott (probable): explore opportunities through other potential partners or opportunities for funding through

[1:53:00] Trustee Elliott (probable): potential partners partnerships what about cost sharing with that coverage cost sharing

[1:53:08] Trustee Elliott (probable): it's no it's not it's not so much that or like if if there's a researcher who's doing a body

[1:53:15] Trustee Elliott (probable): body of research, their grant would fund their participation in this project. It's not really

[1:53:21] Trustee Elliott (probable): a sharing, but having that researcher is enabled through whatever academic grant or university

[1:53:30] Trustee Elliott (probable): they're working with. So yes, Director Cermak, help.

[1:53:33] Voice 9: I'm just thinking you've captured the term

[1:53:35] Voice 9: including funding partnerships. Personally, I think that's broad enough for us to look

[1:53:39] Voice 9: at all the possible possibilities we can find so you know great

[1:53:44] Voice 2: okay good so i'll read this again

[1:53:47] Voice 2: then just so we're clear um i move that regional planning committee requests staff to develop a

[1:53:52] Voice 2: strategy for long-term funding investigation of the use of reserve funds including funding

[1:53:58] Voice 2: partnerships and potential grants as indicated in resolution tpc 2025 63 okay toby has um trustee

[1:54:10] Voice 2: elliott has seconded that and okay i call the vote all those in favor raise your hands chair

[1:54:19] Trustee Elliott (probable): chair oh

[1:54:20] Voice 2: sorry just on the motion trust

[1:54:22] Voice 2: apologies go ahead laura well i

[1:54:24] Trustee Patrick (probable): can't vote for the motion i

[1:54:26] Trustee Patrick (probable): can discuss the motion um the i i i support generally where you're going one one caution

[1:54:32] Trustee Patrick (probable): is if we are moving into this program this is developing phase one and really the initial work

[1:54:37] Trustee Patrick (probable): And if we have a co-creation concept to our development, we don't know what it is that we're going to be funding in the future.

[1:54:47] Trustee Patrick (probable): I mean, our GIS systems may be contributing to a broader, bigger system of information that's being gathered, or there could be a new house for, you know, because we don't know what the outcome is going to be.

[1:55:00] Trustee Patrick (probable): So that's my only thing is when we discuss this at Trust Council, our emphasis needs to be on the first piece that we're pushing, which is let's develop something that really is new and a new approach.

[1:55:12] Trustee Patrick (probable): And certainly funding it in a new way is really important.

[1:55:15] Trustee Patrick (probable): But we don't know what it is because we haven't created it yet.

[1:55:20] Voice 2: Sure. I think they'll kind of happen in parallel.

[1:55:24] Voice 2: um yeah so um anybody else want to speak to that i'm sorry i smelt the barn and i galloped off

[1:55:34] Voice 2: so anybody else want to speak to this now nope okay great uh let me call the vote on that all

[1:55:44] Voice 2: those in favor raise your hands uh thank you lower your hands anybody not in favor raise your hand

[1:55:57] Voice 2: okay that motion carries thank you okay good um so i think the next item on the agenda stefan

[1:56:06] Voice 2: was for information really wasn't it the gist system uh

[1:56:14] Voice 9: sorry chair so i'm i'll take you back

[1:56:16] Voice 9: then to the beginning you did not pass any resolutions nor that you really need to about

[1:56:20] Voice 9: the eelgrass mapping it just kind of puts a nice bow on it if you say proceed no further

[1:56:25] Voice 9: further. It's nice for people to follow those dots. And yes, in

[1:56:29] Voice 9: regards to the RPC passing a

[1:56:32] Voice 9: resolution supporting the other committees that have talked about prioritizing resources for a

[1:56:37] Voice 9: more robust geographic information system, that's completely optional. I just, seeing where this

[1:56:44] Voice 9: particular business case discussion is going, and seeing that, as I've heard, it is going to be a

[1:56:51] Voice 9: a tough fiscal year, it always is, but I think this year in particular will be a little extra

[1:56:56] Voice 9: tough. That may help Trust Council focus their efforts if they know that Trust Programs Committee

[1:57:03] Voice 9: or the Islands Trust Conservancy Executive Committee and the Regional Planning Committee

[1:57:07] Voice 9: all support GIS services. So I leave that up to you whether or not it just seemed to be

[1:57:14] Voice 9: all heading that direction, and I was trying to make life easy for you at Trust Council.

[1:57:18] Voice 9: okay

[1:57:19] Voice 2: i'm thinking step one we need uh to accept your recommendation that we don't proceed further

[1:57:27] Voice 2: with a business case for eelgrass mapping by the islands trust correct or not

[1:57:32] Voice 9: that would be

[1:57:33] Voice 9: most helpful and appreciated okay

[1:57:35] Voice 2: so um uh let's just say i i can move that or

[1:57:43] Voice 2: So, I move that the Regional Planning Committee, oh, sorry, thank you, proceed no further with

[1:57:53] Voice 2: the business case for your grass and kelp forest mapping due to federal mapping efforts

[1:57:59] Voice 2: and request staff to pursue data sharing agreements where feasible.

[1:58:05] Voice 2: Anybody second that?

[1:58:10] Voice 2: Thank you, David.

[1:58:11] Voice 2: So, Trustee Graham has seconded that.

[1:58:16] Voice 2: Okay, I call the vote.

[1:58:17] Voice 2: Sorry, discussion. Okay, I call the vote on that. Raise your hands, please, if you're in favor.

[1:58:29] Voice 2: And lower your hands, please. Anybody not in favor, raise your hands. Okay, so that motion carries.

[1:58:46] Voice 2: Great. So then we're down to the GIS system. Anybody want to speak to that?

[1:59:01] Voice 2: just in general, you know, the idea of a more robust system, I think we have spoken about it

[1:59:07] Voice 2: at financial planning. And do people think, yes, that we as regional planning should indicate

[1:59:17] Voice 2: support? I'm kind of ambivalent about it, because I feel like we're moving into financial planning,

[1:59:26] Voice 2: running, indicating support for everything, which is our usual modus operandi, and then

[1:59:31] Voice 2: we have to somehow prioritize. Go ahead, David.

[1:59:35] Voice 2: Yeah,

[1:59:35] Voice 8: thank you. Thank you, Chair. What is a more robust GIS system? Is this a wholesale

[1:59:44] Voice 8: change in hardware, software expertise, or is it building on our current system?

[1:59:54] Voice 2: Go ahead, Stephan.

[1:59:57] Voice 9: Thank you. I'll respond to it as I understand.

[2:00:00] Voice 9: But of course, each committee came to the conclusion on their own, and I don't speak on behalf of the other committees. So I don't know what the EC's thinking was per se, and I can't speak for the other committees. But

[2:00:11] Voice 9: I can tell you my understanding of that and why staff would recommend such a thing.

[2:00:17] Voice 9: And that is, you know, we are in-house for regional planning services are doing things like the suitable land analysis, and we're doing things like the freshwater sustainability strategy, the freshwater footprint, and our sort of whole GIS program, the mapping system, kind of collapsed under itself with old software, and we're trying to rebuild it up.

[2:00:38] Voice 9: So that's one. So we're spending a lot of time doing that. And then we're also trying to create these new robust tools such as the build-out maps and the suitable land analysis and other.

[2:00:49] Voice 9: And so what we're finding is we're just doing normal work that we're doing good work is kind of hitting a wall.

[2:00:56] Voice 9: So if we're going to work on the strategic development, such as the previous resolutions indicated, we're going to need a little bit more support.

[2:01:04] Voice 9: Now, that could be in the business case or, as Chair Patrick mentioned, it can kind of become the norm whereby the strategic direction of Trust Council has a little bit more robust staff.

[2:01:18] Voice 9: I guess, Trustee Graham, is where you're going.

[2:01:20] Voice 9: Essentially, I see it as a staff person.

[2:01:24] Voice 9: We're developing the software again, but it'd be staff to really dedicate towards achieving the strategic goals of Trust Council, by and large.

[2:01:31] Voice 9: But how that gets planned out will be come through in the form of business cases after incorporating those resolutions, if you know what I mean. So staff will respond via business cases. And I think I've seen a few preliminary versions of staff.

[2:01:47] Voice 2: Thanks, Stephen. Go ahead, Toby.

[2:01:48] Voice 2: Yeah,

[2:01:50] Trustee Elliott (probable): I don't know if I can add too much to that. But I was part of all of the discussions, especially at the Conservancy Board where this originated. We have older data sets that our current mapping does not allow staff to input.

[2:02:12] Trustee Elliott (probable): So we've got an ecosystem protection specialist and monitoring over governance. And it's my understanding that we've had such poor tools, and I don't want to misspeak or convey something that I don't really understand.

[2:02:28] Trustee Elliott (probable): Um, there's basically like a massive Excel sheet where staff were keeping a lot of the key information. It wasn't able to be retrieved across planning functions and conservancy functions. And I've been hearing about this since the start of the term.

[2:02:48] Trustee Elliott (probable): We really have been behind on a platform that would enable all the different branches and needs across the Islands Trust, including the Conservancy, to do our work.

[2:03:04] Trustee Elliott (probable): So this has been a conversation for a long time.

[2:03:07] Trustee Elliott (probable): It's really hampering us from what I understand, and they've been doing a lot of work around.

[2:03:15] Trustee Elliott (probable): So it's an investment in, I believe, a platform that would serve all of the Islands Trust needs and be able to, like Director Cermak said, pull down those maps with all the different layers, make them available to the public.

[2:03:32] Trustee Elliott (probable): But I think it's more related to the function for staff to be able to interpret data and for a system that can handle the large amounts from different data sets.

[2:03:45] Trustee Elliott (probable): does

[2:03:46] Voice 2: that make sense thanks toby i i just sort of thought about it and um i'm thinking

[2:03:53] Voice 2: and stephan tell me if i'm wrong but uh i see two parts to this one is the you know purchase

[2:04:02] Voice 2: and installation of a gist system um and of course that relies on having you know those

[2:04:11] Voice 2: those positions that were vacated, refilled with people who can really handle that geographic

[2:04:19] Voice 2: information system. And I don't know, should that not belong under sort of an infrastructure

[2:04:25] Voice 2: capital investment element? You know, there's the whole software component, there's the support for

[2:04:31] Voice 2: the software component. And then separately, there's the fill it all with the data that we

[2:04:37] Voice 2: have and make that work better for us and I find that this description is sort of a bit fuzzy

[2:04:44] Voice 2: and I hope in the business case that you would break it down into those elements so that it's

[2:04:50] Voice 2: really clear what's going to happen and it would be I mean it's quite a big project to implement

[2:04:58] Voice 2: a new system and to integrate the data and make sure that it's working properly so is that what

[2:05:05] Voice 2: put you have in mind Stefan and should this not come from the infrastructure the IT system guys

[2:05:13] Voice 2: first and then you add in the data go ahead well

[2:05:18] Voice 9: thank you chair the certainly the legislative and

[2:05:21] Voice 9: information services department have their own sort of future growth you know how they would

[2:05:29] Voice 9: like to incorporate this type of feedback I know that they are well aware of their own shortcomings

[2:05:34] Voice 9: and their critique of the work that's being done.

[2:05:38] Voice 9: They know how old the data is, where the system's deficient,

[2:05:41] Voice 9: and they have ideas of how to go forward.

[2:05:44] Voice 9: So they will be presenting those business cases to Trust Council

[2:05:49] Voice 9: for consideration based on the feedback that they've heard from Conservancy,

[2:05:53] Voice 9: from Financial Planning Committee, and so forth.

[2:05:57] Voice 9: I guess what I was thinking with this was just only, you know,

[2:06:00] Voice 9: from a planning service perspective, we are, between ourselves

[2:06:03] Voice 9: selves and the conservancy are real the workhorses of requiring that data and asking for it and we're

[2:06:10] Voice 9: the ones who see the deficiency behind the scenes and we're the ones looking to improve it

[2:06:14] Voice 9: so um yeah so i know we're already working with that but to get back to your point is yeah the

[2:06:20] Voice 9: legislative and information services will be presenting their own business cases based on

[2:06:24] Voice 9: the feedback they hear so it's only a matter for this committee is whether or not you agree it's

[2:06:28] Voice 9: deficient and if you'd like to support kind of you know indication that that service yeah is as a

[2:06:37] Voice 9: priority in a in a difficult year for asking for things next year if you know what I mean a difficult

[2:06:42] Voice 9: budget year but I also think Director Frater has had extensive communications just like Trustee

[2:06:47] Voice 9: Elliott in terms of where information service or the GIS services are perhaps lacking where they

[2:06:55] Voice 9: they need emphasis and perhaps she may have more insight as to what business

[2:06:59] Voice 9: cases may or may not be coming. I can,

[2:07:01] Voice 9: I just want to give her a chance to speak to it. That's okay through the chair.

[2:07:05] Voice 3: Sure. Okay. Go ahead.

[2:07:09] Voice 3: Certainly what I can say,

[2:07:10] Voice 3: I do know is conservancy is working with the GIS team around a business case

[2:07:14] Voice 3: for additional software that would support what's been discussed today that the

[2:07:18] Voice 3: conservancy, I would always call them sort of the poor cousin in the GIS world.

[2:07:22] Voice 3: It's, you know,

[2:07:22] Voice 3: planning services has historically been the dominant you know um customer i would say of

[2:07:29] Voice 3: that department and so there's been a historic under service to the conservancy and we with the

[2:07:34] Voice 3: growth in protected areas there is an urgent need to now catch up get probably uh like a software

[2:07:40] Voice 3: add-on it's the best i can describe it um that can better serve their needs to manage the protected

[2:07:45] Voice 3: areas we have exceeded the ability of excel to manage the volume of management activities across

[2:07:50] Voice 3: across 115 protected areas.

[2:07:52] Voice 3: So we have been cobbling along for a long time.

[2:07:54] Voice 3: I think as director, I can confidently tell you,

[2:07:56] Voice 3: I will advocate strongly that this get funded

[2:07:59] Voice 3: because we have heroically tried to manage for years

[2:08:02] Voice 3: and we've now exceeded that space.

[2:08:06] Voice 3: What I would also say is I think as a leadership team,

[2:08:09] Voice 3: we'll be talking about the need to recommend

[2:08:10] Voice 3: whether we have additional staff in that department.

[2:08:13] Voice 3: I think we have a need for strategic long-term planning

[2:08:17] Voice 3: around GIS resources, around the infrastructure,

[2:08:19] Voice 3: structure, the systems, the updating, all of that. We also have sort of the product development,

[2:08:24] Voice 3: all the maps you use in your various staff reports and all the other pieces. And it may

[2:08:30] Voice 3: just be that we don't, you know, between the two people we have for an agency of our size,

[2:08:34] Voice 3: it may just be insufficient. So we're going to be talking about whether to bring that

[2:08:38] Voice 3: recommendation forward to you, but I don't want to tip one way or the other at this point without

[2:08:41] Voice 3: that conversation.

[2:08:43] Voice 2: Okay, thanks. I'm just going to put my own hand up and I am conscious of the

[2:08:47] Voice 2: time so we round it up shortly but i found it interesting to reflect that like is this another

[2:08:53] Voice 2: business case which should be almost co-created held by a cross committee it's and it's also a

[2:09:03] Voice 2: a mirror image almost or a supporting piece for the um human and no community resiliency

[2:09:12] Voice 2: resiliency baba indicator and work so i actually um you know i feel like if it's coming out of the

[2:09:21] Voice 2: conservancy that's fine but then is the you know regional planning toolkit um like you know

[2:09:30] Voice 2: really bolted into it so i'm just wondering how do we handle the kind of business case that cuts

[2:09:37] Voice 2: across multiple committees and how do you as staff handle it because it must be kind of tricky and

[2:09:46] Voice 2: there was another anyway I'll leave it at that but that's my only comment on this that we

[2:09:51] Voice 2: almost seem to be at the stage where you dissolve all the committees and reform into

[2:09:56] Voice 2: a select committee to handle those two projects which are both kind of significant go ahead Claire

[2:10:03] Voice 3: just to be clear the piece that's coming out of conservancy as a request is the software

[2:10:08] Voice 3: piece. The staffing analysis piece is coming from the director of that unit, which is David Marler,

[2:10:14] Voice 3: in collaboration with us. I would certainly note that even in the attempts to plan for this

[2:10:20] Voice 3: business case, you've all been talking today, it's difficult to get staff time of the knowledgeable

[2:10:25] Voice 3: GIS staff that we have, because they're busy serving deadlines for staff reports and everything

[2:10:28] Voice 3: else. So I think that's indicative of the pressures that are there right now. But the

[2:10:34] Voice 3: The Conservancy is bringing forward a software request, and then I think perhaps the Director of Legislative Information Systems may be bringing forward a staff request, but we've yet to talk about that at the senior leadership team.

[2:10:46] Voice 3: So I think we'll leave that for him.

[2:10:50] Voice 2: Well, that's good insight then.

[2:10:52] Voice 2: So would anybody like to move this motion or go ahead, David?

[2:10:57] Voice 8: Yeah, as the committee that represents the largest users of this product, I'm happy to make the motion.

[2:11:05] Voice 8: So I move that the Regional Planning Committee indicates support for Islands Trust Conservancy Board, Executive Committee and Financial Planning Committee resolutions ITC-EC-2025-001, EC-25094 and Financial Planning Committee-2025-041, priorizing resources for a more robust geographic information system in order to advance Trust Council's strategic plan.

[2:11:32] Voice 8: ahead.

[2:11:34] Voice 2: Okay. And I have a seconder. Trustee Borthwick has seconded that motion. And now

[2:11:41] Voice 2: just further discussions needed? Nope. Okay. I call the vote. All those in favor, raise your hands.

[2:11:52] Voice 2: Lower your hands, please. Anybody not in favor, raise your hand.

[2:11:58] Voice 2: Oh, that motion carries. Okay. Thanks, everybody. That was really good. Okay. We are 15 minutes

[2:12:05] Voice 2: it's over and uh i believe we have correct me if i'm wrong but i believe we have concluded

[2:12:13] Voice 2: our business don't we yep

[2:12:17] Trustee Elliott (probable): anybody need

[2:12:18] Trustee Elliott (probable): to speak that just state the next uh meeting and

[2:12:21] Trustee Elliott (probable): yeah the

[2:12:23] Voice 2: next regional planning committee meeting is october the 31st at 10 a.m

[2:12:27] Voice 2: and with that i conclude the meeting let's adjourn okay thanks everybody i think that

[2:12:34] Voice 2: that was a really good meeting i feel like we covered a lot of ground because we had just

[2:12:39] Voice 2: limited things to talk about without having to jump on so thanks very much for coming and thanks

[2:12:45] Voice 2: david especially in your current state responsibilities for being here thank you

[2:12:51] Voice 2: gabriela soon

[2:12:52] Voice 2: i hope yeah see you

[2:12:55] Voice 9: all next week

[2:12:55] Voice 2: take care everybody bye

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Regional Planning Committee 
Minutes of a Special Meeting 
 
Date: 
Location: 
September 8, 2025 
Electronic Meeting 
 
Members Present: Mairead Boland, Saturna Island Local Trustee, Chair 
Sam Borthwick, Denman Island Local Trustee, Vice Chair 
Tobi Elliott, Gabriola Island Local Trustee, Executive Committee 
Representative 
David Graham, Denman Island Local Trustee 
Laura Patrick, Salt Spring Island Local Trustee (ex officio) 
 
Member Regrets: Aaron Campbell, North Pender Island Local Trustee 
 
Staff Present:   Stefan Cermak, Director, Planning Services 
    Clare Frater, Director, Trust Area Services 
    Robert Kojima, Regional Planning Manager 
    Rob Kroeker, Planning Services Administrative Assistant / Recorder 
 
Others Present: None.  
 
1. CALL TO ORDER 
 
Chair Boland called the meeting to order at 10:02 a.m. and acknowledged that participants 
of the meeting were attending all across the territories of the Coast Salish peoples. 
 
2. AGENDA 
 
 2.1 Review of the Agenda 
 
No new or late item was presented for consideration. 
 
 2.2 Approval of the Agenda  
 
By general consent the Regional Planning Committee approved the agenda as 
presented. 
 
3. PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD 
 
No member of the public was present.  
 
4. BUSINESS – WORK PROGRAM ITEMS 
 
4.1 Revised Fiscal Year 2026/27 Business Cases – Request For Decision 
 

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Director Cermak introduced the Request For Decision.  Committee discussion 
included: 
• coordination with other government bodies on mapping has addressed 
concerns about a duplication of efforts with limited resources 
• buying data is a solution for an organization on the scale of Islands Trust 
without putting more people in the field to monitor changes 
• Hatfield is developing eelgrass mapping at a 10 metre resolution to be made 
public in May 2027 
• Islands Trust is looking to further partner with Hatfield for finer resolution 
data of select sites 
 
Trustee Graham joined the meeting at 10:13 a.m. 
 
• a project bringing together indicators and mapping data is an opportunity 
that supports Trust Council Strategic Plan objectives 
• can we create a model that is dynamic, co-created with First Nations, based 
on partnerships, to move forward in a new way? 
• a $150,000 item will be difficult to get through the budget process this year 
• pre-planning and project structuring will be critical 
• a multi-year project should have projected deliverables and demonstrate 
how each stage of the project can be built upon  
• how can First Nations interests and concerns help drive this initiative?  
• growth is not inevitable 
• Denman LTC is discussing removing subdivision potential in response to 
growth and living on an island with finite resources  
• a trustee hears from their constituents that as growth occurs, community 
values are changing or lost 
• static systems and data are not effective in a time of accelerating climate 
change 
• human activity is what is managed  
• this project is trying to understand and model fundamental information 
more effectively 
• a better understanding of human habitation on the islands is needed 
• compare current land use patterns with the vision in original Official 
Community Plans 
• start small and targeted, and build this project in layers 
• Islands Trust could coordinate a workshop with various data-collecting 
parties on the ground  
• a workshop could discover if there is a coordinating issue; what data is 
missing; and what opportunities exist when thinking regionally 
• a drawback of consultant involvement is in the loss of relationships when 
their contract is complete 
• many island residents are professionals or retired professionals with 
technical understanding and deep observations of what occurs on island 
• trust is built over time with personal connections 

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• a trustee advocated for the project to involve an accountable staff member 
in order to not deliver a static report  
• a consultant can perform a needs assessment and coordinate partners 
• the Puget Sound Vital Statistics Project provides an example direction 
• it involves many partners including Indigenous groups and government 
agencies 
• Islands Trust does not have baseline indicator information on private lands 
outside of protected areas 
• biodiversity varies across protected lands  
• build a strong needs assessment by convening the table and coordinating 
different agencies and knowledge holders 
• gather key metrics with consideration of the specific needs of islands 
• a governance report recommendation involved making more use of local 
experts in their fields 
• establish a baseline of knowledge with pre-work by talking to First Nations 
and experts, then use the community to add value  
• a trustee supports convening a technical panel or working group of experts 
and First Nations knowledge holders to help design a project framework 
• identify agencies who would contribute to the project  
• co-creating deserves serious thought towards designing a new methodology 
• growth management may be an inaccurate name for the project 
• new terminology to title this project could include well-being, sustainability, 
and human and ecosystem indicators of health 
• the Puget Sound Vital Statistics project demonstrates that a healthy 
ecosystem is deeply interrelated with human indicators  
• the three Strategic Plan initiatives involved are growth management and 
community resiliency, ecosystem health, and climate change  
• growth must be defined with, not for, First Nations partners 
• convening is a matter of bringing together partners and experts and 
empowering them to lead data gathering in their areas 
• sound, updated data and mapping layers will contribute to strong preserve 
and protect decision-making 
• define a minimum set of required data for land use planning decisions 
• artificial intelligence could be used to analyze data, after good data is 
produced  
• a business case for this project needs to indicate that it is going to be a 
novel approach and a multi-phase strategy 
• detailed work plans and decision-making points are required to bring Trust 
Council along on the path of its development 
• the Chair of Regional Planning Committee could give a verbal report at 
September Trust Council to introduce the project ahead of a December 
business case 
• the appropriate holder of this project may be Regional Planning Committee, 
Trust Programs Committee, or a select committee 
• use the terminology of ecosystem health and community resiliency 
indicators in a resolution to link it to Strategic Plan initiatives 

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• a trustee supports removing the appellation of growth management from 
this project 
 
Regional Planning Committee recessed on a break at 11:39 a.m. and returned at 11:46 a.m. 
 
RPC 2025-028 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that Regional Planning Committee indicate support for Trust Programs Committee 
resolution TPC-2025-063 and requests staff to develop a business case with 
appropriate budget for Phase 1 (initial development) of a multi year project related 
to ecosystem health and community resiliency indicators, scoping in relevant 
agencies, academics, First Nations partners, that will co-develop the project 
framework and methodology. 
CARRIED 
 
Committee discussion continued: 
• capacity   funding   for   First   Nations   partners   to   participate   should   be 
considered 
• strategy for long-term funding of this project is required 
• give an indication that other sources such as grants will be sought  
• partnering agencies may have specific funding available for research or other 
elements contributing to the project 
• a  co-creation  concept  means  that  the  ultimate  outcome  or  deliverable  is 
uncertain 
• emphasis at Trust Council needs to be on the process of development 
 
RPC 2025-029 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that Regional Planning Committee request staff to develop a strategy for long-term 
funding, investigation of the use of reserve funds, including funding partnerships 
and potential grants, as indicated in resolution TPC-2025-063.  
CARRIED 
 
RPC 2025-030 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that Regional Planning Committee proceed no further with a business case for 
eelgrass and kelp forest mapping due to federal mapping efforts and request staff 
to pursue data sharing agreements where feasible. 
CARRIED 
 
Committee discussion continued: 
• does  a  more robust  geographic  information  system  require  a  wholesale 
change in hardware or expertise? 
• new information input is limited with current tools 
• data sharing across planning functions and conservancy functions is limited 
by lack of a coordinating platform  

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• an  investment  in  a  platform  could  integrate  large  amounts  of  data  from 
different data sets 
• the   delineation   between   data   and information   systems infrastructure 
required is unclear  
• business cases to clarify differences between the two are desired 
• this supports ecosystem health and community resiliency indicator work and 
cuts across the work of multiple committees 
 
RPC 2025-031 
It was MOVED and SECONDED, 
that Regional Planning Committee indicate support for Islands Trust Conservancy 
Board, Executive Committee, and Financial Planning Committee resolutions (ITC-
EC-2025-001, EC-2025-094, and FPC-2025-041) prioritizing resources for a more 
robust geographic information system in order to advance Trust Council’s Strategic 
Plan. 
CARRIED 
 
5. NEXT MEETING 
 
The next scheduled meeting of the Regional Planning Committee is October 31, 2025 at 10 
a.m. to 3 p.m.   
 
6. ADJOURNMENT  
 
By general consent the meeting adjourned at 12:15 p.m. 
 
 
 
_________________________ 
Mairead Boland, Chair 
 
Certified Correct: 
 
 
_________________________ 
Rob Kroeker, Planning Services Administrative Assistant / Recorder 
 
Minutes are not official until adopted at a subsequent meeting.