Islands Trust Council regular meeting, September 16, 2025

[0:00:00] Trustee Patrick: Right. It is my honor and privilege to be able to introduce Elder Stassia Geraldine Manson, who's going to open our meeting in a good way.

[0:00:52] Voice 5: it's always an honor and full of gratitude that i stand here and greet you through my language

[0:01:02] Voice 5: first to ground me i was happy to see each and every one of you here that's what i said

[0:01:08] Voice 5: and I'm honored and grateful on behalf of our Sonamo ancestors

[0:01:16] Voice 5: to welcome you, to embrace you, to honor your role you play and you stand in.

[0:01:28] Voice 5: I had to smile when giving the orders to buy that phone, Wi-Fi off.

[0:01:37] Voice 5: I'm sitting there thinking in the old day,

[0:01:42] Voice 5: what would that look like?

[0:01:45] Voice 5: And our old ancestors, when they gathered, and like this, the chiefs would gather.

[0:01:52] Voice 5: There was no phone.

[0:01:53] Voice 5: There was no technology at all.

[0:01:58] Voice 5: And the words came from their heart, the roles that they played, the villages that they came from.

[0:02:06] Voice 5: It's amazing.

[0:02:07] Voice 5: You could think of it, this space, as being a metaphor of our longhouse and your role that each of you play today is important to get that voice out, to share what's in your heart so it can weave together what this council represents and its many hats some of you probably wear.

[0:02:36] Voice 5: I want to honor you for the goals, the achievements that you have come so far.

[0:02:54] Voice 5: It takes a lot to get where you are, but to continue moving and looking at under each

[0:03:04] Voice 5: leaf, have you forgotten something?

[0:03:07] Voice 5: Should we add that?

[0:03:08] Voice 5: how do we embrace life and the environment and the citizens that you represent what is the key

[0:03:17] Voice 5: that comes from your heart needs to know just like you who wear wedding rings that's a symbol

[0:03:27] Voice 5: of something each one of you hold a symbol of something i stand towards acknowledging your

[0:04:17] Voice 5: your presence, acknowledging the beautiful energy that you bring to us, sending those

[0:04:24] Voice 5: beautiful guardian angels to walk with us, to guide us, to nudge us when we needed to

[0:04:30] Voice 5: be nudged.

[0:04:32] Voice 5: I always raise my hands thanking you for my guardian angels that walk with me, clearing

[0:04:38] Voice 5: my path, ensuring that I get safe to where I go.

[0:04:46] Voice 5: I'm in a space, the land of my ancestors, known as the Tzolk'in people.

[0:04:52] Voice 5: I'm in their space on the land that they walked, creating these beautiful individuals that

[0:04:59] Voice 5: are here, and then also on virtual.

[0:05:05] Voice 5: Embrace them, for they too have work to do, to always remembering who they are and what

[0:05:13] Voice 5: they represent and why they're here.

[0:05:15] Voice 5: to work as one, not Samant,

[0:05:21] Voice 5: embracing with that energy,

[0:05:23] Voice 5: having their guardian angels

[0:05:26] Voice 5: always standing with them,

[0:05:29] Voice 5: nudging them, whispering,

[0:05:31] Voice 5: this needs to be done in a good way,

[0:05:35] Voice 5: and slowly, not taking shortcuts

[0:05:39] Voice 5: or cutting corners,

[0:05:42] Voice 5: as the old people would say.

[0:05:45] Voice 5: I raise my hands to the beautiful guardian angels

[0:05:48] Voice 5: to thy close, to Lelos, for being here, for witnessing.

[0:05:52] Voice 5: Thanking Sitzel Tiam, the greatest creator of all,

[0:05:56] Voice 5: for always receiving our prayer as he does throughout the world.

[0:06:26] Voice 4: Aitsepka.

[0:06:28] Voice 4: Thank you.

[0:07:08] Trustee Patrick: I'm deeply grateful, as we all are, for those guiding words to help us

[0:07:16] Trustee Patrick: and for all of us to think of those words throughout the meeting.

[0:07:21] Trustee Patrick: thank you for taking the time to come to us

[0:07:23] Trustee Patrick: I will always remember your words

[0:07:27] Trustee Patrick: and we are very grateful

[0:07:30] Trustee Patrick: we have a gift for you

[0:07:33] Trustee Patrick: and I present this to you

[0:07:37] Trustee Patrick: and Joe is going to bring this to you

[0:07:41] Trustee Patrick: thank you

[0:08:15] Trustee Patrick: alright trustees

[0:08:16] Trustee Patrick: I know my heart is full

[0:08:19] Trustee Patrick: and I hope yours is and that you're ready for work.

[0:08:25] Trustee Patrick: I'm so grateful to be able to be meeting here today on this name of unceded territory

[0:08:30] Trustee Patrick: and to have those guiding words to help us really open our meeting in a good way.

[0:08:36] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to call our meeting of Trust Council to order.

[0:08:42] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to start with a round of introductions, and then we'll get on with the meeting.

[0:08:49] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to start with those in the room, and then we'll turn to those that are online,

[0:08:55] Trustee Patrick: and we'll start down on that end of the table with Trustee Maverly.

[0:09:00] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[0:09:08] Voice 22: Okay.

[0:09:09] Voice 22: Yep.

[0:09:11] Voice 22: Yeah, it's good to be here.

[0:09:14] Voice 22: Trustee Maverly from Galliano Island, territory of the Penelope tribe,

[0:09:19] Voice 22: and home to Lytlem, Saratineo, and the Georgeson family.

[0:09:23] Voice 22: So, thank you.

[0:09:30] Voice 14: Trustee Mikayla Laroni for Lusketi Island, Hoyete. Good to see you.

[0:09:37] Voice 11: Trustee Govro for Galliano Island.

[0:09:42] Voice 18: Hi, my name is David Graham, locally elected on Denman Traditional Territory of the Comox and

[0:09:47] Voice 18: Qualicum.

[0:09:51] Voice 23: Good afternoon, Susan Yates from the Gabriola Local Trust Area, which includes Mudge and

[0:09:56] Voice 23: DeCourcy Islands, and it is Snennemoch Territory. Thank you.

[0:10:01] Voice 23: Good

[0:10:06] Trustee Stamford: afternoon. My name is Kate Louise Stamford. I am representing Gambier Island, or Ta'altmuch, in the Squamish language, in the Alcotsum-Hausound area.

[0:10:21] Voice 25: Jim Peterson from Huaytai, Laskiti Island, a territory of many Coast Salish peoples and the treaty territory of the Tla'aman Nation.

[0:10:31] Voice 25: David Maude, elected

[0:10:33] Voice 20: on Main Island, traditional home to Hispanic people.

[0:10:38] Voice 14: Toby Elliott, elected here on Gabriela Island in Snanamook First Nation Territory.

[0:10:45] Voice 8: Judy Getty from Bowen Island, the traditional territory of the Squamish people,

[0:10:49] Voice 8: also known as the Kwelekum.

[0:10:52] Voice 6: Peter Luckham, elected in the Thetis Island

[0:10:55] Voice 6: local trust area in Penelakut and Laiakson Territories, and I'm a resident of Thetis Island,

[0:11:00] Voice 6: grateful to be here.

[0:11:05] Voice 2: Maureen Boland, I'm a trustee from Saturna Island.

[0:11:15] Voice 17: Ken Hunter, Fetus Island.

[0:11:20] Voice 24: Grant Scott from Hornby Island.

[0:11:22] Voice 24: And it's agreed by the five First Nations that overlap Hornby

[0:11:26] Voice 24: that the Comox Nation would be for treaty negotiation purposes.

[0:11:33] Voice 24: Thank you.

[0:11:36] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Now to turn online.

[0:11:38] Trustee Patrick: We'll be, I guess, testing.

[0:11:39] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to just start with who I see at the top.

[0:11:41] Trustee Patrick: I see Trustee Borthwick.

[0:11:45] Voice 21: Yes, Sam Borthwick calling from sunny to steak,

[0:11:49] Voice 21: Daman Island, which, as

[0:11:51] Voice 21: Trustee Scott was saying, falls

[0:11:54] Voice 21: under the treaty negotiation

[0:11:55] Voice 21: for the Comox First Nation.

[0:12:01] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Allen?

[0:12:06] Voice 7: Hi there. I'm here on

[0:12:08] Voice 7: Daman, Daman, God.

[0:12:10] Voice 7: I was just looking at, sorry, Trustee

[0:12:12] Voice 7: Borthwick there.

[0:12:14] Voice 7: I respectfully acknowledge that I'm on

[0:12:16] Voice 7: Hornby Island. The land we gather on is on

[0:12:18] Voice 7: the unceded traditional

[0:12:21] Voice 7: territory of the Comox First Nation and other

[0:12:23] Voice 7: First Nations, traditional

[0:12:25] Voice 7: keepers of this land. Thank you.

[0:12:29] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Falk?

[0:12:34] Voice 26: Yeah, hello, this is Dag Falk from South Pender. Trustee Evans?

[0:12:44] Voice 10: Hi, this is Trustee Evans

[0:12:46] Voice 10: from Sadeas, South Pender, and I'm driving at the moment. Apologies for not having the video on. I

[0:12:51] Voice 10: will be there as soon as I can. Trustee Faust?

[0:12:56] Trustee Fast: Hi, everybody. Sue Ellen Faust, zooming in from

[0:13:00] Trustee Fast: Nuklelequem, which is Bowen Island, over in Alkatsam, Howe Sound, territory of Squamish Nation.

[0:13:06] Trustee Fast: Thank

[0:13:09] Trustee Patrick: you to everyone online. I'm Trustee Patrick, Chair Patrick, I guess, elected on Salt Spring, territories of many Coast Salish First Nations. I'm going to turn to our CAO, Ruben Brony, to introduce all the staff that are here.

[0:13:29] Trustee Patrick: Thank

[0:13:31] Voice 3: you, Chair. Supporting us as usual on the staff side, we have our Director of Legislative Services, David Marler, our Director of Trust Area Services, Claire Frater, our Director of Financial and Employee Services, Julia Mobs, Director of Planning Services, Stefan Cermak, our Senior Indigenous Relations Advisor, Joe Elliott, our Executive Coordinator, Alexandra Trifonitis, our Median Administrator, Lisa Millard,

[0:13:58] Voice 3: and our Information Services Specialist, Joshua Bard,

[0:14:02] Voice 3: who is also joined by our contractor on the IT side, Sage,

[0:14:05] Voice 3: who is supporting us again at this meeting.

[0:14:07] Voice 3: Thank you.

[0:14:10] Trustee Patrick: Thank you, and thank you to all the staff.

[0:14:12] Trustee Patrick: I know we've had a few challenges,

[0:14:14] Trustee Patrick: and I thank you for already overcoming or doing the best we can

[0:14:18] Trustee Patrick: with the Internet and bandwidth issues that we're going to have

[0:14:23] Trustee Patrick: in this meeting venue, and just patience, patience, patience.

[0:14:30] Trustee Patrick: as we move forward through this um i should have noted that we had some regrets we had regrets from

[0:14:36] Trustee Patrick: trustee bernardo dobbs and middleton for today um i'm also reminded that i must and should

[0:14:43] Trustee Patrick: acknowledge that coming up on september 30th is the national truth and reconciliation day a day

[0:14:50] Trustee Patrick: of importance um and a day that you'll be thinking of on each and every one of your islands um so

[0:14:57] Trustee Patrick: So, okay, this is a meeting, an official forum for your trust counsel to make decisions about

[0:15:06] Trustee Patrick: matters that affect the entire trust area, including setting the annual budget, creating

[0:15:11] Trustee Patrick: and monitoring strategic plan, adopting and amending policy statement, and creating general

[0:15:16] Trustee Patrick: policies.

[0:15:17] Trustee Patrick: Throughout the agenda, I need your help to make discussions as focused and productive

[0:15:22] Trustee Patrick: as possible.

[0:15:23] Trustee Patrick: Let's begin each discussion by spending some time understanding the issues before we move

[0:15:28] Trustee Patrick: to next steps and i thank you uh elder uh i'm sorry i can be being dyslexic it's always challenging

[0:15:41] Trustee Patrick: for making us think about that taking that time to think of what we're talking about let's focus

[0:15:48] Trustee Patrick: our comments on the issues not people we need to keep our discussions and the tone of the meeting

[0:15:53] Trustee Patrick: being civilized and respectful, and we must make it safe to everyone to express your views.

[0:15:59] Trustee Patrick: This is also a place of employment, and our staff have the right to a safe and respectful workplace.

[0:16:05] Trustee Patrick: Please help me by waiting to be recognized to speak, by not interrupting your colleagues,

[0:16:10] Trustee Patrick: and by avoiding side conversations, by staying on track, and by not dominating or keeping your

[0:16:15] Trustee Patrick: comments, and by keeping your comments reasonably brief and focused. Please make a genuine effort

[0:16:21] Trustee Patrick: effort to listen and learn from your colleagues and always focus on the common purposes. If you

[0:16:29] Trustee Patrick: do all of these things, we'll have a productive meeting, and I know you will. Before we start,

[0:16:37] Trustee Patrick: I wanted to share with you a new reference that I became aware of. I don't have the book

[0:16:41] Trustee Patrick: because I had to borrow it, but it's called Local Governments and Transition Towards Sustainable

[0:16:46] Trustee Patrick: Canadian Communities by Mary Louise McAllister. It was published in 2024. I'll pass this around

[0:16:53] Trustee Patrick: So you can look at this reference. It's a fantastic book that talks about the transition of local government as it sort of traditionally looked at how it made decisions, how it embraced the changes that are coming at each and every community that they're facing, how everyone has come to the realization that every decision we make is interrelated.

[0:17:20] Trustee Patrick: and so it's a very powerful book but i want to make a quote from where sort of it ends and i

[0:17:30] Trustee Patrick: think it's a good place for us to begin and very much follows on the wise words that we were opened

[0:17:35] Trustee Patrick: with and this is a quote by ursula m franklin however fancy our systems of transmitting

[0:17:43] Trustee Patrick: collecting and manipulating knowledge may become their roots are human it's people it's their

[0:17:50] Trustee Patrick: their hearts, their hands, and their minds that together produce the knowledge the world needs

[0:17:57] Trustee Patrick: for its betterment. And in the end, whatever we do has to be caring and respectful of all people

[0:18:05] Trustee Patrick: in all places. I just thought those words would help us as we start on our work today.

[0:18:14] Trustee Patrick: day. So, trustees, we have an agenda before us. I'll note that we have a late item that was sent

[0:18:23] Trustee Patrick: to all of you this morning on the sponsorship, and I ask for your agreement to add that to

[0:18:31] Trustee Patrick: new business. And I would like to know, are there any other changes to the agenda?

[0:18:37] Trustee Patrick: Amanda, Kate-Louise.

[0:18:41] Trustee Stamford: Thank you, Chair.

[0:18:42] Trustee Stamford: I would like to add under new business request,

[0:18:49] Trustee Stamford: now I've forgotten the term,

[0:18:50] Trustee Stamford: and notice of motion to add the powers

[0:18:57] Trustee Stamford: of in-person advisory planning committee meetings

[0:19:02] Trustee Stamford: over and above the electronic,

[0:19:04] Trustee Stamford: or to allow for, sorry, I'm completely losing it here,

[0:19:07] Trustee Stamford: allow for electronic apc meetings as we're currently not permitted unlike the rest of

[0:19:14] Trustee Stamford: local governments across the province and i'll be able to read the motion if you're agreeable

[0:19:20] Trustee Stamford: once we get to that part of the agenda like

[0:19:47] Trustee Patrick: try it again sorry about that i have another request

[0:19:50] Trustee Patrick: My mic is not staying on. I'd like to switch the order and do 11.2.2 before 11.2.1, just from a timing issue. I think I'd just make that request. So are there any other changes? So that's Trustee Elliott or Vice Chair Elliott.

[0:20:12] Trustee Patrick: Just

[0:20:14] Voice 14: noting that the name of the elder who opened today's meeting is Elder Geraldine Manson, so staff acknowledge they will change that at the break, and apologies for the late change. Thanks.

[0:20:28] Voice 14: Thank

[0:20:30] Trustee Patrick: you for noting that correction. Okay. So that was adding a new business item to read a notice of motion and to switch the order and to add the late item on the sponsorship request. Any other changes? Not can we approve the agenda as amended through general consent. Thank you very much.

[0:20:55] Trustee Patrick: Okay, we're going to move right on to our general business. So for Section 4.1, we have three items at the top, 411, 412, and 413, that are presented for general consent.

[0:21:15] Trustee Patrick: sent. Trustee Getty? I

[0:21:19] Voice 8: sent in an amendment for 4.1.2 at the very end on page 33. It indicated

[0:21:26] Voice 8: that Trustees Bernardo, Harris and Maberly had left the meeting at 5.45. The next line indicates

[0:21:33] Voice 8: that there's a motion that has been seconded by Trustee Bernardo and the vote that followed with

[0:21:39] Voice 8: the meeting being adjourned at 5.55. And I think that Trustee Bernardo's name should be dropped

[0:21:43] Voice 8: from the list of people who left the meeting my

[0:21:54] Trustee Patrick: microphone is not staying on

[0:21:56] Trustee Patrick: that's I'm gonna do that a lot so I apologize already so can we first look

[0:22:02] Trustee Patrick: at four one one and four one three is there any request can we approve those

[0:22:08] Trustee Patrick: for general consent okay for item four one two trustee Getty has made that

[0:22:15] Trustee Patrick: identified the correction to the minutes yes

[0:22:18] Voice 8: an amendment and I've sent it to

[0:22:20] Voice 8: staff earlier were

[0:22:29] Trustee Patrick: there any other changes or corrections to the minutes can we approve the

[0:22:34] Trustee Patrick: minutes as amended through general consent excellent thank you so we're going to move

[0:22:42] Trustee Patrick: into the next section which is our series of standing committees i'm going to ask that each

[0:22:49] Trustee Patrick: of the chairs give a update on their committee activities and then at the end of that section

[0:22:55] Trustee Patrick: will approve their reports and the committee priorities through general consent, if that's

[0:23:01] Trustee Patrick: okay.

[0:23:02] Trustee Patrick: So the first committee that's here is the Executive Committee Work Program, and I guess

[0:23:08] Trustee Patrick: as I'm the chair of that committee, I've been doing my weekly newsletters and reporting

[0:23:14] Trustee Patrick: to you the activities of the committee.

[0:23:19] Trustee Patrick: there's a couple of items and i always welcome for

[0:24:05] Voice 9: all of our electronic participants and the

[0:24:07] Voice 9: members of the public we're just pausing for a moment while we fix chair's microphone thank you

[0:24:12] Voice 9: all

[0:24:49] Trustee Patrick: right again patience remember i reminded us all breathe deeply take these moments and

[0:24:54] Trustee Patrick: stand up and stretch and that'll help our meeting get some exercise too as we go through the meeting

[0:25:00] Trustee Patrick: so patience so i was giving you my report from the executive committee i do send out my weekly

[0:25:06] Trustee Patrick: newsletters and report what we're doing. I welcome your suggestions. I want to thank those of you who

[0:25:12] Trustee Patrick: have reached out and said, can you report about this? That helps me. I try to catch it and that

[0:25:17] Trustee Patrick: would be great. I do want to bring your attention. We did discuss a couple of meetings. We've

[0:25:23] Trustee Patrick: discussed it, that Bowen Island is hosting a very dependent communities meeting on the day before

[0:25:30] Trustee Patrick: UBCM on September 21st. I know that Susan Yates, myself, Trustee Maude, Kate Louis-Stanford and

[0:25:38] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Peterson are attending. I don't know if anyone else is. So if you have some challenges

[0:25:47] Trustee Patrick: with your transportation connections to your islands, I would encourage you over the next

[0:25:53] Trustee Patrick: few days to catch up with one of us that are attending the event so that we can be as well

[0:25:58] Trustee Patrick: well-informed as possible to represent your islands at this meeting that's coming up a week

[0:26:03] Trustee Patrick: from Sunday. And I really want to thank Mayor Leonard for hosting this meeting. And I think

[0:26:08] Trustee Patrick: it's going to be a good conversation. With that, I'm going to turn to the next committee,

[0:26:15] Trustee Patrick: which is the Governance Committee and Chair

[0:26:18] Voice 8: Getty. Thank you. The Governance Committee had

[0:26:23] Voice 8: had a meeting in august and we spent most of the time talking about the priorities of resulting

[0:26:30] Voice 8: from the governance review and that's a lengthy hopefully a lengthy discussion thursday afternoon

[0:26:37] Voice 8: 16.2.4 of this agenda we also talked about some other ongoing projects and we're asking council's

[0:26:45] Voice 8: priorities and instructions with respect to what the priorities should be for that committee so

[0:26:52] Voice 8: So it's not at this point asking you to adopt or approve our work plan because we're not quite sure what it's going to be.

[0:27:01] Voice 8: But after the discussion Thursday afternoon, we should be able to pin that down a little bit.

[0:27:07] Voice 8: The matrix that is in the agenda at page 47 is out of date.

[0:27:11] Voice 8: So we're going to be adjusting that once we figure out what we're going to be working on, what your priorities are.

[0:27:19] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[0:27:21] Trustee Patrick: I want to turn to Chair Swellenfast of the Financial Planning Committee.

[0:27:27] Trustee Fast: Thank you, Chair. I'll just briefly speak. We met as the Financial Planning Committee back

[0:27:35] Trustee Fast: August the 20th, and you'll see in our active projects list there, which is basically our work

[0:27:43] Trustee Fast: plan that we're asking Trust Council to approve as a group of trustees doing some of these tasks

[0:27:50] Trustee Fast: for Trust Council, you'll see most of the scheduled tasks

[0:27:55] Trustee Fast: have been completed, we held a pre-budget survey

[0:27:59] Trustee Fast: and the results are in our Trust Council agenda now.

[0:28:04] Trustee Fast: Today, we'll also be asking you for your input

[0:28:08] Trustee Fast: as Trust Council on 14.2.1, that's the timing.

[0:28:13] Trustee Fast: We want to keep doing this pre-budget survey timing.

[0:28:18] Trustee Fast: timing it gives us time to incorporate the input from from the public so we want to make sure

[0:28:25] Trustee Fast: that's in policy and a bunch of requests in 17 in the agenda about how to assess costs

[0:28:34] Trustee Fast: financial reports there as usual budget assumptions and principles so these are

[0:28:40] Trustee Fast: questions coming up later in our agenda and thanks to staff for all their good work and

[0:28:45] Trustee Fast: keeping us on schedule. Thank you.

[0:28:47] Trustee Fast: Thank you.

[0:28:49] Trustee Patrick: Chair Boland, Regional Planning Committee.

[0:28:55] Voice 2: Hi.

[0:28:56] Voice 2: Over the last few

[0:28:58] Voice 2: months since the last Trust Council,

[0:29:00] Voice 2: I suppose regional planning has

[0:29:02] Voice 2: covered a lot of ground.

[0:29:05] Voice 2: We

[0:29:06] Voice 2: dealt with

[0:29:08] Voice 2: the bylaw policy and the manual

[0:29:10] Voice 2: which have been forwarded to Trust

[0:29:12] Voice 2: Council.

[0:29:14] Voice 2: We had a preview of the Freshwater

[0:29:16] Voice 2: Atlas, which is

[0:29:19] Voice 2: It looked quite good, but there's more work to do with that.

[0:29:25] Voice 2: A lot about data to do with the Freshwater Atlas.

[0:29:30] Voice 2: There's a review of the Freshwater Sustainability Strategy.

[0:29:34] Voice 2: I believe that's been forwarded to financial planning or executive committee.

[0:29:41] Voice 2: I can't remember which, but that sort of review will happen,

[0:29:45] Voice 2: not directly in regional planning.

[0:29:49] Voice 2: Then there was quite a big project about remapping the eelgrass and it's come to the table a few years in a row and it was quite an expense.

[0:30:00] Voice 2: So there was encouragement given to look outside, to co-create a project, to look for funding elsewhere, to consider where else work might be being carried out.

[0:30:14] Voice 2: So lo and behold, the government responding, the federal government have two major eelgrass and other ecosystem projects.

[0:30:24] Voice 2: One is quite exciting. It's Hatfield.

[0:30:26] Voice 2: and there's a project funded by the Canadian Space Agency to map and monitor eelgrass beds

[0:30:34] Voice 2: across British Columbia using satellite data and artificial intelligence and then there's also

[0:30:43] Voice 2: the DFO have what's called NEPFORCE the National Eelgrass Task Force so bottom line is that a

[0:30:52] Voice 2: funding request has been withdrawn for the moment and staff will collaborate and stay tuned into

[0:31:01] Voice 2: these projects so that their requirements can be met that way. Of course eventually we may

[0:31:09] Voice 2: have to purchase some data sets. So that was the eelgrass. So then we came to one and I find this

[0:31:17] Voice 2: one very interesting. So regional planning thought, oh, let's have a growth management

[0:31:22] Voice 2: strategy. And then trust programs thought, let's redo this Islands Trust key indicators

[0:31:29] Voice 2: report. And then the Islands Trust Conservancy and trust programs said, oh, we really need

[0:31:37] Voice 2: a better geographical information system, a more robust one. And really, they all come

[0:31:44] Voice 2: together in trying to pull the data together, the indicators, the trends, some way of describing

[0:31:53] Voice 2: where we are, where we're going. And so at regional planning, we looked at the idea that

[0:32:02] Voice 2: we would have a growth strategy and we encouraged Director Cermak to talk to Director Freighter and

[0:32:09] Voice 2: And just to cross-fertilize that sort of indicators versus growth management, we also believe growth management should have a different name.

[0:32:21] Voice 2: And it all comes together in the strategic plan.

[0:32:24] Voice 2: There's growth management and community resiliency, ecosystem, health and climate change monitoring of, I assume.

[0:32:32] Voice 2: soon. So in a way, what I see is this, I think Chair Patrick referred to the fact that every

[0:32:39] Voice 2: decision is connected to another decision. And we're creating this sort of, I suppose, project

[0:32:47] Voice 2: scope of work, which really blends data and information management system and some kind of

[0:32:55] Voice 2: idea of what trends are we looking for that would make our planning better or yeah so anyway i'll

[0:33:05] Voice 2: leave it at that other than that you know people talk widely about the fact that it would be a

[0:33:11] Voice 2: multi-year project it would be start small and build out and don't overwhelm yourself with what

[0:33:19] Voice 2: what I called boiling the ocean on day one.

[0:33:22] Voice 2: And it was a very good discussion.

[0:33:25] Voice 2: And I think one of the other things that came out of it in my mind

[0:33:28] Voice 2: is that the terms of reference for each of the committees

[0:33:35] Voice 2: are a bit vague, but also kind of have assumptions built in.

[0:33:40] Voice 2: And really, we have a scope of work which crosses boundaries.

[0:33:44] Voice 2: boundaries and to my mind those older kind of terms of reference committees almost need to

[0:33:51] Voice 2: be dissolved and you would form a select committee to tackle a particular piece of work

[0:33:57] Voice 2: and just take a scope of work divide it into chunks form work groups or select committees

[0:34:04] Voice 2: to address that piece of work so that I can imagine from a staff perspective they must be

[0:34:10] Voice 2: be taking the same thing and going backwards and forwards and trying to correlate where maybe we

[0:34:16] Voice 2: could do a better job anyway i've taken enough time with that but i did find it a very good

[0:34:21] Voice 2: discussion at the last week of planning meeting and um i think i think it'll be really interesting

[0:34:27] Voice 2: to see where we go from here thank you thank

[0:34:31] Trustee Patrick: you trustee bullen you're always challenging the way

[0:34:34] Trustee Patrick: we organize and can do work better so thank you um i believe trustee peterson is prepared for

[0:34:40] Trustee Patrick: for Chair Evans of the Trust Programs Committee,

[0:34:44] Trustee Patrick: I believe, because she's driving.

[0:34:45] Trustee Patrick: Is that so?

[0:34:46] Trustee Patrick: Over to you, Trustee Peterson.

[0:34:50] Voice 25: Thank you.

[0:34:51] Voice 25: So Trust Programs Committee met July 30th.

[0:34:56] Voice 25: Approved stewardship education webinars for 2025-26,

[0:35:01] Voice 25: the first of which is the Huay Thai Liskiti Archaeology webinar

[0:35:06] Voice 25: coming up next week already.

[0:35:08] Voice 25: already. Lots more great webinars coming along over the next couple of months. Also, thank

[0:35:16] Voice 25: you very much. Also forwarded business cases to financial planning committee for secretariat

[0:35:23] Voice 25: services in the climate action education plan development and implementation. And as well

[0:35:30] Voice 25: a fairly large business case for budget to support advancement of a number of key initiatives

[0:35:35] Voice 25: is from the 2025-2028 strategic plan was advanced to financial planning committee which is intended

[0:35:42] Voice 25: to be a joint trust programs committee regional planning committee led project um just programs

[0:35:49] Voice 25: committee is going to be administering the committee stewardship awards program next year

[0:35:55] Voice 25: as per policy and also in 2026 the committee will see project charters to mend uh several policy as

[0:36:03] Voice 25: as outlined in item three of the future projects report on page 56 of this agenda, including

[0:36:09] Voice 25: the policy statement amendment policy.

[0:36:14] Voice 25: That's it.

[0:36:16] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[0:36:16] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much for allowing Trustee Evans to keep her hands on the wheels.

[0:36:21] Trustee Patrick: She's driving up here.

[0:36:22] Trustee Patrick: So that's great.

[0:36:23] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[0:36:24] Trustee Patrick: To the Accessibility Committee, Trustee Gavreau.

[0:36:27] Voice 11: Thank you, Chair.

[0:36:28] Voice 11: The Accessibility Committee was formed in 2024 to meet new requirements for the Accessible

[0:36:35] Voice 11: BC Act and our purpose is to guide the Allen's Trust in developing an accessibility action

[0:36:40] Voice 11: plan.

[0:36:41] Voice 11: And our goal is to ensure that our offices and our meetings and our communications are

[0:36:46] Voice 11: more inclusive and accessible both for the public and for the staff.

[0:36:50] Voice 11: Since then, the committee has been meeting regularly.

[0:36:52] Voice 11: Most recently, we had a special meeting on September 9th where we appeared to request for a decision to endorse a letter of support for the local community accessibility grant application.

[0:37:05] Voice 11: This grant is administered by SPARC-BC and provides funding to help remove barriers for people.

[0:37:12] Voice 11: For the Allen's Trust, this grant application for $13,215 is for accessibility-specific improvements to the new Salt Spring office.

[0:37:23] Voice 11: Funding would help for features like the entry foyer, reception center, our station, and fully accessible washroom,

[0:37:32] Voice 11: making the new office welcoming functionality and compliant with the Accessible BC Act.

[0:37:39] Voice 11: The conversations at the committee are always positive, informative, and constructive.

[0:37:46] Voice 11: Our members bring a strong accessibility-minded perspective, which is adding real value to our work.

[0:37:53] Voice 11: I'm learning a great deal from them.

[0:37:54] Voice 11: Our next meeting is scheduled for October 7th.

[0:37:57] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[0:37:59] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[0:38:01] Trustee Patrick: Remaining now with Chair Gavreau from the Island Stress Conservancy.

[0:38:07] Trustee Patrick: Thank you, Chair.

[0:38:09] Voice 11: Highlights from last quarter, June through August,

[0:38:12] Voice 11: from their staffing, we have successfully onboarded a new team lead

[0:38:18] Voice 11: for protected area management and an administrative assistant.

[0:38:23] Voice 11: Recruitment continues for a Covenant Management and Outreach Specialist, as well as for a Communications Specialist.

[0:38:30] Voice 11: Planning, we're continuing to work to advance our five-year plan.

[0:38:36] Voice 11: Our board met on July 22nd and again on August 27th for a special meeting,

[0:38:42] Voice 11: and we're pleased to welcome Jeanne Jorgensen as a new government-appointed board member who will serve through July 2026.

[0:38:51] Voice 11: At the same time, we extended our heartfelt thanks to Charles Kahn of Salt Spring Island, who stepped off the board after two years of dedicated service as an appointed member.

[0:39:02] Voice 11: Negotiations are ongoing for approximately 27 hectares of new nature reserve land on Galliano and Salt Spring, and two NAPTEP covenants on North Pender and Salt Spring.

[0:39:14] Voice 11: Staff have also responded to several inquiries about new covenants and potential land donations in the Shoss area.

[0:39:21] Voice 11: Our annual monitoring program was completed with all nature reserves and covenants, and we also advanced some restoration and invasive species management projects, and began planning for water quality monitoring on salt spring, involving some salt spring covenants.

[0:39:40] Voice 11: Outreach and communication.

[0:39:43] Voice 11: We continue our Reflections from the Field social media series and the ITC's 35th anniversary promotions.

[0:39:50] Voice 11: motions. The Conservancy Journal published four new articles

[0:39:54] Voice 11: and the summer editions in the Heron and the East News were

[0:39:58] Voice 11: released. Major highlights were celebrating the new

[0:40:02] Voice 11: NAPTEP covenant on Gabriela, as well as the announcement

[0:40:05] Voice 11: of a remarkable anonymous donation of over a million dollars

[0:40:10] Voice 11: to the Opportunity Fund with an additional

[0:40:14] Voice 11: $157,000 directed at property management funding.

[0:40:17] Voice 11: Speaking of fundraising, our Willpower Campaign for Legacy Gifts continues, alongside with stewardship, donation, and development of activities that are tied to our 35th anniversary.

[0:40:31] Voice 11: Looking ahead, September through November, we'll be hosting board meetings on October 3rd, November 18th.

[0:40:39] Voice 11: We'll continue working on our five-year plan.

[0:40:41] Voice 11: In the upcoming weeks, we are presenting monitoring results and implementing restoration projects on Saturna and North Pender, publishing the fall edition of the Herring and the e-newsletter, sending out holiday cards and hosting celebrations for new nature reserves and new NAPTEP covenants on Salt Spring.

[0:41:04] Voice 11: and I've been making my rounds to local trust committee meetings across the trust area

[0:41:09] Voice 11: delivering the ITC report via zoom something that I always look forward to please let your

[0:41:16] Voice 11: staff know if you want wish to add me to your agenda and finally drafting a strategic plan

[0:41:22] Voice 11: guiding the use of the most recent anonymous donation in short this quarter has been marked

[0:41:28] Voice 11: with significant progress in planning and land securement and a truly transformative gift

[0:41:35] Voice 11: that will strengthen conservation across our islands for years to come.

[0:41:39] Voice 11: Thank you.

[0:41:42] Trustee Patrick: Thank you, Chair Gavreau.

[0:41:43] Trustee Patrick: And I know you've really made a lot of time to show up to the LTZs and talk to us.

[0:41:50] Trustee Patrick: So if you have not invited Chair Gavreau, please, I encourage you to.

[0:41:56] Trustee Patrick: She shows up with enthusiasm and her smile and shares the work of Trust Conservancy.

[0:42:01] Trustee Patrick: And I did forget to mention in my report yesterday,

[0:42:04] Trustee Patrick: Yesterday, the executive committee did meet with our new minister, Minister Boyle, a minister of housing and municipal affairs.

[0:42:12] Trustee Patrick: And we were so happy to be able to share with her the news of the donation that we received.

[0:42:19] Trustee Patrick: She's very deeply caring and interested in the Islands Trust, and I really look forward to a really constructive relationship with our new minister.

[0:42:28] Trustee Patrick: So, trustees, I'm going to ask through general consent that we adopt the recommendations as presented in items 4.1.4 and 4.1.4.1 through 7.

[0:42:41] Trustee Patrick: Can we do that?

[0:42:43] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[0:42:45] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[0:42:46] Trustee Patrick: We're going to move on to new business.

[0:42:47] Trustee Patrick: And I know the Notice of Motions is somewhat of a new thing that we're, not new, it's an old thing, but it's a new activity for us.

[0:42:56] Trustee Patrick: So we have two notices of motions that are here, and this will be the opportunity for Trustees Elliott and Borthwick, which are the sponsoring trustees, to read these motions.

[0:43:09] Trustee Patrick: But they will be coming back in December with more fulsome information.

[0:43:14] Trustee Patrick: And then we'll turn to Kate Louise Stanford, who has an additional motion to read into the minutes for December.

[0:43:21] Trustee Patrick: So I'll look to Trustees Borthwick and Elliott.

[0:43:25] Trustee Patrick: Elliot, have you worked out who is going to read or talk?

[0:43:29] Trustee Fast: Chair?

[0:43:35] Voice 14: Thank you, Chair.

[0:43:37] Voice 14: So, yeah, this was spurred on by Trustee Borthwick, who raised a topic at the end of our June

[0:43:46] Voice 14: Trust Council meeting regarding the use of artificial intelligence in our work and how

[0:43:54] Voice 14: How I think the lens that he was bringing, and perhaps you can speak to it, is how it impacts the environment and how that intersects with our mandate.

[0:44:07] Voice 14: And of course, subsequent to that, we've all been watching as different organizations grapple with how AI is used or not used.

[0:44:16] Voice 14: And so it's going to be something we have to deal with as an organization and as a local government and as elected officials.

[0:44:25] Voice 14: So I'll just read out the motion and then we will provide a briefing and do some research and bring that to council in December.

[0:44:34] Voice 14: So this is just advance warning that Trust Council amend the strategic plan to add under strategic direction 1.2, which is strength and governance decision making and workflow processes, a new key initiative 1.2.7, use of generative artificial intelligence in the Islands Trust workplace with the start date in fiscal year 2026-27.

[0:44:58] Voice 14: 27. Trustee Borthwick, maybe you want to read the next one and speak to it if you wish.

[0:45:10] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Trustee Borthwick.

[0:45:12] Voice 21: Yeah, sorry, just getting it in front of me. I had it and then I

[0:45:16] Voice 21: moved away because Trustee Elliott was doing things. Sorry.

[0:45:40] Trustee Patrick: Can you find it or I can ask

[0:45:41] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Elliott to proceed?

[0:45:43] Voice 21: Oh yeah, sorry, no, I've got it here. Sorry, I apologize for making

[0:45:48] Voice 21: making everybody wait. Yeah, so the motion that we have, that we'll be, you know, looking forward

[0:45:54] Voice 21: to bringing back to you in December, is that Trust Council request Executive Committee to

[0:45:59] Voice 21: report back to Trust Council on the implications and policy options, including costs of the use

[0:46:03] Voice 21: of generative artificial intelligence, brackets, AI, by Alamstra staff, trustees, and contractors.

[0:46:08] Voice 21: And yeah, this is just, again, you know, as Vice Chair Elliott was saying,

[0:46:14] Voice 21: um about sort of i think it's it's an important question i know there's obviously there's lots

[0:46:20] Voice 21: of debate about uh ai broadly um and i just i think it behoves us to uh address that question

[0:46:31] Voice 21: and i i think it's it is one of those things that is running ahead of uh most organizations

[0:46:39] Voice 21: um i think i don't think we're we're you know we're and it may have limited impact on us but

[0:46:44] Voice 21: but I think it's appropriate and important for us to address

[0:46:49] Voice 21: no matter what you think about those things.

[0:46:51] Voice 21: So I think we need to at least have that question

[0:46:53] Voice 21: and have some conversations about how we use it

[0:46:58] Voice 21: and how those we interface with to get work done

[0:47:00] Voice 21: and whether we think its use is appropriate or necessary.

[0:47:05] Voice 21: Just evaluate the costs and benefits,

[0:47:07] Voice 21: I think is an important question for us to ask as a body.

[0:47:10] Voice 21: um yeah and yeah i'm sorry not to be here to do that in person i'll hopefully be joining you

[0:47:17] Voice 21: tomorrow thank

[0:47:19] Trustee Patrick: you trustee barclay so just a reminder these are just reading these motions

[0:47:22] Trustee Patrick: and giving you a kind of a heads up uh and the they'll come back in december uh if you have

[0:47:29] Trustee Patrick: interest i would encourage you to speak with the trustees but the debate and discussion would occur

[0:47:33] Trustee Patrick: in december so i think we have one more notice of motion and that would be trustee stanford

[0:47:39] Trustee Patrick: Thank

[0:47:39] Trustee Stamford: you, Chair. Just a tiny bit of background. There's been an ongoing issue in the Gambier-Keats Local Trust Committee area where our advisory planning commissions are very challenged to meet in person, just the way the geography works.

[0:47:58] Trustee Stamford: works. On the islands, there's no roads, there's no connectivity, and they just can't all meet.

[0:48:06] Trustee Stamford: So our official community plan process has been hindered quite badly by our ability to

[0:48:13] Trustee Stamford: our APCs to meet effectively. Given that, I would like to the Trust Council to consider requesting

[0:48:27] Trustee Stamford: requesting staff to prepare a letter

[0:48:29] Trustee Stamford: to the provincial government

[0:48:31] Trustee Stamford: to grant Islands Trust the authority

[0:48:34] Trustee Stamford: under the community charter

[0:48:35] Trustee Stamford: to hold advisory planning commissions meetings virtually.

[0:48:41] Trustee Stamford: And just in addition,

[0:48:42] Trustee Stamford: this is an ability that regional districts have

[0:48:47] Trustee Stamford: and municipalities have.

[0:48:49] Trustee Stamford: Their advisory planning commissions

[0:48:52] Trustee Stamford: can meet electronically.

[0:48:53] Trustee Stamford: electronically it's just a an oversight we think with the islands trust act that this was not given

[0:49:00] Trustee Stamford: the provision for the islands trust so that's where i'd like it to go and we can talk about it

[0:49:06] Trustee Stamford: further in december well

[0:49:11] Trustee Patrick: i think thank those uh this is like sort of processing uh the key is that

[0:49:15] Trustee Patrick: they are provided in writing to staff and then read into the minutes of this meeting and then

[0:49:21] Trustee Patrick: they come back at the next one um we're not debating issues if you have a question about

[0:49:26] Trustee Patrick: notice of motion i'd accept that but we're not discussing the topics of it okay thank you all

[0:49:34] Trustee Patrick: right um we had the another item that we trustee yeti are

[0:49:41] Voice 8: there any budget or staffing concerns

[0:49:43] Voice 8: with respect to the first two about

[0:49:45] Trustee Patrick: ai uh this is like again that would come back in december

[0:49:48] Trustee Patrick: Those are good questions, and I would encourage you, like I said, if that helps understand the process, you'll get RFDs in December.

[0:49:59] Trustee Patrick: Okay, we did add the late item, the sponsorship.

[0:50:04] Trustee Patrick: With your indulgence, I'd like to move that to following our in-camera session tomorrow.

[0:50:09] Trustee Patrick: I think it'll be a better time to have that discussion after our in-camera meeting.

[0:50:14] Trustee Patrick: so I'm going to delay that item until between when we come out of in camera between item 10

[0:50:19] Trustee Patrick: and 11 that's okay let's find my own pages here sorry I've annotated notes in there um

[0:50:38] Trustee Patrick: I should have had them um stapled together because they're not um okay

[0:50:45] Trustee Patrick: I don't know our six thank you of course but that's why it's not making any sense we're into

[0:50:52] Trustee Patrick: the correspondence there we go apologize life has been incredibly busy in september i know mine has

[0:51:00] Trustee Patrick: and i think all of yours has so uh again deep breaths we'll move through this so trustees we

[0:51:06] Trustee Patrick: have three items of correspondence uh that are before us the first item 6.1 on page 64 of the

[0:51:14] Trustee Patrick: agenda package it's from the ministry of forest notice of land use planning agreement between

[0:51:18] Trustee Patrick: squamish squamish nation and british columbia is there any action on this item um

[0:51:27] Voice 8: trustee getty

[0:51:29] Voice 8: um i'd like to for us to keep this in mind when we get later in the um agenda when we're talking

[0:51:36] Voice 8: about 14.2.3 um and the um what is that the heritage conservation um amendments because

[0:51:45] Voice 8: Because the agreement that the Squamish Nation has worked out with forestry is to preserve their cultural heritage areas of importance.

[0:51:56] Voice 8: And it's a really, really interesting agreement.

[0:51:58] Voice 8: So I think that's a good precedent for us to consider.

[0:52:02] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[0:52:03] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Stanford.

[0:52:05] Trustee Stamford: Yes, this agreement is hugely impactful on the House-owned area.

[0:52:14] Trustee Stamford: very much so for Gambier Island that is specifically set aside with language about

[0:52:22] Trustee Stamford: interests and preservation. I don't have a communication strategy on how to engage with

[0:52:30] Trustee Stamford: the local community on this. I am getting a lot of questions about it, but do not have

[0:52:35] Trustee Stamford: a way of responding with any knowledge or understanding in terms of how this impacts

[0:52:43] Trustee Stamford: land planning. And specifically, I am also interested in how this potentially impacts

[0:52:51] Trustee Stamford: the Islands Trust Conservancy and the reserves that it has on Gambier and the other

[0:52:59] Trustee Stamford: conservation areas. It's not something that has a specific timeline to it, but I wouldn't mind

[0:53:06] Trustee Stamford: mind speaking to staff or somebody about how to get an appropriate message out to the community

[0:53:14] Trustee Stamford: about this very impactful land agreement.

[0:53:20] Trustee Patrick: Are there any suggested actions or I'd look to

[0:53:24] Trustee Patrick: CEO Broney if you have any suggestions.

[0:53:28] Voice 3: Thank you, Chair. I would say, yeah, you're planning

[0:53:31] Voice 3: staff for your LTC, but also the director can provide you with some advice on probably some

[0:53:37] Voice 3: the initial analysis to inform then some messaging to the community if you want to follow up with

[0:53:41] Voice 3: them that would be the best approach thinking

[0:53:46] Voice 14: trustee elliott we do have a meeting with the

[0:53:52] Voice 14: ministry of resource plans sorry water land and resource stewardship at ubcm um is it possible

[0:53:58] Voice 14: we could add this in as a question and for further follow-up after um

[0:54:06] Voice 3: unlikely we could formally add

[0:54:08] Voice 3: it as a question but we can certainly raise it in the meeting and seek probably the best approach

[0:54:13] Voice 3: would be to seek a follow-up meeting with ministry staff on it the agenda for that meeting is pretty

[0:54:18] Voice 3: set and it's a tight agenda but i'm sure we could raise it in the meeting

[0:54:25] Voice 23: trustee yates thank you um

[0:54:28] Voice 23: i'm really interested in as you've mentioned on the impact for the island stress conservancy

[0:54:34] Voice 23: as well as for the

[0:54:36] Voice 23: Howe Sound Biosphere.

[0:54:37] Voice 23: So whatever we find out

[0:54:40] Voice 23: in the way of land planning,

[0:54:42] Voice 23: could we bring it back to council for

[0:54:44] Voice 23: information?

[0:54:47] Voice 8: Trustee Getty?

[0:54:49] Voice 8: Bowen Island

[0:54:50] Voice 8: Municipality has a meeting set

[0:54:52] Voice 8: up with the minister and that is one of our

[0:54:54] Voice 8: questions that's been accepted.

[0:54:55] Voice 8: We should either get

[0:54:58] Voice 8: you invited or keep in touch.

[0:55:03] Trustee Patrick: Coordination on the fly

[0:55:04] Trustee Patrick: here. Trustee Bowen?

[0:55:08] Voice 2: And I'm just curious if it could be answered, like, is this a standard thing that's going to happen throughout the trust area or is it a one off?

[0:55:20] Voice 2: They refer to resolve certain land and resource issues.

[0:55:25] Voice 2: So is this a kind of a particular situation that had to be resolved or is this just we're going to go tick, tick, tick, tick through a whole bunch of these?

[0:55:34] Voice 2: That would be my question for the minister.

[0:55:36] Voice 2: year

[0:55:36] Voice 1: all

[0:55:38] Trustee Patrick: right a lot of a lot of curiosity a lot of information needed but i don't think we need

[0:55:42] Trustee Patrick: a resolution at this time sounds like work is in progress conversations will be happening and i

[0:55:47] Trustee Patrick: think there'll be more information coming on agreements like this and potentially others

[0:55:52] Trustee Patrick: don't know trustee yates did you have another question no all right thank you all right so

[0:56:00] Trustee Patrick: So we're just going to receive for information at this time.

[0:56:03] Trustee Patrick: So the next item is 6.2.

[0:56:05] Trustee Patrick: This is C. Robertson on Grafton Lake Water Supply and Building Code on page 67.

[0:56:13] Trustee Patrick: Is this just a receive for information or are there any questions on this correspondence?

[0:56:19] Trustee Patrick: So we'll receive this one for information.

[0:56:22] Trustee Patrick: The next item, 6.3 on page 71, is correspondence from Friends of the Gulf Island Society.

[0:56:28] Trustee Patrick: society i think this is just bringing more information on their petition so this is to

[0:56:36] Trustee Patrick: receive for information all right thank you oh

[0:56:40] Voice 2: trustee bolin i'm just wondering if there's

[0:56:44] Voice 2: actually a kind of time out on the petition you know it's been running since like is there a kind

[0:56:50] Voice 2: of like okay after this date you know when the trust policy statement is is approved by the

[0:56:59] Voice 2: Minister? It's just a general question. Do we have a timeout on a petition that continues for

[0:57:06] Voice 2: a long period of time gathering signatures?

[0:57:09] Trustee Patrick: Well, I think anyone can share petitions with

[0:57:11] Trustee Patrick: us at any time. And I think that's so it's received for information, I think is how we

[0:57:15] Trustee Patrick: look at it. So, trustees, we're running a bit ahead of time. I can keep going on to the other

[0:57:22] Trustee Patrick: item. Or as I had warned you in my newsletter, we could initiate a trustee roundtable that we come

[0:57:28] Trustee Patrick: come in and out of over some time uh so i'm looking kind of for your interest should we

[0:57:35] Trustee Patrick: move to the trustee round table for maybe 30 minutes or so or and then carry on or i can go

[0:57:42] Trustee Patrick: on to the items on item seven and then we can fill in afterwards yep yeah we have an hour and 15

[0:57:49] Trustee Patrick: minutes before the break so i'm just um we could start with the trustee round table now if that's

[0:57:54] Trustee Patrick: That's okay with you.

[0:57:56] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to pull out the old alphabet list so that I can keep track of who has spoken.

[0:58:01] Trustee Patrick: Our trustee roundtable is really your opportunity to tell us what's going on at your local trust committee.

[0:58:08] Trustee Patrick: Think of things that are of really true interest to the other trustees.

[0:58:12] Trustee Patrick: If you're not prepared to talk right now, you can just say pass.

[0:58:15] Trustee Patrick: don't fill in the time and we can come back to you um because we may do this over you know a few

[0:58:22] Trustee Patrick: periods to to go through this so i'm going to start from the bottom up on this alphabetical

[0:58:28] Trustee Patrick: list haha if you thought it was going the other way so i'm going to start from the bottom and

[0:58:33] Trustee Patrick: that would be trustee yates thank

[0:58:37] Voice 23: you chair patrick i actually would like to pass for now

[0:58:40] Voice 23: Now, only because I have a couple of things that I want to elaborate on very briefly,

[0:58:45] Voice 23: but I left my notes at home.

[0:58:48] Voice 23: And if we do get to E, I'm sure my fellow trustee would be really happy to tell you

[0:58:53] Voice 23: about our fabulous meeting that we had here in this room on Sunday.

[0:58:58] Voice 23: Thank you.

[0:58:59] Voice 23: Okay,

[0:59:00] Trustee Patrick: I'll accept that pass.

[0:59:02] Trustee Patrick: All right, Trustee Stamford.

[0:59:06] Trustee Patrick: I've talked more than enough already.

[0:59:08] Trustee Patrick: I'll pass for now.

[0:59:11] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Scott.

[0:59:16] Voice 24: Thank you. So what's going on on Hornby Island is, as Tim knows, and Alex certainly know, the big thing going on in Hornby is the OCP and the land use bylaw amendments.

[0:59:31] Voice 24: And one of the biggest issues is the short-term vacation rental issue.

[0:59:36] Voice 24: And so we have a meeting in November, hopefully, to give a third reading to get community input into it.

[0:59:44] Voice 24: And then we want to get it all wrapped up before November of next year sneaks around and we'll have to start all over again.

[0:59:53] Voice 24: So that's the big thing going on for me right now. Thank you.

[0:59:58] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[1:00:00] Trustee Patrick: much. Trustee Peterson.

[1:00:04] Voice 25: Well, the

[1:00:05] Voice 25: hot button issue on Laskiti these days is a Crownland

[1:00:08] Voice 25: lease referral, which has

[1:00:13] Voice 25: boy, has that ever gone viral in a way that I've never seen a Crownland

[1:00:16] Voice 25: lease referral ever do, but people are

[1:00:21] Voice 25: talking about it all over the province. Of course, the Laskiti

[1:00:25] Voice 25: Local Trust Committee piece is limited to referral

[1:00:29] Voice 25: referral response to the one um proposed site on Laskiti um wide range of opinions some fairly

[1:00:37] Voice 25: some commonality in this in the in the uh concerns that get raised um I think one of the things

[1:00:45] Voice 25: that's uh not often mentioned is that a bunch of these um leases the 77 leases up and down the

[1:00:53] Voice 25: coast are renewals um so as someone pointed out to me this you know the one on losquiti has been

[1:01:00] Voice 25: uh the lease has been in place for 10 years and um despite the fact that people are sort of just

[1:01:08] Voice 25: hearing about it now um apparently we haven't had major negative negative impacts uh from it

[1:01:15] Voice 25: in the last 10 years or we probably would have noticed it but notwithstanding that

[1:01:19] Voice 25: Wide variety of opinions, of course. The current situation with relations between the U.S. and Canada, I think, really impact the way a lot of people are viewing the application, you know, broadly across the coast.

[1:01:38] Voice 25: I think the other piece that I think is actually more concerning is around the consultation with a large number of First Nations that the geographical span of the application would cover.

[1:01:54] Voice 25: Certainly, there's been some news items from some First Nations leadership that are not in support for their various reasons.

[1:02:02] Voice 25: but a hot-button item on Leskete and across the islands,

[1:02:06] Voice 25: and I think that's probably the hottest topic for Leskete.

[1:02:10] Voice 25: I'll leave Trustee Laroni to see if I – I'm sure I've missed plenty of things,

[1:02:14] Voice 25: but there we go.

[1:02:17] Trustee Patrick: All right, thank you.

[1:02:18] Trustee Patrick: Starting to bottom up, it's my turn fast.

[1:02:21] Trustee Patrick: That was interesting.

[1:02:23] Trustee Patrick: So on Salt Spring, I think for many of you,

[1:02:26] Trustee Patrick: we did vote prior to the deadline of March 31st to request the province

[1:02:32] Trustee Patrick: that we opt into the short-term rental accommodation

[1:02:35] Trustee Patrick: principal residence requirement,

[1:02:37] Trustee Patrick: and we got the cabinet approval over the summer,

[1:02:40] Trustee Patrick: so that now goes into effect in November.

[1:02:43] Trustee Patrick: I think it's important that we did work very closely

[1:02:45] Trustee Patrick: with the industry, our Chamber of Commerce,

[1:02:48] Trustee Patrick: and the Salt Spring Accommodation Group

[1:02:50] Trustee Patrick: on the principal resident requirement

[1:02:53] Trustee Patrick: and had their general agreement

[1:02:55] Trustee Patrick: before we went out for the request,

[1:02:56] Trustee Patrick: so that was wonderful.

[1:02:59] Trustee Patrick: Our OCP project that has been fully funded

[1:03:02] Trustee Patrick: since uh april 1st 2023 is finally started i'm really excited that we have the same consulting

[1:03:08] Trustee Patrick: team that is doing bowen islands official community plan project at the moment same

[1:03:14] Trustee Patrick: engagement staff and i'm actually i think that's fantastic because i think they can learn a lot

[1:03:19] Trustee Patrick: and um as we go through the process so we're just the the engagement just kicked off this week

[1:03:27] Trustee Patrick: into the community and I look forward to this process proceeding through. It's

[1:03:32] Trustee Patrick: been long awaited and I'm excited. So the next two, Trustee Morrison and Trustee

[1:03:40] Trustee Patrick: Middleton aren't here today and I have Trustee Maude.

[1:03:45] Voice 20: Greetings from Main Island. I can start off I guess with Luskeedee. Back in

[1:03:53] Voice 20: January former Trustee Peter Johnson reached out to several of the Southern

[1:03:57] Voice 20: gulf islands um promoting a group called the old time chicago uh which is basically a performing

[1:04:05] Voice 20: group that goes amongst the islands um by ferry and by boat and on in august they attended

[1:04:12] Voice 20: main island and had a heck of a good time it was three days um first day was um basically giving

[1:04:19] Voice 20: back to the community where they built a fence around the school playground um with community

[1:04:25] Voice 20: volunteers which merged over to a pot like dinner which is described as being

[1:04:31] Voice 20: the largest pot like ever held on Main Island it was pretty stunning four

[1:04:36] Voice 20: o'clock in the afternoon they were afraid nobody was going to show up and

[1:04:39] Voice 20: by six o'clock at night time they had so much food it went on for days it was but

[1:04:44] Voice 20: it was just an inspiring event that they left Maine went over to Saturna and I

[1:04:52] Voice 20: I believe, did just as well over there.

[1:04:56] Voice 20: It was just, it was a good community event.

[1:04:58] Voice 20: And sort of part of our summer is, you know, we had that.

[1:05:01] Voice 20: The next weekend, we had the fall fair, ironically in August, but we're the first.

[1:05:08] Voice 20: We're just, I believe next weekend is the Apple Fest.

[1:05:11] Voice 20: Every weekend, there's something going on on Main Island.

[1:05:13] Voice 20: It's a great thing.

[1:05:16] Voice 20: The depressing news, we had a formal scientific survey done on Main Island.

[1:05:22] Voice 20: with regard to deer population. I, for years, have said a couple of thousand fallow deer

[1:05:30] Voice 20: and people pooh-poohed and said, oh no, there's only a couple of hundred. The scientists came

[1:05:36] Voice 20: back and the final census numbers, which has been peer reviewed and endorsed, 5,200. 5,200

[1:05:46] Voice 20: 200 fellow deer and about 3,000 black-tailed deer.

[1:05:50] Voice 20: For the biologists' standpoint, they say 10 deer per square kilometer is what our

[1:05:58] Voice 20: ecosystems can basically sustain.

[1:06:01] Voice 20: We have 23.5 square kilometers on Main Island, so roughly 23.5 or 235 deer would be the sustainable

[1:06:09] Voice 20: population, and we're well, well above 5,000.

[1:06:14] Voice 20: um so this is um got the province getting a little bit more excited um and of course we have

[1:06:21] Voice 20: within our own organization a forum on a fallow deer a workshop coming up which i encourage

[1:06:27] Voice 20: everybody to attend big deal surprising deal um other than that it's been a busy summer

[1:06:33] Voice 20: um we are back to ferry overloads which we have been getting away with for the last couple of

[1:06:38] Voice 20: years with the new ships but our populations amongst all our islands because there are five

[1:06:43] Voice 20: island sharing the ferries and that's getting more and more and we're overloading so a little bit of

[1:06:49] Voice 20: pressure on that front and the last thing is um sitting in front of you various trustees there's

[1:06:54] Voice 20: a book um about tricksters which is not ironic um it's uh published by uh or written by indigenous

[1:07:02] Voice 20: um writer from main island um who um has for years and years and years um promoted indigenous issues

[1:07:10] Voice 20: issues on the island um wonderful read um those online get a hold of me I'll get it in the mail

[1:07:18] Voice 20: to you um but uh for your entertainment but maybe perhaps for the youngsters in your lives

[1:07:23] Voice 20: a nice little Christmas present so from Main Island to you thank you very much thank you David

[1:07:31] Trustee Patrick: lovely lovely gift for us all okay moving on to Trustee Maberly okay Trustee Luckin

[1:07:40] Trustee Patrick: Thank

[1:07:44] Voice 6: you, Chair. Thank you, everybody, for sharing your stories. I think that the most important item that I can share with you, which I think has significance to all of you, is the aquaculture lease, which is still active as far as the province is concerned.

[1:08:02] Voice 6: And we've been unable to gain support at this point from the province to revisit that and rescind that license when twice now the Thetisong Local Trust Committee has turned down rezoning for that particular area.

[1:08:19] Voice 6: And I think that that decision on the part of the province does have implications for the entire trust area.

[1:08:27] Voice 6: So that's still active. And indeed, our residents are concerned about that.

[1:08:32] Voice 6: Thank you.

[1:08:33] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[1:08:34] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Laroni.

[1:08:36] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[1:08:38] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Hunter.

[1:08:42] Voice 20: What Trustee Luckum said.

[1:08:43] Voice 20: Thank you.

[1:08:45] Trustee Patrick: I appreciate these short reports.

[1:08:48] Trustee Patrick: I think Trustee Harris is absent.

[1:08:51] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Graham.

[1:08:55] Voice 17: With a year to go in this term, I think I've been assured by a couple of planners that are working so very hard on our housing review of regulations and policies.

[1:09:07] Voice 17: And we've been waiting, oh, I don't know, 15 years for this.

[1:09:09] Voice 17: We've had enforcement on illegal housing on abeyance for that entire time.

[1:09:15] Voice 17: And really, the island hasn't sunk.

[1:09:16] Voice 17: We haven't had a revolution, and people haven't moved here from the Lower Mainland.

[1:09:19] Voice 17: So that was okay.

[1:09:20] Voice 17: We survived the abeyance on by-law enforcement on illegal dwellings.

[1:09:25] Voice 17: But with the review, we hope not to have to worry about illegal dwellings on Denman.

[1:09:30] Voice 17: We did a great summer at the market community information session.

[1:09:36] Voice 17: that we gathered in the hall and worked some more.

[1:09:40] Voice 17: And this Saturday, we're going to do it again.

[1:09:41] Voice 17: And we hope at that time to have enough information

[1:09:44] Voice 17: on the few items that we're looking at to amend and review.

[1:09:48] Voice 17: So, yay us.

[1:09:49] Voice 17: Thank you very much, Trustee Getty.

[1:09:55] Voice 8: Well, the highlight of the summer was the community festival.

[1:09:59] Voice 8: We call it Bowfest, and I won the best jam.

[1:10:02] Voice 8: So, there you go.

[1:10:03] Voice 1: It was

[1:10:06] Voice 8: crab, apple, jelly.

[1:10:07] Voice 8: Kelly? Work-wise, we're really getting inundated with tourists. We're living closest to the biggest

[1:10:15] Voice 8: city in the province, and everybody has discovered us, and it's a very easy, pleasant ride, little

[1:10:22] Voice 8: ocean cruise on a wedding cake that bobs a long house out, and it's very pretty, and everybody

[1:10:27] Voice 8: shows up, and then they don't know what to do. We've got thousands of people that inundate the

[1:10:33] Voice 8: the cove and we've had police officers that are not on duty they're on call most of the time

[1:10:39] Voice 8: because there's nothing else for them to do but they're not on duty on sundays so we've got

[1:10:44] Voice 8: situations in the ferry lineup that goes right through the middle of our village that are turning

[1:10:49] Voice 8: into fisticuffs and people yelling and screaming and it's become really unmanageable we've hired

[1:10:55] Voice 8: extra officers to try and and help with that we're working really really hard with bc ferries to try

[1:11:02] Voice 8: and get them to contribute more and the mayor has just put a notice of motion on the table for

[1:11:10] Voice 8: our next meeting to talk about charging bc ferries a government or a business license to

[1:11:16] Voice 8: use our roads see if we can get any contribution from them but we're at a loss in terms of

[1:11:23] Voice 8: trying to get bc ferries to help take some responsibility for it that's part of why

[1:11:29] Voice 8: we're sponsoring this meeting at ubcm um in terms of making sure that the province understands that

[1:11:34] Voice 8: there's not just bowen and all of the the people that are constantly constantly bitching from that

[1:11:40] Voice 8: jurisdiction but a lot of other communities as well we're getting very close to a population

[1:11:46] Voice 8: of 5 000 and we're having some very serious considerations about what kicks in with the

[1:11:50] Voice 8: policing and some of the other very expensive changes that are going to have to come

[1:11:54] Voice 8: um we our new community center there's a mention in the minute or in the agenda sometime someplace

[1:12:02] Voice 8: about um having to have discussions about having a meeting on bowen and we've got an absolutely

[1:12:07] Voice 8: gorgeous wonderful new community center that everybody is very very pleased with but we don't

[1:12:13] Voice 8: have any kitchen facilities in it we don't have anybody that's catering on the island and we're

[1:12:18] Voice 8: really hard pressed in terms of having a number of places for people to stay so that's still very

[1:12:24] Voice 8: much a work in progress um we've got we're in the process of the official community plan we've got

[1:12:30] Voice 8: a steering committee we've hired consultants we've done a survey and the next meeting is coming up in

[1:12:36] Voice 8: terms of what they've heard and our conservancy has taken up a gauntlet in terms of water and

[1:12:43] Voice 8: fresh water sources and protection and um trying very very hard to get um the consultant once seems

[1:12:53] Voice 8: seems to be willing to do a lot of the work and write the draft.

[1:13:00] Voice 8: And we're trying to, there's people that are wrestling with

[1:13:04] Voice 8: trying to get some of that back in terms of it has to be

[1:13:08] Voice 8: a community-driven and written thing.

[1:13:11] Voice 8: And they need to have more emphasis on some of the things

[1:13:16] Voice 8: that are important that came out in the survey.

[1:13:18] Voice 8: So that's the next meeting of the steering committee.

[1:13:21] Voice 8: and in line with that we've had three fairly significant rezoning applications

[1:13:26] Voice 8: on the last couple of well we just had our first meeting after the summer break

[1:13:32] Voice 8: one of them in a water catchment area that's raising a lot of questions one of

[1:13:38] Voice 8: them in Southside that wants to double the housing in an area that already had

[1:13:44] Voice 8: a comprehensive plan and there's all sorts of concerns that have been raised

[1:13:49] Voice 8: about that and just the overall numbers and whether or not what's already zoned if it gets

[1:13:54] Voice 8: built out is there any space for any um increase at all um and for fallow deer we're finding that

[1:14:02] Voice 8: this we've had a cougar that's arrived on the island a young male that uh is killing deer

[1:14:07] Voice 8: on a regular basis and uh people are totally freaking out um the the animal is still afraid

[1:14:16] Voice 8: of humans and staying away from uh people but um in the you know in the middle of the night

[1:14:24] Voice 8: there's pictures of it on their porch and things like that it's a magnificent animal in very good

[1:14:29] Voice 8: health and the preservation officers are not prepared to kill it um and they're not prepared

[1:14:34] Voice 8: there's no such thing as relocation anymore apparently so it would be euthanasia and um

[1:14:40] Voice 8: that's a huge debate that's going on.

[1:14:42] Voice 8: So, yeah, we've got a wonderful paddle project going on

[1:14:47] Voice 8: with Squamish Nation elders coming down

[1:14:50] Voice 8: and teaching people all about carving and making

[1:14:54] Voice 8: and decorating paddles.

[1:14:55] Voice 8: And there's going to be a big canoe come in

[1:15:00] Voice 8: with a family that has been taking that project on

[1:15:05] Voice 8: and having a big ceremony around that.

[1:15:07] Voice 8: So that's been quite wonderful too.

[1:15:09] Voice 8: It's gone over several months, and it's a combination of Squamish Nation, First Responders, and the Bowen Island Emergency Services.

[1:15:19] Voice 8: So that's, I think, Sue Allen, if I haven't left you anything, I'm sorry.

[1:15:27] Trustee Patrick: There's always more.

[1:15:29] Trustee Patrick: There you go.

[1:15:30] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[1:15:32] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Gavreau.

[1:15:34] Voice 11: Thank you, Chair.

[1:15:34] Voice 11: It's been a busy season on Galeano

[1:15:37] Voice 11: Earlier this month

[1:15:38] Voice 11: Our community gathered for the world famous

[1:15:41] Voice 11: Zucchini races

[1:15:42] Voice 11: At their end of summer community picnic

[1:15:46] Voice 11: With nearly 30 entries

[1:15:48] Voice 11: The creativity

[1:15:49] Voice 11: And good humor were on full display

[1:15:52] Voice 11: It was great to take part

[1:15:54] Voice 11: In a tradition that really

[1:15:56] Voice 11: Embodies the Galeano spirit

[1:15:57] Voice 11: The winning racer was

[1:15:59] Voice 11: Santa's sleigh

[1:16:00] Voice 11: And the prize for best design went to

[1:16:03] Voice 11: the mistress of disguise which turned out to not be a zucchini at all it was a cucumber in costume

[1:16:12] Voice 11: a little scandal that rocked the veggie racing world but we let it slide um i've also had the

[1:16:19] Voice 11: privilege of participating and the two-eye seeing art show was hosted at our yellow house

[1:16:25] Voice 11: art center the exhibit brings together uh co-sailors and settler artists to explore

[1:16:31] Voice 11: or the principle of two eyes seeing,

[1:16:34] Voice 11: which means learning from one eye

[1:16:36] Voice 11: with the strengths of indigenous knowledge

[1:16:38] Voice 11: and the other with the strengths of Western knowledge,

[1:16:41] Voice 11: and then using both together.

[1:16:44] Voice 11: The show featured paintings, carvings,

[1:16:47] Voice 11: photography, and mixed media.

[1:16:48] Voice 11: I was speaking along with Janine Georgeson.

[1:16:51] Voice 11: Our talk focused on how our islands

[1:16:53] Voice 11: are being reshaped by climate change

[1:16:55] Voice 11: and the responsibilities that we have to future generations

[1:16:58] Voice 11: being part of that collaboration was an honour

[1:17:02] Voice 11: and I came away inspired by the generosity and the wisdom

[1:17:07] Voice 11: shared by the artists and community members that contributed

[1:17:10] Voice 11: the show will run through September 30th with

[1:17:14] Voice 11: closing ceremonies that will honour Truth and Reconciliation Day

[1:17:18] Voice 11: on the founding side our local trust committee is continuing work

[1:17:23] Voice 11: on an associated islands regulations review project

[1:17:26] Voice 11: project, which we'll be looking at zoning regulations for smaller islands in our area.

[1:17:31] Voice 11: And we're also moving towards a targeted review of our official community plan, focusing on

[1:17:38] Voice 11: priority issues that are practical in scope and meaningful in impact, shaping how we move

[1:17:44] Voice 11: together as a community.

[1:17:47] Voice 11: To guide this work, we've engaged with our EPC to help identify key themes.

[1:17:53] Voice 11: And I'd like to express my gratitude to the significant time and thoughtful energy that they have put into this process.

[1:18:00] Voice 11: Thank you. That's all for me.

[1:18:02] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[1:18:05] Trustee Patrick: A cucumber in a zucchini race. Wow.

[1:18:11] Trustee Fast: Trustee passed.

[1:18:14] Trustee Fast: Well, thank you, Chair.

[1:18:15] Trustee Fast: I'll just add a few things to Trustee Getty's report for Nahuatl and Bowen Island.

[1:18:21] Trustee Fast: and from my notes it looks like we haven't done any of these since March 2024 so indulge me if

[1:18:29] Trustee Fast: I mention that we've had sea lions return to the area around Bowen which was for the past few

[1:18:36] Trustee Fast: winters we have solar panels on the fire hall we've got a bunch of things that are trustee

[1:18:43] Trustee Fast: Getty has already referred to but right now we've got anchovies swarming around Bowen I'd be

[1:18:50] Trustee Fast: be interested and i wish i was there to talk to you uh folks about uh what's happening in the seas

[1:18:55] Trustee Fast: around your islands but we don't have very many whales this year unlike other years um um lots

[1:19:03] Trustee Fast: happening on the nature front there's a caring for nature initiative that the conservancy is doing

[1:19:08] Trustee Fast: they've got a memorandum of understanding now with bowen island municipality so they're working

[1:19:13] Trustee Fast: uh submitting things to the official community plan project including a

[1:19:18] Trustee Fast: a biodiversity um report that's uh the best and the latest and uh i'll just uh end up with a

[1:19:27] Trustee Fast: holding up a couple of things that you can't see one of them is the uh map bone from the

[1:19:32] Trustee Fast: groundwater sustainability science program this is through uh dr william shulba of the

[1:19:37] Trustee Fast: trust um this is making its way into our um planning for a grafton lake watershed management

[1:19:45] Trustee Fast: management plan and uh we just received um uh a delegation early uh well this time last week

[1:19:54] Trustee Fast: and i'm also holding up uh sheila harrington's book i don't know if anybody's spoken about this

[1:19:58] Trustee Fast: yet but this is called voices for the islands and it's a delight reading about all the other

[1:20:04] Trustee Fast: islands in here uh as well as it was great fun taking sheila around uh bowen back a few years

[1:20:11] Trustee Fast: years ago so thank you over all

[1:20:16] Trustee Patrick: right thank you thank you very much uh trustee fault yeah hello

[1:20:22] Voice 26: um first i want to i want to thank our chair for uh guiding the tone for this meeting it's

[1:20:30] Voice 26: been very pleasant so far um the thing i want to just add my voice to is uh the deer situation

[1:20:40] Voice 26: to overpopulations on the islands, and kind of the way I see it,

[1:20:46] Voice 26: that's our biggest threat to our overall environment, that and clear-cut logging.

[1:20:54] Voice 26: And I'm encouraged to hear several comments from trustees on this issue,

[1:21:00] Voice 26: and South Pender or the Penders together don't have as intense a problem as Maine does

[1:21:07] Voice 26: because we don't have the species that's the most threatening,

[1:21:13] Voice 26: but it is still a very serious issue.

[1:21:15] Voice 26: And we need to address it,

[1:21:19] Voice 26: even though our trust mandate is to protect the environment.

[1:21:25] Voice 26: And like I say, I think that's a very, very big threat to the environment.

[1:21:29] Voice 26: And yet we haven't heard much conversation or discussion

[1:21:34] Voice 26: around what tools we might be able to develop.

[1:21:37] Voice 26: uh to to address this but i think that it's uh it's crucial and it's it's kind of the

[1:21:46] Voice 26: when it gets completely out of hand which i believe is kind of the situation on maine it's

[1:21:54] Voice 26: visible everybody kind of sees it and it becomes easier to talk about it i guess but i think that

[1:22:00] Voice 26: the threat and the development of the sort of underlying um weakening of our ecosystem our

[1:22:06] Voice 26: forest ecosystems is happening and it's a little harder to see because the large trees aren't

[1:22:12] Voice 26: falling over but the under undergrowth is completely negatively affected which in the

[1:22:19] Voice 26: long run is going to have a detrimental effect on many many uh species and and flora so uh just

[1:22:29] Voice 26: really happy to hear that and just want to lend my voice to to the importance of that and hope that

[1:22:33] Voice 26: that we can have more conversations about that.

[1:22:37] Voice 26: And that's it for me, thank you.

[1:22:40] Trustee Patrick: All right, thank you very much.

[1:22:42] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans, I'm going to assume you're a pass

[1:22:44] Trustee Patrick: while you're driving and we'll catch you up on the-

[1:22:48] Trustee Patrick: I've actually pulled over,

[1:22:49] Voice 10: so I've got a couple of seconds.

[1:22:51] Voice 10: Oh, good, carry on.

[1:22:53] Voice 10: So I just want to say, I've heard a lot about the deer.

[1:22:56] Voice 10: Please be advised that there is going to be a webinar

[1:22:59] Voice 10: regarding deer from test programs

[1:23:02] Voice 10: that will be coming out later this year.

[1:23:03] Voice 10: keep your eyes peeled for that um updates for south pender we had our community information

[1:23:10] Voice 10: meeting and public hearing um regarding our bylaw 129 with minor leb amendments and updates

[1:23:18] Voice 10: so we had second reading on that um and it'll come back to our next meeting on november 7th

[1:23:26] Voice 10: um the other item that's going to be of uh note uh for the penders north and south um i've joined

[1:23:35] Voice 10: the focus group for um the project of the bc ferries update on the birth so for those that

[1:23:44] Voice 10: are unaware that may be listening in right now um otter bay terminal will be closed for five full

[1:23:50] Voice 10: days at some point in the new year so um there will be very interruptions there'll be a cancel

[1:23:57] Voice 10: sailing either in the morning or the evening from january until april i believe it is 2026

[1:24:04] Voice 10: and somewhere in there they're hoping prior to um the spring break that there will be a full

[1:24:10] Voice 10: five-day berth closure there are discussions on um having the water taxi available so it'll be

[1:24:17] Voice 10: it'll be passenger only, no vehicle access. And same thing for the four, five day birth closure.

[1:24:24] Voice 10: So there's going to be a lot of discussion in the community as to how to keep people prepared for

[1:24:29] Voice 10: this. And I think that's it from me for South Canada. Thank you very much.

[1:24:36] Voice 10: Thank you very much. Trustee Elliott.

[1:24:43] Voice 14: Thank you, Chair. So for Gabriela, there has been quite a lot of work happening on our OCP review.

[1:24:51] Voice 14: A key part of the project that the local trust committee asked staff to hold a workshop on was on growth management, which they sort of turned into the creative term reimagining growth.

[1:25:07] Voice 14: And so there's a number of discussion guides on our project website that are really of interest that you might want to take a look at.

[1:25:16] Voice 14: It's looking at latent subdivision potential impacts of subdividable properties and then moving into this conversation around different types and forms of housing, which in the draft policy statement were termed clustered small dwellings.

[1:25:37] Voice 14: So, bringing that down to the ground level, what does that look like in our community? The question that we're asking is, do we want to redraw the map with what is remaining in terms of subdivision potential?

[1:25:55] Voice 14: If we're going to look at numbers, taking away or putting criteria on subdivision potentially, whether that be for affordable housing or even removing them from areas that are inappropriate.

[1:26:09] Voice 14: So it was a values-based conversation.

[1:26:13] Voice 14: So as Trustee Yates said, here in this room, we had about 60 people on a Sunday, 13 under 60, which is actually really good.

[1:26:24] Voice 14: I know it didn't look like there was a large, diverse demographic, but the younger folks were keenly interested in this topic.

[1:26:33] Voice 14: They're really wanting to know, can we change the story?

[1:26:36] Voice 14: Can we reimagine our future?

[1:26:40] Voice 14: And so I was very pleased to see the number of people turning out.

[1:26:44] Voice 14: And we did record the presentation.

[1:26:47] Voice 14: presentation the planner went through a huge amount of information somebody described it as

[1:26:54] Voice 14: info dumping and it almost was in about 30 minutes so for those that weren't used to land use

[1:27:00] Voice 14: planning terms it was like a lot but we also had very big colorful maps which people are very keen

[1:27:07] Voice 14: on so the draft build out maps so yeah we're probably going to make that public I'm working

[1:27:13] Voice 14: working with staff on how that's to be presented and I think that'll be of interest for any

[1:27:18] Voice 14: community that's looking at OCP reviews or adjusting how the zoning and so on will work out.

[1:27:29] Voice 14: In cultural and community sort of updates, Snuneymuk First Nation, this is their second year

[1:27:35] Voice 14: holding Snuneymuk Days and they have these wonderful weekend of basketball tournaments and

[1:27:42] Voice 14: and food trucks, and canoe races, and also the landings for some of the journey canoes that are

[1:27:49] Voice 14: traveling on tribal journeys. So I participated in that and was very grateful to also attend a

[1:27:56] Voice 14: culture jam in their longhouse that evening. It was just really wonderful to see all the different

[1:28:04] Voice 14: sort of families coming together and everybody just jamming out and drumming and celebrating.

[1:28:09] Voice 14: celebrating. And I've been really happy to see how tribal journeys has been highlighted by other

[1:28:14] Voice 14: local governments. Like I noticed the CRD had provided some space for landings. And I think

[1:28:20] Voice 14: this is a really, it's a great way to engage with the nations and communities that are traveling

[1:28:26] Voice 14: literally from territory to territory to a destination. On Gabriela here, we raised over

[1:28:32] Voice 14: over $4,000 for Mana Canoe, which is elder, well, the Manson family, elder Gary Manson has had this

[1:28:43] Voice 14: canoe and been leading and taking kids and youth on tribal journeys for 12 years. So he asked if

[1:28:50] Voice 14: we would hold another celebration here and cooked a lot of salmon. And that's led to some really good

[1:28:55] Voice 14: good connections between our community and Seneamuk, including Shipwright and Elder Gary,

[1:29:02] Voice 14: who's asked for help building a new canoe. So there's just great opportunities with that.

[1:29:09] Voice 14: So back to tourism and ferries. I don't think we were hit as hard as I had been expecting

[1:29:18] Voice 14: due to the local tourism economy, but maybe, Trustee Yates, you've got more updates on the

[1:29:22] Voice 14: the ferry front um there are a couple extremely long lineups i will say that although our ferry

[1:29:28] Voice 14: service is running really well with those two ferries that you'll notice is not a lot of lag

[1:29:34] Voice 14: time but it's just barely you know it's the capacity that we need right now it is not the

[1:29:40] Voice 14: capacity that will support us in the future so i think that message trustee gates is definitely

[1:29:45] Voice 14: going to be carrying the

[1:29:49] Voice 23: biggest issue yes that the two new ferries are great

[1:29:56] Voice 23: when they're both working in rough weather one of the

[1:30:00] Voice 23: cannot get out of the dock because it has to dock broadside and BC Ferries is not giving us a new

[1:30:06] Voice 23: dock as originally planned. So in rough weather only one can work and it is a fact that twice as

[1:30:14] Voice 23: many people can leave in the morning to take the ferry from here as can come home at night because

[1:30:21] Voice 23: the two ferry systems stops at 5 20 and then all those people that went over in the morning school

[1:30:29] Voice 23: school, recreation, doctors, work, whatever, they can't get home.

[1:30:33] Voice 23: And so the tourism affects them in that way in the summer.

[1:30:38] Voice 23: There are people that should be coming home at five that come home at nine.

[1:30:41] Voice 23: And

[1:30:47] Voice 14: so just two more notes on sort of local LTC business.

[1:30:52] Voice 14: And something to keep in mind, I think, especially as we look at the,

[1:30:56] Voice 14: when Trust Area Services presents the list of agreements that Islands Trust holds,

[1:31:02] Voice 14: holds islands just holds a lot of covenants on lands and so as we've been looking at this one

[1:31:11] Voice 14: particular application for this is the third phase of a reason of a subdivision on lands that are

[1:31:18] Voice 14: are known to have a lot of archaeological and heritage basically burial areas we do hold a

[1:31:29] Voice 14: covenant the gabriel local trust committee holds a covenant on the land and so we've asked staff to

[1:31:34] Voice 14: look into that and get a legal opinion on our obligations under that and so that's something

[1:31:40] Voice 14: to keep in mind as ltcs is um these covenants were drafted in a time with perhaps an expectation that

[1:31:49] Voice 14: there would be action at the time of a you know when there's going to be activity on the land

[1:31:56] Voice 14: And so what responsibilities and obligations do we hold in those terms of those covenants? So I think that's an interesting point.

[1:32:05] Voice 14: And finally, much land use bylaw review is on the books now for, as the chair, or I think you said, an executive, the start of next fiscal.

[1:32:17] Voice 14: There's been a great community effort to really winnow down the large number of complaints and turn that into a productive discussion of what needs to change.

[1:32:28] Voice 14: And then staff were able to work with that and scope in a minor project to review the land use bylaw.

[1:32:34] Voice 14: so that'll start potentially in April and finally a report from Toby would not be complete if I

[1:32:41] Voice 14: didn't mention tiny homes so we are presenting a special seminar on tiny homes as rural housing

[1:32:53] Voice 14: solutions at UBCM that'll be next week so it's a special session in the morning unfortunately

[1:33:00] Voice 14: unfortunately, 7.30 in the morning, but it is a joint presentation with the RDN,

[1:33:08] Voice 14: so the Regional District of Nanaimo staff, which holds the building permitting services,

[1:33:14] Voice 14: of course. They will be presenting sort of the core of what we discovered in that project that

[1:33:20] Voice 14: Islands Trust funded, and then we're just looking at next steps. So I expect it's going to get a

[1:33:27] Voice 14: lot of interest um as i did share with minister boyle in our in our meeting um because she asked

[1:33:36] Voice 14: a few questions about this it's potentially a a big leap for this province to have a regional

[1:33:42] Voice 14: district agree that they can issue a building permit for a structure on wheels and what does

[1:33:49] Voice 14: does this mean for our housing options to have movable, small structures that actually could

[1:33:58] Voice 14: be permitted as dwellings or ADUs? Is this the solution we've been looking for, for that

[1:34:05] Voice 14: something other than conventional family dwellings? So very excited. Thank you to Trust

[1:34:10] Voice 14: Council again for believing in that project back in September 2024. This is one year later,

[1:34:17] Voice 14: it's going to be presented to the entire province which is pretty incredible so kudos to you uh for

[1:34:24] Voice 14: taking that leap thank

[1:34:28] Trustee Patrick: you very much and i'm i think we're grateful that uh the regional district

[1:34:31] Trustee Patrick: in the nimos chair vanessa craig happens to live on gabriola and this has been really embracing

[1:34:36] Trustee Patrick: this project and it was a real success thank you toby uh charlie or whatever your name is

[1:34:45] Trustee Patrick: There we go. Okay. We have trustees Dobbs and Campbell are absent right now. And so over to

[1:34:53] Trustee Patrick: trustee Borthwick.

[1:34:56] Voice 21: Hello. Yes. So trustee Graham has covered, I think, the most sort of high

[1:35:02] Voice 21: profile trust thing, which is yes, that we're working and continue to work on our housing

[1:35:06] Voice 21: project and that we have another community information meeting or workshop planned for

[1:35:12] Voice 21: this saturday um i would say that our other slightly tongue-in-cheek our other biggest

[1:35:18] Voice 21: issue is hornby islands ocp and land use bylaw review uh especially with regards to short-term

[1:35:24] Voice 21: vacation rentals um which more directly uh because that not necessarily directly our our

[1:35:31] Voice 21: thing but the you know we do continue to struggle with ferry traffic um and you know i you know i

[1:35:39] Voice 21: I hear what Trustee Elliott and Yates are talking about

[1:35:45] Voice 21: in terms of their current freight traffic

[1:35:47] Voice 21: and Trustee Maude talking about the struggles down in the Southern Gulf.

[1:35:52] Voice 21: And I've been thinking about this a lot

[1:35:54] Voice 21: because Denman obviously serves largely as a bridge

[1:35:57] Voice 21: in the eyes of most of the province to Hornby.

[1:36:00] Voice 21: And I certainly have spent a lot of hours on the road this summer

[1:36:03] Voice 21: driving the bus.

[1:36:04] Voice 21: class. And I've been, you know, become very interested with the concept of induced demand

[1:36:12] Voice 21: or Brace's paradox. They're not quite the same thing, but they're very closely related,

[1:36:17] Voice 21: which basically is that adding more points to a road network or broadly increasing capacity of

[1:36:23] Voice 21: a network can lead to actually reduced efficiency because growth tends to go with capacity.

[1:36:32] Voice 21: capacity um so it's that's been very interesting to sort of observe and witness um and you know we

[1:36:40] Voice 21: we we had some sort of stop gap emergency measures that were put in place after

[1:36:46] Voice 21: the hornby ferry was had its capacity reduced i think three years ago now um and in the summer

[1:36:54] Voice 21: there's a sort of a stop gap they get what was our old ferry from before the cable ferry and

[1:36:59] Voice 21: there's a whole bunch of swapping around which in the short term worked and the lines are starting

[1:37:04] Voice 21: to creep back in and which is what we had expressed to bc fairies at the time and uh yeah

[1:37:11] Voice 21: my frustration continues with uh now feeling like we don't have uh a meaningful or accountable way

[1:37:20] Voice 21: or a way to communicate those those issues um i there's a lot of really excellent work being

[1:37:28] Voice 21: being done on a number of islands. I know there's a very strong former FAC on Gabriola who are doing

[1:37:36] Voice 21: lots of good work and I've been really enjoying reading what's been coming from them and I know

[1:37:42] Voice 21: Bowen obviously has been been sort of addressing this in a lot of ways and we in our ways up here

[1:37:48] Voice 21: have also been sort of trying to continue to engage but it's pretty discouraging. So yeah

[1:37:54] Voice 21: Yeah, that continues to be a problem for the islands.

[1:37:57] Voice 21: It'll probably continue to be a problem until there's some greater method of engaging in a meaningful way and willingness to change based on that engagement, which is possibly even more relevant.

[1:38:12] Voice 21: But yes, other than that, yeah, things are somewhat slowing down as we move out of the busy season.

[1:38:20] Voice 21: And yeah, that's what I got.

[1:38:23] Voice 21: All

[1:38:25] Trustee Patrick: right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Trustee Boland.

[1:38:32] Voice 2: Hi. Well, actually, through the summer, I had a problem on the ferry and it was two hours late and I was beside myself.

[1:38:43] Voice 2: But then I looked at all the other places where they have ferry problems and you have multi-sailing weights, etc.

[1:38:52] Voice 2: And I started to think, you know what, Saturna is OK. You always get on the ferry.

[1:38:59] Voice 2: coming and going and you know that's a bit of a luxury really in that I expect you can

[1:39:06] Voice 2: sitting in a queue is probably a lot more frustrating than sitting on a ferry comfortably

[1:39:12] Voice 2: while it's a bit delayed so yeah I'm kind of recalibrating my frustration with the ferries

[1:39:20] Voice 2: and I suppose my message should be don't come to Saturna we're doing okay

[1:39:27] Voice 2: so um we do have a little bit of a problem with the roads we had with the rest of the southern

[1:39:34] Voice 2: gulf islands an issue that the mowing never happened so the mowing is the used to be

[1:39:42] Voice 2: apparently twice now it's once and the timing of course is critical and the machinery breakdown

[1:39:49] Voice 2: down etc so there was no mowing so it was quite a high fire risk but also I realized it's actually

[1:39:57] Voice 2: very dangerous because if you're walking on a very narrow road and you have to step out of the way

[1:40:01] Voice 2: and you don't know where you're stepping to and also the deer hide in the grass so I imagine there

[1:40:09] Voice 2: were a lot more deer fatalities than usual because of the long grass and I did do a big hike recently

[1:40:17] Voice 2: well big for me and i came across more goats than i thought were on the island in the past i've seen

[1:40:24] Voice 2: you know a few goats here and there very picturesque but this was every time we turned

[1:40:29] Voice 2: around another large crowd of goats were there and over near campbell farm so goats must be a

[1:40:37] Voice 2: huge problem if you're trying to farm uh so i'm just wondering like how that count was done on

[1:40:46] Voice 2: main and who did it and if we could share that you know multiple islands could have counts done

[1:40:53] Voice 2: i mean we have deer as well but the goats are really i think a very significant problem

[1:41:01] Voice 2: um let me see um we also had the old time new time and i won't pronounce the name but i thought

[1:41:10] Voice 2: you know it's it's a social enterprise to share they're all sort of like a circus but with an

[1:41:17] Voice 2: object of having an integration with the community and they came to Saterna from Leschiti it was

[1:41:26] Voice 2: highly highly enjoyed by people and in the context of the crown referral I did think that came from

[1:41:33] Voice 2: the other side of the border actually so you know all things across the border aren't necessarily

[1:41:39] Voice 2: bad. So that might be worth contemplating. The next, just two more small things. Number one is

[1:41:51] Voice 2: we have added quite a lot of totally protected land to the Saturna pot over the last six or

[1:42:00] Voice 2: nine months. So I would love to see an update on that particular key indicator, because people

[1:42:05] Voice 2: People claim a moral high ground that may not be true, or they may be entitled to a higher moral high ground than they think.

[1:42:16] Voice 2: And the last thing was, yes, in October, we will have the local trust committee meeting where we will discuss the trust policy statement.

[1:42:29] Voice 2: statement and the um there's also an opportunity to um perhaps have a covenant on some land to

[1:42:37] Voice 2: protect some wetlands and and i don't know whether to get out 45 chairs and order sandwiches or

[1:42:45] Voice 2: whether the usual four people will show up so it really is quite a problem that i feel that you know

[1:42:54] Voice 2: to get the connection and the engagement going.

[1:42:58] Voice 2: And I really don't know how we can change that

[1:43:02] Voice 2: or whether we have to change it,

[1:43:05] Voice 2: whether we just carry on and you have an election

[1:43:08] Voice 2: and you go with, you know, what the election decided

[1:43:13] Voice 2: and, you know, wait until people beg you

[1:43:16] Voice 2: to put out more chairs and make more sandwiches.

[1:43:21] Voice 2: Thank you.

[1:43:23] Voice 2: all

[1:43:24] Trustee Patrick: right trustee bernardo is absent and i'll go to trustee alan trustee alan there

[1:43:46] Trustee Patrick: okay i'm gonna just put him down as pass for a moment i'm sorry i'm here

[1:43:51] Voice 7: oh my my mouse turned

[1:43:53] Voice 7: into a rat proceed um i'm not sure what grant said well first of all i'll follow up yes with

[1:44:01] Voice 7: trustee borthwick the ferries the traffic it was was it was a crazy busy summer on hornby as per

[1:44:08] Voice 7: usual what's interesting i'm guessing because of so many people not going down south for vacations

[1:44:15] Voice 7: it really impacted us um we have people from you know lake cowichan or lady smith that it's the

[1:44:22] Voice 7: first time they've never been to hornby they've heard about hornby but they've never been

[1:44:25] Voice 7: like constantly hearing that on the streets um traffic jams at the four-way stop and

[1:44:34] Voice 7: so the statistics speak out to this so i'll just read out here so

[1:44:37] Voice 7: So combined July, August, ferry traffic was up 13% over the past 10 years.

[1:44:44] Voice 7: June and September, each up 25%.

[1:44:48] Voice 7: And the shoulder season now, we definitely see a rise in that.

[1:44:52] Voice 7: And June, for instance, an increase of 32% over the past 10 years, our last June.

[1:45:00] Voice 7: So we had a really busy June.

[1:45:02] Voice 7: The weather certainly helped.

[1:45:04] Voice 7: And I will say, Trustee Borthwick, that if the Bain Sound Connector would let us off in the same order we got on, you wouldn't have people speeding so much on the island.

[1:45:16] Voice 7: I could be like number five at the Buckley Bay ferry lineup, and I'm number 26 going off.

[1:45:24] Voice 7: And, you know, we get cars with trailers in front of me.

[1:45:26] Voice 7: So, yeah, we're going to speed because they don't let us off, I'll admit.

[1:45:31] Voice 7: met um beulah creek housing that's that's rocking and rolling that's building as we speak i'm not

[1:45:38] Voice 7: quite sure when the date is it could be this year the thatch pub opened up opened up in time for the

[1:45:45] Voice 7: wave off in september our boat launch we actually had finally has been updated totally rebuilt and

[1:45:53] Voice 7: that so it's closed down for a bit in the summer and uh that's exciting um vacation rentals i will

[1:46:02] Voice 7: say that uh what's encouraging is that we've really come along with um the project management

[1:46:10] Voice 7: or property management excuse me group and the rental association groups we've come so far

[1:46:16] Voice 7: in terms of they are looking agreeing that maybe we should have a cap on the number of rentals and

[1:46:21] Voice 7: lots of other areas that we seem to be meeting on so this that's very encouraging

[1:46:28] Voice 7: and then finally we had a very controversial um application that we said no to which was

[1:46:37] Voice 7: for a rugby field on an 80 acre farm um yeah it was it was fairly it's a really big thing

[1:46:49] Voice 7: they're gonna have like what did they want well essentially uh 10 events saying only 150 people

[1:46:57] Voice 7: turning up that was a bit questionable um neighbors weren't too happy about having something like that

[1:47:06] Voice 7: and um noise water issues so yeah it was it was a big one because a lot of people in the community

[1:47:15] Voice 7: felt like it was a great idea they can come back and apply again but it was just it was just so

[1:47:22] Voice 7: large and they were going to have glamping as well so uh yeah i'd love to get fun hornby and um

[1:47:28] Voice 7: i think that's the end of my report thanks

[1:47:30] Voice 7: All

[1:47:32] Trustee Patrick: right. Thank you very much. For those of you who passed or were absent, if you can, either you want to go now.

[1:47:38] Trustee Patrick: So I'm going to go back to Ben Maberly, Trustee Maberly.

[1:47:42] Trustee Patrick: OK,

[1:47:43] Voice 22: I'm Ben Maberly too. For those of you who are talking about deer, just for your knowledge, you know you're allowed to eat them, right?

[1:47:52] Voice 22: Right. I mean, I would encourage everybody.

[1:47:58] Voice 22: So when I look at the fallow deer on Main Island, and Dave would be aware of this,

[1:48:02] Voice 22: how many years did we have meetings before they opened the hunting on main island right i think

[1:48:08] Voice 22: i've been closed on main island i believe since 1972 and we were telling the game department

[1:48:16] Voice 22: open the hunting and that went on for at least 10 years right so i mean if you look on all the

[1:48:25] Voice 22: i mean hunting season i believe this week opens um there's been fallow deer sighted on

[1:48:32] Voice 22: every southern gulf island now right this is not a it's not like you're not migrating and galliano

[1:48:38] Voice 22: we see them fairly regularly but um i would encourage everybody work with your local first

[1:48:43] Voice 22: nations work with your local hunting groups and that's that's how you control the population

[1:48:50] Voice 22: and believe it or not they taste good so all

[1:48:58] Trustee Patrick: right uh okay little crosstalk thank you very much i

[1:49:03] Trustee Patrick: I know dear, exciting conversations here.

[1:49:06] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Yates, did you want to go?

[1:49:10] Voice 23: Not till later.

[1:49:11] Voice 23: I have some notes at home.

[1:49:12] Voice 23: And the reason I don't have them with me is I was in three meetings yesterday.

[1:49:16] Trustee Patrick: I just thought you were waving at me.

[1:49:18] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Sanford.

[1:49:21] Trustee Stamford: It's nice to wait because now I have something to talk about.

[1:49:26] Trustee Stamford: Gambier doesn't have a lot to export, but it can export cougars.

[1:49:30] Trustee Stamford: um bowen apparently got their healthy male from gambier that's the scuttlebutt we get their raccoons

[1:49:41] Trustee Stamford: we give them cougars um as far as ferry support uh route 13 the storm away water taxi i can't

[1:49:53] Trustee Stamford: of a better route. We get 10 runs a day. It's always on time. It's always accommodating. And

[1:50:03] Trustee Stamford: overruns just mean more ferry trips. The problem we're having, and it's my equivalent to the deer

[1:50:10] Trustee Stamford: problem, is where they land, New Brighton Dock, is just about to fall into the ocean. There's big

[1:50:17] Trustee Stamford: holes on the the pier um it's so serious people are afraid to walk on it um and yet there's no

[1:50:27] Trustee Stamford: no resolution so i'll be going to the the bc fairies meeting on sunday i i i'm looking for

[1:50:36] Trustee Stamford: a miracle i'm like miracle mike princess bride whatever it takes i need uh to get this fixed

[1:50:43] Trustee Stamford: somehow and i honestly have run out of ideas so um that's our biggest issue on gambier is trying

[1:50:51] Trustee Stamford: to figure out how to to deal with this our our primary access point for the island um

[1:50:58] Trustee Stamford: things that are happening uh with the local trust committee we did um adopt the keats for

[1:51:06] Trustee Stamford: shore protection which was our minor project our six-year minor project huge amount of work and um

[1:51:12] Trustee Stamford: I'm really looking forward to how we can advance some of those concepts towards the Gambier Official Community Plan.

[1:51:21] Trustee Stamford: The Gambier OCP, as I mentioned earlier, is somewhat challenged by communication for the Advisory Planning Commission.

[1:51:31] Trustee Stamford: But it's also learning to do things differently, aligning the local island's interests with those of the Squamish Nation,

[1:51:42] Trustee Stamford: They've been provided very detailed input into what they'd like to see in the OCP and their interests, so we'll see how those can align.

[1:51:54] Trustee Stamford: There is a lot of jostling on Gambier in particular in relation to private dock rights, and although that's more of a provincial issue, it does come up in the official community plan.

[1:52:06] Trustee Stamford: This is coming out of the Pender Harbor water lease concerns that they've had with the province and the Sechelt Nation.

[1:52:17] Trustee Stamford: So those are the things that are challenging for our local trust committee.

[1:52:23] Trustee Stamford: And I think I will, oh, I just want to mention we also had some fun things.

[1:52:28] Trustee Stamford: We had a golf cart parade and a wonderful art gallery opening.

[1:52:33] Trustee Stamford: um we are one of the islands that can have golf carts legally uh so we've got probably about 40

[1:52:42] Trustee Stamford: of them now um it's a lot of fun seeing them on the roads so i think i'll leave it at that but i

[1:52:49] Trustee Stamford: will be asking people about their experiences with uh various projects that they've got going

[1:52:56] Trustee Stamford: so thank you all

[1:52:59] Trustee Patrick: right thank you so again if you are past or absent we'll have another round

[1:53:03] Trustee Patrick: later in the agenda so that your time has not elapsed it'll come back I notice

[1:53:10] Trustee Patrick: I don't even read my notes the beginning very well I'm supposed to mention to

[1:53:14] Trustee Patrick: those of you online because we cannot have your your lovely faces projected

[1:53:19] Trustee Patrick: and the video due to our bandwidth challenges that if you need to step away

[1:53:24] Trustee Patrick: if you could let Lisa Millard know email Lisa to say I need to step away and then

[1:53:30] Trustee Patrick: email her again when you come back. Otherwise, when we have some votes occurring, if you don't

[1:53:38] Trustee Patrick: raise your hand, we're going to assume you voted in favor. So that's your incentive to make sure

[1:53:44] Trustee Patrick: you notify staff member Lisa Millard if you are stepping away and when you're back. And I should

[1:53:53] Trustee Patrick: look at Alexandra. Did I miss other things that I should have pointed out at the beginning of the

[1:53:58] Trustee Patrick: the meeting the

[1:54:01] Voice 9: only one thing that comes to mind at the moment is the water in the vicinity is not

[1:54:06] Voice 9: potable so please use the water over on the table so thank

[1:54:11] Trustee Patrick: you that's a very important um i'm going

[1:54:15] Trustee Patrick: to carry on now into the executive section and um ceo brownie i don't want to know that we're not

[1:54:20] Trustee Patrick: cutting you short if we're going to still take a break at 3 15 um but so if you are if you're

[1:54:27] Trustee Patrick: were talking you can carry on we'll just take the break so we're going to move into the executive

[1:54:31] Trustee Patrick: section which is section seven of the agenda uh the first three item four items 7-1-1 through 7-1-4

[1:54:41] Trustee Patrick: are being recommended for general consent uh can we adopt those through general consent or

[1:54:48] Trustee Patrick: i'm not seeing any objections so that's yes nope sorry

[1:54:57] Trustee Patrick: Oh, he's going to have his RFD where I think that anyway, he'll be welcome to speak here.

[1:55:05] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to be handing the podium over to him right now.

[1:55:08] Trustee Patrick: So I'm going to introduce Arceo Bruni for he can, of course, talk to his report as well as item 721.

[1:55:20] Voice 3: Thank you, Chair.

[1:55:21] Voice 3: So briefly on the report, I'm happy to take any questions you may have.

[1:55:25] Voice 3: have just a couple of notes as as the chair mentioned we did have

[1:55:29] Voice 3: the initial meeting with

[1:55:31] Voice 3: uh with our new minister minister boyle yesterday um i would say that was a a positive and sort of

[1:55:37] Voice 3: productive introduction for her to the islands trust um good discussion on a few issues related

[1:55:42] Voice 3: to housing the tiny homes she was interested in um you know gave an initial introduction to our

[1:55:48] Voice 3: challenges around reconciliation um and and the potential conversation around co-governance and

[1:55:55] Voice 3: then also a bit of a heads up on the policy statement and that we're working to advance

[1:56:00] Voice 3: that for her approval next year and then the other note on my report at the request of executive

[1:56:06] Voice 3: committee and i'm happy to support it just for your reference for future reports we won't be

[1:56:12] Voice 3: including the full results of the post trust council surveys in your packages we'll just

[1:56:16] Voice 3: include a summary if you have any if you ever want to see the full results i'm happy to provide them

[1:56:22] Voice 3: to you separately, but I think we've done this survey enough times now that we can just include

[1:56:26] Voice 3: a summary in it. All

[1:56:33] Trustee Patrick: right. Well, thank you. If there's no questions this year, we're going to

[1:56:36] Trustee Patrick: proceed then with item 721, which is the Island Trust Operational Review Verbal Update, and you

[1:56:43] Trustee Patrick: can have more than 15 minutes if you need to.

[1:56:47] Voice 3: So, Chair, I'll maybe give you the option. I think

[1:56:49] Voice 3: this is probably going to be about a half-hour item, so I'm happy to start it now and delay your

[1:56:55] Voice 3: your break or if you wanted to take the break now and come back to that i'm happy either way

[1:56:59] Voice 3: whichever works oh

[1:57:00] Trustee Patrick: your first choice of the day here would you like to take a break now does that

[1:57:05] Trustee Patrick: work with it i'm seeing thumbs up so everybody online uh we've had a decision we're going to

[1:57:11] Trustee Patrick: take a 15 minute break now to 3 15 and then we'll start at 3 15 with the cio's report on

[1:57:19] Trustee Patrick: the operational review all right so thank you

[1:57:22] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[2:13:33] Voice 1: trustees if we can return to our seats please yes

[2:14:37] Trustee Patrick: our trustees please we're back up and running

[2:14:42] Trustee Patrick: please back to your seats all right trustees we're moving along we're at item 7.2 on the agenda

[2:14:52] Trustee Patrick: this is a opportunity islands trust operational review an opportunity for marcio brony to update

[2:14:57] Trustee Patrick: him i believe he's probably going to tell you this is the time he'd like he's going to update us this

[2:15:02] Trustee Patrick: is a time to listen he's going to be back the next meeting with perhaps more things for you to

[2:15:10] Trustee Patrick: discuss over to you

[2:15:13] Voice 3: ceo bromey thank you chair you'll recall when i initiated uh this operational

[2:15:19] Voice 3: review and as i reflected in my report i think i committed to come back to you with an initial kind

[2:15:25] Voice 3: of update at this meeting with the goal of providing you with a report out and some

[2:15:29] Voice 3: recommendations prior to december's meeting and so that that remains the plan so today i'm not going

[2:15:35] Voice 3: to get into recommendations but i do want to share some high-level insights from the initial research

[2:15:40] Voice 3: phase that i've done which has included engagement with you and and staff as well i think it's

[2:15:47] Voice 3: important to be clear that you know we're looking here at the administrative and operational side of

[2:15:51] Voice 3: the work done within the islands trust so that essentially includes the things that are outside

[2:15:55] Voice 3: your direct accountability although of course all of those things directly impact our ability to

[2:16:01] Voice 3: deliver on on your priorities i also want to note up front that this review is necessarily about

[2:16:07] Voice 3: identifying challenges and hopefully then some some potential solutions to them so my comments

[2:16:12] Voice 3: today though might naturally focus on the challenges um and so i don't want to leave

[2:16:17] Voice 3: the impression somehow that that means that there aren't a lot of good things going on within the

[2:16:22] Voice 3: Islands Trust. We're just necessarily talking about some of the issues that we face operationally.

[2:16:28] Voice 3: This is an organization that does a lot of things that work well on a day-to-day basis. We generally

[2:16:34] Voice 3: deliver on the core work that's required of us, thanks in large part to the deeply committed staff

[2:16:39] Voice 3: that we have and that I know you all have a great appreciation for. So if I talk about the need to

[2:16:45] Voice 3: be more effective and efficient, that doesn't equate to saying we are ineffective and inefficient

[2:16:49] Voice 3: by any means it's just acknowledging that there's there's room for improvement in some of the areas

[2:16:54] Voice 3: of how we work the impetus for me initiating this review was was my concern reinforced by what i

[2:17:01] Voice 3: heard from many of you and from many staff that islands trust is is really overextended in its

[2:17:07] Voice 3: capacity to live to deliver on some of the work that is before it and as i've dug into this a

[2:17:13] Voice 3: little bit more over the last couple of months i so far unfortunately haven't found anything to

[2:17:17] Voice 3: disabuse me of the notion that our biggest challenge really is one of capacity. In some

[2:17:23] Voice 3: key areas, I think we just lack the appropriate resourcing to deliver as effectively and as in

[2:17:29] Voice 3: a timely manner as we would like on some of the core business and strategic priorities that you

[2:17:34] Voice 3: have set. I want to acknowledge this isn't a new issue. This isn't something that I just

[2:17:38] Voice 3: magically discovered. As I said, you have brought it to my attention pretty much even before I

[2:17:43] Voice 3: started i was hearing about some of your concerns in the recruitment process for this for this role

[2:17:49] Voice 3: indeed as part of my research i went back and read a number of other reports

[2:17:54] Voice 3: from over the years around related issues that included a 2006 review of island's trust corporate

[2:18:01] Voice 3: services function that included and i'll quote there is a lack of resources available to do the

[2:18:07] Voice 3: kind of work that the organization wishes to do and is capable of doing put simply the resources

[2:18:13] Voice 3: that are available to handle the variety of council's demands

[2:18:15] Voice 3: are spread too thinly to achieve the desired results.

[2:18:19] Voice 3: So that was about 20 years ago, almost.

[2:18:22] Voice 3: Maybe progress was made in the interim,

[2:18:24] Voice 3: but I think in some areas we are facing the similar challenge.

[2:18:28] Voice 3: And so I think, you know, that just underscores

[2:18:30] Voice 3: that many of these issues are not new.

[2:18:33] Voice 3: I'll also note that they are absolutely not unique to Islands Trust.

[2:18:37] Voice 3: I think any public sector organization

[2:18:39] Voice 3: phases a really difficult balance between legislated responsibilities, political priorities,

[2:18:47] Voice 3: public expectations, and then also the responsibility to use public funds wisely

[2:18:52] Voice 3: and appropriately. In my almost 30 years of public service, I have yet to find an organization

[2:18:58] Voice 3: where there isn't more work than there is available time, money, and staff to complete that work.

[2:19:04] Voice 3: The real challenge is how does the organization manage that balance and those pressures?

[2:19:10] Voice 3: Because if you don't manage it well, work gets delayed or never gets done. It gets done, but maybe isn't at the quality that you would like. Staff get overworked. That translates into turnover, absenteeism, decreased productivity, all of which just further exacerbates the problem.

[2:19:27] Voice 3: problem. What often happens, and I'll talk more about this, is that a lot of those kind of core

[2:19:31] Voice 3: operational functions, the stuff that isn't really the public facing stuff, but it's just

[2:19:36] Voice 3: how an effective organization should work, arguably appropriately gets put second so that

[2:19:42] Voice 3: the resources is focused on the higher priority work. And all of these things not only impede

[2:19:47] Voice 3: the ability to deliver now, but they actually start to, they also impede an organization's

[2:19:52] Voice 3: ability to be prepared to adapt to the future and the changing context, because everybody is so

[2:19:58] Voice 3: focused on the urgency of today that you don't have the space to think about tomorrow. And so

[2:20:03] Voice 3: all of these things, too, over time, if you don't address them, they kind of compound upon themselves

[2:20:08] Voice 3: and become harder to solve. And despite all the hard work of staff, I think we're living with some

[2:20:14] Voice 3: of those impacts now in the Islands Trust. In my view, I see that kind of in two broad streams of

[2:20:19] Voice 3: work the first is our ability to deliver on this council's priorities in as effective and efficient

[2:20:25] Voice 3: a manner as both trustees and staff would like to be able to do in some cases and the second area is

[2:20:32] Voice 3: in the necessary maintenance of some of those core administrative functions that are really essential

[2:20:37] Voice 3: to overall organizational performance and so i'll provide a bit of a example of what i mean in both

[2:20:44] Voice 3: of those areas so first when you look at the strategic priorities piece probably the biggest

[2:20:48] Voice 3: area that I hear concerns about from you and from staff is around the work that we're trying to do

[2:20:55] Voice 3: to meaningfully advance reconciliation as a priority. The need to meaningfully engage with

[2:21:02] Voice 3: First Nations and Indigenous governing bodies is one of those priority areas of work that I think

[2:21:08] Voice 3: there is a lot of intention and desire to do, and we're just not able to free up the time and space

[2:21:13] Voice 3: to do it. There can be different perspectives on how that work should be done. There should be lots

[2:21:19] Voice 3: of debate and discussion, but I think we all appreciate that it is not optional. And to me,

[2:21:24] Voice 3: it's a great example of, particularly when you consider the application of DRIPA, how changes

[2:21:30] Voice 3: in the scope of our legislative, social, and political context can have a very real impact

[2:21:35] Voice 3: on our operations. But the issue of reconciliation isn't just another project to do, right? I think

[2:21:42] Voice 3: you all appreciate that it's something that can and should change almost every aspect of how we

[2:21:47] Voice 3: work to a greater or lesser extent if we do it well and i think everybody here wants to do it well

[2:21:53] Voice 3: i think our challenge is that despite the commitment that we see from staff and trustees

[2:21:58] Voice 3: we haven't yet figured out how to adequately support and advance and resource that work

[2:22:02] Voice 3: i think admittedly in part because like most jurisdictions we're still working to fully

[2:22:07] Voice 3: understand the breadth and scope of its implications. I also don't think it's just

[2:22:12] Voice 3: a staffing issue. Certainly from a resource team perspective, for example, there's at least one

[2:22:18] Voice 3: regional district that now has an annual significant budget set aside dedicated to

[2:22:23] Voice 3: capacity funding for First Nations within that regional district's jurisdiction.

[2:22:28] Voice 3: We don't have that same resourcing in place. It's effectively kind of an annual allowance to support

[2:22:33] Voice 3: support the daily day referrals and engagement. And anything that is a major additional project,

[2:22:39] Voice 3: they actually look at additional resourcing. You know, we don't have the same resourcing. Well,

[2:22:43] Voice 3: we have had some grant funding that we have used to support some of that work.

[2:22:47] Voice 3: What we don't have is a stable, sustainable budget that is managed and overseen in a consistent

[2:22:55] Voice 3: approach. You know, if and how we could adapt or use that similar model is a subject that I think

[2:23:01] Voice 3: would warrant a lot of careful consideration.

[2:23:03] Voice 3: It's not that I'm suggesting we could take

[2:23:05] Voice 3: what that regional district is doing

[2:23:07] Voice 3: and just lift and shift and apply it.

[2:23:09] Voice 3: But I think it's important for us to be aware,

[2:23:11] Voice 3: if nothing else, of that,

[2:23:12] Voice 3: because as other jurisdictions start to invest

[2:23:15] Voice 3: in those kind of approaches,

[2:23:17] Voice 3: that raises the expectation for us

[2:23:19] Voice 3: in how

[2:23:19] Voice 3: we're going to do the same

[2:23:20] Voice 3: or at least something comparable.

[2:23:24] Voice 3: Of course, there's more, I think,

[2:23:26] Voice 3: to achieving our goals around reconciliation

[2:23:27] Voice 3: than capacity funding.

[2:23:29] Voice 3: You know, I think we haven't yet fully invested in building our own internal capacity in terms of appropriate staff and trustee training.

[2:23:37] Voice 3: Yes, we have taken some steps and we're doing that again with this meeting, but we need to do more around our administrative processes, having more consistent policy approaches to really support advancing that priority.

[2:23:49] Voice 3: Again, I think everyone is trying their best. It's just how intentional and effective can we be and are we willing to take some steps to be more so?

[2:23:57] Voice 3: So I think the work to deliver an updated reconciliation action plan is an important step towards how we might achieve that.

[2:24:05] Voice 3: But again, we are challenged just to get to the point of actually developing that plan in our current context.

[2:24:13] Voice 3: So shifting instead from the strategic piece to more of those internal operational and administrative functions,

[2:24:19] Voice 3: functions. What we see here are, I think, examples of how we're working with often outdated policies,

[2:24:24] Voice 3: procedures, and tools that limit our effectiveness and efficiency. And again, I want to stress that,

[2:24:31] Voice 3: you know, I think we're generally delivering on our priorities and doing the work and fulfilling

[2:24:35] Voice 3: our obligations because we focus limited resources on the things we must do, and appropriately so,

[2:24:41] Voice 3: but that comes at the expense sometimes of other things that we could and should be doing.

[2:24:45] Voice 3: And I'll give you an example that may on the surface seem a little bit trivial, but I think it's indicative of the kind of challenge we face administratively.

[2:24:54] Voice 3: Two years ago in 2023, staff did an assessment of Islands Trust operations manual.

[2:24:59] Voice 3: So these aren't the general policies that govern your work.

[2:25:02] Voice 3: These are primarily the policies and procedures that guide how we manage and operate in the organization.

[2:25:07] Voice 3: organization. That assessment concluded that of the 88 administrative policies and procedures

[2:25:12] Voice 3: on the books, 55 were out of date or completely obsolete. Two years later, we still haven't

[2:25:17] Voice 3: addressed really most of those. We've begun picking that work up again recently and updating

[2:25:24] Voice 3: some of those procedures. And so that work is underway where it can be fit in to everybody's

[2:25:29] Voice 3: appropriate workload. And we're trying to make it a priority. But it's a big lift in addition

[2:25:34] Voice 3: to everything else which is why not as much improvement has been made to date on it over

[2:25:39] Voice 3: the last two years you know and it's examples like my favorite one is that we have an operating

[2:25:45] Voice 3: procedure on allocation of equipment to trustees that operating procedure is primarily concerned

[2:25:51] Voice 3: with who gets a fax machine and how we allocate those because the policy itself hasn't been

[2:25:57] Voice 3: updated since it was introduced in 1993 now obviously our practice has changed we don't

[2:26:03] Voice 3: allocate fax machines to you anymore. But I think it's a little problematic that we haven't

[2:26:08] Voice 3: documented what we actually do do now, so that we can ensure we're actually following an appropriate

[2:26:13] Voice 3: and consistent practice. We also don't have a policy on administrative policy for records

[2:26:18] Voice 3: management, although one is in the works now. That doesn't mean we aren't doing records management.

[2:26:24] Voice 3: It just means, to me, it's a highlights the kind of cracks that we have in our basic administrative

[2:26:29] Voice 3: administrative foundation. And I think this is the kind of stuff that happens when the day-to-day

[2:26:35] Voice 3: urgency of priorities consumes the full operating capacity of the organization. Some of those

[2:26:39] Voice 3: underlying fundamentals get neglected. And it creates a risk, right? It creates a risk of

[2:26:46] Voice 3: ineffective practice, of multiple different approaches, of workarounds, you know, rather

[2:26:50] Voice 3: than consistent and sound practice across the organization. And I don't think that means there's

[2:26:55] Voice 3: an imminent or substantive risk resulting from the fact that we have a policy on fax machines.

[2:27:00] Voice 3: That's not what I'm suggesting, but I think it's worth highlighting as a symptom of an organization

[2:27:04] Voice 3: that is just struggling to keep up with some of the basics. And while that administrative

[2:27:10] Voice 3: procedure piece may seem a bit trivial, collectively, this creates a level of inefficiency

[2:27:15] Voice 3: that only serves to exacerbate some of our capacity problems from a staffing perspective,

[2:27:20] Voice 3: perspective. And I'll come back to that in a little bit. Related to that is the tools that we use, particularly around technology. In my engagement with you and with staff, I heard repeatedly about the need to improve or replace various technology tools as a priority. Things like we need better and different document management, we need website improvements, we need project management software, you know, we need replacements for some of the custom applications we have that are

[2:27:54] Voice 3: are increasingly experiencing errors. Those may all be true and may all be valid, but each one in

[2:27:59] Voice 3: itself is a project that requires investment of money and time to achieve. And I think the real

[2:28:05] Voice 3: important piece there is, yes, those are things we should look at, but we actually don't even have a

[2:28:09] Voice 3: system now or a clear model for how we would prioritize one over another, nor do we have any

[2:28:15] Voice 3: sort of long-term plan for how we might modernize our digital infrastructure and systems, let alone

[2:28:20] Voice 3: loan a plan for how we would actually deal with emerging issues like artificial intelligence.

[2:28:25] Voice 3: And so even if you solve those things, though, layering a new digital tool on top of an outdated

[2:28:32] Voice 3: process doesn't actually necessarily solve your problem or make you more effective. In some ways,

[2:28:36] Voice 3: it actually could have the opposite effect. I think we know these things. The important point

[2:28:41] Voice 3: is we just have trouble fixing them amidst all of the other priorities. That said, I give this

[2:28:47] Voice 3: counsel credit for your willingness to fund investments in IT applications, you know, like

[2:28:52] Voice 3: in recent years, like the CRM platform. But I think it's noticeable, right, that the procurement

[2:28:57] Voice 3: and implementation of that platform is well behind schedule. Why? Well, I think probably a number of

[2:29:04] Voice 3: factors, but not least is that I think it appears we were a bit optimistic in assessing what the

[2:29:09] Voice 3: true resourcing was required to procure and implement a system like that, particularly in

[2:29:14] Voice 3: regard to staff time which brings us back to this issue of underlying capacity so i want to shift

[2:29:21] Voice 3: now and sort of talk more about that staffing and hr side of things and how

[2:29:26] Voice 3: this how this relates

[2:29:28] Voice 3: for a bit of context when we look back over the last decade we have seen growth in the total

[2:29:33] Voice 3: number of staff at islands trust however over the same time i think it's also noticeable that staff

[2:29:38] Voice 3: and benefit costs have remained relatively consistent as a share of the total budget over

[2:29:42] Voice 3: that same period so yes you have increased staff but i think you've done it in proportion to your

[2:29:48] Voice 3: overall budget and this and the scope and scale of work um i also think it's important to give this

[2:29:54] Voice 3: council again credit for your willingness to in recent years commit to funding and resourcing

[2:30:00] Voice 3: some additional staff positions,

[2:30:01] Voice 3: but not unlike the CRM project.

[2:30:04] Voice 3: I think it's indicative of the challenge we face

[2:30:06] Voice 3: that some of those positions have still not been filled

[2:30:09] Voice 3: more than a year.

[2:30:10] Voice 3: I think in at least one case going on two years,

[2:30:13] Voice 3: since you agreed to fund it.

[2:30:17] Voice 3: Simply because the staff who need to run the competitions

[2:30:19] Voice 3: to fill those positions themselves

[2:30:21] Voice 3: have not been able to carve out the time

[2:30:24] Voice 3: to actually go through that process,

[2:30:25] Voice 3: even though it would help them address their capacity issue.

[2:30:31] Voice 3: I'm going to talk a little bit about time tracking, but not in the way that you're used to talking about it.

[2:30:37] Voice 3: I know there's been a lot of conversation around time tracking, which in itself is another example of a technology related piece of work that is behind schedule in terms of our application and adaptation to it.

[2:30:49] Voice 3: But I want to look at one area where I think it gives you gives you a bit of insight into where staff time goes.

[2:30:55] Voice 3: I asked our administrative staff, and I want to thank Lisa for undertaking this work with Alex, to go back and estimate for me how much time we spend supporting you in your various committee and council meetings.

[2:31:09] Voice 3: And I want to be clear, I'm not suggesting for a moment that is not essential work. Of course it is.

[2:31:13] Voice 3: Council committee LTC meetings are the bread and butter of how decisions are made in a transparent and responsible manner.

[2:31:19] Voice 3: And it's vital that we support you in that work.

[2:31:22] Voice 3: but for context in 2024 staff supported a total of 189 meetings so that's about one meeting every

[2:31:31] Voice 3: one and a quarter business days over the year that includes trust council committees the

[2:31:36] Voice 3: conservancy and ltcs and that's not an unusually high number over the past five years it's averaged

[2:31:42] Voice 3: about 175 meetings a year and again this is important this is what you do and how we govern

[2:31:47] Voice 3: and fulfill the mandate of islands trust but the total amount of time spent just by the

[2:31:53] Voice 3: administrative staff in preparing for those meetings is 4342 hours that's just to prepare

[2:31:59] Voice 3: the logistics put together the agenda packages that side of it doesn't include time spent by

[2:32:06] Voice 3: all the other staff who actually write all that material research all that material

[2:32:11] Voice 3: doesn't include the time spent in the meetings so those 189 meetings if you're interested works out

[2:32:16] Voice 3: to 640 hours of meetings and often you'll have multiple staff almost always have multiple staff

[2:32:22] Voice 3: so when we factor all that in my rough but probably conservative estimate is that staff

[2:32:29] Voice 3: pay close to 12 000 hours a year supporting the meeting functions of islands trust again

[2:32:35] Voice 3: necessary work but i think when you consider that works out to about seven full-time positions worth

[2:32:41] Voice 3: of hours every year it's incumbent on all of us as staff and trustees to make sure we're getting

[2:32:47] Voice 3: maximum value out of that investment of time and resources and so certainly one of the things we'll

[2:32:54] Voice 3: be looking at is if on the staff side how can we streamline some of that work so that we're

[2:33:00] Voice 3: consuming less time in actually supporting the volume of meetings that you do this whole question

[2:33:09] Voice 3: of staff capacity isn't really just one of workload though we also have some broader hr

[2:33:14] Voice 3: challenges so for context out of 65 staff last year we had 15 voluntary departures so that's

[2:33:23] Voice 3: seven staff who left islands trust for jobs elsewhere in the provincial public service of

[2:33:27] Voice 3: which we are apart from an hr perspective the other eight left islands trust and the broader

[2:33:32] Voice 3: public service altogether that includes three retirements which is a special category of

[2:33:36] Voice 3: challenge that worries me with some of our key staff that we that we have those 15 permanent

[2:33:42] Voice 3: permanent departures equal an exit rate of about 23%. By comparison, HR consulting firm Mercer

[2:33:50] Voice 3: estimates that in 2024, the average exit rate among employers in Canada was 12%. So roughly

[2:33:56] Voice 3: half what ours is. In the broader public service in BC, the average for the last few years has been

[2:34:01] Voice 3: about eight and a half percent. So we have a very high exit rate. Now, of course, I think part of

[2:34:06] Voice 3: that is the numbers are a bit skewed because we're a small organization. So each individual exit

[2:34:11] Voice 3: it impacts that percentage rate, you know, much more than one person leaving the 35,000 people

[2:34:17] Voice 3: in core government. But nonetheless, I think, you know, it's significant, but it's also only part

[2:34:22] Voice 3: of the picture. We also see somewhat as a result, a very high rate of mobility within the organization

[2:34:28] Voice 3: as we fill vacancies, often resulting in staff moving into other positions. We actually had

[2:34:33] Voice 3: total staff movements was, I think it was 87 last year. So we had more movements than we actually

[2:34:40] Voice 3: had staff and that's because each vacancy precipitates multiple transactions um to be

[2:34:47] Voice 3: sure some of that is really positive right we're giving staff opportunities to advance in their

[2:34:51] Voice 3: careers with islands trust and we're bringing in some fresh new perspective when we fill externally

[2:34:56] Voice 3: but that volume of movement creates a lot of instability and as we all know you know every

[2:35:01] Voice 3: time someone starts a new job there's just a naturally a period of decreased productivity

[2:35:05] Voice 3: will they get up to speed and you know that you can quantify that in terms of dollars and cents

[2:35:11] Voice 3: but it also just has an operational impact as you all experience you know you can have the most

[2:35:16] Voice 3: enthusiastic skilled talented person when they step into a new role it takes them a while to

[2:35:21] Voice 3: be fully performative and you know in most estimates that's anywhere from six months to a

[2:35:25] Voice 3: year so that means i've got about what two and a half more months before i can be expected to

[2:35:31] Voice 3: actually be fully fulfilling this job. You'll let me know how that's going, I'm sure.

[2:35:37] Voice 3: We see this, I think, particularly in the case of Salt Spring. This was referenced earlier.

[2:35:42] Voice 3: At their most recent LTC meeting, the staff report highlighted that the volume of development

[2:35:48] Voice 3: planning applications per available FTE, so number of applications per available staff to

[2:35:54] Voice 3: actually process them, is more than triple what it is for the other two offices. Now, Director

[2:35:58] Voice 3: Sir Mac and I were just talking about there's some some complexity and nuance to that but

[2:36:03] Voice 3: nonetheless it's a significant workload issue in relation to the staffing there and is partly at

[2:36:08] Voice 3: least because of the staffing instability that we've seen in that office so we've made some

[2:36:14] Voice 3: recent moves there which I think are encouraging that have started to bring some staffing stability

[2:36:19] Voice 3: to the Salt Spring office but I think there's nonetheless there's a challenge there that we

[2:36:23] Voice 3: need to seek to resolve and of course we're bringing some stability but that's because

[2:36:26] Voice 3: because we've moved people into new roles, which again is going to take some time for them to fully get up to speed.

[2:36:32] Voice 3: And of course, that's only exacerbated by things like us having no central administrative capacity to manage something like the standing up of the new Salt Spring office,

[2:36:42] Voice 3: which then falls to the regional planning manager, which then adds significantly to his workload, which means that energy is diverted from his core duties.

[2:36:51] Voice 3: the other challenge we face is because we're small we're what I call one deep in a lot of

[2:36:56] Voice 3: positions so with the possible exception of planning most roles in the islands trust we

[2:37:00] Voice 3: have one person who knows how to do that job and if they leave there's not an immediately

[2:37:05] Voice 3: obvious successor who has the experience and skill set to step in and pick up that slack

[2:37:10] Voice 3: well we well we actually work to fill the position often that ends up being the manager or the

[2:37:14] Voice 3: director who themselves are often already oversubscribed and that has a subsequent ripple

[2:37:20] Voice 3: effect on their work. So why do we have these challenges? We don't entirely know. And obviously,

[2:37:28] Voice 3: in each individual case, where someone chooses to leave or join, they do that for a variety of

[2:37:34] Voice 3: reasons that, you know, are unique to them. But there are a few general factors, I think,

[2:37:38] Voice 3: that are at play. Being within the Public Service Act, we are obligated and required to follow the

[2:37:45] Voice 3: classification and compensation scheme that is set out in the provincial collective agreements

[2:37:51] Voice 3: and provincial policies. While it's not universally true, generally speaking, local governments will

[2:37:58] Voice 3: often pay more for similar roles. And local governments for us, of course, are where we

[2:38:02] Voice 3: often compete for many of our staff. And we have

[2:38:06] Voice 3: very little ability to control that.

[2:38:08] Voice 3: I'd also argue that often we ask more of our staff than may be the case in comparable roles

[2:38:14] Voice 3: in local government i think planning staff are a good example of that you know in most local

[2:38:19] Voice 3: government context they would have far less direct interaction with the public and elected officials

[2:38:24] Voice 3: you know and certainly when they're supporting you as ltcs we call upon those planning staff

[2:38:29] Voice 3: to do much more than apply their planning expertise you know you know how much they

[2:38:33] Voice 3: they do from sort of the administrative side to the i.t support and they're they're your

[2:38:38] Voice 3: primary supports which isn't necessarily what they would be doing if they had a comparable

[2:38:42] Voice 3: role in a local government context. Some of them, I think, though, actually really value that.

[2:38:47] Voice 3: That's part of what keeps them here is because that's what makes the work more engaging for

[2:38:52] Voice 3: them. But it also asks more of them than they might be asked in a comparable role elsewhere

[2:38:55] Voice 3: that may very well pay more. As I mentioned, we're smaller, so we have limited career development

[2:39:00] Voice 3: opportunities. That's an issue for both retention, but also for recruitment. When people are joining

[2:39:05] Voice 3: us, they're like, well, what's the path for me when I come into this organization? And that's

[2:39:12] Voice 3: for the province or other opportunities um it's great when we particularly are able to recruit

[2:39:17] Voice 3: young staff early in their career but they're they're going to reach a point where they want

[2:39:22] Voice 3: to take the next step and we don't often offer many options for them depending on their role

[2:39:27] Voice 3: and then i also you know to be fully transparent what i heard from the staff survey that we did

[2:39:33] Voice 3: earlier this year there is i think historically a level of frustration for some staff with some

[2:39:38] Voice 3: aspects of leadership particularly in addressing some of these operational issues and frustrations

[2:39:44] Voice 3: that staff deal with that i have talked about and i think

[2:39:47] Voice 3: it's reasonable to assume that in

[2:39:48] Voice 3: some cases that's also a factor in people's decisions around whether they stay or go

[2:39:53] Voice 3: that said i'll also note that in that same staff survey that the percentage of staff who are

[2:39:58] Voice 3: satisfied with the islands trust and employer was notably higher than comparable data from

[2:40:03] Voice 3: the provincial government so what that says is people have a relatively positive experience here

[2:40:07] Voice 3: staff are particularly passionate about the mandate and the value of the work that we do

[2:40:12] Voice 3: and yet we still nonetheless see that high turnover rate i'd like to tell you that we

[2:40:18] Voice 3: have a plan and that director mobs and i have got a plan to solve all of these things

[2:40:23] Voice 3: we're not there yet in large part though because a lot of these factors are beyond our control

[2:40:28] Voice 3: we can't control and influence pay we can't change the fact that we're a small organization

[2:40:33] Voice 3: and have limited development opportunities.

[2:40:35] Voice 3: The necessity of our size and the scope of our work

[2:40:39] Voice 3: means we have to ask people to do more complex roles

[2:40:42] Voice 3: than they might in a bigger organization.

[2:40:44] Voice 3: What we can do, though, is ensure that the experience

[2:40:47] Voice 3: of working here is as positive as possible.

[2:40:49] Voice 3: And so that's going to be our focus, I think,

[2:40:52] Voice 3: over the next little while.

[2:40:53] Voice 3: And we have an employee group that is looking at that

[2:40:55] Voice 3: to give us their ideas as well,

[2:40:57] Voice 3: so that at least we give as much as positive an experience

[2:41:00] Voice 3: as possible so that people are maybe less reluctant

[2:41:03] Voice 3: to leave even when they have options available to them. And of course, you can all, and I know you

[2:41:08] Voice 3: do, play an important part in that. In many ways, those broader operational and administrative

[2:41:15] Voice 3: issues that I spoke about actually can also help address the HR issues. These sort of things around

[2:41:22] Voice 3: inconsistent policy tools that don't do what we want when we want them, those kind of things are

[2:41:28] Voice 3: the things that kind of eat away at people's daily experience. And so trying to get a resolution

[2:41:33] Voice 3: solution to some of those actually can help us in addressing that HR side of things as well,

[2:41:38] Voice 3: to the extent we can influence it. But I think even if we fix some of those underlying issues,

[2:41:44] Voice 3: that alone isn't going to solve the fundamental issue of capacity and workload. And on that front,

[2:41:49] Voice 3: there are really only two basic solutions when the work to be done exceeds the capacity of the

[2:41:54] Voice 3: people to do it. One is do less, either by stopping or delaying work and refocusing capacity

[2:42:00] Voice 3: on a narrower set of priorities and the other is add capacity through targeted investment in those

[2:42:06] Voice 3: areas with the most acute pressures you know probably the most effective path is often a

[2:42:10] Voice 3: combination of both of these things done in a very thoughtful and strategic way reducing workload

[2:42:16] Voice 3: can help free up capacity in the short term especially to help implement some of those

[2:42:21] Voice 3: foundational operational solutions that we need to tackle but relying solely on this obviously

[2:42:26] Voice 3: has impacts on our ability to deliver on the priorities that we have and to meet public

[2:42:30] Voice 3: expectations. So you can't really sacrifice one at the expense of the other. On the other hand,

[2:42:37] Voice 3: well, additional investment can help. Also, just putting more money into inefficient ways of

[2:42:44] Voice 3: operating isn't really a sustainable solution either. It's just a bit of a bandaid that only

[2:42:49] Voice 3: really delays the need for more substantive change. So that said, when I bring you some

[2:42:55] Voice 3: recommendations before december's meeting i may recommend to you to consider some strategic

[2:43:00] Voice 3: investments in core areas and it'll

[2:43:03] Voice 3: be up to you to consider that as part of the budget process and

[2:43:05] Voice 3: decide whether or not you think that that's acceptable and that that will be your authority

[2:43:09] Voice 3: to decide but i also want to you to rest assured i am not starting by any means from an assumption

[2:43:14] Voice 3: that just more money and more people is the solution to everything um quite the contrary

[2:43:18] Voice 3: i have asked senior staff in particular to identify for me potential areas where they

[2:43:24] Voice 3: think we can reduce work and we're going to dig into that a little bit more over the fall but at

[2:43:30] Voice 3: first glance and this doesn't surprise me i don't think there's a lot that we're doing beyond what

[2:43:35] Voice 3: is actually required of us it's probably more of a question of how we are doing it and can we

[2:43:40] Voice 3: address it that way um i think you know and i think there are some significant pieces of work

[2:43:46] Voice 3: already underway that will help us be more effective in delivering on some of that required

[2:43:51] Voice 3: work. I think the bylaw enforcement policy improvements that you're going to look at

[2:43:54] Voice 3: later this week are a good example of that, right? Will it be more efficient? Maybe. But

[2:43:59] Voice 3: will it be more effective? Probably yes. And I think those are the kind of bigger pieces that

[2:44:04] Voice 3: are worth considering. But overall, I do think any sort of reduction in workload is actually

[2:44:10] Voice 3: going to require us to reassess to some degree how we support you in your priorities. And I

[2:44:15] Voice 3: would encourage you to keep that in mind as we go through some of the other agenda items this week

[2:44:19] Voice 3: speak in terms of where those priorities lie and if we're adding things are there other things that

[2:44:24] Voice 3: we can pause or delay or take away I don't think ultimately there are any real quick solutions to

[2:44:30] Voice 3: these challenges which is why they often kind of get ignored because you do the work and you look

[2:44:35] Voice 3: at it and you go well there's got to be a way and then you realize it's big and it's hard and it

[2:44:39] Voice 3: takes time and so you just kind of park them and I've been in a lot of those conversations in my

[2:44:44] Voice 3: my career too. But that only just prolongs the agony to some extent. I think there are certainly

[2:44:52] Voice 3: some things internally that we as staff can do just that we can just change that don't actually

[2:44:59] Voice 3: require any direction or decision from you. I don't expect you'll necessarily see some of those

[2:45:04] Voice 3: in the report that I will bring you. Although we do need to find the capacity to be able to do those

[2:45:09] Voice 3: things internally. And there may be some recommendations that I'll bring you that are

[2:45:15] Voice 3: going to require a decision from you and some action between now and the end of this council's

[2:45:19] Voice 3: term. But I also suspect a lot of my recommendations are actually going to look longer term at some of

[2:45:25] Voice 3: the more foundational issues and some larger and more longer term improvements that will serve the

[2:45:30] Voice 3: organization well, but will take some time. But in any

[2:45:34] Voice 3: case, I said I wasn't going to get into

[2:45:37] Voice 3: solutions today. So maybe I'll wrap it up there. And I'm happy to take any questions you might

[2:45:41] Voice 3: might have at this point thank you i

[2:45:45] Trustee Patrick: really want to thank you ceo brony and i want to remind

[2:45:49] Trustee Patrick: everyone that we set out when we set out to recruit a new ceo we set the table purposely

[2:45:59] Trustee Patrick: when we went out the the group that was on the hiring committee and the first tasks that we

[2:46:06] Trustee Patrick: We tasked Ruben, or Sam Broney was, to do this work and to come back to us.

[2:46:13] Trustee Patrick: So this isn't about a surprise or a shock.

[2:46:18] Trustee Patrick: We knew we were setting out that the mandate to the Islands Trust was important to all of us

[2:46:23] Trustee Patrick: and that we wanted an organization that could serve us to deliver on the mandate into the future.

[2:46:31] Trustee Patrick: So he's welcomed questions.

[2:46:34] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Allen.

[2:46:35] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Allen.

[2:46:36] Trustee Patrick: Allen. Trustee Allen.

[2:46:38] Voice 7: Yeah, hi, thank you. See you, Bronnie. Over the years, I've been looking at

[2:46:44] Voice 7: the Islands Trust, and I just, you know, it's not the term loaning, but when staff members get to

[2:46:52] Voice 7: go to other ministries for a certain time and for educational purposes or other reasons, I've never

[2:46:59] Voice 7: got that, because I look at the Islands Trust, we're a unique agency, obviously, but we're like

[2:47:06] Voice 7: We're like a municipality. We're not like another ministry. And I have never understood why we even get loaned out to that. And then, of course, what happens is staff can go off and work for that ministry if they want.

[2:47:18] Voice 7: so um in terms of yeah so i wonder if you could comment on that that maybe the government should

[2:47:26] Voice 7: actually look at our whole organization that just doesn't make sense in terms of being considered

[2:47:32] Voice 7: like a ministry as opposed to another government agency as you know a municipality per se if you

[2:47:37] Voice 7: could comment on that and also um was the other one that maybe perhaps as well which affects this

[2:47:45] Voice 7: this is the lack of a succession plan for staff members.

[2:47:50] Voice 7: You know, basically they hit a ceiling

[2:47:52] Voice 7: and a lot of seniors don't, you know, they stay.

[2:47:54] Voice 7: So I wonder if you could comment on those two points.

[2:47:58] Voice 7: Thank you.

[2:48:00] Voice 3: Yeah, thank you.

[2:48:01] Voice 3: Those are really good points.

[2:48:03] Voice 3: On the first one, so what you're talking about

[2:48:05] Voice 3: is a mechanism called temporary assignments.

[2:48:10] Voice 3: And it's a mechanism that exists

[2:48:12] Voice 3: within the provincial system

[2:48:13] Voice 3: to sort of support the greater good

[2:48:16] Voice 3: of building the workforce capacity of the provincial government, right?

[2:48:20] Voice 3: You give people opportunities to move around within the government

[2:48:23] Voice 3: so they don't up and leave.

[2:48:25] Voice 3: And it serves that purpose pretty well,

[2:48:29] Voice 3: much to the frustration of many supervisors,

[2:48:32] Voice 3: because it means staff have an easy...

[2:48:34] Voice 3: Because you can move around and develop your career

[2:48:36] Voice 3: without losing your pension, et cetera, right?

[2:48:38] Voice 3: And so it benefits the staff and arguably benefits the employer.

[2:48:42] Voice 3: For us, though, you're right, it does create a unique challenge

[2:48:45] Voice 3: Because we're kind of outside, but we're inside. And so those opportunities necessarily attract people to go and explore those within core ministries and government. The only way to change that would for us to be moved out of the Public Service Act and to be a separate employer, which candidly is not likely to happen.

[2:49:09] Voice 3: We were created, we were put there because of when the Amnesty Trust was created under the ministry, we were lumped in as the public service.

[2:49:17] Voice 3: And there's all sorts of other agencies that the public service agency or work, they call them ABCs, agencies, boards and commissions.

[2:49:22] Voice 3: So non-ministry organizations like us, like the Royal BC Museum, you know, different organizations like that, that are outside of core government, but their employees are under the Public Service Act.

[2:49:34] Voice 3: the downside to if they were to change that though is that we also lose access to that talent in

[2:49:41] Voice 3: theory right so we do sometimes benefit by also being able to attract and recruit people from

[2:49:47] Voice 3: core government who see who are interested in the work that we do and see the opportunity to make a

[2:49:52] Voice 3: move to do this interesting work same the same thing without losing their pension without losing

[2:49:57] Voice 3: their classification their seniority and all of those things so it does work to our advantage too

[2:50:03] Voice 3: I would say, though, it seems, and Director Mobskin, correct me if I'm wrong, that the tide generally flows out from us into core government rather than us being able to recruit from core government.

[2:50:16] Voice 3: And so I think generally it's a bit to our detriment.

[2:50:19] Voice 3: But in any case, it's not likely to change anytime soon.

[2:50:23] Voice 3: It is a challenge.

[2:50:24] Voice 3: Where it becomes really challenging, too, is where, you know, an employee will take a temporary assignment maybe for a year.

[2:50:31] Voice 3: and then you expect them to come back and so you're only able to backfill that position for a

[2:50:35] Voice 3: year and then they get another temporary assignment and so they're gone for another year and we're

[2:50:40] Voice 3: still stuck not being able to backfill permanently and so that makes it hard for us so it is a very

[2:50:44] Voice 3: difficult mechanism to manage from the organized from the giving organization standpoint as much

[2:50:50] Voice 3: as it benefits employees and like I say it's that's unfortunately it's not something we can

[2:50:55] Voice 3: really change and there's been a lot of discussion within the public service over the years of trying

[2:50:59] Voice 3: to rein that in. But most recently, they've actually made it more flexible for employees.

[2:51:05] Voice 3: It used to be that the supervisor could actually deny a TA and say, no, actually, I'm not going

[2:51:10] Voice 3: to support you to go on that. Supervisors don't generally have the capacity to do that anymore.

[2:51:16] Voice 3: And so it is a very challenging dynamic. On the issue of succession plans, yeah, I mean,

[2:51:22] Voice 3: and that one is another sort of double-edged sword, right? We're fortunate that we have some

[2:51:26] Voice 3: people who have been with this organization for their whole careers which is a great asset to us

[2:51:31] Voice 3: you know they have a depth of experience and knowledge that we're really fortunate to have

[2:51:36] Voice 3: and some of those ones are the ones that i'm worried about when they retire

[2:51:40] Voice 3: not looking at anybody in particular director martin you know um because we're going to lose

[2:51:46] Voice 3: that depth of sort of encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the organization and so it's hard

[2:51:53] Voice 3: for us to plan out for and that's what I mean when I say you know it's we don't

[2:51:57] Voice 3: we offer limited

[2:51:58] Voice 3: development opportunities because it's not a bad thing if we have people who stay for a long time

[2:52:02] Voice 3: it's really great but it does mean that we're going to always have this churn of staff who don't

[2:52:07] Voice 3: see a path for them from a succession standpoint and so it is always going to be really challenging

[2:52:13] Voice 3: hopefully what we can maybe do though is think about how we let those people go but when the

[2:52:20] Voice 3: opportunity comes up, maybe find a way to proactively invite them back and say, we actually

[2:52:25] Voice 3: didn't have an opportunity 45 years ago, but now we actually do. And are you interested? But it's

[2:52:30] Voice 3: always going to be a challenge. And because we're a small organization, I think to some extent,

[2:52:35] Voice 3: we just have to accept that we're always going to have a level of churn. And so the question is

[2:52:41] Voice 3: just how do you manage that in a way that harnesses the value of people coming in, but also just is

[2:52:48] Voice 3: more prepared for when they leave so that we're not kind of just seeing a bit of a treadmill of

[2:52:54] Voice 3: people coming in and out and we don't really hold on to any and retain anything of their experience

[2:52:59] Voice 3: when they leave but enormously complex issue and there's no real simple solution to it and i don't

[2:53:06] Voice 3: know and like i say having having us move outside the public service act would solve part of that

[2:53:10] Voice 3: but i actually think it would have all sorts of other issues for us that would

[2:53:14] Voice 3: be a to our

[2:53:15] Voice 3: detriment to you uh trustee bolin thanks

[2:53:27] Voice 2: um i've thought about this you know 189 meetings

[2:53:32] Voice 2: it's incredible and then uh the documents and the briefings that travel from one meeting to

[2:53:39] Voice 2: another to another you know the referral process of you know send an ultimately to trust council

[2:53:47] Voice 2: And I have thought about like instead of having four quarterly meetings of two solid days, you know, have a committee of the whole type trust council meeting, you know, once a month and just knock things on the head.

[2:54:02] Voice 2: And you haven't forgotten by the time the next meeting, trust council meeting comes like what the content is.

[2:54:09] Voice 2: is and i also thought that that could reduce the number of executive committee meetings

[2:54:14] Voice 2: because you would go from an executive committee meeting and roll into a trust council meeting two

[2:54:20] Voice 2: weeks later or whatever so i'm just wondering are you thinking about those kind of logistical

[2:54:25] Voice 2: numbers in your um review how many times you know the same piece of paper you know digitally gets

[2:54:34] Voice 2: gets shuffled from one meeting to another and then the last thing is so the structure of the

[2:54:41] Voice 2: islands trust I know we can't theoretically touch it but I wonder about bundling certain islands

[2:54:49] Voice 2: together because the granularity that we descend into and the meetings and the trustees I mean that

[2:54:58] Voice 2: That must just create a terrible level of complexity.

[2:55:02] Voice 2: And everybody has an OCP and everybody has a land use bylaw.

[2:55:07] Voice 2: And I bet they all started with the same table of contents when they sat down with provincial advisors to create them.

[2:55:14] Voice 2: And I don't know if artificial intelligence could actually roll us back and merge those into something that would make sense.

[2:55:22] Voice 2: Anyway, I've thought about it a bit. Yeah. Thanks.

[2:55:26] Voice 3: Yeah, thank you, Trustee Boland. I think in the terms of this review, I have scoped out

[2:55:35] Voice 3: trust council policies and kind of governance aspect, because I really wanted to focus on

[2:55:39] Voice 3: the operations. But obviously, there's an interplay there, right, in terms of how the

[2:55:43] Voice 3: governance works, and what that generates operationally. And I think the issues that

[2:55:49] Voice 3: you've highlighted kind of touch back to the governance review from a couple of years ago,

[2:55:53] Voice 3: go as well and there's some related recommendations that that tied into that i think it is worth

[2:56:00] Voice 3: considering um a thoughtful look at the governance structure um and that's a that's a path that you

[2:56:09] Voice 3: would have to to set us on and of course is again a massive sort of rethink i think you know and i

[2:56:17] Voice 3: would you know it's a it's a separate conversation but around the sort of structure of ltcs and those

[2:56:21] Voice 3: kinds of things obviously there's a legislative component to that but there are things around the

[2:56:26] Voice 3: structure of our committee structure you know outside of ltcs that you have the latitude to

[2:56:32] Voice 3: be able to control and shape and there may be some value in in thinking about that particularly as we

[2:56:37] Voice 3: anticipate going into a new council term um and so there would be pros and cons to picking that

[2:56:44] Voice 3: up as a piece of work not the least of course is that it's another thing uh to do and so we'd have

[2:56:48] Voice 3: have to talk about what we're going to part to take that on um i do think and sort of in the

[2:56:55] Voice 3: question around how the frequency of of meetings and trust council and committee of the whole

[2:57:01] Voice 3: i think that can be worth looking at if we are thoughtful about how we use that effectively

[2:57:08] Voice 3: because fewer shorter meetings doesn't necessarily change the workload and on the operational side

[2:57:17] Voice 3: in some ways is actually might make it more difficult because you have some compressed

[2:57:21] Voice 3: timelines potentially then so you know if

[2:57:24] Voice 1: we had a

[2:57:24] Voice 3: shorter trust council meeting or more frequent

[2:57:26] Voice 3: trust council shorter trust council meetings that helps in some ways

[2:57:30] Voice 3: but also it means we're still

[2:57:32] Voice 3: probably having to prepare the same volume of material just in a different time frame and so

[2:57:36] Voice 3: we have to be really thoughtful about how that gets how that could be structured to me I think

[2:57:42] Voice 3: I think the question is partly around the committee structure, although, again, I think that's beyond the scope of this review, but I'm happy to engage in that discussion, as I know other staff would be keen to as well.

[2:57:54] Voice 3: But really, it's about the content and process for how we manage those as effectively as possible and whether or not we're getting the full value out of it.

[2:58:06] Voice 3: And that's where I think part of that is also the feedback from you, you know, is the content that you're spending your time in meetings discussing, is that actually, you know, is that really valuable? And if not, then let's talk about how we make that more, more, generate more value out of the time that we're spending. As I said, you know, it's 12,000 hours a year, but it's also important essential work. So it's not that that's not 12,000 hours a year, we just need to make sure it's well spent.

[2:58:31] Voice 3: Thank you. Trustee Stamford.

[2:58:37] Trustee Stamford: Thank you. My question was also along the lines of how governance intersects with operational efficiencies.

[2:58:46] Trustee Stamford: And, you know, if you want to expound further on that, but my comment is, as a member of the governance committee, it has been frustrating to be dancing back and forth between governance issues, and it easily slips into operational issues each time.

[2:59:05] Trustee Stamford: and we want we they need to work together um and you mentioned official community plans

[2:59:12] Trustee Stamford: um i'm involved in a process now where we're going from seven official community plans to one

[2:59:18] Trustee Stamford: and at first there was a huge pushback on that kind of idea

[2:59:25] Trustee Stamford: but in the end the similarities between the official community plans within one

[2:59:32] Trustee Stamford: one regional district are obvious and so it a lot of this in terms of efficiencies is up to

[2:59:41] Trustee Stamford: trustees to take those steps and say we do not for instance for the Gambier local trust committee

[2:59:49] Trustee Stamford: we have three official community plans for a population of under 400 and we need to be able

[2:59:58] Trustee Stamford: able to take that stand and say,

[3:00:00] Trustee Stamford: there is no logical reason to have that and to even be able to move beyond.

[3:00:05] Trustee Stamford: But it's going to take us as trustees to take that stand to the public

[3:00:10] Trustee Stamford: because I know people are very connected to their OCPs

[3:00:14] Trustee Stamford: and believe very strongly in the uniqueness of their islands.

[3:00:20] Trustee Stamford: How do we address that and convince them that in order to be a modern,

[3:00:25] Trustee Stamford: efficient organization we have to meld operation and governance in a way that that pushes us

[3:00:35] Trustee Stamford: into maybe not having as many meetings as maybe not having as much administration so that our

[3:00:42] Trustee Stamford: engagement is a little tighter maybe not so freewheeling but there's implications to this

[3:00:48] Trustee Stamford: Yes. So it's more a comment. But if you, you know, have you thought about how operations and governance can work a little closer that we feel more coordinated when we have those meetings?

[3:01:04] Voice 3: That's certainly one of the issues I want to look at, right, is obviously because obviously there is an interplay.

[3:01:10] Voice 3: And I think part of it is, as we're talking about governance, we need to make sure we're considering what the operational impact is.

[3:01:16] Voice 3: is? And also, is there a way for us operationally to more effectively support whatever the governance

[3:01:23] Voice 3: structure is, right? Like, that's kind of the equation. And you've also alluded to, I think,

[3:01:28] Voice 3: that the third pillar in that, though, is also public expectation, too. It's fine for us to have

[3:01:35] Voice 3: sort of a nice theoretical discussion around, well, operationally, this would be great if we

[3:01:39] Voice 3: could do it this way. And from a governance structure, we get it this way. We also have

[3:01:42] Voice 3: to make sure if we're making changes, we're bringing the public along and making sure they

[3:01:45] Voice 3: They understand what we're doing and that we're also within whatever we do, we're still fulfilling that fundamental obligation to meet the expectation that the public has of what's the core business and role of the Islands Trust, too.

[3:01:58] Voice 3: And so it's it's trying to find a way to navigate all three of those.

[3:02:02] Voice 3: That is the hard part, right, that you and you all live that on a daily basis, just as much, if not more so than staff do, of course, because you're at the at the coalface of those conversations.

[3:02:12] Voice 3: But I think if there's an opportunity for us to think about governance in a way that is going to be more effective, especially from the public standpoint, but also from your standpoint, then we can figure out what is the most efficient operational model to support them.

[3:02:32] Voice 3: Thank you.

[3:02:35] Voice 3: Trustee Elliott.

[3:02:40] Voice 14: Thank you, CAO.

[3:02:41] Voice 14: Lots of really great observations.

[3:02:43] Voice 14: And I guess I want to jump off of Trustee Sanford's comment about the tailoring of local government.

[3:02:53] Voice 14: That is, I think it's a historical trend, and it seems to be getting more tailored every year.

[3:03:05] Voice 14: And you wouldn't see this unless you go to different trust committees or chair different committees.

[3:03:13] Voice 14: So I'm sure staff are well aware of this and those of you who do travel, but other local governments are situated in one place. So the geographic location is fixed. They're not moving place to place and setting up different meetings and spending all that travel time.

[3:03:27] Voice 14: So that's an operational cost that I don't know if we've even calculated the facilitation setting up of meetings and the expectations of the public, you know, with our OCPs and our LEBs to have this local government service delivery on island.

[3:03:45] Voice 14: and in the community culture that they have come to expect it

[3:03:51] Voice 14: is a huge cost that is, I think, causing us to,

[3:03:58] Voice 14: well, it's just perpetuating more and more difference

[3:04:03] Voice 14: rather than cohesion.

[3:04:05] Voice 14: So I think we need to acknowledge that as a council,

[3:04:10] Voice 14: that when we ask, well, can we do it this way?

[3:04:13] Voice 14: Can we change the agenda to have it, you know, issued this way?

[3:04:17] Voice 14: We recognize there's a local context that makes that important, but it has a cost, right?

[3:04:25] Voice 14: So, and I wanted to shift it a little bit to observe that I do see that other local governments, the decision-making body sets the policy and the direction and then tends to leave staff to go do it.

[3:04:41] Voice 14: and they bring information back and they're like, great, that's on track, go for it.

[3:04:46] Voice 14: What I observe in our committee meetings is we spend so much time as trustees questioning

[3:04:53] Voice 14: the direction, challenging the legitimacy of the information, trying to be managers,

[3:05:04] Voice 14: which we are not. Some of us come from a management background, but we are spending

[3:05:09] Voice 14: far too much time navel-gazing or drilling into the minutiae, and that is not effective

[3:05:16] Voice 14: leadership. And so when you say frustrations of staff in leadership and addressing the challenges

[3:05:24] Voice 14: of the organization, I just want us to recognize that it is part of the structure of how the trust

[3:05:30] Voice 14: has evolved and part of what we keep doing that is contributing to this. It is not just

[3:05:36] Voice 14: an abstract reality there's there's a participation part um so tailoring everything

[3:05:43] Voice 14: is is is hindering us without an organizational spine of this is how we do things this is how we

[3:05:50] Voice 14: do the work we're spending all of our time managing how the work is delivered and done

[3:05:55] Voice 14: so i think that's what i'm hearing and i really like that that this last point that you made um

[3:06:02] Voice 14: Um, it's not that staff are looking at where we can reduce the work, but not a lot of what

[3:06:10] Voice 14: we're doing isn't required.

[3:06:11] Voice 14: It's more how we're doing it.

[3:06:13] Voice 14: And so I think council needs to own that as much as, um, the staff who are working in

[3:06:20] Voice 14: within this organization.

[3:06:21] Voice 14: It's how we, um, direct the work that is also contributing to our operational challenges.

[3:06:28] Voice 14: So I don't know.

[3:06:29] Voice 14: Those are my observations.

[3:06:30] Voice 14: Thank you so much for bringing this.

[3:06:32] Voice 14: Yes, it's key.

[3:06:34] Voice 3: Thank you.

[3:06:35] Voice 3: On that, I would say yes, and that's important recognition.

[3:06:41] Voice 3: But I also recognize, as do all of our staff, that you also need to have the confidence in the work that we are doing to be able to confidently say, yeah, that makes sense.

[3:06:55] Voice 3: That sounds good.

[3:06:56] Voice 3: Thank you very much.

[3:06:57] Voice 3: Go forth.

[3:06:58] Voice 3: worth. And if that confidence is lacking, that's partly for us to help make sure that you can have

[3:07:03] Voice 3: that, right. And so that's incumbent on us being able to bring you the best possible work. Part of

[3:07:09] Voice 3: that, if we're not maybe always hitting that mark, and sometimes probably we don't, is that capacity

[3:07:15] Voice 3: piece, because everybody's crunched for time. Part of it may be in some cases, a skill set where

[3:07:20] Voice 3: we've got especially new staff, right. And so there's complicating factors to that. But that's

[3:07:25] Voice 3: That's where it's incumbent on us to be able to deliver work to you that you can say, yeah, all right, that makes sense.

[3:07:31] Voice 3: This adds up and making sure that we're providing that level of quality support, which, again, I'd like to think that most of the time we do.

[3:07:39] Voice 3: And so if you can have that confidence in us, then it's on us to make sure that we maintain that, too.

[3:07:45] Voice 3: And I think that when I when I mentioned the sort of frustration with leadership, I don't I don't want to also leave the impression that that was strictly about council.

[3:07:53] Voice 3: That was also about senior administrative leadership in the organization, too.

[3:07:57] Voice 3: What I saw and I've heard from staff is, you know, we've been saying for years that this thing doesn't make sense and nobody ever gives us an answer or does anything about it.

[3:08:06] Voice 3: And so that's also on us to help sort of help staff navigate that.

[3:08:10] Voice 3: And there's going to be lots of cases where the answer is, yeah, there's a reason why it is that way.

[3:08:14] Voice 3: And I know it doesn't make sense to you, but there's a good reason why we have to do it that way.

[3:08:18] Voice 3: But we at least have to provide that that explanation.

[3:08:21] Voice 3: So I think there's a shared leadership with you and our senior leadership team around how we are responsive to staff and those kind of concerns.

[3:08:32] Trustee Fast: Thank you.

[3:08:33] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Falk.

[3:08:36] Voice 26: Yeah, thank you.

[3:08:39] Voice 26: I'm coming from the business world more.

[3:08:44] Voice 26: That's my experiences from that.

[3:08:46] Voice 26: And what I observed there was that the level of bureaucracy and red tape and procedures that are kind of mandated threatened business from proceeding.

[3:09:02] Voice 26: It was kind of like a sense of gridlocking.

[3:09:05] Voice 26: There were so many things to comply to that after a while it's like this regulation or this requirement makes you move over in a new lane to be able to move forward still.

[3:09:18] Voice 26: And then all of a sudden you hit another block and another block and another block and another block.

[3:09:23] Voice 26: And we've had that probably since the Industrial Revolution kind of thing.

[3:09:28] Voice 26: but it's evolved to a level where i i believe it's got the potential to gridlock any progress

[3:09:37] Voice 26: like you just can't move forward because there's so many things to kind of you you have to you have

[3:09:43] Voice 26: to comply to it and i'm wondering if you have um had an interest or opportunity to sort of

[3:09:52] Voice 26: include that evaluation in in the sort of the you know the gaining of efficiencies kind of

[3:09:58] Voice 26: conversation that you know or enterprise that you're doing uh because i think there's i think

[3:10:07] Voice 26: there's a lot of gains that could be made in sort of saying okay we have a procedure for this and

[3:10:11] Voice 26: uh the the reason for the procedure is because some higher level of government said we had to do

[3:10:17] Voice 26: But are we really doing it in the best way possible? Did we maybe over-interpret it for purposes of preventing liability? And maybe we didn't need to go as far. And maybe this requirement can be accomplished with less sort of over-prescriptiveness in procedures.

[3:10:42] Voice 26: And so that's what I see as kind of probably the biggest opportunity here, because there's like when I look around, that's what I see almost everywhere I turn.

[3:10:55] Voice 26: As a trustee, certainly many, many times I've been surprised and sometimes frustrated by, you know, we want to have a meeting.

[3:11:04] Voice 26: We want to deal with an issue on our local trust, and while that's going to require a different kind of meeting than you thought, and that meeting isn't going to be so easy to schedule, and that's going to take weeks because we need, you know, all of these other components, which is like the red tape or bureaucracy.

[3:11:23] Voice 26: We need to have a minute taker. We have to have the equipment. We have to decide if it's an in-person meeting or a public, you know, online meeting or a combo or, you know, there's so much complexity that we have to comply to that it seems like we're really hampered by it.

[3:11:43] Voice 26: And I think there's a huge amount of staff cost that, like, from my perspective, if we were as trustees given more of a guidebook, and like, these are the things that you have to accomplish it.

[3:11:59] Voice 26: And while you're accomplishing that, these are the basic rules that you cannot contravene, you know, like this consultation, open consultation with the public and so on and so forth.

[3:12:10] Voice 26: There's those kind of principles that the procedures are built sort of prescribing for.

[3:12:17] Voice 26: And I think if we could move more towards a system of the staff spending time writing kind of common language, common sense guidance for trustees to say, we don't care exactly how you accomplish this, but this is what you've got to accomplish.

[3:12:34] Voice 26: And if you don't accomplish this, there may be consequences.

[3:12:37] Voice 26: And, you know, there might have to be some kind of oversight, certainly in the beginning stages of that shift.

[3:12:44] Voice 26: But I think that would have the potential to cut budgets pretty big because the big budget item is staff time.

[3:12:56] Voice 26: So anyway, that's my comment.

[3:12:59] Voice 26: And I do like what you're doing as a CAO.

[3:13:04] Voice 26: And I'm supportive of kind of the outlook that you have, and so I'm just hoping that I can add my voice to considering that aspect of it as well. Thank you.

[3:13:21] Voice 3: Yeah, thank you, Trustee Fogg. I think we are inherently restricted to somewhat by the complexity of our governing legislation and all of those pieces that say, thou shalt do this thing in this way.

[3:13:36] Voice 3: um i do think though there is a question and i think the work that we have on the table around

[3:13:44] Voice 3: the policy review piece um creates the opportunity for us to look at some of those policies and ask

[3:13:51] Voice 3: those hard questions around like do we really need to be this prescriptive and i think that's

[3:13:57] Voice 3: the conversation is well yes because legislation says you know but where legislation doesn't say

[3:14:04] Voice 3: how much latitude do you want to give yourselves and often in the policy space the pendulum swings

[3:14:11] Voice 3: back and forth you know organizations will be well we could be more flexible there and then

[3:14:15] Voice 3: something goes horribly wrong you're like well you know we need to tighten up that policy and

[3:14:18] Voice 3: be more prescriptive and so you swing back the other way but i think that's the the latitude

[3:14:23] Voice 3: in terms of trust council's policy space as you do those policy reviews which director marler is

[3:14:31] Voice 3: working on advancing with the governance committee is how prescriptive do we need to be here and what

[3:14:36] Voice 3: is the risk if we loosen things up and are we prepared to tolerate that risk on the operational

[3:14:42] Voice 3: side that's also very much the conversation i want to have as we try to prioritize that operations

[3:14:47] Voice 3: manual policy and procedural review is do we really need like it shouldn't just be this thing

[3:14:52] Voice 3: is out of date so let's update it it's do we actually really need a thing on that do we

[3:14:57] Voice 3: we actually need a policy or a procedure on that? Or can we just generally agree that this is how

[3:15:02] Voice 3: we're going to do things and we will manage the risk? So it doesn't become limiting. Ideally,

[3:15:08] Voice 3: policies and procedures should be enabling as opposed to restrictive, right? That's the sweet

[3:15:13] Voice 3: spot that you should try and aim for. And I think that's very much true on the operational side.

[3:15:17] Voice 3: And the operational side is where we have more latitude. I'm never going to ask, Director Mobbs

[3:15:23] Voice 3: has accounting standards and requirements that we have to meet. So there's areas where we can't

[3:15:29] Voice 3: and shouldn't mess about and give ourselves a lot of flexibility. But some other pieces,

[3:15:33] Voice 3: maybe we just need to be a little more flexible. And it's just making thoughtful strategic choices

[3:15:38] Voice 3: conscious of the risk of being more flexible. But I agree, I think it's often organizations will add

[3:15:46] Voice 3: to the complexity that is already there. We're not going to get changes to legislation anytime soon,

[3:15:51] Voice 3: most likely on some of those things, but where we have some level of control over it, then those are

[3:15:57] Voice 3: strategic discussions for staff and for you, particularly on the policy side around, you know,

[3:16:02] Voice 3: are we okay being more flexible on this? And does that actually generate a benefit in terms of

[3:16:08] Voice 3: how the work plays out?

[3:16:11] Voice 26: Thank you. I appreciate you hearing me. Thanks.

[3:16:15] Voice 26: Thank you.

[3:16:18] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Maberly.

[3:16:21] Voice 22: Thank you.

[3:16:22] Voice 22: So I'm going to go back a little bit in your speech to reconciliation.

[3:16:27] Voice 22: I like your expression when you say something's big and hard.

[3:16:31] Voice 22: This is exactly what that is.

[3:16:34] Voice 22: I think at this point, you know, when I, you know, we've been here three years, I've been here three years.

[3:16:40] Voice 22: We've heard a lot of talk about reconciliation, but I'm not sure that we've ever sort of really thought about what it's going to look like.

[3:16:46] Voice 22: Right. What what what is this body? What are LTC is going to do to make it a reality?

[3:16:54] Voice 22: From my perspective, I think, you know, I've talked about shared decision making, not not just nations sitting at our tables, but us sitting at their tables as well.

[3:17:07] Voice 22: Well, I think on Galliano, where we've had the opportunities to have both of those things happen, I think it's allowed for us not to just be making good decisions, but making better decisions, right?

[3:17:22] Voice 22: And so for me, it's, you know, when I look at the sort of recommendations that you're going to make, this isn't one that's going to make the budget smaller, right?

[3:17:33] Voice 22: Right. And and so how do we how do we navigate that path to where a position where we're actually doing meaningful reconciliation?

[3:17:43] Voice 22: And I think even though that's one of our top priorities, we're really struggling to to come to terms with with what we do at not just this table, but at our LTC tables as well.

[3:17:58] Voice 22: Well, I think, you know, when I hear about the agreement that Squamish signed and, you know, we're sort of taken aback by some of the things in that agreement, I think what you're going to find is that nations are not engaging with us because we've never meaningfully engaged with them.

[3:18:22] Voice 22: we've never taken the time to sit at both tables and have the conversations when we're developing our OCPs

[3:18:30] Voice 22: or whether we're developing bylaws to actually sit at both tables and make those shared decisions.

[3:18:37] Voice 22: And so we're always kind of surprised when levels of government above us make decisions that don't include us.

[3:18:45] Voice 22: When we've spent years not including anybody.

[3:18:48] Voice 22: And I think we're really going to have to come to terms with that.

[3:18:52] Voice 22: and I'm curious as to what the recommendations will be of how we close this loop because I know

[3:19:01] Voice 22: when we take the time to do the work we see the results and I'm interested to

[3:19:10] Voice 22: get your thoughts on that.

[3:19:15] Voice 3: Yeah I would say without question it is the biggest most complex

[3:19:21] Voice 3: complex piece of work that islands trust both staff and trust council will have are and will

[3:19:28] Voice 3: face and you know this because i say you're you're out there doing the work as much as staff are

[3:19:35] Voice 3: and it's all the more complicated because it is so unclear and uncertain the ground is constantly

[3:19:40] Voice 3: moving under our feet right and we've seen this you know just in recent weeks right with you know

[3:19:47] Voice 3: the couch and court decision and dynamics like that, where the context is constantly evolving

[3:19:53] Voice 3: and shifting. It is not a homogenous context by any means across the 31 nations that we are

[3:20:00] Voice 3: obligated to engage with too, which adds a level of complexity. We can't expect that to change,

[3:20:07] Voice 3: right? It's on us to figure out how we navigate that, right? It's not on 31 nations to figure

[3:20:12] Voice 3: out how they're going to coherently engage with us. It's us to figure out how we're going to do

[3:20:16] Voice 3: it in a way that is respectful for them in their context. And as I alluded to, it's not it's not

[3:20:21] Voice 3: just a project where we come up with a plan and say, OK, here's the three things we're going to

[3:20:26] Voice 3: do or we're going to put some money into this. If we are going to do it right, it touches on

[3:20:32] Voice 3: everything about how we do from a sort of basic administrative stuff up to the big decisions that

[3:20:38] Voice 3: that you will make from a from a governance and policy standpoint. You know, you're when you have

[3:20:44] Voice 3: the conversation around the governance report recommendations this week one of those top

[3:20:48] Voice 3: recommendations is the one around co-governance if you decide to pursue that as a priority

[3:20:57] Voice 3: that's a huge piece of work that would be you know kind of our drippa right if you were actually to

[3:21:05] Voice 3: pursue that and so we would have to be prepared to invest not just the money but the time it's

[3:21:12] Voice 3: going to take to do that one of my concerns about that report is that it put forward that

[3:21:17] Voice 3: recommendation as far as i can tell without consulting with any nation on whether or not

[3:21:21] Voice 3: that was a thing that they wanted and yet it came forward as a recommendation that islands trust

[3:21:26] Voice 3: should pursue co-governance model right so um at the very least that's where that has to start

[3:21:32] Voice 3: is do we know that this is a thing that we're actually going to pursue we think it is based

[3:21:36] Voice 3: on what we have heard from from some nations to date right but we haven't had that conversation

[3:21:41] Voice 3: And so that work would have to start there. That is going to be a massive piece of work. Is it worth pursuing? Whether or not it's that specific concept or something different, it seems to me that that's something we have to grapple with. And you're right, that is not going to make the budget smaller.

[3:21:56] Voice 3: smaller um i think it would be a phased approach over time and the budget impact would be phased

[3:22:02] Voice 3: over time but it would have to start with some level of investment to be able to do it and do

[3:22:07] Voice 3: it well and then design and then come to some sense of okay what does the plan actually look

[3:22:12] Voice 3: like what does the path forward actually look like i think probably what operationally it means

[3:22:17] Voice 3: at a very basic level is there is no simple there we've designed it implement done what it actually

[3:22:25] Voice 3: probably requires too is a level of flexibility and nimbleness with whatever model you structure

[3:22:29] Voice 3: so that you can also respond to that ever-changing complex too which is also very very difficult but

[3:22:34] Voice 3: it touches everything and you're doing it now to greater or lesser degrees in the work that

[3:22:39] Voice 3: you do we have staff who are touching it now all over the place like everybody's trying to do the

[3:22:44] Voice 3: work and trying to do the right thing which we all agree on it's finding a way to do it in a

[3:22:49] Voice 3: thoughtful consistent manner that actually allows us to really advance it rather than a bit of an

[3:22:54] Voice 3: an ad hoc manner right now because we're just

[3:22:56] Voice 3: doing the best we can with what we've got right

[3:23:00] Trustee Patrick: just a reminder trustees at 4 30 we're going to be having the public um town hall so uh we have

[3:23:06] Trustee Patrick: three more speakers right now on the list i'm going to go to the next speaker but at 4 30 we're

[3:23:10] Trustee Patrick: going to pause and move moved so we have getty yates and evans on the list so next trustee getty

[3:23:17] Voice 8: well i guess first of all i'm um really very impressed and really happy that um you're

[3:23:24] Voice 8: you're teasing out a lot of really strong, good, solid information from staff

[3:23:30] Voice 8: and getting lots of good insights and feedback.

[3:23:34] Voice 8: And I think that that's very extremely helpful.

[3:23:39] Voice 8: I think that I'm feeling confident in terms of your sort of objective analysis.

[3:23:45] Voice 8: I think you've got some really good, strong experiential clarity that is incredibly helpful.

[3:23:51] Voice 8: And I'm thinking that in terms of all of this, the prioritizing, with all of the comments about the amount of time that staff spend organizing and supporting and working with committees, I would like, if it's possible, to tease out feedback and insights in terms of how the politicians function in these committees.

[3:24:20] Voice 8: committees um i'm um and chair of the governance committee as you know and um i'm it wasn't that

[3:24:30] Voice 8: exciting um and i'm i came into it with um i guess fairly high expectations a fair amount of

[3:24:39] Voice 8: experience working with uh people and um i found that i'm a complete and total amateur in terms of

[3:24:47] Voice 8: dealing with a fellow group of elected officials and if there was some way that we could tap into

[3:24:58] Voice 8: and get feedback from staff in terms of perhaps improving both the membership possibly how we

[3:25:07] Voice 8: choose committee members and you know what the focus could or should be so that we get

[3:25:15] Voice 8: some with and we'd have to discuss and debate management and you know um too close but i think

[3:25:23] Voice 8: in terms of helping us also work within our means and narrowing the priorities um because i think

[3:25:29] Voice 8: what i found with the so far with the governance committee is that we got sidetracked and went down

[3:25:35] Voice 8: a lot of rabbit holes and um you know we're trying to focus on the governance review and

[3:25:42] Voice 8: And we got sidetracked a little bit too easily.

[3:25:45] Voice 8: And I think that it would have been incredibly helpful to have more us talking about what the priorities are so that we can be really clear and stick to it.

[3:25:57] Voice 8: But also some more clarity from all the staff, too, so that everybody's helping to work us in the same direction.

[3:26:05] Voice 8: direction um so and possibly that's um the corporate plan which is coming coming along

[3:26:13] Voice 8: we're dealing with things and you know the priorities that we've had um but i think also

[3:26:18] Voice 8: the work that we've been discussing about the um a lot of the policies that are that are that exist

[3:26:24] Voice 8: and being clear in terms of what is policy and what is procedure operations so that we don't

[3:26:32] Voice 8: then create policy that in effect is operations and it's you know having some education and

[3:26:42] Voice 8: background and support in terms of understanding what the differences are so that we don't spend

[3:26:46] Voice 8: a lot of time micromanaging when that may or may not be our expertise from other situations but

[3:26:52] Voice 8: what we're here to do is to try and figure out policy so clarity on that would be helpful but

[3:26:59] Voice 8: And I'm finding that this whole process is incredibly thought-provoking and helpful.

[3:27:06] Voice 8: So I'm really glad we hired you.

[3:27:11] Trustee Patrick: And he's lucky because the time's up to answer that question for right now.

[3:27:15] Trustee Patrick: So this conversation is important for the speakers on the list.

[3:27:19] Trustee Patrick: This has been a very valuable conversation.

[3:27:23] Trustee Patrick: We want to carry it on.

[3:27:25] Trustee Patrick: But I'm going to take a break right now to turn to the public.

[3:27:30] Trustee Patrick: It's important that we stick to the time.

[3:27:32] Trustee Patrick: And I'm going to look to staff.

[3:27:33] Trustee Patrick: Do we know we have people in?

[3:27:38] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[3:27:38] Trustee Patrick: So first of all, I'm going to open some marks.

[3:27:41] Trustee Patrick: So this is the public comment period time.

[3:27:43] Trustee Patrick: We had no delegations today.

[3:27:46] Trustee Patrick: So we value your input of community members and your participation is essential to helping us make informed decisions that serve the best interests of the trust area.

[3:27:55] Trustee Patrick: area. Before we begin, I'd like to go over a few guidelines for the public comment period to

[3:28:01] Trustee Patrick: ensure that everyone has an opportunity to speak and that the process remains respectful and

[3:28:06] Trustee Patrick: productive. Please remember to keep your comments respectful and focused on issues, not people.

[3:28:12] Trustee Patrick: We're here to listen to diverse viewpoints and everyone's opinions important. Each speaker will

[3:28:17] Trustee Patrick: be given three minutes to speak. As we don't have a timer, we do have a timer. We have a timer.

[3:28:24] Trustee Patrick: So there's going to be a timer up on the screen. I ask you to respect the time. We ask that everyone refrain from interrupting or engaging in a disruptive behavior. I ask that there's never any clapping or booing or any movement. We want everyone to feel comfortable and safe to speak.

[3:28:43] Trustee Patrick: week. Please direct your comments to the consul and chair. And if you're asking for specific action

[3:28:49] Trustee Patrick: or follow-up, please know that consul will take your input into consideration, but may not provide

[3:28:54] Trustee Patrick: an immediate response during this time. If you're online, you'll need to raise your hand so that we

[3:29:02] Trustee Patrick: can give you permission to speak. And if you're in the room, you'll need to raise your hand if

[3:29:08] Trustee Patrick: if you'd like to speak.

[3:29:09] Trustee Patrick: So is there anyone who would like

[3:29:11] Trustee Patrick: to address Trust Council today?

[3:29:24] Trustee Fast: There's one online.

[3:29:42] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Jennifer Margison.

[3:29:46] Voice 13: Thank you.

[3:29:47] Voice 13: Are you able to hear me?

[3:29:49] Voice 13: Yes, we can.

[3:29:50] Voice 13: I was waiting to see if there were other people

[3:29:53] Voice 13: wishing to speak.

[3:29:54] Voice 13: So anyway, good afternoon, Chair, Trust Council and staff.

[3:30:00] Voice 13: I think it's disappointing that there are no delegations presenting to you today, but I think it perhaps relates a little bit to my comments, which is about the public's feeling of being heard.

[3:30:15] Voice 13: On September 10th, the Islands Trust held its sole trust-wide online public meeting on the draft trust policy statement.

[3:30:23] Voice 13: The document meant to safeguard island ecosystems through official community plans and bylaws across the trust area.

[3:30:30] Voice 13: With no further trust-wide events planned before the consultation period ends in February,

[3:30:37] Voice 13: meaningful engagement now falls to local trust committees on individual islands.

[3:30:42] Voice 13: Unfortunately, I think many of us who participated in the town hall felt that community concerns were largely brushed aside.

[3:30:53] Voice 13: For example, the refusal to define environment as natural environment was defended by claiming it is, quote, almost useless to put in a definition that is going to be satisfactory, unquote.

[3:31:08] Voice 13: A baffling stance given the trust's core mandate to preserve and protect the unique amenities and environment of the trust area.

[3:31:16] Voice 13: A question on affordable versus attainable housing was met with talk of rezoning for worker housing, with no assurances that new densities would either be affordable or reserved for workers.

[3:31:30] Voice 13: When asked whether island bylaws must comply with TPS directives, staff called such consistency unreasonable fettering of local trust committees.

[3:31:41] Voice 13: In other words, requirements are not really requirements.

[3:31:44] Voice 13: The weak attention to cumulative effects of human activities on the environment was downplayed as needing a, quote, business case, unquote, for monitoring and indicators.

[3:31:57] Voice 13: There was no indication scientific studies to determine ecosystem health would be required, leaving the door open to misleading claims of sustainable development.

[3:32:09] Voice 13: Climate change declared an emergency by the trust in 2019 was waved off as embedded in the draft, even though trust discussions rarely reflect this urgency and there are a few specific TPS directives addressing this.

[3:32:26] Voice 13: A trustee suggested that limiting population growth wouldn't limit environmental harm and blamed large lot sizes for housing costs, hinting at support for further densification under TPS policies called managing growth, a very urban term, and representative of the very sprawl the trust was formed to prevent.

[3:32:52] Voice 13: Despite years of public engagement, environmental protections unfortunately remain weak.

[3:33:00] Voice 13: We see this on our islands.

[3:33:02] Voice 13: While policies enable more development advance in this draft Trust Policy Statement,

[3:33:09] Voice 13: the Chair of the Trust Council began the meeting asking, did we get it right?

[3:33:15] Voice 13: Based on the Town Hall, we think the answer is clear.

[3:33:19] Voice 13: But is anyone listening?

[3:33:21] Voice 13: Thank you very much. And my presentation, I should have said, was on behalf of the Friends of the Gulf Islands Society. Thank you.

[3:33:32] Voice 13: Thank

[3:33:32] Trustee Patrick: you. All right. Is there anyone else that wishes to address us? Anyone in the room? Just raise your hand. Raise your hand online. Just making sure everyone's had an opportunity.

[3:33:55] Trustee Patrick: opportunity all right well um always thank you for participating in the public comment period

[3:34:08] Trustee Patrick: today we appreciate you taking the time to share your views and we take your comments seriously as

[3:34:13] Trustee Patrick: we move forward with our work while we might not be able to respond to each of the comments right

[3:34:19] Trustee Patrick: now please know that we will review all input we've received and if necessary we'll follow up

[3:34:25] Trustee Patrick: with you or take appropriate action on the issue you raise.

[3:34:29] Trustee Patrick: If you didn't have a chance to speak today or you'd like to follow up on any specific

[3:34:33] Trustee Patrick: issues, please feel free to contact our office.

[3:34:37] Trustee Patrick: Once again, thank you for your commitment to the well-being of the islands in the trust

[3:34:41] Trustee Patrick: area.

[3:34:44] Trustee Patrick: All right, I guess we're returning back to our item 7.2, I believe it was.

[3:34:53] Trustee Patrick: And we had a couple more questions on the operational review.

[3:34:57] Trustee Patrick: with our CAO Brony. Next on the speaker's list is Yates, followed by Evans.

[3:35:07] Voice 23: Thank you, Chair Patrick. And thank you, CAO Brony, for that revealing report. Very thoughtful.

[3:35:15] Voice 23: And what I was thinking at the time was, I know one committee that did the best job ever,

[3:35:21] Voice 23: and that was the CAO Hiring Committee. And I really mean that. Thank you.

[3:35:26] Voice 23: you um so back to what we were talking about efficiency planning across the trust area

[3:35:33] Voice 23: most of you know that i've been watching the trust for 40 years more than 40 years actually

[3:35:39] Voice 23: and so i do have some long-term observations um one of them is i have always wondered why

[3:35:49] Voice 23: why some of the local trust areas for example gabriola we have gabriola island mudge island

[3:35:56] Voice 23: and de courcy island why do they need their own ocps why can't there just be some sort of

[3:36:03] Voice 23: you know caveat addition whatever for the islands that in fact do have differences

[3:36:10] Voice 23: just to give you an example mudge island doesn't have a ferry so you know that limits a lot of the

[3:36:17] Voice 23: things that they're able to do it provides constraints but why they need their own OCP

[3:36:24] Voice 23: review is really beyond me although I'm sorry I hope they don't get offended when I say this but

[3:36:29] Voice 23: I don't mean they don't count I mean that they need to be included in the larger OCP review

[3:36:36] Voice 23: so one of the things I remember is having a long conversation with one of the long time island

[3:36:42] Voice 23: planners about, oh, when we get the regional planning committee set up, we will have planners

[3:36:48] Voice 23: who can specialize in certain things that will be relevant to the entire trust area. So, for example,

[3:36:54] Voice 23: we all have shorelines that are threatened by climate change and human development. They're

[3:37:01] Voice 23: not that different. The shorelines are the shorelines. We need a big shoreline plan for

[3:37:08] Voice 23: a foreshore plan for all of the islands that can just be put into our OCPs. The coastal Douglas

[3:37:16] Voice 23: fir water protection zones, they're all the same across the whole trust area. So, you know, those

[3:37:24] Voice 23: parts of the OCP reviews and the land use bylaws, they should have some consistency, partly because

[3:37:33] Voice 23: because we're in the Islands Trust area together.

[3:37:36] Voice 23: We have been designated as a special place by the province.

[3:37:40] Voice 23: We should be trying to find as many common areas

[3:37:45] Voice 23: that the planners can, you know, do work on

[3:37:49] Voice 23: so that it's not piecemeal everywhere.

[3:37:52] Voice 23: And I, for one, having watched many planners over the years,

[3:37:57] Voice 23: have huge admiration for those planners

[3:38:01] Voice 23: who have been here for a long time who really know their business and I would trust them you

[3:38:08] Voice 23: know I would trust them completely with for example an islands trust area shoreline bylaw

[3:38:15] Voice 23: or an islands trust area coastal douglas for water protection zone bylaw so that kind of thing

[3:38:22] Voice 23: again I would like to see more maybe the word is cohesion or cooperation or we don't all need our

[3:38:31] Voice 23: our own special laws is what I'm saying. Thank you.

[3:38:36] Voice 3: I suspect there are a few staff who have

[3:38:38] Voice 3: lots of thoughts on those topics. Director Cervak sat up quite straight. I think what that speaks

[3:38:47] Voice 3: to is when you think about your strategic priorities as a trust council, you know,

[3:38:56] Voice 3: those kinds of things kind of come to the heart of if the operational piece is more how we do the

[3:39:04] Voice 3: the work. That's a conversation about what work do you as a trust council and LTCs really want

[3:39:09] Voice 3: to do, right? And I think this, you have the same tension that we do, which is there are the

[3:39:16] Voice 3: potentially bigger, more systemic, longer term issues that you could tackle like those kinds of

[3:39:21] Voice 3: things. But you're also trying to manage the day to day and get the current OCP project across the

[3:39:27] Voice 3: line and deal with the pressures that you also face. And so I think, you know, there certainly

[3:39:32] Voice 3: would be interesting to explore some of those bigger ideas, but those are really, those are

[3:39:37] Voice 3: bigger, more substantive pieces of work that I think would have to be grappled with in the context

[3:39:40] Voice 3: of your strategic plan. And, you know, where would that fit? Some may be able, I think the OCP

[3:39:46] Voice 3: question, you know, Director Cermak can correct me if I'm wrong, but those may be conversations

[3:39:50] Voice 3: you can have at an LTC level. You know,

[3:39:53] Voice 3: do you need one OCP? Do you need three OCPs, right?

[3:39:55] Voice 3: Right. Big strategic shift. But something like a cross trust area short line bylaw, that's would be a significant piece of work.

[3:40:05] Voice 3: And you'd have to we'd have to do significant analysis around. Is that actually viable?

[3:40:08] Voice 3: And maybe it is. But that's a that's because that sort of elevated to that level of trust council strategic priority.

[3:40:15] Voice 3: We can add it to the plan. But then again, how are we going to support that?

[3:40:19] Voice 3: And what are you know, what maybe comes off the plan?

[3:40:21] Voice 3: But I think, you know, interesting strategic ideas that are shifts in fundamentally what Islands Trust does in terms of how it fulfills its mandate are worth considering.

[3:40:32] Voice 3: It just requires you to shift your focus to those things and maybe park some other things.

[3:40:39] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[3:40:40] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans, you put your hand down, but did you want to speak?

[3:40:46] Voice 1: I did.

[3:40:48] Voice 1: Problems with my phone here.

[3:40:50] Voice 1: It doesn't work.

[3:40:52] Voice 1: I have to pull that up.

[3:41:03] Trustee Patrick: trust trustee evans trustee evans you're not coming through clearly can you hear me now

[3:41:14] Trustee Patrick: yes can

[3:41:17] Voice 10: you hear me okay i'll try um

[3:41:27] Voice 10: I want to say a couple of the comments around the table, I think, will tie into the process which will help with moving projects forward and get prioritized.

[3:41:42] Voice 10: So I'm looking forward to the working group getting back together and moving forward.

[3:41:47] Voice 10: So I'm not sure how breaking up I am, so I'll hopefully speak a bit more personally later.

[3:41:58] Voice 3: Thank you, Trustee Evans.

[3:41:59] Voice 3: Yeah, you were breaking up, but I think the gist of your point was around the corporate planning and how a number of the comments that I've

[3:42:06] Voice 3: made and that other trustees have made would tie into that work.

[3:42:10] Voice 3: And as I acknowledge in my report, I'm hoping to reconvene that initial working group to pick up that corporate planning work.

[3:42:17] Voice 3: I agree that if we think about a corporate plan in a way that, to my mind, is how we should approach it, which is ties together your strategic priorities with the operational side of the organization and how we're going to prioritize some of those organizational and operational imperatives.

[3:42:37] Voice 3: That's a model for a corporate plan that works really well and helps then set some decisions around where we're going to focus, both in terms of your priorities, but also as an organization on the operational side, where we're going to invest our time and energy and money.

[3:42:53] Voice 3: You know, there are, there will be a hundred things I could recommend to you coming out of this review, probably, but I'm not going to recommend a hundred things. I'm going to recommend a much shorter list because as you've heard me say many times, like it's the art of choosing the things that have the biggest impact and, and, and value within, you know, sort of practical lens of what's actually possible. So I think that this could, this conversation can feed into that corporate plan work longer term for sure.

[3:43:25] Voice 10: I can just quickly read it. It's the corporate planning process, not the corporate plan itself.

[3:43:31] Voice 10: So I said to the trustees with how to do the work, which was an element that was lacking when you come in as a new trustee versus the operational side, which is sort of the other half of that document.

[3:43:44] Voice 10: So that's a way to mix together the trustee work and the operational work with a little bit of how to do the process versus creating the plan to execute.

[3:43:58] Trustee Patrick: All right. Thank you very much. All right, trustees. The next piece is going to be when we see some suggestions or recommendations for us to consider. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot to think about at that time.

[3:44:15] Trustee Patrick: I really want to appreciate UCA O'Bronie for bringing us a frank assessment, and we look forward to this next report that will have some recommendations for moving forward.

[3:44:29] Trustee Patrick: So, trustees, we're not taking a break yet today because, well, I'm a taskmaster, and we have a very long day tomorrow.

[3:44:37] Trustee Patrick: So, we're going to move on, if it's okay with you.

[3:44:40] Trustee Patrick: We're going to move to Item 11, Planning Services.

[3:44:43] Trustee Patrick: You can get yourselves organized on that.

[3:44:48] Trustee Patrick: Director Cermak has been warned that we were moving him up after having his brilliant lineup of staff ready for tomorrow.

[3:44:56] Trustee Patrick: He's going to accommodate us and allow us to start through his process.

[3:45:03] Trustee Patrick: So I'm going to first go to item 11.1.

[3:45:08] Trustee Patrick: There's a number of reports here for general consent items.

[3:45:13] Trustee Patrick: 11.1 through 11.4 that are here for general consent for recommendations.

[3:45:21] Trustee Patrick: Are these reports, anyone have any report here that they wish to address?

[3:45:27] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans, you have your hand raised.

[3:45:29] Trustee Patrick: It might be an artifact.

[3:45:37] Trustee Patrick: Sorry, I'm having issues.

[3:45:39] Trustee Patrick: I'm trying to lower it, and I can't lower it.

[3:45:42] Trustee Patrick: No worries.

[3:45:43] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[3:45:44] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Allen, did you have one of these reports you wish to discuss?

[3:45:48] Trustee Patrick: Not discuss.

[3:45:50] Voice 7: I just wanted to help with the list of projects just to say what the amount

[3:45:55] Voice 7: of money was again in terms of just saying what the total was that the chart table one

[3:46:01] Voice 7: major and extraordinary projects. Is that where we are at or am I way ahead?

[3:46:06] Trustee Patrick: Is that in your report, Director Cermak?

[3:46:09] Trustee Patrick: I

[3:46:10] Voice 7: don't see the dollar amounts.

[3:46:14] Voice 19: To the Chair, the question is how much was the threshold between minor and major project?

[3:46:18] Voice 19: It

[3:46:18] Trustee Patrick: was a list of, he was requesting, Trustee Allen, you were requesting that the dollar amounts for each project be included?

[3:46:26] Voice 7: It would have been helpful. I just was, you know, in terms of the total, I mean, I could go and look somewhere, but it would take me a long time.

[3:46:33] Voice 7: Just in terms of, okay, this is how much this, this went there, and this is the total of $36,000, whatever.

[3:46:41] Voice 7: That's all. Nothing.

[3:46:43] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[3:46:45] Trustee Patrick: if there are no uh reports we can can we agree through general consent to adopt the recommendations

[3:46:51] Trustee Patrick: in those four reports thank you and but i'll give uh trustee sir mac i always give everybody new

[3:46:59] Trustee Patrick: titles director sir mac uh an opportunity to talk to his report if he'd like to thank you chair

[3:47:09] Voice 19: so just the opportunity here is then to talk to the director's report so i've caught up again

[3:47:15] Voice 19: Good. Make sure I'm not talking about the housing project yet.

[3:47:19] Voice 19: You have the report before you.

[3:47:20] Voice 19: I really want to emphasize that, you know, planning services, as you know, we have a lot of staff.

[3:47:25] Voice 19: Most of the work I'm reporting to you is the work of a great multitude of people.

[3:47:30] Voice 19: Really proud of the work that we're doing.

[3:47:32] Voice 19: You heard about the Salt Spring Island current planning team.

[3:47:35] Voice 19: You'll look into the report, see how many applications they're doing, the complexity of all those.

[3:47:40] Voice 19: Equally, the projects are being done.

[3:47:43] Voice 19: I'm sure if I asked you to raise your hand, so many people are really loving the housing work that's going on with your LPC project work right now.

[3:47:50] Voice 19: You'd raise your hand.

[3:47:51] Voice 19: And that comes with a whole breadth of supporting team doing drafting to communications to you name it.

[3:48:00] Voice 19: So just really want to acknowledge my director report.

[3:48:02] Voice 19: It's not just my report.

[3:48:03] Voice 19: It's a summary.

[3:48:03] Voice 19: You know that.

[3:48:04] Voice 19: I just want to acknowledge that team.

[3:48:07] Voice 19: What's different on the report is just a small update.

[3:48:10] Voice 19: you heard from Chair Bolton, thank you very much, about the

[3:48:14] Voice 19: Regional Planning Committee. So they had a special business meeting about primarily

[3:48:18] Voice 19: focused on business cases. They were looking at two

[3:48:22] Voice 19: business cases for feedback. One, they've decided not to advance any further

[3:48:27] Voice 19: that's the eelgrass mapping. And the second being sort of a merging

[3:48:30] Voice 19: of ideas with the Trust Programs Committee. And that will be

[3:48:34] Voice 19: hopefully forthcoming at next Trust Council. So we won't dwell on that too much further.

[3:48:39] Voice 19: other than that you have a whole list of interesting projects and reports before

[3:48:43] Voice 19: you I include in sections four and five about corporate initiatives and other

[3:48:48] Voice 19: initiatives the one thing I haven't actually put in there which I was kind

[3:48:52] Voice 19: of silly not to is planning services myself especially I've been spending a

[3:48:56] Voice 19: lot of time helping and supporting the policy statement and that's taken up a

[3:49:01] Voice 19: substantive amount of time as it has for all of you as well so just another thing

[3:49:06] Voice 19: to add to the list of things going on um city view is probably the most interesting project

[3:49:11] Voice 19: i'm directly related to the salt spring office relocation i live on salt spring i'm sure most

[3:49:16] Voice 19: of you know that i spy on that project all the time i go down there i was there on the weekend

[3:49:21] Voice 19: looking to see how far it's coming along some interesting synergies happening with the crd

[3:49:27] Voice 19: workforce there things that uh you know that's becoming a hub of institutional work and stuff

[3:49:33] Voice 19: like that so some it's it's not only creating opportunities for the community now but i think

[3:49:38] Voice 19: into the future and um i'll leave it at that or no maybe i won't leave it at that the one last

[3:49:44] Voice 19: thing i should bring up is the first nations referral process project um as you know that

[3:49:50] Voice 19: came to us through um through trust council for a singular uh idea from a trustee it we've tried

[3:49:58] Voice 19: hard to sort of meet the timeline come back with a work plan that trust council asked us to do

[3:50:03] Voice 19: And we felt that really, based on the information we're getting back from trustees or from First Nations we're talking to, is we need to be a little bit clearer communicating to them what it is we do and how we do it and what we're asking for.

[3:50:16] Voice 19: And we realize we're having these great communications back and forth.

[3:50:20] Voice 19: We're developing relationships one-on-one, but we needed to be more prepared for other nations that we don't have such a developing relationship.

[3:50:28] Voice 19: relationship. So we are looking to develop those materials so that when we walk in, we have maybe

[3:50:34] Voice 19: a two-page primer saying, this is the Islands Trust, this is what we're doing, this is how we

[3:50:38] Voice 19: can help, and equally what we cannot do. We're finding that there's some boundaries there,

[3:50:43] Voice 19: there's some expectations we need to manage before we get too far. We did a deep dive internally

[3:50:49] Voice 19: about our processes. We had a co-op student who really helped us get organized and do an

[3:50:55] Voice 19: doing internal assessment and found that we're actually doing things surprisingly,

[3:51:00] Voice 19: well, maybe not surprisingly, different in different circumstances. We're really good

[3:51:06] Voice 19: at referring official community planning, by the way. So everybody can pat yourself on the back.

[3:51:10] Voice 19: When we refer an OCP to a First Nation, we got it. We're doing great. But everything else kind

[3:51:17] Voice 19: of starts to get a little bit unraveled. So we'd like to make sure we're fixed up in-house before

[3:51:22] Voice 19: we go to First Nations saying, how can we improve our process when we realize that we are finding

[3:51:27] Voice 19: flaws in our own process? So if that works ongoing, I'm happy to take any questions about

[3:51:33] Voice 19: any of the other stuff.

[3:51:36] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Boland,

[3:51:36] Voice 2: then Trustee Elliott. Thanks. I'm going to put you

[3:51:41] Voice 1: on the

[3:51:41] Voice 2: spot. Tell me about the Salt Spring Island office refurbishment. I find it extraordinary that

[3:51:49] Voice 2: we spend such a vast sum of money on property that we don't own and so if you could talk to the cost

[3:51:57] Voice 2: overrun what caused it and how many staff are actually there and how long the lease will last

[3:52:05] Voice 2: for now and if you know that please sure

[3:52:12] Voice 19: through the chair okay the uh so the salt spring office

[3:52:17] Voice 19: relocation project um you know was originally forecast at you know i believe staff's estimate

[3:52:23] Voice 19: was 210 000 trust council's budget um after staff feedback came to about 160. we when we came back

[3:52:31] Voice 19: we found that we indeed needed that fifty thousand dollars back that's 55. um and so we proceeded

[3:52:37] Voice 19: with those numbers um we didn't learn as you know a cost development is expensive and so we have

[3:52:45] Voice 19: found a few things during the process that we hadn't anticipated such things as accessibility

[3:52:51] Voice 19: there's a difference between the design this these are lessons we're learning uh difference

[3:52:55] Voice 19: between a designer and an architect i think we would know this but we expected them to catch

[3:53:00] Voice 19: all the issues they did not and things were broken um that sort of said weren't when we did our

[3:53:06] Voice 19: assessment and so on and so forth so a series of sort of lessons learned change orders costs uh

[3:53:13] Voice 19: increase. We didn't really have a healthy contingency. I would say that's my other

[3:53:18] Voice 19: lesson learned. We put in, I think it was like a 2% contingency, which you should have, you know,

[3:53:25] Voice 19: 10 to 20% contingency. And actually that would have covered most of the contingencies that have

[3:53:30] Voice 19: come up. So not being capital planners has really been a hindrance. And you heard C.L. Broney

[3:53:37] Voice 19: mention that it's fallen mainly on the RPM there, whose job is generally to do planning applications

[3:53:42] Voice 19: and projects and manage staff to suddenly do a capital

[3:53:47] Voice 19: building change. So I think all in all

[3:53:50] Voice 19: we're learning and adapting. We certainly have a lot of lessons learned

[3:53:54] Voice 19: if Gabriela goes this way between what's happened in Victoria in the past,

[3:53:58] Voice 19: Salt Spring now, we are documenting what we're learning.

[3:54:02] Voice 19: So that's that. We're looking at occupation in month.

[3:54:07] Voice 19: That's on track. We've been talking about it this morning before I lost

[3:54:10] Voice 19: all power to the great internet and so the other questions were could you

[3:54:16] Voice 19: remind me I'm sorry down the rabbit hole my mind final

[3:54:26] Voice 2: cost and staff were

[3:54:29] Voice 2: permanent there thanks I

[3:54:32] Voice 19: don't have the final cost in front of me I suspect one

[3:54:35] Voice 19: of us might but not myself but I think we might be able to get that information

[3:54:39] Voice 19: for you right now the staff what do we have we have you know on island well I

[3:54:46] Voice 19: mean in the office we're just down two planners so we have a contingency of an rpm four planners

[3:54:53] Voice 19: and three admin so that's how many we have there we also have our senior freshwater specialist

[3:54:59] Voice 19: lives on the island and he's can use the space from time to time i live on the island i've been

[3:55:03] Voice 19: using it and we use as a home base for time to time the file enforcement team goes regularly

[3:55:11] Voice 19: for team meetings on the islands they use that space as well as it's open to trustees to use

[3:55:16] Voice 19: that space. It's going to be reopened to the public and it was well used in the past where

[3:55:22] Voice 19: trustees would book the boardrooms, et cetera, et cetera. But that's going a bit outside your

[3:55:26] Voice 19: question. So the answer is seven directly with others who may come and go.

[3:55:33] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[3:55:35] Trustee Patrick: Trustee

[3:55:35] Voice 14: Elliott. Thank you. So two questions related to your report. The application cost

[3:55:44] Voice 14: recovery project so it's great that we're getting software in place so that

[3:55:52] Voice 14: we can you know start to assess and look at this will we be eventually looking at

[3:55:58] Voice 14: other local governments and asking or to understand how much their processes

[3:56:03] Voice 14: that result in and fees result in cost recovery just so we can figure out the

[3:56:11] Voice 14: relative measurement um i would guess that this isn't uh transparent information for all the

[3:56:18] Voice 14: public for all local governments but surely we can ask some questions of our um the regional

[3:56:24] Voice 14: districts that we're working with and and find out how their planning services departments

[3:56:30] Voice 14: calculate this that's my first question through

[3:56:35] Voice 19: the chair so that work originally was done in 2019

[3:56:38] Voice 19: by then-Director Marder, looking at other jurisdictions

[3:56:42] Voice 19: and their relative application costs and percentage of recovery,

[3:56:47] Voice 19: if it was known.

[3:56:49] Voice 19: And we all know the starting base is the legislation allows us

[3:56:54] Voice 19: to cover the average cost of processing an application.

[3:56:57] Voice 19: In those reports, if you read them,

[3:56:59] Voice 19: staff were recommending a 75% or 80% recovery rate generally,

[3:57:04] Voice 19: and the Trust Council at the time said 100%.

[3:57:07] Voice 19: And so we now are working from the assumption that that's what Trust Council wants, because that's what's baked into the policy.

[3:57:14] Voice 19: If Trust Council would like us to change that policy, I'd be happy to accommodate whatever Trust Council's wish is.

[3:57:20] Voice 19: I suspect individually LTCs would like a little more freedom to choose which application types get what recovery rates.

[3:57:29] Voice 19: I can tell you only anecdotally from talking to our counterparts,

[3:57:33] Voice 19: parts we belong to a group of all the regional planning managers throughout the province we meet

[3:57:38] Voice 19: annually and we talk about these types of things none of them are doing any cost any time

[3:57:44] Voice 19: assessment of staff so they don't can't really tell their elected officials how much time staff

[3:57:50] Voice 19: are spending doing things it's an estimate of time so the question i would think maybe that

[3:57:56] Voice 19: you want to ask is how much time do you want to actually staff to um met to man like sort of

[3:58:02] Voice 19: have really monitored their own time to get that answer you want? Or do you want us to come back

[3:58:06] Voice 19: with something like Director Mobbs pointed out? We figured that the fees were 25% off because we

[3:58:13] Voice 19: didn't have benefits included into the cost savings. And we can come back with a fee amendment

[3:58:18] Voice 19: based on that. It'd be a lot quicker, a lot easier. And I'd be happy to do that for you

[3:58:22] Voice 19: like that, as opposed to waiting a couple of years for you to get more detailed information.

[3:58:29] Voice 14: I'm not one of the trustees who's asked for 100%, but this is the reason we put it in that

[3:58:33] Voice 14: question in the pre-budget survey. So, and which those results are, you know, inconclusive. So I

[3:58:41] Voice 14: think this is, we can't answer that quite today. But the second is on First Nations referrals.

[3:58:47] Voice 14: Sorry, I had to take my contacts out. I can't see. So in reading this, and, you know, I commend you

[3:58:54] Voice 14: on wanting to get our processes straight and make sure that we're, you know, synergized across our

[3:58:59] Voice 14: our offices before we go and ask questions about how to do things better i do worry that we're you

[3:59:05] Voice 14: know um perfection is the enemy of the good and actually getting information from from nations as

[3:59:11] Voice 14: to um how we can engage better is is is being left to the last step a little bit but forgive me if

[3:59:20] Voice 14: If I'm misinterpreting the report, it's, can we not start with the five to seven nations

[3:59:32] Voice 14: that we do have a good working relationship with as a baseline because they have been

[3:59:39] Voice 14: engaging with us.

[3:59:40] Voice 14: We've got projects that staff are bringing them information and getting information back

[3:59:45] Voice 14: and build from there and sort of establish here's a framework of what a good referral process looks like

[3:59:54] Voice 14: because isn't there enough diversity in the nations represented that we are?

[4:00:00] Voice 14: are working with rather than trying to get everything right and then being able to explain

[4:00:05] Voice 14: ourselves to everybody and then ask questions about how we can do it better sure

[4:00:12] Voice 19: great question

[4:00:13] Voice 19: i appreciate that insight the yes of course we could take that approach and i would argue we

[4:00:19] Voice 19: started with that approach last time we reported to trust council with the first nations referral

[4:00:24] Voice 19: report and presented the challenges we're meeting at that time and made some recommendations

[4:00:30] Voice 19: at that time of things that we could do as first steps.

[4:00:34] Voice 19: And the staff's first recommendation was to implement a 90-day

[4:00:38] Voice 19: referral response window. And looking back, it should be perhaps

[4:00:42] Voice 19: more of a 60- to 90-day referral window, depending on the type of application.

[4:00:47] Voice 19: Recommended that as a starting point, and

[4:00:50] Voice 19: it was perhaps my fault not to ask for a Trust Council resolution

[4:00:54] Voice 19: to do so, because implementing it has been poor.

[4:00:59] Voice 19: it's been confusing and it hasn't been sure is it that was fee is that land use bylaw are we

[4:01:03] Voice 19: talking permits etc etc so there wasn't a great follow-through on what that meant and how we were

[4:01:09] Voice 19: going to do it even though it was kind of in the head loosely in the report so to answer your

[4:01:14] Voice 19: question sure we could definitely do a more stepped approach and that again going back to

[4:01:21] Voice 19: that first report it was based on detailed conversations with the first nations we were

[4:01:26] Voice 19: were speaking with. And those conversations continue. And this is the basis of the feedback

[4:01:31] Voice 19: I gave you today, whereby we are getting that feedback saying, you guys are kind of confusing.

[4:01:37] Voice 19: We've also got portals that, you know, that this question whether or not to submit those,

[4:01:44] Voice 19: can we apply for funds? Can we pay the fees to submit to those portals? And I think we could

[4:01:51] Voice 19: do a reasonable matrix or something like that, that shows these are the different types of

[4:01:55] Voice 19: of applications that we have. These are different types of processes that we know First Nations

[4:02:00] Voice 19: want. And then we can filter that through the feedback we're getting through First Nations

[4:02:04] Voice 19: up to now and come together with a framework for you. Yes. I don't want you to think that that's

[4:02:10] Voice 19: what my two paragraphs in my report said we're not doing. My whole point was, as we continue this

[4:02:16] Voice 19: discussion, we need to be better organized. And that's what we're doing right now. Internally,

[4:02:21] Voice 19: We're just trying to be much more intentional about how we're saying what we're saying and why we're doing it.

[4:02:34] Voice 14: This work is urgently needed, and it's not just for First Nations.

[4:02:38] Voice 14: Our residents are confused, and so I'll leave it at that.

[4:02:45] Voice 14: I've seen a few cases on Gabriel Island where we've sent mixed messages based on what we're hearing and what we understand from the nation

[4:02:54] Voice 14: and then sent them off in another direction.

[4:02:56] Voice 14: That has resulted in a real loss of trust in our processes.

[4:03:01] Voice 14: So I do think we need some kind of communication about this

[4:03:05] Voice 14: to residents and landowners

[4:03:07] Voice 14: that this is a process that we're working through.

[4:03:10] Voice 14: We don't have all the information yet

[4:03:13] Voice 14: and we're working to improve it.

[4:03:15] Voice 14: So I'm just saying thank you for the work.

[4:03:19] Voice 14: It needs to continue,

[4:03:20] Voice 14: but we urgently need it for everyone's sake

[4:03:23] Voice 14: to clear all this up.

[4:03:24] Voice 14: Thanks.

[4:03:24] Voice 14: Thank

[4:03:27] Voice 19: you. I couldn't agree more. And perhaps if I can be a little blunt, this work came out of a resolution off the floor. It's loosely in a strategic plan. It's loosely in an operational plan. You can see I also have in my report application cost recovery.

[4:03:46] Voice 19: recovery and I have a good work plan right now for application cost recovery it's kind of more

[4:03:52] Voice 19: the normal wheelhouse of a director right like it's easy get together have a team and I won't

[4:03:58] Voice 19: get to my work plan the referral process is a lot more tricky and these two are competing for

[4:04:03] Voice 19: my personal time to get this work done so if you would like to give me the direction to choose one

[4:04:08] Voice 19: I would love to choose the latter and it's not because I'm avoiding cost recovery we have cost

[4:04:12] Voice 19: recovery we're getting money coming in so don't worry about that but if if you want to direct

[4:04:18] Voice 19: our work to make this a priority i would love your support to do that it's just for now it's

[4:04:23] Voice 19: competing interest it's not really listing anywhere but the side of the desk type thing

[4:04:27] Voice 19: even though we all know operationally we need to do that but if you give me that direction

[4:04:31] Voice 19: i'd love to do it and i'll come back with a little bit more advancement focusing on that

[4:04:39] Trustee Patrick: we always want motions submitted in writing first so take your time and think

[4:04:44] Trustee Patrick: uh trustee allen

[4:04:47] Voice 7: yeah hi i'm not sure what this because i noticed there's a discussion a

[4:04:54] Voice 7: request for a decision regarding this whole software later on cost recovery or should i

[4:05:02] Voice 7: just ask something now let us ask something now i just um can you tell me which software

[4:05:08] Voice 7: um for time collection has been chosen no

[4:05:16] Voice 19: uh we i have before me uh working with the team

[4:05:19] Voice 19: internally we have two choices that we're looking at that was delayed as per

[4:05:25] Voice 19: my report we had some delays in our information services team getting

[4:05:29] Voice 19: together when they finally got together I wasn't ready for that information so

[4:05:33] Voice 19: as per my report indicate that we're getting together post Trust Council to

[4:05:38] Voice 19: make a decision between those two pieces of software however there's a hiccup

[4:05:43] Voice 19: which I'll tell you is that the cost that Trust Council's approved for that

[4:05:48] Voice 19: That software is great for buying the software.

[4:05:51] Voice 19: Found out that there's a new cost that's being told to me that to implement that software might cost a little bit more money, which I haven't budgeted for.

[4:05:59] Voice 19: That is another story.

[4:06:02] Voice 7: You can't say whether one of them is Civic Plus software?

[4:06:07] Voice 19: I don't think it'd be appropriate for me to talk about potential vendors at this moment.

[4:06:12] Trustee Patrick: Okay. Thank you.

[4:06:13] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[4:06:15] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Peterson.

[4:06:16] Trustee Patrick: Thank

[4:06:18] Voice 25: you. While you were speaking there to Trustee Elliott's points there, it occurs to me that, in fact, the issues around First Nations referrals should be factored into the consideration of the application cost recovery.

[4:06:37] Voice 25: recovery um and and uh I don't know to what extent that those potential changes have been

[4:06:46] Voice 25: thought in those terms but uh I think that's it it would be important um regardless of whether

[4:06:54] Voice 25: Council gives you clear direction to choose one or the other to just keep in mind I think they

[4:06:59] Voice 25: They are quite related.

[4:07:01] Voice 25: Thank you.

[4:07:05] Trustee Patrick: Great.

[4:07:06] Trustee Patrick: Just the Boland a second time.

[4:07:12] Voice 2: I had a conversation recently with somebody who is the mother of somebody who was involved in the Wusanich or the Cowichan, that decision that caused all the ferrari.

[4:07:28] Voice 2: And I said, OK, so explain to me, if you can, what is the best case solution?

[4:07:36] Voice 2: Like if First Nations achieve their goal in the negotiations, what is that perfect solution?

[4:07:44] Voice 2: And the answer was quite illuminating.

[4:07:46] Voice 2: And I find that a lot of what we're doing here about referrals, it's kind of muddy and

[4:07:52] Voice 2: gray exactly what that means or you know what co-governance means in the context of the trust

[4:07:59] Voice 2: and you know the illumination was and i i mean and you know it could be completely wrong but i i

[4:08:07] Voice 2: thought why don't we go to the horse's mouth and say can you not sit down like multiple first

[4:08:14] Voice 2: nations sit down and tell us like what the perfect end goal solution would be in this case it was

[4:08:22] Voice 2: was that the Crown rights on the land,

[4:08:28] Voice 2: so not like, you know, as a fee, simple owner,

[4:08:31] Voice 2: I own the right to put a house on this piece of land,

[4:08:34] Voice 2: but I don't really own the land.

[4:08:37] Voice 2: I'm probably explaining it badly, technically,

[4:08:40] Voice 2: but that they wanted co-ownership from the Crown perspective

[4:08:46] Voice 2: and they didn't expect people to, you know,

[4:08:49] Voice 2: rip down their houses and leave.

[4:08:51] Voice 2: and they wanted a share in the financial returns on what that meant so I think of it like I come

[4:09:02] Voice 2: from Ireland in the UK where there's sort of lease agreements which can go on for like hundreds of

[4:09:08] Voice 2: years you know that somebody has a leasehold agreement and so you know that left me thinking

[4:09:14] Voice 2: thinking like, oh, so all this kind of referral in this grey area of give me some feedback

[4:09:19] Voice 2: and I'll try and accommodate it.

[4:09:22] Voice 2: I thought it's absorbing a huge amount of effort and time when really, if clarity came

[4:09:32] Voice 2: from, you know, this recent agreement with the Squamish or whatever, it would just set

[4:09:38] Voice 2: a new ground rule that we could all work to.

[4:09:41] Voice 2: Anyway, revolutionary thought, maybe, but it did cause me a sort of like, why are we circling the plug hole, basically?

[4:09:52] Voice 2: Anyway, thank you.

[4:09:58] Voice 19: Through the chair, excellent point.

[4:10:01] Voice 19: And I'd like to say that, you know, the staff, I know they're speaking to First Nations and who've been working on these types of issues internally, have come to similar conclusions.

[4:10:12] Voice 19: We need to track what we've learned from First Nations, what their issues are, and apply it.

[4:10:19] Voice 19: We don't have to keep on circling around their drain hole, as you say.

[4:10:24] Trustee Patrick: Well said. Thank you, Director Cermak.

[4:10:29] Trustee Patrick: Okay, we are going to keep moving and go into the next item.

[4:10:33] Trustee Patrick: I know before I said we're going to switch it so that we do the bylaw enforcement before,

[4:10:38] Trustee Patrick: but we're going to keep that on until tomorrow because it's going to be a round-room discussion.

[4:10:43] Trustee Patrick: So I want to attempt to work on 11.2.1 before we...

[4:10:49] Trustee Patrick: I had a question.

[4:10:51] Trustee Patrick: Online?

[4:10:52] Trustee Patrick: I'm sorry.

[4:10:54] Trustee Patrick: I'm sorry, Trustee Bast.

[4:10:55] Trustee Patrick: I missed you.

[4:10:56] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead.

[4:10:57] Trustee Fast: Thank you.

[4:10:58] Trustee Fast: Just a quick one for the planner, for Stefan Cermak.

[4:11:02] Trustee Fast: I'm interested in the freshwater sustainability strategy and the protection of ecosystem health.

[4:11:09] Trustee Fast: I'm really excited to see these moving ahead on page 96.

[4:11:14] Trustee Fast: I'm wondering if, for example, for the biologists figuring out how to address ecosystem health and

[4:11:24] Trustee Fast: land use planning, what's the best way for Bowen municipal staff and trustees and elected officials

[4:11:34] Trustee Fast: to catch up with this work, or should we wait? Over?

[4:11:42] Voice 19: Sorry, I love the over. Okay, yeah,

[4:11:46] Voice 19: Yeah, it's a great question. It is part of the biologists' work plan to report back.

[4:11:51] Voice 19: They've reported, I believe, once to the Regional Planning Committee.

[4:11:54] Voice 19: They're planning to do it again, I think it's February is the next time she'll be reporting.

[4:11:59] Voice 19: Some of those are in the forms of deliverables, a whole shopping list of them I won't get into.

[4:12:06] Voice 19: So that materials can then travel to Trust Council.

[4:12:09] Voice 19: At the whole end of it, the end of the fiscal, there will be a report out about lessons learned.

[4:12:15] Voice 19: so i mean that's at the end of it though um if you would like to have more um discussion on the

[4:12:22] Voice 19: inside i recommend that you and i could talk or or send a bow and planner we speak to bow and

[4:12:27] Voice 19: planners a lot um and ask them um you know sort of guide them how you'd like them to be involved

[4:12:33] Voice 19: and you can tell me how you'd like to be involved and i'd be happy to share more information she's

[4:12:38] Voice 19: He's doing a whole breadth of work, which is amazing in its whole scope.

[4:12:44] Voice 19: I'm just hoping to see it all come together in a time I can report back.

[4:12:48] Voice 19: So contact me, get your Bowen staff to contact me.

[4:12:51] Voice 19: We have to get you more involved early.

[4:12:53] Voice 19: Otherwise, you're going to have to wait for the final product, which will come to Trust Council probably at the earliest in March.

[4:13:00] Trustee Fast: Thank you.

[4:13:07] Trustee Patrick: Handwrite it, please.

[4:13:08] Trustee Patrick: But I'd also suggest that we can deal with this, because this section is going to continue tomorrow, Trustee Elliott.

[4:13:14] Trustee Patrick: So let's not rush a motion.

[4:13:15] Trustee Patrick: Let's take our time.

[4:13:17] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[4:13:18] Trustee Patrick: So I would like to start item 11.2.1, the Housing Strategy Action Plan Request for Decision.

[4:13:25] Trustee Patrick: If you are up, sorry.

[4:13:27] Trustee Patrick: Yes, Trustee Mabry?

[4:13:30] Trustee Patrick: Yeah.

[4:13:31] Trustee Patrick: Didn't we change those?

[4:13:32] Trustee Patrick: Yes, we did.

[4:13:33] Trustee Patrick: But I know we don't have time to do the second one.

[4:13:36] Trustee Patrick: The bylaw enforcement needs a good chunk of time, so I believe we can address this issue quicker.

[4:13:41] Trustee Patrick: That's why we kind of reversed it to deal with this one first.

[4:13:45] Voice 22: Yeah, no, I thought we changed 11.2.1 to...

[4:13:49] Voice 22: Oh, I got you.

[4:13:50] Voice 22: Yes,

[4:13:50] Trustee Patrick: we switched the order in which they were going to be received, assuming it was tomorrow.

[4:13:53] Trustee Patrick: But since it's today, we're going to take the shorter item forward.

[4:13:57] Trustee Patrick: That's okay with everyone.

[4:13:58] Trustee Patrick: So that's 11.2.1, the Housing Strategic Action Plan, Quest for Decision.

[4:14:03] Trustee Patrick: Over to you, Director Cermak.

[4:14:09] Voice 19: Thank you, Chair. I have this beautiful PowerPoint presentation, which I can't show to you because I don't have any internet.

[4:14:14] Voice 19: So I'm just going to look at my wonderful PowerPoint myself. And there you go.

[4:14:21] Voice 19: So you have before you a report. I know you've all read it in depth.

[4:14:27] Voice 19: I know you've all read the Housing Strategic Action Plan attached to it in depth.

[4:14:31] Voice 19: And the purpose of this report is really is to correct an omission.

[4:14:36] Voice 19: both trust council and the regional planning committee passed resolution saying put the

[4:14:42] Voice 19: housing strategic action plan into trust council strategic plan and yet it's not in there so

[4:14:50] Voice 19: it's your fault it's my fault it's our fault and i'm

[4:14:55] Voice 19: here to help you correct it so in in doing so

[4:14:58] Voice 19: i'd also thought it's a good time for you to you know make sure that we align those things together

[4:15:02] Voice 19: And that, yeah, the reasons for doing is to make sure that we have, if we don't do this work, and I'll get into more of my presentation, that it provides a clear framework of how we're addressing housing.

[4:15:15] Voice 19: This is the best strategy that we have.

[4:15:17] Voice 19: So I'm starting at the end.

[4:15:18] Voice 19: And I'll say that my staff's recommendation, and this comes from the Regional Planning Committee, and Regional Planning Committee is making this recommendation, is to endorse the revised Housing Strategic Action Plan, which the Regional Planning Committee has tweaked based on the report that you have before you.

[4:15:34] Voice 19: And then to take that housing strategic action plan and replace key initiative 232 in your strategic plan, which says design a plan to advocate for housing funding, take that out and stick this in there, and it would be implement the housing strategic action plan.

[4:15:53] Voice 19: So you're swapping one out, and I'll get into the benefits for that in a second.

[4:15:58] Voice 19: So why does this matter?

[4:15:59] Voice 19: It matters because the housing affordability and workforce shortages are critical across the trust area.

[4:16:06] Voice 19: You yourselves have passed a declaration that housing equity and workforce shortage crisis exists.

[4:16:13] Voice 19: And if we don't have that housing strategic action plan in the Trust Council strategic plan,

[4:16:19] Voice 19: I as a director and the RPMs and others can't direct staff resources in a prioritized way.

[4:16:25] Voice 19: We'll continue to work on the issues, of course, but it won't be prioritized.

[4:16:30] Voice 19: So what's new in the plan?

[4:16:31] Voice 19: I said it was revised at the regional planning committee level.

[4:16:34] Voice 19: We know what's been completed in this fiscal, and that is housing needs reports.

[4:16:39] Voice 19: We have templated definitions that can go into land use bylaws and into official community plans.

[4:16:46] Voice 19: We've got communications that are available now for property owners.

[4:16:50] Voice 19: This is one of my beautiful visual diagrams.

[4:16:52] Voice 19: Imagine if you can a philitesimal drawing.

[4:16:54] Voice 19: It has tiny homes in it.

[4:16:56] Voice 19: and it identifies advocacy priorities such as tiny homes and wheels seeking provincial funding

[4:17:04] Voice 19: and infrastructure support it also deferred items that were noted that weren't worked on because we

[4:17:10] Voice 19: had limited resources and again this is because we our priorities as per your adopted report today

[4:17:17] Voice 19: are top three that's not in there so future actions again i have a beautiful visual imagine

[4:17:24] Voice 19: Imagine, if you will, Gabriola's land use.

[4:17:28] Voice 19: Imagine their map with all their colors.

[4:17:30] Voice 19: They did a really great weekend session, as was mentioned, in this room.

[4:17:35] Voice 19: And it showed a suitable land analysis map.

[4:17:37] Voice 19: It's being piloted.

[4:17:38] Voice 19: It's being tweaked on.

[4:17:40] Voice 19: It's being worked on.

[4:17:43] Voice 19: And it's an example of some of the work that's coming out of the strategic plan into the housing profiles.

[4:17:49] Voice 19: files, pardon me, into the work that's doing on the ground work, sorry.

[4:17:57] Voice 19: Future actions that we're looking to do is update the housing affordability profiles.

[4:18:02] Voice 19: You may recall that most all the islands got a housing affordable profile.

[4:18:05] Voice 19: It's on your website.

[4:18:06] Voice 19: If you didn't know, have a look.

[4:18:08] Voice 19: We're looking to update it with the new census data this year or next year.

[4:18:11] Voice 19: We would like to incorporate new data, Indigenous interests into the suitable land analysis.

[4:18:16] Voice 19: So, again, that beautiful image, imagine, if you will, we heard back from First Nations, what are some of the ways we can incorporate data that are their interests into it?

[4:18:25] Voice 19: And they said 200 meters back from the shoreline.

[4:18:28] Voice 19: So that suitable land analysis has a nice band around it.

[4:18:32] Voice 19: And it's just saying we don't recommend any further intensity or density of use within 200 meters on Gabriola.

[4:18:38] Voice 19: And I remind you, this is just it's a values placed onto a map for the community to discuss.

[4:18:45] Voice 19: That's what it is.

[4:18:46] Voice 19: And, of course, future actions in the Housing Strategic Action Plan would be to begin implementing the Island Trust Policy Statement,

[4:18:53] Voice 19: affordable housing visions that are in it, assuming that, of course, Trust Council adopts a new housing policy.

[4:19:03] Voice 19: As I noted, the Housing Strategic Action Plan, you won't see a business case for it this year financially.

[4:19:11] Voice 19: What it does, it takes a fair bit of staff time.

[4:19:13] Voice 19: We want to have a lot of meetings. We want to do advocacy. That takes a lot of staff resources.

[4:19:21] Voice 19: We are kind of full at the regional planning committee level if that's what the work we're doing.

[4:19:26] Voice 19: We have top three priorities. This is not one. But if some of those priorities come off,

[4:19:30] Voice 19: I'm hoping the bylaw enforcement will come down to be an operational reporting out.

[4:19:35] Voice 19: That frees up time. This would fill up that space.

[4:19:38] Voice 19: We can ramp up resources again to pick up some of the key initiatives in the strategy.

[4:19:42] Voice 19: strategy. And then, of course, updating that, like I said, it allows us to prioritize the work.

[4:19:48] Voice 19: We did look at alternatives. We looked at if we can revise the housing strategic action plan.

[4:19:54] Voice 19: If you want to, if Trust Council wants to revise it itself, then that's going to cause us to

[4:19:59] Voice 19: backtrack and it's going to delay implementation of the initiatives that are already there and

[4:20:04] Voice 19: underway. And if you want to amend the strategic plan differently, don't do this work. It would,

[4:20:10] Voice 19: It would, for staff anyways, be a bit of an unclear alignment of what it is you want us to do about affordable housing initiatives in the first place.

[4:20:17] Voice 19: So we would need to report back and talk about the implications of that.

[4:20:22] Voice 19: All in all, I'll repeat that the recommendations of staff are to endorse the revised Housing Strategic Action Plan and specifically then to take the strategic plan and amend your Trust Council strategic plan by replacing Initiative 232 with implementing the Housing Strategic Action Plan.

[4:20:41] Trustee Patrick: Thank

[4:20:41] Voice 19: you for that presentation.

[4:20:42] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees, questions?

[4:20:44] Trustee Patrick: I see Trustee Yates.

[4:20:46] Voice 23: I think I should have asked this a little earlier,

[4:20:48] Voice 23: but I'm sure that Director Cermak can answer my question.

[4:20:52] Voice 23: So a bit earlier in the conservancy report,

[4:20:55] Voice 23: we talked about the planning biologist collaborating with the planning biologist

[4:21:00] Voice 23: for input to the suitable land analysis,

[4:21:03] Voice 23: and I'm assuming that that work is happening right now,

[4:21:06] Voice 23: particularly for the Gabriola OCP review

[4:21:10] Voice 23: view and the suitable land analysis that's happening for that? I hope that's a correct

[4:21:16] Voice 23: assumption.

[4:21:19] Voice 19: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Susan. That's a great question. So yes, but it's a

[4:21:26] Voice 19: complicated yes, because you imagine it's a detailed technical question. Staff with the

[4:21:32] Voice 19: suitable land analysis where it's at right now have incorporated all the available environmental

[4:21:37] Voice 19: environmental data that we have within our mapping system into into the maps but the maps you know

[4:21:45] Voice 19: as you can imagine integrating all this data into one map is highly complicated so we kind of have

[4:21:50] Voice 19: two tiers as we're talking about it tier one is when we're integrating all the data that we can

[4:21:56] Voice 19: and there's an algorithm whereby the trustees and the public can clearly see we've weighted the

[4:22:01] Voice 19: variables and then the variables will sort of compress them to make a color heat map whereby

[4:22:06] Voice 19: by some areas are more suitable versus not for thinking about increased density intensity.

[4:22:12] Voice 19: However, there's other data that just doesn't do that well, right? And I won't get into all the

[4:22:17] Voice 19: maps. So that's tier two. And tier two is a series of overlays. And this is just the classic way I've

[4:22:23] Voice 19: been doing planning anyways, is that you just open up a series of layers on the map and you try to

[4:22:27] Voice 19: ask it, you know, you try to cross-reference it as much as you can. And with those, we can kind

[4:22:33] Voice 19: of slide those on and off to make them sort of more intense or not but we can't really integrate

[4:22:38] Voice 19: them into making a heat map if that makes sense so we have those two types of data now how we use

[4:22:46] Voice 19: that is really up to the LTC into the communities and yes that's being done for Gabriola but I can

[4:22:52] Voice 19: tell you I've had conversations this week with the Islands Trust Conservancy and we acknowledge that

[4:22:57] Voice 19: not all the conservation data that we would like is in there and nor is it being applied in the

[4:23:02] Voice 19: a way that was really upholding their mandate as strongly as they do. So we're looking at how to

[4:23:08] Voice 19: address that. We're trying to find paths forward. We're looking at ways we can, both the Conservancy

[4:23:13] Voice 19: and planning can use the same map into the future and say, this is how we're doing our business.

[4:23:20] Voice 19: But we're just at the beginning of that because we're still working out the warts and wrinkles

[4:23:24] Voice 19: of what we have right now. So it's very much in the green policy stage. The last thing I'll add

[4:23:29] Voice 19: is that you'll see business cases coming about indicators and what have you for to achieve the

[4:23:35] Voice 19: trust council strategic plan and we're asking the questions is this the baseline that we can use

[4:23:40] Voice 19: for that work and we don't know yet

[4:23:43] Trustee Patrick: thank you very much trustee evans see how your audio is

[4:23:49] Voice 10: thanks um i was going to prepare um a motion tonight for her for this so i hate to do this

[4:23:58] Voice 10: as I'm driving, but I would like to ask staff to bring back the original briefing that they were

[4:24:03] Voice 10: going to give us on this project that we never did receive. I still don't understand what the

[4:24:10] Voice 10: housing toolkit is, how it works, what its intentions are. I've read the material and I

[4:24:16] Voice 10: find it very confusing. I don't understand and I'm quite sure with a briefing it will just bring

[4:24:21] Voice 10: the whole thing into clarity um so i would i would like some help putting that together as a motion

[4:24:28] Voice 10: to have it brought forward perhaps for the december meeting um because i'm quite sure um

[4:24:33] Voice 10: everyone that's on the regional planning committee understands this uh very well and obviously so

[4:24:38] Voice 10: does the director unfortunately i don't have a clue and would really like to get informed as to

[4:24:43] Voice 10: what this is so i can take it to my committee to my community as well um so as i'm driving can i

[4:24:50] Voice 10: I throw that over to trust council to help me with pretty, pretty please.

[4:24:56] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans, like I said, I reached out to you because I know you have raised this every time we've talked about the housing action plan of having more information.

[4:25:03] Trustee Patrick: So we have had a resolution going back and forth with Director Cermak.

[4:25:08] Trustee Patrick: We can deal, I know you're on your way up here.

[4:25:10] Trustee Patrick: We can deal with that.

[4:25:11] Trustee Patrick: We're going to come back to this planning session section tomorrow.

[4:25:14] Trustee Patrick: tomorrow so we have time to talk to you and we can still raise a resolution about how we could

[4:25:19] Trustee Patrick: report back and talk more about this housing um strategy in a in a different way so let's bring

[4:25:26] Trustee Patrick: that back tomorrow if that's okay but i don't

[4:25:30] Voice 10: know that's fine i just i just i just want to ask them

[4:25:32] Voice 10: to bring the original briefing that they were that they intended to give and that we never received

[4:25:37] Voice 10: that was it

[4:25:38] Trustee Patrick: okay well we'll talk more and get clarity on that so i don't think that affects

[4:25:44] Trustee Patrick: the conversation we're having right now are there any other questions on this work before you do

[4:25:48] Trustee Patrick: you understand the decisions that are before you how do you feel about it is there anyone who wishes

[4:25:54] Trustee Patrick: to make this uh any of these resolutions i guess it's resolutions that we have before us a

[4:25:59] Trustee Patrick: recommendation on page 114 trustee yates i

[4:26:04] Voice 23: can do the first one i move that trust council endorse

[4:26:07] Voice 23: the housing strategic action plan as included in the request for decision of september 16th 2025

[4:26:14] Voice 23: 25.

[4:26:15] Trustee Patrick: is there a second seconded by trustee gavro is there any discussion not seeing any i think we

[4:26:26] Trustee Patrick: can call the vote all those in favor raise your hands i'm

[4:26:32] Voice 10: saying i because i helped find my hand

[4:26:35] Trustee Patrick: thank you

[4:26:36] Voice 23: i can't find my hand either i'm in favor okay

[4:26:43] Trustee Patrick: lower your hands were there any opposed

[4:26:50] Trustee Patrick: I hope that carries. So, thank you, trustees. There's a second recommendation here. Trustee Elliott.

[4:27:00] Trustee Patrick: I

[4:27:01] Voice 14: think for once, Director Shermack and I were on the same wavelength. I just didn't move on this. You were the one that brought back the motion, so thank you.

[4:27:09] Voice 14: I move that Trust Council amend Trust Council's strategic plan by replacing key initiative 2.3.2, design a plan to advocate to enhance community access to funding for housing in the trust area with implement the housing strategic action plan.

[4:27:28] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second?

[4:27:31] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Getty?

[4:27:32] Trustee Patrick: Is there any discussion?

[4:27:35] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Trustee Elliott.

[4:27:37] Trustee Patrick: Just

[4:27:38] Voice 14: very briefly that I would hope that in this housing strategic action plan, there is eventually going to be the part two implementation, which is to support nonprofit groups that are making applications for affordable housing projects, those templates and the processes and everything.

[4:27:59] Voice 14: So, it may not be in there, but one day, I hope that it's there so that the community groups that are working so hard have a good path to walk as they, yeah, try to do affordable housing.

[4:28:14] Voice 14: Thank you. Any further discussion?

[4:28:20] Trustee Patrick: Seeing none, I'll call the vote. All those in favor, raise your hands.

[4:28:25] Trustee Patrick: I'm saying aye again.

[4:28:27] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Lower your hands.

[4:28:40] Trustee Patrick: Are there any opposed?

[4:28:43] Trustee Patrick: That carries.

[4:28:44] Trustee Patrick: And trustees, oh, my goodness, it's 5.30.

[4:28:48] Voice 25: Since we're counting votes, can we have now some so people can hear them?

[4:28:52] Trustee Patrick: Okay, we had 17 in favor on the first one, 18 on the second.

[4:28:56] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[4:28:57] Voice 1: Appreciate that.

[4:28:58] Trustee Patrick: And none opposed.

[4:29:00] Trustee Patrick: Trustees, it's 5.30 on the nose.

[4:29:02] Trustee Patrick: Boy, am I impressed.

[4:29:04] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Leckham?

[4:29:06] Voice 6: Oh, my goodness.

[4:29:11] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[4:29:14] Voice 6: Yeah, can you turn your microphone on

[4:29:15] Voice 1: in regards to audio?

[4:29:16] Voice 1: That would be

[4:29:17] Voice 6: a great beginning, wouldn't it?

[4:29:19] Voice 6: First off, I'd like to acknowledge our two new IT people or audio people back there

[4:29:24] Voice 6: that have successfully implemented this and fixed a few little problems.

[4:29:28] Voice 6: And thank you very much.

[4:29:30] Voice 6: It's not easy and it's not great straightforward.

[4:29:33] Voice 6: But I want to acknowledge right off the cuff, I am hearing impaired.

[4:29:37] Voice 6: However, I am finding the variety of audio, particularly online, goes from anywhere between talking through a wet blanket to being completely submerged in water.

[4:29:52] Voice 6: And I know that you can't control the microphones at that end.

[4:29:58] Voice 6: You can only control.

[4:30:00] Voice 6: it here and it's okay here but it could use some improvement on top end and bottom end and people

[4:30:05] Voice 6: could speak closely to the microphone including those at the podium but just want to get a kind

[4:30:11] Voice 6: of a readout for the benefit of our it guys how many would really like to see an improvement in

[4:30:17] Voice 6: the audio online oh yeah so i'm not the only one but i noticed that most of you are over 50

[4:30:27] Voice 6: so just a little bit of feedback if anything you could do with the bandwidth and stuff that would

[4:30:31] Voice 6: be great i can tell you they're working on it um and

[4:30:35] Trustee Patrick: that's good to know too for over 24 hours and

[4:30:38] Trustee Patrick: so thank you and uh thanks for that feedback so before we go i'd like just to give uh alexander

[4:30:43] Trustee Patrick: is there any instructions for this evening none yeah dinner

[4:30:49] Trustee Patrick: is held at the lodge at 6 p.m

[4:30:51] Trustee Patrick: and that's all

[4:30:52] Trustee Patrick: right well i do know we have a few former trustees that will be joining us this

[4:30:56] Trustee Patrick: evening please search them out former trustee heather o'sullivan case langer eyes melanie

[4:31:02] Trustee Patrick: will be joining us so please look for our trustees from gabriola and um and share some time

[4:31:11] Trustee Patrick: and i was going to be also telling some a bit of information so if you're joining us

[4:31:16] Trustee Patrick: for dinner tonight sorry online i'll tell you tomorrow so we're recessed for to meet today