Islands Trust Council regular meeting, October 1, 2025

[0:00:01] Voice 10: All right,

[0:00:20] Voice 9: Chair Patrick, we are ready for the meeting.

[0:00:23] Voice 12: Well, good morning.

[0:00:24] Voice 12: I'd like to call to order this regular meeting of the Executive Committee.

[0:00:30] Voice 12: We begin with acknowledging how fortunate we are to be able to gather across the territories of the Coast Salish First Nations.

[0:00:40] Voice 12: Yesterday was the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.

[0:00:44] Voice 12: You know, I attended an event here on Salt Spring with the Penelakut First Nation over in what we know as the Fernwood Dock area, coming in by boat, the elders, and sharing in a day of speaking and then drumming and song at the end of the event.

[0:01:05] Voice 12: They again repeated the, had the same speaker provide the details of the search for graves on what was the Cooper Island Residential School.

[0:01:21] Voice 12: And for many, it was the first time they heard that stark information and how severe it was.

[0:01:30] Voice 12: and then to hear the elders speak and share stories of their times

[0:01:37] Voice 12: and the impacts on themselves their families um as we know truth and reconciliation we have

[0:01:45] Voice 12: to start with truth and for us at this agency the truth is this agency our founding legislation

[0:01:54] Voice 12: came about at a time when the cooper residential school was still in operation those are

[0:02:01] Voice 12: things that we have to reconcile and work with as we move into a better time and working more

[0:02:09] Voice 12: with the First Nations to the shared decision-making that needs to be done on these

[0:02:17] Voice 12: territories that are so vitally important to them. I'm Laura Patrick. I'm elected on Salt Spring

[0:02:23] Voice 12: Island in the chair. Joining me today is Trustee Maude, Maine Island, Trustee Elliott,

[0:02:30] Voice 12: and Gabriela Island, I guess I should be saying Vice Chair Maude, Vice Chair Elliot, and Vice Chair

[0:02:36] Voice 12: Peterson from Laskiti Island. And I'll introduce our CIO, Ruben Brony, to introduce the staff that

[0:02:42] Voice 12: are joining us today.

[0:02:45] Voice 7: Thank you, Chair. Joining us this morning, our Executive Administrative

[0:02:51] Voice 7: Coordinator, Alexandra Trifonides, Director of Planning Services, Stefan Sermag, Director of

[0:02:56] Voice 7: Trust Area Services, Claire Frater, Director of Financial and Employee Services, Julia

[0:03:03] Voice 7: Bobbs isn't with us right now, but she'll be joining us in a little bit when we get

[0:03:07] Voice 7: to the budget-related items to speak to those.

[0:03:10] Voice 7: And I think that is all the staff that we have with us this morning.

[0:03:14] Voice 7: Thanks.

[0:03:15] Voice 12: Well, thank you very much.

[0:03:16] Voice 12: And thanks to the staff for supporting us today.

[0:03:19] Voice 12: All right, Vice Chairs, we have an agenda before us.

[0:03:23] Voice 12: Are there any additions or changes to this agenda?

[0:03:25] Voice 12: agenda? Not seeing any. Can we approve the agenda through general consent? Thank you. So next we

[0:03:36] Voice 12: have no rise in reports. We're going to go right on to the minutes that we have from September 16th

[0:03:43] Voice 12: on page five of the agenda package. Are there any additions or changes to these minutes? Not seeing

[0:03:52] Voice 12: any. Can we approve those through general consent? Excellent. We move right into the follow-up action

[0:03:58] Voice 12: list which is on page nine of the agenda package and i'll turn this over to ceo brony to lead us

[0:04:04] Voice 12: through this follow-up action list thank

[0:04:09] Voice 7: you chair um i don't think there's any subs well i only have

[0:04:12] Voice 7: one item um on the list under under my name um and no significant updates um for me to share

[0:04:19] Voice 7: obviously we were focused on ubcm and trust council over the last couple of weeks i will note

[0:04:24] Voice 7: in the absence of director marler on the legislative services and information side

[0:04:29] Voice 7: side. I had a call on, I think it was Friday with our facilitator for, so I'm looking at item number

[0:04:39] Voice 7: three here under legislative and information services, had a call with the facilitator for

[0:04:45] Voice 7: the chair training sessions. And so that work is now scheduled and I walked through the approach

[0:04:53] Voice 7: that she was going to offer for that. And so I think we're in good stead for those upcoming

[0:04:58] Voice 7: coming sessions later this month and unless there are any questions about any of the other items um

[0:05:05] Voice 7: i don't think we have anything under financial and

[0:05:10] Voice 12: and feister peterson go ahead um

[0:05:16] Voice 11: i recall there was a call out from the facilitator for um specific

[0:05:23] Voice 11: specific questions and i am gapping on the name so i can't

[0:05:27] Voice 7: find

[0:05:28] Voice 11: it is the deadline passed for um

[0:05:33] Voice 11: submitting

[0:05:33] Voice 7: no she had sent out a survey and i believe when i spoke to her on friday she was

[0:05:38] Voice 7: going to send a follow-up email as well um but the the facilitator is allison habkirk

[0:05:46] Voice 7: and i'll find the i'll check in with her but she was going to send a follow-up but i can also flag

[0:05:51] Voice 7: for you the um the original email to you i'll send that to you there's still a window to to

[0:05:56] Voice 7: respond to that she's looking for for more responses as well

[0:06:02] Voice 12: i'll go ahead trust by sir

[0:06:04] Voice 12: peterson yeah

[0:06:06] Voice 2: just a general comment you'll have heard it before but um when we see dates in the

[0:06:13] Voice 2: targets that have been passed um i just think it's it's especially because we're not the only

[0:06:19] Voice 2: no one's looking at these it's just good to uh update with new targets yeah noted thank you

[0:06:26] Voice 2: appreciate that thank you all

[0:06:29] Voice 12: right carry on um

[0:06:33] Voice 7: i think that takes us then to director

[0:06:34] Voice 7: cermak and planning services good

[0:06:43] Voice 6: morning everybody um i actually have nothing new

[0:06:46] Voice 6: to update since our last meeting since we were at trust council and um based on the

[0:06:50] Voice 6: list before you i'm happy to take any questions looks

[0:06:57] Voice 12: like you're off the hook

[0:07:01] Voice 6: indeed

[0:07:05] Voice 7: keep going uh i think next on the list was financial employee services we just have the

[0:07:12] Voice 7: one item there um i don't believe there's anything to update but maybe i'll invite

[0:07:16] Voice 7: uh director freighter if there is an update there to speak to that

[0:07:21] Voice 7: um before she moves into the trust area services update i

[0:07:25] Voice 3: think you know we do share that task and

[0:07:27] Voice 3: know there is no update there it's um yeah there simply hasn't been capacity to work on it and then

[0:07:33] Voice 3: And I'd be happy to move into my section

[0:07:34] Voice 3: to say there really aren't any updates of note.

[0:07:37] Voice 3: We are looking forward to moving more into direct work

[0:07:42] Voice 3: on agreements with First Nations,

[0:07:43] Voice 3: particularly SAOT and with Saanich Leadership Council

[0:07:46] Voice 3: and re-initiating conversations with the Quitsin Nation.

[0:07:50] Voice 3: But I'd be happy to take questions

[0:07:51] Voice 3: on any of the items on the list.

[0:07:59] Voice 12: I was gonna say, I'm gonna have only one question

[0:08:01] Voice 12: and that was as I was driving home

[0:08:04] Voice 12: from the Truth and Reconciliation event here on Salt Spring yesterday.

[0:08:11] Voice 12: There was an interview going on the radio, and I'm sorry I didn't catch the names,

[0:08:16] Voice 12: but it came from, I think, First Nations up north saying,

[0:08:19] Voice 12: it's time to ask us, how are we doing with reconciliation?

[0:08:26] Voice 12: And it just sort of resonated with me.

[0:08:28] Voice 12: I think it's, I know we don't have the capacity,

[0:08:32] Voice 12: And I think that's something we seriously have to look at as we move into this next budget cycle here.

[0:08:38] Voice 12: It's time to get on with it.

[0:08:47] Voice 1: Okay, no further questions.

[0:08:49] Voice 7: If there's no more questions, then I think, I'm assuming, Director Frater, you would have spoken to any of the Senior Indigenous Relations Advisor items as well, since I don't believe Jo Elliott is with us this morning.

[0:09:00] Voice 3: That's right. I think I've just given highlights. We look forward to focusing in on those agreements.

[0:09:04] Voice 3: In terms of, I'll just give a quick director's report that within the next few weeks, we hope to welcome Jill Merrick as our senior policy advisor.

[0:09:12] Voice 3: And we're hoping to also bring on a researcher to help us with some of the strategic plan initiatives around indicator and trend reporting.

[0:09:20] Voice 3: Thank you.

[0:09:22] Voice 12: All right, then.

[0:09:26] Voice 12: We're going to keep moving through this.

[0:09:28] Voice 12: Then we are at the local trust committee chair updates and reports and local advocacy topics.

[0:09:34] Voice 12: And I'm going to start with our guest, Vice Chair Peterson.

[0:09:41] Voice 2: Well, good morning.

[0:09:43] Voice 2: I have had no LTC meetings since we last met.

[0:09:48] Voice 2: So I have nothing to report there.

[0:09:52] Voice 2: I would just note that I spent most of yesterday doing a lot of reading on reconciliation and truth reconciliation topics.

[0:10:03] Voice 2: topics. I thought it was a good way to spend my day and just really appreciated the opportunities

[0:10:12] Voice 2: I had for learning. And I don't think there's anything in the advocacy front that I need

[0:10:19] Voice 2: to raise today either. Thank

[0:10:21] Voice 12: you. All right, Vice Chair Maude.

[0:10:24] Trustee Maude: Same thing. I haven't had any LTC meetings. I'm just starting to get into the busy season.

[0:10:31] Trustee Maude: We have North Canada on Friday, and no advocacy stuff.

[0:10:35] Trustee Maude: So thank you.

[0:10:36] Voice 12: All right.

[0:10:37] Voice 12: Vice Chair Elliott.

[0:10:43] Voice 11: I could have had one meeting, which I was very grateful.

[0:10:48] Voice 11: Chair Patrick subbed in for me for Maine's local trust committee meeting on Monday.

[0:10:53] Voice 11: So I will let you fill everyone in on that.

[0:10:57] Voice 11: I did observe the meeting and listened in.

[0:11:00] Voice 11: So I was grateful to be able to stay at home as I have COVID and not spread it to everybody else.

[0:11:10] Voice 11: Advocacy topics.

[0:11:11] Voice 11: Yes, so Liskiti is coming up next week.

[0:11:15] Voice 11: The agenda is published and I guess significant items are the business case for the official community plan and LUB review and the crown lease referral.

[0:11:31] Voice 11: uh for one spot on the skidi island related to this um outdoor leadership school um that's

[0:11:40] Voice 11: proposing to have 77 spots or so one of which is on the skidi island there's been a lot of

[0:11:48] Voice 11: community correspondence and concern over that and thank you to vice chair peterson for requesting

[0:11:54] Voice 11: that the crown lease referral would be put on the agenda and asking for an extension so the

[0:12:00] Voice 11: The LTC will be able to consider all the correspondence and everybody's input, as well as our, you know, all the other contextual pieces we need to consider and give a response in the meeting.

[0:12:14] Voice 11: So I think just for planning services, I don't know how we can communicate this better to the public that lease referrals do not typically come to the agenda.

[0:12:33] Voice 11: And so unless it's raised by a member of the LTC and requested, then it's added. We've had this conversation before. But it is confusing for the public that their correspondence on a subject like this is not included in an LTC agenda.

[0:12:51] Voice 11: agenda. And so there are reasons for that. It's not an active application. It's just the LTC

[0:12:59] Voice 11: giving a response. But I think we need to have some better communication about what is included

[0:13:07] Voice 11: in our agendas and not. So I don't know if that could be addressed at any point, but thanks.

[0:13:16] Voice 12: Thank you very much. Well, I will report I did get the opportunity to chair Maine Island.

[0:13:23] Voice 12: I wish it wasn't because you were ill, but I did enjoy my day traveling there and back on Monday.

[0:13:30] Voice 12: They had a community information meeting on the policy statement, something for staff to pay attention to.

[0:13:40] Voice 12: The local trustees had not selected a presentation on the policy statement, but it's very difficult to open a community information meeting discussion without some form of a presentation.

[0:13:52] Voice 12: So, I think policy advisor Yeomans did a wonderful job trying to provide the right highlights in a verbal presentation, but I think at the other islands that may have chosen that option that we might want to rethink that and be able to have a display of a presentation of some form or another projector or something to allow them to walk through a PowerPoint of some sorts.

[0:14:18] Voice 12: sorts because it is a complex topic. But the audience that was there was primarily not there

[0:14:26] Voice 12: for the policy statement. They were there for another application that was on the agenda.

[0:14:30] Voice 12: There was some conversation. Primarily, there was concern that the new policy statement being

[0:14:39] Voice 12: very different from the old one, there was like, well, wow, there was this big shift that we're

[0:14:43] Voice 12: shifting and it's going to be a huge expense to catch up with this. And we tried to explain that

[0:14:49] Voice 12: while it is a 30-year-old document, the organization has actually evolved in the past 30 years

[0:14:54] Voice 12: and that the policy was actually defined where we are operating today. So I think that

[0:15:00] Voice 12: explanation seemed to resonate with the people that were there. And the local trustees proceeded

[0:15:07] Voice 12: to address the referral and chose impacts not affected.

[0:15:11] Voice 12: So we have one referral response in from at least

[0:15:15] Voice 12: Main Island Local Trust Committee.

[0:15:17] Voice 12: Then we did have a public hearing on a rezoning

[0:15:19] Voice 12: for a CRD regional park.

[0:15:21] Voice 12: It was a fairly minor rezoning addressing agricultural

[0:15:25] Voice 12: land reserve and having a little tiny carve-out

[0:15:27] Voice 12: for some parking kiosk and sorts.

[0:15:33] Voice 12: That was relatively quick.

[0:15:37] Voice 12: public hearing and they gave final readings to that those bylaws for that park

[0:15:46] Voice 12: the the application of greatest concern was a temporary use permit for

[0:15:54] Voice 12: float storage in bay wharton bay on main island quite a lot of concern about just the overall

[0:16:03] Voice 12: It's apparently an activity that's occurred for many years, but it's been growing in number, and there's also a community dock in close proximity now.

[0:16:13] Voice 12: So they delayed the temporary use permit and asked for some more information to be addressed before they considered the temporary use permit.

[0:16:24] Voice 12: They also gave our first, our directed staff to move toward writing bylaws for rezoning for BC ferries that need to do some more seawall, not seawall, but riprap protection of the ferry terminal there on Main Island.

[0:16:40] Voice 12: And they gave first reading to their housing project, Vice Chair Elliott, so they were quite happy to see that.

[0:16:49] Voice 12: And so that process is now underway.

[0:16:52] Voice 12: way. They also received the first copy of what was, it was called a build-out map, but there

[0:16:59] Voice 12: was good discussion on it. It was really a subdivision potential map because the trustees

[0:17:06] Voice 12: identified many properties where it was either strata and the build-out already existed. It's

[0:17:10] Voice 12: just that it hadn't been subdivided. So it's just making sure there's real clarity when we're

[0:17:15] Voice 12: looking at the maps. What do they mean? What do they, and so I think as we move into public

[0:17:22] Voice 12: distribution of these maps. It's going to be very, very important to have clear common language

[0:17:28] Voice 12: notes on these maps as to what they depict. And that was my meeting in Maine. Okay. Oh,

[0:17:40] Voice 12: it was a beautiful, beautiful rainbow on the way back. That absolutely encapsulated

[0:17:45] Voice 12: Thunder Island. It was a stunning, brilliant rainbow. So just a cap to the end of the day.

[0:17:51] Voice 12: All right. I'm going to turn back to Trustee Elliott on the Trust Conservancy update.

[0:18:01] Voice 11: Thank you. We have a meeting. Is it October 3rd already? Do we have a meeting October 3rd?

[0:18:10] Voice 11: Yes, you do.

[0:18:11] Voice 11: Oh, we do. Okay. I was just catching up on the email. So the agenda package is not out yet.

[0:18:19] Voice 11: it's a pretty hefty agenda so we do know the main items are budget requests for business with

[0:18:27] Voice 11: business cases the policy statement referral request and the ruby alton nature reserve

[0:18:34] Voice 11: updated management plan ruby alton house and so there's there's a lot to cover and i know

[0:18:41] Voice 11: staff are working on that so i think it's um they're anticipating it will be out end of day

[0:18:47] Voice 11: today.

[0:18:51] Voice 12: Great. Okay, we're going to move on to bylaws for consideration. At 7.1, we have the

[0:18:56] Voice 12: Galliano Island Local Trust Committee Proposed Bylaw No. 298, Repeal of Meeting Procedure Bylaw

[0:19:02] Voice 12: on page 18 of the agenda package. Is there anyone from staff that wishes to speak to this? Otherwise,

[0:19:08] Voice 12: I'll turn to the Chair of the Galliano LTC.

[0:19:12] Voice 6: Oh, there we are, Director Cermak. Thank you, Chair.

[0:19:15] Voice 6: I'm just going to step in to say you've seen a bunch of these, you know what this is, so I

[0:19:19] Voice 6: I recommend that you proceed.

[0:19:21] Voice 12: All right, over to you, Vice Chair Peterson.

[0:19:28] Voice 12: Oh, did we lose Vice Chair Peterson?

[0:19:34] Voice 12: No?

[0:19:35] Voice 12: Chair,

[0:19:36] Voice 8: we did lose Vice Chair Peterson.

[0:19:38] Voice 8: Oh, and now he's back.

[0:19:40] Voice 12: All right, well, he's, is he back up in,

[0:19:44] Voice 12: Vice Chair Peterson, can you hear us?

[0:19:47] Voice 12: If not, I'll look to one of the other Vice Chairs

[0:19:49] Voice 12: to at least proceed with the resolution.

[0:19:52] Trustee Maude: I'm happy to move

[0:19:54] Trustee Maude: that the Islands Trust Executive Committee

[0:19:55] Trustee Maude: approve Galliano Local Trust Committee

[0:19:57] Trustee Maude: Committee bylaw number 298,

[0:19:59] Trustee Maude: that is Galliano Local Trust Committee

[0:20:00] Trustee Maude: meeting procedures bylaw number 298, 2025

[0:20:03] Trustee Maude: in accordance with section 27 of the Islands Trust Act.

[0:20:07] Voice 12: Is there a second?

[0:20:08] Voice 12: Seconded by Vice Chair Elliott.

[0:20:09] Voice 12: Any discussion?

[0:20:10] Voice 12: Oh, there we are.

[0:20:11] Voice 12: Vice Chair Peterson.

[0:20:12] Voice 12: Oh, sorry, you didn't get the second in time.

[0:20:16] Voice 12: Is there any discussion?

[0:20:18] Voice 12: I'll call the vote.

[0:20:19] Voice 12: All those in favor, raise your hands.

[0:20:23] Voice 12: And that carries.

[0:20:27] Voice 12: Okay. We have a second bylaw here. It's from Galliano Island as well. Proposed bylaw number 299, public notification bylaw, request for decision on page 25. Director Cermak, is there anything you wish to raise?

[0:20:44] Voice 6: No, same as the last, Chair.

[0:20:46] Voice 12: All right. Over to you, Vice Chair Peterson.

[0:20:49] Voice 12: Peterson.

[0:20:51] Voice 2: I move that the Islands Trust Executive Committee approve Galliano Island Local Trust

[0:20:56] Voice 2: Committee Bylaw No. 299, cited as Galliano Island Local Trust Committee Public Notification Bylaw

[0:21:02] Voice 2: No. 299-2025 in accordance with Section 27 of the Islands Trust Act.

[0:21:08] Voice 12: Is there a second? Second

[0:21:11] Voice 12: by Vice Chair Elliott. Any discussion? I'll call the vote. All those in favor, raise your hands.

[0:21:17] Voice 12: and that carries okay

[0:21:21] Voice 2: uh here i just wanted to note because i'm this is unlikely to come up in

[0:21:26] Voice 2: other ltcs as well um the galliano ltc did discuss how um the desire for um local publications and

[0:21:38] Voice 2: other um methodology that isn't stipulated in the act but of course we are constrained by what the

[0:21:45] Voice 2: the act says um and of course i i don't think besides the driftwood i don't think there's

[0:21:50] Voice 2: many other local publications that are published bi-weekly um uh so that is a conversation that i

[0:21:57] Voice 2: expect to hear again in other ltcs uh one consideration is perhaps a standing resolution

[0:22:04] Voice 2: for the ltc um to augment uh the bylaw anyway i just wanted to share that with you all

[0:22:13] Voice 12: I think it's important for all the local trust committees to be looking at the best ways to communicate all the time because it is a moving target as things change.

[0:22:24] Voice 12: Okay, so we're going to move on to item 8.1, which is a roundtable review of the Trust Council meeting we had, it seems like a year ago, but that was back on September 16th to 18th.

[0:22:37] Voice 12: So we'll start with, I guess, the trustees.

[0:22:39] Voice 12: We'll do a roundtable to share any concerns or thoughts that you had on the effectiveness of the meeting.

[0:22:45] Voice 12: And I'm going to start with, I guess, I'll start with Vice Chair Maude.

[0:22:49] Trustee Maude: Thank you, Chair.

[0:22:51] Trustee Maude: Certainly an excellent meeting.

[0:22:53] Trustee Maude: The contents and the presentations were just amazing.

[0:22:59] Trustee Maude: Of course, the elephant in the room was the connectivity issues.

[0:23:03] Trustee Maude: issues um it's i don't know why is that as we go down the road is things don't seem to be getting

[0:23:11] Trustee Maude: better um you would have thought with technology is every year we go to a facility it would be

[0:23:15] Trustee Maude: better and better and it seems to be getting worse and worse and i think that um and well i i guess

[0:23:21] Trustee Maude: i'm being silly by even suggesting it because i'm sure staff are right on it but um going forward

[0:23:27] Trustee Maude: we have to make sure that these venues have got superior connectivity um good enough isn't good

[0:23:33] Trustee Maude: enough obviously um i got a lot of feedback from the from the trustees who are attending remotely

[0:23:39] Trustee Maude: who um were somewhat disappointed that they they couldn't participate in some of the activities

[0:23:45] Trustee Maude: um i it's i don't know it's i think we're always going to see this when we go to the islands

[0:23:51] Trustee Maude: islands. We are rural in nature. Sometimes we do not have the connectivity that works with a hybrid

[0:24:02] Trustee Maude: style trust council. And I guess we'll be talking about stuff in the future, but I would suggest if

[0:24:10] Trustee Maude: we're going to go to any of our islands off of Vancouver Island, that those should not be

[0:24:16] Trustee Maude: hybrid they should be in-person only meetings because um the trustees who are attending online

[0:24:22] Trustee Maude: are not getting the full trustee trust council experience and thus we are not getting a full

[0:24:31] Trustee Maude: experience from the trustees and it's not aiding our process so just leave it at that thank you

[0:24:36] Trustee Maude: very much all

[0:24:38] Voice 12: right thank you vice chair elliott

[0:24:39] Voice 11: thank you um i did find out some information

[0:24:45] Voice 11: subsequently from the haven which i apologize i forgot to connect with staff and ask if um

[0:24:52] Voice 11: this was known that there was actually a hardwire connection for the internet at the haven like in

[0:24:59] Voice 11: the room and it may not have been communicated or i don't know if the main facilitator knew about

[0:25:06] Voice 11: about this. I know that their team there is very small. And so I don't know if more could

[0:25:17] Voice 11: have been available. So I'm really sorry that, you know, if I could have helped with any

[0:25:24] Voice 11: of that with the logistics. But maybe in our, you know, as Vice Chair Maud said, in our

[0:25:30] Voice 11: our survey of how adequate is the connectivity um maybe not assuming that we have to supply all the

[0:25:38] Voice 11: um the gaps but really drilling into what what is known and sometimes these places are um they're

[0:25:46] Voice 11: run by volunteers i don't know what the situation was but there was apparently um potentially a

[0:25:51] Voice 11: hardwired connections so that's really unfortunate um um the food was but you know that's that's what

[0:26:03] Voice 11: we can expect sometimes with catering it was as best as we could get um and so yeah in terms of

[0:26:10] Voice 11: the facilities that was a challenging one but it is nice to have everyone together um the field trip

[0:26:18] Voice 11: I didn't partake in, but I heard it was very popular and Trustee Yates was certainly always enthusiastic about the local initiatives there and happy to share those.

[0:26:36] Voice 11: I think we put together a pretty good agenda.

[0:26:38] Voice 11: I feel like the agendas are getting more manageable with each meeting. And I think it's a combination of, well, our experience, the amount of information that we're putting forward.

[0:26:56] Voice 11: And I think CAO, you have a lot to do with that sort of structuring things and staging them so that they can, we can address some big topic areas and, you know, medium sized ones and not be overwhelming.

[0:27:11] Voice 11: So, I feel happy with how it was structured. Chair, I think it was a good idea to insert the roundtable as we were able, although it kind of caught everybody off guard to say, oh, okay, we're going to do this now.

[0:27:31] Voice 11: But if we have some flexible pieces like that, that are for general discussion or conversation, I think that is helpful if we have a bit of time to slot them in.

[0:27:43] Voice 11: And yeah, I feel like now is the time we can work on presentation. I know the executive office has been thinking about how to better present the schedule and the information.

[0:27:58] Voice 11: I'm still hoping we can have an eScribe update with all those PDFs hyperlinked or the reports hyperlinked so everything's not one giant package and sort of modernizing the presentation would be really nice.

[0:28:16] Voice 11: But those are just niceties.

[0:28:18] Voice 11: I think the structure, content and the flow was fairly good.

[0:28:21] Voice 11: And I've heard nothing terrible from anyone else other than the connectivity.

[0:28:27] Voice 11: activity thank

[0:28:28] Voice 12: you very much uh vice chair peterson yeah

[0:28:33] Voice 2: i'll uh say things that have already

[0:28:36] Voice 2: been said but um uh the the haven meeting space there is is uh it's a really nice room to be in

[0:28:44] Voice 2: for those of us that were there in person uh obviously the connectivity um was problematic

[0:28:50] Voice 2: i did have a brief conversation with uh one of the techs and uh the subject my suggestion was

[0:28:57] Voice 2: if we could find out sort of what our bandwidth requirements are, that there might be technology

[0:29:07] Voice 2: that we could have with us, some kind of satellite-based technology that might help support

[0:29:16] Voice 2: meetings, especially for those trustees that are coming in remotely, and that might be a worthy

[0:29:22] Voice 2: the investment um so that's just a consideration down the road obviously um i didn't hear great

[0:29:28] Voice 2: things about the food uh typically the haven has had quite good food and and i heard a bit of

[0:29:36] Voice 2: disappointment that it wasn't quite up to the level that um we had grown accustomed to at that

[0:29:41] Voice 2: venue uh but so be it this is how it is the accommodations were good and i i'll absolutely

[0:29:49] Voice 2: I absolutely agree with Vice Chair Elliott. I thought that working through the way we work through the agenda seemed to work well.

[0:29:58] Voice 2: We didn't have

[0:30:00] Voice 2: uh that sort of pressure that we may not get to items it seemed like it went rather smoothly and

[0:30:06] Voice 2: didn't feel like we rushed anything or or were uh pressurized and and that was uh that was a nice

[0:30:14] Voice 2: change um definitely credit to chair patrick i think the flexibility around the trusty round

[0:30:20] Voice 2: table piece was also uh good and um yeah i'll just leave it there all

[0:30:29] Voice 12: right well thank you very

[0:30:30] Voice 12: very much. I'll just add my two cents there. I think I've been trying to get trustees. I think

[0:30:35] Voice 12: the trustees themselves showed up as prepared as they could be. I had warned them that the

[0:30:40] Voice 12: roundtable was going to be brought up, but I think the weekly newsletters are important to read and

[0:30:46] Voice 12: I hope, and I think trustees are reading them and coming prepared. I think also the roundtable

[0:30:50] Voice 12: discussions just seem to give everyone that chance to speak. It really makes a big difference

[0:30:54] Voice 12: instead of one or two dominating a debate. We've seen everybody gets to speak their mind.

[0:31:00] Voice 12: And if we all listen, we can get through to the end and realize maybe we're not that far apart.

[0:31:04] Voice 12: And I think that's what we saw.

[0:31:07] Voice 12: I think having this is the second meeting in a row where we've had really high caliber speakers that we've had at the meetings.

[0:31:15] Voice 12: And I think that's something that we want to continue to pursue.

[0:31:18] Voice 12: I know I saw Brody Guy at the UBCM last week, and he would be eager to be one of the speakers along with his co-chair for the Islands Coastal Economic Trust, I think would be an exciting set of speakers to have as well.

[0:31:33] Voice 12: So I have nothing else to add, and I'll turn over to CAO Brony to lead the staff roundtable.

[0:31:41] Voice 7: thank you chair yeah i think um generally the feedback we have heard through the

[0:31:45] Voice 7: post council survey lines up with what you have all shared as well i think you know obviously

[0:31:51] Voice 7: it's a beautiful setting um but there were some challenges particularly around the connectivity

[0:31:55] Voice 7: we've we've provided um a bit of feedback to the haven as we normally do with all our venues and

[0:32:01] Voice 7: and they've offered to have a bit of a debrief with staff as well i think you know on the one

[0:32:06] Voice 7: On one hand, to be fair, I think it's not necessarily the type of event that they typically host in that venue either.

[0:32:12] Voice 7: And so I think that that's part of the challenge.

[0:32:14] Voice 7: The availability of a hardwired connection was not something we were aware of.

[0:32:18] Voice 7: And I really want to commend the staff we had on hand who were very diligently on the Monday night trying anything and everything to try and boost the connectivity.

[0:32:31] Voice 7: I think one of the biggest challenges, we had some challenges for those participating online, but also the limited connectivity for those of us on site too was part of the challenge.

[0:32:41] Voice 7: It was how we tried to manage the issue, but I think that prevented more of a challenge.

[0:32:46] Voice 7: And I think to Trustee Peterson's point, I did have an initial conversation with staff about really getting specific on what our requirements are if we're going to do hybrid meetings for these venues, as opposed to just, do you have reliable, good Wi-Fi?

[0:33:03] Voice 7: Yes, sure we do.

[0:33:04] Voice 7: But the need for us and the bandwidth requirements for us to host these meetings is not your usual connectivity.

[0:33:10] Voice 7: activity. And so I think us being able to get a bit more crunchy on the technical requirements

[0:33:14] Voice 7: and confirm those will help. I don't know if other staff have any further comments on a debrief.

[0:33:23] Voice 7: I'll just also note that planning for December, the agenda for December is already very full.

[0:33:30] Voice 7: And so we'll be limited on what we can bring to that meeting in addition to what we already have

[0:33:36] Voice 7: have planned all

[0:33:41] Voice 12: right any other that summary from staff that's just a total you've already

[0:33:45] Voice 12: debriefed and shared what they had so thank you okay so that's moves us on to the uh highlights

[0:33:53] Voice 12: which is item 8.2.1 which is the september trust council highlights on page 32 of the agenda

[0:34:00] Voice 12: end of package. Any comments or corrections on the highlights? Vice Chair Elliott?

[0:34:13] Voice 11: Yes. So the name of Elder Satassia, that is her given name that should probably precede

[0:34:22] Voice 11: Geraldine Manson. We can look up the spelling on that. And I was looking at the

[0:34:32] Voice 11: description of Doug White's talk. And I sent some suggestions to Claire, I don't know if there

[0:34:41] Voice 11: could be a way to amplify on it without adding too much to the word count.

[0:34:50] Voice 11: I found it a bit, I found it a bit brief, like, of course, he was talking about reconciliation and

[0:34:58] Voice 11: building, you know, partnerships and long term relationships, and that's all good.

[0:35:05] Voice 11: I had a bit of a pause with local Indigenous nations.

[0:35:11] Voice 11: Anyway, so I sent a suggestion round, and maybe I could send it round to everybody else, and could we come back to this item?

[0:35:19] Voice 11: Claire had just,

[0:35:22] Voice 1: Claire

[0:35:27] Voice 11: and Joe came back with some suggestions there, so I don't know.

[0:35:35] Voice 11: So the wording I had suggested was Special Council of the Premier, Indigenous Reconciliation, Douglas S. White.

[0:35:49] Voice 11: a trust trust council with an overview of reconciliation douglas treaties and significant

[0:35:55] Voice 11: court decisions mr white shared actionable steps islands trust can take to deepen partnerships

[0:36:01] Voice 11: with first nations in the trust area he urged islands trust to build meaningful long-term

[0:36:07] Voice 11: relationships with nations and develop shared objectives and a vision for achieving the mandate

[0:36:13] Voice 11: date of the island's trust together so that just kind of builds more on here sort of the content

[0:36:22] Voice 11: of his talk there's a bit of an overview he did cover some significant court decisions which i

[0:36:28] Voice 11: think um coming from his experience was really valuable and then those actionable steps to deepen

[0:36:36] Voice 11: our partnerships and then that forward looking how can we build like as we're building these

[0:36:42] Voice 11: long-term relationships the goal would be developing a shared vision and objectives

[0:36:47] Voice 11: for achieving the mandate of the islands trust so it's just a little bit richer it adds 30 words

[0:36:54] Voice 11: but um thanks right

[0:36:59] Voice 12: not sure um if we can get that wording up as well i my only comment i had

[0:37:06] Voice 12: was on the operational review like the bylaw compliance that it says that coming back in

[0:37:12] Voice 12: December with some more. And I think that the operational review, leaving it with just

[0:37:16] Voice 12: operational challenges, period, I think the coming back language would be important. I don't know how

[0:37:27] Voice 12: others feel. But now if we're adding word count, I know we're trying to keep this on one page. So

[0:37:31] Voice 12: we're going to get challenged here.

[0:37:37] Voice 7: Just on that point, Chair, if I may, we can add a line to that

[0:37:40] Voice 7: one that just says um the cao plans to deliver a full report to trust council in advance of the

[0:37:48] Voice 7: december meeting yeah

[0:37:50] Voice 12: something like that i think would just wrap that than leaving it by charlotte

[0:37:58] Voice 12: how did you want to proceed do did wording get shared or do you want to come back to this item

[0:38:03] Voice 12: before the end of the agenda maybe

[0:38:05] Voice 10: um does director fritter have any feedback um i've sent

[0:38:11] Voice 3: sent your revised wording through to Alexandra if you'd like. I just don't know where she's at

[0:38:15] Voice 3: in terms of looking at it now, or we could certainly postpone this item and come back to it

[0:38:19] Voice 3: later.

[0:38:21] Voice 9: If I may, Tara, I have the wording, which I can show on the screen. Thanks.

[0:38:38] Voice 8: Is that big

[0:38:39] Voice 8: enough?

[0:38:42] Voice 12: Do we want to have this level of detail in this highlight? That's the only question. Can

[0:38:48] Voice 12: Can this be shortened more, or is it vital to have this level of detail?

[0:39:01] Voice 10: I'll

[0:39:01] Voice 11: leave it to others.

[0:39:03] Voice 11: Yeah, this was my input.

[0:39:05] Voice 12: Vice Chair Peterson?

[0:39:08] Voice 2: Well, I like it, but in the interest of brevity, I wonder if it would work just as well if we just removed the last sentence.

[0:39:21] Voice 2: and shared actionable steps

[0:39:24] Voice 2: Islands Trust can take to deepen partnerships

[0:39:26] Voice 2: with First Nations in the trust area

[0:39:27] Voice 2: and leave it there, then we're not running on as long

[0:39:30] Voice 2: but I think it is a bit better

[0:39:32] Voice 2: than what we have

[0:39:34] Voice 2: that's my two cents

[0:39:37] Voice 12: Mr. Maude, any thoughts?

[0:39:40] Trustee Maude: I would support that

[0:39:43] Trustee Maude: if we're limited for space

[0:39:46] Trustee Maude: if we're going over

[0:39:47] Trustee Maude: to page number two

[0:39:48] Trustee Maude: and we do have to remove something

[0:39:51] Trustee Maude: I would support removing that, but if there's room for it, it kind of does bookend the whole statement.

[0:40:00] Trustee Maude: So, I'm open either way, but I think that we need to definitely keep it to a one-pager.

[0:40:06] Voice 11: My advice to Elliot?

[0:40:07] Voice 11: Brilliant. So I think it can be shortened if we make a long sentence out of after trust area and take everything out until and develop a vision for achieving the mandate of the trust islands trust together.

[0:40:34] Voice 11: So we could take out. Yeah. So we could remove that and develop and we could take out shared objectives.

[0:40:41] Voice 11: perspectives uh-huh a vision because that was kind of what it was like it's like yes develop

[0:40:47] Voice 11: those deep partnerships well we're already working on that deepen the partnerships and

[0:40:53] Voice 11: develop a vision for how we can achieve the mandate together i think that could work what

[0:41:00] Voice 11: do you think well

[0:41:04] Voice 12: i guess i'll just look to staff for i mean we have more material than a page we

[0:41:10] Voice 12: more material in a page we are primarily communicating digitally now are we not

[0:41:19] Voice 12: i think we

[0:41:20] Voice 3: can work with that all right

[0:41:22] Voice 3: if you're comfortable with the wording

[0:41:23] Voice 3: then

[0:41:24] Voice 12: we probably need a resolution do we we don't need to make this specific wording a resolution

[0:41:31] Voice 12: can we just say to um modify the operational review and the address by doug white as discussed

[0:41:40] Voice 12: or you

[0:41:41] Voice 3: could typically chair you could just say you approve as amended okay

[0:41:44] Voice 12: excellent then i'd

[0:41:48] Voice 12: look to uh trustees for a resolution to approve the islands trust council highlights for september

[0:41:54] Voice 12: 16th through 18th 2025 as amended there go for it vice chair peterson i

[0:42:01] Voice 2: move that executive

[0:42:02] Voice 2: committee approve the september 2025 trust council highlights as amended is

[0:42:09] Voice 12: there a second

[0:42:10] Voice 12: Seconded by Trustee Meister-Mod.

[0:42:12] Voice 12: Is there any discussion?

[0:42:15] Voice 12: Call the vote.

[0:42:16] Voice 12: All those in favor, raise your hands.

[0:42:19] Voice 12: And that carries.

[0:42:21] Voice 12: Okay.

[0:42:24] Voice 12: Moving up, we have the Trust Council follow-up action list,

[0:42:29] Voice 12: item 8.2.2 on page 33 of the agenda package.

[0:42:34] Voice 12: And that's just generally here for our review.

[0:42:36] Voice 12: Or if there's anything, any action needed?

[0:42:44] Voice 7: If I may, Chair, I'll just note that, of course,

[0:42:46] Voice 7: We've updated to incorporate all the resolutions and directions that came out of the last Trust Council, and so you will see the decisions you made there reflected now in the list.

[0:42:58] Voice 7: Most of those are the ones with the 0% progress, given that we've only had two weeks, but we will start bringing those into our action plans over the next little while and provide a further update at December Trust Council.

[0:43:15] Voice 12: I agree. Vice Chair Peterson.

[0:43:19] Voice 2: So here I am again going on about the incongruity, but we still have, and I realize this, item number one is a resolution of Trust Council that's projected to be completed for December.

[0:43:35] Voice 2: But we have two ministers ago on there.

[0:43:39] Voice 2: So again, it looks odd when we read it.

[0:43:41] Voice 2: But I recognize that, of course, it's Trust Council's motion, and to amend it, we would need Trust Council's sanction.

[0:43:49] Voice 2: And so if it's still on the list in December, I will flag that for myself to bring up to Trust Council.

[0:43:56] Voice 7: Yeah, if I may, Chair, I think that is on my list as well as one to raise for December Trust Council and whether or not it needs to be updated.

[0:44:04] Voice 7: I'll note that, you know, we haven't taken any further action on this at this time, either pending the most recent response from Minister Callan, as we haven't received direction from Trust Council, and whether any further action is needed or desired on the request for the review and a budget request.

[0:44:26] Voice 7: I think given what we have heard a budget request is unlikely to be successful in the current

[0:44:34] Voice 7: province's current fiscal situation so yeah that is on my list for one that we'll want to revisit

[0:44:39] Voice 7: at the December meeting thank

[0:44:42] Voice 12: you very much there's no further action on this can we just

[0:44:46] Voice 12: receive through general consent so we're going to keep on progressing here we're into section 10

[0:44:55] Voice 12: executive committee projects item 10.1.1.1 executive committee 2026-27 budget request

[0:45:03] Voice 12: amendment request for decision on page 41 who's

[0:45:09] Voice 7: going to deliver this one i can speak to that one

[0:45:12] Voice 7: chair so this is uh an update to the amount that we brought to you at your last meeting when you

[0:45:18] Voice 7: approved a number of budget items and at that point we had we had forecast that the uh funding

[0:45:25] Voice 7: Trending for executive committee travel to chair local trust committees was trending significantly higher this year.

[0:45:33] Voice 7: And so we had recommended at that time that the budget request for next fiscal be bumped up to $40,000 from the $30,600 that it is in the current fiscal.

[0:45:44] Voice 7: However, we subsequently discovered that the forecast that we had based that on for the current fiscal year was actually inaccurate and actually we're trending much lower and more consistent with how we have in previous years.

[0:45:58] Voice 7: So based on that, this is a recommendation just to revise that 40,000 figure that you approved at your previous meeting down to 31,000, which is generally consistent with the last few years.

[0:46:12] Voice 7: Obviously, there's, as we discussed the last time, there's some variability there depending on who the members of executive committee are and which LTCs they chair.

[0:46:21] Voice 7: But staff are fairly confident that we should be able to manage within that $31,000 for next year.

[0:46:28] Voice 7: So this is a request then to amend what you previously approved and reduce it down to $31,000 and the amount that will go forward to FBC.

[0:46:38] Voice 7: see thank

[0:46:41] Voice 12: you vice chairs any comments or entertain the motion on page 41 i'll move the

[0:46:47] Trustee Maude: executive committee amend the 2026-27 budget request to for executive committee on local

[0:46:53] Trustee Maude: trust committee cost to thirty one thousand dollars second

[0:46:56] Voice 12: second by vice chair elliott

[0:47:00] Voice 12: any discussion vice chair peterson yeah

[0:47:07] Voice 2: uh just in terms of variability um certainly one of the

[0:47:12] Voice 2: the things that uh that has did happen this term that i was involved with was a number of um

[0:47:20] Voice 2: evening meetings uh uh specifically on salt spring um that we did in the in the sort of

[0:47:27] Voice 2: first and second year of the term and i know that that uh affects uh costs um and however i think

[0:47:37] Voice 2: that that was actually really valuable um really valuable work um i think it was really important

[0:47:45] Voice 2: for for salt spring uh to have evening meetings that respected what we were hearing from uh

[0:47:51] Voice 2: working people and so i think that um just in terms of the value uh when it does vary sometimes

[0:47:59] Voice 2: it's for very good reasons that are are really um important to the community uh so i just wanted to

[0:48:05] Voice 2: raise that i know that that that did was it added to the cost of the of certainly for my travel for

[0:48:12] Voice 2: for salt spring but i think those are really appreciated so i just wanted to mention that

[0:48:17] Voice 12: thank you any other discussion all about then all those in favor raise your hands

[0:48:27] Voice 12: that carries okay so the next item here item 10.1.1.2 executive committee 2026 27 budget

[0:48:37] Voice 12: Budget requests, request for decision on page 43.

[0:48:40] Voice 12: That's you again, CEO Bruni.

[0:48:42] Voice 7: Yeah, I'll provide some introductory comments

[0:48:44] Voice 7: and then I'll invite Director Frater and Director Cermak

[0:48:47] Voice 7: who carry in the business cases on these.

[0:48:50] Voice 7: And I see that Director Bob's has also joined us

[0:48:52] Voice 7: for broader questions on the overall budget picture.

[0:48:56] Voice 7: So what you have here are three new requests

[0:49:01] Voice 7: coming forward to go to FPC.

[0:49:03] Voice 7: One is for continuation of an auxiliary senior policy advisor position in Trust Area Services.

[0:49:12] Voice 7: The other is the amount for the policy statement amendment project for next fiscal to support advancement and implementation of that.

[0:49:20] Voice 7: And then the third is a request for a permanent biologist within planning services, which I believe is a continuation of the position, the biologist position that we have now on a temporary basis.

[0:49:31] Voice 7: I'll also note that there are a few additional business cases in the works because Director

[0:49:37] Voice 7: Mardler has been away, wasn't able to finalize those in advance of this meeting and those

[0:49:41] Voice 7: are listed there in the CAO comments section.

[0:49:44] Voice 7: Those will be coming forward, we expect those will go forward to FPC as draft for its next

[0:49:51] Voice 7: meeting just for consideration as part of the broader potential budget deliberations,

[0:49:57] Voice 7: But those will come back to you for formal review at your next meeting, October the 29th, as well.

[0:50:05] Voice 7: And I'll invite maybe Director Frater, if you have any initial comments on your two pieces, and then Director Cermak on the biologists.

[0:50:14] Voice 7: Otherwise, we're happy to answer questions.

[0:50:15] Voice 7: questions.

[0:50:18] Voice 3: Simply comments that the senior policy advisor will provide extremely needed capacity

[0:50:23] Voice 3: within trust area services to deliver on the myriad of activities that are assigned to this

[0:50:28] Voice 3: unit by trust council and with regard to the policy statement one we have asked for you'll

[0:50:34] Voice 3: see on page 29 we are 69 we have broken that 37,000 down that's requested as 7,000 for the

[0:50:42] Voice 3: communication strategy 10 000 for legal services and then we've put in there 20 000 for capacity

[0:50:48] Voice 3: funding for indigenous governing bodies i mean we could have put in 10 times that amount we just

[0:50:54] Voice 3: don't know where we're going with the project so i think what we'll do this is our best proposal

[0:50:58] Voice 3: at this point as the project proceeds through to march um when you're looking at final budget

[0:51:03] Voice 3: adoption we may consider um revising that amount in some way or be able to provide some updated

[0:51:09] Voice 3: advice. But we have provided some alternatives there for you to consider as well. Thank you.

[0:51:17] Voice 12: All right, I guess we'll wrap up with Director Cermak, and then we will open the floor for

[0:51:21] Voice 12: questions from the vice chairs.

[0:51:24] Voice 6: Thank you, Chair. I put forward before, you know, EC and hopefully

[0:51:28] Voice 6: Trust Council, extending the planning or the biologists with planning services. You know,

[0:51:33] Voice 6: in the business case, I point out, you know, that the position is not just an enhancement,

[0:51:37] Voice 6: But its purpose is to actually fulfill the mandate of the trust and to implement the strategic plan.

[0:51:44] Voice 6: You know, there's a strategic alignment that I've gone into depth about.

[0:51:48] Voice 6: There's efficiency and risk management that I've outlined about how much time the current biologist is actually saving with island planners and reviews.

[0:51:57] Voice 6: reviews, you know, the fairness and credibility, finally being able to add that scientific-based

[0:52:03] Voice 6: support for review of, pardon me, for the numerous reports that we, you know, review

[0:52:10] Voice 6: and that sort of credibility about our planners being able to implement the mandate as it's

[0:52:16] Voice 6: written.

[0:52:16] Voice 6: And of course, the cost seems high, you know, we have a current grant asking for it, but

[0:52:23] Voice 6: If you look at the time savings and the efficiency,

[0:52:25] Voice 6: it's, you know, there's the benefits of the efficiency gains,

[0:52:29] Voice 6: risk avoidance, reputational protection,

[0:52:32] Voice 6: you know, sort of balance out the actual,

[0:52:35] Voice 6: you know, appearance of the sticker shock.

[0:52:37] Voice 6: So happy to answer any questions.

[0:52:39] Voice 6: And yeah, go from there.

[0:52:42] Voice 12: Theo, Bronnie.

[0:52:44] Voice 7: Thanks, Chair.

[0:52:45] Voice 7: I think just before we get into any deliberation too,

[0:52:47] Voice 7: I wanted to flag that if it seems a bit incongruous

[0:52:51] Voice 7: that we're bringing forward requests like this,

[0:52:53] Voice 7: While we have this operational review progressing as well, we're bringing forward these requests to ensure that we're fitting it within the normal preparations for the budget cycle in consideration.

[0:53:04] Voice 7: As we finalize any recommendations that come out of that operational review, we'll look at whether or not that impacts any of these requests that we can refine and adjust, but also looking at how these requests actually could support any recommendations out of that as well.

[0:53:20] Voice 7: So we will be reconciling those kind of two streams of work, if that makes sense, as we get into the December meeting and the formal consideration, too. Thank you.

[0:53:29] Voice 12: Thank you. Vice Chairs, let's focus our questions one at a time. So let's start with the item one there, the auxiliary senior policy advisor stop position. Are there any questions or comments on that? Vice Chair Peterson.

[0:53:43] Voice 2: um comment i fully support this um i frequently raise the uh length of the list uh uh trust area

[0:53:52] Voice 2: services at many meetings uh this is important work um and i think it's important to support

[0:54:00] Voice 2: this particular position in in respect of all of that work that that trustees want done ltcs

[0:54:07] Voice 2: season went done. We want the letters out in a timely fashion.

[0:54:11] Voice 2: We want all this other support.

[0:54:13] Voice 2: And this one is, I think, very easy to support from my

[0:54:19] Voice 2: end.

[0:54:21] Voice 11: Thank you, Vice Chair. Elliot? Much the

[0:54:27] Voice 11: same. I do support, you know, there's a

[0:54:30] Voice 11: definite need for this position. It's more

[0:54:34] Voice 11: how the report, the issue opportunity is presented

[0:54:38] Voice 11: It is a little confusing between explaining, you know, what is not being covered by the director because you're covering off all these other areas and the needs that, you know, what are the actual function the policy advisor would fill.

[0:54:58] Voice 11: fill. So I don't know if this is the right time to ask if it could be structured to be more clear

[0:55:13] Voice 11: so that there is a list of, like, I just, I had to read it three or four times and I'm still not

[0:55:23] Voice 11: clear. There's the regular duties and senior policy advisor that aren't resourced. You know,

[0:55:28] Voice 11: that is a list and then the director is covering all these other areas and if these could get

[0:55:38] Voice 11: covered by the policy advisor so it's just it's just the way it's presented i'm i'm finding

[0:55:44] Voice 11: a little bit difficult uh to um work through and i want this to be successful is is the point

[0:55:54] Voice 11: I would like this to be, you know, articulate to council that we are, this is not, it's not new information and executive committee has advocated for this before because we can totally see the gaps.

[0:56:09] Voice 11: So I just want to make sure that this is successful. So those are my comments on that.

[0:56:15] Voice 12: Well, Vice Chair Elliott, that is our role.

[0:56:17] Voice 12: If we're putting something forward, if it isn't clear, that is a point to be made.

[0:56:24] Voice 12: I guess I'll look to Director Frater.

[0:56:26] Voice 12: Is there any improvements that could be made to that section or without taking more of your time?

[0:56:31] Voice 3: Yes.

[0:56:31] Voice 3: Well, certainly we can take a look at giving it another read and trying to make it more clear what the duties and tasks would be assigned to that role.

[0:56:38] Voice 3: Certainly we can do that before it's forwarded.

[0:56:42] Voice 12: Vice Chair Peterson.

[0:56:45] Voice 2: Yeah, I just also wanted to comment that I appreciated the sort of job descriptions and how they fit into the organizational chart. That's the first time I've seen that done in this format. And I think it's actually really helpful. So I just wanted to give a big thumbs up on that.

[0:57:04] Voice 12: Before we move to the next item, do you need a resolution from us to amend this section?

[0:57:14] Voice 3: I think when you decide to forward them, certainly you could put as amended. And what I would commit to is I'll probably shorten what's provided there and provide less detail around the director's overload, to put it bluntly. And we'll just focus more in on what the tasks the position can undertake, because maybe that will reduce some confusion.

[0:57:35] Voice 3: Vice Chair Elliott.

[0:57:36] Voice 3: I

[0:57:37] Voice 11: have a suggestion. It's not, I don't think we should eliminate the overload pieces, but because there's two, there's issue and opportunity, right? So in the opportunity section, what would the policy advisor cover? You know, this is what we need. In the issue section, right? So it's like separating those out. So it's not kind of blended together. And lists, to me, are more helpful than long paragraphs.

[0:58:04] Voice 11: So it's maybe just formatting and how the information is presented. I wouldn't remove, you know, there's a, and maybe putting the risk of burnout is down in the risk assessment. I don't know. Or is that appropriate? Mitigate identified risks.

[0:58:20] Voice 3: That would be the risks of bringing in the position. So I think we'll leave it where it

[0:58:23] Voice 3: is, but I take your point. We'll use more bullets and I'll just try and present, I'll give it another read for clarity.

[0:58:28] Voice 3: Thanks. Yeah, that'd be great.

[0:58:30] Voice 3: And with respect, Chair, you were asking how you might direct that change.

[0:58:33] Voice 3: I think simply putting as amended, or you could ask that staff provide it to the chair

[0:58:37] Voice 3: for review before it's forwarded, something like that, if you wished.

[0:58:41] Voice 12: All right, thanks.

[0:58:42] Voice 12: We'll come back to remember that, Vice Chair Elliott, when we consider resolutions.

[0:58:46] Voice 12: So we're going to keep on our conversations.

[0:58:48] Voice 12: We're on to item point two, which is the policy statement amendment project.

[0:58:51] Voice 12: Any questions regarding that business case and Vice Chair Elliott?

[0:59:00] Voice 12: Well,

[0:59:01] Voice 11: I would ask, is this what is needed or is this what, you know, in the case of a difficult budget year where we're going to make challenging decisions, this is the absolute bare minimum.

[0:59:12] Voice 11: You know, if the project is to be successful and well-communicated and well-supported, you know, yes, we could add hundreds of thousands of dollars, but are you comfortable and confident in this number to deliver or is this sort of, you know, erring on the low end because of our context right now?

[0:59:36] Voice 3: Good question. I think we can deliver on this.

[0:59:38] Voice 3: I think the big outstanding question for many of the projects you're going to be seeing in this budget is capacity funding.

[0:59:44] Voice 3: And we have yet to bring forward a policy of council to guide that decision making, which we're going to be working on in the coming months.

[0:59:50] Voice 3: So at this point, we're advancing some monies in the budget.

[0:59:55] Voice 3: As I said in my opening comments, it could be much higher to enable nations to work with us.

[1:00:00] Voice 3: over the next while but I think we're providing a modest amount here to hold in terms of the legal

[1:00:05] Voice 3: again you will be able to tell us how much legal advice you think council's going to want to be

[1:00:11] Voice 3: asking for essentially this you know allocates funding for approximately two legal opinions

[1:00:16] Voice 3: and then with regard to communications I think it's fine I think that will provide

[1:00:21] Voice 3: what is required but capacity funding is our big outstanding question throughout all of the

[1:00:28] Voice 3: the projects that are becoming forward in this budget. And I would like to have the time to work

[1:00:33] Voice 3: on an overarching strategy around how Trust Council budgets for capacity funding.

[1:00:37] Voice 3: All

[1:00:41] Voice 12: right. Any other questions on the Policy Statement Amendment Project?

[1:00:48] Voice 12: Let's turn our attention to item three here, which is the Permanent Biologist

[1:00:52] Voice 12: with the Planning Services. Questions or comments? Vice Chair Maud.

[1:01:02] Trustee Maude: Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I just, I have concern about this. This sort of falls in the category

[1:01:09] Trustee Maude: with me of things that we would like to have

[1:01:11] Trustee Maude: over things

[1:01:13] Trustee Maude: that we must have.

[1:01:14] Trustee Maude: We've survived as an organization

[1:01:16] Trustee Maude: over 50 years without a biologist

[1:01:19] Trustee Maude: and I think have done a stunning job.

[1:01:23] Trustee Maude: We have lots of needs.

[1:01:25] Trustee Maude: If this was a request for another planner

[1:01:28] Trustee Maude: or

[1:01:30] Trustee Maude: for staff to provide more

[1:01:32] Trustee Maude: capacity for indigenous

[1:01:34] Trustee Maude: relations, I would have a different

[1:01:36] Trustee Maude: opinion.

[1:01:36] Trustee Maude: opinion. But this one really bothers me because I think this is something that is going above and

[1:01:45] Trustee Maude: beyond our statutory requirements. Normally, biologists sort of fall under the criteria of

[1:01:53] Trustee Maude: applicants covering those costs rather than the trust. And to me, it's too far. I think we need

[1:02:05] Trustee Maude: to work on sticking to our core um doing what we do as best as we possibly can and i recognize that

[1:02:14] Trustee Maude: this will assist that but you know as i say 50 years without one i think we've done just fine

[1:02:21] Trustee Maude: this is i i just i cannot support or endorsing this to ftc um if the defense is fbc that's fine

[1:02:29] Trustee Maude: but I don't want to be the one endorsing it. Thank you.

[1:02:34] Voice 12: Vice Chair Elliott.

[1:02:40] Voice 11: Okay. Well,

[1:02:42] Voice 11: I respectfully disagree that because we've made it 50 years without a

[1:02:47] Voice 11: biologist, that that's a justification for not hiring one.

[1:02:51] Voice 11: We are entering a critical stage of the public requiring and justifiably so

[1:02:59] Voice 11: So more information about why land use planning decisions are made, what is the basis, and we need science to back that up.

[1:03:09] Voice 11: We are also in increasing challenges with climate change, and we need to understand the indicators, which are biological health and biodiversity, and what are the impacts on the grounds.

[1:03:25] Voice 11: And that is a whole new era that we are entering that I don't think we can shirk our responsibility in doing.

[1:03:34] Voice 11: But I don't think this business case articulates it all that well.

[1:03:39] Voice 11: It also doesn't address what is the role of the biologist potentially with the conservancy.

[1:03:45] Voice 11: It's just got one line, science priorities, ecosystem mapping and conservation analysis.

[1:03:50] Voice 11: I think there's probably a lot more that the biologist is doing that we just don't see or understand.

[1:03:59] Voice 11: And the conservancy is a huge part of what the Islands Trust does.

[1:04:02] Voice 11: It is not just planning.

[1:04:04] Voice 11: We've always struggled.

[1:04:06] Voice 11: I have heard coming into this role and I heard for decades, for as long as I was aware of the Islands Trust,

[1:04:12] Voice 11: We need a biologist on staff to understand land use planning from that perspective. In-house expertise is needed. However, this is going to be difficult to fund. This is going to be a difficult year to ask for a full-time professional on staff, and it is a big budget item.

[1:04:37] Voice 11: I wonder why an alternative considered was not an option to continue the current grant-funded biologist for one year.

[1:04:53] Voice 11: So it's not a part-time, but it's not putting a full-time person in position.

[1:04:59] Voice 11: um i'm wondering why there isn't a little bit more on the how much we'd have to hire

[1:05:10] Voice 11: outside expertise if we don't have someone on staff for the indicators um project which is

[1:05:19] Voice 11: going to be huge and i so looking at this section on projected results and deliverables

[1:05:29] Voice 11: increased efficiency for planners like that's good i don't think 150 hours a year saved is

[1:05:37] Voice 11: you know if you stack that up against a full-time position it kind of doesn't

[1:05:41] Voice 11: you know the numbers don't aren't that stellar um and then but the part that really gave me

[1:05:48] Voice 11: concern was more equitable predictable costs for applicants less reliance on private consultants

[1:05:54] Voice 11: consultants and this comes back to the question we are always asking are we asking taxpayers

[1:06:02] Voice 11: across the trust area to bear the costs for applicants who want to do work on their land

[1:06:11] Voice 11: and there there are many different ways to answer that question i could definitely say that if

[1:06:20] Voice 11: a biologist was on staff to help guide say a green shores application that has

[1:06:26] Voice 11: has been coming forward on Thetis Island.

[1:06:30] Voice 11: I think a project like that,

[1:06:33] Voice 11: that has very strong,

[1:06:36] Voice 11: it's very strongly tied to island stress values.

[1:06:40] Voice 11: It's really good to have a biologist on staff that can say,

[1:06:43] Voice 11: here's the box.

[1:06:46] Voice 11: Here's what we need to do.

[1:06:47] Voice 11: Here's the flow through of information.

[1:06:48] Voice 11: Here's all the reports.

[1:06:52] Voice 11: But having a biologist on staff that we pay for,

[1:06:57] Voice 11: to so that a developer doesn't have to hire an environmental consultant doesn't seem right for

[1:07:06] Voice 11: me so I would like that fleshed out a little bit more director Cermak I know you love to do very

[1:07:12] Voice 11: short distinct business cases and I love all the bullets um so I think you've articulated

[1:07:22] Voice 11: it very well but i don't think it argues the case sufficiently and it will be very hard to

[1:07:32] Voice 11: argue if we don't have some strong evidence in this business case why this is absolutely critical

[1:07:40] Voice 11: to the function of the islands trust and the conservancy thank you vice chair peterson so i'm

[1:07:50] Voice 2: echo a bit of what i heard um uh i want to start off though by thanking uh cao bronick because i

[1:07:57] Voice 2: think that your comments off the top around the operational review that was one of the

[1:08:01] Voice 2: the questions that i had um uh so i i appreciate uh your comments there um

[1:08:11] Voice 2: yeah as this gets assuming this goes to financial planning and then

[1:08:16] Voice 2: And further assuming that it would go to trust counsel,

[1:08:20] Voice 2: I think the, I tend to agree,

[1:08:26] Voice 2: there needs to be a more convincing case

[1:08:30] Voice 2: of why this is a need to have and not a nice to have.

[1:08:35] Voice 2: Vice Chair Elliott's comments around the potential perception

[1:08:41] Voice 2: that that Trust Council might or taxpayers might again be supporting

[1:08:47] Voice 2: private development are certainly something to be wary of I guess another

[1:08:56] Voice 2: I you know public perception around a biologist that is an islands trust staff

[1:09:08] Voice 2: member um there that could be challenging to manage so that is a concern i have i'm not saying

[1:09:14] Voice 2: that that that there would be a bias or anything like that but there may be a perception of which

[1:09:20] Voice 2: is something that i think is a concern we're thinking of so i guess to not ramble on too much

[1:09:27] Voice 2: i would like i mean i i get i i get the rationale but i'm not sure that it's well enough laid out

[1:09:36] Voice 2: um in the business case in the report um for broader uh the trust council for example to

[1:09:47] Voice 2: to really get why this is a need to have and not a nice to have um and i as our job uh at

[1:09:57] Voice 2: executive committee i think part of part of what we need to do is like i do support the uh the the

[1:10:03] Voice 2: the concept of us having the biologists,

[1:10:05] Voice 2: but I also think that we need to highlight

[1:10:08] Voice 2: that I don't think the business case

[1:10:13] Voice 2: does a convincing enough job

[1:10:17] Voice 2: for this to go to trust council tomorrow,

[1:10:20] Voice 2: I don't think it would pass.

[1:10:22] Voice 2: So that's, I'll leave my comments there.

[1:10:24] Voice 2: Thank you.

[1:10:26] Voice 12: All right, thank you.

[1:10:27] Voice 12: Well, I have a couple of comments.

[1:10:31] Voice 12: We all know it's going to be a tough budget year.

[1:10:33] Voice 12: there's going to be some hard choices coming. And I look at this overall project or the strategic

[1:10:38] Voice 12: direction that we are wanting to work on the indicators and monitoring, and that's absolutely

[1:10:42] Voice 12: important. But we can't do that work in isolation. We're going to have to do that work closely with

[1:10:47] Voice 12: the many First Nations whose territory this is on. We should be monitoring things that are of

[1:10:52] Voice 12: interest to them as well. So we need to be able to have the capacity to have those conversations

[1:10:58] Voice 12: and be involved so that we don't get out ahead or just do our work and then assume they're going

[1:11:03] Voice 12: to like it we have to do that deep work as to what it is we're going to monitor how we're going to

[1:11:10] Voice 12: monitor it and and so it's a timing issue and it's where where should that funding be better spent

[1:11:17] Voice 12: right now and that's what i'm be looking forward to the overall operational review as to is the

[1:11:22] Voice 12: capacity work that we need to do a higher priority um i think vice chair elliott's suggestion of

[1:11:29] Voice 12: perhaps carrying on another year in a temporary way would be a possibility to bridge that work

[1:11:35] Voice 12: that you're not going backwards. The other piece for me too is I get the apparent efficiencies of

[1:11:44] Voice 12: having one position split over both helping applications and helping planning, but I'm

[1:11:51] Voice 12: really looking for kind of putting some ring fences around the resources we put toward

[1:11:56] Voice 12: applications versus the resources we put toward planning. And I think our investments are in what

[1:12:04] Voice 12: we're doing to support community planning for the future and moving forward. And our application

[1:12:11] Voice 12: investments should be thought of as cost recoverable. If we're doing something because

[1:12:16] Voice 12: it's helping us with an application, it's because we can recover the costs of that.

[1:12:20] Voice 12: that. So really having clarity and not blending is going to be important to me as I look at

[1:12:28] Voice 12: the budget. So I don't know, Vice Chairs, if there's any simple solution. I'll look

[1:12:34] Voice 12: to staff if they've heard anything in particular from what we just rambled on about for a few

[1:12:38] Voice 12: minutes. Is there any reflection as to what you've heard and solutions there?

[1:12:44] Voice 6: Thank you, Chair. You know, thanks for all the thoughtful feedback. Staff recognize that

[1:12:49] Voice 6: that this was a challenging request.

[1:12:52] Voice 6: You know, I wouldn't be doing my job

[1:12:54] Voice 6: if I didn't forward it

[1:12:55] Voice 6: to make ourselves as efficient as possible

[1:12:57] Voice 6: and the best organization possible.

[1:12:59] Voice 6: You know, it is a strategic investment

[1:13:03] Voice 6: more than anything else

[1:13:04] Voice 6: that pays for itself in terms of efficiency

[1:13:06] Voice 6: and meeting the strategic directions

[1:13:10] Voice 6: that we're working on.

[1:13:11] Voice 6: But I hear you, of course,

[1:13:13] Voice 6: you know, I understand the struggles

[1:13:15] Voice 6: where we are fiscally, provincially

[1:13:17] Voice 6: and in the organization.

[1:13:19] Voice 6: Um, in regards to when I started 15 years ago, I had access to the biologists on the

[1:13:26] Voice 6: conservancy whom I called regularly, um, about various aspects.

[1:13:30] Voice 6: Um, we enjoyed good conversation and affected my work.

[1:13:33] Voice 6: And I was able to put a, uh, they're able to help me as a planner deep dive that that's

[1:13:39] Voice 6: been shut down, um, that access to the biologist.

[1:13:42] Voice 6: And that's where we've struggled for years, um, for the last decade or so.

[1:13:47] Voice 6: especially as the conservancy has become busier and busier and busier and so that's where the

[1:13:53] Voice 6: grant application came from that's why we have a biologist on staff and that's where the business

[1:13:58] Voice 6: case comes from to extend the both the benefits of what we're seeing now and to extend them to

[1:14:04] Voice 6: the future to achieve the goals of the strategic plan so that's why it's before you i appreciate

[1:14:10] Voice 6: the discussion what i'm hearing overall is a lot of discussion about making this a little bit more

[1:14:14] Voice 6: more robust and also having another option in there of instead of just

[1:14:19] Voice 6: saying hire permanent, hire part-time or don't do it,

[1:14:23] Voice 6: but maybe a temporary extended for one more year.

[1:14:26] Voice 6: I can see that as another option.

[1:14:29] Voice 6: That was the key thing I got there.

[1:14:31] Voice 6: I don't see another option for grant funding.

[1:14:34] Voice 6: I did look at that before I presented a permanent position.

[1:14:37] Voice 6: I don't see that the grant is another option.

[1:14:39] Voice 6: So this has to come out of the budget.

[1:14:41] Voice 6: the budget. Yeah, and the public, the private consultant, sorry, the wording on there perhaps

[1:14:47] Voice 6: is poor. The wording on it, you know, this is not meant to say that the biologist is doing the work

[1:14:52] Voice 6: on behalf of applicants needing biology's work. What we've seen already, though, is that having

[1:14:59] Voice 6: a biologist on staff is having the biologist talk to the biologist and do that really nitty-gritty

[1:15:04] Voice 6: detailed dive into assessing the reports that we're getting. And what we've already found is

[1:15:10] Voice 6: is that the biologists report we're getting has a wide spectrum of quality and planners were sort

[1:15:17] Voice 6: of reading it as presented whereas now the biologist is saying no the standard isn't good

[1:15:23] Voice 6: enough and so we're changing where of course she's you know creating that sort of template about what

[1:15:29] Voice 6: some of those standards should be but then able to spend a much more effective amount of time going

[1:15:33] Voice 6: this is not good enough this is not good enough this is not good enough and so it's that conversation

[1:15:37] Voice 6: conversation that's happening. And we're seeing it pay in different ways throughout different

[1:15:42] Voice 6: applications. And we do have a duty to be effective and efficient with applicants. And we want to

[1:15:47] Voice 6: reduce their costs in terms of not, we're not paying for the application, but we want to make

[1:15:51] Voice 6: it more efficient and effective and dependable when we're working with those people. So yeah.

[1:15:57] Voice 6: So I can adjust this to put in a temporary solution. I can also adjust it to put in some

[1:16:03] Voice 6: some discussion about the, reduce the sort of perception of this private consultant. It was

[1:16:07] Voice 6: never meant to be. The need versus the want, I don't know how to strengthen that more. I didn't

[1:16:13] Voice 6: want to, if you can, I didn't want to have any falsehoods in here. I didn't want to inflate the

[1:16:20] Voice 6: argument. I want it to be authentic and real so we could have a genuine discussion. I could flesh

[1:16:28] Voice 6: out more discussions, put more words in there, and I could certainly address any of your key points,

[1:16:32] Voice 6: But the effectiveness, the need versus the want of this is to make us more strategically effective in achieving both scientific-based feedback and anticipating all these strategic directions we're doing.

[1:16:48] Voice 6: This is the key position.

[1:16:49] Voice 6: Already, we're linking with Islands Trust Conservancy in a way we haven't done so in nearly a decade.

[1:16:54] Voice 6: And the deliverables are in the suitable land analysis.

[1:16:58] Voice 6: The deliverables on the mapping we're doing.

[1:17:00] Voice 6: deliverables on are the species at risk implying that into our work and so on and so forth so and

[1:17:07] Voice 6: just talking to each other so um so yeah a lot of the intangibles are not a quantitative assessment

[1:17:13] Voice 6: a lot of our value-based qualitative so i'm happy to take any more feedback to put that in there

[1:17:19] Voice 6: but um if you wish i will amend as described in terms of the temporariness the uh and the

[1:17:25] Voice 6: the private working with, what was it, the private applicants?

[1:17:30] Voice 6: Sorry, I'm losing my language now.

[1:17:33] Voice 6: Happy to take any other direction.

[1:17:36] Voice 12: Vice-Chairs, any further comments?

[1:17:39] Voice 12: Vice-Chair Maude.

[1:17:40] Trustee Maude: Yeah, as CEO Brody spoke to at the beginning,

[1:17:44] Trustee Maude: is, you know, we're in the midst of an operational review.

[1:17:48] Trustee Maude: I just think, based on my knowledge,

[1:17:54] Trustee Maude: I see this as something that is not a priority.

[1:17:58] Trustee Maude: And until I see something out of this operational review that says otherwise, I'm just not prepared to advance this particular portion.

[1:18:07] Trustee Maude: Thank you.

[1:18:09] Voice 12: Nice, Charlie.

[1:18:11] Voice 11: Well, thank you for the feedback, Director Cermak.

[1:18:16] Voice 11: I am convinced it does make sense that having a professional on staff who can vet, you know, there's such a wide range of environmental biologists.

[1:18:27] Voice 11: And I know there is. Yeah, it's challenging. Planners do planning. They don't necessarily understand or know environmental context, but that is a context in which we work. So, yeah, you've convinced me we're not funding development. That's good.

[1:18:46] Voice 11: And perhaps, Vice Chair Maud, to your concern, because I sit on both programs committee, or I did on programs for when we were having the discussion about the indicators project and on regional planning committee,

[1:19:03] Voice 11: The direction that Trust Council is going is really to answer the calls from the public for more data, more understanding for why we're making decisions and more science based decision making.

[1:19:23] Voice 11: We cannot just make decisions based on our local knowledge and what we think is best. That has led us to, I think, some pretty poor land use planning.

[1:19:33] Voice 11: So I'm not going to get into it, but there's been lots of discussion in those two committees and the whole big project of what are the indicators of ecosystem health and biological diversity and all the other pieces that we need information on.

[1:19:50] Voice 11: I think it would be supported by having a biologist on staff, but I can appreciate that not having been part of those conversations, it doesn't seem to be a priority.

[1:20:03] Voice 11: anyway so I won't make any more comments but I think it should go ahead flesh it out a bit more

[1:20:08] Voice 11: and we'll see what happens it's going to be a tough year to pass a new full-time

[1:20:12] Voice 11: position but we'll do our best.

[1:20:15] Voice 12: Vice Chair Elliott are you looking for some clarity in this

[1:20:18] Voice 12: business case is that what you're?

[1:20:21] Voice 11: I already gave my comments and Director Cermak is usually

[1:20:25] Voice 11: actually tracking, but I suggested, I could go over it again. So there isn't quite enough on

[1:20:40] Voice 11: the conservancy, like what will it fulfill for the conservancy? Maybe getting some input from

[1:20:48] Voice 11: the manager there and the explaining the, yeah, so the projected results and deliverables,

[1:20:58] Voice 11: that could be a couple of paragraphs what is the biologist actually doing and how does it serve

[1:21:06] Voice 11: the trust and uphold the mandate like i think that's that's where you make the case what is

[1:21:12] Voice 11: this going to result in this is just too brief and um um it's an overview but it doesn't make

[1:21:20] Voice 11: the case thanks

[1:21:22] Voice 12: and to add an option of carrying on a temporary for one year i think that was one

[1:21:28] Voice 12: your recommendations yeah any other suggestions otherwise we can go back and start considering

[1:21:40] Voice 12: resolutions you're ready vice chairs sorry i'm skipping back up to that page myself

[1:21:53] Voice 12: would it be easier for vice chairs if we do these one at a time rather than bundle them

[1:21:58] Voice 12: i

[1:22:01] Voice 11: think that'd be good if because if it's not supported by all the members then

[1:22:05] Voice 12: yeah thanks so so i think we can just modify the wording there and just say forward

[1:22:13] Voice 12: You know, business case, just refer to the one. So are we ready to proceed with item one? And I believe that was as amended. Vice Chair Elliott.

[1:22:24] Voice 12: I

[1:22:26] Voice 11: move that executive committee forward the 2026-27 budget request for $125,950 for an auxiliary temporary senior policy advisor staff position in the trust area services to financial planning committee for inclusion in the draft 2026-27 budget.

[1:22:58] Voice 11: in addition to the budget request for it

[1:23:00] Voice 11: on September 3rd, 2025.

[1:23:05] Voice 12: All right.

[1:23:06] Voice 12: So that's seconded by Vice Chair Peterson.

[1:23:09] Voice 12: All right.

[1:23:09] Voice 12: Any discussion?

[1:23:14] Voice 12: I'll call the vote.

[1:23:15] Voice 12: All those in favor, raise your hands.

[1:23:18] Voice 12: That carries.

[1:23:20] Voice 12: All right.

[1:23:20] Voice 12: We have the second one there.

[1:23:22] Voice 12: That was a good format I think you developed.

[1:23:28] Voice 12: Go ahead, Vice Chair Peterson.

[1:23:31] Voice 2: I'll take a stab at it

[1:23:33] Voice 2: and see if I can do as good a job as Vice Chair Elliott.

[1:23:36] Voice 2: I move that executive committee forward the following, forward the 2026-27 budget requests for $37,000 for the policy statement amendment project to financial planning committee for inclusion in the draft 2026-27 budget, in addition to the budget requests for it on September 3rd, 2025.

[1:24:02] Voice 12: Is there a second?

[1:24:04] Voice 12: Second by Vice Chair Maude.

[1:24:05] Voice 12: any discussion i'll call the vote all those in favor all right that carries and here will come

[1:24:17] Voice 12: the tricky one go ahead by australia do

[1:24:21] Voice 11: i need to read out the last one the addition to the budget

[1:24:23] Voice 11: requests alexandra all right okay i move that executive committee forward the 2026 27 budget

[1:24:33] Voice 11: your request of $122,270 for a permanent biologist within planning services as amended

[1:24:42] Voice 11: to financial planning committee for inclusion in the draft 2026-27 budget in addition to the

[1:24:49] Voice 11: budget request forwarded on September 3rd, 2025.

[1:24:52] Voice 12: Thank you. Is there a second? Second by

[1:24:57] Voice 12: by Vice Chair Peterson.

[1:24:58] Voice 12: Any discussion?

[1:25:01] Voice 12: Go ahead, Vice Chair Peterson.

[1:25:06] Voice 2: Yeah, of course we haven't seen the amendment yet.

[1:25:08] Voice 2: So I do understand the rationale behind it.

[1:25:14] Voice 2: We will see how it is considered

[1:25:18] Voice 2: by the Financial Planning Committee.

[1:25:21] Voice 2: So I'm in support of getting it that far

[1:25:24] Voice 2: and having a look at the amended business case.

[1:25:27] Voice 2: Thank you.

[1:25:28] Voice 2: you thank

[1:25:28] Voice 12: you any further discussion i will call the vote then all those in favor well put mine

[1:25:42] Voice 12: that carries oh sorry any opposed i'm

[1:25:46] Trustee Maude: opposed i'd like to have my vote recorded please all right

[1:25:49] Voice 12: thank you i think uh overall i think we're going to be seeing uh the operational review and i think

[1:25:57] Voice 12: it's too early to make some decisions so it'll be interesting to see um and there'll be some

[1:26:02] Voice 12: hard decisions to make when we see all of this okay we're going to keep moving then how is

[1:26:08] Voice 12: everybody doing with set out 1040 anyone need a break or i can just power through i think we're

[1:26:14] Voice 12: so close to being done let's keep going then we have item 10.1.5 the legislative and information

[1:26:22] Voice 12: services uh this is an increase in information services budget for fiscal year 2027 briefing

[1:26:29] Voice 12: briefing at 10.1.5.1 on page 74. Who's going to give this report?

[1:26:35] Voice 7: Thank you, Chair. In Director

[1:26:37] Voice 7: Marner's absence, I can provide a quick overview. This is brought forward as a briefing just for

[1:26:42] Voice 7: information at this stage. It's an overview of where we think we're trending on the information

[1:26:47] Voice 7: services budget for next fiscal. A number of these areas you'll note are subject to business

[1:26:53] Voice 7: cases coming forward as well. So this is a preliminary assessment that you'll have a chance

[1:26:59] Voice 7: to weigh in on a number of those areas and make final decisions. The net impact is looking at an

[1:27:05] Voice 7: increase of $53,400. The majority of the items in here are things like ongoing software licenses

[1:27:15] Voice 7: that we have little control over, unless we choose to stop using software, of course.

[1:27:21] Voice 7: Some of the more significant increases, which again, will be subject to business case.

[1:27:26] Voice 7: the first item the new laptops for trustees post-election this is a bit of a variable

[1:27:33] Voice 7: but it's the business case will articulate that we're assuming post-election we may see

[1:27:38] Voice 7: some trustees who do want islands trust to provide them with laptops my understanding is that has

[1:27:43] Voice 7: been offered in the past and not all have taken them up we do the reason that they're looking at

[1:27:49] Voice 7: potentially purchasing at new ones is because any surplus ones that we have on hand are getting

[1:27:56] Voice 7: outdated no longer run windows 11 and so aren't able to be updated to support our current operating

[1:28:01] Voice 7: environment but that'll be fully articulated when you have a business case coming forward

[1:28:07] Voice 7: one of the significant increases you'll see is that is uh for under hardware the staff laptops

[1:28:15] Voice 7: because we did a refresh this year and so there'll be a significant reduction for next year um and

[1:28:21] Voice 7: And then a number of, let's say, a number of other kind of more operational pieces.

[1:28:25] Voice 7: And at the very end of the list, the EDM software, so that's the electronic document management

[1:28:32] Voice 7: software, which I had liked under the previous item, would be one of the business cases that

[1:28:37] Voice 7: is currently in draft and would be coming forward.

[1:28:40] Voice 7: So again, not looking for decision or direction for you at this stage, but wanted to give

[1:28:45] Voice 7: you some insight into where things are trending with the is budget um and where we have increases

[1:28:52] Voice 7: uh that warrant about a business case those will be coming forward to you and i will do my best to

[1:28:57] Voice 7: answer your questions although i won't profess to understand all the technical ins and outs

[1:29:01] Voice 7: and we can certainly if needed have director marner uh come back to your next meeting too

[1:29:06] Voice 7: if there's a need to elaborate on some items thank you

[1:29:09] Voice 12: thank you vice chair peterson yeah thank you

[1:29:13] Voice 2: chair um the uh item on the trustee laptops um i'm just wondering if this is based on

[1:29:23] Voice 2: like the number 15 is based on previous trends um i know at the beginning of this term um

[1:29:33] Voice 2: because we had limited funding i had thought that i was going to be keeping my old laptop

[1:29:39] Voice 2: and then our IT folks said oh no no no bring that old laptop in we've got one

[1:29:46] Voice 2: for you I know there are concerns about the the capacity of older machines to to

[1:29:55] Voice 2: keep working anyway I just knowing

[1:30:00] Voice 2: that we've uh you know post-election it's hard to know how many we have returning how many people

[1:30:04] Voice 2: will be wanting to use their own hardware 15 seems low to me but um perhaps the director marla has

[1:30:12] Voice 2: some rationale and we can hear that when the business case comes out but just that was my

[1:30:16] Voice 2: comment thank you

[1:30:17] Voice 7: thank you and through the cherry i think my understanding is that's based on

[1:30:22] Voice 7: a rough assessment based on previous years previous cycles um and wanted to try and find

[1:30:28] Voice 7: some sort of sweet spot there between not necessarily expecting to eat 26 but also not

[1:30:33] Voice 7: wanting to um have tfue and then we have trustees who aren't able to to effectively uh be supported

[1:30:39] Voice 7: but again the the detail of the rationale of the risks etc would be set out business case

[1:30:44] Voice 7: thank

[1:30:46] Voice 12: you vice chairman thank

[1:30:48] Trustee Maude: you chair i'm reflecting on what uh ceo brought this up

[1:30:52] Trustee Maude: i appreciate that there will be a business case coming forward but uh last term in the last term

[1:30:57] Trustee Maude: about now uh trust council um turned down um uh buying new laptops for this term um and then

[1:31:08] Trustee Maude: because of windows 11 um that got um superseded and we we did buy a substantial number of new

[1:31:16] Trustee Maude: laptops for this term based on windows 11 was what my understanding was

[1:31:21] Trustee Maude: was. But what I kind of question here is that we're talking roughly about $2,000 a unit

[1:31:30] Trustee Maude: for a laptop. And in today's world, that seems rather bizarre to me. The laptops that trustees

[1:31:39] Trustee Maude: get, basically speaking, most of what trustees are doing is email and some word processing.

[1:31:46] Trustee Maude: So they don't have to be high-end laptops doing high-end things, as arguably a Chromebook would do what we're doing, and they're in the $250 range. So I would just give that feedback, because when the business case comes forward, I really need to understand how we're spending $2,000 per trustee on laptops.

[1:32:09] Trustee Maude: But also, I don't like the laptop that I have is a couple of years old and it works perfectly fine for me.

[1:32:18] Trustee Maude: And I just don't see a justification for replacing it, especially for a trustee.

[1:32:24] Trustee Maude: It's almost reverse.

[1:32:25] Trustee Maude: You know, I could understand a little bit more if we were getting new staff laptops and they were being passed down to trustees because we have a lower usage of that technology.

[1:32:37] Trustee Maude: technology, but to be spending $2,000 a unit on a laptop for a trustee who does not use it in any

[1:32:46] Trustee Maude: huge capacity, like computing-wise, I really do struggle with those numbers. So just that feedback

[1:32:53] Trustee Maude: to the business case, somebody needs to articulate something pretty strong to me because it does not

[1:32:58] Trustee Maude: make sense. Thank you.

[1:33:00] Voice 7: Yeah, appreciate that, Vice Chair, and we'll make sure that that rationale

[1:33:04] Voice 7: now is clearly articulated if that's what the cost is i don't know if director mobs has anything to

[1:33:08] Voice 7: share from a perspective of our past procurement history and and what those costs look like but

[1:33:13] Voice 7: for sure we'll expect that the number will accurately reflect the real cost of what is

[1:33:18] Voice 7: necessary to provide the equipment the trustees need to to effectively do their perform their

[1:33:23] Voice 7: duties all

[1:33:28] Voice 12: right there's no further questions this is just here for information purposes now

[1:33:32] Voice 12: expect to see oh sorry go ahead by charlotte thinking

[1:33:37] Voice 11: um so i just and director marler's

[1:33:42] Voice 11: not here so you probably can't answer this but from two years ago i thought we had

[1:33:47] Voice 11: approved there was going to be a big project to electronic like so this is the edm processing i

[1:33:55] Voice 11: I guess, to, um, move to an electronic, um, storage system. Um, and I think that was shelved

[1:34:05] Voice 11: and so, sorry, I, I can't remember if it was approved or not. It was like 15,000,

[1:34:14] Voice 11: but there was a project to make everything electronic. Cause we have these, these storage

[1:34:18] Voice 11: cases of of documents that's not what the edm um costs are about is it i

[1:34:28] Voice 7: don't think so although

[1:34:29] Voice 7: it may be captured in that and my colleagues can correct me given i wasn't here for that

[1:34:34] Voice 7: that previous conversation but um the edm is really about um how we manage our current digital

[1:34:42] Voice 7: filing and going to a system that is more effective more searchable all of those things i know it is

[1:34:47] Voice 7: I know it is a project that has been on the table previously, though.

[1:34:51] Voice 7: And I think there are definitely some challenges.

[1:34:54] Voice 7: I think they get to the heart of some of those operational issues that I spoke about at Trust Council.

[1:35:00] Voice 7: And there is a significant impact for us when it comes to our physical filing and physical file storage, which has a real cost to it.

[1:35:08] Voice 7: But there would be an upfront cost to resolving that as well.

[1:35:12] Voice 7: But I'm not clear, and we can get clarity when Director Muller is back around whether or not that is factored into this particular proposal.

[1:35:20] Voice 7: And I see Director Mobs has something to add as well.

[1:35:24] Voice 12: Please proceed.

[1:35:26] Voice 4: Thanks, Chair.

[1:35:27] Voice 4: So, yeah, just as a support to the CAO, I don't believe that the cost to digitize our hard copy records are included in the EDM project.

[1:35:35] Voice 4: They are two distinct projects.

[1:35:36] Voice 4: So the one that's in this briefing is related to the storage and the records management for our existing electronic records that we work with every day and the file structure that we work within.

[1:35:49] Voice 4: And then it's a separate project to take our existing hard copy files and digitize them so that they become accessible electronically within our current EDM file structure or any new one that we might upgrade to.

[1:36:02] Voice 4: to. So both of those have come forward in history. Trustee Elliott is correct. And neither

[1:36:09] Voice 4: has actually survived any budget cycle. And so we've not seen these projects funded. So

[1:36:15] Voice 4: they're coming back once again. There will be a business case coming forward for the

[1:36:19] Voice 4: electronic data management, the EDM one as well. And so that will more clearly outline

[1:36:23] Voice 4: and hopefully respond to some of the questions you have.

[1:36:29] Voice 12: All right. Thank you. Any other questions? No. All right, then. We're going to keep moving on. We just received this for information at this point. And I guess we're getting very close to the end of this meeting. So we're at 13.1, if I'm correct, which is the review of the current work program on page 80. Or did I skip over something?

[1:36:58] Voice 12: something yes i did sorry thank you oh i had put it i was trying to move the meeting along a little

[1:37:06] Voice 12: too quickly yes let's go to 11.1.1 trustee onboarding working group request for decision

[1:37:11] Voice 12: on page 77 that's you seo bronnie yeah

[1:37:16] Voice 7: thank you chair um i'm looking for executive committee

[1:37:19] Voice 7: support to set up a working group i kind of foreshadowed this i think um maybe at trust

[1:37:23] Voice 7: Council in our conversation around the election preparation work. And a number of trustees have

[1:37:30] Voice 7: already indicated an interest in providing input and sharing their perspectives with staff as we

[1:37:36] Voice 7: start to prepare for the election a year from now. And so we thought it would be an effective

[1:37:43] Voice 7: way to manage and collate some of that would be to invite trustees to join a working group,

[1:37:50] Voice 7: which of course is a more informal structure and way to engage with trustees on something that'll

[1:37:56] Voice 7: be work that'll be largely carried by staff. There's an alignment here to the two recommendations

[1:38:02] Voice 7: from the governance review as well that relate to this, which we discussed at Trust Council last

[1:38:07] Voice 7: week. So my suggestion is that we look to establish a working group that is kind of under

[1:38:15] Voice 7: the umbrella of executive committee but i think there'll be uh uh i have to i have to engage still

[1:38:20] Voice 7: with trustee getty on how that might inform connect within governance committee as well and

[1:38:25] Voice 7: and uh connect those two pieces of work as well but that staff would primarily work with this

[1:38:31] Voice 7: group around two streams of work one is the preparation of the information that we provide

[1:38:37] Voice 7: in advance of the election kind of what we have referred to i think as the so you want to be a

[1:38:41] Voice 7: a trustee and helping people make informed decisions before they put themselves forward

[1:38:45] Voice 7: as a trustee. And then the second and more substantive will be providing input and advice

[1:38:51] Voice 7: on what the onboarding and orientation would look like for new trustees. Not just that initial

[1:38:56] Voice 7: phase of work, but ideally looking at kind of over the first six months of the onboarding of

[1:39:02] Voice 7: a new council. And so we would appreciate having the opportunity to engage with a small group of

[1:39:07] Voice 7: trustees. That doesn't mean that we won't bring forward recommendations and opportunities for all

[1:39:14] Voice 7: of Trust Council to provide input into our preparations for that. But this would provide

[1:39:18] Voice 7: us with a small group to work with on a bit more of an ad hoc basis as we build out that work. And

[1:39:23] Voice 7: so with your support, we would look to get that up and running probably in November and likely

[1:39:31] Voice 7: wrapping up the work by end of April. There's no real budget associated with this. This would just

[1:39:36] Voice 7: be informal virtual meetings um and trustees participating on a voluntary basis but we think

[1:39:42] Voice 7: it would be useful for staff just to help us shape some of that work well

[1:39:46] Voice 12: thank you any questions for

[1:39:48] Voice 12: ceo uh vice chair peterson uh

[1:39:55] Voice 2: not a question but uh just to comment i think it's a great idea

[1:40:00] Voice 2: um i really appreciate the notion i know some trustees have had um put a lot of thought into

[1:40:07] Voice 2: to this and i think it's just a great opportunity for um us and future trustees to to take advantage

[1:40:14] Voice 2: of that um so uh i'm happy to make the motion if uh if the chair is ready please

[1:40:22] Voice 12: proceed i move

[1:40:25] Voice 2: that executive committee ask staff to establish a trustee onboarding working group of up to five

[1:40:30] Voice 2: trustees to serve in an advisory capacity for improvements to onboarding and orientation of

[1:40:36] Voice 2: trustees following the 2026 trust council election there

[1:40:40] Voice 12: a second second by vice chair elliott any

[1:40:43] Voice 12: discussion about vice chair elliott great idea

[1:40:49] Voice 1: any

[1:40:51] Voice 12: further discussion i'll call the vote then

[1:40:56] Voice 12: all those in favor raise your hands all right that carries thank

[1:41:08] Voice 7: you thank

[1:41:10] Voice 12: you too many screens here

[1:41:15] Voice 12: um now we can move on to the item here on uh 13.1 page 80 of the agenda package the current

[1:41:28] Voice 12: work program any actions necessary here well

[1:41:42] Voice 2: vice chair peterson just my usual grousing about the

[1:41:47] Voice 2: target dates um and then uh item number one i feel like knowing um knowing what we know now

[1:42:01] Voice 2: we may want to formulate that uh reformulate uh what this piece of work looks like um

[1:42:08] Voice 2: how we articulate it but i'm not recommending that we do that today um but i think that's worth

[1:42:15] Voice 2: putting some thought into um how we represent this again on the public agenda um going forward

[1:42:24] Voice 12: nice chair peterson i think we have to wait for trust council direction on this one too

[1:42:28] Voice 12: which i assume we'll be talking about in december possibly yes

[1:42:34] Voice 7: chair if i made i think of course

[1:42:35] Voice 7: these are items that are related to strategic plan initiatives and so that's where that

[1:42:39] Voice 7: so i think if we want to reconsider and reformat that then trust council in december would be the

[1:42:44] Voice 7: opportunity to do that thank

[1:42:46] Voice 11: you vice charlotte um i just want to ask questions about number three

[1:42:53] Voice 11: the reconciliation action plan it's been you know we haven't had one since the beginning of this

[1:43:01] Voice 11: term the the previous one was very ambitious it was you know really grounded and here's all the

[1:43:07] Voice 11: work we need to do here are all the the potential um actions and so i understand that the plan needs

[1:43:14] Voice 11: It needs to be, you know, synergized with our current strategic plan.

[1:43:20] Voice 11: But I really feel we're at a deficit not having that.

[1:43:23] Voice 11: And so what can we do to help move this along?

[1:43:28] Voice 11: And I fully understand Director Freighter has been very, very committed with a policy statement and everything else.

[1:43:35] Voice 11: So it's no fault on you, but what can we do to resource this and get it going?

[1:43:43] Voice 11: Thank

[1:43:43] Voice 7: you, Chair Adele.

[1:43:45] Voice 7: Well, I'll invite Director Frater to add her comments as well.

[1:43:47] Voice 7: I also want to acknowledge that Senior Indigenous Relations Advisor Joe Elliott has joined us in the meeting as well.

[1:43:53] Voice 7: And both he and Director Frater and others have been working on an updated draft to the Reconciliation Action Plan.

[1:44:01] Voice 7: It really is one of those challenges, I think, that is primarily just being stuck within our capacity pressures overall.

[1:44:08] Voice 7: all um i think you know we're we're hopeful that uh particularity with the new policy advisor

[1:44:15] Voice 7: position coming on this fall that that might free up a bit of capacity for director freda to turn

[1:44:21] Voice 7: her attention to this and i know it's one of her her priority items as well um going to that

[1:44:27] Voice 7: broader conversation as i mentioned in the ops review at trust council around reconciliation

[1:44:31] Voice 7: as a priority and this is an example of how despite the desire and the direction and the

[1:44:37] Voice 7: best intentions we just haven't been able to carve out the space to really get the work to the point

[1:44:42] Voice 7: that we would like despite uh the work of of uh joe elliott and director freighter to advance that

[1:44:49] Voice 7: work over over the course of this year all

[1:44:56] Voice 12: right any other comments so we'll just receive this

[1:45:06] Voice 12: work program through general consent and that brings us to our next meeting is going to be

[1:45:13] Voice 12: october 29th 9 15 in the morning electronically oops vice chair peterson sorry

[1:45:22] Voice 2: chair my electronic

[1:45:24] Voice 2: hand is a little slow today um i just uh well on the last item i note that on our future projects

[1:45:32] Voice 2: list item 9 through 12 i think relate to uh relate to the um the implementation there um

[1:45:42] Voice 2: um uh the plan but uh item number one on the future projects list um it's been here i see

[1:45:52] Voice 2: that this is to you know we're going to need a report by november of next year and i wonder if

[1:45:57] Voice 2: director mobs can just let us know is there is there um anticipated that there's going to be

[1:46:04] Voice 2: decision making or action required by executive committee on that that particular um file the

[1:46:11] Voice 2: of pay transparency. I've looked at it, haven't brought it up, but I am curious whether there's

[1:46:18] Voice 2: decisions to be made by this body, or is this kind of just a heads up that this is going to

[1:46:23] Voice 2: have to happen?

[1:46:27] Voice 4: Through the chair, I can respond to that, although I'll note our CAO has some real

[1:46:31] Voice 4: world experience with this pay transparency report coming from the public service agency as they were

[1:46:36] Voice 4: scoped in and had a deadline earlier than the Nail Islands Trust has. So this is a new legislative

[1:46:41] Voice 4: related report that we will have to submit at least starting November of next year.

[1:46:47] Voice 4: The intent was to have that report approved. I believe we were thinking that it would be

[1:46:53] Voice 4: approved by Trust Council prior to submission, similar to things such as our Statement of

[1:46:56] Voice 4: Information, the SOFI report, et cetera. I would need to re-reference the legislation to understand

[1:47:03] Voice 4: if there's a specific requirement around that, but that would be our standard practice.

[1:47:06] Voice 4: And so that's why it's landed on this list here, is it would flow through this body to Trust

[1:47:11] Voice 4: Council. If our CAO has anything to add I would look to him for that.

[1:47:16] Voice 7: Thank you yeah through the

[1:47:17] Voice 7: chair it's yeah it is a legislative requirement of most public bodies now the format is somewhat

[1:47:25] Voice 7: prescribed it's a fairly limited reporting and kind of a templated reporting and I believe the

[1:47:31] Voice 7: reports are all generally released on or about the same date and so it'll be a it's primarily a

[1:47:38] Voice 7: kind of data collection and reporting exercise with a little bit of analysis to the extent that

[1:47:44] Voice 7: we choose to offer it. And it would like, as Director Robbins said, would come through you

[1:47:50] Voice 7: for review and endorsement. But the overall approach and requirements and format

[1:47:55] Voice 7: are fairly prescribed. So it should be fairly straightforward.

[1:48:03] Voice 12: Right. Any other questions? Otherwise, we'll return to planning our next meeting,

[1:48:10] Voice 12: which was october 29 at 9 15 a.m we have no closed beating today so uh call motion to adjourn

[1:48:21] Voice 12: would be appreciated no one wants to adjourn i moved the meeting theater i shall move oh so i'm

[1:48:32] Voice 12: going to take yours as a second there trustee peterson and uh that we are then adjourned so

[1:48:37] Voice 12: thank you everyone it was a good short meeting almost made it at 11 on the nose so thank you

[1:48:43] Voice 12: Enjoy the rest of your day.

[1:48:45] Voice 10: Everyone, take care.

[1:48:46] Voice 12: We are adjourned.

[1:48:46] Voice 10: Thank you.