Islands Trust Council regular meeting, December 2, 2025

[0:00:00] Trustee Patrick: All right, good afternoon, trustees.

[0:00:04] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to begin by inviting Sherry Thomas from Esquimalt Nation, First Nation, to welcome us to the territory.

[0:00:48] Voice 21: Good afternoon, everybody.

[0:00:50] Voice 21: Aikwet'chiyo means good day.

[0:00:54] Voice 21: My name is Sherry Thomas.

[0:00:56] Voice 21: My Sanchata name, I am fortunate to be able to carry two names from my family.

[0:01:02] Voice 21: So my first given name is Katsamat, comes from Sartlup Territory.

[0:01:11] Voice 21: The second name I carry is Khamishtanat, comes from Esquimalt Nation, where my parents are from.

[0:01:19] Voice 21: It's an honor to be here today, and I really, really would like to welcome you all to our territories, our Rarikwet'en people.

[0:01:26] Voice 21: You know, it's an honor to have you all here today.

[0:01:29] Voice 21: the work that you do the work that we carry forward today is so so important to be taking

[0:01:36] Voice 21: care of looking looking after our lands I really really thank you for all being here today and

[0:01:42] Voice 21: working together it's so important that we work together within our our communities and helping

[0:01:48] Voice 21: our communities to get through the tough challenges that we face today really just you know take care

[0:01:56] Voice 21: of yourself because i've learned that from experience with my broken ankle you know

[0:02:01] Voice 21: we get so busy in our lives we rush rush to work we rush to our families and now i'm being told

[0:02:09] Voice 21: to slow down so you know really take care of yourself within the work that you do and your

[0:02:14] Voice 21: families haichika for being here and welcome to the korean territory haichika

[0:02:35] Voice 29: thank you

[0:02:40] Trustee Patrick: please accept this gift from from us and thank you so much for helping open the meeting in a good way

[0:02:46] Trustee Patrick: thank you all right trustees trustees good afternoon i'm going to call this meeting of

[0:03:24] Trustee Patrick: the trust council december meeting to order i'd like to begin by acknowledging that we're meeting

[0:03:32] Trustee Patrick: today in the traditional territories of the songhees and the spymount nations as well as

[0:03:36] Trustee Patrick: the WSÁNEĆ peoples. We're grateful for their continued stewardship of these lands and waters,

[0:03:42] Trustee Patrick: and we also recognize the work of the Islands Trust takes place across the territories of many

[0:03:48] Trustee Patrick: Coast Salish nations. I'd like to invite us to take a quiet moment to reflect, to think about

[0:03:58] Trustee Patrick: the land we're on, the First Nations who have cared for it since time immemorial,

[0:04:03] Trustee Patrick: and the shared responsibility that we just heard from Sherry.

[0:04:11] Trustee Patrick: We have to move forward in a spirit of respect and partnership.

[0:04:15] Trustee Patrick: Take a moment to reflect.

[0:04:28] Trustee Patrick: So thank you.

[0:04:29] Trustee Patrick: It's wonderful to see everyone again here today.

[0:04:32] Trustee Patrick: And I offer a warm welcome to our guests from the Islands Trust Conservancy Board.

[0:04:38] Trustee Patrick: I don't like it way over there, though.

[0:04:41] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to ask the Chair of the Trust Conservancy to make an introduction shortly.

[0:04:47] Trustee Patrick: We're so glad to have you joining us.

[0:04:49] Trustee Patrick: This is a great opportunity for our two groups to connect, share ideas, and to strengthen

[0:04:55] Trustee Patrick: the work we do together on behalf of the islands and the communities we serve.

[0:05:00] Trustee Patrick: Before we get started, I'd like to take a moment to speak about the importance of cultural

[0:05:04] Trustee Patrick: safety in our space today.

[0:05:06] Trustee Patrick: For our Indigenous members and guests, and truly for everyone, it's essential that this is a place

[0:05:13] Trustee Patrick: where people feel comfortable to speak openly, to be heard with respect, and to know their

[0:05:19] Trustee Patrick: perspectives and identities are valued. Cultural safety asks us to listen with care, to be aware

[0:05:25] Trustee Patrick: of our own assumptions, and to create space for different experiences and ways of knowing.

[0:05:31] Trustee Patrick: When we do that, we make this a stronger, more inclusive space for everyone.

[0:05:39] Trustee Patrick: Both the Islands Trust and the Islands Trust Conservancy are deeply committed to reconciliation and to building respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples.

[0:05:48] Trustee Patrick: Practicing cultural safety in our meetings is just one way that we live out this commitment.

[0:05:54] Trustee Patrick: Not just in our policies, but it's how we treat one another every day.

[0:05:59] Trustee Patrick: So as we move into our agenda, let's do so with openness, humility, and kindness, making sure this remains a space where everyone feels they belong and can contribute freely.

[0:06:12] Trustee Patrick: First, I'd like to ask our chair of the Trust Conservancy to introduce Conservancy board members that are here with us so far.

[0:06:21] Voice 26: Thank you, Chair Patrick. I'm absolutely thrilled to be here today.

[0:06:25] Voice 26: We have a few of the ITC board members with us.

[0:06:30] Voice 26: Firstly, I would like to introduce you to Vice Chair Namkum.

[0:06:36] Voice 26: He's one of our provincially appointed board members.

[0:06:39] Voice 26: We also have Dr. Risa Smith and Janine Jordanson as the ministerially appointed trustees.

[0:06:47] Voice 26: As you know, the Islands Trust Conservancy Board also consists of two elected Islands Trust Council members,

[0:06:55] Voice 26: which would be namely Trustee Yates and myself and one appointed representative from the Executive Committee, which is Vice Chair Toby Elliott.

[0:07:06] Voice 26: Thank you.

[0:07:08] Trustee Patrick: Well, thank you and truly welcome.

[0:07:11] Trustee Patrick: So now is an opportunity we're going to run around the table to introduce yourselves and the islands that you come from.

[0:07:16] Trustee Patrick: And I'm going to start way down on this end with Trustee Borthwick.

[0:07:22] Voice 36: Yeah, I'm Trustee Sam Borthwick, elected on Tosaic, Denman Island, in the traditional

[0:07:28] Voice 36: territories of the Pentlandsh and Comox First Nations, among many others.

[0:07:35] Voice 23: My name is Judy Getty, and I am the Municipal Councillor and Islands Trustee on Bowen

[0:07:40] Voice 23: Island, the Coilacham, in the middle of Howe Sound, at the mouth of it, and I'm very happy

[0:07:45] Voice 23: to be here and representing my community.

[0:07:50] Voice 5: and hunter fetus island joe

[0:07:56] Voice 17: bernardo from the gambier local trust area which encompasses

[0:07:59] Voice 17: gambier island keats island thornby islands and a whole bunch of other associated islands

[0:08:05] Voice 17: all of which occupy the traditional territories of the squamish and sea salt nations and i'm

[0:08:14] Voice 17: happy to be here today thank you

[0:08:18] Voice 34: susan yates elected for the gabriola local trust area which

[0:08:23] Voice 34: which also includes De Corsi and Mudge Islands, which are in the territory of S'Nanaymagh First Nation.

[0:08:33] Voice 26: Good afternoon. My name is Lisa Goverill. I'm elected on Galeano Island, which is core territory to the Penelakut tribe.

[0:08:43] Voice 29: Hi, everybody. I'm Sue Ellen Fast from Nuklelequum, Bowen Island, like Trustee Getty, a municipal councillor as well, in the territory of Squamish Nation.

[0:08:55] Voice 27: Afternoon, everyone. I am Toby Lee Don Elliott. I don't know why I said my two middle names,

[0:09:00] Voice 27: but now you know them. I'm elected on Gabriela Island. I'm also delighted to represent Mudge

[0:09:07] Voice 27: and DeCourcy residents in the territory of Snanamik First Nation.

[0:09:13] Voice 9: Hi, I'm David Maud. I'm elected on Maine Island, traditional home of the WSANIC people.

[0:09:20] Voice 6: Tim Peterson, elected on Hoai'atai, Luskinia Island, a territory of many Coast Salish peoples

[0:09:26] Voice 6: and the Treaty Territory of the Tla'aman Nation.

[0:09:29] Voice 6: Good afternoon.

[0:09:32] Voice 28: Kate Louise Stamford from Ch'a'alt'luw'ich,

[0:09:36] Voice 28: otherwise known as Gambier, in Al-Qatsim Houseau.

[0:09:46] Voice 15: Tina Pesha-Levins, elected on Sidiya, South Pender,

[0:09:49] Voice 15: and I don't have a middle name.

[0:09:55] Trustee Luckham: Peter Lockham, elected on Zetas Island

[0:09:58] Trustee Luckham: in the territory of the Qalitsin people,

[0:10:03] Trustee Luckham: Alliance, Liaxin, and Penelakut specifically.

[0:10:05] Trustee Luckham: Thank you.

[0:10:06] Trustee Luckham: you.

[0:10:07] Voice 12: Makayla Laroni, elected on Laskete Island, Hoyate.

[0:10:13] Voice 25: Good afternoon. Alex Allen, elected on

[0:10:15] Voice 25: Hornby Island, the traditional territory of Comox Coast Nations and other Coast Salish peoples.

[0:10:21] Voice 16: And Dag Falk from South Bender.

[0:10:26] Voice 8: Ben Maverly from Galliano Island, territory of the Penelope

[0:10:29] Voice 8: tribe and home to the Coast Salish peoples and the Georgian family.

[0:10:34] Trustee Patrick: Thank you to our trustees

[0:10:36] Trustee Patrick: online. I'm just going to go with who I see at the top, but

[0:10:39] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Boland?

[0:10:43] Voice 24: Hello, Maureen Boland from

[0:10:46] Voice 24: Saterna Island. Thanks. Trustee Scott?

[0:10:52] Voice 37: Hello, Grant Scott from Hornby Island in traditional

[0:10:55] Voice 37: territory of the Comox peoples and other Salish

[0:11:00] Voice 37: peoples. Thank you.

[0:11:02] Trustee Patrick: All right. Trustee Harris?

[0:11:05] Voice 31: Hi, Jamie Harris from Salt Spring Island. I'm proud to be here representing

[0:11:10] Voice 31: the people who elected me on Salt Spring.

[0:11:15] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Graham.

[0:11:16] Voice 2: Hi, David Graham here on Demmon Island,

[0:11:18] Voice 2: traditional territory of the Comox and the Qualicum.

[0:11:23] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[0:11:24] Trustee Patrick: I think that's it online.

[0:11:25] Trustee Patrick: I forgot to say who I am.

[0:11:27] Trustee Patrick: I'm Laura Patrick.

[0:11:28] Trustee Patrick: I'm elected on Salt Spring,

[0:11:29] Trustee Patrick: territories of many Coast Salish First Nations.

[0:11:32] Trustee Patrick: And I'd like to introduce our CAO, Brony,

[0:11:35] Trustee Patrick: who I would also like to point out,

[0:11:37] Trustee Patrick: this is, I think you started exactly a year ago.

[0:11:40] Trustee Patrick: go. So congratulations on our one-year anniversary with the

[0:11:43] Trustee Patrick: Islands Trust. Please introduce the staff for the audience.

[0:11:51] Voice 18: Thank you, Chair, and thank you all. Yeah, I'm Ruben Brani. I'm

[0:11:54] Voice 18: the Chief Administrative Officer for Islands Trust. And staff

[0:11:57] Voice 18: joining us for this meeting, I see our Senior Indigenous

[0:12:00] Voice 18: Relations Advisor, Joe Elliott, our Executive Coordinator,

[0:12:03] Voice 18: Alexandra Trifonitis, our Meeting Administrator, Lisa

[0:12:06] Voice 18: Millard, Director of Financial and Employee Services, Julia

[0:12:09] Voice 18: Leah Mobs, Director of Trust Area Services,

[0:12:13] Voice 18: Claire Freider, Renee Jamaret,

[0:12:16] Voice 18: one of our Regional Planning Managers

[0:12:17] Voice 18: from the Northern Office,

[0:12:19] Voice 18: Director of Planning Services, Stefan Cermak,

[0:12:22] Voice 18: and Director of Legislative and Information Services,

[0:12:24] Voice 18: David Marler.

[0:12:25] Voice 18: I think that's everybody, thank you.

[0:12:27] Trustee Patrick: All right, thank you.

[0:12:28] Trustee Patrick: And thanks to all the staff.

[0:12:30] Trustee Patrick: I

[0:12:31] Voice 18: stand corrected.

[0:12:32] Voice 18: Hiding behind me, sorry, Chair,

[0:12:34] Voice 18: is our IS Specialist, Joshua Barton,

[0:12:37] Voice 18: in our contract that I do support SAGE as well.

[0:12:39] Voice 18: Thank you.

[0:12:39] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[0:12:40] Trustee Patrick: It does take a lot of work to prepare for these meetings.

[0:12:42] Trustee Patrick: And I thank the staff for being here and thank all of you.

[0:12:46] Trustee Patrick: So welcome once again.

[0:12:49] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees, we have an agenda before us

[0:12:54] Trustee Patrick: as well as you would have received an addendum

[0:12:57] Trustee Patrick: from our executive committee this morning.

[0:13:00] Trustee Patrick: Are there any other additions or changes

[0:13:02] Trustee Patrick: to the agenda for this meeting?

[0:13:09] Trustee Patrick: Not seeing any.

[0:13:10] Trustee Patrick: can we approve the agenda as amended through general consent excellent before we get started

[0:13:18] Trustee Patrick: i just wanted to remind just of some of the what we're going to do today it's always nice just to

[0:13:22] Trustee Patrick: remember our timelines that we have today so we have the business that we're going to be

[0:13:26] Trustee Patrick: undertaking oh sorry i'm

[0:13:30] Voice 17: sorry chair but when you said as amended are you referring to the

[0:13:33] Voice 17: late item

[0:13:33] Trustee Patrick: it's the event the the executive committee amend uh addendum package that was

[0:13:39] Trustee Patrick: sent today right

[0:13:40] Voice 17: i think he came out this morning that's correct

[0:13:43] Voice 17: right uh uh no i don't agree it

[0:13:46] Voice 17: should go by consent uh i'd like to uh address the late item addition okay

[0:14:02] Trustee Patrick: so are you sorry you're

[0:14:03] Trustee Patrick: adding a late item no

[0:14:04] Voice 17: i i'm disputing that the late item that executive committee wants to bring

[0:14:09] Voice 17: forward which is recommendations from uh with respect to standard of conduct policy issue

[0:14:14] Voice 17: uh i'm disputing the addition of that or i would like to speak to it put it that way sorry

[0:14:20] Trustee Patrick: turn to staff just to make sure we handle things yeah

[0:14:23] Voice 7: sorry uh the um trust council policy on um

[0:14:28] Voice 7: agenda preparation has three ways for things to go on the agenda the first is things are received

[0:14:34] Voice 7: three weeks in advance and considered and circulated to trust council the second is things

[0:14:41] Voice 7: that are received at least a week in advance

[0:14:42] Voice 7: are given to the executive on the day of trust council

[0:14:46] Voice 7: and added to the agenda that way.

[0:14:48] Voice 7: And then the third way is in the meeting here

[0:14:51] Voice 7: where the two-third vote.

[0:14:52] Voice 7: So the items that you see on the agenda

[0:14:57] Voice 7: have gone through the process according to the policy.

[0:15:01] Voice 17: To clarify, Director Marler,

[0:15:03] Voice 17: are you saying that the lead item issue

[0:15:05] Voice 17: is not subject to a vote?

[0:15:07] Voice 17: Correct.

[0:15:09] Voice 17: Okay.

[0:15:10] Voice 17: Okay. Yeah.

[0:15:10] Voice 7: And that's as per council's policy 222.

[0:15:14] Voice 17: All right. That wasn't my understanding, but I guess I'll have to just,

[0:15:17] Voice 17: when we get to it, we can address it then. Thank you.

[0:15:21] Trustee Patrick: All right then.

[0:15:22] Trustee Patrick: So just want to remind you that we're going to aim for a three o'clock break.

[0:15:27] Trustee Patrick: We have also, we have a delegation that's planning to start at 4.30.

[0:15:31] Trustee Patrick: So I'd like to start on time at 4.30 and then we have our guest speaker

[0:15:36] Trustee Patrick: training session at 5.35.

[0:15:38] Trustee Patrick: So those are key times that we'll try to work around and stick to today.

[0:15:43] Trustee Patrick: And I appreciate this, guys.

[0:15:45] Trustee Patrick: Sorry, we have another hand raised.

[0:15:47] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Scott?

[0:15:49] Voice 37: Yes, thank you.

[0:15:50] Voice 37: I'm assuming when CAO Brawny does his presentation that we'll be able to ask questions during that presentation?

[0:16:01] Trustee Patrick: Yes, and all of you will be prepared to be given an opportunity to speak at that time.

[0:16:06] Trustee Patrick: Yes.

[0:16:07] Voice 37: Okay, thank you.

[0:16:08] Voice 37: All

[0:16:09] Trustee Patrick: right. Any other questions before we get started? Okay. I'm going to keep on moving through the agenda then. We're in general business arising. Items 4.1 and 4.2 are here for your information. And by general consent, can we adopt the recommendations as presented for those two items, 4.1.1 and 4.12?

[0:16:37] Trustee Patrick: two right thank you so that brings us uh 4.13 is the priorities of the various committees but i

[0:16:47] Trustee Patrick: think we can just kind of move into the next section which is each of the committees to give

[0:16:52] Trustee Patrick: the chair an opportunity of each of the committees to talk about those items uh oops go ahead trusty

[0:16:59] Trustee Patrick: fast i

[0:17:01] Voice 29: have a question because um when we go through as a chair of a committee i'm wondering

[0:17:06] Voice 29: considering I'm going to be asking that council approve the work plan or the work program

[0:17:12] Voice 29: report and yet that's what it says in the text beside 4133.

[0:17:18] Trustee Patrick: Yeah if you can just give an update

[0:17:20] Trustee Patrick: at the very end I'll do a consent on approving the work plans as presented. But

[0:17:24] Voice 29: my point is

[0:17:25] Voice 29: could we hold that off till later in the agenda after we've received the operational report with

[0:17:33] Voice 29: the nine recommendations because if we adopt some or all of those it will change the work plans

[0:17:39] Voice 29: probably not immediately but i'll look to see how brownie yeah

[0:17:44] Voice 18: thank you chair i think you can you

[0:17:45] Voice 18: can receive the work plans as they stand now if there are decisions on the operational review or

[0:17:51] Voice 18: anywhere else in the agenda that may impact those work plans those those amendments would be made

[0:17:55] Voice 18: after this meeting okay thank you i was just concerned about that word adopt all right thank

[0:18:01] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Thank you for all of us for doing the best we can.

[0:18:05] Trustee Patrick: So I'm going to move into 4.1.3.1, which is the executive committee.

[0:18:09] Trustee Patrick: And that's me. So I'm going to just start with thanking the vice chairs for their time and continued commitment to their LTC chair roles.

[0:18:19] Trustee Patrick: Your efforts are greatly appreciated. And I know for some, it's a big effort to get to the meetings.

[0:18:25] Trustee Patrick: The Executive Committee continues to look at how we can keep Trust Council better informed and more involved in the decisions that have been delegated to the Executive Committee.

[0:18:35] Trustee Patrick: I'm working hard to ensure that the weekly emails strike the right balance in terms of the amount and type of information provided, and I welcome your feedback at any time.

[0:18:45] Trustee Patrick: Regarding our work program, I want to draw your attention to Agenda Item 6.2.2, specifically Recommendation No. 2.

[0:18:52] Trustee Patrick: If Trust Council chooses to support that recommendation, the provincial review and funding request would be removed from the Executive Committee's work program.

[0:19:02] Trustee Patrick: That's an example of how that would happen.

[0:19:05] Trustee Patrick: So over to the Governance Committee, 4.1.3.2, Trustee Getty.

[0:19:11] Trustee Patrick: so

[0:19:12] Voice 23: we had a meeting in early november and we reviewed the discussion that was at the last

[0:19:19] Voice 23: trust council meeting with respect to the priorities of the governance review from 2022

[0:19:24] Voice 23: and then tried to set up a plan in terms of how to work on those priorities so we have

[0:19:32] Voice 23: in addition to the three priorities from the trust council there was also the question of

[0:19:38] Voice 23: remuneration and there was a posting for that position that currently closed in

[0:19:45] Voice 23: November the 24th so we haven't heard what the result of that was and maybe

[0:19:49] Voice 23: we'll hear more about that at this meeting we had we were inviting each

[0:19:56] Voice 23: other on the council and I would invite any other trustees if there's questions

[0:20:00] Voice 23: that you want to or points that you want to raise with the consultant that's

[0:20:04] Voice 23: being hired in terms of particular issues around remuneration and we had a discussion in terms of

[0:20:09] Voice 23: all the different things that weren't covered in terms of paycheck and what the expectations were

[0:20:16] Voice 23: in terms of travel and preparation and things like that so if you can give more information

[0:20:22] Voice 23: from your perspective on that that would be appreciated we talked about our budget request

[0:20:29] Voice 23: request for $6,000. That was for a continuation of the general policy, not the overall trust policy,

[0:20:35] Voice 23: all the different policies. That may change because there's things in the CAO operational

[0:20:40] Voice 23: review that might reprioritize that. I'm not sure if it's necessarily going to change. This is

[0:20:46] Voice 23: a little bit of supplement to help hire part-time staff to help the director in terms of working

[0:20:53] Voice 23: through a lot of this paperwork so this is to update the various policies 88

[0:20:58] Voice 23: policies much of which is out of date or overlapping or part of administration

[0:21:06] Voice 23: verse and operations versus conduct of the council we asked that in that work

[0:21:13] Voice 23: that the priority be given for this council in this committee to look at the

[0:21:17] Voice 23: policies that with respect to trust council operations or conduct so then

[0:21:23] Voice 23: Then there was a request for decision with respect to different aspects of meeting preparation.

[0:21:30] Voice 23: Again, more policies and whether or not we should shift more to a notice of motion and

[0:21:35] Voice 23: making sure that we give staff time to report on any of our motions that come before this

[0:21:40] Voice 23: council.

[0:21:41] Voice 23: And finally, we did a meeting schedule up until January of 27, all of which are going

[0:21:47] Voice 23: to be by Zoom.

[0:21:47] Voice 23: so we had a fairly lengthy discussion about what exactly does it mean to help trustees understand

[0:21:53] Voice 23: and fulfill their roles that we prioritized trying to get some help in terms of dealing

[0:21:59] Voice 23: with the importance of the review of the executive committee election and we wanted to focus and we

[0:22:06] Voice 23: have been meeting there's a separate working group meeting with the CAO to talk about orientation for

[0:22:12] Voice 23: new trustees so again any other ideas and suggestions that anybody has or would be welcome

[0:22:17] Voice 23: Thank

[0:22:18] Trustee Patrick: you very much. Move over. It's 4.1.3.3, the Financial Planning Committee, and it's Trustee

[0:22:27] Voice 29: Fast or Chair Fast.

[0:22:29] Voice 29: Okay, thank you. I won't say much. Just to say this, the report starts on page 43. It's just a few pages outlining the main points of our work, which are mostly scheduled kind of cyclical tasks.

[0:22:43] Voice 29: tasks. And there's a few future projects on there. All of that may change as a result of

[0:22:48] Voice 29: the operational review. The budget materials that are coming to you in the package in this agenda

[0:22:55] Voice 29: were before we had received the operational review report. So that's sort of yesterday.

[0:23:04] Voice 29: yesterday and uh today we will or this meeting will make decisions that may change um the work

[0:23:11] Voice 29: plan active projects fuel whatever you want to call it for the financial planning committee

[0:23:18] Voice 29: thank you all right

[0:23:20] Voice 23: thank you uh trustee getty did you have a question uh no i have one more

[0:23:23] Voice 23: point that i forgot we had a resignation on the governance committee uh trustee middleton is

[0:23:28] Voice 23: stepping down and so we've got a year left or slightly less than a year um if anybody wants

[0:23:33] Voice 23: to help with that work plan that would be much appreciated it's an elected position thank you

[0:23:38] Trustee Patrick: and we do have time on the agenda a later item on the agenda if if uh trustees want to proceed with

[0:23:44] Trustee Patrick: that so we can review that at the end of the day so people are prepared help me remember yeah okay

[0:23:50] Trustee Patrick: we move on to 4.1.3.4 the regional planning committee and that would be uh chair married

[0:23:56] Trustee Patrick: Hello,

[0:23:58] Voice 24: everybody. And nothing much to report other than what's in the report. Thanks, Stefan. We didn't have a meeting because of the strike and we are planning a meeting in January to sort of review where we are and get back on track.

[0:24:16] Voice 24: a few things have changed and of course the budget you know initial discussions will have taken place

[0:24:23] Voice 24: um so yeah more later thank you thank you

[0:24:30] Trustee Patrick: very much on to 4.1.3.5 trust programs committee and

[0:24:35] Trustee Patrick: that would be chair christine evans thanks

[0:24:40] Voice 15: um likewise not much to report um we didn't have

[0:24:43] Voice 15: a meeting that got cancelled due to the strike as well um we did have one webinar that uh that

[0:24:49] Voice 15: was launched so that was a species at risk and that was november 19th and the next one is the

[0:24:54] Voice 15: shoreline protection that's coming up on december 10th thank you

[0:24:58] Trustee Patrick: next item is 4.1.3.6 it's the

[0:25:03] Trustee Patrick: accessibility committee apologies that they work program no just it will get into the next agenda

[0:25:09] Trustee Patrick: And I'm sure it's just programs, but we'll get the chair, Lisa Gavreau, to give us a verbal update on that committee.

[0:25:16] Voice 26: Thank you very much.

[0:25:18] Voice 26: At our October 7th meeting, we elected a chair and vice chair.

[0:25:23] Voice 26: I was acclaimed as chair and Lisa Neeson as vice chair.

[0:25:28] Voice 26: For our follow-up actions, staff reported about a new accessibility feedback mechanism for the Amish Trust website,

[0:25:36] Voice 26: site, offering email, email address, and online form has largely been set up. Final implementation

[0:25:45] Voice 26: has been delayed due to the strike action, but the work's very close to completion and will

[0:25:51] Voice 26: complete as soon as capacity allows. The main focus of our meeting was a business case

[0:25:58] Voice 26: and project charter for developing an accessibility plan. The committee agreed that we don't have the

[0:26:04] Voice 26: capacity in-house or in-house expertise to produce that kind of plan that we need, given

[0:26:11] Voice 26: the unique nature of the Amherst Trust, and therefore we supported a business case for

[0:26:15] Voice 26: the 2026-27 budget to hire a consultant with accessibility expertise in this work to help

[0:26:25] Voice 26: us as a committee, and also some funds for outreach and public feedback.

[0:26:30] Voice 26: back. We also received an update on the local community accessibility grant. The grantor

[0:26:38] Voice 26: approved $13,000 for accessibility improvements at the Salt Spring office and encouraged us

[0:26:45] Voice 26: to go for the full amount of the grant, which is $25,000. While the grant itself cannot

[0:26:51] Voice 26: not be used to create an accessibility plan. We decided to use the additional $11,000

[0:26:59] Voice 26: towards an accessibility audit that was done on the website. Actually, that was done about a year

[0:27:07] Voice 26: ago, but to work on those improvements on the website. Our next regular meeting is January 15th

[0:27:17] Voice 26: and we will continue

[0:27:19] Voice 26: recruiting for additional

[0:27:21] Voice 26: members for the

[0:27:24] Voice 26: committee if anybody is

[0:27:25] Voice 26: interested. Thank you.

[0:27:27] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much and while you still

[0:27:30] Trustee Patrick: have your mic at 4.1.3.7

[0:27:32] Trustee Patrick: it's the Island's Trust Conservancy

[0:27:34] Trustee Patrick: quarterly reports on page 55

[0:27:36] Trustee Patrick: of the agenda package and once again

[0:27:38] Trustee Patrick: Chair Gavro.

[0:27:39] Voice 26: Thank you very much. As of September

[0:27:42] Voice 26: 2025 the Island's Trust Conservancy

[0:27:44] Voice 26: protects 115

[0:27:45] Voice 26: and 15 conservation properties, 34 nature reserves, and 81 conservation covenants,

[0:27:53] Voice 26: 29 of those being NAPTEP covenants. Our major focus for this quarter and last has been

[0:27:59] Voice 26: recruitment. We currently have three vacancies in covenant management, covenant management

[0:28:05] Voice 26: specialist, communication specialist, and an administrative assistant. We've managed to find

[0:28:11] Voice 26: some contract and support to help fill in the gaps but still this is a perfect this is so that their

[0:28:17] Voice 26: priority work can continue we've been working kind of behind the scenes on the five-year

[0:28:25] Voice 26: five-year plan staff have been reviewing engagement approaches updated project charter

[0:28:32] Voice 26: and timelines the first step it would be external engagement sending letters

[0:28:39] Voice 26: the Indigenous Covenant Bodies, and coordinating initial meetings.

[0:28:44] Voice 26: That work is planned for perhaps the end of this quarter and into the new year.

[0:28:50] Voice 26: Negotiations also continue for several securement projects,

[0:28:54] Voice 26: including a potential new nature reserve on Galliano and Salt Spring,

[0:28:58] Voice 26: and a NAPTEP covenants on North Pender and Salt Spring.

[0:29:02] Voice 26: The Board has reviewed two new applications in the last quarter,

[0:29:08] Voice 26: and the annual projected area

[0:29:11] Voice 26: monitoring is ongoing. Some reporting to landholders

[0:29:15] Voice 26: was delayed due to the BCGEU

[0:29:19] Voice 26: sorry, BCGEU job action.

[0:29:23] Voice 26: Contracts are moving ahead for the face of species management

[0:29:27] Voice 26: on Bowen Island and for water quality monitoring on

[0:29:31] Voice 26: Salt Spring. The Species at Risk program is

[0:29:35] Voice 26: undergoing an external evaluation. The SAR data legacy report is being compiled and mapped through

[0:29:43] Voice 26: a co-op student project. We delivered a special stewardship education webinar on species at risk

[0:29:50] Voice 26: on November 19th, which was very well received

[0:29:53] Voice 26: with 88 participants and so far 63 views of the recording.

[0:30:00] Voice 26: on the Islands Trust YouTube page.

[0:30:04] Voice 26: And for communications and outreach,

[0:30:06] Voice 26: our work has been focused on the ITC's 35th anniversary

[0:30:10] Voice 26: outreach at fall fairs, social media,

[0:30:14] Voice 26: and preparing upcoming newsletters.

[0:30:16] Voice 26: All activities are pending

[0:30:18] Voice 26: until a new communications specialist is onboarded.

[0:30:21] Voice 26: Thank you very much.

[0:30:23] Trustee Patrick: All right, thank you very much.

[0:30:25] Trustee Patrick: So by general consent,

[0:30:27] Trustee Patrick: can we adopt the recommendations as presented

[0:30:30] Trustee Patrick: in items 4.1.3 and 4.1.3.5 and, or through 1.4.1.3.7.

[0:30:41] Trustee Patrick: The mouthful.

[0:30:43] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[0:30:44] Trustee Patrick: I also noticed I ran right past my notes at the beginning.

[0:30:47] Trustee Patrick: I was going to ask for your general consent that the Islands Trust Conservancy board members

[0:30:52] Trustee Patrick: be welcome to speak during our discussions.

[0:30:55] Trustee Patrick: Of course, they can't vote, but through your general consent, I think Risa Smith will be

[0:30:59] Trustee Patrick: joining us later too.

[0:31:00] Trustee Patrick: too. So, like I said, unfortunately, we had to be way over there at this other table. It would

[0:31:04] Trustee Patrick: have been nice to have them at the table, but they do have a microphone. So, thank you very much.

[0:31:11] Trustee Patrick: Now, moving on. Trustee Harris, did you have something?

[0:31:16] Voice 31: Thank you. Yeah, I just didn't want to be included in that general consent. I disagree with what you

[0:31:21] Voice 31: just stated about the Alice Trust Conservancy. Thank you.

[0:31:26] Trustee Patrick: All right. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to move on to

[0:31:30] Voice 9: general

[0:31:31] Trustee Patrick: consent.

[0:31:33] Trustee Patrick: We've missed one person. Sorry.

[0:31:35] Trustee Patrick: Yeah, because general consent means everybody's okay with it.

[0:31:37] Trustee Patrick: So, I do need a vote.

[0:31:41] Voice 16: Just call it.

[0:31:42] Voice 7: You receive all these.

[0:31:44] Trustee Patrick: Oh, no, no. He's to the trust conservancy speaking.

[0:31:48] Trustee Patrick: Oh.

[0:31:48] Trustee Patrick: So, I would need a motion then. I would need a motion.

[0:31:51] Trustee Patrick: Yeah.

[0:31:52] Trustee Patrick: Can someone do a motion to allow that you go ahead?

[0:31:56] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Forthwick.

[0:31:58] Voice 36: I move that the Islands Trust Conservancy board members be invited to speak during the Trust Council.

[0:32:08] Okay.

[0:32:09] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Allen.

[0:32:11] Trustee Patrick: Is there any discussion?

[0:32:16] Trustee Patrick: Seeing none, I'm going to call the vote.

[0:32:18] Trustee Patrick: All those in favor, raise your hands.

[0:32:20] Trustee Patrick: Online, your digital hands.

[0:32:28] Voice 16: 18 and 20 total.

[0:32:31] Voice 16: All right.

[0:32:32] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands.

[0:32:36] Trustee Patrick: Any opposed?

[0:32:39] Trustee Patrick: One.

[0:32:39] Trustee Patrick: That carries.

[0:32:42] Trustee Patrick: So I'm going to move on to item five, new business.

[0:32:45] Trustee Patrick: We had one item in the addendum, 5.1.

[0:32:48] Trustee Patrick: This was a notice of motion that was provided in our September meeting.

[0:32:53] Trustee Patrick: And I'm just going to present that.

[0:32:55] Trustee Patrick: Is that going to be Trustee Stamford or are you going to talk to that?

[0:33:02] Trustee Patrick: David, are you going to talk to this one or not?

[0:33:07] Trustee Patrick: I'll let Trustee Stamford start.

[0:33:09] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead.

[0:33:10] Trustee Patrick: Oh, that was Trustee Stamford.

[0:33:11] Trustee Patrick: Yes.

[0:33:12] Voice 28: Yes, thank you.

[0:33:13] Voice 28: I don't have much to add to this.

[0:33:15] Voice 28: It's fairly self-explanatory, just allowing advisory commissions to be able to meet virtually.

[0:33:25] Voice 28: It's a particular issue in my island group or the Gambier-Keats Island area because we don't have a central area.

[0:33:33] Voice 28: We're not connected by any physical systems.

[0:33:37] Voice 28: So this provides us the ability to get on with our fairly essential advisory work, especially with our official community plans.

[0:33:45] Voice 28: So that's the introduction.

[0:33:47] Voice 28: And I can present the motion.

[0:33:50] Voice 28: I move that Trust Council request staff to provide options for local trust committees to obtain the permission to hold advisory body meetings by means of electronic or other communication facilities.

[0:34:03] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second?

[0:34:04] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Borthwick.

[0:34:05] Trustee Patrick: any discussion go ahead trustee elliot i'm

[0:34:18] Voice 27: just conscious that the um the discussion on the

[0:34:20] Voice 27: operational review hasn't happened yet and so some of those recommendations are not to direct work

[0:34:26] Voice 27: um or to prioritize work that has had say a feasibility study if it's a major project so

[0:34:34] Voice 27: So can we hold this decision until after that, perhaps, just not knowing how much work is

[0:34:45] Voice 27: needed to go into this and sort of right off the bat directing something that I don't know

[0:34:52] Voice 27: what else is going to have to come off the work plan to accommodate, not that I don't

[0:34:57] Voice 27: support the initiative.

[0:34:58] Voice 27: It just, there's a lot of unknowns right now.

[0:35:03] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Stanford.

[0:35:05] Voice 28: Yes. As I looked at this edition, I was like, hmm, how does it fit with what's being written or what's being advised later on? I'm not sure how much work this will be. I'm interested to hear if there is a response from staff. I know there's been a lot of back and forth on this particular issue.

[0:35:25] Voice 28: um there may be nothing that can be done i'm not sure at this point so i'm willing to table this

[0:35:35] Voice 28: and it hasn't been seconded but or has has been seconded i'm willing to table to opposite

[0:35:40] Voice 28: conversation if that is considered more appropriate by the

[0:35:44] Voice 28: council why

[0:35:45] Trustee Patrick: don't we let's do that then and

[0:35:47] Trustee Patrick: um i just need to have someone move to the move it to the table or take move to table it you wish

[0:35:56] Trustee Patrick: to do that well let's see if someone wants to table it first okay go ahead trustee evans my

[0:36:07] Voice 15: suggestion for this type of conversation that we're having because we're going to be having

[0:36:11] Voice 15: them a lot is that if possible staff make a keep a record of the motions passed and then at a later

[0:36:20] Voice 15: point in the meeting we take a look at the strategic plan and we prioritize work that's

[0:36:27] Voice 15: what should be happening and that's what's not happening so these motions can be made it doesn't

[0:36:32] Voice 15: mean that the work has to happen now it means that we have to prioritize it when we get there

[0:36:37] Voice 15: and it will determine then what uh what staff work on and what they don't all right trustee

[0:36:45] Trustee Patrick: stanford how would you like to proceed table it or i'm

[0:36:51] Voice 28: fine either way so it's never been a big

[0:36:55] Voice 28: why don't we table it okay and I just need

[0:36:59] Voice 28: a motion to take my moves that we

[0:37:01] Voice 28: table the motion until after a discussion with the operational reviews

[0:37:07] Trustee Patrick: okay seconded by trustee Elliott there's no debate I just need to run call the

[0:37:11] Trustee Patrick: motion to table this until later in the meeting all those in favor raise your

[0:37:16] Trustee Patrick: hands

[0:37:20] Voice 7: right

[0:37:24] Trustee Patrick: lower your hands any opposed all right so that carries

[0:37:33] Trustee Patrick: So we're going to move on the agenda here.

[0:37:38] Trustee Patrick: So we're in item six.

[0:37:39] Trustee Patrick: It's the executive section.

[0:37:41] Trustee Patrick: Through general consent, we have items 4.1.1, 4.1.2, and 4.1.3, asking you to as presented

[0:37:51] Trustee Patrick: through general consent.

[0:37:52] Trustee Patrick: Can you accept those?

[0:37:53] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[0:38:00] Trustee Patrick: I guess did I see, Ronnie, did you want to make any comments?

[0:38:04] Trustee Patrick: No.

[0:38:05] Trustee Patrick: So it's been accepted.

[0:38:06] Trustee Patrick: So that's good.

[0:38:07] Trustee Patrick: we're going to keep moving forward we're at item 6.2 um these are the discussion items under the

[0:38:13] Trustee Patrick: executive section we have 6.2.1 it's the proposed 2026-27 trust council meeting schedules request

[0:38:20] Trustee Patrick: for decision on page 71 of our agenda package who's ca brian thank

[0:38:28] Voice 18: you chair i one comment on

[0:38:30] Voice 18: this one so we're looking to schedule as we usually do um the next year of trust council

[0:38:35] Voice 18: meetings. I do want to note, though, that we had the proposed schedule that you have before you has

[0:38:41] Voice 18: three in-person meetings for 26-27, the November and December ones, which would be the first two

[0:38:48] Voice 18: meetings of an incoming council, and then also the March 20-27 meeting is proposed for Galeano

[0:38:54] Voice 18: Island. However, in reviewing the recommendations from Financial Planning Committee, they asked that

[0:39:01] Voice 18: we reduce the number of in-person meetings from the usual four to two of course we actually have

[0:39:09] Voice 18: five because of the November meeting so the budget that you have for consideration later in this

[0:39:15] Voice 18: meeting only has a budget for two meetings so I flag that only that when you get to the second

[0:39:21] Voice 18: recommended resolution here you may want to consider my recommendation would be to also

[0:39:26] Voice 18: have the Galeano Island March 2027 meeting as virtual that way you are

[0:39:31] Voice 18: setting aside the funding if we stick with just funding the two meetings as

[0:39:36] Voice 18: those first two meetings of an incoming council thank you all

[0:39:41] Trustee Patrick: right trustees we

[0:39:44] Trustee Patrick: have three recommendations do we want to deal with these in pieces might be good

[0:39:50] Trustee Patrick: so we have the first section which is the one that just sets the dates for the

[0:39:55] Trustee Patrick: the next meetings. Go ahead. Trustee Scott, did you have a question?

[0:40:04] Voice 37: No, it wasn't about the dates.

[0:40:05] Voice 37: I was more interested in number three, so I'll just hold off for a bit.

[0:40:10] Trustee Patrick: Okay, thank you. So for

[0:40:12] Trustee Patrick: number one, there's no objections to the dates. I'd entertain the motion for number one. Go ahead,

[0:40:22] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Borthwick.

[0:40:24] Voice 36: I move that Trust Council adopt quarterly meeting dates and start times

[0:40:27] Voice 36: to the end of the fiscal 2026-27 of

[0:40:31] Voice 36: A. June 16-18, 2026, starting at 1pm on June 16.

[0:40:37] Voice 36: B. September 9-11, 2026, starting at 1pm on September 9.

[0:40:43] Voice 36: C. November 12-14, 2026, starting at 2pm on November 12.

[0:40:50] Voice 36: D. December 8-10, 2026, starting at 1pm on December 8.

[0:40:54] Voice 36: and finally e march 9th to 11th 2027 starting at 1 p.m on march 9th thank

[0:41:01] Trustee Patrick: you is there a second

[0:41:02] Trustee Patrick: second by trustee allen any discussion up trustee bolin

[0:41:09] Voice 24: uh i just wonder if there's any consideration

[0:41:13] Voice 24: being given to reducing the number of days of trust council given that we appear to be more

[0:41:20] Voice 24: efficient and we are having those committee of the whole meeting dates established in advance

[0:41:26] Voice 24: dance um the last couple of meetings i feel like we got through things reasonably briskly

[0:41:32] Voice 24: and um i just think it's an opportunity and you know it might actually make depending on how it

[0:41:41] Voice 24: worked out but there's a possibility that it would make traveling easier and make uh you know

[0:41:48] Voice 24: the requirement for hotels etc where they're not electronic and more straightforward just a thought

[0:41:56] Voice 24: I don't know if anybody else would support that.

[0:42:01] Voice 24: CAO Browning.

[0:42:02] Voice 18: Thank you.

[0:42:03] Voice 18: And through the chair, thank you for the question, Trustee Bull.

[0:42:05] Voice 18: And at this point, we have assumed status quo in terms of the three-day meeting schedule,

[0:42:11] Voice 18: in part because there's still the opportunity to shorten those later.

[0:42:16] Voice 18: And it's easier to shorten them than lengthen them when it comes to planning and booking

[0:42:19] Voice 18: venues.

[0:42:20] Voice 18: And we also wanted to offer that flexibility, given that a number of these meetings would

[0:42:24] Voice 18: be for a new council particularly those first two in-person meetings given um the priority we're

[0:42:30] Voice 18: placing on onboarding orientation for a new council we felt for those two in-person meetings in

[0:42:35] Voice 18: particular keeping with the three-day would be particularly valuable um but as i say we so the

[0:42:40] Voice 18: proposal was to keep them at three days with the option to shorten if there's a decision later on

[0:42:45] Voice 18: to to revisit the format thank you thank

[0:42:48] Trustee Patrick: you any other discussion trustee getty um

[0:42:53] Voice 23: i'm not sure if

[0:42:54] Voice 23: it's going to come up in the discussion on number two in terms of the september meeting being like

[0:42:58] Voice 23: being electronic but the in 1b september 9th to 11th that's the wednesday thursday friday of the

[0:43:07] Voice 23: week before ubcm which is all next week so in terms of the work of the executive committee

[0:43:13] Voice 23: and anybody else that's going to ubcm and if there's any staff involved that that is back

[0:43:18] Voice 23: to back it's pretty heavy yes

[0:43:22] Trustee Patrick: it is it's hard to see everybody yeah

[0:43:25] Voice 18: thank you to the chair thank

[0:43:27] Voice 18: you trustee getty i think we we have had considered that um in part the budget right now um only calls

[0:43:33] Voice 18: for i believe for ubcm for the chair and one staff person to attend ubcm so that makes it a little

[0:43:40] Voice 18: less of a factor except for the chair and likely myself but we also when we look at the timing

[0:43:46] Voice 18: around budget planning and the budget cycle that was the most viable option for us to be able to

[0:43:51] Voice 18: fit in the budget planning and be able to have the budget work done in advance of the election as well

[0:43:56] Voice 18: any

[0:44:00] Trustee Patrick: further discussion being none i'm going to call the vote all those in favor raise your hands

[0:44:18] Voice 20: 19, 20. Sorry. Lower

[0:44:21] Trustee Patrick: your hands. Any opposed? Two opposed. That carries.

[0:44:29] Trustee Patrick: Oh, so that was 20 to 2. 20.

[0:44:32] Trustee Patrick: Hey, so the next discussion item is the electronic versus in-person. I do note that the December, looking at whether or not to make any of those three meetings, which we know the first one cannot be, for the November 26 meeting must be in-person because that is the swearing in and the onboarding, that the December meeting is set by our meeting procedure bylaws for December.

[0:45:00] Trustee Patrick: So a change to the bylaw would have to occur if you wanted to recommend that the December.

[0:45:07] Trustee Patrick: Any discussion on the in-person versus electronic on the meetings for the second set?

[0:45:14] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Peterson.

[0:45:18] Voice 6: Yeah, in particular around the notion of changing the 2027 March meeting to electronic.

[0:45:24] Voice 6: I think all of this council will recall that from the beginning of our term, electronic versus in-person has been an ongoing discussion.

[0:45:38] Voice 6: I personally would be really uncomfortable about making a funding decision that limited the ability of the Income and Trust Council to make that determination for themselves about their first budget meeting in March.

[0:45:50] Voice 6: march um so i can't support at this point i can't support uh making that decision on behalf of the

[0:45:58] Voice 6: incoming trust council

[0:46:01] Voice 24: trustee boland uh just a question that december meeting uh the policy that

[0:46:12] Voice 24: makes it necessary to have it face to face is that every year or is it just in the year

[0:46:18] Voice 24: after an election.

[0:46:23] Trustee Patrick: We're going to check, but we believe it's every year,

[0:46:26] Trustee Patrick: just as the December.

[0:46:27] Trustee Patrick: It's not that the bylaw can't be changed.

[0:46:29] Voice 24: And what

[0:46:29] Voice 24: is the purpose?

[0:46:31] Voice 24: Is the purpose described or the reason for it described?

[0:46:36] Voice 24: We're looking it up.

[0:46:38] Voice 24: Thanks.

[0:46:42] Trustee Patrick: Okay, bye.

[0:46:43] Trustee Patrick: We're going to keep going on through discussion.

[0:46:45] Trustee Patrick: We'll come back and answer the question, Trustee Bowen.

[0:46:47] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[0:46:48] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Fowle?

[0:46:50] Voice 16: Yeah, has any thought been put towards

[0:46:52] Voice 16: or rationale for why it's 9 o'clock in the morning start?

[0:46:57] Voice 16: Haven't we had so much trouble with reaching quorum?

[0:47:00] Voice 16: And if everybody's working, or a lot of people are working,

[0:47:05] Voice 16: isn't that kind of compounding the problem?

[0:47:07] Voice 16: I think it's a 1 p

[0:47:08] Trustee Patrick: .m. or 2 p.m. start.

[0:47:12] Trustee Patrick: Oh, on number three?

[0:47:16] Trustee Patrick: Oh, those are committee of the whole meeting,

[0:47:20] Trustee Patrick: so that's the next one.

[0:47:22] Voice 16: My apology.

[0:47:23] Trustee Patrick: That's right.

[0:47:24] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Maberly?

[0:47:27] Voice 8: Yeah. I mean, I, I, um, you know, I've said this before. Um, I'm conscious of the budget. I'm

[0:47:36] Voice 8: conscious that it's my desire to, to, for the budget to be, um, reduced. Um, but it's a slippery

[0:47:45] Voice 8: slope when you start making everything electronic. Um, if you look for that fiscal year, you'd have

[0:47:51] Voice 8: two meetings in Victoria and that's it. Um, that's not getting out to the trust areas and,

[0:47:57] Voice 8: and seeing how the other trustees at this table

[0:48:03] Voice 8: are not getting to their regions.

[0:48:07] Voice 8: I just think it's a slippery slope.

[0:48:11] Voice 8: But, you know, this has been an ongoing discussion at every meeting,

[0:48:15] Voice 8: and I think it's prudent to budget for in-person meetings

[0:48:23] Voice 8: and then let the new trust council decide

[0:48:26] Voice 8: whether they want to go electronic or not at that point.

[0:48:29] Voice 8: But to do it, I don't think it's our place to do it.

[0:48:36] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Borthwick?

[0:48:39] Voice 36: Yeah, similarly, I really appreciate the desire to sort of minimize the budget here.

[0:48:45] Voice 36: I am similar to Trustee Maberly.

[0:48:49] Voice 36: I think we do our best work when we're in person and we're on islands.

[0:48:53] Voice 36: I think it's important for our communities to see us come and, you know, and they do cost more.

[0:48:59] Voice 36: But a lot of that money goes into the communities where we where we are.

[0:49:03] Voice 36: That said, with the proposal that's in front of us, I appreciate that the weight is being given to in person for for the new trustees.

[0:49:12] Voice 36: I think it's important. I'm you know, I would like to round out this term with one more meeting in person.

[0:49:20] Voice 36: Ideally would be my preference. But but also I understand that if that's the weight that's got to go, that's that'll be what we decide here.

[0:49:27] Voice 36: year. Further to what Trustee Boland was raising and this bylaw that necessitates an in-person

[0:49:35] Voice 36: December meeting, I'm curious because our first meeting after being sworn in in December was

[0:49:42] Voice 36: electronic. And I remember because I didn't have internet and I had to sit in a very cold room

[0:49:46] Voice 36: for three days. So I'm curious as to if that existed prior and why it wasn't enforced or

[0:49:53] Voice 36: what happened. And just, you know, whatever it is, it's fine. But I'm just curious. Yeah.

[0:49:57] Trustee Patrick: Just to clarify,

[0:50:01] Voice 7: the meeting procedure bylaw does not require the meeting to be held in Victoria.

[0:50:06] Voice 7: It just specifies the meetings will be held in these particular months,

[0:50:10] Voice 7: and Trust Council in December will establish that schedule of where they're going to be meeting.

[0:50:16] Voice 7: So are you free to change that?

[0:50:20] Trustee Patrick: Okay. And I do want to point out, March is in-person, so you do have another in-person meeting for certain this term.

[0:50:27] Voice 29: All

[0:50:28] Trustee Patrick: right, Trustee Evans.

[0:50:32] Voice 15: Yeah, so I also don't support

[0:50:34] Voice 15: a Federing the incoming council

[0:50:36] Voice 15: by not having the budget available

[0:50:38] Voice 15: for them to meet in person.

[0:50:40] Voice 15: If they wish to make further reductions

[0:50:42] Voice 15: at the December meeting too,

[0:50:44] Voice 15: then they can call that themselves.

[0:50:48] Voice 15: The other thing,

[0:50:49] Voice 15: we do have the policy statement work coming up

[0:50:51] Voice 15: that'll be coming back to us

[0:50:53] Voice 15: in our last couple of meetings.

[0:50:55] Voice 15: I would prefer to have one of those in person as well.

[0:50:58] Voice 15: um it's better i find it easier to hold conversations when we're in the same room

[0:51:04] Voice 15: if we do decide to go electronic i will still need to travel and have accommodation because

[0:51:08] Voice 15: i also do not have internet i cannot be online three days i can barely be online for a couple

[0:51:14] Voice 15: of hours without getting kicked off regularly as anyone on trust programs is aware of um so

[0:51:22] Voice 15: and i know that there are others in this room that still suffer the same thing i'm happy to

[0:51:26] Voice 15: come and sit in victoria office for that but i will still need accommodation and travel trustee

[0:51:32] Trustee Patrick: getty uh

[0:51:36] Voice 23: put in a um bylaw amendment and i'm not sure when that comes in with respect to the

[0:51:43] Voice 23: discussion now is contrary to the existing bylaw but um we can i think we can still have the

[0:51:50] Voice 23: discussion but um we have to be aware that the bylaw says something slightly different

[0:51:55] Voice 23: not sure at the first regular meeting um sorry the first regular meeting council shall be held

[0:52:04] Voice 23: on the first wednesday in november following a general local election for instance the december

[0:52:11] Voice 23: um the next paragraph uh with the exception of the year of a general local election when

[0:52:17] Voice 23: the december meeting shall be held in november not both go ahead yeah

[0:52:23] Voice 7: thank you for raising that

[0:52:25] Voice 7: That is a very restrictive requirement in your bylaw, and it's a problem.

[0:52:30] Voice 7: It was last time, and it is this time.

[0:52:32] Voice 7: We intend to bring an amendment to council to make that change

[0:52:37] Voice 7: and adjust the bylaw to allow you to have the first meeting sometime in November after the election

[0:52:45] Voice 7: rather than specify the first Wednesday,

[0:52:48] Voice 7: because the first Wednesday can conflict with when Boeing Council meets.

[0:52:54] Voice 7: that is we need to wait until after point council has met before we know who the trustees are for

[0:53:00] Voice 7: a boy and miss penalty so

[0:53:02] Voice 23: i submitted a motion to amend um so that we could accommodate the

[0:53:08] Voice 23: november 12th to 14th i didn't submit a motion with respect to the second one i didn't think

[0:53:13] Voice 23: that was uh

[0:53:14] Trustee Patrick: director marler says he's going to be bringing this forward anyway so we don't need a

[0:53:18] Trustee Patrick: motion on that to amend the bylaw at this time okay so

[0:53:23] Trustee Patrick: we can save that is that called trumping

[0:53:30] Trustee Patrick: okay trustee scott thank

[0:53:34] Voice 37: you um i just know how important it is for the islands trust

[0:53:39] Voice 37: to get out to the various islands for the people on the islands to be able to

[0:53:43] Voice 37: come into the meetings and for for us to be able to i mean the meetings i've been to on galliano

[0:53:49] Voice 37: and salt spring you know on the first term and then i think it was covid really kicked in the

[0:53:55] Voice 37: electronic meeting thing it's i think it's very dangerous for us to move more and more towards

[0:54:02] Voice 37: electronic and in a sense isolate our communities away from from what we're doing i mean even the

[0:54:09] Voice 37: meetings in nanaimo would be better for the people from hornby might go there but they're

[0:54:15] Voice 37: they're certainly not going to go to Victoria.

[0:54:18] Voice 37: And, you know, a meeting on Denman or something like that,

[0:54:21] Voice 37: I mean, I just think it's really important

[0:54:23] Voice 37: to keep those community meetings going

[0:54:26] Voice 37: and not just get more and more electronic.

[0:54:29] Voice 37: I think somebody else said the same thing.

[0:54:31] Voice 37: So thank you.

[0:54:32] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[0:54:33] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Boland, and then I'd like to have someone

[0:54:36] Trustee Patrick: put a motion on the floor, if we can.

[0:54:40] Voice 24: Trustee Boland?

[0:54:41] Voice 24: Thanks.

[0:54:42] Voice 24: I'd just like to remind everyone

[0:54:44] Voice 24: one of the CAO's operation report where he says that it takes two weeks of staff time

[0:54:50] Voice 24: to prepare for a face-to-face meeting, in addition to the costs that we've already been given.

[0:54:58] Voice 24: So it is not an inconsiderable thing.

[0:55:01] Voice 24: And I think if you move to smaller islands and you change location,

[0:55:06] Voice 24: we've seen how difficult it is to maintain good internet, to find accommodation.

[0:55:11] Voice 24: foundation so i really strenuously think that we should if there are meetings being held face to

[0:55:19] Voice 24: face they should go to the same location each time to make it easier to set up so nanaimo yes

[0:55:26] Voice 24: and victoria but i think um given we should give consideration serious to the amount of effort

[0:55:34] Voice 24: required to run those meetings as opposed to the value we get from them thank you thank you

[0:55:43] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Gavreau, are you going to make the motion?

[0:55:46] Trustee Patrick: No?

[0:55:47] Trustee Patrick: I'm sorry, Trustee Yates, I did leap over you.

[0:55:51] Trustee Patrick: I apologize.

[0:55:55] Voice 34: Yes, you've heard this before.

[0:55:58] Voice 34: With all consideration to the CAO's report, which I read twice, and I really understand it,

[0:56:06] Voice 34: and with all consideration to budget, because I'm a taxpayer too,

[0:56:11] Voice 34: I feel that we do our best work in person I really see that I really believe it I have watched it

[0:56:21] Voice 34: for 30 years I feel it's money well spent but I know how much it costs and I know how much staff

[0:56:30] Voice 34: work goes into having in-person council meetings I'm really reluctant to at this point cancel an

[0:56:39] Voice 34: an in-person meeting for 2027. That will be a new trust council. They should make that decision.

[0:56:46] Voice 34: I'm also really reluctant to see a June 2026 electronic meeting because those are the longest

[0:56:56] Voice 34: days of the year. They're good for travel. It's before the tourist season. And that's when we need

[0:57:02] Voice 34: to be seeing what we are trying to preserve and protect on whatever island is able to host

[0:57:09] Voice 34: such a meeting which I know it's really limited mainly because of our electronic

[0:57:14] Voice 34: requirements I really get that I've thought about why do we have to

[0:57:21] Voice 34: livestream there are no decisions that we make at these council meetings that

[0:57:26] Voice 34: can't be watched afterwards in a recording and the live streaming is

[0:57:32] Voice 34: It's really expensive.

[0:57:33] Voice 34: It's part of it.

[0:57:37] Voice 34: Anyway, those are my thoughts.

[0:57:40] Voice 34: I fully respect this council's decisions and ideas.

[0:57:47] Voice 34: I just preferred to,

[0:57:48] Voice 34: I just prefer to work with you all in person.

[0:57:52] Voice 34: Thank you.

[0:57:53] Voice 34: Trustee

[0:57:54] Trustee Patrick: Gavreau.

[0:57:57] Voice 26: Just wanted to voice my support

[0:57:59] Voice 26: for keeping the Galliano in person meeting.

[0:58:01] Voice 26: the last time that you were on

[0:58:03] Voice 26: this council was on Galeano

[0:58:05] Voice 26: was when we passed the

[0:58:08] Voice 26: reconciliation action plan

[0:58:09] Voice 26: that was a very some of you were at that

[0:58:11] Voice 26: meeting and these are very important

[0:58:13] Voice 26: meetings and these are very important times

[0:58:16] Voice 26: perhaps making a decision

[0:58:18] Voice 26: for a future council should be left

[0:58:20] Voice 26: for the future council

[0:58:22] Trustee Patrick: I'd really like to

[0:58:24] Trustee Patrick: get a motion I can see the

[0:58:25] Trustee Patrick: conversations are still going but I think it would be

[0:58:27] Trustee Patrick: helpful at this point if we had a motion on the table

[0:58:29] Trustee Patrick: so we've heard general things so go ahead trustee fast thank

[0:58:36] Voice 29: you having heard no voices

[0:58:39] Voice 29: but maybe i'm mistaken uh against the um what's described in number two here i move that trust

[0:58:47] Voice 29: council adopt quarterly meeting locations to the end of fiscal 2026-27 of june 26th electronic

[0:58:54] Voice 29: September 2026 electronic November 2026 Victoria BC December 2026 Victoria BC and March 2027

[0:59:04] Voice 29: Galliano Island is

[0:59:06] Trustee Patrick: there a second second by Trustee Elliot any discussion I'm going to start a new list

[0:59:13] Trustee Patrick: uh Trustee Evans I'd

[0:59:19] Voice 15: like to make an amendment um I'd like to amend um the June 2026 electronic

[0:59:26] Voice 15: Electronic to in-person

[0:59:28] Voice 22: because.

[0:59:30] Trustee Patrick: No, don't debate it yet.

[0:59:32] Trustee Patrick: So you're asking to move or to amend the motion to change June 2026 to in-person.

[0:59:40] Trustee Patrick: Is that what I'm understanding?

[0:59:41] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[0:59:42] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second to that motion?

[0:59:43] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Yates.

[0:59:45] Trustee Patrick: So we have an amendment on the floor to amend item A, electronic to in-person.

[0:59:51] Trustee Patrick: Discussion?

[0:59:53] Trustee Patrick: You may speak.

[0:59:54] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead.

[0:59:54] Trustee Patrick: The

[0:59:56] Voice 15: reason why I'm suggesting that June be in person is

[1:00:00] Voice 15: because we have the trust policy statement work coming back,

[1:00:02] Voice 15: that is going to be a large conversation.

[1:00:04] Voice 15: And I think we need to be in person to hear both from staff,

[1:00:08] Voice 15: see and have a public presence as well.

[1:00:16] Trustee Patrick: Any other discussion?

[1:00:18] Trustee Patrick: Your mic's still on, Trustee Allen.

[1:00:21] Trustee Patrick: Trustee, who's on the list?

[1:00:23] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Allen?

[1:00:24] Trustee Patrick: Sorry, just sorry.

[1:00:25] Trustee Patrick: Trying to follow this.

[1:00:26] Trustee Patrick: We're just going to answer.

[1:00:28] Trustee Patrick: Okay, Trustee Allen.

[1:00:29] Voice 25: Yeah, I just want to follow up on what Trustee Yates says

[1:00:32] Voice 25: this in terms of um virtual like how much does it cost to um have it live streaming is it expensive

[1:00:38] Voice 25: when we have our trust councils like for people watching and i'm curious when i'm at when i'm at

[1:00:44] Voice 25: zoom a trust council i don't see anybody watching this ever and um so i'm just curious

[1:00:53] Voice 25: how much does it cost to live stream our trust councils all right

[1:00:57] Voice 7: go ahead yeah there's the

[1:01:00] Voice 7: The cost is with a contract that processes the video for us.

[1:01:06] Voice 7: And I'm not sure the exact dollars.

[1:01:08] Voice 7: I think it's around $15,000 a year.

[1:01:11] Voice 7: And in addition to that is just the technology that we need.

[1:01:16] Voice 7: So it's not necessarily a cost in dollars so much as the cost in available resources,

[1:01:23] Voice 7: such as the ability to actually broadcast from wherever we're located.

[1:01:27] Voice 7: I

[1:01:29] Trustee Patrick: think it's the cost of the in-person meeting versus electronic.

[1:01:32] Trustee Patrick: And I guess I'd look to Director Mobs again.

[1:01:35] Trustee Patrick: Generally, the cost of an in-person meeting versus electronic?

[1:01:41] Voice 33: In-person is around $34,000.

[1:01:44] Voice 33: Electronic might be $1,000 to provide some funds for the chair to travel to Victoria.

[1:01:49] Trustee Patrick: Right.

[1:01:50] Trustee Patrick: The speaker's list here.

[1:01:52] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Scott, on the amendment to change June to in-person.

[1:01:59] Voice 8: Trustee Foster.

[1:02:00] Voice 8: I

[1:02:02] Voice 37: didn't know I had my hand up, but I definitely am in favor of the June 2028 meeting being

[1:02:10] Voice 37: in person.

[1:02:11] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:02:12] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Borthwick?

[1:02:14] Voice 36: I am in support of the motion, and I just wanted to sort of further to Trustee Allen

[1:02:19] Voice 36: sort of ask the broad question that I was wondering about, but I wonder if we've talked

[1:02:26] Voice 36: We've talked at length about the difference between in-person and electronic meetings.

[1:02:31] Voice 36: And my sort of thrust, and I don't know if this is what Alex was trying to get at, was

[1:02:36] Voice 36: might that disparity of cost be reduced if we weren't live streaming?

[1:02:43] Voice 36: And might that make those meetings more affordable and broaden the spaces in which we can hold

[1:02:48] Voice 36: them?

[1:02:49] Voice 36: If we're not having to hit to reach to that level of technological connection, that might

[1:02:55] Voice 36: reduce the cost of the meeting overall.

[1:02:57] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Mr. Marler.

[1:03:00] Voice 7: And just in response to that, the live stream cost is not just council.

[1:03:04] Voice 7: It's all of the meetings that are live streamed.

[1:03:07] Voice 7: So $15,000 is for everything.

[1:03:09] Voice 7: So I don't think it would make a huge difference, even those dollars.

[1:03:15] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Elliott?

[1:03:20] Voice 27: This is a really hard one.

[1:03:22] Voice 27: But I don't support the amendment because we have not yet had a single meeting

[1:03:29] Voice 27: in electronics except that first one in December.

[1:03:34] Voice 27: We've had a real focus on meeting face-to-face, but it does cost, and I am hearing from the public, they're wondering why do we need to meet four times a year, and this would be, again, four times in the next fiscal.

[1:03:48] Voice 27: But the second point is the policy statement debate. I think when we receive all the information, the referrals back from all the different agencies, I would actually prefer to have one space for that debate. It might get tough. And I think if everybody is electronic, it actually provides a level of sort of a baseline from which we're all working from the same place.

[1:04:17] Voice 27: There are differences in participation if we're in-person and electronic.

[1:04:24] Voice 27: I think this is one meeting that we could have electronic, and I think that we'd actually benefit from it.

[1:04:29] Voice 27: So I don't support the amendment.

[1:04:31] Trustee Patrick: All right. Any further discussion? Trustee Lockham.

[1:04:37] Trustee Luckham: Thank you, Chair. It wouldn't be the first time I misunderstood.

[1:04:44] Trustee Luckham: understood but um i just question the debate and the merits of any conversation around live

[1:04:52] Trustee Luckham: streaming or not because whether we hold an in-person meeting or an electronic meeting

[1:04:57] Trustee Luckham: correct me we are likely to be continuing to stream and we are likely to be continuing to

[1:05:03] Trustee Luckham: have somebody edit the file to publish it so if we want to reduce that cost stop streaming

[1:05:09] Trustee Luckham: stop publishing the video and let's have meetings.

[1:05:13] Trustee Luckham: So I think in-person or electronic is separate

[1:05:18] Trustee Luckham: from the notion of streaming anything.

[1:05:21] Trustee Luckham: If people are attending by Zoom, we're connected,

[1:05:25] Trustee Luckham: we're doing all that stuff.

[1:05:27] Trustee Luckham: So, and I'm in favor of the in-person meetings.

[1:05:32] Trustee Luckham: Thank you.

[1:05:33] Trustee Patrick: All right, Trustee Boland, then I'm gonna call the vote.

[1:05:37] Trustee Patrick: so about June in person

[1:05:39] Trustee Patrick: amendment

[1:05:40] Voice 24: I support Trustee Elliot's

[1:05:43] Voice 24: point I think it's a very good

[1:05:45] Voice 24: point the other thing I just

[1:05:47] Voice 24: want to add is surely the cost

[1:05:49] Voice 24: if that's the right word

[1:05:51] Voice 24: is the bandwidth required

[1:05:53] Voice 24: when you're trying to connect

[1:05:56] Voice 24: people

[1:05:57] Voice 24: who you know in a hybrid meeting

[1:05:59] Voice 24: and you know

[1:06:01] Voice 24: in dodgy locations

[1:06:03] Voice 24: or locations with dodgy

[1:06:05] Voice 24: wi-fi so i would ask that to be looked at um rather than the actual cost of dollars which

[1:06:13] Voice 24: seems to be not significant but not right now this minute thank you all

[1:06:19] Trustee Patrick: right trustees i'd

[1:06:20] Trustee Patrick: like to call the vote on the amendment to change item a from electronic to in person all those in

[1:06:27] Trustee Patrick: favor raise your hands i

[1:06:38] Voice 25: have 11 all

[1:06:39] Trustee Patrick: right lower your hands all those opposed raise your hands

[1:06:56] Voice 20: so

[1:06:57] Trustee Patrick: that carries so we're back to the motion now as amended is there any further discussion

[1:07:11] Voice 17: so we'd stay with you so

[1:07:12] Trustee Patrick: trustee bernardo right

[1:07:15] Voice 17: um going now back to the main motion here about

[1:07:18] Voice 17: you know now there's just one electronic meeting in there but you know i i want to address that

[1:07:25] Voice 17: issue of this um electronic versus uh in person and saving money issue you know it doesn't have

[1:07:33] Voice 17: to i i'm a little uncomfortable with the way it's being presented as a binary choice which is

[1:07:38] Voice 17: and i think trustee yates sort of i think started us down a good way of thinking about

[1:07:43] Voice 17: this which is there may be ways of having in-person meetings that are just more efficient

[1:07:48] Voice 17: and cost effective and how we and i don't mean just

[1:07:50] Voice 17: cash wise but also resource wise

[1:07:52] Voice 17: the meetings could be shorter um it is valuable to meet in person

[1:08:00] Voice 17: meeting in person there's just a level of communication that is just the meaning of

[1:08:06] Voice 17: what somebody's getting at it's just that it's communicated much easier and and the back and

[1:08:11] Voice 17: forth in between the formal sessions is very helpful in accelerating thinking and getting

[1:08:17] Voice 17: to decision points we've already seen some efficiencies in how trust council meetings

[1:08:24] Voice 17: have been carried out over the past little while and that's simply because some thought

[1:08:29] Voice 17: has gone into simply making them more efficient.

[1:08:32] Voice 17: So we're now making greater use of consent items

[1:08:35] Voice 17: and things are moving on quite nicely that way.

[1:08:38] Voice 17: It's conceivable that we could orchestrate these meetings

[1:08:41] Voice 17: so that there's only one overnight required.

[1:08:44] Voice 17: And that should manifest into some kind of savings,

[1:08:48] Voice 17: both in cash and resources.

[1:08:50] Voice 17: We've had the discussion about the live streaming business.

[1:08:53] Voice 17: Maybe we should revisit this whole question

[1:08:55] Voice 17: as to whether, and to follow up

[1:08:56] Voice 17: on what Peter was talking about,

[1:08:59] Voice 17: maybe and i don't know i don't have a view on any one way or the other about it but it might

[1:09:04] Voice 17: be a legitimate question for us to ask as to whether or not the whole live streaming and

[1:09:09] Voice 17: recording business is worth it traditionally you know the legal requirement is that you've got

[1:09:15] Voice 17: minutes and you know traditionally that's how it's done uh and it's the minutes that matter

[1:09:21] Voice 17: and it's the minutes that um subsequent meetings refer to and that become the

[1:09:27] Voice 17: you know, that's where the transparency comes in. That's where the decision points are

[1:09:32] Voice 17: identified. So I'm sure there's a big discussion about that, but if we want to have it, but the

[1:09:39] Voice 17: main point I want to make here is it may be possible to have in-person meetings at a significantly

[1:09:46] Voice 17: lower cost if we simply put our minds to being more efficient about it. And I'm thinking perhaps

[1:09:52] Voice 17: that may be the way forward as opposed to simply saying either or. Thank you.

[1:09:58] Trustee Patrick: Okay. Thank you. Trustee Evans.

[1:10:05] Voice 15: I just was thinking that we're getting a little bit off

[1:10:07] Voice 15: track and to be discussing whether or not we should stop live streaming or not. If we were

[1:10:12] Voice 15: to only have in-person meetings and stop live streaming, that would also affect all the standing

[1:10:15] Voice 15: committees. And I don't, I think that that is a completely different conversation that needs to

[1:10:20] Voice 15: be had. Thank

[1:10:21] Trustee Patrick: you. Okay. With no further discussion, I will let you know, we will need a

[1:10:25] Trustee Patrick: second amendment, an amendment. I'm not going to do an amendment, but we'll need a location for

[1:10:30] Trustee Patrick: for that in-person June meeting,

[1:10:32] Trustee Patrick: but we'll do that subsequent to this motion.

[1:10:34] Trustee Patrick: So trustees, before you is motion number two,

[1:10:37] Trustee Patrick: that's on the screen with item A amended to be in-person.

[1:10:41] Trustee Patrick: There's no further debate.

[1:10:42] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to call the vote.

[1:10:43] Trustee Patrick: All those in favor.

[1:10:58] Trustee Patrick: All right, lower your hands.

[1:11:02] Trustee Patrick: Any opposed?

[1:11:16] Trustee Patrick: 16 to six, so that carries.

[1:11:18] Trustee Patrick: So I looked to staff in regard to location.

[1:11:22] Trustee Patrick: Do we want to address that now

[1:11:24] Trustee Patrick: or would there be some suggestions from staff

[1:11:26] Trustee Patrick: on locations in June, if there's a possibility?

[1:11:33] Voice 32: If I may, Chair, we can offer a few locations.

[1:11:38] Voice 32: It could be Salt Spring Island,

[1:11:40] Voice 32: which we've done consecutively the last few years.

[1:11:43] Voice 32: It could be Main Island.

[1:11:46] Voice 32: And it, of course, could be in Nanaimo.

[1:11:52] Voice 32: Duncan, thank you.

[1:11:55] Trustee Patrick: All right, thank you.

[1:11:56] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Maughan?

[1:11:58] Voice 9: Thank you, Chair.

[1:11:58] Voice 9: One of the things I would suggest, because we've never ventured that far, is Courtney.

[1:12:04] Voice 9: The regional district there has a beautiful meeting venue, which could actually give some pretty good savings to the whole thing.

[1:12:11] Voice 9: So put that on the table.

[1:12:15] Trustee Patrick: Do we want to go down this path here?

[1:12:17] Trustee Patrick: Okay, Trustee Evans.

[1:12:21] Voice 15: I'd love to have the meeting on Main.

[1:12:22] Voice 15: We've not gone there yet.

[1:12:25] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[1:12:26] Trustee Patrick: I'd look to staff.

[1:12:27] Trustee Patrick: would it be wise to have maybe a first choice second choice for a venue or is that getting way

[1:12:31] Trustee Patrick: too much because uh just venue could be challenging that

[1:12:36] Voice 32: would be fine we could also change it to maine

[1:12:39] Voice 32: and i could make the arrangements and if they don't um work out then i could come back in march

[1:12:45] Voice 32: all right trustee maberly yeah

[1:12:48] Voice 8: i mean i would suggest i like the idea of going to maine just

[1:12:52] Voice 8: just to aggravate.

[1:12:57] Voice 14: Let's be realistic.

[1:12:58] Voice 14: It cost us a ton of money last time you tried to do this.

[1:13:01] Voice 14: So you have to know the history.

[1:13:02] Voice 14: If you can find accommodation and catering, go for it.

[1:13:06] Voice 14: But last time, at the last minute, we had to scramble,

[1:13:08] Voice 14: and we ended up in Sydney,

[1:13:10] Voice 14: which was the most expensive trust council we've ever had.

[1:13:13] Voice 14: So just be warned.

[1:13:14] Voice 14: You have to have the facilities to accommodate everyone.

[1:13:17] Voice 14: You have to have caterers.

[1:13:19] Voice 8: I think the point I was going to make, I would say, you know, you would look at it as a zone.

[1:13:29] Voice 8: I would say the Southern Gulf Islands, you can find a location, Salt Spring, Pender, Maine, and Galleon is already on the list.

[1:13:36] Voice 8: And that gives staff a little more flexibility on to where they're going to plan the meeting.

[1:13:40] Voice 8: and if we were going to go say you know the bowen area we would look at a zone over there and see

[1:13:45] Voice 8: what what's going to work for for that zone so that's that's the way i would look at it

[1:13:50] Voice 8: all

[1:13:51] Voice 29: right trustee fast thank you as i remember uh the main uh i'm going to i'll just put it on

[1:14:00] Voice 29: the table here i move that the june 2026 meeting be held on main island and if i can speak to that

[1:14:08] Voice 29: Well, there's no second yet.

[1:14:10] Trustee Patrick: So we have a motion to hold the meeting on Maine Island. Is there a second? Second by Trustee Mayerle. Just really trying to...

[1:14:18] Trustee Patrick: Thank

[1:14:18] Voice 29: you. If I can speak, just as I remember, there was a wonderful, huge celebration on Maine Island where they invited all the Syrian, was it Syrian refugees? Anyway, there was, yeah, anyway, it was fantastic. And it was another compounding factor.

[1:14:39] Voice 29: factor. And so I think it would be if we're going to go to the islands, let's go to the islands. I

[1:14:44] Voice 29: haven't been to Maine for a trust council and this is my most of the way through a third term. Thank

[1:14:49] Voice 29: you.

[1:14:50] Trustee Patrick: Right. Any further discussion? We still have a lot of meeting here, guys. So I just want to

[1:14:55] Trustee Patrick: remind you, Trustee Scott.

[1:15:03] Voice 37: Oh, Scott, I'm sorry. I heard fast. I love the idea of Courtney, but I

[1:15:09] Voice 37: don't think that's realistic and i'd like i think uh salt spring would be a a good island place it's

[1:15:19] Voice 37: it's relatively easy to get there from hornby maine i don't know one two three four eight

[1:15:25] Voice 37: ferries or something so i'd like to propose salt spring i know there's good accommodation there

[1:15:32] Voice 37: and um so that would be my suggestion all

[1:15:36] Trustee Patrick: right this time it's a suggestion otherwise someone

[1:15:38] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to have to make an amendment.

[1:15:39] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Elliott.

[1:15:41] Voice 27: I cannot support the motion because the intent of reducing the number of in-person meetings to two was to try to limit costs where we can.

[1:15:53] Voice 27: And by arbitrarily putting an island forward that we have no idea what the costs are, the ability to cater, we've seen that on a few other islands before.

[1:16:04] Voice 27: for and it's it's cost us quite a lot and more than in terms of actual dollars so i would like

[1:16:11] Voice 27: to see this defeated and that option we request staff to explore options they are used to doing

[1:16:18] Voice 27: the work they've already they have the matrix of what we need to hold a trust council meeting and

[1:16:24] Voice 27: they they know the work better than we do so i think this is foolhardy thank you

[1:16:28] Trustee Patrick: trustee bernardo

[1:16:30] Trustee Patrick: of

[1:16:30] Voice 27: um

[1:16:32] Voice 17: i don't think i can support this motion uh two points uh one is um when a trustee from an

[1:16:41] Voice 17: island is telling us

[1:16:43] Voice 19: how

[1:16:44] Voice 17: things work in that island i think it's incumbent on us to respect

[1:16:47] Voice 17: what that person's saying so trustee dodds is telling us that the logistics are likely to be

[1:16:53] Voice 17: very difficult. We should listen. Second, hearing this discussion, what comes to my mind is the

[1:17:03] Voice 17: CAO's operational report. This seems to fall right into the category of those kind of decisions

[1:17:13] Voice 17: Trust Council makes without thinking them through that ends up creating costs, not just cash,

[1:17:20] Voice 17: But the strain on the staff in terms of its capacity, every one of these in-person meetings is a lot of work.

[1:17:30] Voice 17: Then you have a meeting at an island where the logistics are difficult.

[1:17:35] Voice 17: That just gets that much harder.

[1:17:38] Voice 17: So, again, these are things that we should actually think through carefully.

[1:17:43] Voice 17: Usually that means we need input from the staff about the operational realism of the thing.

[1:17:51] Voice 17: So I'm going to oppose this

[1:17:52] Voice 17: because it hasn't been well thought out.

[1:17:54] Voice 17: Thank you.

[1:17:55] Trustee Patrick: All right, we still have a number of speakers on the list.

[1:17:57] Trustee Patrick: Yates, Maverly, Allen, Evans, and Peterson.

[1:18:00] Trustee Patrick: Is there anyone that wants to speak in favor

[1:18:02] Trustee Patrick: of the motion on that list?

[1:18:07] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[1:18:10] Trustee Patrick: Go for it, Trustee Maverly.

[1:18:13] Voice 8: I mean, if the motion was open to a friendly amendment

[1:18:16] Voice 8: to include Salt Spring and Pender,

[1:18:18] Voice 8: I think that gives staff the flexibility

[1:18:20] Voice 8: to see where we hold the meeting.

[1:18:22] Voice 8: I, I'm not going

[1:18:23] Trustee Patrick: to, that will not

[1:18:24] Voice 8: be a friendly amendment. So I think we're

[1:18:25] Voice 8: going to ask the

[1:18:26] Voice 8: person who put forward the amendment.

[1:18:28] Trustee Patrick: It's the chair gets to make that decision and the motion

[1:18:31] Trustee Patrick: before us. So I'm going to call the vote on the motion if that's all right. So we have a lot of

[1:18:37] Trustee Patrick: business here. Trustee Evans, are you, are you, I'm not going to, we're not going for an amendment.

[1:18:42] Trustee Patrick: I'm calling the motion on the, what is your amendment that you were going to propose?

[1:18:53] Voice 8: microphone first

[1:18:54] Voice 15: of all i'm appealing your judgment and that has to go to a vote i'm asking

[1:18:59] Voice 15: you if you what was your amendment that you would like to to do that main island be changed to

[1:19:04] Voice 15: southern gulf islands

[1:19:06] Trustee Patrick: yeah i think it's a different motion that's that's the challenge

[1:19:10] Trustee Patrick: we have here so if it's all right with everyone i'd like to vote on the motion that we have before

[1:19:14] Trustee Patrick: for us. All right. All those in favor, raise your hands. That's

[1:19:22] Trustee Patrick: very easy. I assume everyone's

[1:19:26] Trustee Patrick: opposed. So raise your hands if you're opposed. There we go. So that's defeated. Who would like

[1:19:31] Trustee Patrick: to attempt a second motion? Are you going to attempt a second motion? Okay, Trustee Evans.

[1:19:37] Voice 15: I move that the June 2026 Trust Council quarterly meeting be held on the Southern Gulf Islands and

[1:19:45] Voice 15: and staff to report back with options.

[1:19:48] Trustee Patrick: Before I go to CAO Brony, before we...

[1:19:51] Voice 18: Thank you, Chair.

[1:19:52] Voice 18: I think it would be challenging for us to report back with options,

[1:19:57] Voice 18: because that would require us to bring those options to you in March,

[1:20:00] Voice 18: which then only allows us three months to finalize the arrangements.

[1:20:03] Voice 18: So I think the option here would be to give staff the flexibility

[1:20:07] Voice 18: to make a decision around a location on the Southern Gulf Islands ourselves

[1:20:12] Voice 18: or to specify a particular location.

[1:20:14] Voice 18: Thank you.

[1:20:14] Voice 18: All

[1:20:15] Trustee Patrick: right. So before we go to the, I just want to look at the staff is what's on this, on the screen sufficient for, that's worded. Okay. I'm looking for a second to this motion. Trustee Maverly, seconding the motion. Okay. Any discussion? We weren't, Trustee Scott.

[1:20:34] Voice 37: No, I was going to propose that it be on Salt Spring and take the ambiguity out of this thing.

[1:20:41] Trustee Patrick: That is a Southern Gulf Island. So thank you.

[1:20:45] Voice 37: It is.

[1:20:46] Trustee Patrick: Except for BC Ferries.

[1:20:48] Trustee Patrick: All right. Any further discussion? Trustee Harris?

[1:20:55] Voice 31: Closed. This seems to be getting, in my opinion, kind of, I don't even know what the word I want

[1:21:02] Voice 31: to put on it, but this motion basically, why don't we just say be held somewhere?

[1:21:09] Voice 31: Maybe this could be deferred and staff come back with something at another time or something.

[1:21:14] Voice 31: I don't know. It seems to be getting, again, I can't come up with a word that won't be

[1:21:20] Voice 31: be considered unsafe so thanks thank

[1:21:23] Trustee Patrick: you any further discussion otherwise i'm going to call

[1:21:26] Trustee Patrick: the vote all those in favor raise your hands all right lower your hands any opposed raise your

[1:21:44] Trustee Patrick: hands 14 to 7 so that carries trustees thank you we have one more motion on this business of

[1:21:56] Trustee Patrick: meetings that's item number three this is about committee of the holes setting those

[1:22:02] Trustee Patrick: determining those a year in advance trustee peterson i

[1:22:07] Voice 6: move the trust council adopt the

[1:22:09] Voice 6: quarterly committee of the whole meeting dates all to be held electronically starting at 9 a.m

[1:22:14] Voice 6: to the end of fiscal 20 26 27 uh wednesday may 13th 2026 wednesday july 22nd 2026 wednesday

[1:22:23] Voice 6: october 7 2026 and wednesday february 10th 2027 sorry

[1:22:30] Trustee Patrick: i'm just trying to make sure is that what

[1:22:33] Trustee Patrick: those in mind. Is that the right ones?

[1:22:35] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[1:22:38] Trustee Patrick: Alright. Is there a second?

[1:22:40] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Yates.

[1:22:41] Trustee Patrick: Any discussion?

[1:22:43] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Fast?

[1:22:45] Trustee Patrick: Yes.

[1:22:48] Voice 16: Sorry, you said Fast.

[1:22:50] Voice 16: I can be Fast.

[1:22:52] Voice 16: What I said 45 minutes

[1:22:54] Voice 16: ago.

[1:22:56] Voice 16: To remind you.

[1:22:58] Voice 16: The question about the 9 a.m. start

[1:23:00] Voice 16: because we have so much trouble having

[1:23:02] Voice 16: quorum and I know a lot of people work

[1:23:04] Voice 16: and it's almost impossible to get people to come right so why do we put it do we have to be that

[1:23:10] Voice 16: specific can we leave it more flexible or maybe another time i'll

[1:23:16] Trustee Patrick: look to staff regarding

[1:23:17] Trustee Patrick: flexibility yeah

[1:23:19] Voice 7: the bylaw requires the date time and location but you can actually if you don't

[1:23:25] Voice 7: know where it is right now as long as you specify it before the meeting and post that to the public

[1:23:31] Voice 7: So it would be ideal for now, but you could also make that decision later.

[1:23:38] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[1:23:39] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Fast?

[1:23:46] Trustee Patrick: Oh, sorry, Trustee Hunter?

[1:23:50] Voice 5: Thank you.

[1:23:51] Voice 5: I was just wondering, is there a time limit on these Committee of the Whole meetings,

[1:23:55] Voice 5: or does that have to be decided closer to the date, or is it a two-hour, four-hour, eight-hour?

[1:24:01] Trustee Patrick: Say it, Ronnie.

[1:24:02] Voice 18: Thank you, Chair.

[1:24:03] Voice 18: Yeah, there isn't a prescribed length that we have to set.

[1:24:06] Voice 18: And the intention of scheduling these ones in advance is somewhat to Trustee Bernardo's earlier point is the hope of if we're having regularly scheduled committee of the wholes before each trust council meeting, that that may allow us then to debate some of the issues of substance that would normally be debated at the trust council meeting.

[1:24:26] Voice 18: meeting, so that may then allow the subsequent trust council meeting to be more efficient.

[1:24:30] Voice 18: So that being the case, I would expect these to probably be fairly lengthy meetings, which

[1:24:35] Voice 18: is also part of the rationale for starting them at a morning timeline.

[1:24:38] Voice 18: But there is no prescribed length for them.

[1:24:40] Voice 18: We can set that depending on the agenda.

[1:24:45] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Harris,

[1:24:48] Voice 31: I'm opposed to this.

[1:24:52] Voice 31: When I take into account the the issue with struggling to get quorum for these meetings,

[1:25:00] Voice 31: and then couple that with the undemocratic representation issue

[1:25:09] Voice 31: that the organization struggles with.

[1:25:13] Voice 31: I honestly think these Committee of the Whole meetings should be cancelled.

[1:25:16] Voice 31: Thank you.

[1:25:17] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:25:18] Trustee Patrick: Any further discussion?

[1:25:21] Trustee Patrick: I'll call the vote then.

[1:25:22] Trustee Patrick: All those in favour, raise your hands.

[1:25:33] Voice 7: 17 in favour.

[1:25:35] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands.

[1:25:39] Trustee Patrick: Any opposed?

[1:25:40] Trustee Patrick: opposed. Raise your hands. 17

[1:25:46] Trustee Patrick: to 2, that carries. All right. Thank you, trustees. We're going to

[1:25:50] Trustee Patrick: keep moving forward here. We're at item 6.2.2, which is the Provincial Review and Funding Request

[1:25:56] Trustee Patrick: Request for Decision on page 77. CAO Broney.

[1:26:02] Voice 18: Thank you, through the chair. Just some context

[1:26:05] Voice 18: for this beyond what's in the notes. So the goal here is really just to seek Trust Council's

[1:26:09] Voice 18: direction on whether or not these are still live items for the current council and as a point of

[1:26:15] Voice 18: clarification on the second recommendation where we say staff undertake no further work on strategic

[1:26:20] Voice 18: plan initiative 1.3.1 we're not proposing that be removed from the strategic plan so that item

[1:26:26] Voice 18: would remain on the strategic plan unless trust council decides otherwise and could be revisited

[1:26:31] Voice 18: at a future date but we're seeking direction given the context that has unfolded since that

[1:26:37] Voice 18: item was approved for the plan in march with the minister's response to the request for review and

[1:26:41] Voice 18: also the current provincial fiscal situation um staff are recommending that um no further work

[1:26:47] Voice 18: be undertaken on these at this time thank you all

[1:26:51] Trustee Patrick: right trustees any discussion trustee borthwick

[1:26:56] Voice 36: yeah um i think we all uh this is obviously stuff that we've talked about a lot i think this is uh

[1:27:03] Voice 36: um i think we understand that the concept here is not that we're giving up on this but that

[1:27:07] Voice 36: that for this time, we're going to, knowing the context that we're working in, it will take no

[1:27:12] Voice 36: further work. I support that. And I would like to make the first motion if there's no opposition to

[1:27:17] Voice 36: that. Please

[1:27:17] Trustee Patrick: proceed. There's no speaking list at this time. So go ahead.

[1:27:20] Voice 36: I move that the first item

[1:27:21] Voice 36: on the Trust Council follow-up action report be marked as completed.

[1:27:26] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Allen.

[1:27:27] Trustee Patrick: Any discussion? Trustee Evans?

[1:27:32] Voice 15: So my question is, if this is marked as completed, then it's

[1:27:36] Voice 15: taken off the list and marked as completed no further work but if it were to come back then

[1:27:44] Voice 15: it would be a brand new thing to be added in correct we're just saying that for the remainder

[1:27:49] Voice 15: of this term we're not going to focus on this is that the correct uh ceo bronnie thank you chair

[1:27:57] Voice 18: yes so if because it will remain in the strategic plan if council was to decide to direct in the

[1:28:04] Voice 18: the future that we should resume that work or revisit that work, then it could be added to

[1:28:08] Voice 18: the executive committee or to the follow-up action list, again, at that time as a new project.

[1:28:14] Voice 18: All

[1:28:15] Trustee Patrick: right. Not seeing any further discussion. I'm going to call the vote. All those in favor,

[1:28:21] Trustee Patrick: raise your hands.

[1:28:33] Voice 20: All right. Lower your hands.

[1:28:39] Trustee Patrick: And any opposed, raise your hands.

[1:28:47] Trustee Patrick: 20 to 1, that carries. All right. There's a second motion here then. Go ahead,

[1:28:51] Trustee Patrick: ahead, Trustee Borthwick.

[1:28:53] Voice 36: I'll just knock it out. I move that staff undertake no further work on

[1:28:58] Voice 36: Trust Council Strategic Plan Initiative 1.3.1 and remove the corresponding item from the

[1:29:03] Voice 36: Executive Committee Action Reports, Active Projects Report. Is

[1:29:07] Trustee Patrick: there a second? Seconded by

[1:29:09] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Ludcombe. Any discussion? Not seeing any. I'm going to call up Trustee Evans.

[1:29:19] Voice 15: Same question as before. My understanding is that being taken off the Executive Follow-Up Action

[1:29:24] Voice 15: list? No, or is this being removed from the strategic plan? No. Thank you.

[1:29:33] Voice 18: No, it would

[1:29:33] Voice 18: remain in the strategic plan. You're just giving direction that we don't need to take

[1:29:37] Voice 18: any more action on it at this time, and then it would be removed from the executive committee

[1:29:42] Voice 18: work plan. But again, if it was revisited at a future date, that could be added back. Thank you.

[1:29:49] Trustee Patrick: Not seeing any further discussion, I'm going to call the vote. All those in favor, raise your hands.

[1:30:04] Voice 25: Okay.

[1:30:04] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands. Any opposed, raise your hands. 21 to 2, that carries. Thank you,

[1:30:17] Trustee Patrick: trustees. Again, I'm going to move over to the addendum. This is item 6.2. Sorry. 6.2.3

[1:30:32] Trustee Patrick: Nope. We did 6.2.2.

[1:30:42] Voice 20: All right.

[1:30:46] Trustee Patrick: Before I invite comments on this item, so hopefully trustees have it,

[1:30:51] Trustee Patrick: this is the addendum that you received, 6.2.3 in the addendum.

[1:30:56] Trustee Patrick: So before I invite comments on this item, trustees,

[1:30:59] Trustee Patrick: I want to bring up a few important notes for your context.

[1:31:03] Trustee Patrick: As noted in the request for decision,

[1:31:05] Trustee Patrick: the standards of conduct policy states that when an investigation

[1:31:08] Trustee Patrick: is completed into the conduct complaint, Trust Council will decide whether the recommendations

[1:31:14] Trustee Patrick: in the report, in whole or in part, or whether an alternative allowable sanction will be imposed.

[1:31:21] Trustee Patrick: Under the policy, Trust Council's role is not to debate or determine whether the findings of the

[1:31:27] Trustee Patrick: investigator are valid. They are the conclusions of a qualified third-party investigator based on

[1:31:33] Trustee Patrick: their independent investigation. Rather, our role is solely to decide, based on those findings,

[1:31:40] Trustee Patrick: whether to endorse the resulting recommendations. I ask that we keep any discussion or comments on

[1:31:47] Trustee Patrick: this item focused on that narrow responsibility and the decision whether to endorse the

[1:31:52] Trustee Patrick: recommendations or not. I also want to ensure clarity about Executive Committee's role in the

[1:31:58] Trustee Patrick: the process. As per standards of conduct policy, executive committee endeavored to advance an

[1:32:04] Trustee Patrick: informal resolution to the complaint, but once that proved unsuccessful, we played no role in

[1:32:11] Trustee Patrick: the investigation other than with the assistance of the CAO supporting the process to engage the

[1:32:15] Trustee Patrick: investigator. Appropriately, the executive committee played no role in shaping the investigation

[1:32:21] Trustee Patrick: process, its outcomes, or the conclusions put forward by the investigator. Finally, the policy

[1:32:27] Trustee Patrick: The policy provides that either the report or summary is presented to Trust Council.

[1:32:31] Trustee Patrick: In consultation with the CAO, we determined it was appropriate to bring forward the summary presented to you.

[1:32:38] Trustee Patrick: But I will note that the CAO shared the summary with the investigator who confirmed it was an appropriate and accurate representation of their conclusions.

[1:32:49] Trustee Patrick: Trustees, we have Trustee Evans.

[1:32:54] Voice 15: So I would like to remove myself from the room when we get to the voting period.

[1:32:59] Voice 15: Am I permitted to?

[1:33:00] Voice 15: I don't understand

[1:33:01] Trustee Patrick: how this goes.

[1:33:02] Trustee Patrick: If you would like, you should recuse yourself for the entire discussion.

[1:33:05] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:33:05] Trustee Patrick: That would be appropriate.

[1:33:06] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:33:07] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[1:33:09] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:33:10] Trustee Patrick: So any discussion on this item?

[1:33:16] Voice 6: I'm sorry?

[1:33:18] Voice 6: Trustee Harris has recused himself as

[1:33:20] Trustee Patrick: well.

[1:33:26] Trustee Patrick: Is that correct?

[1:33:27] Trustee Patrick: He's on the screen, though.

[1:33:33] Trustee Patrick: then he's he's he's not he's not refused okay yeah

[1:33:39] Voice 9: it's just because he said that we should

[1:33:40] Voice 9: all know yeah so see brody how can we um

[1:33:44] Voice 18: if the name if the decision to recuse oneself from

[1:33:48] Voice 18: participating in an item is related to a real or perceived conflict of interest then it would be

[1:33:52] Voice 18: appropriate for the trustees to recuse themselves from the entire discussion of the item and not

[1:33:57] Voice 18: just the vote well we

[1:34:05] Trustee Patrick: have to assume he's not recused so yeah

[1:34:10] Voice 9: so

[1:34:12] Trustee Patrick: trustee bernardo yes state

[1:34:16] Trustee Patrick: your point could

[1:34:17] Voice 17: you please clarify whether or not the recusal is something that people are

[1:34:21] Voice 17: expressing opinions about whether it should happen or not um could you provide

[1:34:26] Voice 17: some clarity as to

[1:34:27] Voice 17: whether it's a voluntary thing and the judgment as to whether there's a conflict in this there's

[1:34:31] Voice 17: lines with the trustee. So if the person wants to sit in, they can. Correct.

[1:34:35] Trustee Patrick: Absolutely. A third

[1:34:37] Trustee Patrick: party declared that Trustee Harris had recused himself. So people were asking that if he had,

[1:34:43] Trustee Patrick: he's still on the screen. So he has not recused himself. So at this time, as far as the chair is

[1:34:49] Trustee Patrick: concerned, Trustee Harris has not recused. So we're going to proceed with any conversation.

[1:34:54] Trustee Patrick: it's his choice that's how that works so before you is a recommendation so discussion trustee

[1:35:04] Trustee Patrick: maberly yeah

[1:35:06] Voice 8: i'm sorry i it's i find it very difficult to have this conversation i haven't

[1:35:09] Voice 8: seen any any report i haven't received it there

[1:35:16] Trustee Patrick: was an addendum sent out this morning

[1:35:18] Trustee Patrick: it

[1:35:19] Voice 8: was sent out electronically

[1:35:20] Trustee Patrick: and i also gave you a notice uh on my sunday report where you

[1:35:30] Trustee Patrick: Any discussion? Otherwise, there is a motion. Recommendation?

[1:35:34] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Bernardo?

[1:35:36] Voice 17: Well, first of all, the motion hasn't been made, but

[1:35:38] Voice 17: before anybody makes any motions, the summary that was sent out

[1:35:43] Voice 17: this morning has the recommendations, and

[1:35:48] Voice 17: the recommendations offer up

[1:35:52] Voice 17: some voluntary training, and

[1:35:56] Voice 17: there's alternatives put in the request for decision, which include

[1:36:00] Voice 17: reject the recommendations. And I'm going to submit that Trust Council should consider rejecting

[1:36:07] Voice 17: the recommendations, not because they're not coming from a good place, but because I don't

[1:36:12] Voice 17: think they add any value to the situation. And the better thing in this odd situation is to drop it

[1:36:19] Voice 17: and let the trustees involved just move on. And I have some reasons for that, which is I'm not,

[1:36:25] Voice 17: I recognize the executive committee had no choice, really. The policy says once you've

[1:36:30] Voice 17: you've got a report, really, it's got to come to trust counsel. I have some reservations about

[1:36:38] Voice 17: the character of the report. And as Trustee Member Lee had pointed out, I mean, he hasn't

[1:36:44] Voice 17: seen it. But those of us who have seen the email, what we're getting is a summary of the report,

[1:36:50] Voice 17: not the report as a whole. And from what I can read from it, you know, I've looked at the policy

[1:36:58] Voice 17: And at 5.2.6.3, any report that comes from an investigator is supposed to include a finding, and this is a quote, as to whether there has been a breach of the standards of conduct.

[1:37:10] Voice 17: The summary we've been given does include a finding that anyone breached our standards of conduct.

[1:37:16] Voice 17: If there's a material finding of any kind, it's that there's some confusion about how committee meetings should proceed and what counts as acceptable trustee conduct and proper authority of a chair.

[1:37:31] Voice 17: The policy of 5.2.6.4 identifies potential recommendations that can come from an investigation, and one of them could be the complaints dismissed.

[1:37:42] Voice 17: If it's not that, they all appear to be sanctioning outcomes.

[1:37:47] Voice 17: know, discipline. And the idea that a recommendation is supposed to really either dismiss or be

[1:37:54] Voice 17: a disciplinary outcome is confirmed, I think, by 5.2.8. I'm sorry to be so lawyerly about

[1:38:01] Voice 17: this, but I can't help it. 5.2.8 confirms that what should be coming in terms of recommendations

[1:38:07] Voice 17: to trust counsel are sanctioned recommendations. And I say that because that section says if

[1:38:13] Voice 17: If Trust Council disagrees with recommendations, it's incumbent on it to, again, quote, to decide, quote, whether an alternate allowable sanction will be imposed.

[1:38:25] Voice 17: The recommendations in this particular report aren't sanctions.

[1:38:29] Voice 17: They don't impose anything on anybody.

[1:38:31] Voice 17: They don't propose to do that.

[1:38:33] Voice 17: So that's not what Trust Council is being asked to do.

[1:38:36] Voice 17: What we're being asked to do is endorse recommendations in a situation where the investigators didn't find there was a breach of our standards of conduct and didn't recommend sanctions.

[1:38:47] Voice 17: In other words, no finding of wrongdoing by anybody and no need for anyone to be disciplined.

[1:38:54] Voice 17: That's, if you read the way I read the policy, that's why a recommendation goes to Trust Council.

[1:39:01] Voice 17: Council. It's Trust Council's responsibility to be blunt, to decide whether a trustee should

[1:39:06] Voice 17: be punished. So EC didn't have any choice. It has to bring this issue forward to us.

[1:39:12] Voice 17: That doesn't mean we at Trust Council are obligated to take up the issue.

[1:39:18] Voice 17: What we're being asked to do here is endorse voluntary training. That's not the type of

[1:39:23] Voice 17: sanction decision I think that's contemplated by the policy. I mean, there's no meaningful

[1:39:27] Voice 17: decision for trust council to make here so in substance it gauging from the summary we've been

[1:39:35] Voice 17: provided it appears to me the investigators report really in substance amounts to a dismissal of the

[1:39:39] Voice 17: complaint and i think that's how we should treat it uh and that's why i'm saying there's no issue

[1:39:45] Voice 17: here let's just drop it let's forget the recommendations i mean a recommendation to

[1:39:49] Voice 17: offer voluntary training i mean come on let's get real i mean it's really not i i don't think we

[1:39:55] Voice 17: We should be spending a tremendous amount of time on this.

[1:39:57] Voice 17: I think we should just move on.

[1:39:58] Voice 17: Thank you.

[1:39:59] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:40:00] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Boland?

[1:40:05] Voice 24: I actually lowered my hand, but I support what Trustee Bernardo has said.

[1:40:11] Voice 24: I think he makes a compelling argument.

[1:40:15] Voice 24: Neither party was found to have, you know, misbehaved or whatever the words, the appropriate words are.

[1:40:24] Voice 24: And I just feel like it's sort of like turning.

[1:40:27] Voice 24: it's a storm in a teacup and we should just put it aside and move on.

[1:40:32] Voice 24: Thanks.

[1:40:33] Voice 24: Trustee Peterson?

[1:40:37] Voice 6: Yeah, thank you.

[1:40:37] Voice 6: I agree with a lot of what I've heard.

[1:40:41] Voice 6: It is correct to bring this to Trust Council at the same time.

[1:40:47] Voice 6: Trustee Bernarder's point that the conclusion is that there wasn't a breach.

[1:40:54] Voice 6: That's sort of logically there.

[1:40:57] Voice 6: there i think um looking at the findings myself um uh i don't see that bringing ongoing education

[1:41:07] Voice 6: for all trustees on standard conduct necessarily has to have anything to do with this um the

[1:41:13] Voice 6: complaint and the outcome of the report i think that's just a good idea in general um we also

[1:41:19] Voice 6: know that there's the province is working on some uh some conduct legislation for local governments

[1:41:25] Voice 6: um i'm actually really interested to see how that plays out and where that's gonna where that's

[1:41:33] Voice 6: going to come uh for trust council and um and i think this the entire situation including

[1:41:40] Voice 6: the report and and and as uh trustee bernardo's assessment of it um just kind of points out to the

[1:41:48] Voice 6: um general inadequacy of our existing standards um so appreciate it thank you

[1:41:56] Trustee Patrick: trustee getty

[1:41:57] Trustee Patrick: um

[1:42:01] Voice 23: when i read through the primary findings of the investigator's report first of all it finds

[1:42:07] Voice 23: that trustee evans did not breach the standards of conduct okay and then second that there was

[1:42:13] Voice 23: nothing abusive or unsafe about trustees harris's use of the words quote contradictory and

[1:42:19] Voice 23: hypocritical end quote and that those words constitute appropriate comment in the context of

[1:42:24] Voice 23: context of a policy debate. All right. So neither party is it in quotation marks fault at that

[1:42:32] Voice 23: point. Trustee Evans used the word abusive in reference to Trustee Harris's behavior and not

[1:42:39] Voice 23: in reference to his language. And Trustee Evans acted appropriately within her authority as chair

[1:42:44] Voice 23: to caution Trustee Harris about speaking over and interrupting other meeting participants

[1:42:50] Voice 23: and to subsequently have trustee Harris removed from the meeting so and then

[1:42:58] Voice 23: there's a question the next point is that there's a need to ensure that

[1:43:02] Voice 23: meeting procedure rules are applied equally and fairly and chairs exercise

[1:43:06] Voice 23: discretion to intervene cautiously and only when necessary recognizing the

[1:43:11] Voice 23: importance of ensuring all trustees are able to express themselves without undue

[1:43:15] Voice 23: restriction. So I think that I probably have a lower tolerance in terms of people's behavior

[1:43:24] Voice 23: in meetings. So when I hear that there's a written complaint against Trustee Evans in terms of

[1:43:32] Voice 23: excluding Trustee Harris, and I hear this primary findings of the investigator's report, I have a

[1:43:39] Voice 23: picture of some loud talking over and interrupting other participants and I

[1:43:52] Voice 23: have difficulty chairing meetings when whether it's in the community or whether

[1:43:58] Voice 23: it's in this council or whether it's in a courtroom or whether it's in a

[1:44:02] Voice 23: A mediation where somebody starts to yell and be abusive and talk over and interrupt.

[1:44:10] Voice 23: And I think that's what cannot be tolerated.

[1:44:13] Voice 23: So if there's a continuum of misbehavior, this may be at the low end, but it still, to my mind, makes life difficult and makes work in this, makes our work difficult.

[1:44:27] Voice 23: I don't want to have to tolerate this and think that it's something that can just be forgotten and we move on.

[1:44:37] Voice 23: It may be at the low end, and these sanctions are very minimal and I think appropriate.

[1:44:44] Voice 23: And I value that we've taken it seriously and put it through the process and that we've had this person come in from outside to make these findings.

[1:44:54] Voice 23: findings I'm mostly interested in the last point in terms of if there is confusion about the

[1:45:00] Voice 23: applicable procedures and policies to follow with meetings and what counts constitutes I'd like to

[1:45:06] Voice 23: from the governance committee's point of view or from trust generally I'd like to know what that

[1:45:11] Voice 23: more about that and to figure out how we can clarify and work on our code of conduct but

[1:45:17] Voice 23: when I visualize in my mind trying to be as generous to both parties as possible

[1:45:24] Voice 23: um i would find this to be an unsafe and unreal un uh respectful disrespectful uh work environment

[1:45:36] Voice 23: and i don't think we should be um i think that this is appropriate to have it investigated have

[1:45:41] Voice 23: somebody talk about it put it on the table we're not expelling anybody we're not you know it's not

[1:45:46] Voice 23: at the far end of possible sanctions and it's i think it's important to understand and appropriate

[1:45:51] Voice 23: appropriate so I'm very much in favor of this adopting this report yeah

[1:45:58] Trustee Patrick: this

[1:46:05] Voice 25: is the first

[1:46:05] Voice 25: time I've sort of seen something like this and I'm just curious um so in terms of what trustee

[1:46:10] Voice 25: Harris what is he what wants the results like is there some how does this play out so did he

[1:46:16] Voice 25: he just wants to be acknowledged that he shouldn't have been excluded from the meeting or is it I

[1:46:20] Voice 25: I think it's important,

[1:46:22] Trustee Patrick: I was going to say,

[1:46:22] Trustee Patrick: go ahead and start your point.

[1:46:25] Voice 17: I want to refer the meeting back to the chair

[1:46:28] Trustee Patrick: so there's no

[1:46:29] Voice 17: comment about it.

[1:46:30] Voice 17: Yep.

[1:46:31] Voice 17: I think we're, with both the most recent comments

[1:46:38] Voice 17: from the trustees, we're in very much danger

[1:46:40] Voice 17: of drilling into the circumstances and drawing opinions

[1:46:45] Voice 17: and having arguments about what happened and didn't happen.

[1:46:48] Voice 17: We shouldn't be going there and-

[1:46:50] Trustee Patrick: Yes.

[1:46:51] Trustee Patrick: Nope.

[1:46:51] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:46:52] Trustee Patrick: thank you for that reminder

[1:46:54] Voice 25: so we're just well that's not that's not my intention my intention

[1:46:57] Voice 25: was just to find out exactly you know when when he's brought this complaint to this level i'm

[1:47:02] Voice 25: just curious to see um the nature is the

[1:47:04] Trustee Patrick: report for for us this the question to you is whether

[1:47:07] Trustee Patrick: or not you agree with the recommendations that are here that's that is the matter on that

[1:47:12] Trustee Patrick: decision making at this moment there is no motion on the floor there is a motion on the screen

[1:47:20] Trustee Patrick: or oh sorry trustee bernardo you're next um

[1:47:25] Voice 17: yes um this is difficult but i mean i i have to repeat

[1:47:31] Voice 17: something i said before um there was no finding that there was any misbehavior by anybody here

[1:47:37] Voice 17: and i don't think it's appropriate with respect for trustee getty to interpret from a summary

[1:47:43] Voice 17: um that there was an unsafe environment or it's abusive because that's not what the investigator

[1:47:49] Voice 17: found. And it's not for us to second guess on the basis of a summary of the findings to reach

[1:47:56] Voice 17: different conclusions from the investigator. So I really don't think that's fair to go down that

[1:48:02] Voice 17: path. And I am prepared to make a motion to simply dismiss this whole thing if there's time to do

[1:48:10] Voice 17: that, if this is the right time to do it.

[1:48:11] Trustee Patrick: This would be the right time. There's no motion on

[1:48:13] Trustee Patrick: the floor. So if you wish to make a motion, this would be the time to make a motion.

[1:48:16] Trustee Patrick: I

[1:48:17] Voice 17: move that the recommendations be dismissed.

[1:48:21] Trustee Patrick: If we had looked to CAO Broney, would that be correct terminology or what would be?

[1:48:27] Voice 18: I think if we can add that the recommendations of the Standards of Conduct Investigation Report be dismissed is fine.

[1:48:37] Voice 18: Exactly what I said.

[1:48:39] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[1:48:40] Trustee Patrick: So I'm just going to give just a few more.

[1:48:42] Trustee Patrick: A second.

[1:48:44] Trustee Patrick: I'm not taking any seconds yet until I'm giving Sandra an opportunity to type this up.

[1:48:50] Trustee Patrick: so that we can have a motion on the screen all right trustee bernardo does that uh hopes there's

[1:49:01] Trustee Patrick: a little bit information there that was you had a bit more information cia brownie is that okay

[1:49:07] Trustee Patrick: all right uh so that's all right trustee bernardo you're seconding that motion um trustee

[1:49:15] Trustee Patrick: poland no trustee boland yes yes i am

[1:49:18] Trustee Patrick: any discussion uh trustee allen um

[1:49:23] Voice 25: can we put a date

[1:49:24] Voice 25: or what trust council which would it could be anything all

[1:49:30] Trustee Patrick: right thank you say everybody

[1:49:31] Voice 18: yes we could add the may 29th 2025 um complaint all

[1:49:38] Trustee Patrick: right so that date will be added to the motion

[1:49:40] Trustee Patrick: all right uh trustee uh hunter and then trustee luckham that

[1:49:48] Voice 5: was my point that it wasn't specific

[1:49:50] Voice 5: specific enough. Thank you. Thank

[1:49:51] Trustee Patrick: you. Justine Luckham.

[1:49:59] Trustee Luckham: There's a real opportunity here for

[1:50:03] Trustee Luckham: some thoughtfulness. I'm

[1:50:07] Trustee Luckham: not going to support the motion. I don't see any harm in adopting this.

[1:50:11] Trustee Luckham: And there are a couple of recommendations of which the participants can

[1:50:15] Trustee Luckham: choose or not to choose to act accordingly. There's nothing

[1:50:19] Trustee Luckham: punitive here. And I think that one of the

[1:50:23] Trustee Luckham: important lines this third bullet i think it is yeah that the um use of the word abusive was in

[1:50:33] Trustee Luckham: reference to trustee harris's behavior not the language and i think that there's an absence here

[1:50:41] Trustee Luckham: that through some of the difficulties that i had experienced in the past at trust council

[1:50:46] Trustee Luckham: So there's the language that I landed up on in with respect to this sort of view is unparliamentary behavior.

[1:51:00] Trustee Luckham: It's pretty broad. It doesn't really have a specific definition, but it covers off that behavior is the challenge.

[1:51:11] Trustee Luckham: And some of us get caught up in the emotion of the moment and all that kind of stuff.

[1:51:15] Trustee Luckham: We are adults. We should be able to manage that in a respectful way. So what we can learn from this is to be more conscious of our own behaviors and behaving in a more parliamentary way. And I would encourage you to look up that parliamentary behavior and judge for yourself what that means. Thank you.

[1:51:43] Trustee Luckham: Trustee Yates.

[1:51:44] Trustee Luckham: Thank

[1:51:46] Voice 34: you. I was at that meeting, and I was really uncomfortable with Trustee Harris's behavior, not necessarily his language, and I felt so relieved when the chair of that meeting made it go away.

[1:52:08] Voice 34: Sorry to be so blunt. So I'm not in favor of this motion.

[1:52:18] Trustee Patrick: Seeing no further discussion, I'd like to call the vote, if that's okay.

[1:52:22] Trustee Patrick: So the motion before us is to dismiss all those in favor.

[1:52:29] Trustee Patrick: Raise your hands.

[1:52:40] Voice 20: All right.

[1:52:45] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands.

[1:52:50] Trustee Patrick: All those opposed, raise your hands.

[1:53:02] Voice 19: So

[1:53:02] Trustee Patrick: that fails.

[1:53:06] Trustee Patrick: So someone want to make the recommendation, Trustee Luckham?

[1:53:09] Trustee Patrick: Thank

[1:53:12] Trustee Luckham: you, Chair. So I am going to

[1:53:15] Trustee Luckham: I would recommend that Trust Council endorse the two recommendations of the

[1:53:19] Trustee Luckham: Standards of Conduct Investigation Report on May 26, 2025

[1:53:23] Trustee Luckham: complaint submitted by Trustee Harris.

[1:53:26] Trustee Patrick: May 29th.

[1:53:27] Trustee Patrick: Sorry. And seconded Trustee Allen.

[1:53:32] Trustee Patrick: Any discussion? May I?

[1:53:34] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead.

[1:53:36] Trustee Luckham: As I said earlier in my comments with regards

[1:53:40] Trustee Luckham: to the other motion, it's about parliamentary behavior.

[1:53:46] Trustee Luckham: And I think it's important for council to embrace this.

[1:53:49] Trustee Luckham: This is not punitive, it provides an opportunity

[1:53:53] Trustee Luckham: for learning, and I think we could all look

[1:53:56] Trustee Luckham: for those opportunities to learn more.

[1:53:58] Trustee Luckham: Thank you.

[1:53:59] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:54:01] Trustee Patrick: Not seeing any further discussion,

[1:54:03] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to call the vote.

[1:54:04] Trustee Patrick: All those in favor, raise your hands.

[1:54:15] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands.

[1:54:18] Trustee Patrick: Any opposed?

[1:54:26] Trustee Patrick: Six and a half.

[1:54:27] Trustee Patrick: 15 to six, that carries.

[1:54:31] Trustee Patrick: You trustees, it's five minutes to three.

[1:54:36] Trustee Patrick: I think we should take the break.

[1:54:38] Trustee Patrick: All right, because the next item is the operational review.

[1:54:41] Trustee Patrick: So we were scheduled for a break at three.

[1:54:43] Trustee Patrick: Yeah, I promise there'll be warm coffee out there for you.

[1:54:47] Trustee Patrick: But why don't we take a break then to, should we go to 315?

[1:54:52] Trustee Patrick: 315, so 20 minutes.

[1:54:53] Voice 20: So we're on break.

[2:09:16] Voice 20: All right,

[2:16:25] Trustee Patrick: trustees, are we all back, please?

[2:16:29] Trustee Patrick: We are at item 6.2.4.

[2:16:34] Trustee Patrick: There's a 6.2.3 in your agenda, but it was modified to 6.2.4.

[2:16:39] Trustee Patrick: This is the 2005 Operational Review Report Recommendation Briefing.

[2:16:43] Trustee Patrick: It's on page 80 of your agenda package, and then also Appendix A is where the actual report is.

[2:16:49] Trustee Patrick: And I'm going to turn the floor over to CAO Broney.

[2:16:54] Voice 18: Thank you, Chair. I want to allow a lot of time for your comments and questions, but I do want to offer a few opening remarks, if I may.

[2:17:03] Voice 18: First, I want to emphasize that what I've proposed in this report in terms of staff actions and recommendations to council is really only a start.

[2:17:14] Voice 18: As I noted at several points in the report, there is still a long road ahead to try and resolve some of the foundational issues that I've described in that report.

[2:17:21] Voice 18: court. Where we are is the result of accumulated decisions and actions, or I would suggest in some

[2:17:28] Voice 18: case inaction, over many, many years. And so I think it isn't going to be easily or quickly

[2:17:34] Voice 18: resolved. But I've put forward, I believe, some viable steps that will help us to begin this work.

[2:17:40] Voice 18: In a perfect world, we would just pause everything for a year or two, retool how we work, and then

[2:17:45] Voice 18: pick up and start over again being so much better. But of course, we live in the real world.

[2:17:49] Voice 18: and so we are doing the proverbial fixing the plane while it's flying and that being the case

[2:17:56] Voice 18: I also don't want to over promise about the pace at which change is likely to happen the kind of

[2:18:01] Voice 18: catch-22 of this sort of situation is that our biggest issue is I think we're trying to do too

[2:18:06] Voice 18: much and yet to resolve it we have to do some more things and so you see that I think in some

[2:18:12] Voice 18: of the recommendations I've put forward some will hopefully free up a little capacity or at least

[2:18:17] Voice 18: not stretch it further while others will require us to do some new work but it's effort that i

[2:18:22] Voice 18: think will help make us better over time i'm not going to run through all of my recommendations

[2:18:26] Voice 18: some you've all had a chance to read the report over the last few weeks since it was official

[2:18:31] Voice 18: first shared with you but i will offer a few comments on some of them given some of the

[2:18:35] Voice 18: preliminary questions i've received from you and as well from staff on recommendation one i want

[2:18:40] Voice 18: to be really clear about what the scope of what i'm recommending there in the briefing that you

[2:18:45] Voice 18: got for this there's an attachment that lists a few items that have budget impact

[2:18:51] Voice 18: but what i'm recommending here is that we not initiate any new work that isn't already underway

[2:18:56] Voice 18: and that is not just limited to those items that are listed on that budget piece it means no new

[2:19:01] Voice 18: projects should be contemplated that aren't somehow required going into next fiscal i think

[2:19:08] Voice 18: it would also mean for example that significant work plan or follow-up action plan items that we

[2:19:13] Voice 18: haven't already begun work on ideally would not be advanced next fiscal as well that doesn't mean

[2:19:18] Voice 18: they have to come off of those work plans just that we would not initiate work where we haven't

[2:19:23] Voice 18: already started it that's why for example the two salt spring projects are there and i know chair

[2:19:27] Voice 18: patrick has some has some thoughts on those projects that she will likely share but to be

[2:19:32] Voice 18: clear those are not necessarily new in projects in and of themselves but they're projects that have

[2:19:37] Voice 18: been on the books for a couple of years but we haven't actually undertaken work on and so the

[2:19:41] Voice 18: the recommendation is that we would not initiate work on that in next fiscal if it's accepted as

[2:19:45] Voice 18: proposed. I want to say I know this recommendation has a significant impact, but one of the primary

[2:19:51] Voice 18: points I've tried to make is that the organization is having trouble keeping up with the current

[2:19:56] Voice 18: workload, and so at the very least, I'm proposing that we had not add to that any more than is

[2:20:01] Voice 18: absolutely necessary. Recommendation two, which is the five-year IMIT plan, is fairly similar in

[2:20:08] Voice 18: And then I'm saying we should not advance any net new technology projects.

[2:20:12] Voice 18: I view this one as a bit of a go slow to go further approach, though.

[2:20:17] Voice 18: We need some time to get our hands around all the identified needs and wants and define a clear plan to address those over time.

[2:20:25] Voice 18: That includes not just new technology and tools, but as I say in the report, how we manage information.

[2:20:30] Voice 18: And that includes data. And within data, I include our extensive work around GIS.

[2:20:37] Voice 18: recommendation three I think largely speaks for itself but I just want to reiterate that there's

[2:20:40] Voice 18: good work that has been done on the corporate planning process that draft process that you

[2:20:44] Voice 18: approved I just think it needs more work to really get it over the finish line so we can actually

[2:20:49] Voice 18: start applying a coherent and truly strategic planning function that looks just beyond council

[2:20:54] Voice 18: strategic priorities as I say in the report I also acknowledge that adding to the budget

[2:21:00] Voice 18: budget of any amount is challenging. But in recommendations six and seven, which are related

[2:21:06] Voice 18: to reconciliation and our work to build relationships with First Nations, I think it's

[2:21:11] Voice 18: clear to me that we simply do not have the necessary capacity to do that work at the level

[2:21:15] Voice 18: that we need to, to be successful, not just in that sphere, but across all of the work that we

[2:21:21] Voice 18: do in the Islands Trust. I don't think we're going to get there without a need for some investment.

[2:21:26] Voice 18: investment. In fact, I think if we don't make some additional investment, we're actually at

[2:21:31] Voice 18: risk of continuing to fall behind and that to our detriment. As I said at the September meeting too,

[2:21:36] Voice 18: and as I mentioned in the report, I expect longer term additional investment will be needed

[2:21:40] Voice 18: to really achieve what has been set out for Islands Trust. But what I'm proposing with

[2:21:45] Voice 18: recommendations six and seven is just to really help us take some first steps to build on where

[2:21:50] Voice 18: we're at and really map out a more thoughtful plan to get us further down that path. Finally,

[2:21:57] Voice 18: just let me underscore a few additional points from the report first um this is not nor was it

[2:22:02] Voice 18: ever intended to be a budget reduction exercise you recall when i advised council i intended to

[2:22:08] Voice 18: undertake this review i asked should i work within the current resourcing or should i bring you what

[2:22:14] Voice 18: i think we need and you said you should tell us what you think we need and so i've done that albeit

[2:22:18] Voice 18: i think in a relatively modest form i have only proposed budget increases where i think it is

[2:22:24] Voice 18: really necessary to allow us to be more effective in a couple of key areas this is also not a review

[2:22:30] Voice 18: that launches a massive reimagining of violence trust operations which i know may be a bit of a

[2:22:35] Voice 18: disappointment for some of you i could certainly have taken that approach and i have no hesitation

[2:22:41] Voice 18: about being bold and ambitious but i also want to be really realistic about what we can actually

[2:22:46] Voice 18: achieve i think a more transformational approach would only be possible if we not only didn't add

[2:22:52] Voice 18: to the workload but actually stop doing any some of the major projects that we currently have

[2:22:56] Voice 18: underway and i don't think that is desirable nor do i believe the timing for that is really

[2:23:03] Voice 18: appropriate as we near the end of it and transition to a new council and last but not least i don't

[2:23:08] Voice 18: want to suggest for a moment that what i proposed here is going to solve all of the problems

[2:23:13] Voice 18: and the accumulated pressures and issues that have built up in the organization over many years

[2:23:18] Voice 18: As I said off the top, I view this as a start of a process, and I'll reiterate, I do believe Islands Trust does deliver on its core work, and in some ways, I think it's remarkable what we do, given the pressures that we face.

[2:23:32] Voice 18: We can make significant improvements, but it will take effort, time, and commitment.

[2:23:37] Voice 18: I'm really encouraged by the response I've had to this report from staff.

[2:23:42] Voice 18: Those who I've spoken to about it, I think it's fair to say, are cautiously optimistic that at least we have surfaced some of the things they feel they've been struggling with for some time.

[2:23:52] Voice 18: And I think in some ways starting to shift the culture of just how we talk about these kinds of issues and the fact that we do just actually talk about them is one of the most important initial steps that we're taking.

[2:24:03] Voice 18: thinking. The bulk of the work needed to address these issues actually is not in the recommendations

[2:24:10] Voice 18: to council, but in the staff actions and the work that we have to do operationally. All those more

[2:24:17] Voice 18: administrative, less interesting, less appealing, less attractive, but really important foundational

[2:24:23] Voice 18: pieces that in some ways we have deferred for too long, those are the work that we'll have to do as

[2:24:28] Voice 18: staff, and that's not really your problem to solve. You know, even things like the proposed

[2:24:33] Voice 18: shift to a corporate plan model, we'll actually see staff carry the majority of that additional

[2:24:37] Voice 18: work. Council will still lead in the development of its strategic priorities, but staff are going

[2:24:42] Voice 18: to have to do the work of building out the operational side of that plan. So I think the

[2:24:46] Voice 18: recommendations that we're bringing to you are really intended more than anything to create some

[2:24:51] Voice 18: time and space for staff to invest in improving how Islands Trust operates. We will do our best

[2:24:58] Voice 18: to forge ahead and pursue improvements regardless of any decisions you make about those

[2:25:03] Voice 18: recommendations but at the same time if we're going to be able to move the needle we are going

[2:25:08] Voice 18: to require support from you and a future council maybe future councils. I do think I've been

[2:25:15] Voice 18: intentionally modest in what I've recommended to you even if it doesn't seem that way in some

[2:25:19] Voice 18: respects and I appreciate also that you're under no obligation to accept any or all of these

[2:25:24] Voice 18: recommendations i will just say that if you choose not to accept the recommendations though that is

[2:25:29] Voice 18: to a large extent choosing to accept the status quo and from my conversations with many of you

[2:25:36] Voice 18: and with staff i don't think that's desirable more importantly though i also don't believe

[2:25:42] Voice 18: it is sustainable for much longer for us to continue to operate in the way that we are

[2:25:46] Voice 18: and so i'll leave my comments there and happy to take your questions

[2:25:50] Trustee Patrick: All right. Thank you very much, CIO Brony. We know we asked you to bring this report. So, trustees, I had given you fair warning, because I know you read my Sunday emails that I send out. We're going to pull out the alphabet list. We're going to go around. Everyone's going to have an opportunity. This is where you can have your comments or you can have a specific question.

[2:26:12] Trustee Patrick: Now, the three minute clock is going to be running over here. So you can't stretch this all out with lots of questions. So please use some judgment. There could be more rounds if necessary. So this is your chance to have your feedback or ask specific questions about the report on how you see it.

[2:26:29] Trustee Patrick: and then afterwards we're going to go back and discuss each recommendation and go through in

[2:26:36] Trustee Patrick: that order if you have a motion if you have something you have wanted to bring forward

[2:26:40] Trustee Patrick: in your three minute opportunity that's where you should tell us you can always withdraw it later

[2:26:45] Trustee Patrick: after you've listened to everybody speak but to tell us if you have a motion in mind and

[2:26:50] Trustee Patrick: that it might be coming so if that makes sense i've got the alphabet list out we're going to

[2:26:55] Trustee Patrick: to run it around and first on the list i'm going up starting with a so it's you trusty allen

[2:27:10] Voice 25: well i have a lot of comments but they're all all over the place in terms of

[2:27:15] Voice 25: reading the report and sort of circling back to the recommendation so um proceed it's not

[2:27:21] Voice 25: very practical my approach but uh do the best you can pick your highest i will say i wish you

[2:27:28] Voice 25: I wish I had read this report or received this report three terms ago, to be honest.

[2:27:33] Voice 25: It's amazing.

[2:27:35] Voice 25: I still agree with a lot in here.

[2:27:38] Voice 25: And it kind of almost makes me want to run again.

[2:27:41] Voice 25: I don't know.

[2:27:42] Voice 25: But I

[2:27:43] Voice 25: will say, what do I want to say?

[2:27:50] Voice 25: I just want to comment a bunch of things.

[2:27:53] Voice 20: Well, get going.

[2:27:53] Voice 20: Okay.

[2:27:54] Voice 20: All right.

[2:27:54] Voice 25: So, yeah.

[2:27:59] Voice 25: Yeah. Well, I like the fact that you're recognizing our limited capacity.

[2:28:11] Voice 25: I mean, I will say, yes, the frustration here, I'll just not even look at my notes, is nothing getting done, you know, our projects.

[2:28:19] Voice 25: And I still get the fact that it's the council's, it's our onus and that we keep on throwing more and more on.

[2:28:26] Voice 25: And I've been seeing it in my four terms

[2:28:27] Voice 25: and nothing gets done.

[2:28:29] Voice 25: And so, and I've been looking, trying to find other models and there isn't anything out there.

[2:28:35] Voice 25: like we are really basically alone and so it's i can see a struggle and i almost and see where

[2:28:41] Voice 25: the province kind of questions why are you coming to us you guys got to figure out

[2:28:45] Voice 25: where you're at and i don't think i don't think we can or it's it's really um it's really

[2:28:50] Voice 25: challenging but i will say in terms of what i've read in your report that um the biggest thing is

[2:28:56] Voice 25: that we need that i looked at the city of victoria report that you referenced uh the ocp so that was

[2:29:03] Voice 25: brilliant and it was totally readable, it was totally simple, and that's something we could

[2:29:08] Voice 25: look towards to make these more accessible to their public and even to trustees. And that,

[2:29:15] Voice 25: yeah, I feel the biggest thing for me is just how much we have in our work program and how we're

[2:29:19] Voice 25: drifting from what we are, which is a land planning agency, and we can't save the world

[2:29:25] Voice 25: with all these things. We just got to pull back. So that's what I really want to see us do is

[2:29:30] Voice 25: is really narrow and focused on our ambitions

[2:29:35] Voice 25: because we are too ambitious and nothing gets done

[2:29:37] Voice 25: and it's just frustrating in every turn.

[2:29:39] Voice 25: So, yeah, thank you.

[2:29:42] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[2:29:43] Trustee Patrick: You've let him off the hook with no questions.

[2:29:45] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Bernardo.

[2:29:48] Voice 17: Thank you.

[2:29:52] Voice 17: Something the CEO mentioned rang a bell with me,

[2:29:56] Voice 17: which is basically do less, get more done.

[2:30:00] Voice 17: That's certainly been my experience in life

[2:30:03] Voice 17: when you've got anything important to do.

[2:30:04] Voice 17: There's no such thing as multitasking.

[2:30:06] Voice 17: And all we do is ask staff to multitask.

[2:30:10] Voice 17: If you want to get any one thing done well,

[2:30:13] Voice 17: you have to focus on that thing and work on it.

[2:30:16] Voice 17: We, for, I won't have to repeat the things

[2:30:18] Voice 17: that are in the report,

[2:30:19] Voice 17: but for the reasons identified by the CEO,

[2:30:23] Voice 17: we don't focus.

[2:30:25] Voice 17: And he was too circumspect to be overly direct.

[2:30:31] Voice 17: in identifying the cause of that but the cause of that is in this room it's us it's how we do

[2:30:35] Voice 17: business it's not a personal fault it's in large part how the organization is structured by statute

[2:30:43] Voice 17: and many of these antique policies that we have about how we proceed with meetings the latitude

[2:30:50] Voice 17: allowed um trustees um those are all things that have to get addressed um i support um i should cut

[2:31:00] Voice 17: to the chase here and say i agree wholeheartedly with the analysis and because i agree with the

[2:31:07] Voice 17: analysis i support all of the recommendations um you know on governance committee and throughout

[2:31:13] Voice 17: over the past three years uh we spent a tremendous amount of time talking about the 2022 governance

[2:31:21] Voice 17: report and trying to deal with that uh you know we are a fractious event where we're

[2:31:29] Voice 17: writing a letter to the province, and we got stiff-armed by the province on that twice now.

[2:31:35] Voice 17: The governance report identified a lot of symptoms and offered a treatment plan for each of them.

[2:31:40] Voice 17: What it didn't do is provide a diagnosis of what was causing those symptoms. I think the report

[2:31:46] Voice 17: that we have in front of us today goes a long way in that direction in identifying the source

[2:31:52] Voice 17: of our challenges, and I think of the recommendations that are up there, the real source of light is

[2:31:58] Voice 17: something that we've already addressed or attempted to address before it's it's going over

[2:32:02] Voice 17: to true corporate planning so that our resource expenditures both in terms of cash and and also

[2:32:09] Voice 17: in terms of simply the skills and talent of our staff members are focused on specific tasks and

[2:32:17] Voice 17: we don't clutter up their lives by throwing more at them so uh that's my general comment i think

[2:32:24] Voice 17: this is great um i would have been thrilled uh if this report had been produced in the first year of

[2:32:31] Voice 17: our term because i think it would have gone a long way to addressing those challenges in governance

[2:32:34] Voice 17: report but soviet here we are better late than never and when we start getting specifics uh

[2:32:41] Voice 17: just a heads up to the cao i will want to interrogate him about the salt spring office

[2:32:46] Voice 17: because it's not something that's you say in the report but some of the facts that are raised in

[2:32:52] Voice 17: there and the way the issue is discussed to me at least suggests that operationally it may not

[2:32:57] Voice 17: be delivering value for money and that may require re-examination so that's one micro

[2:33:02] Voice 17: issue i'll raise later thank you thank

[2:33:04] Trustee Patrick: you trustee boland

[2:33:08] Voice 24: um thank you thank you for the report

[2:33:13] Voice 24: uh it's very interesting um i would i do have a question but i'll say some more before you

[2:33:21] Voice 24: have to answer the question which is when you say it's unsustainable if we don't change and

[2:33:29] Voice 24: i would be very interested to know what you think could happen because in in my uh my hope would be

[2:33:37] Voice 24: that we would actually land on the doorstep of the province as a problem that they had to address

[2:33:44] Voice 24: because i do believe that the mandate the lack of clarity the scope they give us everything

[2:33:51] Voice 24: is quite vague and it definitely is you know part of the root cause of our issues

[2:33:59] Voice 24: and so i'd really be interested to know like if we if if we don't adopt this you know could we

[2:34:06] Voice 24: fail in a way which would draw the province's attention to our to our situation um i do i do

[2:34:15] Voice 24: do agree that the corporate the lack of corporate planning is a fundamental problem and we waffle

[2:34:24] Voice 24: around strategic planning which as you point out is 20 percent of the work we have very very poor

[2:34:34] Voice 24: understanding or clarity about the baseload activities that are as you say 80 percent of

[2:34:44] Voice 24: what people are doing. And I think that's dreadful. And I think, you know, the strategic

[2:34:50] Voice 24: planning is kind of our, we cling to that as though we have control in a way that's inappropriate,

[2:34:57] Voice 24: because we go into some sort of aspirational escalation without any clear idea of the costs

[2:35:08] Voice 24: or the constraints.

[2:35:11] Voice 24: I do think that we could be challenged more.

[2:35:15] Voice 24: I don't think that we as trustees have been presented

[2:35:19] Voice 24: with an integrated view of stark choices,

[2:35:24] Voice 24: i.e. we can do A or B, not both.

[2:35:28] Voice 24: I would welcome that.

[2:35:31] Voice 24: I also think that the committee meeting structure

[2:35:39] Voice 24: should be radically overhauled which i i do overall i think i would have liked a more

[2:35:46] Voice 24: a more aggressive approach which you say you understand that um some trustees would have

[2:35:54] Voice 24: liked that and i would certainly be one of those but i do appreciate the recommendations

[2:35:58] Voice 24: recommendations um i i was very interested when you clarified the role of the province

[2:36:07] Voice 24: in the pay the staff pay and the funding and how it differs from other um other local governments

[2:36:15] Voice 24: and and one of the things that i really object to and i is the fact that the province approves

[2:36:22] Voice 24: the islands trust conservancy plan and then we fund it and that's another you know way in which

[2:36:32] Voice 24: the province really lets us down having created us anyway i do uh i i do support all your

[2:36:40] Voice 24: recommendations pretty much um or some of them more so than others and i appreciate the reports

[2:36:47] Voice 24: you've uh created thank you thank you trustee borkwick um

[2:36:55] Voice 36: yeah uh i'm gonna echo my fellow

[2:36:57] Voice 36: trustees and in being extremely grateful for the receipt of this report i think it's excellent um

[2:37:02] Voice 36: and uh you know i think um so trustee bernardo was saying you know absolutely like wish we'd

[2:37:11] Voice 36: had this in the first year i'm i agree and also i'm glad that uh for the next council

[2:37:18] Voice 36: council that we are getting this ahead of them and that we can hand this off to them and they

[2:37:23] Voice 36: will have the head start of us at the end of the term familiar with a lot of these problems

[2:37:28] Voice 36: passing this same report on and Ruben will be here to to to usher that through um I hope for his case

[2:37:37] Voice 36: for for our sake um yeah there's I don't think there's any of the the recommendations that I

[2:37:43] Voice 36: have any major issues with i uh i have to cop to possibly just my own pedestrian sensibilities

[2:37:51] Voice 36: uh and i i this is i want to preface this by saying this is more than slightly facetious

[2:37:57] Voice 36: but um i i appreciate the points i really appreciate the talk about transitioning from

[2:38:05] Voice 36: a strategic plan model to a corporate plan model the word corporate just rises raises my hackles

[2:38:10] Voice 36: it has nothing to do with the actual substance of what you're saying but it just makes me

[2:38:14] Voice 36: angry um they are very important it's a good thing um um the only other question that i immediately

[2:38:23] Voice 36: have was that uh and this is more clarification because i think i i think i understand the the

[2:38:31] Voice 36: intent here but uh in terms of recommendation eight new engagement and communications lead

[2:38:36] Voice 36: um i just wanted i was curious as to how that relates to the excellent work that morgana does

[2:38:43] Voice 36: And just where that where that sort of how those two roles would sort of orbit one another.

[2:38:51] Voice 18: Yeah, thank you. On that point, exact reporting relationship would be to be determined.

[2:38:57] Voice 18: But the idea is that it's a second role to really augment the work that our existing communication specialist Morgana does.

[2:39:03] Voice 18: You know, we have one person who does. We have one dedicated person to the conservancy who does great work.

[2:39:09] Voice 18: and then we have uh one dedicated to trust council and ltcs and i think they do great work but the

[2:39:17] Voice 18: work that could be done particularly on the engagement side of that um i think it is is an

[2:39:22] Voice 18: area where we're not really meeting the bar in terms of what we could do and i think increasingly

[2:39:26] Voice 18: what the public expects us to do and so that's where i would see that the focus of that role we

[2:39:31] Voice 18: do have another another staffer who started to pick some of that up around the policy statement

[2:39:34] Voice 18: as well, but really we need someone to really define a plan for how we approach that in a more

[2:39:39] Voice 18: consistent and thoughtful and effective way, and then implement that alongside the communications

[2:39:44] Voice 18: function that exists. And maybe I'll also speak briefly to Trustee Boland's question around

[2:39:51] Voice 18: if it's not sustainable, could we fail enough that we get to the attention of the province?

[2:39:55] Voice 18: My initial thought is, again, slightly facetious as well, is failure as a strategy is not generally

[2:40:00] Voice 18: really recommended. And I also don't want to give the impression that we are on the verge of

[2:40:08] Voice 18: catastrophic failure. What I mean when I say that I don't think it's any longer sustainable is that

[2:40:14] Voice 18: we are starting to get to a point where we are kind of dropping some balls, you know, big and

[2:40:20] Voice 18: small on some of the work. And it's not because we don't have a team of folks who aren't working

[2:40:25] Voice 18: really hard on a daily basis. It's just because, particularly in some key roles,

[2:40:30] Voice 18: we're just asking too much. And that is only going to, the more we pile on, the more that's

[2:40:36] Voice 18: going to continue to happen. And there starts, and you know, it becomes a real liability

[2:40:40] Voice 18: for us as an organization in terms of our reputation as well. And so I think

[2:40:45] Voice 18: that's where we're starting to see some of the cracks. And I think we just risk those cracks

[2:40:49] Voice 18: getting wider over time. And so I think that's, when I say it's not sustainable, that's really

[2:40:53] Voice 18: really what i mean is we're we're at a bit of a tipping point where i think you know it's that

[2:40:57] Voice 18: entropy piece that i threw in there which i know is a bit esoteric but you know it's that notion

[2:41:02] Voice 18: that eventually we sort of these things start to compound on another and they already are and it

[2:41:07] Voice 18: just accelerates over time um

[2:41:10] Voice 36: if i may and i appreciate toby for pausing the clock on me

[2:41:13] Voice 36: um yeah and i want to say that i thought the entropy it was amazing uh

[2:41:20] Voice 36: And to sort of go on from where you're saying it, you know, it might be more fair to say that we may be on the verge of catastrophic continued mediocrity, which will kill us just as surely as disaster.

[2:41:34] Voice 36: And yeah, I thank you for sort of clarifying that in terms of the communications.

[2:41:38] Voice 36: I wholeheartedly agree.

[2:41:39] Voice 36: I agree. I think that there isn't a public body that I've interfaced with since the start of my term that I think is doing a good job of meaningfully engaging on any of the islands on any subject. So the bar is on the ground, and I would love for us to be raising it. I think that would be really good for us.

[2:41:59] Voice 36: But yes, broadly, I think all of these recommendations are wise.

[2:42:03] Voice 36: They are. It is triage.

[2:42:04] Voice 36: I think they're not insignificant impacts potentially, but by no means go as far as they could.

[2:42:14] Voice 36: And yeah, I would agree with Trustee Bernardo in terms of analysis, the analysis contained within this report, as opposed to the governance report, which also has a lot of good in it.

[2:42:24] Voice 36: but this does a much better job of diagnosing the thing from which we can then draw conclusions and

[2:42:29] Voice 36: not the other way around thank you thank

[2:42:31] Trustee Patrick: you very much uh trustee dobbs i

[2:42:38] Voice 14: think it's close now um

[2:42:40] Voice 14: so yes no i think everything here is is important it's things that we needed to do a long time ago

[2:42:45] Voice 14: i really like the fact that um that putting a halt on projects that are not initiated i i've said

[2:42:52] Voice 14: this in the past what happens with you get a new group of trustees and we want to solve all the

[2:42:56] Voice 14: of problems in the first year so we're always rushing to do more and more and more and it's

[2:43:01] Voice 14: time to stop hold back and focus on some of the core issues that we need to do um the other was

[2:43:07] Voice 14: the um see there um I think that reconciliation is going is definitely going to be require more

[2:43:16] Voice 14: and more time and energy and funding so I do think that that's an important part um the office we

[2:43:23] Voice 14: We hear a lot about the office, but I think we spent a lot of money on the office we have,

[2:43:27] Voice 14: so I think we really need to think about what is the purpose of the office.

[2:43:30] Voice 14: Is it so I can come and visit, or is it so staff can have a place to work?

[2:43:35] Voice 14: To me, the office issue should be more about those that are actually, that's their workplace.

[2:43:41] Voice 14: So I certainly agree with that.

[2:43:44] Voice 14: The other, somewhere here, there's something else.

[2:43:47] Voice 14: Oh, and the technology, of course, is huge for us,

[2:43:51] Voice 14: And so maybe we should also be partnering with other agencies, communications, the three different, the fact that we have two different communication areas should be incorporated, be working together.

[2:44:03] Voice 14: And then also, what was the, oh, there was one major one where it talked about how the three committees should not adopt the practice of directing staff.

[2:44:11] Voice 14: There's a lot of times, you know, that Trust Council certainly gets into a topic and then directs without having a feasibility study.

[2:44:19] Voice 14: So I think that's wonderful.

[2:44:21] Voice 14: so overall yes I like what's here thank you thank you my

[2:44:25] Trustee Patrick: apologies trustee Campbell I can't follow

[2:44:28] Trustee Patrick: an alphabetical list so trustee Campbell

[2:44:30] Trustee Patrick: hi

[2:44:33] Voice 3: there um yeah I I was I was okay with coming after D

[2:44:38] Voice 3: it was fun um yeah I I really appreciated the uh the report and one thing that it's um it sort of

[2:44:47] Voice 3: raised uh for me was that uh when i first started the business for myself somebody gave me some

[2:44:54] Voice 3: really great advice that you do what you do uh as well as you possibly can and then find people that

[2:45:00] Voice 3: can do um the other stuff and i feel like uh seeing this report has definitely brought forward

[2:45:08] Voice 3: a lot of the other stuff um that uh can only help as we start to work through it to to uh

[2:45:17] Voice 3: feather the organization so um i'm interested to see how it goes forward thank

[2:45:26] Trustee Patrick: you very much

[2:45:28] Trustee Patrick: trustee elliott thank

[2:45:34] Voice 27: you i'll echo a lot of what i've heard i do have a couple of questions

[2:45:38] Voice 27: um but just i think you've highlighted the core of um what a lot of us have been feeling and

[2:45:46] Voice 27: sensing and not really knowing how to articulate um i've had the privilege and really the honor

[2:45:53] Voice 27: of sitting on every committee except governance and accessibility um so i tend and five ltc so i

[2:46:01] Voice 27: I tend to see a lot more from a systems view and I hear or feel or sense some of the things that

[2:46:08] Voice 27: you've articulated. So it really just validated and articulated in a very structured way things

[2:46:15] Voice 27: that I was feeling already. So it came as a relief. I think this report provides some guardrails that

[2:46:22] Voice 27: will help guide and limit some of the many choices that are always available to us in this complex

[2:46:28] Voice 27: and hard-to-manage organization.

[2:46:31] Voice 27: I agree and support all the recommendations,

[2:46:34] Voice 27: particularly one in four,

[2:46:36] Voice 27: limiting of the projects and feasibility assessments

[2:46:38] Voice 27: before any new work is directed.

[2:46:40] Voice 27: This is critical.

[2:46:41] Voice 27: I've seen how it takes us off track

[2:46:44] Voice 27: right from the beginning of this term

[2:46:46] Voice 27: when we directed some projects

[2:46:49] Voice 27: that really didn't have a lot of understanding

[2:46:53] Voice 27: of how much it would cost.

[2:46:55] Voice 27: The observations around capacity

[2:46:57] Voice 27: and difficulties with staff retention. I won't go into it, but just 87 staffing changes

[2:47:03] Voice 27: on a staff of 65 in one year, like that has a huge impact on this organization

[2:47:10] Voice 27: from hiring processes, backfilling, lack of competitive pay. Our planners are doing complex

[2:47:16] Voice 27: work that is not asked in other environments and that costs money. It's not just efficiency,

[2:47:22] Voice 27: it is costing money. And so when we get to the budgeting process, that is one of the biggest

[2:47:28] Voice 27: elements that I think the public doesn't really understand.

[2:47:34] Voice 27: So, and then the accessibility and engagement responsiveness to the public. This is a piece

[2:47:40] Voice 27: that's really been lacking. I heard this as I was campaigning for this role. There's really

[2:47:45] Voice 27: a perception that Islands Trust was just a one-way directing information. We have lots of in-person

[2:47:51] Voice 27: in meetings, but there isn't a dialogue going back. And when we have problems, there isn't a

[2:47:56] Voice 27: really good system of understanding where that's coming from and addressing it. So I think that

[2:48:01] Voice 27: engagement coordinator would really help. And I think we need two community coordinators in the

[2:48:06] Voice 27: north and the south, but that's another one. Fully support the manager of Indigenous relations

[2:48:13] Voice 27: position. I did ask the CAO, should it not be a director level? And we sort of had a conversation

[2:48:18] Voice 27: about that, but maybe you can articulate your reasons why a manager you feel is appropriate.

[2:48:24] Voice 27: I liked what you said about our strategic planning process. I had to laugh at the way

[2:48:28] Voice 27: you characterize it. It was very flawed. That's all I'll say.

[2:48:35] Trustee Patrick: All right, go ahead.

[2:48:38] Voice 18: Thank you, Meg. Yeah, just on the point about the manager versus director piece. So

[2:48:43] Voice 18: there's a couple aspects to that. I think from a practical HR standpoint,

[2:48:50] Voice 18: I would be challenged to get my former colleagues at the public service

[2:48:53] Voice 18: agencies to support a director in a role that is kind of initially at least

[2:48:58] Voice 18: standalone without direct reports, et cetera.

[2:49:01] Voice 18: I think I'm more likely to be successful at a manager level.

[2:49:04] Voice 18: I would say that doesn't preclude though,

[2:49:06] Voice 18: once we really figure out what is our long-term plan around reconciliation and

[2:49:11] Voice 18: building relationships with nations that we would, you know,

[2:49:14] Voice 18: we would look at that and what the resourcing actually looks like longer

[2:49:17] Voice 18: term and that may be revisited um and the the reporting relationship of that position too i

[2:49:23] Voice 18: haven't firmly landed on on where it would be but i think a manager i'm more likely to be able to

[2:49:27] Voice 18: get that supported and classified and through the the process um more easily than i would a

[2:49:34] Voice 18: director at this point thank you

[2:49:37] Voice 15: trustee evans thank you i very much agree with everyone what

[2:49:45] Voice 15: what everyone else has said so far. I am so happy to see this report. This has basically verbalized

[2:49:52] Voice 15: the first five points, the first five recommendations that you've addressed here are

[2:49:58] Voice 15: some of the key topics that we as the Corporate Planning Working Group were trying to address

[2:50:04] Voice 15: with the Corporate Planning Process Document. I am very much looking forward to this group

[2:50:08] Voice 15: getting back together and finishing off the process document that doesn't involve the

[2:50:14] Voice 15: implementation but actually getting the document done and I do have a question in here as well

[2:50:21] Voice 15: so having the process document it helps the incoming trustees for the next term understand

[2:50:28] Voice 15: how we work because we didn't get anything to tell us how we work or why we work the way that we do

[2:50:35] Voice 15: so without that I don't want us to revert back to how we entered into this trust council we want

[2:50:41] Voice 15: want each trust council to build on the experience and expertise and knowledge of the previous one

[2:50:46] Voice 15: and that'll come through having something in their hand the corporate planning process document was

[2:50:51] Voice 15: intended to be a trustee document to explain the process and how and why we work um so it's like

[2:50:58] Voice 15: how the ltcs work the committees the conservancy trust council how we all tie in together for them

[2:51:05] Voice 15: for the full budget strategic plans are trust council strategic plan for like the 700,000 for

[2:51:13] Voice 15: the projects then we've got one foot we need to have a strategic plan for the conservancy or the

[2:51:17] Voice 15: five-year plan we need to have one for information technology we need to have one for staffing

[2:51:22] Voice 15: all of these things we have to have forward-looking plans so we know how they fit in

[2:51:27] Voice 15: Those feed into the corporate plan. So my question is, because I'm just a little uncomfortable with

[2:51:36] Voice 15: the wording of number three, that we endorse the transition from the current strategic plan model

[2:51:43] Voice 15: to a true corporate plan to be developed by the incoming council. I'm a little concerned that

[2:51:51] Voice 15: you're saying we stop work on the process document which i wouldn't support i do support the incoming

[2:51:59] Voice 15: trust council having control of the implementation and what that looks like for the piece that they

[2:52:07] Voice 15: have staff will have their portion that they deal with separate from what we deal with but there has

[2:52:14] Voice 15: to be that understanding where that dividing line is and this document was meant to help with that

[2:52:19] Voice 15: as well so that was my question could you explain that in a little bit more detail so i can

[2:52:24] Voice 15: understand it and whether or not some of that wording um should be tweaked a little bit thank

[2:52:29] Voice 15: you yeah

[2:52:32] Voice 18: thank you uh yeah to clarify my my hope and expectation and ambition is for us to have the

[2:52:38] Voice 18: process completed landed by end of this term so that incoming council can use that as the basis

[2:52:46] Voice 18: is to develop a corporate plan,

[2:52:48] Voice 18: or maybe we'll call it an organizational plan.

[2:52:51] Voice 18: We'll consider the wording for Trustee Borthwick.

[2:52:54] Voice 18: But yeah, the new council, I think early in their term,

[2:52:58] Voice 18: ideally we would be able to lead them through that process

[2:53:01] Voice 18: to develop a corporate plan based on the process

[2:53:04] Voice 18: that we will hopefully have finalized

[2:53:06] Voice 18: before the end of this term.

[2:53:11] Voice 15: I just want to

[2:53:12] Voice 15: again say thank you very much

[2:53:13] Voice 15: for putting in writing all of the stuff

[2:53:15] Voice 15: that the working group had been addressing

[2:53:19] Voice 15: and discussing that there were big issues with.

[2:53:22] Voice 15: So this is, and I hope that at the First Trust Council,

[2:53:25] Voice 15: that the new term, you bring this out again

[2:53:26] Voice 15: and that it goes on the agenda.

[2:53:29] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[2:53:30] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Falk.

[2:53:34] Voice 16: South Bender is following on strong here.

[2:53:38] Voice 16: Yeah, thank you.

[2:53:41] Voice 16: I read the whole report with great interest.

[2:53:43] Voice 16: And to me, you're like the carny for the trust.

[2:53:48] Voice 16: You know, you came in, shot in and said,

[2:53:52] Voice 16: said, we've got to take a logical approach here. We've got to see what's going on and put this in

[2:53:56] Voice 16: order, right? So you sorted things out. You just made sense of it or started the process of us

[2:54:03] Voice 16: getting to making sense of it. It's very logistics oriented. And, you know, that's great. Not to take

[2:54:13] Voice 16: away from your report and that work, which I really appreciate. I think, and I'm probably

[2:54:19] Voice 16: talking more to us now the council I think I think that we need to have also

[2:54:23] Voice 16: an overall systems review about how we are communicating and like I was

[2:54:31] Voice 16: thinking about when we were discussing schedules you know when we spent was

[2:54:37] Voice 16: must have been close to an hour and like I come from a consensus model of

[2:54:43] Voice 16: communication and I think there's a lot we could learn from that model and I

[2:54:47] Voice 16: I know we sometimes have consensus here, but we don't use the consensus model to to guide our discussion to to reach conclusions on things.

[2:54:58] Voice 16: And I think one of the things that we could do more, you know, way better and really kind of wrap our heads around this is understanding.

[2:55:07] Voice 16: And I used to teach consensus to groups and guide them through the process.

[2:55:12] Voice 16: And one of the things I would always come up against was there's a tendency for groups to discuss the colors of the curtains or the colors or the patterns on the toilet paper to the nth degree and spend all the time of the meeting talking about detail that isn't necessary to do.

[2:55:31] Voice 16: because the whichever is chosen isn't going to make or break the organization

[2:55:36] Voice 16: or the goal of the organization and I feel like we could have I'm using this

[2:55:41] Voice 16: as an example because it's so fresh in our minds we could have instead of going

[2:55:44] Voice 16: through the meeting schedules and having motion after motion after motion on the

[2:55:48] Voice 16: petty little details in my view like which day which place which all this we

[2:55:53] Voice 16: should have delegated and delegation is a very strong part of effective meetings

[2:55:57] Voice 16: in the consensus model and trust that who you have delegated to can do it and you're going to

[2:56:05] Voice 16: go with what they do you delegate clearly by saying we want meetings for instance right we

[2:56:13] Voice 16: want meetings that are we we need to go to islands at least say 40 of the time or 50 or whatever

[2:56:21] Voice 16: ever we want to go to islands we want to save money we want to you know this all the things

[2:56:28] Voice 16: we want we could spell out very clearly and give it to either the staff or a staff and one oversight

[2:56:34] Voice 16: person from this group to review what they come up with and then just let them come up with it

[2:56:39] Voice 16: and let them draw it up and say and say bring it to us and say here it is and if we didn't like it

[2:56:44] Voice 16: we could say for the next time we want you to improve in these ways you didn't quite hear us

[2:56:51] Voice 16: so for next time please pay more attention in this area kind of like the reviewings and then

[2:56:57] Voice 16: next time is better and then next time is better and we've saved a lot of time a lot of time and

[2:57:05] Voice 16: that time cost money that's the money that's costing us being in this meeting that's what

[2:57:09] Voice 16: the whole cost is it's about us actually spending time here and so i really hope that we can do that

[2:57:16] Voice 16: that. And because to me, wherever our biggest challenge at the Trust is us being so unclear

[2:57:26] Voice 16: and us spending so much time feeling like we all have to have a little say on every little thing.

[2:57:33] Voice 16: And it's not that we can't have that, but we should have it as a guiding principle to say,

[2:57:36] Voice 16: not as working out the details. Anyway, I think that's what I wanted to say. My

[2:57:46] Voice 16: My dinger didn't go off yet.

[2:57:47] Voice 16: I can't believe it.

[2:57:48] Voice 16: Thank you.

[2:57:51] Voice 16: All right.

[2:57:52] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[2:57:53] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Fast.

[2:57:58] Voice 29: Thank you.

[2:57:59] Voice 29: Thanks for this report.

[2:58:01] Voice 29: I enjoyed the analysis and I read it carefully and I appreciate that it might be bold enough.

[2:58:11] Voice 29: I think it's something that we should take.

[2:58:14] Voice 29: Particularly, I enjoyed on page six the bits about change, looking at how the world has changed in the external part.

[2:58:24] Voice 29: I just want to say I want to offer to the chair that I'd be happy to make the motion that Trust Council adopt the nine recommendations contained in the 2025 Operational Review.

[2:58:33] Voice 29: If the chair wishes to call on me or somebody else, never mind.

[2:58:37] Voice 29: And you asked me to give notice of motions, right?

[2:58:41] Voice 29: Right. So but whatever happens, I'm just I do have a question.

[2:58:47] Voice 29: Like Trustee Borthwick, the word corporate makes me stumble.

[2:58:53] Voice 29: And I wonder how many other Islanders would stumble over that word when we're here in the public service and the nonprofit and corporate planning.

[2:59:04] Voice 29: Why are we using that term when we're not a corporation? If you could clarify.

[2:59:08] Voice 29: We are a corporation. Go ahead.

[2:59:10] Voice 29: I'm asking our CAO because I want to know what to say to trustees, sorry, to citizens.

[2:59:19] Voice 29: Thank you.

[2:59:21] Voice 18: Yeah, no, thank you.

[2:59:22] Voice 18: I appreciate the question and the perspective that you and Trustee Bortigal have both shared.

[2:59:27] Voice 18: For me, it's a kind of standard term for an all-encompassing plan for an organization

[2:59:34] Voice 18: and one that I've used in a government context for many times.

[2:59:38] Voice 18: and i built off it having that the work had been done on a corporate planning process

[2:59:43] Voice 18: i'm totally open as i say to giving it branding it as something different um and if that's the

[2:59:48] Voice 18: hardest decision we have to make we would consider ourselves very lucky but yeah i'm happy to take

[2:59:52] Voice 18: that feedback and consider like to say whether we could call it an organizational plan for the

[2:59:56] Voice 18: Yeah, it was just a happy thing.

[3:00:00] Voice 26: Okay, Trustee Gavreau.

[3:00:03] Voice 26: Thank you.

[3:00:05] Voice 26: What to say?

[3:00:06] Voice 26: I think by this report, absolutely a breath of fresh air.

[3:00:10] Voice 26: I think it's great.

[3:00:13] Voice 26: I've written down just a few words here.

[3:00:16] Voice 26: Disciplined, which is something I think our organization can really kind

[3:00:20] Voice 26: of use at times.

[3:00:22] Voice 26: Building capacity.

[3:00:25] Voice 26: Yeah, I would be in favor of all the recommendations.

[3:00:27] Voice 26: I think recommendations one through five are great for building a capacity for staff to do the work.

[3:00:36] Voice 26: Yeah, if there is a motion on the floor, I'd second it.

[3:00:41] Voice 26: I just wanted to say that it feels like a tune-up a little bit, like we brought a car and the car is running great, but we've got a tune-up and built for speed.

[3:00:51] Voice 26: And if this is the start of this, I can't wait to see what you do next.

[3:00:55] Voice 26: Thank you.

[3:00:56] Voice 26: Thank you.

[3:00:57] Voice 26: trustee yeti um

[3:01:01] Voice 23: i'm not sure what your favorite superlative might be but um i'll start with

[3:01:06] Voice 23: excellence um i um i'm finding this report to be uh both um easy to read and easy to digest i like

[3:01:16] Voice 23: trustee fast i really like some of the background um in terms of how reconciliation is not optional

[3:01:23] Voice 23: and the reasons why and how the demographics have changed in all of the culture so i also

[3:01:29] Voice 23: like the fact that in your opening remarks you said something in terms of

[3:01:33] Voice 23: we have deferred things for too long so we're well over the probationary period

[3:01:37] Voice 23: and you've bonded with us and you're here for the duration so I find that

[3:01:42] Voice 23: both in terms of the way that this has all been conducted I was a little bit

[3:01:48] Voice 23: surprised to hear that there had been no staff survey since 2019 and I'm very

[3:01:55] Voice 23: very glad that that has changed and that there's recommendations for continuing

[3:01:59] Voice 23: and I also like the kinds of things you said in terms of how well you're working

[3:02:03] Voice 23: with some of the senior all of our directors so I think that I'm feeling a

[3:02:10] Voice 23: little bit calmer in terms of being in good hands I have some concerns about I

[3:02:19] Voice 23: well one of the things that Bowen did in our strategic plan was to make it very

[3:02:23] Voice 23: clear to everybody that we wouldn't start any new projects until we had completed some of the major

[3:02:29] Voice 23: and we've got all sorts of issues with respect to infrastructure but until some of the projects

[3:02:35] Voice 23: have started that's a very important principle and it's worked really really well and it's I

[3:02:40] Voice 23: think in terms of all the corporate and strategic planning that that's a good premise to keep in

[3:02:46] Voice 23: mind as we go ahead but that said um and we've also we're always inundated on every level with

[3:02:54] Voice 23: lots and lots and lots of good ideas there's millions of them out there and it's really hard

[3:02:58] Voice 23: to prioritize them find the champion figure out the work that needs to be done so you know

[3:03:04] Voice 23: keeping those two things in mind i think is is part of this report and the one of the most helpful

[3:03:10] Voice 23: parts of it um that said we've got some things on the table that we haven't been able to make

[3:03:16] Voice 23: progress on that haven't started that i think are really important and they um what are we calling

[3:03:23] Voice 23: it the um reconciliation action plan um if we haven't started that for whatever reason um and

[3:03:31] Voice 23: we're talking about um there's a couple of issues with respect to the pretty considerable budget

[3:03:38] Voice 23: considerations for both the manager and the capacity building and there's

[3:03:45] Voice 23: another possibly duplication with respect to part of the conservation

[3:03:52] Voice 23: recommendations for their budget I need some help understanding what the

[3:03:56] Voice 23: distinctions are I'd also like to know whether or not some of this can be done

[3:04:00] Voice 23: in incremental steps so from the governance review and from the Trust

[3:04:06] Voice 23: council discussions in march every time that we've looked at both the communications and the

[3:04:14] Voice 23: reconciliations with first nations i think we've we've been stopped in terms of it's a huge issue

[3:04:22] Voice 23: and we don't know where to start and i think some help and some guidance whether that's getting

[3:04:27] Voice 23: consultants involved as opposed to a full-time position i'm not entirely sure yet but figuring

[3:04:33] Voice 23: out how to what the steps are going to be and how we can get there before we possibly I'm a little

[3:04:40] Voice 23: bit reluctant in terms of jumping into these big numbers mostly because Bowen pays for all of these

[3:04:47] Voice 23: and that I know what the reaction is going to be in terms of you know we've got a 30% increase now

[3:04:52] Voice 23: if we talk about you know a 40% increase I mean everybody will just go bonkers but it's also you

[3:05:00] Voice 23: You know, it is fundamental.

[3:05:01] Voice 23: I think that the communications, we really, really stumbled over the mandate rollout

[3:05:08] Voice 23: and all of the problems that we had around that.

[3:05:10] Voice 23: And I think a communication strategy would have, and somebody that could have helped us more directly.

[3:05:16] Voice 23: We didn't even have the staff position in place that we've got now.

[3:05:22] Voice 23: So, yes, I think that those need to come up.

[3:05:25] Voice 23: I'm not sure why they've always been at the very, very bottom of our lists.

[3:05:29] Voice 23: and um it's like helping us figure out both the analysis and the priorities i think has been the

[3:05:38] Voice 23: most helpful of all of this and i'm really glad that we've got this i'm sure that your update

[3:05:43] Voice 23: next year when we get a new council will be even more helpful and that we're going to be in good

[3:05:48] Voice 23: shape in terms of whatever that next council is going to deal with so once we get to budget

[3:05:53] Voice 23: discussions i think that i have some reluctance about just endorsing this outright because we

[3:05:59] Voice 23: we have to have some difficult discussions about the funding, but I certainly like where it's going

[3:06:05] Voice 23: and why and how we get there. Thank you. Thank

[3:06:09] Voice 23: you. Your favorite superlative?

[3:06:11] Voice 18: It'll do. Yeah,

[3:06:12] Voice 18: I'm not going to quibble. Yeah, just briefly on that point about those two roles. I think

[3:06:19] Voice 18: what you've described there is exactly why I think we need them. What I want those two roles to do

[3:06:25] Voice 18: initially is to come in and in both of those files reconciliation and the communication engagement

[3:06:31] Voice 18: figure out for us the plan for how we do the work so that it someone because they are they are big

[3:06:38] Voice 18: and it is a lot of work and so what i'm proposing is people whose dedicated job is to do that lift

[3:06:43] Voice 18: and help us figure out how we solve those problems and then support the implementation

[3:06:49] Voice 18: beyond that but that's kind of the goal is we we haven't been able to do that heavy work because

[3:06:54] Voice 18: because we haven't had the dedicated capacity to do it.

[3:06:56] Voice 18: And I think if we do, then we can, in both of those files,

[3:06:59] Voice 18: we can build out really good, strong frameworks

[3:07:01] Voice 18: for how we do that work more effectively

[3:07:04] Voice 18: that we would then coordinate across the organization

[3:07:06] Voice 18: in better support of you and the work that you're trying to achieve.

[3:07:11] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[3:07:12] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Graham.

[3:07:16] Voice 2: Yes, thank you.

[3:07:18] Voice 2: Excuse me, I'm not quite healthy today.

[3:07:24] Voice 2: First of all, well done as far as the operation

[3:07:28] Voice 2: in a review is concerned. This is one of the key documents that this organization has needed for

[3:07:37] Voice 2: quite some time. By and large, trustees are ambitious. Trust Council is overly ambitious.

[3:07:45] Voice 2: And we've run into the problem of not having the capacity to do the work that we've tried to do

[3:07:51] Voice 2: each and every Trust Council that I've been on. So there's nothing new there. And it's, I mean,

[3:07:57] Voice 2: Personally, I would try and do less and do what we do better, but I understand that we've got some really big topics, reconciliation, climate change, affordable housing. These are monsters. The review of the bio-enforcement policy, that was a big one, and the policy statement.

[3:08:17] Voice 2: these were really huge they took up an awful lot of time staff time and and it pains me every time

[3:08:22] Voice 2: a senior staff member says you know i'm working as hard as i can i i just i just can't get this

[3:08:28] Voice 2: done you know bear with me and we're we're blessed to have the competent staff that we have i would

[3:08:34] Voice 2: hate to think what this organization would look like if some of those key positions uh weren't

[3:08:40] Voice 2: there and and they will be moving on and so the review that you've produced gives a roadmap

[3:08:45] Voice 2: map for the next trust council in particular to do the work that has to happen. I am concerned

[3:08:51] Voice 2: about the budget, obviously. These are tough times for everybody. And as a local government,

[3:08:59] Voice 2: we are in a unique position where we can add to our costs because we have that latitude. But

[3:09:07] Voice 2: but the responsibility is that we should try not to.

[3:09:11] Voice 2: So if we could do less, but do what we do better,

[3:09:16] Voice 2: I would be a happy camper.

[3:09:19] Voice 2: And I say good luck to you

[3:09:22] Voice 2: and the next iteration of Trust Council.

[3:09:25] Voice 2: Please try and be less ambitious.

[3:09:27] Voice 2: But I think with your process,

[3:09:31] Voice 2: I don't like the word corporate,

[3:09:33] Voice 2: but your process of having the capacity looked at

[3:09:37] Voice 2: before an idea is fleshed out is is a great one so thanks again thank

[3:09:42] Voice 18: you go ahead thank you and

[3:09:44] Voice 18: thank you trustee graham i'll just say briefly too i think it's important to acknowledge that

[3:09:48] Voice 18: you're not the only ones who are ambitious i think part of our challenge is that the staff

[3:09:51] Voice 18: are also very ambitious there are we see lots of opportunities we want to be able to advance

[3:09:58] Voice 18: all the good ideas that are out there the ones that you provide and the ones we come up with

[3:10:01] Voice 18: on our own. I can tell you that staff have way more thoughts about all the great IT tools we

[3:10:08] Voice 18: could have if we should just do them all. I have to manage the ambition of the staff as much as I

[3:10:15] Voice 18: need to manage your ambition. So it's a lesson for all of us, I think, to sort of be realistic

[3:10:21] Voice 18: about what we can achieve. And that applies in all parts of the organization. Trustee Harris.

[3:10:27] Trustee Patrick: us

[3:10:33] Voice 31: the um you know your report cao brawny was uh lengthy and thorough and there was a couple things

[3:10:40] Voice 31: that stuck out with me and that um you know i keep rolling around in my um in my mind um

[3:10:47] Voice 31: things to say about the issues um one being i really wish there was more emphasis put on the

[3:10:53] Voice 31: undemocratic representation issues that um at least the people on salt spring island are suffering

[3:10:59] Voice 31: from and have suffered from greatly for decades. And you did mention in the report at one point

[3:11:07] Voice 31: about public losing trust in government and governmental organizations. And in my view,

[3:11:15] Voice 31: and many others, there's no surprise as to why that is. I see lots of chuckles and smiles and

[3:11:22] Voice 31: laughs about things, but honestly, I don't understand how that can even be an option at

[3:11:27] Voice 31: this point um because of the undemocratic representation issue and and going on to um

[3:11:33] Voice 31: you know just to go to the point that um people have been saying this report should have been out

[3:11:37] Voice 31: years ago well yeah 20 years ago why wasn't it um and because of that people have suffered greatly

[3:11:43] Voice 31: i don't know about the other islands but salt spring island people's economic well-being has

[3:11:49] Voice 31: been affected to huge huge degrees to the point where they haven't you know their retirement

[3:11:53] Voice 31: savings isn't what it ought to be you know that they've had to scratch and um and struggle under

[3:11:59] Voice 31: heavy-handed environmental policies being brought down and um that's the economic side of it and i'm

[3:12:05] Voice 31: i'm keeping it short but there's also the psychological end of it where people were

[3:12:09] Voice 31: under great stresses earlier in the term i'm not going to get into the gory details of one of the

[3:12:14] Voice 31: projects that was brought forward last term but you know it was wrong and was proven to be

[3:12:20] Voice 31: and um people suffered from that there's still been no accountability for that many people are

[3:12:25] Voice 31: still angry about it um and they've suffered not only um economically but psychologically over that

[3:12:32] Voice 31: um division has been sewn into the community on salt spring island because of this organization

[3:12:39] Voice 31: um that's my opinion and many others some people may disagree with that um and so how we get away

[3:12:47] Voice 31: away from that i don't know in my view because of the undemocratic representation issue um

[3:12:54] Voice 31: salt spring just doesn't belong there anymore maybe it's good for the other islands but if

[3:13:00] Voice 31: people really want to make a difference why isn't there more emphasis being put on that and why is

[3:13:04] Voice 31: it just coming from me and you know i was elected by a lot of folks there but yet i seem to get

[3:13:09] Voice 31: demonized here for speaking out about these truths that are truth to many many people i keep hearing

[3:13:14] Voice 31: hearing the comments about throughout this whole term there's alternate truths and different ways

[3:13:18] Voice 31: of knowing well maybe people really ought to think about that those terms that yeah there

[3:13:24] Voice 31: are different ways of knowing and a lot of people in this council don't understand those ways of

[3:13:28] Voice 31: knowing um but you know i'll say thank you and um i'll leave it at that i don't want to talk over

[3:13:37] Voice 31: like a lot of other people have been doing thanks a lot thank

[3:13:42] Trustee Patrick: you trustee hunter thank you chair

[3:13:47] Voice 5: It's a great report. Very well thought out. I have a bit of a lighthearted comment first and then a more serious one. You talk about creating a new manager of indigenous relations, which will serve as air traffic control for the overall coordination of reconciliation.

[3:14:08] Voice 5: As a former air traffic controller, I was just wondering why you decided to use that term.

[3:14:16] Voice 18: Out of my great respect for the profession of air traffic controllers.

[3:14:22] Voice 5: Okay.

[3:14:23] Voice 5: Now, reconciliation, I am 125% or more in favor of reconciliation.

[3:14:32] Voice 5: Now, you mentioned that the minister in this letter said that we must obviously respect reconciliation in all of our actions, but you forgot to mention that we've been hounding the government for how many years now?

[3:14:57] Voice 5: and they just say, well, we can't help you.

[3:15:01] Voice 5: You're going to have to find your own direction.

[3:15:03] Voice 5: We don't have money for you, blah, blah.

[3:15:06] Voice 5: Okay, so my question is, with respect,

[3:15:11] Voice 5: is it fair to the taxpayers of the Gulf Islands

[3:15:16] Voice 5: to do the work that the government should be doing,

[3:15:20] Voice 5: the federal government and the provincial government?

[3:15:24] Voice 5: Thank you.

[3:15:29] Voice 18: Thank you.

[3:15:29] Voice 18: I will be diplomatic in my comments regarding the direction we've been able to get from the province, but I think it is a challenge for us that we have asked, in some cases, for explicit guidance and direction on a number of fronts related to our work around reconciliation and building relationships and have not been able to get the clarity that we would like to get to help us actually ensure that we're successful.

[3:15:57] Voice 18: successful. I say that having some respect for my former colleagues of the province as well,

[3:16:02] Voice 18: knowing that in many ways, they are still trying to answer that question within their own respective

[3:16:07] Voice 18: policy areas as well. And I do think it's important to note that, you know, a large

[3:16:13] Voice 18: component of that work absolutely falls to the federal government and the provincial government.

[3:16:17] Voice 18: But increasingly, I think, certainly in our case, as I acknowledge in the report, and as you point

[3:16:21] Voice 18: to that, we have been given direction that it is also a part of our responsibilities as well.

[3:16:25] Voice 18: But I agree. I think it is particularly challenging that we want to move in the right direction, and we are being required in some places to move in the right direction.

[3:16:37] Voice 18: And I hear this from local governments that I've interacted with as well, as I know all of you do, that it sure would be helpful if we could get the financial resources from the province to be able to go in that direction.

[3:16:49] Voice 18: but practically speaking i also know that that's not that's not coming anytime soon and i think if

[3:16:55] Voice 18: we continue to wait um we continue to do so at at risk of our own ability to be effective

[3:17:03] Trustee Patrick: thank you uh trustee laroni

[3:17:06] Voice 12: i just want to say i'm really impressed with the report

[3:17:12] Voice 12: i took me a lot longer to sort that all out my head than your brief one year here and i think

[3:17:19] Voice 12: you've really i mean summed up well not summed up i've summed up you've got here and i

[3:17:24] Voice 12: I'm mixing it up sideways here.

[3:17:27] Voice 12: Okay, so my summation of the trust is too much scope, not enough budget.

[3:17:32] Voice 12: And you have beautifully elaborated that in exactly where there's not enough budget,

[3:17:37] Voice 12: where there should be more, and where we need to dial back.

[3:17:40] Voice 12: So I am, yeah, greatly in favor of all of these.

[3:17:45] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[3:17:46] Trustee Luckham: Trustee Lockham.

[3:17:50] Trustee Luckham: Thank you, Chair.

[3:17:51] Trustee Luckham: Chair, Associate A.O. Bruni, you have received a lot of praise for this report and well-deserved.

[3:18:02] Trustee Luckham: I would say that you have, and so I will be voting in favor of a recommendation to adopt all nine of these recommendations.

[3:18:12] Trustee Luckham: You have managed to draw the thread of numerous thoughts throughout council, this council, into, we can call it a plan, but recommendations for action, and very well done.

[3:18:31] Trustee Luckham: I recall 10 or 15 years ago, something like that, maybe David Marler would remember, we created project charters, which proposed how we would undertake a task and sought a commitment from the local trust committees to undertake this task in that way.

[3:18:51] Trustee Luckham: And to me, this feels like that same thing. If you want to fix these things, this is what you need to do. And I want your commitment to support us moving in that direction. And so I am wholeheartedly supporting this direction. Thank you.

[3:19:10] Voice 19: Thank

[3:19:10] Trustee Luckham: you. Trustee Maberly.

[3:19:15] Voice 8: Absolutely. Cobble some thoughts together here. When I was reading the report, I was looking for a path to where, you know, I sort of want to see the trust go, which is back to its core mandate.

[3:19:28] Voice 8: date

[3:19:28] Voice 19: um

[3:19:29] Voice 8: and i think sort of through bullets one through through five you've kind of started in

[3:19:38] Voice 8: that direction um i think the difficult part is is um i run a business in which i am the cao and

[3:19:50] Voice 8: when i make a decision that's the direction we're going and i've watched this table and in the early

[3:19:56] Voice 8: or you know we've had discussions that would just if we looked back on those recordings that would

[3:20:04] Voice 8: boggle our minds as to how ineffective a decision-making body we are and and some of the

[3:20:11] Voice 8: lofty goals that we cling on to as if those were even doable right and and directed staff

[3:20:20] Voice 8: staff to follow us over the, you know, and, you know, so I'm hopeful that, that, you know,

[3:20:32] Voice 8: the direction you're sort of pointing the organization will get us back to sort of more

[3:20:39] Voice 8: basic work that we should be doing. You'll be having to have this conversation with a whole

[3:20:47] Voice 8: new trust council and trying to, you know, give them the words of this wise group now

[3:21:00] Voice 8: after three years that is endorsing all of these recommendations, right?

[3:21:05] Voice 8: Because I would almost guarantee you if you'd have presented this at, you know, the first

[3:21:09] Voice 8: meeting that we had, it wouldn't have meant anything to us, right?

[3:21:15] Voice 8: So, I mean, I think we're moving in the right direction.

[3:21:20] Voice 8: And it's like you always say in a business, when things are starting to go wrong, you don't change them.

[3:21:26] Voice 8: You stop and you go, OK, stop, see what, analyze, and then sort of cautiously move forward.

[3:21:32] Voice 8: And I think you've made some recommendations in that direction.

[3:21:36] Voice 8: But the reality is, when you look at recommendation number six, irregardless of the direction we move, that's going to be necessary.

[3:21:46] Voice 8: We are being directed by the province, by everybody, to move in that direction.

[3:21:55] Voice 8: We are the level of government in the Gulf Islands, right?

[3:22:00] Voice 8: There's other levels, but we are government.

[3:22:03] Voice 8: And so we must move in that direction.

[3:22:07] Voice 8: And so I'm not worried about funding a position to move us in the right direction,

[3:22:13] Voice 8: to set up the the capacity within our organization to to allow us to do this in an effective manner

[3:22:21] Voice 8: because if we don't we're just a failed organization at that point right and i mean

[3:22:29] Voice 8: it's incumbent upon not only these trustees but the new trustees that come after us too

[3:22:35] Voice 8: to pursue reconciliation at the trust committee level right earnestly pursue it at the trust

[3:22:43] Voice 8: committee level and and we don't need the province to tell us that we need to do this right we just

[3:22:53] Voice 8: need to do it and so um you know while i you know i i've talked to you i you know you know i i mean

[3:23:02] Voice 8: i'd like to see us move a little more aggressively in in the direction of fiscal responsibility and

[3:23:08] Voice 8: core mandate right but um i appreciate the report and um and you know like i say i i don't think

[3:23:19] Voice 8: number six is an option that's a must and i think you've quite correctly in your report

[3:23:25] Voice 8: sort of guided us in that direction so i thank you for that um yeah good luck

[3:23:33] Voice 19: i'll just

[3:23:34] Voice 18: say i am hoping that some of you are still here this time next year to reiterate

[3:23:39] Voice 18: these points so that they don't just sort of die on the vine with this council.

[3:23:44] Voice 18: Trustee Mullen.

[3:23:47] Voice 9: Thank you, Chair. I think to answer Trustee Getty's question, my word's comfort,

[3:23:52] Voice 9: comfortable. You know, when we were going through the process of hiring this position,

[3:24:01] Voice 9: my fellow committee members, I think, heard that word many times when we reflected on your

[3:24:06] Voice 9: candidacy. A year later with this review, you have provided that full endorsement of that comfort.

[3:24:14] Voice 9: I read this, certainly there are things that I don't totally agree with, but I'm comfortable

[3:24:22] Voice 9: with this.

[3:24:25] Voice 9: As part of consensus building, you know, is what can I live with?

[3:24:28] Voice 9: I can live with all nine of these recommendations.

[3:24:32] Voice 9: I thank you for putting a little Easter egg in that I managed to discover at nine o'clock

[3:24:37] Voice 9: on a Sunday night when you sent out the draft of it.

[3:24:45] Voice 9: This really works well.

[3:24:46] Voice 9: Well, I think what you've heard from my fellow trustees to date, and maybe somebody's going

[3:24:52] Voice 9: to disagree, but I think we're very comfortable with what you've done, and I'd like to thank

[3:24:57] Voice 9: you for that, because you have listened to the organization, you've listened to the staff,

[3:25:02] Voice 9: you've listened to trustees, and you have captured this within a document that is well

[3:25:08] Voice 9: articulated, it is well written, it is clear, it is concise, it is reasoned, and I can't

[3:25:14] Voice 9: offer a contrary opinion. So thank you.

[3:25:18] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. I'm looking at the time. It's my turn now.

[3:25:23] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to go as quickly as I can. And we're going to stop at 4.30 because we have a delegation

[3:25:28] Trustee Patrick: and we're going to go into the public piece. When that wraps up, keep your seat nice and warm. We're

[3:25:34] Trustee Patrick: going to go right back to this conversation. So I just want to give that a heads up. So here I go.

[3:25:38] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to speak fast. Thank you very much for the report. It's exactly what we asked for.

[3:25:42] Trustee Patrick: and I'm going to go right in. I'm just a critical person. That's how it goes. Staff actions.

[3:25:48] Trustee Patrick: The one thing here is how we prioritize work and allocate priority for resources for planning

[3:25:55] Trustee Patrick: to me is so critically important. And on Salt Spring, it's been an issue. And I think that's

[3:25:59] Trustee Patrick: the one area where I think it's going to be more detailed going forward. What can we do to do that

[3:26:04] Trustee Patrick: better? And the same with meetings. Yes, we can get more efficient at meetings, but I think we

[3:26:10] Trustee Patrick: have just too many meetings so some of these structural things we just have to get into

[3:26:14] Trustee Patrick: recommendation number one yes i took great offense with seeing um our watershed work listed as new

[3:26:22] Trustee Patrick: um 2013 we were delegated the authority to do this um and we've had struggles getting staff

[3:26:28] Trustee Patrick: resourcing for the last three years uh i'll cut to the chase i have some motions i put forward i

[3:26:33] Trustee Patrick: will say that i'm going to ask that these two items be removed from being called new work

[3:26:38] Trustee Patrick: That said, I've got some solutions to deal with them in the budget tomorrow more effectively, and so I have motions coming on that.

[3:26:49] Trustee Patrick: Still in a recommendation one, I know this trust council said we wanted to put more effort and energy into having robust mapping systems, but have we really asked the question, is the data we have up to date?

[3:27:02] Trustee Patrick: Are we putting more? So it's kind of a chicken and egg question to you. Have we done the work to really say the analysis of the data that we've got in our system, is it good enough? Or should we be getting new data? Where's the better use of that resource? So that one comes to me.

[3:27:19] Trustee Patrick: um and recommendation three again with ours to me it's like i would just say staff go do

[3:27:29] Trustee Patrick: the corporate plan you come to us with a framework and that would be where i would

[3:27:35] Trustee Patrick: land with that one um and i would have a draft of a resolution on that um on the feasibility

[3:27:46] Trustee Patrick: sustainability study thing parts. There's also work that staff do as well and how we bring that

[3:27:52] Trustee Patrick: into making sure implementation plans. And I look at the development permit area guidelines that are

[3:27:56] Trustee Patrick: being created right now. That's great. Model guidelines are wonderful, but then we've got

[3:28:00] Trustee Patrick: the mapping piece that goes with that. Should that be implemented together in a project?

[3:28:05] Trustee Patrick: And we think about that, plan that, put that in. Agree with everything else. The positions,

[3:28:16] Trustee Patrick: I think it's just making sure they're in the right places.

[3:28:18] Trustee Patrick: That's already come up and communications.

[3:28:23] Trustee Patrick: Communications is so much more than just our external communications.

[3:28:26] Trustee Patrick: And I think that's the only thing there that I would hope that, you know,

[3:28:29] Trustee Patrick: we really look at how we communicate internally and all of that.

[3:28:34] Trustee Patrick: Generally. Thank you.

[3:28:36] Trustee Patrick: It's a great step in the right direction and look forward.

[3:28:42] Trustee Patrick: Right on the nose and it's 429.

[3:28:46] Trustee Patrick: So trustees take a 30 second break here, stand up, stretch.

[3:28:50] Trustee Patrick: We're gonna move into the delegation.

[3:28:52] Trustee Patrick: So I'm gonna give us a moment just to stretch.

[3:28:55] Trustee Patrick: Thank you, CAO, you're not off the podium yet.

[3:28:57] Trustee Patrick: You don't have to come back and we'll continue on the list.

[3:31:02] Trustee Patrick: Trustees, if we could take our seats. I knew if I gave you a 30-second break, you'd escape. Come back, come back. All right, trustees, we are taking a break from the last item, 6.2.4, and moving ahead into our engagement collaboration piece here, Section 7.

[3:31:28] Trustee Patrick: happen. We are at delegations and we have Jennifer Marguson from the Friends of the Gulf Islands

[3:31:34] Trustee Patrick: presentation materials for an Appendix B of the agenda package. And over to you, Jennifer,

[3:31:41] Trustee Patrick: you have 10 minutes for your delegation.

[3:31:43] Voice 11: Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Trust Council,

[3:31:47] Voice 11: Islands Trust CAO and staff, members of the Islands Trust Conservancy Board and members

[3:31:54] Voice 11: members of the public. It is me again, Jennifer Margeson from Friends of the Gulf Islands, and

[3:32:01] Voice 11: you may just consider me amidst all the festive decoration for Christmas in the hotel,

[3:32:09] Voice 11: the ghost of Christmas past, present, and future. So I really appreciate the opportunity to

[3:32:19] Voice 11: to have our delegation accepted.

[3:32:21] Voice 11: The focus of our organization

[3:32:24] Voice 11: is preserving the natural environment

[3:32:26] Voice 11: and rural character of the Gulf Islands

[3:32:28] Voice 11: for all British Columbians,

[3:32:30] Voice 11: which we do believe is inextricably connected

[3:32:34] Voice 11: to supporting our islands communities.

[3:32:38] Voice 11: We're presenting today on our call

[3:32:41] Voice 11: for a growth limits assessment for the islands trust area.

[3:32:45] Voice 11: We realize from listening to trust meetings

[3:32:49] Voice 11: over time and reviewing the excellent but very recent operations review report from the CAO

[3:32:57] Voice 11: that at this time staff committees and LTCs currently have more projects than staffing

[3:33:05] Voice 11: and budget can accommodate. However, we want to introduce this now for consideration as part of

[3:33:12] Voice 11: a long-term plan and because it relates to concerns we have about the emphasis in the draft

[3:33:20] Voice 11: trust policy statement on managing growth rather than limiting growth okay not working

[3:33:37] Voice 11: there we go was that me or was that you okay we'll try the next slide

[3:33:46] Voice 11: So, 50 years ago, as of course you all know, the province recognized that unrestrained growth would threaten what makes the Gulf Islands special.

[3:33:56] Voice 11: The Islands Trust was created precisely to prevent that in order to safeguard nature and community values for the long term.

[3:34:09] okay

[3:34:11] Voice 11: there um see things seem to be out of order there we go that's the one okay in just five

[3:34:25] Voice 11: years the trust area grew nearly four times faster than the province overall growth at this rate

[3:34:33] Voice 11: cannot continue indefinitely without consequences for our ecosystems and quality of life the

[3:34:44] Voice 11: critical questions. This is not about opposing growth entirely. It's about understanding the

[3:34:51] Voice 11: limits, how much development is compatible with healthy ecosystems and viable communities.

[3:35:00] Voice 11: We agree that how we live is important, but so is how many of us there are. Every additional

[3:35:14] Voice 11: household adds demand on finite island systems, especially fresh water, waste management and

[3:35:23] Voice 11: transport. This is just the reality of living on islands. Every time we clear forests for development,

[3:35:36] Voice 11: we disrupt water cycles and wildlife corridors. Where we build, not just how, makes a major

[3:35:44] Voice 11: difference. The warning signs. Our group has spoken to you before about the

[3:35:54] Voice 11: trucking of water to the islands. We know this is happening and we know this is

[3:35:59] Voice 11: increasing but this is completely unmonitored. When water has to be

[3:36:05] Voice 11: imported it's a clear sign that the ecosystem is overdrawn. These are early

[3:36:11] Voice 11: warning signs that we are living beyond the island's limits. This pressure state response

[3:36:23] Voice 11: model is from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and just provides

[3:36:29] Voice 11: one useful structure for assessing developmental impacts and for designing zoning and policy.

[3:36:43] Voice 11: Right now, we don't know the full consequences of our existing zoning. Build-out studies would

[3:36:51] Voice 11: reveal what would happen if every lot were developed according to its current zoning

[3:36:57] Voice 11: and subdivision potential the first step to understanding true limits as it relates to this

[3:37:06] Voice 11: we are very concerned about the inclusion of far floor area ratio in the draft tsp

[3:37:13] Voice 11: and how this would change the concept of density from the number of dwellings allowed on a property

[3:37:21] Voice 11: to the distribution of allowable floor area to permit multiple dwellings on a property.

[3:37:30] Voice 11: We feel there has been insufficient public discussion of this,

[3:37:34] Voice 11: and when it was raised at the Trust's virtual Q&A on the draft TPS back in September, I believe,

[3:37:42] Voice 11: the senior policy advisor expressed some doubt as to whether this is an appropriate density metric

[3:37:52] Voice 11: in the trust area, outside village centres, I believe. To contemplate this type of strategy,

[3:37:59] Voice 11: to increase strategy, to increase density, without first providing a build-out report

[3:38:05] Voice 11: for each island, we believe, is unwise. These are the kind of things that can be measured in

[3:38:18] Voice 11: each island study. Each island needs an integrated assessment of its carrying capacity, not just

[3:38:26] Voice 11: physical limits like water, but service and infrastructure limits too. We all know we are

[3:38:33] Voice 11: seeing significant stresses in these areas now on many, if not most, of our islands.

[3:38:47] Voice 11: Fresh water is the ultimate constraint, and neither rainwater systems nor desalination with

[3:38:54] Voice 11: with high cost, maintenance, and energy use offer realistic long-term substitutes at the scale

[3:39:00] Voice 11: needed. Waste management is another concern. More and more septic systems and potential

[3:39:07] Voice 11: contamination of groundwater. Some of you might have read a very recent news report about a family

[3:39:15] Voice 11: in the rural Highlands area outside Victoria whose well has been contaminated by a neighbor's

[3:39:22] Voice 11: septic system. Island health regulations, it seems, have not protected them and they are suing

[3:39:30] Voice 11: as well as putting in another well. That concerns many of us. The challenge isn't really technical,

[3:39:42] Voice 11: although there are certainly technical aspects to growth assessment, but it's political. It takes

[3:39:49] Voice 11: courage to say no when necessary but approving policies to promote and manage

[3:39:56] Voice 11: growth guarantees ecological decline and reduced livability for everyone. We may

[3:40:09] Voice 11: never have perfect data but the precautionary principle tells us to err

[3:40:15] Voice 11: on the side of protecting the resources we depend on. We believe this principle

[3:40:21] Voice 11: must be enshrined in the draft TPS and must be actively considered when new bylaws are also

[3:40:30] Voice 11: considered. So in conclusion, almost, growth limits, we believe, equal sustainable futures.

[3:40:46] Voice 11: Protecting nature protects community well-being. And for the sake of current and future generations

[3:40:53] Voice 11: and the natural world we all depend on, we believe it is time to act.

[3:41:00] Voice 11: If not now, given staffing and budgetary constraints, very soon.

[3:41:12] Voice 11: Friends of Gulf Islands has prepared two new reports, and they're in the addendum of the agenda package.

[3:41:19] Voice 11: And these are brief reports, build-out analysis needed for each Islands Trust Island,

[3:41:24] Voice 11: and growth limits assessment for the Islands Trust area.

[3:41:29] Voice 11: I encourage you to read them. We are not experts, but we believe good planning anywhere requires a clear understanding of how many residents you have already planned for before expanding those plans further,

[3:41:46] Voice 11: whether through approving new bylaws according to our current trust policy statement or by enabling even more growth according to the draft trust policy statement using FAR as an example.

[3:42:01] Voice 11: We hope our reports will help direct attention to the need for informed conversations and informed decision-making, utilizing good data and impact assessments in respect of the very important preserve and protect mandate of the Islands Trust.

[3:42:20] Voice 11: trust. And I'll just mention that Friends of the Gulf Islands has also prepared and submitted a

[3:42:28] Voice 11: detailed critique of the draft TPS that we have sent to Islands 2050. So on behalf of Friends of

[3:42:36] Voice 11: the Gulf Islands, I thank you very much for your attention and wish you well for your work ongoing

[3:42:43] Voice 11: during this meeting and for the rest of your terms. So thank you very much.

[3:42:48] Voice 11: all right

[3:42:49] Trustee Patrick: thank you very much trustees the time is up but is there any questions that

[3:42:54] Trustee Patrick: anyone would like to trustee scott's had his hand up the entire session so i'm going to

[3:42:59] Trustee Patrick: assume his is not it's been up for quite a while so quick questions because we still have

[3:43:04] Trustee Patrick: lots more meeting here i think i saw trustee elliott's hand first then bolin then falk

[3:43:10] Trustee Patrick: thank

[3:43:12] Voice 27: you for your presentation just wondering which policies specific or proposed policies

[3:43:17] Voice 27: specifically um reference bar because i haven't seen floor area ratio in any of the policies so

[3:43:26] Voice 27: um i think there's total area reference but not floor area ratio which i believe is an urban

[3:43:32] Voice 27: planning term but i'm not sure so i'm just wondering which policies you're referring to

[3:43:36] Voice 27: yes

[3:43:37] Voice 11: well i don't have the trust policy the draft trust policy statement in front of me but

[3:43:41] Voice 11: that i believe that is it may be not identified specifically as far but it it

[3:43:50] Voice 11: it's very unclear what is meant by that so we're just raising an alert boland trustee boland

[3:44:01] Voice 24: hi uh yeah thanks for the presentation and the research that you do um i am concerned that you

[3:44:09] Voice 24: You talk about significant trucking on Saterna, trucking of water.

[3:44:14] Voice 24: I know of one quite limited instance, which is going to change in the near future.

[3:44:21] Voice 24: I believe it's a temporary situation.

[3:44:24] Voice 24: And, you know, they did a lot of work, including having a water collection for laundry facilities approved by Island Health.

[3:44:35] Voice 24: So which may be a kind of a first.

[3:44:38] Voice 24: and they're working on getting their well

[3:44:41] Voice 24: re-approved, a perfectly adequate well

[3:44:44] Voice 24: administratively was not grandfathered

[3:44:48] Voice 24: as part of the non-domestic use

[3:44:50] Voice 24: anyway I'm just wondering where you're

[3:44:54] Voice 24: getting your information from and in the case

[3:44:57] Voice 24: of Citerne in particular I wouldn't have said

[3:45:00] Voice 24: it was significant, thanks

[3:45:02] Voice 24: I

[3:45:03] Voice 11: don't believe I was referring to all the islands

[3:45:06] Voice 11: having significant water trucking,

[3:45:08] Voice 11: but the group that we have been told

[3:45:10] Voice 11: by the water trucking companies

[3:45:12] Voice 11: that they do deliver to Saturna.

[3:45:15] Voice 11: We don't have specifics.

[3:45:16] Voice 11: It's very hard to get specifics on the actual amount

[3:45:20] Voice 11: and frequency for some of the islands,

[3:45:23] Voice 11: but they were certainly one of the islands

[3:45:26] Voice 11: identified as receiving imported water.

[3:45:29] Voice 11: So that's really all I

[3:45:31] Voice 11: can tell you.

[3:45:32] Voice 11: Okay, but Jen, which...

[3:45:34] Voice 11: but with

[3:45:36] Voice 24: respect you actually used the phrase significant and listed after that

[3:45:45] Voice 11: of island not talk over each other so yeah yeah sorry i i made that i use that term in terms of

[3:45:54] Voice 11: the the group of islands that i referenced not specifically to significant to any one particular

[3:46:01] Voice 11: particular island, Saturna, being one.

[3:46:06] Voice 24: Yeah, okay, I disagree with that. I don't think it's a reasonable thing to do,

[3:46:10] Voice 24: but anyway, thank you. Trustee Falk?

[3:46:14] Voice 16: Yeah, thank you for coming to us with your concerns

[3:46:18] Voice 16: and laying it out so clearly. I'm wondering,

[3:46:22] Voice 16: so sometime after 1974, we were formed,

[3:46:28] Voice 16: lots were drawn

[3:46:30] Voice 16: and zoning was arranged so you know you can have a school there you can have you know living here

[3:46:37] Voice 16: you can have industrial there are you saying so i'm i'm assuming that back then what they did is

[3:46:44] Voice 16: they look you know somebody must have asked the question how how many people how many places can

[3:46:48] Voice 16: we have developed on the islands and whether that was a well thought out or not happening back in

[3:46:54] Voice 16: 74 we can only guess that but are you saying that the current mapping of the lot sizes and

[3:47:02] Voice 16: sonings and all of that are you saying that if we expand to that it's going to be too many people

[3:47:09] Voice 16: or too much what are we overloading because i know for south bender i don't believe that i think that

[3:47:16] Voice 16: that we're close to, you know, at the maximum.

[3:47:19] Voice 16: And I think we can absorb it quite well.

[3:47:24] Voice 16: But I wouldn't, and I'm not suggesting we go beyond it.

[3:47:26] Voice 16: And I would be very upset about thinking about expanding it further

[3:47:29] Voice 16: or relaxing zoning to, you know, double subdivisions or whatever.

[3:47:34] Voice 16: Right.

[3:47:35] Voice 16: So, but I'm wondering how much are you talking about going beyond,

[3:47:39] Voice 16: you know, restraining that what we currently have

[3:47:41] Voice 16: have and how much are you talking about working within what we have with other ways like we do

[3:47:49] Voice 16: you know not allowing subdivision further subdivision for instance or changing things

[3:47:53] Voice 16: to make it worse but what we have is it really bad is it is it what you want to change well

[3:47:59] Voice 11: what i what i'm simply suggesting is in terms of build out we don't actually know that on many of

[3:48:06] Voice 11: the islands, or at least the public doesn't know that. So I'm not going back to 1974. And we're

[3:48:13] Voice 11: simply saying that now with the current zoning we have on any one island, and of course, this can

[3:48:19] Voice 11: only be an estimate in terms of number of people who might occupy dwellings. But I think the average

[3:48:24] Voice 11: is actually two people in the Southern Gulf Islands, according to Stats Canada. So it's just

[3:48:30] Voice 11: to to to look at what would those numbers be and you're quite right for

[3:48:36] Voice 11: many islands that may allow for further growth but for some it may not so we're

[3:48:44] Voice 11: simply saying we should have that data what would those estimates be if every

[3:48:50] Voice 11: lot as it's currently zoned and including those that currently have

[3:48:55] Voice 11: have subdivision potential what would those numbers look like that's all right thank you

[3:49:03] Voice 16: that's clear now i understand what you're asking for perfect

[3:49:06] Voice 11: yeah yeah we're not trying to go back

[3:49:08] Voice 11: to um past decades i'm

[3:49:12] Trustee Patrick: cognizant of time it's been quite a while there's one more speaker here

[3:49:16] Trustee Patrick: um i'd like to move on to the open public comment period or do you would you like to ask a question

[3:49:25] Trustee Patrick: Quickly, please.

[3:49:28] Voice 15: So I don't know which slide number it was when you're saying why this issue matters now,

[3:49:33] Voice 15: and you're discussing the population increase that happened during COVID.

[3:49:37] Voice 15: And I'm guessing, and I just want to have clarification, you got these numbers through

[3:49:43] Voice 15: Census Canada for the growth increase and population increase.

[3:49:47] Voice 15: So my question is, have you taken into account the number of people that moved into

[3:49:52] Voice 15: pre-existing homes and retired into pre-existing homes versus new development and those new

[3:49:58] Voice 15: development numbers can be taken from islands trust documents no no we we don't have that

[3:50:05] Voice 15: information

[3:50:06] Voice 11: yeah

[3:50:07] Voice 19: no this

[3:50:08] Voice 11: was simply from from the census in terms of full-time residents so

[3:50:13] Voice 11: and that was between 2016 and 2021 so it actually well no doubt there was significant growth during

[3:50:22] Voice 11: COVID it does cover a pre-COVID period as well so all

[3:50:27] Trustee Patrick: right well thank you thank you very much

[3:50:29] Trustee Patrick: for your delegation thank you very much sorry to keep moving but we do have a public period that

[3:50:34] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to begin now trustees so I want to say we value the input community members and your

[3:50:42] Trustee Patrick: participation is essential in helping us make informed decisions that serve the best interests

[3:50:46] Trustee Patrick: of the trust area. Before we begin, I'd like to go over a few guidelines for public comment period

[3:50:51] Trustee Patrick: to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to speak and that the process remains respectful

[3:50:55] Trustee Patrick: and productive. As chair, along with all of the trustees around the table, it's our job to ensure

[3:51:01] Trustee Patrick: the meeting is respectful, inclusive, and culturally safe for everyone. That means we

[3:51:06] Trustee Patrick: will speak respectfully. There is no place for racism, stereotypes, or comments that target

[3:51:11] Trustee Patrick: indigenous people or any group in the island and coastal communities we will acknowledge concerns

[3:51:17] Trustee Patrick: and questions without causing harm it's completely valid for residents to seek clarity and to express

[3:51:23] Trustee Patrick: uncertainty it's equally valid for indigenous community members to speak to their experiences

[3:51:27] Trustee Patrick: and expectations of respectful partnership we will uphold cultural safety we recognize that

[3:51:33] Trustee Patrick: the public meetings have not always been safe or welcoming places for indigenous people that

[3:51:38] Trustee Patrick: That includes giving space for Indigenous voices, being mindful of how language affects people, and addressing harmful comments if they rise.

[3:51:46] Trustee Patrick: We will keep this conversation constructive.

[3:51:49] Trustee Patrick: Every participant brings valuable opinions, ideas, knowledge, and lived experience, and all voices deserve to be heard.

[3:51:56] Trustee Patrick: I would like to thank you in advance for helping us create a respectful and productive environment in which all participants feel safe, valued, and able to participate fully.

[3:52:06] Trustee Patrick: So, as we go forward, remember to keep your comments respectful and focused on issues, not people.

[3:52:13] Trustee Patrick: We'll give you two minutes to speak.

[3:52:16] Trustee Patrick: There is a timer that will be on the screen here.

[3:52:19] Trustee Patrick: You'll hear it make a noise.

[3:52:20] Trustee Patrick: We ask that everyone refrain from interrupting or engaging in any disruptive behavior.

[3:52:26] Trustee Patrick: No clapping, no booing.

[3:52:28] Trustee Patrick: And please direct your comments to counsel in the chair.

[3:52:32] Trustee Patrick: If you're asking a specific action or follow-up, please know that council will take your input into consideration but may not provide an immediate response during this time.

[3:52:43] Trustee Patrick: We have some people online.

[3:52:45] Trustee Patrick: I see two hands up online.

[3:52:46] Trustee Patrick: Is there anyone in the room that's going to be speaking with us?

[3:52:50] Trustee Patrick: I see a few hands up here.

[3:52:52] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[3:52:52] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to start with one speaker online, and then if you could make a cue down to the front, that would be appreciated.

[3:53:00] Trustee Patrick: it. So let's go to the first speaker online. Is that Dave? Hi, can

[3:53:09] Trustee Patrick: you hear me? Dave, go ahead.

[3:53:12] Voice 35: Hi, yes, my name is Dave Olson. I'm from Liskety. I'm a resident landowner here for the last 25

[3:53:18] Voice 35: years. I have three questions for Trust Council today. The first concerns the fact that the three

[3:53:24] Voice 35: Liskety trustees recently passed a resolution without meeting to change the December 8th

[3:53:30] Voice 35: meeting from a in-person meeting to a virtual meeting. And this is despite the fact that the

[3:53:36] Voice 35: majority of people on Laskete have either no or very poor internet access. I do understand

[3:53:43] Voice 35: Trustee Elliott has a safety concern with the venue. And there is a backstory here. Over a

[3:53:50] Voice 35: year ago, Trustees Elliott and Laroni initiated a staff report to explore alternatives to in-person

[3:53:57] Voice 35: and meetings on Laskiti because Dave,

[3:53:59] Trustee Patrick: I appreciate what you're getting into. This is Laskiti

[3:54:03] Trustee Patrick: business. Can you get to a trust council business, please?

[3:54:07] Voice 35: Yes, this is a trust council request.

[3:54:09] Voice 35: And so director Marler, um, this at the beginning of this meeting today said that no vote is needed

[3:54:16] Voice 35: to add an agenda item. And my request is that this be added to tomorrow's agenda. And I also

[3:54:22] Voice 35: have solutions and that I don't believe were explored to keep the meeting in

[3:54:28] Voice 35: person the first solution is when I was a minute taker for the Lissakini local

[3:54:35] Voice 35: trust committee the tables were oriented at 90 degrees to what they are today and

[3:54:40] Voice 35: that prevented people from standing behind the trustees and it also allowed

[3:54:44] Voice 35: 10 to 20 extra people in the venue which answers trustee Elliott and then the

[3:54:51] Voice 35: The other solution was that former chair Luckum

[3:54:56] Voice 35: in April of 2022, he switched committees

[3:54:59] Voice 35: despite the fact there were only two or three meetings left

[3:55:02] Voice 35: in that term.

[3:55:03] Voice 35: So I'm-

[3:55:03] Trustee Patrick: David, I appreciate the solutions you're offering,

[3:55:06] Trustee Patrick: but again, these are LTC business

[3:55:08] Trustee Patrick: for the local trust committee.

[3:55:10] Voice 35: Yes, it's a request to trust council

[3:55:13] Voice 35: to revisit this issue because there's an in-person meeting

[3:55:18] Voice 35: that's been, or December 8th has been scheduled as an in-person meeting for the whole entire

[3:55:23] Voice 35: fiscal year, and it just got changed to a virtual meeting, and many, most people on this island will

[3:55:29] Voice 35: not be able to attend. The alternative is to travel on a passenger ferry and another ferry

[3:55:36] Voice 35: plus 50 kilometers to the Gabriola office, and that's not practical. It's not reliable either.

[3:55:44] Voice 35: So we need to have this revisited and reinstitute the in-person meeting on December 8th.

[3:55:51] Voice 35: So that's why I'm bringing it up.

[3:55:52] Voice 35: It's an appeal to Trust Council.

[3:55:54] Voice 35: And it's also an appeal to you, Chair Patrick and Vice Chair Maude, to reach out to Trustee Elliott and switch committees with her so that she doesn't have to worry about coming to Laskini anymore.

[3:56:07] Trustee Patrick: Thank you, David.

[3:56:08] Trustee Patrick: You made your request.

[3:56:09] Trustee Patrick: Your time is up.

[3:56:11] Trustee Patrick: I do have

[3:56:12] Voice 35: two short questions, if I may, that are

[3:56:14] Voice 35: very Trust Council only.

[3:56:17] Trustee Patrick: David, your time is up. We have other speakers. I'm going to go to the other speakers now.

[3:56:23] Voice 35: Thank you.

[3:56:25] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead

[3:56:26] Trustee Patrick: in the room.

[3:56:28] Voice 22: Okay. My name is Maxine Leichter.

[3:56:30] Voice 22: I'm here today at the request of the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Gulf Island Society

[3:56:35] Voice 22: who asked me to speak to you specifically about FAR, which stands for Floor Area Ratio.

[3:56:42] Voice 22: We're concerned because it appears that this issue has never been discussed by your body,

[3:56:48] Voice 22: and it is sanctioned in the draft TPS.

[3:56:52] Voice 22: So FAR allows several homes to be built on properties previously zoned for one residence.

[3:56:58] Voice 22: evidence if they do not exceed a set floor area. For example, let's say the floor area was 5,000

[3:57:06] Voice 22: square feet. A bylaw can designate how many homes can be built, like it can say two or three or

[3:57:14] Voice 22: four, or it doesn't have to even say how many houses can be built. Once this zoning is in place,

[3:57:21] Voice 22: several homes can be built on a lot without prior notice to the neighbors or a public hearing.

[3:57:26] Voice 22: The argument in favor of this is that it allows cheaper housing and still protects the environment because more people can be accommodated with the same or less land cleared.

[3:57:39] Voice 22: We want to point out for several reasons why FAR does not minimize land clearing and does not protect the natural environment and does not assure affordability.

[3:57:53] Voice 22: Usually when people buy property, if a lot of trees are cut, my experience is they were

[3:57:59] Voice 22: cut by the previous owner that did the subdivision, not the people moving in.

[3:58:04] Voice 22: It is not true that three or five more houses will necessarily cause less land clearing

[3:58:12] Voice 22: because FAR can't control how much land is cleared.

[3:58:14] Voice 22: It can't even say that the houses have to be clustered.

[3:58:19] Voice 22: nothing in far prevents land from being cleared outside of house sites land is cleared for

[3:58:25] Voice 22: driveways gardens construction selling timber for profit environmental impact is more than just land

[3:58:34] Voice 22: clearing more people cause environmental impact through the water they use the sewage they produce

[3:58:40] Voice 22: cars on the road use of ferries and other services there is no assurance that a bunch of small houses

[3:58:48] Voice 22: will even be affordable to island workers there's a huge demand now for vacation homes

[3:58:53] Voice 22: and retirement homes there's no way to assure that these houses will go to island workers

[3:59:00] Voice 22: uh can far be a strata we'd like to know more about that or will the houses be owned by the

[3:59:07] Voice 22: one property owner several property ownership schemes are possible and problematic

[3:59:12] Trustee Patrick: you need

[3:59:14] Trustee Patrick: need to wrap up please you've been far

[3:59:16] Voice 22: is a way to vastly increase density across the islands and

[3:59:21] Voice 22: if implemented widely it will be the end of protecting the trust islands from overdevelopment

[3:59:27] Voice 22: development we urge you to take this out of the tps and not allow it in the trust islands thanks

[3:59:34] Voice 22: thank

[3:59:34] Trustee Patrick: you all right i'm going to go to the second uh speaker online and that is uh france france can

[3:59:43] Trustee Patrick: Can you hear us?

[3:59:44] Voice 1: I can hear you.

[3:59:45] Voice 1: Can you hear me?

[3:59:46] Trustee Patrick: Yes, you can.

[3:59:48] Voice 1: Okay, following up.

[3:59:50] Voice 1: Thank you for this time.

[3:59:52] Voice 1: I'm just following up on what Maxine just said.

[3:59:55] Voice 1: And I'm actually surprised that trustee Elliott

[3:59:57] Voice 1: doesn't know it's in the draft.

[4:00:00] Voice 1: yes, I just checked, and she should know that it's there. And it makes me wonder if other trustees

[4:00:06] Voice 1: know that it's in the policy draft policy statement. So my question was this game changing

[4:00:14] Voice 1: concept separate from all other issues discussed and debated by Trust Council? If so, please tell

[4:00:21] Voice 1: me approximately when as I would like to listen to the pros and cons that must surely have been

[4:00:28] Voice 1: being discussed?

[4:00:30] Voice 1: If not, how did this new policy

[4:00:34] Voice 1: and definition find its way into the draft TPS?

[4:00:38] Voice 1: Thank you.

[4:00:39] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[4:00:40] Trustee Patrick: I think I'm going to just answer

[4:00:43] Trustee Patrick: cause France, I had to look this up myself.

[4:00:45] Trustee Patrick: There is no, the policy relates to setting floor area.

[4:00:49] Trustee Patrick: The definition of floor area ratio is in a definition

[4:00:54] Trustee Patrick: of land use density as an example.

[4:00:57] Trustee Patrick: So that's where it comes up.

[4:00:59] Trustee Patrick: But under policy, it's just floor area.

[4:01:01] Trustee Patrick: That is the policy language, not floor area ratio.

[4:01:06] Trustee Patrick: So it is in a definition.

[4:01:08] Trustee Patrick: Am

[4:01:09] Voice 1: I allowed to speak?

[4:01:12] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, follow up.

[4:01:14] Voice 1: Yeah, well, the policy says that maximum floor area and maximum lot coverage is what can be determined.

[4:01:27] Voice 1: determined it's in the policy and the definition can apply in the it can be trustees can choose

[4:01:34] Voice 1: either number of dwellings or they can choose far I mean that choice it's it's awful as far

[4:01:43] Voice 1: as I can see it's going to give trustees the choice and and I think you know that all the

[4:01:49] Voice 1: the entire OCP on Salt Spring it's all based on far all the changes in the in the housing

[4:01:56] Voice 1: reports, it's all based on FAR.

[4:01:59] Trustee Patrick: All right. Well, we do appreciate you've brought this up. You

[4:02:02] Trustee Patrick: brought it up in September. So thank you. Trustees are here to listen to your suggestions for

[4:02:07] Trustee Patrick: the trust policy statement. So I do appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Who's next in the room?

[4:02:15] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Michael.

[4:02:23] Voice 13: My name is Michael Sketch. Good afternoon from North Bender Island.

[4:02:27] Voice 13: on. I'd like to recall that Council has recently petitioned the province to explain

[4:02:39] Voice 13: how we keep our own house in order. I counter that by suggesting that if Council did what

[4:02:53] Voice 13: the Trust Act and the Trust Policy Statement, as it should be written, did properly, then that

[4:03:00] Voice 13: wouldn't be necessary. I think the instruction for preserving and protecting the environment is

[4:03:05] Voice 13: there. I don't think Trust is doing the best job it could at implementing that. To that end,

[4:03:14] Voice 13: And I comment on what I believe are failures of admission in, one, trust area federation

[4:03:22] Voice 13: governance and, two, the current and draft trust policy statement council by-law.

[4:03:29] Voice 13: I shall be brief.

[4:03:32] Voice 13: While recognizing the rights of current trust area residents and their aspirations to local

[4:03:38] Voice 13: local autonomy, the Act establishes federation governance and therefore a positive obligation

[4:03:45] Voice 13: for Council and the Trust Area Services Administration to maintain oversight over the local Trust

[4:03:53] Voice 13: Area Jurisdictions and Local Planning Service Administration.

[4:03:59] Voice 13: To that end, Council should better implement the two-level hierarchical federation governance.

[4:04:05] Voice 13: governance.

[4:04:06] Voice 13: The Trust Area Service's upper administrative level should include sufficient assessment

[4:04:13] Voice 13: expertise that all proposals for changes in land use can be effectively evaluated and

[4:04:21] Voice 13: monitored.

[4:04:22] Voice 13: Currently, outside expertise is sometimes requested by individual LTCs.

[4:04:29] Voice 13: Now the Trust Policy Statement By-law Together, the Trust Object and Trust Policy

[4:04:35] Voice 13: policy statement are the instruments of Islands Trust Federation governance. I believe the

[4:04:40] Voice 13: legislation is reasonably interpreted as requiring Council to adopt a policy statement by-law

[4:04:46] Voice 13: which in and of itself is sufficient that decision-makers will carry out the object.

[4:04:53] Voice 13: I think there are two glaring omissions in the current and draft TPS by-laws. The first

[4:04:59] Voice 13: omission is specific instruction to decision-makers as to how to carry out the object. For three

[4:05:06] Voice 13: decades that instruction has been in Policy 1.3.1 in an entirely separate Trust Policy Manual.

[4:05:15] Voice 13: I believe that policy instruction for implementation of the TPS by-law should be an

[4:05:21] Voice 13: integral part of the TPS by-law itself. In discussion with decision makers over the years,

[4:05:28] Voice 13: some have asked where they might find Policy 1.3.1. Astonishing.

[4:05:34] Voice 13: The second glaring omission in the TPS by-law is a clear understanding of interpretation

[4:05:42] Voice 13: of the word environment.

[4:05:45] Voice 13: Frequently public opinion infers that it is the natural environment which is to be preserved

[4:05:50] Voice 13: and protected.

[4:05:52] Voice 13: Intention for the built environment is left floating.

[4:05:56] Voice 13: I suggest a policy taken from my own draft TPS submission to Council be added to Council's

[4:06:03] Voice 13: current draft policy statement as follows.

[4:06:07] Trustee Patrick: Michael, can you wrap up? And I know you have

[4:06:09] Trustee Patrick: a lot of written material here that we are happy to receive in writing. So if you could please

[4:06:13] Trustee Patrick: summarize.

[4:06:15] Voice 13: This is, I'm finishing. Thank you.

[4:06:17] Voice 13: The trust area environment is the sum of its natural

[4:06:21] Voice 13: environment and built environmental parts and is subdivided for policy clarification as follows.

[4:06:27] Voice 13: And there are several necessary subdivisions.

[4:06:32] Voice 13: Where there is opportunity, advice givers and decision makers for changes in land use

[4:06:37] Voice 13: shall work towards a beneficial symbiotic relationship between built and natural parts

[4:06:43] Voice 13: of the environment and for certainty not a built environment which unnecessarily disadvantages

[4:06:50] Voice 13: one or more elements of the natural environment.

[4:06:53] Voice 13: Thank you.

[4:06:54] Voice 13: Thank

[4:06:55] Trustee Patrick: you so much. Okay, I'm sorry, I don't know your name, but you're next.

[4:07:01] Good

[4:07:11] Voice 10: afternoon. My name is Carmita de Menijar. I live on Galeano Island, and I want to talk

[4:07:20] Voice 10: about the public engagement process of the draft trust policy statement. So there are two issues

[4:07:31] Voice 10: issues that I want to present. First, that due to the recent strike action, some local

[4:07:44] Voice 10: trust committee or some trust policy statement community information meeting were postponed.

[4:07:54] Voice 10: Therefore, I request that trust council postpone the ending of the trust policy statement public

[4:08:04] Voice 10: engagement from February to March. And the reason of this request is that it

[4:08:13] Voice 10: should be the local trust committee should provide the residents of the

[4:08:21] Voice 10: island with all the time for information possible. This work with the trust policy

[4:08:36] Voice 10: has taken years. It has cost a lot to the taxpayer. So now that you are in the ending

[4:08:45] Voice 10: of this process, it's very important that the engagement is well done, that you will

[4:08:55] Voice 10: provide the time, you will provide the information, you will provide the explanation, not just

[4:09:02] Voice 10: electronically, but in person. And it could be done by the trustees. It doesn't have to

[4:09:09] Voice 10: to be come all with the staff they will answer our question my experience is that it's not working

[4:09:17] Voice 10: like this on galliano island there is going to be only one meeting in the regular local draft

[4:09:25] Voice 10: committee at 1 p.m in the middle of it there is going to be a community information meeting

[4:09:31] Voice 10: half an hour 40 minutes that's all and what's happening with the people that work they cannot

[4:09:39] Voice 10: cannot come, we have asked some residents, do it in the weekend, do it in the time that

[4:09:44] Voice 10: the people who work can come, but it's not done. We are going to have it in December

[4:09:49] Voice 10: 9th, I think it's a Tuesday, in the middle of the week. I read on Main Island, in the

[4:09:55] Voice 10: agenda, it was in September. It was in the local trust committee regular meeting, in

[4:10:01] Voice 10: the agenda was given 30 minutes for presenting community information. 30 minutes!

[4:10:09] Voice 10: when it's so complex, that we need more time, we need at least two meetings in this smaller island.

[4:10:16] Voice 10: I know Sol Spring is providing more meetings, but we also need it. We are less people, but we need

[4:10:23] Voice 10: the time and the explanation, and we have to be able to ask questions. There are doubts that on

[4:10:30] Voice 10: the Galliano meeting we will have time to ask questions. So that's what I ask you to do. Give

[4:10:36] Voice 10: pass more time because it is, I think, a lot of money, a lot of your time, a lot of work. Thank

[4:10:44] Voice 10: you. Thank you very much.

[4:10:49] Trustee Patrick: All right. I see, Dave, I'm going to give you one more opportunity if you

[4:10:54] Trustee Patrick: want to ask a question, but it has to be Trust Consul Business, please.

[4:10:58] Voice 35: Thank you. Go ahead.

[4:11:00] Voice 35: Welcome from Lafitte again. I just want to fully support the previous speaker's request.

[4:11:06] Voice 35: request. That was my first of two questions. Is Trust Council going to extend the public

[4:11:12] Voice 35: consultation period regarding the Islands Trust Policy Statement for at least the period

[4:11:16] Voice 35: of time that the BCGEU was on strike? As she mentioned, and as you know, many LTC meetings

[4:11:22] Voice 35: were cancelled, including community information meetings about the policy statement. On Laskete,

[4:11:28] Voice 35: we had a community information meeting that was abbreviated, cut short, even though there

[4:11:34] Voice 35: There are still many questions to be asked, so I recommend at least a couple of months

[4:11:39] Voice 35: of extension.

[4:11:40] Voice 35: And my second question for Trust Council is, will the Council commit to putting this proposed

[4:11:46] Voice 35: policy statement to a referendum, given that it is actively seeking to transfer governance

[4:11:53] Voice 35: of our islands to unnamed and unaccountable Indigenous governing bodies?

[4:11:57] Voice 35: It is likely unconstitutional and certainly undemocratic to transfer any amount of governance without the express approval of the people being governed.

[4:12:09] Voice 35: Thank you very much for the second opportunity to speak.

[4:12:11] Voice 35: I really appreciate it.

[4:12:13] Trustee Patrick: Thank you, David.

[4:12:15] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[4:12:15] Trustee Patrick: Thank you to everyone who participated in the public comment period today.

[4:12:19] Trustee Patrick: We appreciate you taking the time to share your views, and we take your comments seriously as we move forward with our work.

[4:12:25] Trustee Patrick: While we may not be able to respond to each individual comment right now, please know that we will review all input received, and if necessary, we will follow up with you or take appropriate action on an issue you've raised.

[4:12:38] Trustee Patrick: If you didn't have a chance to speak today or you would like to follow up on any specific issues, please feel free to contact our office. Once again, thank you for your time and your commitment to the well-being of the Islands and the Islands Trust.

[4:12:50] Trustee Patrick: trust i see uh cao brony has returned back up to the podium so trustees i just want to remind you

[4:12:59] Trustee Patrick: of the time we do we have a very good speaker oh i see he's here i'm not going to say too much yet

[4:13:05] Trustee Patrick: about him but uh 5 35 we'll be beginning to speak so i'm speaking but i'd like to stop at 5 25

[4:13:11] Trustee Patrick: tonight give you 10 minutes if i can trust you 10 minutes to to stretch and be back in the room for

[4:13:17] Trustee Patrick: 535. so with that we're going to carry on with our questioning on the operational review and

[4:13:24] Trustee Patrick: i left off at trustee peterson uh

[4:13:31] Voice 6: thank you chair um like many of my colleagues here i want to

[4:13:35] Voice 6: commend the the cao for um producing this report uh within your first year i think that's that's

[4:13:42] Voice 6: commendable um also agree that this is long overdue and certainly we hope that this is

[4:13:48] Voice 6: merely the first iteration of a number of iterations and we know there's a lot

[4:13:55] Voice 6: to work to do and and and I think this is a good start I will mention that I

[4:14:02] Voice 6: had some had some concerns from a budgetary standpoint initially reading

[4:14:08] Voice 6: reading the the report and recommendations in particular around

[4:14:13] Voice 6: around Recommendation 8 with a new engagement and communications lead.

[4:14:20] Voice 6: A little bit on rereading.

[4:14:27] Voice 6: If the focus is at least as much on engagement as on communications,

[4:14:36] Voice 6: I think the engagement is a really important piece.

[4:14:40] Voice 6: I understand there is a connection there,

[4:14:44] Voice 6: But I guess my first reading was mentally somehow glossed over the engagement piece and focused on the communications.

[4:14:52] Voice 6: And just from the reality of our budget deliberations that are coming up, that was the piece that I wondered most, whether that could be deferred, that position.

[4:15:07] Voice 6: And I'm also really heartened to see the section on staff actions there.

[4:15:15] Voice 6: I really appreciate that as well.

[4:15:17] Voice 6: So I guess just your thoughts on the potential for deferring recommendation number eight.

[4:15:31] Voice 18: Yeah, thank you for the question.

[4:15:33] Voice 18: Certainly it can be deferred.

[4:15:35] Voice 18: It just means that the work that we would have that person do will largely be deferred as well.

[4:15:43] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[4:15:46] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Scott, you've had your hand up for a long time.

[4:15:48] Trustee Patrick: It's now your turn.

[4:15:54] Voice 37: Thank you.

[4:15:54] Voice 37: Thank you. Thanks for your report. I have two questions and a comment. The first is, number one, we on Hornby Island are in the middle of our OCP and land use bylaw review. I think as you're aware, I sent that document to you a little earlier.

[4:16:13] Voice 37: and the housing issue was set aside while we dealt with short-term rentals and we have to

[4:16:22] Voice 37: in January put it back on the work plan well according to what number one says it sounds like

[4:16:28] Voice 37: that could not be put back on the because it would be seen as a new project in the fiscal year

[4:16:37] Voice 37: Can you comment on that, please?

[4:16:39] Voice 37: Maybe do that, Chair Patrick.

[4:16:43] Voice 37: Can I have the second observation?

[4:16:44] Voice 37: Maybe answer that first.

[4:16:51] Voice 18: Thank you, Trustee Scott.

[4:16:52] Voice 18: We can certainly look at that.

[4:16:53] Voice 18: I think if it is work that had been started and paused, we can consider whether or not it fits.

[4:17:00] Voice 18: And part of the assessment with Recommendation 1 and the impact would be working with the planning teams to identify the status of current projects.

[4:17:12] Voice 18: So I wouldn't necessarily assume that work couldn't be picked up again, but we'd need to assess that.

[4:17:19] Voice 37: Yes. Yeah, that would be very helpful if you could assure us that there's not going to be a problem putting it back on the work plan.

[4:17:27] Voice 37: And either that or we try to do, I don't think that can be done as an RWM in December before the new year kicks in, according to the wording of that 26-27.

[4:17:37] Voice 37: So maybe I'll follow that up with.

[4:17:42] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Scott, if you could just start over.

[4:17:44] Trustee Patrick: We lost you for a moment.

[4:17:46] Trustee Patrick: If you could start your what you were saying again.

[4:17:49] Voice 37: Oh, I see.

[4:17:50] Voice 37: Okay.

[4:17:50] Voice 37: Okay. We'd just like assurance to CAO that we're going to be okay doing that in 2026.

[4:17:58] Voice 37: I don't think we can do it as an RWM. I think it's too complex.

[4:18:04] Voice 37: Other than that, we could do it in December and clarify that.

[4:18:10] Voice 37: So maybe I'll follow up with you on phone just to make sure I can get clarity on that.

[4:18:18] Voice 37: Yeah, that would be fine. I'm happy to chat about that further.

[4:18:21] Voice 37: Okay, I'll do that with you later in the week. Now, the second thing I have is on page one of your report, where it talks about the need, this is the second paragraph from the bottom, it says, I talk about a need to be more effective and efficient in our work.

[4:18:39] Voice 37: I'd like to point out that on Hornby Island, we started our OCP and land use bylaw review in 2021.

[4:18:47] Voice 37: We got a comprehensive report from our APC in 2022, and it was sent out to all the agencies for their comment.

[4:18:57] Voice 37: I made an impassioned plea for $15,000, as some of you might recall, when nobody wanted to put any more money out.

[4:19:04] Voice 37: Anyway, I got $15,000 for a business case that would take the ACPC recommendations and put them in language to complete our OCP and land use bylaw review.

[4:19:22] Voice 37: So we had all the pieces of the puzzle in place, including housing, and to complete this thing in 2023.

[4:19:29] Voice 37: so we assumed it was going to be completed in 2023 and here we are in 2025 and it still hasn't

[4:19:38] Voice 37: been done and we look at like it might go off into the we've been informed it may go into

[4:19:44] Voice 37: 2027 into the new term so talking about efficiency and effectiveness I think this took up a lot of

[4:19:52] Voice 37: extra staff time so I'm wondering if maybe you could use the Hornby experience as a way of

[4:19:58] Voice 37: looking at how could you have made that more effective and efficient. So I'll just leave it.

[4:20:06] Trustee Patrick: If you can hear

[4:20:07] Trustee Patrick: us, Trustee Scott. Pardon me?

[4:20:13] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Scott, we lost it. We were having

[4:20:16] Trustee Patrick: technical difficulties here and we lost

[4:20:18] Trustee Patrick: you again in part phrasing. Well,

[4:20:22] Voice 37: I don't know. So just in

[4:20:25] Voice 37: in closing, I said that to be efficient and effective, there's five years added to this

[4:20:33] Voice 37: process of staff time that maybe use Hornby as an example of somewhere to look to create,

[4:20:40] Voice 37: how could the trust have been more effective and efficient in the Hornby? We just don't

[4:20:49] Voice 37: understand how it could possibly take seven years to do what we thought was going to be

[4:20:53] Voice 37: completed in 2023. So I'll leave that with you. So did that come through all right, Laura?

[4:21:01] Trustee Patrick: Yes. Thank you.

[4:21:04] Voice 37: Okay. Thanks.

[4:21:05] Trustee Patrick: Okay. We're getting very close. We've got two more speakers. We're

[4:21:10] Trustee Patrick: not going to make it through by 525, but I will let Trustee Stanford get started at 525.

[4:22:29] Voice 20: You know, at the time, it's

[4:22:31] Voice 28: building that relationship with us and giving us the trust

[4:22:34] Voice 28: trust to work with this and say this could be possible and in the end giving us the the ability

[4:22:43] Voice 28: to turn around and after all this work over the last three years to say this efficiency and

[4:22:48] Voice 28: effectiveness it's us it's not the staff it's it's not budget creep it's us and i think it's taken

[4:22:56] Voice 28: this much time for us to be able to get a report like this and receive it in the spirit to which

[4:23:03] Voice 28: was written and that we now can move forward. So my question is, how do you see the governance

[4:23:10] Voice 28: report and the operational report working together? Is there a process that we can

[4:23:15] Voice 28: determine to make them more effective together?

[4:23:22] Voice 18: Yeah, briefly, thank you for the question. I

[4:23:24] Voice 18: actually liked, I think it was Trustee Bernardo spoke to the governance review as, you know,

[4:23:28] Voice 18: a list of symptoms and treatments. And I think he's correct that this, I hope, gets a bit more

[4:23:35] Voice 18: under what is the underlying diagnosis that is causing those symptoms. And so I think there is

[4:23:39] Voice 18: alignment there. And I think, well, I think there's flaws in the governor's report. I think

[4:23:44] Voice 18: some of the recommendations, and I've referenced sort of a few connections within my report,

[4:23:49] Voice 18: I think there is alignment around kind of committee structure and those pieces and the

[4:23:52] Voice 18: the need for a planning process.

[4:23:53] Voice 18: So I don't know that,

[4:23:56] Voice 18: I think there's maybe some conversations

[4:23:58] Voice 18: to have a governance committee around

[4:24:00] Voice 18: if these recommendations are adopted,

[4:24:02] Voice 18: how do we sort of adjust what that work plan looks like

[4:24:05] Voice 18: and align and combine,

[4:24:07] Voice 18: so we're not kind of duplicating efforts.

[4:24:09] Voice 18: But I think generally speaking,

[4:24:12] Voice 18: if anything, there's just a bit of overlap.

[4:24:14] Voice 18: And I think if we can use this as the basis

[4:24:17] Voice 18: almost for how we,

[4:24:19] Voice 18: in a much more sort of tangible operational way,

[4:24:22] Voice 18: address some of those those symptoms that were flagged in the governance review i think there's

[4:24:26] Voice 18: value in in in drawing on that as a basis but this is kind of the next step and okay so what do we

[4:24:31] Voice 18: really do about it maybe in a bit more practical sense all

[4:24:36] Trustee Patrick: right i said hard stop at 5 25 uh staff

[4:24:39] Trustee Patrick: and i will work to look at the agenda where we're going to continue on this session in a

[4:24:43] Trustee Patrick: reasonable way tomorrow morning um you have 10 minutes to stretch uh i please come back here

[4:24:51] Trustee Patrick: you're by 535. You do not want to be late. So come back by 535 to this room, please.

[4:25:02] Trustee Patrick: What's up? Oh, and we're the meeting. I'm sorry. The meeting is recessed. It'll be the training

[4:25:07] Trustee Patrick: session at 535. So the meeting's recessed. We come back tomorrow morning, but you come back 535.