Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee regular meeting, December 3, 2025

[0:00:00] Trustee Patrick: the words yesterday morning of opening the meeting from Sherry Thomas and working together

[0:00:05] Trustee Patrick: in a good way for the stewardship of these islands. And I hope the conversations we had

[0:00:15] Trustee Patrick: last night, the Islands Coastal Economic Trust and Bodegae, on moving forward. I hope that really

[0:00:23] Trustee Patrick: resonated with some of you and gave you some ideas of how at least one organization

[0:00:29] Trustee Patrick: and BC is moving forward in this group work.

[0:00:34] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees, before we get started,

[0:00:36] Trustee Patrick: I just wanted to just review the orders of the day.

[0:00:41] Trustee Patrick: So we're gonna go into closed session

[0:00:42] Trustee Patrick: first thing this morning.

[0:00:44] Trustee Patrick: When we come out of closed session,

[0:00:45] Trustee Patrick: I'd like to propose that we go back

[0:00:47] Trustee Patrick: and complete the conversation

[0:00:49] Trustee Patrick: with the CAO operational review,

[0:00:51] Trustee Patrick: bearing in mind some of that conversation

[0:00:53] Trustee Patrick: is gonna start becoming more budget oriented

[0:00:54] Trustee Patrick: and that we should just move those conversations

[0:00:57] Trustee Patrick: into the budget part later.

[0:00:59] Trustee Patrick: So we'll work together to moderate that.

[0:01:02] Trustee Patrick: If we have to borrow,

[0:01:04] Trustee Patrick: we'll try to complete that by 1030, if we're fortunate.

[0:01:08] Trustee Patrick: Otherwise we'll steal a little bit of time

[0:01:10] Trustee Patrick: from the legislative information services

[0:01:13] Trustee Patrick: to complete the conversation on the operational review.

[0:01:16] Trustee Patrick: Then we're going to have a break at 1030,

[0:01:19] Trustee Patrick: we'll have lunch at 12, another break at 2.30.

[0:01:23] Trustee Patrick: What's important is at four o'clock,

[0:01:25] Trustee Patrick: we have a Hannah Levanovich is going to be here

[0:01:28] Trustee Patrick: to talk about short-term rental accommodation act and answer our questions so those are

[0:01:32] Trustee Patrick: some of the key times that we want to be on mark for today and i appreciate your help

[0:01:37] Trustee Patrick: getting there so trustees we have a motion at item number eight in the agenda for going into

[0:01:44] Trustee Patrick: closed meeting i would invite that resolution from someone go

[0:01:51] Voice 32: ahead trustee peterson i move that

[0:01:55] Voice 32: The meeting be closed.

[0:01:56] Voice 32: The public subject to Section 91C and I of the Community Charter

[0:02:01] Voice 32: in order to consider matters related to labor relations

[0:02:03] Voice 32: or other employee relations,

[0:02:05] Voice 32: the receipt of advice of the subject to solicit a client privilege

[0:02:09] Voice 32: and given communications necessary for that purpose

[0:02:12] Voice 32: and the staff attend the meeting.

[0:02:14] Voice 32: Is there a second?

[0:02:15] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Evans.

[0:02:17] Trustee Patrick: Is there any discussion?

[0:02:19] Trustee Patrick: All those in favor, please raise your hands.

[0:02:23] Trustee Patrick: I would say that's carried.

[0:02:25] Trustee Patrick: So go ahead and hold your hands.

[0:02:30] Trustee Patrick: We'll wait for our staff to prepare the room.

[0:02:33] Trustee Patrick: So thank you.

[0:03:24] Trustee Patrick: We were doing a round table.

[0:03:26] Trustee Patrick: We left off at the last person would be Susan Yates.

[0:03:31] Trustee Patrick: Lee Middleton is here today, so he will follow Susan Yates.

[0:03:35] Trustee Patrick: So Susan Yates, the floor is yours.

[0:03:38] Voice 24: Thank you, Chair Patrick.

[0:03:39] Voice 24: And thank you, CAO Brani, for this excellent operational review.

[0:03:47] Voice 24: I think I've already thanked you personally for this.

[0:03:51] Voice 24: Just to start off with a quick anecdote.

[0:03:53] Voice 24: In mid-November, my older daughter asked me what plans I had for my birthday.

[0:03:58] Voice 24: And I said, well, I am going to finish reading the Islands Trust 2025 Operational Review.

[0:04:04] Voice 24: And I'm not doing anything until I have finished reading this and making my notes.

[0:04:09] Voice 24: And my daughter looked at me like, okay, mom, if that's really what you want to do.

[0:04:13] Voice 24: I did get to go out for fish and chips and beer afterwards.

[0:04:17] Voice 24: but really and truly for me this was such a compelling review to read and make notes on

[0:04:24] Voice 24: and you know I have a long view of the Islands Trust as you all know and this review has a broad

[0:04:32] Voice 24: view but also a long view and I found it so comprehensive but I also found it very compassionate

[0:04:40] Voice 24: it's a compassionate review and yeah I just I found it so helpful to sort of see in words those

[0:04:51] Voice 24: feelings that we've all been having that this isn't working very well and we kind of know why

[0:04:56] Voice 24: but now we have it in front of us in words so I am certainly prepared to support all nine of the

[0:05:04] Voice 24: the recommendations. I have a little bit of a hesitation on number seven, only with regard to,

[0:05:12] Voice 24: I think Trustee Hunter may have alluded to this, that we need $100,000 to support capacity funding

[0:05:20] Voice 24: grants. I know we need this, but this is the one area where I start whining about why can't the

[0:05:27] Voice 24: province just help us with this one area so that's all i have to say about that it is um

[0:05:35] Voice 24: i someone else said oh i wish we could have had this a year ago but we couldn't have because

[0:05:39] Voice 24: ceo brani has to have been with us for that long to do this report so thank you so much

[0:05:47] Voice 24: thank you very much i'll

[0:05:50] Voice 22: just say thank you and and i'm glad you got to do something else on your

[0:05:53] Voice 22: your birthday other than read the report all right

[0:05:57] Trustee Patrick: trustee middleton how's

[0:06:10] Voice 1: that can you hear

[0:06:10] Voice 1: me okay yes yeah thanks very much for the the report and the opportunity to comment i made

[0:06:17] Voice 1: several hundred pages of notes on the report and also ran it through a translator into spanish and

[0:06:22] Voice 1: senchatan reads equally well in those languages you'll be pleased to know and um and i think um

[0:06:29] Voice 1: In the interest of keeping it brief, I won't refer to my notes,

[0:06:34] Voice 1: but I'll focus on a couple of, I think, pertinent issues that came out of the report.

[0:06:42] Voice 1: Some of you around the table know we've been wrestling with the strategic plan

[0:06:46] Voice 1: and the document for a long time.

[0:06:48] Voice 1: I have a slightly different perspective on how it's generated.

[0:06:51] Voice 1: I don't actually feel it's a document of council.

[0:06:55] Voice 1: Council I believe it started out as a document of staff CEO Adams was in particular uh I I would

[0:07:05] Voice 1: say a big proponent of that strategic plan document and my view and it's not a cynical view

[0:07:10] Voice 1: um let's say hope an enlightened view is that a document like that was produced in some ways

[0:07:18] Voice 1: to manage what in the past that perhaps been an unruly governance table everybody around

[0:07:24] Voice 1: around this table perhaps at one point had either been extremely self-interested or just way out

[0:07:30] Voice 1: there. And I think that presented quite a handful at times for the person in charge of the

[0:07:36] Voice 1: organization to actually lead it. And I believe we have a legacy of some of these tools that were

[0:07:44] Voice 1: used to sort of manage the chaos that just aren't effective as the CAO pointed out in terms of

[0:07:52] Voice 1: directing the organization and so um i i think the strategic plan we've talked about this

[0:07:59] Voice 1: definitely needs to just be morphed into um a corporate plan the broader perspective for that

[0:08:07] Voice 1: corporate plan i think and maybe am i allowed to ask questions yes

[0:08:12] Trustee Patrick: yes that's

[0:08:13] Voice 1: kind of you thank you

[0:08:14] Voice 1: good and so um um the broad the broader perspective i think would be in the in the

[0:08:19] Voice 1: the governance review touched upon this, the corporate plan risks being unbound if it just

[0:08:25] Voice 1: refers to either this table or staff's perspective. There needs to be a development of some kind of

[0:08:31] Voice 1: metric. What is the purpose of the organization in terms of how do you measure its effectiveness?

[0:08:37] Voice 1: How do you measure, has it achieved its purpose? And the presentation I read yesterday, I missed

[0:08:43] Voice 1: it, but I saw it was one approach. They suggested a bunch of metrics that needed developing.

[0:08:49] Voice 1: developing in terms of carrying capacity but i guess my i mean i'm not saying delay the work

[0:08:54] Voice 1: and don't engage in a corporate plan but i i'm just wondering have you thought about that too

[0:09:00] Voice 1: like how how a corporate plan gets grounded not just it obviously can't just be the the

[0:09:06] Voice 1: on more direction of this body or staff it has to kind of meld the two and then be grounded in

[0:09:12] Voice 1: something that we can both staff and trustees objectively refer to in my view which is easier

[0:09:17] Voice 1: you've said than done. So I just wonder if you have any thoughts on that.

[0:09:21] Voice 1: Yeah,

[0:09:22] Voice 22: thank you. And I think that the draft planning process that you

[0:09:25] Voice 22: approved speaks to the need for measurement as well. And I think that

[0:09:29] Voice 22: that is often the hardest part and the biggest gap in a lot of

[0:09:33] Voice 22: plans is, well, here's all the things we want to do. How will we know if we've been effective? And often

[0:09:37] Voice 22: you end up with sort of very nebulous and safe

[0:09:41] Voice 22: measurements and targets. I won't say that I've given any thought

[0:09:45] Voice 22: to exactly what metrics we would need because it all depends on what the priorities are that we put

[0:09:50] Voice 22: within that plan but i do think it's important i think there's a maturity process that happens

[0:09:55] Voice 22: i think if we do a transition to a corporate plan i wouldn't expect our approach to measurement to

[0:10:02] Voice 22: be as mature as we might like in part because it's largely dependent on things like the data that we

[0:10:06] Voice 22: have but i think it needs an essential element and then hopefully over time we're able to take

[0:10:12] Voice 22: a sort of more nuanced and mature review toward measurement but i think it is a gap and that

[0:10:18] Voice 22: hopefully we'll be able to address right

[0:10:22] Voice 1: yeah but that makes sense to see it the plan evolving

[0:10:24] Voice 1: obviously that makes sense it won't be a hundred percent as effective as it could be the first

[0:10:29] Voice 1: iteration so fair enough and then my only other comments i completely get the case for the two

[0:10:34] Voice 1: the two staffing positions but i know that this is anathema to people who are trying to uh um

[0:10:44] Voice 1: control the budget growth, shall we say, and particularly in an election year

[0:10:48] Voice 1: where this obviously will probably be spoken of.

[0:10:52] Voice 1: Because, of course, once you approve a full-time position,

[0:10:56] Voice 1: that's baked into the budget in essence forever,

[0:10:58] Voice 1: because I don't think this council has any appetite to trim staff

[0:11:01] Voice 1: or approach the organization from a cost-cutting perspective in that way.

[0:11:08] Voice 1: And so there's very little room to have budgetary control.

[0:11:11] Voice 1: control um the strategic plan was also where that control happened that's why it was wrangling over

[0:11:17] Voice 1: at you know something about six percent of the organization's budget but more meaningfully

[0:11:22] Voice 1: obviously what the corporate plan will do is allow for budgeting on the entirety of of of the budget

[0:11:28] Voice 1: and that's where the FTEs are it's just important you know they make sense I read the case I I

[0:11:36] Voice 1: I certainly endorse it, but it does increasingly reduce the wiggle room for reducing the budget increase and is maybe actually requiring us to make the case to say, look, the organization is in a reform mode.

[0:11:53] Voice 1: You, as the trust area residents, will get better value for your expenditure because here is now what we are doing.

[0:12:00] Voice 1: Here is now how we're aiming ourselves.

[0:12:02] Voice 1: So it's a note of, I guess, caution there or just, yeah, and I could see maybe some people not endorsing one or both of the positions, not because the position don't make sense, but just for that idea that you then fix an additional, we're talking probably about $350,000 in the budget for the future.

[0:12:25] Voice 1: And so that's my only comment there.

[0:12:27] Voice 1: So thanks for that.

[0:12:30] Voice 22: Yeah, thank you.

[0:12:31] Voice 22: you uh i would on that point i would just say i think you do have the option well i've proposed

[0:12:36] Voice 22: them i believe in both cases as permanent positions you could also approve them as

[0:12:40] Voice 22: you know just a one-year temporary position and then we can review it again next year

[0:12:45] Voice 22: the risk to that is it just makes it harder to recruit you know

[0:12:49] Voice 22: we're more likely to get

[0:12:49] Voice 22: somebody for a permanent position than we would for for a temporary assignment but from a long-term

[0:12:54] Voice 22: budget planning you you could take that approach and you know both of those roles as i've said are

[0:13:00] Voice 22: Their primary assignment is, in each of those prospective portfolios, build a plan for how we do the work long-term better.

[0:13:10] Voice 22: And so, you know, that plan can take into – if we are satisfied with that plan, then arguably that would justify the longer-term investment if you weren't prepared to make the long-term permanent commitment at this time.

[0:13:21] Voice 22: All

[0:13:21] Trustee Patrick: right. Thank you very much.

[0:13:23] Trustee Patrick: I forgot to tell you, Lee, everyone else was held to three minutes yesterday, so I gave you some freedom there.

[0:13:28] Trustee Patrick: there. Just before we go off, Trustee Smith, did you have any comments you wanted to make

[0:13:37] Trustee Patrick: regarding the operational review in the roundtable? Okay, thank you. We had some

[0:13:46] Trustee Patrick: conservancy members here today. Trustee Evans, do you have a question?

[0:13:53] Voice 9: I had a quick follow-up question with regards to the recommendations for the two hires.

[0:13:58] Voice 9: I

[0:13:58] Trustee Patrick: was going to say, can we hold that? Because now we're going to go into the next round of questions because everybody had a chance. So if that's all right, we're going to proceed with an order of the recommendations for the general conversations. If that's otherwise, we'll hold right down a big, long conversation. So I don't want to do that.

[0:14:15] Trustee Patrick: Okay. So everyone's had a chance to put their comments there. Reminder, if you had a motion or resolution that you had, that that is sent to motions at islandstress.bc.ca. Reference the recommendation number if you had something coming.

[0:14:33] Trustee Patrick: coming. Let's see how we can do between now and the next 30 minutes before the break.

[0:14:41] Trustee Patrick: If some of these budget conversations, and we had intended yesterday that if we had

[0:14:46] Trustee Patrick: completed this conversation that Director Mobs could have done her magic and we would have had

[0:14:50] Trustee Patrick: the revised budget this afternoon, a little more challenging now. But if our discussion is going

[0:14:58] Trustee Patrick: to really get into the budget area, we may want to just wait and have that conversation later as

[0:15:03] Trustee Patrick: well so let's pay attention to that if we're having a lengthy conversation process for how

[0:15:08] Trustee Patrick: we're going to do this yes um

[0:15:10] Voice 17: i think i'd like to ask the director um if it would be helpful if we

[0:15:16] Voice 17: actually debate the budget related questions first so that any implications for that can be

[0:15:23] Voice 17: potentially changed before we get into the budget discussion uh

[0:15:29] Voice 10: through the chair certainly if the

[0:15:31] Voice 10: the recommendations with budget implications are debated as part of the CAO operational review

[0:15:36] Voice 10: conversation. I can take some time over the break and over lunch to incorporate those into the

[0:15:40] Voice 10: budget. So when I present, I can present numbers that are rooted in reality.

[0:15:45] Trustee Patrick: It would be ideal if

[0:15:47] Trustee Patrick: we can, but like I said, if we're going to get into in-depth conversations, we'll just carry it

[0:15:50] Trustee Patrick: on as an overall budget conversation. We're going to try. Well, the first one is the trustee Elliot.

[0:16:03] Voice 17: I'm suggesting we tackle items six, seven, eight first.

[0:16:14] Trustee Patrick: Well, number one has budget implications too.

[0:16:18] Voice 14: I think this is where we would get to it.

[0:16:22] Trustee Patrick: See, Ronnie, is that our trustees?

[0:16:24] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, what would you?

[0:16:26] Voice 22: Yeah, I'm happy to go through them however you prefer.

[0:16:30] Voice 22: I would just note that, yeah, number one does have budget implications.

[0:16:33] Voice 22: and i particularly want to flag that the second part of recommendation one that staff

[0:16:37] Voice 22: accepts staff recommendations for reducing discretionary budget lines so those are

[0:16:42] Voice 22: the i think it's five items in the briefing attachment as well so those are not the net

[0:16:47] Voice 22: new projects those are additional discretionary budget reductions that staff had previously put

[0:16:52] Voice 22: forward to so if that recommendation was accepted as is those would be folded into the budget as

[0:16:59] Voice 22: WELL OR REMOVE FROM THE BUDGET

[0:17:02] Trustee Patrick: PROCESS QUESTION TRUSTEE BERNARDO YES

[0:17:06] Voice 5: I THINK WE REALLY SHOULD

[0:17:08] Voice 5: DISCUSS RECOMMENDATION ONE FIRST BECAUSE IT'S ACTUALLY HIGHLY RELEVANT TO THE TO THE BIG ITEMS

[0:17:15] Voice 5: IN TERMS OF THE TWO NEW HIRES THERE'S A CORRESPONDENCE THERE IN TERMS OF CUTS IN SOME

[0:17:21] Voice 5: RESPECT AND ONE ELEMENT ARE NECESSARY TO FUND OR TO CONFIGURE TO THE FUNDING TO THE NEW POSITION SO

[0:17:27] Voice 5: So I don't think you can separate one from the whole budget discussion.

[0:17:32] Voice 5: Right. That's fine.

[0:17:33] Trustee Patrick: So then it's page 82 of the agenda package.

[0:17:36] Trustee Patrick: If we'll proceed with recommendation one.

[0:17:38] Trustee Patrick: So we're opening the floor now on the discussion of recommendation one.

[0:17:46] Trustee Patrick: Discussion on recommendation one.

[0:17:52] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Maberly.

[0:17:53] Voice 33: Yeah.

[0:17:54] Voice 33: I mean, I look at this and I, you know, I agree with the direction coming out of the report.

[0:18:00] Voice 33: I support the approval of recommendation one.

[0:18:05] Voice 33: I know it has impacts even for our Island

[0:18:07] Voice 33: and we had an OCP review that will not move ahead

[0:18:10] Voice 33: because of this recommendation,

[0:18:12] Voice 33: but I've discussed that with my fellow trustees

[0:18:14] Voice 33: and we understand the goal we're trying to achieve here.

[0:18:18] Voice 33: So depending on the discussion,

[0:18:23] Voice 33: I'd be happy to make a motion

[0:18:24] Voice 33: to accept recommendation number one.

[0:18:28] Trustee Patrick: Before we go, let's go through the discussion list if we can.

[0:18:31] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Getty and then Trustee Bernard.

[0:18:34] Voice 7: When I look at page 82 of our agenda and the discretionary funding that the staff are recommending,

[0:18:43] Voice 7: the second part of this recommendation, when we get into the second table that's been presented here,

[0:18:54] Voice 7: options that are not new projects

[0:18:57] Voice 7: but would result in both budget and time

[0:18:59] Voice 7: saving. That's the

[0:19:01] Voice 7: planning application

[0:19:03] Voice 7: sponsored by Trust Council and

[0:19:05] Voice 7: there's one that

[0:19:07] Voice 7: was in our addendum that was

[0:19:09] Voice 7: typical of the kinds of things

[0:19:11] Voice 7: so it's the Denman

[0:19:13] Voice 7: housing project

[0:19:15] Voice 7: for I think it's $5,000

[0:19:17] Voice 7: or something

[0:19:18] Voice 7: so those are the kinds of things

[0:19:21] Voice 7: that we would be limiting

[0:19:23] Voice 7: limiting and I have some problems with respect to at least one of the secretariat services that

[0:19:30] Voice 7: I know about in terms of the REAP, so Rural Island Economic Partnership. I've been attending

[0:19:39] Voice 7: their annual meetings and I would, I know that they would really struggle if they didn't get

[0:19:44] Voice 7: the kind of funding that, it's not a big ticket item for us, but

[0:19:49] Voice 7: But I think some of the others, the history and heritage funding, I think it would be unfortunate, but that it's something that, and I'm a heritage sponsor on Bowen, but I think that that's $6,000 that gets divided up into four projects.

[0:20:09] Voice 7: I think that that is something that hopefully the other organizations could live without.

[0:20:13] Voice 7: um and the stewardship education it's um i think we can have bigger discussions about those

[0:20:21] Voice 7: discretionary items um and i'm having trouble having them um attached to uh otherwise supporting

[0:20:29] Voice 7: this recommendation so if we can pull that part possibly for more discussion at the budget level

[0:20:38] Voice 7: thank

[0:20:39] Voice 22: you chair yeah i think that's certainly an option you could for example on this one

[0:20:43] Voice 22: pass a resolution that it doesn't the resolution on any of these recommendations that it doesn't

[0:20:48] Voice 22: have to say adopt recommendation one you could pass a resolution that says trust council direct

[0:20:51] Voice 22: staff and just the first part of that but leave off the accept staff recommendations for reducing

[0:20:56] Voice 22: discretionary budget lines and have that conversation as part of your budget deliberations

[0:21:00] Voice 22: as well right

[0:21:03] Trustee Patrick: something to think about right trustee bernardo your microphone's on trustee

[0:21:07] Trustee Patrick: uh

[0:21:08] Voice 5: yeah um it seems to me the recommendation one is actually goes to the heart of the whole

[0:21:16] Voice 5: The whole enterprise, the whole project here that emerges from the report, which is, sure, I mean, reducing the budget lines is one aspect of it.

[0:21:26] Voice 5: But the real heart of the matter here is staff capacity.

[0:21:30] Voice 5: And the way I read recommendation one, the point of it is it's time to get real about what the staff capacity is.

[0:21:37] Voice 5: And initiating new projects is just not feasible.

[0:21:41] Voice 5: We've been told that.

[0:21:44] Voice 5: I think we should listen.

[0:21:45] Voice 5: And I really do think that the heart of this effort is certainly to endorse the recommendation that staff be directed not to initiate any new projects, you know, subject to the providers that are put in there.

[0:22:01] Voice 5: there. With respect to the discretionary budget lines that

[0:22:05] Voice 5: are of some concern to Trustee Getty, I'd like to know

[0:22:09] Voice 5: from the CEO, to what extent

[0:22:14] Voice 5: are those discretionary recommendations,

[0:22:18] Voice 5: to what extent do they engage staff time and staff resources?

[0:22:23] Voice 5: Because they're not necessarily just a money issue.

[0:22:27] Voice 5: And related to that, to the money issue,

[0:22:30] Voice 5: you. I'd like to know how important is it to knock down some budget discretionary budget items

[0:22:42] Voice 5: so that we can actually afford the two new hires that you're proposing

[0:22:48] Voice 5: without really going to an extreme tax increase? Because fully loaded, we're talking about two

[0:22:56] Voice 5: positions that are both in the $100,000 or more range, that's just the salary, then there's

[0:23:01] Voice 5: benefits and all the other stuff that goes with it. That adds a lot to the budget. And FPC has

[0:23:08] Voice 5: already done some significant work by proposing a recommendation that the proposed budget be

[0:23:16] Voice 5: changed by eliminating three big ticket items. And we'll talk about those when we get to the

[0:23:21] Voice 5: the budget area. But it seems to me those things are of a piece with the reducing the discussionary

[0:23:27] Voice 5: budget lines in order to find the money to hire those people that we need for operational purposes.

[0:23:34] Voice 5: So I think we need to be careful here. Everybody's got their favorite project. Everybody's got their

[0:23:40] Voice 5: favorite initiatives. That's how we got here. And I'm worried that, you know, we could open

[0:23:48] Voice 5: ourselves up into the death by a thousand cuts routine by saying well you know this discretionary

[0:23:53] Voice 5: item is really important to me or this project you know i'm sure you can find the staff resources to

[0:23:57] Voice 5: do this little extra thing over here uh that's the road to perdition you know we're being offered a

[0:24:04] Voice 5: path out of that uh and i think we should take it thank you thank you

[0:24:09] Voice 24: trustee yates thank you

[0:24:12] Voice 24: um probably echoing a little bit of trustee getty and trustee bernardo here i am totally in favor of

[0:24:18] Voice 24: Table one, that's, you know, the first recommendation. I am totally in favor of that.

[0:24:25] Voice 24: I have hesitation about table two. A couple of reasons. Staff have proposed these. So I'm

[0:24:33] Voice 24: thinking, would it reduce staff work? Well, obviously it would to some degree. To not do

[0:24:39] Voice 24: these five things but those five things have a really big public impact and they're not huge

[0:24:49] Voice 24: expenses they're kind of already in place um so i'm really reluctant to to vote on that table

[0:24:59] Voice 24: the second table until we actually get to the budget thank you

[0:25:05] Voice 2: trustee bolin um thanks uh i'm

[0:25:13] Voice 2: curious so the budget has a couple of positions um and there was a proposal to implement a gist

[0:25:25] Voice 2: system i wasn't at the last financial planning meeting so i may be misspeaking but can you tell

[0:25:32] Voice 2: me so these are things that are proposed and then there's this bucket called nothing new

[0:25:38] Voice 2: new. What is in the nothing new bucket that we can't see yet in these tables?

[0:25:48] Voice 22: Yeah, thank you.

[0:25:49] Voice 22: So as I mentioned yesterday, yeah, the

[0:25:54] Voice 22: nothing new bucket is not just these

[0:25:58] Voice 22: items, the ones you see in those tables are just the ones that were on the but that were

[0:26:02] Voice 22: proposed for next fiscal that have a budget impact. As I mentioned, there are probably

[0:26:07] Voice 22: there are a number of other items any major project any item on a follow-up action list

[0:26:12] Voice 22: that is not currently underway those projects would not proceed next fiscal and so those are

[0:26:19] Voice 22: not necessarily ones that have an additional budget impact they're just existing commitments

[0:26:25] Voice 22: on your work plans etc that in most cases we would not proceed with so what you see in those

[0:26:31] Voice 22: tables are just the ones identified that have a direct impact on this year's budget or next year's

[0:26:36] Voice 22: budget um and just to address a couple of other points yeah so the the second table there the

[0:26:41] Voice 22: discretionary items um director frederick can speak better than i can in terms of the staff

[0:26:46] Voice 22: time it's true that they're not you know they don't generate a ton of work but we included

[0:26:51] Voice 22: them here and they're actually items we identified in the budget process prior to me finalizing this

[0:26:57] Voice 22: report as discretionary potential budget reductions and so they're included here

[0:27:02] Voice 22: to trustee bernardo's point in part because yes they would reduce a little bit of workload but

[0:27:08] Voice 22: also as an acknowledgement that if we're going to be proposing additions to the budget it's

[0:27:13] Voice 22: incumbent on staff to also identify potential opportunities where we might have some discretion

[0:27:17] Voice 22: to not fund ongoing work and that's not to say these aren't valuable programs that don't make

[0:27:24] Voice 22: a meaningful impact or contribution but when it comes down to making budget decisions we identify

[0:27:29] Voice 22: these as the most valuable discretionary pieces that could potentially offset some of the increase.

[0:27:36] Voice 2: May I follow up with something? So I agree, the discretionary items, as far as I know,

[0:27:43] Voice 2: I've gone through those over the years, and some of them do have significant hours attached to them.

[0:27:49] Voice 2: The second thing is, so in the budget, there was a position for a biologist and a position for

[0:27:55] Voice 2: or a First Nations person, I think it was the Islands Trust Conservancy.

[0:28:01] Voice 2: How did those positions sink in with the positions that you're asking for?

[0:28:08] Voice 2: Because, you know, if it all adds up cumulatively,

[0:28:12] Voice 2: we're about to add, I don't know, something between three and five new positions,

[0:28:17] Voice 2: I think, correct me if I'm wrong, and that kind of alarms me.

[0:28:22] Voice 2: So I'm just wondering, like those arguably are new items in the budget, if not actually new projects. Thank you.

[0:28:31] Voice 22: Yeah, thank you. And I acknowledge that in the report that there are additional budget requests that have come forward from staff and also from committees and from the Conservancy Board.

[0:28:40] Voice 22: As I said in the report, I haven't made a recommendation with regard to approving or not approving those because, in my view, they all directly relate to ongoing priority work that Trust Council and the Conservancy Board have identified as needing to be resourced.

[0:28:58] Voice 22: So I appreciate that.

[0:28:59] Voice 22: Yeah, that means we are adding, I think it's actually six potential positions or five and a half.

[0:29:04] Voice 22: And so, as I said in the report, I think because they're all tied one way or another to the priorities that you've identified, it's Trust Council's discretion on whether to approve all of those or to determine which among those is the priority.

[0:29:18] Voice 22: And I appreciate that may be a difficult choice, but they all support

[0:29:23] Voice 22: ongoing work or existing work.

[0:29:26] Voice 22: okay

[0:29:28] Voice 2: so but we are now a little bit in that circle where suddenly um we are

[0:29:36] Voice 2: driving the train off the rails again because suddenly it's back in our lap to decide and we

[0:29:43] Voice 2: have proven that we're we don't do that very well we don't make choices we don't make hard

[0:29:49] Voice 2: choices very well. And I'm struggling with the fact that you've made really great recommendations

[0:29:57] Voice 2: about change.

[0:30:00] Voice 2: And that at the same time, there's a whole piece of work to the side that we are still left in charge of, which will have a huge impact cumulatively.

[0:30:10] Voice 2: And I would like to see them balanced and challenged together in an integrated piece.

[0:30:17] Voice 2: Thanks.

[0:30:18] Voice 2: Thank you.

[0:30:20] Voice 2: I had put

[0:30:21] Trustee Patrick: myself on the speaking list.

[0:30:22] Trustee Patrick: I think I alluded yesterday in the roundtable that the two projects, Salt Spring Local Trust Committee Groundwater Sustainability and the SWPPP Coordination Plan are not new.

[0:30:32] Trustee Patrick: And I have a problem with them being on this list.

[0:30:34] Trustee Patrick: The equipment is in the ground.

[0:30:37] Trustee Patrick: This is a project.

[0:30:38] Trustee Patrick: It's not new.

[0:30:39] Trustee Patrick: It exists.

[0:30:41] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to ask that we take both of them off the list.

[0:30:44] Trustee Patrick: I have a motion I did submit.

[0:30:46] Trustee Patrick: I will deal with the groundwater one.

[0:30:49] Trustee Patrick: we've asked staff to move forward and do some work this year so that uh if if money is needed

[0:30:54] Trustee Patrick: we could be more precise um so say zero for for now and the other one i will be addressing

[0:31:01] Trustee Patrick: in the afternoon through the budget and we'll take that back off the table plus it's surplus

[0:31:05] Trustee Patrick: so it has no effect anyway so i will be bringing a motion after we're done with this section to

[0:31:11] Trustee Patrick: remove those two off the new list and that was my comments peterson yeah

[0:31:19] Voice 6: thank you um good

[0:31:20] Voice 6: discussion i think we're there's so many intersecting um issues here we talk about

[0:31:29] Voice 6: whether we have staff capacity um and we look at adding positions to increase capacity uh but then

[0:31:38] Voice 6: we're also concerned about um inflating the budget and and the difficulty of reducing the budget once

[0:31:46] Voice 6: we've agreed to new permanent positions so it's uh the complex interface here i think um i do

[0:31:55] Voice 6: tend to agree with a couple of the speakers that i heard before that um the staff recommendation

[0:32:05] Voice 6: uh tables here um taking in isolation is not perhaps the best way to to work our budget

[0:32:15] Voice 6: on these pieces i appreciate the work of staff uh on identifying some of the stuff but i think there

[0:32:22] Voice 6: are um i think there's some debate needed on a couple of these items i think i'm not alone in

[0:32:30] Voice 6: that um the discretionary sense uh in general i think the approach of um of the recommendation

[0:32:40] Voice 6: recommendation to stop adding new projects is really important. And so while I'm open to

[0:32:53] Voice 6: looking at the items in the table and debating some of them, I think if the starting places

[0:33:00] Voice 6: were not adding anything new, I would agree that some of this, especially the second table,

[0:33:07] Voice 6: aren't necessarily new items i think there is some merit in debating them uh i'd like to have those

[0:33:13] Voice 6: debates um but just the principle that we're not going to continue adding new things is is really

[0:33:20] Voice 6: important thank you all

[0:33:23] Trustee Patrick: right trustee evans or

[0:33:29] Voice 9: myself here um the stewardship education

[0:33:34] Voice 9: and secretariat services i understand that these are discretionary items that have been added to

[0:33:39] Voice 9: this table however the impacts on the secretariat services extend beyond trust council and they

[0:33:46] Voice 9: affect all of the applicants that come forward for administrative support for their organizations

[0:33:52] Voice 9: and i think that that would be a difficult move to make the education program again this is

[0:34:01] Voice 9: something that we this is how we educate our our communities and how we provide information

[0:34:08] Voice 9: to our constituents again I would be I'd be loath to remove those two programs and I don't know much

[0:34:19] Voice 9: about the history and heritage but that just got added on again so I will leave that for other

[0:34:23] Voice 9: people but I can't support from removing those two programs in their entirety so that's that's

[0:34:30] Voice 9: my position. Thanks. Trustee Fast.

[0:34:36] Voice 12: Thank you. I just want to focus on the point about the

[0:34:43] Voice 12: operational review before we get into the budget. And I'm hoping that we can move through and

[0:34:53] Voice 12: provide our support for the nine recommendations that are in front of us. We asked for this

[0:35:00] Voice 12: operational review and before we get down into the fine-tuning I've heard

[0:35:05] Voice 12: some comments already about how many staff positions all this kind of thing

[0:35:10] Voice 12: to me this is an opportunity to address the capacity issues and with a bit of a

[0:35:15] Voice 12: reset year and we won't get this opportunity again for a long time to

[0:35:22] Voice 12: have an operational review that we can focus on so if we can focus on the nine

[0:35:27] Voice 12: recommendations and stick to this operational report for this part of the

[0:35:32] Voice 12: budget make our choices and then allow staff and the financial planning

[0:35:42] Voice 12: committee to adjust to that then we can get into the budget those then we'll

[0:35:47] Voice 12: have some numbers to work with so I'm just asking please if we could focus I'm

[0:35:52] Voice 12: going to send in a motion for the first part of number one thank you thank you

[0:35:59] Voice 12: you uh

[0:35:59] Trustee Patrick: trustee stamford thank

[0:36:04] Voice 18: you yes speaking to the operational report i mean we spent several

[0:36:10] Voice 18: um well i felt like several hours but um we spent a while yesterday talking about how much we

[0:36:15] Voice 18: appreciated the report how much work had gone into it how much we support it um and the very

[0:36:21] Voice 18: first line item we get bogged down. I think we need to support the recommendations, but I also

[0:36:34] Voice 18: need to have full assurance that these projects won't get lost in subsequent budgets, that they

[0:36:42] Voice 18: have to come back to be the place where they are so important. These aren't off the side of the

[0:36:48] Voice 18: desk type items these are critical to our function and critical to our public image

[0:36:55] Voice 18: but i'm willing to step up to the operational report with that assurance that there is a

[0:37:02] Voice 18: process to see these come back in the next budget trustee harris thank

[0:37:11] Voice 30: you yeah it's difficult um

[0:37:15] Voice 30: to um to hear the reluctance to move ahead with these after again um and i'm repeating what other

[0:37:22] Voice 30: people have said here um but yesterday everybody was well many people were in support of the

[0:37:27] Voice 30: operational review um i i take um great opposition to um taking the groundwater sustainability for

[0:37:36] Voice 30: salt spring and the swipa plan coordination off this list as a representative for salt spring

[0:37:42] Voice 30: island um the highly you know the most highly populated island within the island's trust area

[0:37:47] Voice 30: and the island that carries the largest tax burden for the Islands Trust Organization.

[0:37:53] Voice 30: I also contest this idea that somehow this doesn't affect taxation.

[0:37:59] Voice 30: Special property taxes are still taxes, reserve funds or not, that money could be funneled elsewhere.

[0:38:05] Voice 30: These two projects, in my opinion, are highly failed.

[0:38:09] Voice 30: And these just contribute to the stranglehold that's being put on the social and economic well-being of the people in Salt Spring.

[0:38:19] Voice 30: So I'm greatly opposed to that.

[0:38:22] Voice 30: And we'll speak to it again if the motion comes forward.

[0:38:24] Voice 30: Thank you.

[0:38:27] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[0:38:28] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Luckham.

[0:38:29] Trustee Patrick: Then we got repeat.

[0:38:30] Trustee Patrick: So after Trustee Luckham, I'm going to ask, actually, because we've got seconds coming up that we try to move to either direction here.

[0:38:38] Trustee Patrick: So, Trustee Luckham.

[0:38:40] Trustee Luckham: Thank you, Chair.

[0:38:41] Trustee Luckham: Chair, and I want to reiterate my thanks to the CAO for the work here.

[0:38:52] Trustee Luckham: Not underestimating the value of the organizational report, and I'm adding my voice to those that

[0:38:59] Trustee Luckham: have spoken about the importance of the operational report.

[0:39:03] Trustee Luckham: I think these items one through nine need actually very little discussion because I

[0:39:09] Trustee Luckham: I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, there's aspirational elements here that council needs

[0:39:16] Trustee Luckham: to take into consideration to guide its decisions associated with the budget debate, which is coming

[0:39:21] Trustee Luckham: and having that budget debate ahead of the budget debate. And not sure totally of the real value of

[0:39:29] Trustee Luckham: it, but certainly it's a good heads up. Here's an example, good heads up. But I turn your mind

[0:39:35] Trustee Luckham: briefly to the financial situation that is looming, we have the document that's called

[0:39:44] Trustee Luckham: Assumptions and Principles, which is our guiding principles document associated with development

[0:39:49] Trustee Luckham: of the budget. These nine recommendations need to be considered and included in those

[0:39:55] Trustee Luckham: Assumptions and Principles, because this is what the CAO is asking us to do, is do you support

[0:40:01] Trustee Luckham: this. What the details of item one actually is will be determined by how much you support these

[0:40:09] Trustee Luckham: aspirations when you debate the budget. So I am much more inclined to advance this brilliant

[0:40:16] Trustee Luckham: piece of work and an assessment of our state of the governments. Let's call it that. Let me call

[0:40:23] Trustee Luckham: it that. And I don't think we're going to get lost in the weeds if we start debating the merits

[0:40:30] Trustee Luckham: of items on the list,

[0:40:33] Trustee Luckham: which represent less than 1% of the budget.

[0:40:37] Trustee Luckham: Not that we can't build up 1% to 5% or 10%,

[0:40:41] Trustee Luckham: but let's focus on the operational elements.

[0:40:45] Trustee Luckham: And I've heard that echoed here a number of times

[0:40:48] Trustee Luckham: since I put my hand up.

[0:40:50] Trustee Luckham: So thank you very much.

[0:40:52] Trustee Patrick: Trustees, we're on, I was gonna say,

[0:40:54] Trustee Patrick: we're on repeated names,

[0:40:56] Trustee Patrick: but I see Trustee Middleton,

[0:40:58] Trustee Patrick: who has not spoken yet, looking very carefully.

[0:41:02] Trustee Patrick: because before we go back through the list a second time,

[0:41:05] Trustee Patrick: I'd like to have either some direction on the floor

[0:41:07] Trustee Patrick: rather than keep going around the list.

[0:41:09] Trustee Patrick: So, Trustee Middleton, and then let's think about next steps here.

[0:41:15] Voice 1: Thank you.

[0:41:17] Voice 1: Yeah, to Trustee Lehm's point, I think the recommendations are integrated.

[0:41:23] Voice 1: I think it's perhaps no accident that the staff recommended budgetary cuts

[0:41:29] Voice 1: more or less equal probably what the two positions would cost

[0:41:32] Voice 1: cost in terms of this next year's budget and i think that's key i think we cannot have those

[0:41:37] Voice 1: positions unless we cut in order to afford them whether they be temporary or full-time that's

[0:41:42] Voice 1: obviously a debate um there's some merit to i think i've heard some people talk about what the

[0:41:49] Voice 1: city of vancouver council did and said to staff we want a zero percent increase you tell us how

[0:41:55] Voice 1: we get there and i think staff have done that obviously we all they have a sense of uh the

[0:42:01] Voice 1: the health of the organization, they're not obviously going to recommend something that

[0:42:03] Voice 1: will be detrimental. And I think, as Trustee Luckman said, we need to take these recommendations

[0:42:10] Voice 1: as a whole. That includes the budget cut items. Obviously, people, as I think Trustee Bernardo

[0:42:19] Voice 1: said, have strong feelings about some of them. That's why there's merit to having staff make

[0:42:23] Voice 1: decisions about how the cuts happen. So I think we support these recommendations, but I think they

[0:42:29] Voice 1: have to be supported as a whole which includes those budgetary cuts which trustee getty referred

[0:42:35] Voice 1: to from page um 82. so thank you oh

[0:42:41] Trustee Patrick: trustee scott snuck in on the new list here so trustee scott

[0:42:44] Trustee Patrick: then we're going to talk about uh proceeding yes

[0:42:51] Voice 13: thank you i support all all these nine

[0:42:55] Voice 13: nine recommendations, just with the assurance that number one will not limit us completing

[0:43:02] Voice 13: our OCP. And I'm going to speak to CAO next week. And he gave assurance yesterday, I thought that

[0:43:11] Voice 13: we should be able to proceed, even though we have to change our work plan, add to our work plan

[0:43:17] Voice 13: about housing in January. So that's my only concern. Otherwise, thank you.

[0:43:24] Trustee Patrick: All right. So trustees, we have repeats now on the list. And so I'd like, I'm sorry, we have motions. Yes, we also are at the break. So it is 1030. So, oops. Yes, go ahead. Sorry.

[0:43:43] Voice 25: Yeah, thank you. Just before the break, I just wanted to let you know that our new information technology manager, Ted Drummond, is in the room here. He's sitting right here. I'd just like you to welcome him. As I said in the email, he'll be officially starting on June 5th, but he's come down to council to meet you and some of the staff here. So just please chat with him. Thank you.

[0:44:07] Trustee Patrick: all right so trustees let's take a 15 minute break we'll take a look at the motions that

[0:44:12] Trustee Patrick: are here and hopefully we have a plan to move forward so let's take a break and welcome

[1:00:10] Voice 21: all right trustees if we could get back to the table

[1:00:13] Trustee Patrick: seem to have a lot of seats missing

[1:00:16] Trustee Patrick: no

[1:00:16] Voice 21: seats are here the

[1:00:25] Trustee Patrick: consensus reached i heard multiple options one is either we continue to

[1:00:30] Trustee Patrick: proceed one motion at a time or if you want to do uh try it all all nine and one that would

[1:00:37] Trustee Patrick: certainly be an idea too i did we did confirm because we were concerned if we make this

[1:00:41] Trustee Patrick: decision now in the afternoon is that considered reconsidering a budget item and the the general

[1:00:47] Trustee Patrick: comment is no, not if you, I mean, yes, you could remove or have further conversations on the budget

[1:00:53] Trustee Patrick: this afternoon. So we are not, if we make a decision now, you're not preempting any further

[1:01:01] Trustee Patrick: discussion in the budget conversation, if that makes sense. So, trustees, there's only one motion

[1:01:08] Trustee Patrick: that was put forward, and that was for motion one to basically, we need to put that forward to

[1:01:16] Trustee Patrick: accept motion one as is. So we can proceed that way. And there is nobody has put forward a motion

[1:01:23] Trustee Patrick: for all nine. Trustee Bernardo, process question.

[1:01:26] Voice 5: Yeah, in terms of simply being able to move things

[1:01:29] Voice 5: along. I mean, there's a lot of sense. I don't want to alarm Trustee Luckham by agreeing with

[1:01:33] Voice 5: him. But there's a lot of sense in what Trustee Luckham was talking about that we're dealing with

[1:01:39] Voice 5: issues of high principle here. And I think it's very helpful your most recent remark to point out

[1:01:44] Voice 5: that the specific, you know, budget grinding that is implied by some of these recommendations,

[1:01:54] Voice 5: we can revisit it later. And I think in terms of just the process of getting through all nine of

[1:01:59] Voice 5: these recommendations, before we entertain motions that seek to tweak them or modify them,

[1:02:06] Voice 5: I think it would be prudent to, in each case, somebody to move a resolution to simply have

[1:02:13] Voice 5: it approved as written because if it turns out there's a majority support for that then that's

[1:02:18] Voice 5: the end

[1:02:18] Voice 5: of the debate okay and then if there isn't that doesn't mean it's dead it means the tweaking

[1:02:23] Voice 5: can ensue and i think that might be a more efficient way which is with respect to trustee

[1:02:28] Voice 5: fast i'd prefer that we you know uh assuming we get this discussion to an end at some point on

[1:02:36] Voice 5: number one that we we entertain a resolution to simply accept that one as written and see how it

[1:02:41] Voice 5: appeals all

[1:02:41] Trustee Patrick: right uh i'm just gonna do a straw poll because i see lots of hands coming up and

[1:02:45] Trustee Patrick: debate could go for quite some time so i just want to do a straw poll would there be interest

[1:02:51] Trustee Patrick: in entertaining a motion to accept all nine all right so uh lower your hands uh process question

[1:03:04] Trustee Patrick: trustee evans if

[1:03:07] Voice 9: we um make the motion to take them all as they are is there an opportunity for

[1:03:15] Voice 9: an amendment to be made during that process um i have a concern with the wording on one of the items

[1:03:27] Trustee Patrick: that's my fear is that we'll get down into the uh i think the the general idea the straw poll

[1:03:33] Trustee Patrick: i was doing is that it would be a recommendation as is and i think we can all say there's wording

[1:03:38] Trustee Patrick: here or there i think it's the intent of the nine recommendations as a whole uh that we would be

[1:03:44] Trustee Patrick: looking at if that motion comes forward. Trustee Bernardo, you're just itching to say something.

[1:03:50] Voice 5: Well, in terms of process, I mean, I would be happy to support all nine of them because I agree

[1:03:56] Voice 5: with them. But in terms of process, I do think trustees need an opportunity to deliberate on

[1:04:02] Voice 5: nine separate concepts here. I appreciate we don't want to sort of spend forever on them.

[1:04:08] Voice 5: What I would appreciate is the idea of, like I mentioned before, a resolution for each of them, whether it's to be accepted as written.

[1:04:16] Voice 5: And if not, then perhaps we could have a debate and mess around with it.

[1:04:21] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[1:04:21] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Getty, process.

[1:04:27] Voice 26: Your microphone.

[1:04:30] Voice 7: So I wanted to remind council that none of these recommendations were before financial planning committee.

[1:04:38] Voice 7: committee um so that um in terms of trying to figure out what could be cut what could be what

[1:04:45] Voice 7: we would recommend some of these principles in terms of no new work uh were being discussed but

[1:04:52] Voice 7: you know we're now down to having these um points saying council approve funding to create increase

[1:05:01] Voice 7: the proposed budget approve funding to create and that it seems to be uh puts us in a position where

[1:05:07] Voice 7: where we're having to approve them now.

[1:05:11] Voice 7: We're suggesting that we approve them now,

[1:05:13] Voice 7: and then we're getting into discussions in terms of whether or not this is going to bump something else

[1:05:18] Voice 7: or whether we're going to accept it all and whether we can afford it all

[1:05:21] Voice 7: and what that means in terms of the Bowen part of it as opposed to the general trust.

[1:05:28] Voice 7: And I think those are the finer points that the Financial Planning Committee would have gone through

[1:05:33] Voice 7: had we had it, and now to just blanketly accept this,

[1:05:37] Voice 7: I think it makes the discussion at the budget harder.

[1:05:40] Voice 7: I think there's parts of this that we can approve.

[1:05:43] Voice 7: Number nine, I don't think that's going to be contentious.

[1:05:47] Voice 7: I think that, you know, the whole premise in terms of no new projects,

[1:05:51] Voice 7: it's in one and I believe four.

[1:05:55] Voice 7: I don't think that's contentious and some of the others.

[1:05:57] Voice 7: So there's parts of this that I think need to be deferred

[1:06:00] Voice 7: and become part of the budget discussion,

[1:06:03] Voice 7: that not go through it and repeat it later,

[1:06:06] Voice 7: because I think we all agree in principle with all of this.

[1:06:10] Voice 7: We all really are appreciative of the operating review,

[1:06:13] Voice 7: but we need to break this down.

[1:06:16] Voice 7: Agree in principle, but let's defer discussion

[1:06:19] Voice 7: of some of these budget things to the budget.

[1:06:23] Voice 26: Okay.

[1:06:26] Trustee Patrick: If we were to generally agree with the nine,

[1:06:31] Trustee Patrick: could it be an agree in principle motion?

[1:06:34] Trustee Patrick: And we just carry on.

[1:06:39] Voice 22: and i'll invite director marler to comment as well i think i think it is acceptable for an

[1:06:45] Voice 22: example in the case of one if you approved all nine and then in the case of one when you get

[1:06:50] Voice 22: into the budget discussion you may want to get into sort of if you have concerns about those

[1:06:55] Voice 22: five discretionary items you may want to remove items or or add them back in i think it's more

[1:07:00] Voice 22: problematic to approve all nine and then go back and say oh yeah but in hindsight we don't

[1:07:06] Voice 22: agree with number six we've decided not to fund a whole new position because that that that entire

[1:07:11] Voice 22: recommendation is a budget decision effectively um and so i think if you're if you're not prepared

[1:07:18] Voice 22: to fully endorse those those six seven and eight in particular um from a budget perspective then

[1:07:25] Voice 22: it doesn't make a lot of sense to endorse them at this stage only to reverse them an hour from now

[1:07:29] Voice 22: in which case you may want to go through them one by one and as has been proposed as much as I would

[1:07:37] Voice 22: like us to be expeditious in this I think you have to you have to weigh those decisions

[1:07:43] Trustee Patrick: all right trustees processes trustee Luckham yes apparently process go ahead you want to test a

[1:07:54] Trustee Luckham: motion I would yeah let's quit messing about and test have

[1:07:57] Trustee Patrick: you submitted your motion I

[1:07:58] Trustee Luckham: have not but

[1:07:59] Trustee Luckham: but I thought somebody else would.

[1:08:02] Trustee Luckham: I can be very short and eloquent.

[1:08:04] Voice 9: I've submitted a motion as well.

[1:08:07] Trustee Luckham: All right.

[1:08:08] Trustee Luckham: Well, Trustee Luckin, let's hear your motion.

[1:08:12] Trustee Luckham: Okay, thank you.

[1:08:13] Trustee Luckham: So I would move that Trust Council adopt the recommendations contained

[1:08:19] Trustee Luckham: in the 2020-25 Operational Review Report as presented

[1:08:25] Trustee Luckham: and they'd be forwarded to the Financial Planning Committee.

[1:08:31] Trustee Patrick: Well, before it's seconded,

[1:08:37] Trustee Patrick: I don't know if there's any comments on the forwarding to the Financial Planning Committee,

[1:08:41] Trustee Patrick: or is that...

[1:08:44] Trustee Luckham: I'd be happy to withdraw that, except I heard that that was...

[1:08:49] Voice 22: I would look to Director Bob's on how that would dovetail with the process.

[1:08:53] Voice 22: I mean, I suppose to some extent the budget deliberation that comes out of this

[1:08:56] Voice 22: ends up going back to Financial Planning Committee in any case,

[1:08:59] Voice 22: So it may be a bit of a moot point to specify it in the motion.

[1:09:03] Voice 22: The decisions will be captured in whatever the final budget decision is here, and we

[1:09:07] Voice 22: go back to the FPC.

[1:09:10] Voice 22: All right.

[1:09:11] Trustee Patrick: I want to give staff a moment to bring the motion up onto the table floor.

[1:09:15] Trustee Patrick: Here it is.

[1:09:16] Trustee Patrick: I think, Trustee Luckin, would you be okay with removing and forwarding from financial

[1:09:20] Trustee Luckham: planning?

[1:09:21] Trustee Luckham: You can end it as

[1:09:22] Trustee Patrick: presented.

[1:09:24] Trustee Patrick: The comma, yeah.

[1:09:24] Trustee Patrick: As presented, yeah.

[1:09:26] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:09:28] Trustee Patrick: So this is the motion that's on the floor.

[1:09:30] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second to this motion?

[1:09:32] Trustee Patrick: the motion that's on the floor i'm sorry i

[1:09:35] Voice 26: hadn't

[1:09:37] Trustee Patrick: accepted a second yet so it is seconded

[1:09:39] Trustee Patrick: by trustee allen okay um is there a discussion trustee evans i'm

[1:09:49] Voice 9: not sure how to do this but

[1:09:51] Voice 9: i would like to make an amendment um to i would like to have this um and this is kind of going

[1:09:59] Voice 9: in reverse order so i would like it i would like to amend the motion on the floor from as presented

[1:10:06] Voice 9: to as amended because i have an amendment to number three which i sent in a long time ago

[1:10:14] Voice 9: and i've been because we're only discussing number one i never got to discuss number three

[1:10:18] Voice 9: i

[1:10:19] Trustee Patrick: think you would have to put you can't we can't approve an amended motion that hasn't been amended

[1:10:23] Trustee Patrick: So, you would have to amend it by amending item recommendation number X to be what you would like to see done.

[1:10:33] Trustee Patrick: So, your motion would have to be put in there as an amendment.

[1:10:36] Voice 9: So, this is my problem.

[1:10:39] Voice 9: If we approve this as presented, then I can't make an amendment to have one of the items changed because it's as presented.

[1:10:49] Trustee Patrick: Yes, state your point.

[1:10:53] Voice 5: i think the um given what trustees evan's concern is i think what she's stating is

[1:11:00] Trustee Patrick: yes

[1:11:00] Voice 5: i'm just trying to i'm trying to explain my point may i share proceed

[1:11:06] Trustee Patrick: with your point

[1:11:07] Trustee Patrick: i'm trying yes

[1:11:08] Voice 5: thank you uh as i understand it um it's actually the trustee is voicing

[1:11:14] Voice 5: an opposition to it and what she wants is actually to have these things taken in turn

[1:11:20] Voice 5: so i'm not sure this amendment that she's contemplating um is is feasible okay

[1:11:28] Trustee Patrick: i i

[1:11:29] Trustee Patrick: i think if we're going to go down the amendment route it's going to be challenging i think we

[1:11:36] Trustee Patrick: should test this motion as it's been presented if we can trustee evans and uh you can state

[1:11:41] Trustee Patrick: your reason for uh wanting to amend something uh at this time so

[1:11:46] Voice 9: number three um in the beginning

[1:11:49] Voice 9: When we had our roundtable, I expressed concern over the wording of number three.

[1:11:52] Voice 9: So I expressed intent to have the opportunity to make this amendment.

[1:11:56] Voice 9: When we had the previous discussion, I also asked on process if I could do this.

[1:12:01] Voice 9: So my concern is having the current strategic plan model follow the corporate plan to be

[1:12:10] Voice 9: developed by the incoming council.

[1:12:12] Voice 9: I had clarification from the CAO that the process was to be developed here and it was

[1:12:16] Voice 9: to be implemented.

[1:12:17] Voice 9: and I wanted to change the word developed to implemented.

[1:12:20] Voice 9: That is an intent change.

[1:12:23] Voice 9: If we adopt it as amended, it's problematic.

[1:12:26] Voice 9: We do not get to complete the corporate process plan now.

[1:12:30] Voice 9: The incoming council does.

[1:12:32] Voice 9: That's my concern.

[1:12:34] Voice 9: I raised it during the roundtable,

[1:12:37] Voice 9: and I've been waiting and following process, which got shut down.

[1:12:41] Voice 9: This is the debate.

[1:12:43] Trustee Patrick: We hear your reason now, so thank you.

[1:12:45] Trustee Patrick: you uh oh we've got a long list uh trustee boland um

[1:12:53] Voice 2: i actually liked the original one with the um

[1:12:57] Voice 2: forward to financial planning because ultimately that is where the integration and the review of

[1:13:05] Voice 2: the consequences will have to happen um and out of that will come some recommendations with respect

[1:13:14] Voice 2: back to the budget i expect so um yeah that's just my otherwise i'm happy to go ahead with this i

[1:13:21] Voice 2: just thought it was actually a useful addition to the original motion thank you thank you trustee

[1:13:27] Voice 2: bernardo uh

[1:13:33] Voice 5: i had i had raised my hand before trustee luckham had made his um his motion so i

[1:13:39] Voice 5: think um i've i'm gonna oppose this motion not because i don't think notwithstanding that i agree

[1:13:49] Voice 5: with the general direction of it, but I think the tenor of the discussion we're having around here

[1:13:55] Voice 5: is indicating that trustees have things to say about these individual recommendations. That's

[1:14:02] Voice 5: what we're here to do is to deliberate on these things. And I appreciate the need to be expeditious,

[1:14:07] Voice 5: but we can't just blow by some of these things. For example, the two new hires that are proposed,

[1:14:13] Voice 5: those are two like really material um commitments of the organization uh that's not something you've

[1:14:22] Voice 5: decided in omnibus resolution it's like even if we all agree with it i think it's something we

[1:14:27] Voice 5: should discuss for the public record as to why we agree with it and why we think the ceo is actually

[1:14:32] Voice 5: cooking with gas here when he's making this recommendation um uh it's a terrible impression

[1:14:38] Voice 5: to the public to be just rubber stamping stuff and we do need to deliberate i'm pretty optimistic

[1:14:44] Voice 5: that all nine of these things are likely to be approved but we do have a responsibility to air

[1:14:50] Voice 5: them out and i think trustee evans has a concern that can be addressed if we deal with it when we

[1:14:56] Voice 5: get to recommendation three thank you thank

[1:14:59] Voice 12: you trustee fast thank you i um also was going to

[1:15:06] Voice 12: to make the same motion and had sent it in i'm so i support i'm speaking in support of this motion i

[1:15:11] Voice 12: think we should test council's uh commitment to the changes that are offered in front of us by the

[1:15:19] Voice 12: operational report that we requested um and that's been delivered and uh i heard a high amount of

[1:15:28] Voice 12: agreement yesterday around the table as we each had a chance to speak um unprecedented level of

[1:15:36] Voice 12: agreement i would uh suggest and then we just saw a quick straw poll i think we should uh

[1:15:43] Voice 12: test whether we approve all of this big um uh comprehensive change uh that offers us a chance

[1:15:55] Voice 12: to reset these capacity issues that we've been wrestling with for so long and um and see whether

[1:16:02] Voice 12: whether this council can do that and then move on to the budget.

[1:16:06] Voice 12: Thank you.

[1:16:07] Voice 12: I'm in support.

[1:16:09] Voice 12: Trustee Peterson?

[1:16:13] Voice 6: Speaking in support of the motion,

[1:16:16] Voice 6: specifically the chair's clarification on whether getting into the details

[1:16:22] Voice 6: of the staff recommendations is allowable, which I heard it is.

[1:16:26] Voice 6: Therefore, I'm in support of proceeding at this time.

[1:16:28] Voice 6: Thank you.

[1:16:30] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Harris?

[1:16:33] Voice 30: I'm in opposition.

[1:16:34] Voice 30: I think we should go through each one as has been suggested and yeah

[1:16:43] Voice 29: I'll leave

[1:16:44] Voice 30: it there James go

[1:16:47] Trustee Patrick: stick with first-time speakers first trustee neighborly yeah

[1:16:51] Voice 33: thank you I just want to ask a question does there's approving this motion stock

[1:16:59] Voice 33: Trust Council at the time of the approval of the budget questioning any

[1:17:04] Voice 33: of the line items in the budget no

[1:17:08] Voice 22: i don't believe it does make it it does make a difference i mean

[1:17:11] Voice 22: as i said i think i think it is slightly problematic to approve the three that are

[1:17:17] Voice 22: explicitly about adding major items to the budget but i um but it doesn't preclude you from from

[1:17:25] Voice 22: revisiting that and as i said on the on the first one those discretionary items i think you can

[1:17:31] Voice 22: review those as discrete line items and and the way director marler advises you be essentially

[1:17:35] Voice 22: Essentially, when you get to the budget discussion, you are receiving additional information that may require you to revisit some of those decisions.

[1:17:43] Voice 22: But I would encourage you, particularly with regard to 6, 7, and 8, if you are committed to fully supporting those, then it makes sense to approve them here.

[1:17:53] Voice 22: If you want to only consider those as part of the budget debate, then you may be wise to defer those budget requests until you've looked at the budget as a whole.

[1:18:03] Voice 33: Okay. So I think that was the point I was going to try to get at. I'm not going to be able to support the motion because I agree with CAO on the hires. I support the motion in principle, but I think because I want to see what the budget looks like if we implement all nine.

[1:18:22] Voice 33: but I don't want to put us in a position where with the three new hires where as the CAO points

[1:18:28] Voice 33: out if we sort of tentatively approve them now it's going to be problematic for the budget so

[1:18:34] Voice 33: I can't support the motion as written.

[1:18:39] Trustee Patrick: So my understanding would be if this motion were to

[1:18:41] Trustee Patrick: carry just want to get clarity on that that Director Mobbs will work some magic and would

[1:18:48] Trustee Patrick: report this afternoon sort of what the impact of this additions would be would that be correct

[1:18:53] Trustee Patrick: director mobs i

[1:18:57] Voice 10: could shed some light right now if you wish oh

[1:18:59] Trustee Patrick: that might uh i see happiness around

[1:19:02] Trustee Patrick: the room or or great concern so go go ahead um

[1:19:06] Voice 10: happy to so i did take some time to update um the

[1:19:08] Voice 10: budget figures to reflect uh the decision you made yesterday to fund additional trust council meetings

[1:19:14] Voice 10: meetings in person. If you were to accept all of the recommendations in the CAO's report,

[1:19:19] Voice 10: including the additions and the reductions that are proposed, the tax increase for local trust

[1:19:25] Voice 10: areas would land at about 13.8%. And for Bowen, it's 38.2%. And of course, any decisions you make

[1:19:34] Voice 10: that may, you know, only accept some of the recommendations or some of the reductions will

[1:19:38] Voice 10: change that. And I can work through those numbers as you make your decisions.

[1:19:42] Voice 22: and if if i may chair yes so that um that includes the additional the other positions

[1:19:49] Voice 22: that were put forward as part of the budget submission as well which you haven't yet

[1:19:53] Voice 22: deliberated on so um to director mob's point you now have a sense of the scale of if the draft

[1:20:00] Voice 22: budget was adopted as is with these additions and subtractions you know where you stand but of

[1:20:07] Voice 22: course getting into the budget debate you may want to reconsider whether or not all of the

[1:20:11] Voice 22: other additions um would be appropriate all

[1:20:16] Trustee Patrick: right trustees i'm sticking with first-time speakers

[1:20:18] Trustee Patrick: for now trustee hunter thank

[1:20:23] Voice 28: you chair uh the number one says we're going to defer these um

[1:20:31] Voice 28: objectives until what time i mean uh and are we deferring those so that we can add the hires at

[1:20:38] Voice 28: the other end like seven eight and nine or you know they're going to come back we're going to

[1:20:46] Voice 28: have we're going to hire a bunch of people and that's going to be forever and then these deferred

[1:20:51] Voice 28: items will come back on a subsequent budget down the road and yeah i just think we have to be very

[1:21:00] Voice 28: careful about what we're wishing for and how we're doing it and make sure that the public understands

[1:21:07] Voice 28: and where we're getting the money from.

[1:21:10] Voice 28: Thank you.

[1:21:11] Trustee Patrick: Yeah, thank you.

[1:21:13] Voice 22: I think that's a good point, Trustee Hunter.

[1:21:15] Voice 22: Yes, the deferred items would be revisited likely as part of your next budget cycle,

[1:21:21] Voice 22: and you would reconsider them if they were brought forward again,

[1:21:24] Voice 22: so the projects that were listed there.

[1:21:26] Voice 22: I do want to clarify, as I discussed with a couple of folks during the break,

[1:21:29] Voice 22: so the discretionary budget items, which are ongoing programs,

[1:21:33] Voice 22: not funding those this year does not mean those programs go away.

[1:21:37] Voice 22: It means you're just making a decision to not allocate any funding to support those.

[1:21:42] Voice 22: And so those programs would remain on the books.

[1:21:45] Voice 22: We would just not have any funding to support them for next fiscal.

[1:21:48] Voice 22: You may then revisit that the following fiscal and determine whether or not you want to fund those again.

[1:21:54] Trustee Patrick: All right. Trustee Scott.

[1:22:03] Voice 13: Thank you. I'm just wondering, why don't we just vote on this,

[1:22:08] Voice 13: not vote on this until after we have the budget discussion this afternoon,

[1:22:12] Voice 13: noon because that budget discussion may shed a considerable amount of light on these items.

[1:22:19] Voice 13: So let's just postpone it until after that. Thanks.

[1:22:25] Trustee Patrick: Didn't make a motion to table it,

[1:22:28] Trustee Patrick: so I'm going to keep proceeding. So first-time speakers, Trustee Yates.

[1:22:35] Voice 24: Would this motion be easier to vote on if we just said adopt in principle?

[1:22:48] Trustee Patrick: I don't know.

[1:22:51] Trustee Patrick: What the difference between adopt and adopt in principle would be at this point.

[1:22:58] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Bernardo, are you going to make a comment on what in principle means?

[1:23:02] Voice 5: It's a comment that I don't think it, with the greatest respect, I don't think saying you adopt something in principle advances things.

[1:23:10] Voice 5: It just kicks the problem down the road.

[1:23:12] Voice 5: We've got a decision to make.

[1:23:14] Voice 5: All right.

[1:23:14] Voice 5: Thank you.

[1:23:16] Trustee Patrick: So all first-time speakers have gone.

[1:23:18] Trustee Patrick: on we have a couple of repeat speakers here we have trustee evans and trustee luckham um i'm

[1:23:26] Voice 9: just going to re-ask a question because i can't remember the answer if this is adopted is there

[1:23:32] Voice 9: any opportunity to make the amendment um to number three later just because the in the intent of the

[1:23:41] Voice 9: way that this is written is material to the work undergoing and it it really does change how we

[1:23:49] Voice 9: proceed with the corporate planning process i

[1:23:51] Trustee Patrick: turn to the ceo to answer if it's a i would say

[1:23:56] Voice 22: if this is if this resolution was passed as written yes it says we would adopt the resolutions

[1:24:02] Voice 22: as they are described in the report um if it helps to clarify the wording around that resolution

[1:24:09] Voice 22: around that recommendation the intent was that it would be incoming council that would develop

[1:24:15] Voice 22: the corporate plan, not that incoming council

[1:24:18] Voice 22: would develop the planning process.

[1:24:20] Voice 22: And so the reference to be developed by the next council

[1:24:24] Voice 22: is to the development of the corporate plan

[1:24:26] Voice 22: using the process, as we talked about,

[1:24:28] Voice 22: that hopefully we will have finalized

[1:24:30] Voice 22: before the end of this term.

[1:24:31] Voice 22: That help?

[1:24:32] Voice 22: Excellent.

[1:24:34] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Luck, I'm hopefully last speaker,

[1:24:36] Trustee Patrick: and then we can see how the vote goes.

[1:24:42] Trustee Luckham: Oh, sorry.

[1:24:43] Trustee Luckham: I'll just note that I didn't get to speak to my motion, but that's okay. I'm patient.

[1:24:50] Trustee Luckham: A few things with respect to the public record. This document is on the public record,

[1:24:59] Trustee Luckham: and the conversation we had yesterday is on the public record. And as I said earlier,

[1:25:09] Trustee Luckham: not to diminish the significance of these nine recommendations. It is aspiration that does go

[1:25:17] Trustee Luckham: into the assumptions and principles that the financial planning committee needs to reflect

[1:25:22] Trustee Luckham: upon when it makes a recommendation to council. So therefore, financial planning committee makes

[1:25:30] Trustee Luckham: a recommendation to council. Council in March makes a final decision on the budget. The floor

[1:25:38] Trustee Luckham: is littered over the years with decisions of council that have ended up being cut at budget

[1:25:46] Trustee Luckham: time. And we have a good process. I think what we're trying, what I think we're trying to do,

[1:25:54] Trustee Luckham: and I'm trying to do by this motion, is set some aspirational goals about the work that has been

[1:26:00] Trustee Luckham: identified by the CAO in his report that we need to undertake. So I ask you to support this. And

[1:26:07] Trustee Luckham: absolutely, I have things I would like to amend. In fact, $100,000 is not even remotely close,

[1:26:13] Trustee Luckham: I can tell you that. But I've given up flying kites because the string breaks and it ends up

[1:26:22] Trustee Luckham: in a tree. So there we go.

[1:26:24] Trustee Patrick: Thank you, Trustee Luck. Thank you. Go

[1:26:26] Trustee Patrick: ahead, CAO Bruni.

[1:26:27] Trustee Patrick: Thank

[1:26:28] Voice 22: you, Chair. Just one comment, I think, building off what Trustee Luckham has offered, which is that if these budget additions and changes are endorsed and that becomes the draft budget that then goes forward through our budget process, staff have no intention of actioning and spending that money until the final budget is approved for next fiscal.

[1:26:51] Voice 22: And so we recognize that there is still work to be done before we finalize an approved budget.

[1:26:56] Voice 22: The only impact it would have, for example, is if you endorse adding the two new positions to the budget,

[1:27:02] Voice 22: that would give us then a green light to start to take those job profiles and start the preparation to post those positions so that we could hire them in the new year.

[1:27:11] Voice 22: If those positions are not endorsed, then we won't bother doing that work in advance of the end of this fiscal.

[1:27:17] Voice 22: But we fully recognize that this process at this meeting is to advance an updated draft of the budget, but that's not final until Trust Council revisits it in March.

[1:27:28] Trustee Patrick: All right, Trustees, I'm going to proceed, I think, with the vote at this time.

[1:27:33] Trustee Patrick: We've had considerable debate.

[1:27:35] Trustee Patrick: If you could lower your hand, Trustee Scott.

[1:27:37] Trustee Patrick: I wanted

[1:27:39] Voice 13: to make a motion on my suggestion.

[1:27:45] Trustee Patrick: So, Trustee Scott, you go ahead.

[1:27:50] Voice 13: The motion would be, the motion is that we forego voting on the kind recommendations until after the budget discussion this afternoon.

[1:28:00] Trustee Patrick: I think it would be tabling, I think your motion would be to table this motion until after the budget discussion.

[1:28:09] Voice 13: Yes.

[1:28:10] Trustee Patrick: I just wait for Alexandra to get the wording.

[1:28:14] Voice 26: Yes,

[1:28:14] Trustee Patrick: there's no debate, just so you know.

[1:28:16] Trustee Patrick: No. So the motion is to table this discussion until after the budget discussion.

[1:28:22] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second? No. Tabling the motion. Sorry.

[1:28:31] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Getty. There's no discussion. I'm going to call the vote.

[1:28:38] Trustee Patrick: This is to table this motion until after the budget discussion.

[1:28:43] Trustee Patrick: All those in favor? Four in favor. All those opposed?

[1:29:03] Trustee Patrick: That is defeated. Good try, Trustee Scott.

[1:29:06] Trustee Patrick: So I'm going to turn to the main motion now.

[1:29:09] Trustee Patrick: So we're going to vote on the motion that Trust Council adopt all

[1:29:13] Trustee Patrick: recommendations in the Islands Trust 2025 Operational Review as presented.

[1:29:19] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Boland, you might want to lower your hand.

[1:29:22] Trustee Patrick: I'm about to call the vote.

[1:29:24] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[1:29:24] Trustee Patrick: So all those in favor, raise your hands.

[1:29:27] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[1:29:37] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands.

[1:29:42] Trustee Patrick: All those opposed.

[1:29:49] Trustee Patrick: 20 to 4.

[1:29:50] Trustee Patrick: That carries.

[1:29:52] Trustee Patrick: Trustees, we're going to have a good, interesting discussion this afternoon.

[1:29:56] Trustee Patrick: with the budget, so I wish we could say we're done, but we're not.

[1:30:01] Trustee Patrick: So I'm going to keep on moving on the agenda.

[1:30:03] Trustee Patrick: This is going to be coming back.

[1:30:04] Trustee Patrick: So start sharpening your pencils.

[1:30:08] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Stamford?

[1:30:12] Voice 18: I just want to remind you, I had a motion that was tabled until after this discussion.

[1:30:17] Voice 18: Is this a good time to bring that one forward?

[1:30:19] Trustee Patrick: I believe so.

[1:30:20] Trustee Patrick: So, Alexandra, the motion that was tabled, if we could bring that forward.

[1:30:24] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Stamford's motion.

[1:30:29] Trustee Patrick: Just a moment.

[1:30:39] Voice 18: Just because you're facing me.

[1:30:42] Voice 18: All

[1:30:47] Trustee Patrick: right. So the motion that was tabled yesterday is flying around the screen.

[1:30:57] Trustee Patrick: So, Trustee Stanford.

[1:30:59] Voice 18: I'll just speak to this briefly.

[1:31:01] Voice 18: We tabled this because we wanted to have discussion about the operational report.

[1:31:06] Voice 18: And as the mover of this particular motion, I will encourage people not to vote in favor

[1:31:13] Voice 18: because we do not want to add any additional work.

[1:31:17] Voice 18: as per our endorsement of the operational report.

[1:31:21] Voice 18: Thank you.

[1:31:22] Trustee Patrick: Oh, we need a motion to take it off the table, apparently.

[1:31:25] Trustee Patrick: Well,

[1:31:25] Voice 18: we can vote on it and vote it down.

[1:31:27] Trustee Patrick: We have to vote to take it off the table.

[1:31:29] Trustee Patrick: So I need a motion

[1:31:30] Trustee Patrick: to put it back on the table.

[1:31:33] Trustee Patrick: Alexandra?

[1:31:36] Trustee Patrick: David sent you the wording.

[1:31:37] Trustee Patrick: We need a motion.

[1:31:38] Trustee Patrick: Oh, to Trustee Stanford?

[1:31:40] Trustee Patrick: Oh, he sent it to Trustee Stanford.

[1:31:42] Trustee Patrick: She may not have access.

[1:31:43] Voice 25: Can

[1:31:44] Trustee Patrick: you read what the motion would be, Trustee?

[1:31:45] Trustee Patrick: Yeah.

[1:31:53] Voice 21: What

[1:31:54] Voice 9: is your process?

[1:31:55] Voice 9: I've got it.

[1:31:56] Voice 9: If we don't put it back on the table, it just remains tabled and therefore is defeated.

[1:32:03] Trustee Patrick: Good question.

[1:32:05] Trustee Patrick: Director Marley, if we do not remove it.

[1:32:10] Trustee Patrick: Oh,

[1:32:10] Voice 25: there it is.

[1:32:11] Voice 25: Okay, sorry about that.

[1:32:12] Voice 25: Yeah, so if it's not taken off the table today, it just dies after the meeting closes.

[1:32:17] Voice 25: okay so

[1:32:18] Trustee Patrick: then can

[1:32:18] Voice 18: we let this one die a peaceful death then

[1:32:21] Voice 25: we

[1:32:23] Trustee Patrick: will move on because i would like

[1:32:24] Trustee Patrick: to keep things going there is no motion to remove this off the table at this time

[1:32:28] Trustee Patrick: so i'm going to go forward okay thank you good try okay we're at item 10 in the agenda which

[1:32:35] Trustee Patrick: is legislative information services so

[1:32:37] Voice 1: i'll nudge director

[1:32:39] Trustee Patrick: marler here item 10.1 is a consent by

[1:32:43] Trustee Patrick: By general consent, I'm asking to accept the 10.1.1,

[1:32:47] Trustee Patrick: which is the Director of Legislative Services report.

[1:32:57] Voice 7: So, Trustee Getty, did you go ahead?

[1:33:00] Voice 7: I had a comment, please, with respect to the ombudsperson's reports about open meetings.

[1:33:05] Voice 7: If the draft of that report could be sent to Governance Committee, please, for information.

[1:33:14] Voice 25: Yeah, I can do that.

[1:33:15] Voice 25: I can send it to anybody who's interested.

[1:33:16] Voice 25: Thank you.

[1:33:18] Voice 24: All right.

[1:33:19] Voice 24: at trustee yates just a question regarding map it um it says an estimation of late november

[1:33:28] Voice 24: early december how's that going that's

[1:33:32] Voice 25: the last i heard when i wrote it i'll double check and

[1:33:34] Voice 25: i'll email you and let you know thank you any

[1:33:39] Trustee Patrick: other questions on the director's report i will

[1:33:41] Trustee Patrick: note that the deadline for comments on bill m216 the professional reliance act has been extended

[1:33:48] Trustee Patrick: to january 6th that's only a correction from what's in the report so if there are no further

[1:33:54] Trustee Patrick: questions can we uh through general consent except the director of legislative information

[1:33:58] Trustee Patrick: services quarterly report thank you

[1:34:01] Voice 5: oh

[1:34:02] Trustee Patrick: you have a question a

[1:34:04] Voice 5: question for director marler with

[1:34:06] Voice 5: respect to the update to the closed meetings legislation um i don't want to belabor it but

[1:34:14] Voice 5: and add to your workload, but I'm wondering if it's possible to either provide a very informal

[1:34:22] Voice 5: briefing right now about what the practical implications of that might be for us as an

[1:34:28] Voice 5: organization, or if that's not reasonable, a brief briefing to the governance committee about the

[1:34:35] Voice 5: same point.

[1:34:38] Voice 25: I think I'll just briefly tell you now that this is focused on best nations and the

[1:34:45] Voice 25: ability to go in camera for a discussion about this nation's interest the current legislation

[1:34:51] Voice 25: didn't allow that or the old legislation didn't so that was problematic so if a nation provided

[1:34:58] Voice 25: information to say staff on sensitive cultural information that might be helpful for the policy

[1:35:05] Voice 25: statement or an official community plan it's difficult for staff to bring that to the elected

[1:35:11] Voice 25: to it because we had no way of sharing it with you in closed meeting. So this legislation has

[1:35:18] Voice 25: done two things. It allows closing of a meeting for negotiations with First Nations. So that's

[1:35:26] Voice 25: the first one I think. And the second one is actually more powerful. And that is where you

[1:35:32] Voice 25: can close meetings for reasons under Section 18.1 of the Freedom, Information, Protection and Privacy

[1:35:40] Voice 25: act and that section allows withholding of information from the public and it's pretty

[1:35:46] Voice 25: wide range of things could be scientific reports identification of cultural sites or even practices

[1:35:54] Voice 25: and a few other things around first nations so it really gives you the ability to have in-camera

[1:36:01] Voice 25: discussions either with nations present or just amongst yourself about the information

[1:36:08] Voice 25: information that's being provided to you, whether it's in a report or in other approach.

[1:36:14] Voice 25: And I think that will actually make it easier and probably allow nations to feel more confident

[1:36:22] Voice 25: in sharing that information with the local government, knowing that it will be held in

[1:36:27] Voice 25: confidence, but it will help you down the road to make decisions.

[1:36:31] I

[1:36:32] Voice 25: don't know if Director Frey, do you got anything to add to that?

[1:36:35] Voice 25: Thanks.

[1:36:36] Voice 25: Thanks.

[1:36:37] Trustee Patrick: My trustees, any further questions on the director's report?

[1:36:43] Trustee Patrick: We're going to move forward to item 10.2.

[1:36:47] Trustee Patrick: Oh, sorry.

[1:36:48] Trustee Patrick: Sure.

[1:36:51] Voice 2: I appreciate the intent of this,

[1:36:54] Voice 2: but I am more and more concerned at the level of confidentiality,

[1:37:01] Voice 2: secrecy about all of this.

[1:37:04] Voice 2: I can see that there are so many pieces moving,

[1:37:08] Voice 2: moving but in secret you know i go for parks canada decisions uh to you know an earlier

[1:37:16] Voice 2: discussion here at this meeting and it is extremely divisive and i can't turn back the

[1:37:24] Voice 2: clock on this but i just want to register the fact that i find that this direction in general

[1:37:31] Voice 2: role makes me very uncomfortable. Thank you. Thank you.

[1:37:36] Trustee Patrick: Moving on. Item 10.2.1. These were

[1:37:41] Trustee Patrick: notice of motions that were provided in previous meetings. 10.2.1.1, the policy on use of generative

[1:37:49] Trustee Patrick: artificial intelligence in the Islands Trust workspace request per decision. I'm going to

[1:37:53] Trustee Patrick: turn this over to Trustees Sam Borthwick and Trustee Elliott.

[1:37:59] Voice 31: So I spoke briefly with my

[1:38:02] Voice 31: my co-sponsor here, Tressie Elliott, in the break.

[1:38:05] Voice 31: And it seems to her, certainly,

[1:38:08] Voice 31: and I would want to ask this question

[1:38:10] Voice 31: of whomever it is most relevant to,

[1:38:14] Voice 31: it may be that these motions are not appropriate

[1:38:17] Voice 31: given the work that has just been done

[1:38:19] Voice 31: in terms of new business.

[1:38:22] Voice 31: And I have all sorts of things I would like to say about it

[1:38:24] Voice 31: in terms of the substance here,

[1:38:27] Voice 31: but I also appreciate that if this is new work,

[1:38:29] Voice 31: if this is going to add a new project

[1:38:31] Voice 31: to work, then it's not appropriate, given what we've just adopted.

[1:38:36] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Elliott.

[1:38:42] Voice 17: Yes, I agree with Trustee Borthwick.

[1:38:46] Voice 17: However, there are significant issues that I would like this council to think about,

[1:38:52] Voice 17: and maybe executive committee can do some thinking about whether this could be folded

[1:38:56] Voice 17: into a work plan that already exists.

[1:38:58] Voice 17: The specific problem is that while the PSA guides and has policies and principles for

[1:39:04] Voice 17: our employees, which our staff are subject to, and that is the direction from the province on

[1:39:10] Voice 17: the use of generative AI. Contractors do not. And so I am concerned that we don't have perhaps

[1:39:18] Voice 17: a responsible employment contract with people who are doing work for Islands Trust that taxpayers

[1:39:27] Voice 17: payers pay for and we don't have any oversight over is generative AI used in producing this

[1:39:35] Voice 17: report? Is the contractor or consultant that we hired truly vetted in terms of being a professional

[1:39:43] Voice 17: or are they just culling the information from the best available sources on the web?

[1:39:50] Voice 17: The problem is that AI is in use right now everywhere. And if we don't have specific

[1:39:56] Voice 17: specific policies for how, well, we do have policies for how staff can use it, and that's

[1:40:03] Voice 17: in the public service sort of direction for the province, but I am concerned about

[1:40:10] Voice 17: the contractor element. So I don't know if this could be brought back to executive committee to

[1:40:15] Voice 17: do some thinking, because I think it's operational. Thanks. Thank you. So, Ronnie.

[1:40:20] Voice 22: Yeah, thank you. Obviously, a lot of issues to consider here, and we won't go into those, but I will say that regardless of this RFD, I do anticipate that, and we'll have to see how we define the scope of it, but the planned and now endorsed development of a five-year plan for our information management and information technology,

[1:40:45] Voice 22: technology, I think inevitably is going to have to contemplate aspects of AI use. And we can

[1:40:51] Voice 22: certainly look at how that dovetails with the procurement piece as well. But we have our

[1:40:56] Voice 22: excellent new manager on board shortly, who we made aware is that's going to be a big part of

[1:41:03] Voice 22: his priority list for the first part of that job is to develop that plan. And part of that will,

[1:41:07] Voice 22: the initial stage of that, we'll be thinking about what we scope in and out. But I think it's

[1:41:11] Voice 22: It would be very difficult for us to do that without contemplating how we address the use of AI.

[1:41:19] Trustee Patrick: All right. Well, first, I'd like to look to our sponsors how you wish to proceed today before I open the floor to general questions.

[1:41:29] Voice 31: Yeah, I think, and I'm not going to get into my thoughts on this subject in any great depth here because of the nature of things.

[1:41:40] Voice 31: things. I'm disappointed to not have this conversation. I think it's important. I think

[1:41:46] Voice 31: it's pertinent. And I think it's pressing. I am glad that the consideration will continue.

[1:41:53] Voice 31: I do think that this is at some point a discussion we should have around this table. I think it's

[1:41:58] Voice 31: something that is relevant for our public to hear. Certainly, my concerns are less about

[1:42:03] Voice 31: contractor interfacing and more about the broader ramifications and implications of being involved

[1:42:10] Voice 31: with using these technologies.

[1:42:12] Voice 31: And that I think we should be making very clear

[1:42:15] Voice 31: that we go in with open eyes about what that is.

[1:42:18] Voice 31: Because there is a lot of misinformation

[1:42:20] Voice 31: around what AI is, that it is inevitable,

[1:42:25] Voice 31: that it is the cure to all things.

[1:42:27] Voice 31: And it comes with a hefty price tag

[1:42:29] Voice 31: that I think we need to square with.

[1:42:31] Voice 31: That said, I want to be respectful

[1:42:35] Voice 31: of the decisions of council.

[1:42:36] Voice 31: And I think that it's good that we,

[1:42:38] Voice 31: We I know that I can trust our staff and I I hope that staff understand that they can trust that they will hear from me.

[1:42:48] Voice 31: And if anyone does have questions, if they want to talk about it, I would love to talk to you at nauseating length.

[1:42:59] Voice 31: But I but yeah, I want to be respectful of our time here and our decisions that we've just made.

[1:43:03] Voice 31: And I'm happy to let these things not see the light of day at this particular time, but I would like to talk about it at some point in the future.

[1:43:11] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees. So I saw there was one question. Trustee Evans, did you?

[1:43:19] Voice 9: Out of respect for the work that's gone into this, I was thinking about making a motion that this report come back to the September meeting for discussion for the next budget discussion.

[1:43:31] Voice 9: discussion that might be a little bit more appropriate. That way we can have the discussion

[1:43:36] Voice 9: at an appropriate time, not part of this budget.

[1:43:43] Trustee Patrick: I don't know. Sponsors, go ahead.

[1:43:48] Voice 17: I think I agree with Trustee Borthwick that we can trust that staff are in the process of

[1:43:57] Voice 17: evaluating how this will impact their work. They know that best. They've heard these concerns.

[1:44:02] Voice 17: concerns i'm happy to let it be returned to staff for consideration and if they believe it needs to

[1:44:09] Voice 17: be brought back for council to make a decision we can make a new motion at that time especially

[1:44:13] Voice 17: about the environmental impacts that i think trustee borthwick is pointing to thanks so we

[1:44:19] Voice 17: can just let this die today all

[1:44:21] Trustee Patrick: right well i i do appreciate and thank you for bringing this forward

[1:44:24] Trustee Patrick: i know at ubcm there was a fascinating session on ai and how various municipalities are are using it

[1:44:32] Trustee Patrick: positively but these are large municipalities with large budgets and large uh resources so

[1:44:40] Trustee Patrick: thank you very much for bringing it forward and i know this is not an issue that's going to go away

[1:44:44] Trustee Patrick: it's changing hourly so we're going to move on um this is item 10.2.2 uh there's a vacancy in

[1:44:55] Trustee Patrick: the governance committee and this is a chance to find out from you if you would like to fill this

[1:45:00] Trustee Patrick: position. And if we want to fill that vacancy for the

[1:45:04] Trustee Patrick: remainder of the term, then we'll have to go through an election

[1:45:08] Trustee Patrick: process for that. So I'll turn it

[1:45:12] Trustee Patrick: over to you.

[1:45:14] Voice 25: Yeah, so as there is a vacancy, we would be following

[1:45:17] Voice 25: the election process. So if there's more than one person interested, then

[1:45:21] Voice 25: we'll do the election. If there's only one person interested, then it

[1:45:25] Voice 25: would be by acclimation. And if nobody's interested, there's nothing

[1:45:29] Voice 25: in the policies saying that you have to fill that position so the governance committee could

[1:45:34] Voice 25: continue with the membership it has to the end of the term and then a new governance committee would

[1:45:40] Voice 25: be elected following the election so this is really from now to well say september october

[1:45:48] Voice 25: of 2026 so so just reminding the process then is i will ask three times if anybody would like to

[1:45:58] Voice 25: nominate somebody and it'd be a second to that and then ask if that person is willing to stand

[1:46:04] Voice 25: and if so then that person's name would go up on the screen i'll just ask alex to do that

[1:46:10] Voice 25: and after three requests i'll close those nominations and if there's only one it's

[1:46:16] Voice 25: acclamation if there's two or more then election and i'll talk about that when we get there

[1:46:21] Voice 25: so is that okay any questions yeah

[1:46:24] Trustee Patrick: and then trustee allen um

[1:46:28] Voice 7: before we get into all sorts

[1:46:29] Voice 7: of campaigning and uh positions and uh all the rest of it um it's lee middleton who's resigned

[1:46:36] Voice 7: from the committee and i would like to express on um from at least from my position um a deep

[1:46:42] Voice 7: respect and gratitude in terms of all the work that you did setting up the governance committee

[1:46:47] Voice 7: The last council, in terms of working with the governance review, and one of the recommendations was to have a governance committee. So you've been instrumental in all of that. We might get into all sorts of discussions in the future in terms of whether we want to continue and whether it's been effective and, you know, have some sort of a review of it.

[1:47:08] Voice 7: But I think that you need to be thanked by this council in terms of the amount of time and energy and work that you have put into it.

[1:47:15] Voice 7: So before we get into everybody else trying to fill your boots, that you need thanks.

[1:47:23] Trustee Patrick: Thank you, Trustee Allen. Questions?

[1:47:26] Voice 8: Anyway, just could we see a show of hands who's on the governance committee?

[1:47:29] Voice 8: Because I'm not quite sure who's on there right now.

[1:47:31] Trustee Patrick: Yes. Who's on the governance committee?

[1:47:33] Trustee Patrick: Well, I guess I'm ex officio.

[1:47:36] Voice 25: All the electeds.

[1:47:40] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Harris on the screen is as well.

[1:47:43] Trustee Patrick: Yeah.

[1:47:44] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[1:47:45] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead and proceed.

[1:47:47] Voice 25: Okay, Alex, if you can put him up on the screen,

[1:47:50] Voice 25: his names are coming up.

[1:47:53] Voice 25: That'd be great.

[1:47:53] Voice 25: Okay, so I'm just going to ask a first time,

[1:47:56] Voice 25: for nominations for the Governor's Committee,

[1:47:58] Voice 25: there's one position available.

[1:48:02] Trustee Patrick: Nope.

[1:48:03] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Peterson.

[1:48:04] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Peterson.

[1:48:05] Voice 6: I have a question and then potentially a nomination.

[1:48:09] Voice 6: There's an ex-officio member on the committee that I was considering nominating for a voting

[1:48:18] Voice 6: member.

[1:48:19] Voice 6: Is that doable?

[1:48:20] Voice 6: Yeah.

[1:48:21] Voice 6: Then in that case, I nominate Trustee Govro.

[1:48:27] Voice 25: Okay.

[1:48:28] Voice 25: I need a seconder.

[1:48:29] Voice 25: I'll second that.

[1:48:30] Voice 13: Okay.

[1:48:31] Voice 19: Everybody.

[1:48:31] Voice 25: Everybody.

[1:48:33] Voice 25: And Trustee Govro, do you accept the nomination?

[1:48:36] Voice 19: I gladly accept.

[1:48:38] Voice 19: Thank you.

[1:48:40] Voice 25: Thank you. I'm going to ask a second time, any further nominations for membership on the

[1:48:45] Voice 25: governance committee? Okay, this is third and final request. Any nominations for membership

[1:48:54] Voice 25: on the governance committee? Okay, so hearing none, we have one. That's Lisa Gavro, and by

[1:49:04] Voice 25: by acclamation.

[1:49:05] Voice 25: She is now the committee member of the government.

[1:49:12] Trustee Patrick: About time.

[1:49:15] Trustee Patrick: So thank you.

[1:49:17] Trustee Patrick: Thank you for the nomination.

[1:49:18] Trustee Patrick: Thank you for accepting.

[1:49:20] Trustee Patrick: And this is very good.

[1:49:23] Trustee Patrick: Okay, so I'm gonna keep on moving on.

[1:49:25] Trustee Patrick: Somehow we're back on schedule.

[1:49:27] Trustee Patrick: I don't know how that happened.

[1:49:29] Trustee Patrick: We are at item 11.1, which is,

[1:49:32] Trustee Patrick: I know you guys just wanted to get into

[1:49:34] Trustee Patrick: the budget conversation and the money.

[1:49:36] Trustee Patrick: So that's where we are now.

[1:49:37] Trustee Patrick: now, and I see Director Mobbs making her way to the front of the room. So this is, we have three

[1:49:43] Trustee Patrick: consent items. First here, we have 11.1.1, the Director of Financial Employee Services Quarterly

[1:49:48] Trustee Patrick: Report, 11.1.2, the September 30 Financial Report, Request for Decision, and 11.3, the Response to

[1:49:57] Trustee Patrick: the Financial Planning Committee Resolution 2026-27, Island Trust Conservancy Budget Request

[1:50:02] Trustee Patrick: briefing can we approve those through general consent all right excellent okay so that then

[1:50:11] Trustee Patrick: brings us into uh 12 11.2.1 which is the uh committee of the whole uh draft 2026-27 budget

[1:50:22] Trustee Patrick: request for decision on page 106 of the agenda package over to you director mobs um thanks chair

[1:50:30] Voice 10: There's not too much I need to say that isn't already reflected in the report.

[1:50:34] Voice 10: So it's coming to you from Financial Planning Committee.

[1:50:36] Voice 10: There's a recommendation to repurpose a good portion of the February FPC meeting into a committee of the whole meeting.

[1:50:42] Voice 10: It will give the larger Trust Council body a chance to weigh into the final draft budget prior to approval in March.

[1:50:49] Voice 10: So I can take questions.

[1:50:51] Voice 10: Questions

[1:50:51] Trustee Patrick: for the director, Trustee Elliott and Trustee Peterson?

[1:50:56] Trustee Patrick: No

[1:50:57] Voice 17: questions, just support for what I think is a very productive and constructive use of the Committee of the Whole structure.

[1:51:05] Voice 17: I hope this is successful and will help us have not a last minute, large change to the budget in March.

[1:51:15] Voice 17: Trustee Peterson.

[1:51:17] Voice 6: I am prepared to make motions to support this as a very good use of Committee of the Whole.

[1:51:23] Voice 6: So, Chair, are you willing to entertain a motion?

[1:51:25] Voice 6: Proceed.

[1:51:26] Voice 6: i move the trust council schedule an electronic committee of the whole meeting for february 8th

[1:51:31] Voice 6: 2026 from 1 to 5 p.m to review the final draft of the 20 26 27 budget prior to trust council's

[1:51:38] Voice 6: budget approval in march 2026.

[1:51:40] Trustee Patrick: is there a second second by trustee evans oh

[1:51:45] Voice 6: sorry the 18th thank

[1:51:47] Trustee Patrick: you for your ears uh the trustee evans is seconded uh is there any discussion

[1:51:55] Trustee Patrick: I'll call the vote. All those in favor? All right. Lower your hands. Any opposed? So 21 to 1, that carries. Trustees, please put that in your calendar right now and block that time out because that will be an important meeting to ensure quorum and ensure your participation so that this works.

[1:52:27] Trustee Patrick: works. All right. Director Moms, we are now on time and passing into the, I know everyone's

[1:52:33] Trustee Patrick: anxious to get going on the draft budget for fiscal year 2026. And so this is your chance to

[1:52:41] Trustee Patrick: set that table.

[1:52:44] Voice 10: Excellent. So I'd like to officially welcome you into the joy of budget

[1:52:48] Voice 10: time. As the chair says, I know you've all been very eager to get to this section of the agenda

[1:52:51] Voice 10: today. And I know all the members of FPC have been looking forward to this conversation as well,

[1:52:56] Voice 10: as we've had some good conversations at that table prior to coming here today.

[1:52:59] Voice 10: We have two and a half hours that are slotted for the budget conversation today.

[1:53:03] Voice 10: It feels like a long time, but historically, we've managed to use up that whole time, even when we don't have tax increases that are as high as they are in the current draft budget for next year.

[1:53:14] Voice 10: So those tax increases that are reflected in the budget material have largely been thrown out the window, given some of the decisions that you made yesterday, as well as the approval of the recommendations in the CAO's report today.

[1:53:24] Voice 10: But as I mentioned before, I've made some updates, so I'll be able to walk us through some of that today.

[1:53:31] Voice 10: At this stage in the term, I know you're all familiar with the budget process, how we've gotten ourselves to this point today, so I'm not going to walk through those activities.

[1:53:39] Voice 10: Instead, we can start our budget conversation by looking at the preamble in the budget material, which is on page 109 of the agenda package.

[1:53:48] Voice 10: So the preamble talks about the level of planned spending next year at $11.4 million.

[1:53:54] Voice 10: That's a 4.5% tax increase over last year.

[1:53:57] Voice 10: year. But we are seeing a much larger tax increase next year. And the reason for the

[1:54:04] Voice 10: discrepancy between the percentage increase in planned spending and the percentage increase in

[1:54:07] Voice 10: taxation is because we're losing significant revenue sources next year. So the biggest drop

[1:54:13] Voice 10: in non-tax revenues next year seen in the areas of grants, which is reduced by about $415,000

[1:54:19] Voice 10: next year, which is significant. We're also seeing a reduction in the draws from surplus

[1:54:23] Voice 10: less in reserve funds, which is falling $291,000 year over year. We also do see some reductions

[1:54:30] Voice 10: in investment income, and that's in line with interest rate trends that we're seeing in the

[1:54:34] Voice 10: market. So as I've mentioned before in prior budget conversations, when we have a reduction

[1:54:40] Voice 10: in non-tax revenues to balance the budget, we have to increase taxation. So that's why we're

[1:54:44] Voice 10: seeing the tax increases we're seeing this time around. As I mentioned earlier, the local trust

[1:54:49] Voice 10: trust area taxation increases now calculated at 13.8% in the budget, and the Bowen Island levy

[1:54:57] Voice 10: general tax increase is calculating at 38.2%. And again, that incorporates the decision yesterday

[1:55:03] Voice 10: to add more in-person trust council meetings. It incorporates the reduction suggested by the CAO,

[1:55:08] Voice 10: as well as the additions in the CAO's operational review report. So I'll talk a little bit about

[1:55:17] Voice 10: some of the areas of spending that are seeing significant change next year, or that might be new.

[1:55:21] Voice 10: I won't talk about the budget lines that we traditionally see year over year.

[1:55:25] Voice 10: There's lots of detail on that in the budget agenda, and I'd like to make sure there's enough time for conversation today.

[1:55:31] Voice 10: So the largest area of expense at Island Stress continues to be the area of salaries and benefits expense.

[1:55:36] Voice 10: That's coming in at $7.45 million next year, and that accounts for about 64% of the overall budget.

[1:55:43] Voice 10: There are a number of requests for new staff.

[1:55:46] Voice 10: There's a request for a temporary senior policy advisor position.

[1:55:48] Voice 10: There's a request to make the professional registered biologist a permanent position.

[1:55:54] Voice 10: There's a request for a GIS coordinator, a request for a part-time Islands Trust Conservancy Indigenous Relations Advisor,

[1:56:00] Voice 10: and a request to extend the temporary senior or species at risk coordinator for one month into next fiscal year.

[1:56:09] Voice 10: And of course, with your prior decision, there's also the request for a manager of Indigenous relations,

[1:56:15] Voice 10: as well as the communications and engagement lead position.

[1:56:18] Voice 10: and we do have two co-op students that are funded in the budget for planning services and information

[1:56:22] Voice 10: services as well. The staff wage increases next year have been incorporated in line with the new

[1:56:30] Voice 10: collective agreement and we've also estimated increases for excluded staff based on what might

[1:56:35] Voice 10: be afforded to them by the PSA. There's no increase that's been incorporated for the CAO

[1:56:40] Voice 10: anticipating a potential executive level wage freeze directive from the province. So one of

[1:56:47] Voice 10: of the other items that's new is the area of council committee meeting funds so normally we

[1:56:50] Voice 10: don't see any funding for those in the budgets next year of course is the first year of a term

[1:56:54] Voice 10: so there's a modest amount included in the budget to allow newly formed committees to meet at least

[1:56:59] Voice 10: once in person you might remember in september trust council supported a new branded clothing

[1:57:05] Voice 10: initiative so that initiative does come with a price tag and we've included a modest 750 dollars

[1:57:10] Voice 10: in next year's budget to support that and of course next year is an election year so that's

[1:57:15] Voice 10: significant undertaking for us. We've budgeted the cost for elections at $227,000 next year

[1:57:22] Voice 10: and that will pay for contracts with regional districts who administer our elections process

[1:57:26] Voice 10: as well as pre- and post-election activities which includes things like the nomination package

[1:57:31] Voice 10: mailings and then trustee photos for the website. So there's many funding requests for specific

[1:57:38] Voice 10: programs and projects in next year's budget. The detail for all of that is included in the agenda

[1:57:43] Voice 10: agenda material.

[1:57:43] Voice 1: Again, I won't go

[1:57:44] Voice 10: through it, but of course, staff are here to respond to any

[1:57:45] Voice 10: questions that you might have. Financial Planning Committee did remove three funding requests from

[1:57:51] Voice 10: the budget. So the first is the Trust Area Resilience Assessment, which had a value of

[1:57:55] Voice 10: $150,000. The second is the Galliano LTC OCP Review Project, valued at $25,000. And they also

[1:58:02] Voice 10: removed a project for Electronic Document Management, which had a value of $55,000.

[1:58:08] Voice 10: So when projects are not funded by Financial Planning Committee, we do still send the

[1:58:12] Voice 10: the business cases, and the funding requests forward to Trust Council so that you can review

[1:58:15] Voice 10: the material and decide if you agree or not with Financial Planning Committee's recommendation to

[1:58:20] Voice 10: remove funding from the budget. We do, so I think, I don't think I need to talk too much more about

[1:58:29] Voice 10: the numbers unless there's specific questions, and I'll just briefly take us through an assessment

[1:58:34] Voice 10: of our, the budget against our guidelines. Do you want to pause here for questions, Chair?

[1:58:38] Trustee Patrick: Are there any questions for the Director at this time? Trustee Maberly?

[1:58:44] Trustee Patrick: Yeah,

[1:58:46] Voice 33: so I'm on page 113.

[1:58:48] Voice 33: Could you bring your mic closer to you there?

[1:58:50] Voice 33: Sorry, I'm on page 113 when it changes the staffing levels.

[1:58:54] Voice 33: The implications, there's four new staff positions, or five actually.

[1:58:59] Voice 33: But what would be the implications if we did not make the

[1:59:06] Voice 33: biostress registered professional biologist a permanent position

[1:59:09] Voice 33: and delayed the addition of the one geographical information system analyst,

[1:59:21] Voice 33: whatever that word is,

[1:59:23] Voice 13: analyst, yeah,

[1:59:26] Voice 33: the Indigenous Relations Advisor and the Species at Risk Coordinator.

[1:59:31] Voice 33: And is it possible we could just do those as contract as needed?

[1:59:36] Voice 33: So what would be the implications to the budget for that?

[1:59:41] Voice 10: So I think, yeah, the implications will be a bit different depending on what the position is.

[1:59:47] Voice 10: Making the registered biologist permanent, that position is already an encumbered position.

[1:59:53] Voice 10: If it were to be extended as a temporary position into next year, there's no budgetary impact.

[2:00:00] Voice 10: still going to cost us the same to have the person on staff for a year if they're permanent or if

[2:00:03] Voice 10: they're temporary. The same is true for any of the positions that are listed. As far as the

[2:00:09] Voice 10: budgetary impact to supporting some of this work under contract instead of with staff, it depends

[2:00:16] Voice 10: a little bit on whether or not you're hiring a contractor to do the full scope of duties

[2:00:19] Voice 10: or just a portion and what contractor we might bring on board. Contractors, of course, also have

[2:00:24] Voice 10: a cost, often sometimes charging hourly rates higher than what we might be paying staff.

[2:00:28] Voice 10: If we were to defund these from the budget entirely, I'd need a few moments to do some calculations for you.

[2:00:34] Voice 10: Thank you.

[2:00:36] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Allen.

[2:00:39] Voice 10: And

[2:00:39] Trustee Patrick: then Trustee Scott.

[2:00:42] Trustee Patrick: Sorry.

[2:00:44] Voice 8: No, I'm just wondering about the computer cyclical time, because I've had this for two terms, and I'm just wondering why we need new ones every.

[2:00:56] Voice 8: I agree. And I'm just questioning, I just lost the page, but there's new laptops and then there's another chunk of money for more computer stuff.

[2:01:07] Voice 8: So I was just wondering, what is the cycle? What is that cycle? What's the time?

[2:01:12] Voice 8: And how do you determine that in terms of who gets a new one and refurbished one?

[2:01:16] Voice 8: Yeah, because this could still go on for another term. So I'm just wondering why you decide that.

[2:01:22] Voice 10: So I defer that question to Director Marler, who oversees information services.

[2:01:26] Voice 10: Yeah,

[2:01:27] Voice 25: so all that's actually in the business case. But the rationale, yeah, is that the laptops that come back, the ones that are in decent shape are refurbished and they're used as backups for our staff for the next four years. So we actually get a good eight year cycle out of them. And then the incoming trustees will have the more up to date laptops for them.

[2:01:56] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to do Trustee Scott, then Trustee Getty.

[2:01:57] Trustee Patrick: Thank

[2:02:02] Voice 13: you. I think this is going to 9.6% increase in budget for next year for taxes. It's going to be a very difficult sell on Hornby when we're not going to get our OCP and our land use bylaws completed till 2027.

[2:02:18] Voice 13: I don't want to sound like a broken record on this, but I think if I'd seen that 9.6%, I suppose I should have read this thing a little closer, but that might have shed light on how I would have voted on the nine recommendations.

[2:02:34] Voice 13: So just to point out, 9.6% is going to be a very hard sell on Hornby.

[2:02:39] Voice 13: Thank you.

[2:02:41] Trustee Patrick: I say, Trustee Scott, I think the number was larger.

[2:02:44] Trustee Patrick: What was it?

[2:02:45] Trustee Patrick: 13.8?

[2:02:46] Voice 13: Oh.

[2:02:50] Voice 13: worse thank

[2:02:51] Trustee Patrick: you point two for bowen yeah okay uh trustee getty um

[2:02:58] Voice 7: following up on

[2:03:00] Voice 7: trustee maberly's point on page 113 when we're talking about the second bullet point there is

[2:03:07] Voice 7: a one full-time fte senior policy advisor and part of the description of the work

[2:03:13] Voice 7: is to provide support for fulsome first nations engagement the development of a new five-year

[2:03:19] Voice 7: plan for ministers approval and similarly on the fourth bullet down the addition of a permanent

[2:03:26] Voice 7: 0.5 fte for the conservancy addition indigenous relations advisor to support facilitation and

[2:03:33] Voice 7: management of a respectful conservancy engagement process with indigenous governing bodies and

[2:03:39] Voice 7: provide program specific i'm not i shouldn't read it out to you sorry um is there um a way to

[2:03:47] Voice 7: to negotiate if we're talking about in the operations review another um both a hundred

[2:03:54] Voice 7: thousand for engagement costs and honorariums and things like that and one full-time position

[2:04:03] Voice 7: to um for first nations um advice and and policy is there some way to is there first of all overlap

[2:04:12] Voice 7: in terms of the description of some of that work and is there some way to negotiate between

[2:04:17] Voice 7: between the Conservancy and ourselves and figure out how many full-time positions or

[2:04:24] Voice 7: part-time positions that we're actually going to put to, if there's some overlap,

[2:04:29] Voice 7: if we can reduce all of these numbers.

[2:04:37] Voice 10: I think the CAO or Director Freighter is

[2:04:39] Voice 10: best placed to speak to that.

[2:04:43] Voice 20: Certainly, there is ample scope and lots of work for

[2:04:46] Voice 20: all positions related to working with First Nations. The Conservancy has asked for a permanent

[2:04:52] Voice 20: part-time position to help in the operational space around working with nations to get them

[2:04:57] Voice 20: out on the land to engage with you know decisions around how we manage and maintain the properties

[2:05:01] Voice 20: primarily and also to work on the systems behind how we document that engagement and record it in

[2:05:07] Voice 20: all of the pieces the manager role is very much more at a strategic level throughout the organization

[2:05:11] Voice 20: including the conservancy um i think i'll leave it there and turn to the cao but certainly um

[2:05:17] Voice 20: we can use all the help we can get but if there are decisions to be made i'll

[2:05:20] Voice 20: defer to the cao to comment on that

[2:05:22] Voice 22: thank you yeah i think as the director has noted

[2:05:27] Voice 22: there is no shortage of work i think the five-year plan in particular

[2:05:33] Voice 22: would benefit from dedicated support to help drive that over the finish line and it's a

[2:05:39] Voice 22: significant piece of work and it's a high risk and high profile in that the minister has sent it back

[2:05:45] Voice 22: directing that it needs an appropriate more appropriate level of engagement

[2:05:49] Voice 22: engagement. But to the director's point, acknowledging the budget pressure, we will,

[2:05:55] Voice 22: depending on where we land with resourcing, we'll assess what we've got and figure out how best to

[2:06:01] Voice 22: support all of the work. I think there is, as I say, I think there is scope for all the work for

[2:06:07] Voice 22: the two and a half positions. But if Trust Council isn't prepared to support those, then we would

[2:06:13] Voice 22: assess how we allocate the work. I would say, if, for example, so you've already endorsed

[2:06:18] Voice 22: the manager of Indigenous relations, if that position needed to pick up and contribute to

[2:06:24] Voice 22: the work related to the five-year plan, that's going to impede that position's ability to advance

[2:06:28] Voice 22: the work that it's intended to do, which is really to define a framework for how we do

[2:06:33] Voice 22: engagement across the trust. And I think we would have to make the five-year plan a priority

[2:06:38] Voice 22: in that case, given that it has some urgency to it and a real high-profile and high-risk piece

[2:06:44] Voice 22: of work but again that would then if the manager was doing that because we didn't approve the

[2:06:49] Voice 22: strategic policy advisor for example then that would take away from that manager's ability to

[2:06:54] Voice 22: develop that broader framework in the short term

[2:06:59] Trustee Patrick: trustee getty was that sufficient for your question

[2:07:03] Trustee Patrick: sure

[2:07:04] Voice 7: we want it all

[2:07:05] Voice 26: okay

[2:07:07] Trustee Patrick: trustee elliott um

[2:07:12] Voice 17: i guess speaking um on behalf of the conservancy

[2:07:16] Voice 17: and some of the conversations that we've had at that table,

[2:07:20] Voice 17: certainly the work is considerable.

[2:07:25] Voice 17: There is a lot to do and a lot to document.

[2:07:27] Voice 17: I think that's the part that we haven't done well.

[2:07:30] Voice 17: And so as we engage with nations,

[2:07:33] Voice 17: learning what are their priorities and interests,

[2:07:36] Voice 17: specifically on a property,

[2:07:38] Voice 17: that will feed back into the Islands Trust as a whole

[2:07:41] Voice 17: for understanding a nation's interests and core concerns.

[2:07:44] Voice 17: And so that informs planning.

[2:07:46] Voice 17: That said, if we have to make choices, I'm hearing that the manager level as a more is a strategic sort of overall would be sort of the primary focus.

[2:07:59] Voice 17: And if we have to let something go and definitely wanting my colleagues to speak to this, so I don't want to speak for the board.

[2:08:07] Voice 17: but I think the policy advisor position is much more critical at this point and the the part-time

[2:08:15] Voice 17: Indigenous relations advisor I think that work could be as CAO said picked up by the manager

[2:08:22] Voice 17: but at this point the senior policy advisor position is advancing sort of the the ground

[2:08:28] Voice 17: level work of how the five-year plan engagement is going to go and that is very time sensitive

[2:08:34] Voice 17: And if we drop it at this point, we will lose, I think, a considerable amount of work that's already been invested. So I'd say that senior policy advisor position is quite important right now. If the part-time relations advisor position needs to go, I think we can probably manage, but invite my colleagues to comment and not want to speak for them.

[2:08:55] Voice 17: I'm

[2:08:56] Trustee Patrick: going to just, because we have invited the Trust Conservancy Board here,

[2:09:00] Trustee Patrick: included, so since we're on this topic, is there, would you like to speak? Go ahead.

[2:09:05] Voice 14: Yeah, maybe I can just say one thing. I can't speak for the whole board because we've had

[2:09:11] Voice 14: this discussion, but we have had the discussion to have the position. You know, the minister

[2:09:16] Voice 14: clearly told us, the minister rejected our interim five-year plan because we hadn't engaged with

[2:09:24] Voice 14: First Nations and as you heard last night to do it properly is actually a big deal and it's very

[2:09:31] Voice 14: important and it's just my personal opinion as a board member that we cannot do that in a timely

[2:09:39] Voice 14: way and we have legislation that requires us to do this five-year plan requires us to address what

[2:09:46] Voice 14: the minister asked us to do I think we really need that position to make it possible so it's

[2:09:53] Voice 14: It's like a legislative requirement.

[2:09:55] Voice 14: It's also, and it will also help the whole trust

[2:09:59] Voice 14: because what we'll be doing in that five-year plan

[2:10:03] Voice 14: will inform what the whole trust does.

[2:10:05] Voice 14: So the thing that's held us back

[2:10:08] Voice 14: has been not having a dedicated person

[2:10:14] Voice 14: to help us with the engagement with First Nations.

[2:10:16] Voice 14: It's critical, it's about relationships,

[2:10:20] Voice 14: and something that they really care about is conservation.

[2:10:24] Voice 14: in a positive and negative way like so I just ask you that I think it's a critical position

[2:10:29] Voice 14: actually so I don't think it's that expensive but I can't make that decision for you guys but

[2:10:35] Voice 14: I'm just making a plea that this particular position is very very important thank you

[2:10:41] Voice 14: thank

[2:10:42] Trustee Patrick: you very much uh trustee Evans and then Bernardo um

[2:10:49] Voice 9: I just want to have a quick

[2:10:51] Voice 9: clarification the uh one-year temporary temporary senior policy advisor was that the person that we

[2:10:58] Voice 9: were looking at hiring um to help with director marlor um or is was that somebody else um not

[2:11:07] Voice 9: included in page 113 is the manager of indigenous relations that we just voted on um so we have that

[2:11:15] Voice 9: one full-time person um i would and i just want clarification on the senior policy advisor role

[2:11:22] Voice 9: i think that one is really important and if we had to sacrifice something it would be the temp

[2:11:27] Voice 9: the temporary half person also the permanent half person um we would also have the option of

[2:11:37] Voice 9: extending the temporary senior policy advisor for um for more terms of turning them permanent

[2:11:44] Voice 9: So, I would go for the senior policy advisor and the full-time manager that we did in the nine resolutions earlier. Thanks.

[2:11:55] Trustee Patrick: All right. Trustee Bernardo, and then I think we're going to break for lunch. Oh, sorry. Is that a question? So, question on…

[2:12:03] Trustee Patrick: I want a clarification

[2:12:05] Voice 9: on the policy advisor.

[2:12:11] Trustee Patrick: Oh, go ahead, C. O'Brien.

[2:12:12] Trustee Patrick: Yeah,

[2:12:13] Voice 22: thank you. So the senior policy advisor is a position that is expected to continue to lead the engagement and work around the Conservancy's five-year plan. And so that is why it's a priority as the lead for that piece of work.

[2:12:32] Trustee Patrick: Okay. I'm going to let Trustee Bernardo speak, and then we're going to take lunch break. And so go ahead. Sorry, more questions?

[2:12:44] Trustee Patrick: I think Director

[2:12:44] Voice 20: Freider has some supplementary comments.

[2:12:46] Voice 20: Sorry. Certainly, I can add that the business case in front of you around that position doesn't make that clear. And sort of the reality has shifted since that was drafted some months ago. So certainly for your March Trust Council meeting, we can make more clear in there that that secondary policy advisor position is, I think, proving very helpful to take the capacity for the five-year plan in the same way that we've got the other policy advisor position leading on the policy statement.

[2:13:09] Voice 20: So for your March meeting, we can certainly make some changes to that business case to make that more clear. It is not going to be the full amount of work that's taken on, but certainly will be very useful to that initiative.

[2:13:21] Voice 20: All right, Trustee Barnardo, is your question short?

[2:13:25] Trustee Patrick: Since

[2:13:25] Voice 5: when is any of my questions short? Have they ever been short? I'll try to be short. It's about the Indigenous Relations Advisory Conservancy.

[2:13:34] Voice 5: uh um i'd like some um input or advice from staff and from the cao about um to what extent are we

[2:13:47] Voice 5: risking creating a position that's going to be duplicative of what the new position we've just

[2:13:52] Voice 5: agreed to um to put into place how much it's going to be duplicative of those responsibilities i mean

[2:13:59] Voice 5: my understanding from the briefing previously is that the new position is in fact going to be

[2:14:04] Voice 5: responsible for leading indigenous relations and it seems to me there's a having a separate person

[2:14:12] Voice 5: working for the conservancy who's doing similar work it's not clear who that person is reporting

[2:14:19] Voice 5: to whether they at least not to me um uh there's a risk there i potentially of people working

[2:14:26] Voice 5: across purposes and i'd like the ceo to address that and um i guess i'm a little anxious that

[2:14:34] Voice 5: that there may be a risk here that we're doing the thing the CAO counseled us not to do,

[2:14:39] Voice 5: which is thinking that we can hire ourselves out of our capacity issues.

[2:14:42] Voice 5: And I'm wondering if it's, in fact, premature to hire an Indigenous relations advisor

[2:14:48] Voice 5: before the new manager comes in, because if we want that person to do the leading on that,

[2:14:56] Voice 5: I would think we'd also want that person to provide some input into the design

[2:15:00] Voice 5: of how we go about doing it.

[2:15:02] Voice 5: So, with that less than short question, perhaps the CAO can address that.

[2:15:07] Voice 5: Thank you.

[2:15:08] Voice 26: Go ahead, Mike.

[2:15:09] Voice 22: Thank you.

[2:15:10] Voice 22: Yeah, I think, and I may have acknowledged this in the recommendations in the report,

[2:15:14] Voice 22: but my expectation is that if we bring in the Indigenous Relations Manager and this

[2:15:18] Voice 22: position was approved, that this position would likely report to that manager to ensure

[2:15:25] Voice 22: that alignment and coordination.

[2:15:26] Voice 22: coordination. This position has been put forward, this halftime position, by the Conservancy Board

[2:15:32] Voice 22: in recognition that they have a pressing and urgent need to advance, not just in relation

[2:15:38] Voice 22: to the five-year plan, but as the board member has articulated, the broader work of the Conservancy

[2:15:43] Voice 22: and engagement of the broader work of the Conservancy. And I think that with this position

[2:15:47] Voice 22: would allow them to do that. Well, the manager designed that broader framework to ensure

[2:15:53] Voice 22: coordination across the entire organization, including the Conservancy. So there would be

[2:15:58] Voice 22: alignment there for sure. You're absolutely right. It would be counterproductive to have

[2:16:02] Voice 22: that position of working independently while a new manager is doing the broader trust work.

[2:16:09] Voice 22: So my expectation is there would likely be a reporting relationship and they would work

[2:16:13] Voice 22: hand in hand. And longer term, that half position, depending on the workload within

[2:16:17] Voice 22: the Conservancy, may be able to also pick up related work for other trust projects as well.

[2:16:25] Trustee Patrick: All right. On that brief question and brief answer, we're going to take a lunch break. I encourage you over the lunch hour to speak with your colleagues, speak with our Conservation Board members that we have here as well, and talk about the budget.

[2:16:41] Trustee Patrick: it. And if you have motions or thoughts in mind, please be crafting them. Talk to staff as you

[2:16:47] Trustee Patrick: put them forward to the motions email so that we have that material as we move into the after

[2:16:55] Trustee Patrick: lunch hour. So get yourself fortified so that we can come back to this discussion after lunch.

[2:17:03] Trustee Patrick: So we're in recess.

[3:13:58] Trustee Patrick: Good afternoon, trustees. Welcome back. We are in item 11.2.2. We're into the budget.

[3:14:09] Trustee Patrick: We are in open discussion just more about clarification of numbers at this point is

[3:14:15] Trustee Patrick: where we are in the budget discussion. So we have a speaker's list that is currently

[3:14:20] Trustee Patrick: currently going on. I'll give you, it's Boland, Luckum, Timothy and Yates. So,

[3:14:29] Trustee Patrick: trustee Boland, over to you.

[3:14:33] Voice 2: Hi, thank you for this. I find that the discussion at the moment

[3:14:39] Voice 2: about the different positions related to First Nations reconciliation and engagement,

[3:14:46] Voice 2: it's quite confusing i would welcome a sort of an integrated view of the positions we have the

[3:14:54] Voice 2: positions we're proposing what their you know what their job description is and uh you know

[3:15:04] Voice 2: what the organizational structure would be and approximately i don't want to turn into you know

[3:15:12] Voice 2: two-year master's project but just a very brief overview of where we are and I would like it

[3:15:20] Voice 2: really for financial planning because I think unless we have that it's very difficult I can't

[3:15:25] Voice 2: argue about three months of this person or six months of that person or the sequence and I

[3:15:32] Voice 2: appreciate what um uh cao brony said before the break in response to um trustee bernardo's

[3:15:41] Voice 2: question you know it's more or less in the same line i would really like first of all i also

[3:15:46] Voice 2: believe that um the island trust conservancy and the trust should work together seamlessly if

[3:15:54] Voice 2: possible on an integrated approach if i was the first nations and i had two different lots of

[3:16:00] Voice 2: people turning up with different agendas from apparently the same body I would find it a little

[3:16:05] Voice 2: bit irritating so I believe that there should be some attempt at making a very integrated plan

[3:16:13] Voice 2: and I think FPC should see the past the proposed positions and so that we can really evaluate

[3:16:26] Voice 2: evaluate the position in the budget of that content um yeah i'll leave it at that i do have

[3:16:33] Voice 2: a motion to that effect uh but i'll let the discussion run first thank you all right thank

[3:16:39] Voice 2: you ceo brony thank

[3:16:41] Voice 22: you and and thank you trustee bull and i'll try and and provide some greater

[3:16:46] Voice 22: clarity uh as briefly as i can so as it stands we have one position the senior indigenous relations

[3:16:52] Voice 22: advisor that is dedicated to that work um that as i articulated in my ops review report is to my

[3:17:02] Voice 22: view insufficient to adequately support what islands trust including the trust conservancy

[3:17:07] Voice 22: are required to do and seek to do from a standpoint of reconciliation and relationship building

[3:17:14] Voice 22: and so well we have that one dedicated resource we also have staff in the course of their other

[3:17:21] Voice 22: other work, particularly on the planning side, that regularly undertake aspects of that work as

[3:17:28] Voice 22: well. As I noted in my report, though, we don't have a coordinated approach to that. So we don't

[3:17:32] Voice 22: have the air traffic control to really manage how we do that, to track how we do that, to report

[3:17:39] Voice 22: consistently on how we do that. And that's not just a problem for us, it's a problem for the

[3:17:43] Voice 22: nations themselves, because as you know, as it is now, we sometimes trip over ourselves in engaging

[3:17:49] Voice 22: with nations on multiple fronts.

[3:17:51] Voice 22: So the proposed manager, their primary role is to undertake to

[3:17:56] Voice 22: take on that air traffic

[3:17:58] Voice 22: control role and build out a plan for how we're going to do that more consistently and

[3:18:03] Voice 22: effectively, and ultimately to help coordinate and administer that work.

[3:18:09] Voice 22: The senior policy advisor position that is requested is to, in the interim, advance,

[3:18:18] Voice 22: advance, continue to advance the, lead the advancement of the important work related to

[3:18:23] Voice 22: the Conservancy's five-year plan, particularly as it pertains to engagement with nations.

[3:18:28] Voice 22: And then the half-time position for the Conservancy is beyond the strategic five-year

[3:18:36] Voice 22: plan to also support engagement and planning with Conservancy work as it relates to reconciliation.

[3:18:42] Voice 22: affiliation, I fully would expect that, as I mentioned, that we would likely have a reporting

[3:18:48] Voice 22: relationship if those positions were all improved between the half-time position and the manager of

[3:18:53] Voice 22: Indigenous relations to ensure that consistency. And that is very much the intent, is that that

[3:19:00] Voice 22: manager's work will ultimately lead us to a point where we have a consistent approach across all

[3:19:05] Voice 22: arms of the Islands Trust, including the Conservancy, so that we are presenting ourselves

[3:19:10] Voice 22: ourselves in that space as one entity that is going about its work in a much more coordinated

[3:19:15] Voice 22: fashion. Thank you.

[3:19:21] Voice 2: I appreciate that clarity. I will consider the motion as well later. I

[3:19:27] Voice 2: forwarded it to you, Director Bruni. I also think it would really help to track and maintain

[3:19:36] Voice 2: retain a record of the efforts that the trust is making so that if we do uh have to go to the

[3:19:45] Voice 2: province or i would like to think the province would help us that we have a really really good

[3:19:50] Voice 2: uh you know overall description and structure that we can put before them to say you know we

[3:19:58] Voice 2: are a small organization we have an enormous number of interfaces that we have to engage

[3:20:04] Voice 2: engaged through and this is what we've put in place and we need some help because i think you

[3:20:10] Voice 2: know what we're trying to do is really overwhelming but you know we have to take one step at a time

[3:20:16] Voice 2: but i think it's really really really important to build that view that and it's not just for the

[3:20:24] Voice 2: staff it's also for us like if i'm out on saturn and i want to try and explain to somebody what

[3:20:30] Voice 2: we're doing and the resources that are involved i would appreciate being really really well informed

[3:20:35] Voice 2: thank you thank you uh trustee luckham um

[3:20:42] Trustee Luckham: thank you chair thank you conservancy board members and

[3:20:47] Trustee Luckham: everybody else in this conversation um i think um i'm sure that you know that the work of the

[3:20:55] Trustee Luckham: conservancy is significant and of significant importance to the preservation and protection

[3:21:01] Trustee Luckham: of the Islands Trust area.

[3:21:02] Trustee Luckham: The Conservancy is an independent body.

[3:21:06] Trustee Luckham: They have a legislative obligation

[3:21:08] Trustee Luckham: to create a five-year plan.

[3:21:10] Trustee Luckham: I would say that five-year plan is difficult to attain

[3:21:14] Trustee Luckham: at this point in time, given the level of consultation

[3:21:16] Trustee Luckham: that has been more than recommended

[3:21:21] Trustee Luckham: and more than suggested of the provincial government

[3:21:24] Trustee Luckham: that the Conservancy undertake.

[3:21:26] Trustee Luckham: And they simply need those resources

[3:21:28] Trustee Luckham: is to meet their legislative obligation and i encourage us to support it thank you right

[3:21:37] Trustee Patrick: trustee

[3:21:39] Trustee Patrick: timothy yeah

[3:21:43] Voice 4: thank you so much um for your your comments there and and support um and thank you

[3:21:49] Voice 4: to the ceo for just explaining those two different roles um i think we at the conservancy this this

[3:21:57] Voice 4: role be extremely helpful to support staff and the work that we're doing um and building

[3:22:02] Voice 4: meaningful relationships with the nations that are within the land the trust area um you know for

[3:22:08] Voice 4: a long time um first nations people have kind of been in the background of canada due to the

[3:22:15] Voice 4: reservation system and kind of just the way that um provincial and federal regulation has been for

[3:22:22] Voice 4: indigenous people and so but we've been here since time immemorial and

[3:22:27] Voice 4: a lot of the nations within

[3:22:28] Voice 4: the

[3:22:29] Voice 1: whole trust area

[3:22:29] Voice 4: have stewarded the land um and have a deep connection to it and share a lot

[3:22:33] Voice 4: of the same values as the islands trust and i think the way um you know wonderful to see the

[3:22:39] Voice 4: support for reconciliation and advancing that and being good um citizens and practicing reciprocity

[3:22:48] Voice 4: um and i think with first nations partnerships with islands trust is only going to enhance the

[3:22:55] Voice 4: value of the work that we do and um you know creating more space for you know sharing of

[3:23:02] Voice 4: capacity um like trustee elliott has been explaining you know a lot of the nations are

[3:23:07] Voice 4: doing a lot of data collection on different um marine marine planning and different uh

[3:23:11] Voice 4: and sensitive species and these are all things that can and support our work um and i think

[3:23:19] Voice 4: as time goes on with reconciliation it doesn't have to be um you know a zero-sum game where

[3:23:26] Voice 4: you know if first nations are advancing then like we're all losing and it doesn't have to be that

[3:23:30] Voice 4: way um and i think having the support of this position would really um enhance our ability to

[3:23:37] Voice 4: complete the five-year plan at this point it seems like a 10-year plan because it's been

[3:23:40] Voice 4: been delayed so many times.

[3:23:43] Voice 4: And as stated previously, it's a provincial legislative

[3:23:48] Voice 4: direction.

[3:23:49] Voice 4: But yeah, I just would like to see the support board.

[3:23:54] Voice 4: And if not, that's OK.

[3:23:56] Voice 4: I respect the trust.

[3:23:58] Voice 4: I'm very honored to be here as a First Nations person

[3:24:00] Voice 4: and to be on the Islands Trust Conservancy Board.

[3:24:03] Voice 4: It's a great honor.

[3:24:04] Voice 4: I love the work that we are doing here.

[3:24:07] Voice 4: And it's near and dear to my heart.

[3:24:08] Voice 4: and we have such a beautiful coast and that's why everyone wants to live on these beautiful islands

[3:24:14] Voice 4: and why a lot of you folks have you know built beautiful lives in these communities and now

[3:24:20] Voice 4: you're here representing those communities that you love and appreciate and First Nations share

[3:24:26] Voice 4: the same and so I think as time goes forward it's only going to enhance our work and enhance

[3:24:32] Voice 4: you know our relationships and First Nations will be alongside of us and I

[3:24:37] Voice 4: don't think there needs to be any fear associated to that which is not I'm not

[3:24:42] Voice 4: necessarily at this table but just as the public I just want to reassure those

[3:24:47] Voice 4: that you know this is a way of where all of us can move forward and really at the

[3:24:53] Voice 4: heart of the mandate of the trust is you know preserving protecting these coastal

[3:24:57] Voice 4: areas so I really don't have too much to add than what has been said but thank

[3:25:02] Voice 4: Thank you for your time and allowing me to speak.

[3:25:04] Voice 4: So thank you.

[3:25:05] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[3:25:07] Voice 24: Trustee Yates.

[3:25:11] Voice 24: Thank you so much, Trustee Timothy.

[3:25:14] Voice 24: That was so beautifully said.

[3:25:16] Voice 24: And it just reminds me of something I said to someone who is quite anxious about their

[3:25:23] Voice 24: waterfront property on Gabriola.

[3:25:26] Voice 24: And I said to him, well, where do you think First Peoples live?

[3:25:31] Voice 24: Where do you think First Nations lived when they stewarded these areas for thousands of years? Of course, they also lived along the coastline. That's their travel. That's their food. You know, that's their relationship building.

[3:25:45] Voice 24: Of course, they also lived in these shoreline areas. And I'm just so grateful that we are recognizing that in tangible ways and that we've been given the opportunity to do some co-working and co-governance and collaborating on this.

[3:26:04] Voice 24: um so briefly i just wanted to say um on page 113 of our agenda page six of the budget briefing

[3:26:13] Voice 24: the second bullet there with the one year temporary full-time senior policy advisor

[3:26:21] Voice 24: um i recognize that that is not only crucial but i recognize that really it's i don't think of it

[3:26:30] Voice 24: as an addition. It's an addition to the budget, but it's really just continuing with Jill Merrick's

[3:26:38] Voice 24: work. And we know already that the work she has done for the trust is just amazing. So

[3:26:46] Voice 24: if we have the opportunity to have that budgeted for again for at least another year,

[3:26:54] Voice 24: we are fortunate. And then the other one I was going to mention very briefly, the

[3:27:00] Voice 24: 0.5 Indigenous Relations Advisor. I sort of went back and forth in my head like, oh,

[3:27:07] Voice 24: should that person be hired maybe after the Manager of Indigenous Relations? Would that

[3:27:14] Voice 24: make a difference to the budget? But the fact that I know is that there is a lot of work right

[3:27:20] Voice 24: right now that that person could be doing.

[3:27:23] Voice 24: And then wouldn't it be amazing if when the manager of indigenous relations

[3:27:29] Voice 24: was hired,

[3:27:30] Voice 24: they already had staff in place to do the necessary work.

[3:27:35] Voice 24: So thank you.

[3:27:37] Voice 24: Thank you.

[3:27:38] Trustee Patrick: Director Moms,

[3:27:39] Trustee Patrick: we've made it to the end of the questions about clarifications of numbers.

[3:27:43] Trustee Patrick: Did you have a next step in your presentation?

[3:27:47] Voice 10: I was just briefly going to run Trust Council through the assessment of the current draft budget against Trust Council's guidelines.

[3:27:55] Voice 10: Don't have too much to say about it. We have assessed those guidelines. They're in the agenda package.

[3:28:00] Voice 10: All of Trust Council's guidelines that were given to us have been met with the exception of two.

[3:28:04] Voice 10: The first relates to the Reconciliation Action Plan. Of course, we're waiting for a draft of that plan before we can properly assess the budget against that guideline.

[3:28:11] Voice 10: guideline. And the second relates to prioritization of GIS resourcing in the draft budget.

[3:28:17] Voice 10: Prioritization, of course, is the responsibility of Trust Council in your decision making.

[3:28:21] Voice 10: And so we have to wait for your decisions before we can properly assess that.

[3:28:27] Voice 10: There is one guideline I'll briefly touch on that's related to Trust Council's direction

[3:28:32] Voice 10: that any increases in operating budgets needed to be supported by business case.

[3:28:36] Voice 10: The senior leadership team did talk about that together and determined that the business case

[3:28:40] Voice 10: template wasn't really the best format to justify operating increases. It's more geared

[3:28:44] Voice 10: towards new projects or programs. And so we did develop a new form. It's called the Operating

[3:28:50] Voice 10: Budget Increase Justification Form. You would have seen those in the agenda package. We did

[3:28:55] Voice 10: have a comment at Financial Planning Committee saying, oh, there's a lot of detail in the budget

[3:28:59] Voice 10: this year. And that guideline is largely the reason for all of that detail. Financial Planning

[3:29:05] Voice 10: Committee did express some appreciation for that template. Certainly, we welcome feedback from this

[3:29:09] Voice 10: larger group as well if you have any but that's all i need to say i'm just here to support your

[3:29:13] Voice 10: conversation thank

[3:29:15] Trustee Patrick: you director mobs so we have before us a lot of items and i think it's best

[3:29:21] Trustee Patrick: if we just start through them i will raise the item if there's no one who wishes to speak to it

[3:29:26] Trustee Patrick: we'll move to the next don't feel obligated to speak to something um if you have motions it would

[3:29:33] Trustee Patrick: be really nice if you would reference the very lengthy number associated with these items in here

[3:29:40] Trustee Patrick: but i'm going to proceed down through them i'm probably i'm not going to say all the

[3:29:44] Trustee Patrick: numbers i'm going to say the name of the item that'll make it a little easier and

[3:29:49] Trustee Patrick: we will go from there so i'm going to start with the secretariat services business cases

[3:30:00] Trustee Patrick: page 131.

[3:30:02] Trustee Patrick: Not seeing any.

[3:30:09] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Peterson.

[3:30:13] Voice 6: I know that this was in the

[3:30:16] Voice 6: operational review

[3:30:18] Voice 6: table

[3:30:19] Voice 6: number two.

[3:30:21] Voice 6: I think this is a very

[3:30:23] Voice 6: valuable program

[3:30:25] Voice 6: for many reasons.

[3:30:28] Voice 6: I don't

[3:30:30] Voice 6: support complete elimination of it,

[3:30:32] Voice 6: but I would

[3:30:36] Voice 6: support a substantially reduced

[3:30:38] Voice 6: amount.

[3:30:41] Voice 6: so that we could still deliver uh some of the program um i would pause it somewhere

[3:30:50] Voice 6: uh in about a seven thousand dollar reduction that'd be my off the cuff all right um

[3:31:00] Voice 9: trustee

[3:31:01] Trustee Patrick: evans

[3:31:01] Voice 9: um i would actually support after uh discussion around the table i would support

[3:31:09] Voice 9: deferring the secretariat services and the climate education program cases to the next

[3:31:15] Voice 9: budget. This is not just monetary, it's also staff resourcing and time for these two programs.

[3:31:23] Voice 9: And we're attempting here to free up staff time in order to make significant operational changes

[3:31:32] Voice 9: within how we operate. So I would actually support deferring both of these.

[3:31:38] Trustee Patrick: Can I clarify what you mean by deferring?

[3:31:43] Voice 9: deferring these two programs to the next budget like not the not the one that's on the table

[3:31:49] Voice 9: but the one that will be coming in september so it'll be brought back in september

[3:31:53] Voice 9: but for this fiscal year we will not do work on it we will free up staff time

[3:31:59] Trustee Patrick: and resources i

[3:32:00] Trustee Patrick: understand what you're um saying now so uh trustee getty then elliot okay

[3:32:09] Voice 7: so page 131 132 um

[3:32:12] Voice 7: um sort of clumps a bunch of programs together and i don't see a list of the groups that we're

[3:32:18] Voice 7: supporting in this um and i'm wondering if that's somewhere else in the agenda i know that reap is

[3:32:24] Voice 7: one of them but i can't remember

[3:32:26] Voice 7: the others i'll turn to director freighter uh

[3:32:30] Voice 20: the decisions about

[3:32:31] Voice 20: which groups are funded or decided annually so what is supported one year may not be supported

[3:32:35] Voice 20: the next but this year what was supported was the rural island economic partnership

[3:32:40] Voice 20: Bains Sound Lambert Channel Ecosystem Forum,

[3:32:43] Voice 20: Coastal Douglas Fir Conservation Partnership,

[3:32:45] Voice 20: the Katsum House Sound Community Forum,

[3:32:48] Voice 20: and the Southern Gulf Islands Forum.

[3:32:50] Voice 20: And then it's completely discretionary into the next fiscal year,

[3:32:53] Voice 20: which Trust Council might wish to support.

[3:32:59] Voice 7: Is there any recommendation from staff in terms of any of these

[3:33:04] Voice 7: that are dependent on the Trust funding?

[3:33:08] Voice 7: funding I mean I've heard that from it's not just a nice thing it's not just adding a little

[3:33:17] Voice 7: extra to their meeting agendas that it's there's one or two that I've heard of before that it's

[3:33:23] Voice 7: fundamental in terms of their funding so

[3:33:29] Voice 20: through the chair I'm not close enough to the operations

[3:33:31] Voice 20: of each one of these but the part of the program is that there needs to be trust representation in

[3:33:36] Voice 20: each of them for the trust council to be involved in them so it would be that around this table

[3:33:40] Voice 20: you're going to have colleagues that are involved in each of these bodies that could perhaps speak

[3:33:44] Voice 20: to it.

[3:33:49] Trustee Patrick: Is there anyone that wishes to speak to the significance on that? So I'm going to do

[3:33:54] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Stanford, then Trustee Borthwick, and Trustee Peterson.

[3:34:00] Voice 18: As far as secretariat funding

[3:34:02] Voice 18: to Alcatsum, Hell Sound, Community Forum, it's fundamental. I'm not sure if they'll be able to run

[3:34:14] Voice 18: meetings at the same level at all.

[3:34:17] Voice 18: It's been a big part of their ongoing functioning.

[3:34:21] Voice 18: So, yeah, I won't be supporting a reduction.

[3:34:26] Voice 18: Trustee Borkwick.

[3:34:29] Voice 31: So, yeah, as the rep for Bainsound

[3:34:32] Voice 31: Lambert Channel Ecosystem Forum,

[3:34:35] Voice 31: it has been fundamental.

[3:34:37] Voice 31: However, the forum is looking at

[3:34:41] Voice 31: probably winding itself up uh for the next little while um there aren't an immediate

[3:34:47] Voice 31: things that they're dealing with and we have been struggling with capacity of board members to just

[3:34:53] Voice 31: sustain it so i had actually going to be recommending to i was going to go and talk to

[3:34:57] Voice 31: christina about this um as the chair of trust programs committee but recommending that perhaps

[3:35:03] Voice 31: that's a place where there could be a reduction made um yeah thank

[3:35:08] Voice 12: you trustee peterson uh i just

[3:35:11] Voice 6: want to speak towards the uh southern gulf islands forum um in particular as my role as a vice chair

[3:35:19] Voice 6: um it's been extremely helpful uh as for those who are not aware it's um

[3:35:27] Voice 6: it's gathering of southern gulf island trustees uh the mp the mla and first nations

[3:35:34] Voice 6: um and it's yeah it's for a person that doesn't live in the southern gulf islands but is sharing

[3:35:42] Voice 6: there, I think has a lot of value. I think it's rather, I know it's partially funded by us.

[3:35:52] Voice 6: And I think both the MP's office and MLA's office contribute. I'm not sure exactly what

[3:36:00] Voice 6: the percentages are. But in terms of working in cooperation with others, I think it has a

[3:36:06] Voice 6: lot of value. I'd really hate to see that one go. If I had to just pick one,

[3:36:10] Voice 6: one, that would be the one I would pick

[3:36:13] Voice 6: to keep.

[3:36:17] Voice 14: All right, Trustee Elliott. Yes,

[3:36:22] Voice 17: thanks. In evaluating these two business

[3:36:26] Voice 17: cases, I do think the Secretariat Services Fund will

[3:36:30] Voice 17: on the whole benefit a lot more than

[3:36:35] Voice 17: just the trust area. It benefits

[3:36:38] Voice 17: coordination with many other groups that are doing valuable work, so I

[3:36:42] Voice 17: I support that being funded in this budget.

[3:36:46] Voice 17: I think the climate education program,

[3:36:49] Voice 17: I don't know if we can move to that one yet,

[3:36:50] Voice 17: but this seems to be new work.

[3:36:55] Voice 17: And I don't argue that it's not important work

[3:36:58] Voice 17: and it would not advance a strategic plan key initiative 4.2.1.

[3:37:04] Voice 17: But if we have to focus on coordination work

[3:37:07] Voice 17: that is already ongoing rather than starting

[3:37:09] Voice 17: sort of a new climate education program i think this one could um just be not funded for this

[3:37:17] Voice 17: year so saves us ten thousand dollars but i do support the secretariat services continuing

[3:37:23] Voice 17: um perhaps at a reduced maybe it could go down to ten thousand all

[3:37:31] Voice 2: right trustee boland

[3:37:32] Voice 2: uh thanks yeah i attend the southern gulf island forum and it is very useful but i come back to

[3:37:42] Voice 2: the fact that you know um theoretically these are discretionary and they are applied for every year

[3:37:50] Voice 2: and they could change or not but in fact they don't the same groups apply and get more or less

[3:37:58] Voice 2: the same funding every year so it's become a sort of a you know business as usual sort of contribution

[3:38:07] Voice 2: and I don't think that's necessarily good in some way that I can't really quantify if we're going

[3:38:15] Voice 2: to fund things to help them get set up you know there should be some sort of withdrawal and look

[3:38:21] Voice 2: around and see other other things that deserve sort of seed funding in a way and so I actually

[3:38:28] Voice 2: think that pausing for a year and I would recommend that if we decide to do that we decide to do it

[3:38:35] Voice 2: sooner rather than later and inform them so they have plenty of time to figure out what to do

[3:38:41] Voice 2: rather than do as we usually do which is sort of do a brinksmanship thing down to march

[3:38:46] Voice 2: and then put it all back in i mean if we're serious about the recommended changes

[3:38:54] Voice 2: um then we should really just bite the bullet on some of these items these were things that staff

[3:38:59] Voice 2: brought up and they are you know the only things that staff can recommend on the basis that they're

[3:39:05] Voice 2: not you know local island projects or political decisions and they actually put them on a list

[3:39:14] Voice 2: as things that could optionally be reduced and every year we go through this to the degree that

[3:39:20] Voice 2: I think potentially we're just wasting time again but I feel that we should take the staff

[3:39:26] Voice 2: recommendations and just for once do it thanks all

[3:39:31] Trustee Patrick: right thank you very much can i before we

[3:39:33] Trustee Patrick: go forward on the list here i want to be clear clarify should we assume that this has been made

[3:39:38] Trustee Patrick: zero from the decision we made earlier so go ahead say oh brony yeah thank

[3:39:42] Trustee Patrick: you chair i was

[3:39:43] Trustee Patrick: just going to raise

[3:39:43] Voice 22: that point so in accepting recommendation one previously you have removed

[3:39:48] Voice 22: those five items in the second table from the budget so if you wish to fund these which is

[3:39:52] Voice 22: as we discussed, is totally fine. You can reassess that. You will need a motion to add in a dollar

[3:39:57] Voice 22: amount for each program.

[3:39:59] Trustee Patrick: So, yes. So, it's zero. You'd have to put in, not limit, if you wish

[3:40:04] Trustee Patrick: to address these. So, Trustee Borthwick. Oh, you were on. Oh, okay. Good. Trustee Campbell.

[3:40:19] Voice 29: Yeah, I think I was going to

[3:40:21] Voice 29: try and say a whole bunch of stuff, but I just would say that I

[3:40:25] Voice 29: I would support it staying at zero if that's the way that we have already moved it.

[3:40:30] Voice 29: I think that in the current economic state of our Gulf Islands and where residents are at,

[3:40:39] Voice 29: we don't have the opportunity to be offering other organizations essentially charity to keep them going.

[3:40:51] Voice 29: I think that we have some spends that need to be made in the previous discussion about Indigenous Reconciliation Movement, and that's something that we maybe can't get away from, but the things where we're funding outside of our own organization, I think that we should be cutting those.

[3:41:14] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[3:41:15] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Peterson?

[3:41:19] Voice 6: Thank you, Chair, and thank CAO for the clarification.

[3:41:24] Voice 6: I would like to make a motion on funding for this, if that's acceptable to share.

[3:41:30] Trustee Patrick: That's where we are at this point.

[3:41:32] Voice 6: I move that the Secretariat Service Program be funded to the value of $8,000 for this 2026-27 budget.

[3:41:43] Trustee Patrick: Before we second, I just want to give a moment to make sure Alexandra has that.

[3:42:00] Trustee Patrick: Is that enough detail?

[3:42:01] Trustee Patrick: tale okay seconded by trustee yates then you want to speak to your motion yeah

[3:42:10] Voice 6: just briefly um i i

[3:42:12] Voice 6: think there's a a couple of um items here and i did speak to the southern gulf islands forum

[3:42:18] Voice 6: i think they're very important uh this would represent um less than half of the original

[3:42:25] Voice 6: budget so it is a substantial reduction all

[3:42:31] Trustee Patrick: right trustee stanford just

[3:42:37] Voice 18: a reminder that

[3:42:38] Voice 18: the secretariat does fulfill a core part of our mandate which is coordination with others also it

[3:42:45] Voice 18: is one of the few opportunities that trustees have to work uh in person with first nations and

[3:42:55] Voice 18: indigenous governing bodies in their area at least that's how it is with house sound area it's one of

[3:43:02] Voice 18: of our few opportunities to sit at the table.

[3:43:06] Trustee Patrick: Kirsty Boland?

[3:43:12] Voice 2: I just find this completely, I suppose I'm being a bit rude

[3:43:21] Voice 2: and saying pointless, but part of the reason for removing it

[3:43:25] Voice 2: was to recover staff hours.

[3:43:28] Voice 2: If we reduce the fund, we don't really recover staff hours.

[3:43:34] Voice 2: Arguably, we make things more difficult because now we have to,

[3:43:37] Voice 2: you know figure out how to uh you know turn what is it two loaves into seven or whatever but

[3:43:45] Voice 2: i just get so frustrated at the fact that we always balk at the hardest no matter who

[3:43:56] Voice 2: recommends them we you know we in principle go along with it and then when the hard thing has

[3:44:03] Voice 2: has to be done, we melt.

[3:44:06] Voice 2: Thanks.

[3:44:07] Voice 2: Thank you.

[3:44:09] Voice 2: Trustee Campbell.

[3:44:11] Voice 29: I think I agree with Mairead.

[3:44:14] Voice 29: I feel like if we're gonna make cuts, we make cuts

[3:44:17] Voice 29: and to half-ass things is not gonna get us

[3:44:19] Voice 29: anywhere in the end.

[3:44:22] Trustee Patrick: I'm sorry, Trustee Bernardo,

[3:44:23] Trustee Patrick: I had you on the original list.

[3:44:25] Trustee Patrick: Did you want to speak to this motion?

[3:44:26] Trustee Patrick: Oh, okay, I'm sorry.

[3:44:28] Trustee Patrick: So go ahead, Trustee Bernardo.

[3:44:30] Voice 26: That's all.

[3:44:31] Trustee Patrick: That's all right.

[3:44:32] Trustee Patrick: It's a complicated list.

[3:44:34] Trustee Patrick: Thanks.

[3:44:36] Voice 5: Yeah, I mean, I share the view that, you know, at some point, we've got to bite the bullet. Staff put forward those recommendations, not because the mood happened to come upon them, but because they recognize there's a need to find the money to do the things that they've recommended and that we've agreed to.

[3:45:00] Voice 5: putting these new hires, changing the structure, changing the approach to the organization.

[3:45:04] Voice 5: It costs money, but it costs staff resources. So yeah, any one of these things we can justify

[3:45:10] Voice 5: to ourselves saying, oh, it's not that big amount of money and it's not going to require that much

[3:45:15] Voice 5: staff resources, but they add up to the situation we're in today where the staff is stretched

[3:45:21] Voice 5: stretched beyond endurance. And in terms of the cash amount, we do need to bite the bullet

[3:45:30] Voice 5: because we can't keep exceeding the rate of inflation year after year and then go back to

[3:45:37] Voice 5: our constituents, unable to report that there's been any material improvement in the speed and

[3:45:43] Voice 5: volume of our planning work, which is the core of what we're supposed to do. What we're talking

[3:45:47] Voice 5: about and what FPC and what Trust Council becomes preoccupied with, which every budget cycle,

[3:45:55] Voice 5: is this minority of less than a million dollars, somewhere in the $600,000, $700,000 range,

[3:46:01] Voice 5: I think, of discretionary spending, where the real action is in the close to 10 million

[3:46:07] Voice 5: operational stuff of things that we just don't have any flexibility on. We've got to find the

[3:46:13] Voice 5: money to fund the new uh indigenous manager uh the communication specialist and all the other things

[3:46:19] Voice 5: that we're hoping is going to set a new direction and so i i find this discussion over secretary

[3:46:25] Voice 5: services very frustrating because you know every voice i've heard in support of it is is talking

[3:46:33] Voice 5: in a conclusory way about the um the benefits of it but i i don't have the facts in front of me i

[3:46:40] Voice 5: I can't if I've had constituents coming up to me and say, how come I have to pay close to a 14 percent increase in my taxes to the trust?

[3:46:49] Voice 5: I can't explain to them in some measurable way what they are getting out of these subsidies to various different organizations.

[3:46:57] Voice 5: I can't explain to them in a concrete way the connection between the subsidy and advancing Section 3, our mandate, coordination with whom to do what.

[3:47:08] Voice 5: you know trustee peterson has suggested okay you know let's do a kind of a let's let's cut the baby

[3:47:15] Voice 5: in half and let's go with the 8 000 i'm you know i

[3:47:19] Voice 5: understand and i respect the sentiment of trying

[3:47:21] Voice 5: to find a reasonable compromise but it's also kind of arbitrary which is why 8 000 not seven

[3:47:25] Voice 5: not nine and if it goes down to 8 000 that means some of these um groups are not going to get

[3:47:33] Voice 5: support who wins who loses we're not having that discussion we don't i feel like i don't

[3:47:39] Voice 5: even know what we're talking about i at least sorry i should correct something i don't know

[3:47:43] Voice 5: what i'm talking about when we're talking about what the secretary of services deliver and i'm

[3:47:48] Voice 5: not able to explain to my constituents as we've heard before we can come back to this it may mean

[3:47:55] Voice 5: for one year we're having to defer it uh but we do have to find the money uh to fund those things

[3:48:01] Voice 5: that we've already identified are really important without really blowing through the budget and we

[3:48:06] Voice 5: have to start somewhere now this seems like a reasonable place to start thank

[3:48:10] Voice 9: you trustee evans

[3:48:13] Voice 9: i will not be voting in favor of this um the it's not just the money if this secretary services are

[3:48:21] Voice 9: about administrative support this is about staff resources that we're dedicating to these as well

[3:48:28] Voice 9: as funds um we're trying to free up staff resources i think the the ones that we have uh

[3:48:37] Voice 9: The organizations coming forward have other avenues for funding.

[3:48:44] Voice 9: The one that I'm hearing that may not is the Alcatzum House Sound.

[3:48:49] Voice 9: If that causes that group to cease to operate, then that will be something that they can come forward to ask later.

[3:49:00] Voice 9: But for right now, I think we need to make the decision to defer this program for one year.

[3:49:09] Trustee Patrick: Not seeing any more on the speaker's list.

[3:49:12] Trustee Patrick: Oh, no, there are more on the speaker's list.

[3:49:14] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[3:49:15] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Getty, then Trustee Yates.

[3:49:18] Voice 7: This section of the second table was to reduce $49,000 from the draft budget.

[3:49:26] Voice 7: So what we're talking about now with this motion is to reduce $41,000 from the budget.

[3:49:33] Voice 7: There's other items in the budget that can also be reduced.

[3:49:36] Voice 7: So if this is enough to give us representation to help the agencies maintain the function and the help that they give to the trust, then it is a relatively small amount.

[3:49:52] Voice 7: and it's even in with respect to this section of the budget it's an even

[3:49:58] Voice 7: smaller amount and it's I think the policy is that that the consideration is

[3:50:04] Voice 7: that we want to have contact with some of these other groups that are in the

[3:50:07] Voice 7: region that are doing things that are a benefit to us and to them and to the

[3:50:11] Voice 7: community and this just keeps it alive it just needs thank

[3:50:18] Voice 24: you well I seconded

[3:50:19] Voice 24: the motion and I thought very very hard about this second table I really did because all of

[3:50:25] Voice 24: those things are important to me like just personally but the one that I don't think we

[3:50:31] Voice 24: should be letting go of is that secretariat services and I was going to say cut it to 10

[3:50:36] Voice 24: but I'm going with 8 and here's why that is the one that we have that's the one where we're the

[3:50:44] Voice 24: the little group in this collaboration that starts at the north end of the trust area with

[3:50:51] Voice 24: Alcatsum House Sound, and then maybe Bain Sound is winding down, that's fine. And then we go all

[3:50:57] Voice 24: the way to the Southern Gulf Islands Forum, and that's where we have a huge impact with

[3:51:02] Voice 24: collaboration with MPs and MLAs and regional directors and trustees. And we saw the benefit

[3:51:09] Voice 24: of that even last night listening to MP Elizabeth May, but that's just a tiny part of it. But that's

[3:51:15] Voice 24: the one where other people see us collaborating. So I really feel we need to keep that Secretariat

[3:51:23] Voice 24: services in there, even on a reduced budget.

[3:51:26] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees, we've reached the end of the list.

[3:51:29] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to call the vote. Secretary program be funded to the amount of $8,000.

[3:51:34] Trustee Patrick: All those in favor, raise your hands. Lower your hands.

[3:51:49] Trustee Patrick: All those opposed, raise your hands.

[3:52:00] Voice 21: 13.

[3:52:01] Trustee Patrick: Eight in favor, 13 against.

[3:52:03] Trustee Patrick: That is defeated.

[3:52:06] Trustee Patrick: So, trustees, I'm going to move on.

[3:52:11] Trustee Patrick: So, the next item we sort of discussed was the climate education program.

[3:52:16] Trustee Patrick: That is zero, my understanding.

[3:52:18] Trustee Patrick: Correct.

[3:52:18] Trustee Patrick: Now, I'm just going to keep moving.

[3:52:22] Trustee Patrick: So, then we're at the policy statement amendment project.

[3:52:26] Trustee Patrick: Page 140 is the business case.

[3:52:30] Trustee Patrick: Anyone wish to talk about that one?

[3:52:33] Trustee Patrick: I'm just going to keep going.

[3:52:34] Trustee Patrick: I'm going too fast.

[3:52:36] Trustee Patrick: Wave at me.

[3:52:37] Trustee Patrick: There's no one raising hands.

[3:52:38] Trustee Patrick: We assume the budget is sufficient as where it is.

[3:52:42] Trustee Patrick: The next item is the policy review continuation from fiscal year 2026 on page 147.

[3:52:59] Trustee Patrick: Not seeing any.

[3:53:00] Trustee Patrick: The next one is the freshwater sustainability strategy review and implementation.

[3:53:06] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans.

[3:53:09] Voice 9: My question here, is this a new project or one that's already well underway?

[3:53:26] Trustee Patrick: Not seeing anyone jumping up and down.

[3:53:28] Trustee Patrick: The freshwater strategy implement plan, or who's going to talk to that?

[3:53:34] Trustee Patrick: Oh, there we go.

[3:53:35] Trustee Patrick: Director Cermak has been decided to speak about it.

[3:53:39] Voice 23: My apologies, Chair.

[3:53:40] Voice 23: This is not a new program.

[3:53:42] Voice 23: It's been around since 2013.

[3:53:44] Voice 23: This just keeps the program, this is a critical sort of juncture,

[3:53:48] Voice 23: whereby the program will be re-evaluated

[3:53:51] Voice 23: and a freshened up implementation plan.

[3:53:54] Voice 23: It needs a reinvigoration to make it relevant.

[3:53:56] Voice 23: And as you've talked about today,

[3:53:58] Voice 23: freshwater is the linchpin to development

[3:54:00] Voice 23: and understanding critical capacity on the islands.

[3:54:06] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans?

[3:54:09] Voice 9: My question then would be

[3:54:11] Voice 9: if this is a reinvigoration of this program

[3:54:14] Voice 9: to find its relevance,

[3:54:16] Voice 9: is this one that could be deferred for one year?

[3:54:22] Voice 9: trustee elliott did you want

[3:54:24] Trustee Patrick: so

[3:54:26] Voice 17: speaking um as somebody sitting on regional planning committee and as um a trustee in a

[3:54:33] Voice 17: community that's doing an ocp review uh which part of that ocp review was developing the

[3:54:41] Voice 17: groundwater assessment methodology for the whole trust area it's how do we take the science that

[3:54:48] Voice 17: we know which is provincially available data and translate that into where do we develop and not

[3:54:56] Voice 17: develop it is really really critical this piece though it i think director zermatt is correct in

[3:55:05] Voice 17: that without an implementation guide without an understanding of how this is going to roll out

[3:55:11] Voice 17: across the trust across the trust area there's a lot of miscommunication about the work that's been

[3:55:17] Voice 17: been done and as trustees when we came into this role to try to understand where this came from

[3:55:24] Voice 17: in 2013 different projects on different islands there wasn't a great guide through that and it

[3:55:31] Voice 17: took us almost two years to sort of get what what is the freshwater sustainability strategy trying

[3:55:36] Voice 17: to do what can it look like in terms of an OCP review and the developing development permit areas

[3:55:42] Voice 17: and all that. So I think this is for the small amount that is asked, and I get that we are

[3:55:48] Voice 17: trying to carefully consider every amount. This makes the science practical and real

[3:55:56] Voice 17: so that our residents can understand why we are making decisions in certain ways. Does that help

[3:56:04] Voice 17: at all? Director Cermak.

[3:56:07] Voice 23: Thank you. Obviously, I was caught off guard doing all the work. I really

[3:56:11] Voice 23: want to under underpin that this work is uh fundamental to all the ltc projects major

[3:56:18] Voice 23: projects that you have going and we could talk about each one if you'd like it is the basis of

[3:56:23] Voice 23: the housing work that you would like to do to increase affordable housing on your islands

[3:56:29] Voice 23: and so on and so forth so this is a way for us to provide that base level information for all

[3:56:34] Voice 23: today current ocp projects and further ocp projects and i'll also point out later on in

[3:56:40] Voice 23: the feasibility report that you'll see is that staff have recommended reducing the rpc workload

[3:56:46] Voice 23: to focus only on two key projects not three or four and this being one of them right trustee

[3:56:52] Trustee Patrick: boland chair of the regional planning committee you're

[3:57:00] Voice 2: muted i support this uh project i think

[3:57:06] Voice 2: the freshwater strategy has been um ongoing for quite some time and i personally feel it's sort

[3:57:14] Voice 2: lost its way it's all over the place it's delivered good work but it's not really clear

[3:57:19] Voice 2: you know exactly what the deliverables are and people don't know enough about it and a review

[3:57:26] Voice 2: and an implementation plan will just focus everybody's minds and perhaps the whole thing

[3:57:34] Voice 2: needs a reset so um i i think it should stay in the budget for the moment there is a regional

[3:57:42] Voice 2: planning meeting in January and I would be I would not I would I would not reduce or remove it yet

[3:57:51] Voice 2: but obviously as we go forward and we end up in March it's a possibility that you know other

[3:57:59] Voice 2: other things will take priority but for the moment I think it should remain. Thanks.

[3:58:04] Voice 9: Kirsty Evans. Thanks my follow-up question one of them was was answered that this is one of the

[3:58:11] Voice 9: priority projects as identified the other question was how much staff resources um so this is not

[3:58:18] Voice 9: that what we're discussing here is not just monetary but also staff resources how much staff

[3:58:22] Voice 9: resources are going to be required to get this to fruition um during this fiscal that we're talking

[3:58:28] Voice 9: about i

[3:58:30] Voice 2: think there's 900 which is rather a lot uh in the business case it's

[3:58:35] Trustee Patrick: on page 156

[3:58:36] Trustee Patrick: the staff resourcing hours are estimated.

[3:58:41] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Maberly.

[3:58:43] Voice 33: Yeah, I just have a question for Dr. Cermak.

[3:58:47] Voice 33: Galeano just finished its groundwater sustainability project,

[3:58:50] Voice 33: and when I look at this project,

[3:58:52] Voice 33: maybe you could explain the difference between the two

[3:58:55] Voice 33: or the effects on each other?

[3:59:00] Voice 23: Certainly to the chair.

[3:59:02] Voice 23: If you've read the Freshwater Sustainability Strategy,

[3:59:04] Voice 23: it has four key areas,

[3:59:06] Voice 23: and within which has many subdividable type deliverables.

[3:59:10] Voice 23: And so what you're seeing on Galeano, the development permit air for groundwater protection is just one small discrete deliverable amongst a sea of different deliverables.

[3:59:22] Voice 23: So early test Galeano was used as kind of a pilot study to test the assumptions and then to create a policy.

[3:59:30] Voice 23: And that's the juncture we're at right now across all the islands is trying to find a way to apply the science that we've been doing for a long time.

[3:59:37] Voice 23: and then now putting into policies such as you're demonstrating so to answer your question your

[3:59:43] Voice 23: pilot study based on the impacts of that will be then used to translate to other LPCs that are

[3:59:48] Voice 23: interested in a similar project and it will refine the process of need be to create similar

[3:59:53] Voice 23: protection areas for groundwater penetration and what have you so and that's what we're seeing

[3:59:58] Voice 23: across different

[3:59:59] Voice 23: different

[4:00:00] Voice 23: jurisdictions, different LTCs, such as what you're seeing on Denman and Gabriola and with yours,

[4:00:07] Voice 23: and that is these different ways of implementing the science are being sort of piloted. And then

[4:00:13] Voice 23: those, we're learning from those and then applying it further. So we're building on the experiences

[4:00:18] Voice 23: from each time we change the science into policy. And you've been at the forefront of that.

[4:00:24] Voice 23: Thank

[4:00:27] Trustee Patrick: you. Trustee Bernardo.

[4:00:30] Voice 5: Yeah, I think this is a question for both Director Cermak and the CAO.

[4:00:36] Voice 5: I heard, you know, the thing that really caught my interest when Director Cermak introduced this was his passing remark that this initiative that we're being asked to consider here is fundamental to the planning arm or the planning function.

[4:00:56] Voice 5: At least that's what I heard.

[4:00:58] Voice 5: If that's the case, then I'm kind of scratching my head over why we're finding it's kind of lodged in this discretionary area, because if it's core to our planning function, by which I understand it to mean it's essential for us to, if we're going to be good at planning, effective, insightful, then isn't that something that should not be, you know, it could be initiated and approved by trust counsel.

[4:01:27] Voice 5: but isn't that should that be like a permanent part of our operational side of planning

[4:01:32] Voice 5: like why is it discretionary if it's fundamental like you know i'm you know

[4:01:39] Voice 5: i'm happy to cut anything pretty much but you know not but my goal is i want the planning to

[4:01:46] Voice 5: work really well because that's what we're supposed to do if this is core to planning

[4:01:50] Voice 5: and our big concern here is the offer our operational um capacity issues

[4:01:58] Voice 5: This sounds like one of those things that we need to find the capacity to do.

[4:02:03] Voice 5: So the question is for both Director Cermak and the CEO, is this in a sense something that should have been shifted from being a strategy to day-to-day normal course component of the work?

[4:02:18] Voice 23: Through the Chair, just briefly, I think that's the purpose of the operational review is then for directors to identify those items and make the corresponding recommended shifts.

[4:02:29] Voice 23: But I'll turn to the CAO to further answer that.

[4:02:34] Voice 22: Yeah, thank you for the question.

[4:02:35] Voice 22: I think in this case, as an example of this is a, to some extent, an extension of ongoing work, but a discrete project to assess in a very real way, how we integrate that ongoing work as a permanent operational piece.

[4:02:50] Voice 22: So it's almost a transitionary measure to kind of evaluate exactly to your point, what is needed then for this to be more fully integrated into how we do the planning work on an ongoing basis.

[4:03:01] Trustee Patrick: I was going to say, I would like to add a point of clarity

[4:03:04] Trustee Patrick: because I think this is where the operations review meets past.

[4:03:09] Trustee Patrick: The freshwater implementation plan, which was approved by this body last term,

[4:03:15] Trustee Patrick: wasn't accompanied by an implementation plan,

[4:03:17] Trustee Patrick: which has now been recognized by the operational review

[4:03:21] Trustee Patrick: that we won't do that anymore.

[4:03:22] Trustee Patrick: So I think this is one of what you're seeing here

[4:03:25] Trustee Patrick: is that we didn't have an implementation plan

[4:03:28] Trustee Patrick: that was clearly made at that time.

[4:03:31] Trustee Patrick: But go ahead and follow up.

[4:03:35] Voice 5: Follow-up question now is kind of the obvious one, which is, okay, if we don't fund this, what are we wrecking?

[4:03:43] Voice 5: You know, in terms of process, in terms of continuity, in terms of delivering on what we really want to deliver on, which is good planning, are we putting that in jeopardy if we don't fund this?

[4:03:53] Voice 5: Because if the answer to that is yes, we put it in jeopardy, then I would support keeping it in.

[4:04:00] Voice 5: Thank you.

[4:04:02] Voice 22: Yeah, and Director Cermak can elaborate on this if he wants.

[4:04:05] Voice 22: But yeah, from my view, it is integral to allow us to harness the full value of the work that has been done to date on the freshwater strategy.

[4:04:15] Voice 22: You know, to the Chair's point, without that, we've done all this work to date, but then what?

[4:04:24] Voice 22: You know, and to some extent, I'll be the first to admit that sometimes this sort of sunk cost shouldn't be the sole rationale for continuing to invest in something.

[4:04:31] Voice 22: but I think we have we have a bulk of work there now that has potential to substantively improve

[4:04:37] Voice 22: how we we do a core function and this is kind of the next piece of the puzzle to allow us to do

[4:04:42] Voice 22: that.

[4:04:45] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Getty then Boland.

[4:04:49] Voice 7: So if the freshwater strategy review is important in terms

[4:04:54] Voice 7: of gathering up all the information that's been done over a period of time and that it may be at

[4:05:00] Voice 7: loose ends and um it's been uh difficult to correlate all of that material um and i'm also

[4:05:09] Voice 7: mindful of the other discussions that we had in terms of it's an election year and the staff are

[4:05:13] Voice 7: going to be spread out pretty thin and it's going to be hard to um get everything done that that's

[4:05:20] Voice 7: a lot of extra work plus um we've got this policy major policy statement that has a whole lot of

[4:05:26] Voice 7: stuff about fresh water and priorities and directives so i'm wondering if we can

[4:05:31] Voice 7: realistically accomplish the first part in terms of collating all of the material that's there

[4:05:37] Voice 7: but then leave the implementation until and defer that to the next fiscal year without wrecking the

[4:05:45] Voice 7: whole thing thanks

[4:05:49] Voice 23: to the chair um i think they implemented pardon me i think the implementation

[4:05:53] Voice 23: plan is the critical component here because we have a strategy what we're proposing is to you

[4:06:01] Voice 23: know create a clear report of what we've accomplished what's where we're at now and

[4:06:06] Voice 23: what we'd like to complete but where we have kind of stumbled as the chair has rightly indicated is

[4:06:13] Voice 23: the implementation plan and committing to it and i could you know there's been many years that

[4:06:18] Voice 23: there's been a budget proposed before trust council that hasn't been successful and from

[4:06:23] Voice 23: staff's perspective we could say oh well we didn't get funded so we kind of limped along and we found

[4:06:28] Voice 23: different ways to accomplish some of those goals so i think it would be best to create a review

[4:06:34] Voice 23: and a proposed implementation plan but keep in mind that doesn't mean that we trust council will

[4:06:40] Voice 23: approve uh what's in the implementation plan to implement it that makes sense so you'll create a

[4:06:45] Voice 23: a shopping list of things to do and some actions and some of those will cost money it'll create a

[4:06:50] Voice 23: five-year plan type thing to finance going forward and so it's not necessarily committing you to

[4:06:57] Voice 23: those things what it is is giving you options of how to do that so i would think that would be a

[4:07:00] Voice 23: very wise thing to do at this stage of review all

[4:07:07] Trustee Patrick: right our list is getting very long uh

[4:07:08] Trustee Patrick: you're on a second time but being chair of your committee so go ahead i'll

[4:07:15] Voice 2: try and keep it short

[4:07:16] Voice 2: I actually think that the review is the critical part, even though the review came about through the fact that people were looking for an implementation plan.

[4:07:26] Voice 2: There's been a lot of work done and it's not necessarily well known and it's not necessarily being replicated.

[4:07:35] Voice 2: I would actually argue that at the end of the review, there could be a pause and, you know, we don't have to have an implementation plan immediately because it could be that, you know, the scale of what's needed is less than originally anticipated.

[4:07:53] Voice 2: anticipated so i would support splitting it uh over the year as uh trustee getty uh suggested

[4:08:01] Voice 2: but um and ultimately depending what else surfaces in the budget it could be in my view could all be

[4:08:11] Voice 2: deferred thank you all

[4:08:14] Trustee Patrick: right we're going to keep chugging through the list there's no motions

[4:08:16] Trustee Patrick: on the table we got a lot of material before us this evening so uh uh trustee stamford

[4:08:22] Trustee Patrick: i've

[4:08:26] Voice 18: been waiting for this strategy to come forward for so long i would hate to see it

[4:08:31] Voice 18: delayed anymore it's critical to ocp work um it it's just how we function on the islands is so

[4:08:39] Voice 18: dependent on the for our understanding of fresh water on each island for the island i represent

[4:08:45] Voice 18: and maybe it's not going to be a big issue but there's other islands like the thorman bees

[4:08:51] Voice 18: this is absolutely critical to understand so i i really want to see this keep moving

[4:08:58] Voice 18: trustee lockham thank

[4:09:03] Trustee Luckham: you chair um i'm having difficulty with understanding this and um

[4:09:10] Trustee Luckham: somebody set me straight if i'm gonna embarrass myself but uh this is a contracted services that

[4:09:18] Trustee Luckham: we're talking about that somebody that is presumably going to provide skills that we

[4:09:23] Trustee Luckham: don't have within the team already. There's a significant amount of hours associated with

[4:09:31] Trustee Luckham: the continuation of this work by the team. And so I don't really have an understanding

[4:09:38] Trustee Luckham: of what it is the consultant is going to do here. It doesn't use the language peer review

[4:09:45] Trustee Luckham: in here. And is that a necessary element of the equation? And so it just begs the question is,

[4:09:54] Trustee Luckham: is this something that may indeed take more of our own resources away to complete

[4:10:00] Trustee Luckham: those things for which we're looking to contract out? So it just begs the question,

[4:10:07] Trustee Luckham: can we do this internally and might take a little bit longer without this expenditure?

[4:10:14] Trustee Luckham: I don't see the answer in this material to what the actual work is.

[4:10:21] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Director Cermak.

[4:10:23] Voice 23: Thank you, Chair.

[4:10:25] Voice 23: The deliverables there perhaps are not as clear as you'd like, Trustee Luckin,

[4:10:30] Voice 23: but a focused review of the existing fresh water sustainability strategy will,

[4:10:35] Voice 23: and it lists a bunch of items such as assess effectiveness and outcomes of implementing the fresh water sustainability strategy.

[4:10:42] Voice 23: strategy those are all implied to be done by a professional third party person and the reason

[4:10:50] Voice 23: there's so much staff resources though is because if you look further on there's a lot this is

[4:10:55] Voice 23: anticipated there'll be a lot of internal meetings scheduled so that we can review all the deliverables

[4:11:02] Voice 23: and all the actions that are happening and as i've said it's integral to all the projects going on so

[4:11:07] Voice 23: So that's a lot of meetings, and we wanted to give a realistic time commitment.

[4:11:11] Voice 23: So in terms of having the internal staff resources, as I've said, the Regional Planning Committee has recommended that they only have two projects, this being one.

[4:11:20] Voice 23: So we do think we have the staff resources as per the feasibility assessment.

[4:11:24] Voice 23: But the Regional Planning Committee has expressed strongly the desire to have a third-person review this project.

[4:11:32] Voice 23: And I think that's true because our internal resources, we have one expert.

[4:11:37] Voice 23: And he's so into these projects that, you know, we would need an external person to be objective.

[4:11:42] Voice 23: Not that this person isn't professional objective, but that's the best way to do good business.

[4:11:49] Trustee Patrick: Mr. Borthwick.

[4:11:52] Voice 31: Yeah, so just sort of coming in, I'm the vice chair of the RPC.

[4:12:00] Voice 31: And a lot of the bits and pieces that I'm feeling and thinking have been sort of touched on in one point or another.

[4:12:07] Voice 31: other um you know this is obviously very important very significant work um but to be a little you

[4:12:14] Voice 31: know the risk of being somewhat controversial and i want to preface this also by saying that

[4:12:19] Voice 31: i'm extremely grateful for the work that's being done on this and i think it is good um and i want

[4:12:25] Voice 31: to support staff in this but i am one of the people who has been keen to see a review of this

[4:12:30] Voice 31: this process, because it can be somewhat opaque, even internally at times. And I've seen that

[4:12:37] Voice 31: risk. So part of the larger half of this business case is for facilitating review so that we can get

[4:12:47] Voice 31: a clear grasp on the asks that we're being presented with, and that it has been the subject

[4:12:55] Voice 31: of some interrogation at RPC.

[4:12:56] Voice 31: So I think it is worth it to sort of question this.

[4:12:59] Voice 31: And I appreciate the CAO's comment

[4:13:01] Voice 31: in terms of re-sunk costs not in and of themselves

[4:13:05] Voice 31: being a significant reason to do things.

[4:13:07] Voice 31: And I appreciate that he was making it

[4:13:08] Voice 31: in the alternate way that I'm making it now,

[4:13:11] Voice 31: but I think it's referencing the same concept.

[4:13:15] Voice 31: I do want to see this broadly supported in the long-term.

[4:13:19] Voice 31: And I want to, my reasons for wanting to interrogate it

[4:13:22] Voice 31: at RPC have been that I want to support it full throat like I would like to with my whole chest

[4:13:29] Voice 31: to be able to say yes this is fantastic work and I want to do the things and it's been difficult to

[4:13:33] Voice 31: get entirely to grasps with that so I would be curious and I would be prepared to make a motion

[4:13:38] Voice 31: because I know we're waiting for one around this debate but I would I would like to possibly just

[4:13:44] Voice 31: ask Director Cermak what the implications would be of focusing on the external review for this

[4:13:52] Voice 31: this year, especially in light of all the other discussions we're having in this desire to sort

[4:13:56] Voice 31: of carve things down. And then what the implications would be of or and or what are the implications of

[4:14:03] Voice 31: potentially funding the review and the implementation guide to a lesser amount? I know

[4:14:08] Voice 31: that may not just may not be possible. And I don't want to, I don't want to like hamstring the

[4:14:14] Voice 31: project by by underfunding it, I want to make sure that it's going ahead with all the resources it

[4:14:19] Voice 31: needs. And in the light of all the discussions and in the light of my experience from this,

[4:14:25] Voice 31: I wonder if there isn't an implementation guide developed this fiscal, will this do irreparable

[4:14:33] Voice 31: long-term damage? Or is there a sustainable amount of momentum that would carry us through

[4:14:39] Voice 31: and that we could then properly invest in in the future with the benefit of the external review?

[4:14:45] Voice 31: you.

[4:14:47] Voice 23: Thank you through the chair. I think the implementation guide again is a modest investment

[4:14:53] Voice 23: of ten thousand dollars proposed and it'd be extended as you know two components of the review

[4:14:58] Voice 23: and the implementation plan. That plan will help future trust councils have business cases and how

[4:15:05] Voice 23: to plan the next four or five years depending on what the implementation is and I would think it's

[4:15:10] Voice 23: a critical part so to not include the implementation plan would save you ten thousand dollars now but

[4:15:16] Voice 23: But then it will delay perhaps the implementation of the project for another year and a half.

[4:15:20] Voice 23: Costs rise, projects don't complete, and it's not as forming as an integral part of your decision making.

[4:15:27] Voice 23: So, you know, I don't want to be cheeky with my analogy, but I think it would be wise investment to include it at this time of the review.

[4:15:39] Voice 12: Just deep fast. Thank you.

[4:15:43] Voice 12: I wasn't going to speak to this because I think it should just stay in the budget and we should move on.

[4:15:49] Voice 12: Um, I will, however, with the mention of the word, uh, delay, um, say that it's taken us until this point speaking as a member of Bowen Island Council, uh, for staff and the community to become engaged with the freshwater project and the, uh, data and mapping that comes with that.

[4:16:10] Voice 12: now Bowen staff and community groups like the Bowen Island Conservancy are

[4:16:16] Voice 12: working with this data and presumably consultants who we've already got RFPs

[4:16:21] Voice 12: out for watershed management plans and I think from 2013 to this year is a long

[4:16:31] Voice 12: time and a review and an implementation plan I think are would help to clarify

[4:16:36] Voice 12: the project so that it's not opaque and so that other collaborators out there, whether they be First Nations or consultants or community groups and Bowen Council, can continue to work with the project and use the materials to better steward the islands.

[4:17:00] Voice 12: and we're worried about fresh water on Bowen too.

[4:17:03] Voice 12: And I think we should just leave this in the budget

[4:17:06] Voice 12: and move on.

[4:17:06] Voice 12: Thank you.

[4:17:08] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Campbell, I see your hand went up and down.

[4:17:11] Trustee Patrick: So over to you.

[4:17:13] Voice 29: I think for me the problem with this

[4:17:17] Voice 29: is that being a member of the RPC,

[4:17:20] Voice 29: I believe it was our first meeting

[4:17:22] Voice 29: that we considered the freshwater sustainability project

[4:17:28] Voice 29: and an implementation plan for it.

[4:17:31] Voice 29: And it was turned around and sent back because it wasn't very clear what really we were trying to approve.

[4:17:38] Voice 29: And I feel like listening to this conversation three years later, pretty much it hasn't moved anywhere as far as gaining any sort of clarity.

[4:17:50] Voice 29: So I would definitely not be in favor of voting for an implementation plan of something that hasn't been able to be clarified in three years.

[4:18:01] Voice 29: um and i definitely would vote for it to be reviewed because i feel like

[4:18:05] Voice 29: if it's taken three years and we still don't have clarity about what we're trying to do

[4:18:11] Voice 29: something in it is flawed and it needs to be possibly scrapped that is how i feel

[4:18:24] Trustee Patrick: removed what he was using words trustee locum then trustee evans and then hopefully we can move on

[4:18:32] Trustee Luckham: Thank you. This is a continuation of a project. And I guess what I want to assess is how much money have we already invested in this, including grant money, so that I know what the investment is, and how many hours of staff have been already spent on this project.

[4:18:54] Trustee Luckham: Like, if this is a wrap-up, then it does strike me, and I'm hearing an awful lot of interest in advancing this around the table and moving in that direction, but just would like to have that clarity.

[4:19:06] Trustee Luckham: So how much money, cash, has this cost us already?

[4:19:09] Trustee Luckham: And the grant money and ballpark, what kind of hours we got invested in?

[4:19:15] Trustee Patrick: Does anyone have that number by hand?

[4:19:18] Trustee Patrick: I know it's hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[4:19:20] Trustee Patrick: dollars. Director Mods, do you have a bigger

[4:19:28] Voice 10: guess on? Probably not one that's any more educated at

[4:19:32] Voice 10: this point. I could take a few minutes to pull up the history while you continue your debate,

[4:19:37] Voice 10: and I'll let you know.

[4:19:38] Trustee Patrick: I know it's a big number. Trustee Evans.

[4:19:44] Voice 9: Thanks. So that was sort of part

[4:19:46] Voice 9: of my question. For me, again, I think having the external portion done for the $15,000 is

[4:19:54] Voice 9: moving this in the right direction. Where I'm more concerned is the 900 hours of internal staff

[4:20:02] Voice 9: resourcing to work on the implementation plan when we are trying to free up staff resources

[4:20:08] Voice 9: for reorganization internally. This is a huge undertaking of staff resourcing.

[4:20:18] Voice 9: I don't know if the staff resourcing is going to be available at the latter end of the year after

[4:20:23] Voice 9: we have found an external consultant to pull this work together. So if anything, I would rather

[4:20:33] Voice 9: reduce the number of staff resourcing and move that into the following budget, rather than saying

[4:20:41] Voice 9: 900 hours for next fiscal. I want to see some of the hours relieved in order to focus on the

[4:20:50] Voice 9: the reorganization work that we're supposed to be attempting to do here.

[4:20:57] Trustee Patrick: Right. I know normally the chair, I don't like to wade in on conversations,

[4:21:02] Trustee Patrick: but the freshwater strategy is one that began last term.

[4:21:06] Trustee Patrick: He said it was a mistake.

[4:21:08] Trustee Patrick: It had been recognized that an implementation plan would have been created as sort of a first step.

[4:21:13] Trustee Patrick: It didn't happen.

[4:21:14] Trustee Patrick: and work got going and the regional planning committee uh wanted to see the implementation

[4:21:21] Trustee Patrick: plan and this is the process that we're moving to this is a multi-year multi-island ongoing work

[4:21:29] Trustee Patrick: of a of a significant plan for this organization that has a lot of attention of our community

[4:21:36] Trustee Patrick: and necessary work so it's bringing order to the plan because some of us have islands where we're

[4:21:43] Trustee Patrick: wondering what's happened. Where's the data that's been done in Ireland? I'm glad to hear it's been

[4:21:46] Trustee Patrick: presented on Bowen. It hasn't been presented on Salisbury yet. So when's that going to happen?

[4:21:50] Trustee Patrick: So I think it's having that plan and bringing this data to life. And now I've made more people

[4:21:55] Trustee Patrick: come to speak on this item. We have Getty and then Maberly.

[4:22:03] Voice 7: Sorry, I put forward a motion with

[4:22:06] Voice 7: respect to option one, proceed with implementation, but not proceed with review. No, sorry. Do not

[4:22:13] Voice 7: proceed with implementation but proceed with review mine's not as well worded but so are you

[4:22:21] Trustee Patrick: making are you making a motion i did forward a motion did you get that effectively it's option

[4:22:30] Voice 7: one it's not as well worded but all

[4:22:40] Trustee Patrick: right is the wording of this i'm going to look to stop does

[4:22:43] Trustee Patrick: this make sense you're okay that makes sense okay uh trust you may believe were you seconding that

[4:23:02] Trustee Patrick: No.

[4:23:02] Voice 33: Yeah, I'm going to second the motion. I think.

[4:23:05] Trustee Patrick: All right. Are you then? Are you going to speak?

[4:23:09] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[4:23:10] Voice 33: I think that's a good point. I mean, I think the fact that we're doing an external review on the project, we don't know what the outcome of that external review is.

[4:23:21] Voice 33: So to move ahead with an implementation plan at this point, if the external review comes back and everything's OK, we're going to do that in the next fiscal anyways.

[4:23:30] Voice 33: ways so um um you know second motion to support that approach um hopefully the next time this

[4:23:40] Voice 33: comes up with just an implementation plan and i'm stumbling over all my words today um that will be

[4:23:47] Voice 33: the last time we see it in the budget all right so uh yeah speak in favor of the motion but before

[4:23:53] Trustee Patrick: we proceed any further staff has reminded me i didn't ask trustee giddy to read the motion that's

[4:23:58] Trustee Patrick: on the screen. Even though it's been seconded, I'm going to ask Trustee Getty to please read the motion

[4:24:02] Voice 7: for the record. I move that we split the Freshwater Sustainability Strategy Review

[4:24:06] Voice 7: and Implementation Business Plan, support the first section, the review,

[4:24:10] Voice 7: and defer the implementation plan.

[4:24:16] Voice 10: Director Mobs, did you have something you wanted to add?

[4:24:18] Voice 10: The motion is seconded now, so I don't think it can be changed. I was going to suggest just including the dollars

[4:24:23] Voice 10: that are supported. It's helpful just from my perspective, but I can

[4:24:27] Voice 10: can just go find them um i looked up historical spending on freshwater sustainability strategy

[4:24:32] Voice 10: it looks to be about 170 000 over the year the bulk of that was last term only

[4:24:37] Trustee Patrick: 170 000 that's

[4:24:39] Voice 10: what we've got in our budget documents i'm confirming i can't access our accounting system

[4:24:44] Voice 10: from here so i'm confirming that with my staff but our budget documents have 170 000 i know that's

[4:24:51] Trustee Patrick: more than that so something's weird scrambles anyway

[4:24:53] Trustee Patrick: all right uh no we have a list uh trustee

[4:24:56] Trustee Patrick: Bernardo, you're speaking on motion.

[4:24:59] Voice 5: I have to oppose the motion, and I confess to more than

[4:25:04] Voice 5: a little bewilderment about how these proceedings have gone on for about a half hour now. We're

[4:25:11] Voice 5: talking about money and staff resources that were previously budgeted. I'm concerned about

[4:25:20] Voice 5: about this propensity we have to micromanage. The reaction, this finessing of whether we go

[4:25:32] Voice 5: for the whole thing or half a loaf, as far as I can tell, is being motivated by the spirit of

[4:25:39] Voice 5: the operational review, which is, you know, we've got to allocate resources to, you know,

[4:25:43] Voice 5: streamline things and all that kind of stuff. Fine, except the same people who did the operational

[4:25:50] Voice 5: review are telling us this is integral to their work it's integral to operations what are we doing

[4:25:57] Voice 5: they're telling us what they're being very respectful staff is telling us what they need

[4:26:03] Voice 5: we're not listening to them so that's why i oppose this motion um i've heard the bit i mean

[4:26:11] Voice 5: in the practical terms we've all heard um there are real operational reasons for doing the whole

[4:26:18] Voice 5: thing this year why are we not listening to the staff the same staff that's told us what the

[4:26:23] Voice 5: operational problems are i think we need to trust staff to know where the operational picks um you

[4:26:30] Voice 5: know picking where the resources go uh we need to listen to them when they when they tell us that

[4:26:36] Voice 5: they don't have enough resources then it has to be managed but we also have to listen to them when

[4:26:40] Voice 5: they advise us where the resources should be spent they're doing that to us for us at this point and

[4:26:45] Voice 5: And that's why I think we should support the staff by refusing this resolution.

[4:26:50] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Trustee Getty?

[4:26:53] Trustee Patrick: Oh, it passed.

[4:26:56] Trustee Patrick: Okay. No further speakers?

[4:27:00] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans?

[4:27:05] Voice 9: I do support this, and I support what Trustee Mabee Lee said.

[4:27:13] Voice 9: Once we get the external review back, that will determine the amount of work required.

[4:27:19] Voice 9: and I think it's it's a bit of the cart before the horse to approve both at this

[4:27:25] Voice 9: juncture I would I I suppose that

[4:27:31] Trustee Patrick: trustee Campbell then I'm going to call

[4:27:33] Trustee Patrick: the vote trustee Campbell

[4:27:35] Voice 29: I'm in support of of the motion and I think with all

[4:27:41] Voice 29: due respect the reasons that it needs to be done is that I don't come from

[4:27:47] Voice 29: regional planning this is something that has been asked for for three years and to still be coming

[4:27:54] Voice 29: back to this point with no clarity um disqualifies it from moving forward until it has been reviewed

[4:28:01] Voice 29: all

[4:28:04] Trustee Patrick: right seeing the end of the speaker list i'm going to call the vote all those in favor

[4:28:10] Trustee Patrick: raise your hands thank

[4:28:20] Voice 21: you okay

[4:28:21] Trustee Patrick: lower your hands all those opposed raise your hands 13 to 10 so

[4:28:39] Trustee Patrick: So that carries.

[4:28:41] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees, I'm going to keep moving forward.

[4:28:44] Trustee Patrick: We're really got to pick up some pace here, just to let you know.

[4:28:49] Trustee Patrick: We are at the Islands Trust Conservancy projects.

[4:28:55] Trustee Patrick: We have the Islands Trust Conservancy five-year plan,

[4:28:57] Trustee Patrick: First Nations engagement project on page 157.

[4:29:03] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans?

[4:29:06] Voice 9: I have a question.

[4:29:07] Voice 9: I saw it somewhere.

[4:29:08] Voice 9: I can't find it now.

[4:29:09] Voice 9: There was a comment by, as I recall it, I may be wrong, I thought I read somewhere in the package that the Islands Trust Conservancy had mentioned what they could and could not use the million-dollar donation for.

[4:29:26] Voice 9: And I can't remember whether it could be used for First Nations engagement or not.

[4:29:31] Voice 9: And if I could get some clarity on that, that would be great.

[4:29:38] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Director Prater.

[4:29:40] Voice 20: Yes, that's within the briefing in the Financial Planning Services section.

[4:29:44] Voice 20: i don't have the page number for you right now but um essentially the the donation can not be used

[4:29:50] Voice 20: for like administration of the trust for the guidelines it's simply for like new projects

[4:29:58] Trustee Patrick: all right

[4:30:01] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to, oh, Trustee Maverly?

[4:30:03] Trustee Patrick: I'm

[4:30:04] Voice 33: going to ask a question on Director Freyja then.

[4:30:08] Voice 33: So it could be used for capacity funding to Indigenous bodies, the donation.

[4:30:13] Voice 33: Could be used for capacity funding for Indigenous bodies.

[4:30:20] Voice 20: Yeah, so the donation is for the Opportunity Fund, which is to fund projects.

[4:30:26] Voice 16: Conservationally.

[4:30:26] Voice 20: Like, so for conservation-related projects, not for administration.

[4:30:30] Voice 20: So in this instance, the Five-Year Plan is an administrative initiative.

[4:30:33] Voice 20: of so the fund is the fund could not be used for that purpose okay

[4:30:37] Trustee Patrick: all right i'm going to keep

[4:30:40] Trustee Patrick: moving the next item is the protected area management software project page oh i'm sorry

[4:30:48] Trustee Patrick: trustee

[4:30:49] Voice 2: boland i missed you so uh thanks for that information director fraser but at the last

[4:30:56] Voice 2: last financial planning when i was there there was a just a discussion about the whole of the

[4:31:05] Voice 2: alice trust conservancy budget and the fact that it had got up significantly partly because

[4:31:10] Voice 2: the species at risk funding didn't exist anymore but in any case there was a discussion about how

[4:31:19] Voice 2: how some of that donation might be used to mitigate the very large increase.

[4:31:26] Voice 2: I wonder what the conclusion was.

[4:31:28] Voice 2: Is there any part of the IDC budget that can be funded by that donation?

[4:31:34] Voice 2: Thank you.

[4:31:38] Voice 17: Kirsty Elliott?

[4:31:42] Voice 17: Yes, thank you for that.

[4:31:44] Voice 17: So it is on page 281 of the agenda.

[4:31:47] Voice 17: This was the briefing that provides background to the Financial Planning Committee about their request to ITC, whether we could use that budget.

[4:32:03] Voice 17: Sorry, is this the briefing?

[4:32:06] Voice 17: No, that's not as a result of the ITC.

[4:32:09] Voice 17: So where was the briefing going back to Financial Planning?

[4:32:12] Voice 17: Or no, that went to Executive Committee and then was forwarded to this agenda.

[4:32:16] Voice 17: sorry I misspoke is it in the agenda sorry I missed the main point is that

[4:32:26] Voice 17: the bulk of that 1 million dollars has been put in a secure high interest rate

[4:32:35] Voice 17: investment because no the intent is also to engage with nations on projects that

[4:32:47] Voice 17: that can be used from the opportunity fund.

[4:32:50] Voice 17: And so the intent is not to dole out that money

[4:32:53] Voice 17: for our current status of operations.

[4:32:55] Voice 17: We need to engage with nations on the five-year plan,

[4:32:57] Voice 17: including what do we do with the significant donation?

[4:33:00] Voice 17: What will benefit nations in the trust area?

[4:33:02] Voice 17: What is their view of how that money should be used?

[4:33:05] Voice 17: And so the bulk of the money has been put

[4:33:06] Voice 17: in a secure long-term investment.

[4:33:08] Voice 17: There is still some money available,

[4:33:10] Voice 17: I think about 300,000 for opportunity grant funded projects,

[4:33:14] Voice 17: but not for operations.

[4:33:17] Voice 17: i hope that's accurate trustee getty and

[4:33:21] Trustee Patrick: trustee moberly thank you um

[4:33:23] Voice 7: the trust conservancy

[4:33:26] Voice 7: in this application is uh sorry at page 157 is asking for a hundred thousand 110 000 for

[4:33:34] Voice 7: capacity building for uh funding i can't find the details right now but it's basically having

[4:33:42] Voice 7: meetings and getting people to share their knowledge and and using up a lot of their

[4:33:47] Voice 7: time to help explain to us and work with us is that the same as the capacity funding that was

[4:33:55] Voice 7: recommended in the CAO report so we've got two positions plus capacity in that one this is a

[4:34:02] Voice 7: different organization but it's the same object go ahead thank

[4:34:07] Voice 22: you chair yeah this so this is

[4:34:09] Voice 22: proposal is for dedicated capacity funding to support the five-year plan and the engagement

[4:34:14] Voice 22: needed to advance the five-year plan that is the hundred

[4:34:18] Voice 22: thousand that was in the ops review

[4:34:19] Voice 22: is for broader uh islands trust capacity funding to support broader islands trust so this this

[4:34:26] Voice 22: proposal from the conservancy board is in recognition of the fact that they're

[4:34:31] Voice 22: per the minister's direction on their five-year plan there's going to require extensive engagement

[4:34:36] Voice 22: with first nations and they anticipate um a desire for capacity funding from many of those nations

[4:34:44] Trustee Patrick: Trustee neighbourly.

[4:34:46] Voice 33: Yeah, thanks. I think the question is for Trustee Elliott. So if the bulk of the

[4:34:51] Voice 33: donation had been deposited or had been put into an earning fund, can the money earned off of that

[4:35:02] Voice 33: be used for capacity funding?

[4:35:11] Voice 21: I

[4:35:12] Voice 17: think we need to ask staff. I'm not sure.

[4:35:22] Voice 16: Hello, Wendy Terrell, manager of the Island Stress Conservancy.

[4:35:26] Voice 16: Can you repeat the question, please?

[4:35:28] Voice 33: So as Trustee Elliott said, a large portion of the donation had been put into a deposit to earn interest.

[4:35:41] Voice 33: Can the interest be used for capacity funding?

[4:35:45] Voice 16: So the first thing I'd like to mention is that we should speak to the Opportunity Fund, not the donation.

[4:35:50] Voice 16: so the donator the anonymous donation went to the opportunity fund and it is now part of

[4:35:56] Voice 16: the opportunity fund so when we speak of using those funds we should speak to the opportunity

[4:36:01] Voice 16: fund and not the donation so i just want to make that clear um the returns as well need to be spent

[4:36:09] Voice 16: on the same guidelines that are provided for the principal so in answer to question no capacity

[4:36:15] Voice 16: funding couldn't be used from the returns. It is specifically for conservation related projects

[4:36:21] Voice 16: and securement projects. That's what the opportunity, that's what the board designed it for

[4:36:26] Voice 16: and that's how it's grown.

[4:36:29] Trustee Patrick: Great job. Trustee Elliott.

[4:36:32] Voice 17: That isn't to say that projects proposed

[4:36:36] Voice 17: by a nation to conserve or protect or manage those areas could not access the opportunity fund

[4:36:44] Voice 17: And the reason it was put into that secure long-term investment is so that we could create strategy with nations for how the grant or how the opportunity grant and those guidelines should be developed.

[4:36:59] Voice 17: Because it was originally envisioned to be a very small grant, you know, $5,000 here, $10,000 here. With the addition of this large donation, there's the opportunity to do work with First Nations and secure lands that they would like to have a hand in preserving and protecting.

[4:37:18] Voice 17: So that's why we need to create some strategy first. And we didn't want to just tap into the principle before there's a really good co-strategy development with First Nations.

[4:37:30] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees, we're going to keep moving then.

[4:37:33] Trustee Patrick: We have the Protected Area Management Software Project.

[4:37:38] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans?

[4:37:41] Voice 9: I feel like I should start apologizing now.

[4:37:44] Voice 9: I have another question for, I think, the CAO on this one

[4:37:49] Voice 9: and also for the Islands Trust Conservancy.

[4:37:52] Voice 9: We had been talking about the Information Technology Five-Year Plan.

[4:37:58] Voice 9: plan does the islands trust conservancy fall under that information technology five-year plan

[4:38:04] Voice 9: and if it does should this be deferred until that plan is created and my second half of that

[4:38:11] Voice 9: question is um if that were to be the case how how significant is the impact because i know that

[4:38:19] Voice 9: there's an awful lot of work that is required and needed for the gis so i just i'm asking purely out

[4:38:24] Voice 9: out of curiosity for those two questions.

[4:38:31] Voice 22: So I'm sorry to.

[4:38:33] Voice 22: Thank you, Chair.

[4:38:34] Voice 22: In answer to the first question, yes,

[4:38:36] Voice 22: I would anticipate the Conservancy would be captured

[4:38:38] Voice 22: within that five-year IMIT plan.

[4:38:40] Voice 22: This particular project, however,

[4:38:42] Voice 22: is has work has been underway on this for some time.

[4:38:46] Voice 22: And so this is really trying to advance the work

[4:38:48] Voice 22: that has been done and bring it to fruition.

[4:38:50] Voice 22: So that's why it would,

[4:38:52] Voice 22: it's proposed to continue next fiscal

[4:38:54] Voice 22: so that we can aim to complete it.

[4:38:55] Voice 22: All

[4:38:58] Trustee Patrick: right. Oops. Trustee Middleton.

[4:39:06] Voice 1: Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I just note, paying up some of the same things, Trustee Evans, is I think it would seem to me that GIS software should be an integrated application across the organization.

[4:39:20] Voice 1: And I'm wondering if both supporting and licensing GIS software don't look like insignificant costs.

[4:39:30] Voice 1: So I'm just wondering if there could be a rethink of this item.

[4:39:34] Voice 1: I suspect the work on this began before our CAO lighted upon the fact that we need to have a five-year IT plan to make sense of sort of our investments and the way we go forward.

[4:39:47] Voice 1: So is there any opportunity to put a pause on this and potentially the GIS person will be approved today or potentially they won't?

[4:39:57] Voice 1: If they're not, it seems to me that very much so there should be a pause on investment in this GIS management software.

[4:40:05] Voice 1: So I just wonder, is there a way that this can be rephrased to be contingent upon the beginning of the work of the five-year plan and the hiring of the GIS technician?

[4:40:17] Voice 1: So, you know, it could perhaps proceed this budget year, but it's only budgeted if those prior factors come into play.

[4:40:25] Voice 1: Because otherwise, I think it's going to be flat. I can't see how it wouldn't flounder in that environment without support from the broader organization and integration into the larger GIS picture.

[4:40:41] Trustee Patrick: I'm just looking to staff. That's a very technical question. Go ahead, Director Frieder.

[4:40:46] Voice 20: I'm so happy to speak to this. So this project is working off the existing platform we have.

[4:40:51] Voice 20: So the licensing would be for an extension of that software to accommodate the specific needs of the conservancy.

[4:40:56] Voice 20: In the past, we tried to host custom software. It was called Tapas Info that is now a legacy product that's not well supported and frankly not usable.

[4:41:05] Voice 20: So we're looking to move the data into an extension of Esri, which is our current platform.

[4:41:10] Voice 20: We've been assured by the GIS department that they have time and time to support this project in the next year within their current planned work.

[4:41:18] Voice 20: And I think it would feed into the plan, but it's frankly years delayed already and is hampering our ability to effectively manage these protected areas.

[4:41:25] Voice 20: areas so I think my recommendation is that it proceed as a standalone project but inform the

[4:41:29] Voice 20: development of the five-year plan and it will frankly give us the intelligence we need to then

[4:41:34] Voice 20: better inform that five-year plan as far as the conservancy's needs are into the future.

[4:41:39] Voice 20: All right Trustee Yates.

[4:41:42] Voice 24: Thank you Director Frater. We don't we cannot keep delaying the

[4:41:47] Voice 24: five-year plan that's for sure and we're definitely getting there with all the work we've done in the

[4:41:52] Voice 24: the last couple of days. But the thing that I really noticed in the staff report for this request

[4:41:57] Voice 24: is that information staff have advised ITC staff that ITC needs to migrate to an alternative

[4:42:08] Voice 24: GIS data management system because the TAPIS info is not a long-term solution to ITC's key

[4:42:17] Voice 24: key functional need for supporting ongoing property data and management tracking.

[4:42:22] Voice 24: Because the kind of data that the Conservancy needs for protected areas, endangered species,

[4:42:30] Voice 24: is quite different than, you know, what may be provided by other TAPIS data.

[4:42:38] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[4:42:39] Trustee Patrick: I'm not seeing any other speakers.

[4:42:41] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to move on.

[4:42:42] Trustee Patrick: We're into local trust committee projects.

[4:42:44] Trustee Patrick: We're just flying down this list.

[4:42:46] Trustee Patrick: we are at denman housing review page 174 i'm going to keep moving we're at the gabriola ocp

[4:43:02] Trustee Patrick: land use bylaw review on page 178 the gambier ocp land use bylaw amendments project i've 183

[4:43:16] Trustee Patrick: uh-oh she's not sure

[4:43:23] Voice 21: are

[4:43:25] Trustee Patrick: you raising your hand trusty elliott

[4:43:34] Voice 17: yeah where is this project at i'm i'm not understanding it seems to be taking a long time

[4:43:41] Voice 17: and i get that it's complicated um and just to note as well that fprpc apologies has not had

[4:43:48] Voice 17: a meeting to assess the feasibility of all these projects being advanced so just to let council

[4:43:56] Voice 17: council know that we have not had a discussion about you know how many staff hours is um the

[4:44:03] Voice 17: regional planning team which oversees the rcp reviews going to have enough capacity for all

[4:44:10] Voice 17: of the projects so I think I'm asking some questions now just so we can air which will

[4:44:17] Voice 17: likely be completed what are the holdups and then just maybe let council know that we still need to

[4:44:24] Voice 17: to bring some information back about RPC's inputs on the feasibility of all these projects.

[4:44:35] Voice 19: Go

[4:44:35] Voice 18: ahead, the rest is answered. I mean, it's a valid question. It has slowed down. I think it's

[4:44:41] Voice 18: slowed down mechanically as much as anything, partly because of the work stoppage. Also,

[4:44:49] Voice 18: So, but we have some really vital information,

[4:44:54] Voice 18: which is we have had the response from the Skolmish Nation,

[4:44:59] Voice 18: and that's where we're beginning our process

[4:45:02] Voice 18: rather than the other way around.

[4:45:04] Voice 18: And because of that, it's how we move forward

[4:45:10] Voice 18: from that different kind of process.

[4:45:14] Voice 18: process, what is slowed down more than anything is external factors, such as the implications of

[4:45:22] Voice 18: the Squamish land use agreement with the province. What does that mean? And community concerns about

[4:45:32] Voice 18: external issues around dock rights and title, or for sure rights and title, things like that,

[4:45:39] Voice 18: that are not specific to our official community plan but are informing concerned residents so we

[4:45:46] Voice 18: have agreed to slow it down but i don't want it to go off the table only because we do have a really

[4:45:53] Voice 18: good response from the squamish and i don't want to invalidate that that huge amount of work so i'm

[4:46:00] Voice 18: I'm hoping that it will continue, but we're working with complicated factors.

[4:46:06] Voice 18: All

[4:46:10] Trustee Patrick: right, going to keep moving.

[4:46:11] Trustee Patrick: We've got the Hornby Comprehensive OCP Land Use Bylaw Review Project 187.

[4:46:18] I'm moving.

[4:46:25] Trustee Patrick: We have the Liskety OCP Review Major Project on page 191.

[4:46:31] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans.

[4:46:34] Voice 9: As I see this, I'm just asking for confirmation.

[4:46:40] Voice 9: this is going to be a new project um if it is a new project can this be deferred for one more year

[4:46:49] Trustee Patrick: let's see uh trustee peterson is

[4:46:51] Voice 6: this is uh um uh an issue of clarity i tried to straighten this

[4:46:56] Voice 6: out earlier but uh this is actually that it's not a new project uh we were advised by uh staff uh

[4:47:06] Voice 6: last year that the project was no longer going to be within the scope of a

[4:47:14] Voice 6: minor project and advised that if we wanted to continue,

[4:47:16] Voice 6: we had to make it into a major project, which we did.

[4:47:19] Voice 6: So it's not a new project.

[4:47:21] Voice 6: It's just a matter of the scope and the dollar figures threshold to become

[4:47:27] Voice 6: major or minor.

[4:47:33] Trustee Patrick: Keep on moving then.

[4:47:35] Trustee Patrick: We're at the Salt Spring major OCP land use bylaw.

[4:47:41] Trustee Patrick: Oh, Trustee Scott.

[4:47:44] Voice 13: I'm sorry, did I miss Hornby?

[4:47:47] Trustee Patrick: Yes, you did.

[4:47:48] Trustee Patrick: We removed the entire budget.

[4:47:49] Trustee Patrick: I'm joking.

[4:47:52] Voice 13: Well, I'm sorry to say I was on a call with a urologist.

[4:47:57] Trustee Patrick: Okay, too much information.

[4:48:01] Voice 13: Yeah, you don't need to know that.

[4:48:02] Voice 13: Could you put the Hornby one back on the screen for me, please?

[4:48:07] Trustee Patrick: Oh, we didn't have it on the screen,

[4:48:09] Trustee Patrick: but we don't want to ask any questions.

[4:48:12] Trustee Patrick: Okay,

[4:48:13] Voice 13: well, what I want to do is point out on there that this goes back to the sufficiency and effectiveness issue that we discussed yesterday, that there's three, four years added on to this project because of the way it turned out.

[4:48:29] Voice 13: So the cost, the increased cost, and I think this kind of inefficiency and effectiveness is not just on Hornby.

[4:48:37] Voice 13: It must be elsewhere as well as how these OCP and land use bylaw reviews take so long.

[4:48:43] Voice 13: So that's just, I just wanted to point out that it really glares, obviously, to me on Hornby.

[4:48:49] Voice 13: So thanks for, yeah, never mind that earlier comment.

[4:48:57] Trustee Patrick: Thanks. Thank you, Trustee Scott.

[4:48:59] Trustee Patrick: So we had no comments on the Salt Spring major projects.

[4:49:04] Trustee Patrick: The next one is the Salt Spring Watershed.

[4:49:07] Trustee Patrick: Oops, you did.

[4:49:08] Trustee Patrick: Sorry, Salt Spring?

[4:49:10] Voice 9: Yes, sorry.

[4:49:11] Voice 9: It just went to Trustee Scott, so I put my hand back down.

[4:49:14] Voice 9: Again, I know that this has been on the books for a long time.

[4:49:17] Voice 9: How much work has actually been initiated on this project?

[4:49:25] Trustee Patrick: I will say that it has been fully funded since April 1, 2023.

[4:49:29] Trustee Patrick: 2023. It did finally get underway, this project. There is a consultant that is, I'll look to

[4:49:37] Trustee Patrick: Director Zermack if he wants to jump in. There is a consultant that has been contracted to work on

[4:49:43] Trustee Patrick: the project. They are moving their way through the project. So it's an active project with active

[4:49:50] Trustee Patrick: engagement occurring in the community.

[4:49:53] Voice 13: It was supposed to be completed in 2023.

[4:49:55] Voice 13: 2023.

[4:49:56] Trustee Patrick: Oh, you thought we're talking about Salt Spring now. Oh, I'm sorry.

[4:50:00] Trustee Patrick: But I agree with the

[4:50:02] Trustee Patrick: 2023 date. But go ahead, Trustee Evans.

[4:50:08] Voice 9: I think my concern and question here is the number of

[4:50:12] Voice 9: hours, 1,800 hours per year per staff, and the amount of actual work that's,

[4:50:19] Voice 9: That's the realistic amount of work that's been happening per year.

[4:50:24] Voice 9: Is there a way to look at whether or not this is realistic for this upcoming budget year?

[4:50:33] Voice 9: Or would it be proposing half the hours this year and half the hours next year?

[4:50:41] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to look to staff.

[4:50:45] Trustee Patrick: Director Cermak?

[4:50:47] Voice 23: Thank you.

[4:50:48] Voice 23: Pardon me.

[4:50:49] Voice 23: Thank you to the chair.

[4:50:49] Voice 23: So currently we've been, the Salt Spring LTC has been, I dare say, surviving, keeping this project alive by the regional planning manager taking over the Island Planner's duties, which is to project manage it.

[4:51:04] Voice 23: He's been doing that amongst juggling many other projects, so kudos to him.

[4:51:10] Voice 23: They've just yesterday gone through a hiring process hoping to get an Island Planner resource, and there's currently another Island Planner posting there.

[4:51:18] Voice 23: All to say is that we're hoping that they'll have at least one full-time island planner who can pick up the slack for this to meet the needs.

[4:51:29] Voice 23: And I think that's a realistic expectation considering now that we've cleared internal hurdles to do some of the hiring.

[4:51:36] Voice 23: I can't get too much into that.

[4:51:38] Voice 23: But we feel confident that we can overcome those hurdles.

[4:51:41] Voice 23: As well, the Salt Spring office, a soft opening if it comes later today.

[4:51:46] Voice 23: staff will be going at the office this week they should be in there right now

[4:51:49] Voice 23: so that's another major project coming off there so I think they have the

[4:51:53] Voice 23: resources that's reflected my feasibility assessment and I think this

[4:51:57] Voice 23: project has momentum there's a lot of community engagement it's a very

[4:52:01] Voice 23: complex community and that momentum with the other there with the regional

[4:52:08] Voice 23: district with community groups and so on and so forth that this project needs to

[4:52:12] Voice 23: to carry that momentum to some sort of conclusion,

[4:52:16] Voice 23: at least to a drafting of a bylaw as soon as possible.

[4:52:22] Trustee Patrick: All right. Trustee Peterson.

[4:52:25] Voice 6: Yeah, just for some further context, I direct your attention,

[4:52:31] Voice 6: Trustee Evans, to the Salt Spring LTC quarterly work program report on page 347

[4:52:39] Voice 6: um that that helps explain a little bit of the difficulties of staffing um in both applications

[4:52:48] Voice 6: and project work right

[4:52:53] Trustee Patrick: we keep moving here we have the salt spring watershed protection plan

[4:52:57] Trustee Patrick: on page 201 i have submitted motions on this one i don't know if you want to bring those up

[4:53:16] Trustee Patrick: Water is of critical importance, as we know, on all of our islands.

[4:53:20] Trustee Patrick: And SWIPA, and I really want to call out former trustee George Grams, who initiated the Bylaw 154 back in 2013.

[4:53:33] Trustee Patrick: 2013. And in 2013, SWPA, as we've all learned to call it, Salt Spring Island Watershed Protection,

[4:53:40] Trustee Patrick: was a modern approach in 2013. Not so much anymore. We have learned watershed governance

[4:53:48] Trustee Patrick: has really progressed substantially. So I'm putting forward two motions because it is on

[4:53:56] Trustee Patrick: that list that we've made a decision on earlier today as no new work for a project that started

[4:54:02] Trustee Patrick: in 2013, which gave me heartburn, is that we have this bylaw, it's a trust council bylaw

[4:54:08] Trustee Patrick: that delegated authority to Salt Spring.

[4:54:12] Trustee Patrick: It's out of date.

[4:54:13] Trustee Patrick: It doesn't mention First Nations.

[4:54:15] Trustee Patrick: It says to coordinate with the regional district, the water district, but not First Nations.

[4:54:22] Trustee Patrick: It's time for this bylaw to be rescinded and that new approaches be considered.

[4:54:29] Trustee Patrick: So the second motion is there's $83,000 that were collected from Salt Spring Island, plus change, that sits in a special reserve fund. And I'll talk to the actions for that one, but that's about tying the reserve fund to the work that includes working with First Nations.

[4:54:47] Trustee Patrick: So the first motion, I'm going to make it, and this is, I move that trust council request staff to prepare a bylaw to rescind bylaw 154, should staff be unable to resource the coordination of the Salt Spring Watershed Protection Plan in 26-27 budget.

[4:55:07] Trustee Patrick: Oops, seconded by Trustee Maude. I just already spoke to it. Is there any questions or discussions? Trustee Peterson.

[4:55:15] Trustee Patrick: Anderson.

[4:55:17] Voice 6: So just for clarity, this is a trust council bylaw 154 is a trust council bylaw. And

[4:55:22] Voice 6: is that the bylaw that administers special tax requisitions?

[4:55:30] Trustee Patrick: This delegated authority.

[4:55:31] Voice 6: Both the delegated authority. Okay, thank you.

[4:55:33] Trustee Patrick: So this delegated authority to Salisbury. I see

[4:55:36] Trustee Patrick: Director Cermak.

[4:55:38] Voice 23: Thank you, Chair. Just a question about this. The kind of a timeline of

[4:55:42] Voice 23: unable to resource the coordination of, I assume that's as of the beginning of the next fiscal,

[4:55:49] Voice 23: April 1st?

[4:55:50] Trustee Patrick: Well, it's because of the decision we made this morning. We said we're not resourcing.

[4:55:54] Trustee Patrick: We cannot resource this. Your director's report says it cannot be resourced. So we can't resource

[4:56:00] Trustee Patrick: the work and the delegated authorities out of date. So it's about time to just say it. This

[4:56:07] Trustee Patrick: This is sort of related to the operational review.

[4:56:09] Trustee Patrick: If we want to focus on good work,

[4:56:12] Trustee Patrick: we sometimes have to let go of the old.

[4:56:14] Trustee Patrick: And as much as this is painful,

[4:56:16] Trustee Patrick: we need to reimagine what watershed governance looks like.

[4:56:20] Trustee Patrick: And it's exciting,

[4:56:22] Trustee Patrick: but it's very different than what was imagined in 2013.

[4:56:26] Trustee Patrick: So that's, so all this motion does is to rescind the bylaw,

[4:56:30] Trustee Patrick: it will come back to you with, you know,

[4:56:33] Trustee Patrick: if staff to rescind it.

[4:56:34] Trustee Patrick: So you're not rescinding it,

[4:56:35] Trustee Patrick: you're just asking staff to prepare a by-law to rescind it. That will be a future decision.

[4:56:41] Trustee Patrick: Any further discussion? I'm going to call the vote. All those in favor? Two hands. All right.

[4:57:00] Voice 25: Thank you. All

[4:57:01] Trustee Patrick: right. Lower your hands. Any opposed? That carries. So thank you,

[4:57:13] Trustee Patrick: trustees. You'll see that again. The second motion is because there is $83,000 that was

[4:57:19] Trustee Patrick: collected by the special tax requisition uh that sits in a uh i'll let director mark uh director

[4:57:25] Trustee Patrick: bombs explain where it sits i'll get it wrong uh

[4:57:29] Voice 10: so funds that were collected for the express

[4:57:31] Voice 10: purpose of the salt spring island freshwater um protection authority that coordination function

[4:57:37] Voice 10: sit in a special reserve fund um it's eighty three thousand five hundred and fifteen dollars

[4:57:41] Voice 10: that is in that fund currently um special requisition monies when collected must be held

[4:57:46] Voice 10: in reserve to be used for the purpose that they were collected for until such time as that project

[4:57:52] Voice 10: is completed then those funds can be redirected to other work in that same local trust area thank

[4:57:58] Trustee Patrick: you so the second motion is we last term the local trust committee did sponsor have a watershed

[4:58:05] Trustee Patrick: protection plan that was created these actions there's four actions that were designed to talk

[4:58:12] Trustee Patrick: about collaborating with first nations completing the governance review for creating the governance

[4:58:19] Trustee Patrick: for watershed protection and working with the province and exploring so there's a bunch of

[4:58:24] Trustee Patrick: tools here so what this does is it just ties the mentions that this should be about coordinating

[4:58:30] Trustee Patrick: those actions that are about coordinating governance to that funding that's going to

[4:58:35] Trustee Patrick: to be remaining there i see

[4:58:39] Trustee Patrick: a question on trustee may really just

[4:58:42] Voice 33: uh for director um so what if the

[4:58:45] Voice 33: project never gets completed if

[4:58:49] Voice 10: a project were to just be in limbo uh we would make a suggestion

[4:58:54] Voice 10: that that project be formally uh put to sleep and then we can redirect those funds okay thank you

[4:59:00] Voice 5: uh trustee

[4:59:02] Trustee Patrick: bernardo yeah

[4:59:04] Voice 5: i had the same thought as trustee maverly which is um it's well within

[4:59:08] Voice 5: the realm of possibility that the money could just sit in a corner and as things unfold nothing

[4:59:14] Voice 5: really happens and it just stutters on i'm wondering if the resolution should have a terminal

[4:59:20] Voice 5: date not until such time which could be forever but until a project is brought forward or

[4:59:28] Voice 5: some other drop dead date you know the later of and then if it turns out that you know it just

[4:59:36] Voice 5: doesn't look like it's happening some other lawful um resolution of the money for example returning

[4:59:43] Voice 5: it to the taxpayers uh contributing to the tax loads i i don't know that would be a technical

[4:59:49] Voice 5: thing director mobs would have to help us with as to what's feasible i

[4:59:53] Trustee Patrick: would look to staff on

[4:59:54] Trustee Patrick: how, this doesn't really lock the fund

[4:59:57] Trustee Patrick: into anything, but I looked a staff on

[5:00:00] Trustee Patrick: the future of the fund if this motion were to pass?

[5:00:04] Voice 10: Certainly, you could put a time restriction

[5:00:06] Voice 10: on it if you wanted to. But passing this resolution today doesn't restrict council

[5:00:10] Voice 10: from reversing it at a later date. If it's been inactive, you can make a decision at that point

[5:00:16] Voice 10: to redirect those funds. Just to your point, Trustee Bernardo, about if they do sit there

[5:00:23] Voice 10: unspent for a long time, what can we do with them? There is no returning of these funds back to

[5:00:26] Voice 10: taxpayers the ability that you have would be to redirect that money to another project of the

[5:00:32] Voice 10: salt spring island local trust committee that you would otherwise be funding from taxation anyway

[5:00:36] Voice 10: so it's not returned to them but they receive a benefit in that way

[5:00:41] Trustee Patrick: i'll just point out like i said that there is a watershed protection plan that is to be

[5:00:45] Trustee Patrick: implemented and this is important so i'm going to make the motion we'll see where it goes i move

[5:00:49] Trustee Patrick: that trust council request staff to retain all unspent special tax requisition funds in the

[5:00:54] Trustee Patrick: the special reserve until a project is brought forward to coordinate actions 16 through 19 of

[5:00:59] Trustee Patrick: the salt spring island watershed protection plan okay

[5:01:03] Voice 7: second

[5:01:04] Trustee Patrick: by trustee peterson any discussion

[5:01:06] Trustee Patrick: i will call the vote all those in favor

[5:01:22] Trustee Patrick: unanimous thank you very much trustees that carries okay we're going to keep moving through

[5:01:27] Trustee Patrick: here we have planning services oh the salt spring groundwater sustainability well monitoring that

[5:01:33] Trustee Patrick: That was made to zero earlier today.

[5:01:37] Trustee Patrick: I'm not going to talk about that anymore.

[5:01:41] Trustee Patrick: Oh, no, I thought there was another question.

[5:01:44] Trustee Patrick: All right, planning services project feasibility assessment, page 210.

[5:01:53] Trustee Patrick: That's just a briefing.

[5:01:55] Trustee Patrick: There's no money.

[5:01:58] Trustee Patrick: Oh, go ahead, Trustee Evans.

[5:02:01] Voice 9: So I'm just looking at the table on page 212.

[5:02:04] Voice 9: um like on the first page it says uh for available staff hours a realistic estimation is about 4,050

[5:02:16] Voice 9: hours with the removal of the well monitoring of 150 hours and i just want to confirm that the

[5:02:23] Voice 9: uh freshwater sustainability strategy was also reduced to zero hours um because we're just going

[5:02:32] Voice 9: with the external, that should then bring it in line to about 50 hours of the capacity of

[5:02:40] Voice 9: staff resources. So I just wanted to point that out.

[5:02:47] Voice 17: Trustee Elliott? I guess just a comment on

[5:02:53] Voice 17: this briefing and a note for Trust Council to consider maybe for next year in regard to minor

[5:03:01] Voice 17: minor projects, we don't really have criteria for how an LTC identifies and justifies minor

[5:03:12] Voice 17: projects. There is a fund of $4,000 to $5,000 that can be spent that doesn't necessarily have

[5:03:20] Voice 17: to be spent for each LTC. And I think in looking at sort of departmental plans and how that's all

[5:03:28] Voice 17: all flowing down. And also looking at the committee structure. So back to the operational

[5:03:35] Voice 17: review. In RPC's terms of reference, it's delivery of planning services. And one of the gaps that I

[5:03:43] Voice 17: think we should have been overseeing, but we don't, is how our minor projects advanced.

[5:03:49] Voice 17: And we see this because we sometimes get these requests. We don't have staff time for them.

[5:03:56] Voice 17: but there also there isn't a clear criteria for how to evaluate you know what is the value for

[5:04:03] Voice 17: the community is this needed at this time should it follow after another major project all of these

[5:04:07] Voice 17: things so i think there's sort of something we can pull from maybe robert kojima as he's retiring

[5:04:14] Voice 17: for some advice on how to handle minor projects i'd like to see this better managed rpc is not

[5:04:22] Voice 17: the one to do it or are we i guess because because i don't think we've had any oversight over this

[5:04:29] Voice 17: area director cement thank

[5:04:32] Voice 23: you chair um we heard that message uh previously so as you may recall

[5:04:37] Voice 23: the planning services have implemented via trust council's new relatively new idea they're three

[5:04:43] Voice 23: years old uh new best practices for planning services we started with the regional planning

[5:04:48] Voice 23: team and current planning team, sort of making sure that we had terms of reference for those,

[5:04:52] Voice 23: and those are the two key projects we're doing. The last team we put together was the local

[5:04:57] Voice 23: planning team, and it's the local planning team, which is, I just will call it your island planner

[5:05:02] Voice 23: that goes to your meetings, manages your minor projects, and things like that. And this issue,

[5:05:09] Voice 23: as they've been forming, creating a terms of reference, this issue has come up with them,

[5:05:14] Voice 23: And they've already begun drafting some recommendations for the regional planning committee to consider at the next regular business meeting, if possible.

[5:05:21] Voice 23: And it is fortunate for yourself, as per your direction, being directed or being done by a retiring RPM Kojima.

[5:05:30] Voice 23: All

[5:05:35] Trustee Patrick: right. Any other questions then?

[5:05:39] Trustee Patrick: OK, now we're into operational projects flying down this list.

[5:05:46] Trustee Patrick: First one is Trust Council onboarding training, page 215.

[5:05:59] Trustee Patrick: all right uh trustee laptops business case on page 220 oh sorry trustee evans

[5:06:06] Trustee Patrick: um

[5:06:08] Voice 9: yeah so we do need to have um we need some somewhere we need to have a ongoing budget

[5:06:15] Voice 9: line item for strategic planning um in order to have the facilitated swat and um other items i

[5:06:24] Voice 9: I didn't find that anywhere in here.

[5:06:26] Voice 9: I just want to, like, bring it forward because after the election year, never mind.

[5:06:36] Voice 9: I've just sorted it out in my head.

[5:06:38] Voice 9: Thank you.

[5:06:41] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[5:06:43] Trustee Patrick: Trustee McBride.

[5:06:46] Voice 33: I'm curious on this one.

[5:06:48] Voice 33: A little bit tongue-in-cheek in the sense that I guess when you see the new council,

[5:06:56] Voice 33: so do you adjust this figure for the amount of new trustees that are here or depending on how

[5:07:02] Voice 33: many are re-elected is this figure adjusted at that time um

[5:07:09] Voice 10: i'll look to director marler

[5:07:10] Voice 10: um to speak to that yeah

[5:07:18] Voice 25: so you're talking about how many lots so we won't know until um after the

[5:07:23] Voice 25: election uh which is going to be in october so obviously you've adopted your budget by then

[5:07:29] Voice 25: and we'll be using that funding to uh help the trustees so yeah we're just taking the best guess

[5:07:37] Voice 25: right now how many we're expecting based on the turnover of council historically about half

[5:07:45] Voice 25: usually

[5:07:46] Voice 32: yeah

[5:07:48] Voice 25: yeah so

[5:07:51] Voice 10: if if we needed fewer laptops for example we'd we'd have the full

[5:07:55] Voice 10: budget already approved in the budget and we would just spend less of it

[5:08:01] Voice 2: trustee boland

[5:08:02] Voice 2: yeah i think this was asked before um are these high-end laptops and you know you know i mean

[5:08:14] Voice 2: what we do on the laptops is pretty basic really i actually use my own and i find it works out fine

[5:08:21] Voice 2: but i'm just wondering even if you have to buy a laptop for you know zooming uh pdfs etc

[5:08:27] Voice 2: et cetera, does it have to cost as much as it apparently does in the budget?

[5:08:33] Voice 2: Thank you.

[5:08:38] Voice 25: Yeah, that question has come up.

[5:08:43] Voice 25: I'll talk to the technology team about looking at options

[5:08:50] Voice 25: and see if there are some cheaper options that are available to us.

[5:08:53] Voice 25: But keep in mind that we're looking for a laptop that has a four-year warranty,

[5:08:59] Voice 1: so

[5:08:59] Voice 25: we'll be buying that usually extra.

[5:09:01] Voice 25: So the $1,500 per laptop includes the cost of the laptop, support, and a few other things, plus taxes.

[5:09:09] Voice 25: And most laptops in that range are about $1,100.

[5:09:14] Voice 25: And these are consumer-grade, so they're not high-end.

[5:09:19] Voice 25: They're good enough for home use, usually.

[5:09:23] Voice 25: The ones we buy staff are at the enterprise level, which is two steps higher, because you get much more use.

[5:09:30] Voice 25: So we need much more robustness from them.

[5:09:35] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Stanford.

[5:09:38] Voice 18: I seem to remember having the conversation around laptops this time last term,

[5:09:44] Voice 18: and we reduced the budget and caused quite a bit of operational issues

[5:09:50] Voice 18: in the following term as people weren't prepared.

[5:09:53] Voice 18: It wasn't quite the right equipment.

[5:09:56] Voice 18: And so I don't like to touch this one too much.

[5:10:00] Voice 18: They know what they're talking about.

[5:10:01] Voice 18: So, any

[5:10:06] Trustee Patrick: further questions, then we'll move on to the accessibility plan business case.

[5:10:10] Trustee Patrick: Oh, sorry.

[5:10:12] Trustee Patrick: Oh, sorry.

[5:10:13] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Deneveen.

[5:10:16] Voice 4: Thank you.

[5:10:17] Voice 4: Sorry, I just wanted to provide a comment.

[5:10:18] Voice 4: I mean, of course, I'm a different arm's length from this table.

[5:10:23] Voice 4: So my apologies if I'm over speaking.

[5:10:26] Voice 4: When it comes to laptops, the breakdown is just about $1,600 for those 15 laptops is pretty fair.

[5:10:34] Voice 4: what I've noticed even just purchasing laptops for myself or my partner looking at like the

[5:10:40] Voice 4: Microsoft Surface they get really costly and like even some of them like the keyboard doesn't have

[5:10:45] Voice 4: a backup light there's other issues with those kind of computers I think all the ThinkPads that

[5:10:51] Voice 4: I see those are really efficient machines and so there is always a balance of affordability but I

[5:10:58] Voice 4: think you guys are pretty well staff is direct you they're pretty on the mark in regards to that and

[5:11:03] Voice 4: And I think sometimes when you make a compensation for something that's slightly cheaper, but it actually causes a lot more problems down the road.

[5:11:12] Voice 4: So I just want to share that first for some perspective. Thank you.

[5:11:15] Voice 4: Thank

[5:11:15] Trustee Patrick: you. Any other questions? So we're going to move on to the accessibility plan development.

[5:11:21] Trustee Patrick: Any questions there, Trustee Getty?

[5:11:26] Voice 7: We're behind time in terms of the legislation came in in 23 and we still don't have a plan.

[5:11:32] Voice 7: plan and I've read the report and it's we don't have a lot of time available from the staff or

[5:11:38] Voice 7: expertise that said in the accessibility plan that we've just instituted on Bowen it was a

[5:11:46] Voice 7: group of people from the community that basically did a survey of all of the other accessibility

[5:11:51] Voice 7: plans that were on it could come from Facebook and internet and all the rest of it just did a

[5:11:58] Voice 7: a bit of research and cobbled together something that was acceptable to the government and made us

[5:12:07] Voice 7: eligible for funding. That's a major piece of it. But I'm wondering if we can reduce this amount.

[5:12:15] Voice 7: It seems like we're hiring a consultant to basically do all of it. And I'm wondering if

[5:12:21] Voice 7: we can hire somebody to just give us the lay of the land and figure out the gaps and maybe

[5:12:26] Voice 7: Maybe point us in the right direction and have the Accessibility Committee itself write the plan.

[5:12:37] Voice 12: Go ahead, Trustee Fast.

[5:12:38] Voice 12: Thank you.

[5:12:40] Voice 12: Following up with, I'll call her Councillor Getty.

[5:12:44] Voice 12: I'm on the Bowen Accessibility Committee.

[5:12:48] Voice 12: And I just want to say it looks like a simple plan, but it took a ton of work.

[5:12:56] Voice 12: It wasn't just called together.

[5:12:57] Voice 12: Together, there was lots of engagement and tons of discussion among the committee members

[5:13:05] Voice 12: who, of course, are drawn from people from the disability community as well as others

[5:13:11] Voice 12: and have very different views.

[5:13:15] Voice 12: And it was a challenging committee and it was challenging work.

[5:13:19] Voice 12: And I think it's difficult for a committee to write a plan, especially one that's over

[5:13:26] Voice 12: the whole unstressed area so i'm i'm actually supporting leaving it in the budget thank you

[5:13:32] Voice 19: chair of the accessibility committee trustee gabriel thank you very curious to read bowen

[5:13:37] Voice 19: island's accessibility plan i've been watching some of the meetings pretty fantastic i wonder

[5:13:41] Voice 19: if they have the same issues that we have of finding board people to attend the board or to

[5:13:46] Voice 19: make the meetings or to join the board we're having issues capacity issues with

[5:13:52] Voice 19: getting people to partake.

[5:13:55] Voice 19: So I would think that engagement

[5:13:57] Voice 19: around creating a plan and trust area

[5:13:59] Voice 19: might be saddled with the same difficulties.

[5:14:03] Voice 19: I'd also like to point out the fact

[5:14:04] Voice 19: that the $19,000 is not just for the plan itself.

[5:14:09] Voice 19: It's for the implementation of the plan as well.

[5:14:12] Voice 19: So there's a lot of solutions in what this budget asks.

[5:14:16] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[5:14:17] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[5:14:18] Trustee Patrick: So that reminds me, one of your Bowman councillors

[5:14:21] Trustee Patrick: at UBCM had offered

[5:14:23] Trustee Patrick: to help us find

[5:14:25] Trustee Patrick: members who's well connected into

[5:14:27] Trustee Patrick: that community and had

[5:14:29] Trustee Patrick: offered to help us if we needed to find

[5:14:31] Trustee Patrick: members. So Bowen and

[5:14:33] Trustee Patrick: the Islands Trust working well together.

[5:14:36] Trustee Patrick: Okay, who was first? Trustee Evans.

[5:14:39] Voice 9: I would be in support

[5:14:41] Voice 9: of option two, which is to undertake

[5:14:42] Voice 9: the work by consultant in order to

[5:14:44] Voice 9: leave our staff resources

[5:14:46] Voice 9: alone.

[5:14:49] Trustee Patrick: That is the option. I think that's presented.

[5:14:52] Trustee Patrick: So, yeah. Okay.

[5:14:54] Trustee Patrick: I'm not seeing any action on that.

[5:14:55] Trustee Patrick: We're going to keep moving through here.

[5:14:57] Trustee Patrick: We're now in staffing requests.

[5:14:59] Trustee Patrick: We'll just jump over this section.

[5:15:02] Trustee Patrick: Oops.

[5:15:03] Trustee Patrick: So, I guess not.

[5:15:04] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[5:15:05] Trustee Patrick: The first is not quite.

[5:15:07] Trustee Patrick: Not 3.30 is the break.

[5:15:09] Trustee Patrick: So, I can't even help you there.

[5:15:10] Trustee Patrick: We're going to get into it.

[5:15:11] Trustee Patrick: The first item is the registered professional biologist on page 228.

[5:15:16] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Peterson.

[5:15:18] Trustee Patrick: So,

[5:15:21] Voice 6: to me, this is where the rubber hits the road.

[5:15:23] Voice 6: we've approved some large ticket items for staffing in the operational review and one of

[5:15:34] Voice 6: the reasons that I was able to support that was looking at this and some of the other staffing

[5:15:41] Voice 6: staffing requests um to my mind uh this is a nice to have position not essential I I I can see all

[5:15:54] Voice 6: the reasons for it but I think we have to make some some hard cuts in some places and so I support

[5:16:02] Voice 6: support option four for this position. Thank you.

[5:16:07] Voice 9: Trustee Evans? I am the same. I would support

[5:16:13] Voice 9: option four. I believe that this position was funded by a grant this past year. Whether it's

[5:16:19] Voice 9: not having that grant and turning this into a permanent full-time position, I can't support

[5:16:23] Voice 9: that at this moment in time. That may change down the road. And we also have the option of hiring

[5:16:29] Voice 9: various types of specialized biologists for the different things that come up.

[5:16:37] Voice 9: And I do see the value in having the biologist on hand. But like we said, this year, we have to

[5:16:46] Voice 9: make some hard choices. And that would be mine is to not turn this into a permanent position this

[5:16:52] Voice 9: year.

[5:16:53] Trustee Patrick: Trustees, reminder, if you get a motion in to motions at islandstrust.bc.ca, that would

[5:16:59] Trustee Patrick: would be greatly appreciated if you're thinking of something trustee bernardo yeah

[5:17:03] Voice 5: this is a

[5:17:03] Voice 5: question for staff uh maybe for director marler might be for the ceo um there's this legislation

[5:17:10] Voice 5: in the pipeline uh this draft professional reliance act ubcm has positions on it uh most

[5:17:16] Voice 5: local governments are offended by it the comment period has been extended i think to january or

[5:17:23] Voice 5: something it's an issue um it certainly appears that there's some real potential problems with

[5:17:31] Voice 5: the legislation but separate from all that um assuming it proceeds because government doesn't

[5:17:37] Voice 5: tend to back away too much from things like that um if it does proceed would having this position

[5:17:44] Voice 5: be kind of gratuitous in the sense that that legislation contemplates that professional reports

[5:17:51] Voice 5: courts that are submitted further to a permit application or variance application can't be

[5:17:57] Voice 5: second guessed by by staff so what function would our biologists actually be performing

[5:18:02] Voice 5: assuming that legislation passes

[5:18:05] Voice 12: yeah

[5:18:08] Voice 25: thank you so the way the legislation is written now yeah

[5:18:13] Voice 25: that is so somebody makes an application for a permit or a resigning application according to

[5:18:20] Voice 25: that legislation if the landowner provides a report by one of those qualified individuals

[5:18:26] Voice 25: the trust the trust committee could just accept it and there's no peer review in there it doesn't

[5:18:32] Voice 25: mean that we can't look at it and somebody probably should and we'd need somebody like

[5:18:38] Voice 25: a biologist to do that and then if there is a problem if there is a dispute the current

[5:18:45] Voice 25: wording of the act is it would be the superintendent that makes the determination

[5:18:49] Voice 25: Not the local government. And so we wouldn't go back to the landowner and say, no, you've got to make these changes. We would have to submit a dispute to the superintendent. So I have no idea how the province expects that to work, but that would be the process.

[5:19:05] Voice 25: But the bigger value might be, and what won't change, is where trust committees are undertaking their own projects, such as your review of an official community plan.

[5:19:17] Voice 25: So that's where a biologist on staff could certainly help with any of those aspects of it.

[5:19:23] Voice 25: And then, of course, there is the Islands Trust Conservancy that could take advantage of that.

[5:19:28] Voice 25: I'm not sure that is the intent of this role, but there would certainly be a role there.

[5:19:32] Voice 25: so it would change if that went through but I don't see it diminishing the need for that position

[5:19:39] Voice 25: based on the business case that's presented.

[5:19:43] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Borthwick?

[5:19:47] Voice 31: Yeah I have sent a motion

[5:19:49] Voice 31: into Alex and yeah I'm ready to make it under issue there.

[5:19:56] Trustee Patrick: I think there's been a number of

[5:19:58] Trustee Patrick: motions but it may have been sent on this same thing over there so yeah

[5:20:05] Voice 21: yeah

[5:20:09] Trustee Patrick: i'm just uh waiting

[5:20:14] Trustee Patrick: to see what we have i

[5:20:24] Voice 31: mean i can read it out well we should wait for people to see it but are we

[5:20:32] Trustee Patrick: going to be able to bring that on the screen lisa it is coming okay just making sure

[5:20:39] Voice 21: they're both

[5:20:43] Voice 21: the same yeah okay it's it's

[5:21:02] Voice 31: pretty straightforward i can i can just read it out for the purpose of

[5:21:06] Voice 31: the people here but well

[5:21:08] Trustee Patrick: that's lisa can do can you read go ahead and read it out loud there

[5:21:12] Trustee Patrick: i

[5:21:12] Voice 31: move the trust council not fund the full-time hiring of a permanent biologist

[5:21:18] Trustee Patrick: well before it's second i'll just look to stop that is is that clear the way it's written

[5:21:23] Trustee Patrick: right is there a second to this motion seconded by trustee allen

[5:21:26] Trustee Patrick: Alan, can I just go over to you, Trustee Borthwick?

[5:21:29] Voice 31: Yeah, and just to speak to it, I really appreciate that this is coming forward.

[5:21:33] Voice 31: I have definitely seen the value in having it.

[5:21:35] Voice 31: This is not an indictment of the concept, but I think in terms of the broader discussions

[5:21:42] Voice 31: that we're talking about right now, this is something that we could perhaps wait on

[5:21:46] Voice 31: and still reap the benefit of in the future.

[5:21:49] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[5:21:51] Trustee Patrick: Any, Trustee Peterson, did you?

[5:21:53] Trustee Patrick: Sorry, I'm just trying

[5:21:54] Voice 23: to make sure.

[5:21:55] Voice 23: It's close enough.

[5:21:57] Trustee Patrick: um is there any further discussion trustee elliott so

[5:22:04] Voice 17: if we are okay my concern is

[5:22:12] Voice 17: canceling this without actually understanding the value that the position is providing to

[5:22:17] Voice 17: planning services um i'm of both minds on this i don't fully support it i don't fully support

[5:22:25] Voice 17: removing it because i don't actually understand what the biologist position is providing to us

[5:22:31] Voice 17: And part of that is some of the reporting hasn't come back to RPC. We've had a presentation, but we don't understand what is their methodology being developed that's helping planners? Is it helping developers do development faster? Like, what are the positives? And I'm not asserting that that's the goal at all. I don't understand it.

[5:22:51] Voice 17: So, it's really hard to evaluate the benefit of this position. If staff could provide that information before March, could we reconsider this and add it back into the budget if it's removed now? And would you need direction to do that?

[5:23:08] Voice 17: I would like a reporting out on what this one year has accomplished, what has been the net benefit.

[5:23:15] Voice 17: And then if council determines, wow, that's really valuable and we would like to keep that position, could we make that decision in March?

[5:23:26] Trustee Patrick: I guess that's a question to you, Director Cermak.

[5:23:29] Voice 23: I'm going to leave the legislative question, thanks to the chair, about if you make a resolution one way and then come back another.

[5:23:36] Voice 23: So I'll leave that to Director Marger.

[5:23:38] Voice 23: But I would like to emphasize with this position, sticker shock, I totally understand.

[5:23:45] Voice 23: I'd like to turn your attention to the project deliverables that you have on page 229.

[5:23:52] Voice 23: And this position has been more critical than anticipated when we hired this person.

[5:23:58] Voice 23: And that is for bridging the gap.

[5:24:00] Voice 23: I'm sitting here beside the manager of Islands Trust Conservancy, and we could both attest to the value this position has had at linking our departments and implementing the biological components into decision making.

[5:24:13] Voice 23: And it's with regret that the strike did not allow staff to be able to present at the Regional Pioneer Committee, which we had planned, the presentation from the biologist giving you a second update about the work that she's been doing.

[5:24:25] Voice 23: So that's an unfortunate timing event.

[5:24:27] Voice 23: but we've been working diligently closely there's been greater delivery and probably the most

[5:24:35] Voice 23: tangible thing i can talk about and i'm not trying to convince you out of your thing but

[5:24:38] Voice 23: so you understand your question and that is the suitable land analysis which we recognize is a

[5:24:44] Voice 23: terrible name by the way but the impact of that of her specific the biologists in that decision

[5:24:52] Voice 23: making of taking information from the islands trust conservancy and putting it into our day-to-day

[5:24:57] Voice 23: day decision making so that you can put it into your uh gabriel the ltc ocp project and the denman

[5:25:03] Voice 23: project and so on and so forth has been instrumental and critical for us to bridge that gap we wouldn't

[5:25:09] Voice 23: have been able to provide the information the way that we could without that position so that's just

[5:25:13] Voice 23: one example and the projected deliverables you can see how this person it would be doing the same

[5:25:19] Voice 23: critical role for your policy statement which is part of your strategic plan so i recognize with

[5:25:25] Voice 23: respect you can turn it down and etc but this person if i if you would like me to come back

[5:25:30] Voice 23: and give you more information about the value this position is i'd be more than happy to do it

[5:25:35] Voice 23: i'd even be happy to give a presentation via the biologists themselves whatever you need i think

[5:25:41] Voice 23: the value it can't be um uh i can't say it enough how valuable it is to achieve the mandate that

[5:25:49] Voice 23: this position has had been?

[5:25:51] Voice 17: Yes. Yes, and it is really important that trustees are able to answer

[5:25:59] Voice 17: to their constituents that, yes, we're using science to inform land use planning, but that

[5:26:08] Voice 17: planners can answer a methodology for how that science was used. And the questions that I'm

[5:26:14] Voice 17: getting are the suitable land analysis map that was released to the public without

[5:26:20] Voice 17: out any framing for how decisions were made. And it was a draft map. I just want to, we have to

[5:26:28] Voice 17: keep articulating, it's a draft map to show that these are the different ways that values can be

[5:26:33] Voice 17: considered in determining where development can or should not go. But because I don't understand

[5:26:40] Voice 17: that, we haven't heard from that, we can't answer our constituents. And there are very large

[5:26:44] Voice 17: questions about how decisions are made in producing these maps. So I can't support this

[5:26:50] Voice 17: position until we understand what this position is doing and how it's benefiting planning in the

[5:26:58] Voice 17: trust area. So I would like to see that report. And if you need direction, I'd be happy to do

[5:27:05] Voice 17: that at an appropriate time. Go ahead.

[5:27:08] Voice 23: Yeah, thanks to the chair. So the intent, as I said,

[5:27:11] Voice 23: was for that partial report to be presented to the Regional Planning Committee

[5:27:15] Voice 23: back during the strike, and that is still on the plan then

[5:27:20] Voice 23: for the regular business meeting in February.

[5:27:23] Voice 23: So through the Chair, we could make that a little bit more of a communications piece

[5:27:28] Voice 23: explaining more of that as we were just going to present some of the deliverables

[5:27:32] Voice 23: and the actions, but certainly provide better, more thorough information

[5:27:36] Voice 23: that would help the Trust Council make a decision.

[5:27:38] Voice 23: If it would be a benefit, I'd be happy to do it.

[5:27:41] Trustee Patrick: uh i wanted to follow up on your question that you were directing to director marler

[5:27:45] Trustee Patrick: if this motion was to pass uh and information is shared with the committee or it comes back

[5:27:51] Trustee Patrick: to be recommended the position be added back in is that still possible between now and the final

[5:27:56] Trustee Patrick: budget uh

[5:27:58] Voice 25: yeah it's always possible to reconsider based on new information at future time right just

[5:28:04] Trustee Patrick: wanted to have that clarity uh trustee peterson then harris thank

[5:28:10] Voice 6: you chair i'm reading the uh

[5:28:12] Voice 6: the business case uh there's a lot of arguments obviously in favor and and there's a risk

[5:28:19] Voice 6: assessment and i'm not in any way questioning um whether this is a a good position to have

[5:28:28] Voice 6: What I'm trying to do is make an assessment of we have several new hires proposed between the operational review and this section of the budget.

[5:28:43] Voice 6: I think we have to make some hard choices. I supported the new hires in the operational review.

[5:28:50] Voice 6: review, I don't think it's sustainable to hire all of these positions. It's certainly not

[5:28:56] Voice 6: permanent. And so in my assessment, this is one that, regretfully, I just can't support at this

[5:29:06] Voice 6: time. I think perhaps it'll come up in the next budget cycle, but I think we have to make some

[5:29:13] Voice 6: hard choices. I don't believe we can afford all the hires, and certainly not permanent.

[5:29:20] Voice 6: permanent that are proposed and so that's my position thank

[5:29:27] Trustee Patrick: you trustee harris thanks

[5:29:30] Voice 30: i um i support this motion um unfortunately i don't think it goes far enough um and i think

[5:29:42] Voice 30: that um you know the the biologist position even part-time or contracted um actually has a negative

[5:29:50] Voice 30: value, especially to Salt Spring, especially, and that it really.

[5:30:00] Trustee Patrick: point has been ordered been called just hold please hold please go ahead state your point

[5:30:04] Voice 31: i'm concerned that the implication that a staff person is of a negative value to the trust

[5:30:10] Voice 31: is not uh parliamentary to use the term so

[5:30:18] Trustee Patrick: yes we don't we are not talking about staff performance

[5:30:21] Trustee Patrick: so yes trustee harris if you could continue just being cognizant of that yeah

[5:30:26] Voice 30: i'm not i'm not

[5:30:27] Voice 30: talking about somebody personally i'm talking about the position of a biologist i take offense

[5:30:31] Voice 30: to the point of order um i find this type of position um is part of a strategy that's used

[5:30:40] Voice 30: to put a complete stranglehold on salt spring residents hope of having of having any positive

[5:30:46] Voice 30: movement um made developing a healthy community and even repairing what was once a healthy

[5:30:52] Voice 30: healthy community. You know, this type of position in conjunction with the new OCP on Salt Spring

[5:30:59] Voice 30: and the dreadful, in my mind, dreadful policy statement draft are dream killers for many

[5:31:05] Voice 30: members of the community of Salt Spring Island. The vast majority of Salt Spring children that

[5:31:11] Voice 30: are growing up on Salt Spring have zero hope of a secure future and life on Salt Spring because of

[5:31:16] Voice 30: what, in my opinion, and many others, is a far-left, eco-radical, extremist ideology

[5:31:21] Voice 30: as being imposed by a small number of ideologues.

[5:31:24] Voice 30: Thank you.

[5:31:25] Trustee Patrick: All right, Trustee Harris,

[5:31:28] Trustee Patrick: please speak always to the motion that's before us.

[5:31:32] Trustee Patrick: Okay, Trustee Yates.

[5:31:39] Voice 24: Thank you, Chair Patrick.

[5:31:41] Voice 24: I am not in favor of this motion

[5:31:44] Voice 24: and I really do understand we need

[5:31:47] Voice 24: to make some hard decisions here,

[5:31:49] Voice 24: just like Trustee Peterson said.

[5:31:51] Voice 24: I would rather make this hard decision

[5:31:54] Voice 24: and I'm willing to make it to cut this biology position that I've been asking for for three

[5:32:00] Voice 24: years. I'm willing to make that hard decision after we hear from Director Ceremak exactly

[5:32:06] Voice 24: what contributions this position has been able to give to us and thank you Director Ceremak for

[5:32:14] Voice 24: drawing our attention to page 229 because it clearly states how helpful this has been to date

[5:32:23] Voice 24: and I'm sure will be, to staff in assessing things like official community plans,

[5:32:29] Voice 24: which we are right in the middle of right now.

[5:32:32] Voice 24: And I, too, am having a difficult time telling my constituents that this is all science-based.

[5:32:39] Voice 24: When we haven't finished the water studies, we haven't got biologist reports.

[5:32:45] Voice 24: So they say, well, where's the science?

[5:32:49] Voice 24: So I can't support this motion, but I would certainly support a similar motion if we had to, after we hear from Director Cermak, perhaps in February, about how much work this position has offered us to date.

[5:33:08] Voice 24: Thank you. Trustee Bernardo, under the bell.

[5:33:10] Voice 24: Well, I

[5:33:11] Voice 5: have to acknowledge, you know, Director Cermak's comments and observations and explanations

[5:33:20] Voice 5: have been very helpful.

[5:33:21] Voice 5: There's no doubt that this has proved out, even after just a year, to have been a valuable

[5:33:26] Voice 5: position, and it adds, you know, I don't need to see the report.

[5:33:31] Voice 5: You know, I'll take what the director says at face value, that it's been invaluable.

[5:33:35] Voice 5: Having said that, I'm going to support Trustee Peterson's motion.

[5:33:41] Voice 5: We've been grinding through as much of this as we can, and so far, you know, we heard from Director Mobbs before that where we're at right now, with the acceptance of the recommendations earlier today, we're looking at, separate from Bowen Island, we're looking at a 13.8% budget or tax increase.

[5:34:00] Voice 5: That's pretty steep.

[5:34:03] Voice 5: Certainly higher than the rate of inflation.

[5:34:05] Voice 5: There's all sorts of factors in there.

[5:34:06] Voice 5: We all know what they are.

[5:34:08] Voice 5: But, you know, at some point, there's just a limit to how much we can impose on people.

[5:34:12] Voice 5: The world's full of good ideas.

[5:34:14] Voice 5: This is not an idea that should be permanently shut down.

[5:34:17] Voice 5: It clearly has value.

[5:34:19] Voice 5: But to date, so far in what we've done in this review is we've knocked off $10,000.

[5:34:26] Voice 5: That's not going to get us past 13.8%.

[5:34:29] Voice 5: in we've got to do something it's too much and even recognizing the value of this i think it's

[5:34:37] Voice 5: one of those things that we just have to defer thank you just

[5:34:40] Trustee Patrick: before i go on there's more

[5:34:41] Trustee Patrick: speakers here i just want to look to director mobs is there any of this position that is

[5:34:45] Trustee Patrick: accounted toward bowen uh

[5:34:49] Voice 10: the biologist position is purely under planning

[5:34:51] Trustee Patrick: so they do not contribute

[5:34:52] Trustee Patrick: right thank you just wanted to ask the question uh trustee middleton yeah

[5:34:59] Voice 1: there's there's clear

[5:35:01] Voice 1: clear merit, obviously, in having alternate professional support to planning, no doubt.

[5:35:07] Voice 1: But I think what we've seen, what has maybe begun to be pioneered today here in terms

[5:35:12] Voice 1: of budget and affordability is, in essence, we've said to staff, okay, we're convinced

[5:35:21] Voice 1: about the importance and the viability of this resource or this, in the case of this

[5:35:26] Voice 1: person or in the case of the uh the communications and the indigenous lead in the um in the ceo's

[5:35:33] Voice 1: operational report i'm wondering if we cannot apply the same thinking here and say staff

[5:35:39] Voice 1: we get the value of the uh of the position but we can't afford it right now if you can find

[5:35:47] Voice 1: 115 000 in savings then it's viable that this this this uh that we can afford this role and

[5:35:55] Voice 1: And we give, I mean, not to be mean to staff, it's not, it's just a dispassionate eye.

[5:36:01] Voice 1: You've seen how, like, trust me, Bernardo, you just pointed out the laborsome approach it took to get $10,000 reduced.

[5:36:07] Voice 1: I think staff are in a much better position to be sort of objective in terms of what they see in a day-to-day basis can be done without in a trading fashion, you know, internally amongst the resources that the budget supports.

[5:36:22] Voice 1: So that would be an alternative, I think,

[5:36:25] Voice 1: is we could ask staff to find the savings equivalent

[5:36:27] Voice 1: to the cost of that position.

[5:36:29] Trustee Patrick: All right, that would be given to the motion

[5:36:31] Trustee Patrick: that's on the floor.

[5:36:32] Trustee Patrick: So you think of Trustee Stamford and Trustee Gavreau.

[5:36:39] Voice 18: Couple of things.

[5:36:40] Voice 18: First to Trustee Middleton, I think it's our job.

[5:36:46] Voice 18: The staff have given their recommendations in this report.

[5:36:49] Voice 18: and at this point it's up to us to make those difficult decisions so that's where i'm coming

[5:36:55] Voice 18: from um totally forgotten what i was talking oh okay we keep talking about that this budget is

[5:37:03] Voice 18: um it's above the cost of living do we have a policy that says we cannot build a budget above

[5:37:10] Voice 18: the cost of living i i haven't seen that policy yet um if that's going to be a policy of the

[5:37:16] Voice 18: the Trust Council. I'd like to work on that. I put in the 13.8% increase. I'm not going to

[5:37:25] Voice 18: say this is good or bad, but just so we understand what the numbers are, for my home that's assessed

[5:37:33] Voice 18: at $640,000, it's 30 extra dollars to my tax for the Islands Trust portion of my rural tax.

[5:37:48] Voice 18: That is a lot of money for some people, and I'm not degrading that. But please, let's put this

[5:37:54] Voice 18: into perspective of what we're asking. And looking at the last 10 years of tax increase, the average

[5:38:01] Voice 18: is 3% over 10 years.

[5:38:04] Voice 18: How much of our property

[5:38:05] Voice 18: has been evaluated?

[5:38:06] Voice 18: More than 3%.

[5:38:08] Voice 18: So the conversations are valuable.

[5:38:11] Voice 18: I'm not saying we should

[5:38:12] Voice 18: or shouldn't do certain things,

[5:38:14] Voice 18: but let's try and keep it all in perspective

[5:38:16] Voice 18: and not go overboard here.

[5:38:21] Trustee Patrick: Thank you, Trustee Gavro.

[5:38:24] Voice 19: Right.

[5:38:27] Voice 19: So Biologist Woodruff has begun.

[5:38:30] Voice 19: I gave a report at some of your LTCs

[5:38:33] Voice 19: about the work happening around the OnTrust

[5:38:37] Voice 19: Conservancy. And I remember from one of the reports, I have it here,

[5:38:40] Voice 19: that Patricia Woodruff has begun as the new biologist for

[5:38:45] Voice 19: planning. This role is primarily focused on updating

[5:38:48] Voice 19: planning templates, functions, and methods. It's a one-year

[5:38:53] Voice 19: temporary position aimed at helping the planning department

[5:38:56] Voice 19: incorporate biological information more effectively. It makes me

[5:39:01] Voice 19: think if they're not there to help them do that who's going to do that work and that goes back

[5:39:05] Voice 19: to planning stuff again um and it makes me kind of have to question how many registered biologists

[5:39:12] Voice 19: do we have in this room in an organization that deals with the environment every day

[5:39:17] Voice 19: you know we need the expertise around us i know it is a big ask but i do think we should wait to

[5:39:25] Voice 19: hear from let patricia come in and here we can hear what she has the work that she has undertaken

[5:39:34] Voice 19: and how it has helped planning services before we decide to cut the final important

[5:39:38] Voice 19: i think that's prudent as well all

[5:39:42] Trustee Patrick: right trustees at the end of the speaker's list

[5:39:44] Trustee Patrick: we're also approaching a break so i'm going to call the vote then the the motion on the table

[5:39:50] Trustee Patrick: is that trust council not fund the full-time hiring of a permanent biologist all those in

[5:39:55] Trustee Patrick: In favor, raise your hands.

[5:39:57] Trustee Patrick: All

[5:40:08] Voice 21: right,

[5:40:10] Trustee Patrick: lower your hands.

[5:40:13] Trustee Patrick: Any opposed?

[5:40:22] Trustee Patrick: Five opposed.

[5:40:23] Trustee Patrick: 17 to five, so that carries.

[5:40:25] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees, it's 3.27.

[5:40:28] Trustee Patrick: I'd love to start the next one here,

[5:40:31] Trustee Patrick: but I think we'll stop where we are.

[5:40:37] Trustee Patrick: We have the next position is gonna be

[5:40:39] Trustee Patrick: the Temporary Senior Policy Advisor Extension.

[5:40:42] Trustee Patrick: attention uh we have a lot afterwards and uh we have a speaker coming hard stop at four i believe

[5:40:50] Trustee Patrick: um so um take a quick coffee break get yourself recharged on caffeine and we'll

[5:40:57] Trustee Patrick: see you in 15 minutes

[5:41:00] Voice 21: all right

[5:58:23] Voice 21: trustees if we can get back to the table

[5:58:25] Voice 21: oops

[5:58:35] Trustee Patrick: i think we're director moms you're gonna take questions from over there

[5:58:38] Trustee Patrick: that'd be a good idea sit down we might be a while

[5:58:43] Trustee Patrick: sounds good thank you all right we're on the temporary senior policy advisor

[5:58:48] Trustee Patrick: it's on page 233 of the agenda package trustee peterson um

[5:58:57] Voice 6: earlier i mentioned uh we have a

[5:59:00] Voice 6: number of um proposed new hires um this one's an extension it's uh not a um not making it permanent

[5:59:09] Voice 6: permanent. CAO spoke earlier to the sort of scope and importance of this particular position,

[5:59:18] Voice 6: so I am in favor of the extension.

[5:59:24] Trustee Patrick: Any other questions on this position?

[5:59:26] Trustee Patrick: All right. Oh, go ahead, Trustee Fest.

[5:59:35] Voice 12: Thank you. You said the CAO spoke about this. Is this

[5:59:38] Voice 12: one of the nine recommendations? If so, which one? No. Thank you.

[5:59:47] Trustee Patrick: Okay, so I'm going to move

[5:59:48] Trustee Patrick: on to the next position is the permanent GIS analyst page 246

[6:00:01] Trustee Patrick: Rusty Evans.

[6:00:05] Voice 9: I would suggest that the two new ones, the permanent GIS, as it is a new position, be deferred for one year.

[6:00:20] Voice 9: So I'll leave the floor open for discussion, and then I'll make a motion to that effect.

[6:00:28] Voice 9: Thank

[6:00:28] Trustee Patrick: you for letting us know what you're thinking.

[6:00:30] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Are there any other comments on the permanent GIS analyst, Trustee Elliott?

[6:00:36] Voice 17: Just a question. Maybe I've missed it in this business case.

[6:00:40] Voice 17: But do we know what the approximate cost is of overage and contractors to support GIS in the last year?

[6:00:56] Voice 26: Don't

[6:00:56] Voice 17: have an under?

[6:00:57] Voice 26: Not right now.

[6:00:58] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[6:00:58] Trustee Patrick: Right. We don't have that information. All right, Trustee Evans.

[6:01:09] Voice 9: Doesn't look like there's much other conversations. So I hate to do this. I'm so sorry.

[6:01:14] Voice 9: I'm going to move that the permanent GIS analysis be deferred for one year.

[6:01:22] Trustee Patrick: Before that's seconded, I'd like to give staff a moment to get the motion up.

[6:01:53] Trustee Patrick: Is that sufficient information as it's written? Okay. That's good. Yeah.

[6:02:00] Trustee Patrick: I guess so, is that if you'd like to read your motion?

[6:02:10] Voice 9: Yeah, I'm just going to ask that the word position be added after analyst so that it reads that the permanent GIS analyst position be deferred for one year.

[6:02:18] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second to this motion? Seconded by Trustee Allen. Any discussion?

[6:02:24] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Peterson?

[6:02:27] Voice 6: Again, I can't support making an additional permanent full-time position

[6:02:36] Voice 6: in addition to the other ones we've had.

[6:02:41] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Elliott?

[6:02:45] Voice 17: I don't support the deferral simply because we are doing this work now.

[6:02:54] Voice 17: And for instance, the suitable land analysis modeling,

[6:02:57] Voice 17: There's a lot of projects, including the freshwater atlas, I believe, that requires GIS analysts work.

[6:03:08] Voice 17: There's been four different committees that have said we need to support information and mapping.

[6:03:18] Voice 17: We need this technology in place.

[6:03:20] Voice 17: So I think either way, we're going to pay for it because projects in order to advance, we're going to have to hire contractors.

[6:03:27] Voice 17: Please correct me if I'm wrong to do the work. And I think that's more expensive in the long run.

[6:03:34] Voice 17: So I would prefer to see this be maybe a one year, a temporary hire rather than full time.

[6:03:41] Voice 17: But I don't think we can defer it for one year. So I'll not be support of this motion.

[6:03:45] Voice 17: motion.

[6:03:49] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Trustee Timothy. You can just debate, but you add to the discussion,

[6:03:56] Trustee Patrick: but you can't vote. Yes,

[6:03:58] Voice 4: correct. Thank you, Chair. Well, as a GIS analyst myself, I would

[6:04:03] Voice 4: support this. No, I'm just kidding. I have a background in GIS and specialized in it.

[6:04:08] Voice 4: I think just one thing I want to share for context is the real, like the definition of a GIS

[6:04:15] Voice 4: is the ability to compare quantitative and qualitative data that is occurring

[6:04:22] Voice 4: on the landscape and I think having that information is integral to making

[6:04:27] Voice 4: informed decisions and so at the heart of the the trust and its goal and its

[6:04:33] Voice 4: work this position would be extremely helpful in supporting all the different

[6:04:38] Voice 4: departments within the trust and all the other kind of avenues that have been

[6:04:45] Voice 4: identified for the need for gis but it only gives more value to the organization and understanding

[6:04:51] Voice 4: what is really going on within the trust area um and it it's beneficial in that respect um just to

[6:04:59] Voice 4: share some i guess comments so thank you for the opportunity very

[6:05:02] Trustee Patrick: much any further discussion

[6:05:09] Trustee Patrick: trustee middleton

[6:05:09] Voice 12: thank

[6:05:14] Voice 1: you um just a question about the support for at least the planning

[6:05:20] Voice 1: running function. Does CityView not have an integrated GIS function within it?

[6:05:27] Trustee Patrick: That sounds like a very technical question. Is that you, Director Cermak? I can't see

[6:05:31] Trustee Patrick: you over there.

[6:05:33] Voice 23: Thank you. Through the chair, yes, CityView has a GIS component that we use, but of course,

[6:05:37] Voice 23: to populate the data within the GIS is done by a GIS specialist.

[6:05:46] Trustee Patrick: Right. Yes, you may.

[6:05:48] Voice 1: I would have thought that CityView, I looked at CityView, I looked at who they are, the

[6:05:53] Voice 1: partners and other one on their acquisition patent i became i'll just be honest suspicious of them

[6:05:58] Voice 1: um and so i'm i'm maybe i'm overly cynical shall we say in terms of but i would think that the way

[6:06:06] Voice 1: they market city view one would have much better and easier access to gis data within city view

[6:06:12] Voice 1: than it sounds like you did and if you don't you don't that's just the reality right split

[6:06:17] Voice 23: yeah through the through the chair the gis data that they use is provided by our department and

[6:06:22] Voice 23: And it's more like, imagine it's just a window into our GIS system.

[6:06:26] Voice 23: It's not theirs.

[6:06:28] Trustee Patrick: Nice.

[6:06:29] Trustee Patrick: Any further discussion?

[6:06:33] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Bernardo.

[6:06:36] Voice 5: Well, it's really a question for Director Cermak because, you know, we do have this budgetary analysis issue we're having to go through.

[6:06:43] Voice 5: I mean, everything is on this list.

[6:06:46] Voice 5: It's gone through FPC.

[6:06:49] Voice 5: There's merit to all of them.

[6:06:51] Voice 5: There's certainly GIS analysts.

[6:06:53] Voice 5: It's pretty obvious that there's utility to it.

[6:06:56] Voice 5: But the question I've got here is, if this motion proceeds, what is the operating cost?

[6:07:04] Voice 5: I don't mean money-wise.

[6:07:05] Voice 5: I mean, in terms of operating costs to the planning people, in terms of not being able to deliver appropriate outcomes.

[6:07:15] Voice 5: I mean, I'm stumbling around here trying to find the right wording in that it's obviously going to be an imposition.

[6:07:23] Voice 5: It's obviously going to create inefficiencies that you're hoping to solve by hiring this person.

[6:07:32] Voice 5: But can you endure it or can you put up with it?

[6:07:35] Voice 5: Can you defer it for a year or is it going?

[6:07:38] Voice 5: Is there some fatal aspect to if we don't do the hire?

[6:07:44] Voice 5: Does it cause us to fall further behind or it's simply a matter of not having the resource that would help us?

[6:07:51] Voice 5: Maybe that's a better way of putting it.

[6:07:54] Trustee Patrick: Director Cermak.

[6:07:56] Voice 23: Thank you, Chair.

[6:07:57] Voice 23: I can begin to answer that, but I'll turn to the Director of Legislative Services.

[6:08:01] Voice 23: It's his department, whereby he knows the workload of the respective staff.

[6:08:05] Voice 23: I do know that currently the GIS staff are maxed out, helping us as much as possible.

[6:08:11] Voice 23: And these are from simple requests, creating a chart or a map for notification purposes of a variance permit or something like that in the newspaper,

[6:08:21] Voice 23: paper, all the way up to, we talked about suitable land analysis, helping with Freshwater Atlas and

[6:08:26] Voice 23: all these other projects that we do that make our work robust and the analytical side. So what we

[6:08:34] Voice 23: clearly heard from our GIS staff for planning and planning working with GIS is that we could use

[6:08:41] Voice 23: more resources to maintain an efficient, effective service, but the actual impact on is sort of staff

[6:08:48] Voice 23: planning services would slow down or not provide the same level of depth

[6:08:53] Voice 23: of analysis. And the Conservancy, I think, experiences the same

[6:08:57] Voice 23: thing, if not more, because they started these resolutions going from the

[6:09:01] Voice 23: Islands Trust Conservancy Executive Committee, oh my gosh, Regional Planning Committee, Trust

[6:09:04] Voice 23: Programs Committee. But I think the Director of Legislative

[6:09:09] Voice 23: and Information Services could answer your question more robustly on

[6:09:12] Voice 23: resources.

[6:09:15] Voice 25: Yeah, I've admitted to it, Chair. Thank you.

[6:09:17] Voice 25: Thank you. Yeah, just to continue with what Director Cermak was saying, from my understanding, we're talking to staff, they are overloaded. The work that they're getting just to do the day-to-day work from planning and ITC to some degree is more than enough for the two positions.

[6:09:39] Voice 25: And on top of that, they have just been undergoing a major revamp of the GIS system just because of the way the market is changing, the software is changing.

[6:09:51] Voice 25: We've had to deal with that.

[6:09:54] Voice 25: Map IT has been a frontline project that they've been working on hard behind the scenes.

[6:10:02] Voice 25: It's taken a long time to deal with the issues about that.

[6:10:05] Voice 25: So those are kind of unexpected in the sense, but it's still a big workload.

[6:10:10] Voice 25: And then the other piece that was identified to me is that we are not keeping up to date with the data layers.

[6:10:18] Voice 25: And, you know, so if you want to update the data layers for GIS,

[6:10:24] Voice 25: such as new species at risk or environmental maps that are used by planning,

[6:10:35] Voice 25: we don't have the resources to first of all go and find them and then maintain them and keep them up to date.

[6:10:43] Voice 25: A lot of the projects that are being proposed are underway.

[6:10:49] Voice 25: Even at the superficial level, they all have a GIS component to them.

[6:10:53] Voice 25: They're not completely devoid of requiring resources from GIS.

[6:10:59] Voice 25: So they often find, you know, they may not have been included in the design phase because it wasn't really thought of as a big issue.

[6:11:08] Voice 25: And then down the road, they're being asked to provide some mapping or to gather data to support that particular project.

[6:11:17] Voice 25: So you can see where the pressures are coming from.

[6:11:20] Voice 25: And then the final piece I'll say is that in discussions with a GIS coordinator, our shop is actually quite small compared to other municipalities and other regional districts in regards to the amount of work that's expected.

[6:11:39] Voice 25: They're supporting 13 trust committees and the Allens Trust Conservancy, and there's two of them doing that.

[6:11:46] Voice 25: So the planning department and other

[6:11:49] Voice 25: areas have expanded significantly.

[6:11:52] Voice 25: But the GIS, yes, we did add a position, but we haven't had any significant increases for almost as long as I've worked at the Allens Trust.

[6:12:03] Voice 25: Thanks.

[6:12:05] Trustee Patrick: Trustee

[6:12:05] Voice 19: Gavril and then Trustee Yates.

[6:12:07] Voice 19: I JUST WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT TO SOMETHING THAT THE ON STRESS CONSERVANCY MANAGES 115 AREAS.

[6:12:20] Voice 19: THAT IS SIGNIFICANT. CONSIDER THAT IN THE CONTEXT

[6:12:24] Voice 19: OF WHAT DIRECTOR MARLOR HAS JUST SAID. THERE'S BEEN NO UPDATE.

[6:12:29] Voice 19: THAT'S A LOT OF WORK. THANKS.

[6:12:31] Voice 24: NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. PERHAPS THIS IS A QUESTION FOR DIRECTOR SERMACK.

[6:12:38] Voice 24: How dependent is the GIS co-op student's job on the GIS analyst's job, or is that co-op student more dependent on the planner?

[6:12:52] Voice 23: Through the chair, I can speak to the planner co-op position, but I think the GIS co-op position would be to Director Marler.

[6:13:01] Voice 25: Yeah, it's independent. The main thing for that position would be managing that particular position.

[6:13:08] Voice 25: So the GIS coordinator would have some role in identifying some of the work initially.

[6:13:14] Voice 25: And then the manager of information technology who you just met would be responsible for overseeing the work.

[6:13:20] Voice 25: But it can be discrete and it doesn't need that other position for that one to be supported.

[6:13:29] Trustee Patrick: Rusty Middleton.

[6:13:30] Trustee Patrick: and yeah

[6:13:34] Voice 1: i think i i i echo the importance particularly in this day and age of obviously

[6:13:41] Voice 1: gis services and the robust internal uh gs department i'm just in reading the business

[6:13:47] Voice 1: case and i'm not i'm not being critical here uh i just i'm trying to look to the future to make

[6:13:52] Voice 1: sure we're not going to make a similar mistake that i think it looks like has been made where

[6:13:56] Voice 1: we've been trying to make this thing work but probably under resourcing it it looks like where

[6:14:02] Voice 1: where just you described the history of what's been done.

[6:14:06] Voice 1: And I'm just concerned that this, without necessarily a strategy,

[6:14:11] Voice 1: and one of the bullet points in the business case is that the previous consultant

[6:14:14] Voice 1: didn't make a robust recommendation about a spatial management database.

[6:14:19] Voice 1: And so that presumably is still not, is not a recommendation for which database to shift to.

[6:14:24] Voice 1: I may be wrong about that.

[6:14:25] Voice 1: And just echoing the CEO's report, it would seem to me that we need to resource the GIS functionality of the trust better. No question. I think that's been made clear by the business case. But I'm just wondering, are we doing that by adding another person without necessarily putting the systems behind the individuals and the training and the, you know, the floor planning for the next five years?

[6:14:54] Voice 1: that that's my concern.

[6:14:59] Trustee Patrick: Who would like to answer that question?

[6:15:05] Trustee Patrick: Well, no, it's not a question.

[6:15:07] Trustee Patrick: So there's not going to be a question.

[6:15:10] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees,

[6:15:12] Trustee Patrick: we're now backed up for our next speakers in the room.

[6:15:15] Trustee Patrick: So we have a motion before us

[6:15:17] Trustee Patrick: that the permanent geographic information system

[6:15:22] Trustee Patrick: analyst position be deferred for one year.

[6:15:25] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to call the vote.

[6:15:26] Trustee Patrick: All those in favour, raise your hands.

[6:15:38] Voice 8: In favour.

[6:15:39] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands.

[6:15:43] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[6:15:47] Trustee Patrick: All those opposed, raise your hands.

[6:15:54] Trustee Patrick: The Black Ball Fairy does not count in its three horn blasts.

[6:16:01] Voice 25: Yeah, ten opposed.

[6:16:05] Voice 25: And that carries.

[6:16:08] Voice 25: That carries.

[6:16:11] Voice 25: 10 opposed, 10 in favor, but the sum abstains and there are 12 to 14 in favor, so it passes.

[6:16:21] Voice 25: That passes.

[6:16:23] Voice 25: All right, trustees.

[6:16:24] Trustee Patrick: We still have a long way to go on the budget discussion this evening, however, we have

[6:16:31] Trustee Patrick: a guest that's in the room to work with us and I'm going to turn the podium over to Director

[6:16:39] Trustee Patrick: Director Cermak to introduce our guest. We have a lot of work yet to do tonight and we've deferred

[6:16:45] Trustee Patrick: other things on the agenda. So over to you, Director Cermak.

[6:16:51] Voice 23: Thank you, Chair. It's my

[6:16:54] Voice 23: pleasure to introduce this section on your agenda about the Short-Term Rental Accommodation Act.

[6:17:01] Voice 23: The purpose is to discuss opting in to the principal residence requirement of the Short-Term

[6:17:07] Voice 23: Residential Accommodation Act. You've all at your LPCs and at Trust Council received

[6:17:14] Voice 23: briefings and reports about it. Some of you have opted in. So for today, for this portion,

[6:17:19] Voice 23: we're going to start by hearing from Hannah Rabinovich. She's the Director of Housing Policy

[6:17:24] Voice 23: and Legislation with the province. Then we're going to hear from the Manager of By-law. We're

[6:17:30] Voice 23: going to hear from Warren from the Manager of By-law Compliance and Enforcement. Next, I'll give an

[6:17:34] Voice 23: update on behalf of Bowen Island staff who've given me some information so I can update you

[6:17:39] Voice 23: about their the implications of them opting in somewhat anecdotal but it's there and then I'm

[6:17:45] Voice 23: going to turn it to the trustees who have opted in and I sort of prompted them hoping they have

[6:17:50] Voice 23: some thoughts that they can provide with you and then it'll open up to the chair or to the table

[6:17:55] Voice 23: as a whole so there you go so that's what we're going to do you've got an hour and a half to do

[6:18:00] Voice 23: do it. It's my pleasure to introduce Hannah Rabinovich, who's coming up. She's the Director

[6:18:05] Voice 23: of Housing Policy and Legislation within the Housing Policy Branch in the Ministry of Housing

[6:18:10] Voice 23: and Municipal Affairs. Hannah has worked in the branch for over nine years, and the last

[6:18:14] Voice 23: couple of years, her work has focused on short-term rentals, purpose-built rentals, rent supplement

[6:18:19] Voice 23: programs, and tenant protections. Hannah lives in the City of Victoria with her partner and

[6:18:24] Voice 23: their two young sons, seven and four. Can you imagine those days again? Busy household.

[6:18:29] Voice 23: She's deeply committed to active transportation and bikes, walks and scoots, most placed with their kiddos by foot or in their cargo bike.

[6:18:37] Voice 23: Maybe she'll help with the plans on the Southern Gulf Islands, I hope.

[6:18:41] Voice 23: She also lives quite close to downtown and supports supportive housing, including the site across the street from her very own home.

[6:18:47] Voice 23: So with that, Anna.

[6:18:53] Voice 21: Well, it's a mark, yes.

[6:18:54] Voice 21: Good evening.

[6:18:57] Voice 21: Good

[6:18:58] Voice 15: evening. Thank you so much for inviting me to present on the short-term rental principal

[6:19:02] Voice 15: residence requirement. I've been the policy lead on the short-term rental act since its inception

[6:19:08] Voice 15: in late 22, early 23, and have led the development of all of the legislation and regulations of the

[6:19:14] Voice 15: scheme since then. I'm hopeful this presentation will provide you with the information and

[6:19:18] Voice 15: considerations you're seeking. So my objective in the presentation is to provide you with information

[6:19:32] Voice 15: for opting into the principal residence requirement next year.

[6:19:36] Voice 15: And I'll note that I may use the term PR requirement

[6:19:38] Voice 15: throughout the presentation,

[6:19:40] Voice 15: and apologies for being a bureaucrat that uses acronyms.

[6:19:44] Voice 15: So I'll start with a very brief background of the Act.

[6:19:47] Voice 15: I'll outline the PR requirement.

[6:19:49] Voice 15: I'll explain the exemptions to the PR requirement

[6:19:52] Voice 15: that will still apply even if you opt in.

[6:19:54] Voice 15: I'll discuss how it's enforced provincially.

[6:19:57] Voice 15: I'll go over the process to opt in,

[6:19:59] Voice 15: other local government tools that arise from the Act. And I'll finish off on my thoughts on what

[6:20:06] Voice 15: you may want to consider prior to taking a decision of whether or not to opt in. So I won't

[6:20:13] Voice 15: go into all the details of how the Act came to be, but for a high level overview of the background

[6:20:18] Voice 15: of the Act, there's three main objectives that the Act was trying to achieve. The first was to

[6:20:23] Voice 15: strengthen local government tools to enforce short-term rental bylaws. All of this really

[6:20:28] Voice 15: came out of the 2021 joint UBCM Ministry of Housing report on short-term rentals which was

[6:20:35] Voice 15: the original impetus behind the province introducing the legislation and we heard from

[6:20:39] Voice 15: many many local governments that they were having a hard time getting short-term rental platforms

[6:20:43] Voice 15: listening to them was there was non-compliance in their in their communities and the major

[6:20:48] Voice 15: platforms were not taking action. In 2023 our act enabled provided some new tools including

[6:20:56] Voice 15: including enabling regional districts to institute business licensing,

[6:20:59] Voice 15: and we increased the maximum MTI ticketing fines for municipalities.

[6:21:03] Voice 15: The second objective is to return short-term rental units to the long-term housing market.

[6:21:08] Voice 15: This was done both through the provincial PR requirement,

[6:21:11] Voice 15: as well as removing legal non-conforming use protections for short-term rentals.

[6:21:16] Voice 15: The third objective was to establish new provincial oversight over short-term rentals

[6:21:20] Voice 15: by requiring all hosts to register with the province

[6:21:23] Voice 15: and establish a provincial compliance and enforcement unit.

[6:21:29] Voice 15: So the legislation and regulations were brought into force through a phased approach.

[6:21:33] Voice 15: The legislation was passed in 2023.

[6:21:36] Voice 15: In May 1st, 2024, the PR requirement came into effect province-wide,

[6:21:41] Voice 15: and major platform data sharing requirements came into effect starting May 1st, 2024.

[6:21:47] Voice 15: In January 2025, the provincial registry was launched,

[6:21:51] Voice 15: and minor and medium platform data sharing requirements came into effect.

[6:21:56] Voice 15: As of May 1st of last year, all short-term rental hosts in BC were required to register,

[6:22:01] Voice 15: and as of June, all listings on short-term rental platforms in BC have needed to be validated.

[6:22:08] Voice 15: This is done through a back-end system through which the platform, for instance, Airbnb, VRBO,

[6:22:14] Voice 15: or Booking.com, has to ensure all of the listings on their site matches with someone in our registry system.

[6:22:21] Voice 15: This has meant that as of June of last year, if you've booked a short-term rental online in BC, you've booked with a registered STR operator, and all operators in your community should be registered with the province already.

[6:22:35] Voice 15: In many ways, it's remarkable that this has been stood up in such a short period of time, only two years, but at the same time, we still have a long ways to go to fine-tune all of our systems and procedures.

[6:22:47] Voice 15: So what is the PR requirement?

[6:22:49] Voice 15: requirement so the principal residence requirement limits short-term rentals to the host's principal

[6:22:57] Voice 15: residence newly redefined as the usual place where an individual makes their home there was

[6:23:03] Voice 15: recent amendment to this act in the bc legislature plus one secondary suite or laneway home on the

[6:23:10] Voice 15: same property or accessory dwelling unit the provincial pr requirement is a floor local

[6:23:15] Voice 15: governments may choose to have more restrictive bylaws for instance city of victoria and city of

[6:23:21] Voice 15: Vancouver don't allow short-term rentals in secondary suites. The PR requirement originally

[6:23:26] Voice 15: didn't apply to smaller municipalities under 10,000, to the 14 designated resort municipalities,

[6:23:32] Voice 15: to mountain resorts or ski hills, to electoral areas, and to trust areas, as well as farmland.

[6:23:39] Voice 15: Since 2024, many local governments have opted into the PR requirement, so it now applies in

[6:23:45] Voice 15: many smaller municipalities, many electoral areas, one designated resort municipality,

[6:23:50] Voice 15: a Soyuz, and several trust areas, Salt Spring, Gabriola, and Bowen Island.

[6:23:58] Voice 15: So to understand the whole picture of the PR requirement, it's helpful to know what exemptions

[6:24:03] Voice 15: there are under the Act and regulations. The Act as a whole does not apply to First Nation lands

[6:24:09] Voice 15: unless the treaty nation has negotiated a coordination agreement with the province,

[6:24:13] Voice 15: and so far the only coordination agreement is with Suwas and First Nation. The Act also does

[6:24:19] Voice 15: does not apply to hotels, motels, hostels, or to tents, temporary shelters, vehicles, and RVs.

[6:24:25] Voice 15: So campgrounds and hotels and most resorts are exempt from these rules. This slide lists the

[6:24:35] Voice 15: types of accommodations that are also exempt from both the PR requirement and the registration

[6:24:40] Voice 15: requirement. The STR registry team is responsible for assessing exemptions under the Act,

[6:24:46] Voice 15: not local government staff such as Islands Trust staff. The province maintains oversight of these

[6:24:52] Voice 15: types of short-term rentals by requiring short-term rental platforms to share data on these listings

[6:24:58] Voice 15: but operators don't need to register their accommodations with the province. So approval

[6:25:03] Voice 15: is not required in order to identify as exempt but the province continues to monitor these listings

[6:25:09] Voice 15: through monthly platform reporting for signs of these exemptions being misused. And there's three

[6:25:17] Voice 15: major categories of exemptions to the PR requirement that do still need to register.

[6:25:23] Voice 15: The first is farmland. We ask that registrants show that they are Class 9 farmland in order

[6:25:29] Voice 15: to meet the exemption. It's actually not based on ALR lands.

[6:25:33] Voice 15: The second is fractional ownership. And the third is strata hotels. A strata titled

[6:25:39] Voice 15: hotel or motel is a property in which the accommodation is provided in a manner like

[6:25:43] Voice 15: like a hotel or motel, but where the property is stratified and different owners own different

[6:25:48] Voice 15: strata lots within the complex. This is a financing model that has emerged for hotels

[6:25:53] Voice 15: and resorts over the years. My guess is that there's no strata hotels in trust areas, but I

[6:25:58] Voice 15: could be wrong. The STR registry team and not local governments assess applications for these

[6:26:04] Voice 15: exemptions. Approval from the registry team must be granted in order to operate under one of these

[6:26:10] Voice 15: use exemption categories. So how does the province enforce the PR requirement? The main tool the

[6:26:21] Voice 15: province uses to ensure compliance is registration. The STR registry team manually reviews documentation

[6:26:29] Voice 15: provided by applicants from principal residence area or from areas where the PR requirement applies

[6:26:35] Voice 15: that demonstrates that the property is their principal residence. So we have a list of types

[6:26:40] Voice 15: of identification and documentation that can be used to prove this the team also

[6:26:47] Voice 15: reviews applications for PR exemptions like I just mentioned as mentioned at

[6:26:51] Voice 15: the beginning then platforms automatically verify that all listings

[6:26:55] Voice 15: on their site are registered with the province and must enable hosts display

[6:27:00] Voice 15: their registration number on their online listing then the registrar can

[6:27:06] Voice 15: also receive complaints from local governments about hosts that are

[6:27:09] Voice 15: violating local bylaws, which then could include more stringent PR requirements. That's another

[6:27:16] Voice 15: mechanism. Finally, the CEU team, the Compliance and Enforcement team, reviews the STR data portal

[6:27:24] Voice 15: for evidence of non-compliance, such as a single host operating multiple short-term rentals in a

[6:27:29] Voice 15: PR area, and investigates tips from the public. Investigations are prioritized based on the

[6:27:36] Voice 15: severity of the contravention for instance a host operating multiple non-compliant listings

[6:27:44] Voice 15: so i'm guessing most of you are already pretty familiar with the process of opting

[6:27:49] Voice 15: in or out but i'll go over these key pieces briefly so we structure the act from the start

[6:27:56] Voice 15: so that each local trust committee can vote to opt in themselves and not the regional district board

[6:28:02] Voice 15: your committee would need to pass a resolution at a committee meeting sometime before march 31st

[6:28:07] Voice 15: 2026, and sent it attached in an email with a request to the Minister to opt into the PR

[6:28:13] Voice 15: requirement before March 31st, 2026. And please CC our branch so we can keep track of the requests.

[6:28:20] Voice 15: After receiving the request, this would be confirmed by regulation and will come into

[6:28:25] Voice 15: effect November 1st of 2026. There have been questions of late about the November 1st date.

[6:28:32] Voice 15: Kelowna has been making a ruckus about that, but based on the direction to date, that date is not

[6:28:37] Voice 15: being changed so if you were to opt in in march that would not take effect until november i'll

[6:28:49] Voice 15: now go over some of the other local government tools available to support short-term rental

[6:28:54] Voice 15: enforcement through our act so the first is the data portal which i've referred to a couple of

[6:28:59] Voice 15: times so through the data portal we receive host contact information and str property addresses

[6:29:05] Voice 15: to help local governments identify and contact non-compliant hosts booking information also helps

[6:29:11] Voice 15: local governments understand how frequently hosts are renting their property. So as of May 1st of

[6:29:17] Voice 15: 2024, the three major platforms were initially reporting to us. So again, that's Airbnb,

[6:29:24] Voice 15: Expedia, who runs VRBO and a bunch of other sites, and Booking.com. Currently, there are actually

[6:29:30] Voice 15: 100 different STR platforms that are reporting to the province, including many smaller regional

[6:29:37] Voice 15: operators. And over 70 local governments have been onboarded to the data portal. And I know

[6:29:43] Voice 15: Islands Trust staff are signed up for the data portal, at least for Salt Spring, but I'm not

[6:29:47] Voice 15: sure about all areas. So through the data portal, local governments can directly request platforms

[6:29:54] Voice 15: remove listings that lack a valid local government business license. First thing

[6:30:00] Voice 15: to send a notice of non-compliance to the host in the platform and after five days if the

[6:30:04] Voice 15: non-compliance remains the local government can send a request to the platform to directly remove

[6:30:08] Voice 15: the non-compliant listing through this process nearly 2 000 non-compliant listings in communities

[6:30:14] Voice 15: across the province have been removed from platforms since 2024. this is restricted to a

[6:30:20] Voice 15: local government business license and this tool doesn't apply to short-term rentals regulated in

[6:30:25] Voice 15: other ways such as a land use bylaw or a temporary use permit. This was kind of our initial phase to

[6:30:32] Voice 15: support local governments prior to the implementation of registration, but it still remains in effect

[6:30:37] Voice 15: today. This slide outlines how your local government can onboard to the data portal or

[6:30:43] Voice 15: you can get your staff to do that. So as mentioned off the top, supporting local government enforcement

[6:30:50] Voice 15: of bylaws was a key objective of the Act. This slide outlines how our scheme supports enforcement

[6:30:56] Voice 15: of your bylaws. First, hosts need a valid business license where one is required as a precondition to

[6:31:03] Voice 15: applying for a provincial registration number. So if a host's business license has been cancelled

[6:31:08] Voice 15: and the local government lets the registrar know, their provincial registration would be

[6:31:12] Voice 15: automatically cancelled. In addition, compliance with local bylaws is a term and condition of

[6:31:18] Voice 15: provincial registration. I'll talk more about how that works in practice on the next slide.

[6:31:23] Voice 15: I'll acknowledge that most Islands Trust areas do not have business licensing systems,

[6:31:28] Voice 15: so enforcement would likely rely on this term and condition of registration mechanism for provincial enforcement.

[6:31:37] Voice 15: So if a host is operating out of compliance with one of your bylaws, including a temporary use permit,

[6:31:43] Voice 15: your staff can contact the registrar to conduct a review of the registration.

[6:31:47] Voice 15: The notice to the registrar needs to outline the excerpt of the bylaw being contravened,

[6:31:53] Voice 15: the specific contravention of the bylaw, and proof of that contravention.

[6:31:58] Voice 15: The registrar can then review that information and determine whether or not to suspend or cancel the provincial registration

[6:32:05] Voice 15: on the basis that the registrant has violated the term and condition of registration of compliance with local government bylaws.

[6:32:16] Voice 15: So on the next slide, I'm just going to outline some of the initial thinking that I put together

[6:32:21] Voice 15: of what you may want to consider before deciding to opt into the PR requirement.

[6:32:27] Voice 15: And then that'll be the conclusion of my presentation.

[6:32:31] Voice 15: So first, you may want to review your bylaws and consider how they align or misalign with the Act

[6:32:36] Voice 15: and whether you want to consider introducing business licensing.

[6:32:40] Voice 15: We would recommend you conduct some kind of community engagement

[6:32:44] Voice 15: and provide the community with an opportunity to weigh in on this decision.

[6:32:49] Voice 15: I'll just note that in some communities, this can be a fairly fraught topic

[6:32:54] Voice 15: and you may want to create opportunities to receive email or online input.

[6:32:58] Voice 15: Understanding the makeup of property ownership and residency in your community may also be

[6:33:04] Voice 15: important to understand the scope of the impact of the shift to a PR requirement.

[6:33:09] Voice 15: What proportion of properties are owned by residents versus non-residents?

[6:33:13] Voice 15: And of the non-residents, do you have a sense of what proportion short-term rent their properties

[6:33:18] Voice 15: versus just use their properties seasonally without short-term renting it?

[6:33:22] Voice 15: This will be helpful to inform the type of engagement that you'll have in your community.

[6:33:28] Voice 15: You may also want to consider whether you want your staff to enforce bylaws or if you want the province, provincial staff to be conducting enforcement.

[6:33:40] Voice 15: It really depends on local relationships and with operators and staff capacity.

[6:33:46] Voice 15: city. Provincial enforcement mechanisms include issuing compliance orders, which can be filed in

[6:33:54] Voice 15: court, administrative monetary penalties for violations, and all of that would take place

[6:34:00] Voice 15: without engagement with local staff. We know in discussions with some communities, there may be

[6:34:08] Voice 15: preferences for staff versus provincial enforcement, and that's something you may want to

[6:34:11] Voice 15: consider. Yeah, so that concludes my presentation. I had questions and answers, but I think we'll

[6:34:18] Voice 15: probably circle back to this later. It sounds like there's others.

[6:34:28] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much, Hannah. And

[6:34:30] Trustee Patrick: when we get to the Q&A, you can join here at the table and sit down, be comfortable for answering

[6:34:35] Trustee Patrick: questions good afternoon

[6:34:51] Voice 27: council my briefing today will go over the basics

[6:34:57] Voice 27: of what primarily what I have been using the data portal for and we've had access

[6:35:04] Voice 27: for approximately six months using it to review all the advertisements and

[6:35:10] Voice 27: and enforce as dictated by Trust Council or local Trust Committee policies.

[6:35:15] Voice 27: It's been a very useful tool.

[6:35:16] Voice 27: It allows us to verify if there are resident owners on the property,

[6:35:19] Voice 27: review all the listings.

[6:35:20] Voice 27: It gives us detailed information, host address,

[6:35:24] Voice 27: this type of information, how many nights that the rental is being used.

[6:35:30] Voice 27: So both Gabriel and Salt Spring right now have opted in

[6:35:36] Voice 27: to the principal residency requirement.

[6:35:39] Voice 27: requirement, but unfortunately with the data portal, they've assigned a lot of the properties

[6:35:44] Voice 27: to regional districts. So we have to get that corrected so that I can see all the information

[6:35:50] Voice 27: because right now it's gone to the RDN assigned to them or the CRD and they don't have any bylaws

[6:35:57] Voice 27: to enforce around the short-term vacation rental. So hopefully we can get that changed so that I

[6:36:02] Voice 27: I can see all the relevant information.

[6:36:05] Voice 27: Now, the data portal does not have the complete registry data.

[6:36:09] Voice 27: There are two different systems, and there's a lag with the update from the registry to the data portal.

[6:36:16] Voice 27: So for Gabriola and Salt Spring, there have actually been no complaints at all.

[6:36:23] Voice 27: Gabriola has been opted in for a year.

[6:36:25] Voice 27: There's been no complaints.

[6:36:26] Voice 27: There's been no investigations.

[6:36:27] Voice 27: Investigations for Bowen Island, they have received complaints, but apparently none of these complaints have resulted in any investigations.

[6:36:36] Voice 27: So the SDR branch has said that regardless of whether or not a jurisdiction has opted into the provincial residency requirements, all listings, as you've just heard, must be registered and they must comply with local bylaws.

[6:36:48] Voice 27: So if these listings are not complying with the home occupation, home business, principal residency requirements that are already in almost all the land use bylaws, we are going to be able to forward a list to the registry, and then they can look at the evidence, whatnot, that we have and determine whether or not that listing will be deregistered for not complying with the local bylaws.

[6:37:15] Voice 27: And that would comply with the short-term rental accommodation regulation section 4.51a, where it states that the short-term rental offer and the short-term rental accommodation services provided at the relevant property must be provided in compliance with applicable short-term rental bylaws and related bylaws, or in other words, all of your local bylaws.

[6:37:38] Voice 27: and so that's trust wide regardless of whether or not you've opted in that is I think going to

[6:37:46] Voice 27: be a very important enforcement tool where we're going to put together the excel sheets and send

[6:37:51] Voice 27: them to the registry and they'll review our information and that's the basics I have at this

[6:37:59] Voice 27: time.

[6:38:02] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Thank

[6:38:14] Voice 23: you chair I'm just going to do a brief Bowen Island staff gave me an update

[6:38:17] Voice 23: on how opting in has affected their operations.

[6:38:21] Voice 23: So this is from the manager of planning services there, Daniel Martin.

[6:38:27] Voice 23: So he said there's some key takeaways for trust counsel he wanted to share.

[6:38:31] Voice 23: He cautioned me, this is anecdotal, this is him talking to staff

[6:38:34] Voice 23: and then him writing their thoughts down,

[6:38:36] Voice 23: so it's not being sort of reported this way,

[6:38:39] Voice 23: but he was comfortable to share.

[6:38:41] Voice 23: And that is some key takeaways were that bones often resulted

[6:38:45] Voice 23: in a small number of confirmed short-term rental closures.

[6:38:49] Voice 23: They could identify six that ceased operating

[6:38:54] Voice 23: and it was specifically due to the decision to opt in.

[6:38:58] Voice 23: Several other operators restructured their arrangements.

[6:39:01] Voice 23: For example, shifting STR operations

[6:39:03] Voice 23: to a long-term tenant living on the property.

[6:39:05] Voice 23: So that's, they converted STR to at least one.

[6:39:09] Voice 23: Bowen experiences significant annual turnover

[6:39:12] Voice 23: over in the STR licenses regardless of the policy changes. So apparently it's quite an active file

[6:39:17] Voice 23: regardless. Unknown outcomes for STRs that close. Bowen does not necessarily check what happens to

[6:39:25] Voice 23: all the units that do close. So they can't confirm how many have been converted to long-term rental

[6:39:30] Voice 23: units. They just could confirm the one. They don't know if they're necessarily left vacant or if

[6:39:35] Voice 23: they're sold. So they don't really track what happens. It's closed. They stop. But like I said,

[6:39:40] Voice 23: they anecdotally knew of one. So there's no conclusions they could give me. I was kind of

[6:39:46] Voice 23: pushing them on that. Can you tell me if that's actually led to an increase of affordable housing

[6:39:52] Voice 23: or at least any housing? And finally, in terms of operational and administrative impacts,

[6:39:58] Voice 23: prior to the November 1 effective date, staff experienced high volumes of questions

[6:40:02] Voice 23: about the STR operators seeking clarity on what was permitted and how to navigate

[6:40:07] Voice 23: gate the provincial registry. After implementation, by-law operations have seen minimal to no impact.

[6:40:15] Voice 23: It's pretty much been a non-issue for them, similar to what I just heard Warren report.

[6:40:20] Voice 23: And Bowen now receives the provincial data sharing on active listings, allowing the municipality to

[6:40:25] Voice 23: end its contract. This was new to me with Hamari, which was their third-party STR monitoring service.

[6:40:31] Voice 23: service and of course there was an opportunity that some people were monitoring that but now

[6:40:38] Voice 23: they don't use that third-party contractor anymore because the province does it for them

[6:40:41] Voice 23: so thanks province um so yeah next was to talk to the trustees who have the opt-in that would be

[6:40:48] Voice 23: bowen salt spring and gabriela thank

[6:40:58] Voice 12: you i was interested to hear what our planner had to say

[6:41:00] Voice 12: But from a third-term municipal councillor on Bowen, we'd been doing this kind of work before the province had this act.

[6:41:14] Voice 12: We had been managing short-term vacation rentals.

[6:41:18] Voice 12: So this means the act and the principal residents opting in means that staff have been relieved of a bunch of work that the province has taken on.

[6:41:28] Voice 12: is what it appears to me um we did a whole bunch of uh community consultation uh as the um

[6:41:37] Voice 12: short-term vacation rental um i forget what we call it accommodations anyway because we had to

[6:41:45] Voice 12: talk about bed and breakfasts and all those kinds of things as well and uh and it was a significant

[6:41:52] Voice 12: amount of community consultation and learning through that time um so i wanted to mention that

[6:41:59] Voice 12: and the and the third thing is that um an impact of the um what this legislation and the earlier

[6:42:11] Voice 12: uh short-term uh rental and bed and breakfast all that accommodation sector uh regulations that

[6:42:19] Voice 12: Bowen Island municipality put on and now is being supported with the province is that

[6:42:26] Voice 12: neighborhood disputes and peace and tranquility and sense of neighborhood community are strengthened

[6:42:36] Voice 12: and anecdotally I gather that the impact on some of the little narrow steep island roads

[6:42:45] Voice 12: is down because we don't have off-islanders trying to run their vehicles up and down

[6:42:53] Voice 12: you know roads that they're unfamiliar with in the dark and skidding and making a big

[6:42:59] Voice 12: noise for the neighbors as well anyway some of those don't have to do with the long-term rental

[6:43:07] Voice 12: but I also can say I just agree with staff at the council level we're not I'm not hearing as much

[6:43:14] Voice 12: about short-term vacation rentals being an issue it's all quiet and down and

[6:43:21] Voice 12: we're on to other things so I'm interested if trustee Getty has anything

[6:43:26] Voice 12: else to say about that

[6:43:29] Voice 7: anecdotally I've heard that some of the family owned

[6:43:35] Voice 7: smaller cottages that you know had reserved time for family to show up two

[6:43:41] Voice 7: or three brothers or whatever sisters and um they would rent the places out in between and that they

[6:43:48] Voice 7: are still grumbling in terms of not having that extra source of income to help maintain the places

[6:43:54] Voice 7: but i think that's part of the six that have ceased and um i'm not sure of any others otherwise

[6:44:04] Voice 7: it is quiet we're going through a process now of getting uh um all of the um businesses that

[6:44:10] Voice 7: are renting out to visitors to agree to a tax so that we can try and figure out some help with our

[6:44:20] Voice 7: tourism expenses but i'm not sure that the strs are going to have anything to do with that so

[6:44:27] Voice 7: we'll see yeah

[6:44:34] Voice 17: so thank you so gabriella's experience um was that the two local trustees

[6:44:40] Voice 17: were very eager to opt in without any consultation with our community. We just, staff brought the

[6:44:47] Voice 17: opportunity to the October, sorry, the February 2024 meeting and the LTC decided to opt in that

[6:44:57] Voice 17: day. So I think Trustee Yates has some good feedback that we've heard from the community

[6:45:04] Voice 17: subsequently. I've heard nothing but positive, with one exception, and I'll speak to that in a

[6:45:11] Voice 17: minute. But generally, it was very welcomed by the community. They really were thankful to see that

[6:45:16] Voice 17: we were making use of the tools that are available, even though we already have a very good

[6:45:23] Voice 17: temporary use permit system. I think Gabriel is one of the ones that is a model for other LTCAs.

[6:45:31] Voice 17: It's been in use for a decade or more, much longer, and it really does regulate activity quite well.

[6:45:43] Voice 17: So it wasn't a situation where we had a bunch of illegal short-term vacation rentals, but there was an uptick, I think, in applications post-COVID.

[6:45:59] Voice 17: it. So a lot of properties had transferred, people bought and moved to the islands and had

[6:46:06] Voice 17: specifically bought a property to be able to do a commercial rental. And so what I had noticed was

[6:46:12] Voice 17: 2022, before I got elected, there was quite a few applications and huge numbers of letters

[6:46:20] Voice 17: from neighboring residents not in support. There was a lot of alarm that there was sort of this

[6:46:26] Voice 17: trend of increasing short-term vacation rentals. So we had a good system, but the market sort of

[6:46:34] Voice 17: was pushing, I would say, maybe more speculative or off-island purchasers. And then when we opted

[6:46:43] Voice 17: in, I do think it had a cooling effect on that sort of activity. And the community really did

[6:46:50] Voice 17: respond and said, thank you for taking the initiative. We totally support this. We just

[6:46:55] Voice 17: want to see a check and the the principal residency requirement is that that primary check that's the

[6:47:00] Voice 17: only thing that changes so we still have a temporary use permit system we've seen two

[6:47:05] Voice 17: applications and approved two applications in the last year uh 2025 um or rather two applications

[6:47:14] Voice 17: have come in i know we just approved one and um so it's no problem if they're a principal

[6:47:19] Voice 17: residents. So they still go through the process to, you know, gain support from the community or

[6:47:26] Voice 17: not. But basically there was no letters against or for in the last application. But I will say

[6:47:33] Voice 17: there was one situation and it was to do with how we communicated the opt-in. So we had a family,

[6:47:41] Voice 17: family, a long time family living on Gabriola, who decided to move to Spain and pursue cool work

[6:47:50] Voice 17: opportunities there. And they applied for a temporary use permit in October 2023, and received

[6:47:57] Voice 17: it. And then we opted in in the following February. And the notification went out in the paper

[6:48:05] Voice 17: in April. And I think we hadn't had time from the planning side to notify everybody. And so this was

[6:48:13] Voice 17: one family that got caught in the, we've opted in, we didn't quite have all the pieces in place

[6:48:23] Voice 17: to be able to communicate that. And so they were not happy about learning through the paper

[6:48:28] Voice 17: that the principal residency requirement had changed. So I just wanted to give that feedback

[6:48:34] Voice 17: feedback that we jumped on the opportunity. We did not consult with our community. By and large,

[6:48:40] Voice 17: it's been very welcomed. And I think Trustee Yates has some specific feedback from commercial

[6:48:46] Voice 17: operators. But that was one situation where a family was caught and said, wait a minute,

[6:48:52] Voice 17: we didn't learn about this in the right way. So we learned a lot from that.

[6:49:01] Voice 24: Thank you, Trustee Elliott. So by and large, the Islands Trust on Gabriela is well supported by our Chamber of Commerce. We have really good relationship with the members, and they show up at our events and support us as well.

[6:49:19] Voice 24: So it was easy to get some answers from, all I did was I sent the questions that Director Saramak had posed to us.

[6:49:31] Voice 24: I sent them to the Executive Director of our Chamber of Commerce and some of the larger operators of commercial accommodation.

[6:49:40] Voice 24: So the questions were, has there been an increase in long-term workforce housing?

[6:49:45] Voice 24: Yes, there has, and I'll mention that.

[6:49:48] Voice 24: Has there been an impact on residential character? Not particularly because of our strong temporary use permit guidelines that we already had, where we, you know, if someone wants to open a short-term vacation rental, they've got a two-page guideline sheet that they have to abide by so that the neighborhoods are not adversely affected.

[6:50:09] Voice 24: affected has there been pushback from accommodation group yes but in a positive way

[6:50:14] Voice 24: and has there been a change in community perception probably other than that one

[6:50:22] Voice 24: little boo-boo we made with that one family I think it's been quite positive so just a little

[6:50:29] Voice 24: bit of detail here one of the largest operators on the island who depend on staff to have housing

[6:50:37] Voice 24: to work there said yes there's been an increase in available housing units for

[6:50:43] Voice 24: our staff this year specifically two chefs and two of our line cooks all

[6:50:51] Voice 24: found accommodation much more easily this year compared to the prior year

[6:50:56] Voice 24: okay and then with respect to feedback from the accommodation generally the

[6:51:03] Voice 24: the shoulder winter season are up, which is what we hoped would happen.

[6:51:09] Voice 24: So, and then one of the big resorts says we have two more full-time year-round employees,

[6:51:17] Voice 24: two more than last year, and they both have places to live, which they didn't previously.

[6:51:25] Voice 24: Given that we are mostly at 100% full anyway during the summer, the reduced number of

[6:51:33] Voice 24: illegal short-term vacation rentals has potentially had a reduction in visitors

[6:51:39] Voice 24: during the high season. But they're not really too concerned about that. What they're really

[6:51:47] Voice 24: looking for is more business during the shoulder seasons because accommodation for staff is their

[6:51:56] Voice 24: priority that's what they say right here and also just as an aside I've received

[6:52:04] Voice 24: and probably trustee Elliott has too since since I've been elected I've

[6:52:10] Voice 24: received a number of favorable comments about how our temporary use permit

[6:52:15] Voice 24: guidelines are quite strict of course that only works when someone actually

[6:52:20] Voice 24: applies for a temporary use permit. And as manager Dingman might affirm, there is still a list of

[6:52:28] Voice 24: possible suspects on Capriola, you know, that need to be investigated as far as people complaining

[6:52:38] Voice 24: about possible illegal short-term vacation rental. Not a big list. It's pretty modest,

[6:52:45] Voice 24: modest but i do know that um people will complain if they feel that there's an illegal short-term

[6:52:52] Voice 24: vacation rental in their neighborhood if it's bothering them that's it thank you all right

[6:52:59] Trustee Patrick: i'll try to cover salt spring quickly and then ask trustee harris if he has anything to add

[6:53:04] Trustee Patrick: um on salt spring we did not opt in the first year uh everyone was quite nervous and didn't

[6:53:09] Trustee Patrick: know what the regulations were so we waited a year uh we did speak with the two we had two

[6:53:16] Trustee Patrick: organization groups that were membership associations essentially for the we had

[6:53:24] Trustee Patrick: the chamber and an accommodation group on the island uh they both uh because we already had

[6:53:30] Trustee Patrick: a principal residence requirement in our home-based business requirements they both

[6:53:35] Trustee Patrick: provided letters of support for us opting in so that was very made the consultation part quite

[6:53:44] Trustee Patrick: quite easy on Salt Spring, relatively.

[6:53:48] Trustee Patrick: We have asked staff to prepare communications

[6:53:50] Trustee Patrick: because I think that people just don't know

[6:53:53] Trustee Patrick: where to find some of the information.

[6:53:54] Trustee Patrick: So we have asked staff to prepare

[6:53:56] Trustee Patrick: some communications for people.

[6:54:01] Trustee Patrick: We don't have good data, so we can't say

[6:54:05] Trustee Patrick: how many have been converted,

[6:54:07] Trustee Patrick: how things have been improved, we don't know.

[6:54:09] Trustee Patrick: But we do have our OCP land use by-law project that we have.

[6:54:13] Trustee Patrick: I know that the accommodation groups in the chamber were key.

[6:54:19] Trustee Patrick: They want to work with us to modernize our regulations, are out of date.

[6:54:23] Trustee Patrick: They're very old.

[6:54:26] Trustee Patrick: And we have a seasonal cottage that basically the definition is short-term rental.

[6:54:32] Trustee Patrick: So we've got some challenges with our own bylaws, and the groups want to work with us to modernize that.

[6:54:39] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Harris, did you have anything you wanted to add?

[6:54:42] Voice 30: Sure.

[6:54:45] Voice 30: I don't think this opting in is actually having a large effect on the longer-term rentals

[6:54:53] Voice 30: versus short-term rentals or short-term rentals being turned into long-term.

[6:55:00] Voice 30: The housing crisis on Salt Spring is still at a fever pitch, has been for a very, very long time.

[6:55:07] Voice 30: And the way things are going, I don't really see any significant change.

[6:55:16] Voice 30: that will offer any um real relief for um for people that um that are having to leave the

[6:55:24] Voice 30: island um yeah it's um it's the housing situation on salt spring is there's a few

[6:55:35] Voice 30: factors to what have brought it to the point that it's at what um the main drivers i think have been

[6:55:45] Voice 30: not only local government mismanagement but provincial and and and on it goes um up to

[6:55:55] Voice 30: federal so i don't see any relief anywhere near in sight for um salt spring island especially when

[6:56:00] Voice 30: i look at the ocp and the policy statement and some of the things i've seen here at this trust

[6:56:06] Voice 30: council so thank you thank

[6:56:08] Trustee Patrick: you all right director cermak so we're gonna have just open q a now

[6:56:13] Trustee Patrick: now. So, Hannah, there's a microphone in front of you. So, trustees, this is your opportunity

[6:56:19] Trustee Patrick: to, if you've got questions, anyone have questions? Go ahead, Trustee Allen.

[6:56:28] Voice 8: So, Hornby Island, you know, have heard about Hornby Island? Yes. We're just, it's, we're

[6:56:35] Voice 8: loved to death, and my fellow trustee and I, who's not here, I wish he was here, because

[6:56:40] Voice 8: this is important, but I'll share it with him. We are going to be looking at opting

[6:56:44] Voice 8: and we're actually looking at capping.

[6:56:49] Voice 8: So I was just wondering, I actually have a few questions.

[6:56:51] Voice 8: Is that okay?

[6:56:52] Voice 8: Because I'm horny.

[6:56:54] Voice 8: And so let's see.

[6:56:58] Voice 8: So are there any communities that have capping at all

[6:57:01] Voice 8: in terms of capping?

[6:57:03] Voice 8: Like we can only have 67, sorry,

[6:57:06] Voice 8: we only have 67 or whatever vacation rentals are allowed.

[6:57:09] Voice 8: Do you have any of that?

[6:57:10] Voice 8: And could you tell me which communities?

[6:57:16] Voice 8: oh sorry i

[6:57:18] Voice 15: i think nelson might have a cap i'm not i think they might have a neighborhood cap

[6:57:25] Voice 15: like a certain number per block but i have heard of i thought salt spring had a cap where you were

[6:57:30] Voice 15: talking about no we don't have a cap no i have i have heard of that idea definitely maybe sunshine

[6:57:35] Voice 15: coast i have heard of that idea and it would be like you'd have a certain limit a certain number

[6:57:42] Voice 15: of temporary use permits or something like that yeah

[6:57:44] Voice 8: and also like it seems like every day i look

[6:57:47] Voice 8: on on computer and um there's like do you actually know how many um websites that do rentals because

[6:57:55] Voice 8: it just seems like there's a new ones constantly and i don't know how like how many are there out

[6:57:59] Voice 8: there do we even know because it seems like it's really hard to do research and try and find out

[6:58:05] Voice 8: where because a lot of people they know that we've been looking around and so they're sort of

[6:58:09] Voice 8: going somewhere else or they're not advertising anymore because they've got you know regular

[6:58:13] Voice 8: people that come every year so can you comment on that yeah

[6:58:17] Voice 15: so there's a couple of different

[6:58:18] Voice 15: things so and that's when i was talking about the number of platforms that we have on our data

[6:58:22] Voice 15: portal so right now we have a hundred companies we know there's like way more than that i mean

[6:58:27] Voice 15: there's there could be a hundred in penticton or colonna alone um i do recall talking to a guy

[6:58:33] Voice 15: who runs a platform on Hornby one guy old man

[6:58:37] Voice 15: yeah I think we've been in touch with him

[6:58:41] Voice 15: but he's I think he's like compliant or he's he's working on it yeah um but uh I often think of him

[6:58:50] Voice 15: when we've been making the rules because you you gotta have that person that you're making

[6:58:54] Voice 15: sure your rules apply to everyone right um but uh they this this is how the industry is growing

[6:59:02] Voice 15: way. And we've been told in 2023, we were told this is the direction of the industry is actually

[6:59:08] Voice 15: splintering. But what most people do is they have a listing on one of the big three, and then they

[6:59:15] Voice 15: run their own website, and they funnel traffic from the big three. So through our validation

[6:59:19] Voice 15: process, if they are non-compliant, they shouldn't be able to list on one of the big three. And so

[6:59:25] Voice 15: that kind of ruins their traffic. So hopefully we're catching people, but we do know that that

[6:59:31] Voice 15: That is the growth of the industry.

[6:59:33] Voice 15: You had a second question there.

[6:59:40] Voice 15: Yeah.

[6:59:43] Voice 8: We also have, we've been exploring maybe having business licenses

[6:59:48] Voice 8: through the Comox Valley Regional District.

[6:59:51] Voice 8: But we're kind of like, there's a lot of people that just want to keep on

[6:59:56] Voice 8: harming me, so it's a lot of caution about that.

[7:00:00] Voice 8: I'm not sure whether, how we even get business licenses, unless we do partner with a regional district. Is that correct? We can't? Otherwise, we just do temporary use permits, basically, and that's where we're going to have to stay with.

[7:00:13] Voice 15: Yeah, I'm not an expert on business licensing. I think you need to elect a service.

[7:00:18] Trustee Patrick: Yeah, it's only the regional districts have that authority.

[7:00:21] Trustee Patrick: authority and

[7:00:22] Voice 15: yeah and i know we're in touch with them actually around we've been in touch

[7:00:28] Voice 15: with a regional district around mount washington i don't know if that's yeah yeah they're there we

[7:00:33] Voice 15: we have been in touch with them because there's there's a lot of they have a lot of questions

[7:00:36] Voice 15: around so they're they're on it to their capacity but they have limited staff one

[7:00:41] Voice 8: more question to

[7:00:42] Voice 8: comment um where are we yeah we have a strata hotel on hornby yes um it's actually hornby

[7:00:51] Voice 8: Island Resort and they've got 15 units and they're advertised as vacation rental investment and

[7:00:58] Voice 8: but I a lot of us don't understand whether that's even legal or not but I'm going to talk to

[7:01:04] Voice 8: a staff member about that but um so

[7:01:08] Voice 15: they would likely they would already be registered

[7:01:11] Voice 8: just

[7:01:12] Voice 15: go and reel in the details but they wouldn't the registry team wouldn't have really cared about

[7:01:16] Voice 15: their documentation this year because the principal residence requirement doesn't apply

[7:01:21] Voice 15: So they don't really care if they apply for the exemption or not. But if you were to opt in, suddenly they would be reviewing all of their documentation in much more depth to determine that they are, in fact, a strata hotel.

[7:01:38] Voice 8: And then one question, can you elaborate more on that Class 9 farmland?

[7:01:44] Voice 8: because i yeah so

[7:01:47] Voice 15: there's a number of um regulations already in provincial law about

[7:01:51] Voice 15: agritourism operators and so we recognized when we entered into the space that there's already

[7:01:56] Voice 15: rules around the um tourism accommodation in agritourism operators and so we just deferred

[7:02:03] Voice 15: to that so we said that we're not going to make our principal residence requirement apply so long

[7:02:07] Voice 15: long as you have a class nine, you fall under class nine. So it's not tied to whether you're

[7:02:14] Voice 15: in ALR lands, it's tied to whether you're class nine, which means you're actively operating as a

[7:02:20] Voice 15: farm.

[7:02:22] Voice 24: Other questions? Trustee Yates? Just a comment which relates sort of tangentially to

[7:02:31] Voice 24: your question about caps. So in our temporary use guideline checklist that we carefully look at,

[7:02:40] Voice 24: when someone applies. One of the questions in there, because I asked for it a couple of years

[7:02:46] Voice 24: ago, is the staff tell us how many more short-term vacation rentals are in that neighborhood.

[7:02:56] Voice 24: And so far, it's really nicely spread out across the Gabriel Island. If, however, I saw that in a

[7:03:05] Voice 24: small neighborhood there is all of a sudden oh look this is the third or the fourth one in that

[7:03:10] Voice 24: small neighborhood I would question approving that temporary use permit and I would say

[7:03:17] Voice 24: I will not approve this or I vote to not approve it until I knew for certain that the neighbors

[7:03:23] Voice 24: in that neighborhood all agreed to have that short-term vacation rental so that was my

[7:03:29] Voice 24: intention of asking for that to be in the checklist in the first place so far it's really

[7:03:35] Voice 24: nicely spread out but it's a thought other

[7:03:41] Trustee Patrick: questions trustee middleton thank you enjoyed

[7:03:47] Voice 1: the presentation um i think i may have given somebody some misinformation that two people

[7:03:52] Voice 1: came within the last three four months uh and said hey um all my list all my bookings were delisted

[7:04:01] Voice 1: and I was kicked off BRBO, whichever it was.

[7:04:05] Voice 1: And somebody else had the same experience.

[7:04:09] Voice 1: I didn't realize these two people were running STBRs.

[7:04:12] Voice 1: But I said, no, nothing to do with others.

[7:04:16] Voice 1: No, that must be some kind of mistake on the platform.

[7:04:18] Voice 1: No, I don't think the province would have been involved.

[7:04:20] Voice 1: But it sounds like that's wrong.

[7:04:21] Voice 1: Is it the case that we've not opted in on Saturna Island?

[7:04:25] Voice 1: But it sounds like the case if you're advertising in British Columbia,

[7:04:29] Voice 1: Columbia STVR, then you are monitored in essence by the provincial team through the interface.

[7:04:38] Voice 15: Yeah. So they failed to register with the province. So they would have needed to register

[7:04:43] Voice 15: with the province in order to continue operating. Yeah. They probably have figured that out by now.

[7:04:50] Voice 26: And

[7:04:51] Voice 15: I will say Airbnb sent out very proactive messaging to all of their hosts.

[7:04:57] Voice 26: Trustee Evans?

[7:04:59] Voice 9: Trustee Evans?

[7:05:01] Voice 9: Thanks for the presentation. It was really good to have it laid out. I think for the various

[7:05:08] Voice 9: islands, it's nice that we get the option to opt in or not. I think for South Panda,

[7:05:15] Voice 9: it's a very small community. It's about 300 full-time residents. We have a lot of families

[7:05:22] Voice 9: that have family property and they're not full-time residents there. They've inherited

[7:05:27] Voice 9: the properties and they come every year. And so they have their short-term vacation rentals

[7:05:33] Voice 9: through them. At the last sort of judgment count, it was about 20 properties that were

[7:05:44] Voice 9: doing STBRs. And I think that those properties, because they're used seasonally by the owners,

[7:05:52] Voice 9: those couldn't be converted into long-term tenancy positions

[7:06:00] Voice 9: because then the owners just wouldn't have access

[7:06:03] Voice 9: to their properties anymore.

[7:06:06] Voice 9: I did have a question in here and I've forgotten it.

[7:06:09] Voice 9: Oh, so I think for myself, you were saying

[7:06:12] Voice 9: that you've been driving this legislation

[7:06:16] Voice 9: and part of what you were discussing

[7:06:19] Voice 9: was opening up long-term properties and part of my question here is I know after speaking to a

[7:06:28] Voice 9: bunch of people as well who used to or have been thinking about renting long-term they're reluctant

[7:06:34] Voice 9: because of the lack of protections for individual small landlords when it comes to having a bad

[7:06:43] Voice 9: tenant that may cause irreparable damage to property. And the process through which you

[7:06:49] Voice 9: advocate through the regional board is very onerous and got people going bankrupt or losing

[7:06:56] Voice 9: their property through this. So I think part, and I don't know whether this falls under what

[7:07:03] Voice 9: you're doing or not, but looking at how some protections can be brought back in for long-term

[7:07:07] Voice 9: um long-term landlords versus short-term vacation rental operators it's a very very different field

[7:07:16] Voice 9: now

[7:07:21] Voice 15: you'd have to take that to the residential tenancy branch but they

[7:07:24] Voice 15: they operate the

[7:07:25] Voice 15: residential tenancy act and all um dispute resolution between tenants and landlords but

[7:07:31] Voice 15: that is beyond the scope of my my particular jurisdiction so

[7:07:36] Voice 9: would that mean that legislation

[7:07:39] Voice 9: legislation regarding um the the legislation for uh the landlords versus the tenants is

[7:07:47] Voice 9: only through the residential tenancy branch not through okay thank you for clarifying yeah and i

[7:07:52] Voice 15: will just mention because you talked um the the idea of uh multiple families co-owning a property

[7:07:59] Voice 15: with seasonal use of it would actually fall under our um fractional ownership exemption and that was

[7:08:05] Voice 15: was the intent of the fractional ownership exemption if there are multiple owners on title

[7:08:10] Voice 15: and they they use the property in a fractional basis the intent of the fractional ownership

[7:08:20] Voice 15: exemption is to enable that type of shared use of the property and short-term rental as part of that

[7:08:27] Voice 15: to to be permitted even where the principal residence requirement applies

[7:08:32] Voice 15: that is not the basis of most fractional ownership applications we have received but that was the

[7:08:38] Voice 15: intent all right trustee timothy

[7:08:42] Trustee Patrick: yeah

[7:08:44] Voice 4: thank you very much again my name is tanner timothy i'm

[7:08:47] Voice 4: trustee with the islands trust conservancy as well as vice chairman thank you very much for

[7:08:51] Voice 4: your presentation i appreciate it i i'm happy to see this initiative take place with the province

[7:08:56] Voice 4: to make communities safer, as well as the people that are visiting these properties. I think it's

[7:09:01] Voice 4: good to have these kind of standards. I might have missed it in the different criteria of

[7:09:05] Voice 4: who gets exempt, but where do bed and breakfasts lie under? I think, I'm not sure if that was

[7:09:10] Voice 4: touched on. Thank you.

[7:09:12] Voice 15: Yeah, so that has been a complication, well, not complication, but

[7:09:16] Voice 15: just the way that the industry and the sector has evolved, bed and breakfasts fall within the scope

[7:09:21] Voice 15: of short-term vacation rentals essentially so they are you know that that model predates um

[7:09:27] Voice 15: short-term rentals and from our perspective as long as the resident or as long as the property

[7:09:32] Voice 15: owner the host of the bed and breakfast lives on site they would comply with the principal

[7:09:39] Voice 15: residence requirement um in a traditional bed and breakfast type operation and just your comment

[7:09:45] Voice 15: comment about the conservancy or your head jurisdiction, I did note like when Salt Spring

[7:09:51] Voice 15: opted in, there's a bunch of small outlying islands, which, so because this is a provincial

[7:09:57] Voice 15: statute, we treat each jurisdiction as one entity. So when Salt Spring opted in, it included those

[7:10:06] Voice 15: small outlying islands. So that is something for you to consider that if there are small

[7:10:11] Voice 15: small, underlying islands in your area, trust area, that would be included in the opt-in.

[7:10:16] Voice 15: And there is no ability for you to opt out those areas, just like there's no ability for Kelowna

[7:10:22] Voice 15: to opt out the downtown core. It applies uniformly across the whole trust area.

[7:10:28] Voice 15: Your

[7:10:28] Trustee Patrick: local trust area. You cannot

[7:10:30] Trustee Patrick: burst it out. That's for certain. Trustee Middleton, then Luckham.

[7:10:37] Voice 1: Thank you. I'm sure I could look this up. I'm being lazy because you're here. But

[7:10:41] Voice 1: um that somebody at one comment just i remember saying oh the provinces make the cost of renting

[7:10:48] Voice 1: out our house too expensive now and i i i didn't believe i didn't get into it because i'm i i knew

[7:10:57] Voice 1: that probably wasn't the case but it does raise the question is there a fee to register and is

[7:11:02] Voice 1: it an ongoing fee like a yearly fee yeah

[7:11:05] Voice 15: so um registration does have a fee so if it's your

[7:11:08] Voice 15: your principal residence where you live, it's $100 per year. And if it's a commercial STR or

[7:11:15] Voice 15: offsite owner, it's $450 per year. Most hosts can make that in a weekend. And

[7:11:21] Voice 15: it is annual though.

[7:11:22] Voice 15: So people, just for your knowledge as well, people will be asked to renew come January.

[7:11:29] Voice 15: And for instance, in Salt Spring, it will be the first year where all hosts will be asked to

[7:11:36] Voice 15: to provide PR documentation.

[7:11:40] Trustee Luckham: Jesse, you're welcome.

[7:11:41] Trustee Luckham: Thank you.

[7:11:42] Trustee Luckham: Thank you very much.

[7:11:43] Trustee Luckham: Very informative.

[7:11:45] Trustee Luckham: I have an outlying question, but you tipped your hat

[7:11:50] Trustee Luckham: a little bit there with respect to the way the province

[7:11:55] Trustee Luckham: regulates it that there may be impacts outside

[7:11:58] Trustee Luckham: of the central island that come into play because the way that

[7:12:04] Trustee Luckham: works with regional districts, I think.

[7:12:06] Trustee Luckham: But there's a situation.

[7:12:07] Trustee Luckham: I was looking at a map the other day, which actually is about the vacancy tax, not associated with the short-term vacation rental tax, but I noticed that within, and I'm not mentioning it specifically because I don't want to upset anybody, but there was a regional district in which the bulk of the regional district was included.

[7:12:29] Trustee Luckham: Part of the regional district was not included, but it has an associated Islands Trust relationship.

[7:12:37] Trustee Luckham: It's the same area, and it looked like maybe that was an underlying flaw in the way the exemptions were being applied.

[7:12:48] Trustee Luckham: Does that make sense?

[7:12:51] Voice 15: Is this Cowichan Valley?

[7:12:53] Trustee Luckham: Yeah.

[7:12:56] Voice 15: Yeah.

[7:12:57] Voice 8: You're aware of it?

[7:12:58] Voice 15: No, it actually hasn't been brought to my attention. But now that you're calling attention to it, I'm like, oh, yeah, I think islands were mentioned in that one electoral area that opted in. Oh, interesting. Yeah.

[7:13:10] Voice 15: Okay.

[7:13:12] Voice 15: If people have concerns, they should raise those.

[7:13:18] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees, any other questions?

[7:13:20] Trustee Patrick: I

[7:13:22] Voice 9: had one other question, and I also see.

[7:13:29] Voice 9: if if an LTC were to opt in and they found that it's not working well for their community

[7:13:36] Voice 9: is there are you able to opt out again at a later date yes

[7:13:40] Voice 15: Tofino has opted in opted in in 2024 and

[7:13:43] Voice 15: then opted out in 2025 so that is possible

[7:13:45] Trustee Patrick: uh

[7:13:48] Voice 4: thank you um I was wondering if there has been

[7:13:54] Voice 4: been any feedback i saw that you have to apply before march 31st or there's the deadline of

[7:14:00] Voice 4: march and then it doesn't come into effect till november um that's a lot of months over like the

[7:14:06] Voice 4: high travel period time has there been um any feedback in terms of that and even shifting that

[7:14:12] Voice 4: within the calendar year and then a follow-up question as well when it comes to the annual fee

[7:14:17] Voice 4: would the annual fee be every november or i heard you mentioned january but just kind of wondering

[7:14:23] Voice 4: about those two items. Thank you.

[7:14:27] Voice 15: So I'll just start with the registration fee. It's just

[7:14:30] Voice 15: staggered for each individual host when they register. So some hosts registered in January,

[7:14:34] Voice 15: some in April, some in May. And it's an annual, your registration lasts 365 days. So it's not

[7:14:41] Voice 15: until it expires that someone has to pay again. There has been discussion of moving up the

[7:14:48] Voice 15: the November 1st date. The rationale is that certainly when a community opts in like you would

[7:14:56] Voice 15: be, there are homeowners that need to sort out their affairs. And so this time, this window of

[7:15:03] Voice 15: time enables homeowners to figure out what they're going to do with their properties.

[7:15:08] Voice 15: In the case of an opt-out, so a local government, say, Salt Spring were to choose to opt out,

[7:15:15] Voice 15: The rationale for having that window of time is so that if somebody were to want to get a temporary use permit or a business license, it would give them, again, time to go get that before they get their provincial registration, to get their provincial registration approved.

[7:15:30] Voice 15: So it just gives lead time so that on November 1st, people can start their bookings and press go and start operating in compliance.

[7:15:40] Voice 15: So that's kind of our rationale.

[7:15:41] Voice 15: now um we also have to like approve a regulation and there's some bureaucratic reasons but

[7:15:46] Voice 15: keep that yeah that that's the kind of the main the main justification for that

[7:15:52] Voice 15: lag and it is annual so if you don't make a decision by 2026 you could do it again in 2027

[7:15:58] Voice 15: so every year local governments have this opportunity to make this decision

[7:16:03] Voice 16: thank you

[7:16:05] Voice 24: Trustee Yates.

[7:16:08] Voice 24: I'm not sure if you can tell us, but that was sure a quick in and out for Tofino.

[7:16:13] Voice 24: Can you tell us why they decided to opt out?

[7:16:16] Voice 24: You'd have to ask their council.

[7:16:19] Trustee Patrick: Meryl would be happy to talk to you.

[7:16:23] Trustee Patrick: Any other questions?

[7:16:24] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Yellert.

[7:16:27] Voice 17: You may not be able to answer this, but since you're in housing policy,

[7:16:31] Voice 17: I'd like to ask how or is the municipal and regional district tax related at all?

[7:16:39] Voice 17: Are you seeing an uptake in regions opting into the MRDT tax, which can tax hotel accommodations and use that to go towards tourism or affordable housing initiatives, which is what Sunshine Coast is doing?

[7:16:53] Voice 17: So is the short-term vacation rentals opt-in providing a better sort of level playing field where accommodations are now calculated and tabulated and included in the accommodation tax, whereas before they might not have been counted in?

[7:17:14] Voice 17: Is there any data on that?

[7:17:19] Voice 15: I'll start by saying I don't know but I I do know that the major companies have been remitting

[7:17:30] Voice 15: MRDT on behalf of on online providers for a number of years but I don't know if that's just

[7:17:36] Voice 15: in areas where MRDT applies or if that's province-wide but I know for instance like

[7:17:43] Voice 15: Airbnb has been remitting on behalf of their hosts so the individual host doesn't pay

[7:17:47] Voice 15: the companies do it on behalf of their of their um users um i don't know i i know there's a lot

[7:17:55] Voice 15: of questions about the data because now we kind of have two sources of data of short-term rentals

[7:18:01] Voice 15: there's the tax information and then there's the the data portal that we manage and there've been

[7:18:07] Voice 15: questions about that and i will just say the province is very concerned about um privacy and

[7:18:14] Voice 15: about not disclosing business information

[7:18:16] Voice 15: and therefore not merging those two data sets,

[7:18:19] Voice 15: keeping them separate to ensure that business owners,

[7:18:22] Voice 15: business information about revenues are not made public.

[7:18:28] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees.

[7:18:31] Trustee Patrick: Exhausted questions

[7:18:32] Trustee Patrick: because you still have more budget time tonight.

[7:18:34] Trustee Patrick: So you're not done.

[7:18:38] Trustee Patrick: We might be able to let our guest go home to her family,

[7:18:41] Trustee Patrick: which she'd probably appreciate at this time of day.

[7:18:44] Trustee Patrick: Well, thank you, Hannah.

[7:18:45] Trustee Patrick: And I know you've played a big role, and any trustees or area are thinking about it.

[7:18:50] Trustee Patrick: I know you made yourself available to us, and our regional district met jointly to hear and ask questions, and it was very helpful.

[7:18:58] Trustee Patrick: So I do appreciate you making yourself available.

[7:19:02] Trustee Patrick: It is a big decision for some of our islands, and thank you so much.

[7:19:11] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees, we're not done yet.

[7:19:18] Trustee Patrick: I know you're going to have to work for your dinner this evening.

[7:19:22] Trustee Patrick: So, we're going to go right back into budgets. And we were at, I believe, the permanent Islands Trust Conservancy Indigenous Relations Advisor, 0.5 FTE, on page 256. Were there any trustee evidence?

[7:19:48] Voice 9: again i'm apologies for doing this um on the floor but i would like to i am just going to

[7:19:55] Voice 9: suggest this first open it up for discussion and then if there isn't any i'll make the motion

[7:20:00] Voice 9: that the um new position for the uh uh permanent half time be deferred for one year

[7:20:09] Voice 9: so

[7:20:11] Trustee Patrick: you're intending to make that motion on the i don't stress conservancy

[7:20:15] Trustee Patrick: Is there any further discussion on this item?

[7:20:24] Trustee Patrick: Otherwise, a good suggestion, Trustee Maude, that a straw poll be taken.

[7:20:28] Trustee Patrick: That will help get you closer to dinner, perhaps.

[7:20:32] Trustee Patrick: Would you like me to conduct a straw poll?

[7:20:35] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans would like...

[7:20:38] Trustee Patrick: Oh, sorry.

[7:20:40] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Gavreau?

[7:20:42] Voice 19: Hi.

[7:20:42] Voice 19: I just wanted to point out that by deferring by a year means that that work doesn't get done.

[7:20:47] Voice 19: done we need to get our five-year plan together we don't have the time to do that um

[7:20:56] Voice 9: okay no go

[7:20:58] Voice 9: ahead i'm basing this on the discussion that we had with the cao that the policy that the full-time

[7:21:05] Voice 9: um policy um uh the senior policy advisor would be working on the five-year plan

[7:21:14] Voice 9: And that was part of the description for that position, which is why I was suggesting that the half-time person be deferred for one year.

[7:21:26] Voice 19: Go ahead, yes.

[7:21:27] Voice 19: I wanted to say this is the engagement piece that sets off all that work.

[7:21:33] Voice 19: Connected is what we're hearing.

[7:21:34] Trustee Patrick: Right.

[7:21:35] Trustee Patrick: Right.

[7:21:37] Trustee Patrick: If a motion was put on the floor to defer this one year, how many would support that?

[7:21:42] Trustee Patrick: So raise your hand if you support deferring this position a year.

[7:21:50] Trustee Patrick: I'm just as this drop hole.

[7:21:54] Trustee Patrick: So, all right.

[7:21:55] Trustee Patrick: No, Trustee Evans is not proceeding with the motion on the result of this drop hole.

[7:21:59] Trustee Patrick: So thank you.

[7:22:00] Trustee Patrick: Good idea, Trustee Mudd.

[7:22:02] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[7:22:02] Trustee Patrick: Then we're going to move on to the Temporary Species at Risk Coordinator on page 269.

[7:22:10] Trustee Patrick: Any comments, questions on this position?

[7:22:17] Trustee Patrick: The extension?

[7:22:20] Trustee Patrick: 269.

[7:22:20] Trustee Patrick: Did I say the wrong number?

[7:22:22] Trustee Patrick: I apologize.

[7:22:22] Trustee Patrick: 269

[7:22:23] Voice 21: 269

[7:22:27] Trustee Patrick: is the page any questions on this position all right the gis co-op student

[7:22:41] Trustee Patrick: page 274 right planning service co-op students on page 277 trustee trustee tanner timothy

[7:23:05] Trustee Patrick: thing.

[7:23:06] Voice 4: Sorry, just on the topic of the co-op GIS, I'm an alumni of BCIT. They have a postgraduate

[7:23:16] Voice 4: program, advanced diploma in GIS. And every year they look for partners to provide an internship

[7:23:24] Voice 4: for students, which is a free resource. It's a requirement to get enough credits to graduate.

[7:23:31] Voice 4: So I've shared this with the ITC board,

[7:23:34] Voice 4: but just wanting to share it with the Trust Council

[7:23:36] Voice 4: that BCIT has a wonderful program.

[7:23:39] Voice 4: They also have like a four-year program,

[7:23:42] Voice 4: but the one I went to was, it's a one-year postgraduate.

[7:23:46] Voice 4: You have to have a degree to be in that program.

[7:23:48] Voice 4: But the capacity of the students at the springtime semesters

[7:23:53] Voice 4: is quite a lot of aptitude.

[7:23:56] Voice 4: So it's a great resource in the future for capacity needs for GIS.

[7:24:01] Voice 4: I would consider, I would like to suggest making a relationship with BCIT with their advanced diploma GIS program. I believe in the late fall, they kind of open up a call out and looking for the kind of end of spring into, yep, May to June for an internship, which would be a free GIS resource. So thank you.

[7:24:25] Voice 4: Thank

[7:24:25] Trustee Patrick: you very much. Partnering with schools. Very good. Trustee Yates?

[7:24:29] Voice 24: um thank you trustee timothy for bringing that up again i i do remember you bringing that up at

[7:24:35] Voice 24: our maybe our most recent conservancy meeting did we already reach out does the staff know

[7:24:43] Voice 24: do we already reach out to bcit okay thank you

[7:24:47] Trustee Patrick: all right so again the planning service co-op student

[7:24:51] Trustee Patrick: there was no one so we're just flying along now we're at other funding request reports

[7:24:57] Trustee Patrick: We have the Island Trust Conservancy Board Budget Request Briefing on page 280.

[7:25:08] Trustee Patrick: It's just a summary.

[7:25:10] Voice 19: All right.

[7:25:11] Trustee Patrick: Are there any others here?

[7:25:13] Trustee Patrick: So there's the Executive Committee Budget Briefing, page 284.

[7:25:21] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Getty.

[7:25:24] Voice 7: There's an amount in this number two for $20,000 for Trust Council training and conferences.

[7:25:30] Voice 7: differences is that in addition to the $35,000 that we were talking about earlier for onboarding

[7:25:37] Voice 7: and ongoing education? CAO Browning?

[7:25:41] Voice 22: No that's the same item it's just included here as a part

[7:25:44] Voice 22: of the summary of all the executive committee budget submission items but that includes so that

[7:25:48] Voice 22: $32,000 that was referenced above is the training the travel for training and I think also included

[7:25:55] Voice 22: the executive committee or there's a trust council committee median expenses as well.

[7:26:00] Voice 22: Go

[7:26:01] Voice 7: ahead, Trustee Getty.

[7:26:03] Voice 7: Similarly, at the bottom of this list is the History and Heritage Conservation Grants and Aid and the NAPTEP and all of the other discretionary funds that we earlier talked about.

[7:26:15] Voice 21: Go ahead.

[7:26:17] Voice 22: Yes, so those would be the amounts that, with your endorsement of Recommendation 1 from the Ops Review, those would be the amounts that will be removed from the budget now.

[7:26:30] Trustee Patrick: Trustee, any other questions on that one?

[7:26:32] Trustee Patrick: so then now we're into the operating budget increased justifications so we have uh the

[7:26:40] Trustee Patrick: trust council dedicated chair travel budget justification form i'll talk about that one

[7:26:45] Trustee Patrick: discovery of becoming a chair uh there was no travel budget so when i come to meet with the

[7:26:54] Trustee Patrick: our CAO, I pay for that myself. If I go meet with anyone, if it's not subjected to a resolution of

[7:27:04] Trustee Patrick: a body, I cover that at my expense. So I'm happy with spending the rest of my term covering those

[7:27:10] Trustee Patrick: expenses. However, a future chair may not, could be a burden. So this $1,000 is a nominal

[7:27:18] Trustee Patrick: nominal number to cover the chair's travel to go to the office and go out to spend time with

[7:27:26] Trustee Patrick: other local trust committees and get out is what the purpose of that is. Trustee Bernardo.

[7:27:33] Voice 5: If you can clarify, are you saying that when you go and perform your function as the chair

[7:27:42] Voice 5: LTC meetings, you're paying for that out of pocket?

[7:27:45] Voice 5: No.

[7:27:46] Trustee Patrick: So in my role of going to Gabriel or Gambier, in that role, my expenses are covered.

[7:27:53] Trustee Patrick: It's if I go to the office in Victoria and spend time with the CAO or any of the other staff, that is not.

[7:28:01] Voice 5: Follow-up question for the CAO.

[7:28:06] Voice 5: My own personal view is the person who occupies the chair ought not to be burdened by any kind of pressure that forces them to volunteer out-of-pocket money.

[7:28:15] Voice 5: It's kind of horrible the amount of time they have to spend doing the job anyhow.

[7:28:20] Voice 5: So I'm thinking I'm going to ask you a question.

[7:28:23] Voice 5: Is $1,000 enough in order to, you know, just in terms of funding the position, not Chair Patrick in her individual capacity, but in terms of print in principle, would $1,000 be enough for that discreet travel issue?

[7:28:44] Voice 22: Yeah, through the chair.

[7:28:45] Voice 22: Chair. We've budgeted for $1,000 as an initial amount for this year. It'll be a bit of a pilot

[7:28:51] Voice 22: in a test case. I'm confident that it is, though, because as the Chair has noted, when the Chair is

[7:28:56] Voice 22: functioning to serve in LTC meetings or to travel as Chair on other Trust Council business that's

[7:29:04] Voice 22: funded, what we identified this year was that just those discretionary travel to come to the

[7:29:10] Voice 22: the Victoria office to meet with me or other staff outside of regular business couldn't be

[7:29:16] Voice 22: accommodated in any of those other budget lines. So I think the cost is relatively minimal.

[7:29:20] Voice 22: Obviously, it depends on who the chair is, but there's no overnight accommodation, for example.

[7:29:24] Voice 22: It's just ferry fares and mileage and those sorts of things. And obviously, it's easy to manage

[7:29:30] Voice 22: within the budget because it's entirely discretionary, but recognizing that it may

[7:29:34] Voice 22: also depend on who the chair is and you know the extent to which they may wish to travel and how

[7:29:40] Voice 22: far they have to travel um but again i think it's a reasonable amount at least to test um and then

[7:29:47] Voice 22: and it's a it's one where that's the budget and the chair will have an obligation i think to live

[7:29:52] Voice 22: within it as well and plan their travel accordingly so yeah

[7:29:57] Voice 5: just say we have a follow-up i mean um if

[7:30:00] Voice 5: is kind of a test run to see what the demand is. That's fair enough, but

[7:30:03] Voice 5: I don't think the person who occupies the position of chair ought to be penalized in any sense.

[7:30:07] Voice 5: If it turns out that it's $1,250 or $1,600,

[7:30:12] Voice 5: let's keep track of that and then find a

[7:30:15] Voice 5: remedy for it later. Anyhow, I made my point.

[7:30:19] Voice 5: Thanks.

[7:30:20] Trustee Patrick: Thank you for the discussion on that one. The next

[7:30:24] Trustee Patrick: one is the Executive Committee Operating Increase Justification

[7:30:27] Trustee Patrick: application form UBCM AVICC on page 293. So this is, I guess I'll, I'd look to the CAO,

[7:30:45] Trustee Patrick: yes, can you say how many people, I can't remember, it's been too many things.

[7:30:49] Voice 22: Yeah, so this is, this is that shorter form as with the travel one that Director Ma mentioned

[7:30:53] Voice 22: in her briefing where we're, and this relates to the items in the Executive Committee Planning

[7:30:59] Voice 22: Budget Request Summary where we have on the operating side of things, the core operating

[7:31:04] Voice 22: functions we have exceeded the threshold and requires some justification and so those items

[7:31:11] Voice 22: that are included here are related to the meeting expenses the travel and training for conferences

[7:31:15] Voice 22: and the most significant item and the one that accounts for for the bulk of the increase this

[7:31:20] Voice 22: year is the UBCM AVICC attendance and so that will increase forecast to increase next year

[7:31:29] Voice 22: primarily because UBCM is in Vancouver and so that travel for that is significantly higher

[7:31:37] Voice 22: and so to accommodate for that the plan is for only the chair and one staff member likely myself

[7:31:44] Voice 22: to send UBCM next September which I think is also appropriate given that we'll be a month

[7:31:48] Voice 22: prior from election as well so it still comes at a bit of a higher cost but this budget would also

[7:31:54] Voice 22: then allow for all four members of executive committee to attend avicc which is in victoria

[7:32:00] Voice 22: and so is relatively inexpensive compared to ubcm um

[7:32:10] Trustee Patrick: the next one is the um trust area services

[7:32:14] Trustee Patrick: operating budget increase form on page 296 questions

[7:32:25] Voice 21: uh

[7:32:33] Trustee Patrick: sure we've had a request of uh

[7:32:35] Trustee Patrick: walking through these is who would be is most familiar with these but you uh director brader

[7:32:42] Voice 20: i'm happy to walk you through this so this um justification form is around an increase of

[7:32:49] Voice 20: 3 350 spread across the communications budget and the new budget line for um branded clothing

[7:32:56] Voice 20: um essentially some items within the communication budget are going up and some are going down

[7:33:01] Voice 20: resulting in 2,600 being requested.

[7:33:04] Voice 20: We've itemized them there for you on the bullets.

[7:33:07] Voice 20: The largest one is seeking contractor support

[7:33:10] Voice 20: to work on a public engagement toolkit

[7:33:12] Voice 20: with some checklists and templates.

[7:33:14] Voice 20: This would very much be of assistance

[7:33:16] Voice 20: to local trust committees in particular

[7:33:18] Voice 20: so that we can try and have some consistency

[7:33:20] Voice 20: across the organization

[7:33:21] Voice 20: and better coordination of what we're doing.

[7:33:24] Voice 20: You'll see it includes a variety of activities

[7:33:27] Voice 20: from website improvements,

[7:33:28] Voice 20: improvements continuing the living in the trust area program of mailing to new home purchasers

[7:33:33] Voice 20: operational pieces like graphic design support that we contract in rather than hire for that

[7:33:39] Voice 20: sort of thing so happy to answer questions I will note on the next page under number four

[7:33:45] Voice 20: we identify we're looking also for some contingency funds so if there's an emerging

[7:33:49] Voice 20: issue we can be responsive and maybe bring in some contract support if there's something that

[7:33:54] Voice 20: needs addressing um and we've um looked for some decreases around um things like um where have i

[7:34:01] Voice 20: got decreases sorry i've lost my train of thought here um we did identify some decreases which i'm

[7:34:07] Voice 20: hunting for here oh yeah the living in the trust area mailing we've reduced it we've also um stopped

[7:34:12] Voice 20: the advertising to try and get people to use the subscriber service and reduce some of the other

[7:34:17] Voice 20: their budget lines as well thank you trustee

[7:34:23] Trustee Patrick: allen um

[7:34:25] Voice 8: are you gonna have a contractor for the um

[7:34:27] Voice 8: website design redesign or it's really it's so unfriendly and i i really i bring it up all the

[7:34:34] Voice 8: time and um i spend most of my time as a trustee looking up things for other community members and

[7:34:40] Voice 8: it's just um it was way better before you know and i just uh i hope we can fix it because it's

[7:34:46] Voice 8: It's really frustrating.

[7:34:49] Trustee Patrick: Is there, I guess there's no funding for the website or?

[7:34:53] Voice 20: We continue to budget very modestly for continuous improvement to the website.

[7:34:58] Voice 20: At some point, we will have to come forward with a major project for revamping it.

[7:35:03] Voice 20: So that is something I think we'll discuss in maybe for the next year, but it's something we'll undertake as a strategic communications review.

[7:35:11] Voice 20: Thank you. Trustee Bernardo?

[7:35:14] Voice 5: Right. I see that it appears that the dollar increase requested is $3,350, and looking at the executive summary, there seem to be some offsets. I gather the $3,350 number is the net total that comes out.

[7:35:33] Voice 5: All right, that's the least important question. The more important question, do we all get cool hats or only some trustees?

[7:35:40] Voice 22: That will be at the discretion of the CAO under the policy.

[7:35:45] Trustee Patrick: no um okay so next one is the uh who is the fes financial and oh and employment services

[7:35:57] Trustee Patrick: i did pretty good on my acronym test operating increased justification form on page 298

[7:36:03] Trustee Patrick: not seeing any questions there okay director mobs can you talk to us about that one

[7:36:26] Voice 10: Sure. So this is the operating increase and justification for the Financial Employee

[7:36:31] Voice 10: Services Department. So the dollar increase requested is just over $20,000. A good portion

[7:36:37] Voice 10: of that is directed to support the delivery of legislated obligations. So that's associated with

[7:36:43] Voice 10: our audit fees. So we do have some new accounting standards coming into effect next year. And we

[7:36:48] Voice 10: usually see the cost of our audit increase when we've got new accounting standards is, of course,

[7:36:52] Voice 10: the auditors spend more time auditing our implementation of those new standards we also

[7:36:56] Voice 10: have some dollars in the budget to support bookkeeping and annual financial statement

[7:37:00] Voice 10: preparation for the islands just conservancy those dollars are not actually new dollars in

[7:37:04] Voice 10: the budget we have been using an external consultant to do this work for the last couple

[7:37:09] Voice 10: of years it's new in my department's area so we've reallocated it from the conservancy into

[7:37:14] Voice 10: financial and employee services it sits better in my area and so it's not a true increase but

[7:37:19] Voice 10: but we needed to note it here. We've also got increases for some items that are related to

[7:37:26] Voice 10: organizational effectiveness. So primarily looking at our all staff meetings as well as our

[7:37:30] Voice 10: recognition policy. So staff's recognition policy hasn't been updated in terms of the award amount

[7:37:36] Voice 10: since 2013. So the actual and the perceived value of those recognition gifts is diminished when it's

[7:37:42] Voice 10: not increased over time to keep up with inflation. So we've made some adjustments to that policy and

[7:37:47] Voice 10: and that's driving the number up. Our staff meetings, the cost to get all of us together

[7:37:50] Voice 10: from the three offices is also rising each year. We also are planning next year or attempting to

[7:37:56] Voice 10: plan to visit a Northern Ireland office, and those tend to be much more expensive for us to

[7:38:02] Voice 10: action. But it has been quite a while since we've been to the North. And so we're budgeting for that

[7:38:07] Voice 10: next year. There's a very small amount next year to purchase carbon offsets. So we are anticipating

[7:38:14] Voice 10: that we're going to need to purchase those offsets to maintain carbon neutrality next year

[7:38:18] Voice 10: as we no longer have some credits that were afforded to us historically.

[7:38:24] Voice 10: That's basically it, but I'm happy to respond to questions on some of the nuances or details.

[7:38:29] Voice 10: Any questions for the director?

[7:38:36] Voice 31: If staff want to come to the north and you would like a carbon cheaper way to do it,

[7:38:41] Voice 31: I'll come and get you on the bus.

[7:38:45] Voice 26: All right.

[7:38:48] Trustee Patrick: All right. Now we're thinking. All right. Any other questions? All right. Information services operating increases. Page 303. Dr. Marler, yes, please.

[7:39:03] Voice 25: Okay, thanks. You take a look on page 304. Justifications for increase. This is all the IS. At the top of the page, trustee hardware and software, that's the amount for laptops. So that's been added in this year, wasn't in last year.

[7:39:19] Voice 25: under hardware you'll see is reduction of 68 000 from last year and then software one time

[7:39:27] Voice 25: the next item is 50 000 our windows licenses this is for the servers not our laptops uh come due

[7:39:33] Voice 25: this is a five year usually a five year license renewal uh so it's 50 000 for that uh under

[7:39:41] Voice 25: software support and licensing we've got quite a few different software packages there um a variety

[7:39:47] Voice 25: variety of things, but you'll see that the increase is 18,000, which is mostly inflationary,

[7:39:55] Voice 25: not so much adding additional software.

[7:39:59] Voice 25: And then tech support, there's a variety of tech support contracts that we have, which

[7:40:06] Voice 25: are shown there.

[7:40:07] Voice 25: And you can see that that is an increase of about 20,000, and that's mostly to do the

[7:40:12] Voice 25: server upgrade.

[7:40:13] Voice 25: So that supports the $50,000 for the licenses for service.

[7:40:18] Voice 25: And this is the tech support to make sure that happens seamlessly.

[7:40:25] Voice 25: So those are the changes, the main ones.

[7:40:29] Voice 25: So it's a $53,000 increase over the previous year.

[7:40:33] Voice 25: Thanks.

[7:40:33] Trustee Patrick: Any questions of the director?

[7:40:40] Trustee Patrick: Not seeing any.

[7:40:41] Trustee Patrick: Director Sturmbach will be on the hot seat next for the planning services and operating budget.

[7:40:48] Trustee Patrick: Thank

[7:40:50] Voice 23: you, Chair. So I have two submitted. The first one here is about modest increased due training costs. This is primarily for two offices, the Victoria office and the Salt Spring office, the northern office. My assessment has enough funds and they're very well organized how they do their training.

[7:41:10] Voice 23: the primary there's a couple drivers here there's one we haven't changed the standard

[7:41:15] Voice 23: formula for how we do calculating staff training costs for at least a decade if not longer

[7:41:23] Voice 23: it's been the same basic assumption and costs have certainly gone up during COVID we saw training

[7:41:29] Voice 23: in-person opportunities go down obviously and and then correspondingly more staff do online

[7:41:35] Voice 23: line trading. But as we come back to where we are today, there are a diverse option, a bunch of

[7:41:42] Voice 23: options. And there's, I hope I don't have explained too much, the benefits, especially of staff

[7:41:47] Voice 23: networking. You meet your provincial peers in a setting and you do much like you guys having

[7:41:54] Voice 23: lunch together. You really do a lot more in person. So that's one driver is just the actual

[7:41:59] Voice 23: cost but two the we have more staff seeking professional accreditation which is to be

[7:42:05] Voice 23: encouraged and that the cost of that is uh those costs are going up there are various associations

[7:42:12] Voice 23: whether it's the uh there's many of them but primarily the pivc and so those two offices

[7:42:19] Voice 23: have had traditionally understaffed or under certified staff the northern office has more

[7:42:25] Voice 23: more certified planners, and now the Victoria team and Salt Spring team are looking to become

[7:42:30] Voice 23: equally certified. So this is to help get them across the final line. There's a bunch of tests

[7:42:36] Voice 23: you have to do, an ethics test, etc., and then they have to meet the training obligations, which

[7:42:41] Voice 23: is a little bit more expensive, which is beyond the current budget. And then finally, we're going

[7:42:46] Voice 23: through constant change, and I've recognized a pattern whereby the planners are trying to find

[7:42:50] Voice 23: find creative solutions to training by, say, getting a trainer to come to them and do it for

[7:42:57] Voice 23: the whole team. And so that tends to be just a little bit more expensive, but I usually find

[7:43:02] Voice 23: over the years we're close. And so this would help, I think, maybe help us bring some of those

[7:43:08] Voice 23: resources together to that group training. And of course, if you go through some of the tables

[7:43:13] Voice 23: there, you will see that we do go through every year. We diligently try to find savings and you'll

[7:43:19] Voice 23: you'll find a few places that have been able to knock back the budget in terms

[7:43:22] Voice 23: of travel costs.

[7:43:23] Voice 23: And we've amalgamated our internal award recognition system per office to

[7:43:29] Voice 23: the greater employee services and stuff.

[7:43:33] Trustee Patrick: Any questions for the director?

[7:43:35] Trustee Patrick: I guess while you have the mic,

[7:43:39] Trustee Patrick: the next item is the planning services operating budget contractor increase

[7:43:43] Trustee Patrick: on page 310.

[7:43:46] Voice 23: Thanks again, chair.

[7:43:48] Voice 23: The, this one is unique.

[7:43:50] Voice 23: If you haven't heard,

[7:43:51] Voice 23: it is my sad story to tell you that regional planning manager Robert Kojima is retiring

[7:43:56] Voice 23: effective January 30th. A huge blow to the organization personally. I have benefited

[7:44:02] Voice 23: from him from since the day I became a planner too, roughly in 2012. And I have been stealing

[7:44:08] Voice 23: his work since and using him in every way humanly possible. And so his loss is really hard to

[7:44:18] Voice 23: quantify, but here I have done so by providing a little bit of funds, $15,000, to hopefully

[7:44:26] Voice 23: contract him if necessary to come back and provide some oversight and guidance in the

[7:44:32] Voice 23: transition year. He's more than willing to come back and do that. I think that there's just ways

[7:44:38] Voice 23: that he thinks structurally, organizationally, and some of the orientation for the new staff person

[7:44:44] Voice 23: person um could be invaluable so i'm i'm seeking your direction on that if you know robert uh you

[7:44:50] Voice 23: work with them for the years that i have um it's just would really make the transition easier

[7:44:56] Voice 23: and on top of that there's a five hundred dollars um for the moment i'm just distracted by robert

[7:45:02] Voice 23: my head so there's 500 for something else it's in there what's it for oh meeting expenses yeah

[7:45:10] Voice 23: that's uh our group meeting expenses that come together that's just to keep up with inflation

[7:45:16] Trustee Patrick: all right any questions to the director trustee evans fully

[7:45:22] Voice 9: support this um i guess my question is

[7:45:25] Voice 9: um with finding a replacement for our our dear robert kojima um is the 15 000 uh hefty enough

[7:45:39] Voice 23: to the chair uh you could never you know no but uh robert will be returning at the end of january

[7:45:47] Voice 23: he will be on vacation to the end of march i believe so kudos to that man um and so when he

[7:45:53] Voice 23: comes back we will hopefully by then have a work plan how we may be able to best use him

[7:45:59] Voice 23: it is feasible that we can actually hire him back if he's got the insurance as a contractor and all

[7:46:04] Voice 23: all the things you do, and do some contract work with us and then take on a lesser role,

[7:46:10] Voice 23: not the RPM role. So we're conscious that if we go through the year, if there's unspent salaries

[7:46:15] Voice 23: or other ways that we find savings that we might be able to budget this up. This is really just

[7:46:20] Voice 23: to get, hey, Robert, we need your brain. We need your skills. Come in for four or five days to work

[7:46:26] Voice 23: with us to accomplish a goal or a mission or something like that. And honestly, I was thinking

[7:46:30] Voice 23: orientation, I can really use this to help with orientation.

[7:46:34] Trustee Patrick: Any other questions to the Director

[7:46:35] Trustee Patrick: on this one? Moving over to Island Trust Conservancy Land Securement and Conservation

[7:46:44] Trustee Patrick: Planning increase on page 313. Is that you, Manager Wendy? Is there any, I guess,

[7:46:55] Trustee Patrick: is there any questions here or is this straightforward? Trustee Evans. Oh, Trustee Evans?

[7:47:04] Voice 9: I think it would be helpful, again, to have a quick walk through this.

[7:47:08] Voice 9: My question is, if this is land securement, is this administrative as well, or is this actual land securement?

[7:47:20] Voice 9: I'm asking whether or not the donation money applies here.

[7:47:27] Voice 9: If this is administration, then I know it doesn't, but if this is land securement, then would it?

[7:47:35] Trustee Patrick: Over to staff. Who would like to take that one? Director Frieder?

[7:47:40] Voice 20: So this is funding that is used for the back end of securement. It would not be used to purchase

[7:47:46] Voice 20: a property, for example. Yeah.

[7:47:48] Trustee Patrick: All right. Any other questions?

[7:47:54] Trustee Patrick: Is this the last one? Let's see. No? No. Well, the others are unfunded.

[7:48:02] Trustee Patrick: ILS Trust Conservancy Protected Areas Management Operations Planning on page 319.

[7:48:07] Trustee Patrick: 319. Is there any questions here?

[7:48:16] Voice 9: Trustee Evans. So I think I do want this one walk through. This

[7:48:21] Voice 9: is almost $200,000 of a request to the base budget. Could you please walk us through this

[7:48:28] Voice 9: large request?

[7:48:33] Voice 20: We can do that. Director Prater? I'll take that. I'm just trying to navigate myself

[7:48:37] Voice 20: back to the right agenda package here. 319. So this is coming forward as part of our operations

[7:48:44] Voice 20: around how we maintain our properties, you'll see that there's a real juggle going on within

[7:48:50] Voice 20: our various operating lines around this. There's a new proposed method of delivering this service

[7:48:55] Voice 20: essentially, which is that we're going to be contracting in the monitoring of the properties,

[7:49:00] Voice 20: like our compliance monitoring, to free up the staff time for the follow-up on that compliance

[7:49:05] Voice 20: monitoring around the good management of these properties. That approach has resulted in proposed

[7:49:11] Voice 20: proposed savings within this budget area because there's less requirement for travel. So it's also

[7:49:16] Voice 20: created a savings in the travel budget. Where there is an increase is around some new proposed

[7:49:23] Voice 20: activities, which would include archaeological assessments and some other work. This is, I would

[7:49:29] Voice 20: say, a modest budget for the number of properties under management right now, but it does enable us

[7:49:35] Voice 20: to put our staff to the highest and best use around proper planning for the management activities. And

[7:49:41] Voice 20: And it all ties together with the project that we brought forward earlier today around the proper management of the data we hold.

[7:49:46] Voice 20: So we can make really strategic decisions and also make good, as we move into better corporate planning, make good decisions around how many assets are under management?

[7:49:54] Voice 20: How many feet of boardwalk do we have?

[7:49:56] Voice 20: You know, what is the life cycle of the signage that we have?

[7:49:59] Voice 20: All of that, which we currently can't answer those questions.

[7:50:02] Voice 20: So you'll see that both the planning and the operations are moving towards a much more strategic approach.

[7:50:06] Voice 20: And this is intended to support that.

[7:50:10] Voice 20: Would you like me to dive deeper?

[7:50:11] Voice 20: i don't i know we're at the end of the day here is that sufficient or more detailed desire any trustee

[7:50:17] Voice 20: evans so

[7:50:19] Voice 9: i just want to uh confirm this is a request for two hundred and thirty nine thousand

[7:50:25] Voice 9: dollars and five hundred dollars two hundred and thirty nine five hundred is that correct yes

[7:50:31] Voice 20: or

[7:50:34] Voice 20: two hundred no two hundred and four

[7:50:36] Voice 21: two hundred and four

[7:50:39] Trustee Patrick: okay we're getting numbers are getting

[7:50:42] Trustee Patrick: getting blurry. Trustee Evans, did you have another question?

[7:50:48] Voice 9: So it's $150,000 plus $54,000

[7:50:52] Voice 9: plus $35,500. No, if

[7:50:54] Voice 20: I might, because what we're doing this year is splitting the two budgets

[7:50:58] Voice 20: apart. Overall, it's a $35,500 increase. But we are proposing that instead of having these for

[7:51:05] Voice 20: more transparency and for understanding of council and the public, we're breaking these into two

[7:51:10] Voice 20: lines. One is for operations, which is the ongoing management. The other is for the management

[7:51:14] Voice 20: planning. So that's, you know, each protected area or nature reserve gets a management plan

[7:51:20] Voice 20: that's done on a certain 10 to 20-year cycle, hopefully less than 20 years. And so this is

[7:51:26] Voice 20: allowing, so you'll see an annual request so that we can keep up with that cycle for good

[7:51:30] Voice 20: proactive planning for these reserves. So overall, it's 35,500 increase between the two.

[7:51:36] Voice 20: Trustee Yates?

[7:51:37] Voice 24: I note that CA O'Brownie commended the Conservancy staff and senior staff for coming up with this hybrid model, and I believe it will be far more efficient and really serve us well. Thank you.

[7:51:57] Trustee Patrick: Any other questions on this item? Trustee Bernardo?

[7:52:01] Trustee Patrick: The

[7:52:02] Voice 5: hybrid model seems like an interesting development that's worth further developing.

[7:52:11] Voice 5: I see the reference there to qualified external contractor and local island conservancy partners,

[7:52:18] Voice 5: but to what extent are under the rubric local island conservancy partners are included local indigenous groups?

[7:52:29] Voice 5: And the First Nations on whose traditional territories these now conserved lands are part of, is the ITC going in the direction at all of working with those local First Nations to become conservancy partners to work in this direction?

[7:52:50] Voice 5: direction.

[7:52:53] Voice 20: Absolutely. And we're hoping that the engagement that we're about to be undertaking over

[7:52:57] Voice 20: the next year and a half with them on the five-year plan will lead to those relationships where we can

[7:53:01] Voice 20: understand which have guardian programs, would they like to come out on those annual monitoring

[7:53:05] Voice 20: visits? You know, how would they like to be involved with the properties will be, you know,

[7:53:09] Voice 20: an outcome of that engagement work that we're funding through the five-year plan work and the

[7:53:14] Voice 20: capacity funding that we've requested will really enable those deep and meaningful conversations

[7:53:18] Voice 20: around how do you want to be involved and at what points do you want to be

[7:53:22] Voice 20: involved

[7:53:22] Voice 5: that's encouraging thank you

[7:53:24] Voice 20: trustee Timothy

[7:53:27] Voice 4: yes thank you I don't

[7:53:29] Voice 4: want to take too much away from the discussion but I do have to depart I got

[7:53:33] Voice 4: to go try to catch the seven o'clock very which I think all this appreciate

[7:53:38] Voice 4: is the challenges of catching fairies but I just wanted to say thank you so

[7:53:44] Voice 4: much uh to the trust council for inviting the i'm the stress conservancy board to participate in

[7:53:49] Voice 4: this i've really appreciated meeting all of you and participating in this this governance um and

[7:53:56] Voice 4: just being here as a guest so just thank you so much and thank you so much to staff as well for

[7:54:00] Voice 4: all your support throughout the trust and conservancy it's just such greatly appreciated

[7:54:05] Voice 4: um you know where you're a major asset and just your hard work and dedication often i feel you go

[7:54:11] Voice 4: above and beyond your titles so thank you so much for all your hard work and thank you for those

[7:54:16] Voice 4: online if anyone is online still but um yeah i'm looking forward to seeing you all again soon and

[7:54:23] Voice 4: i think a lot of the budgeting that we put board is with our staff is it's been very conservative

[7:54:29] Voice 4: and i just want to say thank you to staff for working with us and our board um we've tried

[7:54:34] Voice 4: really hard to be thoughtful with all our budget requests in that respect but thank you again

[7:54:39] Voice 4: again, pleasure meeting you all and looking forward to seeing you soon. And if I don't get

[7:54:43] Voice 4: to say hello or see you, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season. Please take care of

[7:54:47] Voice 4: yourself and take some time to relax with your friends and family. So thank you so much. And

[7:54:52] Voice 4: I have to head out, but thank you. All

[7:54:54] Trustee Patrick: right. Thank you. I have to give a hug.

[7:55:01] Trustee Patrick: Yeah. Thank you

[7:55:03] Voice 19: so much. We appreciate it. Okay.

[7:55:08] Trustee Patrick: Okay. Trustees, are there any other questions

[7:55:10] Trustee Patrick: on those Island Trust Conservancy items?

[7:55:17] Trustee Patrick: Well, nobody else is.

[7:55:20] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Getty?

[7:55:25] Voice 7: Overall, I'm feeling like the increase in staff.

[7:55:29] Trustee Patrick: I can't hear you.

[7:55:30] Trustee Patrick: I'm sorry.

[7:55:30] Trustee Patrick: Overall,

[7:55:31] Voice 7: I'm feeling like the increase in staffing

[7:55:34] Voice 7: and the increase in programs and all of the,

[7:55:39] Voice 7: there's some sort of optimism

[7:55:41] Voice 7: and possibly, I don't know, it just seems to be adding up.

[7:55:46] Voice 7: So I'm wondering if there would be some help from staff in terms of that.

[7:55:54] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Getty?

[7:55:56] Voice 9: Could you please speak directly and eat the microphone?

[7:55:58] Voice 9: We can't hear anything you're saying.

[7:56:05] Voice 7: Okay, so this is a $35,000 increase, and it's up 21%.

[7:56:11] Voice 7: And this is one of, what do we have, five increases from the Conservancy.

[7:56:19] Voice 7: And two of them are full-time positions.

[7:56:25] Voice 7: And there's another one with respect to some pretty significant, I can't remember the word that we're using in terms of capacity building.

[7:56:39] Voice 7: But overall, I'm just thinking that this is a very rich budget and whether or not we've lost perspective in terms of newer, older projects or, you know, just what we can afford.

[7:56:58] Voice 7: forward if we're trying to significantly reduce some of the things that to make way for the

[7:57:04] Voice 7: new projects that are the new hires that are considered to be new um objectives or priorities

[7:57:13] Voice 7: we haven't actually been cutting so i'm i'm a little bit concerned with respect this is

[7:57:19] Voice 7: you know the conservancy at this point but overall i think that um it's a very rich budget and we

[7:57:26] Voice 7: We need to look more carefully in terms of where we can decrease.

[7:57:30] Voice 7: I'm wondering, for instance, on this one, if it needs to have an increase,

[7:57:35] Voice 7: if it can just stay the same for a year, for instance.

[7:57:39] Voice 7: And we all have lots and lots of good reasons for all of the increases,

[7:57:44] Voice 7: but it's just piling up.

[7:57:50] Voice 19: All right, Trustee Goverill?

[7:57:51] Voice 19: I hear you.

[7:57:52] Voice 19: I hear it.

[7:57:53] Voice 19: That sounds like it is piling up here.

[7:57:55] Voice 19: There are 81 covenants involved in this that need monitoring.

[7:57:59] Voice 19: monitoring. There's cultural assessments, there's planning, species at risk inventories.

[7:58:03] Voice 19: These are things that we do yearly already. We can't really cut those. But it's annual

[7:58:09] Voice 19: monitoring. This is a critical piece to our work. And we found, I like this business case

[7:58:15] Voice 19: because this business case actually comes with a solution for a huge capacity issue

[7:58:21] Voice 19: that we have. And it's doing those monitoring, doing that monitoring. 81 covenants, 115 properties.

[7:58:27] Voice 19: It's a large, we're a large organization.

[7:58:30] Voice 24: Because we're in D.C.

[7:58:31] Voice 19: Yeah.

[7:58:32] Voice 19: Yeah.

[7:58:32] Voice 19: So we actually have run the risk of being in noncompliance with our own covenants.

[7:58:39] Voice 19: We're bailing on monitoring correctly as established in those covenants.

[7:58:49] Voice 5: Trustee Bernardo,

[7:58:49] Voice 5: then Trustee Elliott.

[7:58:50] Voice 5: It's been a very long day, and I think we're running out of gas.

[7:58:55] Voice 5: And I take what Trustee Giddey is saying seriously.

[7:58:59] Voice 5: but I'd also point out we actually have cut a couple of hundred thousand out of the proposed

[7:59:03] Voice 5: budget in the sense that there's a couple of hires we're not making this year um I think this

[7:59:10] Voice 5: discussion should probably carry on tomorrow morning to some extent and it might be helpful

[7:59:15] Voice 5: if director mobs can give us an updated percentage and what we expect the um the tax increase to be

[7:59:22] Voice 5: please don't provide it to us now because then we might talk about it and uh and also our

[7:59:29] Voice 5: Our opportunity to re-examine the budget, this isn't fine.

[7:59:33] Voice 5: I mean, we're going to be talking about this in February.

[7:59:37] Voice 5: So I'd like to move, make a motion that we adjourn until tomorrow.

[7:59:43] Voice 5: Recess, recess, adjourn, whatever.

[7:59:45] Voice 5: Okay.

[7:59:46] Trustee Patrick: I guess there has been a motion made.

[7:59:49] Trustee Patrick: My only hope was dinner isn't until 6 o'clock.

[7:59:53] Trustee Patrick: I was going to see if anyone was going to at all want to remove anything.

[7:59:57] Voice 5: Some of us have other commitments.

[8:00:00] Trustee Patrick: all right so there's been a motion made to adjourn i believe it is not it just needs to be seconded

[8:00:05] Trustee Patrick: yeah seconded by trustee maude it is not debatable i don't think so nope uh so i

[8:00:12] Trustee Patrick: gotta call the vote

[8:00:13] Trustee Patrick: all those in favor of recessing i think for today yes all right all right uh was there anyone

[8:00:22] Trustee Patrick: want to pose recessing no sounds like no all right all right

[8:00:29] Voice 21: you could start earlier i'll