Islands Trust Council regular meeting, January 15, 2026

[0:00:00] Voice 4: Ready to join. Right. Thank you. I'll call this meeting to order. This is the Accessibility Committee, and the date is Thursday, January 15, 2026, and we're calling the meeting to order at 6.32.

[0:00:18] Voice 4: and we have Quorum. I would like to start by acknowledging this land that we are meeting on

[0:00:26] Voice 4: as the ancestral unceded lands to many Coast Salish nations. Today I've been reading up

[0:00:33] Voice 4: a little bit on the T-Shelt Nation and I found a video that was prepared by that nation.

[0:00:39] Voice 4: I'd like to share a bit about the video. I'm very appreciative of these opportunities

[0:00:44] Voice 4: in my work to do a deeper dive and to learn about the many nations around us and their

[0:00:52] Voice 4: sexual ties to this land. So these are in their words. So I'll just start. Before contact,

[0:01:04] Voice 4: our people lived in harmony, not just with one another, but with the land. And we had a unique

[0:01:11] Voice 4: way of speaking. And we always had a unique way of being a family, a large family. There are

[0:01:17] Voice 4: thousands upon thousands upon thousands of seashell people. What there was was harmony.

[0:01:24] Voice 4: Harmony is something that we have lacked over the last hundred years or so

[0:01:28] Voice 4: because we are separated from our land, from our families, and from our language.

[0:01:33] Voice 4: One of the things that we had to endure was the burning of our regalia and our sacred masks,

[0:01:40] Voice 4: but there is also a spiritual component to that, and it is still in our hearts. Therefore,

[0:01:47] Voice 4: Therefore, we're still able to produce our art, which is the collective identity of our people.

[0:01:53] Voice 4: The spirit is still alive.

[0:01:55] Voice 4: And if you were to go forward 150 years or more from now, what we would like to see, what we like to envision for the seashell people is by living in a place of spirit.

[0:02:08] Voice 4: We will be able to provide our best to each other and to the greater community.

[0:02:14] Voice 4: They do see integration.

[0:02:16] Voice 4: they see culture thriving and they see that land is restored and that the

[0:02:22] Voice 4: environment is restored. This last sentiment is from a very articulate

[0:02:29] Voice 4: gentleman. I particularly enjoyed his expressions while he said these words.

[0:02:34] Voice 4: More and more young people are picking up the drum and more and more people are

[0:02:38] Voice 4: beginning to sing the songs. Where we want to be again is where we left off a

[0:02:44] Voice 4: 100 years ago, 150 years ago. It's going to be full circle. We're going to reverse what the

[0:02:52] Voice 4: government caused us. And we're going to go back to the traditional ways of governing.

[0:02:57] Voice 4: And I think it's going to be exciting for me to see in my lifetime at 70 years old, I can see it,

[0:03:03] Voice 4: I can almost feel it. The video is available on the Sechelt Nation. If anyone's interested,

[0:03:09] Voice 4: that i can send you a link to that i i particularly found this video relevant and enlightening especially

[0:03:16] Voice 4: at the beginning of this year thinking about the achievements that we'll make over this year

[0:03:22] Voice 4: thank you i would love the

[0:03:25] Voice 4: link it's really good it's really good yeah

[0:03:29] Voice 6: i love finding those kind

[0:03:30] Voice 6: of documentaries that are not on the

[0:03:32] Voice 6: mainstream and about local area so yeah

[0:03:35] Voice 4: culture

[0:03:36] Voice 6: all of it

[0:03:37] Voice 6: Yeah,

[0:03:38] Voice 4: great. I'll send it around. Maybe we'll also do some introductions as well. I know we know each other, but it'd be great to kind of get a little more cozy here. Yeah, I'm Lisa Goverill. I'm on Galliano Island, elected as trustee there. I also serve on the Trust Conservancy Board as chair, and I'm also chair for this committee as well. And then we have Vice Chair, Lisa, would you like to introduce yourself?

[0:04:04] Voice 4: Yeah, my name is Lisa

[0:04:05] Voice 6: Nissenen. I have a home on Thedas Island. Most of the time I'm living in Nanaimo still. I work for Community Living BC at the moment supporting adults with developmental disabilities. And I'm also the vice chair of Claytree Society, which is a nonprofit supporting adults with developmental disabilities. So that's me.

[0:04:26] Voice 6: Great, thank you.

[0:04:28] Voice 3: Teresa, would you like to go first or go next?

[0:04:31] Voice 3: Sure. Hi, everybody. My name is Theresa Burley. I'm a member of the Accessibility Committee.

[0:04:37] Voice 3: I live on Salt Spring Island. I identify as a person with a disability. I also have worked in

[0:04:45] Voice 3: this area. I worked at Simon Fraser University before this and helped design their Accessibility

[0:04:49] Voice 3: Committee and their Accessibility Action Plan. So hopefully I can bring some of that knowledge

[0:04:52] Voice 3: forward. And yeah, that's all for me. Thanks.

[0:04:55] Voice 4: Great. Thank you. And then we have our

[0:04:58] Voice 4: ex officio component of our uh committee uh the wonderful laura patrick oh

[0:05:04] Voice 7: lisa i love lisa i'm

[0:05:08] Voice 7: sorry i'm laura patrick i'm suffering from a bad sinus infection so i apologize for my voice

[0:05:15] Voice 7: i'm elected on salt spring i'm the chair of press council so i i'm sitting in this evening ex

[0:05:20] Voice 7: officio and uh glad to be here and

[0:05:24] Voice 4: then i guess we have regrets tonight from david maude who is not

[0:05:28] Voice 4: here he's the newest member of our committee and he is elected on main island for the islands trust

[0:05:37] Voice 4: and then of course we have the wonderful david marler hello

[0:05:43] Voice 1: everybody i just wanted to take

[0:05:47] Voice 1: the opportunity just to oh

[0:05:52] Voice 4: i can't hear you you're muted yeah

[0:05:54] Voice 1: hi sorry i'm david mahler and yeah i'm

[0:05:59] Voice 1: to legislative information services. I just wanted to explain I think you

[0:06:04] Voice 1: probably are aware but ex officio at the Allen's Trust under council policy means

[0:06:10] Voice 1: that it's a member appointed by a virtue of the office which is in this case

[0:06:15] Voice 1: chair of council and it's a non-voting position it doesn't count towards quorum

[0:06:21] Voice 1: intent of that is to allow that person to come and go might not always be

[0:06:25] Voice 1: available given the workload and allows us to continue if Laurie is not available but Laurie

[0:06:33] Voice 1: can certainly fully participate in the meeting as a member other than the votes thank you thank you

[0:06:41] Voice 4: great and then we also have Robert Barlow our administrative staff for this evening

[0:06:49] Voice 2: yes the legislative services clerk for islands trust and your administrative support for this

[0:06:54] Voice 2: committee and host and recorder for this meeting today.

[0:06:59] Voice 4: Great. Thank you. We appreciate you. All right. Moving on.

[0:07:04] Voice 4: Item number two, the agenda.

[0:07:06] Voice 4: Has everyone had a chance to review the agenda for this meeting?

[0:07:11] Voice 4: Is there any additions or any amendments to the agenda? Nope.

[0:07:17] Voice 4: Seeing none, we'll adopt the agenda by general consent. Sounds good. Great.

[0:07:22] Voice 4: great and then moving on to um minutes from the october 7th meeting or last meeting has everyone

[0:07:30] Voice 4: had a chance to review those we're looking for accuracy any amendments looks good to me looks

[0:07:40] Voice 4: good to you now by general consent we'll adopt the minutes from the october 7th meeting and then

[0:07:48] Voice 4: that brings us to item 3.2 a follow-up actualist which you'll notice is not in our agenda package

[0:07:54] Voice 4: but David, did you have anything you wanted to add there?

[0:07:59] Voice 1: Yeah, I'll just say that anything...

[0:08:01] Voice 1: Robert and I went through the actions requested

[0:08:05] Voice 1: by the Accessibility Committee at previous meetings.

[0:08:09] Voice 1: Anything that we can put on this agenda, we'd put on here.

[0:08:13] Voice 1: We normally would keep a written list of the action items.

[0:08:18] Voice 1: Unfortunately, the system that we use to do that,

[0:08:20] Voice 1: we can't really make it, we can't edit it right now.

[0:08:23] Voice 1: it's that there's a code issue i think what robert now try and do is figure out a manual way to

[0:08:29] Voice 1: to provide something uh in the interim so that we do start to track it in the meetings

[0:08:35] Voice 1: so yeah just my apologies for that but we will keep track of the actions as they come out of the

[0:08:43] Voice 1: meetings by your resolutions and we will find a way to report them back uh where we're up to

[0:08:48] Voice 1: with them thank you thank

[0:08:50] Voice 4: you thank you wonderful that brings us to item number four which is

[0:08:55] Voice 4: business uh 4.1 is accessible an accessibility audit yeah yeah i've

[0:09:03] Voice 1: made through the chair so

[0:09:04] Voice 1: this is really just for your information so if you remember uh previous meetings we uh the committee

[0:09:12] Voice 1: committee agreed that it would be good use of LGMA funding for accessibility to improve

[0:09:24] Voice 1: the accessibility to the Yalans Trust website. We already had an audit done about a year

[0:09:30] Voice 1: or so ago, so that audit has been attached to this agenda for your information. That

[0:09:36] Voice 1: That audit has been provided to a consultant,

[0:09:39] Voice 1: which is Kayada Web Solutions, who do the work for us.

[0:09:43] Voice 1: They actually created the accessibility website document,

[0:09:47] Voice 1: which you'll see.

[0:09:48] Voice 1: And we've asked them to implement the recommendations

[0:09:50] Voice 1: that they have in there.

[0:09:52] Voice 1: So this will go towards making the website more accessible.

[0:09:57] Voice 1: And the committee members,

[0:09:59] Voice 1: you might want to have a read through,

[0:10:00] Voice 1: and maybe not necessarily this meeting,

[0:10:03] Voice 1: but probably to the next meeting,

[0:10:04] Voice 1: You could come back and we can have a discussion as to whether there's other accessibility

[0:10:12] Voice 1: issues that this audit hasn't considered that you feel would be worthwhile looking to make

[0:10:18] Voice 1: changes to.

[0:10:19] Voice 1: We have a grant to the end of this fiscal, so I don't think we'll be able to do any additional

[0:10:25] Voice 1: work under this grant because of timing, but I think we can certainly look at how we can

[0:10:31] Voice 1: incorporate some edits that the committee would like to see on the Alan's Trust website. So that

[0:10:38] Voice 1: was the focus of using the grant. So we just wanted to provide this to you. I think we said

[0:10:43] Voice 1: we would. So this is bringing the document to you.

[0:10:48] Voice 4: Great, thank you very much. I found that the

[0:10:50] Voice 4: document was very informative, a lot of learning on my behalf of terminology. I look to the board,

[0:10:57] Voice 4: Or do you have any comments?

[0:11:00] Voice 5: Yeah, me too.

[0:11:01] Voice 5: It was a lot of learning about the technology and things over my head.

[0:11:07] Voice 4: Yeah.

[0:11:09] Voice 4: The ARIA piece, I was reading that going, oh, yeah, ARIA.

[0:11:12] Voice 4: I have no idea what that is, which was great.

[0:11:15] Voice 4: Now I have a better understanding now.

[0:11:17] Voice 4: I appreciate that.

[0:11:19] Voice 1: Yeah, to be fair, it was a fairly technical document.

[0:11:22] Voice 1: And a lot of the changes are in the back end,

[0:11:24] Voice 1: but it should make it easier and better more usable for people especially on

[0:11:31] Voice 1: you know different screen sizes and allowing resizing and zooming and things

[0:11:36] Voice 1: like that that's what we're trying to make more accessible to the public where

[0:11:42] Voice 1: it doesn't include though is a review of plain language you know we have gone

[0:11:49] Voice 1: through it with our communication staff and we are trying to keep it plain

[0:11:54] Voice 1: language but you know again if you see some area where we could do better we

[0:11:59] Voice 1: can certainly flag that so feel free to look through the the website and maybe

[0:12:05] Voice 1: the next meeting provide any feedback you have on the accessibility of it and

[0:12:09] Voice 1: things that you think we could make to improve it

[0:12:13] Voice 4: the section about the trans

[0:12:18] Voice 4: closed captioning for the recordings be very very helpful for the communities

[0:12:24] Voice 4: so yeah yeah uh any further comments from the board any questions for clarity understanding

[0:12:32] Voice 4: and then we'll move forward all right item 4.2 accessibility committee membership applications

[0:12:39] Voice 4: yeah

[0:12:41] Voice 1: so this is on through the chair page 31 of the agenda i'm just going to go there so um

[0:12:48] Voice 1: Yeah, so we have, by council policy, it's a council policy that creates the Accessibility Committee, which is consistent with the Accessible British Columbia Act.

[0:13:04] Voice 1: So it follows the requirements in that act.

[0:13:07] Voice 1: So we initially put out a call for members.

[0:13:11] Voice 1: members, the council policy indicates the makeup of the committee, like the types of

[0:13:19] Voice 1: people we're looking for. It does put a limit on the number of members from Trust Council

[0:13:24] Voice 1: itself. It doesn't actually limit the number of members from the public. The only restriction

[0:13:31] Voice 1: really is that we try to meet the mix that's required under the Accessible British Columbia

[0:13:37] Voice 1: Act so since we've updated the website on the web page for accessibility we've

[0:13:45] Voice 1: actually had quite a few people put the name in saying that they'd be interested

[0:13:50] Voice 1: to join the committee so it's we haven't actually advertised for this they just

[0:13:55] Voice 1: put the names in now the committee is intended to run with the term so your

[0:14:01] Voice 1: terms would be up rough you know when the new council comes in and a new

[0:14:05] Voice 1: council would then appoint a new committee it could be you as well I mean

[0:14:10] Voice 1: there's nothing stopping you saying yeah I'm interested to continue and council

[0:14:15] Voice 1: could reappoint the members that are here so that's but we would have to go

[0:14:19] Voice 1: through that process either probably December or March depending on how we

[0:14:25] Voice 1: have availability at Trust Council so you know if we were to if we hit if if

[0:14:33] Voice 1: if Trust Council was to appoint anybody to the committee

[0:14:37] Voice 1: this coming Trust Council meeting,

[0:14:41] Voice 1: the term would really end probably in December

[0:14:46] Voice 1: when we would then look at completely

[0:14:49] Voice 1: replacing the committee.

[0:14:51] Voice 1: But like I said, if everybody's interested,

[0:14:55] Voice 1: they wanna continue working on it,

[0:14:57] Voice 1: Council could just reconfirm that those people

[0:15:00] Voice 1: reappointed for the next term, okay?

[0:15:03] Voice 1: So we plan to take this to council in March.

[0:15:09] Voice 1: Here's the request for, sorry, where is it?

[0:15:14] Voice 1: We don't have the names here, sorry.

[0:15:16] Voice 1: But we will take them in camera to trust council in March

[0:15:20] Voice 1: and see if council would like to increase the size of this committee.

[0:15:25] Voice 1: And we brought it here because if you've got any suggestions for council,

[0:15:30] Voice 1: if you feel that, you know what, it doesn't make sense,

[0:15:33] Voice 1: let's hold off until the next term that's fine we can let council know your position if you feel

[0:15:40] Voice 1: it'd be helpful to have more people on this committee sooner than later that'd be good for

[0:15:44] Voice 1: council to know that as well work wise um it's a fairly um this particular agenda is not doesn't

[0:15:53] Voice 1: have a lot on it but what will happen is council has will be considering dollars

[0:16:02] Voice 1: for a consultant to create an accessibility plan and that will come to

[0:16:08] Voice 1: the committee for vetting and for assistance with suggestions and things

[0:16:14] Voice 1: like that not just on the plan but on how the plan is formed and that will

[0:16:20] Voice 1: will probably happen shortly after April and definitely be worked on leading up to the

[0:16:26] Voice 1: next council. We're behind. We haven't adopted an accessibility plan and all local governments

[0:16:35] Voice 1: are supposed to have had one as of September two years ago or a year and a half ago, something

[0:16:42] Voice 1: like that. So we do want to get started on it. So there'll be more work for this committee

[0:16:48] Voice 1: to do essentially once that process gets underway and then beyond that it's the

[0:16:53] Voice 1: maintenance of it it's constantly you know looking at how are we implementing

[0:16:59] Voice 1: the accessibility plan making sure councils budgeting for accessibility and

[0:17:06] Voice 1: each of its budgets things like that anyway so that's that's why this is here

[0:17:12] Voice 1: just to let you know and I'm just taking it back to chair do you want to provide

[0:17:16] Voice 1: any advice to council on whether or not we should consider increasing or appointing more people

[0:17:22] Voice 1: sooner than later or should we wait thank you all

[0:17:28] Voice 4: right any thoughts from the board

[0:17:31] Voice 4: or the committee anybody sorry I

[0:17:35] Voice 6: think we could use more members you know in the event that people

[0:17:39] Voice 6: can't make it that we at least have quorum all the time especially if there's more work coming

[0:17:43] Voice 6: along and if it's possible then for a reappointment if they're wanting to stay on after the term ends

[0:17:48] Voice 6: then it doesn't hurt to bring them on now before the plan starts not after it's halfway done

[0:17:54] Voice 3: good point good point uh Teresa yeah I disagree with what Lisa said uh the more people the better

[0:18:02] Voice 3: this is meant to be a very consultative approach and we just we have a very small group here

[0:18:06] Voice 3: and you've had all these people take the time and labor to apply and if you wait till next year

[0:18:11] Voice 3: they're going to be gone and you'll will have wasted their time so I think it would be um bad

[0:18:16] Voice 3: bad, what's the word I'm looking for? Just not good practice to ask them or they've applied and

[0:18:22] Voice 3: then not to consider it for the next little while.

[0:18:25] Voice 4: That's very meaningful to me because what I hear

[0:18:28] Voice 4: is a lot of accessibility committees have a hard time with membership. Yes. Chair Patrick.

[0:18:34] Voice 7: Hello. Well, we can never suppose or guess what a future trust counsel will decide, but I think

[0:18:41] Voice 7: with external members, it would be highly likely that if the external members wish to continue on

[0:18:46] Voice 7: the committee, that there'd be a high probability that the future trust council would maintain

[0:18:51] Voice 7: their appointments. So I think putting more people on now and getting the continuity and get working,

[0:18:56] Voice 7: the risk I think is pretty small if we have a big change.

[0:19:04] Voice 4: Great. I'm hearing consensus.

[0:19:06] Voice 1: Great.

[0:19:07] Voice 4: Director Marler, do you need anything else from us on that?

[0:19:11] Voice 1: no just through the chair just want to check if robert just captured those thoughts i think it's

[0:19:15] Voice 1: pretty anonymous of the members here that uh be a good idea to point them if they're interested

[0:19:21] Voice 1: uh now and uh yeah yeah okay and yeah that's kind of my thinking too so i'm okay

[0:19:27] Voice 1: with that that makes a lot of sense thank you great thank you

[0:19:31] Voice 4: thank you all right then with that we shall move on to our next meeting wait a minute

[0:19:41] Voice 4: it really it is a short meeting isn't it

[0:19:42] Voice 1: yeah

[0:19:43] Voice 4: yeah and i so appreciate everyone's time thank

[0:19:47] Voice 4: you very much and

[0:19:49] Voice 1: if i may through the chairs like i said they won't all be like this uh this

[0:19:52] Voice 1: one coming right after the christmas break as well and the fact that we're in that process of

[0:19:58] Voice 1: still waiting for council to make its budget decisions means that we haven't

[0:20:02] Voice 1: had a lot of

[0:20:03] Voice 1: work to do for the accessibility it's more just letting you know where we're at with it so

[0:20:07] Voice 1: So I appreciate that.

[0:20:08] Voice 1: The next one is important though, 5.1.

[0:20:10] Voice 4: Yes, it is.

[0:20:11] Voice 4: Teresa,

[0:20:12] Voice 3: I see your hand up.

[0:20:13] Voice 3: Oh, I just wanted to check.

[0:20:14] Voice 3: I just noticed like,

[0:20:15] Voice 3: just do we have a space for not new business,

[0:20:18] Voice 3: but just questions unrelated to maybe

[0:20:20] Voice 3: to agenda items at the end before we adjourn?

[0:20:22] Voice 3: I have one thing I'd like to ask.

[0:20:24] Voice 4: Oh, for sure.

[0:20:24] Voice 4: I think that's a great idea.

[0:20:26] Voice 4: Why don't we tackle 5.1 first

[0:20:29] Voice 4: and then we can move into that.

[0:20:32] Voice 4: There's no objections from anyone.

[0:20:33] Voice 4: I think that's appropriate.

[0:20:35] Voice 4: appropriate um all right so yeah 5.1 so it's a proposed schedule for meeting schedule for next

[0:20:40] Voice 4: year yeah let's

[0:20:43] Voice 4: get a chance to look at it yeah yeah go ahead

[0:20:45] Voice 1: so if I may through a chair um so

[0:20:49] Voice 1: yeah the dates are indicated on the first column so keeping the same approach to all of Council's

[0:20:56] Voice 1: committees the proposal is that the before meetings a year and the design so that anything

[0:21:02] Voice 1: that you do you have the ability to take it through to Trust Council so what that

[0:21:09] Voice 1: means is if you get a draft of a document and you would like Council to

[0:21:14] Voice 1: you'd like to look at it before it goes to Council then this allows that to

[0:21:19] Voice 1: happen so you'll see it says a proposed date for example April 21st that would

[0:21:24] Voice 1: then allow us to feed any work that comes out of that that's the June 3rd

[0:21:29] Voice 1: executive meeting for the june 16th council um you know april that gives us all of may so it

[0:21:36] Voice 1: allows staff to do any work that you might ask us to do to clean up documents or whatever before

[0:21:44] Voice 1: going to council so you'll see july 22nd feeds into september october 6th into november and

[0:21:51] Voice 1: january 26 into march those dates also work with the financial planning committee so that

[0:21:57] Voice 1: if there's a budget request we can get it to the FPC before the relevant Trust

[0:22:03] Voice 1: Council meeting so it's kind of like a hierarchy of going through these

[0:22:09] Voice 1: different stages so yeah this gives certainty to members that these the

[0:22:17] Voice 1: dates will hold to them but also need to look to you to see if there's any major

[0:22:22] Voice 1: conflicts which means that you know if we can't get a quorum then we may need

[0:22:27] Voice 1: need to look for another date we do tend to hold these in the evening and I think

[0:22:32] Voice 1: that is still proposed and just looking at that yeah so number three here

[0:22:37] Voice 1: recommendation that their meetings be held 630 to 830 p.m. so let us know if

[0:22:43] Voice 1: that still works I think evening was considerate of people's you know busy

[0:22:49] Voice 1: daytime schedules and all of them would be electronic so that we don't have to

[0:22:54] Voice 1: to travel to a central location so back to the chair thank

[0:23:01] Voice 4: you thank you and I

[0:23:03] Voice 4: turn over the board any questions any comments no

[0:23:08] Voice 6: questions have no idea what

[0:23:09] Voice 6: I'll be doing half those dates how

[0:23:12] Voice 4: do they come up with these schedules is

[0:23:15] Voice 4: wonderful so thoughtful yeah I

[0:23:19] Voice 1: yeah just on that I can tell you I will not be

[0:23:22] Voice 1: be available for april 21st but we'll make sure that the work is done and i'll make sure there's

[0:23:27] Voice 1: a staff person that can attend and help you through the agenda thank

[0:23:32] Voice 4: you thank you i'll be

[0:23:34] Voice 1: i'll be in europe

[0:23:35] Voice 4: lovely

[0:23:37] Voice 3: uh any other comments um all those dates work for me as far as i know

[0:23:43] Voice 3: and just um in case you haven't done it already with your future potential committee members that

[0:23:48] Voice 3: But if you haven't done it already, it might be good to share those with them in case I've done that in the past.

[0:23:54] Voice 3: Like if we're bringing on new committee members, we already have a schedule.

[0:23:57] Voice 3: It's good for them to know because if they can't attend them then or if the timings don't work.

[0:24:02] Voice 3: So just to share that.

[0:24:03] Voice 4: That's a great idea.

[0:24:03] Voice 4: Yeah.

[0:24:04] Voice 4: Fantastic.

[0:24:05] Voice 4: Great.

[0:24:06] Voice 4: Then I guess we're looking for a motion then to adopt.

[0:24:11] Voice 1: There's three motions.

[0:24:12] Voice 1: I've made three to your chair.

[0:24:14] Voice 1: So, yeah, recommendations one, two, and three right there.

[0:24:18] Voice 1: would be great if somebody could move each one of those I

[0:24:25] Voice 3: will move all of those if I do want

[0:24:30] Voice 4: them read out I

[0:24:32] Voice 1: should read them out just for the record if you don't mind um I'm okay with doing

[0:24:36] Voice 1: all as a single resolution that's fine if you all agree to that me

[0:24:40] Voice 4: too yeah absolutely yeah

[0:24:42] Voice 4: all right did you want me to read them out I can read them out

[0:24:45] Voice 1: yeah just put and between them

[0:24:46] Voice 1: that's good thanks

[0:24:47] Voice 4: uh I moved that the accessibility committee uh dot the proposed meeting dates of

[0:24:53] Voice 4: of April 21st, July 21st, October 6th in 2026,

[0:25:00] Voice 4: and January 26th in 2027 for the 2026-27 fiscal calendar.

[0:25:08] Voice 4: And the accessibility committee schedule

[0:25:10] Voice 4: all 2026-27 meeting dates as electronic meetings.

[0:25:16] Voice 4: And the accessibility committee schedule

[0:25:18] Voice 4: all 2026-27 meeting dates from 6.30 to 8.30 p.m. I can second that. Seconder, thank you.

[0:25:28] Voice 4: Then I shall call the vote. All in favor? Unanimous. Great. Great job.

[0:25:37] Voice 1: Great. Thank you.

[0:25:39] Voice 4: Thank you. And then we didn't actually put it on the agenda, but Teresa wanted to

[0:25:46] Voice 4: discuss something.

[0:25:47] Voice 3: Yeah, I just said an apologies. I had to miss our last meeting because I had a

[0:25:52] Voice 3: a big fundraiser for my work which I was not able to attend but since then and I've had a few people

[0:25:59] Voice 3: bring up to me the decision to abolish print public notices and some concerns with that so

[0:26:05] Voice 3: I just wanted I have a question I guess about that is that happening for sure in terms of

[0:26:13] Voice 3: accessibility that leads out leaves out a lot of people particularly if our website is not up to

[0:26:18] Voice 3: enough yet and not accessible so i'm curious about that decision i'll share the link to the

[0:26:23] Voice 3: times colonist article um in case others haven't seen it but um yeah in terms of accessibility

[0:26:29] Voice 3: that's a bit of a red flag usually you want to have things as available in as many um formats

[0:26:35] Voice 3: as possible and unless the cost is completely prohibitive but then what is the cost of not

[0:26:39] Voice 3: having that so yeah i just wanted to raise that

[0:26:41] Voice 4: you're in a good place to get the answers you're

[0:26:43] Voice 4: seeking uh director merler actually

[0:26:45] Voice 1: i just defer to uh yeah well

[0:26:48] Voice 7: i've received a lot of emails too

[0:26:50] Voice 7: um i the the article wasn't clear that it's in regard to trust council public notices and trust

[0:26:59] Voice 7: council public notices are few and far between primarily of meeting schedules like the one you

[0:27:06] Voice 7: just adopted but for trust console um and for trust console to do its published notices it's

[0:27:13] Voice 7: what how many newspapers was it david seven that's

[0:27:16] Voice 1: a minimum of

[0:27:17] Voice 7: eight news eight different newspapers

[0:27:19] Voice 7: um to put in information that is generally website based anyway of like meeting schedules um so

[0:27:30] Voice 7: i think the article was misleading because salts like salt spring is not salt spring is going to

[0:27:35] Voice 7: continue to use the driftwood for for its public notices because that's appropriate and those are

[0:27:40] Voice 7: public notices that people do want to see variances and public hearings and things of that

[0:27:46] Voice 7: notice some of the smaller islands that um we have um have made decisions not to go with print

[0:27:55] Voice 7: newspaper because generally their populations don't follow the print newspaper so um it is a

[0:28:03] Voice 7: The driftwood, I think, has made the story sound a little different in some regard.

[0:28:10] Voice 7: And I don't know, David, what you can add.

[0:28:13] Voice 1: Yeah, and so it's a good point, and it's a balance that council has to consider.

[0:28:20] Voice 1: From our understanding, with the exception of the driftwood on Salt Spring,

[0:28:23] Voice 1: the readership of newspapers in the islands is really quite low,

[0:28:31] Voice 1: and it's getting lower obviously because of social media and internet. So circulation

[0:28:39] Voice 1: of the Times Colonies for example is not that high on the islands and the Driftwood only

[0:28:44] Voice 1: has about 13 I think subscriptions off of Salt Spring Island. Now that doesn't mean

[0:28:52] Voice 1: people can't pick them up in the store and read it but it means that people are not subscribing

[0:28:57] Voice 1: bribing to those papers like they used to.

[0:29:00] Voice 1: And then of course the logistics of tying it all together in the staff time.

[0:29:06] Voice 1: It becomes quite expensive for a fairly low number of people, but we're still meeting

[0:29:12] Voice 1: the legislative requirement even though not everybody's seeing it.

[0:29:16] Voice 1: For Trust Council, there's very few reasons, it's mostly for a few by-law changes which

[0:29:25] Voice 1: which council would do, like its policy statement, for example.

[0:29:31] Voice 1: So this creates a default, a legal default, of using the Alan's Trust website.

[0:29:39] Voice 1: It doesn't mean that Trust Council can't still use print media.

[0:29:45] Voice 1: This just frees them from having to use the print media.

[0:29:49] Voice 1: So what I mean by that is that council could post it on the website,

[0:29:54] Voice 1: that meets the legislation so then we're clear anybody tries to sue

[0:30:00] Voice 1: that basis that we didn't follow the procedure can say no we did and here it is but they can

[0:30:06] Voice 1: certainly then use the um subscription mail out they can do a bulk mail out they can publish it

[0:30:15] Voice 1: in a monthly paper of the timing works or in a newsletter and things like that there is still

[0:30:21] Voice 1: a requirement to post uh on islands as well so that would still be done that um you know central

[0:30:30] Voice 1: notice location that is used by the local trust area.

[0:30:36] Voice 1: Yeah, so that's the intent.

[0:30:40] Voice 1: I think from this community,

[0:30:42] Voice 1: if you feel that it's a concern,

[0:30:45] Voice 1: you could, obviously by resolution,

[0:30:49] Voice 1: provide some information to trust counsel,

[0:30:52] Voice 1: indicate that maybe counsel should always consider

[0:30:57] Voice 1: alternatives to just using the website, for example, or consider people that don't have

[0:31:03] Voice 1: access to a website. I can't use a computer. So yeah, you could certainly do something like that

[0:31:10] Voice 1: if you want to. You could do that today or you could add it to the agenda for the next meeting

[0:31:14] Voice 1: and give me a call and I can help you with drafting up a resolution. Thanks.

[0:31:21] Voice 1: Thank

[0:31:22] Voice 4: you. Looking for solutions, right? Yeah. I know in Galliano, we use the active page

[0:31:28] Voice 4: because it's a pretty good readership for paper. We don't use Facebook too much for

[0:31:33] Voice 4: public notices, but we have seven message boards that are updated with any applications or

[0:31:43] Voice 4: variances or meetings coming up too. It's hard getting the word out sometimes.

[0:31:48] Voice 4: times um is there a direction that the board would wish to take right now more on that or do you have

[0:31:54] Voice 4: any more questions no

[0:31:57] Voice 3: i think you answered my question i think that the perception out there

[0:32:00] Voice 3: amongst a few folks is that the that just um prints being left behind and they don't know

[0:32:04] Voice 3: that it's still going to be in the driftwood so maybe there's some communication to be done to

[0:32:08] Voice 3: help um um do away with that misconception if that's not happening and then just to keep in

[0:32:14] Voice 3: mind like just because numbers are low they are probably um older folks where you will have more

[0:32:20] Voice 3: people with disabilities um among them so not to discount them just because there's not many folks

[0:32:25] Voice 3: that doesn't mean it's not worth trying to communicate with them if it is possible and

[0:32:29] Voice 3: having as many alternative um places for information is is best always for sure so thank

[0:32:36] Voice 1: you okay you

[0:32:38] Voice 1: You can take that under advisement, unless you want a resolution to, I'm okay with just that as advisement.

[0:32:45] Voice 1: I'll pass that on.

[0:32:45] Voice 4: Keep that in mind through our meetings over the next year or two.

[0:32:49] Voice 4: I really think that no one of us is smart as all of us.

[0:32:53] Voice 4: We can find some

[0:32:54] Voice 4: good solutions together.

[0:32:56] Voice 4: Excellent.

[0:32:57] Voice 4: Excellent.

[0:32:58] Voice 1: That's it.

[0:32:59] Voice 1: Good question.

[0:32:59] Voice 1: Thank you.

[0:33:00] Voice 7: I was going to ask, I appreciate, Teresa, what you're saying.

[0:33:04] Voice 7: Also, to me, the question would be accessibility to the kinds of information.

[0:33:08] Voice 7: it's like you know meeting schedules times and dates you know i think generally with the

[0:33:15] Voice 7: exception of age issues that most people are looking to websites for that i mean that's how

[0:33:20] Voice 7: i look when is bowen island municipality meeting i go to their website and look at it um what kinds

[0:33:27] Voice 7: of information need to be accessible i mean like so the notices and things like salt springs

[0:33:31] Voice 7: maintaining and keeping in the paper you know is there types of information that have different

[0:33:36] Voice 7: levels of accessibility need

[0:33:38] Voice 4: interesting interesting yeah thanks for that question

[0:33:45] Voice 4: there um i guess we shall move towards oh

[0:33:48] Voice 1: before the agenda

[0:33:49] Voice 4: yeah i

[0:33:51] Voice 1: just wanted to um

[0:33:54] Voice 1: kind of just ask the committee so i'll just remind the committee that we put these agendas together

[0:34:01] Voice 1: and um you know we'll talk with the chair about what should be on the agenda before the meetings

[0:34:07] Voice 1: and we i don't know if you got a chance to do that with this one but we definitely will with the next

[0:34:11] Voice 1: one partly because of the christmas but what i was going to say is if each of you feel you would

[0:34:17] Voice 1: like something on the agenda definitely just email me or robert um just send us an email

[0:34:23] Voice 1: tell us a subject matter and if you've got any documents um we'll help you get it on the agenda

[0:34:28] Voice 1: and then when we talk to the chair we can go through those items as well so just because

[0:34:34] Voice 1: staff are not putting it on doesn't mean this something shouldn't be on there you

[0:34:40] Voice 1: may find something that you would like to have on the agenda so it's your

[0:34:43] Voice 1: agenda so please let us know if there's something you would like on there and I

[0:34:48] Voice 1: think we could probably just add a new business for things like this as well

[0:34:54] Voice 4: thank you all

[0:34:57] Voice 1: right

[0:34:58] Voice 4: is there anything else that staff need from the committee

[0:35:03] Voice 1: no like i said apologies for the meeting being very very short and not on the agenda but i

[0:35:09] Voice 1: think that will change for sure so maybe enjoy this where you can

[0:35:12] Voice 4: absolutely i have no doubt

[0:35:14] Voice 4: and i certainly did enjoy our time together tonight

[0:35:16] Voice 1: uh

[0:35:18] Voice 4: then with that i guess we will

[0:35:20] Voice 4: adjourn the meeting yeah