Islands Trust Council special meeting, February 18, 2026

[0:00:05] Voice 5: all right chair up and

[0:00:08] Voice 5: running all

[0:00:09] Trustee Patrick: right um i'd like to call this uh uh meeting of the islands

[0:00:14] Trustee Patrick: trust council committee of the whole special meeting to order always begin by acknowledging

[0:00:21] Trustee Patrick: with respect and humility that the lands and waters of the islands trust area have been home

[0:00:26] Trustee Patrick: to indigenous peoples since time immemorial their deep connection to these islands continues to this

[0:00:31] Trustee Patrick: day, and we honor their enduring presence, constitutional rights, and responsibilities.

[0:00:38] Trustee Patrick: I'm Laura Patrick. I'm the chair of the Trust Council, and I think I'm going to dispense with

[0:00:45] Trustee Patrick: introductions of the trustees today. This is a working meeting. We all know each other well,

[0:00:50] Trustee Patrick: but I am going to turn over to our CAO, Brony, to let us know the staff that are going to be

[0:00:55] Trustee Patrick: supporting us today.

[0:00:58] Voice 24: Thank you, Chair. Joining us today, in addition to myself, Financial and

[0:01:04] Voice 24: Employee Services Director Julia Mobs, Planning Services Director Stefan Cermak, Trust Area

[0:01:10] Voice 24: Services Director Claire Freider, I believe, if he's not here already, Legislative and Information

[0:01:18] Voice 24: Services Director David Marler will be joining us shortly. And we also have our Executive

[0:01:23] Voice 24: Executive Coordinator, Alexander Trifonitis, and Meeting Administrator, Lisa Millard. Thank you.

[0:01:28] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much, and thanks for being here to support us today. Just wanted to let you know that

[0:01:34] Trustee Patrick: we have a few trustees that may be in and out. Trustee Laroni and Trustee Flack are both in

[0:01:41] Trustee Patrick: transit, and Trustee Hunter will be joining us at 1.30. Otherwise, we hadn't heard from anybody

[0:01:48] Trustee Patrick: anybody else? All right, trustees, we have an agenda before us. Are there any additions or

[0:01:56] Trustee Patrick: changes to the agenda? Not seeing any. If we could approve the agenda through general consent.

[0:02:07] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. We have the minutes here from our November 17th, 2025 special meeting.

[0:02:16] Trustee Patrick: Are there any additions or corrections to these minutes? Not seeing any being raised. Can we

[0:02:27] Trustee Patrick: approve these minutes through general consent as well thank you uh we have the follow-up action

[0:02:35] Trustee Patrick: list um on page nine of the agenda package are there any any thing questions or any comments

[0:02:48] Trustee Patrick: from staff on the follow-up action list if not i'm just going to keep on moving through so we

[0:02:58] Trustee Patrick: can get to the meat of this meeting um which is uh where we are now which is uh item 6.1 which

[0:03:06] Trustee Patrick: which is the budget.

[0:03:07] Trustee Patrick: I'm just going to review.

[0:03:08] Trustee Patrick: I did send trustees,

[0:03:10] Trustee Patrick: but I just want to review

[0:03:11] Trustee Patrick: because we want to facilitate this discussion

[0:03:12] Trustee Patrick: to be as efficient and effective as possible.

[0:03:16] Trustee Patrick: For one today,

[0:03:17] Trustee Patrick: if you, anytime you're referencing the agenda package,

[0:03:20] Trustee Patrick: this is a very large agenda package.

[0:03:23] Trustee Patrick: I know staff and myself

[0:03:25] Trustee Patrick: and all of the trustees will really appreciate it

[0:03:27] Trustee Patrick: if you'd reference what page of the agenda package

[0:03:31] Trustee Patrick: you're referring to.

[0:03:32] Trustee Patrick: So if we can all make a conscious effort to do that,

[0:03:35] Trustee Patrick: that will help us all be at this right place at the right time to talk about things um

[0:03:42] Trustee Patrick: i'm going to invite staff to give us an overview shortly um and i'd like to ask for them that

[0:03:51] Trustee Patrick: if they could touch on a report that bowen island municipal uh council mayor has prepared for one of

[0:03:58] Trustee Patrick: of the upcoming council meetings.

[0:04:03] Trustee Patrick: And then during the overview from staff,

[0:04:06] Trustee Patrick: if you have any question during the overview,

[0:04:10] Trustee Patrick: you can raise your hand.

[0:04:11] Trustee Patrick: And if you could just keep those to questions,

[0:04:13] Trustee Patrick: let's not comment or debate

[0:04:15] Trustee Patrick: or discuss the merits of the item,

[0:04:16] Trustee Patrick: but use this time to seek clarity

[0:04:19] Trustee Patrick: and understanding through questions.

[0:04:24] Trustee Patrick: After the staff provided an overview,

[0:04:28] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to ask if there's any business cases that you have questions about again any questions

[0:04:33] Trustee Patrick: for clarity on business cases we can discuss those then after then we'll move into a discussion

[0:04:40] Trustee Patrick: period on the budget so I could really just really appreciate if we could focus on questions

[0:04:45] Trustee Patrick: in this opening part with that I'm going to turn this over to staff to give us an overview of the

[0:04:53] Trustee Patrick: the budget materials um

[0:04:59] Voice 19: thanks chair so i guess that's me unless the cao has any opening remarks

[0:05:03] Voice 19: i saw his mute button come off well

[0:05:06] Voice 24: i just the chair had mentioned um the mayor of bowen's report

[0:05:10] Voice 24: so maybe i'll just touch on that briefly um mary andrew letter from bowen island has

[0:05:16] Voice 24: released a report from that he authored for consideration by bowen council and that is on

[0:05:22] Voice 24: their agenda i believe for the february 23rd bowen council meeting um and so it's now publicly

[0:05:28] Voice 24: available we can certainly circulate that to trustees if if you're interested um it's his

[0:05:33] Voice 24: his analysis of how the bowen island uh budget allocation is done uh the allocation that we

[0:05:40] Voice 24: provide them for their tax levy and from his perspective um some questions and and concerns

[0:05:45] Voice 24: about how that is managed um director mobs and i'll be attending that council meeting on the 23rd

[0:05:51] Voice 24: to provide an update on islands trust budget and i expect to answer some questions related

[0:05:56] Voice 24: to that report and i want to take the opportunity to thank director mobs for the time and effort

[0:06:00] Voice 24: she's put into responding to uh to multiple requests from bim for additional budget information

[0:06:06] Voice 24: in the last couple of weeks um i won't i'm not going to comment much on the report really because

[0:06:10] Voice 24: i think given that it hasn't been considered yet by their council um i think it's appropriate that

[0:06:15] Voice 24: their council have a chance to weigh in and determine what if any um actually they want

[0:06:20] Voice 24: to take on that i i anticipate we will subsequently receive some formal feedback from from bowen island

[0:06:25] Voice 24: on the budget and under policy um they have until february 28th to provide feedback on the the

[0:06:33] Voice 24: accuracy and completeness of of the budget information they've been provided that feedback

[0:06:38] Voice 24: under policy comes via their treasurer and so whatever feedback we receive from them we will

[0:06:43] Voice 24: bring forward too much to march trust council for consideration by all of you and your budget

[0:06:47] Voice 24: deliberations um and uh and i anticipate will as they will receive some of that feedback after next

[0:06:52] Voice 24: week's meeting and before that february 28th deadline i don't know perhaps maybe at this point

[0:06:58] Voice 24: um uh trustee faster trustee getty want to offer any additional comment on that if not we'll we'll

[0:07:03] Voice 24: turn it back to director mobs to lead us into the the core of our discussion today thank you

[0:07:10] Voice 12: Go ahead, Trustee Fast.

[0:07:12] Trustee Fast: Sure.

[0:07:13] Trustee Fast: Just to let people know, the Bowen Island budget,

[0:07:18] Trustee Fast: or sorry, Bowen Island agenda for the council meeting on February 23rd

[0:07:23] Trustee Fast: is posted at bowenislandmunicipality.ca

[0:07:26] Trustee Fast: if you want to go and look for it there.

[0:07:28] Trustee Fast: And the information is in there.

[0:07:31] Trustee Fast: And thank you very much, CAO and Director Bobbs,

[0:07:35] Trustee Fast: for coming to join us as a delegation.

[0:07:37] Trustee Fast: It'll be good to get that face-to-face information exchange going.

[0:07:43] Trustee Fast: I think Councillor Getty and I do our best as trustees giving verbal updates at our bi-weekly meetings, but this is better.

[0:07:53] Trustee Fast: Thank you.

[0:07:54] Trustee Fast: Thank you, Trustee Getty.

[0:07:55] Voice 10: And I appreciate that timeline for clarification in terms of it's come to council by way of an email.

[0:08:05] Voice 10: mail. It has not yet been debated. There's plenty in it that I think could be debated. And then

[0:08:11] Voice 10: we'll be in preparation for our meeting with trust staff on the 28th with respect to the

[0:08:19] Voice 10: budget allocation. So I think that explanation of the timeline is very helpful. Thanks.

[0:08:25] Trustee Patrick: Thank you, everyone. And I guess it's now over to Director Mops to move us on through the

[0:08:32] Trustee Patrick: information in today's agenda package thank

[0:08:36] Voice 19: you chair so I'll start us off on

[0:08:39] Voice 19: page 10 of the agenda so this is a budget session outline so this is what's

[0:08:44] Voice 19: proposed for our time today as we work through our budget materials so chair

[0:08:48] Voice 19: Patrick has already alluded to this content here it just sort of summarizes

[0:08:54] Voice 19: the documents that we'll go through I'll be providing some updates on some of the

[0:08:58] Voice 19: changes that have taken place to the budget since Trust Council thought as a

[0:09:02] Voice 19: the group in December.

[0:09:04] Voice 19: I'll provide some key highlights

[0:09:06] Voice 19: in the draft budget overview as a whole.

[0:09:09] Voice 19: And if the committee wishes for me to walk

[0:09:12] Voice 19: through specific budget lines, item by item,

[0:09:14] Voice 19: I'm happy to do that.

[0:09:16] Voice 19: I'm also happy just to speak to some

[0:09:17] Voice 19: of the higher level components and leave more time

[0:09:19] Voice 19: for trustee conversation and question comments and debate.

[0:09:23] Voice 19: As the chair mentioned, ideally we can keep the commentary

[0:09:28] Voice 19: throughout the presentation to questions only,

[0:09:30] Voice 19: which will help with the flow of things.

[0:09:33] Voice 19: We have provided some information on potential budget reduction options, and so our CAO will speak to that when we get to that place in the agenda.

[0:09:42] Voice 19: That was a request from SPC, which I'm sure this group will appreciate reviewing as well.

[0:09:46] Voice 19: And of course, we've lost a lot of time for trustees to provide their input.

[0:09:52] Voice 19: We've also provided, starting on page 11, some budget discussion support materials.

[0:09:57] Voice 19: materials. So this piece on the agenda simply provides some templated language for resolutions

[0:10:03] Voice 19: that might be useful to you if you'd like to propose some changes to the budget or give

[0:10:07] Voice 19: directions to staff to change budget materials. There's some examples that are provided there.

[0:10:12] Voice 19: I'll stress these aren't recommended by staff. They weren't picked for any particular reason.

[0:10:17] Voice 19: They are simply just examples to show how the templated resolution language might be

[0:10:22] Voice 19: used. On page 12 of the agenda, we include a little bit of information to help trustees

[0:10:29] Voice 19: understand the impact of any changes they might make to the budget. So generally, a $92,500

[0:10:34] Voice 19: change in spending will affect a 1% tax change for local trust areas, and the same is true for

[0:10:42] Voice 19: additional or reduced draws from surplus reserves. About $92,500 should impact local trust area

[0:10:49] Voice 19: taxation by about 1%. Things are a bit more complicated when we look at the Bowen Island

[0:10:53] Voice 19: municipal levy. Of course, they don't contribute to all of our budget. And so what we see there

[0:10:58] Voice 19: is a $28,000 change in Trust Council or Trust Conservancy spending will affect about a 1%

[0:11:04] Voice 19: change in their levy. And about an $80,000 change to general administration should affect about a

[0:11:10] Voice 19: 1% change in their levy. Draws from surplus will affect the Bowen Island levy differently depending

[0:11:15] Voice 19: depending on how they're allocated.

[0:11:17] Voice 19: So drafts from surplus that are allocated to planning work

[0:11:19] Voice 19: will not benefit the Bowen Island levy.

[0:11:21] Voice 19: The drafts from surplus that are allocated to work

[0:11:23] Voice 19: in the Trust Council area or Island Trust and Service area

[0:11:26] Voice 19: or general administration will help to reduce the tax levy.

[0:11:32] Voice 19: I'm happy to take questions on some of that support material

[0:11:35] Voice 19: before we move on, if there are any.

[0:11:37] Voice 19: I see no hands, so I'm going to move us through,

[0:11:45] Voice 19: if that's all right with you, Chair.

[0:11:46] Trustee Patrick: Please do.

[0:11:48] Trustee Patrick: Oops.

[0:11:48] Trustee Patrick: Oops, no, Alexandra must have a question.

[0:11:54] Voice 5: Actually, I'm just speaking up for Trustee Maberly, who's trying to raise his hand.

[0:11:59] Trustee Patrick: I see. Thank you very much for paying attention. Over to you, Trustee Maberly.

[0:12:05] Voice 28: Yeah, thank you. Sorry, I don't see my hand button anywhere on my computer.

[0:12:08] Voice 28: But can we go back to the last slide, please?

[0:12:11] Voice 28: please. Where I was looking for areas of ways to reduce the budget in regards to staffing.

[0:12:23] Voice 28: Were there any recommendations in regards to that? It seems like there's only recommendations

[0:12:31] Voice 28: in other stuff, including meetings.

[0:12:38] Trustee Patrick: I'd say, I think your question's a little early,

[0:12:41] Trustee Patrick: But go ahead, Director Mobs.

[0:12:45] Voice 19: Yeah, so the information on page 11 that's on the screen now, it's simply templated example language that you can look to if you'd like to form your own resolution to make changes to the budget.

[0:12:56] Voice 19: So these are just examples.

[0:12:57] Voice 19: They're not suggestions or recommendations.

[0:12:59] Voice 19: recommendations we do have in the agenda agenda item 6.1.7 there is a full list of budget

[0:13:08] Voice 19: reduction options that have been provided by staff and there there are some line items

[0:13:15] Voice 19: there that do speak to salaries and benefits expense there's nothing in there that would

[0:13:23] Voice 19: look to reduce staffing levels if you were making a motion to reduce staffing levels

[0:13:28] Voice 19: you could look to the templated language that's on the screen and use it to craft your own motion

[0:13:34] Voice 19: to make that suggestion. And we would receive that motion when we're in the budget debate

[0:13:40] Voice 19: after the budget presentation. Yeah, okay, thank you.

[0:13:45] Voice 28: Yeah, thank you very much. Yeah, sorry,

[0:13:47] Voice 28: just a little early, I guess. Yeah.

[0:13:50] Voice 19: You're ahead of us all. We appreciate the anticipations.

[0:13:54] Voice 7: trustee bolan hi just a check on process so we are going to go through the briefing

[0:14:01] Voice 7: and questions clarification questions will be entertained and after that we will have a general

[0:14:09] Voice 7: discussion am i understanding this so in the general discussion we will range far and wide

[0:14:16] Voice 7: up and down through the budget after the briefing and clarification questions is that how i'm

[0:14:23] Voice 7: understanding it is it correct that's correct okay thank you okay

[0:14:31] Trustee Patrick: carry on director mobs

[0:14:33] Trustee Patrick: oh

[0:14:36] Voice 19: thanks chair so the first item to look at um in the budget material is actually coming to you

[0:14:40] Voice 19: from the island trust conservancy board so i would look to director freighter to speak to

[0:14:45] Voice 19: that briefing through

[0:14:50] Voice 9: the chair happy to speak to this um this was coming out of the board's

[0:14:55] Voice 9: january 30th meeting where they considered trust council's request that they take another look at

[0:14:59] Voice 9: their budget. Following that, in that meeting, there were some decisions made to make some

[0:15:05] Voice 9: adjustments, which if you scroll down, please, you'll see on page. Sorry, I'm just trying to get

[0:15:09] Voice 9: there. Just a little bit further down, we've got a table there. So lots of discussions. And here we

[0:15:18] Voice 9: have a table that is your summary of what the board has concluded. So there's been an adjustment

[0:15:23] Voice 9: made to the request around the professional services line to reduce $2,200. In addition,

[0:15:29] Voice 9: they decided to forego an in-person meeting with a savings of $3,000.

[0:15:35] Voice 9: There was a grant received for $26,000 of which 9,500 offsets existing funding

[0:15:43] Voice 9: that had been planned for, and the rest is new funding.

[0:15:46] Voice 9: So you actually see an increase there of $16,500, but that's all grant funded.

[0:15:53] Voice 9: you'll note as well that um in the that there is the board has made the decision to pull

[0:16:00] Voice 9: property management funding from the property management fund of 21,348 it's a very specific

[0:16:07] Voice 9: number driven by a formula and finally we'll just note that um if you compare briefing to

[0:16:14] Voice 9: briefing from december that there is uh there was an error in terms of the salary increase we were

[0:16:19] Voice 9: We're still using the 2.5% salary increase and not the 3%.

[0:16:24] Voice 9: So those are the main changes proposed by the board in their budget request.

[0:16:28] Voice 9: You'll note in the property area management operations line, it notes that the proposed

[0:16:34] Voice 9: budget is $150,000.

[0:16:36] Voice 9: That is the entire proposed, that was the entire, sorry, you'll see in March, it's $166,500.

[0:16:42] Voice 9: That's the entire budget of the board.

[0:16:44] Voice 9: Of course, that number in terms of the request of Trust Council would be less 21-348 that they're pulling from the property management fund.

[0:16:55] Voice 9: So it's somewhat less than that in terms of the board.

[0:16:57] Voice 9: So you're seeing a slightly reduced request from the board, although overall the numbers go up due to grant funding.

[0:17:02] Voice 9: And perhaps I'll turn it back to the Director of Administrative Services to explain how that $21,348 might also impact the larger Trust Council budget.

[0:17:15] Voice 9: If she could supplement my comments on that.

[0:17:20] Voice 19: I'm happy to do so through the chair.

[0:17:24] Voice 19: So the board has agreed to fund a portion of their budget from their own property management fund, $21,348.

[0:17:33] Voice 19: dollars so that amount is no longer required of trust council dollars therefore the amount that's

[0:17:38] Voice 19: reflected in the trust council budget should be reduced by that $21,348 because we are of course

[0:17:45] Voice 19: looking at trust council's budget and they will be paying for that piece that adjustment is not

[0:17:49] Voice 19: reflected in the budget materials today we'll make that adjustment in the next version of the budget

[0:17:55] Voice 19: and it will have a minimal impact on the tax increase, maybe about 0.2% change for local

[0:18:03] Voice 19: trust areas, a reduction, and maybe about a 1% or slightly higher for Bowen. So hopefully that's

[0:18:09] Voice 19: clear. Certainly happy to respond to questions. I do see a hand up.

[0:18:14] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Trustee Evans.

[0:18:17] Voice 20: Yeah, so I do find this table confusing with the conversation that's happened. So

[0:18:22] Voice 20: So the new number 166.5 includes the $21,000 and it includes a grant amount.

[0:18:33] Voice 20: But so what is the actual increase or decrease that we're actually looking at for a bottom line for us to consider?

[0:18:40] Voice 20: Because that information isn't clear to me. Thank you.

[0:18:46] Voice 9: So generally, the amount being requested from Trust Council, doing the quick math here, is down by about $17,000.

[0:19:00] Trustee Patrick: Okay. I'm going to go on to another question then. Trustee Boland?

[0:19:07] Voice 7: I still don't really understand that since the overall budget change goes from 1,356 to 1,401, and that's described as plus 11,000, which doesn't make sense to me.

[0:19:24] Voice 7: So that's question number one. And question number two is reflecting on the change from last year to this year in your original presentation.

[0:19:39] Voice 7: And what triggered the request to the ITC to consider reducing the budget was that if you acknowledge the 220,000 SARS grant, which ended after six years, then your budget request has gone from just over a million to 1.4.

[0:20:04] Voice 7: actually a request for tax support. The tax requisition has increased by £350,000.

[0:20:12] Voice 7: So there is absolutely no acknowledgement of the ending of that six-year grant, during which

[0:20:19] Voice 7: the Conservancy spent £1.8 million, I think, in matching funds to the £1.2 from SARS. So I find

[0:20:29] Voice 7: it really that any kind of grant funding should be recognized as for a particular activity and

[0:20:37] Voice 7: when that grant funding ends that activity ends and therefore you know the activities that were

[0:20:47] Voice 7: supported should reduce so increasing your budget by 400 000 to 350 000 to be accurate

[0:20:54] Voice 7: it seems incredible in the current economic climate. So two questions. How does 1.356 to 1.401

[0:21:03] Voice 7: become plus 11,300? And the second one is the fact that you haven't taken account of that

[0:21:13] Voice 7: grant funding ending. Thank you. Okay. Through

[0:21:20] Voice 9: the chair, I'll respond. Go ahead. It looks like

[0:21:23] Voice 9: there may indeed this table is not adding a lot of clarity I'll acknowledge that um so in so I'll

[0:21:28] Voice 9: speak to the grant if I could that you know through conversations of trust council and the board there

[0:21:34] Voice 9: was a decision made over time to allocate the grant towards offsetting taxes right so that has

[0:21:41] Voice 9: been that was a decision made to bring down the tax requisition and alleviate pressure to Bowen

[0:21:46] Voice 9: allocation was that it would be used towards staff salaries so that is now you know there

[0:21:51] Voice 9: was an acknowledgement that should the grant end that that would be challenging to deal with at

[0:21:55] Voice 9: that time so that is now where we are that said the board has certainly contemplated you know that

[0:22:02] Voice 9: the pressure caused by the loss of the grant and has not requested that the species at risk

[0:22:08] Voice 9: program coordinator continue and has not requested funding of the co-op student for this year

[0:22:12] Voice 9: the boards also made the change in the program delivery model for the property management

[0:22:18] Voice 9: program with an effort to achieve savings in an ongoing way for the delivery of that service

[0:22:24] Voice 9: and the board has also taken a good look at the the budget lines being put forward with an effort

[0:22:30] Voice 9: to achieve savings. I think it's something for Trust Council to consider as it receives grant

[0:22:36] Voice 9: funding whether it wishes it to ever offset taxes or simply be used to supplement core funding

[0:22:42] Voice 9: provided by Trust Council and certainly I think we as staff would welcome that guidance if that's

[0:22:47] Voice 9: something that was just that you wish to provide um i would you've got a number of board members

[0:22:53] Voice 9: on the call today as well who may be able to provide additional insights um i think the board

[0:22:58] Voice 9: has put forward what they you know consider to be the appropriate request um and i guess i'll leave

[0:23:04] Voice 9: my comments at that but i'd be happy to supplement if more commentary is helpful so

[0:23:09] Voice 7: is the increase

[0:23:10] Voice 7: actually just short of 50 000 that was the back

[0:23:15] Voice 9: of the envelope math i just did um 46 000 increase

[0:23:19] Voice 9: when you were asked to decrease sorry the request of the board was to reflect on its budget and i

[0:23:26] Voice 9: the board has done so and i think you could turn to the board members here today to reflect on

[0:23:30] Voice 9: those conversations um and of course the board is facing the same the primary cost of the board

[0:23:36] Voice 9: is staff salaries and of course they're facing the same salary BCGEU salary increases as is

[0:23:42] Voice 9: the rest of the organization so that I think really factored into the increase that's coming

[0:23:47] Voice 9: before you today.

[0:23:48] Voice 7: So thank you for the explanation so you've told us how this came about but I don't

[0:23:56] Voice 7: think that the decision to allocate it to staff salaries would that have been supported by the

[0:24:01] Voice 7: conditions of the grant funding and and has that not left you exposed now because you have invested

[0:24:10] Voice 7: in staff positions that you now can't afford effectively thank you right uh trustee getty

[0:24:21] Voice 10: i think i understand um so in terms of looking at that table um there's um the the last item in

[0:24:31] Voice 10: terms of protected areas management. There was an additional grant and some but not all of 16,000

[0:24:40] Voice 10: instead of 25,000 has been added to the budget, but it's offset in terms of the revenue, but with

[0:24:48] Voice 10: respect to that grant. So the real decreases come with the professional services and board meeting

[0:24:54] Voice 10: expenses?

[0:24:57] Voice 9: Yes, and then you've got an additional $9,500 that the grant is offsetting in terms of

[0:25:02] Voice 9: what was previously planned expenditures.

[0:25:04] Voice 10: Okay, all right. So then on page 13, we talked about

[0:25:10] Voice 10: reducing overall by $21,000, and it's gone down roughly $17,000 because of these different

[0:25:18] Voice 10: different um envelopes that we're putting things into yes you can give him okay all right i think

[0:25:26] Voice 10: the the table might it would help i think if it was uh both revenue and expenses so that you could

[0:25:32] Voice 10: see where things balance out that might that would help me but um uh i basically if it's a reduction

[0:25:39] Voice 10: and it affects uh you know something 28 000 uh with respect to any reduction in the trust um

[0:25:47] Voice 10: Islands Trust Conservancy is a 1% reduction for Bowen.

[0:25:50] Voice 10: So all of this work and all of the belt tightening

[0:25:53] Voice 10: and all of the difficulties is very much appreciated.

[0:25:56] Voice 10: All

[0:25:59] Trustee Patrick: right. Thank you.

[0:26:01] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Yates.

[0:26:03] Voice 4: Just to comment on Trustee Bowen's query about accepting grants

[0:26:11] Voice 4: and then having staff positions that are essential to those grants.

[0:26:18] Voice 4: The thing with those kinds of grants, like protected area management and sensitive ecosystems, it's all about the staff. It's all about hiring, usually on a contract level, but sometimes on a permanent position. It's all about the staff that do that work.

[0:26:36] Voice 4: work. So again, these are hard decisions. And if we don't get the grant funding, we usually don't

[0:26:47] Voice 4: do the staff either.

[0:26:49] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. I want to make sure we're focusing on questions. I know there's

[0:26:53] Trustee Patrick: lots of conversation here, but let's make sure we understand the information before us. Trustee

[0:26:56] Trustee Patrick: Boland.

[0:26:58] Voice 7: I appreciate the discussion. But everything we do is equally valuable. And, you know, choices

[0:27:07] Voice 7: have to be made. And, you know, I note what Trustee Elliott said, that there are salaries

[0:27:13] Voice 7: and positions which have terminated. But the ITC budget has gone up by 350,000 on 1 million. The

[0:27:24] Voice 7: total budget for the ITC is now 1.8 million. And I think it's a huge increase and way out of

[0:27:33] Voice 7: proportion to everything else that we're contemplating so we are fiddling away with

[0:27:40] Voice 7: you know let's take 2,000 out here and 5,000 out there and you the ITC has added in you know

[0:27:49] Voice 7: 500,000 and that's five percent of the budget in terms of any increase and I still don't quite

[0:27:59] Voice 7: understand you know the overall budget change yes you were asked to review the ITC was asked to

[0:28:04] Voice 7: review with the aim of a reduction and you've come back with uh what is it 30 46 46 000 increase

[0:28:15] Voice 7: overall so I find that the presentation of the ITC budget as kind of a closed box

[0:28:24] Voice 7: box to us is quite difficult i just every year i challenge it and every year it's like uh you

[0:28:35] Voice 7: know bouncing off some sort of provincially teflon coated um easter egg that's delivered to us

[0:28:42] Voice 7: thank you uh trustee freighter a trustee for director

[0:28:46] Trustee Patrick: freighter um

[0:28:47] Voice 9: certainly i'll reflect

[0:28:49] Voice 9: on this conversation i think we'll look at amending and correcting this before it travels

[0:28:53] Voice 9: forward to trust council so i just wanted to let the committee know that that will make we'll make

[0:28:56] Voice 9: it more clear before it moves on to trust council for your march meeting be greatly

[0:29:02] Voice 20: appreciated uh

[0:29:02] Voice 20: trustee evans just a quick reminder of the rules of engagement that we set out with can we keep

[0:29:08] Voice 20: our comments to querying clarifying questions versus debate or conversation and opinions thank

[0:29:14] Voice 20: you well thank you this was a bit of a report

[0:29:17] Trustee Patrick: before the budget overview so this is a little

[0:29:20] Trustee Patrick: little preamble but go ahead uh trustee uh gabriel hello

[0:29:25] Voice 11: good afternoon everyone uh thank you for the

[0:29:27] Voice 11: discussion um yeah the budget we started our budget talks back in may um looking at our

[0:29:34] Voice 11: business cases and with knowing early on as we all knew that this was a particularly tight budget

[0:29:39] Voice 11: year so making those recommendations along the way um again financial planning committee has

[0:29:45] Voice 11: asked us to reduce our budget we've had special meetings around it we've whittled it down um

[0:29:50] Voice 11: We do have some underspending in our staffing, but as you know, like underspending that is vacancy driven is not.

[0:30:00] Voice 11: really because you have excessive capacity and to do the work that you need to do that work needs

[0:30:04] Voice 11: to be funded somehow there's a lot um on there's a lot laying on the uh the existing staff that we

[0:30:11] Voice 11: have there's a quite a bit amount of work now if our budget is 1.8 million dollars which i'm not

[0:30:16] Voice 11: exactly sure that's exactly correct that works out between the 1380 hectares that we're responsible

[0:30:22] Voice 11: for that works out the 1300 dollars per hectare so you need to think of that in context of what

[0:30:28] Voice 11: DITC does do and what it does manage in perpetuity thank you all

[0:30:34] Trustee Patrick: right thank you

[0:30:36] Trustee Patrick: all right with some clarity from staff or when we see this report again would

[0:30:41] Trustee Patrick: be appreciated any other comments on this otherwise over to you director

[0:30:46] Trustee Patrick: mumps to carry on thank

[0:30:54] Voice 19: you I just want to note there's some comments in the

[0:30:56] Voice 19: chat that you know I don't not really paying attention to so if there's

[0:31:02] Voice 19: questions that are landing in the chat better to raise your hands and ask those um directly i'll

[0:31:06] Voice 19: be happy to respond thank you

[0:31:09] Voice 19: yes i i

[0:31:10] Trustee Patrick: yeah i just want to make sure people are using the chat let's

[0:31:13] Trustee Patrick: let's try to keep our conversations open and public um so um if you have something to say

[0:31:18] Trustee Patrick: please raise your hand okay go ahead director mobs um

[0:31:24] Voice 19: thanks chair so i'll move us on to agenda item

[0:31:28] Voice 19: 6.14, so that starts on page 16 of the agenda. This is the report that outlines changes that

[0:31:35] Voice 19: have happened to the budget since Trust Council saw it in December. And so those of you that

[0:31:40] Voice 19: serve on Financial Planning Committee, you might see some information here that you've

[0:31:44] Voice 19: already seen before, as of course there was a budget changes briefing at your January

[0:31:49] Voice 19: meeting, which included some of the items that are in this report as well. Some of the

[0:31:55] Voice 19: new activities that have taken place since council saw the budget in december of course the islands

[0:31:59] Voice 19: trust conservancy board met to review their budget request we've just talked about the results of that

[0:32:04] Voice 19: meeting the regional planning committee also met and they reviewed local trust committee project

[0:32:09] Voice 19: business cases as well as the project for the planning services feasibility assessment and

[0:32:14] Voice 19: there's been no recommendations that came out of their meeting for budget changes our financial

[0:32:19] Voice 19: planning committee did request that staff return to committee of the whole with a list of potential

[0:32:23] Voice 19: budget reductions and we have done that. The list totals about $439,000 and we'll have a chance to

[0:32:29] Voice 19: have a look at that list a little later in our budget conversation. We've also completed the

[0:32:35] Voice 19: third quarter financial forecast for the year. The financial forecast, particularly the one for

[0:32:40] Voice 19: the third quarter, is really important in helping us understand where financial operations might

[0:32:47] Voice 19: land for the current year, which informs next year's budget. So the financial forecast is

[0:32:52] Voice 19: showing that we're going to have some significant understanding in the current year, primarily due

[0:32:57] Voice 19: to some staff vacancies, as well as the BCGEU strike and some unforeseen legal cost awards.

[0:33:02] Voice 19: And so what that means is we'll actually be making a deposit into the general surplus fund at the end

[0:33:08] Voice 19: of this year, and that will bolster the amount in the surplus fund, allowing us to draw money from

[0:33:14] Voice 19: that fund to support next fiscal year. And so we'll see that in this version of the budget.

[0:33:21] Voice 19: we have included drafts from the budget.

[0:33:25] Voice 19: Now there's been some new data that's been released

[0:33:27] Voice 19: that's informed this version of the budget.

[0:33:29] Voice 19: So new data sets from BC Assessment

[0:33:31] Voice 19: as well as Statistics Canada

[0:33:33] Voice 19: has been incorporated into the budget where applicable.

[0:33:35] Voice 19: And that primarily informs trustee remuneration

[0:33:38] Voice 19: as well as Bowen Island municipal tax.

[0:33:43] Voice 19: Overall, when we're looking at actual dollars in the budget,

[0:33:46] Voice 19: we start by looking at our total plan spending

[0:33:48] Voice 19: for next year.

[0:33:49] Voice 19: So total plan spending has moved from $11.7 million

[0:33:53] Voice 19: dollars to 11.9 million dollars. We have seen our external revenue sources increase by about

[0:33:59] Voice 19: 63 and a half thousand dollars and that's primarily due to some more grant revenue that's included

[0:34:05] Voice 19: in the budget and we can talk a little bit about that as we move through the budget material as

[0:34:10] Voice 19: well. Local trust area taxes have decreased about 123 thousand dollars although plan spending has

[0:34:17] Voice 19: increased of course we've now got more grant revenue and we also have some increased revenue

[0:34:21] Voice 19: from surplus and reserve and we've seen the uh so the results of that we've seen the tax increase

[0:34:28] Voice 19: fall or move from 9.6 to 9.9 percent for local trust here for bowen island municipality their

[0:34:37] Voice 19: tax levy has decreased by about 24 and a half thousand dollars and so their increase is now

[0:34:42] Voice 19: at 18.1 percent as opposed to the previous 23.7 percent that was seen at the budgeted shortfall

[0:34:52] Voice 19: to our next year has increased by $297,000. So the budgeted shortfall is how revenues minus

[0:34:59] Voice 19: expenses, what's the shortfall that we need to cover. So that's increased by $297,000.

[0:35:05] Voice 19: We've increased transfers from the general revenue surplus fund from $0 to $327,000. So that is quite

[0:35:12] Voice 19: substantial. The earlier versions of the budget had no draw from surplus, which was driving in

[0:35:17] Voice 19: parts are steep tax hikes so now we're drawing $327,000 from the surplus funds which is helping

[0:35:23] Voice 19: to offset this for both Bowen and local trust areas. We did previously have draws from the LTC

[0:35:31] Voice 19: reserve funds of $125,000 in the budget and now that amount is $150,000 and that's been informed

[0:35:39] Voice 19: by our forecast our quarter forecast. We continue to have no funds that are drawing from the special

[0:35:47] Voice 19: requisition funds so that's in the budget still at zero dollars moving into some of the specific

[0:35:54] Voice 19: changes that we see in spending compared to the budget that you reviewed in december so we have

[0:35:59] Voice 19: seen a change in amortization which is usually um not the most exciting expense line for trustees

[0:36:06] Voice 19: to think about because we don't tax for amortization it's simply a representative of

[0:36:10] Voice 19: our use of assets over time but that number has increased by 37 000 and you'll see that reflected

[0:36:15] Voice 19: in the budget numbers. We have seen a number of changes to software support

[0:36:20] Voice 19: and licensing costs and that was due to an updated review of the information

[0:36:25] Voice 19: services budget by that department. So there's been a net increase to software

[0:36:29] Voice 19: support and licensing of $21,000. The primary driver of that is a pricing

[0:36:34] Voice 19: policy change from Zoom and so because of their pricing policy change we are

[0:36:40] Voice 19: going to see a substantial increase of almost $14,000 next year and staff have

[0:36:45] Voice 19: made efforts to mitigate the impact of this policy change to make sure that we are only

[0:36:49] Voice 19: procuring just the amount of licenses that we need and nothing in excess.

[0:36:56] Voice 19: We've also had some items added to the software budget that were formerly missed.

[0:37:00] Voice 19: That includes social media communication software, survey software, exchange software assurance,

[0:37:07] Voice 19: as well as exchange mail PDF plug-ins and QR code generator software.

[0:37:13] Voice 19: There's been a few corrections that have been made as well related primarily to water monitoring

[0:37:18] Voice 19: software costs, licenses for VMware that are no longer required, and we've removed the

[0:37:25] Voice 19: erroneous double counting of time tracking software.

[0:37:28] Voice 19: And I would suggest if there's questions related to the software budget that Director Marler's

[0:37:32] Voice 19: best place to address those rather than myself.

[0:37:37] Voice 19: We've seen an increase in costs for internet and connectivity.

[0:37:40] Voice 19: So these are costs that are handed to us by the public service agency.

[0:37:44] Voice 19: We do have connections into some of their internal systems.

[0:37:47] Voice 19: They have updated or increased security related to those connections, and they are passing

[0:37:52] Voice 19: the increased cost associated with that on to us.

[0:37:55] Voice 19: So that's increasing that budget line by just over $16,000.

[0:37:59] Voice 19: There's a new budget line for ortho photos, and that's valued at $25,000.

[0:38:04] Voice 19: It's not a new cost.

[0:38:05] Voice 19: These dollars were formerly inside the software support and licensing budget line, but staff

[0:38:12] Voice 19: I felt it was more transparent to show it as a separate budget line, and so we've pulled it out separately, but it's not a true new cost.

[0:38:21] Voice 19: Our trust council in December did direct that all four of its business meetings next year be held in person, and so we've increased the budget by $67,500 to account for that.

[0:38:31] Voice 19: We've had some small changes in office lease costs associated with changing an estimate related to our Victoria office.

[0:38:37] Voice 19: office. We have seen some changes to staff salaries and benefits as well, and the primary

[0:38:45] Voice 19: drivers of the change in this budget area is due to Trust Council's direction in December.

[0:38:50] Voice 19: So there has been the addition of a new manager of Indigenous Relations Advisor, a communications

[0:38:55] Voice 19: and engagement lead, and we've also removed the costs associated with a registered professional

[0:39:00] Voice 19: biologist as Trust Council made the decision not to fund that position. Moving down to

[0:39:06] Voice 19: the bottom of page 18 we're looking at insurance we have seen a reduction in

[0:39:11] Voice 19: our insurance budget which is unusual that's due to the actual invoice

[0:39:15] Voice 19: premiums that we've received this year and we did not realize the increase that

[0:39:20] Voice 19: was expected and so we've been able to reduce that budget line we've talked

[0:39:24] Voice 19: already about some of the changes to the islands trust conservancy costs so

[0:39:28] Voice 19: primarily there's been a reduction in their meeting costs in their

[0:39:31] Voice 19: professional consultant fees and protected area management operations

[0:39:34] Voice 19: operations costs have increased, but that increase is supported by a new grant.

[0:39:40] Voice 19: We've increased our legal litigation costs by $10,000.

[0:39:43] Voice 19: That's in response to updates related to an existing claim.

[0:39:47] Voice 19: Of course, in an open meeting, we can't provide any information on that,

[0:39:50] Voice 19: so conversation related to that would have to take place in camera.

[0:39:53] Voice 19: Our telephone budget line has decreased by $15,000.

[0:39:57] Voice 19: It's not a true decrease.

[0:39:58] Voice 19: That amount has simply been reallocated into the software support line,

[0:40:02] Voice 19: as our phones are now software-based.

[0:40:06] Voice 19: There's been some small changes to trustee remuneration and CPP and that's the result

[0:40:10] Voice 19: of new information that's been released related to our consumer price index.

[0:40:16] Voice 19: Moving on to programs and projects, you'll recall that Trust Council removed all funding for the

[0:40:21] Voice 19: optional Trust Council programs next year. So there's no longer any funding in the budget

[0:40:26] Voice 19: to support applications sponsored by Trust Council or NAPTAP applications sponsored by Council,

[0:40:31] Voice 19: Council, history and heritage funding grants and aid, stewardship education and secretariat

[0:40:36] Voice 19: services have all been defunded next year and so that's reducing the budget by about

[0:40:41] Voice 19: $49,000.

[0:40:43] Voice 19: We have an increase in the strategic plan projects from what you saw in December, again

[0:40:49] Voice 19: primarily as a result of decisions that Trust Council made in December, the primary one

[0:40:53] Voice 19: being to add $100,000 to the Reconciliation Action Plan to support capacity funding and

[0:40:59] Voice 19: And that's offset by a decrease in the freshwater sustainability strategy as Council decided not to support the implementation of next year.

[0:41:08] Voice 19: There's been a number of changes to local trust committee projects. I won't speak to those in detail.

[0:41:13] Voice 19: Primarily, some of the work or some of the increases are to acknowledge ongoing First Nations engagement work next fiscal.

[0:41:19] Voice 19: And the other changes relate to increasing work happening next fiscal year, primarily as a result of work that won't take place this year, but moving into next fiscal year.

[0:41:29] Voice 19: year. In our capital budget, we've seen an increase of about $9,000. The primary driver

[0:41:35] Voice 19: of that is the replacement of some iPads that are required to operate our boardroom equipment

[0:41:40] Voice 19: for meetings. We do have some changes in our revenues as well. So I've mentioned that total

[0:41:48] Voice 19: revenues have decreased by $63,000. So grant revenues, we've added some grant revenue into

[0:41:57] Voice 19: the budget for next year. We have an additional $57,000 that's been included in the budget

[0:42:02] Voice 19: to support First Nations engagement that's funded by a First Nations grant of the province.

[0:42:08] Voice 19: We also have a newly approved federal grant of $26,000 that was awarded to the Conservancy

[0:42:13] Voice 19: and that's supporting some of the costs that we've already talked about for them,

[0:42:19] Voice 19: primarily related to protected space management. Small change in investment income, as we've

[0:42:24] Voice 19: updated our calculations with that based on new interest rates, as well as updated cash flow

[0:42:30] Voice 19: assessment i'm

[0:42:32] Trustee Patrick: going to just pause you for a minute we have a question here from trustee

[0:42:35] Trustee Patrick: thank you

[0:42:38] Voice 7: uh the grant revenue um these are you know very useful but where do they come from

[0:42:46] Voice 7: and you know what are they founded on and is there an expectation as to how they'll be spent

[0:42:54] Voice 7: and in the current economic climate do you think these kind of grants will carry on thank you

[0:43:08] Voice 19: so i'd love to director freighter um to respond she oversees our grant function

[0:43:17] Voice 9: uh trustee bulland are you looking for like a listing of anticipated grant revenue for

[0:43:22] Voice 9: the next year because i believe that's elsewhere in the report but i can provide that to you

[0:43:26] Voice 9: i'm

[0:43:27] Voice 7: just curious as to how these things are funded you know it's just federal or um it doesn't really

[0:43:35] Voice 7: say 57 000 to pay for first nations engagement and the itcb five-year plan i mean where do they

[0:43:44] Voice 7: come from and how how can we rely on these how how do you apply for them what sort of justification

[0:43:52] Voice 7: do you give for them what does first nations engagement work really mean thank you so that's

[0:44:01] Voice 9: a big question i think we could happily have a whole session at trust council around how grant

[0:44:05] Voice 9: revenue is undertaken but generally there's a written application made we have a process by

[0:44:10] Voice 9: which trust bodies can and trust staff can request that a grant be application be prepared

[0:44:17] Voice 9: if there's adjudication required it goes to executive committee which selects the

[0:44:21] Voice 9: the most you know appropriate one for submission staff will do up a grant application that's

[0:44:28] Voice 9: submitted and then often we will sign like a funding agreement with the external funder

[0:44:33] Voice 9: in most cases the funding is for one-time expenses it is not dedicated to sort of core

[0:44:39] Voice 9: ongoing expenses although there have been the odd exception to that as we've just previously discussed

[0:44:45] Voice 9: certainly I'd be happy to dig out the information as to what went into that

[0:44:48] Voice 9: that figure there. I just don't have it at hand right at the minute, but I can certainly pull

[0:44:52] Voice 9: that out and have it ready in a few minutes likely.

[0:44:55] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Generated a couple more

[0:44:57] Trustee Patrick: questions here.

[0:44:58] Voice 18: Trustee Elliott. Director Freider, isn't that the grant fund from the $150,000 from

[0:45:05] Voice 18: the province of which $20,000 was allocated to the Conservancy for its five-year plan? We didn't

[0:45:11] Voice 18: used that in the last three years so that just kept being deferred and then the other 37 000

[0:45:21] Voice 18: i think that's all from the five from the 150 000 grant if i'm not mistaken it's just not

[0:45:27] Voice 18: articulated here but it's been discussed at length this is not a new grant this is the

[0:45:33] Voice 18: the provincial grant specifically for first nations engagement yes

[0:45:38] Voice 9: i'm just yeah through

[0:45:39] Voice 9: the chair i would want we just provided a briefing um to executive committee about the proposed

[0:45:44] Voice 9: allocation of the 150 000 grant from the province i was just hoping to find that so i could indeed

[0:45:50] Voice 9: confirm the numbers are aligned

[0:45:52] Voice 7: so it's

[0:45:54] Voice 7: not actually trustee

[0:45:56] Trustee Patrick: just uh i'm sorry we'll come

[0:45:59] Trustee Patrick: back to trustee belinda we have trustee bernardo next oh i beg your pardon um

[0:46:06] Voice 3: thank you um i've got

[0:46:08] Voice 3: got a question here for director mobs uh about something else um it's about the draw um uh

[0:46:15] Voice 3: that totals 477 000 from the um general surplus in the ltc reserves uh originally that was zero

[0:46:24] Voice 3: now that's close to half a million dollars um i've lost track i mean uh in when i was chairing f

[0:46:33] Voice 3: uh you know fbc uh when we would go through budgets there was always this issue of drawing

[0:46:39] Voice 3: on surplus and then it would get topped up again because of the timing of various funding cycles.

[0:46:47] Voice 3: Is this draw sustainable, this level of draw? Because, you know, prior to our last session,

[0:46:55] Voice 3: we, you know, or during the last session, the Trust Council meeting proper, we did a lot of

[0:47:00] Voice 3: work to sort of see what we could do to knock down the tax increase. Obviously, drawing from reserves

[0:47:08] Voice 3: reserves half a million dollars makes a big difference but how sustainable is that what are

[0:47:13] Voice 3: we looking at um next year and future years at some point if we keep drawing on reserves aren't

[0:47:20] Voice 3: going to be any so i'm actually just repeating the question i'm sorry um the question is how

[0:47:26] Voice 3: sustainable is this go

[0:47:29] Trustee Patrick: ahead director mobs um

[0:47:31] Voice 19: i love this question um it's something that you

[0:47:35] Voice 19: you know, we've alluded to before, drawn on surplus, particularly to this magnitude,

[0:47:40] Voice 19: is not sustainable if you actually spend your budget year over year. If Trust Council spends

[0:47:47] Voice 19: all of its budget in a year, we wouldn't then have money to draw on in the next year

[0:47:52] Voice 19: to support future plan spending. The reason that, you know, we tend to continually have large

[0:48:03] Voice 19: amounts that we can draw on in surplus is because each year we see under spending in our budget.

[0:48:09] Voice 19: Usually that under spending is the results of staff vacancies and projects that are not completed

[0:48:15] Voice 19: and that situation has been amplified in the current year due to impacts of the BCGE strike.

[0:48:24] Voice 19: We also then saw additional revenue sources with the you know awards of some legal cost recoveries

[0:48:30] Voice 19: And so in this year, we're underspending quite a bit, and we're actually making a deposit into our reserve, or sorry, into our surplus fund, which means that next year we have some money to draw on.

[0:48:42] Voice 19: If this year Trust Council has fully spent its budget, there wouldn't be that money to draw on from surplus next year to help pay for work.

[0:48:52] Voice 19: So, is it sustainable? No, if we spend our own budgets, it's not sustainable.

[0:48:56] Voice 19: If we get to a place where there's no surplus to draw on and there has to be a steep tax hike in order to fund operations, that steep tax hike in a single year then becomes the base, and you're then a little bit better set for future years because your base level of taxation is boosted, but there will be an initial year of steep tax hike.

[0:49:24] Voice 3: Just a quick follow-up.

[0:49:25] Voice 3: What is the deposit that we're anticipating

[0:49:27] Voice 3: will at this fiscal year end?

[0:49:30] Voice 3: What's the deposit we're likely looking at?

[0:49:33] Voice 3: We're

[0:49:36] Voice 19: looking at about half a million dollars.

[0:49:40] Voice 3: So we stand a chance of this draw zeroing out

[0:49:46] Voice 3: as a result of the deposit?

[0:49:48] Voice 3: No,

[0:49:53] Voice 19: I think as a result of the deposit

[0:49:55] Voice 19: that we'll make at the end of this year,

[0:49:57] Voice 19: that is why we see a draw next year.

[0:50:02] Voice 19: because there's money in that pot to draw from.

[0:50:04] Voice 3: Oh, I see. Right. Sorry, I got the timing mixed up in my own mind.

[0:50:07] Voice 3: All right. Thank you.

[0:50:09] Voice 19: Thank you.

[0:50:10] Voice 3: You're welcome. And if

[0:50:10] Voice 19: I may, Chair, just while I have the floor,

[0:50:13] Voice 19: I'll just note this year is an exceptional year.

[0:50:15] Voice 19: We did not complete second quarter financial forecast because of the strike.

[0:50:19] Voice 19: You know, capacity constraints were very real.

[0:50:22] Voice 19: And so in a normal year, we would have identified through our forecasting

[0:50:27] Voice 19: how much money we might be depositing into surplus

[0:50:30] Voice 19: lesson have available much earlier in the budget cycle that normally happens before the december

[0:50:34] Voice 19: meeting you know so this year was an exceptional year in that context and so that's why we're

[0:50:39] Voice 19: seeing that relief from the surplus draw come later in the budget cycle than you typically

[0:50:43] Voice 19: would otherwise thank

[0:50:46] Voice 20: you very much trustee evans thank you i know that we've asked this question

[0:50:52] Voice 20: before and I'm going to ask it again. With regards to the planned budget and the work

[0:51:02] Voice 20: that's being requested by Trust Council versus staff capacity and the

[0:51:12] Voice 20: habit of underspending year over year, are we getting closer to a truer budget

[0:51:23] Voice 20: budget as in the amount of work that can be completed versus the amount of work that is

[0:51:28] Voice 20: being funded that we know is not going to get completed? I know it's a bit of a backwards

[0:51:33] Voice 20: question, but I hope you understand where I'm getting at. And if you could help clarify on that.

[0:51:42] Voice 19: Through the chair, if I understand the question, it's, are we getting closer to

[0:51:47] Voice 19: budgeting for what we can actually achieve as opposed to over budgeting and understanding?

[0:51:51] Voice 19: spending um i think the answer is not really if i'm being perfectly honest um this year is an

[0:51:58] Voice 19: exceptional year so it's hard to look at this year and say we've gotten much worse just given there

[0:52:03] Voice 19: were a number of exceptional circumstances but you know looking at our most recent a few years

[0:52:09] Voice 19: i wouldn't say they look very different to how they've looked in history um we've made some

[0:52:14] Voice 19: some changes in process to try and address some of this.

[0:52:20] Voice 19: You know, we've seen particularly

[0:52:23] Voice 19: in the planning services feasibility assessment,

[0:52:26] Voice 19: sort of a removal of the rose colored glasses.

[0:52:28] Voice 19: Let's be more realistic in what we can actually achieve.

[0:52:32] Voice 19: Let's acknowledge that staff have annual vacation time

[0:52:35] Voice 19: and they probably wanna take it.

[0:52:37] Voice 19: You know, so we've changed some of the assumptions

[0:52:39] Voice 19: which should help us move into the future in a better way.

[0:52:43] Voice 19: But one of the things that's really challenging, particularly when it comes to underspending for staff salaries, is staff turnover.

[0:52:51] Voice 19: It's really difficult for us to predict how many staff might exit the organization, how long it might take for us to backfill that position or get a new permanent person into the role.

[0:53:02] Voice 19: So that's really challenging to estimate.

[0:53:07] Voice 19: There's been talk about potentially increasing our churn amount.

[0:53:11] Voice 19: And so when we budget for salaries, we budget for the full staff complement, and then we reduce it by 2%.

[0:53:17] Voice 19: That 2% has been historically how much we've underspent on salary.

[0:53:21] Voice 19: So we try to take that into account.

[0:53:23] Voice 19: There's been conversation that maybe we just need to increase that amount, which you can do.

[0:53:29] Voice 19: But there needs to be an acknowledgement in that situation that we may not actually be able to achieve that.

[0:53:34] Voice 19: if all staff choose to stay and we don't have turnover you then land in a situation where you

[0:53:38] Voice 19: could potentially be overspending you know it's a risk that council could choose to take

[0:53:44] Voice 19: the other piece that's difficult sometimes particularly related to projects of course

[0:53:49] Voice 19: staff vacancies influence how much we can achieve particularly on the project space

[0:53:53] Voice 19: but where there are political decisions that are changing project scope project timelines those all

[0:53:59] Voice 19: happen in the year um and can also influence how much work we can achieve on a project so

[0:54:04] Voice 19: i think those two things in tandem are the primary drivers some of them are challenging to address

[0:54:09] Voice 19: um yeah i would say that's a long-winded way to answer your questions to say i don't think

[0:54:15] Voice 19: we've nailed it yet okay

[0:54:18] Trustee Patrick: thank you uh trustee getty i

[0:54:21] Voice 10: understood that another factor was the

[0:54:23] Voice 10: um in terms of backfilling positions is that um this present staff that we've got that have to

[0:54:31] Voice 10: to do the interviews and set up all of the process in terms of hiring people are so busy that they

[0:54:36] Voice 10: don't have time or adequate time to help with that process or to actually accomplish it. So

[0:54:44] Voice 10: if that is in fact part of the problem in terms of underspending our budget for staff positions,

[0:54:52] Voice 10: is there some way that we can improve that situation? So

[0:55:01] Voice 19: that's a great point, Trustee

[0:55:02] Voice 19: spaghetti and that's also very true and I feel this pain acutely that if you don't have time in

[0:55:08] Voice 19: the day to conduct a hiring process it's very difficult to you know actually bring somebody

[0:55:13] Voice 19: on board and we do see that because you know workplace loads for staff who are in the hiring

[0:55:20] Voice 19: manager position are high there is a way to influence that and that's to direct staff to do

[0:55:27] Voice 19: less work so if there's less on our plates if council chooses not to undertake as many projects

[0:55:33] Voice 19: in a year or to you know reduce expected outcomes of the projects they are funding then it has a

[0:55:38] Voice 19: potential to create some space for hiring managers to undertake those those competitions that are

[0:55:45] Voice 19: important and the ceo is any um supplementary comments to that i'd welcome them sure thank you

[0:55:53] Voice 10: that ties into uh trustee evans comment in terms of getting closer to uh predicting

[0:56:01] Voice 10: what's realistic in terms of workloads for everybody at every level right

[0:56:06] Voice 24: yeah if i may

[0:56:08] Voice 10: no

[0:56:08] Voice 24: it's okay i think you're exactly right trustee yeti those things are are related um kind of

[0:56:15] Voice 24: building on director mob's comment response to trustee evans i think we have some way to go

[0:56:20] Voice 24: before we can we can get better at that i think some of the things we talked about in december

[0:56:25] Voice 24: related to the operational review over time will help us get better at that things like the

[0:56:30] Voice 24: feasibility assessment and taking those steps and being just more as director said less rose-colored

[0:56:36] Voice 24: glasses more pragmatic in what it really takes to be able to deliver on projects will be an

[0:56:40] Voice 24: important step but it's going to take time for those those things and the impact of those things

[0:56:45] Voice 24: to really be to really be felt and materialize it in a significant way from a budget perspective and

[0:56:50] Voice 24: And to Trustee Keddie's point, yeah, I think, you know, workload is always going to be high in a relatively small organization.

[0:57:00] Voice 24: And the challenge is balancing the tyranny of the urgent with things like advancing work on staffing.

[0:57:07] Voice 24: You know, the other option is you sort of invest in the HR capacity of the organization.

[0:57:13] Voice 24: But I think that also doesn't necessarily yield the full benefit because you're adding, first of all, you're talking about adding additional staffing capacity, which obviously isn't ideal in this fiscal situation, but also still a lot of that process necessarily needs to be managed by the hiring manager who knows the job and inevitably wants to be and should be involved in the recruitment process.

[0:57:36] Voice 24: So it's always a time consuming process. To some extent, it's just a question of how you manage the priorities to be able to focus on that and carve that out. And the requirements that we have under the public service agency's hiring process, you know, do add somewhat to that timeframe.

[0:57:56] Voice 24: frame. But probably about 80% of that process rests in the hands of the hiring manager. And so

[0:58:02] Voice 24: there are just necessary steps that we need to complete. And it is a time-consuming process,

[0:58:08] Voice 24: exacerbated by the fact that often when you have a vacancy, it's the hiring manager who picks up

[0:58:11] Voice 24: the work that is left by that vacancy. So their workload is added to just by having to keep the

[0:58:17] Voice 24: work getting done, plus they have to hire. So it's always going to be a time-consuming process.

[0:58:21] Voice 24: this thank you all

[0:58:24] Trustee Patrick: right thank you everyone uh i guess director mobs carry on back

[0:58:35] Voice 19: to where we

[0:58:35] Voice 19: were i think we were wrapping up the discussion on changes to the budget since it was last year

[0:58:41] Voice 19: december um in closing i'll just reiterate local trust area general tax increase is sitting at 9.9

[0:58:49] Voice 19: plus a 0.8 additional revenue coming from non-market factors and for bowen islands it's

[0:58:57] Voice 19: an 18.1% general increase with 1.4% expected to generate non-market change. So that summarizes

[0:59:07] Voice 19: changes to the budget since it was last seen in December. If there's no additional questions,

[0:59:14] Voice 19: I can move on to just a sort of general overview of where the budget is shaping up now.

[0:59:24] Trustee Patrick: No hands popping up, so carry on.

[0:59:28] Voice 19: No questions. All right, so I'll move us on to

[0:59:33] Voice 19: the budget overview and I'll just speak a little bit about some key pieces driving the budget.

[0:59:41] Voice 19: If the committee wishes for me to go line by line through all the budget items, I can do that.

[0:59:45] Voice 19: I do also acknowledge that, of course, this isn't the first time that this report is being seen,

[0:59:50] Voice 19: so our time today might be better spent with trustees in conversation and I would

[0:59:54] Voice 19: take your direction on that. On page 23, we have a

[1:00:00] Voice 19: bit of a preamble to our budget numbers. So our planned spending is 6.6% increase in overall

[1:00:07] Voice 19: planned spending compared to last year, which is of course higher than inflation, which is not

[1:00:13] Voice 19: necessarily unexpected, particularly in an election year and a year where we are adding

[1:00:17] Voice 19: new staff positions. We have seen some relief in the taxation, primarily because some of our

[1:00:25] Voice 19: external revenue sources have increased so we've seen the addition of some grants and we've also

[1:00:31] Voice 19: seen substantial addition of surplus funds and so those new revenue sources are the primary reason

[1:00:38] Voice 19: that we're able to offset cessation and people or tax increases than we saw historically we have

[1:00:46] Voice 19: noted how much of planned spending is due to purely discretionary items versus non-discretionary

[1:00:53] Voice 19: items versus variable non-discretionary items. So of the tax increase, purely discretionary

[1:01:00] Voice 19: budget lines have increased by 1.3 percent. Non-discretionary budget lines have increased

[1:01:06] Voice 19: 3.7 percent, and variable non-discretionary budget lines have increased 4.3 percent.

[1:01:14] Voice 19: So it's estimated that for residents in the local trust area, the current tax increase might

[1:01:21] Voice 19: generate an increase in their taxes of 40 to 45 dollars. For Bowen Islands the estimate is between

[1:01:29] Voice 19: 30 and 35 per increase.

[1:01:32] Trustee Patrick: All right I see we've generated the question here Trustee Boland.

[1:01:39] Voice 7: Hi I think I've answered my own my own question. So non-discretionary I see you have

[1:01:46] Voice 7: two different line items there but you say variable non-discretionary have increased 4.3

[1:01:54] Voice 7: percent but our staff levels and our wage increases they're not really variable they just

[1:02:00] Voice 7: go up isn't that correct i mean is that variable would not would ever increasing not be a better

[1:02:08] Voice 7: description of that particular non-discretionary budget item um

[1:02:16] Voice 19: so non-discretionary budget items

[1:02:20] Voice 19: are costs that must be incurred regardless of budget pressures um you know trust council really

[1:02:26] Voice 19: has no influence over those costs so for example by legislation we have to have an annual audit

[1:02:30] Voice 19: we have to pay for it those costs need to be in the variable non-discretionary items are items that

[1:02:39] Voice 19: you have some influence on but not complete influence so for example um

[1:02:46] Voice 19: the council will choose to fund certain staffing levels when that decision is made the increases

[1:02:54] Voice 19: for staff wages are non-discretionary because they're dictated by union agreements but trust

[1:03:00] Voice 19: council does have discretion over the number of staffing levels and so there is an element of

[1:03:05] Voice 19: influence in that budget line and so that's where the variability would come from um but yes

[1:03:13] Voice 19: certainly wage increases that are built in that line are a non-discretionary increase the

[1:03:18] Voice 19: discretionary portion is how many staff you want to fund

[1:03:20] Voice 7: so potentially wage increases should be

[1:03:23] Voice 7: included in the non-discretionary budget line, whereas staff levels could be variable?

[1:03:30] Voice 7: In

[1:03:34] Voice 19: principle, the reason we've put the staffing as variable non-discretionary is because it's

[1:03:39] Voice 19: a single budget line, right? The staffing levels and staff wages are in a single budget line,

[1:03:44] Voice 19: and so we call it variable non-discretionary, acknowledging that the

[1:03:47] Voice 19: staff level component

[1:03:48] Voice 19: is variable. But your understanding is correct, is that the wage increases themselves are

[1:03:53] Voice 19: are not discretionary

[1:03:55] Voice 7: because it is it thank you for that it is a very important point because that

[1:04:00] Voice 7: is the rock that we are all going to perish on eventually but yeah thank you thank you carry on

[1:04:10] Voice 7: um

[1:04:15] Voice 19: so page 24 gives us a high level summary of what the budget is looking like um our total

[1:04:22] Voice 19: proposed plan spending is 11.9 million dollars 11.1 million if that is directed towards operations

[1:04:29] Voice 19: 635,000 is for projects and programs, and 196,000 is directed to capital spending.

[1:04:36] Voice 19: As mentioned, our tax increase for local trust areas is 9.9%, with an 18.1% general increase for Bowen.

[1:04:45] Voice 19: Proposed draw from general revenue surplus fund is $327,000.

[1:04:49] Voice 19: Our LTC project reserve fund draw is $150,000, and we have no draw from the special property tax refund.

[1:04:55] Voice 19: So, I would turn this back to you, Chair, maybe to find out if trustees would find it valuable to walk through the rest of the material, which is line-by-line revenue items and line-by-line expense items, or I can simply take questions and we can move into this.

[1:05:18] Trustee Patrick: I think, Trustees, I hope that you've seen this now several times.

[1:05:27] Trustee Patrick: Oops, sorry, go ahead, Alexandra.

[1:05:29] Voice 5: Again, just helping Trustee Mabry, he has a tandem.

[1:05:33] Trustee Patrick: Oh, thank you.

[1:05:33] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Maberly, it's that heart at the bottom of your page that says React.

[1:05:37] Trustee Patrick: If you click on that, hopefully you can find your hand raised above that.

[1:05:41] Trustee Patrick: But go ahead.

[1:05:42] Voice 28: No, I've tried that.

[1:05:45] Voice 28: So if you go just a little bit further, because you've got a draft column there.

[1:05:50] Voice 28: Am I reading that correctly, or is that a typo?

[1:05:53] Voice 28: It seems like everything, there's an ITC project that's 600% increase.

[1:06:05] Voice 19: That's right.

[1:06:06] Voice 19: Right. So that's not a typo. It's increased. Well, I don't think it's a typo. I can double

[1:06:11] Voice 19: check. There has been a substantial increase in the Conservancy Board projects. So last year,

[1:06:16] Voice 19: there was $20,000 worth of projects they were undertaking. This year, it's $140,000. And that's

[1:06:22] Voice 19: driven primarily by the five-year plan that the Conservancy is required to prepare and submit to

[1:06:29] Voice 19: the Minister. So that's the primary reason for the increase.

[1:06:36] Voice 28: Okay. Thank you.

[1:06:38] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Trustee Boland?

[1:06:46] Voice 7: You're muted, Trustee Boland?

[1:06:49] Voice 7: I noticed that several of the business cases for the LTC projects have been updated. So I wouldn't mind having a quick overview of those. And in particular, if we could note the year or the timing of the project, because several of those projects are due to complete within the next year or so.

[1:07:13] Voice 7: and it would be helpful to contemplate the resources that that would release. Thanks.

[1:07:20] Voice 7: So

[1:07:21] Trustee Patrick: we'll do business cases soon, Director Mobbs, but not yet?

[1:07:29] Voice 19: That's at your discretion, Chair. If we want to simply field questions on what's in this

[1:07:36] Voice 19: material first, I'd leave that to your discretion.

[1:07:38] Trustee Patrick: Yeah, I think if we could do that, if you could just identify your business cases and page numbers,

[1:07:42] Trustee Patrick: trustee Boland so when we get there you can be specific

[1:07:45] Trustee Patrick: as to which ones you want to talk about.

[1:07:48] Trustee Patrick: So go on trustee Bernardo.

[1:07:51] Voice 3: Thank you.

[1:07:53] Voice 3: This is for director Mobs.

[1:07:54] Voice 3: I'm following up on the question that trustee Maberly asked

[1:07:57] Voice 3: because I didn't really,

[1:08:03] Voice 3: I didn't find your answer particularly enlightening.

[1:08:05] Voice 3: I'm sorry.

[1:08:06] Voice 3: You mentioned that the increase is due to five-year plan.

[1:08:13] Voice 3: uh what is that doesn't tell us what the money is actually being spent on uh last year it was

[1:08:21] Voice 3: being spent on projects i actually don't know what they mean but twenty thousand dollars worth

[1:08:27] Voice 3: now we're looking at a hundred and forty thousand dollars to be spent on projects what are these

[1:08:32] Voice 3: projects that are going to cost a hundred and forty thousand dollars um

[1:08:38] Voice 19: so the first one is

[1:08:40] Voice 19: a hundred and ten thousand dollars for the islands trust conservancy board um five-year management

[1:08:45] Voice 19: plan and Director Freider will be able to speak to exactly what that is and the specifics of it.

[1:08:50] Voice 19: The other $30,000 is for protected area management software. So that's the software

[1:08:56] Voice 19: program that will help the Conservancy, I think, manage their data associated with protected areas.

[1:09:02] Voice 19: Both of those projects have business cases in the agenda material,

[1:09:05] Voice 19: but through the chair, I'll turn to Director Freider to...

[1:09:08] Voice 3: Well, before we do that, are you saying the $110,000 is funding that's required to develop the plant?

[1:09:19] Voice 3: Correct,

[1:09:22] Voice 19: from my understanding.

[1:09:22] Voice 3: Okay. All right. Yeah, it would be great if Director Frater could put some meat on those bones.

[1:09:30] Trustee Patrick: I guess if those are going to be business cases, let's identify those.

[1:09:33] Trustee Patrick: Okay, sure.

[1:09:34] Voice 3: If you'd

[1:09:34] Trustee Patrick: like to take a look at those, that would be helpful. So we'll start a list of business cases.

[1:09:38] Trustee Patrick: should

[1:09:39] Voice 3: we wait until we get to the business case portion then yes

[1:09:42] Trustee Patrick: if you can

[1:09:43] Voice 3: just all right

[1:09:44] Voice 3: remember

[1:09:44] Trustee Patrick: to ask those to be pulled trustee elliott did you your hand went down yeah no no worries

[1:09:49] Voice 18: i was just gonna weigh in on that at that point thanks okay

[1:09:53] Trustee Patrick: all right uh any other questions on

[1:09:58] Trustee Patrick: this part all right director mobs what uh would should we are we ready to do business cases or

[1:10:10] Trustee Patrick: not yet um

[1:10:13] Voice 19: i think if uh community of the whole is happy for me not to run through the budget

[1:10:16] Voice 19: overview line by line given that you've seen this report before then uh we can move on to

[1:10:23] Voice 19: looking at specific questions um related to business cases or any other component of the

[1:10:27] Voice 19: budget i think that makes sense

[1:10:31] Trustee Patrick: like i'll do um so this is there's a whole report here that goes

[1:10:37] Trustee Patrick: on to, I'm just going to keep going forward. Where's the end of this report? So if there are

[1:10:48] Trustee Patrick: no other specific questions on this remainder of this report, we could start talking about specific

[1:10:53] Trustee Patrick: business cases. Just want to make sure people, or do you want Director Mums to carry on?

[1:10:58] Trustee Patrick: There you go, Trustee Bernardo.

[1:11:00] Voice 3: I'm fine with us diving into the business cases. I don't think

[1:11:03] Voice 3: it's necessary for us to go through these things line by line, but I do have a question that

[1:11:06] Voice 3: that relates to the funding for litigation.

[1:11:10] Voice 3: I'm not sure if that's a business case item

[1:11:12] Voice 3: or if that's just something that comes up as line item.

[1:11:16] Trustee Patrick: Director Mops.

[1:11:19] Voice 19: It's not a business case item,

[1:11:20] Voice 19: so I can happily take questions.

[1:11:22] Voice 3: Right, in our planning for litigation funding,

[1:11:29] Voice 3: does it account for potential legal challenges

[1:11:33] Voice 3: relating to the trust policy statement

[1:11:34] Voice 3: that we might possibly need to defend against

[1:11:37] Voice 3: in the next year, assuming the TPS passes?

[1:11:42] Voice 3: I mean, are we setting aside money for that purpose?

[1:11:46] Voice 3: That

[1:11:48] Voice 19: would be a question actually for Director Cermak

[1:11:52] Voice 19: or Director Marler, who sets the legal budget.

[1:11:56] Voice 19: So they're overseeing legal claims, legislative services,

[1:11:59] Voice 19: and so they're setting these budgets.

[1:12:01] Voice 19: So I'll pass that question over.

[1:12:05] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Director Marler.

[1:12:08] Voice 8: Yeah, I have a question, Chair. Thank you.

[1:12:09] Voice 8: Thank you. The litigation budget is based on our best information available at the time

[1:12:17] Voice 8: it was created, so I can't speak to any specifics in open meeting, but in camera we could talk

[1:12:25] Voice 8: more about specifics around particular litigations or potential litigations. So not expressly

[1:12:36] Voice 8: considering any potential

[1:12:38] Voice 8: litigations on the policy statement.

[1:12:41] Voice 8: Okay. But

[1:12:42] Voice 8: the money there is for

[1:12:45] Voice 8: our expected

[1:12:46] Voice 8: or best guesses based on

[1:12:49] Voice 8: history of what kind of

[1:12:52] Voice 8: attacks

[1:12:53] Voice 8: or litigation that we

[1:12:55] Voice 8: get against the

[1:12:57] Voice 8: bylaws.

[1:12:58] Voice 3: Okay. I get it.

[1:12:59] Voice 3: Thank you.

[1:13:02] Trustee Patrick: Right. Just double checking with

[1:13:05] Trustee Patrick: everyone that we're not going to go through the rest

[1:13:07] Trustee Patrick: of this report line item by line item.

[1:13:08] Trustee Patrick: so if you had something noted here uh we'll take requests for the business cases which i think we

[1:13:15] Trustee Patrick: heard some have already been identified so just want to make sure we're all understanding where

[1:13:22] Trustee Patrick: we're going to next trustee boland did you have i

[1:13:29] Voice 7: did locate the business cases that i'd like

[1:13:32] Voice 7: just quickly a quick check in on in the um in the agenda starting at 6.1831 we're not there yet

[1:13:42] Voice 7: perhaps we need to back off from there but you can see in the agenda mark certain ones as updated

[1:13:48] Voice 7: and those are the ones i'd like to look at please later thank you okay

[1:13:53] Trustee Patrick: well i think we're about to

[1:13:54] Trustee Patrick: go there so i'm just double checking with everyone that we're ready to move into the business case

[1:13:59] Trustee Patrick: questions. CAO Brone?

[1:14:04] Voice 24: Thank you, Chair. I think the only piece, and totally happy at the discretion

[1:14:07] Voice 24: of you and the trustees, is that what we haven't addressed is the budget reduction options. But if

[1:14:15] Voice 24: those are self-explanatory for trustees, so 6.1.7, which were the staff options for reductions,

[1:14:22] Voice 24: which may be helpful in informing deliberation of some of the business cases, but they're also

[1:14:26] Voice 24: there for consideration as well i

[1:14:29] Trustee Patrick: think we're most definitely going to want to talk about that do we

[1:14:32] Trustee Patrick: want to talk about the budget options before we get into the individual business cases i'm just

[1:14:36] Trustee Patrick: looking to trustees for the information so ah there you go you've gotten their attention uh

[1:14:41] Trustee Patrick: ceo brony so uh budget options then okay

[1:14:46] Voice 24: i'll um i'll start off with a bit of an overview on that

[1:14:48] Voice 24: and director mobs can can chime in as well of course so at it's this is item 6.1.7 um and

[1:14:56] Voice 24: there's a short brief and then there's the list of options that staff have put forward on pages 44

[1:15:02] Voice 24: and 45. So at FPC in January, FPC asked staff to identify potential reduction options and so the

[1:15:09] Voice 24: list that you have here is those that were identified by staff. This doesn't of course

[1:15:15] Voice 24: preclude you from bringing forward your own proposed reductions. I also want to be clear

[1:15:20] Voice 24: these are not necessarily recommendations from staff but we appreciate that it's incumbent on

[1:15:25] Voice 24: us to provide meaningful options for you to consider in response to the fbc direction

[1:15:30] Voice 24: even those that that would have a substantial impact um well these of all these options will

[1:15:37] Voice 24: help reduce the budget they also all have an impact of course and we've provided in this

[1:15:41] Voice 24: document a bit of a high level assessment of the scope of the impact for each and staff can

[1:15:45] Voice 24: elaborate on on the impact of individual ones as needed i think obviously some are relatively small

[1:15:51] Voice 24: all amounts, but they are savings nonetheless. And in most cases, the size of the budget impact

[1:15:57] Voice 24: generally correlates with the scope of the operational impact. But taken together, as

[1:16:01] Voice 24: Director Mobb said, if you were to adopt them all, it would represent a savings of about $439,000,

[1:16:07] Voice 24: which also has a significant reduction on the BIM tax levy in addition to LTA tax increases.

[1:16:15] Voice 24: With regard to the three budget-related recommendations from the operational view,

[1:16:20] Voice 24: you. I'll just reiterate some of my comments briefly from the report and from December. I

[1:16:24] Voice 24: stand by those recommendations and certainly appreciate council support, but I also fully

[1:16:30] Voice 24: appreciate that there are significant new investments. So these are the two new positions

[1:16:34] Voice 24: and the $100,000 for capacity funding. So you will see options in this list related to potential

[1:16:42] Voice 24: reductions for those three. That includes deferring, filling the two positions until

[1:16:47] Voice 24: until October 1st instead of June 1st or of course you could opt not to fill them at all this fiscal

[1:16:52] Voice 24: and there's a potential reduction in the capacity funding to from $100,000 to $50,000 again not

[1:17:00] Voice 24: without an impact but of course if council feels that in the broader budget context these aren't

[1:17:05] Voice 24: things that you can really fully support this fiscal in whole or in part then that that's your

[1:17:09] Voice 24: decision just with the caveat that of course without the funding those items we're limited

[1:17:14] Voice 24: in our ability to progress in improving our delivery in those two streams of work, the

[1:17:19] Voice 24: First Nations relationship building and engagement and communications.

[1:17:23] Voice 24: But of course, we'll continue to seek improvements regardless where we can.

[1:17:27] Voice 24: As always, our job is to work within whatever resources you approve.

[1:17:33] Voice 24: Trustee Mabry earlier raised the question of other staff savings.

[1:17:37] Voice 24: And so in addition to those two operational review positions, you'll see we've similarly

[1:17:41] Voice 24: offered here, the option to defer hiring on the other proposed new positions until October.

[1:17:48] Voice 24: Of course, these things allow for a savings this year, but next year you're still incurring the

[1:17:54] Voice 24: full salary savings. And so it's a, you know, there's a short-term benefit, but longer term,

[1:17:58] Voice 24: it has that impact on the budget. We've also noted in the case of the two co-op positions

[1:18:03] Voice 24: in planning services and GIS, the option, there's an option there not to fund those. Well,

[1:18:09] Voice 24: Well, we find those valuable for a number of reasons.

[1:18:13] Voice 24: Not filling a co-op position is a relatively easy choice on the staffing side.

[1:18:20] Voice 24: Finally, you'll also see option in lines 15 to 17 to set a target for additional savings for what I call salary lag, but I think Director Mobbs referred to it as churn savings.

[1:18:30] Voice 24: So this is further savings that result from vacant positions and things like reductions in overtime, but typically it comes from vacant positions.

[1:18:39] Voice 24: As Director Mobs earlier observed, we already factor about a 2% savings on that front into our budget planning.

[1:18:47] Voice 24: This is saying you could set an additional target beyond that 2% that we would then be responsible to meet.

[1:18:54] Voice 24: Director Mobs has proficiently allocated that kind of across the three main departments in those lines 15, 16, 17.

[1:19:01] Voice 24: The total there is $100,000.

[1:19:03] Voice 24: You could set a higher or lower target than that.

[1:19:06] Voice 24: I will just note, though, that this tends to be a bit of a blunt instrument. It's a popular one that is often used in government, but it's a bit of a blunt instrument in the sense that we can't necessarily control where those vacancies will arise.

[1:19:19] Voice 24: And so we have to manage them as they come up. And in some cases, it may be making a decision to delay hiring for a further month or to not fill a position for the balance of the year, depending on where we are and trying to achieve that target.

[1:19:31] Voice 24: and you know ideally we have relatively low staff turnover and so that that's a good thing but it

[1:19:38] Voice 24: also makes it harder to in some cases to achieve any additional savings on this front but that's

[1:19:43] Voice 24: certainly an option that that you could consider I also noted my comments on those items I think

[1:19:48] Voice 24: that it doesn't really make sense though to apply this kind of measure if you're already if you're

[1:19:53] Voice 24: deciding to fill other new positions at the same time you know it's a question of priorities sure

[1:19:59] Voice 24: But to some extent, filling new positions and then trying to find additional salary savings really just serves the purpose of adding to the long-term staffing cost while also kind of undercutting our existing capacity in areas where those vacancies arise.

[1:20:14] Voice 24: eyes. But nevertheless, we put it forward as an option that is always available and one of the

[1:20:20] Voice 24: ones that can generate the more substantive savings, obviously with an impact on our ability

[1:20:25] Voice 24: to deliver the work because we'll be intentionally not filling positions for a defined period of

[1:20:29] Voice 24: time. So I haven't walked through all of these item by item, but I think those are the most

[1:20:34] Voice 24: notable pieces. And Director Mobs and I can certainly take questions and the other directors

[1:20:39] Voice 24: can speak to impacts in their areas for some of these particular items. Thank you.

[1:20:45] Trustee Patrick: So I welcome questions to understand these items on the list

[1:20:48] Trustee Patrick: so that we understand what's being presented here.

[1:20:51] Trustee Patrick: So, Trustee Boland?

[1:20:55] Voice 7: I'm just noticing that you have contemplated reducing the capacity funding

[1:21:04] Voice 7: for the trust as a whole by 50% from 100,000 to 50,000.

[1:21:11] Voice 7: Would this not be something that could be requested of the ITC?

[1:21:16] Voice 7: I don't understand how it works that you as director can volunteer these reductions, you and staff, but the £100 of capacity funding for the ITC plan is, I believe, not touched.

[1:21:38] Voice 7: So, I would have thought that the capacity funding needed for the trust as a whole would be larger than the capacity funding needed to create the ITC plan, five-year plan.

[1:21:51] Voice 7: Comments? Thanks.

[1:21:53] Voice 24: Sure, through the Chair. I think, you know, the ITC, the difference there, and I think this came up in December, is the ITC allocation is based around an estimation of what it's going to take to support the engagement related to that five-year plan.

[1:22:08] Voice 24: And so I think we have a better sense of the scope and scale of what is likely going to be required there to deliver that five-year plan and get the level of engagement from First Nations.

[1:22:17] Voice 24: The $100,000 that is attached here to the Reconciliation Action Plan isn't for a prescribed project or purpose.

[1:22:26] Voice 24: The intent was to give us some latitude and flexibility to support engagement with nations on projects as they arise throughout the year and support broader relationship building.

[1:22:37] Voice 24: So it, you know, it limits our reducing that amount, limits the potential to do that, you know, at a corresponding level. But I think we have more latitude to reduce it, recognizing the potential impact it has than the ITC piece, which is based on the scope and plans for that particular piece of work.

[1:22:59] Voice 20: Thank you. Trustee Evans.

[1:23:01] Voice 20: Evans. A clarifying question. When will we be able to have a discussion on this item? Is that

[1:23:07] Voice 20: before or after we get into the business case discussion?

[1:23:11] Trustee Patrick: This is your chance right now to

[1:23:13] Trustee Patrick: have a discussion to understand the items on this list, question staff as to what it means.

[1:23:17] Trustee Patrick: And then after we do the business cases, we'll have an open discussion is where trustees can

[1:23:23] Trustee Patrick: bring either motions to the floor or have a particular discussion on an item. But

[1:23:30] Trustee Patrick: But this is to understand this report before us.

[1:23:33] Trustee Patrick: And then you can draw from this later in our open discussion.

[1:23:38] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[1:23:39] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Bernardo?

[1:23:41] Voice 3: Yeah.

[1:23:44] Voice 3: Discussing the business plans is one thing.

[1:23:45] Voice 3: But I mean, I think we should be mindful about the amount of work that went into the staff

[1:23:51] Voice 3: doing this particular piece of the job.

[1:23:56] Voice 3: And I would hope that we would have a structured discussion at some point today that goes through

[1:24:01] Voice 3: this fairly in detail, fairly rigorously, so we can have some discussion about these items

[1:24:08] Voice 3: as to whether or not we support or don't support them. Because what the staff is doing,

[1:24:13] Voice 3: they're doing what we asked them to do, which is they're providing us with some options to

[1:24:16] Voice 3: further reduce the budget. We want to go there. And the CAO has told us there's some pluses and

[1:24:21] Voice 3: minuses. And when we look at the chart here, it's very helpful to have the implementation

[1:24:28] Voice 3: implementation and impact ratings there that tell us really how hard is it to do and how

[1:24:34] Voice 3: big a hit is going to be on operations and so i would like us to have us i would hope that we'd

[1:24:41] Voice 3: have a structured discussion uh about each of these items because uh staff is offering us some

[1:24:46] Voice 3: options here to reduce the budget so um i don't know when we're going to actually have that but

[1:24:53] Voice 3: i do have a question or a number of questions that relate to this

[1:24:58] Voice 3: um i'm not sure if i should be asking him now or later

[1:25:01] Trustee Patrick: ceo brony yeah

[1:25:03] Voice 24: thank you through the chair

[1:25:04] Voice 24: thank you trustee bernardo yeah i think first off some of these items do relate of course to

[1:25:08] Voice 24: business cases right so the operational reruns reconciliation but a number of them are related

[1:25:12] Voice 24: to business cases and so these options maybe give you a frame to consider how you might want to

[1:25:18] Voice 24: address some of those business cases other ones like the staff salary savings are obviously

[1:25:22] Voice 24: obviously, separate from business cases and more into a core operational function. And so,

[1:25:28] Voice 24: as I said, yeah, we presented these in response to the request from FPC. And if it's useful to

[1:25:34] Voice 24: identify whether or not you want to pursue any of these as a way to approach your discussion or

[1:25:40] Voice 24: enter into your discussion around potential reductions, happy to defer to trustees on how

[1:25:46] Voice 24: you want to broach that. But as I say, some of these will naturally lead you into a discussion

[1:25:50] Voice 24: around the business cases but obviously some are separate from that

[1:25:52] Voice 3: that's helpful because that

[1:25:54] Voice 3: would certainly be my preference obviously the group will have to decide but my preference would

[1:25:59] Voice 3: be to go through these items and go to their business cases as required and then once we're

[1:26:06] Voice 3: concluded with this then get into the business cases i mean that'd be my preference right trust

[1:26:12] Trustee Patrick: i was gonna say i just i can look to trustees if that's uh we can do a quick straw poll i guess if

[1:26:18] Trustee Patrick: if that helps. Did you want to work off of this list and then go to the business cases if we have

[1:26:26] Trustee Patrick: more questions? So just raise your digital hand or wave if you would like to kind of go through

[1:26:32] Trustee Patrick: this list. I'm seeing a slow grouping. All right. Why don't you lower your hands. Is there anyone

[1:26:47] Trustee Patrick: vehemently opposed to doing it that way? Well, I should have asked that question first. So it looks

[1:26:56] Trustee Patrick: like we've got strong support to kind of go through this this list I just want to

[1:27:03] Trustee Patrick: make sure we kind of put some ground rules did we want to kind of go through

[1:27:08] Trustee Patrick: the list as a detailed understanding and then come back to any resolutions if

[1:27:13] Trustee Patrick: that would be helpful so then that that's what I'm sort of seeing so let's

[1:27:19] Trustee Patrick: go through the list as a discussion and then we can come back with resolutions

[1:27:23] Trustee Patrick: resolutions if uh need be uh trustee Evans just

[1:27:27] Voice 20: quick clarification are we still sending any

[1:27:30] Voice 20: potential motions to motions yes thank you

[1:27:33] Trustee Patrick: thank you thank you for that reminder so if you have a

[1:27:37] Trustee Patrick: motion you're working on uh there's some draft language on page 11 if you would like to get some

[1:27:44] Trustee Patrick: input as to how to structure your your resolution and then send it to motion or motions I think they

[1:27:49] Trustee Patrick: They both work at islandstrust.bc.ca.

[1:27:53] Trustee Patrick: Okay, then.

[1:27:53] Trustee Patrick: So we're going to start at the top of this list, which is item one.

[1:27:58] Trustee Patrick: I guess, I don't see, O'Bronie, if you want to just talk about it, and then if we have

[1:28:01] Trustee Patrick: questions, we can go from there.

[1:28:04] Voice 24: Sure, yeah.

[1:28:04] Voice 24: So this relates to the committee expenses for next fiscal, which currently is budgeted

[1:28:10] Voice 24: at $6,500.

[1:28:12] Voice 24: So it would just mean that any committee meetings would all continue virtual.

[1:28:17] Voice 24: virtual the biggest impact i think there um would be on neck for next council coming in in the latter

[1:28:24] Voice 24: part of the fiscal those new committee meetings their their meetings for the balance of the fiscal

[1:28:29] Voice 24: would need to be virtual i know most of the committees now you meet virtually but it had

[1:28:33] Voice 24: been contemplated that an in-person meeting for each of those new committees under the new council

[1:28:38] Voice 24: might be preferable but so this would negate that option and just require them to meet virtually

[1:28:43] Voice 24: although as we've noted you know trustees and we'll have a chance through those first couple

[1:28:49] Voice 24: of trust council meetings to establish those in-person connections as well any questions

[1:28:55] Trustee Patrick: on this item trust trustee peterson uh

[1:29:01] Voice 6: 6500 amount um is the total uh is all about um the

[1:29:11] Voice 6: new term right there's no in-person meeting so this is entirely about the new term okay thank

[1:29:16] Voice 6: Thank you.

[1:29:16] Trustee Patrick: Yeah, that was the expectation. Any other questions on item one here?

[1:29:27] Voice 3: Well, I have a question actually about process. I appreciate that we're going to, if we're going

[1:29:31] Voice 3: to have resolutions or whatever, we're going to do it at the end. As we move from item to item,

[1:29:37] Voice 3: do we want to, when do we voice support for ideas, put it that way? I mean, in the course of

[1:29:44] Voice 3: it or at the end of it? I mean, this makes sense to me. I mean, $6,500 on the larger scale of things

[1:29:50] Voice 3: isn't a huge amount but you know take care of the pennies the dollars take care of themselves

[1:29:53] Voice 3: sort of thing um so i would i'm worried about that

[1:29:57] Trustee Patrick: we could either do a straw poll at this point

[1:30:00] Trustee Patrick: and then a trustee could work on a motion

[1:30:02] Trustee Patrick: or would that work to give someone an idea?

[1:30:07] Trustee Patrick: So it's not official.

[1:30:09] Voice 3: Your suggestion of before of having it the other way around

[1:30:14] Voice 3: about asking is that would anybody be like super opposed

[1:30:17] Voice 3: to doing that,

[1:30:19] Voice 3: that might help us.

[1:30:20] Voice 3: And then if we don't hear a lot of loud voices,

[1:30:22] Voice 3: then that gives us a chance at saying,

[1:30:24] Voice 3: okay, some enthusiast

[1:30:25] Trustee Patrick: can make a resolution, you know?

[1:30:27] Trustee Patrick: All right, I hear you.

[1:30:29] Trustee Patrick: you uh trustee peterson did you have an alternative i'm

[1:30:35] Voice 6: gonna go through this and just ask any

[1:30:39] Voice 6: questions of clarification before we got into debating uh the merits or straw pulling them

[1:30:44] Voice 6: okay

[1:30:48] Trustee Patrick: we have uh now we have uh i'm gonna take a straw poll on is there how many else are opposed

[1:30:55] Trustee Patrick: to doing a straw poll on the items as we go through them so i'm gonna go with that that

[1:31:00] Trustee Patrick: approach raise your hand if you're opposed to doing a straw poll as we go through

[1:31:04] Trustee Patrick: I am not seeing any. So, sorry, Trustee Peterson. We're just going to then do a straw poll. And I like the negative. Is there anyone that would be, I guess, just raise your hands if you're strongly opposed to removing the $6,500.

[1:31:33] Trustee Patrick: All right. I assume you all can see your screens and see the results. So I'm just going to move on to item two.

[1:31:45] Trustee Patrick: So

[1:31:47] Voice 24: item two was a proposed allocation of $15,000, and this was primarily to support some transition with the new regional planning manager to replace Robert Kojima, who has retired, and provide some sort of transitional support as needed, potentially drawing on Mr. Kojima as a resource following his retirement, just to, again, support some knowledge transfer.

[1:32:14] Voice 24: So this would, I think we are currently looking at actually looking at this as less as a contract and more as an as-and-when staffing piece, but the dollar amount would remain the same.

[1:32:23] Voice 24: So it would hurt us in the sense that we would not have the resources likely to be able to draw on that expertise as needed, but it's also a discretionary item.

[1:32:37] Voice 20: Trustee Evans.

[1:32:38] Voice 20: A clarifying question. Rather than having a contract person there to backfill, if somebody has questions, wouldn't they be able to contact anybody at the office in Korea versus having somebody up there? I'm not entirely sure what this position is meant to do.

[1:32:58] Voice 20: yeah

[1:32:59] Voice 24: this was the initial thinking around this would be to be able to engage mr kojima uh

[1:33:05] Voice 24: primarily if we had questions about drawing just drawing on his extensive experience and knowledge

[1:33:10] Voice 24: of the trust so as as and when needed to be able to tap into that uh that expertise and of course

[1:33:17] Voice 24: it would only be appropriate if we were going to do that for him to be appropriately compensated

[1:33:21] Voice 24: all right

[1:33:24] Trustee Patrick: trustee peterson yeah

[1:33:27] Voice 6: similar so i think it sounded like uh the ceo said this is

[1:33:33] Voice 6: anticipated to be mostly or nearly all would would have been near or mostly all mr kajima

[1:33:40] Voice 6: is that correct yes

[1:33:42] Voice 15: okay thank you

[1:33:45] Voice 15: trustee borthwick hello

[1:33:48] Voice 2: yes i apologize for not having

[1:33:50] Voice 2: my video on i am coming down with a cold and do not feel like being perceived in that way

[1:33:54] Voice 2: um my question i guess would just be to see i know we have director sermac in the call and just if he

[1:34:01] Voice 2: wanted to perhaps weigh in on the relative value of that resource obviously uh robert kojima has

[1:34:10] Voice 2: been a huge uh asset for this organization and also what are the i guess just getting a uh some

[1:34:17] Voice 2: Some context as what the implication of having to go it alone, as opposed to being able to draw on his expertise, I think might be a valuable perspective for council to consider.

[1:34:32] Trustee Patrick: Bronnie, is that Director Cermak? Are you able to answer that?

[1:34:36] Voice 26: With pleasure. And as you stated at the beginning of this meeting, Chair, the justification form is on page 208 of the agenda.

[1:34:43] Voice 26: If you would like to sort of read that when submitting that business request, there is a justification form provided, which is in your package.

[1:34:52] Voice 26: You know, how do I say it?

[1:34:56] Voice 26: You know, Robert Kojima, as a manager, has been with the organization or was with the organization for 25 years, two decades.

[1:35:05] Voice 26: Gates. We now have currently two regional planning managers that have been with us for three years

[1:35:11] Voice 26: and myself as a director for about the same amount of time, just over three years.

[1:35:16] Voice 26: We're all experienced planners, but nobody knows the organization from a planning perspective,

[1:35:20] Voice 26: besides perhaps Director Marr or better. And that type of experience is just, it's hard to

[1:35:28] Voice 26: measure the value of that in terms of understanding all the nuances of how the

[1:35:33] Voice 26: the planning services world works in our unique organization.

[1:35:36] Voice 26: So to help us just soften the loss of such key information was that if we could retain them on a retainer,

[1:35:44] Voice 26: that's my loose expression of that, of course, how we do that is more proper,

[1:35:49] Voice 26: and is to help pull them into, I sort of had scheduled out some what I was calling RPM boot camps,

[1:35:55] Voice 26: camps, whereby we're getting us together to have some training sessions about the best

[1:36:01] Voice 26: ways to do RPM business.

[1:36:03] Voice 26: Of course, we've already got a lot of that thinking in place, a lot of the, you know,

[1:36:07] Voice 26: transitional place.

[1:36:09] Voice 26: But really, it's just pulling in that experience of those little subtle questions.

[1:36:13] Voice 26: Sometimes you don't even know what questions you're not asking.

[1:36:17] Voice 26: So really, it's an invaluable experience to soften the blow in the transition with relatively

[1:36:21] Voice 26: relatively new to intermediate managers are relatively new to intermediate

[1:36:27] Voice 26: director and pulling on that experience just to help us, you know,

[1:36:31] Voice 26: get ready for the next term and be really set in a good place.

[1:36:34] Voice 26: So there's an innumerable number of projects that he could be involved with,

[1:36:38] Voice 26: but it's really to help us be orientated to be the best we can for the next

[1:36:43] Voice 26: term.

[1:36:46] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much. Trustee Peterson.

[1:36:48] Trustee Patrick: A

[1:36:50] Voice 6: little bit of follow-up because I'm not entirely clear how these procedures work in terms of the person who might be filling the southern regional planning manager role.

[1:37:07] Voice 6: Is that likely to be somebody new to Islands Trust? Is it likely to be someone promoted with Islands Trust? Or it could be either. I'm just curious about that part.

[1:37:20] Trustee Patrick: I think you should read your emails. Go ahead, Director Cermak.

[1:37:24] Voice 26: Sure. Thank you. With pleasure. So the announcement went out to all staff and trustees that Mary Stortzer has been a successful candidate at the regional planning manager level. She'll join us in the third week of March. She has worked with the Islands Trust for a short period of time. She helped with the policy statement work as well as the housing or strategic housing action plan.

[1:37:45] Voice 26: so two really fundamental report or projects in the trust her project management skills are

[1:37:52] Voice 26: exemplary she's worked for the province in the role of a director of various capacities so she

[1:37:57] Voice 26: knows the province well she's very integrated with the province and she is actually friends

[1:38:01] Voice 26: with a number of key position staff in our organization could not ask for a better hire

[1:38:06] Voice 26: in this particular circumstance and lots of planning management experience so she has

[1:38:12] Voice 26: experience she's coming in her skill set is great but really it's uh you know the extensive

[1:38:18] Voice 26: institutional knowledge um and the the vast experience and project manage in the islands

[1:38:28] Voice 26: trust we're unique based how we do project management how we do our business case or it's

[1:38:34] Voice 26: how we go you know different ltcs have different timelines and those kind of things that's where

[1:38:39] Voice 26: it's unique it's that institutional knowledge so that's that's you know she doesn't know nobody

[1:38:44] Voice 26: really has the same type of institutional knowledge as does rpm kojima and we're hoping

[1:38:49] Voice 26: that we can through this sort of boot camp reset for their existing rpms bringing in the new one

[1:38:55] Voice 26: we can all sort of get on the same page and try and get that knowledge to everybody and really

[1:39:01] Voice 26: it falls to me otherwise and i'm pretty full so i could really use the help and it seems like a

[1:39:08] Voice 26: really small investment for a really significant transition so yeah

[1:39:13] Voice 6: thank you and and just uh in

[1:39:15] Voice 6: terms of follow-up i i actually intentionally pulled on on that thread uh chair patrick

[1:39:20] Voice 6: because i wanted i wanted to uh to hear more about that thank

[1:39:24] Trustee Patrick: you thank you um trustee barthwick

[1:39:27] Trustee Patrick: yeah

[1:39:28] Voice 2: and just very briefly like i was sort of asking the question because i wanted to draw out

[1:39:33] Voice 2: this this conversation and and try to invite director sermac to weigh in um it's it's more

[1:39:40] Voice 2: about sort of getting yeah context of what um like is this a is this a must have or a need to have

[1:39:45] Voice 2: and just to give trust council a little bit of a opportunity to sort of consider how that falls

[1:39:52] Voice 2: into into everything else um obviously uh robert kajima has contributed a tremendous amount and

[1:39:58] Voice 2: And, you know, we also are looking at this budget.

[1:40:02] Voice 2: We're trying to be critical in all places.

[1:40:04] Voice 2: So I think it's just valuable to interrogate those things in particular.

[1:40:10] Voice 2: And yeah, obviously transitioning into the next term and into a new RPM era is going

[1:40:16] Voice 2: to be a thing and whatever help we can get is useful.

[1:40:19] Voice 2: And we should be making sure, you know, I think we also have to trust that the staff

[1:40:24] Voice 2: that we've hired to do these positions are qualified.

[1:40:27] Voice 2: qualified um and i certainly i have a lot of confidence in in in planning staff as a general

[1:40:33] Voice 2: statement i think they do a lot of really good work i think that robert had the robert's values

[1:40:37] Voice 2: are instilled within that department uh uh apparently uh at this point but but yeah i

[1:40:46] Voice 2: think it's i think it's just good for us to sort of like have have poked at that a little bit that's

[1:40:51] Voice 2: all all

[1:40:52] Voice 12: right thank you trustee bernardo yeah

[1:40:54] Voice 3: my question is for director sermac here which is

[1:40:56] Voice 3: this you know i hear you when you talk about this it's like um this is a good thing to have

[1:41:02] Voice 3: it'll make operations over your end smoother with this transition uh but i'm not hearing

[1:41:10] Voice 3: it's a must-have and as we go through all of these things i'm i'm powerfully influenced by

[1:41:16] Voice 3: the designation staff itself has put on these which is implementation easy uh impact on

[1:41:22] Voice 3: operations somewhat negative that's what you've been talking about but mitigatable i'm not sure

[1:41:28] Voice 3: that's a word but it's capable of being mitigated um is that is that assessment uh director sir

[1:41:36] Voice 3: mac uh consistent with your view that it's somewhat mitigated not being able to call on

[1:41:41] Voice 3: mr kojima is going to have some negative impact on the transition but it is capable of being

[1:41:47] Voice 3: mitigated?

[1:41:51] Voice 26: Through the chair?

[1:41:52] Trustee Patrick: Yes, go ahead.

[1:41:53] Voice 26: I think that's a fair assessment. I have full

[1:41:56] Voice 26: confidence in the staff we have. We will make do, but we can be good or we can be great. And I'm

[1:42:04] Voice 26: always trying to be great. That's my goal of the team. Thank you.

[1:42:09] Trustee Patrick: All right. Thank you. Trustee

[1:42:10] Trustee Patrick: to get any?

[1:42:13] Voice 10: $15,000 is a bit of a chunk. And if you divide that by, say, roughly $75 an hour for

[1:42:22] Voice 10: a consultant, which I think might be kind of an average to low kind of fee, that's 200 hours. So

[1:42:30] Voice 10: I'm, you know, I would hate to lose that kind of corporate memory and have it just walk away

[1:42:36] Voice 10: and disappear so if there's uh possibly some way of uh you know cutting it maybe by a third or a

[1:42:43] Voice 10: half um and we take really clear um focus in terms of the opportunity that we have to

[1:42:50] Voice 10: tap into that resource that we're just it's um trying to find have the cake it's a little bit

[1:42:59] Voice 10: of icing um anyway that was that would be my suggestion not to lose it entirely but to

[1:43:06] Voice 10: you know, trim it.

[1:43:09] Trustee Patrick: That's always an option. Trustee Evans.

[1:43:14] Voice 20: For my perspective on this line item, I would be in favor of keeping it rather than losing it.

[1:43:20] Voice 20: We don't know what we don't know for when we don't know that we don't know it.

[1:43:24] Voice 20: I don't want us to wind up in a position where we have a critical question and the wealth of

[1:43:30] Voice 20: knowledge, as Director Zomek has said, the staff that we have currently have approximately three

[1:43:36] Voice 20: three years apiece. And we're bringing in a brand new person with no real background and

[1:43:43] Voice 20: understanding of the last 25 years, no personal experience of it. And to go hunting for paperwork

[1:43:51] Voice 20: or hunting for questions will eat up a lot more than the $15,000 that we've got allocated here.

[1:43:57] Voice 20: I think having that person for a transition is more critical than it's been brought out in here.

[1:44:07] Voice 20: We have had really all of the knowledge walk out the door, and we have to have some access to it. And if this is what it takes, I think it's more important to have that available.

[1:44:20] Voice 20: Thank you. Let's,

[1:44:21] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans? Elliot?

[1:44:23] Voice 18: Elliott? Yeah, I'll be short. I'm not in favor of removing this. I think we should focus on

[1:44:30] Voice 18: budget line items that will impact the Bowen fee levy first. And the other thing that we need to

[1:44:38] Voice 18: consider is that all of our LTCs are going to have to go through OCP reviews. We are still

[1:44:46] Voice 18: working on a process. There are only, to my knowledge, two staff members, please correct me

[1:44:52] Voice 18: me if I'm wrong, Director Cermak, who have led an OCP review. And this is part of the regional

[1:44:58] Voice 18: planning team's work is to allocate, like, figure out a methodology and what is the best way to do

[1:45:06] Voice 18: this. This is something that Robert Kojima, I believe, would be an asset working together with

[1:45:12] Voice 18: the new staff person. What is the way that we are going to, and maybe I'm wrong here, but we need to

[1:45:18] Voice 18: to make our regional planning team more efficient and i think having his voice in how do we organize

[1:45:26] Voice 18: and allocate resources as well as processes um with that intimate knowledge of how our communities

[1:45:33] Voice 18: work um we're going to lose a lot more if we don't have him there so i think in the interest

[1:45:39] Voice 18: of the organization we should keep this line item thanks all

[1:45:44] Trustee Patrick: right i'm just going to do the quick

[1:45:46] Trustee Patrick: extra pull. Anyone who's vehemently opposed to removing this item, just raise your hand or wave

[1:45:54] Trustee Patrick: your hands. All right. I think people have seen sort of that. So thank you very much. We're going

[1:46:04] Trustee Patrick: to move on to item three.

[1:46:08] Voice 24: Thank you, Chair. And I'll maybe defer back to Director Cermak to speak

[1:46:11] Voice 24: to this one as it's an LTC-related item, the Gambier OCP LUV Amendments Project.

[1:46:18] Voice 24: I

[1:46:20] Trustee Patrick: already see Trustee Stamford's hand raised, so.

[1:46:24] Voice 26: I'll defer to the trustees if you have my chair.

[1:46:27] Trustee Patrick: Trustee

[1:46:27] Trustee Stamford: Stamford, go ahead.

[1:46:31] Trustee Stamford: Are you kidding me?

[1:46:35] Trustee Stamford: No, I recognize what's been trying to be done here, but I'm finding that it's very difficult to manage the Gambier OCP LEB project as a whole.

[1:46:48] Trustee Stamford: It just, it's challenged by, so much by its geography and very little ability to communicate out effectively.

[1:46:59] Trustee Stamford: We are in the middle of a pretty serious pushback with how reconciliation plays out.

[1:47:08] Trustee Stamford: Alcatsum House Sound is right in the center of it.

[1:47:12] Trustee Stamford: Um, and I have very little tools to work with and any extra money to help with communications

[1:47:20] Trustee Stamford: will, um, I think would just give the islands trust in the long run, a better footing to

[1:47:28] Trustee Stamford: move forward on a new style of OCP referrals.

[1:47:30] Trustee Stamford: And, um, especially with first nations, um, Squamish nation, it knows what it's doing.

[1:47:37] Trustee Stamford: um it it knows what is expected and it also is seeing some of the pushback and it frankly it's

[1:47:47] Trustee Stamford: it's pretty scary some of it it's well funded i need something to work with i think our little

[1:47:54] Trustee Stamford: team needs something to work with specifically around communications so i oppose um taking out

[1:48:02] Trustee Stamford: the three thousand dollars it doesn't have a huge impact on the bottom line and it certainly doesn't

[1:48:07] Trustee Stamford: impact bowen island except it helps bone island all

[1:48:13] Trustee Patrick: right the other uh gambier keats uh trustee

[1:48:16] Trustee Patrick: trustee bernardo i

[1:48:18] Voice 3: uh tremble at the prospect of uh taking a different view of trustee stamford

[1:48:24] Voice 3: and uh what's happening over there with the gambier ocp um i'm i have to confess to a hazy

[1:48:33] Voice 3: memory of uh what we did back in january i see by the notation here the business case

[1:48:39] Voice 3: we amended the project charter in january to remove uh expenses expenses for communication

[1:48:47] Voice 3: in excess of public engagement costs and i have a dim recollection we had a discussion back then that

[1:48:54] Voice 3: that um the reason we're doing that it just wasn't necessary um and i've got more of a question here

[1:49:02] Voice 3: The way I'm reading this is I'm understanding this $3,000 is really not related to the reconciliation engagement part of it, but it is something else.

[1:49:17] Voice 3: It's just extras that we don't need anymore for the purposes of this project.

[1:49:21] Voice 3: I could be wrong about that.

[1:49:24] Voice 3: Perhaps planning staff could shed some light on that.

[1:49:29] Voice 3: Like, what are we losing, actually, I should be asking.

[1:49:31] Voice 3: What are we losing if we give up the $3,000?

[1:49:34] Voice 26: Director Cermak.

[1:49:35] Voice 26: Sure.

[1:49:36] Voice 26: So the proposal was, and again, these are just recommendations.

[1:49:39] Voice 26: These are not, or these are just spots, soft spots where we can maybe put up, I'm not saying

[1:49:45] Voice 26: the right words.

[1:49:47] Voice 26: They're just places you could cut, not necessarily recommended to.

[1:49:51] Voice 26: So the $2,000 was for First Nations referrals.

[1:49:55] Voice 26: So we're not going to be paying referral fees.

[1:49:58] Voice 26: And the other one was $1,000 for communications.

[1:50:01] Voice 26: So that was where the $3,000 came from. Of course, if you kept it in your budget and you weren't going to pay the First Nations referral fees, you could reallocate that $2,000 to make a $3,000 communications, which would address Trustee Stamford if she needed more money for communication purposes. So you'd be losing First Nations referrals and communications in general.

[1:50:24] Voice 26: But

[1:50:25] Voice 3: are those referral fees even something that is likely to be required to be paid in the next fiscal year? Or has that engagement with Squamish First Nation more or less run its course in that respect, in terms of incurring referral fees?

[1:50:44] Voice 26: Right. My understanding is that there's a fair bit of engagement to start the project, but there's interest in referring the bylaw itself. And I know that Squamish has their own referral fee process. And as I understand, we've only paid one referral fee to a nation so far.

[1:51:02] Voice 26: are treated generally we don't pay referral fees but we as of late found out we can so we haven't

[1:51:09] Voice 26: really rectified that with what do we should we do so this was an option for for the Gambier LTC

[1:51:15] Voice 26: to pursue that if they wished well

[1:51:18] Voice 3: I'm getting confused here director Cermak if we don't have

[1:51:20] Voice 3: to pay the fees why would we yeah

[1:51:23] Trustee Patrick: I think we're I guess we're going to keep go ahead but well

[1:51:27] Voice 26: because that's the First Nations process and we'd be honoring that process so we have two different

[1:51:31] Voice 26: processes right we have a nation's process versus our sort of settler you know legislation so um

[1:51:36] Voice 26: this is exactly where we conflict with those two

[1:51:38] Voice 1: okay all

[1:51:42] Voice 12: right uh trustee stamford did you have

[1:51:44] Voice 12: yeah i'm pretty

[1:51:45] Trustee Stamford: sure the nation that we have paid referral fees to is the squamish nation

[1:51:52] Trustee Stamford: for this project um and you know i'm more um focused on the communications aspect of it um

[1:52:01] Trustee Stamford: I think it would be damage to the Islands Trust as a whole if we don't put some effort into making this OCP process work because of the referrals that we have done ahead of time to the Squamish Nation.

[1:52:21] Trustee Stamford: To let it slide in any way, and I know we've narrowed the focus of it, and that's fine.

[1:52:27] Trustee Stamford: If that means it slows down, I get it, but it's the communication that I really am concerned about, and that's even within the last month, seeing how questions are coming from the community, really pushing back on the process of DRIPA and what does it mean for the island, and I just don't have any resources to work with.

[1:52:53] Trustee Stamford: So seeing this, it's just like, can we have a bit more impetus to get better communications to the community? So that's really my focus is communications. Maybe the referral to First Nations, it won't be ready until next term. And I totally understand that. But I do expect that the Squamish will be looking at a fee for service on that.

[1:53:18] Trustee Patrick: I see lots of hands up. I want to try not to debate. We're not, we don't have a motion on

[1:53:24] Trustee Patrick: the floor. So Trustee Fast.

[1:53:29] Trustee Fast: Thank you, Chair. I just have a question for Trustee Stamford. I think

[1:53:33] Trustee Fast: it's probably for her. But my understanding is that the Gambier OCB LUB update has been going

[1:53:40] Trustee Fast: on for a number of terms now already. And it's partly hampered by communications. There is no

[1:53:49] Trustee Fast: newspaper. There is mostly Trustee Stamford's emails that she sends out. And I think anything

[1:53:57] Trustee Fast: above that would be really helpful. And so my question is, is it still mostly based on

[1:54:05] Trustee Fast: trustee stamford's emails question mark um i

[1:54:10] Trustee Stamford: appreciate the question suelen it it is more

[1:54:15] Trustee Stamford: to do with the messaging external to the island and it's the pressure we're beginning to see

[1:54:21] Trustee Stamford: um by different organized groups um really saying well we shouldn't be going in this direction at

[1:54:30] Trustee Stamford: all and we've done a lot of work and spent good money um getting the referrals from the

[1:54:38] Trustee Stamford: skamish nation in the first place to let it fizzle out because of some of this pushback and without

[1:54:45] Trustee Stamford: having the resources to be able to respond appropriately um i i think it the trust level

[1:54:51] Trustee Stamford: will go down for that nation in particular and that has impacts for bowen as well

[1:55:01] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:55:02] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:55:02] Trustee Patrick: I'm not going to straw poll this one because this is always difficult for the LTC one.

[1:55:06] Trustee Patrick: So you're going to have to sort of read between the lines on these.

[1:55:11] Trustee Patrick: So I'm going to go on to the next one because we're going to have a lot of stuff to talk

[1:55:15] Trustee Patrick: about here and we want to get motions on the floor.

[1:55:18] Trustee Patrick: So item four.

[1:55:20] Voice 24: Thank you, Chair.

[1:55:21] Voice 24: I think this one is fairly straightforward.

[1:55:22] Voice 24: So this would be a reduction in the executive committee meeting expense budget.

[1:55:26] Voice 24: that there are currently scheduled for the balance of this council term in the new fiscal

[1:55:31] Voice 24: three in-person executive meetings typically these happen to approve and review the trust

[1:55:37] Voice 24: council agendas so this production of three thousand dollars would just make those remaining

[1:55:42] Voice 24: three meetings that are currently in person switch them to virtual meetings which is actually what

[1:55:47] Voice 24: executive committee has decided to do with their meeting next week although that's of course the

[1:55:53] Voice 24: current fiscal this wouldn't affect there would still be remaining budget for new executive

[1:55:59] Voice 24: council post-election a new executive committee to meet a few times in person this fiscal so we

[1:56:04] Voice 24: would retain that available budget this would be for current ec to switch to just virtual meetings

[1:56:10] Voice 24: for the balance of of this term all

[1:56:13] Trustee Patrick: right i'm just going to jump to the gun anyone uh vehemently

[1:56:16] Trustee Patrick: opposed to removing this no hands right so let's go to item five item

[1:56:27] Voice 24: five is a is an oldie but a

[1:56:29] Voice 24: goodie um so this comes back to your trust council in-person meetings um again maybe doesn't warrant

[1:56:36] Voice 24: to necessarily warrant a great deal of debate as i think it's been debated many times um before but

[1:56:41] Voice 24: we still felt it was worth including so you'll recall um in december you agreed to make as you

[1:56:48] Voice 24: you know we have five in-person meetings or five Trust Council meetings scheduled for next fiscal

[1:56:53] Voice 24: with a budget for four of them. So you had opted to make the September meeting, which would be the

[1:57:00] Voice 24: last meeting of the current Trust Council, a virtual meeting, which sustained funding for

[1:57:05] Voice 24: in-person meetings for the first three of the new Council and for this coming June. So if you were

[1:57:12] Voice 24: were to take this option, it would mean making the June meeting a virtual meeting as well. So

[1:57:18] Voice 24: your last two meetings as this trust council would be virtual.

[1:57:25] Trustee Patrick: All right. I know you all

[1:57:27] Trustee Patrick: understand that. Go ahead, Trustee

[1:57:29] Voice 20: Evans. The other piece that came to light after we voted on

[1:57:35] Voice 20: this was that we've got FIFA and that's at the same time. So that's going to cause a lot of

[1:57:41] Voice 20: disruptions with regards to um the logistics of of doing this in person as well thank you trustee

[1:57:49] Voice 20: uh

[1:57:51] Voice 2: yeah i mean one of the things i think that also we haven't like truly gone down the rabbit

[1:57:58] Voice 2: hole i know we touched upon it a little bit um not too long ago was that you know obviously a

[1:58:05] Voice 2: big part of the expenses is is travel and accommodation but the scale and degree to which

[1:58:12] Voice 2: which we, uh, live stream, uh, trust council also adds a considerable expense and the,

[1:58:18] Voice 2: the equipment and technological burden of doing that is, uh, is not insignificant. Um,

[1:58:26] Voice 2: part of the reason, um, that I, you know, and obviously this is, this is stuff that was born,

[1:58:32] Voice 2: you know, partly through COVID. Um, but I, but I know from various discussions I've had with staff

[1:58:38] Voice 2: and with other trustees that like you know obviously it wasn't didn't used to fully

[1:58:44] Voice 2: live streamed obviously there's a there's a perception issue in terms of accessibility

[1:58:49] Voice 2: um from from afar and there's a great benefit obviously in people being able to chime in from

[1:58:55] Voice 2: around um but as i've looked at the last like uh last year and a half of of trust council meetings

[1:59:04] Voice 2: The number of actual attendees from elsewhere are minimal in live. And I think if we're still recording the meeting, you know, we're still providing a record of that.

[1:59:17] Voice 2: And I would be interested for us as a body to examine what the potential decrease in cost might be to reduce the amount of live streamed elements and that technical burden and to go back to more, you know, more traditional reporting out on those meetings.

[1:59:39] Voice 2: Because I think the value of meeting in person is incredible. I think it vastly improves the benefit of our discussions and relations as a council. And I think I feel very strongly about that. But I definitely think

[2:00:00] Voice 2: that there are other ways that we can potentially reduce some of the overhead of that. And also,

[2:00:06] Voice 2: with that, if we're not relying on an online connection in the same way as we have done,

[2:00:12] Voice 2: I think that also broadens our options in terms of where it can be held, broadens the communities

[2:00:19] Voice 2: to which we can go and be, you know, have people in person. And I think if we, you know, if we're

[2:00:25] Voice 2: we're holding these trust councils more broadly across the trust area, we might actually get

[2:00:30] Voice 2: around some of that accessibility question in terms of people being able to participate

[2:00:36] Voice 2: because we will be able to visit more areas of the trust. So anyways, I know that's not

[2:00:42] Voice 2: necessarily specifically the line item that's being proposed here, but I think that perhaps

[2:00:47] Voice 2: that's a discussion we ought to have.

[2:00:50] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Trustee Dodds?

[2:00:51] Trustee Patrick: I

[2:00:52] Voice 25: think it's appropriate. I support removing the in-person June meeting. I think this is a very challenging time for our budgets, period. And I don't think it's appropriate at all for us to be shown meeting as we were at Christmas in some hotel somewhere when we know that that cost is that much money.

[2:01:11] Voice 25: um i all of the meetings i've many years of trust council meetings the actual number of attendees

[2:01:18] Voice 25: is never huge um i think there's other ways to reach out to keep people involved in what trust

[2:01:24] Voice 25: council's doing um i've never thought it had to be a club for everybody to chit chat and i think

[2:01:30] Voice 25: we have other ways to talk to each other so i support leaving it there all

[2:01:34] Voice 4: right thank you

[2:01:35] Voice 4: trustee yates sorry i was just waiting for the straw pool but we look like we're maybe not doing

[2:01:44] Voice 4: that no

[2:01:44] Trustee Patrick: no there's one

[2:01:45] Voice 4: coming this is uh meant just to clarify

[2:01:47] Voice 4: so um okay

[2:01:48] Voice 4: well we're not debating

[2:01:49] Voice 4: yeah i do not support this i do not support having the last two council meetings virtual

[2:01:58] Voice 4: um if it's a difficult time of year to schedule a meeting then we should have our september meeting

[2:02:04] Voice 4: meeting in person. And I just can't stress enough how important it is that we show up

[2:02:10] Voice 4: in our communities. And there did used to be a lot of attendance at the meetings long before

[2:02:17] Voice 4: they were recorded and long before they were live streamed. And we're just losing that support

[2:02:24] Voice 4: because we're not there. So I don't support this. Thank you. Trustee Bernardo?

[2:02:32] Voice 4: of um

[2:02:34] Voice 3: yeah yes thank you um uh first point um i think for us for trustee borthwick's suggestion

[2:02:42] Voice 3: is something that is worth taking seriously and we should be exploring uh with respect to cutting

[2:02:48] Voice 3: back on live streaming um if the idea is transparency i don't think that's a problem

[2:02:56] Voice 3: in the age of youtube cutting back live streaming doesn't necessarily mean we're cutting back on

[2:03:01] Voice 3: recording it we can record it and then post a meeting uh up on youtube uh for those poor souls

[2:03:07] Voice 3: who are actually interested in watching us talk uh the public observing in real time by way of

[2:03:14] Voice 3: live streaming uh doesn't really in any way affect the character of how our meetings um proceed

[2:03:23] Voice 3: um the public can watch but it doesn't really have input it's not they're not engaged in the

[2:03:30] Voice 3: the meeting in that respect live meetings you know to pick up um trustee yates's point i think

[2:03:36] Voice 3: it's fair to say the live meetings actually get more engagement people should you know people in

[2:03:40] Voice 3: their communities they show up um they always have something to complain about for the most part and

[2:03:46] Voice 3: they'll let us know uh i think it is more of a vital experience for them and certainly for us

[2:03:52] Voice 3: when they show up in person so there is a kind of a balancing act there my mind isn't closed to sort

[2:03:57] Voice 3: of you know cutting back to some extent of these meeting expenses but i would like us to explore

[2:04:01] Voice 3: the uh suggestion of chrissy borthwick about examining what the actual objective merits of

[2:04:07] Voice 3: carrying on with live streaming actually are and whether or not that's something that we can afford

[2:04:12] Voice 3: to cut back thank you all

[2:04:15] Trustee Patrick: right uh sale brony thank

[2:04:17] Voice 24: you sure just to that point um i'll note

[2:04:19] Voice 24: that the last item on this list item 23 um is a 15 000 item related to the recording and posting

[2:04:26] Voice 24: of meetings, which is where the bulk of the expense comes in. Director Marv, you can correct

[2:04:30] Voice 24: me if I'm wrong, but that is where we incur the bulk of the expense because the live streaming

[2:04:35] Voice 24: is really based on the Zoom platform, which we use to facilitate virtual participation

[2:04:42] Voice 24: in all of our meetings, of course. And so the live streaming is a relatively smaller expense

[2:04:48] Voice 24: in addition to what we use Zoom for. So the real larger expense is around the recording and

[2:04:55] Voice 24: and edit it in storage, but Director Marlowe may have some additional comments on that.

[2:05:00] Voice 12: Director Marlowe?

[2:05:03] Voice 8: Yeah, thank you.

[2:05:05] Voice 8: Yeah, so if this was removed, it would be the recording

[2:05:09] Voice 8: and the storage of those recordings on our website that would disappear.

[2:05:14] Voice 8: We could still live stream, just run it,

[2:05:17] Voice 8: but we would not record and would not capture those documents.

[2:05:21] Voice 8: So I just want to make sure you're clear on that.

[2:05:23] Voice 8: as the CEO said

[2:05:25] Voice 8: Zoom does the streaming

[2:05:27] Voice 8: the recording is handled by

[2:05:29] Voice 8: third party for us and the

[2:05:31] Voice 8: managing of those and the hosting of them

[2:05:33] Voice 8: is all done by that third party

[2:05:35] Voice 8: and that's what the $15,000 is for

[2:05:37] Voice 8: Thanks

[2:05:38] Voice 3: So just to clarify

[2:05:41] Voice 3: a clarifying question

[2:05:43] Voice 3: is

[2:05:44] Voice 3: is it fair to say

[2:05:47] Voice 3: then that the live streaming

[2:05:49] Voice 3: is just a kind of an offshoot of the

[2:05:51] Voice 3: the zoom licensing we've got that allows trustees to participate at these meetings anyhow so

[2:05:57] Voice 3: am i hearing you correctly uh if i understand you'd be saying that cutting out the live streaming

[2:06:03] Voice 3: isn't going to make a material money cost difference it's actually the fact that we

[2:06:07] Voice 3: actually record them and post them on youtube that actually is the cost uh

[2:06:12] Voice 8: through the show

[2:06:13] Voice 8: yes we don't post them on youtube we host them uh on a third party called collaborate video

[2:06:19] Voice 8: they often pause and we link them onto our website.

[2:06:23] Voice 8: Okay.

[2:06:25] Trustee Patrick: All right, I'm very cognizant of time.

[2:06:28] Trustee Patrick: We don't even have motions and debates going yet

[2:06:30] Trustee Patrick: and we're going very slow.

[2:06:32] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Boland, do you have a question regarding this?

[2:06:35] Trustee Patrick: I don't want to have any further debate.

[2:06:37] Voice 7: Yeah, just, it's a question.

[2:06:40] Voice 7: So yes, I fully support removing this.

[2:06:43] Voice 7: It's a significant amount of money,

[2:06:45] Voice 7: But it's come up in the past, and it disappears. The staff resources required to mount a meeting face-to-face in a remote location are considerable, I believe, compared to just a Zoom meeting, an online virtual meeting. Could you comment on that, please, Director or CAO?

[2:07:10] Voice 24: sure thank you trustee bull and yes there is the obviously the logistics of an in-person meeting do

[2:07:16] Voice 24: consume a significant uh amount of time as you note virtual meetings do not you know remove the

[2:07:22] Voice 24: workload required to prepare agendas and materials but um but yes there is an additional savings on

[2:07:28] Voice 24: these administrative staff time when it comes to coordinating the logistics of a of an in-person

[2:07:33] Voice 24: in meeting for sure all right not

[2:07:37] Voice 24: captured in that meeting cost yeah

[2:07:39] Trustee Patrick: i want to keep things moving uh

[2:07:43] Trustee Patrick: are there any that are vehemently opposed to seeing this item removed raise your hands or wave

[2:07:51] Trustee Patrick: vehemently opposed to seeing it removed all right so i think everyone saw the number of hands that

[2:08:03] Trustee Patrick: came up or a few more trickling in so i'm going to keep on moving through here let's uh let's

[2:08:12] Trustee Patrick: please let's avoid debate we don't have motions this is just to understand the item

[2:08:15] Trustee Patrick: uh and i so because we're only at six and we have many more to go here so over to you

[2:08:22] Trustee Patrick: thank you

[2:08:24] Voice 24: chair so item six and seven are related these both relate to the reconciliation action

[2:08:28] Voice 24: plan seven i think i've already spoken to this is the hundred thousand dollars in um capacity

[2:08:34] Voice 24: funding and so the option here would be to reduce that by half to fifty thousand dollars

[2:08:38] Voice 24: recognizing that may limit to some degree our our ability to advance relationships

[2:08:42] Voice 24: and perhaps if needed director frader could speak to the item six which is a potential reduction in

[2:08:51] Voice 24: the implementation funding for the reconciliation action plan and

[2:08:58] Voice 9: so through the chair yes we had

[2:09:00] Voice 9: proposed just a essentially a placeholder amount of fifty thousand dollars for implementation of

[2:09:05] Voice 9: of the Reconciliation Action Plan.

[2:09:06] Voice 9: We are still finishing up the plan,

[2:09:09] Voice 9: but at this time estimate that the cost to implement

[2:09:11] Voice 9: if we take a really frugal approach to it

[2:09:14] Voice 9: is more in the range of $25,000.

[2:09:19] Trustee Patrick: Right, questions on what this means?

[2:09:22] Trustee Patrick: Okay, Trustee Bernardo.

[2:09:24] Voice 3: Yeah, I find when I was going through these materials,

[2:09:27] Voice 3: I found myself getting very confused about the funding

[2:09:30] Voice 3: that's being set aside in various buckets

[2:09:34] Voice 3: to advance reconciliation.

[2:09:37] Voice 3: um please correct me if i'm wrong but um the funding uh there was a proposed funding i think

[2:09:44] Voice 3: of something like 150 000 to advance the reconciliation action plan and uh but the plan

[2:09:52] Voice 3: is is still in being uh formulated um and i understand that there's no again please correct

[2:09:59] Voice 3: me i'm wrong but there's no business case for it and you know the natural question that comes to

[2:10:06] Voice 3: my mind and it may be an unfair question but is is this a cart before the horse thing i mean

[2:10:11] Voice 3: plans being developed and we're sitting aside to implement it before we've even seen the plan

[2:10:16] Voice 3: and frankly before trust council has approved it that confuses me another thing that confuses me

[2:10:22] Voice 3: is and it's related to this it's a larger question of a coordination with respect

[2:10:28] Voice 3: like organizational coordination with respect to the reconciliation angle um the distinction

[2:10:34] Voice 3: The distinction between the trust and the ITC isn't generally well understood, and in terms of facilitating clear communication with Indigenous government bodies, it seems to me it might make sense for the trust and the ITC to take a coordinated approach to managing Indigenous relations.

[2:10:52] Voice 3: on the CEO's advice.

[2:10:54] Voice 3: We decided to do exactly that with respect to trust counsel

[2:10:57] Voice 3: and the local trust committee in digital relations

[2:11:00] Voice 3: by hiring a full-time manager, and we've committed to that.

[2:11:05] Voice 3: And I'm just wondering if the interests of, first,

[2:11:09] Voice 3: avoiding duplication and, two, ensuring IGBs get clear

[2:11:13] Voice 3: and consistent communication, whether the question of whether

[2:11:17] Voice 3: or not the ITC should be hiring, you know, an advisor

[2:11:22] Voice 3: that halftime advisor that was contemplated whether that makes shouldn't that does it make

[2:11:27] Voice 3: sense for that to wait until after we've got the industrial or indigenous relations manager in place

[2:11:33] Voice 3: who can be given responsibility potentially for managing both sides the trust and itc relations

[2:11:42] Voice 3: so these are actually i'm sorry for the confused nature of the question and i'm throwing it at the

[2:11:48] Voice 3: the CAO, actually, if he can address this question of whether or not there's efficiencies to be found

[2:11:55] Voice 3: here by coordinating the Indigenous engagement aspect.

[2:12:01] Voice 24: Yeah, through the chair briefly, I think

[2:12:03] Voice 24: yeah, you're correct, Trustee Bernardo, in that that manager position was intended to provide,

[2:12:09] Voice 24: as I think I described, air traffic control for the entire trust, and I would include the

[2:12:13] Voice 24: conservancy in that in terms of keeping track of all the various tendrils of our engagement with

[2:12:18] Voice 24: with indigenous governing bodies and with the status of those relationships and how we're

[2:12:23] Voice 24: advancing particular projects so that is the intent of that role there was an identified need

[2:12:29] Voice 24: within the conservancy though for some dedicated capacity to support particularly the work related

[2:12:36] Voice 24: to the development and implementation of the five-year plan and so that was i believe the

[2:12:40] Voice 24: intent behind that additional position, and the Conservancy's ongoing work. And then with regard

[2:12:46] Voice 24: to the capacity funding, as mentioned, there's a dedicated need for capacity funding for the

[2:12:51] Voice 24: ITC's five-year plan. And this $100,000 was earmarked as, you know, to give us some flexibility

[2:12:59] Voice 24: and latitude to do as and when needed engagement and relationship building. And you're right that

[2:13:07] Voice 24: that the action plan is in development.

[2:13:09] Voice 24: I know Director Frater is working hard to have a draft

[2:13:12] Voice 24: to come forward for initial consideration

[2:13:15] Voice 24: by Trust Council at March's meeting.

[2:13:18] Voice 24: And so as she noted, the $50,000 there

[2:13:21] Voice 24: was as a placeholder anticipating

[2:13:26] Voice 24: that will require some implementation funding

[2:13:29] Voice 24: in addition to the capacity funding piece.

[2:13:32] Voice 24: So that 150 you mentioned is the 50,000 implementation

[2:13:35] Voice 24: and the $100,000 capacity funding that are both identified in these two items,

[2:13:40] Voice 24: if that helps clarify things.

[2:13:44] Trustee Patrick: All right, thank you.

[2:13:45] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Getty?

[2:13:50] Trustee Patrick: Oh, you're muted.

[2:13:51] Voice 10: Thank you.

[2:13:52] Voice 10: I'm curious about the mention in number six about the community-to-community grant.

[2:13:58] Voice 10: And is this, all of this funding, whether it's $50,000 or $25,000 grant funded?

[2:14:13] Voice 9: I could take that.

[2:14:14] Voice 9: Chair?

[2:14:15] Voice 9: So no, what we're proposing is that Trust Council allocate $25,000.

[2:14:20] Voice 9: As I mentioned, we're trying to take the most frugal approach possible.

[2:14:23] Voice 9: What we're suggesting is that that $25,000 be used for the activities in the plan.

[2:14:27] Voice 9: The activity that is based on that amount is based on the assumption that we will be

[2:14:32] Voice 9: successful in getting community to community grants for the negotiation and celebration

[2:14:37] Voice 9: of any agreements we take on.

[2:14:39] Voice 10: Thank you.

[2:14:41] Voice 18: Trustee Elliott.

[2:14:45] Voice 18: Thank you.

[2:14:46] Voice 18: Thank you. I'm speaking in favor of the reduction of both of these. I think it is not really known what capacity funding will be needed. And I think the CAO is right, we have a much better idea at the Conservancy Board, the kind of capacity funding have sort of done the numbers.

[2:15:09] Voice 18: um and this is a that's a much more urgent project um so what i think this body is missing

[2:15:20] Voice 18: is an understanding of what capacity funding has done for the trust area as a whole in terms of

[2:15:27] Voice 18: our planning related projects you know if you're on denman or gabriola um you've seen some of the

[2:15:34] Voice 18: results of that capacity funding at work but you might not see it in the southern gulf islands

[2:15:40] Voice 18: um and i think we should have asked staff executive committee should have asked staff to

[2:15:46] Voice 18: forward a briefing um on the allocation of the 150 000 grant for capacity funding just to

[2:15:53] Voice 18: understand where it's gone um and so i think going forward we have to understand this is a

[2:16:00] Voice 18: This is how we operate in order to provide not just the opportunity for nations to give us real insight into their interests and concerns, but the time and the respect to make that space available.

[2:16:23] Voice 18: So I do support both of these being reduced.

[2:16:26] Voice 18: I think it's real

[2:16:27] Voice 6: excuse me chair oh I'm feeling like a

[2:16:31] Voice 6: point of order here I thought we were going

[2:16:34] Voice 6: to ask questions here and debate at a later point and a number of trustees are getting in debate I

[2:16:40] Voice 6: have lots of opinions too but I'm if we're going to debate let's debate if we're going to just ask

[2:16:45] Voice 6: questions and move through this then anyway thank you thank

[2:16:48] Trustee Patrick: thank you yes I know this is very

[2:16:50] Trustee Patrick: difficult for everyone and uh um sorry

[2:16:54] Voice 18: chair questions have been asked about what is capacity

[2:16:57] Voice 18: funding for and i think what i failed to land on is that executive committee has seen where

[2:17:04] Voice 18: capacity funding is going that reports coming to council this body just did not get that so

[2:17:10] Voice 18: um there might be some missing information that's all yeah

[2:17:13] Trustee Patrick: and i it is hard when we're looking at

[2:17:16] Trustee Patrick: This is what's been offered up. And there's tendrils throughout the whole document.

[2:17:20] Trustee Patrick: And that's what we're trying to understand is what this is and that there is still money remaining.

[2:17:28] Trustee Patrick: And so go ahead, Trustee Evans.

[2:17:34] Voice 20: And I apologize in advance. I have a longer question. I will try to keep it shorter.

[2:17:39] Voice 20: My question is surrounding what is actually feasible during the fiscal year 27-28, given the fact that August, we've got a lot of vacations, September through October is elections, then it's onboarding of the new trust council.

[2:17:57] Voice 20: And based on our experience coming on in our first year, we didn't actually get to any meat of anything to move forward on until after the March meeting that'll be in 27.

[2:18:08] Voice 20: 27. So my question to staff is, if we do reduce this by 50%, is that enough? How should we reduce

[2:18:17] Voice 20: it further? Given we're in an election year, and I don't think that there's much staff time to

[2:18:25] Voice 20: really dig into spending this money this fiscal. So that's my question. I'm in favor of these two

[2:18:32] Voice 20: line items being reduced my question is should they be reduced further

[2:18:37] Voice 24: my initial response chair

[2:18:40] Voice 24: to that would be to a large extent that might depend on how you receive the draft reconciliation

[2:18:46] Voice 24: action plan in march if you're happy with what you see and you want us to proceed with finalizing

[2:18:52] Voice 24: that work then there is work within that that we would endeavor to undertake despite the fact that

[2:18:58] Voice 24: there's an election there's still time for us to do some of that work um if you receive that and

[2:19:04] Voice 24: you don't think it should advance at this time and you want to defer that for consideration by

[2:19:08] Voice 24: next council then that might precipitate then a different conversation around a budget but i think

[2:19:15] Voice 24: kind of as i alluded to or or stated in my operational review i think for us to if we

[2:19:20] Voice 24: were to leave ourselves without any resources to support this work that would also be um with

[2:19:26] Voice 24: with significant risk as well particularly because we don't always know what might arise throughout

[2:19:30] Voice 24: a fiscal year on this front there may be other opportunities or pieces of work that come up that

[2:19:35] Voice 24: we need to address and having no dedicated resourcing would also be a challenge thank you

[2:19:42] Trustee Patrick: uh trustee maverly yeah

[2:19:44] Voice 28: thank you i think my questions for cao as well um i looked at um

[2:19:48] Voice 28: line items six and seven and um you know i i've heard everything that's being said but

[2:19:56] Voice 28: But the one thing that sort of was highlighted for me is the B.C.'s government's indication that they were going to repeal or repeal parts of DRIPA and how that would have, you know, I'm worried about the effect that would have on whether our reconciliation plan was going to be effective and whether, you know, the timing, whether it's worth.

[2:20:26] Voice 28: just your comments about how that would have an effect thank

[2:20:31] Voice 24: you maybe i'll comment uh briefly

[2:20:33] Voice 24: and then i know director freighter has some thoughts too um yeah the government has indicated

[2:20:37] Voice 24: not that it will repeal drippa but that intends to introduce legislative changes to drippa we don't

[2:20:42] Voice 24: have a sense yet of what those mean but i think it's important to keep in mind that drippa itself

[2:20:47] Voice 24: doesn't directly impose any sort of obligation on islands trust um you know there are other

[2:20:53] Voice 24: factors that influence our obligations around engagement and relationship building with

[2:20:57] Voice 24: First Nations and Indigenous governing bodies that aren't really prescribed by DRIPA.

[2:21:03] Voice 24: There are constitutional pieces.

[2:21:05] Voice 24: There's the expectation that has been set out by the minister, et cetera, around the

[2:21:10] Voice 24: expectation that we will engage on policy statement and other major pieces of work.

[2:21:15] Voice 24: So I think to some extent, regardless of what amendments government might make to DRIPA,

[2:21:21] Voice 24: That probably isn't going to substantively change our work.

[2:21:24] Voice 24: That said, it's something that obviously we'll closely monitor as the legislature spring session proceeds.

[2:21:30] Voice 24: And when that legislation is introduced, we'll do that assessment on whether or not there is any impact on us.

[2:21:38] Trustee Patrick: All right. Thank you very much.

[2:21:40] Trustee Patrick: All right. I'm just going to quick straw poll.

[2:21:42] Trustee Patrick: Item number six. Anyone vehemently opposed to item number six?

[2:21:45] Trustee Patrick: Raise your hands.

[2:21:47] Trustee Patrick: That's the reconciliation action plan.

[2:21:51] Voice 13: All right.

[2:21:52] Trustee Fast: Excuse me, Chair.

[2:21:53] Trustee Fast: Do you mean yes?

[2:21:54] Trustee Fast: Yes. Violently opposed to removing. Correct. Thank

[2:21:59] Trustee Patrick: you. That would be correct. So it's the

[2:22:02] Trustee Patrick: opposite. So, and then anyone that would be opposed to removing item seven, which is the

[2:22:09] Trustee Patrick: reconciliation, uh, second part. And so, yeah,

[2:22:15] Voice 24: sorry, sorry, just to clarify, when you say

[2:22:17] Voice 24: remove, you mean reduce the budget as proposed as

[2:22:20] Trustee Patrick: presented. Correct. Thank you for your

[2:22:24] Trustee Patrick: clarifying words see we're going to get really tired here so I'm trying to move things quicker

[2:22:28] Trustee Patrick: all

[2:22:28] Voice 24: right item eight item eight is a is a reduction to our budget that funds some of the

[2:22:35] Voice 24: costs we sometimes incur around recruitment and labor relations so their costs associated with

[2:22:39] Voice 24: when we have to fill a position when we do things like advertise for example those kinds of things

[2:22:44] Voice 24: or if we need labor relations support and often that comes through the public service agency

[2:22:50] Voice 24: but it would be you know they will charge us a fee for sometimes for those services so this would be

[2:22:54] Voice 24: a 5500 reduction in the budget for that um you know there is some risk that comes with that but

[2:23:00] Voice 24: as director mobs has noted in the comments um if we have particularly where we have some

[2:23:06] Voice 24: some salary savings etc we can draw on those pools as needed if we have a particular

[2:23:11] Voice 24: lr need that we need to address so we think um there's there's some risk with it but it's

[2:23:16] Voice 24: relatively manageable.

[2:23:19] Trustee Patrick: Any questions on this item? I understand it. Anyone vehemently opposed

[2:23:27] Trustee Patrick: to removing this? All right, moving on to the next one then. Number

[2:23:36] Voice 24: nine. So we hold two in-person

[2:23:39] Voice 24: all-staff meetings each year, one in December and one in June. We had tentatively budgeted for the

[2:23:44] Voice 24: one in June to be held likely at a location in the northern part of the trust area.

[2:23:53] Voice 24: This would be a reduction of $4,000 that would likely mean we would instead have that meeting at a more central location.

[2:24:02] Voice 24: It's a one-day meeting, but there is travel expenses and sometimes some overtime costs for some staff to attend it.

[2:24:09] Voice 24: So we would look for a location likely in more central or in the southern region to reduce those costs.

[2:24:14] Voice 24: We'd still like to have the meeting in person, so this is really just a reduction that would

[2:24:20] Voice 24: require us to do something a little bit closer to the southern side of the area and not go

[2:24:26] Voice 24: to one of the northern islands.

[2:24:29] Trustee Patrick: All right, any questions?

[2:24:34] Trustee Patrick: Anyone strongly?

[2:24:35] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Trustee Elliott.

[2:24:38] Voice 18: When you talk about impact to staff engagement, sort of how much impact are you thinking?

[2:24:45] Voice 18: Keane? Is this a really anticipated trip? Thanks. I

[2:24:53] Voice 24: think if we're still holding the meeting in

[2:24:55] Voice 24: person, then the impact is mitigated somewhat. Staff do value the time to come together in

[2:25:01] Voice 24: person, and we typically balance it with some training and some engagement activities. I think

[2:25:07] Voice 24: staff value the opportunity to visit the islands, and the northern ones are just logistically more

[2:25:14] Voice 24: challenging to get to and so there may be some disappointment about not being able to do that

[2:25:18] Voice 24: but i think you know in the context of the budget discussions i think staff also recognize that we

[2:25:24] Voice 24: have to be as responsible as possible so and if we're still holding the meeting in person i think

[2:25:29] Voice 24: it's um it's a relatively modest impact all

[2:25:34] Trustee Patrick: right thank you any other questions otherwise quickly

[2:25:38] Trustee Patrick: Quickly, anyone opposed to moving this item?

[2:25:43] Trustee Patrick: We're going to move on to the next item, 10.

[2:25:47] Trustee Patrick: These are a little more.

[2:25:50] Voice 24: Yeah, so these next few items are related to some of the proposed new positions under the budget.

[2:25:58] Voice 24: 10 and 11 are the two that came out of the operational review.

[2:26:02] Voice 24: And so the option here is they were originally proposed for a June 1st start date,

[2:26:08] Voice 24: and this would postpone the start date to October 1st.

[2:26:11] Voice 24: thereby saving four months in salary savings. And the same is proposed in item 12 for the

[2:26:17] Voice 24: Indigenous Relations Advisor, which is the halftime ITC position. The original rationale

[2:26:25] Voice 24: for starting in June was that because it takes a few months for a new person to come in and get

[2:26:29] Voice 24: fully oriented and up to speed, that if we started them in June, that would allow us sort of by the

[2:26:34] Voice 24: time we have new council come in, those staff would be kind of have their feet under them and

[2:26:39] Voice 24: ready to fully support. This means they'll effectively be transitioning around the time

[2:26:43] Voice 24: as the new council. And so likely we'll be fully engaged in their work before really the end of

[2:26:51] Voice 24: fiscal, but would allow us to at least get those staff positions filled to support that work going

[2:26:57] Voice 24: into the following fiscal and with the new council. So it would delay those, but still

[2:27:04] Voice 24: still support those as priorities.

[2:27:06] Voice 24: So the same applies for all three of 10, 11, and 12.

[2:27:12] Trustee Patrick: Any questions to Trustee Getty?

[2:27:16] Voice 10: This is a huge ticket item that I think if we are supporting the concept in terms of

[2:27:25] Voice 10: the operational review and really building in terms of our Indigenous relations and protocol

[2:27:32] Voice 10: protocol agreements and all of the other work that I would rather see this

[2:27:36] Voice 10: person hired in June and have their ideas and contacts and,

[2:27:45] Voice 10: and work plan all scheduled out when the new council comes in so that it's

[2:27:50] Voice 10: not starting from scratch.

[2:27:51] Voice 10: Stick

[2:27:51] Voice 6: to questions, please.

[2:27:53] Voice 10: Thank you, trustee Peterson.

[2:27:58] Voice 10: Oh,

[2:27:59] Trustee Patrick: so, okay.

[2:28:02] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[2:28:04] Trustee Patrick: Any questions on this for Trustee Bernardo?

[2:28:10] Voice 3: Yeah, for CAO Broney.

[2:28:14] Voice 3: Yeah, I mean, that's the question that occurred to me when I saw this is that if we delay onboarding these three positions,

[2:28:22] Voice 3: and particularly the indigenous manager position by four months, you know, you have addressed it to some extent.

[2:28:31] Voice 3: You know, how does that hold them back in terms of acquiring the skill set they need, you know, to help the trustees during an election year where there's going to be this turnover?

[2:28:47] Voice 3: over so um i i guess i'm going to ask you to kind of uh be a bit more granular about explaining

[2:28:56] Voice 3: what the potential downside is of delaying the hires because i could see that um delaying the

[2:29:05] Voice 3: hire perhaps of the you know assuming we we agree it should happen the the halftime indigenous

[2:29:11] Voice 3: indigenous relations advisor, and perhaps a communications advisor, but not the additional

[2:29:17] Voice 3: relations manager, who is going to have to acquire a larger skill set. I mean, that's a question I've

[2:29:23] Voice 3: got. Perhaps you could elaborate a bit more on the friction that gets caused by delaying the hire.

[2:29:31] Voice 3: And, you know, the chart indicates it's manageable. But I guess what I want to know is what is it that

[2:29:38] Voice 3: But we're going to be what is the deficit we're going to be managing by cutting back as potentially proposed here?

[2:29:47] Voice 24: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Trustee Bernardo.

[2:29:50] Voice 24: That

[2:29:50] Voice 10: was my question, too.

[2:29:53] Voice 24: An excellent question, just effectively articulated by Trustee Bernardo.

[2:29:58] Voice 24: I would say just just brief.

[2:30:00] Voice 24: I think the halftime position with ITC is a little bit different because, as I think

[2:30:05] Voice 24: is noted in the comments there, the work around the five-year plan will be beginning and it

[2:30:09] Voice 24: would be beneficial to have that person actively involved at the table sooner rather than later.

[2:30:15] Voice 24: So it's a little bit different.

[2:30:16] Voice 24: I think the impact for the communications engagement lead and the manager of Indigenous

[2:30:21] Voice 24: relations would be similar to the extent that what I would hope to see in both of those

[2:30:26] Voice 24: positions is that they would have the chance if they started in June to get familiar with the

[2:30:31] Voice 24: organization, build their knowledge of the organization. And we talked about in both

[2:30:36] Voice 24: cases, essentially, the first priority would be for them to build out a bit of a framework for

[2:30:40] Voice 24: how we're going to manage those respective pieces of work and better coordinate them across the

[2:30:45] Voice 24: organization. On the engagement side, we talked about the need for a sort of more consistent

[2:30:50] Voice 24: approach to engagement. And on the Indigenous relations side, a much more consistent approach

[2:30:55] Voice 24: across the organization to how we manage relationship building and engagement with

[2:30:59] Voice 24: Indigenous governing bodies. What I would hope is that they are both in those positions to be able

[2:31:04] Voice 24: to, by the time we have a new council, have begun actually drafting some of that work so that a new

[2:31:12] Voice 24: council, when it starts turning its mind to what are we going to, what's our priorities around

[2:31:16] Voice 24: Indigenous relations, we have a model to bring forward to them before the end of next fiscal

[2:31:21] Voice 24: goal that has been developed by those positions so if we delay that to October that means we're

[2:31:27] Voice 24: really not going to be sort of getting that work done until the following fiscal and so we may just

[2:31:33] Voice 24: new council may have to wait for us to be able to prepare that work the same with the engagement

[2:31:38] Voice 24: lead I would hope that we would have a draft engagement framework to be able to sort of set

[2:31:43] Voice 24: up and support a new council from the get-go rather than this is a thing we are working

[2:31:48] Voice 24: working to provide them with. So I think that's the lag. I think it's less about

[2:31:53] Voice 24: those two positions being able to develop their skill set. It's about building the knowledge in

[2:31:59] Voice 24: those first few months that they need to understand the organization and its needs and apply their

[2:32:03] Voice 24: expertise to building out the plans to support council from that point on. I hope that helps

[2:32:10] Voice 24: answer that question.

[2:32:12] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Trustee Elliott.

[2:32:15] Voice 18: Thank you, Chair. So a question to Director

[2:32:18] Voice 18: Director Frater, I've been in all these board discussions, so I know the answers, but how

[2:32:24] Voice 18: will a delay of the Indigenous Relations Advisor impact the five-year plan? Is this sort of a

[2:32:32] Voice 18: critical staff requirement, or is this more support, and is October feasible? Because

[2:32:41] Voice 18: Because I understand the letters are going out and have already gone out?

[2:32:46] Voice 18: Yeah.

[2:32:47] Voice 18: Okay. Thanks, Director.

[2:32:50] Voice 9: Certainly, you know, we view this position as sort of very important to achieving the plan,

[2:32:55] Voice 9: which is really one of the only legislatively required activities that's been assigned to us.

[2:32:59] Voice 9: We have, right now, I have assigned our second auxiliary senior policy advisor to assist with that.

[2:33:05] Voice 9: Depending on the response level received, you know,

[2:33:08] Voice 9: we will need additional support to coordinate the coordination with you know we've sent letters now

[2:33:13] Voice 9: to 27 nations depending on the number that are that respond it could be a pretty major undertaking

[2:33:20] Voice 9: to coordinate with them all it's a real land-based activity so they're going to want to get out to

[2:33:24] Voice 9: see the land talk about a multitude of issues so certainly it will be assistive to have that person

[2:33:30] Voice 9: in earlier to do to roll it out that said should you not fund it we will do our best to accommodate

[2:33:37] Voice 9: but certainly it would be beneficial to have the person in earlier and certainly that is the board

[2:33:41] Voice 9: the board debated this and that's where the board landed and that is the board's recommendation to

[2:33:45] Voice 9: trust council all right

[2:33:47] Voice 7: trustee boland um i'm really quite uncomfortable with this discussion

[2:33:55] Voice 7: uh we haven't seen the reconciliation action plan yet it's going to be presented at trust council

[2:34:02] Voice 7: This is a huge part of the budget. The province's strategy and direction is under review. We have had legal opinion in camera.

[2:34:16] Voice 7: Let's focus

[2:34:17] Trustee Patrick: on questions, please.

[2:34:18] Trustee Patrick: focus on questions please

[2:34:20] Voice 7: okay i feel that we shouldn't discuss this further until trust

[2:34:25] Voice 7: council after we've seen the reconciliation plan all of it and all the spends because we're jumping

[2:34:32] Voice 7: from one topic to another you know the questions

[2:34:35] Voice 13: okay yeah okay

[2:34:36] Voice 7: can we defer discussion of this

[2:34:39] Voice 7: until trust council when we see the reconciliation plan and maybe i

[2:34:45] Trustee Patrick: think we i heard you and i think

[2:34:47] Trustee Patrick: that that would happen by whether or not motions come forward today anyway so i'm just going to

[2:34:52] Trustee Patrick: quickly do straw poll then to keep things moving because we've got a lot more here

[2:34:57] Trustee Patrick: so i'm going to look at the full-time indigenous relations number 10 is there anyone opposed to

[2:35:06] Trustee Patrick: delaying the start i guess would be that so all right thank you i'm seeing hands go up so

[2:35:15] Trustee Patrick: lower your hands we're just gonna move on people are paying attention to this

[2:35:19] Trustee Patrick: the item 11 is the communications and engagement lead uh those that would be opposed to delaying

[2:35:27] Trustee Patrick: the start of that position raise your hands okay all right i'm still slowly coming up there okay

[2:35:42] Trustee Patrick: thank you so lower your hands now i'm on to item 12 which is the half-time uh indigenous relations

[2:35:51] Trustee Patrick: relations advisor uh this is for the itc project delaying that start date um number three no 12

[2:36:00] Trustee Patrick: 12 so opposed to removing or delaying the start date there all right lots of hands came up on

[2:36:11] Trustee Patrick: that one all right lower your hands then over to you uh ceo brony to keep us moving thank you

[2:36:23] Voice 24: Before we get to that, I do have a staff request.

[2:36:25] Voice 24: I know that we're trying to maintain momentum,

[2:36:27] Voice 24: but if we might take a

[2:36:28] Voice 24: short break to celebrate the fact that you're halfway

[2:36:30] Voice 24: through this list.

[2:36:33] Trustee Patrick: All right. How much time do we need? 10 minutes. All right.

[2:36:37] Trustee Patrick: 10 minute break then for everyone. 10 minute breaks.

[2:36:39] Trustee Patrick: We'll be back at three 46 ish.

[2:46:01] Trustee Patrick: Town tonight. I have.

[2:46:03] Trustee Patrick: Hello

[2:46:03] Voice 28: chair Patrick. Can you hear

[2:46:04] Trustee Patrick: me? Okay. Yes, I can.

[2:46:06] Voice 28: Yeah, hey, I just got a call from Animal Wildlife, and there's a great horned owl been injured on Main Island, and I've been requested to deliver it to Salt Spring Island, so I'm going to have to bow out of the meeting.

[2:46:17] Trustee Patrick: Well, please perform that rescue.

[2:46:20] Voice 28: Okay, thank you, everyone.

[2:46:26] Trustee Patrick: All right, I hope everyone's back. We need to pick up some steam here. We're aiming to finish at five o'clock, and we've...

[2:46:34] Trustee Stamford: I just want to say any excuse I have now is completely irrelevant.

[2:46:38] Trustee Stamford: moment

[2:46:38] Trustee Patrick: yes well let's uh let's try to keep moving and uh hopefully uh the animal will uh recover

[2:46:50] Trustee Patrick: okay um where were we 13 go ahead uh ceo browning hey

[2:46:57] Voice 24: thank you chair so 13 and 14 both relate to

[2:47:00] Voice 24: the two proposed co-op positions um and the option here is not to fill those um i'm a big

[2:47:05] Voice 24: fan of co-ops i started my career as a co-op they're a great talent identification tool and

[2:47:10] Voice 24: they help us for a relatively affordable cost deal with short-term projects but they're also

[2:47:17] Voice 24: by their very nature highly discretionary and so one of these is with planning services

[2:47:24] Voice 24: and and the other is a gis coordinator all

[2:47:29] Trustee Patrick: right i i only want questions not debate items so trustee

[2:47:33] Trustee Patrick: evans thank

[2:47:34] Voice 20: you i think in the past we had returning co-ops that came with uh some some

[2:47:39] Voice 20: interest previous interest and expertise uh will it be the same co-ops or new co-ops this year at

[2:47:45] Voice 20: this time um

[2:47:46] Voice 24: it depends typically it's an open competition uh process um from different post

[2:47:51] Voice 24: secondary institutions and sometimes we do have co-ops who have applied with us and worked with

[2:47:55] Voice 24: us in the past to reapply for a position so it could be a returning co-op or it could be um it

[2:48:00] Voice 24: could be a new person all

[2:48:03] Trustee Patrick: right so quickly i'm going to move to the straw poll i'm going to

[2:48:06] Trustee Patrick: just separate them so number 13 which is the planning services co-op anyone strongly opposed

[2:48:12] Trustee Patrick: to removing this position all right seeing lots of hands going up so lower your hands

[2:48:25] Trustee Patrick: and then the second position was the gis co-op position anyone strongly opposed number 14 there

[2:48:32] Trustee Patrick: removing the gis co-op position okay lower your hands then all right c l brony over to you

[2:48:44] Trustee Patrick: okay so

[2:48:46] Voice 24: again i think we can take 15 16 and 17 as a group as i mentioned these are the

[2:48:51] Voice 24: the ones related to setting a target for further salary savings to be achieved through not filling

[2:48:56] Voice 24: vacancies um and so you know director mobs here has allocated them notionally across the three

[2:49:03] Voice 24: departments. The proposed sort of total target, though, would be $100,000. Again, that can be set

[2:49:09] Voice 24: at any level. And again, that would be in addition to the 2% in savings that we've already

[2:49:16] Voice 24: baked into the budget as it stands now. So this would be Trust Council asking us to meet

[2:49:23] Voice 24: an additional target that would be incumbent on us as a management team to ensure that we meet

[2:49:29] Voice 24: throughout the year, assuming we have sufficient vacancies to be able to do that.

[2:49:34] Trustee Patrick: All right. Questions to understand. Trustee Bernardo.

[2:49:38] Voice 3: Yeah, I'm struggling to understand what that actually means about how it's even possible to do it.

[2:49:44] Voice 3: I'm assuming what it really means is that as vacancies, assuming they happen, arise, you're just going to defer hiring people.

[2:49:56] Voice 3: Like you're just going to leave the post, but you're just not going to bother posting them.

[2:50:00] Voice 24: Yeah.

[2:50:01] Voice 3: Have I got that right?

[2:50:03] Voice 24: Yeah, typically you would do it through deferred hiring.

[2:50:07] Voice 24: If we were to do it, I'd like to take a fairly strategic approach, which sometimes it depends

[2:50:12] Voice 24: on the vacancy.

[2:50:13] Voice 24: We may have a vacancy arise, but it's a really critical position where it would actually

[2:50:20] Voice 24: be really detrimental to us not to fill it.

[2:50:22] Voice 24: So we may, as a management team, decide to fill that one, recognizing that the next one

[2:50:27] Voice 24: that just pushes out the pressure.

[2:50:30] Voice 24: So we do have to still strive for that savings.

[2:50:32] Voice 24: savings. But you can also do it just as a general blanket of, you know, we would defer our hiring on

[2:50:38] Voice 24: any vacancy by an extra month and then track the potential savings as we go along. I've also noted

[2:50:44] Voice 24: in here that part of this can be achieved through restricting overtime. That, I think, our overtime

[2:50:50] Voice 24: bill, if I remember correctly, Director Mobs, is around $60,000, or at least it was last year.

[2:50:56] Voice 24: The downside to trying to manage overtime, though, is that often a lot of that is incurred

[2:51:00] Voice 24: with staff traveling to islands to do planning work, to support LCCs, to do bylaw work. And so

[2:51:06] Voice 24: there's limited option for us to manage it through overtime. So it would primarily be through

[2:51:11] Voice 24: deferring hiring on vacancies as they arise. And as I say, we would try to be as strategic

[2:51:18] Voice 24: as possible, but it may be that if we have one position that could sit unfilled for six months

[2:51:23] Voice 24: while we fill other ones, then that's how we would try and manage it.

[2:51:27] Voice 3: taken as a whole this is like um a hundred thousand dollar target how did staff set

[2:51:35] Voice 3: the target um for salary reduction to be achieved through basically deferred hirings

[2:51:43] Voice 3: um assuming the attrition happens is this based on an assumption uh on historical turnover

[2:51:51] Voice 3: yeah

[2:51:53] Voice 24: the the initial number as director mob said earlier for how we what we put into the budget to

[2:51:58] Voice 24: begin with is based on kind of a typical year average and so that was about two percent um

[2:52:04] Voice 24: but that's you know assuming you're moving as aggressively as possible too to try and fill

[2:52:09] Voice 24: vacancies so you would achieve this additional one by intentionally deferring further and kind of you

[2:52:16] Voice 24: know deliberately dragging our feet and on hiring processes pushing out start dates when we do make

[2:52:21] Voice 24: an offer and you know so you know deferring uh filling a position or a start date for a month

[2:52:26] Voice 24: can be a five or six thousand dollar difference right so if you if you do that a number of times

[2:52:32] Voice 24: it starts to add up as i say that the trick is it's a bit of a blunt instrument and that you

[2:52:36] Voice 24: can't really control where those vacancies arise and if we're not seeing the amount of vacancies

[2:52:41] Voice 24: and turnover sort of for the first half of the year then that puts a lot of pressure on us then

[2:52:47] Voice 24: to really lean into it for the second half of the year to try and achieve that that target

[2:52:54] Voice 12: Thank you.

[2:52:55] Voice 12: Trustee Peterson.

[2:52:57] Voice 6: Yeah, thank you.

[2:52:58] Voice 6: I just noticed these three were all marked as highly complex and very negative.

[2:53:04] Voice 6: And I just wonder if you could expand on that a tiny bit.

[2:53:08] Voice 24: Yeah, I think that the complexity comes from the, as I say, not being able to really plan

[2:53:13] Voice 24: for where those vacancies will arise.

[2:53:15] Voice 24: And the negativity comes from that, you know, this is an additional 1% in addition to the

[2:53:21] Voice 24: the 2% we've already got in, but the log, you know, every month we leave a position unfilled

[2:53:27] Voice 24: has a significant impact on our capacity to deliver the work. And so, you know, we saw this,

[2:53:33] Voice 24: for example, on Salt Spring where unintentionally, but we had at least two vacancies for a prolonged

[2:53:40] Voice 24: period of time on the planning side, which happily we're close to filling now or have filled,

[2:53:45] Voice 24: but that had a real detrimental effect, you know, and so the longer you prolong this to generate

[2:53:50] Voice 24: rate the savings, the more it undercuts our capacity to deliver the work. And so I think

[2:53:55] Voice 24: that's where the negative impact comes through. And of course, inevitably, though, what happens

[2:54:00] Voice 24: is some of that work ends up necessarily having to be picked up by other staff. And so it has a

[2:54:04] Voice 24: ripple effect across the organization too. Trustee Yates.

[2:54:10] Voice 4: Oh, thank you for that explanation, CAO Brownie. Trying to make this into a question because I was

[2:54:17] Voice 4: going to ask you how on earth did you and your staff work on these issues these last issues

[2:54:23] Voice 4: without wanting to slit your wrists and also you know without thinking that you're flying in the

[2:54:29] Voice 4: face of the operational review that we received at our december council meeting which i take very

[2:54:35] Voice 4: seriously so yeah

[2:54:39] Voice 24: i i appreciate that that sentiment uh trustee yates i will say um you know

[2:54:45] Voice 24: So not all of the senior management team was super keen on some of these, understandably

[2:54:52] Voice 24: so, because we recognize the impact.

[2:54:54] Voice 24: But I think we also recognize that we have an accountability to put forward legitimate

[2:54:58] Voice 24: options when there is a budget pressure and to be willing to manage within those options.

[2:55:04] Voice 24: You know, that's our responsibility.

[2:55:06] Voice 24: The operational review is what it is.

[2:55:09] Voice 24: Some of these choices, if you adopt them, will certainly perpetuate some of those challenges.

[2:55:14] Voice 24: The flip side is we've been managing those challenges for a long time, you know, so, you know, maybe we can manage a little bit longer, but I do stress, you know, particularly in the case of these ones, this would have a significant impact for us to manage, and I think it has an impact, consequently, on what we're going to be able to do to support the core work of Islands Trust.

[2:55:36] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Trustee Getty?

[2:55:38] Voice 10: Is this like a worst case? If we had to, this would be, you know, the biggest bullet that we could consider? Or is there some wiggle room in terms of, you know, instead of the 100,000, if it was 50,000 or 75,000 and change instead of 2%, you know, to three, change it to two and a half or something like that, so that there's a little bit more wiggle room.

[2:56:04] Voice 10: I mean, when you talk about the dire consequences, it seems pretty overall negative on the organization.

[2:56:13] Voice 10: But, you know, it might be workable if there was a little bit more wiggle room with a cost saving.

[2:56:19] Voice 24: Yeah, certainly the $100,000 was proposed because it's basically an additional 1% in savings.

[2:56:26] Voice 24: And so you can set whatever target, you know, you like.

[2:56:29] Voice 24: I think any higher than that would be particularly difficult to achieve.

[2:56:33] Voice 24: Although it really depends on the amount of turnover we have and our pace and filling.

[2:56:37] Voice 24: You know, we've seen, as we saw from the budget update, we've seen we had significantly higher salary savings and underspend than we anticipated.

[2:56:46] Voice 24: And actually, you know, we would have been in this current fiscal year, we would have been able to manage this target, you know, no problem to some extent.

[2:56:54] Voice 24: But we really can't predict.

[2:56:56] Voice 24: And I think there are some, that said, I'll just briefly say there are some variabilities, I think, that are likely to make our staffing position a little less volatile this year.

[2:57:07] Voice 24: One of those is that we have been successful in recruiting and filling a lot of our vacancies.

[2:57:11] Voice 24: A number of those are with new staff, you know, which they're more likely to stay with us.

[2:57:17] Voice 24: Also, the province, as part of its budget yesterday, announced significant new hiring restrictions within the province that will likely, I think, limit the available opportunities for our staff to do things like take temporary assignments with the province.

[2:57:33] Voice 24: And so I think the labor market is tightening up a little bit.

[2:57:37] Voice 24: And so I may be optimistically, but I hope that we don't see the same level of vacancies and turnovers as we did see.

[2:57:43] Voice 24: So it will be challenging to manage this, but you could certainly set that target at whatever level you'd like.

[2:57:51] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Trustee Boland, questions?

[2:57:53] Trustee Patrick: questions uh

[2:57:57] Voice 7: yes so um would this potentially lead into a permanent reduction in staff

[2:58:04] Voice 7: numbers if you identified that uh work that you know was designed uh that people you know roll

[2:58:17] Voice 7: back on it when it doesn't happen can you see it as an opportunity to reduce the overall staffing

[2:58:24] Voice 7: staffing numbers by effectively, you know, challenging the workload and asking trustees

[2:58:33] Voice 7: to be more realistic?

[2:58:36] Voice 24: Yeah, I appreciate that question. I would say it's incumbent on me and

[2:58:41] Voice 24: all of our senior staff, anytime we have a vacant position, to ensure that filling that vacant

[2:58:46] Voice 24: position is necessary to be able to deliver on the core work. And so if there are changes in what

[2:58:52] Voice 24: that work looks like and we look at a position and you know we determine well maybe we actually can

[2:58:57] Voice 24: function without that then we could leave it vacant for sure that said looking at the current

[2:59:03] Voice 24: scope of work unless we see a particularly radical or significant change in the next year i don't see

[2:59:11] Voice 24: any position in islands trust that really isn't necessary and doesn't perform a core function

[2:59:17] Voice 24: in being able to deliver on the work that we have before us i think you know as we've talked about

[2:59:22] Voice 24: out in some areas, I think, you know, we're going to always continue to have pressures, but I don't

[2:59:26] Voice 24: look at the org chart right now and see anywhere where there was a position that came up. I could

[2:59:30] Voice 24: honestly say, yeah, we could get by without that.

[2:59:35] Trustee Patrick: All right. So thank you. I'm going to do a straw

[2:59:38] Trustee Patrick: poll on 15, 16, and 17. So it's the three items. Is there anyone that would be opposed to increasing

[2:59:45] Trustee Patrick: this target for salary reductions?

[3:00:00] Trustee Patrick: go up there so all right let's lower your hands and uh see you brony we are getting closer to the

[3:00:08] Trustee Patrick: end of the list okay

[3:00:09] Voice 24: i think some of these uh get a little easier here uh the next one is a thousand

[3:00:14] Voice 24: dollar uh reduction in subscriptions so these are um things like non-island publications like

[3:00:22] Voice 24: the coast reporter and some other um small subscriptions that we have and so well only

[3:00:27] Voice 24: a thousand dollars it's a you know i think we would maintain subscriptions to some of the key

[3:00:31] Voice 24: publications of course um but this would uh change also some of our mailed ones just a

[3:00:38] Voice 24: digital subscription so we'd still have access just not in a in a print form all right questions

[3:00:45] Trustee Patrick: trustee yates yes

[3:00:47] Voice 4: just how would this affect the weekly sort of selected dissemination of news that

[3:00:53] Voice 4: we get from morgana um

[3:00:56] Voice 24: director frazier may be able to clarify but i don't think it's going to

[3:00:59] Voice 24: have a significant impact we can still if we still have digital subscriptions we have access to that

[3:01:05] Voice 24: and some of those we would monitor just what is freely available online so it might be slightly

[3:01:10] Voice 24: limited but i don't know that would have a major impact director freighter

[3:01:13] Voice 9: no we're not expecting

[3:01:14] Voice 9: it to have an impact on what's available to you in the clippings all

[3:01:20] Trustee Patrick: right thank you i'm going to do

[3:01:21] Trustee Patrick: a quick straw poll anyone opposed to removing this item raise your hands all

[3:01:31] Voice 24: right gonna keep

[3:01:32] Voice 24: moving on then 19 19 um this one i think i have actually already uh potentially solved so this

[3:01:41] Voice 24: was the 3500 budget to hire a photographer for uh trustee photos for the incoming council um

[3:01:48] Voice 24: i've identified a photographer who i think we can access um from the public service to do that he's

[3:01:55] Voice 24: as a professional photographer would still be able to deliver high quality of work likely for minimal

[3:02:00] Voice 24: to no cost so this is one of the few on the list that I'm pretty comfortable recommending that we

[3:02:07] Voice 24: actually do it because I've already confirmed that he would be available to attend I think it's

[3:02:13] Voice 24: November Trust Council and and take care of this for us and I may just need to pay for a few hours

[3:02:18] Voice 24: of of his time primarily so and I think that's generally going to be manageable for us so I think

[3:02:25] Voice 24: that one's pretty straightforward and is probably an easy one to cut.

[3:02:31] Trustee Patrick: All right. Well, anyone opposed, raise your hands on this one.

[3:02:38] Trustee Patrick: Looks like you have people joining you on that idea. So keep going here.

[3:02:44] Voice 24: Next one is the new addition that was proposed for this year's budget was

[3:02:48] Voice 24: a $1,000 budget for chair travel where this was related for the chair to do travel, for example,

[3:02:56] Voice 24: to the victoria office that was unrelated to ec meetings or or tc meetings so chair traveled to

[3:03:02] Voice 24: come and meet with me and other other staff periodically um so that's a thousand dollar item

[3:03:06] Voice 24: and again it was a it was a net new addition to the budget that we had considered yeah

[3:03:11] Trustee Patrick: and i can

[3:03:12] Trustee Patrick: i think we talked about this one in december that there is no discretionary travel so if i want to

[3:03:17] Trustee Patrick: travel to meet with mayor leonard or go meet with other regional districts or anybody there's no

[3:03:22] Trustee Patrick: No, no travel for the CEO, for the chair to move about.

[3:03:26] Voice 10: Have you got a question?

[3:03:27] Voice 10: No,

[3:03:28] Trustee Patrick: I was just clarifying what it was.

[3:03:31] Trustee Patrick: I'm the one that asked that this be added.

[3:03:34] Trustee Patrick: Any questions?

[3:03:36] Trustee Patrick: Anyone opposed to seeing it cut?

[3:03:38] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[3:03:45] Trustee Patrick: A couple of hands going up.

[3:03:54] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[3:03:55] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[3:03:56] Trustee Patrick: I think people saw us.

[3:03:58] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands and keep moving there.

[3:04:01] Voice 24: Okay.

[3:04:01] Voice 24: Trustee training.

[3:04:02] Voice 24: So this we had initially budgeted for $20,000.

[3:04:06] Voice 24: This is an option to cut that by half to reduce it to $10,000.

[3:04:12] Voice 24: This should allow us still sufficient funding to support training focused on new council for things like chair training, standards of conduct, pieces that we're building into the initial training as part of our orientation plan.

[3:04:26] Voice 24: plan. What it wouldn't leave is room to support training for new trustees, for example, to attend

[3:04:33] Voice 24: things like the LGLA program, which would be in March. So it would, I think, still allow us a

[3:04:38] Voice 24: sufficient $10,000 budget to be able to focus on the core training pieces for orientation of a new

[3:04:45] Voice 24: council. It would just limit our ability to support sort of more additional options beyond that.

[3:04:53] Voice 12: Trustee Bernardo, questions?

[3:04:54] Voice 12: questions?

[3:04:55] Voice 3: Just confirmation type question. From the written notation here that explains it and

[3:05:03] Voice 3: from your immediate remarks just right now, CEO, I'm understanding that this proposed or offered

[3:05:12] Voice 3: cut would be, it really is limited to funding attendance to this external local government

[3:05:20] Voice 3: training program is that right yeah

[3:05:23] Voice 24: we hadn't specifically targeted for that but that was one

[3:05:26] Voice 24: of the items that was consideration that if we had that full twenty thousand dollars it would

[3:05:29] Voice 24: allow an available pool of money for training opportunities like that or other ones that

[3:05:34] Voice 24: trustees might identify that would benefit them so with this reduction we would likely use that

[3:05:41] Voice 24: remaining ten thousand almost exclusively for training that we would deliver related to

[3:05:46] Voice 24: orientation. So the

[3:05:47] Voice 3: traditional orientation stuff would still be there?

[3:05:51] Voice 24: Yes, that's the plan. I

[3:05:52] Voice 24: expect we'll do some training around chair training, meeting procedures, those kinds of

[3:05:58] Voice 24: things. And we would support that through a contract and resources. And again, this would

[3:06:02] Voice 24: just take us up till the end of fiscal. So those first, you know, four and a half months with the

[3:06:06] Voice 24: new council, then the following fiscal, if the training budget allowed, there might still be

[3:06:10] Voice 24: opportunities to address some of those other options.

[3:06:13] Voice 3: It has, in terms of the trustee training,

[3:06:16] Voice 3: and the orientation as you develop the plan for the the the new board that comes in have

[3:06:23] Voice 3: have staff considered recruiting trustees to participate in the orientation uh you know

[3:06:31] Voice 3: more veteran trustees the what i'm thinking about is the the nature of our work is kind of unique

[3:06:38] Voice 3: and um there's more than a few eccentricities and just the the actual nuts and bolts the practice

[3:06:44] Voice 3: of actually it's one thing to have somebody come in and theoretically talk to you about robert's

[3:06:49] Voice 3: rules of order and you know people's eyes glaze over they try earnestly to understand what the

[3:06:54] Voice 3: heck the guy's talking about it kind of lands but kind of doesn't trustees who've been around a

[3:07:00] Voice 3: while have um they've got that institutional memory and they can say look this is what it

[3:07:06] Voice 3: this in practice this is what it looks like have we thought about using trustees in that capacity

[3:07:11] Voice 3: Yeah, see, because I think that would be way more useful than any of the stuff that I got

[3:07:15] Voice 3: when I first started three years ago.

[3:07:17] Voice 24: Yeah, I mean, we're certainly trying to ensure that what we do offer is of high value.

[3:07:22] Voice 24: But yeah, we have considered, and that's one of the topics we've discussed with the

[3:07:25] Voice 24: trustee working group that we've had is where we might engage trustees in some of that.

[3:07:29] Voice 24: And so I'm still working around some of those options with the plan.

[3:07:33] Voice 24: I think to some extent that will depend on how many returning trustees we have, for example,

[3:07:38] Voice 24: and, you know, their willingness and availability to support some sort of mentorship and onboarding piece around that.

[3:07:44] Voice 24: But it's definitely an option that we're looking at, yes.

[3:07:47] Voice 24: Thank you.

[3:07:47] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees are on the – is there anyone opposed to removing the $10,000 training budget?

[3:07:54] Trustee Patrick: Opposed to removing it?

[3:08:02] Trustee Patrick: Okay, lower your hands.

[3:08:07] Voice 24: And last two here.

[3:08:09] Voice 24: Okay, Homestretch UBCM attendance.

[3:08:11] Voice 24: So this one I wouldn't normally have considered putting on the list.

[3:08:15] Voice 24: But so we have a $7,000 budget for attendance at UBCM next, this coming September, which would be about a month before the election.

[3:08:24] Voice 24: So this would remove $7,000 for that attendance, which would mean, but the decision at this point previously had been that we would only fund for the chair and CAO to attend UBCM this year.

[3:08:38] Voice 24: in part because given the proximity to the election

[3:08:40] Voice 24: and because it's a more expensive UBCM being held in Vancouver.

[3:08:45] Voice 24: And so this would mean that a trust would have no presence at UBCM this year,

[3:08:50] Voice 24: which I think definitely has some drawbacks, but it also is an option.

[3:08:54] Voice 24: And we put it on for consideration, primarily given the timing

[3:08:59] Voice 24: and the proximity of the election.

[3:09:00] Voice 24: Maybe the impact is less significant.

[3:09:05] Trustee Patrick: All right, any questions?

[3:09:08] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Trustee Bernardo.

[3:09:11] Voice 3: Thank you. My question is for you, Chair. You've attended the UBCM conference a number of times, I understand it. And my understanding of it, it's an opportunity for us to hobnob with ministry staff and basically lobby the minister, encounter the minister, all that kind of stuff.

[3:09:33] Voice 3: But there's also a huge mob of everybody else is trying to do the same thing.

[3:09:37] Voice 27: I'm going to

[3:09:38] Voice 3: ask, I want an honest answer to a hard question is in your assessment, what is the cash value of of us actually going to this thing?

[3:09:47] Voice 3: Do we really get a return on this or do we just get basically pleasant conversations that go nowhere?

[3:09:56] Trustee Patrick: In normal years, non-election years, I'd say very much so.

[3:10:00] Trustee Patrick: It's a great benefit of being there.

[3:10:03] Trustee Patrick: I'd say for the election year, I would agree with the CAO Broney's assessment that he gave.

[3:10:09] Trustee Patrick: Let's see if some more questions have popped up.

[3:10:11] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Yates.

[3:10:14] Voice 4: Okay, so in normal years, I don't know what I would do without your nice reports for the people that do attend.

[3:10:20] Voice 4: So my question would be, that's a really important part of what we get back from UBCM, even though we don't actually attend.

[3:10:30] Voice 4: So, my question relates to, can we still get that information this coming year, even if the, you know, attendance is cut?

[3:10:42] Trustee Patrick: So, Ronnie, go ahead.

[3:10:44] Voice 24: I think we would have, there would be some reporting out from UBCM in general.

[3:10:49] Voice 24: It would certainly be shared around, you know, their resolutions and highlights of their program.

[3:10:54] Voice 24: What you wouldn't get is the individual reporting from attendance at individual sessions and in any meetings with government and other agencies as well.

[3:11:04] Voice 24: We wouldn't have that reporting.

[3:11:05] Voice 24: So it would be the more general reporting from UBCM itself.

[3:11:11] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Stanford?

[3:11:13] Trustee Stamford: Yeah, and just response to Trustee Bernardo.

[3:11:17] Trustee Stamford: Yeah, mainly it's those individual meetings.

[3:11:21] Trustee Stamford: I mean, they seem fast and crazy, but you actually do get advancement and the connection to keep meeting, you know, a month later or whatever.

[3:11:33] Trustee Stamford: That's where the real value of it is.

[3:11:35] Trustee Stamford: So I think having Island's Trust at the UBCM every year has an importance to it.

[3:11:44] Trustee Stamford: There's motions that we want to see advanced that could do with the Island's Trust support.

[3:11:49] Trustee Stamford: support.

[3:11:51] Voice 20: Thank you. Trustee Evans. My question is to both the CAO and to Chair Patrick. Is there

[3:11:59] Voice 20: anything pressing that we know, like any critical questions that you'd want to bring up at that

[3:12:07] Voice 20: meeting that would be beneficial to the incoming Trust Council? I'm just trying to understand

[3:12:14] Voice 20: where we're sitting and if we're at a critical juncture or not, whether or not this could be

[3:12:23] Voice 20: bypassed?

[3:12:25] Trustee Patrick: That's a loaded question. I mean, CEO Brony, do you want to?

[3:12:31] Voice 24: Yeah, I don't know that

[3:12:32] Voice 24: at this stage we would have identified any priority meetings. You know, I think depending

[3:12:38] Voice 24: on how things play out with policy statement, we may want to seek some engagement with the

[3:12:42] Voice 24: ministry on that. Although I suspect if that advances, we will also have ample engagement

[3:12:47] Voice 24: with the ministry on that to some degree. So I wouldn't say there's anything pressing at this

[3:12:53] Voice 24: stage. There may be some interesting elements of the UBCM program, particularly depending on

[3:12:59] Voice 24: things, for example, where the province goes with amendments to DRIPA. But again, those are part of

[3:13:04] Voice 24: the program as opposed to the particular meetings.

[3:13:08] Trustee Patrick: We can always secure meetings with cabinet

[3:13:11] Trustee Patrick: ministers if necessary outside of UBCM. So if there's a reason to meet, we can pursue it.

[3:13:17] Trustee Patrick: The

[3:13:18] Voice 24: other thing I would add, Chair, is that the budget would still remain here for

[3:13:23] Voice 24: executive community members to attend AVICC, which is the regional meeting earlier in the year. And

[3:13:30] Voice 24: that is in Victoria this year, I believe. And it's much more modest expense because it's in Victoria.

[3:13:35] Voice 24: So this would only see us miss out on UBCM this year.

[3:13:41] Trustee Patrick: All right. Is there anyone opposed to

[3:13:43] Trustee Patrick: removing this item from UBCM attendance this fall? All right. Lower your hands. And we're at the last

[3:13:56] Trustee Patrick: one here, which we kind of already touched on, but we'll see how we're running.

[3:14:00] Voice 24: Yeah. So last but not least, yeah, we touched on this. So this, just to clarify, this is a

[3:14:04] Voice 24: $15,000 item that is related to the recording and posting of meeting recordings online on our

[3:14:12] Voice 24: website. So this isn't the streaming side of things. Streaming isn't solely through Zoom,

[3:14:20] Voice 24: but Zoom is kind of the foundation and then it goes into a streaming service. But the cost

[3:14:25] Voice 24: for the streaming side of things is relatively minimal.

[3:14:29] Voice 24: The bigger cost is around the recording

[3:14:31] Voice 24: and hosting of those recordings.

[3:14:33] Voice 24: And so I think, you know, there are downsides to this

[3:14:37] Voice 24: in terms of transparency,

[3:14:39] Voice 24: in terms of being able to reference back

[3:14:41] Voice 24: to meeting proceedings and that kind of thing.

[3:14:45] Voice 24: But it is a budget item that is discretionary to some extent.

[3:14:50] Voice 24: And it would mean, though, that we lose that record of meetings

[3:14:54] Voice 24: that we have through the recordings now

[3:14:57] Trustee Patrick: questions

[3:14:58] Voice 20: uh trustee evans um not really sure quite how to

[3:15:03] Voice 20: phrase my question but if we do lose this i understand the value of having them available

[3:15:09] Voice 20: so if we decide to stop streaming and editing then we have lost those videos they're gone

[3:15:17] Voice 20: we don't have those reference points anymore um to refer back to in case there's a um

[3:15:24] Voice 20: um an inquiry regarding um trustee behavior or regarding conversation or regarding uh like all

[3:15:34] Voice 20: we'll have left will be the minutes is that correct yeah

[3:15:38] Voice 24: just to be clear so we would still

[3:15:39] Voice 24: under this proposal we would still be streaming the meetings um so we could still live stream

[3:15:44] Voice 24: them people could still watch them remotely um we would still be hosting meetings hybrid meetings

[3:15:50] Voice 24: within zoom to facilitate staff and trustee participation it's the recording here that is

[3:15:55] Voice 24: um is the item up for discussion i see director martyr has some comments as well

[3:16:00] Voice 24: go ahead yeah

[3:16:03] Voice 8: through the chair the um so yeah you're correct we would not have a recording to go back and look at

[3:16:09] Voice 8: uh this would also affect existing recordings that we have stored on there we would uh take

[3:16:15] Voice 8: those down because we've been no longer hosting them uh through collaborative video i also see

[3:16:21] Trustee Patrick: see director mobs nope director mobs his hand went down sorry

[3:16:28] Voice 20: can i just have a quick follow

[3:16:29] Trustee Patrick: up yes

[3:16:30] Voice 20: go ahead follow up so this would actually have a large impact to to our um standing well

[3:16:38] Voice 20: the videos wouldn't be

[3:16:39] Trustee Patrick: there director mobs now has their hand raised you're muted there director

[3:16:48] Trustee Patrick: mobs you're disappearing um

[3:16:52] Voice 19: thanks chair um i don't want to complicate the conversation i just

[3:16:55] Voice 19: I just want to confirm with Director Marler, the $15,000, as I understand it, supports our contract with Collaborate Video.

[3:17:03] Voice 19: Collaborate Video is the meeting streaming provider.

[3:17:09] Voice 19: So they are plugged into our Zoom.

[3:17:12] Voice 19: They stream the meetings.

[3:17:14] Voice 19: Zoom records the meetings.

[3:17:15] Voice 19: Collaborate Video edits and posts and stores our meetings for us.

[3:17:19] Voice 19: So I think if the $15,000 were to go away,

[3:17:22] Voice 19: we would lose it past the live stream

[3:17:24] Voice 19: as well as edit and store our videos.

[3:17:27] Voice 19: Zoom would still be able to record the video

[3:17:29] Voice 19: and we would keep them in-house.

[3:17:31] Voice 19: But I just want to confirm with Director Marler,

[3:17:32] Voice 19: that's my understanding from the...

[3:17:37] Voice 8: My apologies, I'm going to have to look into that

[3:17:39] Voice 8: because my understanding was that Collaborate Video are the host

[3:17:44] Voice 8: and they take the screen, take their recording that we create

[3:17:50] Voice 8: and then they host it, edit it, make it available for the public.

[3:17:54] Voice 8: So without that, even if we were to record through Zoom,

[3:17:58] Voice 8: because Zoom does have that ability,

[3:18:00] Voice 8: we would have no way of sharing that with the public on our website.

[3:18:03] Voice 8: So that would not happen.

[3:18:05] Voice 8: I believe we could still stream.

[3:18:07] Voice 8: I think that's something we could do,

[3:18:08] Voice 8: but I'd have to check into that for you.

[3:18:11] Trustee Patrick: I'd like to just identify another option.

[3:18:14] Trustee Patrick: Oops, go ahead, Director Marlowe.

[3:18:16] Voice 8: Yeah, I just wanted to also point out,

[3:18:18] Voice 8: It's probably obvious that this is not a legal requirement to record or to screen.

[3:18:23] Voice 8: So the only recording we have to do is the minute.

[3:18:29] Trustee Patrick: Just saying if there's interest and we don't have enough information to make any decision,

[3:18:33] Trustee Patrick: we could also request further information instead of thinking of a decision.

[3:18:37] Trustee Patrick: But go ahead. I would like to get to the motions here.

[3:18:39] Trustee Patrick: So let's keep questions quick.

[3:18:41] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Boland.

[3:18:44] Voice 7: Yeah, I'd appreciate more information.

[3:18:46] Voice 7: To the best of my knowledge, Zoom keeps recordings.

[3:18:49] Voice 7: depending on what you pay for, but they record and keep those recordings for a certain number

[3:18:56] Voice 7: of days. But you can also record locally. I

[3:19:00] Voice 1: can see the

[3:19:00] Voice 7: value of those recordings to

[3:19:02] Voice 7: minute takers, for instance, and then you could have a local retention policy, which means you

[3:19:09] Voice 7: keep them for six months only. So I can imagine the 15,000 is for editing, streaming, preparing

[3:19:16] Voice 7: sharing it to be put on the web, but basic recordings, I think, are fine.

[3:19:22] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Let's focus on questions and if we don't have enough information...

[3:19:27] Voice 7: Yeah, that

[3:19:28] Voice 7: would be a question to

[3:19:29] Trustee Patrick: clarify that. Thanks.

[3:19:32] Voice 12: All

[3:19:33] Trustee Patrick: right. Trustee Getty?

[3:19:37] Voice 10: Have we researched whether or not there's cheaper alternatives and is there some way that we could possibly...

[3:19:45] Voice 10: It would be cheaper to have some sort of in-house system where it might be available for, I don't know whether I would necessarily categorize it as internal reasons, but if we did have to go back and make a reference for something to do with a complaint or something to do with a dispute over what the content of a conversation was or a debate,

[3:20:10] Voice 10: um it's if 15 000 is seems like a lot of money um and i'm just wondering if there's other

[3:20:18] Voice 10: alternatives that uh would give us the um i use these recordings a lot so if there's some way of

[3:20:25] Voice 10: of somehow or other having these service without the the that it's the extent of the expense

[3:20:35] Trustee Patrick: is that director marler i

[3:20:42] Voice 8: would have to look into that for you my

[3:20:44] Voice 8: My understanding is that when we looked into what was possible with Zoom,

[3:20:50] Voice 8: collaborative video became the most cost-effective way of doing it.

[3:20:54] Voice 8: So I don't know specifics of that, so I'd have to go back to the IT staff,

[3:20:59] Voice 8: have a look at what that is, and then come back to you.

[3:21:02] Voice 8: So I'm sorry I don't have that information for you at the moment.

[3:21:05] Trustee Patrick: All right, so I think we're going to be low on information here.

[3:21:08] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Elliott?

[3:21:10] Voice 18: Yeah, I had heard. So do minute takers not use the recordings to refer to? Because I've heard that was pretty standard practice.

[3:21:22] Voice 24: Yes, sometimes they do. And so, to be clear, this has, this would have definite downsides. You know, I think there are options, for example, to record within Zoom that would work for our own internal purposes like the minute takers.

[3:21:35] Voice 24: And so we would explore those mitigations. But I think the trend, I think there are the pro of this

[3:21:42] Voice 24: is is budget savings, but I think there are some significant drawbacks as well in terms of how it impacts some of our processes for meetings and also I think how it might be perceived publicly as well.

[3:21:57] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Best, quick question.

[3:21:59] Trustee Patrick: Quick

[3:22:00] Trustee Fast: question is, do we have any stats on the viewers? Because if there's only a few, then it makes a difference as to how I would measure the value when people could watch on live stream or refer to the minutes.

[3:22:20] Trustee Patrick: Director Marler.

[3:22:21] Trustee Patrick: We

[3:22:24] Voice 8: can find the number of people that are accessing the recordings.

[3:22:30] Voice 8: For the live stream, we can't.

[3:22:32] Voice 8: That's more like a broadcast, so we just don't know how many people will be watching it.

[3:22:38] Trustee Fast: Okay, thanks.

[3:22:38] Trustee Fast: I appreciate the numbers, the evidence.

[3:22:42] Trustee Fast: Thank you.

[3:22:43] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[3:22:45] Trustee Patrick: Director Marley, your hand went back up again, but it may not have been.

[3:22:49] Trustee Patrick: So bear in mind, if a motion could also be made,

[3:22:53] Trustee Patrick: Do you want more information on this or not?

[3:22:55] Trustee Patrick: So a quick straw poll.

[3:22:57] Trustee Patrick: And then is there anyone who's opposed to removing the collaborative video?

[3:23:07] Trustee Patrick: I see lots of hands going up.

[3:23:08] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[3:23:09] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands.

[3:23:11] Trustee Patrick: We've made it through this table.

[3:23:12] Trustee Patrick: We've taken a long time, as usual.

[3:23:16] Trustee Patrick: So we've got some time left here.

[3:23:18] Trustee Patrick: I know motions have been coming in, Alexandra.

[3:23:20] Trustee Patrick: And I assume the motions have probably come in on the order of this table.

[3:23:24] Trustee Patrick: And that means staying on this table for now.

[3:23:27] Trustee Patrick: And I think that's all we have time to do.

[3:23:30] Trustee Patrick: So, Alexandra, if you're able to either bring up the motions.

[3:23:39] Trustee Patrick: I know we've had.

[3:23:41] Voice 5: Hi, Chair.

[3:23:42] Voice 5: I will just ask Lisa to one moment.

[3:23:45] Voice 5: Thank you.

[3:23:46] Trustee Patrick: I'm sorry.

[3:23:47] Trustee Patrick: Apologize.

[3:24:05] Trustee Patrick: Hopefully people who sent in motions followed the templates so that the wording is straightforward.

[3:24:12] Trustee Patrick: Here we go.

[3:24:16] Trustee Patrick: Oh, someone's put an omnibus in there.

[3:24:29] Trustee Patrick: I don't know how we feel about one motion that does lots of things

[3:24:35] Trustee Patrick: because that's going to be challenging.

[3:24:44] Voice 20: That was me.

[3:24:45] Voice 20: If you want to break them out individually, happy to do so as well.

[3:24:50] Trustee Patrick: I just think individuals will get bogged down into one or the other.

[3:24:54] Trustee Patrick: So I think if we could keep them individual, it would certainly help.

[3:25:04] Voice 20: Okay, so if staff are okay just breaking them out individually, then we can move forward.

[3:25:11] Voice 20: The second motion, I think we can keep those three together because they are interrelated.

[3:25:17] Voice 20: But the first one can be broken out individually.

[3:25:33] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Elliott, do you have a process question?

[3:25:35] Voice 18: Yeah, I don't think this is helpful, option one.

[3:25:39] Voice 18: we need to direct staff it needs to be clear when it lands on trust council's agenda

[3:25:44] Voice 18: they can't be council can't be looking at option one so we need to say action and reduce the

[3:25:52] Voice 18: related budget by so and so so i suggest we you know trustee evans could take some time

[3:25:59] Voice 18: and go through the template um because we need to see the numbers because these are

[3:26:06] Voice 18: The recommendations in Trust Council will have to have discussion.

[3:26:12] Trustee Patrick: No, thank you.

[3:26:13] Trustee Patrick: Well, I'm going to look to Lisa if you have, for item number one,

[3:26:19] Trustee Patrick: has someone presented it in the template format?

[3:26:31] Voice 15: Chair Patrick, this is all that I

[3:26:32] Voice 15: have at this point.

[3:26:34] Trustee Patrick: That's all you have?

[3:26:35] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[3:26:39] Trustee Patrick: Oh, goodness.

[3:26:40] Trustee Patrick: Okay, so the template, Trustee Boland?

[3:26:46] Voice 7: um i i did send a motion that pertains to item number five i think if we if we use item number

[3:26:56] Voice 7: explicitly and refer to that table and we should be able to do it i mean otherwise we're going to

[3:27:03] Voice 7: be here a long long long time i'm

[3:27:06] Trustee Patrick: going to look to staff first before we go on um director mobs

[3:27:10] Trustee Patrick: had provided the template resolutions here so um

[3:27:14] Voice 20: and i did follow the template resolution i just uh

[3:27:18] Voice 20: because this was such a large thing i just put the line item and i referenced the document

[3:27:22] Voice 20: name yeah

[3:27:23] Trustee Patrick: i'm just looking to staff on should we would this be okay or no there you go director

[3:27:30] Trustee Patrick: moms i

[3:27:33] Voice 19: think in the interest of time this is fine of course this document will be provided

[3:27:37] Voice 19: to trust council along with all of the related resolutions so they'll be able to reference it

[3:27:42] Voice 19: One small point, I suggest removing the word staff recommendation and making that staff budget reduction option, because, of course, these are not recommendations from staff.

[3:27:52] Trustee Patrick: Yeah, we'll wait for that change.

[3:28:05] Voice 15: Director Mobs, could you clarify what you wanted in place of that?

[3:28:12] Voice 19: Sure, adopt staff budget reduction option.

[3:28:30] Voice 7: Comment item one, can I suggest?

[3:28:32] Voice 7: Yeah,

[3:28:43] Voice 19: and of course the mover, feel free to amend this to do what you're trying to.

[3:28:48] Voice 19: All right.

[3:28:55] Voice 12: So

[3:29:01] Trustee Patrick: that's, Director Marler, did you have a comment here?

[3:29:07] Voice 8: Yeah, I'm just concerned that the resolution won't stand by itself.

[3:29:11] Voice 8: I would actually make sure it's clear that the adopt the staff budget reduction option item one,

[3:29:20] Voice 8: we need to know the document it's in.

[3:29:22] Voice 8: So, as presented in the document entitled, and I think it's draft 2026-27 budget reduction

[3:29:34] Voice 8: option.

[3:29:35] Voice 8: And also just say to committee the whole on February 18, 2027.

[3:29:47] Voice 8: That makes it more specific and the resolution should then be able to stand.

[3:29:53] Voice 8: All right.

[3:29:54] Voice 8: because

[3:29:54] Trustee Patrick: we're probably going

[3:29:55] Voice 8: to follow this sadly after

[3:29:57] Trustee Patrick: director margaret's template director

[3:30:00] Trustee Patrick: Bob's template will be going with this new one.

[3:30:03] Trustee Patrick: So is this gonna be okay?

[3:30:10] Trustee Patrick: Director Marlowe, did you have something else?

[3:30:17] Voice 8: No, I'm good, thank you.

[3:30:19] Trustee Patrick: All right, so option one, number one,

[3:30:21] Trustee Patrick: I'll repeat was the committee meeting expenses of $6,500.

[3:30:29] Trustee Patrick: Are these questions regarding the wording of the motions?

[3:30:33] Voice 18: Yes, I would like to see the number.

[3:30:38] Voice 18: number. So reduce the draft budget by $6,500. I think it's important just to have the numbers in

[3:30:44] Voice 18: there.

[3:30:45] Trustee Patrick: All right. So option number one, budget reduction option number one, either or in

[3:30:53] Trustee Patrick: parentheses maybe for now? Or could it replace

[3:30:58] Voice 19: the word according? Sorry, we

[3:31:00] Trustee Patrick: got too many cooks in

[3:31:01] Trustee Patrick: the kitchen. Director Mobbs?

[3:31:04] Voice 19: I would suggest adding it to the end of the motion and reduce

[3:31:07] Voice 19: Here's the related draft 2026-2027 budget by

[3:31:13] Trustee Patrick: 6,500.

[3:31:15] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[3:31:16] Trustee Patrick: There you go.

[3:31:17] Trustee Patrick: So remove accordingly and just put by.

[3:31:21] Trustee Patrick: Yeah, there we go.

[3:31:23] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[3:31:26] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Yates, did you have a process question

[3:31:28] Voice 4: or a wording question here?

[3:31:30] Voice 4: Yes, thanks.

[3:31:31] Voice 4: I can't vote on these unless I know either the amount or what the item is

[3:31:36] Voice 4: is other than just an option item one.

[3:31:39] Voice 4: So maybe you could just show us that table before we vote.

[3:31:44] Trustee Patrick: I can read it out.

[3:31:45] Trustee Patrick: I'm happy to read it out.

[3:31:47] Trustee Patrick: I have it on my screen.

[3:31:48] Trustee Patrick: If you can open up yours to page 44 with the agenda package,

[3:31:52] Trustee Patrick: that would be helpful too, if you can.

[3:31:55] Trustee Patrick: But so item one is the committee meeting expenses, $6,500.

[3:32:01] Trustee Patrick: And this was for all of the committees,

[3:32:04] Trustee Patrick: the trust council committees to be held electronically.

[3:32:10] Trustee Patrick: All right, to trustee Elliott,

[3:32:11] Trustee Patrick: do you have a question before we?

[3:32:13] Voice 18: We just replaced item one with committee meeting expenses.

[3:32:18] Voice 18: I'm sorry,

[3:32:19] Voice 18: but there was a template.

[3:32:21] Voice 18: Yes,

[3:32:22] Trustee Patrick: I understand that,

[3:32:23] Trustee Patrick: but now we're gonna have to rebuild

[3:32:24] Trustee Patrick: each and every one of these.

[3:32:25] Trustee Patrick: So I'm trying to make it somewhat easy.

[3:32:28] Trustee Patrick: Time is ticking.

[3:32:31] Trustee Patrick: Yes, there was a template,

[3:32:33] Trustee Patrick: but I'm looking to staff if this is sufficient,

[3:32:35] Trustee Patrick: then we'll go with the wording that's here if that's all right trustee harris do you have a

[3:32:43] Trustee Patrick: wording or process question well

[3:32:45] Voice 23: i i understand the template thing because this is confusing

[3:32:51] Voice 23: like it or not and for something of this much importance i think the less confusion the better

[3:32:58] Voice 23: um honestly like it needs to be worded so we can understand what the motion is and for anybody else

[3:33:04] Voice 23: so draft minutes or later on down the line or people that have um that are reporting on this

[3:33:08] Voice 23: stuff um needs to be clear and um transparent thank you all

[3:33:15] Trustee Patrick: right let's take a five minute

[3:33:16] Trustee Patrick: break um is what i'm going to propose here we have the template that was before us if um

[3:33:23] Trustee Patrick: where's the template it's on page 11 of the agenda package so on page 11 of the agenda

[3:33:33] Trustee Patrick: end of package for anyone else who is

[3:33:34] Voice 20: submitting motions? I will redo all of these. I did use the

[3:33:39] Voice 20: template. It just wasn't. So I will rewrite it to be more clear. Thank you. All right. Let's take

[3:33:46] Trustee Patrick: a five minute break. Everyone work on the motions following the template. All right,

[3:40:16] Voice 12: trustees. I know I see some finger typing going on out there. Thank

[3:40:24] Trustee Patrick: you for posting the template

[3:40:26] Trustee Patrick: there. Lisa, if you've received any rewritten.

[3:41:22] Voice 15: Okay. Are

[3:41:44] Trustee Patrick: we okay with that? We'll look to

[3:41:46] Trustee Patrick: staff on the wording of this first one.

[3:41:58] Voice 3: What happened to item one? I thought that was the...

[3:42:01] Trustee Patrick: We have different orders here. I'm not sure if this is still the template, but is this

[3:42:07] Trustee Patrick: okay the way this isn't quite the template but

[3:42:15] Voice 20: uh i'm using the first the first template

[3:42:18] Voice 20: is what i was using oh

[3:42:21] Trustee Patrick: okay it was still the this is still not the template that's in the

[3:42:26] Trustee Patrick: agenda package so we're still stuck with some i'm

[3:42:30] Voice 20: using the very first template

[3:42:33] Voice 20: the first line item i copied and pasted it and then filled in where it says fill in okay director

[3:42:44] Trustee Patrick: uh

[3:42:46] Voice 19: so you know the template um would would seek a reference to the activity that's being dropped

[3:42:55] Voice 19: so you know recommend that all trust council committee meetings be held electronically and

[3:42:58] Voice 19: reduce the draft committee meeting budget by 6500 accordingly um you know staff do understand what

[3:43:06] Voice 19: this motion is saying so we'll be able to action it accordingly um you know it does refer back to

[3:43:15] Voice 19: another document that would have to be referred to to understand this completely um so it's it's

[3:43:24] Voice 19: really up to trustees um what you like from the staff perspective this is understandable to action

[3:43:32] Trustee Patrick: okay trustee getty i

[3:43:35] Voice 10: managed to do one for um item number 19 just to see if i could do it and

[3:43:39] Voice 10: it was a whole lot of cut and paste and back and forth and it's a little bit um awkward in terms of

[3:43:45] Voice 10: what parts to fill in where on the the template but um uh that took me all of that break for one

[3:43:52] Voice 10: item so if we've got you know 23 or 24 of these half of them for motion um we've got 15 minutes

[3:44:02] Voice 10: left so i'm not sure uh nope that's all right well how to get

[3:44:06] Trustee Patrick: it all done well if this is

[3:44:07] Trustee Patrick: understandable enough we're going to have to proceed as is trustee elliott are

[3:44:12] Trustee Patrick: you chair i

[3:44:14] Voice 18: I could just read a motion out, which is one of the, on the template on page 11, the second item, that Committee of the Whole recommend that Trust Council not fund in-person meetings.

[3:44:24] Voice 18: So that is at least one.

[3:44:27] Voice 18: And I could work on the others if we want to do that.

[3:44:35] Trustee Patrick: Well, this was always going to be a challenging part of the meeting.

[3:44:38] Trustee Patrick: I think

[3:44:38] Trustee Patrick: we're just going to have to proceed with what we have right now.

[3:44:41] Trustee Patrick: There will be a mix of motions.

[3:44:42] Trustee Patrick: And so we'll talk them through and make sure people understand what we've got.

[3:44:50] Trustee Patrick: Now we've got a different one at the top here.

[3:44:53] Voice 10: That's my number 19.

[3:44:54] Trustee Patrick: Yeah.

[3:44:58] Trustee Patrick: So Director Frater?

[3:45:07] Voice 9: Oh, yes.

[3:45:07] Voice 9: That was an accident.

[3:45:08] Voice 9: My apologies.

[3:45:10] Trustee Patrick: That's all right.

[3:45:11] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[3:45:12] Trustee Patrick: Director Mobs.

[3:45:15] Voice 19: Thanks, Chair.

[3:45:16] Voice 19: I just want to acknowledge the template provided is a guide.

[3:45:19] Voice 19: it's not a mandatory it's meant to serve as a helpful guide for you in crafting

[3:45:23] Voice 19: motions you know there's nothing to restrict you to that sort of language

[3:45:29] Voice 19: you know director Marla's advice is to make sure that the resolution can stand

[3:45:33] Voice 19: on its own so if it's referencing another document that we name the

[3:45:36] Voice 19: document but there's no requirement to follow okay

[3:45:40] Trustee Patrick: well we're gonna get going

[3:45:43] Trustee Patrick: then I'm gonna go in the order there on the page here I know there may not be

[3:45:46] Trustee Patrick: you how the order that they were received in patients is necessary um so uh trustee getty

[3:45:52] Trustee Patrick: it looks like you're up first so go the

[3:45:57] Voice 10: the committee of the whole recommend that trust

[3:45:59] Voice 10: council not hire a professional photographer for a new trust trustee photos and reduce the

[3:46:05] Voice 10: related draft 2026 27 item number 19 although that's not uh that's not the correct reference

[3:46:15] Voice 10: is it um number 19 on this list of recommendations budget line by 3500 um i think julia yeah you're

[3:46:28] Trustee Patrick: mute is that is that okay okay it's thumbs up all right is there a second i'm taking a second by

[3:46:35] Trustee Patrick: trustee dodds is that correct yes that's all right

[3:46:41] Trustee Patrick: any discussion this is the photography

[3:46:45] Trustee Patrick: the easiest one

[3:46:49] Trustee Patrick: that's a good call

[3:46:52] Trustee Patrick: there's no discussion

[3:46:53] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to call

[3:46:53] Trustee Patrick: were you jumping the gun to vote there

[3:46:57] Trustee Patrick: he was

[3:46:58] Trustee Patrick: all those in favour raise your digital hands

[3:47:03] Trustee Patrick: staff just a moment

[3:47:11] Trustee Patrick: lower your hands

[3:47:13] Trustee Patrick: any opposed

[3:47:19] Trustee Patrick: no

[3:47:21] Trustee Patrick: your microphone is open

[3:47:25] Trustee Patrick: trustee Boyd

[3:47:26] Trustee Patrick: or three, Trustee

[3:47:26] Voice 6: Graham, Trustee

[3:47:28] Trustee Patrick: Graham, your hand is up, your mic is on. My apologies. That's

[3:47:33] Trustee Patrick: all right. All right, that carries. So we're going to move on to the next one. Go ahead,

[3:47:40] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans.

[3:47:44] Voice 20: I move that Committee of the Whole recommend that Trust Council adopt Staff Budget

[3:47:49] Voice 20: Reduction Option Number 4, Meeting Expense, as presented in the Draft 2026-27 Budget Reduction

[3:47:56] Voice 20: options table and reduce the related draft 2026-27 budget by $3,000 and as a reminder this

[3:48:04] Voice 20: is primarily for staff to be able to update our budget for a couple in a couple of weeks from now

[3:48:10] Voice 20: so I think they'll know

[3:48:14] Voice 20: what we mean well

[3:48:16] Trustee Patrick: um that's fine and I'll just for everyone's purpose

[3:48:18] Trustee Patrick: before that second that's for the executive committee meeting in person um which was item

[3:48:23] Trustee Patrick: of number four uh is there a second to this motion seconded by trustee dodds is there any discussion

[3:48:30] Trustee Patrick: call the vote all those in favor raise your digital hands 17

[3:48:43] Voice 8: up okay lower your hands

[3:48:53] Trustee Patrick: trustee boland trustee boland lower your hand um any opposed that carries

[3:49:05] Trustee Patrick: all right trustee evans move on to your

[3:49:07] Voice 20: next one i move that committee the whole recommend that

[3:49:12] Voice 20: that Trust Council adopts staff budget reduction option number six,

[3:49:15] Voice 20: the reconciliation action plan as presented in the draft 2026-27 budget

[3:49:20] Voice 20: reduction options table and reduce the related draft 2026-27 budget by

[3:49:26] Voice 20: $25,000.

[3:49:28] Trustee Patrick: Maybe for that second,

[3:49:29] Trustee Patrick: that's the reconciliation action plan being cut in half.

[3:49:32] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second?

[3:49:33] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Dodds.

[3:49:38] Trustee Patrick: Any discussion?

[3:49:43] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to call the vote.

[3:49:44] Trustee Patrick: All those in favor, raise your digital hand.

[3:49:46] Trustee Patrick: And I

[3:49:57] Voice 8: see 15 in favor.

[3:49:59] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands.

[3:50:07] Trustee Patrick: Any opposed?

[3:50:11] Trustee Patrick: One opposed.

[3:50:12] Trustee Patrick: Two opposed.

[3:50:13] Trustee Patrick: Three opposed.

[3:50:14] Trustee Patrick: Three.

[3:50:15] Trustee Patrick: That carries.

[3:50:19] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[3:50:20] Trustee Patrick: Trustee

[3:50:20] Voice 20: Evans, is that you again?

[3:50:21] Voice 20: Yep.

[3:50:22] Voice 20: I move that Committee of the Whole recommend that Trust Council adopt Staff Budget Reduction Option No. 7 regarding the Reconciliation Action Plan as presented in the Draft 2026-27 Budget Reduction Options Table

[3:50:34] Voice 20: and reduce the related draft 2026-27 budget by $50,000.

[3:50:39] Trustee Patrick: Before that's seconded, that is the capacity funding

[3:50:43] Trustee Patrick: to reduce the capacity funding by 50%.

[3:50:45] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second?

[3:50:47] Trustee Patrick: Is that Trustee Peterson?

[3:50:48] Trustee Patrick: Are you seconding?

[3:50:49] Trustee Patrick: I

[3:50:50] Voice 6: was hoping we could identify that it's the capacity funding in the motion.

[3:50:54] Voice 18: Please.

[3:50:56] Voice 18: I think this is unclear.

[3:51:03] Voice 3: The reference is very clear, to me at least.

[3:51:06] Voice 3: it seems to refer to the document that we've been discussing and um trust council is actually this

[3:51:13] Voice 3: body in a different guise anyhow so all

[3:51:16] Trustee Patrick: right oh thank you and i understand it's not perfect but

[3:51:21] Trustee Patrick: you're going to have to have the reference table to understand these which we have okay um

[3:51:29] Trustee Patrick: So, is there a second to this motion? Second by Trustee Boland. Is there any discussion?

[3:51:43] Trustee Patrick: Seeing none, I'm going to call the vote. All those in favor, raise your digital hand.

[3:51:55] Voice 8: 14 in favor.

[3:51:57] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands. Any opposed? That carries.

[3:52:10] Voice 8: Yeah, three opposed.

[3:52:13] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. All right. Trustee Evans?

[3:52:17] Voice 20: I was typing as fast as I could.

[3:52:20] Voice 20: I move that Committee of the Whole recommend that Trust Council adopt Staff Budget Reduction Option No. 8, Recruitment and Labor Relations, as presented in the Draft 2026-27 Budget Reduction Options Table, and reduce the related Draft 2026-27 budget by $5,500.

[3:52:39] Voice 20: So please remove one of those zeros.

[3:52:45] Trustee Patrick: Yes, it was $5,500.

[3:52:47] Trustee Patrick: was the

[3:52:50] Trustee Patrick: $5,500

[3:52:52] Trustee Patrick: was the amount.

[3:52:58] Trustee Patrick: All right. Is there a second?

[3:53:00] Trustee Patrick: Is that seconded by Trustee Dodds?

[3:53:05] Trustee Patrick: Any discussion?

[3:53:09] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Dodds, your hand is still

[3:53:10] Trustee Patrick: raised. Not seeing

[3:53:15] Trustee Patrick: any discussion. I will

[3:53:18] Trustee Patrick: call the vote. All those in favor, raise your

[3:53:20] Trustee Patrick: hand.

[3:53:22] Voice 8: You're getting fast.

[3:53:27] Voice 8: 16 in favor.

[3:53:28] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands.

[3:53:35] Trustee Patrick: Any opposed?

[3:53:38] Trustee Patrick: That carries. None opposed.

[3:53:42] Trustee Patrick: okay trustee evans is this you again yep all

[3:53:46] Voice 20: right

[3:53:46] Trustee Patrick: i

[3:53:47] Voice 20: move that committee of the whole recommend that

[3:53:49] Voice 20: trust council adopt staff budget reduction option nine staff recognition and training as presented

[3:53:55] Voice 20: in the draft 2026-27 budget reduction options table and reduce the related draft 2026-27 budget

[3:54:02] Voice 20: by four thousand dollars before

[3:54:05] Trustee Patrick: this is like this is the the not to travel to the northern islands

[3:54:09] Trustee Patrick: so is there a second is that trustee hunter are you seconding yes

[3:54:17] Voice 15: okay

[3:54:18] Trustee Patrick: thank you thanks for the

[3:54:19] Trustee Patrick: audibles on the seconds i just want to confirm with all the hands up um is there any discussion

[3:54:29] Trustee Patrick: seeing none i'll call the vote all those in favor raise your hands uh

[3:54:39] Voice 8: 15 in favor

[3:54:40] Voice 8: all

[3:54:41] Trustee Patrick: right lower your hands any trustee evans your hand is still raised oh

[3:54:50] Trustee Patrick: Oh, that's right. Any opposed? One opposed.

[3:54:58] Trustee Patrick: One opposed.

[3:55:00] Trustee Patrick: That carries.

[3:55:02] Voice 20: Okay. Trustee Evans, is this your last one?

[3:55:05] Voice 20: No, it's not. I'm still trying to type up the rest and get them.

[3:55:09] Voice 20: I move that committee of the whole recommend that trust council adopt budget

[3:55:13] Voice 20: reduction option number 10 staff salaries and benefits as presented in the

[3:55:18] Voice 20: draft 2026-27 budget reduction options table and reduce the related draft

[3:55:24] Voice 20: 2026-27 budget by $45,564, and that was to delay hiring of the manager.

[3:55:35] Trustee Patrick: Yes, before this is seconded, this is to move the start date of the full-time

[3:55:40] Trustee Patrick: manager of Indigenous Relations from June 1st to October 1st.

[3:55:46] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second? I see lots of hands raised, but is there a second?

[3:55:51] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Peterson, are you asking to second?

[3:55:53] Trustee Patrick: or i

[3:55:55] Voice 6: was hoping that we could because there's several let's say staff salaries the benefit

[3:55:58] Voice 6: that we could just include the position in the in the motion please that

[3:56:02] Voice 18: was my request okay

[3:56:04] Trustee Patrick: if in parenthesis staff salary positions add a full one full f1 fte or indigenous relations

[3:56:13] Trustee Patrick: manager i guess that's probably just the indigenous relations manager that's adequate

[3:56:22] Trustee Patrick: that's okay trustee Campbell did you have a question or did you want a second all right

[3:56:31] Trustee Patrick: is there a second I

[3:56:32] Voice 27: was just seconding okay

[3:56:34] Trustee Patrick: trustee Campbell aside thank you for the

[3:56:36] Trustee Patrick: it's just lots of hands up is there any discussion trustee fast thank

[3:56:45] Trustee Fast: you I apologize if I missed

[3:56:47] Trustee Fast: this earlier but um if this position is delayed until uh the beginning of october um is there

[3:56:55] Trustee Fast: what's the chance or what's the risk of it being uh delayed by a month and an incoming council

[3:57:03] Trustee Fast: putting it off again and i'm i'm just could you fill this position uh and uh have it in before

[3:57:13] Trustee Fast: for the election thank you i

[3:57:17] Voice 24: can speak to that through the chair the goal

[3:57:18] Voice 24: the goal is to recruit

[3:57:20] Voice 24: this position for october the first and to have somebody that would be the target start date for

[3:57:25] Voice 24: october the first so we would start recruitment for likely over the summer thank

[3:57:31] Trustee Patrick: you okay trustee

[3:57:32] Trustee Patrick: peterson uh

[3:57:35] Voice 6: thank you chair uh of all of these uh staff position um deferrals this is the one

[3:57:41] Voice 6: i am not in support of and i won't be voting in favor of this thank you thank

[3:57:46] Trustee Patrick: you trustee elliott

[3:57:48] Voice 18: thank you i'm of a similar view um i think it just pushes it down the line um and uh yeah i don't

[3:57:56] Voice 18: support the motion thanks thank

[3:57:58] Trustee Patrick: you trustee gabriel uh

[3:58:01] Voice 11: similar i'd like to reflect this comments of

[3:58:03] Voice 11: tim and with uh toby as well i think that uh we need to get on this right away i think we uh with

[3:58:09] Voice 11: the election coming i think um the engagement period that this could offer us in the future

[3:58:14] Voice 11: would benefit if we started that now.

[3:58:16] Voice 11: And I think that the next term trustees

[3:58:18] Voice 11: will benefit from that as well.

[3:58:20] Trustee Patrick: All right, thank you.

[3:58:21] Trustee Patrick: First time speakers, I'll come back to you, Trustee Fast.

[3:58:23] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Bernardo.

[3:58:25] Voice 3: As a general matter, I am highly in favor

[3:58:27] Voice 3: of doing absolutely everything we can

[3:58:29] Voice 3: to knock down the tax increase.

[3:58:34] Voice 3: But of all the things that have been presented to us,

[3:58:39] Voice 3: this is the one I can't support this reduction.

[3:58:43] Voice 3: uh i think we are headed into an election but more than that um this province is headed into

[3:58:50] Voice 3: some choppy waters with respect to reconciliation reconciliation in general i don't need to

[3:58:56] Voice 3: tell everybody what they already know about legal decisions and the politics of that is a swirling

[3:59:02] Voice 3: confusing mess uh the sooner our indigenous relations manager is on board and learns the

[3:59:10] Voice 3: organization the sooner that person can provide us with guidance advice facilitation where it's

[3:59:19] Voice 3: necessary and it looks like it's going to be pretty seriously necessary over the next 12 months

[3:59:24] Voice 3: so I will oppose this motion thank

[3:59:27] Trustee Patrick: you trustee fast hope you're muted trustee fast

[3:59:32] Trustee Fast: thank you

[3:59:34] Trustee Fast: I'll be brief like the other speakers I oppose this motion not only because I think I don't want

[3:59:41] Trustee Fast: to delay hiring, but I also want the Islands Trust to be seen to be hiring a manager of

[3:59:48] Trustee Fast: Indigenous relations for all the people that live in the islands and for the First Nations

[3:59:56] Trustee Fast: whose territories are in the islands. Thank you.

[4:00:00] Trustee Patrick: thank you any further discussion uh trustee middleton

[4:00:06] Voice 1: thank you obviously we all um

[4:00:12] Voice 1: are of the view that reconciliation is very important but i think given the fact that this

[4:00:17] Voice 1: is a person hired in the context of an organization that's an agency of the provincial government

[4:00:22] Voice 1: we have to always look at that context and the context has changed radically over the past six

[4:00:27] Voice 1: months um the province has realized that it's a reconciliation policy is so

[4:00:34] Voice 7: lee we can hardly hear

[4:00:36] Voice 7: you sorry you need to volume

[4:00:38] Voice 7: needs to be up oh

[4:00:40] Voice 1: okay uh let me just see what do you want to turn

[4:00:45] Voice 1: to another speaker i might be on the wrong microphone here all

[4:00:49] Trustee Patrick: right trustee campbell

[4:00:52] Voice 27: i'm gonna vote in favor of this i think that there's a couple of things we've we've talked

[4:00:58] Voice 27: We've talked already today about how we're not sure what the changing role is going to be with UNDRIP. I've never supported in business hiring somebody with the idea that you're going to try to make hay before a certain period of time, getting somebody hired prior to an election and knowing what the directive after the election is going to be.

[4:01:20] Voice 27: And thirdly, I think we've been asked by the people that have elected us to not run a budget up.

[4:01:31] Voice 27: And this is an opportunity where we have to make some tough decisions to cut some things that we actually can work around.

[4:01:45] Voice 27: And so I think that it's stuff that needs to go forward.

[4:01:48] Voice 27: And if we can bring that budget number down, that's what we need to do, because I don't know if anybody has been told by their constituents that they think that it's a great idea that we spend more money, but I know for sure that I have not.

[4:02:04] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Trustee Middleton, did you want to speak further?

[4:02:10] Voice 1: Yeah, how is that?

[4:02:12] Trustee Patrick: It's about the same.

[4:02:14] Voice 1: Still low.

[4:02:18] Voice 1: Okay.

[4:02:19] Trustee Patrick: That's better.

[4:02:19] Trustee Patrick: is

[4:02:20] Voice 1: it okay yeah i'll um i'll basically say that i think because the context has changed

[4:02:29] Voice 1: we we have to make different decisions around perhaps our original intent when it came to how

[4:02:34] Voice 1: we carry forward reconciliation and i think the province is facing a very very serious issue with

[4:02:40] Voice 1: a structural deficit and i think we are we are mirroring the province in terms of we we basically

[4:02:49] Voice 1: extend the problem with each individual hire we have and I just think we need to

[4:02:54] Voice 1: take a very comprehensive look about how we move forward in the future with

[4:03:00] Voice 1: full-time staff hirings because we like the province are facing some it's

[4:03:05] Voice 1: basically lack of affordability and I think a pause is needed I'm not opposed

[4:03:12] Voice 1: to of course professional help when it comes to reconciliation but we know the

[4:03:17] Voice 1: province is in flux with its policy i think we could we would be well advised to pause here

[4:03:23] Voice 1: and not hire this individual at this time thank you thank

[4:03:28] Trustee Patrick: you any further discussion

[4:03:29] Trustee Patrick: all right i'm going to call the vote then all those in favor raise your hands

[4:03:45] Voice 8: uh c9 in favor okay

[4:03:48] Trustee Patrick: lower your hands all those opposed raise your hands i

[4:04:05] Voice 8: see 10 opposed i think

[4:04:06] Voice 8: I'm looking at the numbers here. We have 20 in the room.

[4:04:10] Voice 8: So that would be 10 opposed, 9 in favor

[4:04:14] Voice 8: with 1 abstain, which is a tie, which would then fail.

[4:04:20] Trustee Patrick: All right. Would there be any benefit to do

[4:04:24] Trustee Patrick: a roll call or just go with

[4:04:32] Trustee Patrick: fail? So the motion fails.

[4:04:36] Voice 8: Yeah, it fails.

[4:04:37] Voice 8: And if somebody wants that to be a roll call, they can ask you to do so.

[4:04:40] Voice 8: Okay.

[4:04:42] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Getty?

[4:04:44] Voice 10: So an abstention counts as a vote in favor?

[4:04:47] Trustee Patrick: That's correct.

[4:04:48] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[4:04:52] Trustee Patrick: All right. The next motion?

[4:04:56] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Boland?

[4:05:02] Voice 7: Yeah. So I had sent this prior to the template of all templates.

[4:05:11] Voice 7: So it needs to have, it is actually item five.

[4:05:19] Voice 7: so i don't know if we can insert no i think

[4:05:24] Trustee Patrick: actually your motion is correct the

[4:05:26] Voice 7: way it is

[4:05:28] Trustee Patrick: trustee boland you did it correctly i

[4:05:31] Voice 7: did it according to the first template recommendations

[4:05:34] Trustee Patrick: how to

[4:05:35] Voice 7: present an item it is also item number five or whatever it is yeah so go ahead and

[4:05:43] Trustee Patrick: read your motion okay

[4:05:45] Voice 7: the trust council hold one additional regular business meeting as a virtual

[4:05:50] Voice 7: meeting next fiscal year and reduce the related draft 2026-27 meeting expense budget line by

[4:05:58] Voice 7: 33,750 dollars thank

[4:06:02] Trustee Patrick: you very much and yes that was item uh five so is that trustee dodds is

[4:06:06] Trustee Patrick: seconding yes

[4:06:09] Voice 20: is all

[4:06:10] Trustee Patrick: right thank you is there any discussion i'm going to call the vote then

[4:06:19] Trustee Patrick: all those in favor raise your hands let's

[4:06:30] Voice 8: see 10 in favor okay

[4:06:32] Trustee Patrick: lower your hands all those opposed

[4:06:40] Trustee Patrick: raised your hands five

[4:06:50] Voice 8: opposed that's 15 to five in favor all

[4:06:53] Trustee Patrick: right so that carries all right looks

[4:06:58] Trustee Patrick: It looks like Trustee Stanford is next.

[4:07:02] Trustee Stamford: See, I'll try.

[4:07:03] Trustee Stamford: I'll do my best.

[4:07:06] Trustee Stamford: I move that the Committee of the Whole recommend-

[4:07:09] Trustee Stamford: Oops,

[4:07:09] Trustee Patrick: sorry, Lisa, you bounced off the screen there.

[4:07:13] Trustee Patrick: There you go.

[4:07:14] Trustee Stamford: The Trust Council remove referral fee,

[4:07:16] Trustee Stamford: this is line item three, by the way,

[4:07:18] Trustee Stamford: for the Gambier and Local Trust Committee

[4:07:20] Trustee Stamford: official community plan project

[4:07:22] Trustee Stamford: and reduce the related draft 2627 budget line by 2000.

[4:07:27] Trustee Patrick: All right, is there a second to this motion?

[4:07:30] Trustee Patrick: Second.

[4:07:31] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Bernardo.

[4:07:33] Trustee Stamford: And clarify people so they understand that there's still 1,000 left for extra communications.

[4:07:41] Trustee Patrick: Correct.

[4:07:43] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[4:07:44] Trustee Patrick: Is there any discussion, Trustee Elliott?

[4:07:46] Voice 18: I'm still unclear.

[4:07:47] Voice 18: I thought the referral fees were being funded by the capacity funding grant.

[4:07:53] Voice 18: And there would be no impact on the budget.

[4:07:57] Voice 18: I

[4:07:57] Trustee Stamford: didn't know that.

[4:08:01] Trustee Stamford: But I doubt there would be any referral anyway.

[4:08:03] Trustee Stamford: anyway well sorry

[4:08:08] Voice 18: if I can go on we just I just reviewed the um shoot all the allocations for the

[4:08:17] Voice 18: um that

[4:08:21] Trustee Patrick: was capacity funding I believe trustee Elliot the

[4:08:24] Voice 18: capacity funding was going to go

[4:08:26] Voice 18: towards Gambier we just reviewed this and that is to be funded from the grant so maybe director

[4:08:32] Voice 18: Cermak can advise because I don't think if it's funded by the grant it's not going to impact

[4:08:37] Voice 18: impact our fee levy is my understanding.

[4:08:44] Trustee Patrick: I think we're capacity funding versus referrals

[4:08:47] Trustee Patrick: are separate, but anyway.

[4:08:53] Trustee Patrick: Not seeing staff jump up here,

[4:08:55] Trustee Patrick: but I think we've got a motion on the floor.

[4:08:59] Trustee Patrick: Is there any further discussion?

[4:09:05] Trustee Patrick: Seeing none, I'm gonna call the vote.

[4:09:07] Trustee Patrick: All those in favor, raise your hands.

[4:09:18] Voice 8: 14 in favor, 15 in favor.

[4:09:21] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to lower your hands. Any opposed?

[4:09:26] Trustee Patrick: Not seeing any.

[4:09:35] Trustee Patrick: All right. Well, thank you. Next is Trustee Peterson.

[4:09:37] Trustee Patrick: One opposed.

[4:09:38] Trustee Patrick: Oh, sorry. One opposed.

[4:09:40] Trustee Patrick: No,

[4:09:41] Voice 7: sorry. I thought you were done counting. I want to ask a question.

[4:09:44] Trustee Patrick: I didn't say carried anyway, so I'm trying to read too many pieces of paper here.

[4:09:49] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Boland, your question?

[4:09:54] Voice 7: My question is, could we please have a refresh on the numbers with respect to the vote on item

[4:10:04] Voice 7: 10? There was a mention of an abstention and it was 10 opposed and 9 in favour. So,

[4:10:11] Voice 7: I'd just like to confirm, was the abstention counted in that 9 or was it in addition to the 9?

[4:10:20] Voice 7: trustable a little late

[4:10:22] Trustee Patrick: on the questioning but go ahead trustee marlon oh just director marlon

[4:10:27] Voice 8: thank you uh it was nine that voted in favor 10 voted against one person abstained because

[4:10:34] Voice 8: there are 20 people in the room so that made it 10 to 10 because an abstained vote is counted in

[4:10:41] Voice 8: in favor and on a um a tied vote it fails under the local government act

[4:10:49] Voice 7: okay thank you

[4:10:50] Trustee Patrick: all right

[4:10:52] Trustee Patrick: thank you um i'm just looking cognizant of the time we were aiming to finish at five o'clock

[4:10:57] Trustee Patrick: are people all right with continuing on to five forward 5 30 or yes

[4:11:02] Voice 3: yeah

[4:11:03] Trustee Patrick: not hearing any objections

[4:11:05] Trustee Patrick: so we're going to keep on moving just wanted to do a time check and cognizant of staff here

[4:11:09] Trustee Patrick: All right, Trustee Peterson.

[4:11:14] Voice 6: I'll recommend that Trust Council reduce the draft 2026-27 contracted services budget line by $5,000.

[4:11:23] Trustee Patrick: Okay, and that item was, that was, which item was that?

[4:11:29] Trustee Patrick: Was that, so that's item two, that the recommendation was 15 and you're recommending five?

[4:11:37] Voice 6: Correct.

[4:11:37] Trustee Patrick: Okay, just wanted to clarify for everyone, so that was item two.

[4:11:41] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second to this motion?

[4:11:44] Trustee Patrick: seconded by trustee Gavreau is there any discussion seeing none I'm gonna call

[4:11:55] Trustee Patrick: the vote all those in favor raise your hands okay

[4:12:05] Voice 8: lower

[4:12:07] Trustee Patrick: your hands any opposed

[4:12:13] Trustee Patrick: one opposed that carries okay who's the next motion here whoops

[4:12:30] Trustee Patrick: is trustee elliott trustee elliott oh

[4:12:45] Voice 18: that's already been no it hasn't been yet oh

[4:12:48] Voice 18: okay then

[4:12:49] Voice 18: great i move that committee the whole recommend that trust council not fund in-person meetings

[4:12:54] Voice 18: for council committees i'm pretty sure we did this no

[4:12:57] Trustee Patrick: nope we have not and

[4:12:59] Voice 18: remove the draft

[4:13:00] Voice 18: 2026-27 budget of 6,500 associated with this work all

[4:13:06] Voice 20: right that is i think we've already done this

[4:13:09] Voice 20: one what number is this no this is number one we

[4:13:12] Voice 3: stumbled around with this and then we took

[4:13:14] Voice 3: our break and it never got caught up again yeah we did

[4:13:17] Voice 18: committee meetings not council committee

[4:13:19] Voice 18: meetings

[4:13:19] Trustee Patrick: okay so this is number one and uh who seconded that was seconded by trustee bernardo

[4:13:27] Trustee Patrick: all right um is there any discussion see none i'd like to call a vote all those in favor raise your

[4:13:37] Trustee Patrick: hands 16

[4:13:46] Voice 8: later okay

[4:13:48] Trustee Patrick: lower your hands any opposed raise your hands that carries uh the next one

[4:14:07] Trustee Patrick: trusty alien i think has been done this was the virtual meeting um this was number five has been

[4:14:18] Trustee Patrick: done i think or has it not just double

[4:14:20] Voice 1: checking it's been done i'm

[4:14:22] Trustee Patrick: pretty certain yeah okay

[4:14:29] Trustee Patrick: the next one's trustee peterson the

[4:14:34] Voice 6: whole recommended executive committee request staffed

[4:14:36] Voice 6: update the business case for meeting streaming and editing recordings for posting to include

[4:14:42] Voice 6: more information on alternatives for recording and or publicly posting meeting recordings okay

[4:14:49] Trustee Patrick: so this is in regards to number 23 is there a second does that trustee yates are you seconding

[4:14:57] Trustee Patrick: yeah yes okay is there any discussion i will call the vote then all those in favor

[4:15:10] Trustee Patrick: raise your hands

[4:15:17] Voice 8: 16 in favor

[4:15:18] Voice 8: lower your hands

[4:15:28] Trustee Patrick: trustee Stanford your hand is still raised

[4:15:31] Trustee Patrick: okay any opposed

[4:15:32] Trustee Patrick: that carries

[4:15:40] Trustee Patrick: trustee Getty

[4:15:41] Voice 10: I found another easy one

[4:15:43] Voice 10: and

[4:15:44] Trustee Patrick: I'm really really impressed

[4:15:45] Voice 10: with Evans and

[4:15:46] Voice 10: whoever else can do all this typing

[4:15:49] Voice 10: so quickly I move that

[4:15:51] Voice 10: committee of the whole recommend trust council

[4:15:53] Voice 10: council newspaper subscriptions and reduce

[4:15:55] Voice 10: the related draft 2026-27, item number 18,

[4:15:59] Voice 10: budget line by $1,000.

[4:16:03] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[4:16:05] Trustee Patrick: Well, is that Trustee Evans you're seconding?

[4:16:07] Trustee Patrick: Yes.

[4:16:08] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Evans.

[4:16:09] Trustee Patrick: Any discussion?

[4:16:13] Trustee Patrick: I'll call the vote.

[4:16:14] Trustee Patrick: Then all those in favor?

[4:16:23] Voice 8: 16 in favor.

[4:16:24] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[4:16:25] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands.

[4:16:29] Trustee Patrick: Any opposed?

[4:16:32] Trustee Patrick: And that carries.

[4:16:35] Trustee Patrick: And the next one's back to Trustee Evans.

[4:16:38] Voice 20: can we delete the the next two sorry i was typing as fast as i could um just delete those two

[4:16:46] Voice 20: okay thank you

[4:16:48] Trustee Patrick: and so the next one is the next one okay uh that was

[4:16:51] Trustee Patrick: the one we just did

[4:16:52] Trustee Patrick: yeah we

[4:16:53] Trustee Patrick: did that one so that one goes that's the subscription one that was

[4:16:57] Voice 20: just done i'm gonna go

[4:16:58] Voice 20: to 20. i move that

[4:17:00] Voice 20: can you give the whole recommend that trust council adopters staff

[4:17:03] Voice 20: staff budget reduction option number 20 we

[4:17:06] Trustee Patrick: did that one nope that one's been done no oh wait 18

[4:17:09] Trustee Patrick: 18 was subscription sorry go ahead 20 you're right i move that

[4:17:14] Voice 20: committee of the whole recommend that

[4:17:17] Voice 20: trust council adopt staff budget reduction option number 20 travel chair as presented in the draft

[4:17:23] Voice 20: 2026 27 budget reduction options table and reduce the related draft 2026 27 budget by one thousand

[4:17:30] Voice 20: dollars all right is there a second

[4:17:33] Trustee Patrick: to this motion second by trustee campbell is there any discussion

[4:17:44] Trustee Patrick: trustee peterson surprised

[4:17:49] Voice 6: if this uh motion passes but i'd be sorry to see it go i think

[4:17:53] Voice 6: it'd be useful for the trust that for the chair to have some options outside of regular meetings to

[4:17:58] Voice 6: uh meet as discussed earlier in our conversation thank

[4:18:03] Trustee Patrick: you trustee stanford yeah

[4:18:06] Trustee Stamford: i i just think

[4:18:07] Trustee Stamford: I think that it, for the amount of money that it is, giving the chair the ability to represent the Islands Trust on the few occasions is absolutely critical and it would do us no favours by reducing this or getting rid of this budget.

[4:18:25] Voice 20: Thank you. Trustee Evans?

[4:18:27] Voice 20: My question is, I believe, Chair Patrick, you were the one who recommended this. Is that true?

[4:18:34] Trustee Patrick: I asked that we add a budget item here. That's correct.

[4:18:37] Trustee Patrick: Correct.

[4:18:39] Voice 20: Trustee Borthwick?

[4:18:40] Voice 20: Clarification, did you ask to add the budget line item or remove it?

[4:18:44] Voice 20: Add it.

[4:18:45] Trustee Patrick: Oh, no, I

[4:18:46] Trustee Patrick: had this line item never existed before.

[4:18:50] Trustee Patrick: So I asked that we have a line item for travel.

[4:18:55] Trustee Patrick: I'm covering it my own personal expenses to go do these things.

[4:19:00] Voice 20: Okay, that changes my position.

[4:19:03] Voice 20: Because I thought I heard you say that you had asked for them to add this in to remove it.

[4:19:08] Voice 20: ah

[4:19:08] Trustee Patrick: no that

[4:19:10] Voice 20: completely changes my position thank you

[4:19:12] Voice 20: for the clarity no worries uh trustee borthwick

[4:19:15] Voice 2: yeah i just want to echo what's what's been said i think it's really important

[4:19:19] Voice 2: that the chair not be expected to to bear that burden uh to in order to operate as as we need

[4:19:27] Voice 2: them to as the voice person and and as our our you know our our yeah our representative at various

[4:19:35] Voice 2: functions. I think it's extremely important that we continue to support or that we start to support

[4:19:39] Voice 2: that work.

[4:19:42] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Any further discussion? I'm going to call the vote then. All those in favor,

[4:19:48] Trustee Patrick: raise your hand.

[4:20:00] Voice 8: Six in favor.

[4:20:02] Trustee Patrick: Okay, reduce, lower your hands. All those opposed, raise your hands.

[4:20:13] Voice 2: I apologize, Director Marlowe, my hand was still up. I missed that from the in favor.

[4:20:18] Voice 2: okay

[4:20:20] Voice 8: so there's 11 hands up at the moment all right so that's

[4:20:25] Voice 8: 19 in the room yep so that's

[4:20:27] Voice 8: fails

[4:20:28] Trustee Patrick: yep

[4:20:29] Voice 8: the next

[4:20:33] Trustee Patrick: one trustee evan is number 22 i

[4:20:38] Voice 20: move that committee of the whole recommend

[4:20:39] Voice 20: that trust council adopt staff budget reduction option number 22 ubcm attendance as presented in

[4:20:45] Voice 20: the draft 2026-27 budget reduction options table and reduce the related 2026-27 budget by seven

[4:20:51] Voice 20: dollars all right is there a second second

[4:20:57] Trustee Patrick: by trustee getty is there any discussion trustee

[4:21:02] Trustee Patrick: peterson opposed

[4:21:04] Voice 6: to this uh motion i think uh removing attendance from ubcm is shooting

[4:21:09] Voice 6: herself in the foot um so i can't support it thank you

[4:21:12] Trustee Fast: thank you trustee bernardo i will be

[4:21:16] Voice 3: supporting the motion because of the response to my question from chair patrick uh when we

[4:21:23] Voice 3: discussed this item before uh and the tenor of her response was the value this year of attending ubcm

[4:21:33] Voice 3: uh is marginal at least that's what i understood her to be saying thank you thank

[4:21:39] Trustee Fast: you trustee fast

[4:21:40] Trustee Fast: thank you i will not be supporting this motion i think um a couple of things when bowen island

[4:21:51] Trustee Fast: the municipality has asked for meetings outside of UBCM. We do not always get them. So I'm

[4:21:57] Trustee Fast: surprised at the confidence in the answer that I heard earlier. And secondly, I think it's important

[4:22:04] Trustee Fast: that the Islands Trust be represented at this gathering of the local government ecosystem,

[4:22:12] Trustee Fast: system uh be seen to be present uh to to um vote if we put forward any um motions for the floor

[4:22:21] Trustee Fast: and to generally participate in uh with our peers and be seen to be uh participating particularly

[4:22:29] Trustee Fast: after um the letters that we've sent into the province and uh all of the times that we're in

[4:22:35] Trustee Fast: the news other local government folks are reading about it if we want to have support from our

[4:22:40] Trustee Fast: peers. That's how you make changes, including at the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal

[4:22:47] Trustee Fast: Communities, which Bowen has just joined. Thank you. I'll be voting against.

[4:22:53] Voice 4: Thank you. Trustee Yates.

[4:22:55] Voice 4: Thank you, Chair Patrick. I do understand the difference between this year and election year

[4:23:02] Voice 4: and other years. But I totally echo that people who've spoken before me

[4:23:08] Voice 4: about shooting ourselves in the foot if we don't go we should be going every year thank you all

[4:23:16] Voice 4: right uh trustee

[4:23:18] Trustee Patrick: campbell you had your hand raised and then dropped it i

[4:23:21] Voice 27: just i took it down i don't

[4:23:23] Voice 27: think there's any point in voicing all

[4:23:25] Trustee Patrick: right thank you trustee getty i'm going to

[4:23:30] Trustee Patrick: be voting in favor

[4:23:31] Voice 10: of this one because uh both it's an election year and i think that ubcm is so big um that

[4:23:37] Voice 10: that I have more value in the AVICC and some of the other regional,

[4:23:43] Voice 10: and I think a lot of the ministers that we have the most contact with

[4:23:47] Voice 10: show up at those quite well.

[4:23:49] Voice 10: So for this year, I would think that it might not be good value.

[4:23:58] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[4:23:59] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Harris?

[4:24:00] Voice 22: I'll be voting in favor.

[4:24:01] Voice 22: I don't see the point.

[4:24:03] Voice 22: We're not included in provincial municipal initiatives,

[4:24:06] Voice 22: initiatives, so that doesn't make any sense to be going. Thank you.

[4:24:11] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Any further

[4:24:13] Trustee Patrick: discussion? Going to call the vote, then. All those in favour, raise your hands.

[4:24:28] Voice 8: I see 13 in favour.

[4:24:31] Trustee Patrick: All right, lower your hands. Any opposed, raise your hands. And that carries. Do we have further

[4:24:49] Trustee Patrick: motions? We do

[4:24:51] Voice 15: not have any more motions in the motions inbox.

[4:24:55] Voice 15: uh

[4:24:56] Voice 5: oh

[4:24:58] Trustee Patrick: um somebody's microphone was on but um okay trustees um looks like we've reached the

[4:25:08] Trustee Patrick: end of the submissions for our meeting today trustee forthwick uh

[4:25:15] Voice 2: yeah i just have a very

[4:25:16] Voice 2: quick question um i don't know if this is a bit asking too much but um i'm just wondering uh if

[4:25:22] Voice 2: could get a a total of what has been managed to be cut uh like a running total at this point

[4:25:29] Voice 2: um just that i think that might be useful or interesting information to have

[4:25:33] Trustee Patrick: i don't know if that's fair to ask you director mobs but um do you have any indication of what

[4:25:40] Trustee Patrick: trustees did today uh

[4:25:45] Voice 19: i've been keeping track if you give me just a moment here

[4:25:48] Voice 19: I can get that number for you.

[4:25:52] Voice 2: Thank you, Julia.

[4:25:55] Voice 19: You're welcome.

[4:25:58] Voice 19: Reserving the rights, obviously, to change this number if I find corrections in my speedy work here.

[4:26:03] Voice 19: But it's looking like we might have achieved about a 1.5% reduction for local trust areas and about 4.5% for Bowen.

[4:26:15] Voice 19: Potentially a bit more for Bowen.

[4:26:18] Voice 19: Do

[4:26:18] Trustee Patrick: you have that dollar amount, Andy?

[4:26:20] Trustee Patrick: Oops.

[4:26:20] Trustee Patrick: Oh, so

[4:26:24] Voice 19: it's a budget reduction of $139,000.

[4:26:32] Trustee Patrick: All right, thank you.

[4:26:33] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Getty?

[4:26:34] Voice 10: I would find it really helpful to have some sort of a summary

[4:26:37] Voice 10: of all of the points on that chart that we've covered

[4:26:42] Voice 10: in case there's some that we may have missed

[4:26:46] Voice 10: and question whether or not if we have missed any,

[4:26:50] Voice 10: can we bring it up at the Trust Council?

[4:26:54] Trustee Patrick: I think the answer is absolutely.

[4:26:56] Trustee Patrick: We can bring them up at, that'll be our

[4:26:59] Trustee Patrick: time at March

[4:27:00] Trustee Patrick: is our last chance to have a look at this.

[4:27:05] Trustee Patrick: I'll look to staff.

[4:27:06] Trustee Patrick: Is there an ability to modify this table for submission

[4:27:09] Trustee Patrick: or do you need a motion resolution from us to request that?

[4:27:13] Trustee Patrick: No need chair.

[4:27:16] Voice 19: I think what I'll do is summarize a separate table

[4:27:20] Voice 19: to show the items that committee of the whole

[4:27:21] Voice 19: has recommended be accepted.

[4:27:24] Voice 19: And then we'll have a second table that shows items

[4:27:26] Voice 19: that were put forward that um were not accepted and so trust council will be able to see those

[4:27:31] Voice 19: two as distinct items thank

[4:27:33] Trustee Patrick: you trustee fast thank

[4:27:37] Trustee Fast: you chair i'm wondering if you need a motion for

[4:27:39] Trustee Fast: 6.2 this is on page four of our agenda whether we need to forward this to trust council oh we

[4:27:49] Trustee Patrick: we uh that's a different um that's a that's a that's the next item so um this is just

[4:27:58] Trustee Patrick: wrapping up our budget conversations now that will be the financial plan bylaw that will need to be

[4:28:04] Trustee Patrick: referred to if that's correct so um i see a whole bunch of questions up here on the budget trustee

[4:28:11] Trustee Patrick: evans i

[4:28:12] Voice 20: did actually have one more motion that i didn't get a chance to completely write out and

[4:28:16] Voice 20: that was the combination of 14 15 and 16 at 50 of the recommendation on here um i didn't see it

[4:28:23] Voice 20: on the on the screen but I'm wondering if that should wait until we get to a

[4:28:30] Voice 20: Trust Council to bring that one forward again or if we can deal with that here

[4:28:34] Voice 20: now. What deal is

[4:28:41] Trustee Patrick: it now? Lisa do you have that motion?

[4:28:47] Voice 20: It was in my very first

[4:28:48] Voice 20: email. I do. Chair Patrick

[4:28:50] Trustee Patrick: just give me a moment please.

[4:28:52] Voice 20: Yep.

[4:28:53] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Boland do you have a question while we're waiting for Lisa to

[4:28:56] Trustee Patrick: bring this up i

[4:28:57] Voice 7: actually had another motion um and i can bring it back to trust council i assume

[4:29:05] Voice 7: that's still an option i have two motions but one in particular that uh but you know we got stuck on

[4:29:14] Voice 7: this table basically and then it became all about the table and we haven't gone through the rest of

[4:29:20] Voice 7: of the budget briefings at all,

[4:29:23] Voice 7: the business plans, et cetera.

[4:29:25] Voice 7: So what do we do next?

[4:29:27] Voice 7: Well, I think if it's,

[4:29:30] Trustee Patrick: Dolge, since we do have more business yet to do

[4:29:32] Trustee Patrick: on this table, if you've done things outside this table

[4:29:36] Trustee Patrick: or have recommendations outside this table,

[4:29:37] Trustee Patrick: they can be brought to Trust Council in March.

[4:29:41] Trustee Patrick: Unless I hear otherwise from staff,

[4:29:44] Trustee Patrick: I think we're getting close to the end of the time for today.

[4:29:52] Trustee Patrick: So Trustee Bernardo,

[4:29:54] Voice 15: do you have a

[4:29:54] Trustee Patrick: question for Trustee Boland?

[4:29:58] Voice 7: Just a comment.

[4:30:00] Voice 7: that this committee of the whole uh for the budget has been really good but i also think that we've

[4:30:06] Voice 7: gone through it too slowly and we should have scheduled more time i'm not really sure but

[4:30:13] Voice 7: okay

[4:30:13] Trustee Patrick: well we've missed

[4:30:14] Voice 7: an opportunity to really get

[4:30:17] Voice 7: to grips with it the table took us off the

[4:30:21] Voice 7: rails yeah

[4:30:22] Trustee Patrick: all right thanks thank you uh trustee director mobs um

[4:30:27] Voice 19: thanks chair um certainly any

[4:30:29] Voice 19: motions can be brought forward during the trust council budget debate as well um i would suggest

[4:30:33] Voice 19: that at least any motions related to the budget reduction options table be addressed here just

[4:30:39] Voice 19: to keep things concise and organized um from a time standpoint i mean you know staff are at

[4:30:45] Voice 19: your disposal if you'd like to keep moving forward um we're here to serve and um certainly you know

[4:30:51] Voice 19: it would reduce potentially reduce some of the time requirements at the council table

[4:30:57] Voice 19: which I know can be a challenge at times.

[4:31:00] Voice 19: The more we achieve today,

[4:31:03] Voice 19: the less stressful it will be at Trust Council.

[4:31:06] Trustee Patrick: All right. Thank you.

[4:31:08] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Bernardo, before we come to you, Trustee,

[4:31:10] Trustee Patrick: I just want to make sure I'm covering the questions

[4:31:12] Trustee Patrick: regarding Trustee Bernardo.

[4:31:13] Trustee Patrick: Did you have a question?

[4:31:15] Voice 3: No, what I have is a general comment

[4:31:18] Voice 3: about things to think about when we head into March,

[4:31:21] Voice 3: when we have our budget discussion.

[4:31:24] Voice 11: It's just a

[4:31:25] Voice 3: brief point that I think is actually pretty important

[4:31:27] Voice 3: because well i won't go into it because that'll be making the point okay

[4:31:33] Trustee Patrick: well we'll come back to

[4:31:34] Trustee Patrick: you after

[4:31:35] Voice 20: uh so trustee evans i just want to ask um because i i ran out of type typing time um to

[4:31:43] Voice 20: type this one out fully does if if we were to read it as it's presented here would staff understand

[4:31:52] Voice 20: understand the intent. And I'm asking the other members on this call if they understand the

[4:32:01] Voice 20: intent. So this was the staff salaries and benefits, where it was 14, 15, and 16, where it

[4:32:10] Voice 20: was, sorry, 15, 16, and 17, where it was setting a target for a salary reduction to be achieved

[4:32:18] Voice 20: through attrition in 2026 27 if this is understood and we can vote on it then

[4:32:27] Voice 20: I'll just read it as is rather than trying to type it all out again because

[4:32:30] Voice 20: we're out we are out of time

[4:32:31] Trustee Patrick: look to

[4:32:33] Trustee Patrick: director mobs I believe I understand

[4:32:36] Trustee Patrick: what you're trying to say is this understandable the

[4:32:44] Voice 19: budget options list

[4:32:45] Voice 19: is a total reduction in staff salaries and benefits of $100,000 I'm reading

[4:32:50] Voice 19: reading this resolution to be that you're recommending $50,000 as opposed to the $100,000?

[4:32:56] Voice 19: $50,000. So each line item,

[4:33:00] Voice 20: yeah, each line item reduced by 50%. So line item 15 is $27,000. So

[4:33:06] Voice 20: that would be reduced by half. 16 was $23,000, reduce that by half. And 17 was $50,000, reduce

[4:33:12] Voice 20: that by half.

[4:33:15] Voice 19: Okay. Yeah. So staff can certainly take that direction. The total, if we were to

[4:33:23] Voice 19: reduce each of those budget lines it would total $50,000.

[4:33:27] Trustee Patrick: $50,000 yes so that would be good to add

[4:33:29] Trustee Patrick: at the end and reduce the related budget by $50,000. A total of

[4:33:37] Voice 20: $50,000. Okay. I believe

[4:33:49] Voice 20: if I sorry if I believe Director Mobs had asked that we change the word staff recommendation to

[4:33:56] Voice 20: to staff budget options.

[4:33:59] Voice 20: All right.

[4:34:14] Voice 20: Are you okay if I read it out?

[4:34:16] Voice 20: Yeah, go ahead and read it out.

[4:34:18] Voice 20: I move that Committee of the Whole recommend

[4:34:20] Voice 20: that Trust Council adopt staff budget options

[4:34:23] Voice 20: at a 50% reduction as presented in the draft 2026-27

[4:34:28] Voice 20: budget reduction options numbers 15, 16 and 17

[4:34:32] Voice 20: and reduce the related draft 2026-27

[4:34:36] Voice 20: by a total of $50,000.

[4:34:44] Trustee Patrick: is there any discussion not seeing up trustee peterson uh

[4:34:55] Voice 6: sorry just just returned um so

[4:34:58] Voice 6: this is basically looking at about half of what the table said the 15 16 17 added up

[4:35:07] Voice 6: okay thank you any

[4:35:12] Trustee Patrick: further discussion i'll call the vote then all those in favor

[4:35:18] Trustee Patrick: raise your hands 12

[4:35:28] Voice 8: in favor okay

[4:35:29] Trustee Patrick: lower your hands any opposed one opposed that carries

[4:35:42] Trustee Patrick: all right were there any further resolutions on the table yeah no i know trustee bernard

[4:35:47] Trustee Patrick: you want to say i just want to make sure there were no other resolutions floating staff will

[4:35:53] Trustee Patrick: will bring information to clarify what was still standing what was done um

[4:36:00] Trustee Patrick: Um, I am aware there, so there's been mentioned of other resolutions on other aspects of the

[4:36:06] Trustee Patrick: budget.

[4:36:07] Trustee Patrick: Do you want to bring those forward today?

[4:36:09] Trustee Patrick: I'm cognizant that people are getting tired and I don't, and staff are still with us,

[4:36:13] Trustee Patrick: but I also want to be here.

[4:36:17] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Boland.

[4:36:18] Voice 7: Just a question.

[4:36:20] Voice 7: So if we have, uh, resolutions or motions that we want to propose at trust council,

[4:36:25] Voice 7: Is there a way to put them before trustees in advance of Trust Council?

[4:36:34] Trustee Patrick: I guess I'd look to staff on advice.

[4:36:41] Voice 19: Director Marler might be best placed to respond.

[4:36:43] Trustee Patrick: There you go, Director Marler?

[4:36:46] Voice 8: Yeah.

[4:36:49] Voice 8: Yeah, sorry, through the Chair, thank you.

[4:36:52] Voice 8: The question was, can you circulate the questions or the resolutions before Council?

[4:36:57] Voice 8: Is that my understanding of what you're asking?

[4:36:59] Voice 7: That's correct.

[4:37:00] Voice 7: Yeah.

[4:37:01] Voice 7: Yeah.

[4:37:02] Voice 8: Yeah, I think that's totally fine. It also helps staff to know what's coming.

[4:37:07] Voice 8: Just there should be no debate on it. So you can certainly circulate them.

[4:37:11] Voice 8: So I'll be bringing these to Trust Council, but don't engage in a debate by email.

[4:37:16] Voice 8: Just accept it as, OK, I'll be ready to talk to this at Trust Council.

[4:37:23] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. And I

[4:37:24] Trustee Patrick: think it's always wise to put that right in your email that I'm just providing this for, you know,

[4:37:29] Trustee Patrick: and that there will be no debate that's just a good to add so if there's no

[4:37:36] Voice 8: yep go ahead yeah sorry just to add to that uh please include staff on those so that we are

[4:37:44] Voice 8: aware of what's coming it could be helpful to to us as well thank you i

[4:37:48] Trustee Patrick: think it's always advised

[4:37:49] Trustee Patrick: i think staff would like to see your draft motions early as well as draft and they can help you with

[4:37:54] Trustee Patrick: the wording um so please always if you're considering a motion please reach out to staff

[4:38:00] Trustee Patrick: and they've always been very accommodating and supporting to help award your resolutions as

[4:38:05] Trustee Patrick: correctly and strongly as possible so i really encourage you to reach out to staff in advance

[4:38:13] Trustee Patrick: advance as well. Okay. I want to look to our agenda here. We have item 6.2, which is the

[4:38:23] Trustee Patrick: financial plan bylaw request for decision. Over to you, Director Mobs.

[4:38:30] Voice 19: Thanks, Chair. Before we

[4:38:31] Voice 19: move on, I'll briefly seek a resolution from Committee of the Whole forwarding the amended

[4:38:36] Voice 19: budget materials to Trust Council. So on the template document, there's a resolution at the

[4:38:44] Voice 19: one?

[4:38:50] Trustee Patrick: There we go. Trustee Fast.

[4:38:53] Trustee Fast: Thank you. This was the one I was aiming for, but I found the

[4:38:58] Trustee Fast: other one. Anyway, I move that Committee of the Whole forward the draft 2026-27 Budget Materials

[4:39:04] Trustee Fast: to Trust Council as amended for approval.

[4:39:08] Trustee Patrick: All right. Is there a second? Seconded by

[4:39:09] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Yates. Is there any discussion? All the vote. All those in favor, raise your hands.

[4:39:29] Voice 8: 16 in favor.

[4:39:30] Trustee Patrick: All right. Lower your hands.

[4:39:35] Voice 1: Lee speaking.

[4:39:38] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Middleton, your mic is on and your hand is up.

[4:39:44] Voice 1: There we go.

[4:39:48] Trustee Patrick: I think Trustee Middleton is in the middle of a phone call. He left

[4:39:51] Trustee Patrick: his hand raised. So any opposed, don't count Trustee Middleton. There we go. He lowered his

[4:39:56] Trustee Patrick: hand. All right. That carries. Trustee Bernardo, I'm not forgetting you, but let's do this one

[4:40:07] Trustee Patrick: more piece of business here um that we had before us which is item 6.2 the financial plan bylaw

[4:40:17] Trustee Patrick: request for decision over

[4:40:20] Voice 19: to you director i'll try thank you chair i'll try to be brief i know

[4:40:25] Voice 19: we're running overtime today um so the five-year financial plan bylaw is related to um our budget

[4:40:32] Voice 19: for fiscal 20 26 27 islands trust is not actually legislatively required to prepare a five-year

[4:40:38] Voice 19: financial plan bylaw, but it is a good practice to help us understand what our revenues and costs

[4:40:44] Voice 19: might look like into the future. It's also something that we do send to the minister to

[4:40:49] Voice 19: give the minister some insights into our future projections for revenues and spending as well.

[4:40:55] Voice 19: So the draft RFD that's in the agenda will be headed to Trust Council. It includes a table

[4:41:01] Voice 19: that discusses some of the assumptions that we're using when we project our revenue and expense line

[4:41:07] Voice 19: items into the future. So year one of the five-year financial plan, that is the 26-27 budget,

[4:41:12] Voice 19: which we've all discussed today. And years two through four are simply projections

[4:41:17] Voice 19: from that year one. In the absence of specific long-term plans that have funding attached to

[4:41:24] Voice 19: them, the primary driver of changes to spending in our five-year financial plan bylaw is consumer

[4:41:30] Voice 19: price index. So we look at inflation forecasts and we do incorporate an inflationary factor with

[4:41:37] Voice 19: expenses where appropriate. We are making some reductions for things like election years where

[4:41:42] Voice 19: we might see some meetings that might be canceled. Those tend to not have a significant influence

[4:41:48] Voice 19: over and above the trajectory of inflationary influence. We tend to keep our revenue sources

[4:41:59] Voice 19: from fees and sales are pretty steady.

[4:42:01] Voice 19: They increased by 2% simply because

[4:42:03] Voice 19: that's in the fees bylaws.

[4:42:05] Voice 19: We've held the provincial grant revenues steady

[4:42:08] Voice 19: at $180,000 as much as we'd like to see that change.

[4:42:12] Voice 19: Currently, there's nothing to indicate

[4:42:14] Voice 19: that that number might increase.

[4:42:15] Voice 19: And so the five-year plan reflects it

[4:42:17] Voice 19: at $180,000 per year.

[4:42:19] Voice 19: The five-year plan has tax increases ranging

[4:42:22] Voice 19: from 1.6 in year three to 3.2% in years two and five.

[4:42:27] Voice 19: those numbers will change as of course year one has now been amended because there's been

[4:42:33] Voice 19: amendments made to the budget today and that will influence the future years in the five-year plan

[4:42:38] Voice 19: and so we'll be updating this prior to it traveling to trust council we do make sure that

[4:42:43] Voice 19: projections in the five-year plan do maintain the minimum required surplus balances under policy

[4:42:48] Voice 19: and so that's something that we've made sure to note and surplus balances should

[4:42:54] Voice 19: be at about 100 percent of policy for all five years happy to take questions if there are any

[4:43:00] Voice 19: otherwise we would simply forward this to trust counsel any

[4:43:05] Trustee Patrick: questions trustee bernardo uh this is

[4:43:08] Voice 3: actually an opportune moment for me to sort of make the little info point i wanted to make before

[4:43:13] Voice 3: because it's actually relevant to this yesterday governance committee was presented with the report

[4:43:18] Voice 3: from the independent consultant uh who was retained to make recommendations with respect

[4:43:24] Voice 3: to revising trustee compensation for the next term.

[4:43:29] Voice 3: That will be presented at Trust Council,

[4:43:32] Voice 3: and there's no need to go into all the details,

[4:43:34] Voice 3: but Governance Committee approved forwarding the report

[4:43:38] Voice 3: and the recommendations in it to Trust Council.

[4:43:42] Voice 3: The thrust of those recommendations carries financial implications

[4:43:49] Voice 3: that are actually relevant to the budget,

[4:43:51] Voice 3: depending on how we choose to at trust council level either adopt and assuming it's adopted

[4:43:59] Voice 3: stage the implementation of the compensation increase that's going to have a material

[4:44:06] Voice 3: increase to the budget director mobs can probably correct me somewhere in the range

[4:44:11] Voice 3: change of $250,000 all in once, assuming that is accepted by Trust Council. So that's a contingent

[4:44:22] Voice 3: thing that we're going to be dealing with in March. And the reason I wanted to bring it up

[4:44:27] Voice 3: before is I think trustees need to be mindful heading into March that we're not quite done

[4:44:32] Voice 3: with budget deliberations. And that is going to be a thing that's going to be hanging over us

[4:44:37] Voice 3: that may or may not have significant consequences in terms of the tax increase.

[4:44:44] Voice 3: My question for Director Mobs is, how does this, it would seem to me that that change in

[4:44:54] Voice 3: compensation would be something that would have to be worked into the financial plan bylaw

[4:44:58] Voice 3: for the five-year plan, assuming it's adopted at Trust Council. So what happens with this thing,

[4:45:07] Voice 3: assuming we were you know we recommend and send it on to trust council um is that going to be

[4:45:13] Voice 3: subject to potential revision thank you through

[4:45:19] Voice 19: the chair absolutely this is in draft form um at

[4:45:23] Voice 19: trust council on the wednesday there will be the budget debate and any changes that come out of

[4:45:28] Voice 19: that debate will need to be reflected in this five-year financial plan bylaw and so at the

[4:45:32] Voice 19: same time we'd be making any changes to reflect decisions of trust council based on their

[4:45:36] Voice 19: conversation associated with the remuneration for trustees because that conversation is also

[4:45:41] Voice 19: happening um prior to this bylaw being approved all

[4:45:46] Trustee Patrick: right thank you uh trustee peterson uh thank

[4:45:52] Voice 6: chair much as i'd love to make amendments to the financial uh five-year plan and showing how the

[4:46:00] Voice 6: province is going to start pitching in better i'm prepared to make the motion to forward it to

[4:46:05] Voice 6: to trust counsel.

[4:46:06] Trustee Patrick: There you go.

[4:46:07] Trustee Patrick: And that's it.

[4:46:07] Voice 6: I have six,

[4:46:08] Trustee Patrick: two on the agenda.

[4:46:09] Trustee Patrick: So go ahead.

[4:46:09] Voice 6: So I move that committee of the whole

[4:46:11] Voice 6: for the draft financial plan bylaw 204

[4:46:15] Voice 6: materials to trust counsel for approval.

[4:46:17] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second to the motion?

[4:46:20] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by trustee Yates.

[4:46:21] Trustee Patrick: Is there any discussion?

[4:46:25] Trustee Patrick: Call the vote.

[4:46:25] Trustee Patrick: Then all those in favor, raise your hands.

[4:46:36] Voice 8: 10, 11 in favor.

[4:46:38] Trustee Patrick: Right, lower your hands.

[4:46:41] Trustee Patrick: Any opposed?

[4:46:42] Trustee Patrick: opposed. Oops, I think I called too quickly. None opposed, that carries. Woo, trustees.

[4:46:53] Trustee Patrick: I really want to thank everyone today. This is a lot of work, and I think it's good to have this

[4:46:58] Trustee Patrick: committee format, because we certainly will appreciate this when we get to March. The work

[4:47:02] Trustee Patrick: we did today is important and helps quite a bit on what we'll do in March. So I want to thank the

[4:47:11] Trustee Patrick: staff for staying late into the evening and all the trustees um i don't believe we have any further

[4:47:18] Trustee Patrick: business before us unless uh no i think we wore everybody out so the next meeting is of the next

[4:47:26] Trustee Patrick: committee of the whole meeting will be may 13th at 9 00 a.m so please put that in your agenda

[4:47:33] Trustee Patrick: packages may 13th agenda in your calendars may 13th at 9 00 a.m otherwise we'll see you all at

[4:47:39] Trustee Patrick: trust counsel um so i need a motion to adjourn uh trustee yates are you making a motion to adjourn

[4:47:51] Trustee Patrick: because there's a second second by trustee borthwick i guess all those in favor and we are

[4:48:01] Trustee Patrick: adjourned okay thank you everyone have a nice evening thank you

[4:48:07] Trustee Patrick: all all right thank you

[4:48:11] Voice 3: Thank you, Chair.

[4:48:13] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.