Islands Trust Council regular meeting, March 10, 2026

[0:00:03] Trustee Patrick: Well, good afternoon, Trustees. It is my great honor to open our Trust Council meeting today

[0:00:12] Trustee Patrick: on Cowichan Tribe lands. Also honored to introduce Cindy Daniels, Chief of Cowichan Tribes,

[0:00:24] Trustee Patrick: Sosokwamat. I offer that pronunciation respectfully and welcome correction.

[0:00:29] Trustee Patrick: direction. Chief Daniels was elected to her first term as chief on March 7, 2024. Prior to her

[0:00:39] Trustee Patrick: election, she served nine terms on council beginning in 2002, demonstrating long-standing

[0:00:47] Trustee Patrick: dedication and steady leadership in service to her community. Over the years, she's been entrusted

[0:00:54] Trustee Patrick: with key leadership roles, including acting chief in 2021, general manager from 2017 to 2018,

[0:01:02] Trustee Patrick: an acting chief administrative officer from 2022 to 23, a collaborative and principled leader.

[0:01:10] Trustee Patrick: Chief Daniels is guided by the teachings of Cowichan elders. She was raised in the

[0:01:17] Trustee Patrick: the Coxilla Village and is a residential school survivor. In 2022, she served as the Indian Day

[0:01:27] Trustee Patrick: School Coordinator, supporting survivors with their Day Scholar and TB Indian Hospital forms.

[0:01:34] Trustee Patrick: Her work is grounded in care, accountability, and community healing. Chief Daniels has dedicated

[0:01:42] Trustee Patrick: dedicated her life to her people, her culture, and her family.

[0:01:47] Trustee Patrick: Her leadership reflects strength, humility, and a deep commitment to advancing the rights

[0:01:54] Trustee Patrick: and well-being and future of the Quatsam people.

[0:02:00] Trustee Patrick: Before I hand the microphone to Chief Daniels, it's important to talk about the Island Trust's

[0:02:06] Trustee Patrick: commitment to respectful relationships with Indigenous government bodies and a commitment

[0:02:10] Trustee Patrick: to create spaces free from racism and discrimination.

[0:02:15] Trustee Patrick: Social media and news media have erupted with divisiveness and blame,

[0:02:21] Trustee Patrick: which is leading to a rise of hate directed to Indigenous peoples.

[0:02:25] Trustee Patrick: In early February, the mayors of all the municipalities in Cowichan Valley,

[0:02:30] Trustee Patrick: along with leaders from the Cowichan tribes, Cowichan Valley Regional District,

[0:02:35] Trustee Patrick: the local school district, and the RCMP issued a Cowichan Valley anti-racism statement.

[0:02:42] Trustee Patrick: These leaders called on their partners and all the residents across the Cowichan Valley to join them

[0:02:48] Trustee Patrick: in recognizing the well-being of their community depends on the ability to stand together as humans

[0:02:56] Trustee Patrick: and neighbors who respect, support, and care for one another. While we can discuss later in this

[0:03:04] Trustee Patrick: meeting about officially supporting this this statement against racism and hate in our communities

[0:03:09] Trustee Patrick: i want to invite all the trustees and our staff to stand up now and to show chief daniels cowichan

[0:03:17] Trustee Patrick: tribes and the quatsum nations that we stand with them in affirming dignity respect and truth as

[0:03:27] Trustee Patrick: as foundational to reconciliation.

[0:03:30] Trustee Patrick: Please welcome Chief Sol Sol Guzmán, Chief Daniels.

[0:03:35] Trustee Patrick: Good afternoon, everyone,

[0:03:51] Voice 26: and thank you for the warm welcome.

[0:03:54] Voice 26: Thank you for the support.

[0:03:55] Voice 26: It means so much for us.

[0:03:59] Voice 26: We've gone through a lot in the last probably half a year,

[0:04:02] Voice 26: I guess since last August during the Tlatelolco announcement

[0:04:06] Voice 26: and we work really close.

[0:04:10] Voice 26: We have a good relationship.

[0:04:11] Voice 26: relationship with Mayor Staples, Mayor Douglas, CBRD Chair, North Couch and RCMP Ken Bearden and

[0:04:20] Voice 26: his staff, our Indigenous Police, Jeremy Evans and the staff. And we really appreciate the support

[0:04:28] Voice 26: and for you standing with us from Island Trust. You can have a seat. I just feel

[0:04:35] Voice 26: honored you guys are standing. It's making me nervous.

[0:04:44] Voice 26: I'd like to welcome each and every one of you to our Couch and Tamach, our Couch and Territory.

[0:04:50] Voice 26: It's an honour to host every event that happens in our newly renovated room.

[0:04:56] Voice 26: Renee Olson and her staff have done an awesome job renovating this room,

[0:05:00] Voice 26: and it's really warm and welcoming and a great improvement, and we welcome everyone to our Territory.

[0:05:07] Voice 26: I was reading up on your guys' website this morning, and you guys do a lot of interesting work.

[0:05:13] Voice 26: You know, I really raise my hands to you for the work that you guys do.

[0:05:18] Voice 26: It's a real honor to come here and welcome each and every one of you.

[0:05:21] Voice 26: And thank Joelle and the staff for thinking of inviting me.

[0:05:27] Voice 26: And I have Councillor Chris Alphonse with me today.

[0:05:32] Voice 26: And I really believe in grooming our council to get used to public speaking.

[0:05:37] Voice 26: You know, he may be the future chief in the future,

[0:05:40] Voice 26: future and he needs to practice this microphone thing.

[0:05:45] Voice 26: A'i tsaafka siyamna siyaya.

[0:05:47] Voice 26: A

[0:05:51] Voice 38: 'i tsaafka siyamna siyaya

[0:05:55] Voice 38: i mo siyaya taala siyamna siyaya taana kwayo. Really

[0:05:59] Voice 38: grateful for friends and relatives that are here today.

[0:06:04] Voice 38: A'i tsaafka siyamna siyaya i kuana siyala

[0:06:07] Voice 38: te tsoa taana kwayo. Really welcome everybody

[0:06:12] Voice 38: everybody here today on our

[0:06:21] Voice 38: Couch and Tribes traditional territory.

[0:06:29] Voice 38: at the Couch and Cultural Center.

[0:06:36] Voice 38: Really grateful for you guys here coming to do all your hard work and coming to our

[0:06:43] Voice 38: our cultural center.

[0:06:46] Voice 38: And there's not much else I can say,

[0:06:50] Voice 38: but I'm really grateful for everybody that's here today.

[0:06:52] Voice 38: Hi, Tsepka, Siem Rezegh,

[0:06:54] Voice 38: Limo Sietala, hi, Tsepka.

[0:06:57] Voice 38: I

[0:07:09] Trustee Patrick: really want to thank you for welcoming us here today

[0:07:11] Trustee Patrick: and for joining us, and I have a gift for you.

[0:07:37] Trustee Patrick: All right, trustees, now I'm on this end of the table,

[0:07:40] Trustee Patrick: and I think it's your chance to do introductions.

[0:07:44] Trustee Patrick: And I'm going to begin with trustees here

[0:07:46] Trustee Patrick: in the room, and I'll start over here with Trustee Maberly.

[0:07:49] Voice 6: Thank you, Chair. Good to see everybody

[0:07:52] Voice 6: here. Ben Maberly, Trustee for Galliano Island, territory of the Penelope tribe, home to the

[0:07:58] Voice 6: Coast Salish peoples and the Georgian family.

[0:08:02] Voice 28: Hi, everybody. I'm Sue Ellen Fast. I'm here from

[0:08:06] Voice 28: Nuklelequem, which is Bowen Island also, over in Squamish territory, in the mouth of Howe Sound.

[0:08:14] Voice 28: I'll cut some house sound good

[0:08:20] Voice 32: afternoon Kate Louise Stanford uh here today from uh uh child

[0:08:27] Voice 32: in I'll cut some house sound also known as Gambier hi

[0:08:36] Voice 21: uh I'm Joe Bernardo trustee also

[0:08:38] Voice 21: from the Gambier local trust area and uh I come from the time also known as Keats Island

[0:08:44] Voice 21: uh in house sound thank you good

[0:08:50] Voice 25: afternoon I'm Christina Peschel Evans I'm uh living on

[0:08:55] Voice 25: I'm Sudeas, South Panda, home of many of the Coast Salish nations.

[0:08:59] Voice 25: Thank you.

[0:09:04] Trustee Luckham: Peter Lockham, elected on Thetis Island in Penelaket and Laiakson territory.

[0:09:10] Trustee Luckham: And I'm so very pleased to be here today in Cowichan territory.

[0:09:16] Trustee Luckham: I'm grateful for the staff organizing it today.

[0:09:20] Trustee Luckham: Thank you.

[0:09:20] Trustee Luckham: And thank you, Chief, for your kind words.

[0:09:25] Voice 15: Tim Peterson, elected on Huaytai, Laskiti Island,

[0:09:29] Voice 15: a territory of Coast Salish peoples and the Treaty Territory of the Tlalaman Nation.

[0:09:36] Voice 43: David Maude, I'm elected on Main Island, traditional home of the Wissanic people.

[0:09:41] Trustee Patrick: Laura Patrick, I'm elected on Salt Spring, territories of many Coast Salish First Nations.

[0:09:51] Voice 31: Good afternoon, Toby Elliott, elected on Gabriela Island in the core territory of

[0:09:56] Voice 31: Sinanamik First Nation and many other Coast Salish peoples. Grateful to be with you all.

[0:10:03] Voice 17: and I should be on the other side of the table

[0:10:05] Voice 17: with the Howe Sound contingent

[0:10:06] Voice 17: but my name is Judy Getty

[0:10:07] Voice 17: I'm from Bowen Island

[0:10:09] Voice 17: home of the Squamish people

[0:10:14] Voice 45: My name is Sam Borthwick

[0:10:16] Voice 45: I'm elected on Tissaic, Denman Island

[0:10:18] Voice 45: in the core territory of the Comox First Nation

[0:10:21] Voice 45: and I just wanted to thank Chief Daniels again

[0:10:24] Voice 45: and just compliment

[0:10:25] Voice 45: this is I think by far the most beautiful venue

[0:10:28] Voice 45: we've had for a meeting

[0:10:29] Voice 45: and I'm very honored too

[0:10:31] Voice 45: that you've allowed us to use your space

[0:10:36] Voice 29: My name is Lisa Goverill. I elected on Galliano Island, and what Sam said, this room is absolutely beautiful.

[0:10:44] Voice 29: Galliano Island is the core territory for Penelope tribes.

[0:10:53] Voice 36: Good afternoon, Susan Yates, for Gabriola Local Trust Area, which includes Mudge and DeCourcy Islands, and I come to you from Stenemach territory today.

[0:11:04] Voice 36: Hello

[0:11:07] Voice 18: all. I'm Dag Falk from Sudeas, also known as South Pender, and I'm happy to be here.

[0:11:16] Voice 37: Ken Hunter, and I'm honored to represent the fine peoples of Thetis and our associated islands.

[0:11:23] Trustee Patrick: Going to move online there and start with Trustee Graham.

[0:11:29] Voice 5: Good afternoon, everyone. Locally elected on Demin,

[0:11:32] Voice 5: my name is David Graham and traditional territory of the Comox.

[0:11:36] Voice 5: Trustee Morrison.

[0:11:37] Voice 5: Deb Morrison.

[0:11:39] Voice 44: Good morning, afternoon. Really grateful to be here and sorry I can't be there in person. Thank you for hosting.

[0:11:47] Voice 44: I am representing Steyes North Pender, which is part of the homelands of the Lusaynic peoples, and I am Deb Morrison.

[0:11:58] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Allen.

[0:11:59] Trustee Patrick: Oh,

[0:12:01] Voice 10: where am I? You can't see me. Okay. It's probably good you can't see me because I've got the worst cold flu I've ever had in my life. This is like day 11.

[0:12:12] Voice 10: Anyways, I'm Alex Allen from Hornby Island, and I respectfully acknowledge that I live, work, and play on Hornby Island, the unceded traditional territory of the Comox and other Coast Salish people. Thank you.

[0:12:24] Voice 10: Jesse Harris.

[0:12:28] Voice 4: Jamie Harris here, coming to you from Salt Spring Island. Thanks.

[0:12:33] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Campbell.

[0:12:37] Voice 41: Trustee Aaron Campbell from North Pender Island, unceded territory of the WSANIC.

[0:12:45] Trustee Patrick: Great. I don't see anyone else online. I think we have, there are some regrets and some that will be joining us later on.

[0:12:52] Trustee Patrick: I think we have Trustee Boland, Trustee Dobbs. I don't see her online.

[0:12:57] Trustee Patrick: line. Trustee Middleton will join us briefly. He's here, but not in the room. And Trustee Scott.

[0:13:05] Trustee Patrick: So welcome, everyone. I want to turn over to our CAO, Brony, to introduce all the staff that are

[0:13:13] Trustee Patrick: here today.

[0:13:14] Voice 20: Thank you, Chair. I'm Ruben Brony. I'm the Chief Administrative Officer for Islands

[0:13:18] Voice 20: Trust. Before I introduce staff, if I may, I'd take this opportunity to acknowledge that this

[0:13:22] Voice 20: past weekend was also International Women's Day. And so I'd like to take the opportunity to

[0:13:27] Voice 20: acknowledge the tremendous contributions of the talented wise brilliant women that we are

[0:13:32] Voice 20: fortunate to work with both the council table but across the staff of islands trust we are all so

[0:13:38] Voice 20: much better for your contributions and thank you for all you bring to our work joining us on the

[0:13:43] Voice 20: staff side today and we have our senior indigenous relations advisor joe elliott director of trust

[0:13:49] Voice 20: area services claire freighter director of legislative and information services david marler

[0:13:55] Voice 20: Director of Planning Services, Stefan Cermak,

[0:14:00] Voice 20: our Executive Coordinator, Alexander Trifonidis,

[0:14:04] Voice 20: and online we have our Director of Financial Employee Services,

[0:14:07] Voice 20: Julia Mobs, and our Meeting Coordinator, Lisa Millard.

[0:14:11] Voice 20: Thank you.

[0:14:11] Voice 20: I

[0:14:12] Trustee Patrick: really want to thank the staff.

[0:14:14] Trustee Patrick: I know it's a lot of work to set up these meetings,

[0:14:17] Trustee Patrick: and the venue is beautiful, and thank you for doing that.

[0:14:21] Voice 20: Sorry, Chair, and if I may, I always forget them

[0:14:24] Voice 20: because they're seated behind me, but we also have Joshua Bard from our Information Services

[0:14:28] Voice 20: Department and Sage, who is here once again to support us on the technical side of things. Thank

[0:14:33] Voice 20: you.

[0:14:34] Trustee Patrick: All right. Again, thank you for all being here. All right. As chair and together with all

[0:14:40] Trustee Patrick: of the trustees, it's our responsibility to ensure that this meeting is a respectful,

[0:14:46] Trustee Patrick: inclusive, and culturally safe space for staff, trustees, and all attendees, including those who

[0:14:53] Trustee Patrick: may be watching online. This means that we will speak respectfully. There's no place in this

[0:15:00] Trustee Patrick: meeting for racism, stereotypes, or comments that target Indigenous people or any other individuals

[0:15:05] Trustee Patrick: or groups in our island communities. We will acknowledge concerns without causing harm.

[0:15:12] Trustee Patrick: Trustees are entitled to ask questions and express uncertainty. Indigenous community members are

[0:15:17] Trustee Patrick: equally entitled to share their experiences and expectations of respectful partnership.

[0:15:22] Trustee Patrick: partnership. Both can occur here, without harm, dismissal, or targeting.

[0:15:27] Trustee Patrick: We will uphold cultural safety. We recognize that public processes have not always felt

[0:15:33] Trustee Patrick: safe or welcoming for Indigenous peoples. We are committed to doing better. That includes

[0:15:38] Trustee Patrick: giving space to Indigenous voices, being mindful of how our language affects people, and addressing

[0:15:45] Trustee Patrick: harmful comments if they arise. We will keep the conversation constructive. Every participant

[0:15:51] Trustee Patrick: brings valuable perspectives, lived experience, and knowledge. All voices deserve to be heard

[0:15:57] Trustee Patrick: and heard respectfully. I want to thank all of you in advance for helping create an environment

[0:16:04] Trustee Patrick: where all participants feel safe, valued, and able to participate fully. Trustees, we have an agenda

[0:16:11] Trustee Patrick: before us. You also should have received this morning an addendum from Alexandra. Are there

[0:16:22] Trustee Patrick: are any other additions or changes to the agenda? Can we approve the agenda as amended through

[0:16:31] Trustee Patrick: general consent? So before we start with our business, I just always like to review the

[0:16:43] Trustee Patrick: afternoon that we're going to have before us. I first want to thank Alexandra for bringing a new

[0:16:50] Trustee Patrick: look to your three-day schedule. Thank you very much. I know she'll accept feedback on your ideas

[0:16:59] Trustee Patrick: or thoughts on what that looks like.

[0:17:01] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans, do you have a question?

[0:17:04] Voice 25: Just regarding my statement about making sure it's a safe space

[0:17:07] Voice 25: that includes no clapping or booing

[0:17:09] Voice 25: because it could make other people feel unsafe.

[0:17:12] Voice 25: Thank you.

[0:17:12] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[0:17:13] Trustee Patrick: I was saving that for our public conversation

[0:17:15] Trustee Patrick: because I know you all know better.

[0:17:22] Trustee Patrick: So this afternoon we do have a break that's planned.

[0:17:26] Trustee Patrick: We're going to be proceeding with the agenda as presented.

[0:17:29] Trustee Patrick: At 4.30, we do have the delegations and public comment.

[0:17:34] Trustee Patrick: Depending on the length of that period, we'll continue with our business until 5.30.

[0:17:40] Trustee Patrick: Dinner's going to be here at 6, so we could keep going if you want to,

[0:17:44] Trustee Patrick: but I'll be looking to you for direction.

[0:17:46] Trustee Patrick: Alexandra, is there anything else about the venue or things we should talk about?

[0:17:53] Trustee Patrick: All right, thank you.

[0:17:54] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. One thing more before we proceed. If you are considering any resolutions or any items, please send them to motions at islandstrust.bc.ca. And I also encourage you to reach out to staff for any wording. This is going to be particularly important tomorrow in the budget session. If you can get your motions in ahead of time, that will really help us manage that session effectively.

[0:18:22] Trustee Patrick: Okay. I'm going to keep on moving then. We're in the general business arising consent agenda. I'm first going to deal with the minutes. So item 4.1.1, I'm going to deal with that one separately. And then I'm going to call on each of the chairs of the standing committees to give a verbal update.

[0:18:41] Trustee Patrick: date so um and then i will do at the end of their update i will do a consent call on those items

[0:18:48] Trustee Patrick: so uh for right now uh can trust are there any additions or changes to the minutes from the

[0:18:55] Trustee Patrick: december two to five meeting not seeing any uh we can adopt the minutes as presented through

[0:19:03] Trustee Patrick: general consent so now i'm going to run through our uh all the committees and the chairs that

[0:19:11] Trustee Patrick: That starts with me from the Executive Committee.

[0:19:14] Trustee Patrick: We're just continuing the work to support the updating of the policy statement.

[0:19:19] Trustee Patrick: You'll see in the agenda package today the Indigenous Relations Action Plan is coming to you.

[0:19:25] Trustee Patrick: And we will continue to keep a focus on all the strategic plan items that we are working on.

[0:19:32] Trustee Patrick: With that, I'm going to turn it over to the Governance Committee Chair, Trustee Getty.

[0:19:38] Voice 17: Thank you.

[0:19:38] Voice 17: The Governance Committee had a meeting on February the 17th, and we talked mostly about the compensation report that is in the agenda, pages 121 to 192.

[0:19:52] Voice 17: And we forwarded a request for a decision on that with various amendments and recommendations, so we'll be getting to that later.

[0:19:59] Voice 17: Our work plan, that was the third item on our work plan, and we're going to continue with corporate planning, which was our first on the list.

[0:20:08] Voice 17: and I look forward to an update from the CAO later

[0:20:12] Voice 17: with respect to what's happening with that

[0:20:14] Voice 17: and we're continuing to plug through

[0:20:17] Voice 17: different meeting procedure bylaws

[0:20:19] Voice 17: to try and reduce the overlap

[0:20:23] Voice 17: and any things that are duplicated

[0:20:27] Voice 17: and trying to organize things and modernize

[0:20:30] Voice 17: and all the rest of it.

[0:20:31] Voice 17: So we've had a whole bunch of bylaws.

[0:20:32] Voice 17: We're slowly going through them one at a time.

[0:20:34] Voice 17: Thank you, David Marler, for all your help with that

[0:20:36] Voice 17: and that just about covers what we've got thank

[0:20:41] Trustee Patrick: you for financial planning committee trustee fast

[0:20:46] Voice 28: thank you chair um i just will say a few words and depending on the budget that we're going to

[0:20:52] Voice 28: uh adopt over this next few days um maybe it'll change but we've started uh audit planning now

[0:21:00] Voice 28: we've brought you

[0:21:00] Trustee Patrick: with we've assisted in bringing you the budget we brought your speaking notes i

[0:21:06] Trustee Patrick: I think that was an initiative of the Financial Planning Committee.

[0:21:09] Voice 28: So hopefully, if we've got any comments about them, I'd welcome any comments about the speaking notes.

[0:21:16] Voice 28: We

[0:21:16] Trustee Patrick: started audit planning already.

[0:21:19] Trustee Patrick: And we're going to work next, I think, on recommendations on how to increase application fees to recover the development costs.

[0:21:28] Trustee Patrick: Our policy says we're supposed to recover 100% of them.

[0:21:32] Trustee Patrick: And so rather than taxpayers paying, that, however, may change depending on what we decide in the budget and the goals for our finances and things.

[0:21:44] Trustee Patrick: So, but that's what's in the work plan. Thank you.

[0:21:47] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much. Trustee Borthwick.

[0:21:52] Voice 45: Yes, I am speaking in my capacity as the vice chair of the Regional Planning Committee.

[0:21:57] Voice 45: Trustee Boland is unfortunately not able to be with us today, but she has sent me notes.

[0:22:01] Voice 45: and I'm grateful for the brevity of the previous two chairs

[0:22:05] Voice 45: because I've got a lot of notes from Raid.

[0:22:09] Voice 45: And my apologies to Trustee Boland.

[0:22:11] Voice 45: I hope I am conveying these in the spirit in which he meant them to be.

[0:22:15] Voice 45: So there are a number of things we're looking forward to

[0:22:16] Voice 45: at the Regional Planning Committee, including but not limited to,

[0:22:21] Voice 45: we're looking forward to an independent review

[0:22:23] Voice 45: of the Freshwater Sustainability Strategy,

[0:22:26] Voice 45: which I'll speak a little bit more on afterwards.

[0:22:28] Voice 45: We'll be looking at, we'll be receiving some updates

[0:22:31] Voice 45: on experiences from using the land information screening tool,

[0:22:35] Voice 45: which is the new acronym, the LIST,

[0:22:37] Voice 45: which is the new acronym for the suitable land analysis tool.

[0:22:41] Voice 45: Gaining experience with the new freshwater atlas software.

[0:22:45] Voice 45: Learning more about the new bylaw manuals and guidelines

[0:22:48] Voice 45: and the portal and how residents can view it

[0:22:51] Voice 45: and their feelings on that.

[0:22:53] Voice 45: Status updates on progress with updating policies

[0:22:56] Voice 45: held by our planning director.

[0:22:58] Voice 45: Director. This action has been rolled into a general policy update action that's being

[0:23:03] Voice 45: overseen by Director Marler. We're looking forward to receiving updates on federal and

[0:23:08] Voice 45: local work in gathering and sharing information on kelp and eelgrass, which the Hatfield group,

[0:23:14] Voice 45: I believe, are presenting. Strange things are popping up here. And it seems that we're glad

[0:23:22] Voice 45: to hear that it seems that planning vacancies are being filled. Regular updates on resource

[0:23:26] Voice 45: availability and the impact on the ltc and other rpc projects uh and uh activities would be helpful

[0:23:35] Voice 45: question mark uh an update on resource availability picture that we received at budget time um and

[0:23:41] Voice 45: there's a number of she's gone into some more detail on a number of these things i'm not sure

[0:23:44] Voice 45: if that's of interest but um some questions of talking around uh dpas um some quotes from uh

[0:23:56] Voice 45: Integrating biological information into land use decisions, there was an interesting presentation

[0:24:00] Voice 45: covering a wide range of issues.

[0:24:02] Voice 45: One item of particular interest to Trustee Boland was that our current DPAs do not meet

[0:24:07] Voice 45: the current 2019 regulation amendments and that DPAs seem to be challenging to use.

[0:24:13] Voice 45: Will this change?

[0:24:17] Voice 45: We had a pretty comprehensive update on the freshwater strategy.

[0:24:22] Voice 45: strategy. We had a great report from William Shulbaugh and from Director Cermak. We're

[0:24:29] Voice 45: looking forward to the independent review and the Gabriola footprint capstone study.

[0:24:34] Voice 45: And she's asking, she's putting out that this may be calibrated against existing studies

[0:24:41] Voice 45: and findings from Gabriola. I have a whole bunch more bits in here, but I think that

[0:24:48] Voice 45: probably gives a good idea of where things are at. If you do have questions about that,

[0:24:51] Voice 45: i'm happy to answer them as i best i can thank

[0:24:54] Trustee Patrick: you very much trust programs committee trustee evans

[0:25:01] Voice 25: thanks i'm going to try and bring this a little closer because it's a bit of a stretch for me um

[0:25:07] Voice 25: so for us we had a meeting in february um the stewardship um education program

[0:25:15] Voice 25: so far this fiscal we've delivered four of the webinars we've got one more outstanding of which

[0:25:19] Voice 25: which we had a lengthy discussion on,

[0:25:22] Voice 25: and that's a webinar surrounding education for realtors.

[0:25:27] Voice 25: We had the Community Stewardship Awards Programme discussion as well,

[0:25:33] Voice 25: and the Policy Statement Amendment Policy.

[0:25:38] Voice 25: We had made some additional edits and asked staff to bring that back

[0:25:41] Voice 25: to a future meeting.

[0:25:43] Voice 25: So hopefully we'll have something there to pass on shortly.

[0:25:47] Voice 25: Thank you.

[0:25:50] Voice 25: Thank you very much.

[0:25:52] Trustee Patrick: The Accessibility Committee. Trustee Gavreau.

[0:25:55] Voice 29: Thank you very much. As a refresher, our purpose of the Accessibility Committee is advising on the Islands Trust Accessibility Plan, which is required under the Accessible BC Act.

[0:26:09] Voice 29: scope focuses on trust operations offices meeting locations online presence staff access and public

[0:26:20] Voice 29: engagement land use and regulatory issues are would be out of scope work underway so far we

[0:26:28] Voice 29: have reviewed accessibility plans from other BC jurisdictions to identify any relevant elements

[0:26:35] Voice 29: And we have drafted a project charter and a business case to develop the Islands Trust's accessibility plan.

[0:26:43] Voice 29: The committee has recommended that Trust Council allocate $19,000 to hire a consultant and cover outreach costs.

[0:26:51] Voice 29: That business case can be found in this agenda package on page 358.

[0:26:55] Voice 29: The committee has also received external support funding through a $25,000 SPARC local community access accessibility grant for accessibility improvements and a $7,000 grant from Disability Alliance BC, which is a federal disability management assessment grant in the form of any gaps and make recommendations.

[0:27:25] Voice 29: The committee is supported using available grant funds

[0:27:30] Voice 29: for much-needed website and document accessibility improvements.

[0:27:37] Voice 29: We agreed on some deliverables for our consultant.

[0:27:41] Voice 29: We'll be doing an accessibility gap assessment,

[0:27:45] Voice 29: public feedback, also a draft plan.

[0:27:51] Voice 29: There will be a plain language accessible version of the plan, as well as an implementation

[0:27:57] Voice 29: framework as well.

[0:27:59] Voice 29: Next steps are to retain a consultant to perform an assessment and start working on the draft

[0:28:08] Voice 29: plan.

[0:28:10] Voice 29: Yeah, developing the implement, implementing the public engagement strategy for the plan

[0:28:17] Voice 29: and sorry I've got a little bit of word salad here um maybe I'll leave it there I think we've

[0:28:25] Voice 29: been working on it we're um you'll see later in the agenda today we've had a few more members

[0:28:30] Voice 29: added to our committee so I look forward to working with those bunch thank you thank you

[0:28:37] Trustee Patrick: don't go very far because the next item is the island's trust conservancy which I'd like to

[0:28:42] Trustee Patrick: introduce the

[0:28:43] Trustee Patrick: chair again uh Chelsea Gavro thank

[0:28:46] Voice 29: you thank you very much uh all right as of March

[0:28:49] Voice 29: March 2026, the Conservancy protects 115 conservation properties across the Trust Area, including 34 nature reserves and 81 conservation covenants, with 29 participating in the Natural Area Protection Tax Exemption Program, the NAPTEP.

[0:29:11] Voice 29: As shown in the quarterly report in your agenda, the Conservancy has been busy over the past few months.

[0:29:19] Voice 29: My thanks to staff for their thorough report and for the hard work of this small and dedicated team.

[0:29:25] Voice 29: This is an important year for the Conservancy.

[0:29:29] Voice 29: The last ITC five-year plan covered 2018 to 2022, and the next plan is expected to be submitted to the province by December 2027.

[0:29:40] Voice 29: this quarter's focus has been on

[0:29:43] Voice 29: advancing and the development of the five-year plan

[0:29:46] Voice 29: to date staff have prepared and delivered engagement letters the first nations and

[0:29:52] Voice 29: conservation partners have developed a logic model and a project work plan to guide the development

[0:30:00] Voice 29: the plan. We have updated the project charter and initiated engagement with First Nations

[0:30:07] Voice 29: interested parties that want to participate in the development of the five-year plan.

[0:30:13] Voice 29: As part of this work on February 19th, the Conservancy hosted a virtual information

[0:30:19] Voice 29: session with First Nations inviting all nations in the trust area and approximately 50% of the

[0:30:26] Voice 29: nations have responded, and four nations participated in the session. The Sechelt,

[0:30:35] Voice 29: Squamish, Seau, Malahat, and the Sunaymo First Nation have attended the virtual information

[0:30:46] Voice 29: session. The proposed work plan and the logic model were well received. The discussions brought

[0:30:54] Voice 29: brought out several themes moving forward,

[0:30:57] Voice 29: including the importance

[0:30:58] Voice 29: of land valued based decision-making

[0:31:02] Voice 29: and shared decision-making.

[0:31:05] Voice 29: Also the need for capacity funding

[0:31:07] Voice 29: to support the participation,

[0:31:10] Voice 29: improved information and mapping sharing,

[0:31:13] Voice 29: and the value of standing meetings.

[0:31:17] Voice 29: And also the importance of being clear

[0:31:20] Voice 29: and bringing clear and specific proposals when engaging with First Nations.

[0:31:28] Voice 29: Staff are now preparing for Phase 2 of the engagement beginning in April,

[0:31:33] Voice 29: which will include further meetings with the interested nations

[0:31:37] Voice 29: and the investigation for potential joint projects.

[0:31:42] Voice 29: You may hear the term logic model in reference to relation to the five-year plan.

[0:31:47] Voice 29: simply put it's a planning tool that'll help ensure that the architecture is right before

[0:31:55] Voice 29: we start building the five-year plan it'll connect our resources and our activities

[0:32:00] Voice 29: to our outcomes the outcomes that we wish to achieve and it provides a shared framework

[0:32:07] Voice 29: for discussion with first nations with partners and the board as this plan develops

[0:32:14] Voice 29: I would briefly like to touch a bit on the Species at Risk program, which has been the major focus for conservancy work for the past five years.

[0:32:24] Voice 29: The program was funded through the Environment and Climate Change Canada's Priority Places Initiative, and that funding concludes on March 31st of this year.

[0:32:34] Voice 29: For the past five years, ECCC has contributed approximately $1.4 million to the conservancy's work.

[0:32:45] Voice 29: That funding has enabled the Conservancy to move beyond basic protection and monitoring

[0:32:50] Voice 29: to undertake active stewardship and ecosystem restoration to protect species at risk,

[0:32:56] Voice 29: including surveying, monitoring a species at risk, improving species at risk habitat by removing

[0:33:03] Voice 29: invasive species, by installing native vegetation, all joint efforts with land holders and with

[0:33:10] Voice 29: biologists and our many many many partners as this funding does come to the end to an end

[0:33:16] Voice 29: the conservancy will continue its core work focused on protecting ecologically significant

[0:33:22] Voice 29: land and monitoring the species in the habitat however the program funding from ec supported

[0:33:29] Voice 29: that dedicated stewardship and restoration that work is not currently funded through the

[0:33:34] Voice 29: Conservancy's base budget. Without replacing the funding, the Conservancy will have reduced

[0:33:41] Voice 29: capacity to carry out that work, including having no dedicated staff to coordinate the stewardship

[0:33:47] Voice 29: and the restoration initiatives that the program supported. But importantly, that work itself

[0:33:54] Voice 29: doesn't end. Under the Species at Risk Act, the protection and recovery of species at risk

[0:33:59] Voice 29: remains an ongoing responsibility at the Conservancy

[0:34:02] Voice 29: and continues to play a direct role

[0:34:05] Voice 29: in supporting those objectives within the trust area

[0:34:09] Voice 29: and for the mandate of the Allens Trust.

[0:34:13] Voice 29: Therefore, identifying strategies for funding

[0:34:16] Voice 29: to support species at risk work

[0:34:19] Voice 29: and ecosystem restoration remains a high priority.

[0:34:24] Voice 29: For example, I am happy to announce

[0:34:27] Voice 29: that the Allens Trust Conservancy

[0:34:28] Voice 29: has recently received a $26,000 grant from Tree Canada

[0:34:33] Voice 29: to support recovery of species and ecosystems at risk at Mount Tom.

[0:34:40] Voice 29: But you'll hear more about the Species at Risk

[0:34:42] Voice 29: from the Species at Risk coordinator

[0:34:45] Voice 29: in a presentation later this week.

[0:34:47] Voice 29: I'll leave it there for now, but you can read over the report,

[0:34:50] Voice 29: the quarterly report.

[0:34:51] Voice 29: It's about six pages long.

[0:34:53] Voice 29: Thank you very much.

[0:34:55] Trustee Patrick: Thank you for your detailed report

[0:34:57] Trustee Patrick: court and for all the work that's being done. We all benefit from that. All right, trustees,

[0:35:04] Trustee Patrick: with your consent, can Trust Council adopt the recommendations in items 4.1.3 and 4.1.3.1

[0:35:17] Trustee Patrick: through 4.1.3.7? That was a mouthful. All right, thank you. Trustees, we're doing good here. We're

[0:35:27] Trustee Patrick: to the correspondence section uh there were uh four items in uh your agenda package and there

[0:35:34] Trustee Patrick: are an additional four items in the addendum package um are there any items that uh you

[0:35:46] Trustee Patrick: wish to call out at this time uh vice chair peterson yeah

[0:35:51] Voice 15: thank you chair uh item 5.7 the

[0:35:54] Voice 15: the Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust.

[0:35:59] Voice 15: I'd like to raise that for attention

[0:36:02] Voice 15: and look for your advice on where we should discuss it.

[0:36:09] Trustee Patrick: We do have item 16 as an opportunity

[0:36:11] Trustee Patrick: where we can have disposition of correspondence as well

[0:36:15] Trustee Patrick: if you wish to prepare a motion to bring forward an item 16.

[0:36:19] Voice 27: Okay, thank you.

[0:36:21] Trustee Patrick: Are there any other items for action of correspondence?

[0:36:26] Trustee Patrick: correspondence trustee Morrison thank

[0:36:32] Voice 44: you the um I don't know how to reference it exactly but

[0:36:35] Voice 44: the Lynn Stone and Company uh letter that came in the email additional pieces in the addendum

[0:36:42] Voice 44: um if we could have that and I assume we can loop that in with an appropriate agenda item

[0:36:51] Voice 44: suggestions yes

[0:36:52] Trustee Patrick: again item 16 which will be on Thursday is a disposition of

[0:36:58] Trustee Patrick: correspondence opportunity so if there's

[0:37:01] Voice 44: no I don't think so are we not sorry I

[0:37:06] Voice 44: don't have the full agenda here there's like too many documents and juggling

[0:37:09] Voice 44: pages sorry all right it's better not to do it in a general correspondence it's

[0:37:15] Voice 44: related to the trust policy statement so wherever we're gonna pick up the trust

[0:37:19] Voice 44: policy statement conversation.

[0:37:24] Trustee Patrick: I think there's two addendums that came today.

[0:37:28] Trustee Patrick: One is the open meeting and one is the closed meeting.

[0:37:31] Trustee Patrick: So I think there is a closed meeting discussion.

[0:37:37] Trustee Patrick: And if there's any need to respond to any correspondence,

[0:37:41] Trustee Patrick: that can be done under item 16.

[0:37:49] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Bernardo.

[0:37:52] Voice 21: Right.

[0:37:53] Voice 21: I'm just actually reiterating what the chair said,

[0:37:55] Voice 21: said, but in different words, in that the Lidstone letter has issues in it that

[0:38:03] Voice 21: requires discussion in camera. And that's what this recent addendum is. We do have some

[0:38:11] Voice 21: information that's relevant to Lidstone letter. It can be discussed in camera. So that will be

[0:38:16] Voice 21: the opportunity for Trustee Morrison to explore that. Thank you. Thank

[0:38:20] Trustee Patrick: you. So if there's no other

[0:38:23] Trustee Patrick: actions on correspondence at this time we can receive it for information and

[0:38:29] Trustee Patrick: then again there's any action it can be done under item 16 okay sorry trying to

[0:38:39] Trustee Patrick: keep all these pieces of paper yes yes sorry I'm really stretching out here so

[0:38:44] Trustee Patrick: we're moving into item 6 which is the executive section we have a number of

[0:38:55] Trustee Patrick: of items that are in the consent, which is item 6.1.1,

[0:39:01] Trustee Patrick: the Chief Administrative Officer Quarterly Report,

[0:39:04] Trustee Patrick: the Strategic Plan Quarterly Report,

[0:39:07] Trustee Patrick: and the Continuous Learning Plan.

[0:39:08] Trustee Patrick: Are there any of those items that anyone wishes

[0:39:10] Trustee Patrick: to pull out to discuss?

[0:39:17] Trustee Patrick: Not seeing any by general consent,

[0:39:19] Trustee Patrick: can we receive item 6.1.1, 6.1.2, and 6.1.3?

[0:39:27] Trustee Patrick: thank you that's moving us into seven uh item seven in the agenda which is the legislative

[0:39:37] Trustee Patrick: and information services we have uh we'll now consider um the consent agenda there are two

[0:39:45] Trustee Patrick: items in the consent agenda agenda 7.1.1 the director's quarterly report as well as 1.2

[0:39:52] Trustee Patrick: the legislative monitoring report are there any of these items that you wish to pull out for

[0:39:58] Trustee Patrick: discussion i'm sorry oh two additional your one additional agenda addendum which is seven point

[0:40:13] Trustee Patrick: 1.3 in the consent agenda which is uh also the meeting streaming and recording briefing

[0:40:20] Trustee Patrick: so are any of those three wish to be pulled out otherwise go ahead trustee evans not that i'm

[0:40:28] Voice 25: necessarily wanting to pull it out but could we put it on the screen because i don't have my

[0:40:31] Voice 25: laptop with me and I haven't read it.

[0:40:34] Trustee Patrick: Item 7.1.3. Is that what you're looking for? There it is. It's

[0:40:39] Trustee Patrick: up on the screen now. Ooh, there it is. Oops. There

[0:40:54] Trustee Patrick: we go. You got this one? Okay. So by general

[0:40:59] Trustee Patrick: consent, can we receive item 7.1.1, 7.1.2, and 7.1.3? Thank you. So that brings us on to 7.2.

[0:41:14] Trustee Patrick: and we're going to this is the trustee remuneration policy amendments request for decision

[0:41:20] Trustee Patrick: i see director marler uh who will introduce the site go ahead yeah

[0:41:28] Voice 14: thank you have to excuse me

[0:41:30] Voice 14: my computer's locked up so you can have to use the screen here uh yeah this is the remuneration

[0:41:37] Voice 14: policy. This went to a committee of the whole

[0:41:40] Voice 14: with the consultant providing a lot

[0:41:45] Voice 14: of the information as to why the recommendations as

[0:41:48] Voice 14: they are. And the recommended

[0:41:52] Voice 14: policy is attached to the RFD. The updates

[0:41:56] Voice 14: reflect the consultant's recommendations.

[0:42:00] Voice 14: The changes would take effect

[0:42:04] Voice 14: in april 1st of the next year so it would be aligned with the fiscal year so it would not

[0:42:16] Voice 14: affect your budget coming up the the first resolution in here is to a trust council to

[0:42:26] Voice 14: replace its existing remuneration policy with the one recommended by the consultant

[0:42:32] Voice 14: consultant. And you'll see the second one is that we use April 1st, 2027. And we'll

[0:42:41] Voice 14: have to use the 2026 published remuneration population data. That's all we have available

[0:42:48] Voice 14: until the next census. Trust Council does have a remuneration by-law that has not been

[0:42:56] Voice 14: updated for a few years. You do not have to adopt your remuneration by bylaw, you

[0:43:03] Voice 14: can do it by policy. The advantage of policy is it's more flexible. Council can

[0:43:10] Voice 14: choose to override its policy at any time. If you have a bylaw you have to

[0:43:18] Voice 14: essentially abide by the bylaw and if you want to change it would have to make

[0:43:22] Voice 14: amendments to that bylaw so the recommendation here is instead of a bylaw you update your policy

[0:43:29] Voice 14: everything is in the policy but to be clear we should rescind the existing bylaws so that this

[0:43:36] Voice 14: is the first three readings to rescind the old remuneration bylaw and then we would bring that

[0:43:43] Voice 14: back to you for adoption by resolution without meeting so as the discussion was in the committee

[0:43:52] Voice 14: to the whole you should have a good understanding of what the policy is and what the changes are

[0:43:59] Voice 14: and this is really there for council to decide on adoption of the new policy so back to the chair

[0:44:05] Voice 14: thank you it

[0:44:07] Trustee Patrick: was uh i guess yeah so uh go ahead uh ceo ronnie thank

[0:44:14] Voice 20: you chair and i just want to

[0:44:14] Voice 20: note that uh we have paul murray online as well and he was the consultant to uh put forward the

[0:44:19] Voice 20: report on this and so he is available to answer council's questions as well right uh director

[0:44:25] Trustee Patrick: marler

[0:44:26] Voice 14: yeah sorry i misspoke it was uh governance committee i've seen it so you may not have seen

[0:44:32] Voice 14: it in the details of my apologies correct

[0:44:34] Trustee Patrick: so um yeah it was governance committee had a detailed

[0:44:37] Trustee Patrick: presentation and and grueling questioning of the of the consultant and the director

[0:44:42] Trustee Patrick: um and so i think what we were at this point you all have the report you have all read the report

[0:44:50] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to suggest we do a roundtable.

[0:44:53] Trustee Patrick: This is an opportunity for you to ask questions, get clarity on understanding what's the recommendation that's here.

[0:45:01] Trustee Patrick: If you yourself have identified already recommendations for changes to the policy,

[0:45:07] Trustee Patrick: I would just, if you could just mention what you've got planned and coming.

[0:45:12] Trustee Patrick: So I would really encourage you to be brief.

[0:45:16] Trustee Patrick: I think Trustee Elliott is going to run the timer.

[0:45:26] Trustee Patrick: I think maybe set the timer for three, I guess.

[0:45:30] Trustee Patrick: We'll be kind, three minutes.

[0:45:33] Trustee Patrick: But please pay attention to that.

[0:45:35] Trustee Patrick: If you don't have anything to say, just say pass and we'll go to the next person.

[0:45:39] Trustee Patrick: And we have the consultant online and as well, Director Marler, to answer your questions.

[0:45:44] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to go with the alphabetic list.

[0:45:46] Trustee Patrick: list so that means oh go ahead see him

[0:45:50] Voice 20: sorry if it is helpful i believe mr murray also has a

[0:45:54] Voice 20: brief presentation to walk through council first that might help address some of those questions

[0:45:58] Voice 20: if you would like him to do that before we go into questions that

[0:46:01] Trustee Patrick: would be very helpful

[0:46:02] Trustee Patrick: so uh mr murray if you could do your presentation that would be great uh

[0:46:08] Voice 24: thank you jerry and thanks

[0:46:09] Voice 24: for the opportunity again uh i'll just uh see if we can get uh screen sharing going here can you

[0:46:20] Voice 24: see the slide deck yes

[0:46:24] Voice 28: good

[0:46:25] Voice 24: okay so uh again yeah thanks for the opportunity to uh to be here happy

[0:46:29] Voice 24: to answer any questions along along with staff i'll just give you a a real high level run through

[0:46:35] Voice 24: this slide deck of uh of the the discussion of the report um so as you know trustee remuneration

[0:46:43] Voice 24: review. Purpose of the review, take a look at the framework, which was really established in 2010.

[0:46:51] Voice 24: Since then, it's been, you know, improved or increased by incremental CPI. A meeting fee

[0:46:58] Voice 24: was added and there's some policy updates been considered. And several of those financial

[0:47:05] Voice 24: planning committee recommendations or discussions from, I think it was 2022, have been incorporated

[0:47:12] Voice 24: into this. The trustee survey that we completed highlighted, no surprise, lots of workload.

[0:47:21] Voice 24: Current formula or current level of remuneration is a barrier to entry. Our objective really was

[0:47:31] Voice 24: to confirm the reasonableness of the approach, the framework, the comparators that are used,

[0:47:39] Voice 24: and then recommend some refinements.

[0:47:43] Voice 24: Whoops, excuse me, do this slowly.

[0:47:47] Voice 24: Current framework, as I said,

[0:47:50] Voice 24: based on regional district,

[0:47:52] Voice 24: electorally our director comparators

[0:47:54] Voice 24: in the beginning in 2010

[0:47:56] Voice 24: with a population and folio workload proxy,

[0:48:00] Voice 24: imperfect as that is,

[0:48:03] Voice 24: but pretty good.

[0:48:05] Voice 24: And we did take a look at,

[0:48:06] Voice 24: is there something that could replace

[0:48:08] Voice 24: replace those and really the the methods that we looked at really didn't improve

[0:48:16] Voice 24: anything so no suggestion you'll see no suggestion to change those chair and

[0:48:22] Voice 24: vice chair leadership premiums and and that was reflected and recognized in the

[0:48:26] Voice 24: survey that there's certainly significant additional role and

[0:48:31] Voice 24: responsibility attached to those those positions so overall we think you know

[0:48:37] Voice 24: the framework's conceptually sound.

[0:48:39] Voice 24: There's some modest language improvements

[0:48:41] Voice 24: that would help align further with UBCM best practices.

[0:48:46] Voice 24: It's pretty good anyway, but a few improvements,

[0:48:52] Voice 24: just a set of guiding principles,

[0:48:55] Voice 24: some language around the formal review process

[0:48:57] Voice 24: that you're already doing,

[0:48:59] Voice 24: reference to the comparator sets and things like that.

[0:49:02] Voice 24: So nothing material, just improvement in language.

[0:49:10] Voice 24: The comparative context, you know, UBCM describes regional district workload qualitatively for the most part,

[0:49:20] Voice 24: reflects this thought of public service and honoraria and not a, you know, hourly job.

[0:49:27] Voice 24: job. School trustees tend to use annualized time expectations a little bit more, as do

[0:49:35] Voice 24: municipal to some degree, but municipal, again, like regional district, is more on the honoraria

[0:49:41] Voice 24: slash public service approach. So it tends not to be solely based on a sort of an hourly

[0:49:49] Voice 24: hourly kind of recognition islands trust trustees i think share elements of of all of that um so

[0:49:57] Voice 24: you know these annualized comparative to you know the regional district electoral area director

[0:50:04] Voice 24: market i think it's pretty reasonable with with a workload check in there around the

[0:50:08] Voice 24: using the you know the population and and folio um proxies uh pretty appropriate

[0:50:15] Voice 24: survey findings again you'll see there's lots of detail in the report but really the the bigger

[0:50:23] Voice 24: picture is again i'm sure no surprise workload is significant driven primarily by trust council and

[0:50:32] Voice 24: the local trust committee meetings preparation agendas consultation and engagement with community

[0:50:40] Voice 24: complexity matters more than size.

[0:50:44] Voice 24: It's not, there's not a linear relationship there.

[0:50:47] Voice 24: And those leadership roles are materially heavier.

[0:50:51] Voice 24: There's certainly recognition of that.

[0:50:54] Voice 24: Overall assessment, as I've alluded to,

[0:50:58] Voice 24: the methodology is reasonable,

[0:50:59] Voice 24: but in terms of the dollars,

[0:51:02] Voice 24: it undercompensates for the workload that you recognize.

[0:51:07] Voice 24: recognize. Market alignment has gradually eroded over time because I think some of the market

[0:51:14] Voice 24: comparators over time have begun to adjust for the additional complexity, workload, all those

[0:51:22] Voice 24: different factors that have changed over time. And if you continue just on a CPI run, sometimes

[0:51:28] Voice 24: you won't reflect the realities of that change. And I think that's what's happened. So in terms

[0:51:35] Voice 24: of relative to the to the uh electoral director market which is the closest that we have um you

[0:51:41] Voice 24: you've kind of slipped uh from that because of uh just the reliance on cpi for some time um

[0:51:49] Voice 24: you know barriers to accessibility and renewal uh have been identified um so this is really about

[0:51:55] Voice 24: adjustments it's not a full-on full-on redesign um comparative group recommendation as i've as

[0:52:01] Voice 24: As I've mentioned, again, originally, the system was set up relative to regional district

[0:52:08] Voice 24: electoral area directors, even though, you know, it's not specifically referenced each

[0:52:13] Voice 24: year.

[0:52:14] Voice 24: One of the recommendations we have is to improve the language to make that specific reference.

[0:52:22] Voice 24: It's all geographically connected regional districts with the exception of Metro Vancouver,

[0:52:27] Voice 24: just because of the size and complexity.

[0:52:29] Voice 24: although because we're suggesting you use median it doesn't really make any

[0:52:35] Voice 24: difference if if you did include Metro because they'd be right at the top end

[0:52:40] Voice 24: and they wouldn't influence the the median I believe no change recommended

[0:52:47] Voice 24: in that just a little more specific reference in in the in the policy or

[0:52:52] Voice 24: bylaw the remuneration options you know we always like to give some options

[0:52:58] Voice 24: rather than just one recommendation because obviously there's significant financial impact

[0:53:04] Voice 24: that the trust council would need to consider and in relation to all the other factors we're

[0:53:11] Voice 24: talking about. The first option is really if you're predominantly focused on cost control

[0:53:18] Voice 24: then you would set at 35% of the electoral area direct to median which keeps you pretty cost

[0:53:26] Voice 24: cost neutral to your, you know, to your current budget, give or take. So about a third or 35%.

[0:53:33] Voice 24: If you want to improve your alignment with the market a little more, recognize the workload a

[0:53:37] Voice 24: little more, move it to 50%. And I think moving to 60% is a pretty reasonable reflection of

[0:53:50] Voice 24: workload and responsibility that also balances with financial impact. So we've suggested or

[0:53:57] Voice 24: recommended 60%, but provided some options there. The breakout of that really is if we want to take

[0:54:05] Voice 24: 60%, you want to maintain the trust council base. So we suggest allocating 30% to trust council base,

[0:54:13] Voice 24: base, 23 to local trust committee base, and that leaves around 7% to use for that proxy

[0:54:23] Voice 24: from population and folio activity differential, which gives you that slight difference or

[0:54:29] Voice 24: somewhat difference between some of the islands.

[0:54:33] Voice 24: It meets the UBCM best practice of being transparent, objective, and reviewable.

[0:54:40] Voice 24: We also looked at meeting fees and attendance, you want to maintain the base heavy remuneration

[0:54:48] Voice 24: structure i.e. the majority based on or focused on the trust council and local trust committee

[0:54:57] Voice 24: base components, maintain those population and fee differentials suggesting to increase

[0:55:04] Voice 24: the committee meeting fee to 150 and 200 for chair.

[0:55:08] Voice 24: it hasn't been increased for quite quite quite some time and the the closest

[0:55:15] Voice 24: comparator we have is the capital regional district which is a hundred and

[0:55:19] Voice 24: ten dollars however that's also take takes into account the difference in

[0:55:24] Voice 24: structure with the regional district and the higher remuneration base that they

[0:55:29] Voice 24: already have if we're doing that we also and we did hear about consideration of

[0:55:34] Voice 24: of some sort of adjustment council and local trust committee meetings for non-attendance.

[0:55:46] Voice 24: So we focused on the trusted council and proposed a sort of a pro rata reduction if less or

[0:55:56] Voice 24: sorry, more than 50% or if you're absent for more than 50% of the meeting.

[0:56:01] Voice 24: so there's some language there for you to consider the leadership premiums um really not

[0:56:08] Voice 24: not uh significant changes one adjustment um you know we said the vice chair leave it at the 10

[0:56:15] Voice 24: percent uh salt spring island trustee rate plus 10 percent um the chair rate uh if it was left

[0:56:22] Voice 24: at 25 i think it would be quite substantial given the recommendation to increase all the base rates

[0:56:27] Voice 24: So you can still have a very substantial premium for chair, but drop the percentage to 15%.

[0:56:34] Voice 24: So with apologies to chair, that was suggested.

[0:56:39] Voice 24: And that's quite consistent with comparable governance practice.

[0:56:43] Voice 24: It tends to be in that sort of 10%, 15% range, recognizing that a lot of the chair roles are quite different.

[0:56:52] Voice 24: And this one is quite unique.

[0:56:54] Voice 24: In terms of future updates, the concept is that the model or the method would be or the rates would be adjusted each year by staff that would come forward with CPI, be effective April 1st of each year.

[0:57:13] Voice 24: And then once a term, again, UBCM best practice, once a term, you'd have this independent review.

[0:57:19] Voice 24: The extent of that review, you know, you could determine it may be just as simple as updating the numbers and not doing a complete run through like we've done here.

[0:57:32] Voice 24: But have that independent review, look at the comparators, see what the new median is.

[0:57:37] Voice 24: And if there were approved changes from that, then that would be applied in the first year of the next trust council term.

[0:57:47] Voice 24: Financial implications, substantial.

[0:57:51] Voice 24: Full implementation in one year of the recommendation, which would be to go to 60% of EA director median, would be thumbnail, give or take, 2.8% tax impact or $260,000 a year.

[0:58:08] Voice 24: If you phased it over a couple of years, for example, $130,000 a year or three years, $85,000 a year, recognizing also because of the nature of the way this would be implemented with your fiscal, the first year implementation would just by naturally would be about half of that $260,000.

[0:58:31] Voice 24: just because the changes would be effective April 1st,

[0:58:35] Voice 24: which is partially through for property tax purposes.

[0:58:39] Voice 24: So phasing certainly recommended given the substantial nature,

[0:58:42] Voice 24: but certainly counsel deliberation on that.

[0:58:49] Voice 24: Comparison of the options, just to give you some numbers.

[0:58:52] Voice 24: Currently, the median is about $13,800,

[0:58:57] Voice 24: 800, which as we've said, there's a feeling about that under reflecting workload and there's

[0:59:02] Voice 24: accessibility and concerns or barriers to entry. If you want to maintain it pretty consistent,

[0:59:08] Voice 24: cost neutral with no workload corrections, really 35% of the EA director median, which would put it

[0:59:15] Voice 24: at give or take 14,167. Moving it up to 50% would take it to 20,596. Improves the market alignment

[0:59:26] Voice 24: to some degree. And then option three, which we recommended was to take it to 60%,

[0:59:31] Voice 24: which puts the median at $24,322, again, give or take. And I think that reasonably reflects

[0:59:39] Voice 24: workload and responsibilities and balances with the financial implications to some degree.

[0:59:47] Voice 24: So final recommendation after all of that is suggest you consider option three,

[0:59:52] Voice 24: although we provided two others as well, which is 60% of the electoral area direct to median.

[0:59:59] Voice 24: There's language.

[1:00:00] Voice 24: which in the policy draft,

[1:00:04] Voice 24: I think you have a red line copy

[1:00:06] Voice 24: and a clean copy for consideration

[1:00:09] Voice 24: in the agenda package.

[1:00:10] Voice 24: I think that's a pretty good reflection

[1:00:12] Voice 24: of workload and responsibilities,

[1:00:14] Voice 24: but that's Trust Council's determination to make.

[1:00:20] Voice 24: I think it improves accessibility and sustainability

[1:00:23] Voice 24: and I think it can be phased reasonably over time

[1:00:28] Voice 24: should you wish to do that.

[1:00:31] Voice 24: With that, Chair, I think I'll leave it there

[1:00:34] Voice 24: and be happy to answer any questions along with staff.

[1:00:37] Voice 24: Thank you.

[1:00:38] Voice 24: And I'll stop screen sharing here.

[1:00:40] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:00:41] Trustee Patrick: I'm sure there will be questions.

[1:00:43] Trustee Patrick: So just to reiterate, the policy that we have before us,

[1:00:46] Trustee Patrick: Director Marler, includes the recommendation

[1:00:48] Trustee Patrick: as made by Mr. Murray.

[1:00:51] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[1:00:52] Trustee Patrick: So, Trustees, we're going to initiate a roundtable.

[1:00:55] Trustee Patrick: This is your chance to ask questions

[1:00:56] Trustee Patrick: to make sure you clearly understand.

[1:00:58] Trustee Patrick: I would, if you have a different option that you think is important, just state so.

[1:01:03] Trustee Patrick: I think keep your justification short and brief, but let us know where you're thinking.

[1:01:11] Trustee Patrick: And we'll go from there.

[1:01:12] Trustee Patrick: And so I'm going to go with the alphabet list.

[1:01:17] Trustee Patrick: Jesse Harris, you've raised your hand.

[1:01:18] Trustee Patrick: Is it a process question?

[1:01:21] Trustee Patrick: Otherwise, I'm going to do an alphabet list here.

[1:01:23] Trustee Patrick: You're going to be called.

[1:01:28] Trustee Patrick: Okay.

[1:01:28] Trustee Patrick: Okay. So I'm going to start alphabetically and start with Trustee Allen.

[1:01:35] Voice 10: A squared. Great report. Thank you very much. It was actually really readable, which is great.

[1:01:44] Voice 10: I'm speaking as a fourth term trustee. Many years, many terms, I felt like it was pro bono,

[1:01:52] Voice 10: sometimes volunteer in terms of how much I've put out. I think I've made $13,000 a year.

[1:01:59] Voice 10: and so I'm one of the few trustees that does have a full-time job because I have to. So I really

[1:02:06] Voice 10: welcome this because really there's a lot of great young people in our community that would

[1:02:13] Voice 10: really like to run for trustee and it's once again the financial barriers. So I'm really glad

[1:02:18] Voice 10: we're looking at this. Yeah I mean I had to step down from community memberships. I had to do all

[1:02:23] Voice 10: these things just because i have a job um and then um you know obviously some some committees have

[1:02:33] Voice 10: and i'll say for hornby that we've had very controversial contentious issues with vacation

[1:02:39] Voice 10: rentals and and it's uh it's been a lot of work way more work than i thought i'd be doing

[1:02:47] Voice 10: regarding you know we answer emails phone calls so you know i don't sure how i guess we're all

[1:02:52] Voice 10: different in terms of how we do our jobs like how many people answer the phone how many people

[1:02:58] Voice 10: respond to emails immediately how many people say contact staff um or contact your other trustee or

[1:03:05] Voice 10: something like that so i'm not sure how that plays out but i will say that um another thing that

[1:03:11] Voice 10: hasn't been brought up is that sometimes one trustee ends up doing way more of the workload

[1:03:15] Voice 10: and um and that's not very much fun either so i just said that as an aside but yeah that's all

[1:03:24] Voice 10: All I'm going to say, it's a great report, and I do hope that we visit this for the future leaders of this, of Islands Trust.

[1:03:32] Voice 10: So thank you.

[1:03:34] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[1:03:35] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Bernardo.

[1:03:41] Voice 21: Thank you.

[1:03:42] Voice 21: I don't have any questions for Mr. Murray.

[1:03:46] Voice 21: We discussed the report in a fair bit of detail at the governance committee.

[1:03:50] Voice 21: committee. All my questions were answered there. We resolved

[1:03:54] Voice 21: to recommend it to trust counsel for approval, basically for the reasons

[1:03:59] Voice 21: said in the report. After 16

[1:04:02] Voice 21: years, since the last comprehensive review, we've fallen

[1:04:06] Voice 21: behind, and that's created two basic problems.

[1:04:10] Voice 21: One, you've heard about it already, barriers to entry.

[1:04:15] Voice 21: It's a real challenge, attracting people

[1:04:18] Voice 21: who aren't retired to participate and contribute the other one is it just doesn't fairly reflect

[1:04:25] Voice 21: the workflow or the nature of the responsibility um i've got a couple resolutions to make the policy

[1:04:31] Voice 21: clearer and i believe more consistent with the advice you received from brentwood advisory group

[1:04:38] Voice 21: i can talk about them now or i can talk about them later um i'm in your hands chair

[1:04:45] Trustee Patrick: i guess you can introduce them later just they're just wording just clarity changes

[1:04:49] Voice 21: yes that's right they're just wording changes so maybe i should just uh

[1:04:52] Voice 21: defer that till later on sure

[1:04:54] Trustee Patrick: thank you thank you very much all right uh trustee boland i don't

[1:04:58] Trustee Patrick: think with us yet today so uh trustee borthwick uh

[1:05:04] Voice 45: yeah i am also lucky enough to sit on the

[1:05:06] Voice 45: governance committee and have had a chance to uh hear uh mr murray's presentation before

[1:05:11] Voice 45: um and i want to thank him again for this work um i think it would be uh uh one could say that

[1:05:19] Voice 45: of the report speaks for itself, but I think we wouldn't be doing our jobs if we didn't speak to

[1:05:23] Voice 45: it anyways. I was very appreciative to hear that the general underpinnings and the rationale behind

[1:05:31] Voice 45: how our remuneration structure is currently structured still bear out. I think that speaks

[1:05:38] Voice 45: to the strength of the underlying logic, and I'm glad that that's the case. And I'm glad to see

[1:05:47] Voice 45: see that in these options, this looks at least a little bit at some equalization or raising the

[1:05:55] Voice 45: level a little bit, especially for the smaller islands, which tend to get the fuzzy end of the

[1:06:00] Voice 45: lollipop as it were. I believe really strongly that if we don't adequately support trustees,

[1:06:08] Voice 45: we are structurally undermining the abilities of this leadership to carry out our duties to

[1:06:17] Voice 45: community and to support the trust mandate we lock leadership for our islands behind a barrier

[1:06:22] Voice 45: that only financial privilege can scale which robs us of a significant percentage of the vibrant

[1:06:28] Voice 45: brilliant and diverse voices that constitute our communities the leaders of this body are a vital

[1:06:36] Voice 45: component in good governance and we do a disservice to this body and to our communities if we fail to

[1:06:43] Voice 45: to support those who choose to serve in this capacity now and going forward.

[1:06:49] Voice 45: I think this is money well spent.

[1:06:52] Voice 45: I think this is a good place to invest our energy in supporting the people who choose

[1:06:57] Voice 45: to sit around this table.

[1:06:58] Voice 45: And it's not, you know, I obviously have, you know, strong feelings about the accessibility.

[1:07:03] Voice 45: This is not an easy table for me to come to for many reasons.

[1:07:06] Voice 45: I have four other jobs that require a lot of my time and energy.

[1:07:12] Voice 45: And I believe in them as well. But I also believe really strongly that we're really well served to have all of the spectrum of our community at these tables. And that includes people for whom it's easier to be here. And I still think that if they choose to be here and choose to serve in this capacity, that they deserve to be supported in that work.

[1:07:33] Voice 45: and that that work is recognized and and we nourish our leadership here because I

[1:07:38] Voice 45: think all of us will do a better job if that's recognized thank

[1:07:44] Trustee Patrick: you very much

[1:07:45] Trustee Patrick: trustee Campbell

[1:07:48] Voice 41: thank you I I thought it was a great report pretty pretty

[1:07:54] Voice 41: clear my one question I guess was about the pro rata sort of like penalization

[1:08:01] Voice 41: of of uh missing missing meetings um and just one wondering um it seemed like it was established

[1:08:15] Voice 41: that there would be uh four trust councils and four community uh committee of the whole meetings

[1:08:21] Voice 41: but i know in times i think last last year there was quite a few committee of the whole meetings

[1:08:29] Voice 41: that happened and all at sort of fairly inopportune times and so I wonder how I feel

[1:08:40] Voice 41: like there needs to be a little bit more written into that about how how that would be applied

[1:08:47] Voice 41: basically because I know for instance a bunch of the community committee of the whole meetings were

[1:08:53] Voice 41: in the middle of the day when I had to be at work so the chances of me making those are not

[1:09:02] Voice 41: uh not good i make more money working for a living than i do attending a trust meeting but would be

[1:09:11] Voice 41: penalized more money than i would be making in the day so it's sort of i yeah just was

[1:09:20] Voice 41: wondering if there was more clarity to be given to that point thank

[1:09:26] Trustee Patrick: you is that something uh

[1:09:27] Trustee Patrick: mr murray could you maybe or director marley talk a little bit more about that the the attendance

[1:09:34] Trustee Patrick: piece uh

[1:09:38] Voice 24: chair i can um i'm sure uh staff are better positioned to speak to the the introduction

[1:09:44] Voice 24: of the the the committee the whole meeting process um i certainly didn't look at the

[1:09:52] Voice 24: specifics of that kind of uh that kind of issue or you know when they're scheduled in the right

[1:09:56] Voice 24: time etc so um there if there's a concern about that then you know there's certainly

[1:10:03] Voice 24: certainly room to adjust that language or to find a way with staff to to manage that so that

[1:10:11] Voice 24: as I would hope as committee the whole meetings become more like trust council and there's a

[1:10:17] Voice 24: regular time that seems to work for the majority then you know that's then the the reduction piece

[1:10:25] Voice 24: wouldn't be hopefully seen as an over penalty as such.

[1:10:32] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:10:33] Voice 14: Director Marley?

[1:10:34] Voice 14: Yeah, the policy as written doesn't specify whether it's regular or special meetings.

[1:10:39] Voice 14: It would probably apply to any meetings of council

[1:10:42] Voice 1: and committee as a whole.

[1:10:43] Voice 14: There isn't a rush to adopt the policy.

[1:10:46] Voice 14: So if you want edits made, we can definitely do that and bring it back.

[1:10:49] Voice 14: You would obviously want to adopt it before the end of your term.

[1:10:54] Voice 14: So you don't have to adopt this today.

[1:10:58] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Trustee Dodds?

[1:11:06] Voice 12: I certainly, first off, I've always worked. I don't have a full-time job, so I always made

[1:11:12] Voice 12: sure I had my trust days were days that I would devote to trust, the island's trust activities.

[1:11:20] Voice 12: But that being said, certainly from the time I started until what's happening today is a

[1:11:25] Voice 12: the workload of course it's considerably more a lot more engagement from the community a lot more

[1:11:30] Voice 12: meetings so the format of deciding on on acknowledging the the time and never mind the

[1:11:38] Voice 12: agenda packages in terms of trust council meetings and uh and all the other committee meetings i i

[1:11:44] Voice 12: appreciate that my my big concern is that at this point with the way i know the budget is coming

[1:11:51] Voice 12: coming next year when the budget comes again this is going to get added to our next year budget

[1:11:56] Voice 12: so I'm concerned about the size of the increase and so I would like to see us consider that fact

[1:12:03] Voice 12: that this is going to be a big hit if we go for the whole shebang and that maybe we should be

[1:12:09] Voice 12: thinking about phasing it in going back to whether you'll get more candidates running for trustee

[1:12:16] Voice 12: versus ones who have nine to five jobs and can't afford to that certainly is a valid point but

[1:12:22] Voice 12: having sat through many many many trust councils i also know over time we've had young people come

[1:12:27] Voice 12: and go it's uh it's a hard one i i was a trustee for school trustee for 10 years and i had two

[1:12:33] Voice 12: children during that time um and unfortunately all of these positions are are a good portion

[1:12:40] Voice 12: is volunteer time. A good portion is juggling either your work that you have, and all of us

[1:12:46] Voice 12: certainly have always had work, is challenging. And so even with that kind of money, I think you'll

[1:12:52] Voice 12: still find that there will be people who are in a better position because they don't have full-time

[1:12:57] Voice 12: jobs or young families. But certainly, I would encourage us to have a good balance of people

[1:13:02] Voice 12: who can run for and be Island Trust trustees. We need those younger people. So my big concern

[1:13:08] Voice 12: and simply is that we be cautious about how much money we're going to throw at this,

[1:13:12] Voice 12: even if it isn't until next year's budget, because it's going to come back to bite us

[1:13:17] Voice 12: when we have to deal with it next year. Thank you.

[1:13:21] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much. Trustee Elliott.

[1:13:29] Voice 31: Okay. Generally support the direction that this report reveals our framework's fairly solid.

[1:13:36] Voice 31: I think it is an imperfect system, and we are trying to strike a balance

[1:13:39] Voice 31: between making remuneration worthwhile but it's not a full-time job and that's just the reality

[1:13:47] Voice 31: of of public service and being elected and so um i do think the trust council and committee the

[1:13:56] Voice 31: whole attendance piece is quite important i think our constituents get very frustrated if they

[1:14:02] Voice 31: are in a community where someone's elected and there's just repeated absences so if there's a

[1:14:09] Voice 31: a way to address that while not making it a punishment, but there needs to be some recognition

[1:14:16] Voice 31: that part of the job is coming to meetings and making decisions. If you're not in attendance,

[1:14:21] Voice 31: you can't make decisions, therefore you're not serving the public. So I think that Committee

[1:14:26] Voice 31: of the Whole attendance pro rata rate reduction is appropriate. I'm with Trustee Dodds on the

[1:14:32] Voice 31: method for future increases. I think this should be a three-year phased-in approach. I think one

[1:14:37] Voice 31: jump in a year is going to be too much um so i'm in support of that that option of uh three-year

[1:14:45] Voice 31: phase-in thank you trustee evans thank

[1:14:53] Voice 25: you um i'm very much in agreeance with what i've heard around

[1:14:57] Voice 25: the table so far um and i i just want to say i'm very happy that the community of the holds now are

[1:15:04] Voice 25: scheduled a year in advance which makes it a lot easier schedule wise for us to

[1:15:09] Voice 25: to mark off for attendance.

[1:15:14] Voice 25: I am also in support of a phased approach to this.

[1:15:18] Voice 25: That was actually going to be one of my questions.

[1:15:22] Voice 25: So I'm going to keep it brief.

[1:15:24] Voice 25: That's where I'm at.

[1:15:25] Voice 25: Thank you very much.

[1:15:28] Voice 25: Trustee Falk.

[1:15:32] Voice 18: Yeah, thank you.

[1:15:35] Voice 18: Well, how this jump in your remuneration

[1:15:40] Voice 18: would affect the budget is a big question for me.

[1:15:44] Voice 18: as others have said as well um like where where's the money coming from that's that's another

[1:15:52] Voice 18: question for me is we have to consider who's paying for it in the end and what do they feel

[1:15:57] Voice 18: about it um and the question of hours or you know meetings which comes down to hours i guess

[1:16:07] Voice 18: versus some other measure of the work that we do and i'm not sure what that would be exactly

[1:16:12] Voice 18: I know it would be difficult to come up with that, but it seems like if there would be a way of quantifying effective work to make this an encouragement, driving us to achieve goals, not just sort of sit in our seats.

[1:16:33] Voice 18: and I'm not saying that we just sit in our seats, but we are not encouraged. There's no model that's

[1:16:39] Voice 18: driving us forward from the numeration aspect. So yeah, I'm just not sure if this model

[1:16:50] Voice 18: will encourage effectiveness. But I think certainly the hardships that some people's

[1:16:57] Voice 18: situation is where they need you know it's a hardship to be a trustee it would be great if

[1:17:03] Voice 18: that could be addressed but i'm not sure if an across the board model um is the answer thank you

[1:17:14] Trustee Patrick: uh trustee fast thank you

[1:17:18] Voice 28: i'm um thank you for the

[1:17:20] Trustee Patrick: good report i was uh really clear and i'm glad

[1:17:23] Trustee Patrick: that we've

[1:17:23] Voice 28: got a solid foundation. I'm thinking about the citizens on our island and how they

[1:17:31] Voice 28: would like to be represented. And I think

[1:17:34] Trustee Patrick: citizens are interested in democracy, which is having a

[1:17:38] Trustee Patrick: very diverse group of interested people with different perspectives to bring to the decision

[1:17:45] Trustee Patrick: making table. So I am thinking about how will we best. So I'm not worried about the budget side of

[1:17:54] Trustee Patrick: it, because it, the point of doing this is to lead to better representation and better decision

[1:18:00] Trustee Patrick: making. And I'm thinking about the people who might be considering, should I run? And whether

[1:18:10] Trustee Patrick: Whether a phased-in approach would give them enough confidence to take on that first year when it's hard to know how much work it is and how much other work you're going to be able to do, and you're trying to make room in your schedule for this work.

[1:18:30] Trustee Patrick: So I think we should make a commitment to not phase it in, but put it in next year's budget so that it's something sure

[1:18:46] Voice 28: that people who are thinking of running, at least they can be sure of that.

[1:18:52] Voice 28: Everything else will be unknowns,

[1:18:57] Trustee Patrick: even for those of us who run several times.

[1:19:02] Trustee Patrick: So I think we should use this good report and the solid framework we've got, catch up from the 15 years and

[1:19:12] Voice 28: bring some, I think, more diversity and fresh ideas and fresh networking into next year's trust council, a

[1:19:27] Trustee Patrick: better democracy around our table.

[1:19:30] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:19:31] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:19:32] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Gavreau.

[1:19:35] Voice 29: Thank you, Chair.

[1:19:37] Voice 29: I serve on the Governance Committee as well,

[1:19:39] Voice 29: and I find this is a welcome improvement.

[1:19:45] Voice 29: I think making this role more accessible,

[1:19:48] Voice 29: which I think I'm hearing from most people around the table,

[1:19:50] Voice 29: is a real plus in this.

[1:19:54] Voice 29: The workload is very high.

[1:19:56] Voice 29: We do need a more diverse selection of people from our islands here

[1:20:02] Voice 29: You're at this table making the decisions.

[1:20:05] Voice 29: I'm a single mom and I have a large workload.

[1:20:09] Voice 29: And I have to think about, should I run?

[1:20:12] Voice 29: I own a business.

[1:20:13] Voice 29: I work full time.

[1:20:14] Voice 29: And I ask myself again, should I run?

[1:20:17] Voice 29: And then now I'm the trustee.

[1:20:18] Voice 29: I'm sitting here.

[1:20:19] Voice 29: I've been elected, right?

[1:20:21] Voice 29: And I've been elected to represent my community.

[1:20:25] Voice 29: And all three of those are very important jobs.

[1:20:28] Voice 29: I think that

[1:20:31] Voice 29: the remuneration

[1:20:33] Voice 29: piece of it isn't

[1:20:34] Voice 29: even with these additions isn't

[1:20:37] Voice 29: going to make

[1:20:38] Voice 29: no one's going to be able to live off of that

[1:20:41] Voice 29: A. I think it is

[1:20:43] Voice 29: it does sweeten it a lot

[1:20:45] Voice 29: but I do

[1:20:47] Voice 29: think that it is too much

[1:20:50] Voice 29: and I don't think we should

[1:20:52] Voice 29: face it. I think we should

[1:20:53] Voice 29: walk into it and embrace it

[1:20:55] Voice 29: we need as Trustee Fast

[1:20:58] Voice 29: said we do need to play a little bit of catch-up here.

[1:21:00] Voice 29: This should happen maybe in our term

[1:21:01] Voice 29: here.

[1:21:04] Voice 29: Thank you. That's all there.

[1:21:06] Voice 29: Thank you. Trustee Getty.

[1:21:12] Voice 17: All right.

[1:21:12] Voice 17: So, like everybody else

[1:21:14] Voice 17: in the Governance Committee, we've been through this in detail

[1:21:16] Voice 17: and thank you very, very much for a really good

[1:21:18] Voice 17: report. I think that this has given us some

[1:21:20] Voice 17: solid foundation

[1:21:21] Voice 17: to have this discussion and

[1:21:23] Voice 17: to help our constituents

[1:21:26] Voice 17: understand what we're talking about.

[1:21:27] Voice 17: out. I'm mindful of the fact that it's been a good solid 13 years since we've had any kind of a

[1:21:35] Voice 17: review of the salaries or the honorarium or the payments. And I am in a very fortunate position

[1:21:46] Voice 17: because I've ended up starting my role as a trustee after I received a really good pension.

[1:21:51] Voice 17: I gave up, I'm a failed retirement, but it's, it's certainly possible. But there's, you know, even with that, with that cushion, it's really hard sometimes to keep track of, you know, the $300 that get put into my bank account every once in a while. And it's like, it's, I can't look at that, because it drives me crazy.

[1:22:15] Voice 17: so I think that the quality of work that people are getting the dedication and

[1:22:21] Voice 17: the amount of energy that goes into all of the difficult subjects not just the

[1:22:25] Voice 17: load but the kinds of things that we have to deal with is really important

[1:22:31] Voice 17: to at least have when somebody's considering running have that as okay

[1:22:38] Voice 17: it's not that bad you know the increase on the from Bowen with a 60 percent goes

[1:22:44] Voice 17: goes from $4,000 to $9,000.

[1:22:47] Voice 17: You know, that's, what is that?

[1:22:50] Voice 17: $0.10 on the dollar in terms of, or $0.10 per hour in terms of the work that you put in.

[1:22:56] Voice 17: People are getting really good value, and I think that we can justify it easily,

[1:23:00] Voice 17: both in terms of what's been put into this report and who the base comparison is with,

[1:23:06] Voice 17: but also with respect to what we all know the workload is.

[1:23:09] Voice 17: so yes it's an honoraria yes it has to be something that is at least significant so that

[1:23:16] Voice 17: maybe we can give up one of the part-time jobs and have more time for this work and at the same

[1:23:23] Voice 17: time we all get caught up in it so that it's the work that we do is really good and i think that

[1:23:28] Voice 17: our constituents appreciate that and understand that so we get good people we feel good about the

[1:23:34] Voice 17: the work that we're doing and we we keep at it so um i think that this is um i don't know that i

[1:23:42] Voice 17: i understand from the budget point of view that it would be good to phase it in but i think that

[1:23:46] Voice 17: um we need to just um you know it's the same amount overall and i think we just need to um

[1:23:54] Voice 17: help get people some decent money when they're doing all of this work

[1:24:00] Trustee Patrick: Thank

[1:24:01] Voice 17: you. Trustee Graham?

[1:24:04] Voice 5: Okay. Thank you, Chair. Well, a tough consultant's job to look at a unicorn government

[1:24:13] Voice 5: and try and make a comparison. So I applaud you. That's not easy. And you made the only logical

[1:24:21] Voice 5: comparison with the regional directors. But I've been an alternate director for the Comox Valley

[1:24:27] Voice 5: Valley Regional District. And I would say that the work of a regional director is not really

[1:24:31] Voice 5: comparable to that of a trustee. That's just my interpretation. This idea that our remuneration

[1:24:40] Voice 5: is a barrier. I heard this the last time Trust Council reviewed the policy and the results are

[1:24:51] Voice 5: the one that we've got now and we heard the same argument but it wasn't a barrier for all of us

[1:24:57] Voice 5: and it wasn't a barrier for any of the other four trust councils that i've been a part of

[1:25:02] Voice 5: and they've always been diverse and they've always had a pretty good representation of thoughts and

[1:25:09] Voice 5: personalities but we all share the same passion the passion is the work of the trust the

[1:25:15] Voice 5: preservation and protection of our beautiful islands that we really understand at such a

[1:25:21] Voice 5: deep level. It's a million dollar increase for the four years of a trust council's life

[1:25:32] Voice 5: every year and I just can't wrap my head around that and I know you've all made great arguments

[1:25:40] Voice 5: but that particular one sticks in the back of my throat and I just can't get it. So if I were

[1:25:47] Voice 5: We're looking at options.

[1:25:48] Voice 5: I would go with option one at this point.

[1:25:50] Voice 5: Thank you.

[1:25:52] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:25:53] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Harris?

[1:25:58] Voice 4: Thank you.

[1:26:00] Voice 4: I'm also a member of the Governance Committee, as some may know.

[1:26:04] Voice 4: I was very opposed to bringing this to Trust Council at all for numerous reasons.

[1:26:14] Voice 4: um the main one that um all my reasons sort of hinge from is that um as an elected representative

[1:26:23] Voice 4: for the people that voted for me and the last election for salt spring island which everybody

[1:26:30] Voice 4: knows is a cash cow for this organization and we pay the lion's share of taxes to this organization

[1:26:38] Voice 4: to keep it going and um with that i cannot um be in favor of paying more for trustees

[1:26:51] Voice 4: who are an organization that is creating policies that actually have been a big part of the reason

[1:27:00] Voice 4: that the working class on this island their wages have not kept up with the cpi index anywhere near

[1:27:06] Voice 4: and we've actually a lot of people have seen their income dwindle because of regulatory policies

[1:27:14] Voice 4: some of which were pushed or tried to have been pushed on invalid information um you know this

[1:27:20] Voice 4: asking for more money from the salt spring island taxpayers to me is just fraught with um with

[1:27:28] Voice 4: issues um you know when you look at the undemocratic representation aspect of it it just

[1:27:35] Voice 4: Just there's no way I can be in favor of this.

[1:27:39] Voice 4: Some trustees are even acclaimed.

[1:27:41] Voice 4: So to ask Salt Spring Island to pay for more money for trustees who aren't even elected to create heavy handed environmental policies that are going to impact people on Salt Spring to me is insanity.

[1:27:55] Voice 4: And I don't you know, there's anybody that I know that I've talked to is not in favor.

[1:27:59] Voice 4: And I think it's absolutely crazy.

[1:28:01] Voice 4: And I think that 100 percent.

[1:28:03] Voice 4: I think that the report, granted, Mr. Murray's obviously done lots of work, but I think that undemocratic representation aspect has not been taken into account in this report.

[1:28:15] Voice 4: You know, what the communities are seeing, Salt Spring Island especially, you know, we have, again, trustees elected on other islands.

[1:28:26] Voice 4: Nobody on Salt Spring voted for them.

[1:28:28] Voice 4: Now we're going to pay more money.

[1:28:32] Voice 4: you know and what people are are seeing is that the trust council to many we many here perceive

[1:28:40] Voice 4: it as um the trust council is kind of implementing a controlled destruction of um of how our

[1:28:49] Voice 4: communities work at this point and so many trustees on the other islands are completely

[1:28:52] Voice 4: disconnected not by no fault of their own they're disconnected by um they're disconnected from the

[1:28:59] Voice 4: big city issues.

[1:29:00] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Harris, you're...

[1:29:01] Voice 4: I hear that. I can finish, please. They're

[1:29:03] Trustee Patrick: disconnected

[1:29:04] Voice 4: from big city issues that we are suffering from on Salt Spring Island.

[1:29:08] Trustee Patrick: Can

[1:29:08] Voice 4: the

[1:29:11] Trustee Patrick: language be adjusted to be more respectful of elected trustees and the citizens who elected

[1:29:17] Trustee Patrick: them? Thank you.

[1:29:18] Voice 4: Can I ask what I said that was wrong or you didn't like?

[1:29:21] Trustee Patrick: Harris, you're talking about other elected officials?

[1:29:25] Voice 4: Of course I am. We're talking

[1:29:27] Voice 4: about paying other elected officials with salt spring money i'm not in favor of or the people

[1:29:31] Voice 4: that elected me because there's a disconnect between other there's a disconnect between

[1:29:38] Voice 4: trustees and other islands and the big city issues that salt spring island is suffering from

[1:29:45] Trustee Patrick: trustee harris okay uh you state your point i'm

[1:29:49] Voice 4: trying to state a point and

[1:29:51] Trustee Patrick: this you know what

[1:29:52] Trustee Patrick: this

[1:29:53] Voice 4: has been going on all term it doesn't surprise me i'm opposed to this i'll guarantee

[1:29:58] Voice 4: I guarantee

[1:29:58] Voice 25: you the local people will pick up my opportunity.

[1:30:00] Voice 25: interruption. Interrupting the chair.

[1:30:04] Voice 4: I'm sorry, but I can't hear when somebody's speaking. All I

[1:30:06] Voice 4: hear is chatter. I don't know who is speaking.

[1:30:10] Trustee Patrick: Okay. Trustee Harris, please. There's been a

[1:30:12] Trustee Patrick: point of order called.

[1:30:13] Voice 4: Well, I disagree with that point of order. Maybe we should challenge it.

[1:30:16] Trustee Patrick: I'm the chair. Thank you, Trustee Harris.

[1:30:19] Voice 4: Well, I'd like to challenge the point of order, please.

[1:30:21] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Harris, please. I think, Trustee Harris, you've had three minutes. I'm going to go on to

[1:30:27] Trustee Patrick: the next speaker trustee hunter a

[1:30:32] Voice 37: tough act to follow um i'm not in favor of this increase

[1:30:38] Voice 37: for a lot of reasons but um i i didn't run for election for the money in the first place i ran

[1:30:48] Voice 37: because of the place that i live and i've lived for a very long time and i know a lot of people

[1:30:54] Voice 37: that are very fond of the place and they don't really want a lot of change they like it the way

[1:31:01] Voice 37: it is okay so i'm lucky enough not to need the money i i get 999 dollars and 12 cents every month

[1:31:11] Voice 37: that's before taxes it isn't a great amount of money but are we in it for the money as trustees

[1:31:21] Voice 37: are we here to make the Gulf Islands a better place?

[1:31:25] Voice 37: My other real big beef is, I'm just looking on the BC assessment page here,

[1:31:31] Voice 37: and there's 2,233,648 properties in British Columbia.

[1:31:39] Voice 37: Now, if the government that created this government would stand up and say,

[1:31:47] Voice 37: yeah, okay, we funded it for the first 20 years.

[1:31:51] Voice 37: Why can't we fund it now?

[1:31:53] Voice 37: It would take $5.37 from each one of those properties to fund this.

[1:32:00] Voice 37: That's less than a cup of coffee.

[1:32:03] Voice 37: So could someone please explain to me how, along the way,

[1:32:11] Voice 37: the taxpayers of the Gulf Islands are paying for their own demise?

[1:32:18] Voice 37: I don't get it.

[1:32:20] Voice 37: Why is the government silent on it?

[1:32:22] Voice 37: All they can say is, yeah, you're big people now.

[1:32:25] Voice 37: you go figure it out. Yeah, that's great. But you should hear the people screaming at me,

[1:32:31] Voice 37: we don't want to pay more taxes. Thank you very much. So I can't support this. I can support the

[1:32:40] Voice 37: status quo. If someone else wants to do it next term, fine, but I can't be a part of it. Thank

[1:32:46] Voice 37: you.

[1:32:48] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Trustee Laroni, I don't believe is with us at this moment. Trustee Luckow?

[1:32:55] Trustee Patrick: There's

[1:33:01] Trustee Luckham: a lot to say on this, as it's been said around the table.

[1:33:05] Trustee Luckham: And notwithstanding Trustee Hunter's longstanding recommendation that the province pay for this,

[1:33:13] Trustee Luckham: set that aside, you're right, that's a conversation to have.

[1:33:17] Trustee Luckham: However, I support this report in its entirety.

[1:33:22] Trustee Luckham: um i appreciate that what's what look i see looking at the numbers is the equity equalizing

[1:33:36] Trustee Luckham: just trustees one trustee to another the smaller island trustees do as much work as the as the

[1:33:43] Trustee Luckham: trustees on the other islands sure there's more portfolios and there's more meetings and there's

[1:33:47] Trustee Luckham: more everything but there's a commitment and a responsibility to govern and this um these changes

[1:33:53] Trustee Luckham: colleges have recognized that. It also recognizes bringing us in line with our colleagues in other

[1:34:01] Trustee Luckham: levels of government. You know, we are the poor cousins. And that's not a very nice feeling

[1:34:07] Trustee Luckham: sometimes. And I'm not going to run again. So I had nothing to gain here. But I want to be sure

[1:34:15] Trustee Luckham: that every single person that does stand up to govern is respected and feels worthwhile.

[1:34:23] Trustee Luckham: while. And whether they choose to put that money in their pocket or do something charitable in

[1:34:28] Trustee Luckham: their community, that would be their choice, of course, regardless of where you get it.

[1:34:34] Trustee Luckham: I think it's important to recognize the contribution that every single

[1:34:37] Trustee Luckham: member that sits at this table contributes, and they should be compensated adequately.

[1:34:46] Trustee Luckham: Certainly, there's many around the table that have two, three, four other jobs in order to

[1:34:51] Trustee Luckham: make ends meet. But if you didn't have the ability to have a second or third job, this is barely

[1:34:58] Trustee Luckham: above minimum wage. In fact, it's not even minimum wage. And we're a governing body. We expect

[1:35:07] Trustee Luckham: some skills brought to this table and commitment and respect for the work.

[1:35:13] Trustee Luckham: No disrespect intended to anybody that makes minimum wage, by the way. But I support this,

[1:35:21] Trustee Luckham: And we should just get on with it and let's get back to governing.

[1:35:25] Trustee Luckham: Thank you.

[1:35:27] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:35:28] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Mabry.

[1:35:30] Voice 6: Thank you, Chair.

[1:35:32] Voice 6: This is pretty simple for me.

[1:35:34] Voice 6: This is a body that's struggling to figure out how to bring a double-digit budget increase under control.

[1:35:42] Voice 6: It's not doing a great job at figuring that out.

[1:35:46] Voice 6: And here we are baking in another 3% increase.

[1:35:49] Voice 6: increase, that's something that we're not even, you know, on budgets that we're not even going to

[1:35:54] Voice 6: vote on in the future, unless we run again. The only way I find this palatable is if it was on a

[1:36:01] Voice 6: ballot question. If the public had a chance while we're, you know, for those of us who are going to

[1:36:06] Voice 6: run again, the ability to ask us questions about it, then I'm good with that, right? If the public,

[1:36:15] Voice 6: by and large, at the time when the election happened, says, yes, trustees deserve these

[1:36:22] Voice 6: recommendations. I mean, it's a good report. It makes, you know, it's got great arguments. I've

[1:36:28] Voice 6: listened to people around the table. I'm probably more, you know, sort of in Ken's camp around,

[1:36:34] Voice 6: you know, why run and, you know, be frank, the remuneration part of it isn't why run.

[1:36:42] Voice 6: run. But I think it's more of a transparency issue. And, you know, I think election time is

[1:36:52] Voice 6: when you discuss these things. And then when the new trustees or trust counsel is sitting around

[1:36:57] Voice 6: this table in their first meeting and elect themselves an increase, then great, you know,

[1:37:04] Voice 6: because they've had a chance to sit in front of the public during that election and justify the

[1:37:09] Voice 6: reasons why they're going to do that. So that's the only way I find it palatable.

[1:37:13] Voice 6: thank you thank

[1:37:15] Trustee Patrick: you trustee maude thank

[1:37:18] Voice 43: you chair um i want to thank mr murray for a really good

[1:37:22] Voice 43: report um it's clear it is well structured it is well explored and it's well explained

[1:37:30] Voice 43: um i really appreciate the statements of trustee luckham about equity because

[1:37:39] Voice 43: we're all over the board with the current structure and this actually

[1:37:43] Voice 43: brings most of us almost on a level playing field as far as compensation goes and it's realistically

[1:37:50] Voice 43: we all work almost the same amount of workload as trustees is the amount of work it takes into

[1:37:57] Voice 43: preparing for a meeting dealing with the meeting dealing with the public is extensive um i i don't

[1:38:06] Voice 43: have any disagreements with the report and and i and i certainly think that going forward it is

[1:38:15] Voice 43: the best way is just to rip the bandage off and do the the option three i believe that is for the

[1:38:23] Voice 43: for the full compensation um the next trust council can modify that because they're going

[1:38:30] Voice 43: going to consider it in their next budget so if if this recommendation is seem to be

[1:38:35] Voice 43: inappropriate to those who follow us after the next election they can modify what what that is

[1:38:44] Voice 43: but i would rather put it out there because if we're trying to incentivize people which is what

[1:38:49] Voice 43: many of us have spoken about um going forward i think it's it's the the only fair thing to do

[1:38:56] Voice 43: is have the full proper incentive before the trustees.

[1:39:01] Voice 43: And as I say, if they are uncomfortable with it

[1:39:03] Voice 43: after they're elected, they can change that compensation.

[1:39:08] Voice 43: Certainly nobody wants to go after an election and bump it up,

[1:39:12] Voice 43: but they're not going to be looked at badly

[1:39:13] Voice 43: if they want to bump it down.

[1:39:15] Voice 43: So let's raise the bar.

[1:39:17] Voice 43: Let's attract some really good people

[1:39:20] Voice 43: because some of us are not running again.

[1:39:23] Voice 43: in and you know the people that follow i i wanted the brightest and the best of our islands and and

[1:39:30] Voice 43: and yes for some people compensation is part of it so thank you

[1:39:34] Trustee Patrick: thank you uh trustee middleton

[1:39:42] Trustee Middleton: thank you chair um this causes me considerable internal pain just have to make comments that

[1:39:49] Trustee Middleton: may appear to devalue the worthy contribution of my colleagues in no way do i mean to do this

[1:39:55] Trustee Middleton: but i think we have that i mean a good baseline of a report there are two things i disagree with

[1:40:00] Trustee Middleton: one uh we have a governance issue that we've not resolved putting more money focused on the

[1:40:06] Trustee Middleton: meeting of the trust council which is 26 people in an unstructured decision-making environment

[1:40:12] Trustee Middleton: is is not spending money as wisely as one might the governance um and how this body is conducted

[1:40:20] Trustee Middleton: I think needs reform before we begin to basically assign more money, as you'll see from the equation, whereby missing half a day equals $400.

[1:40:30] Trustee Middleton: So the majority of the money of the baseline, as the report calls it, of attending trust counsel is sort of what's seen as the baseline of the trustees, the majority really of the trustees pay.

[1:40:42] Trustee Middleton: pay. The governance committee did talk, obviously, about increasing, or the governance review talked

[1:40:48] Trustee Middleton: about increasing remuneration to make the position more available to people of different

[1:40:57] Trustee Middleton: working backgrounds, family situations, etc. So I certainly support that, but I don't think we're

[1:41:02] Trustee Middleton: ready yet. I think there's work that needs to be done to make that investment valuable right now,

[1:41:09] Trustee Middleton: Now, just just giving an additional chunk of money to people to come and participate in the same 26 member body, I don't think will make any difference at all.

[1:41:19] Trustee Middleton: And then secondly, I think the timing is just really bad.

[1:41:23] Trustee Middleton: We have what I'd consider a structural budget issue on our hands and standing up and giving ourselves or our future colleagues on the next council increase is effectively.

[1:41:39] Trustee Middleton: from a you know political perspective like yanking the wheel of the ship of state and driving it full

[1:41:45] Trustee Middleton: force onto the jagged rocks of public opinion the timing's just awful there will be a massive

[1:41:51] Trustee Middleton: backlash but whether regardless of the merits of this decision yeah i think you have to recognize

[1:41:57] Trustee Middleton: the way people are feeling about the budget in our communities and realize that this is just like

[1:42:02] Trustee Middleton: pouring gasoline on that um that feeling that strong feeling so for that reason i'm not able

[1:42:09] Trustee Middleton: to support any increase i say we keep the this report um available as a resource and perhaps

[1:42:16] Trustee Middleton: once governance matters and budgeting matters are addressed we can revisit it thank you

[1:42:22] Trustee Patrick: thank you trustee morrison thank

[1:42:25] Voice 44: you for the report um i don't want to restate the things

[1:42:29] Voice 44: that other trustees have stated there's a lot of very interesting comments and

[1:42:34] Voice 44: thoughts here I do have a concern I am working trustee as folks know I have a

[1:42:41] Voice 44: concern with the idea of if we're trying to entice folks who are in different

[1:42:47] Voice 44: positionalities to come into the space we really have to consider carefully our

[1:42:52] Voice 44: own internal policies about meeting scheduling and advanced meeting

[1:42:55] Voice 44: scheduling before we negatively um critique somebody for not being at a meeting like

[1:43:02] Voice 44: financially so if the goal of this work is to encourage a diversity of of participation

[1:43:10] Voice 44: then we really have to think about all the affiliated policies and how they kind of stack

[1:43:14] Voice 44: up together um and then i in terms of the cost burden i have the same thing that trustee

[1:43:20] Voice 44: middleton said about the you know the cost and i think trustee may really made this point too

[1:43:25] Voice 44: about you know the province needs to bear a cost for the trust if it's a provincial benefit and so

[1:43:33] Voice 44: i have concerns with our communities bearing the cost of anything that increases the budget

[1:43:40] Voice 44: um and particularly before i feel like we have our finances in order um because i heard something

[1:43:46] Voice 44: earlier on as we were starting in the reporting that i was like oh yeah i brought that up in 2019

[1:43:51] Voice 44: and we still haven't resolved that. So it's an issue that we really haven't got all of our own

[1:43:57] Voice 44: things in order yet. However, I really want to say that volunteerism is a privilege and you get a

[1:44:05] Voice 44: certain group of folks, all very well-meaning and well-intentioned and everything else,

[1:44:10] Voice 44: but not the diverse representation of who lives here in the trust. And so if people really can

[1:44:17] Voice 44: hand volunteer in this space we should have a mechanism for turning back your salary into the

[1:44:23] Voice 44: trust and because that solves some of the financial burden but we should appropriately pay people for

[1:44:31] Voice 44: the time that they are committing to the work because um that is a real thing in the world

[1:44:39] Voice 44: that we are asking people to do a whole bunch of things for free when they have to like weigh that

[1:44:46] Voice 44: against you know childcare and work and all the other things that they're

[1:44:51] Voice 44: managing and struggling and then maybe the last thing is just I I support the

[1:44:58] Voice 44: idea that if you don't come to meetings you don't get paid I think that needs to

[1:45:01] Voice 44: be carefully thought through with again the policies related to when how many

[1:45:05] Voice 44: meetings are scheduled and the advance notice of meetings and spread across the

[1:45:09] Voice 44: different kinds of meetings including and probably very centrally from my

[1:45:13] Voice 44: perspective, our local trust committee meetings, because our communities elect us to do things in

[1:45:19] Voice 44: our local trust committee law in a very big way. So thank you.

[1:45:24] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much. I'm next on

[1:45:27] Trustee Patrick: the list here. I think one of the key aspects of the policy that hasn't been brought up yet

[1:45:33] Trustee Patrick: is the build-in of an automatic review at the end of every term. So as I understand that,

[1:45:40] Trustee Patrick: That's best practice from what other government bodies are doing.

[1:45:45] Trustee Patrick: And that would prevent this from, again, happening 15 years later like it did this time.

[1:45:51] Trustee Patrick: So I think that's something we should be building into all of our policies, automatic reviews.

[1:45:59] Trustee Patrick: I see the governance and structure questions as separate.

[1:46:04] Trustee Patrick: You need a good elected group of people around the table to be able to address those issues

[1:46:08] Trustee Patrick: issues and that the work on that needs to continue. But I also look at the diversity of

[1:46:16] Trustee Patrick: voices that we've had at the table. This term, you know, small business owner that closes their

[1:46:23] Trustee Patrick: business to come to these meetings, no extra compensation. Others working multiple jobs to

[1:46:30] Trustee Patrick: be able to be here. We need the diversity of voice and, you know, we are behind and I support

[1:46:36] Trustee Patrick: bringing the pay up and making it more equal

[1:46:42] Trustee Patrick: so that just because you come from a small island

[1:46:46] Trustee Patrick: doesn't mean you're not equally cherished when you're here.

[1:46:54] Trustee Patrick: Okay, I'll move on to the next person.

[1:46:55] Trustee Patrick: That would be Trustee Peterson.

[1:47:00] Voice 15: Thank you, and good discussion so far.

[1:47:04] Voice 15: I'll just echo the interest in diverse representation and equity.

[1:47:13] Voice 15: I think it's important to consider best practices and not to put off indefinitely aligning with

[1:47:27] Voice 15: best practices.

[1:47:28] Voice 15: is the long the longer we wait whether it's um whether it's something like this or a policy

[1:47:34] Voice 15: statement uh the implications grow and grow as years go by so that's a concern

[1:47:40] Voice 15: um i think that one of the things i really support because i i is the pro rata um the pro

[1:47:52] Voice 15: prorated reduction because it's important that trustees come to the role with a commitment and

[1:48:02] Voice 15: awareness of their responsibility as a member of trust council as well as their role of their in

[1:48:08] Voice 15: their local trust committees so that's really important that said um i also am leery of

[1:48:19] Voice 15: of adding that prorated reduction

[1:48:22] Voice 15: to all trust council committee, the whole meetings.

[1:48:26] Voice 15: A couple of people mentioned the scheduling thing.

[1:48:30] Voice 15: So I would like it to apply to the four meetings

[1:48:35] Voice 15: of each of those bodies a year, the four regular meetings.

[1:48:38] Voice 15: Those are planned well in advance.

[1:48:40] Voice 15: I think that that gives trustees plenty of advance notice

[1:48:46] Voice 15: this up to work around those meetings. I think when we are holding special meetings, there's

[1:48:54] Voice 15: generally less, less advanced notice in terms of organizing your life around them. And so

[1:49:01] Voice 15: I am concerned about the notion of a prorated reduction for special meetings. So I would

[1:49:07] Voice 15: that would be an amendment I think would be important if this were to go forward. I don't

[1:49:16] Voice 15: It was mentioned that if any trustee feels that they want to return part of their compensation,

[1:49:25] Voice 15: a donation to the Conservancy benefits the taxpayers.

[1:49:29] Voice 15: So I just wanted to plug that.

[1:49:32] Voice 15: Thank you.

[1:49:34] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[1:49:36] Trustee Patrick: I've heard Trustee Scott is not well.

[1:49:39] Trustee Patrick: So to Trustee Stanford.

[1:49:48] Voice 32: Thank you.

[1:49:48] Voice 32: Yeah, I had an opportunity to look at the report through the Governance Committee.

[1:49:53] Voice 32: It was a good conversation then.

[1:49:55] Voice 32: This is always going to be a difficult one, and it's difficult at every level.

[1:50:00] Voice 32: I was at an event last week.

[1:50:04] Voice 32: It was women campaigning for local government, a room full of bright-eyed, bushy-tailed ladies who were interested in doing service.

[1:50:16] Voice 32: We went through the compensation outline for school trustee, regional district mayor, and Islands Trust. Five walked out. We do not pay our representatives enough for the level of work that we do. And it's not just with the trust.

[1:50:36] Voice 32: trust um this is a very very difficult position to be in especially in this day and time

[1:50:43] Voice 32: where the word politician is almost a dirty word well it is a dirty word um we're we have

[1:50:51] Voice 32: important work we have important decisions to make we cannot be struggling with multiple stressors

[1:50:58] Voice 32: trying to do these do this work appropriately we have value in our community we need to recognize

[1:51:05] Voice 32: I also understand that this isn't about the money. And that's not why we come to the table. But there are very basic aspects to this position that we do need to be compensated for and value the work that we do.

[1:51:24] Voice 32: and a lot of it being this my fourth term when I started it was a very different job

[1:51:31] Voice 32: certainly not the level of communication expertise that's required the the dance that

[1:51:39] Voice 32: I do on a daily basis to keep the confidence of the community that that where we're going

[1:51:48] Voice 32: and it's not just the trust it's where local government is going um is is going to be okay

[1:51:55] Voice 32: and they don't necessarily have that confidence anymore there things are things are up in the air

[1:52:02] Voice 32: and we know um so it's a lonely difficult position we do it out of care for our community

[1:52:11] Voice 32: but we need to have a value associated with it i do want to see some kind of increase i

[1:52:18] Voice 32: I do want to have the opportunity for really worthy, smart,

[1:52:25] Voice 32: capable community members to come to this table.

[1:52:28] Voice 32: They can't right now.

[1:52:31] Voice 32: We need to help that situation.

[1:52:35] Voice 32: We just need to value what we're doing.

[1:52:38] Voice 32: It shouldn't be this hard.

[1:52:41] Voice 32: And also, very rarely do we ever ask the council of the day

[1:52:48] Voice 32: to vote in their own races.

[1:52:51] Voice 32: That's very difficult.

[1:52:53] Voice 32: The idea is you start in the final year of the term

[1:52:57] Voice 32: to encourage other people to run for the next term.

[1:53:01] Voice 32: So I hope we can make decisions soon

[1:53:04] Voice 32: so that we have something to work with for the next term.

[1:53:07] Voice 32: Thank you.

[1:53:08] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[1:53:09] Voice 36: Trustee Yates.

[1:53:15] Voice 36: Thank you, Chair Patrick.

[1:53:17] Voice 36: And just to echo what Trustee Stamford just said,

[1:53:21] Voice 36: I want us to make a decision this term. We should not be putting this on hold or waiting for the

[1:53:28] Voice 36: next council to make a decision on what their remuneration might be. We need to make this

[1:53:34] Voice 36: decision this term. I really appreciate the report. It's just so well done. And I also

[1:53:41] Voice 36: appreciate the recommendations in the report. I'm also very glad that it suggested that we

[1:53:50] Voice 36: do not make this a bylaw. We make this a policy. Very good idea. And that this be reviewed at the

[1:53:56] Voice 36: end of every term. Another really good idea. As far as how to phase this in, if we do it over

[1:54:04] Voice 36: three years, it's less than 1% of a tax increase. I don't necessarily agree with that. I actually

[1:54:13] Voice 36: feel that I want to be able to say to someone younger than me, you could do this, and you'd

[1:54:22] Voice 36: only need to have one part-time job on the side. And I really, there is so much value to this work

[1:54:33] Voice 36: work that we're not recognizing and I really feel that um yeah I interestingly a few weeks ago

[1:54:47] Voice 36: someone said to me I can't believe how much you guys get paid it's terrible and this was a person

[1:54:54] Voice 36: who does not necessarily agree with me politically or with my fellow trustee politically all they

[1:55:01] Voice 36: we're acknowledging is that we are not getting paid for the work that we are doing thank you

[1:55:09] Trustee Patrick: all right thank you yeah trustee harris i see your hand but i'm i'm we're not doing a second

[1:55:14] Trustee Patrick: round at this time i want to move on to talking about the policy that's before us

[1:55:21] Trustee Patrick: i know we have one at least some recommendations for changes to the policy so i want to start there

[1:55:28] Trustee Patrick: and see how the conversation goes, if that's okay.

[1:55:31] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Bernardo,

[1:55:32] Trustee Patrick: I think you had some amendments to the policy.

[1:55:37] Voice 21: Yeah, I do.

[1:55:41] Voice 21: I'll explain what I'm trying to do

[1:55:42] Voice 21: with these two things first.

[1:55:47] Voice 21: And the two motions I'm about to make,

[1:55:52] Voice 21: and when we put them up,

[1:55:54] Voice 21: people can look at them before,

[1:55:56] Voice 21: maybe before I move it or before I get seconded

[1:55:59] Voice 21: so that, you know, we can deal with it efficiently.

[1:56:02] Voice 21: Really, the point of the two motions is to simply make the policy clearer.

[1:56:08] Voice 21: The purpose of both of them is consistent with the advice that we received from the Brentwood Advisory Group.

[1:56:16] Voice 21: The first follows the advice we received that proceeding with reviews by external consultants

[1:56:23] Voice 21: is basically more efficient than proceeding with an elaborate committee system.

[1:56:30] Voice 21: it's a good way of managing. I mean, the thing we've all been talking about is that there's

[1:56:34] Voice 21: an inherent conflict here that we're squirming and uncomfortable with and trying to deal with.

[1:56:39] Voice 21: Well, that's one way of managing it. That's why we've got this independent report is to

[1:56:42] Voice 21: help us through that. The current policy is now written and it just carries forward into the draft

[1:56:50] Voice 21: amended policy, has the idea that the external consultant is a possibility. It says may.

[1:56:59] Voice 21: The first resolution is to simply change that to will. Just commits us to locking in what is,

[1:57:06] Voice 21: in fact, a recommendation in the report, which is let's keep going with independent

[1:57:13] Voice 21: consultants. That's the efficient way of dealing with it. The second resolution is related to that

[1:57:19] Voice 21: that idea. And it follows on the advice from the consultants that the methodology used last time

[1:57:25] Voice 21: is actually appropriate. It wasn't documented. It is now documented in the current policy,

[1:57:31] Voice 21: in the draft policy. But that, excuse me, that methodology is appropriate. In fact,

[1:57:37] Voice 21: the consultants have applied it this time around. And their advice to us, and we did talk about this

[1:57:42] Voice 21: in a fair bit at the governance committee, their advice to us was, there's no need to reinvent the

[1:57:47] Voice 21: feel about methodology this is the right one for us uh and we should use it in future reviews

[1:57:54] Voice 21: so the second resolution rewrites the language to simply say we're going to adopt you know

[1:57:59] Voice 21: future reviews will use the methodology that's been discussed in this policy so it's kind of

[1:58:05] Voice 21: that's the point so um should we should alexander

[1:58:12] Trustee Patrick: can we bring those up just a moment

[1:58:16] Trustee Patrick: make sure everyone understands where they are in the policy

[1:58:36] Trustee Patrick: we'll get you a page number there in just a second

[1:58:39] Trustee Patrick: I have page 190

[1:58:41] Trustee Patrick: so

[1:58:45] Voice 21: I think the way I'll proceed is I'll simply make the first motion

[1:58:49] Voice 21: and we'll go from there

[1:58:50] Trustee Patrick: sure, staff have looked at the wording as well in these motions

[1:58:55] Trustee Patrick: just want to confirm, everything makes sense

[1:58:59] Trustee Patrick: so go ahead and make your motion

[1:59:01] Trustee Patrick: okay,

[1:59:02] Voice 21: the first motion, I move that

[1:59:04] Voice 21: that trust council request staff to amend draft amended policy 7.2.1 trustee remuneration section

[1:59:11] Voice 21: 5.2 dated march 10 2026 by replacing the word may with the word will all

[1:59:20] Trustee Patrick: right is there a second

[1:59:21] Trustee Patrick: are you questioning wording there

[1:59:25] Voice 28: are two sections 5.2 in this policy on page 190

[1:59:36] Trustee Patrick: Correct. You're right. There's a numbering error.

[1:59:39] Voice 14: Yeah, there's a numbering error in six as well. I was going to point that one out.

[1:59:42] Voice 14: Yeah, it is the first 5.2.

[1:59:46] Voice 14: It is the second. So it's actually 5.2.

[1:59:52] Trustee Patrick: So this is on page 190?

[1:59:55] Voice 14: Yeah, page 190, second 5.2.

[1:59:58] Voice 14: So

[1:59:58] Trustee Patrick: would this motion be...

[2:00:00] Trustee Patrick: correct then to say 5.3 no

[2:00:03] Voice 14: just say the second iteration of 5.2 second uh 5.2 is fine we'll

[2:00:08] Voice 14: know what that means so

[2:00:09] Trustee Patrick: all right alexander will add that in there to refer to the second uh

[2:00:14] Trustee Patrick: and i'll second it okay and trustee fast will second that motion uh are

[2:00:20] Voice 21: we ready for the robust

[2:00:21] Voice 21: debate over this now yes is uh

[2:00:23] Trustee Patrick: trustee bernardo is there anything else you wish to add on this

[2:00:26] Trustee Patrick: motion?

[2:00:26] Voice 21: Only that I think that I don't think it's helpful to have a policy like this, to have this

[2:00:32] Voice 21: ambiguity of May. But let's set up a structure and work with it. If future trust councils don't

[2:00:38] Voice 21: like the structure, they can change it.

[2:00:40] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Any other discussion on this motion?

[2:00:44] Voice 21: Trustee

[2:00:44] Trustee Patrick: Graham?

[2:00:48] Voice 5: Thank you, Chair. I had my hand up prior to it being seconded. I was just going

[2:00:52] Voice 5: going to make a suggestion with motions like this it really helps if at the end of your sentence

[2:00:58] Voice 5: you said so that it reads and then put the revised sentence on the in the motion so that those of us

[2:01:04] Voice 5: that haven't got the policy in front of us can see where it fits that's all it's just a suggestion

[2:01:10] Voice 5: and we've done that in the past and it does make the motions uh flow nicer thank thank you

[2:01:16] Trustee Patrick: trustee harris um

[2:01:19] Voice 4: yeah i'll be against the motion to me it's uh it expediates the the whole deal

[2:01:24] Voice 4: and um i have an issue with why there hasn't been a public engagement at all we see you know

[2:01:31] Voice 4: something simple like even just an ltc for instance where we could create um zoning that

[2:01:38] Voice 4: would help alleviate the housing crisis take two terms and public engagement after public

[2:01:43] Voice 4: public engagement and referral after referral.

[2:01:44] Voice 4: And then this, no referral, no public engagement.

[2:01:48] Voice 4: I'm opposed to this and all of it.

[2:01:51] Voice 4: Thank you.

[2:01:55] Trustee Patrick: That's any further discussion on this vote.

[2:01:59] Trustee Patrick: So just to be clear, we're talking about this review will be conducted by an external independent consultant is how the second 5.2 will read in this policy.

[2:02:12] Trustee Patrick: So if there's no further discussion, I'll call the vote.

[2:02:15] Trustee Patrick: All those in favor, raise your hand.

[2:02:18] Trustee Patrick: Electronically online.

[2:02:19] Trustee Patrick: I

[2:02:29] Voice 14: see 18 hands raised.

[2:02:31] Trustee Patrick: Did you get the ones online?

[2:02:34] Voice 14: That includes them online, yes.

[2:02:35] Trustee Patrick: All right, lower your hands, please.

[2:02:38] Trustee Patrick: All those opposed, raise your hands.

[2:02:49] Voice 14: I see four hands raised.

[2:02:50] Trustee Patrick: That's 18 to four, that carries.

[2:02:53] Trustee Patrick: Okay, Trustee Bernardo, your second motion.

[2:02:57] Voice 21: Thank you.

[2:02:59] Voice 21: Following up on Trustee Graham's point,

[2:03:01] Voice 21: And it might be helpful, I suppose, to actually see the existing wording that I'm suggesting be eliminated.

[2:03:13] Voice 21: Is it possible to have the resolution up and the existing wording at 5.3 up at the same time so people can see it?

[2:03:23] Trustee Patrick: I can read the existing wording if that helps for now.

[2:03:27] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[2:03:27] Trustee Patrick: The 5.3 says, this review may consider all factors, calculations, and comparatives.

[2:03:36] Voice 21: Thank you for that.

[2:03:37] Voice 21: My objection to that language is I don't really know what it means.

[2:03:40] Voice 21: It's very general.

[2:03:41] Voice 21: It's just, what is, you know, all the facts and whatever.

[2:03:47] Voice 21: I don't think it's sufficiently specific.

[2:03:49] Voice 21: And as I mentioned before, the consultants have advised us that we've got the right methodology.

[2:03:56] Voice 21: It's the one that we've applied for this thing.

[2:03:59] Voice 21: this current version and before so the idea here is to simply be very clear there's a methodology

[2:04:07] Voice 21: in this amended draft policy that's the methodology that should be also used on subsequent reviews

[2:04:14] Voice 21: that's the point of this so i will now make that motion i move that islands trust council request

[2:04:22] Voice 21: request staff to amend draft amended policy 7.2.1 trustee remuneration section 5.3 dated March 10,

[2:04:31] Voice 21: 2026 by replacing it in its entirety with the review will be conducted in accordance with the

[2:04:39] Voice 21: principles and methodology identified in this policy. Trustee

[2:04:50] Voice 17: Getty? I'm wondering, my recollection

[2:04:53] Voice 17: is that this was a recommendation from the consultant and I'm wondering if we can get

[2:04:57] Voice 17: his opinion of this helps focus what the methodology is for the external independent.

[2:05:07] Voice 21: Sure, it'd be very helpful if Mr. Murray could talk about, you know, recap the approach they

[2:05:13] Voice 21: took, because that's the methodology that we're talking about.

[2:05:17] Trustee Patrick: Yes. Mr. Murray, are you able to

[2:05:20] Trustee Patrick: comment on this suggested wording?

[2:05:24] Voice 24: Thank you, Chair. Through you, Chair,

[2:05:25] Voice 24: chair was simply to provide you a bit of room to maneuver if you wanted that. But I also recognize

[2:05:31] Voice 24: that, you know, per trustees comment that having it a little more focused, which is realistically

[2:05:41] Voice 24: what I would expect normally to occur, which is really you're checking the calculations and

[2:05:46] Voice 24: the comparators and redoing the numbers in effect. I would suggest that this wording or

[2:05:52] Voice 24: something similar to this would achieve that where you're really just updating the numbers for the

[2:05:57] Voice 24: you know for the market change in in the median electoral area um director remuneration and and

[2:06:05] Voice 24: if there are any other parts that are related to that um if that doesn't remove the ability

[2:06:10] Voice 24: for trust council to decide at any time that they want a broader review if circumstances change or

[2:06:17] Voice 24: you're really not happy with something then you can also direct that so this to to the trust

[2:06:22] Voice 24: trustee's point. It certainly does simplify and clarify.

[2:06:27] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much. Any other questions

[2:06:30] Trustee Patrick: on wording? Satisfied with wording? Is there a second to this motion then? Seconded by trustee

[2:06:37] Trustee Patrick: Borthwick. Any discussion? Seeing none, I'm going to call the vote. All those in favour, raise your

[2:06:45] Trustee Patrick: hands electronically. Hands in line.

[2:07:02] Voice 14: I see 18 hands in favour.

[2:07:04] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands. Any opposed,

[2:07:09] Trustee Patrick: Opposed, raise your hands.

[2:07:11] Trustee Patrick: And five opposed.

[2:07:18] Trustee Patrick: All right, so that was 18 to five.

[2:07:20] Trustee Patrick: That carries.

[2:07:22] Trustee Patrick: I believe Trustee Evans has some amendments.

[2:07:28] Trustee Patrick: Move them up on the screen.

[2:07:31] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans, do you want to talk to your amendment?

[2:07:35] Voice 25: Yes.

[2:07:36] Voice 25: As was discussed, having the words, when it comes to having the base amounts reduced through non-attendance,

[2:07:48] Voice 25: I have a question of clarity before I make this motion.

[2:07:51] Voice 25: I believe that we are not paid for special meetings.

[2:07:53] Voice 25: Is that correct?

[2:07:56] Voice 25: If we are not paid for special meetings, I don't believe that we should be docked.

[2:08:00] Voice 25: We're not attending special meetings.

[2:08:07] Trustee Patrick: You're confirming that's correct, Director Marler?

[2:08:10] Voice 14: There is no, yeah, we don't have additional payment for the Trust Council or the Council Committee meetings, including special meetings.

[2:08:21] Voice 14: So the additional payment that you get for attending meetings is only for council committee meetings.

[2:08:29] Trustee Patrick: All right. I'm just trying to make sure. So section 6.3 says trustees must attend a minimum of 50 percent of each half day session to be in attendance.

[2:08:38] Trustee Patrick: It's

[2:08:39] Voice 25: the second 6.3.

[2:08:40] Trustee Patrick: 6.3.

[2:08:41] Trustee Patrick: There's a. Oh, my goodness. You're right. The second 6.3 we'd have to put into the motion, Alexandra.

[2:08:46] Trustee Patrick: Sandra. So the second 6.3 currently reads that trust council base amounts will be reduced by

[2:08:53] Trustee Patrick: $375 per half day or $750 per full day for non-attendants at regularly scheduled

[2:09:00] Trustee Patrick: or special trust council or committee of the whole meetings. So this motion is to remove

[2:09:09] Trustee Patrick: or special. That understood? And you were going to make a reference to the second 6.3.

[2:09:15] Trustee Patrick: and there's two 6.3s as well.

[2:09:17] Trustee Patrick: You got it.

[2:09:18] Trustee Patrick: There it is.

[2:09:19] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[2:09:19] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second to this motion?

[2:09:21] Trustee Patrick: Can I make the motion first?

[2:09:22] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[2:09:24] Voice 25: Please make the motion.

[2:09:26] Voice 25: I move that Trust Council request out to amend policy 7.2.1

[2:09:31] Voice 25: trustee remuneration by removing the words or special

[2:09:35] Voice 25: from the second section 6.3.

[2:09:38] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[2:09:39] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second to this motion?

[2:09:40] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Gavreau.

[2:09:41] Trustee Patrick: Is there any discussion?

[2:09:46] Trustee Patrick: Not seeing any.

[2:09:48] Trustee Patrick: i'm going to call the vote all those in favor raise your hands uh

[2:10:05] Voice 14: 17 in favor all right lower

[2:10:07] Trustee Patrick: your hands any opposed raise your hands uh

[2:10:19] Voice 14: six of those 17

[2:10:21] Trustee Patrick: to six that carries

[2:10:23] Trustee Patrick: trustee

[2:10:24] Voice 25: evans just a clarification question do you need a motion to renumber the uh the those

[2:10:31] Voice 25: or are you good to go no

[2:10:33] Voice 14: i apologize for that i thought we caught those there is

[2:10:35] Voice 14: No, we'll just correct those.

[2:10:39] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[2:10:41] Trustee Patrick: Trustee up there, the mic is on.

[2:10:43] Trustee Patrick: Are there any other amendments to the policy?

[2:10:46] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Peterson?

[2:10:49] Voice 15: Thank you, Chair.

[2:10:51] Voice 15: It's on the second 6.3.

[2:10:55] Voice 15: Also note that there's a second 6.4 as a point of information.

[2:10:59] Voice 15: There's a discrepancy between the report, the staff report,

[2:11:05] Voice 15: and what's in the draft policy here.

[2:11:08] Voice 15: Um, uh, so the one says, uh, the values are listed at 375 and 800 for half day and full

[2:11:17] Voice 15: day.

[2:11:18] Voice 15: Um, the draft, uh, policy says 375 and 750.

[2:11:25] Trustee Patrick: You're asking for clarification on the dollar amounts.

[2:11:28] Voice 15: I have a motion to, uh, change those amounts in the draft policy to align with what's in

[2:11:36] Voice 15: the report.

[2:11:37] Voice 15: Um, and that's what I was going to propose.

[2:11:42] Trustee Patrick: all right yeah

[2:11:45] Voice 14: i'd have to maybe just ask if i made it through the chair if um uh director

[2:11:51] Voice 14: mobs has a comment on that i believe the 750 is correct and 375 is supposed to be half of that

[2:12:01] Trustee Patrick: all right we'll wait we'll wait for the director mobs to clarify go ahead direct hello director

[2:12:06] Trustee Patrick: mobs um

[2:12:07] Voice 19: good afternoon trust council i think that's actually a question better answered uh by

[2:12:12] Voice 19: by Mr. Murray as the author of the report

[2:12:14] Voice 19: to understand what the intent was in terms of those dollars.

[2:12:18] Voice 19: Nope, okay.

[2:12:19] Voice 24: And Chair, yeah, that's correct.

[2:12:22] Voice 24: The idea was just looking at a very thumbnail

[2:12:25] Voice 24: if there are 12 meetings

[2:12:27] Voice 24: and looking at the remuneration just to probe out of that.

[2:12:31] Voice 24: So the idea is that if it's half,

[2:12:34] Voice 24: clearly then it's a half of the day.

[2:12:36] Voice 24: So 750 and 375.

[2:12:40] Trustee Patrick: But I guess the question was, is there 800?

[2:12:42] Trustee Patrick: is that the question the

[2:12:44] Voice 15: staff report uh on page 122 uh number seven lists 400 and 800

[2:12:54] Voice 15: oh

[2:12:58] Voice 24: yeah sorry apologies the uh in the final the final uh run through the numbers it did

[2:13:03] Voice 24: increase slightly to 400 and 800 so it's the same principle but it's 800 and 400 okay

[2:13:09] Trustee Patrick: so the policy

[2:13:10] Trustee Patrick: needs to be corrected. Is that what you're proposing? All right. So do you have a motion

[2:13:15] Trustee Patrick: with Alexandra? I do

[2:13:17] Voice 15: stand to motion it. Do

[2:13:18] Trustee Patrick: you have a question? I was going to call you

[2:13:20] Trustee Patrick: Director Evans, not Trustee Evans.

[2:13:24] Voice 25: So based on the calculations, the numbers come out just

[2:13:27] Voice 25: under the 400 and just under the 800. So I believe they got rounded down. So my question is,

[2:13:34] Voice 25: if it's just less and it's rounded up, is that going to be deemed in fairness?

[2:13:45] Voice 14: Okay. I have to ask again if Director Mavs or Paul have any comments on that. I can't answer that one.

[2:13:54] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Paul.

[2:13:57] Voice 24: Thanks, Gerard. It's an estimate, so I don't think that question of fairness is that significant there with a slight rounding up or down.

[2:14:08] Voice 24: and uh you know every year when you change it with cpi you'll be adjusting i would i would suspect as

[2:14:15] Voice 24: well all

[2:14:17] Trustee Patrick: right did you have the um i'm gonna keep calling everyone director today trusty bernardo

[2:14:22] Trustee Patrick: thanks

[2:14:22] Voice 21: for the promotion uh the um i i i point the simple one um whatever the number is let's

[2:14:30] Voice 21: go with the number that's recommended to us by um our consultant that's all thank you all right

[2:14:35] Voice 21: Right.

[2:14:35] Trustee Patrick: So Trustee Peterson, the motion.

[2:14:45] Voice 39: Sorry about that.

[2:14:50] Voice 15: I move that policy 7.2.1,

[2:14:54] Voice 15: Trustee Remuneration 6.3, the second 6.3,

[2:14:58] Voice 15: be amended by changing the values 375 to 400

[2:15:02] Voice 15: and 750 to 800.

[2:15:05] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[2:15:06] Trustee Patrick: Alexandra will add the reference to the second 6.3.

[2:15:10] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second to this motion?

[2:15:13] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Yates.

[2:15:14] Trustee Patrick: Any discussion?

[2:15:18] Trustee Patrick: I'll call the vote then.

[2:15:19] Trustee Patrick: All those in favor, raise your hands.

[2:15:34] Voice 14: 15 in favor.

[2:15:36] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands.

[2:15:38] Trustee Patrick: All those opposed, raise your hands.

[2:15:47] Voice 14: And then six of those.

[2:15:48] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[2:15:49] Trustee Patrick: So 15 to six, that carries.

[2:15:52] Trustee Patrick: Are there any other amendments to the policies?

[2:15:55] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Elliot?

[2:16:00] Voice 31: It's on the question of phasing in the changes.

[2:16:04] Voice 31: So I don't see a process for phasing in

[2:16:08] Voice 31: and the implementation part of the policy.

[2:16:10] Voice 31: So I'm wondering if we can assume that staff will bring back options

[2:16:15] Voice 31: and implications for a future trust council on the potential to phase in

[2:16:21] Voice 31: the changes to the remuneration over two or three years early

[2:16:25] Voice 31: in the budget deliberation process for 2027-28.

[2:16:29] Voice 31: Do we need to give direction, or will staff just bring that back as,

[2:16:33] Voice 31: here's the report, here's some options?

[2:16:35] Voice 31: because that's not a decision we need to make today.

[2:16:39] Voice 31: I just want to be sure that it would come back

[2:16:41] Voice 31: to the Financial Planning Committee or whatever body thinks.

[2:16:43] Trustee Patrick: Director Marley?

[2:16:45] Voice 14: Yeah, thank you.

[2:16:46] Voice 14: I would recommend council pass a resolution

[2:16:48] Voice 14: asking staff to do that work for you.

[2:16:55] Voice 25: Okay.

[2:16:56] Voice 25: Trustee Evans?

[2:16:59] Voice 25: I just had a question.

[2:17:00] Voice 25: If these recommendations were to be made and carried today

[2:17:07] Voice 25: based on the way that the current policy is written

[2:17:12] Voice 25: and it comes into effect April 1st, 2027,

[2:17:16] Voice 25: that's this budget's consideration, correct?

[2:17:19] Voice 25: Not a future budget consideration?

[2:17:21] Voice 14: This actually comes into effect for the next budget.

[2:17:25] Voice 14: It's April 1st, 2027.

[2:17:27] Voice 14: So it won't affect your current budget, but the next cycle.

[2:17:31] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Trustee Evans.

[2:17:33] Trustee Patrick: Did you

[2:17:33] Voice 25: have another question?

[2:17:35] Voice 25: Yeah, the budget that we're working on right now

[2:17:39] Voice 25: is going to be 26.

[2:17:41] Voice 14: 26, 27, yeah, ends March 1st, 2027.

[2:17:45] Voice 25: Yep.

[2:17:48] Trustee Patrick: Okay, Trustee Berrario?

[2:17:51] Voice 21: Just following up on the question that Trustee Elliott asked,

[2:17:56] Voice 21: I would suggest that, I mean, this policy,

[2:17:59] Voice 21: and Director Marver can correct me if I'm wrong, but it's

[2:18:03] Voice 21: designed to be an ongoing policy. While we're talking about this

[2:18:07] Voice 21: phasing in thing. I'm not sure it belongs in this policy. So I would suggest having a separate

[2:18:13] Voice 21: resolution asking the staff to present options and pricing options for the 27-28 budget in relation

[2:18:22] Voice 21: to this new spending item.

[2:18:25] Trustee Patrick: That's what I believe she's doing so good. Trustee Vance?

[2:18:29] Voice 28: Yeah, I agree.

[2:18:30] Voice 28: And it looks to me from

[2:18:31] Trustee Patrick: the recommended motions here that we could pass 1, 3, 4, and 5 and turn number 2 into a motion to direct staff to return with options.

[2:18:45] Trustee Patrick: And if you'd like, unless there's any more amendments, I could move the first one.

[2:18:52] Trustee Patrick: I just want to confirm that with staff. Would that be correct that motion number 2 would be held replaced?

[2:19:00] Trustee Patrick: least okay all right then um if you want to proceed with the first motion i'm not seeing

[2:19:05] Trustee Patrick: any further amendments to the policy okay i move that islands trust council adopt the amended policy

[2:19:12] Trustee Patrick: 7.2.1 trustee remuneration uh dated and amended march 10 2026 let me just make sure we have the

[2:19:23] Trustee Patrick: right amendments in the right spot there for staff is that uh would that be correct okay

[2:19:30] Trustee Patrick: Okay. Is there a second? Second by Trustee Borthwick. Any discussion? Trustee Harris?

[2:19:37] Voice 4: Thank you. I'd like to know why there isn't any public engagement for something like this.

[2:19:43] Voice 4: And why shouldn't each island deal with this specifically when it comes to election time and be on their ballots?

[2:19:50] Voice 4: you know I'm opposed to this very very strongly and I'm actually shocked at some of the stuff I'm

[2:19:59] Voice 4: hearing today and what I'm seeing here at this point thank you thank

[2:20:04] Trustee Patrick: you any further discussion

[2:20:05] Trustee Patrick: trustee Bernardo yeah

[2:20:09] Voice 21: I mean I think we need to be as clear as we can in our own minds what we're

[2:20:15] Voice 21: trying to do here um the reality is um we've got challenges uh the organization has challenges um

[2:20:26] Voice 21: solving them is going to require some serious hard work and some creativity

[2:20:31] Voice 21: um and if we need a reminder about what the kind of challenges we face i think all we have to do

[2:20:37] Voice 21: is think back to the last trust council meeting we had and um what we heard from the cao at the

[2:20:43] Voice 21: the result was operational review um if i had to summarize it in plain language that

[2:20:51] Voice 21: the ceo can't use it's like we can't keep going the way we're going something has to change

[2:20:57] Voice 21: he made the difficult thing of asking us to fund um two new management positions because he thinks

[2:21:08] Voice 21: that's the solution to making us more effective more efficient at the same time at a meeting he

[2:21:13] Voice 21: He said we can't spend our way out of our troubles.

[2:21:18] Voice 21: But the fact of the matter is he identified that there's some serious work to be done.

[2:21:24] Voice 21: People do not work hard, creatively, with commitment, unless that effort is recognized.

[2:21:34] Voice 21: The way we do that in this world is with money.

[2:21:39] Voice 21: And compensation should reflect the value of what trustees contribute,

[2:21:43] Voice 21: And also the value of the nature of the work.

[2:21:46] Voice 21: The recommendation is modest.

[2:21:48] Voice 21: It's 60% of the median compensation for electoral area directors.

[2:21:51] Voice 21: Not the same.

[2:21:53] Voice 21: It recognizes it isn't the same work.

[2:21:56] Voice 21: It's a 40% discount from that.

[2:22:00] Voice 21: And the budget hit will be significant.

[2:22:04] Voice 21: Where does that money come from?

[2:22:05] Voice 21: Good question.

[2:22:07] Voice 21: But let's remember this methodology is the same methodology we're operating under today.

[2:22:12] Voice 21: It's simply updating where we're at.

[2:22:16] Voice 21: But let's get back to the value of the work.

[2:22:18] Voice 21: I mean, if we don't think the work the trustees do...

[2:22:23] Voice 3: Point of order.

[2:22:26] Voice 44: Go ahead, state your point.

[2:22:30] Voice 44: Sorry, this is the second time that the timer's been up

[2:22:32] Voice 44: and somebody's continued to talk,

[2:22:34] Voice 44: but one trustee was cut off when the timer was up.

[2:22:36] Voice 44: I'd like us to be equal, please.

[2:22:44] Trustee Patrick: All right, I do try to run some flexibility

[2:22:47] Trustee Patrick: and hope the points will be wrapped up shortly,

[2:22:49] Trustee Patrick: but can you wrap up, Trustee Bernardo?

[2:22:52] Voice 21: I will try to do so.

[2:22:53] Voice 21: So, um, um,

[2:22:56] Voice 21: Florida,

[2:23:00] Trustee Patrick: uh, state your point.

[2:23:02] Voice 4: Um,

[2:23:03] Voice 4: my point is that other trustees have been cut off because the timer is gone

[2:23:07] Voice 4: and they weren't afforded the right to finish what they were saying.

[2:23:13] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Harris, I did allow you to go past your time before I had just

[2:23:18] Trustee Patrick: pointed out that we were well past your time at that time. So I don't recall

[2:23:23] Voice 4: that. I don't recall that happening at all. Um, thank you.

[2:23:26] Trustee Patrick: Please wrap up trustee Bernardo. Thank you. Um,

[2:23:29] Voice 21: The simple point I want to make is this. If we don't think doing this work, the trustees work isn't if we think it's not valuable, if somebody thinks it's not valuable, then the objection at the end of the day is actually with the mandate, because at the trust with trustees do what we've been entrusted with.

[2:23:47] Voice 21: This is an obligation to make decisions about implementing the mandate.

[2:23:52] Voice 21: That's the most important thing.

[2:23:54] Voice 21: That's the heart of this organization, and we're at the middle of it.

[2:23:58] Voice 21: And the value of that should be recognized for what it's worth.

[2:24:02] Voice 21: Thank you.

[2:24:03] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[2:24:04] Trustee Patrick: Any further discussion?

[2:24:06] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to go with first-time speakers.

[2:24:08] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Morrison.

[2:24:12] Voice 44: Thank you.

[2:24:12] Voice 44: Thank you. I am kind of in the middle on this particular policy change, primarily because I have a lot of concerns, as we talked about in the roundtable.

[2:24:24] Voice 44: But I will be supporting this motion just from the perspective of equity on getting a diverse set of folks at the table.

[2:24:33] Voice 44: and i well i don't personally um i'm not personally motivated by the finances i understand that that's

[2:24:42] Voice 44: a privilege that i have and i also think we radically overrun our budget and we we need to

[2:24:49] Voice 44: figure out how to get that under control and get our other jurisdictional um or our governance

[2:24:55] Voice 44: review pieces done, and it can't run on and on and on and on. And so I would love to see a lot

[2:25:03] Voice 44: of changes as I have for the last seven years. But one of them that we can do is to take steps

[2:25:12] Voice 44: and to recognize a diverse constellation of people in trustee positions to make these decisions.

[2:25:20] Voice 44: Thank you.

[2:25:22] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[2:25:23] Trustee Patrick: Any other first-time speakers?

[2:25:28] Voice 18: Trustee Falk?

[2:25:32] Voice 18: Yeah, I question whether our challenges, which Bernardo brought up, can be solved with money.

[2:25:45] Voice 18: I think that sometimes money is needed, but I don't think the solution is more money and then the problem will be solved.

[2:25:52] Voice 18: you know more positions or more you know more better budgets to work with it's a part of it

[2:25:58] Voice 18: but i think it's deeper than that and it's more systemic and i think we from my perspective and

[2:26:05] Voice 18: obviously my perspective is uh in the minority uh but things like what one of the things that

[2:26:13] Voice 18: came up in the discussion about this um remuneration um is that it's about timing

[2:26:22] Voice 18: timing, the optics of it is, you know, what is it going to look like? And to me, that's an example

[2:26:31] Voice 18: of a thing that can be done without money, like whether we decide that this is not the right time

[2:26:36] Voice 18: for it and deal with it another way. For instance, you know, asking people to support this kind of

[2:26:42] Voice 18: thing, our stakeholders, that's another alternative. And what that would accomplish, I think, is solving

[2:26:51] Voice 18: some of those challenges that we're facing.

[2:26:54] Voice 18: And so for me, I cannot support this.

[2:26:57] Voice 18: And when the vote is made,

[2:27:00] Voice 18: I will be asking for my vote to be recorded.

[2:27:05] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[2:27:05] Trustee Patrick: Any other first-time speakers?

[2:27:07] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Peterson.

[2:27:09] Voice 15: Yeah, thank you, Chair.

[2:27:12] Voice 15: I am also one of those people

[2:27:14] Voice 15: that have had the privilege

[2:27:16] Voice 15: to be able to do this work

[2:27:19] Voice 15: and not have the finances be a barrier for me.

[2:27:23] Voice 15: um there's a lot of different pieces that come together to have made that so but um

[2:27:32] Voice 15: i am concerned about the equity i am concerned about the diversity and if there's one piece of

[2:27:40] Voice 15: this that i'm the most supportive of it is the prorated reduction people trustees should not be

[2:27:48] Voice 15: getting paid the full amount if they're not participating at trust council and for that

[2:27:53] Voice 15: that reason alone i have to support this thank you thank

[2:27:58] Trustee Patrick: you other first-time speakers i see

[2:28:00] Trustee Patrick: trustee harris i'm just going with first-time speakers uh trustee dodd

[2:28:05] Voice 12: hey i'm a little

[2:28:06] Voice 12: confused on this i i'm in favor of the overall concept of changing it but i'm not in favor of

[2:28:13] Voice 12: us going to the highest pay i think that that's a problem and i also i also you know this has

[2:28:19] Voice 12: has been a pretty good trust council without the money and i do not believe people are going to run

[2:28:25] Voice 12: or necessarily be elected they might run i don't i think people get elected based on their history

[2:28:31] Voice 12: and their community and their passion i don't think it's a money issue but i do think we do

[2:28:35] Voice 12: have to do a slow and gradual increase in uh on what we reap what we pay trustees for their honor

[2:28:42] Voice 12: area so i'm confused if i vote in favor of this do we automatically go with the 60 percent

[2:28:49] Trustee Patrick: My understanding is the policy is based on the 60% of the electoral area director.

[2:28:54] Trustee Patrick: There will be a second motion that's going to come regarding the phasing in.

[2:28:58] Voice 12: Okay.

[2:28:58] Trustee Patrick: That motion will be separate and beyond this one.

[2:29:04] Voice 12: Okay.

[2:29:05] Voice 12: Okay.

[2:29:05] Voice 12: Thank you.

[2:29:07] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[2:29:07] Trustee Patrick: Any other first-time speakers?

[2:29:11] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Harris?

[2:29:13] Voice 4: Thank you.

[2:29:13] Voice 4: you um i question um trustee bernardo's um statement about um throwing more money at the

[2:29:22] Voice 4: organization will help fix it um that's you know a great statement but there's i don't see where

[2:29:29] Voice 4: there's any proof uh where that is is the case um i also would like to um you know reference what

[2:29:37] Voice 4: what Trustee Middleton said earlier about optics and, you know,

[2:29:42] Voice 4: if this organization is trying to get some sort of, you know,

[2:29:46] Voice 4: more cred with the public, especially on Salt Spring, you know,

[2:29:51] Voice 4: this doesn't look good at this time when people are very concerned about the

[2:29:54] Voice 4: budget. To me personally, it's a no brainer, you know,

[2:29:58] Voice 4: more money for an undemocratic.

[2:30:00] Voice 4: product that has negative value to the social and economic well-being of the

[2:30:04] Voice 4: Islands Trust communities, especially on Salt Spring, where it's magnified 100-fold.

[2:30:09] Voice 4: I'm in no way, shape, or form

[2:30:11] Voice 4: in favor of any of this, and I'll leave it there for now. Thank you.

[2:30:17] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much. Any further discussion?

[2:30:20] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Gavreau?

[2:30:22] Voice 29: Just one comment. I think that

[2:30:24] Voice 29: having more diverse voices at the table will lead to

[2:30:28] Voice 29: better policies, meaning that our

[2:30:31] Voice 29: policies shouldn't depend on who's sitting at the

[2:30:35] Voice 29: makeup of this table. We need to be inviting voices that are

[2:30:40] Voice 29: in our community that have never been at this table before.

[2:30:44] Voice 29: Yeah, I think that's it.

[2:30:46] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[2:30:48] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Middleton?

[2:30:52] Trustee Middleton: Excuse me. I think if we are interested in representation and

[2:30:57] Trustee Middleton: better governance. There are many more things I think that we can do, particularly at a time

[2:31:03] Trustee Middleton: when the budget is fraught and people are very concerned in our communities. One, for instance,

[2:31:08] Trustee Middleton: would be to no longer use Robert's rule of order. If there's something that's oppressive

[2:31:14] Trustee Middleton: and intimidating to people participating around this body, it's predilection to use Robert's

[2:31:22] Trustee Middleton: rule of order and and you know often stifle good decision making through through the use of a

[2:31:28] Trustee Middleton: parliamentary uh set of rules than something perhaps more appropriate to a consensual body

[2:31:34] Trustee Middleton: or a body that certainly purports to be consensual on its decision making so you know again i guess

[2:31:40] Trustee Middleton: i'll segue back to what my opposition to this i think there's a lot more needs to be done in terms

[2:31:45] Trustee Middleton: of strengthening our governance before we start to to put money where we think or hope we will

[2:31:51] Trustee Middleton: improve our governance but we don't know thank you thank you my

[2:31:58] Trustee Patrick: trustee harris do you have

[2:31:59] Trustee Patrick: something new to add yeah

[2:32:01] Voice 4: thank you very much great tone um i really um yeah when i hear things

[2:32:10] Voice 4: anyway um my point i wanted to make was that um this trust council is diverse already i don't i

[2:32:18] Voice 4: don't see how you're going to make it any more diverse um thank you thank

[2:32:23] Trustee Patrick: you trustees i'd like

[2:32:24] Trustee Patrick: like to call the vote and i think then we're going to take our break all right trustees all those in

[2:32:30] Trustee Patrick: favor please raise your hands yes

[2:32:42] Voice 14: 14 in favor lower

[2:32:44] Trustee Patrick: your hands all those opposed raise your

[2:32:47] Trustee Patrick: hands and

[2:32:58] Voice 14: that's eight opposed eight

[2:32:59] Trustee Patrick: opposed right that carries all right

[2:33:03] Voice 18: trustees i know that i'd

[2:33:04] Trustee Patrick: like my name recorded okay trustee hunter

[2:33:07] Trustee Patrick: you want your name recorded as well yes

[2:33:10] Voice 4: please i would love

[2:33:12] Voice 4: of that on all of these votes to do with the remuneration.

[2:33:15] Voice 4: Thank you.

[2:33:16] Trustee Patrick: Yeah, Dodds as well please.

[2:33:19] Trustee Patrick: And it looks like Trustee Campbell as well,

[2:33:21] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Hunter, and maybe I think everyone there did.

[2:33:24] Trustee Patrick: Point of order.

[2:33:25] Trustee Luckham: Steve Harris.

[2:33:26] Voice 44: Second.

[2:33:27] Voice 44: State your point.

[2:33:29] Voice 44: It's my understanding that trustees names

[2:33:32] Voice 44: can only be recorded with a roll count.

[2:33:35] Voice 44: Is that correct?

[2:33:36] Voice 44: That's what I was told by,

[2:33:38] Voice 44: I'm sorry language is not with me today no you

[2:33:43] Voice 44: can just request that your vote

[2:33:45] Voice 44: vote be recorded needed that is different than the answer I got a few

[2:33:51] Voice 44: trust councils ago all

[2:33:54] Trustee Patrick: right I

[2:33:55] Voice 14: can check it but all right

[2:33:58] Trustee Patrick: trustees we're gonna

[2:33:59] Trustee Patrick: take a break so let's take a 15-minute break please and then we'll get back to

[2:34:04] Trustee Patrick: it up trustee graham did you have a question i'm

[2:34:08] Voice 5: sorry chair i just want to say i do not need my

[2:34:11] Voice 5: name recorded thank you oh

[2:34:13] Trustee Patrick: all right thank you all right trustees are we back let's uh proceed

[2:49:56] Trustee Patrick: i believe uh uh has a motion been submitted to replace the second motion are we ready to receive

[2:50:03] Trustee Patrick: that one trustee elliott years of senate okay

[2:50:10] Voice 28: the

[2:50:11] Trustee Patrick: second motion no there's a replacement to it

[2:50:15] Trustee Patrick: second motions being replaced in a moment

[2:50:23] Voice 28: all

[2:50:31] Trustee Patrick: right trustee and the wording on this is oh

[2:50:36] Trustee Patrick: makes sense so just looking to stop what's that that's wording thank

[2:50:44] Voice 36: you chair thank you council

[2:50:46] Voice 36: i

[2:50:47] Voice 31: would propose that this second motion is just to offer options to the incoming council

[2:50:53] Voice 31: So they have the same information that we have and can make decisions on in their deliberations and the preparation of the budget for 2027, 28, whether the proposed remuneration rates would take effect April 1st, 2027, or be phased in over two or three years.

[2:51:17] Voice 31: So, I move that Trust Council request staff to provide options and implications to Trust Council early in the budget deliberation cycle for 2027-28 on the implications of implementing new trustee remuneration rates effective April 1, 2027, using 2026 published remuneration, population of folio data, and of phasing and changes to trustee remuneration rates over two or three years.

[2:51:45] Voice 31: for

[2:51:47] Trustee Patrick: that second of the wording is that all makes sense okay is there a second to this motion

[2:51:53] Trustee Patrick: second by trustee borthwick do we have any discussion uh trustee fast and then trustee yates

[2:52:02] Trustee Patrick: yeah thank you unless i'm persuaded otherwise i i don't think i can support this motion

[2:52:09] Trustee Patrick: because it doesn't provide any certainty to

[2:52:13] Voice 28: people who are have a barrier or perceive

[2:52:17] Voice 28: a barrier to running for trust council.

[2:52:22] Voice 28: I would like people who are thinking of running

[2:52:26] Voice 28: to have at

[2:52:29] Trustee Patrick: least one thing that they know

[2:52:31] Trustee Patrick: is in place for their first year

[2:52:34] Trustee Patrick: that the remuneration rate is set.

[2:52:39] Trustee Patrick: And this motion takes that away.

[2:52:43] Voice 28: I think it should be this trust council

[2:52:45] Voice 28: council that is making uh setting the pay rate

[2:52:52] Trustee Patrick: at least for that first year they can adjust it

[2:52:54] Trustee Patrick: after that but how will we attract more diversity i mean sure all of us are here because we made it

[2:53:01] Trustee Patrick: work but what about the people who aren't here they they need um a little bit of certainty to

[2:53:08] Trustee Patrick: be able to put up their hand and then you've got good discussion among candidates and then

[2:53:15] Trustee Patrick: citizens can make a better decision about electing, and you've got better democracy

[2:53:21] Trustee Patrick: and better healthy policies and decisions coming from the table. We need to give them a little bit

[2:53:28] Trustee Patrick: of certainty so they put up their hand or throw their hat in the

[2:53:30] Voice 28: ring. Thank you.

[2:53:31] Trustee Patrick: All right, Trustee Yates,

[2:53:33] Voice 36: then Peterson. Thank you, Chair Patrick. Yes, on page 24 and page 25

[2:53:38] Voice 36: five of this excellent report. It gives us as a trust council clear options as to we choose option

[2:53:46] Voice 36: one, two, or three. Three is recommended because it's a little easier on the tax requisition right

[2:53:54] Voice 36: now. And it tells us exactly right here on these two pages how much approximately it's going to

[2:54:02] Voice 36: cost i think as a council we make this decision at this council today whether we support one two or

[2:54:10] Voice 36: three uh

[2:54:14] Trustee Patrick: trustee peterson then maberly thank

[2:54:17] Voice 15: you chair uh i appreciate the comments i've just heard

[2:54:21] Voice 15: uh but the comment i was going to make is around best practices um asking a civil sitting council

[2:54:28] Voice 15: council to deliberate on the timing of their pay increases is that's not something I want to send

[2:54:38] Voice 15: that decision to the next trust council I agree with the sentiments I've heard

[2:54:42] Voice 15: this trust council should figure out the phasing in don't leave it to the next trust council thank

[2:54:47] Voice 15: you all

[2:54:50] Trustee Patrick: right trustee maverly then graham uh

[2:54:52] Voice 6: yeah thank you chair is this am I correct in saying

[2:54:56] Voice 6: that this motion would replace the recommended motion number two in the

[2:55:00] Trustee Patrick: that's correct it's

[2:55:02] Voice 6: replacing it okay thank you all

[2:55:06] Trustee Patrick: right trustee graham then evans thank

[2:55:08] Voice 5: you chair i i i can't

[2:55:11] Voice 5: support this i understand why it's being suggested but it's quite likely that the question at

[2:55:18] Voice 5: election time for someone putting their name up for uh election is going to be asked so are you

[2:55:25] Voice 5: going to delay this increase blah blah blah so this this unfortunately will turn into an election

[2:55:30] Voice 5: question which is not an important one for someone running for the trust to be asked they should be

[2:55:36] Voice 5: asked more fundamental questions about preserve and protection blah blah blah so um i understand

[2:55:41] Voice 5: uh the uh the reason but i can't support it thank

[2:55:46] Voice 25: you trustee evans then bernardo um okay so i think

[2:55:51] Voice 25: i've got the cycle correct now this is going to be for the 20 27 28 cycle which will mean that when

[2:55:58] Voice 25: the new elections have occurred that council will be the one who will be adopting the remuneration

[2:56:05] Voice 25: amounts and whether it's going to be phased or whether it's going to be all at once

[2:56:11] Voice 25: um i won't be able to support this the way that it's currently written i could support it if

[2:56:15] Voice 25: if there was an option, if options were brought back to do it in its entirety, as well as the

[2:56:22] Voice 25: phasing. I would like to have all of the options, not just some of the options coming back to this

[2:56:27] Voice 25: council. So if that could be changed, I could support having this come back for discussion

[2:56:34] Voice 25: at a later council.

[2:56:37] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Bernardo, then Harris.

[2:56:42] Voice 21: Thank you. I agree with Trustees Fast

[2:56:45] Voice 21: and Yates that it's better to simply just get it done, approve this thing

[2:56:49] Voice 21: and move on, do it all in one fell swoop. I also agree with

[2:56:53] Voice 21: Trustee Peterson that we're not doing the next

[2:56:59] Voice 21: council any favors by

[2:57:02] Voice 21: thinking that we can kick the awkward, this

[2:57:05] Voice 21: mixed metaphor, sorry, kick the hot potato down the road.

[2:57:11] Voice 21: It is going to cost money.

[2:57:14] Voice 21: that's a challenge for us but i think we should meet that challenge by facing up to something that

[2:57:19] Voice 21: we have great difficulty facing up to for complicated reasons which is we're not very

[2:57:27] Voice 21: strategic in a lot of our decision making we are aware that we need to become more strategic and

[2:57:34] Voice 21: we're hoping to develop a process for that in that process corporate planning if we have to

[2:57:41] Voice 21: reassess our overall spending so that we can fund this with a minimal or even maybe no tax increase

[2:57:50] Voice 21: but that can be done and if we can do it that'd be a good thing it would require us to get much

[2:57:56] Voice 21: more serious about looking at the budget as a whole we're going to be doing some of that later

[2:58:00] Voice 21: on but you know we've always had this practice where the budget appears to us and then we cut

[2:58:05] Voice 21: as opposed to designing a strategy ahead of time where we identify the things that are the most

[2:58:14] Voice 21: important. And to be blunt, many other things just get left aside. So I'm not in favor of this

[2:58:25] Voice 21: motion. I prefer the existing motion that's already there. Thank you.

[2:58:30] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Trustee

[2:58:31] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Harris, you put your hand down?

[2:58:35] Voice 4: No, I'm here. I have a question. I guess it would be for staff.

[2:58:38] Voice 4: So for a million dollar increase per term, why does this not require some sort of public engagement process?

[2:58:49] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Harris, that's not relevant to the motion that's on the floor.

[2:58:54] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to move on. Trustee Borthwick, then Elliott.

[2:58:57] Trustee Patrick: you.

[2:59:00] Voice 45: Yeah. And I want to say I'm second to this because I want to have this discussion and I

[2:59:05] Voice 45: appreciate the intent with which Trustee Elliott brought this forward. But I agree that I think we

[2:59:11] Voice 45: need to show some bravery and leadership and make this choice for the future term. None of us may

[2:59:19] Voice 45: return next term, whether we run or not. None of us may be at this table. I think it behoves us to

[2:59:25] Voice 45: make this decision on behalf of the organization and not

[2:59:29] Voice 45: on any of our personal interests, but with the interests of

[2:59:34] Voice 45: our successors.

[2:59:38] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Elliott?

[2:59:41] Voice 31: Okay, this is my fault because the motion is super unclear.

[2:59:45] Voice 31: So I apologize. I'm happy to vote on it and defeat

[2:59:49] Voice 31: it. The intention of this motion was not to

[2:59:54] Voice 31: decide whether or not the new trustee

[2:59:57] Voice 31: remuneration rates would come in.

[3:00:00] Voice 31: affect next council, but it's the timing. And so I'd like to vote on this and defeat it. I've got

[3:00:06] Voice 31: rather than proposing some amendments, but my new, my intent was to provide options to either

[3:00:14] Voice 31: implement the new trustee remuneration rates effective April 1st, 2027, which is the suggested

[3:00:19] Voice 31: motion in our package or of phasing changes in over two or three years, because it's going to

[3:00:27] Voice 31: to depend on the appetite of that council and what the proposed budget like the financials look like

[3:00:33] Voice 31: whether they can agree okay this is a change we want to make this year let's do it or it's phased

[3:00:38] Voice 31: in over two or three years so perfectly happy to change it or defeat this one and move on or we can

[3:00:45] Voice 31: just go back to the one in the package the

[3:00:50] Voice 36: eight this is a question of clarity for trustee elliott

[3:00:53] Voice 36: i think i get it now because what you're saying is it says for example under option three

[3:00:59] Voice 36: um consider phasing this in which i definitely agree with

[3:01:07] Voice 28: all

[3:01:08] Trustee Patrick: right then i'm going to call the

[3:01:10] Trustee Patrick: vote so all those in favor please raise your hands

[3:01:21] Voice 14: uh two in favor lower

[3:01:23] Trustee Patrick: your hands please all those opposed

[3:01:33] Voice 28: uh

[3:01:39] Voice 14: 16 opposed that will fail that

[3:01:42] Trustee Patrick: fails all right trustees are we going to make this next motion or

[3:01:46] Trustee Patrick: or are you going to try another alternative?

[3:01:48] Trustee Patrick: I'd like to keep our business moving forward here.

[3:01:53] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Elliott's going to try another one.

[3:01:55] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Bernardo?

[3:01:57] Voice 21: While Trustee Elliott toils away on the motion,

[3:02:00] Voice 21: I'd like to make this motion and have this up for discussion,

[3:02:03] Voice 21: the number two, because I think that's the one

[3:02:05] Voice 21: that has the most merit myself.

[3:02:07] Trustee Patrick: All right, go ahead and put number two on the floor.

[3:02:09] Voice 21: I move the Trust Council request staff to implement

[3:02:11] Voice 21: new trustee remuneration rates effective April 1, 2027,

[3:02:14] Voice 21: using 2026 published remuneration population and folio data.

[3:02:19] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second?

[3:02:20] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Gavro.

[3:02:22] Trustee Patrick: Any discussion?

[3:02:25] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Elliott.

[3:02:28] Voice 31: Well, then I would like to propose an amendment

[3:02:32] Voice 31: that would add to the end of this motion

[3:02:35] Voice 31: and provide options to Trust Council

[3:02:39] Voice 31: early in the budget deliberation cycle

[3:02:41] Voice 31: about the implications of phasing in changes

[3:02:44] Voice 31: changes to the trustee remuneration rates over two or three years this was the motion that i was

[3:02:49] Voice 31: trying to cobble together to provide those options i i was going

[3:02:55] Trustee Patrick: to yeah look to director marla that

[3:02:57] Trustee Patrick: is i

[3:02:58] Voice 14: think that amendment changes intent of the motion so i would do that as a separate motion

[3:03:04] Voice 14: all

[3:03:05] Trustee Patrick: right so the motion stands on the floor uh trustee harris yeah

[3:03:12] Voice 4: the same question i asked

[3:03:13] Voice 4: earlier for staff how does something of this magnitude um yeah that has this much magnitude

[3:03:19] Voice 4: to the budget over a term how is this not required to have public engagement involved

[3:03:29] Trustee Patrick: go ahead ceo brony and

[3:03:31] Voice 20: thank you through the chair um i don't believe there's anything in

[3:03:33] Voice 20: in policy that requires a public engagement um on a on a budget matter such as this council

[3:03:40] Voice 20: could certainly add direct staff to initiate a public engagement on the issue but there is no

[3:03:45] Voice 20: no policy requirement that would apply to this.

[3:03:49] Trustee Patrick: Right.

[3:03:50] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Evans, then Giddy.

[3:03:53] Voice 25: So I have a quick question.

[3:03:55] Voice 25: Should this motion on the floor pass,

[3:03:57] Voice 25: does that still leave us with the option to have the discussion later to

[3:04:02] Voice 25: phase the remuneration in,

[3:04:05] Voice 25: or would this then only be the full amount in one fell swoop?

[3:04:14] Voice 14: I'm just going to ask, through the chair,

[3:04:16] Voice 14: if Director Mudd could comment on that.

[3:04:21] Voice 19: yes certainly so there's always opportunity to uh give direction outside of policy i would say

[3:04:33] Voice 19: policy is not legislation so if we had a policy that was taking effect april 1 2027 and council

[3:04:39] Voice 19: wanted to um give direction to staff to implement that in a phased approach um i think that would

[3:04:45] Voice 19: be workable and i'd look to director marla to to confirm that as our legislative um head um

[3:04:51] Voice 19: Certainly, the resolution as written was following the recommendations that are in the report,

[3:04:58] Voice 19: which is a full-scale implementation of the policy on April 1, 2027.

[3:05:06] Voice 14: Yeah, through the Chair, I concur with that.

[3:05:09] Voice 14: But that's appropriate.

[3:05:11] Trustee Patrick: So this motion is implementing full, but you could still phase it if necessary.

[3:05:18] Voice 14: Correct, yes.

[3:05:19] Trustee Patrick: All right, Trustee Getty.

[3:05:25] Voice 17: Yes, I think that we need to make the decision that it's going to be run into effect,

[3:05:32] Voice 17: and then we can sort out, when we're talking about the budget, how we're best going to do that.

[3:05:37] Voice 17: And I don't want to leave anything up to the next council.

[3:05:40] Voice 17: I think that's what Trustee Peterson was talking about in terms of best practice,

[3:05:45] Voice 17: that we bite the bullet and make the decision.

[3:05:48] Voice 17: All right.

[3:05:49] Voice 17: Trustee Falk.

[3:05:53] Voice 18: Yeah, thank you.

[3:05:54] Voice 18: This is maybe a little difficult process-wise for me to formulate this question, but I'm interested in exploring the pros and cons of having a public ballot for this.

[3:06:07] Voice 18: Because I think that if we're rushing into this decision without having considered the benefits we might have, if we chose that route, I feel like we're making a decision without having even considered if there would be a solution that may serve other purposes better than what we're talking about here, because it's very isolated.

[3:06:30] Voice 18: So I'm not, I'm trying to make this comment relevant to the motion, and I don't know if I'm succeeding, but I'm frustrated if it isn't succeeding because that's what I thought in this whole process is so stilted that we can't do things like brainstorming, we can't fully explore something, we have to sort of jump ahead and we're on this track and we got to move forward.

[3:06:52] Voice 18: And so, but anyway, that's my interest at this point.

[3:06:56] Voice 18: Thank you.

[3:06:57] Voice 18: and trust uh trustee

[3:07:01] Voice 32: tamford we keep talking about this public engagement and i think

[3:07:08] Voice 32: in the back of our heads um just like with a taking a budget increase to the public

[3:07:16] Voice 32: nobody's going to say yes and and that puts us in a position where it's similar to the u.s

[3:07:23] Voice 32: where communities local governments they just shut down the fire department they shut down the

[3:07:29] Voice 32: police, the dog catcher, the schools, because we do not say yes to tax increases. That is human

[3:07:36] Voice 32: nature. It's really awkward to be in this position. Nobody does this comfortably, but it's part of

[3:07:46] Voice 32: what we were elected to do to try and navigate that balance of service and to tax increase.

[3:08:00] Voice 32: um, it's never an easy question to respond to, but we keep dancing around it. So that's my opinion.

[3:08:07] Voice 32: That's why I wouldn't support it is I just don't think it would pass. It would never pass. And

[3:08:13] Voice 32: I came in 15 years ago and I think the compensation was about $400 a month.

[3:08:20] Voice 32: It wouldn't have passed back then. And I would be still sitting at $400 a month.

[3:08:24] Voice 32: um this is part of what we have to do so

[3:08:29] Voice 21: trustee bernardo no in

[3:08:32] Voice 21: terms of public input um basically

[3:08:35] Voice 21: that's what elections are for any one of us that chooses to run for re-election yeah if that's a

[3:08:43] Voice 21: question that we get presented then we're going to have to have answers and if our constituents

[3:08:48] Voice 21: don't like us because we voted for it and they throw us throw us out on our ears they voted

[3:08:54] Voice 21: it so if you want a public ballot uh it's coming up

[3:09:00] Trustee Patrick: trustee harris yeah

[3:09:03] Voice 4: you know the for me when

[3:09:06] Voice 4: i hear the point that well the public isn't going to like it but we're going to have to do it anyway

[3:09:10] Voice 4: like well we're here we work for the people that's what we're doing and if we know they're

[3:09:17] Voice 4: not going to like something maybe we should ask them about it first and to find out like to me

[3:09:22] Voice 4: i don't understand that premise um i'll leave it there for now thank you thank

[3:09:29] Trustee Patrick: you i don't see any

[3:09:30] Trustee Patrick: other speakers so trustee yates just

[3:09:33] Voice 36: a comment that public ballots or referenda are really

[3:09:37] Voice 36: expensive all

[3:09:40] Voice 10: right trustee allen yeah i'm just going to say i don't think there's been ever

[3:09:45] Voice 10: a ballot for a politician's remuneration as far as i know so uh that's all i'm going to say

[3:09:55] Voice 10: barely

[3:09:58] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Harris I'm going to call the vote

[3:10:03] Trustee Patrick: all those in favour

[3:10:04] Trustee Patrick: please raise your hands

[3:10:05] Trustee Patrick: 16 in favour

[3:10:16] Voice 14: lower your hands

[3:10:18] Trustee Patrick: all those opposed

[3:10:20] Trustee Patrick: 7 opposed

[3:10:30] Trustee Patrick: so that carries

[3:10:33] Voice 4: Patrick may I please ask to have my

[3:10:36] Voice 4: vote counted as opposed

[3:10:38] Voice 4: thank you

[3:10:38] Trustee Patrick: anyone else

[3:10:41] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Falk, Trustee Maberly

[3:10:43] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Hunter

[3:10:46] Trustee Patrick: and Trustee Campbell

[3:10:48] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Okay. Trustee Fast. I'd like to move the third recommendation. Please do. Now that we've adopted the amended policy, I'd like to move that number three on the list that Islands Trust Council bylaw number 207 cited as Islands Trust Council trustee remuneration 2013-14 repeal bylaw be read a first time.

[3:11:19] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second? Seconded by Trustee Yates. Any discussion? I'm going to call the vote.

[3:11:26] Trustee Patrick: All those in favor, raise your hands.

[3:11:36] Voice 14: 16 in favor.

[3:11:37] Trustee Patrick: Lower your hands. All those opposed?

[3:11:47] Voice 4: Six opposed. That carries.

[3:11:50] Voice 4: Excuse me, Chair Patrick, do we need to ask every time to have

[3:11:52] Voice 4: our vote noted as opposed?

[3:11:55] Trustee Patrick: Yes, you do.

[3:11:56] Voice 4: Okay, may I please have it noted? Yes,

[3:12:00] Trustee Patrick: Yes, Trustee Falk as well.

[3:12:01] Trustee Patrick: All right, thank you.

[3:12:03] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Campbell.

[3:12:06] Trustee Patrick: Okay, on to the next motion.

[3:12:08] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Trustee Getty.

[3:12:11] Voice 17: I move that Trust Council By-law 207,

[3:12:15] Voice 17: cited as the Islands Trust Council Remuneration 2013-14

[3:12:19] Voice 17: repeal by-law be read a second time.

[3:12:22] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second?

[3:12:23] Trustee Patrick: Seconded by Trustee Gavro.

[3:12:24] Trustee Patrick: Is there any discussion?

[3:12:26] Trustee Patrick: All the vote.

[3:12:27] Trustee Patrick: All those in favor?

[3:12:43] Voice 14: 16 in favor.

[3:12:44] Trustee Patrick: Okay, lower your hands.

[3:12:47] Trustee Patrick: all those opposed?

[3:12:53] Voice 4: Six opposed.

[3:12:54] Trustee Patrick: All right that carries. I'll

[3:12:56] Voice 4: ask again Chair Patrick please and

[3:12:58] Voice 4: thank you.

[3:12:58] Trustee Patrick: All right thank you and Trustee Falk? No no? Okay Trustee Campbell. Okay the last one

[3:13:09] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Borthwick.

[3:13:12] Voice 45: I move that Islands Trust Council Bylaw 207 cited as the Islands Trust

[3:13:16] Voice 45: Trust Council Trustee Remuneration 2023-2014

[3:13:21] Voice 45: repeal by-law be read a third time.

[3:13:24] Trustee Patrick: All right, is there a second?

[3:13:26] Trustee Patrick: Second by Trustee Gavro.

[3:13:27] Trustee Patrick: Any discussion?

[3:13:29] Trustee Patrick: Call the vote.

[3:13:30] Trustee Patrick: All those in favor?

[3:13:43] Voice 14: 16 in favor.

[3:13:45] Trustee Patrick: Okay, lower your hands.

[3:13:46] Trustee Patrick: All those opposed?

[3:13:52] Voice 4: Six opposed.

[3:13:53] Trustee Patrick: All right, that carries.

[3:13:56] Voice 4: I'll ask again, please, Chair Patrick,

[3:13:57] Voice 4: to have my opposition noted.

[3:13:59] Voice 4: Thank you.

[3:13:59] Trustee Patrick: Thank you, Trustee Harris and Trustee Campbell.

[3:14:01] Trustee Patrick: example okay thank you everyone i think that ends that piece we are going to carry on to sorry trying

[3:14:12] Trustee Patrick: to make sure the next item here on the agenda which is what are we on to is this financial

[3:14:19] Trustee Patrick: planning service it's not 7

[3:14:21] Voice 14: .2.2 7

[3:14:23] Trustee Patrick: .2.2 there we are where am i jumping to i moved the thing too

[3:14:28] Trustee Patrick: far ahead i wanted to get onto the budget um all right this is uh on page 193 of the agenda package

[3:14:36] Trustee Patrick: this is the enhanced enhancing mental health benefits for trustees request for decision

[3:14:41] Trustee Patrick: and that's director mobs uh

[3:14:45] Voice 19: thank you chair so this is a request and a recommendation from the

[3:14:49] Voice 19: executive committee to enhance the mental health provisions that are offered to trustees in the

[3:14:53] Voice 19: trustee benefit plan the recommended enhancement would bring two specific changes firstly we would

[3:14:59] Voice 19: see an increase in the annual limit for mental health coverage, moving it from $300 a year to

[3:15:05] Voice 19: $1,000 a year, and that's in line with the annual coverage limit that's provided to Islands Trust

[3:15:10] Voice 19: staff. And secondly, it would allow for clinical counselors to be covered under the extended health

[3:15:15] Voice 19: portion of the plan. There is already some coverage for clinical counselors provided in

[3:15:20] Voice 19: the employee and family assistance plan that trustees are enrolled in, but it is somewhat

[3:15:25] Voice 19: limited and I understand is generally viewed to be inadequate by those who have accessed that

[3:15:30] Voice 19: particular program. There's been some recognition over the last couple years by the province and

[3:15:35] Voice 19: UBCM that mental health concerns among elected officials are on the rise and of course

[3:15:40] Voice 19: Islands Trust trustees may be subject to that trend as well and so that's part of the reason

[3:15:44] Voice 19: that Executive Committee has advanced this request for decision for your consideration today. If the

[3:15:51] Voice 19: plan is accepted, plan changes would take effect at the same time as changes for the trustee

[3:15:55] Voice 19: remuneration. So that would be April 1, 2027. And so that means that there's no impact to the

[3:16:01] Voice 19: draft budget that is up for conversation at this Trust Council meeting. There would be an impact

[3:16:07] Voice 19: of future budgets, of course, that's estimated at around $2,000 a year. But it should be noted

[3:16:14] Voice 19: that those numbers have potential to change between now and when this would take effect.

[3:16:19] Voice 19: And so those figures are here just as an estimate to help provide some financial context for your

[3:16:24] Voice 19: decision today i'll leave my comments there um but of course happy to take questions um or if

[3:16:29] Voice 19: executive committee wishes to elaborate i'm sure they can do that as well any

[3:16:33] Trustee Patrick: questions for staff

[3:16:36] Trustee Patrick: trustee evans i

[3:16:39] Voice 25: have a couple um uh my first one for clarity because i can't i mean it's i'll be

[3:16:45] Voice 25: going are you recommending option one here and then i'll ask my next question uh the recommendation

[3:16:55] Voice 19: recommendation would be oh sorry through the chair oh

[3:16:58] Trustee Patrick: go ahead um

[3:17:00] Voice 19: it's option two I believe

[3:17:03] Voice 19: that's being recommended so there's a number of options that we've received quotes for and those

[3:17:08] Voice 19: are included in the attachment to the RFD and it's option number two that's included in the

[3:17:13] Voice 19: recommendation thank

[3:17:15] Voice 25: you so then I'm going to go with my question uh my question is the uh the cost

[3:17:20] Voice 25: increase, the total cost of the plan premium increase of $170 per month, is that per trustee

[3:17:28] Voice 25: plan or for the Islands Trust plan as a total for all 26 trustees? And then I've got to follow up.

[3:17:36] Voice 19: That's for the Islands Trust as a whole. So for all 26 trustees, or 24, we don't offer benefits

[3:17:42] Voice 19: to full-on trustees.

[3:17:44] Voice 25: Thank you. That answers all of my questions.

[3:17:46] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Any other questions

[3:17:47] Trustee Patrick: for staff okay

[3:17:49] Voice 29: uh trustee gabriel i don't really have a question but i wanted maybe some confirmation

[3:17:53] Voice 29: it's my understanding that um clinical services like counseling is not covered by a medical

[3:17:58] Voice 29: services plan i wonder if you had any information on that because that's my that's what it said on

[3:18:04] Voice 29: their website if

[3:18:08] Voice 19: i may through the chair go

[3:18:11] Voice 28: ahead um

[3:18:14] Voice 19: yes so generally coverage for clinical

[3:18:16] Voice 19: counselors is a private pay situation. So it's not covered by MFP in most situations. And so

[3:18:23] Voice 19: that's why coverage is usually provided under extended health plan.

[3:18:27] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. There are no

[3:18:29] Trustee Patrick: other questions, I think. Oh, go ahead, Trustee Middleton.

[3:18:32] Trustee Middleton: Yeah, I'm just still not totally clear.

[3:18:36] Trustee Middleton: It's probably my fault in this reading this, but the annual premium increase of 2000 for option

[3:18:41] Trustee Middleton: to for 2050 year is that per um i know the question was asked but i i didn't quite catch

[3:18:49] Trustee Middleton: the answer is that or signatory to the benefit plan or is that the plan as a whole plan as a

[3:18:56] Trustee Patrick: whole total so

[3:18:58] Trustee Middleton: two thousand dollars a year is it how is it that the annual premium increases 6.7

[3:19:03] Trustee Middleton: percent though that's the part i don't get that that would that has to be way more than two

[3:19:07] Trustee Middleton: $2,000?

[3:19:09] Trustee Patrick: I'd look to staff. I don't. Go ahead, Director Mobs.

[3:19:17] Voice 19: Sure. So those figures come

[3:19:19] Voice 19: directly from the quote that we've received from the benefit plan provider. So the attachment

[3:19:23] Voice 19: on page 199 of the agenda shows the $2,050 there as the increase with the plus 6.7%. So that's the

[3:19:34] Voice 19: rate that they've come up with internally or looking at the dollar impact okay

[3:19:43] Trustee Patrick: are there any

[3:19:44] Trustee Patrick: other questions otherwise i believe vice chair our trustee peterson would like to proceed with

[3:19:52] Trustee Patrick: the motion

[3:19:53] Voice 15: uh thank you chair i move that island stress council approve enhancing trustee benefit

[3:19:59] Voice 15: plan to include coverage for clinical counselors and to increase the health care the health

[3:20:04] Voice 15: coverage limit to $1,000 annually, aligning the coverage, an annual dollar limit with provisions

[3:20:10] Voice 15: provided to staff, and that the change be implemented April 1st, 2027 in alignment with

[3:20:16] Voice 15: changes to trustee remuneration.

[3:20:19] Trustee Patrick: Is there a second to the motion, Trustee Yates? Any discussion?

[3:20:25] Trustee Patrick: Go ahead, Trustee Peterson.

[3:20:28] Voice 15: Yeah, thank you. I've been part of an ad hoc local leaders for

[3:20:35] Voice 15: for mental health discussion group

[3:20:37] Voice 15: for about a year and a half.

[3:20:40] Voice 15: These are emerging concerns for elected leaders

[3:20:44] Voice 15: all over the province.

[3:20:46] Voice 15: And I'm happy to see that trust council

[3:20:50] Voice 15: is now considering this enhancement, thank you.

[3:20:55] Trustee Patrick: Any further discussion?

[3:20:57] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Middleton, then Trustee Paul.

[3:20:59] Trustee Middleton: Yeah, I apologize.

[3:21:02] Trustee Middleton: I may be missing something,

[3:21:03] Trustee Middleton: nothing but if 6.7 percent increase on our premium um a premium has to be more than something like

[3:21:13] Trustee Middleton: i mean maybe it isn't what is i guess the question should be what is our premium for pacific blue

[3:21:19] Trustee Middleton: cross for the municipal the elected municipal um uh officials what what is that line item

[3:21:27] Trustee Middleton: and if I could ask that.

[3:21:31] Trustee Patrick: So look to Director Moms.

[3:21:33] Trustee Patrick: I

[3:21:36] Voice 19: can pull that up right now.

[3:21:39] Voice 19: So the total budget next year is 60, just over 64,000.

[3:21:44] Voice 19: I do understand the question Trustee Middleton.

[3:21:47] Voice 19: It is something that we confirmed with the co-provider.

[3:21:51] Voice 19: We did confirm that the dollar impact

[3:21:53] Voice 19: was for all trustees currently enrolled in the plan

[3:21:56] Voice 19: and the confirmation is received that it is.

[3:22:01] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[3:22:02] Voice 19: Right.

[3:22:02] Trustee Middleton: Thank you. And Trustee Mabry has a brilliant insight here to add to.

[3:22:08] Trustee Patrick: Well, if

[3:22:08] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Falk is all right with Trustee Mabry. Yes, he is. So go ahead, Trustee Mabry.

[3:22:14] Trustee Patrick: Yeah,

[3:22:14] Voice 6: I think because I've dealt with some of these policies like this, this is just an increase on the portion of the policy that deals with particularly with if it was a mental health portion of the policy.

[3:22:25] Voice 6: So that's why the increase would seem like it's not in comparison to the whole policy. It's quite normal.

[3:22:32] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Trustee Folk?

[3:22:34] Voice 18: Yeah, so I'm not sure if I'm following this, but what is the annual amount? Is it $2,050 that is going to be the increase? Is that the total increase that this whole motion is proposing?

[3:22:46] Trustee Patrick: That is the estimate right

[3:22:48] Voice 18: now, as they were mentioning, yes.

[3:22:50] Voice 18: So then in that case, I think it has minimal impact on budgets. And I think that anyone sitting at this table should have the opportunity to have mental support.

[3:23:00] Voice 18: support so right

[3:23:04] Trustee Patrick: any further discussion not i'm going to call the vote all those in favor

[3:23:20] Voice 14: 20 in favor all right

[3:23:23] Trustee Patrick: lower your hands any opposed two

[3:23:30] Voice 14: opposed that carries

[3:23:32] Trustee Patrick: hey trustees we're getting close we have five minutes so i'd like the next item to be introduced

[3:23:37] Trustee Patrick: and then we may or may not get to the vote oops sorry i thought we passed them both there's a

[3:23:45] Voice 14: second motion

[3:23:45] Trustee Patrick: he combined them sorry

[3:23:48] Voice 14: there's a second motion on that he

[3:23:50] Trustee Patrick: did he did the two in one

[3:23:52] Trustee Patrick: my

[3:23:53] Voice 14: apologies good

[3:23:56] Trustee Patrick: you're all paying attention but we did it okay uh so i'd just like to start

[3:24:01] Trustee Patrick: by introducing but we are going to have a hard stop at 4 30 to go on to our engagement and

[3:24:06] Trustee Patrick: collaboration piece can we at least start to introduce item 7.2.3 which is the trust council

[3:24:12] Trustee Patrick: Public Notification By-law, Request for Decision.

[3:24:19] Voice 14: Yeah, so this is a by-law of trust councils.

[3:24:23] Voice 14: If you remember about a year ago,

[3:24:25] Voice 14: a trust council adopted a model public notification by-law

[3:24:30] Voice 14: that was circulated to local trust committees,

[3:24:33] Voice 14: and they're all in the process of adopting their own.

[3:24:36] Voice 14: There is a default in the legislation

[3:24:39] Voice 14: that requires publication in two editions of a newspaper

[3:24:43] Voice 14: that publishes at least weekly so that means for a Trust Council if you have to

[3:24:50] Voice 14: publish a statutory requirement to publish in the newspaper which could be

[3:24:56] Voice 14: for the election for example could be for other legislative required documents

[3:25:01] Voice 14: that you need to notify the public about to capture the entire trust area that's

[3:25:08] Voice 14: That's eight different publications that we have to advertise in twice.

[3:25:12] Voice 14: So council could adopt a notification bylaw,

[3:25:17] Voice 14: and this would set a baseline of how you would notify the public.

[3:25:25] Voice 14: And the recommendation, and it's in the bylaw attached on page 203,

[3:25:32] Voice 14: is to use the Alan's Trust website as electronically

[3:25:35] Voice 14: and unstressed social media platforms.

[3:25:39] Voice 14: Those all meet the requirements under the legislation.

[3:25:44] Voice 14: That is the baseline, so that's the minimum that would happen

[3:25:47] Voice 14: when we have to do a legislated statutory notification.

[3:25:53] Voice 14: There's nothing preventing you from publishing in additional locations,

[3:25:58] Voice 14: such as in newspapers, which could publish monthly if you can make that work.

[3:26:03] Voice 14: the only requirement is that you have to publish it before the event obviously so

[3:26:09] Voice 14: the legislation actually recognizes that so this is again the bare minimum

[3:26:15] Voice 14: that you have to do is in this bylaw so staff recommend that you give first

[3:26:21] Voice 14: second and third readings to this public notification bylaw and then we would

[3:26:28] Voice 14: bring it back to council through a resolution without meeting for adoption

[3:26:31] Voice 14: option uh you know maybe next week thank you i

[3:26:36] Trustee Patrick: can take one question and then we're going to be

[3:26:38] Trustee Patrick: able to stop so trustee evans i

[3:26:41] Voice 25: have a couple of questions uh my first one is how does this tie

[3:26:46] Voice 25: into the local public notification bylaws that we've just adopted on our islands um and if this

[3:26:53] Voice 25: is going to override it then i am going to request that in the um the the bylaw itself that we add a

[3:27:01] Voice 25: third bullet regarding direct email or email, because if we only have the two options of the

[3:27:08] Voice 25: website and social media, we're asking the public to go hunting for this information. I don't feel

[3:27:15] Voice 25: that that makes it accessible or suitable to ask that, especially if there's legislative

[3:27:22] Voice 25: changes that are coming up that we need to get into the hands of the public in a timely manner.

[3:27:27] Voice 25: so doing a direct email would at least confirm for me that people are receiving it versus having

[3:27:34] Voice 25: people hunting for it and potentially missing it because they can't or don't know where to look

[3:27:39] Voice 25: they're looking on websites or they they're not signed up for the social media on which you are

[3:27:46] Voice 25: advertising it so my comfort level is not anywhere near medium now it's very very low based on those

[3:27:54] Voice 25: to options i would um be a lot i would be comfortable if we could add the third bullet

[3:28:00] Voice 25: with the direct email or or mail and

[3:28:05] Voice 14: if i may through the chair yeah this only applies to

[3:28:09] Voice 14: trust council bylaws not local trust committees local trust committees all have their own

[3:28:14] Voice 14: public notification bylaws so if each adopted or are in the process of adopting them and

[3:28:19] Voice 14: of tailoring those to how it works best in your communities so this only applies to when trust

[3:28:25] Voice 14: council has to notify the public in advance of making a decision on a bylaw that is considering

[3:28:32] Voice 14: to adopt all

[3:28:34] Trustee Patrick: right trustees we're gonna we're gonna take a pause in this item uh so uh 7.2.3

[3:28:40] Trustee Patrick: we're going to pause and we're going to move on to the engagement and collaboration piece which

[3:28:45] Trustee Patrick: which we advertised at beginning at 4.30 today.

[3:28:48] Trustee Patrick: If we have time today, we'll return back to where we just left off.

[3:28:53] Trustee Patrick: So, trustees, we have one delegation that's before us today.

[3:28:57] Trustee Patrick: It's in the agenda package at page 212.

[3:29:02] Trustee Patrick: I have the pleasure of introducing Brian Young and Pam Tarr from Transition Salt Spring.

[3:29:07] Trustee Patrick: We have a podium for you.

[3:29:09] Trustee Patrick: It's way up there at the front.

[3:29:11] Trustee Patrick: You just have to push the button on to turn red, and then the floor is yours.

[3:29:20] Trustee Patrick: Yep, 10 minutes.

[3:29:21] Trustee Patrick: 10

[3:29:22] Voice 42: minutes, thank you.

[3:29:23] Voice 42: And you can follow along.

[3:29:26] Voice 42: Good afternoon.

[3:29:28] Voice 42: Thanks for having me today.

[3:29:30] Voice 42: My name is Brian Young.

[3:29:32] Voice 42: I'm a director on the board of Transition Salt Spring.

[3:29:36] Voice 42: I'm its past chair and lead on the political advocacy circle.

[3:29:40] Voice 42: I'm here with my colleague at the back of the room, Pam Tarr.

[3:29:44] Voice 42: Transistent Salt Spring is a non-profit charity whose paid staff and volunteers work to address

[3:29:49] Voice 42: climate action, ecosystem protection, and community resiliency through positive, community-supported

[3:29:56] Voice 42: initiatives.

[3:29:57] Voice 42: We have published two climate action plans.

[3:30:00] Voice 42: most recently in 2021. I do want to start off by gently referring to recent interventions

[3:30:07] Voice 42: related to the trust policy statement review process. Today, I'm here representing all of

[3:30:12] Voice 42: our board volunteers and paid staff and saying that we are with you here today to engage with you

[3:30:18] Voice 42: positively and constructively on improving the draft policy statement. Core to transition values

[3:30:25] Voice 42: values is the importance of building strong relationships based on respect, kindness,

[3:30:31] Voice 42: trust, and a determination for the best possible outcomes for everyone together. These values teach

[3:30:39] Voice 42: us that honey, not vinegar, is the tool of choice in securing these outcomes, especially in our

[3:30:46] Voice 42: small rural communities. We have been dismayed by the actions of some seeking to undermine a

[3:30:53] Voice 42: statutory public process in its final stages. We believe that this council is working together

[3:31:00] Voice 42: in good faith to represent the public interest in carrying out its mandate. This is leadership.

[3:31:08] Voice 42: When we don't trust our systems, we are saying that conversation and true participation are

[3:31:15] Voice 42: not worthwhile. We're here today because we choose to participate. I want to begin by acknowledging

[3:31:23] Voice 42: acknowledging the tremendous work and integrity that has informed this draft by staff, council,

[3:31:29] Voice 42: indigenous governments, and island communities across the entire trust area.

[3:31:33] Voice 42: This document matters greatly to our islands.

[3:31:36] Voice 42: It will shape what is buildable, protectable, and ultimately what remains viable on these

[3:31:41] Voice 42: islands during the very challenging times to come.

[3:31:44] Voice 42: Which brings me to climate.

[3:31:47] Voice 42: Climate change is no longer one policy issue amongst many.

[3:31:51] Voice 42: It is a governing condition under which the Trust's mandate to preserve and protect must now be interpreted.

[3:31:58] Voice 42: Given the science, this is a planning reality with direct implications for public safety, infrastructure liability, and the Trust's duty of care.

[3:32:10] Voice 42: Two decades ago, annual insured losses in Canada seldom passed $500 million.

[3:32:17] Voice 42: Today, $1 billion and up is the norm.

[3:32:20] Voice 42: The Insurance Bureau of Canada, not exactly known as a bunch of radical climate activists,

[3:32:25] Voice 42: says that climate risks demand that we fundamentally rethink how we build, plan, and restore communities across our country.

[3:32:32] Voice 42: The best way to keep our communities safe, they say, is to invest seriously in resilience now.

[3:32:38] Voice 42: And the update? In 2025 alone, insured damage caused by severe weather events exceeded not $500 million, but $2.4 billion.

[3:32:50] Voice 42: In our TPS submission from late January, we provide recommendations in seven areas.

[3:32:55] Voice 42: Today, I'd just like to focus on a few that warrant some emphasis as you prepare to finalize this critical document.

[3:33:02] Voice 42: We are pleased to find climate change is discussed in parts of the draft TPS, but climate is framed, as I said earlier, as one factor amongst many,

[3:33:12] Voice 42: rather than as a threat multiplier that reshapes and will continue to reshape all other considerations.

[3:33:18] Voice 42: considerations. Looking at water availability, forest health, hazard exposure, the long-term

[3:33:24] Voice 42: viability of housing and our infrastructure, they are no longer longer separable domains.

[3:33:30] Voice 42: To that end, as you have rightly done with Indigenous rights and their inclusion and

[3:33:34] Voice 42: trust area planning in this draft, we think you also need to do with climate change. Given

[3:33:41] Voice 42: the magnitude of the changes already underway, climate change must join reconciliation as

[3:33:46] Voice 42: as the second governing condition

[3:33:48] Voice 42: under which trust area planning must be undertaken.

[3:33:51] Voice 42: To acknowledge and address these risks honestly

[3:33:54] Voice 42: and holistically, we have recommended adding

[3:33:56] Voice 42: a new guiding principle that properly frames climate change

[3:33:59] Voice 42: as a pervasive and compounding risk

[3:34:02] Voice 42: that must be incorporated in all land use planning

[3:34:04] Voice 42: and decision making under this policy statement.

[3:34:08] Voice 42: While this is an easy change to make,

[3:34:11] Voice 42: with a few strokes of a pen,

[3:34:12] Voice 42: we want to underscore the challenge it represents

[3:34:14] Voice 42: to the organization and function of the Island Trust.

[3:34:19] Voice 42: Adequately positioning climate change as a guiding principle

[3:34:22] Voice 42: carries with it implementation risks.

[3:34:25] Voice 42: Local trust committees simply cannot carry this alone,

[3:34:29] Voice 42: and the trust currently, in our opinion,

[3:34:32] Voice 42: does not have the capacity to help them in its current form.

[3:34:37] Voice 42: Even as is, without the necessary addition of climate change

[3:34:40] Voice 42: as a guiding principle, LTCs will be left to interpret

[3:34:43] Voice 42: and apply the TPS unevenly without significant additional support from the trust.

[3:34:49] Voice 42: And without those new supports, the results will not be resilience, but policy inconsistency, delay, timidity,

[3:34:57] Voice 42: all of which will increase risk exposure for the trust in the decades to come, but also to the islands they are empowered to steward.

[3:35:06] Voice 42: Our submission argues that approving the TPS without a robust implementation plan, furthermore,

[3:35:12] Voice 42: that is owned by Trust Council itself will leave its most important

[3:35:16] Voice 42: ambitions unrealized. But please understand, we're not

[3:35:20] Voice 42: proposing yet more delays in this long process or perfection.

[3:35:25] Voice 42: Amongst the recommendations we make in our written submission,

[3:35:29] Voice 42: what's needed as a part of the greatly strengthened implementation plan at the end

[3:35:33] Voice 42: is a visible commitment by Trust Council to first

[3:35:37] Voice 42: develop and maintain shared and publicly available climate risk information

[3:35:41] Voice 42: and tools. Second, establish publicly accessible ecosystem health indicators

[3:35:47] Voice 42: and regular reporting. And third, actively support local trust committees in

[3:35:52] Voice 42: applying a new TPS with robust climate content consistently and defensively.

[3:35:59] Voice 42: With these supports in place, this is how we think you can make the TPS achievable,

[3:36:05] Voice 42: fair, and impactful for the times we are entering. Before closing, I want to

[3:36:10] Voice 42: briefly acknowledge an enabling issue that underpins everything we discussed in our submission

[3:36:15] Voice 42: that will also impinge upon your ability to operationalize the new tps and that is the

[3:36:20] Voice 42: trust planning capacity i'm not sure if this is true consistently across the entire trust area

[3:36:26] Voice 42: but on salt spring planners are consistently consumed by day-to-day approvals triage

[3:36:33] Voice 42: we need planners particularly in the times we are in who are given time to attend to long-range

[3:36:39] Voice 42: strategic planning that today's conditions demand. That current imbalance will make it harder to

[3:36:45] Voice 42: implement an ambitious policy statement. Furthermore, strengthening the trust planning

[3:36:51] Voice 42: capacity and its ability to retain top talent is essential to fulfilling your mandate.

[3:36:57] Voice 42: In practice, this would mean ensuring adequately compensated planners who have the bandwidth to

[3:37:03] Voice 42: also focus on long-term planning and proactive ldc support rather than being locked into an

[3:37:10] Voice 42: approvals treadmill in closing as it relates to the tps before you our message really is quite

[3:37:16] Voice 42: simple this document has been consulted on extensively it reflects real learning and it

[3:37:23] Voice 42: comes at a moment when delay would not represent caution but avoidance approving the tps after

[3:37:30] Voice 42: After careful consideration of extensive public input, I looked hundreds of pieces, including

[3:37:36] Voice 42: submissions from First Nations, governments, agencies, boards, and commissions, while pairing

[3:37:43] Voice 42: it with clear, accountable implementation commitments, will send a powerful signal to

[3:37:48] Voice 42: the LTCs and their constituents.

[3:37:50] Voice 42: It will say that the Islands Trust understands the scale of the challenge before it, and

[3:37:56] Voice 42: and that it is prepared not just to set direction, but support LTCs in making the TPS real across the entire trust area.

[3:38:05] Voice 42: When it comes to the all-encompassing risk of the climate crisis, we will simply not succeed with cautious half measures.

[3:38:13] Voice 42: But we have a much better chance of succeeding if we respond effectively with clarity, resolve, and coordinated action clearly communicated to the electorate.

[3:38:24] Voice 42: Thank you very much for your hard work and your time today.

[3:38:28] Voice 42: I welcome any questions you might have.

[3:38:30] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[3:38:31] Trustee Patrick: Any questions for the delegate?

[3:38:35] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Elliott, then Trustee Middleton.

[3:38:42] Voice 31: Thank you for your presentation and thoughtfully including the notes because I do like to follow along.

[3:38:48] Voice 31: So your third recommendation, actively supporting local trust committees in applying this policy consistently and defensively.

[3:38:59] Voice 31: Can you give us an example of what that might look like, for instance?

[3:39:03] Voice 31: Sure.

[3:39:04] Voice 42: I think that in talking with trust staff, with advocates in the public, and elected officials, we're always surprised at how little actual tools there are to help trustees in navigating very complex issues.

[3:39:20] Voice 42: climate change for example there simply isn't much data that the trust has on I

[3:39:27] Voice 42: mean we are there a third party reports for example the CRD has done a rather

[3:39:31] Voice 42: good report on coastal flooding in in the CRD area there's not a lot of

[3:39:38] Voice 42: information available to guide trustees or constituents or advocacy groups or

[3:39:44] Voice 42: elected leaders on those issues I'm also surprised that a an organization such as

[3:39:49] Voice 42: This doesn't actually maintain indicators that are publicly visible on the key issues that are part of the mandate.

[3:39:57] Voice 42: So that's all I'm saying.

[3:39:58] Voice 42: I think that LTCs already have a pretty tough road to hoe and centralized support for them to navigate these.

[3:40:06] Voice 42: I mean, First Nations issues alone are very complex to actually handle well.

[3:40:14] Voice 42: And I think that climate change is another one of those problems where the data is constantly changing and we need much more up-to-date tools and resources to be able to support real action on this front.

[3:40:29] Voice 42: I hope that answers your question.

[3:40:30] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Trustee Middleton.

[3:40:34] Trustee Middleton: Thanks very much for that presentation.

[3:40:35] Trustee Middleton: You made an important point that just slipped past me a little bit, where you talked about the policy statement implementation plan, and you referenced, I think, ecosystem markers or indicators, maybe, to use the word you just used.

[3:40:52] Trustee Middleton: Could you just go back and say a little bit more about that?

[3:40:54] Trustee Middleton: About

[3:40:55] Voice 42: indicators specifically?

[3:40:56] Voice 42: Yeah.

[3:40:57] Trustee Middleton: Well, you mentioned you actually indicate ecosystem indicators, I guess, as a way of putting forth an implementation plan. There's actually specifics that the plan is targeted to, as I think was your

[3:41:12] Trustee Middleton: point, but you said it more eloquently than I just did.

[3:41:15] Trustee Middleton: so and i may not be able to repeat that

[3:41:18] Voice 42: but um i mean a current thing uh we wrote an article a few

[3:41:23] Voice 42: weeks ago that talked about um the amount of build-up that's possible on our island that's

[3:41:28] Voice 42: a very local and specific example but i think it's true another another areas of the trust as well

[3:41:34] Voice 42: where current data is actually not possible i felt like i went to not to be sarcastic but three

[3:41:41] Voice 42: high priests who know this stuff and i mean one of them's your chair and cao adams and a former

[3:41:50] Voice 42: trustee and none of them had the right data i mean this is not rocket science all

[3:41:59] Trustee Patrick: right thank you

[3:42:00] Trustee Patrick: trustee morrison thank

[3:42:03] Voice 44: you um and thank you for your presentation and again also for your notes um

[3:42:08] Voice 44: Um, I, I do think this is a challenge, um, at the trust council level that, you know,

[3:42:15] Voice 44: we've worked through since the, um, instigation of the climate change emergency motion.

[3:42:21] Voice 44: Um, I coauthored that with a trustee in the first term, in my first term.

[3:42:25] Voice 44: Um, and I think the indicators too, we were, we worked a little bit on indicators, I think

[3:42:32] Voice 44: at the end of last term or the beginning of this term.

[3:42:34] Voice 44: So these are all consistently challenging issues.

[3:42:37] Voice 44: So thank you for bringing them up and I would hope one of the big things we could do as we go forward with the new policy statement is to work more closely with folks like the Pacific Institute of Climate Solutions or others that have that kind of data or can help coordinate it in different ways and are working with elected officials to bring up capacity because capacity building for community and elected officials and staff is all like everyone's learning at the same time.

[3:43:04] Voice 44: So thank you for bringing this to the center of attention.

[3:43:08] Voice 44: And yeah.

[3:43:10] Voice 42: Thank you for your work.

[3:43:12] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[3:43:12] Trustee Patrick: Any other questions from the delegate?

[3:43:15] Trustee Patrick: With that, I thank you for coming today and your message.

[3:43:19] Trustee Patrick: And thank you.

[3:43:22] Voice 42: Appreciate your time.

[3:43:23] Voice 42: Thank you.

[3:43:23] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[3:43:24] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to have some opening remarks before we turn the mic over to the public.

[3:43:29] Trustee Patrick: public. We value the input of community members, and your participation is essential in helping us

[3:43:36] Trustee Patrick: make informed decisions that serve the best interests of the trust area. Before we begin,

[3:43:42] Trustee Patrick: I'd like to go over a few guidelines for public comment period to ensure everyone has an

[3:43:47] Trustee Patrick: opportunity to speak and that the process remains respectful and productive. As chair, together with

[3:43:53] Trustee Patrick: all the trustees, it's our responsibility to ensure the meeting is respectful, inclusive,

[3:43:58] Trustee Patrick: inclusive, culturally safe space for staff, trustees, all attendees, and those that may be

[3:44:04] Trustee Patrick: watching online. For trustees, you heard me say this earlier, I'm repeating it for our public

[3:44:10] Trustee Patrick: members. We will speak respectfully. There's no place in this meeting for racism, stereotypes,

[3:44:18] Trustee Patrick: or comments that target Indigenous people or any other individuals or groups in our community.

[3:44:23] Trustee Patrick: We will acknowledge concerns without causing harm. Residents are entitled to ask questions and express uncertainty. Indigenous community members are equally entitled to share their experiences and expectations of respectful partnership. Both can occur here without harm, dismissal, or targeting.

[3:44:41] Trustee Patrick: We will uphold cultural safety. We recognize that public processes have not always felt safe or welcoming for Indigenous peoples. We are committed to doing better. That includes giving space to Indigenous voices, being mindful of how our language affects people, and addressing harmful comments if they arise.

[3:45:01] Trustee Patrick: eyes. We will keep the conversation constructive. Every participant brings valuable perspectives,

[3:45:08] Trustee Patrick: lived experiences, and knowledge. All voices deserve to be heard and heard respectfully.

[3:45:13] Trustee Patrick: Thank you in advance for helping us create an environment where all participants feel safe,

[3:45:18] Trustee Patrick: valued, and able to participate fully. I do want to clarify a bit of scope. We understand that

[3:45:24] Trustee Patrick: some people may have questions or concerns related to media coverage or recent court decisions,

[3:45:29] Trustee Patrick: decisions, including what those developments might mean for private land or land title

[3:45:35] Trustee Patrick: in the province.

[3:45:36] Trustee Patrick: While we recognize those concerns exist, they are outside the scope of this meeting.

[3:45:41] Trustee Patrick: Islands Trust does not have authority to alter land ownership or land tenure.

[3:45:46] Trustee Patrick: The Islands Trust is not a party to the Tlactinas Court case and will not be commenting on it.

[3:45:53] Trustee Patrick: Questions about the provincial role in this case should be directed to the province of

[3:45:58] Trustee Patrick: British Columbia. Our statutory mandate remains the same to work in cooperation to preserve and

[3:46:04] Trustee Patrick: protect the trust area for the benefit of the residents in the province of British Columbia.

[3:46:09] Trustee Patrick: Today's discussion will remain focused on the business of the trust council and the agenda

[3:46:14] Trustee Patrick: items before trust council. Further, the public period is your opportunity to speak. We welcome

[3:46:24] Trustee Patrick: your questions and comments as they help us with our decisions. Please remember to keep your

[3:46:28] Trustee Patrick: comments respectful, focused on issues, not people. We're here to listen to diverse viewpoints and

[3:46:33] Trustee Patrick: everyone's opinion is important. Please direct your comments to council and the chair, not to staff

[3:46:39] Trustee Patrick: or the audience. Each speaker will be given three minutes to speak. Trustee Elliott has got a timer

[3:46:46] Trustee Patrick: there. You'll hear a little chime at the end, and I would ask that you wrap up at the end.

[3:46:52] Trustee Patrick: We ask that everyone refrain from interrupting or engaging in disruptive behavior.

[3:46:57] Trustee Patrick: I ask that there is no clapping or booing.

[3:47:00] Trustee Patrick: And finally, if you're asking for any specific action or follow-up, please know that the

[3:47:07] Trustee Patrick: council will take your input into consideration but may not provide an immediate response

[3:47:11] Trustee Patrick: during this time.

[3:47:14] Trustee Patrick: We may interrupt you if comments are outside the scope of the agenda or do not meet these

[3:47:19] Trustee Patrick: expectations.

[3:47:19] Trustee Patrick: So now I'm going to open up the comment period. If you wish to speak, please begin by stating your name, but also ask that you go down to the podium where a microphone is there that will help us hear you. And that would be wonderful. Hi, Deborah.

[3:47:35] Trustee Patrick: Deborah.

[3:47:39] Voice 28: Good

[3:47:47] Voice 16: afternoon, my name is Deborah Campbell and I'm here to address the by-law that you

[3:47:55] Voice 16: were just about to discuss, by-law 206, the public notification by-law.

[3:48:01] Voice 16: I'm a professor of journalism at UVic and also a long-time Salt Spring resident and

[3:48:09] Voice 16: And, you know, we're really lucky to have local newspapers on these islands

[3:48:14] Voice 16: and actually sometimes have actual reporters going to things.

[3:48:20] Voice 16: The single best measure of a healthy community is having a local newspaper.

[3:48:25] Voice 16: And about 500 of them have been shut down across Canada in the last 20 years.

[3:48:33] Voice 16: So those communities are often called news deserts.

[3:48:39] Voice 16: What happens in those communities is that the discourse tends to rely on hearsay, rumors, paranoia, and a lot of fighting on Facebook.

[3:48:51] Voice 16: And so the proposal to move public notices onto Facebook is a real step backward.

[3:49:01] Voice 16: word. This is an American social media giant that's known for sowing disinformation, for sowing

[3:49:09] Voice 16: division, for spewing hatred, and for preying upon especially young people. A lot of islanders really

[3:49:16] Voice 16: avoid it, especially right now, especially when the new president of Facebook is a Trump advisor

[3:49:23] Voice 16: advisor who just came in in January. So to have to be told that in order to participate in our

[3:49:31] Voice 16: democracy, we have to join Facebook at this juncture feels really disturbing. The public

[3:49:41] Voice 16: notice guidelines for BC local governments require that wherever you decide to go, it be reliable,

[3:49:48] Voice 16: reliable, suitable, and accessible. So I'm glad you're going to discuss those things because it

[3:49:55] Voice 16: defines reliable as trusted by the community to provide factual information. Does Facebook work

[3:50:04] Voice 16: on that level? It also has to be part of the community for some time as a trusted source of

[3:50:13] Voice 16: information. Again, you'll need to look at that. Next, it has to be accessible to a broad spectrum

[3:50:21] Voice 16: of the local population. And you must take into consideration age, people with disabilities,

[3:50:29] Voice 16: and local circumstances. The example that they give of that are things like lack of reliable

[3:50:34] Voice 16: internet. So we know that these islands are subject to those problems. The idea, too, that

[3:50:42] Voice 16: that the First Nations don't have an implication here

[3:50:46] Voice 16: is a bit questionable because Instagram, Facebook,

[3:50:51] Voice 16: they have been spreading a lot of disinformation

[3:50:54] Voice 16: about indigenous land rights.

[3:50:56] Voice 16: We know that that has caused a lot of problems recently.

[3:51:00] Voice 16: Laurie, you just spoke to that.

[3:51:03] Voice 16: So I'm asking that you look closely at this bylaw

[3:51:09] Voice 16: and consider whether you want to support a healthy community continue to advertise in your local

[3:51:15] Voice 16: newspapers or you want to move on to an american social media giant that has been playing really

[3:51:25] Voice 16: dark roles in in canadian communities the other option too is to look at look on your website and

[3:51:34] Voice 16: And that's fine. But in my experience, I don't even think Steve Jobs could find something on the Islands Trust website.

[3:51:41] Voice 16: So I'm pleased to be able to talk to you before you vote on this issue.

[3:51:48] Voice 16: And I hope that you will decide to not to pass it.

[3:51:55] Voice 16: Thank you very much. Thank

[3:51:57] Trustee Patrick: you very much.

[3:51:58] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to alternate here and go to someone online.

[3:52:01] Trustee Patrick: online. I notice a number of you have raised your hands to be able to speak online. You do need to

[3:52:06] Trustee Patrick: raise your hands. The first person is Dave, if you could just say your name.

[3:52:15] Voice 9: Hi, yeah, my name is

[3:52:16] Voice 9: Dave Olson. I'm from Leskevi Island, and I want to wholeheartedly support the previous speaker.

[3:52:24] Voice 9: I'm so glad that we're able to talk to trustees before a decision is made about that bylaw.

[3:52:31] Voice 9: the public notification bylaw, totally support not doing Facebook. I don't do Facebook. And

[3:52:39] Voice 9: totally support local newspapers, advertising, keeping them alive, very important. And that was

[3:52:48] Voice 9: the one breath of fresh air that I saw this afternoon from council. The only comment about

[3:52:55] Voice 9: that made so far was in support of what the previous speaker was saying so you

[3:53:03] Voice 9: know we really you really need to rethink what the staff was suggesting

[3:53:10] Voice 9: disappointment you have all managed to fit in and schedule in discussion about

[3:53:16] Voice 9: your salaries and benefits before public comment but the good news is that you

[3:53:22] Voice 9: you are going to inspire many people to run against you. And it's not because of the

[3:53:28] Voice 9: increased salary. It's because of your inability to recognize that taxpayers' property taxes

[3:53:36] Voice 9: are not a bottomless pit. We can't just keep forking money over to you. Sorry. That's not

[3:53:43] Voice 9: how economics work in the real world. So the solution, I don't want to just complain. I want

[3:53:51] Voice 9: want to give you a solution, of course. And the solution is actually quite simple. You have one

[3:53:56] Voice 9: legal mandate, which is to preserve and protect via land use planning. So cut everything else

[3:54:03] Voice 9: out. Nothing but land use planning. And suddenly your current trustee salary grows exponentially

[3:54:14] Voice 9: financially, because you don't have all of these other programs going on that are already being

[3:54:22] Voice 9: done by senior levels of government that have the resources, that have the staff, that have the

[3:54:29] Voice 9: expertise to deal with them in a much, much better way than the Islands Trust. So please stop your

[3:54:36] Voice 9: your policy statement. The overwhelming public comment is against it. It's nowhere near ready

[3:54:44] Voice 9: to be passed into bylaw. I've asked for a referendum on that. It's been ignored. Please

[3:54:51] Voice 9: cut your budget for all of the reasons I've just given you. It is not acceptable to continue to

[3:54:59] Voice 9: raise your budget when you keep asking us. Well, thank you for asking. I see that you're going to

[3:55:06] Voice 9: to ask us next year as well. We just told you, we want you to decrease the budget. And the vast

[3:55:12] Voice 9: majority, 80% of us said, do not increase it, just like we did four years ago.

[3:55:19] Voice 9: Thank you for allowing me to speak to you today.

[3:55:22] Trustee Patrick: Thank you, Dave. Is there someone else in the room that was going to speak to us

[3:55:26] Trustee Patrick: here? If you could head up to the podium up there. Light's still on.

[3:55:44] Voice 40: Hi.

[3:55:46] Voice 40: Grant Sattorp, Salt Spring Island.

[3:55:52] Voice 40: I do not agree with Brian Young

[3:55:55] Voice 40: that there has been extensive consultation.

[3:55:59] Voice 40: The major component of this whole public engagement

[3:56:03] Voice 40: was the survey.

[3:56:06] Voice 40: I looked at it.

[3:56:08] Voice 40: I think it was about,

[3:56:09] Voice 40: I can't remember the number of pages,

[3:56:11] Voice 40: 12, 20, whatever.

[3:56:14] Voice 40: I'm a teacher.

[3:56:16] Voice 40: I worked for many years as a course writer.

[3:56:19] Voice 40: I would never throw something like that at my students and say, what do you think? Do you agree or not?

[3:56:29] Voice 40: It's just not right.

[3:56:31] Voice 40: There are so many things in there that you could have made a survey to actually gauge what the public, whether or not they agree or disagree.

[3:56:43] Voice 40: For example, getting rid of the growth limits or the requirement for trustees to respect growth limits, gone.

[3:56:54] Voice 40: All the history section with all the focus on population, gone.

[3:57:00] Voice 40: Floor area ratio, a densification scheme introduced.

[3:57:07] Voice 40: Accessible housing with no housing agreements.

[3:57:11] Voice 40: So that's basically opening the islands up to everybody.

[3:57:16] Voice 40: Points like that should have been put into a survey so that the public can understand it and you can get proper feedback on it.

[3:57:26] Voice 40: Instead, there was this massive policy that you just said, do you agree or don't agree?

[3:57:33] Voice 40: And now it took someone like Don Lidstone to have credibility and go through and analyze it and say it does not comply with the mandate and that there would be legal action if you proceed to adopt it.

[3:57:51] Voice 40: Well, my goodness, who on this planet has that type of intellect to analyze it and come up with that type of conclusion?

[3:58:02] Voice 40: And I would suggest there's only about a couple on the planet.

[3:58:06] Voice 40: And you expect the ordinary Joes out in the street to understand that document?

[3:58:12] Voice 40: I say, may I ask right now, who designed or approved that survey?

[3:58:18] Voice 40: Or I would call it a non-survey.

[3:58:27] Trustee Patrick: Yeah, we're not answering questions right now on that.

[3:58:30] Trustee Patrick: You

[3:58:30] Voice 40: said so at the beginning that I could answer, I could ask a question.

[3:58:34] Voice 40: you

[3:58:34] Trustee Patrick: could ask a question but i said we weren't going to answer everything that we were asked

[3:58:37] Trustee Patrick: at this moment is

[3:58:40] Voice 40: that difficult question mr

[3:58:43] Trustee Patrick: tor if you can carry on with your remarks here your

[3:58:45] Trustee Patrick: time is now up if you could wrap up thank

[3:58:50] Voice 40: you thank

[3:58:51] Trustee Patrick: you i'm going to move on to the online

[3:58:54] Trustee Patrick: i see maxine leitner hello

[3:58:58] Voice 34: can you hear me

[3:58:59] Trustee Patrick: yes we can okay

[3:59:01] Voice 34: uh so i am maxine leitner as you said

[3:59:05] Voice 34: and I am speaking for Positively Forward on Salt Spring.

[3:59:09] Voice 34: Positively Forward is a collaboration of Islanders

[3:59:12] Voice 34: researching and advocating

[3:59:14] Voice 34: for improved local governance on Salt Spring.

[3:59:17] Voice 34: As such, our concern with the current draft

[3:59:20] Voice 34: trust policy statement led us to join with other groups

[3:59:23] Voice 34: to seek the letter from Dodlin's Don Lidstone

[3:59:28] Voice 34: of Lidstone Company Law Corporation,

[3:59:31] Voice 34: who were once the lawyers of the Island's Trust.

[3:59:34] Voice 34: us. The letter starts on page 75 of your agenda. I hope you'll be able to look at that. We strongly

[3:59:42] Voice 34: support the findings in the letter of particular concern to many residents of the Gulf Islands

[3:59:48] Voice 34: and now validated by this letter is that trust councils attempts to expand the meaning of unique

[3:59:56] Voice 34: amenities and environment to

[3:59:59] Voice 34: you

[4:00:00] Voice 34: include infrastructure tourism and livelihood is stepping far away from its legislative mandate

[4:00:08] Voice 34: which is to preserve and protect the unique amenities and environment of the trust islands

[4:00:15] Voice 34: for the benefit of islanders and all british columbians the letter that you have affirms

[4:00:23] Voice 34: that government must use words as they are defined in the dictionary unique is defined

[4:00:29] Voice 34: is one-of-a-kind. Infrastructure and tourism, for example, are not one-of-a-kind items.

[4:00:38] Voice 34: It has not been the administrative commitment of the trust to provide housing, jobs, or

[4:00:45] Voice 34: infrastructure. Those responsibilities are entrusted to other government bodies.

[4:00:51] Voice 34: The trust's legislative mandate is clear and unequivocal. To safeguard the natural environment

[4:00:59] Voice 34: in an area awarded special status by the Trust Act.

[4:01:04] Voice 34: To betray that responsibility in favor of greater development is short-sighted and reckless.

[4:01:11] Voice 34: Protecting the island's native ecosystems is especially critical now

[4:01:17] Voice 34: because they are under intense pressure from climate change.

[4:01:21] Voice 34: There is also the need to protect rural character.

[4:01:25] Voice 34: We urge you to stick to the legislative role, land use management, through the lens of guarding this protected area.

[4:01:36] Voice 34: This is what British Columbians want and expect.

[4:01:40] Voice 34: Thank you.

[4:01:41] Voice 34: Oh, before I finish, I just want to also support the statements made by the previous speaker in favor of public notification through local newspapers.

[4:01:52] Voice 34: papers. It turns out that most of the islands do have local newspapers of some sort. Thank you for

[4:02:00] Voice 34: allowing me to speak. Thank

[4:02:03] Trustee Patrick: you very much. Is there someone else in the room that was going to

[4:02:05] Trustee Patrick: speak? All right, thank you. Just press the button at the bottom of the base there, and there you go.

[4:02:32] Voice 39: It's live. Okay. Well, good afternoon, everybody, chair and council. My name's Ronald Wright, and I'm a founding member of the group Keep Salt Spring Sustainable.

[4:02:47] I

[4:02:49] Voice 39: want to say you deserve our respect for stepping up to the task of public service.

[4:02:56] Voice 39: But as in any democracy, you have to keep that respect as you go by openness, by sound policy and good faith.

[4:03:10] Voice 39: You are, Trust Council is, in effect, our island's legislature, our parliament.

[4:03:23] Voice 39: Those bodies in Victoria and in Ottawa do not hold key meetings and debates online only.

[4:03:35] Voice 39: Yet you are proposing to do this with the next two trust quarterly meetings in June and September.

[4:03:43] Voice 39: And to do this at the very time when you are seeking to make highly controversial changes,

[4:03:50] Voice 39: not only to the trust policy statement, but also to the OCPs of more than half the islands all at once.

[4:04:00] Voice 39: And that means about three quarters of the trust's population.

[4:04:03] Voice 39: The only trust-wide town hall on the TPS draft was a couple of hours, online only, during the busy back-to-school week in September.

[4:04:24] Voice 39: Did that reach working families? Hardly. Only a few dozen people took part.

[4:04:30] Voice 39: Meanwhile, more than 2,000 people have signed a petition by Friends of the Gulf Islands

[4:04:41] Voice 39: opposing and pointing out the major flaws in the trust policy statement that you have.

[4:04:50] Voice 39: If as you claim you have the backing of most islanders, why not let the public and let

[4:05:02] Voice 39: Let First Nations have a genuine input in these projects as the ministry has required that you do in recent correspondence.

[4:05:14] Voice 39: What are you afraid of?

[4:05:16] Voice 39: Is it perhaps because of the recent legal analysis by Don Lidstone KC that others have mentioned, which makes clear that the draft TPS rests on an unsound interpretation of the Trust Act's mandate?

[4:05:38] Voice 39: mandate, and that this unsound footing, which is the foundation of this whole house of cards,

[4:05:45] Voice 39: both with the TPS and the OCPs, was done in secret by trustees who have never been identified

[4:05:55] Voice 39: in fall 2023, and that this statement that you came out with has never been withdrawn.

[4:06:03] Voice 39: So we ask that you withdraw that false interpretation and then redo the TPS from the ground up with genuine public input, or just leave the one that is current in place and stop trying to rewrite OCPs, because they would have to meet the current TPS. Thank you.

[4:06:29] Voice 39: Thank

[4:06:30] Trustee Patrick: you. I'm going to go online. I think Anne Macy.

[4:06:38] Voice 1: Hello. My name is Anne Macy. I am a director of the Salt Spring Island Abattoir Society of the Gulf Islands Chapter of Canadian Organic Growers and the Salt Spring Island Agricultural Alliance.

[4:06:52] Voice 1: My comment is with respect to the Islands Trust Council ability to sponsor fees for rezoning applications by nonprofits that benefit community at large.

[4:07:04] Voice 1: It is our understanding that there is no budget allocation funding sponsorship in the 26-27

[4:07:11] Voice 1: fiscal.

[4:07:12] Voice 1: We hope that Trust Council will reconsider and restore this budget line.

[4:07:17] Voice 1: Dollar amounts are relatively small for a government organisation, but they have significant

[4:07:22] Voice 1: impact on charitable organisations or non-profits that often rely on volunteer fundraising to

[4:07:29] Voice 1: carry out projects which benefit the community as a whole.

[4:07:32] Voice 1: To give you an example, this past week, knowing there was to be no budget in 2026-27, the

[4:07:40] Voice 1: Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust rushed to submit an application for a mining rezoning

[4:07:45] Voice 1: of a plot at the Burgoyne Valley Community Farm to allow for compost to be sold into

[4:07:50] Voice 1: the community.

[4:07:51] Voice 1: Although sales are allowed by the Agricultural Land Commission, they are not by Salt Spring

[4:07:55] Voice 1: Island by-laws.

[4:07:56] Voice 1: The application cost was $4,882, a significant amount of money for the Farmland Trust.

[4:08:06] Voice 1: Ironstress staff were very supportive and it's my understanding that an urgent request

[4:08:10] Voice 1: for sponsorship was on the agenda for this morning's Executive Council meeting.

[4:08:15] Voice 1: It's a project which ticks all the boxes for community benefit.

[4:08:19] Voice 1: The composter facilities are identified in the Salt Spring Island Area Farm Plan and

[4:08:23] Voice 1: climate action plan as much needed infrastructure to support food production and resiliency in the

[4:08:29] Voice 1: face of climate change it's small in scale but it allows for local processing of organic waste from

[4:08:35] Voice 1: our community abattoir and the local school district in a manner that protects the environment

[4:08:40] Voice 1: and reduces greenhouse gas emissions associated with off-island hauling it's a project that

[4:08:46] Voice 1: aligns with the salt spring island ocp which states we recognize human impacts and understand

[4:08:52] Voice 1: that healthy societies depend on healthy ecosystems and we will work to minimize

[4:08:58] Voice 1: our impacts and restore the land. Our need to protect the land must also

[4:09:02] Voice 1: ensure its agricultural future not only because agriculture is a traditional way

[4:09:07] Voice 1: of island life but also because in a changing world it is imperative that we

[4:09:12] Voice 1: enhance the security of our supply of food. Therefore my request is please do

[4:09:18] Voice 1: not limit the ability of our local organizations and community members to

[4:09:22] Voice 1: do the right thing with projects that help restore the land project protect the environment and reduce

[4:09:28] Voice 1: the negative impacts of humans activity thank you thank

[4:09:35] Trustee Patrick: you is there anyone else in the room that

[4:09:38] Trustee Patrick: was going to address us today right i'm going to keep going online then the next speaker is alex

[4:09:50] Voice 3: Hello. Good afternoon. Can you hear me?

[4:09:53] Voice 3: Yes.

[4:09:53] Voice 3: Oh, good.

[4:09:55] Voice 3: My name is Alex Hodson-Degan,

[4:09:57] Voice 3: and I'm speaking on behalf of Friends of the Gulf Islands Society.

[4:10:02] Voice 3: This body has debated what is meant by the trust mandate,

[4:10:06] Voice 3: specifically what is meant by unique amenities and environment.

[4:10:10] Voice 3: This month, a legal letter, it's been just spoken of,

[4:10:15] Voice 3: was sent to you by Don Lidstone or Lidstone & Company,

[4:10:19] Voice 3: barrister and solicitors, previous council to the Islands Trust. This legal letter affirms

[4:10:27] Voice 3: what is meant by unique amenities and environment when the Trust Act was enacted. This was described

[4:10:34] Voice 3: in the 1986 report by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs called The Object of the Islands Trust,

[4:10:41] Voice 3: Renewing the Consensus. The draft TPS reflects the council's reinterpretation of unique amenities

[4:10:48] Voice 3: as including housing, infrastructure, and tourism.

[4:10:53] Voice 3: The legal letter explains why this is not correct

[4:10:57] Voice 3: and how it gives development propriety over protecting the natural environment.

[4:11:05] Voice 3: Unique means one of a kind.

[4:11:09] Voice 3: These items are not unique.

[4:11:11] Voice 3: We agree with this letter that the current draft DPS

[4:11:15] Voice 3: does not carry out the object of the Islands Trust

[4:11:17] Voice 3: for several reasons, including the draft TPS prioritizes development over protecting and

[4:11:24] Voice 3: preserving the unique natural amenities and environment of the trust area. This is in

[4:11:32] Voice 3: direct opposition to the Trust Act. Language in the TPS opens the door for growth and development

[4:11:39] Voice 3: without regard for the limits of the island ecosystems. The draft TPS fails to consider

[4:11:46] Voice 3: the ecological limits of the islands and does not account for the dwellings that already exist.

[4:11:52] Voice 3: The draft TPS significantly weakens the protection of ecosystems in comparison to the current TPS.

[4:12:04] Voice 3: We urge you to carefully consider the legal letter and amend the draft TPS.

[4:12:09] Voice 3: We have provided, that is Friends of the Gulf Islands, extensive specific suggestions on how this should be done.

[4:12:19] Voice 3: I also just was listening to the notification through newspapers, public notification, and I do support that as well.

[4:12:29] Voice 3: Thank you very much.

[4:12:31] Voice 3: Thank you.

[4:12:38] Trustee Patrick: Carmita?

[4:12:48] Trustee Patrick: Carmita, can you take yourself off mute?

[4:12:50] Trustee Patrick: Oh, there you go.

[4:12:50] Voice 7: Okay, thank you.

[4:12:52] Voice 7: Thank you for giving me time to speak.

[4:12:55] Voice 7: My name is Carmita de Menejar from Galeano Island.

[4:13:01] Voice 7: I am waiting to tell you, I am willing to tell you, I am wanting to tell you about Galeano Island residents' response to the policy statement.

[4:13:16] Voice 7: Historically, in the 1970s, the creation of the island trust was a unique act of generosity towards nature by the MLAs representing the strong request from the people of BC to protect and preserve the island trust area from overdevelopment.

[4:13:48] Voice 7: That strong desire continues to today.

[4:13:54] Voice 7: Galliano residents completed 277 surveys, which represent a significant portion of our population, and Galliano sent 15 letters.

[4:14:13] Voice 7: Almost all of the letters are asking two things, that the historical reasons remain in the policy statement, and that the draft policy statement has a much stronger emphasis on environmental protection.

[4:14:36] Voice 7: Sadly, Galeano's local trust committee did not reply to the trust council's referral request.

[4:14:49] Voice 7: Galeano's trustees did not tell you that their residents feel that the draft policy statement needs stronger conservation and protection.

[4:15:04] Voice 7: They did not tell you, so I am telling you.

[4:15:10] Voice 7: The 15 letters are from organizations like the Galliano Advisory Planning Commission, the Galliano Conservancy, and others with expertise.

[4:15:24] Voice 7: One letter is from a group of 10 people that includes two former trustees.

[4:15:29] Voice 7: None of the key 15 letters are in favor of the draft policy statement.

[4:15:36] Voice 7: The Galeano message is strong and very clear.

[4:15:40] Voice 7: The natural environment on Galeano is vitally important to us, and the majority of us want to see it protected.

[4:15:51] Voice 7: I hope you have time to read some of the letters yourself.

[4:15:56] Voice 7: Thank you.

[4:15:58] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[4:15:59] Trustee Patrick: uh uh

[4:16:03] Voice 28: thalia

[4:16:05] Trustee Patrick: hello

[4:16:12] Voice 28: hello can you hear me oh great

[4:16:15] Voice 27: okay uh my name is thalia apostolopoulos

[4:16:19] Voice 27: um i am a part of the younger generation on gabriola that has a voice as well um i just

[4:16:27] Voice 27: want to speak into support of the um i believe there's two key positions that are coming up over

[4:16:35] Voice 27: the next year with capacity for funding for the First Nations to enable reconciliation and

[4:16:43] Voice 27: engagement with our local community and with local First Nations in our areas. I think that's a

[4:16:48] Voice 27: fantastic move forward. And I want to show my support for that. And I'm proud of the trust

[4:16:56] Voice 27: for moving in these ways. I'd also like to talk a little bit about our OCP reviews and how

[4:17:08] Voice 27: beneficial I think that they're going to be for our communities. The islands are moving out of

[4:17:16] Voice 27: being places where it's only the older generations and we have a lot of young families here that need

[4:17:28] Voice 27: also protection and as well as the natural environments around us um i think there's a

[4:17:36] Voice 27: lot of really great conversations coming up with like resource and sustainable practices in small

[4:17:44] Voice 27: communities on large acreages and i'm really looking forward to all the changes that are

[4:17:51] Voice 27: happening within the ocps and with the trust policy statements um yeah i think you guys are

[4:17:59] Voice 27: doing great and I just want to speak in support of all that so thank you thank you and I hope

[4:18:07] Voice 27: this meeting is going well for everybody okay

[4:18:13] Voice 31: uh Sybil

[4:18:16] Trustee Patrick: hi

[4:18:21] Voice 33: hello thanks thanks for making time for

[4:18:25] Voice 33: us to have feedback I wanted to speak uh maybe generally about the trust policy statement and

[4:18:32] Voice 33: and then a bit about the budget as well.

[4:18:34] Voice 33: In terms of the trust policy statement,

[4:18:36] Voice 33: oh, and if I could say,

[4:18:38] Voice 33: add to the desire to continue to have communications

[4:18:43] Voice 33: in the local newspapers,

[4:18:45] Voice 33: if I could add that comment to that consideration.

[4:18:49] Voice 33: In terms of the trust policy statement generally,

[4:18:51] Voice 33: I feel strongly in favor of the fact

[4:18:54] Voice 33: that Indigenous relationships and involvement

[4:19:01] Voice 33: in the trust policy statement is finally front and center,

[4:19:05] Voice 33: something that was really missing in the past

[4:19:07] Voice 33: and integrated throughout the trust policy statement.

[4:19:12] Voice 33: I am concerned about the desire to leave the one that's currently in place,

[4:19:20] Voice 33: both for that reason and also because it doesn't reflect the needed changes

[4:19:25] Voice 33: changes that allow for making room for people to live here and work here who don't have a lot of

[4:19:35] Voice 33: money. I'm on a Gabriela Island. I don't want it to become a wealthy enclave. I'm afraid that

[4:19:42] Voice 33: that's the risk that will happen for all of the islands if we're not able to make space,

[4:19:48] Voice 33: make a broader recognition for what the unique amenities are on these islands.

[4:19:55] Voice 33: so I think that that's really important in terms of the budget the two things that are coming up

[4:20:01] Voice 33: are additions I know there's a lot of I listened to the earlier discussion on the trustee

[4:20:09] Voice 33: compensation and I heard a lot of concern around the budget and of course we've heard it in the

[4:20:16] Voice 33: community too i think though that we need to be able to do more with the islands trust and so i

[4:20:24] Voice 33: am very in favor of the two new permanent positions that are being proposed in the budget

[4:20:30] Voice 33: the indigenous relations manager and the communications person who will be working

[4:20:37] Voice 33: in communities or supporting the work in communities i think that we need to have

[4:20:42] Voice 33: have those things or we can't make these changes live and if we're going to actually change the

[4:20:49] Voice 33: racism issues that have come up as part of these discussions for example we have to have those

[4:20:55] Voice 33: people in place to help support the local trust committees to make that difference thank you very

[4:21:01] Voice 33: much thank

[4:21:03] Voice 29: you julia

[4:21:07] Trustee Patrick: can

[4:21:12] Voice 22: you hear me yes we can oh good

[4:21:15] Voice 22: julia nichols from north pender island

[4:21:18] Voice 22: Regarding the public engagement process of the Policy Statement Review, this process matters because it dictates whose voices are heard.

[4:21:30] Voice 22: Residents of the Southern Gulf Islands have been failed in four key ways.

[4:21:35] Voice 22: Number one, ignoring input. The 2025 revisions largely overlook the 2021 What We Heard report, which called for much stronger environmental protections by disregarding previous community input that trust has betrayed public trust.

[4:21:59] Voice 22: Number two, survey structure was very flawed. Grouping multiple sections together prevented nuanced feedback, rendering the data unreliable.

[4:22:13] Voice 22: Furthermore, the lack of a save function and a poor cell phone compatibility created socioeconomic barriers, effectively silencing those who lacked the time to re-enter responses lost when they were unable to complete the survey.

[4:22:33] Voice 22: These would include working parents, low-income residents, and those with unreliable internet.

[4:22:40] Voice 22: three limited in-person dialogue opportunities for discussion were limited and poorly advertised

[4:22:49] Voice 22: on most islands the draft was simply an agenda item at a regular local trust committee meeting

[4:22:56] Voice 22: rather than a dedicated public forum where residents can ask questions and learn from

[4:23:03] Voice 22: one another about these complex issues and there was a huge lack of clarity. Without the side-by-side

[4:23:13] Voice 22: comparison between this draft and the current one, it is so difficult for the public to understand

[4:23:20] Voice 22: and evaluate your proposed changes. The Friends of the Gulf Islands has gone ahead and done that

[4:23:29] Voice 22: And that should be helpful to you.

[4:23:32] Voice 22: I hope on the Trust Council you pause, rectify these failures, and ensure the people's voice is clearly heard.

[4:23:40] Voice 22: We must ensure that our democratic methods are as resilient as we wish the trust policy statement to be in its preserve and protect mandate.

[4:23:52] Voice 22: Thank you.

[4:23:53] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[4:23:56] Trustee Patrick: Jennifer Margison, can

[4:24:05] Voice 8: you hear me?

[4:24:06] Voice 8: Yes, we can.

[4:24:07] Voice 8: Oh, good.

[4:24:07] Voice 8: I'm speaking from the Tawasin Ferry Terminal.

[4:24:11] Voice 8: So if there's an announcement, I'm just going to quickly step out the door.

[4:24:16] Voice 8: So good afternoon.

[4:24:18] Voice 8: My name is Jennifer Margeson, and I am a resident of Galliano Island.

[4:24:22] Voice 8: I am also a member of the Galliano Advisory Planning Commission.

[4:24:27] Voice 8: However, I am not speaking for the Advisory Planning Commission,

[4:24:33] Voice 8: but am expressing my own personal concern.

[4:24:37] Voice 8: In mid-December, the Galliano Local Trust Committee asked the Galliano Advisory Planning Commission

[4:24:46] Voice 8: to comment on the draft trust policy statement.

[4:24:50] Voice 8: Despite a very short time frame, the APC worked diligently to reach a consensus

[4:24:57] Voice 8: among six diverse community members identifying critical deficiencies in the draft trust policy

[4:25:06] Voice 8: statement. A detailed report from the Galliano APC was submitted at the end of January. However,

[4:25:16] Voice 8: after receiving the report, the Galliano trustees at their February 10th meeting

[4:25:22] Voice 8: declined to submit any referral response on the draft Trust Policy Statement to Trust Council.

[4:25:31] Voice 8: And also, I understand there was a suggestion made, declined to schedule a special meeting

[4:25:39] Voice 8: to consider a response. To have the Galliano LTC choose no response effectively silences

[4:25:49] Voice 8: the volunteer labor and expertise provided by an LTC's own advisory body. Volunteering for the APC

[4:26:00] Voice 8: requires a belief that our input is valued and will at least be considered. The Galliano APC

[4:26:09] Voice 8: report aligns with many concerns raised by the Galliano Conservancy and other residents,

[4:26:16] Voice 8: both on Galliano and elsewhere in the trust area

[4:26:20] Voice 8: as documented in the many letters on the island's 2050 site.

[4:26:26] Voice 8: While I do recognize that the LTC is not required to adopt APC recommendations,

[4:26:33] Voice 8: it is the responsibility, I believe, of trustees to ensure

[4:26:37] Voice 8: that the unique concerns of Galliano are reflected in the trust council's deliberations.

[4:26:46] Trustee Patrick: Jennifer, I'm sorry.

[4:26:47] Trustee Patrick: There's been a point of order called in the room.

[4:26:49] Trustee Patrick: Can I state your point, please?

[4:26:53] Voice 15: Trust Council is our participants are to speak to Trust Council matters.

[4:26:58] Voice 15: There's a lot of very Galliano-specific items here.

[4:27:01] Voice 15: Can we stick to Trust Council, please?

[4:27:05] Trustee Patrick: So Jennifer, this is the Trust Council body, as you know.

[4:27:08] Trustee Patrick: So carry on and be specific to Trust Council.

[4:27:20] Trustee Patrick: Jennifer, I think you're muted.

[4:27:21] Trustee Patrick: The

[4:27:26] Voice 8: focus of my comments are that I am concerned that Trust Council is not actually hearing the voices, a broad spectrum of voices, of the Galliano community as part of any further consideration of the trust policy statement.

[4:27:47] Voice 8: And I'll just end there.

[4:27:50] Voice 8: I appreciate that.

[4:27:52] Voice 8: Thank you very much, Jennifer.

[4:27:52] Voice 8: Thank you.

[4:27:53] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[4:27:54] Trustee Patrick: you. I see Arden. Ardith.

[4:28:00] Voice 35: Hello. Hello. Hi. My name is Kamchatsia. I'm from Sauk and from

[4:28:09] Voice 35: Snenemo. And I currently am a resident of Gabriola Island. I wanted to start by saying

[4:28:16] Voice 35: how much I appreciate the assurance of cultural safety in your opening remarks, Madam Chair.

[4:28:23] Voice 35: And I also appreciate, though somewhat sadly, the comprehensive nature of your instructions.

[4:28:31] Voice 35: They're excellent, but it's sad that you have to have such directions, in my view.

[4:28:38] Voice 35: My points are about the inclusiveness of Indigenous and people of colour in the trust business.

[4:28:48] Voice 35: I picked up a perception that there's a sense that the trust is representative.

[4:28:59] Voice 35: And I just wanted to point out that by doing so, what the Trust Council does is just reinforce the status quo.

[4:29:09] Voice 35: In my opinion, there's a need for greater inclusivity and for genuine input from First Nations governments.

[4:29:16] Voice 35: And by that, I mean, I'm just a resident of Gabriola. I have no political authority or whatever. And in order for input into trust business to be germane to real life, in my opinion, it has to be engaged with the First Nations governments.

[4:29:38] Voice 35: And I think that that's a significant point that needs to be made and made continually in order for your attempts at outreach to be successful.

[4:29:49] Voice 35: I also want to commend the Trust on identifying the cultural heritage of these islands as being significant and an important part.

[4:30:00] Voice 35: of how our evolving structures go forward from this point on.

[4:30:04] Voice 35: I also wanted to echo Thalia's points earlier

[4:30:08] Voice 35: about support for First Nations staff.

[4:30:13] Voice 35: You have an excellent First Nations staff person

[4:30:16] Voice 35: on the trust staff now,

[4:30:20] Voice 35: but in my experience,

[4:30:22] Voice 35: what's important is to have a critical mass of Indigenous voices

[4:30:25] Voice 35: because otherwise the status quo,

[4:30:28] Voice 35: which I referred to earlier, will persevere.

[4:30:32] Voice 35: And if the Trust Council is sincere in their acknowledgements

[4:30:38] Voice 35: and their openness, as was witnessed at the beginning of this session

[4:30:42] Voice 35: with the people of Cowichan, then I think that we have to make sure

[4:30:47] Voice 35: that we are committed to an evolving Council, not just to tokenism.

[4:30:53] Voice 35: And I'm sorry to put that so bluntly, but I think it's a message

[4:30:57] Voice 35: that needs to be heard.

[4:30:58] Voice 35: Thank you very much.

[4:31:01] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[4:31:05] Trustee Patrick: We've been through all speakers.

[4:31:06] Trustee Patrick: There's a couple of hands still up, but they have already spoken.

[4:31:09] Trustee Patrick: So I just want to double check that you're not trying to speak again.

[4:31:13] Trustee Patrick: Carmita, I think your hands just stayed up.

[4:31:19] Trustee Patrick: Yeah.

[4:31:19] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[4:31:20] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[4:31:21] Trustee Patrick: Oops, where am I going to go?

[4:31:23] Trustee Patrick: I think we've reached everyone.

[4:31:24] Trustee Patrick: So thank you to everyone who participated in the public comment period today.

[4:31:27] Trustee Patrick: We appreciate you taking the time to share your views,

[4:31:30] Trustee Patrick: and we take your comments seriously as we move forward with our work.

[4:31:34] Trustee Patrick: While we may not be able to respond to each and every comment right now,

[4:31:37] Trustee Patrick: please know that we will review all the input we've received,

[4:31:41] Trustee Patrick: and if necessary, we will follow up with you

[4:31:43] Trustee Patrick: or take appropriate action on the issues you've raised.

[4:31:46] Trustee Patrick: If you didn't have a chance to speak today

[4:31:48] Trustee Patrick: or you'd like to follow up on any specific issues,

[4:31:51] Trustee Patrick: please feel free to contact our office.

[4:31:54] Trustee Patrick: And once again, thank you for your time and your commitment

[4:31:56] Trustee Patrick: to the well-being of the islands in the Trust Area.

[4:31:59] Trustee Patrick: area. Trustees, what time is it here? It's 534. Dinner is at six and it's right here. Would you

[4:32:07] Trustee Patrick: like to continue on with the business where we left off and do at least try to finish this one

[4:32:14] Trustee Patrick: more report if that's okay with everyone? Yes. So we're going to go back to, sorry, yes. Director

[4:32:22] Trustee Patrick: Marler needs to run back up to the front of the room. Give him a moment. So we left off at item

[4:32:29] Trustee Patrick: 7.2.3, which was on page 200 of the package. This is the Trust Council Public Notification

[4:32:37] Trustee Patrick: Bylaw. We were asking questions. Trustee Evans, did you wrap up your questions or you still had

[4:32:43] Trustee Patrick: more?

[4:32:45] Voice 25: I have a motion whenever we're ready.

[4:32:47] Trustee Patrick: Okay. Did we want to go to more questions first

[4:32:50] Trustee Patrick: and then come back to the motion? Okay. Trustee Yates and then Trustee Fast.

[4:32:54] Voice 36: Yeah, it is just a

[4:32:56] Voice 36: question um the people who subscribe to uh the islands trust what do we call those mail outs

[4:33:04] Voice 36: announcements they're subscriptions yeah it's a subscription um is that the the fifth bullet here

[4:33:11] Voice 36: is that direct email or mail out it does that include those okay because um yeah i just wanted

[4:33:18] Voice 36: to confirm that all right only because i know that people who are interested do subscribe thank you

[4:33:28] Voice 36: Okay.

[4:33:29] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Fast.

[4:33:31] Trustee Patrick: Thank you. Yeah, my question for staff is

[4:33:34] Trustee Patrick: what is the Islands Trust social

[4:33:39] Trustee Patrick: media platform, and is it

[4:33:44] Trustee Patrick: platforms plural? And

[4:33:49] Trustee Patrick: that's my question. Who can

[4:33:54] Trustee Patrick: answer that question? Go ahead, CEO Brony.

[4:33:58] Voice 20: Yeah, thank you

[4:33:59] Voice 20: through the chair so we currently i believe actively use facebook and also linkedin we

[4:34:05] Voice 20: still have an x account but we don't actually use it

[4:34:07] Voice 20: we just have it to monitor um for those

[4:34:11] Voice 20: purposes um and i think so i think it would be facebook and linkedin are the primary channels

[4:34:16] Voice 20: and we also use instagram but not as heavily trustee borthwick um

[4:34:25] Voice 45: yeah i want to just and

[4:34:27] Voice 45: And I mean, I know we've we've just heard from people, you know, speaking to this.

[4:34:31] Voice 45: I think my I think I have spoken in the past about my feelings about where social media is at these days.

[4:34:37] Voice 45: And I definitely I recognize that it is it is a method by which a lot of people continue to communicate and connect.

[4:34:46] Voice 45: I also feel pretty strongly that the longer that we continue to use those as our main method of communication, the longer we will be shackled to them.

[4:34:59] Voice 45: And I think that everyone is aware of the deficiencies and the growing problems that are very insidious and in many cases, I think, deeply evil.

[4:35:09] Voice 45: So I would prefer not to make that a primary plank of our communication project.

[4:35:15] Voice 45: project. I also really value the existence and the value of local print publications.

[4:35:22] Voice 45: I know that in our current bylaws, we require it to be weekly. The only thing that I say is that

[4:35:28] Voice 45: does limit. I know that we certainly have a paper on our island that publishes biweekly,

[4:35:33] Voice 45: and they were precluded from being used as a notification method because they weren't weekly.

[4:35:39] Voice 45: So I would encourage for us to have some more flexible language. If we do choose to continue

[4:35:43] Voice 45: with the print media requirement for our publications.

[4:35:47] Voice 45: But I think it is really valuable.

[4:35:49] Voice 45: I think that definitely gets to a lot more people,

[4:35:52] Voice 45: especially people who don't necessarily live,

[4:35:55] Voice 45: you know, people who are living marginally,

[4:35:56] Voice 45: who may not have access to the internet,

[4:35:58] Voice 45: or, you know, for a variety of reasons,

[4:36:01] Voice 45: may not be able to access that technology

[4:36:02] Voice 45: or may choose not to.

[4:36:04] Voice 45: So I would personally prefer that we don't engage,

[4:36:08] Voice 45: we don't tie ourselves, as I say, to social media.

[4:36:10] Voice 45: And I would support us continuing to support print media

[4:36:13] Voice 45: such as it continues to be a valuable method of communication on our islands.

[4:36:18] Trustee Patrick: Thank you very much.

[4:36:20] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Peterson.

[4:36:24] Voice 15: Thank you, Chair.

[4:36:26] Voice 15: Much like Trustee Borthwick, concerns about the social media is one thing,

[4:36:33] Voice 15: but I think even more so for me is the reality that many of our residents

[4:36:39] Voice 15: either don't have internet access or just don't use it.

[4:36:46] Voice 15: We have aging populations across the trust area,

[4:36:49] Voice 15: many of whom are just simply not comfortable with the technology.

[4:36:53] Voice 15: Whether or not the local newspapers are published frequently enough

[4:37:03] Voice 15: enough to meet the legislative qualifications, I think is immaterial.

[4:37:09] Voice 15: I think it's far more important that we continue to use those print mediums to get information

[4:37:18] Voice 15: out to those segments of the population that simply do not use electronic means at all.

[4:37:24] Voice 15: And I think if we don't do that, we're missing a pretty important segment of our population, and I just don't see that as being equitable or a good approach. Thank you.

[4:37:39] Trustee Patrick: Trustee Morrison, then Evans.

[4:37:41] Trustee Patrick: Thank

[4:37:43] Voice 44: you. So a couple of things. One, the print media situation, it is a little bit

[4:37:49] Voice 44: critical for us because we do a monthly publication on Pender, that that be considered because

[4:37:54] Voice 44: it is actually a very valuable way to reach community. I know it is challenging with staff

[4:38:01] Voice 44: and they've worked with us immensely well. So, but it is challenging just getting in

[4:38:06] Voice 44: ahead of the deadlines that we have because of that timeline. But it would be helpful.

[4:38:11] Voice 44: I would like us to consider not putting this to motion right now just in to give

[4:38:20] Voice 44: it a little bit more thought around the issues of sort of the algorithms on

[4:38:25] Voice 44: Facebook or other social media that are influencing how people see information

[4:38:29] Voice 44: or what information gets highlighted and whether we want to have that in this

[4:38:34] Voice 44: policy at all just a little bit of a consideration or like reflection by

[4:38:39] Voice 44: staff around that aspect would be helpful I have been generally up until this last year like very

[4:38:45] Voice 44: um for using Facebook because the North Pender community really uses Facebook a lot like that

[4:38:52] Voice 44: is a method of communication with them um however the underlying sort of racism and hatred that is

[4:38:59] Voice 44: going on sort of algorithmically more intensely in the last year on Facebook I would really

[4:39:06] Voice 44: question whether we should be using that at all it's just promoting things that

[4:39:12] Voice 44: are not consistent with the ethics that we have so I would like us to kind of

[4:39:16] Voice 44: just slow down a tiny bit on this issue and consider not having a motion on this

[4:39:21] Voice 44: today thank you all

[4:39:22] Trustee Patrick: right just just before we proceed I just understanding

[4:39:24] Trustee Patrick: if we don't proceed the motion that our current method just remains in place is

[4:39:29] Trustee Patrick: that correct director Marlin yeah

[4:39:32] Voice 14: and well I had the

[4:39:33] Voice 14: floor can just also comment on the appetite the uh so the the current default requires that you

[4:39:40] Voice 14: advertise in a newspaper that publishes at least weekly the alternate form so the legislation allows

[4:39:50] Voice 14: you to adopt a bylaw with an alternative in that you are allowed to specify a newspaper

[4:39:56] Voice 14: paper that publishes at least monthly so you can adopt a bylaw you could replace social media with

[4:40:05] Voice 14: print media for example that publishes in the trust area at least monthly that's one option

[4:40:11] Voice 14: now for local trust committees some of you have done that and practically it's not too big of a

[4:40:18] Voice 14: problem we just have to think about the date that that publication publishes and then work with that

[4:40:24] Voice 14: when we're scheduling your meetings.

[4:40:27] Voice 14: For Trust Council, if you adopted that

[4:40:29] Voice 14: and then you had to post in every trust area

[4:40:33] Voice 14: and some of them only had a monthly publication

[4:40:36] Voice 14: and the times don't line up,

[4:40:38] Voice 14: it could become very difficult

[4:40:39] Voice 14: to get it to fit with Council's agenda.

[4:40:43] Voice 14: So it's just some practicalities

[4:40:45] Voice 14: and that's why staff was not recommending that,

[4:40:48] Voice 14: but you can still do it if you want to.

[4:40:50] Voice 14: Thanks.

[4:40:51] Trustee Patrick: All right, thank you.

[4:40:52] Trustee Patrick: I'm going to continue with the list.

[4:40:53] Trustee Patrick: we have a very long list here we have evans then bernardo um

[4:41:01] Voice 25: especially after listening to uh all

[4:41:03] Voice 25: of the public comments and the comments around the table here i i do see that and feel that there is

[4:41:08] Voice 25: a lot of discomfort with just going with the islands trust website and social media for myself

[4:41:15] Voice 25: i'm uncomfortable using social media at this at this juncture in time i avoid it like the plague

[4:41:20] Voice 25: so i know there's a lot of other people in community that do that as well

[4:41:24] Voice 25: well. Trying to find news releases on the website is difficult if you're looking for something.

[4:41:31] Voice 25: I don't feel that those two meet the criteria that has been outlined. And like I said, I do

[4:41:38] Voice 25: have a motion to add a third bullet for direct email or mail out, which I feel at least will

[4:41:44] Voice 25: get into the hands of those people that have signed up that want to know what's going on.

[4:41:50] Voice 25: So I can either make that motion to add that in now. It doesn't mean that we are moving

[4:41:54] Voice 25: ahead with adopting this but we can at least get that on the floor if that is

[4:42:00] Voice 25: okay with the chair director Marlon yeah

[4:42:03] Voice 14: so I would just recommend you don't add

[4:42:05] Voice 14: a third but instead replace one of the two this is a minimum that you have to

[4:42:11] Voice 14: do so you're establishing a baseline you have to meet these two requirements if

[4:42:15] Voice 14: you had other third you're just creating more work for yourself and more things

[4:42:21] Voice 14: that you have to meet in order to meet the legislative requirement you can

[4:42:25] Voice 14: still do other advertising beyond whatever this bylaw says so I'd

[4:42:29] Voice 14: recommend that you keep it to two and just give you some numbers just quickly

[4:42:33] Voice 14: if you want to do direct mail out so mailing out to the landowners you reach

[4:42:39] Voice 14: about 15,000 people and the cost right now is about seven thousand three

[4:42:44] Voice 14: hundred dollars Trustwide advertising and print media is about three thousand

[4:42:49] Voice 14: 500 so the mail out would be double using your newspapers thanks

[4:42:54] Voice 25: follow up trustee evans yeah

[4:42:57] Voice 25: follow up on that on the direct email how many people do you reach i

[4:43:03] Voice 14: think uh director freder

[4:43:05] Voice 14: has that information just

[4:43:09] Trustee Patrick: a moment um

[4:43:16] Voice 23: currently we have on the trust council subscriber list is

[4:43:20] Voice 23: is 1,314.

[4:43:24] Trustee Patrick: I'm gonna keep going through the speaker list,

[4:43:26] Trustee Patrick: think about the changes at this time,

[4:43:29] Trustee Patrick: but let's go through and hear what people have to say.

[4:43:31] Trustee Patrick: So we have Bernardo, then Stanford.

[4:43:34] Voice 21: Mike, I have a question which fortuitously

[4:43:38] Voice 21: actually quite connects to the very last thing

[4:43:40] Voice 21: we just talked about, and this is a question for staff,

[4:43:43] Voice 21: which is, do we have any data about the relative

[4:43:46] Voice 21: of effectiveness or penetration of um of the different media that we've used for

[4:43:54] Voice 21: reaching out and providing notifications uh specifically and i'm not talking about social

[4:44:00] Voice 21: media let's just table that idea to the side because it seems awfully fraught i i'm really

[4:44:04] Voice 21: what i'm talking about here is um print versus website do we have any data that tells us

[4:44:13] Voice 21: what the reach of using print for trust council notifications is compared to simply posting on

[4:44:21] Voice 21: the website?

[4:44:28] Voice 23: No, we don't. We do at times when we put out surveys, ask people what their preference

[4:44:32] Voice 23: is around receiving communications from us, but we haven't done any formal analysis.

[4:44:41] Voice 32: Stanford, then Getty. Thank you, Chair. Bucking the trend a little bit for the Gambier Local Trust

[4:44:50] Voice 32: area. Just a reminder that we don't have a print option that actually reaches the islands and we

[4:44:58] Voice 32: will continue to work on any electronic means. Our Facebook is a lifesaver for us, but we keep

[4:45:11] Voice 32: it managed quite tightly. So hopefully I'll have that option to continue forward to get the message

[4:45:16] Voice 32: across it's it's pretty much the only option other than a private email list so

[4:45:24] Trustee Patrick: get even fast

[4:45:25] Trustee Patrick: um

[4:45:27] Voice 17: i think the conversation that we're having about facebook um says to me that it doesn't

[4:45:33] Voice 17: meet those three criteria in terms of um access and uh reliability so if somebody's going to

[4:45:39] Voice 17: change the algorithm so that you start getting that stop getting notices or somebody's going to

[4:45:44] Voice 17: fill it full of all sorts of hate mail for or you know stuff that's fairly upsetting then I think

[4:45:51] Voice 17: that that's that takes it out of the category of those um criteria that we're looking at so

[4:45:57] Voice 17: would it help staff if there was something um an amendment to this in terms of that basket

[4:46:04] Voice 17: clause in terms of such other means as may be appropriate given the circumstances of each

[4:46:09] Voice 17: individual island uh

[4:46:14] Voice 14: no unfortunately you have to be very specific in the bylaw so it needs to be

[4:46:19] Voice 14: ascertainable good

[4:46:23] Trustee Patrick: try all right uh what did you say fast then uh peterson is that second time

[4:46:29] Trustee Patrick: oh so then luck on fast and luck them thank you um i want to mention that bowen island has a

[4:46:36] Trustee Patrick: undercurrent newspaper that publishes bi-weekly and it's a great paper and that's how people look

[4:46:45] Trustee Patrick: for the reliable news and notices and that's where people still write in about

[4:46:54] Voice 28: the trust and

[4:46:55] Voice 28: communicate and engage each other in conversations about the trust.

[4:47:01] Trustee Patrick: Maybe they do it on Facebook

[4:47:02] Trustee Patrick: But I left Facebook a long time ago, and as I left Twitter and any of the, well, LinkedIn, any of these other ones that are, sorry, but they're algorithm driven, they're manipulative, they're clickbait filled, and they are a rage farm.

[4:47:24] Trustee Patrick: And I think we're seeing that in our calls for mental health support for trustees.

[4:47:31] Trustee Patrick: And I just don't think we should be engaging with these poisonous technologies that are privately owned for profit.

[4:47:41] Trustee Patrick: And then, so I'm pro newspapers and journalism for all the reasons that our first public commenter said.

[4:47:51] Trustee Patrick: That was great.

[4:47:51] Trustee Patrick: I don't want to use the for-profit social media platforms,

[4:48:01] Trustee Patrick: but I would like anybody who is interested in Mastodon,

[4:48:05] Trustee Patrick: which is algorithm-free and has no ads and is friendly,

[4:48:10] Trustee Patrick: please come and talk to me during dinner.

[4:48:13] Trustee Patrick: Thank you.

[4:48:14] Trustee Patrick: All right.

[4:48:15] Trustee Patrick: Lekom Lengavro.

[4:48:20] Trustee Luckham: There we go.

[4:48:22] Trustee Luckham: I may have lost the thread on this,

[4:48:25] Trustee Luckham: except certainly one of the message themes over the years that I've been chairs on local trust

[4:48:37] Trustee Luckham: committees it was really simple why do you publish in that newspaper nobody ever reads it and that

[4:48:44] Trustee Luckham: depending on the island that has been occurred but on Thetis it's very real

[4:48:52] Trustee Luckham: the newspaper of

[4:48:54] Trustee Luckham: whatever they call that, of notice or something

[4:48:57] Trustee Luckham: is in Ladysmith

[4:48:58] Trustee Luckham: and nobody on Thetis Island reads the newspaper

[4:49:01] Trustee Luckham: on Ladysmith

[4:49:03] Trustee Luckham: and maybe all of the seniors on Thetis

[4:49:08] Trustee Luckham: and maybe we're lucky

[4:49:11] Trustee Luckham: we've got fiber optic

[4:49:13] Trustee Luckham: which I understood was something that was deployed

[4:49:16] Trustee Luckham: to most of the islands

[4:49:19] Trustee Luckham: it's somehow different than other islands but we have a thing called e-spokes which is run by our

[4:49:26] Trustee Luckham: community association it's an email service and we have decided on the thetis that we wanted to

[4:49:32] Trustee Luckham: support those notifications going out on that service because in fact it has more than a hundred

[4:49:38] Trustee Luckham: percent capture of the population because so many other people subscribe to it that don't actually

[4:49:44] Trustee Luckham: to live on the island but are interested in the island and there are other options we don't need

[4:49:51] Trustee Luckham: to go down the facebook road i completely agree with everything that i've heard about that but

[4:49:57] Trustee Luckham: there are alternatives and the key in this whole story which has been going on anybody else remember

[4:50:03] Trustee Luckham: how long like it's five six seven eight nine ten years you've got to find a way to get the message

[4:50:10] Trustee Luckham: out to the public other than in the print media

[4:50:12] Trustee Luckham: because it's not viable.

[4:50:14] Trustee Luckham: And it's also become noticeable in recent history.

[4:50:19] Trustee Luckham: It's also gotten very expensive.

[4:50:21] Trustee Luckham: I'm sorry for the newspapers that are suffering

[4:50:23] Trustee Luckham: and financially not viable,

[4:50:25] Trustee Luckham: but part of the problem is the advertising

[4:50:27] Trustee Luckham: to run a little ad about a bylaw amendment

[4:50:29] Trustee Luckham: is really expensive.

[4:50:33] Trustee Luckham: So I thought this was an enabling bylaw

[4:50:36] Trustee Luckham: to enable local trust committees to make a decision

[4:50:39] Trustee Luckham: about where they want to do this this is for Trust Council oh I see that's why

[4:50:45] Trustee Luckham: I've lost the thread

[4:50:46] Voice 2: well

[4:50:48] Trustee Luckham: let's follow what the local trust committees are

[4:50:50] Trustee Luckham: doing

[4:50:51] Trustee Patrick: okay should trustee Gavro thank

[4:50:55] Voice 29: you it seems to be that we're having a

[4:50:57] Voice 29: hard time coming together on where we stand on this we have a lot of personal

[4:51:01] Voice 29: opinions especially on social media and we know that two out of three people on

[4:51:07] Voice 29: on the planet use social media so but anyway i was looking at this this um at this bylaw to

[4:51:15] Voice 29: i have to thank fs chairs the accessibility committee that we are we're going to be making

[4:51:20] Voice 29: an accessibility plan for this organization that's going to capture a lot of this and we're

[4:51:26] Voice 29: going to have a consultant who's going to

[4:51:28] Voice 29: help do that so i'm wondering about the timing is this

[4:51:31] Voice 29: something we can kind of defer so maybe we have the plan in place we'll have more direction then

[4:51:37] Voice 29: from professionals. Can we defer this till next term?

[4:51:43] Trustee Patrick: Thank you for that question, because I was going to turn to CEO

[4:51:45] Trustee Patrick: Roney and say, if successful on getting this position with

[4:51:49] Trustee Patrick: communications, communicating in our islands is going to be probably

[4:51:53] Trustee Patrick: top of one of their lists. Is there kind of a combination

[4:51:58] Trustee Patrick: activity to go forward to really, how do we communicate to

[4:52:01] Trustee Patrick: islanders?

[4:52:04] Voice 20: Yeah, thank you, Chair. I think yes,

[4:52:06] Voice 20: Yes, if that budget piece comes through, then yes.

[4:52:10] Voice 20: How we engage with and communicate with Islanders,

[4:52:12] Voice 20: the plan is that they would build out a strategy

[4:52:15] Voice 20: for how we do that more effectively,

[4:52:17] Voice 20: and that's the intent of that position.

[4:52:19] Voice 20: I'll defer to Director Marler on if you don't move on this now,

[4:52:23] Voice 20: can it be deferred?

[4:52:24] Voice 20: And I think he's kind of spoken to that in terms of the default.

[4:52:27] Voice 20: I'll just add, though, Director Frazier has helpfully shared with me

[4:52:31] Voice 20: one piece of data from the 2022 budget survey.

[4:52:33] Voice 20: she referenced that sometimes we ask people who participate in the survey how they heard about it

[4:52:39] Voice 20: so this was the 2022 budget survey which admittedly is you know four years ago now but

[4:52:44] Voice 20: as a point of data of the 1256 people who participated in that survey

[4:52:52] Voice 20: the 20 people said they had heard about the survey via a newspaper advertisement that was

[4:52:58] Voice 20: was the second lowest the number one source was facebook was 265 so again it's one data sample but

[4:53:06] Voice 20: since you did ask if there was any data that's one that we had readily available

[4:53:10] Voice 20: trustees

[4:53:13] Trustee Patrick: it is it is cutting what i'm thinking is is this is a good dinner topic

[4:53:18] Trustee Patrick: just in case you were wondering what to talk about with your neighbors this evening um that we uh

[4:53:25] Trustee Patrick: pause at this point, think about what we've talked about and what we've heard, and maybe

[4:53:31] Trustee Patrick: have some conversations with staff and figure out how to best proceed with this bylaw.

[4:53:38] Trustee Patrick: So, trustees, we have dinner. It's here in this building. Is there anything else, Alex,

[4:53:43] Trustee Patrick: about this evening's known? I believe, is Chief Cindy Daniels joining us this evening?

[4:53:51] Trustee Patrick: don't know. Okay. And there was an

[4:53:54] Trustee Patrick: electoral area director, I think, as well, that was joining us? Yes.

[4:53:58] Trustee Patrick: From, must be the Thetis area.

[4:54:03] Trustee Patrick: Electoral, McClinton. So,

[4:54:07] Trustee Patrick: tomorrow morning we're back in here. Breakfast is here as well?

[4:54:11] Trustee Patrick: No. Breakfast

[4:54:14] Trustee Patrick: is at the hotel.

[4:54:16] Trustee Patrick: And the meeting starts here at 9. Okay.

[4:54:19] Trustee Patrick: Okay. So let's recess for the day, unless you have an,

[4:54:25] Trustee Middleton: I was just wondering when we, when we actually conclude this,

[4:54:28] Trustee Middleton: this part of business, what, what, what, when sat on the agenda now?

[4:54:32] Trustee Patrick: We'll have to fit it in.

[4:54:35] Trustee Middleton: We

[4:54:36] Trustee Patrick: will fit it in.