What did they do?
The Islands Trust holds real land-use power over thirteen local trust areas. This page measures its published output against those powers, from its own document register.
What was counted
7,469 documents in the Trust's own document index, captured 2026-08-22 from the Trust's public documents API. 108 could not be mapped to a jurisdiction and are reported rather than dropped.
Read the caveat before the table. Counts are of PUBLISHED DOCUMENTS, not of actions taken. The index date field is a WordPress post date and is not usable as a time series — one bylaw in it is dated 1 April 2065 — so bylaw years come from document titles, and coverage is reported.
Published documents by local trust area
| Local trust area | Documents published | Bylaws identified |
|---|---|---|
| The Islands Trust, area-wide | 2,644 | 21 |
| Salt Spring Island | 599 | 26 |
| Gabriola Island | 568 | 21 |
| North Pender Island | 508 | 18 |
| Galiano Island | 460 | 17 |
| Denman Island | 440 | 17 |
| Gambier Island | 373 | 25 |
| Hornby Island | 358 | 14 |
| Mayne Island | 303 | 9 |
| Thetis Island | 281 | 15 |
| South Pender Island | 271 | 17 |
| Lasqueti Island | 254 | 10 |
| Saturna Island | 206 | 16 |
| Ballenas-Winchelsea | 61 | 9 |
| Bowen Island | 35 | 3 |
A document is a document. It is not an action, an outcome, or a decision — the column says "published", and that is all it says.
What a local trust committee cannot do
Any count of Trust output has to be read against the Trust's actual powers, not against what a reasonable person assumes a local government can do. These are the statutory barriers, published beside the record rather than buried under it, under the Islands Trust Act.
Cannot broadly regulate logging on private managed forest land — Private Managed Forest Land Act s.21(1)–(2)
The clean modern authority. Litigated as Denman Island LTC v 4064 Investments, 2000 BCSC 1618, affirmed in part 2001 BCCA 736 — bylaw 113 fell, the order striking down bylaws 110, 111, 112 and 114 was set aside and remitted, Rowles J.A. dissenting. About 5,125 hectares inside the Trust Area is private managed forest land.
Cannot charge development cost charges or amenity cost charges — ITA s.29(1)(b)(i)–(iv)
Also excluded: small-scale multi-family zoning (LGA s.481.3), affordable-housing zoning (s.482.7), tenant-protection development areas, latecomer charges and transit-oriented area powers. Most of the housing toolkit other BC local governments were given is not in the Trust's grant.
Subdivision approval belongs to the Provincial approving officer — Land Title Act ss.77.1(1)(b), 77.2(1)
A local trust committee writes the zoning a subdivision must satisfy, but does not approve or refuse the subdivision itself.
Building inspection is not the local trust committee's — ITA s.31(2); LGA Part 9 Div 1 is absent from the s.29 grant
Building permits on most islands are the regional district's.
A bylaw has no effect until the Executive Committee approves it — ITA s.27(1), (2)(a)
An official community plan bylaw also needs the Minister's approval — ITA s.27(2)(b)
A post-1990 zoning bylaw on land with no minister-approved OCP needs Minister approval — ITA s.56
Heritage designation needs Trust Council approval — ITA s.30(3), (5)
Nothing contrary to the Trust Policy Statement — ITA s.15(4)
Nothing contrary to a service coordination agreement with the regional district — ITA s.37(3)–(4)
Must not incur liabilities or borrow money — ITA s.24(3)
A local trust committee cannot finance anything.
Tree cutting may be regulated only in hazard areas — LGA s.500
Park-land cash-in-lieu goes to the regional district — ITA s.29(3)
Bound by Trust Council procedure bylaws — ITA s.11(1)–(2)
Blaming the Trust for anything on this list is unfair, and this page will not do it.