What did they do?

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

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: the small-scale multi-family duty (LGA s.481.3), inclusionary zoning (s.482.7), tenant-protection development areas, latecomer charges and transit-oriented area powers. Ordinary zoning, density bonuses (s.482) and housing agreements (s.483) remain available.

• 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 needs Executive Committee approval, or Trust Council approval on referral — ITA s.27(1)–(3)

• 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)

  This limits independent borrowing and liabilities; it does not mean Trust-funded planning work has no budget.

• The section 500 tree-cutting permit power is limited to hazard areas — LGA s.500; ss.488(1)(a), 489 and 491

  Environmental development permit areas can also protect trees and natural features. Their requirements depend on the designated area and applicable exemptions; private managed forest land has separate statutory limits.

• 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.

Advisory powers, counted separately

Some of what a local trust committee does is advice rather than law. It is counted, and counted separately, never blended with binding law.

• Recommend to Trust Council — ITA s.8(2)(c)
• Recommend to other government bodies — ITA s.8(2)(d)
• Request information or action from others — ITA s.8(2)(e)
• Advise on matters referred to it — ITA s.8(2)(i)

What can and cannot be measured

Every category the Trust's own record could be measured on, with what it measures, whether it can be counted at all, and — where it cannot — why. A gap stated is worth more than a number invented.

The finding that is not a number. The Trust does publish enforcement counts, and in more detail than this campaign once claimed: its Bylaw Enforcement Statistical Report to Trust Council on 8 March 2023 gives 605 files open at the end of 2022 against 216 closed, broken down by island and by year. What it does not publish is a decisions register. A reader can learn how many files are open; a reader cannot learn how any single matter ended, because enforcement files are handled in camera and are never referred to by number in the public record. That is the gap, and no amount of counting documents substitutes for it.

The same absence runs one level up, in the minutes themselves. Across 2,289 minutes documents only 47 record a vote tally and two name both sides, so for most decisions a reader cannot learn how any individual trustee voted either — and that, too, is lawful. How they voted, and why you cannot find out.