Phase 4 of Public Engagement of the Draft Trust Policy Statement (TPS)

It’s the merry month of May and we wish all members and supporters of FOTGIS enjoyment of our natural world as spring unfolds on the islands and waters of the Islands Trust area!

Update on the Draft Trust Policy Statement (TPS)

The report, Islands Trust Policy Statement Amendment Project: What We Heard – Phase 4 of Public Engagement was released this month. This is a summary of:

• the survey results;
• the correspondence sent to islands2050;
• comments made during the September 2025 virtual Town Hall;
• delegations (including our petition) and public comments to Trust Council. 

Some public input is not included in this report. Trust staff mentioned that a separate report will be prepared for the first 2 areas of additional public input listed below but there is no indication the last will be included.

• referrals to Indigenous Governing Bodies and government agencies;
• referrals to individual Local Trust Committees (LTC) and Bowen Island Municipality;
• comments and correspondence made to Local Trust Committees on individual islands if not included in referral responses. 

In the May 13th Committee of the Whole meeting (with all trustees), survey and correspondence results were presented by the consultants who designed the survey. Here, it was again acknowledged that the Ministry will not approve the TPS prior to the fall election for trustees. In a future newsletter, we will be commenting further on this report and the discussions about the draft TPS that will occur at the upcoming online June 16-18 Trust Council meeting.

We welcome your comments on this report. Please email us at info@friendsofthegulfislands.ca

What Does Build-out and Limiting Development Mean?

Understanding build-out and limiting development must be a core principle reflected in Directives for trustees and the TPS. Though the draft TPS mentions “Limit the Rate and Scale of Development” and “Take Guidance from Precautionary Principles”, these are only included as Guiding Principles, not as enforceable Directives.  There is no commitment to determine what the population of each island would be if all properties were developed according to current zoning, as they surely will be one day. 

We can offer the perfect example for the importance of this baseline information for each island. 

The North Pender Advisory Planning Commission (APC) was recently asked to provide input as part of the development of a Housing Action Plan for the island. When Build-out and Suitable Land Analyses reports were reviewed, the APC found that existing zoning provided opportunity for an alarming increase in potential population on North Pender. Review of these important analyses caused them to amend their initial recommendations. To quote from their report:

“Full build out under the already existing Official Community Plan and North Pender Land Use Bylaw 224 as demonstrated by the Build Out Analysis could increase our population by over 6000, tripling the population to 9000 or more, resulting in a density over 300 per square kilometre. Clearly this density is beyond what the Island can sustainably support and is inconsistent with the preserve and protect mandate of the Islands Trust Act.” 

“Simply on the basis of the availability of freshwater as demonstrated in the Suitability Analysis it is clear that the Trust’s mandate should be to explore how to limit the potential for over development while facilitating the need for a relatively small number of low-cost market housing and below market subsidized housing.”

The North Pender’s APC report is online in the agenda package for the April 10th North Pender Local Trust Committee meeting. See Pages 111-126 for the staff report on housing and the APCs amended recommendations after reviewing the Build Out and Suitable Land Analyses. Thank you to North Pender’s APC for leading the way. 

One of seven Guiding Principles in the draft TPS was 2.1.7 Foster Informed and Balanced Decision Making “To be informed by a broad range of sources in its decision-making processes, including Indigenous Knowledge, institutional knowledge, local community knowledge and science.”  

Local trustees must develop a build-out report to determine what further development can be accommodated on each island. Build-out reports are absolutely necessary to inform decision-making.