Thank you for standing up!

A big THANK YOU to all who signed our petition and wrote to the Islands Trust asking for the new Trust Policy Statement (TPS) to prioritize protecting the natural environment. You made these campaigns a success.

Our petition with 1,806 signatures, was sent to the Islands Trust, the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Christine Boyle and two green MLAs who represent islands in the Trust Area, MLA Rob Botterell, Saanich North and the Islands (who is supporting our position) and MLA Jeremy Valeriote, West Vancouver – Sea to Sky. We will continue to ask for signatures to this petition until a TPS is adopted.

As of February 2nd, the Trust had posted 193 letters of which 134 favoured prioritizing protection of the natural environment. Of the others, some represented special interests such as farmers or boaters or supported or had concerns about reconciliation. Five organizations sent comments including several island conservancies that generally called attention to protecting the natural environment. The letters can be read on the Islands Trust website. Letters can still be submitted to islands2050@islandstrust.bc.ca. 

Reminder: the TPS is the document that controls development on the Trust islands.

We hope that the elected trustees will respond to this strong public sentiment and make needed changes to the draft TPS, such as defining the word “environment” to mean the “natural environment”, inserting stronger language to protect all natural ecosystems and not allowing new rights for development unless it is for legally protected affordable housing.

We don’t know when the elected trustees, meeting together as Trust Council, will make a decision on the TPS. But when this happens, we will let you know the outcome. If they don’t respond positively, we will ask the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Christine Boyle, to reject the TPS and send it back for revisions.

Flawed Public Engagement Process

The Islands Trust has now concluded most of the public engagement process around the draft Trust Policy Statement (TPS). We are concerned that it was not adequate. Only a few islands held community meetings specifically about the TPS. On other islands, information on the draft TPS and an opportunity for public questions and/or comments was only included as part of a regular Local Trust Committee meeting. Even these opportunities for public input were poorly publicized. We would love to hear what happened on your island.

Controlling Costs at the Islands Trust

In January, Friends of the Gulf Islands presented a delegation to the Trust Financial Planning Committee urging fiscal restraint by not authorizing more new staff positions. The Islands Trust budget has ballooned over the past few years with no commensurate improvement in environmental protection. The delegation received extensive coverage in the Gulf Islands Driftwood. See our letter for more details.

Keep Elected Trustees Out of Bylaw Enforcement

On February 6th Friends of the Gulf Islands presented a delegation urging trustees to amend their draft bylaw enforcement policy to omit policies giving Local Trust Committees the power to initiate or close bylaw enforcement actions. See our letter which states that the separation between enforcement and elected officials is essential to prevent either the occurrence, appearance, suspicion of favouritism or outright corruption in administration of bylaw compliance in the Trust islands. Despite our objections, the committee forwarded the policy to the Trust Council for approval without removing the problematic policies. We will continue to oppose these objectionable policies.

Informing Property Owners About the Islands Trust

Friends Board of Directors has adopted the position that purchasers of property in the Trust area should be informed that their property is in a special protection area under the jurisdiction of the Islands Trust which imposes limits on activities in order to protect the unique amenities and environment of the Trust area. We will look into ways of distributing such information through working with the Islands Trust, realtors, etc. If anyone would like to help, please contact us at info@friendsofthegulfislands.ca.