Trust Policy Statement Explained

In 1989, a new Trust Act replaced the 1974 Act and established the current Islands Trust structure including a requirement that a Trust Policy Statement be adopted. The Policy Statement sets out how the Islands Trust is to carry out its Mandate or Object. The Policy Statement must be approved by Trust Council and the Minister of Municipal Affairs. The current Policy Statement contains three types of policies:

• commitments,
• recommendations, and
• directives.

Directives are the only mandatory provisions. Directives regulate what bylaws and Official Community Plan (OCP) provisions must be and can be passed by Local Trust Committees. The Executive Committee is only supposed to approve bylaws and OCP provisions passed by Local Trust Committees (LTCs) that are consistent with (not at variance with), any Directive in the Policy Statement. This is why the wording of the Directives and the method of their enforcement are critical to how effective the Policy Statement is protecting the Trust Islands. There have, however, been occasions where the Executive Committee has approved by-laws that were, in our opinion, not consistent with the Policy Statement. For example, the current Policy Statement section 4.4.2 says that “neither the density nor intensity of land use is increased in areas which are known to have a problem with the quality or quantity of the supply of freshwater.” This provision should preclude or constrain density increases in areas with short groundwater supply. The Executive Committee, however, has approved zoning to increase density in areas with known groundwater shortages or without sufficient testing to confirm an adequate supply.