The Islands Trust (IT) plans to give greater online prominence to a recent reinterpretation of its mandate, while simultaneously seeming to downplay its significance.
Members of the IT Governance Committee indicated they thought much of the recent criticism of that reinterpretation came due to the public misunderstanding it — and placed blame on a communications process that resulted in a summary being released via a “business highlights” newsletter.
The committee voted Monday, Jan. 15 to re-post the full three-paragraph statement of consensus in a “prominent and easily accessible location” on the Trust’s website — and that “any other summaries or highlight statements on the website be removed.”
The committee advanced the plan having received a promised memo on the issue from Bowen Island municipal trustee — and committee chair — Judith Gedye.
“I think that there was some nuance lost in the summary,” said Gedye. “This was talking about the legality of Section 3 in the legal interpretation; it doesn’t change policy.”
Gedye and other trustees have been subjected to a barrage of public input since the consensus statement emerged last fall. In a two-hour-long closed-to-the-public discussion held on North Pender Island in September, trustees had what was called a “lengthy discussion” about the interpretation of Section 3 of the Islands Trust Act, commonly referred to as the “object” or “mandate”— specifying what the body aims to “preserve and protect.”
Rather than a formal rise and report, the Driftwood — and the wider public — had its first look at the statement of consensus when a link to it was embedded in a file published as part of the Trust Executive Committee’s Oct. 11, 2023 meeting agenda packet.
A subsequent “highlights” release included language from the consensus statement that seems to have caused the biggest stir — that the “unique amenities” the Trust protects were “broad-ranging and may include issues such as, but not limited to, housing, livelihoods, infrastructure and tourism.”
The consensus statement does continue in later language, left out of the “highlights” — but printed in the Driftwood’s Oct. 11, 2023 story — which added that land use planning “must always include a focus on preserving and protecting the environment and communities.”
As of press time, the consensus statement could still be found via the “Business Highlights” page. Direct links can be found by scrolling back on the Trust’s LinkedIn and Instagram pages.