By MAIREAD BOLAND, Saturna Island trustee, &
JOE BERNARDO, Gambier Island trustee
On May 30, a group of retired Islands Trust trustees wrote to the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs to promote an incorrect interpretation of the Islands Trust mandate.
On June 15, together with a number of other former trustees, we sent the minister our own letter to correct the record.
We pointed out that it is a misreading of the legislation to claim the Islands Trust’s “primary duty is protecting the natural environment and ecosystems.” A November 2024 legal opinion (see link below) on the Islands Trust website explains that Section 3 of the Islands Trust Act grants the Islands Trust broad discretion to adopt policies that strike a reasonable balance among the inter-related, but different, objectives of preserving and protecting “the trust area and its unique amenities and environment” (emphasis added). That is, in addition to protecting the environment, working to support the well-being of Trust Area residents is also an important component of the mandate.
Trust Council relied upon this analysis when it issued its September 2023 statement on the scope and meaning of the mandate. In doing so, Trust Council was not seeking to redefine the mandate, but following the 2022 advice of one of the minister’s predecessors that Trust Council use its existing authorities to address the findings of the March 2022 Governance Review. One of those findings was that the ongoing failure to articulate a clear understanding of the mandate was a “fundamental – not to say existential – challenge” to the organization because it provoked endless internal disputes over the nature of its role. As we say in our letter to the minister, it is urgently necessary to put an end to the misconception that the Islands Trust exists solely to transform the Trust Area into an ecological preserve that only a privileged few may enjoy.
We do not know why in writing the minister the retired trustees chose to not even mention the November 2024 legal opinion that contradicts their position. We do know it is unreasonable to ignore the plainly expressed intentions of the provincial legislature, and unfair to Trust Area residents to take an extreme position that is indifferent to their needs and those of their communities.
Links:
1. Islands Trust Council Statement on the Scope and Meaning of Section 3 of the Islands Trust Act (Object Clause): islandstrust.bc.ca/islands-trust-council-statement-on-the-scope-and-meaning-of-section-3-of-the-islands-trust-act-object-clause/
2. November 2024 legal opinion on the mandate of the Trust: islandstrust.bc.ca/document/publicly-released-legal-opinion-islands-trust-object-clause/
The writers have been elected trustees for their respective islands since 2022.