The Islands Trust’s Executive Committee (EC) has advanced its requests for next year’s budget, and as usual the biggest line item from them — reflecting what is arguably that committee’s most significant responsibility — surrounds holding the quarterly Trust Council meetings.
Those meetings bring together trustees from across the Trust Area every three months for decision-making, and the draft budget — for the moment — has set aside $135,000 in funding for four in-person meetings.
That’s essentially the same as last year’s spending of $127,906 but adjusted for inflation, according to chief administrative officer Rueben Bronee, who presented budget items for the EC’s endorsement Wednesday, Sept. 3.
But in an election year like 2026, the onboarding of newly elected trustees typically includes a fifth meeting — and without budget for it, staff recommended trustees consider holding one of those meetings virtually. Since returning to face-to-face gatherings after pandemic restrictions waned, the Trust Council has resisted shifting any of its quarterly meetings online, but budget pressures may bring the issue back to the table.
“If we were to increase [the budget] to accommodate five in-person meetings, we’d be looking at adding potentially $30,000,” said Bronee.
“We’re making the recommendation conscious of some of the feedback we heard in the pre-budget survey as well — some strong perspective was shared on that particular budget item.”
That springtime survey had found just 18.5 per cent of respondent residents supportive of all four quarterly Trust Council meetings being held face-to-face, with more than half preferring one or two in-person meetings be held with the rest online. With accommodation, catering, meals and travel expenses, bringing the council together for an in-person meeting is expected to cost roughly $33,750 for each event— or more than $11,000 per day for a typical three-day gathering.
That number stands in contrast to that for a typical virtual meeting, which came in at around $900, according to a staff analysis presented to the Financial Planning Committee (FPC) last year.
Salt Spring Island trustee and Trust Council chair Laura Patrick mused that the rising costs of in-person meetings might present an opportunity to examine whether the meetings themselves were still being held in a way that served their purpose. The current format, Patrick noted, has been in place for decades — “four three-day meetings throughout the year,” she said — and there had been some discussion about holding monthly Committee of the Whole meetings for receiving informational reports and holding the full Trust Council meetings for more structured decision-making.
“I think from a workload perspective, for future trustees, there’s value,” said Patrick.
“This is the time to start thinking: could we do things differently? How might that look? And what might that cost?”
Bronee said while a more detailed look at costs would be necessary to offer substantive recommendations, he felt from a budget perspective a shift in how council meetings’ workload is managed “wouldn’t necessarily” reduce staff time, although reducing the number of days in each meeting might — and shifting some number of meetings online certainly would.
“There’s a variety of permutations we can explore,” said Bronee.
The EC ultimately left the budget number of $135,000 in place, forwarding it along with the rest of its budget requests to the FPC — meaning if it stands, at least one meeting next year will be held virtually. The FPC has twice — albeit not unanimously — sent along recommendations that the Trust Council shift some meetings online as a cost-saving measure.
“This will be debated,” said Patrick. “There will be strong feelings.”
In addition to the request for Trust Council meeting funding, other requests from EC for the draft 2026/27 budget included $50,000 for implementing a Reconciliation Action Plan, still in development; $47,600 for public communications; $40,000 for travel costs for EC members chairing local trust committees; $15,000 for attendance at UBCM and AVICC conventions; $20,000 for new trustee training and potential leadership conferences; and $15,000 each for furthering the Policy Statement Amendment Project and the EC’s sponsorship of some land use applications.
This story has been updated since publication to note a reduction in budget request for UBCM/AVICC attendence from $29,200 to $15,000.