After 50 years, it’s tough not to take it personally.
Under the banner of its storied fiscal responsibility, the Islands Trust continues to reduce its budget for public notices, this week endorsing yet another Local Trust Committee “publishing” them only on its website and social media.
With the Trust’s history of sensitivity to criticism — and given how relatively tiny the expenditure was, compared to its operating budget — one might think the action more punitive than fiduciary.
While there are clearly more Driftwood readers on Salt Spring than, say, Galiano, to presume one’s land use decisions are of no interest to the other demeans the very connections that define this federation of islands.
Further, the idea that the Trust’s own website (we’ll say as little as possible about Facebook) is a reasonable substitute is short-sighted.
If the website was celebrated, rather than reliably frustrating for trustees and the public, or had social media proven to be the bottomless fount of trustworthiness we all dreamed of during the Arab Spring — then perhaps.
But neither is the case. And what is a rounding error for the Trust’s $11-million budget is increasingly consequential funding for local news, chipping away at the solvency of the only institution covering local government — and holding it accountable.
Newspapers provide a permanent public record of information — unlike government websites and social media posts, which can be deleted or altered.
This is not a hypothetical argument. Last November, Trust Council deleted a “published” recording of its public meeting from its own website. Whether the move was justified is not relevant; today, Driftwood reporting remains the only objective record of a decision-making gathering of trustees from every island — and of their reasoning for the recording’s removal.
It is always more convenient for elected officials to bypass local journalism, just as it is always more convenient to bypass any public process. But public documents deserve to be presented and contextualized independently.
If an organization’s budget is a statement of its values, this choice sends a rather unfortunate message.