We’re glad revising the Trust Policy Statement (TPS) isn’t on our own 2025 to-do list.
From the outside it might appear as if trustees have been wrestling with a particularly distasteful homework assignment. After lack of quorum for a couple of meetings caused unanticipated delays in the past year, it seems the reality of hard deadlines is working its magic and it’s no longer possible to keep the odious task on the back burner. They’ve just got to get it done. In this case, “done” means getting a draft to the first-reading stage and out for public comment. It won’t really be done until revisions from public discussions are incorporated into the draft and a final document given four readings and passed before the end of trustees’ terms in the fall of 2026.
But let’s not roar too far down the legislative track at this point. For now let’s celebrate a productive Trust Council Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting on July 9 that resulted in a first draft to be considered at a July 29 council meeting. That happened despite concerns expressed that the draft might not yet be polished enough for public consumption.
Trustees’ trepidation is understandable based on not-so-distant history. The first attempt to revise the Islands Trust Policy Statement went spectacularly off the rails back in 2021 precisely because a draft document was leaked to the public and then summarily attacked and forced into the metaphorical shredder.
This experience raises a question relevant to all governing bodies: how much weight should be given to public opinion on any initiative? As Salt Spring Local Trust Committee (LTC) chair Tim Peterson stated at last week’s LTC meeting, public concerns need to be considered in making any decision, “whether founded or not.” But ultimately, trustees need to be brave and sometimes make decisions they know will be unpopular in some quarters.
It’s easy to see how public wrangling over the TPS could delay it to a further term. That really would be untenable. Trustees and staff have the opportunity to get a gold star on this assignment, if it’s done before next fall. Let’s hope enough trustees sign on to make quorum for the July 29 meeting and keep the TPS project rolling into the station on time.