Islands Trust offices on Mayne, North Pender and Saturna will be closing this summer, after the decision was made by Trust Council as part of budget deliberations.
“Staff and trustees will continue to be available for on-island visits by request, or to meet via other means such as phone or video conferencing,” the Trust stated.
The Saturna office will close June 1, followed by the Mayne office on July 1. The North Pender office will close August 1.
Islanders can contact the Trust’s planning services at 250-405-5151 or via southinfo@islandstrust.bc.ca. They can also contact their elected trustees, with contact details for all 26 trustees available at islandstrust.bc.ca/contact-us/contact-trustees/.
The office on Denman Island will also be closed as of July 1.
No staff use these offices permanently, instead they are for planners to use when meeting with trustees and others on the islands. The office closures were one of several cost saving measures decided on as part of Trust Council’s approval of the Trust’s 2022-23 budget. The budget was reduced by $12,300 for the four offices to be closed, the Trust’s communications specialist Tara Todesco confirmed.
“Those are the walk in offices that we use for planners to come meet yourselves and others,” the Trust’s chief administrative officer Russ Hotsenpiller explained at a March 10 presentation of a revised budget, which followed Trust Council’s direction to whittle down the budget from $9.51-million to $9.1-million before approval. “So we close those offices and then have the commensurate cleaning and upkeep cost being reduced as well.”