By ROB BOTTERELL
Every month I plan to write about an issue raised by constituents from Saanich North and the Islands, and offer my perspective as your MLA. This month my focus is on the future of the Islands Trust.
In the mid-1980s, I was a trustee for Bowen Island and I now live on Pender Island. Then, as now, there were strongly differing opinions on how the Trust should operate and how it should be funded. But there is one thing we all agreed on: The 13 major islands and 450 smaller islands are a unique and very special part of the world that must be preserved and protected from the exponential growth in surrounding urban areas on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. The Islands Trust mandate is clear:
The object of the Trust is to preserve and protect the Trust Area and its unique amenities and environment for the benefit of the residents of the Trust Area and of British Columbia generally, in cooperation with municipalities, regional districts, improvement districts, First Nations, other persons and organizations and the government of British Columbia.
Fast forward to 2025 and the Islands Trust has more challenges to preserve and protect the lands and waters in the Trust area. These challenges include accelerating climate change, drought, wildfires, development pressures, environmental and marine degradation, reconciliation with First Nations, lack of affordable non-market housing and access to health care for existing residents. And all of these challenges must be met in a fiscally sustainable way.
Land use planning to preserve and protect the Trust area and its unique amenities and environment is the core responsibility of the Islands Trust. In the face of the above challenges, islands trustees have worked to develop a new Islands Trust Policy Statement to guide land use planning work. In particular, there has been a move, made in camera, to re-interpret the term “unique amenities and environment” to include matters that are not unique to the trust area, for example housing, livelihoods, infrastructure and tourism.
Last year, the Islands Trust Council asked the B.C. government to conduct an open-ended review of the Islands Trust Act. Further, some islands such as Salt Spring are considering major changes to their official community plan.
So where do I stand on the Islands Trust as your MLA?
I respect every islands trustee. We may have our policy differences, but I do not question your sincerity, dedication and hard work.
The original mandate of the Islands Trust is even more valid now than it was 50 years ago. The effort to re-interpret the mandate of the Islands Trust to cover land use planning issues that are not unique to the Trust Area is a serious concern and does not accord with my assessment of the law.
The preservation and protection of the lands and waters of the Trust Area is, and must always be, paramount.
That is not to say changes are not needed. Nobody I have heard from across the “preserve vs. develop” spectrum is completely happy with the Islands Trust and there are significant questions about the “how” of carrying out its mandate.
Development and population growth in the Islands Trust area is not inevitable; it is a choice. The challenge we all face is to work together to identify the ways we can tackle the issues facing existing residents, for example, sourcing affordable non-market housing and ensuring timely access to health care, while preserving and protecting the unique amenities that brought us here in the first place.
In my experience over the past 25 years as a lawyer working with First Nations and local governments on governance, land use planning and similarly complex issues, this means taking the time to build consensus, not division, on long-term solutions at the community level. It means ensuring there is extensive open, transparent and inclusive community engagement with everyone on proposed solutions. Solutions adopted that do not have general support are often doomed to failure and reversal. Finally, and most importantly, trustees making long-term decisions that affect the Trust Area must have an electoral mandate on those issues from their constituents.
If trustees are intent on introducing a bylaw in June 2025 to make major changes to the policy statement that guides land use planning, I also urge each trustee to support further extensive, open and inclusive consultation with the public and First Nations on this bylaw. Final passage of such a potentially dramatic revision of the Islands Trust Policy Statement should be delayed until after the October 2026 elections in order to ensure trustees are given that mandate.
In the current political environment, I will be very surprised if the B.C. government initiates an open-ended, or even a limited, review of the Islands Trust Act before the October 2026 Islands Trust elections. Premier David Eby and his cabinet are dealing with many other far more pressing issues facing the province. This is good news for the Islands Trust. It will allow time for everyone to work together to identify the specific changes needed to help the Trust meet its original, not re-interpreted, mandate to preserve and protect.
I believe this approach of inclusive and open engagement at the community level is preferable to leaving potentially major changes to the Islands Trust Act in the hands of those within the B.C. government who do not have lived experience of preserving and protecting the environment of one of the most special parts of the world for future generations.
As your MLA, I look forward to working with everyone across the Trust Area to build consensus on the path forward that respects the original preserve and protect mandate of the Islands Trust.
The above is the first regular column from Green party Saanich North and the Islands MLA Rob Botterell.