A public glimpse into Islands Trust operations offered by its chief administrative officer (CAO) painted a picture of an organization whose reach in many ways may be exceeding its grasp. 

And that situation is neither unique nor a surprise, according to Islands Trust CAO Rueben Bronee, who delivered a detailed verbal report to Trust Council at its quarterly meeting Tuesday, Sept. 16. Bronee said that since starting the job last year he’d heard a repeated message from both elected officials and staff that the Islands Trust was “overextended in its capacity to deliver on some of the work that is before it.”

“And as I dug into this a little bit more over the last couple of months,” said Bronee, “so far I unfortunately haven’t found anything to disabuse me of the notion.”

That capacity is seemingly strained despite a robust and growing number of staff employed by the Islands Trust; Bronee noted that although staff and benefits costs have remained relatively consistent as a share of the year-over-year budget, staff in 2024 were tasked to support a total of 189 meetings — or about one meeting every 1.25 business days — of Trust Council, various committees, the Islands Trust Conservancy and Local Trust Committees, 

“Over the past five years it’s averaged about 175,” said Bronee. “And again, this is important work, this is what you do and how we govern and fulfill the mandate of the Islands Trust.”

But, he added, that translated to 4,342 hours spent by administrative staff preparing for those meetings — things like logistics and agenda packages, Bronee said — and didn’t include time spent writing and researching material or the hours actually spent in those meetings.

“Those 189 meetings, if you’re interested, work out to about 640 hours of meetings,” said Bronee. “And almost always you’ll have multiple staff [attending].”

That’s close to 12,000 hours a year supporting meetings, he said — the equivalent of seven full-time positions spread across the Islands Trust’s 65 staff members.

And unfortunately, those staff members are also choosing to leave the organization at a higher rate than employees do elsewhere, even in the private sector. Bronee reported that out of 65 staff, there were 15 voluntary departures last year — including seven who left for jobs elsewhere in the provincial public service sector and three retirements — or an exit rate of about 23 per cent.

That’s against a backdrop of an average exit rate among all employers in Canada of 12 per cent, he said — and of just 8.5 per cent within B.C.’s public service sector. 

Perhaps paradoxically, Bronee said staff surveys indicated a higher percentage were satisfied with the Islands Trust as an employer than in comparable organizations, according to data gleaned from the provincial government, and Bronee said staff were “particularly passionate” about the organization’s mandate and the value of its work.

“And yet we nonetheless see that high turnover rate,” said Bronee. 

The resulting organizational instability of such a high departure rate is likely made worse — if perhaps with the best of intentions — by the Islands Trust’s tendency to fill empty positions by reorganizing current staff, usually in ways that advance their careers. Last year there were 87 total “staff movements,” he said, more than the total number of staff because each vacancy filled would usually precipitate another. 

“In my almost 30 years of public service, I have yet to find an organization where there isn’t more work than there is available time, money and staff to complete that work,” said Bronee. “I’d love to tell you that we have a plan, [but] we’re not there yet.”

Bronee said an “employee group” had been meeting in an effort to provide ideas to improve the experience of working for the Islands Trust, and that senior staff were working to identify areas for efficiency. Even so, he said, the underlying capacity problem could only realistically be solved two ways: either by adding capacity, or by doing less — stopping or delaying work, or refocusing on a narrower set of priorities.

“The most effective path is often a combination of both of these things,” said Bronee. “As I said, it’s 12,000 hours a year, but it’s also important, essential work; we just need to make sure it’s well spent.”

Salt Spring office to open in October

Trust Council also learned some 11th-hour grant funding may help the nearly-complete remodel of a Ganges retail space for the Islands Trust’s new Salt Spring Island office, according to staff, who said the space could open to the public as soon as this month.

The Islands Trust’s Accessibility Committee (AC) held a special meeting in September on a staff proposal seizing an opportunity for potential provincial Local Community Accessibility Grant program funding — which can provide a one-time grant of up to $25,000 to help local and regional governments remove barriers for people with disabilities. 

The relatively-new committee signed off for a letter of support for the grant, which legislative and information services director David Marlor said would be turned around and submitted quickly.

“We expect [the remodel] to be completed by October,” Marlor told AC members. 

The Islands Trust’s on-again, off-again funding relationship with mapping the underwater beds of eelgrass within its boundaries is back off — this time because senior governments are already doing the work.

In fact, according to staff, there are several groups mapping eelgrass and kelp forests in the Gulf Islands, including numerous local NGOs conducting both mapping and restoration of the ecologically sensitive habitats — using extant Islands Trust mapping as a baseline, trustees heard at the Regional Planning Committee meeting Monday, Sept. 8. There has also been “relevant but limited” mapping work done recently through Malahat First Nation, Snuneymuxw First Nation and Tsawout First Nation efforts.

But most significantly, according to planning services director Stefan Cermak, there are at least two large eelgrass mapping projects being planned at the federal level — one to quantify so-called “blue carbon” in the area, and the other developing what a staff report called an “Eelgrass Explorer” system, designed to monitor healthy ecosystems to inform fisheries-related regulatory decisions.

Cermak said he’d had an “extended conversation” with Fort St. John eco-consultancy firm Hatfield Consultants, which had recently been awarded an $800,000 federal grant to map eelgrass beds in B.C.

“They’re going to make data publicly available in May of 2027, and that’s going to be eelgrass mapping at a 10-metre resolution,” said Cermak. “They’re using one satellite to do that, and a different satellite to map at a three-metre resolution, but that’s commercial data.”

The current proposed draft of the Islands Trust Policy Statement includes directive policies surrounding marine shorelands that would instruct Local Trust Committees to, in enacting bylaws, prohibit moorage of vessels in sensitive marine areas — specifically including eelgrass and kelp forests. 

Using a little less than an hour, the board of what is perhaps Salt Spring Island’s most visible non-profit navigated a potentially turbulent annual general meeting (AGM), with directors and staff by the end delivering operational and financial reports — and a little history — to a space-limited but engaged public audience.

Island Community Services (ICS) — which still receives correspondence under its old name, the Salt Spring and Southern Gulf Islands Community Services Society — turned 50 this year, according to executive director Rob Grant; Grant presented a report Thursday, Sept 25, highlighting some of the charitable organization’s historical high points and hopes for the next half-century.

A recap of ICS’ fiscal picture followed, showing what finance committee chair Darryl Martin called a “return to stability after the tumultuous Covid years” — with last fiscal year’s operational budget closing out with a modest surplus against a two per cent decrease in revenues. Martin said donors were increasingly giving stocks and other securities, as well as committing to ongoing periodic donations; just five per cent of SSICS’ revenue came from donations, he added, with the lion’s share coming from governments and government-related sources through service agreements. 

The largest funder was — as it had been for the last five years — BC Housing, which he said made up 21 per cent of the total budget. 

“The trend continues of the largest portion of ICS’ budget going towards the basic needs program areas,” said Martin. “Food, shelter and housing made up 46 per cent of expenses.”

Martin said that SSICS owns half of the 14 properties it operates, assets valued at about $20 million, and between BC Housing operating agreements, forgivable loans and operating revenue from some properties, the nonprofit reduced its mortgage debt last year.

“We enter the 2025/26 year with some caution due to continued inflation, projected provincial government deficit, provincial labor and union wage demands and a general economic unease,” said Martin. “ICS has only modest cash reserves, so operational expenses will be managed carefully.”

Re-elected by consensus of members were returning directors Jennifer Lannan and Gary McNutt, as well as relative newcomer Colin How, recruited six months ago and now beginning his first full two-year term. 

In response to a question from How, Lannan confirmed that the board of directors themselves constituted a majority of ICS’ current membership. Directors recently adopted a membership process that required 20 hours of volunteer service with ICS each year, in addition to director approval — a change that roiled community members who felt their attempts to participate in guiding the society’s future were being stymied. 

Indeed, among the handful of non-members allowed into what they were told was a 25-person-capacity room were several who expressed displeasure, particularly with the board’s initial insistence that only members be allowed to ask questions. 

Directors relaxed that policy as the meeting went on, and heard public concerns on issues ranging from inadequate safety for frontline staff and affordable housing tenants to broader notions of accountability.

How calmed some tense early moments by promising non-members that he and Martin would be hosting a “public Q&A” soon, and later by further expressing his earnest willingness to improve ICS.

“Six months ago, I joined this board because I was concerned,” said How, “There has definitely been a history of challenges with [ICS] that I couldn’t possibly wrap my head around. And I’m not going to deny it or act like some of those things didn’t happen or aren’t happening — but what I can say to you, with all of my heart and effort, I’m committed to the idea that this organization is going to be running properly going forward. And so are all of my board mates.”

ICS’ full annual report is available at its website, saltspringcommunityservices.ca.

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This article has been updated since publication; an earlier version of this story misspelled the name of director Colin How.