Is talking face-to-face worth five figures?
With a budget now expected to top $11 million in spending annually, elected officials on a committee tasked with shepherding the Islands Trust’s financial management are suggesting Trust Council should again consider whether each of its in-person meetings are north of $30,000 better than those held online.
The Islands Trust’s Financial Planning Committee (FPC) met Wednesday, Jan. 22 and narrowly voted to recommend Trust Council reconsider its 100 per cent in-person meeting schedule for 2025. The current budget sets aside $33,700 per in-person meeting for the Islands Trust Council gatherings –– a number based on an average between the March and June meetings held in 2024, according to staff, who had warned last year meeting costs were increasing.
Freshly elected as chair of the FPC, Bowen Island trustee Sue Ellen Fast re-broached the topic, noting that while Trust Council has repeatedly rejected the idea of shifting meetings online, her experience in recent all-Zoom Trust Programs Committee and Committee of the Whole meetings was one of heightened civility. Issues like interrupting seemed less common, she said, side conversations didn’t distract from the ability to hear, and trustees with health or other concerns that kept them away could participate “on an equal footing,” said Fast.
“The atmosphere is different when we’re all online,” said Fast. “And if we dropped one in-person Trust Council meeting, would that help us with the worries about [depleting] surplus and legal costs rising?”
Fast was referring to two issues noted in the draft 2025/26 budget, which contains total proposed planned spending of $11 million — an operating budget of $10.3 million plus $523,000 budgeted for projects and $165,000 in its capital budget.
First was a slight increase in total planned spending — earlier versions of the budget tagged the bottom line at $10.9 million — which largely reflects higher costs for legal expenses, according to staff. Second, budgeted alongside the proposed 5.9 per cent general tax increase for Local Trust Areas was some pulling from reserve funds — a proposed draw from the General Revenue Surplus Fund of $103,500, another draw from the Local Trust Committee Project Reserve Fund of $128,000, and a third from the Special Property Tax (SSIWPA) Reserve Fund of $71,500.
Each meeting held electronically would likely save $33,750, according to administrative services director Julia Mobbs, characterizing that as “just shy of half a percentage point” in terms of planned tax increases.
“There would be no change to surplus,” said Mobbs, “because the [budgeted] draw from surplus is currently not funding Trust Council meetings. However, it does give you the opportunity to redirect some funds if you wanted to; you could choose not to reduce taxation and instead reduce the amount you’re drawing from surplus.”
Calls to move Trust Council meetings online have failed several times in the last few years, as most trustees have stood firm on the importance of meeting face-to-face.
“I think we undermine our ability to govern by not meeting in person,” said Thetis Island trustee and Trust Council chair Peter Luckham on Wednesday. “I feel that we are constantly cutting budget in areas where we need to do work, and it seems like a race to the bottom sometimes.”
Salt Spring Island trustee Laura Patrick disagreed.
“I think we can govern just as well in virtual,” said Patrick, characterizing the move as an “easy way to cut the budget” and demonstrate a commitment to doing so.
“Even two meetings in person a year is plenty,” said Patrick.
The FPC vote was narrow — 5-4 in favour of the recommendation, which will next be considered by Trust Council.
In 2024, according to a staff report, that year’s 6.33 per cent increase to the rural property tax levy for the Islands Trust budget raised some $8.5 million toward the year’s budget, and represented a $23.53 tax increase on the average property in the region — valued at $838,097 –– bringing the tax bill directly attributed to that levy to just under $400.
Islands Trust taxes make up only a portion of a total property tax bill, officials have stressed.