Trust passes $11.2-million budget

Despite efforts that successfully trimmed planned spending to a growth rate below inflation, the Islands Trust’s approved budget of $11.2 million for 2025/26 — up from just under $11 million last year — will require a 5.8 per cent increase to the existing Local Trust Area tax base, with an additional 2.5 per cent tax revenue expected from new construction and development. 

Last year’s increase to the Local Trust Area tax base was 5.9 per cent, with an additional 0.5 per cent expected from construction and development. On Bowen Island, the new tax levy is slated to grow by 16.4 per cent, according to budget documents, with an additional 1.2 per cent expected from new construction and development. That compares to last year’s growth there of 12 and 1.1 per cent, respectively.  

“Sensing the challenging times, staff and the Financial Planning Committee (FPC) put a great deal of work into reducing the proposed budget ahead of Trust Council’s meeting,” wrote newly elected Trust Council chair Laura Patrick. According to early planning documents, that committee squared off against a draft budget with a 7.1 per cent tax increase. 

“The approved budget supports the ongoing work directed to the well-being of the Trust Area,” wrote Patrick, “while minimizing the impact on taxpayers.”  

Eleventh-hour efforts to further trim the budget by $225,000 fell short during March’s Islands Trust Council meeting Wednesday, March 12, and the only amendment adopted by trustees in fact raised planned expenditures by $67,500. 

With that amendment — another rebuke of the FPC’s recommendation to halve the number of in-person Trust Council meetings, in favour of substantially less costly electronic ones — and with a warning from staff that the following year’s tax increase is projected to be even bigger at 8.5 per cent, the approved budget was passed by trustees with a 15-8 vote. 

Of the $11.2 million in total planned spending, $10.2 million is directed to operations, with $704,000 to special projects and $261,100 to capital spending.  

Trustees who voted against the budget largely did so out of concerns more cuts were needed. During deliberations, Galiano Island trustee Ben Mabberley praised staff and committee members for cutting as much as they did — “to the bone,” as Gabriola Island trustee Tobi Elliott put it — particularly when measured against other jurisdictions. But Mabberley echoed other trustees’ worries it still wasn’t enough, pointing to the possibility of a significant national recession. 

“You know, these are exceptional times,” said Mabberley. “And you don’t carry on as usual in exceptional times. I know personally, layoffs are already beginning in the forest industry. A lot of people are going to lose their jobs.” 

Among the largest spending increases next year for the Islands Trust are staff salaries, which as a budget line is set to increase by a half million dollars — an amount that will support existing staff, according to financial and employee services director Julia Mobbs, as well as cover non-discretionary wage increases and fund a new information services co-op student and a one-year temporary policy advisor position.  

Another notable jump was in the Islands Trust’s legal budget, due primarily to high costs incurred for bylaw enforcement property clean-up on Thetis Island and “for litigation advancing claims on Gabriola Island, Galiano Island and Salt Spring Island,” according to a staff report. Last year, Mobbs noted, trustees voted to under-budget legal expenses to reduce tax increases, with the expectation that overages would be funded from surplus. 

“This year, we have seen over-spending in legal,” Mobbs told trustees. “And we have been using our surplus to pay for that; consequently, we are unable to take that same approach next year.” 

Mobbs explained the 2025/26 tax increase is a product of two elements: planned spending, and estimated revenue sources. While trustees can arguably affect spending, revenue is less under their direct control. Investment income, revenue from application fees and revenue from grants are all decreasing next year, said Mobbs, and at the same time the organization needs to reduce the amount pulled from surplus and reserves. 

“When you’ve got reductions in external revenue sources, and reductions in internal revenue sources, we are forced to make up for that by increasing taxation,” said Mobbs. 

The approved budget assumes that the Islands Trust will maintain its existing land use planning service levels, as well as support ongoing major projects and initiatives, according to a press release, including several islands’ official community plan and land use bylaw reviews; continued coordination of implementation of the Salt Spring Island Watershed Protection Plan; Hornby Island Local Trust Committee’s relationship-building with K’ómoks First Nation; the broader Islands Trust Policy Statement Review and Amendment; the stewardship education program; history and heritage conservation grants-in-aid program; the Reconciliation Action Plan update and implementation; administrative support to regional coordination groups, such as the Southern Gulf Islands Forum and the Howe Sound Community Forum; the Species at Risk Protection Program through the Islands Trust Conservancy; and improvements to bylaw compliance and enforcement services. 

More information about the budget is available at islandstrust.bc.ca.