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Gulf Islands Alliance Mission
We are islanders actively dedicated to the protection of the BC Gulf Islands, their natural environments, rural nature, and unique cultures, for now and for future generations. We support the Islands Trust federation in achieving its legislated Object.
Role and Objectives
The Gulf Islands Alliance (GIA) is a non-profit, grassroots organization with members based on islands under the jurisdiction of the Islands Trust. We work cooperatively and collaboratively with a network of like-minded individuals and organizations throughout the Trust area on matters of inter-islands concern and with particular precedent-setting features. Specifically, we work to:
- increase the effectiveness of the Islands Trust in fulfilling its "preserve and protect" Object;
- ensure that decisions affecting Gulf Islands' growth and development do not diminish the natural environment and the well-being of our residents;
- protect the terrestrial and marine habitats of the Gulf Islands;
- maintain the affordability and authentic rural character of our small island communities;
- ensure that the environmental, social and economic diversity of our islands is maintained;
- encourage environmentally sustainable and locally driven and responsive economies, and
- promote a positive vision of how the islands can be.
Activities
1. Monitor key land use issues and Islands Trust-related events on each island.
2. Influence Trustees to support our mission and objectives, and support them when they do.
3. Influence senior levels of government to help preserve and strengthen the Islands Trust and protect the terrestrial and marine habitats of the islands.
4. Inform and educate politicians and the public about the environment and communities of the islands and the purpose and role of the Islands Trust and its good work by supporting and sponsoring educational events, dialogues and other initiatives. This will include media outreach, membership services, and various gatherings to enable communication and action and maintain a collective, inter-island identity between supporters.
Priorities
The Islands Trust
1. The Gulf Islands Alliance will encourage active implementation of the Trust mandate by staff and Trustees. We will support the Trust's efforts to fully and effectively apply existing powers (bylaw enforcement, in particular) and resolve issues of equitable funding and representation. We will help influence the province to give the Trust additional powers to meet our islands' needs.
2. The Gulf Islands Alliance will bring citizen concerns into the crucial hiring of a new Director of Local Planning Services. We urge our Trustees to be actively involved in selecting a new planning director with solid commitment to the "preserve and protect" object and with rich experience in strong and creative rural planning approaches.
3. The Gulf Islands Alliance will alert the public and elected officials about the Trade Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement. We ask the Trust to encourage and support UBCM's efforts to analyze TILMA's impact on local government authority, and to convey to the province that the Trust opposes any legislation or agreement that constrains local government powers to protect environmental and cultural values.
Environment
1. The Gulf Islands Alliance will support the conservation of island landscapes and ecosystems. Our island ecosystems are finite, threatened and in need of greater protection. We will work with the Trust, other levels of government, and private landholders to ensure the careful stewardship of species and ecosystems at risk. We also will support the expansion of NAPTEP to include all local Trust areas.
2. The Gulf Islands Alliance will advocate for new marine protected areas and particularly for expansion of the proposed National Marine Conservation Area to safeguard ocean wilderness in the Trust area. We will educate and engage our members and work with the Trust to support the creation and good management of marine protected areas.
3. The Gulf Islands Alliance will work to further freshwater conservation. In particular, we want rainwater catchment systems to be required in new homes and businesses in the Trust area, with retro-fitting incentives for existing structures.
4. The Gulf Islands Alliance will support a wide range of approaches to address climate change. We will engage our members to implement individual and community solutions to the climate crisis. We urge the Trust to develop a suite of climate-related planning practices for use throughout the islands.
Community
1. The Gulf Islands Alliance will help the islands forge socio-economic plans that are environmentally-based, sustainable and equitable. We will seek funds to initiate, with appropriate public and private partners, an islands-wide dialogue and resulting islands' sustainability initiatives. We want to ensure that our rural island communities remain resident-based, diverse and affordable.
2. The Gulf Islands Alliance will develop a strong and effective organization to achieve our priorities. We will soon begin a concerted membership drive, with measures to engage our members in achieving these priorities.
Council of representatives
Denman Island: Graham Brazier, Roxanna Mandryk
Gabriola Island: Jenny Brown MacLeod
Galiano Island: Ken Millard, Linda Millard
Mayne Island: Marie Elliott
Pender Islands: Michael Sketch, Misty MacDuffee
Salt Spring Island: Maxine Leichter
Thetis Island: Doreen Lilley; Dave Steen
Islands could be 'example to the world'
says Alliance founding chair Christine Torgrimson
The Gulf Islands Alliance' first Chair was Christine Torgrimson, a Salt Spring Island resident. She resigned as chair after being elected trustee in November, 2008. She remains a member of GIA.
She is a strategic planning and organizational development consultant, specializing in helping organizations work effectively. She has more than 30 years' experience in the world of community and non-government organizations, as well as a background as a journalist and counselor.
Over the years, she has founded or co-founded six nonprofit organizations and served on staff with another four. She has also consulted for many conservation, land trust and community organizations and worked as a trainer and coach of executive directors. On Salt Spring, Christine has served as a member of the ROOTS group (Renewal of the Origin of the Trust Study group), which sponsored an inter-islands forum on Salt Spring in fall 2005, as the vice chair of the current OCP focus group on economic sustainability, jobs and tourism, and as a participant in many other community efforts.
"The islands of the Salish Sea are a gorgeous archipelago that draws many admirers, for pleasure and for profit," she says. "It is critical that we engage our community members to ensure that these fragile ecosystems and our rural way of life remain intact and healthy into the distant future.
"In addition to the impacts of tourism and growth, we must grapple with energy and resource development, climate change, the health of our Salish Sea waters and native plant and animal species, our relationships with First Nations, and keeping our communities diverse and affordable.
"We live in a rare place, we have a rare and visionary form of government, and we have a rare community of many talented and passionate people. We can become an example to the world that it is possible for people to live in balance with nature."
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