Reflections on ‘Visioning’

Gulf Islands Alliance presentation to Trust Council September 2016

Delivered by Graham Brazier

The Gulf Islands Alliance believes there’s great merit to visioning. It raises citizen appreciation for how our community is managed and invites exploration of ways to do it even better.

In fact the very existence of the Gulf Islands Alliance is the consequence of a visioning session involving more than 100 island dwellers that took place in 2005. More about that later.

But you, islanders and Trustees, already have a compelling, comprehensive vision, the Trust mandate, and we ask that you make sure future visions don’t eclipse it but rather embrace and re-affirm it.

Proof of its worth and popularity is that it has endured growth pressures, an indifferent provincial government, the influence of planners and entrepreneurs with an urban bias, and various criticisms from inside and out. The urge to protect the islands’ natural environment and rural communities predates the Trust Act of 1974. It springs from people’s love for the islands as a great place to live, visit, view and just walk around.

That love was the inspiration for the remarkable ROOTS gathering on Salt Spring exactly 11 years ago. Talk about visioning, one sub-group there called for a declaration of islands independence, ‘a light at the end of the present tunnel of error’ that shines on a new ‘participatory egalitarian rational society’ that does away with private property and recognizes the rights of nature.

Most of the proceedings weren’t quite so radical. Some of you were among 130 islanders who came together for three days to look at ways “to strengthen and invigorate the Islands Trust preserve and protect mandate”. Participants determined the “mandate is ours, as islanders, as much as it is the trustees” to maintain our Eden on Earth.

Today we highlight a few of the gathering’s many findings that we hope will contribute to your visioning adventure.

There were recommendations to forge model bylaws to save duplication on each island, limit house sizes to 3,000 square feet, educate realtors and newcomers not to trample on our treasures, promote slow and even no growth, enforce bylaws better, and impose zero tolerance for environmental destruction. One suggestion was to create an Islands Trust ombudsman position to help citizens and groups sort out their conflicts with trustees.

A heads-up to Salt Spring: one study showed that when a community gains a tipping-point population of 10,000 ‘the perceived need for urban planning outweighs that for rural.’ Urban symptoms include trading higher densities for greater services and attempts by government to be all things to all people. Observing that the Trust has no fiscal responsibility for infrastructure, one session group announced that ‘incorporation models should be resisted because they put local government in the role of seeking increased tax revenue through development.’

We note a younger Peter Luckham participated in a session that determined First Nations have “a lot to teach us in walking lightly on the earth. We belong to the land. We need to ‘grow’ people who understand and love the land.”

Another session with future luminaries Linda Adams, Gary Holman, Kim Benson and Sheila Malcolmson reached a general agreement that the Trust Policy statement “should be strengthened to ensure that key policy ‘bottom lines’ … can not be violated by individual islands.” We’re still waiting.

A recurrent observation was that your mandate “is not much understood, acknowledged or respected by provincial agencies such as highways and forests. Islanders should secure exemptions from any provincial legislation that’s contrary to the mandate.”

A prominent theme was to improve communications … between trustees and constituents, the Trust and the province, the Trust and First Nations, and between all islanders. “Decisions made on one island could really impact or assist decisions to be made on other islands.” Tony Law worked on a recommendation to ‘Establish a lobbying network to support the work of Islands Trust. (And) explore ways to improve understanding between the Trust and islanders.’ Another ROOTS session group said ‘trustees need to assure people that their views are being taken seriously.’

A session about the role of trustees — it included then chair David Essig — said the word ‘trustee’ is legally and perceptually much different than ‘councilor’ or ‘administrator’ and calls for a “higher, broader responsibility”. (GIA adds that trustees, like their counterparts in the private sector, make long-term wise life decisions for the noisy now and the quiet future. Consider that in 10 or 1,000 years folks will look back and say those guardians of the Gulf Islands sure had a strong vision and the did the right thing.)

Another ROOTS session determined that trustee duties reach beyond their home island “to be more pro-active in ensuring that decisions on all islands conform to the mandate.” There was strong support for raising trustee salaries and even for islanders to pitch in to provide trustees with child care, housework and ‘free veggies.’

A final ROOTS recommendation was to form an inter-island group of volunteer citizens to support the Trust mandate and to praise trustees for doing the same. That was the Gulf Islands Alliance, officially launched a year later. And still going. Here today.

(In this June 24, 2015 presentation, prepared by Deb Ferens and Dave Steen, GIA asked Trust Council to transform its expensive and cumbersome strategic planning process. See story above for specifics.)

Baseball fans know that pitchers don’t win because of their wind-ups. Success rides on delivery.

GIA is concerned that your wind-up — specifically, your strategic planning — could get so exhaustively complicated that it will mess up your delivery.

GIA is asking hard questions about your strategic planning.

Does it sap trustee energy and time without corresponding gains? Does it give taxpayers good value? Are thick agendas with all those graphs, flow charts and boxes showing who’s doing what with whom when and where really needed? Are you frustrated by its bureaucratic inertia? Its reduced capacity to respond forcefully to the unexpected?

And our big question. Is strategic planning taking your eye off home plate? The Trust mandate?

As you begin anew, GIA asks you to craft a 4-year strategic plan that is clear, robust and based on the affirmative duties to manage the Trust Area natural environment for the benefit of present and future generations.

GIA saw that past strategic plans:

– were complex, dense, and mired in busy-ness, taking up too much valuable Trustee time at council meetings.

– served operational/administrative needs more than the Trust’s purpose.

– were long grocery lists of issues that tugged in all directions, scattering energy stores and stretching human and financial resources.

– and largely disengaged citizens and failed to gain their enthusiastic support.

GIA has no quarrel with strategic planning. Our concern is that preoccupation with process can obscure purpose. How much breaking down by area and priority is needed when the Trust Act says the whole Trust Area is a biodiversity priority. You are trustees of the natural environment. The legislation, courts, GIA’s expert legal opinion, and the majority of islanders and British Columbians confirm that. So the primary goals, tactics and actions of a strategic plan must be to defend it against injury and restore what is damaged.

Our communities are vulnerable to climate change, natural hazards and development activities that carve up, degrade, chop down, uproot and pave over natural spaces and put an amazing biodiversity at risk. Your strategic plan could easily focus on ecological protection alone and still keep you busy and productive. Adding industry, commerce, housing and density and all the attendant landscaping, services and infrastructure is at the expense of the natural environment. One committee’s goal to improve the economy and reduce our environmental footprint is wishful thinking.

Please cut back on using strategic planning sessions:

To conjure up a new Trust vision. It already exists, the Trust mandate itself.

To consider other governance structures such as municipalities, a Gulf Islands Regional District, or north and south divisions.

To bother too much trying to “improve cooperation and integration with other levels of government” – the same other governments that encourage clear-cutting, tanker traffic, massive expansion of fossil fuel industries, and erosion of farmland.

Resilience strategies that protect a vibrant natural environment, essential to fundamental human development and values, are already part of the Trustee framework. No need to invent more. Devote your human and financial resources to ensure the inalienable right to healthy seashores, ocean waters, tidelands, the forests that cover the islands, the wetlands and streams, seaside cliffs, meadows, and wildlife habitats.

Let other agencies follow the Trust lead – they are going to have to sooner or later – the earth won’t wait, survival of hundreds of species on the brink of extinction can’t wait and our own children depend on us now to deliver the future intact, undiminished and livable.

If a strategic plan can be transformative, simplified and walked back to the Mandate by applying principles of public trust in coastal planning management and decision making, Trust Council can spend a lot more of its time focused on effective governance, have shorter council meetings, devote more time to communicating with islanders.

Our islands are precious gems dotting the Salish Sea, each separate yet linked by the waters that surround them, the beaches and shores that give entry and welcome, the forests that shelter, the land that provides nourishment and abundance to all its inhabitants.

All of us, Trustees and island residents, visitors and neighbouring communities share a duty of care owed to the environment.

*****

GIA received a copy of another response to Islands Trust Council’s draft strategic plan, from former Pender trustee Steve Wright:

To Islands Trustees:

We are approaching the first year of your election as a local trustee. There was
an expectation by many throughout the Trust Area that during this term, Trust
Council would bring about a change within the Trust to make it more relevant,
more effective, and more focused on the mandate.

It is extremely disappointing that the Trust has after 40 years, found itself with so little accomplished in terms of the fulfilling it’s object. Development continues to degrade the environment, ecology, and rural character of the islands. In spite of provincial legislation, the Islands Trust’s efforts and initiatives to work in concert with senior levels of government to achieve the mandate, have come up short or have failed. Local
bylaws are largely ineffective due to the lack of enforcement and loopholes.

The election of Peter Luckham as Chair was to ensure that the status quo would be
continued. Council has to realize that the status quo is not an option anymore.
Looking at the Policy Statement one can find little success in materializing its
objectives. Instead, the Trust has decided to “protect” communities, culture, and
economies, delving into housing issues, ferry fares, and any other issue that
floats by on the newspaper.

Your credibility is becoming laughable. A majority of residents and property owners are doing as they please without regard to the ecology or the environment and in the process urbanizing our islands. There are no differences developing on these “unique and sensitive” islands than anywhere else in Canada.

Your inaction and lack of focus is losing the support from your best friends. Those
who have believed passionately in the mandate feel betrayed and are beginning
to wonder why they continue to support you financially and emotionally.

A prime example for this coming Council Meeting is your Strategic Plan. Does
anyone really believe this? Give us one plausible solution to any of these issues.
What is the Trust planning to do about the loss of sea birds and songbirds? What
can you do to protect bottom fish from recreational over-fishing or the harassment
of Orcas by commercial enterprises? What strategy do you propose to rid the
islands of Norway rats or invasive plants?

The fact is that Council has some incredibly difficult and complicated issues
before it, let alone the political implications. I need to know if you are up to the
task, or whether you should simply admit defeat and pack the tents. Stalling for
more time is not acceptable. You need to make your stand now.

I suggest you throw out the strategic plan for the useless paper it is, define your vision of these islands, determine what you can realistically get done this year, and ask for help from the people who want you to succeed.

Good luck and thanks,

Steve Wright

By Dave Steen
I had a dream that Pope Francis showed up to urge Islands Trust Council to keep up the good work preserving and protecting the Gulf Islands, a designated and natural paradise.
The dream occurred the night after I had made a presentation to Council at its quarterly meeting, held last month (June, 2015) on Galiano Island. Speaking for our Gulf Islands Alliance, I asked for a reform of the Trust’s stuffy and expensive strategic planning process.
Of course, the Pope was to talk about a more lofty matter — how his encyclical letter to the world “on care for our common home” could enhance Council’s duty to uphold the “glorious” Islands Trust Act.
The Pope declined the Trust’s invitation — issued to all presenters — to consider withdrawing his talk and simply giving them the text.
Also, he said he visited the Trust’s website and studied the tips for addressing council. (“Take a slow, deep breath … it will help you relax.”) And he admitted being puzzled that he would be allowed both 5 minutes and 10 minutes for his presentation.
Council agreed he should have the full 10 minutes seeing as how he had traveled so far. (A warning light would be flashed after the 9th minute.)
The Pope started, reading from his letter:
“We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth; our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.”
He quoted Pope Paul VI, from 1971: “Due to an ill-considered exploitation of nature, humanity runs the risk of destroying it and becoming in turn a victim of this degradation.”
He quoted another, Pope Paul II, who warned that humans frequently seem “to see no other meaning in their natural environment than what serves for immediate use and consumption.”
His predecessor Benedict XVI pleaded for the correction of “models of growth which have proved incapable of ensuring respect for the environment.”
Pope Francis said, “These statements of the Popes echo the reflections of numerous scientists, philosophers, theologians and civic groups.” More than improved technology, fixing the ‘disfigurement and destruction of creation’ will be made on the ethical and spiritual journey from what we want personally to what the world needs.
In a nod to the trustees and other environmentalists, he said, “I want to recognize, encourage and thank all those striving in countless ways to guarantee the protection of the home we share.”
Noting that no one “can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis”, he called for a “new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.”
(At this point the red light flashed, indicating the Pope had only 1 minute left.)
“Regrettably, many efforts to seek concrete solutions to the environmental crisis have proved ineffective, not only because of powerful opposition but also because of a more general lack of interest. Obstructionist attitudes, even on the part of believers, can range from denial of the problem to indifference, nonchalant resignation or blind confidence in technical solutions. We require a new and universal solidarity.
“Change is impossible without motivation and a process of education.”
He added that the “need for forthright and honest debate” is linked to “serious responsibility of international and local policy.”
With only seconds left, the Pope mentioned climate change: “Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption in order to combat warming… The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all. At the global level, it is a complex system linked to many of the essential conditions of human life.”
When the Pope sat down, one trustee proposed a motion, under ‘new business’, that, “Trust Council study possible implications of the Pope’s encyclical letter on Islands Trust policies.”
Unfortunately, time ran out before new business could be considered. The motion was scrapped. The meeting adjourned