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Salt Spring and the Islands Trust

It would be inappropriate to consider a change to a municipal system of government without understanding the role of the Islands Trust in the affairs of Salt Spring. Salt Spring would still be part of the Trust, but in not quite the same way as now.

The Trust Fund Board
The four-person Trust Fund Board administers the assets and properties of the Trust and develops the plan for their management. Salt Spring would continue to participate as it does now.

The Trust Executive
The process for determining the Trust Executive (four members elected from the Trust Council by and from the council membership itself) would not be affected by incorporation. However, the role of the Trust Executive in Salt Spring's affairs would be affected in two ways:

1. Community Plan Bylaws would have to be submitted to the Trust Executive for approval (as they are now) with recourse to the Trust Council (also as they are now). However, if neither body gave approval, the municipality could appeal to the Minister for direct approval. Under rural status, two of the three must approve; under municipal status, only one must approve.

2.  Other land use and development bylaws. Approval would rest solely with the municipal council, but bylaws would have to be submitted to the Trust for review and comment.

The Trust Council
Salt Spring would still have two members on the Trust Council. These two members would be appointed for a three-year term (concurrent with their terms as municipal councillors).

Islands Trust Finances
Salt Spring would still contribute funding to the operations of the Trust Council, Trust Executive, and Trust Fund Board, just as it does now under rural status. This would amount to about 40% of the amount that Salt Spring now spends on the Trust. The remaining 60% of current Trust costs is for on-island land use and planning. This amount would disappear with incorporation and be replaced by a municipal land use and planning budget. The size of this budget would be determined by the municipality.

The Protocol Agreement Between the Islands Trust and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs
The 1996 agreement between the Islands Trust Council and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs sets out various rules for a municipality in the Trust area. Here are the key features of this agreement (many are already in both the Municipal Act and the Islands Trust Act).

• A municipality within the Islands Trust must "in all actions, have regard for the Trust policy statement and the Trust object; and the Ministry will consider legislative change which will require an Island municipality to have regard for the Trust policy statement and the Trust object."
• All bylaws proposed by the municipal council would have to be registered with the Province for the first three years after incorporation.
• All existing Local Trust Committee bylaws would continue as municipal bylaws.
• The municipality would have to contract its planning services to the Islands Trust for the first three years following incorporation (and optionally for four) at the same cost as if it had remained a rural status community. However, immediately after incorporation, the authority for zoning bylaws and the definition of the technical work plan would be the responsibility of the municipal council.
• Changes to the official community plan (the OCP) would have to be approved by the Executive Committee of the Trust, or failing that by the Trust council, or failing that by the Minister.
• All land use bylaws proposed by the municipal council would have to be reviewed by the Trust Executive Committee.
• The municipality would have to continue to fund its share of the Trust Council, the Executive Committee, and the Trust Fund Board.
• The two Salt Spring trustees would be selected via "double direct" municipal voting, unless the Restructure Committee and the Trust Executive Committee agreed otherwise. "Double direct" means that voters would specify which two councillors they wanted to sit on the municipal council.
• The Trust and the Province would have to agree on which existing inter-jurisdictional protocol agreements would apply to the new municipality. After incorporation, any new protocol agreements proposed would have to be referred to the Trust for review.
• The Restructure Committee and the Trust would have the opportunity to review the draft Letters Patent, which would define many of the characteristics of the new municipality.