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The General Meeting that was held on October 1st, 2025 ran for over four hours and still did not manage to get through everything on the agenda. We don’t normally make editorial comments, but we will make one here: the GFPID Board needs to find a way to get through meetings more quickly, or start holding more meetings.

This post summarizes what happened and indicates some areas of contention. It provides timestamps (which may not be precise) from the official video recording of the meeting so that you can fill yourself in on anything of interest.

PLEASE NOTE that while meeting packages (agenda, minutes, supplemental materials) are provided on the Upcoming Meetings page, these packages are removed and no longer available after the meeting is held. 

For your convenience, we are providing a key indicating the character of different segments.

🌿 efficient and reasonably collegial

🐌  took a long time to get there

🌀 confusion

🔥 disagreements

🎆 drama

...continue reading "2025-10-01 GFPID meeting"

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At the October 1st General Meeting of GFPID there was some discussion with regard to election policy. The 2026 Budget included an increased allocation for elections, with the intention that the Board respond to community requests for advance polls. During the meeting the Returning Officer from the last election correctly pointed out that Policy # 24-09 in the GFPID Handbook of Governing Policies, “Policy and Procedures for Elections Conducted by the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District” explicitly prohibits both mail in balloting and advance polls (p 58).

However, in January 2023 the Minister of Municipal Affairs issued a Ministerial Order under the Local Government Act to amend the Letters Patent of improvement districts, which would certainly supercede organizational policy.

...continue reading "Ministerial Order No. M10"

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The video recording of this meeting is on the Trustees Upcoming Meetings page. The following does not transcribe all recorded material from the meeting.

  • […] indicates that extraneous content has been removed (very minor content such as extra words is removed without this marker)
  • [?] indicates that recorded content could not be made out

NOTES ON THE DISCUSSIONS

As will become clear as you read through, the transcripts show that people have very different understandings and interpretations of the meaning and precedence of rules and regulations set by the Letters Patent and Local Government Act (emphasis added below):

  • Letters Patent: one purpose of the AGM is “to have the landowners choose an auditor for the ensuing year”
  • LGA 692 (1): “An improvement district board must appoint an auditor…”

One interpretation is that the landowners choose the auditor, which the board then formally appoints; another is that the board decides on a list of candidate auditors which is then presented to the landholders so that they can choose between them. Clearly far more power and authority resides with the landholders if they have the right to independently choose the auditor.

  ...continue reading "2025-09-03 Special General Meeting"

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This is a brief and incomplete overview summary of proceedings of the 2025-09-03 GFPID general meeting. Limited transcripts are included.

Click the links to get the Agenda and Agenda Package for the 2025-09-03 general meeting. The official video of the meeting is on the Trustees Upcoming Meetings page.

...continue reading "2025-09-03 GFPID meeting – summary overview"

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Note: these notes follow and expand on the published agenda but do not fully transcribe the general meeting. We include specific background or action items, and summaries or transcripts of some discussions. Some reports were updated during the meeting and we assume this information will be entered into the minutes; if that turns out to not be the case we may add content to this post in the future.

The Chair called the meeting to order and added a couple of late items to the agenda. The minutes of the previous meeting were adopted.

CORRESPONDENCE

Correspondence was noted and for the most part had been attached to the meeting agenda. One item was not included because it was providing information with regard to Roberts Rules rather than asking for any action. Two additional letters had been received but as there had not been time to distribute them to the board with the agenda package they will be dealt with by the next general meeting.

  • Discussion followed as to whether it is appropriate to include correspondence as part of an agenda package.
  • The position of Trustee Moher was that normally correspondence sent to a board of trustees is not posted publicly, and she was concerned that this is an infringement of privacy. Normally correspondence would be noted as received, but unless the writer specifically requested that their letter be read out in public at a meeting it would not be made public and should not be part of an agenda package. Because publishing correspondence would be a change, procedures related to this should be reviewed. (Later in the meeting Trustee Moher clarified that her primary concern was the publishing of email or other addresses of people submitting correspondence.)
  • The position of the Chair was that publication complies with principles of open governance recommended by the Ombudsperson, and the RDN and Islands Trust and improvement districts such as Twin Lakes do publish correspondence from the public. There is generally no expectation of privacy when correspondence is sent to a public body.
  • Trustee Moher felt that it is important to clarify that submissions from the public are opinion and not fact.
  • Trustee Moeller stated that if any correspondence to the Board is published, it must be ensured that all such correspondence is published.
  • Trustee Johnson asked about Communications policies regarding correspondence and the Chair responded that he was unaware of any such formal policy existing.
  • During the Q+A period one of the people who submitted correspondence to the meeting said that he preferred that his letter be published with the agenda, with his name, and that he didn’t care if his email address was included.

The process for handling any correspondence written to the Board of Trustees shall be that

  • correspondence sent to the Board as a whole, e.g. via the Corporate Officer, will be officially received at a general meeting
  • correspondence once received will be referred to the Communications committee
  • the Communications committee will acknowledge communications received, review them and formulate responses
  • the Communications committee will include responses for Board approval in their report to the Board
  • approved responses will then be sent to the writers of correspondence.
  • responses not approved will be referred back to the Communications Committee for revision
  • any correspondence sent to individual board members will be considered private and will not be published

MOTION CARRIED: to refer correspondence received at this meeting to the Communications Committee for formulation of a response.

FACTCHECKING: A quick review of agenda packages for Islands Trust, RDN and Twin Lakes improvement district meetings shows that they do include public correspondence, with the names of the writers, but email and physical addresses beyond  their general location (e.g. “Gabriola, BC”) are excised.

FINANCIAL REPORT

The financial report was appended to the agenda; the agenda itself included a breakdown of “Professional Fees”. Items discussed in detail:

  • Finance Committee chair Trustee Chorneyko indicated that the report was out of date because it was only to the end of June. At that time the levy had not been received so the records showed a deficit, but since then the money has been received, firefighters have received back pay, and finances are now in a position of surplus.
  • Safer Ocean Systems is renting the upper floor of the old Fire Hall #1 for $2000/month, and is utilizing the live fire building for their own training scenarios. The Fire Department provides instructors for some of their courses; Fire Department personnel are paid by the Fire Department, but the costs are offset by the leasing income and overall there is a profit. This is not clear in the financial statements because while the wages are shown as a line item under expenses, the leasing income from SOS is bundled with other monies under “Other Revenue.”
  • Professional fees: the breakdown in the agenda notes KMA accounting fees of $3521 for the audit. These are extra costs over the $10,000 base rate already paid.
  • Legal fees (Stikeman Elliott, for FOIs, complaints, lawsuit and union certification) are one item under professional fees. Trustee Chorneyko: “My understanding is that about half of that is recoverable through insurance, potentially.”

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Communications Committee: Trustees Moher and Appel. The main focus of the committee in the near future will be on items relating to the development of the upcoming budget, and providing information to support and/or explain the budget items and why they are important. There will be interviews with the people doing the work “on the ground” as to their perspectives. Content will come to the board for approval.

The committee is also requesting a small budget to pay the costs of items such a mailbox flyers or hardcopies of the allowed industrial activities chart. They would also like to install a privacy wall in the fire department office to prevent distractions.

Finance Committee: chaired by Trustee Chorneyko, who is working on the Terms of Reference for the Finance Committee. The committee will be looking at dealing with recommendations from the 2024 audit (some things are already being worked on by staff) and Trustee Chorneyko is working on drafting a 2026 budget with Trustee Bussler for the board to review and discuss.

Hiring Committee (chair Erik Johnson): no report

Website Committee (Trustees Appel and Bussler) There is now a dedicated webmaster@gabriolafire.ca email: use it for matters pertaining to the Trustee portion of the website. A placeholder calendar has been added to the Upcoming Meetings page for testing. Work to be done includes making more information and documents available online.

Select committees: chairs have been named.

  • Freedom of Information response committee: Trustee Johnson
  • Policy review committee: Trustee Moher

FIRE CHIEF, DEPUTY CHIEF, ASSOCIATION REPORTS

Fire Chief’s report appended to Agenda. Updated information:

  • July call volume: 284 calls for the year, 55 for July (13 burn complaints, 1 brush fire, 1 miscellaneous fire, 4 alarms activated, 2 public assists, 1 wires down, 1 motor vehicle incident, 29 first responder calls, 2 [?])
  • The number 11 small tender has been deployed to Wesley Ridge fire above Cameron Lake with 2 members, to help protect structures and roadways.
  • [43:32] Staffing report as of July 29th: 32 firefighters including 2 chiefs, 1 Corporate Officer, 3 recruits, 17 frontline certified NFPA 1001 firefighters, 2 uncertified firefighters, 14 Emergency Medical Responders, 5 First Responders. The Junior and Senior day firefighter roles are currently vacant, their tasks are currently being covered by members. There are 7 officers: 2 hall captains, 4 lieutenants (1 for each platoon), 1 Medical Training Lieutenant. Duty officer responsibilities are shared across these 7 officers.
  • Optimum number of firefighters would be 40, 20 assigned to each hall.
  • “There’s an increase in workload and administrative demands due to the growth of the administrative workload, putting fleet and equipment in inventory. Duty officer shifts are getting busier with burn complaints and fire prevention activities. The department has identified a need for a third position; it is recommended that this role be established as an Assistant Chief capable of providing operational and administrative support and enduring leadership in the absence of either Chief.”
  • Recruitment: about 6 new candidate applications have been received. There will be a 2 year internship of a certified firefighter. Three resignations in the past 6 months.

Deputy Chief (Training) report - appended to agenda

Gabriola Volunteer Firefighters Association: no report. Correspondence included a letter from the Association requesting “that the trustees engage in consultation prior to reaching any decision regarding a potential name change for the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department.”

QUESTIONS

  • Trustee Bussler asked for an update on FR program activity as per last month’s questions. Chief Sprogis replied that although the data is collected and the study is largely complete, deployment absences have delayed finalizing the report. With regard to how many times EMR skills were used, the answer was 30.3 percent of the time.

BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES + UNFINISHED BUSINESS 

1. Privacy Commissioner (Report from the Chair)

2. Report from Trustee Chorneyko about FIPPA records policy (appended to agenda)

Trustee Chorneyko explained that public bodies such as GFPID are required by law to have a Privacy Management Program providing a framework for storing, using and dispersing personal information. He indicated that he had changed the wording of his original motion to:

MOTION: that the board accept the Privacy Management Program outline submitted by Trustee Chorneyko, and that the Corporate Officer be directed to establish a Privacy Management Program, and that the Corporate Officer report on progress towards the establishment of a Privacy Management Program to each regular general meeting of the Board until further notice.

There was some discussion clarifying the relationship between the requirements for privacy management vs freedom of information access and what committee might be responsible for drafting a Program. Trustee Johnson noted that the FOI people will be providing materials that will likely be helpful in developing such a program and associated policies. A motion was passed to table Trustee Chorneyko’s motion to the next meeting in order to allow Trustees to receive these supplementary materials and consider the implications of the motion fully.

3. Report on decisions made at the July 23 in camera meeting – see agenda package

4. Hiring - see agenda package

5. Amending Bylaws

Bylaw 109 and 110 were passed; these update the language in existing bylaws (66 and 97) to bring them up to date with current government legal document references.

There was some discussion of repealing and replacing bylaws rather than amending them by adding new bylaws, but the Corporate Officer noted that making amendments was the process recommended by the Ministry. Trustee Moher pointed out that much confusion can be avoided by good file management practices. Trustees Moher and Chorneyko noted the need for the policy committee to look at all the bylaws and the Letters Patent in order to identify any further necessary changes to language or references.

6. Bylaw XXX Fire department establishing bylaw

The most recent draft will be circulated to trustees and it will be an agenda item for the next meeting.

7. Tax Levy and Back Pay for Firefighters – levy received and back pay disbursed

8. Motion to nullify the resolution to pay the chair for FOI work – CARRIED

Trustees Moher and Johnson noted that although the resolution was in place, no chair had ever asked for or received payment for work done.

9. Review of the FR Study (Chief)

 As stated in the response to questions regarding the Fire Chief’s report, a draft has been prepared and the Chief has requested further time to consult with officers, so the report will be made to the next meeting.

Still to come: New Business

Published on

Notes about accessing videos have been added to the top of the Upcoming Meetings page (under the Trustees menu item on the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department website).

The board member in charge of updating the Trustee pages did not set the website up, and is doing their best to make things as functional as possible, but issues remain.

The main problem is in getting browsers to provide an interface that lets the viewer rewind or fast-forward. It's likely that much depends on the operating system and browser you are using and how they work with the website; we tested several options and the only one we could get to work was Firefox on a desktop. It is possible that installing media/video player extensions will accomplish the same thing on other browsers, but we didn't test that.

In Firefox on a desktop, you can open the videos in a "video player window" and access the usual playback tools for fast forwarding/rewinding/etc. The icon for accessing this is a popup that only appears when you move your mouse cursor over the video—click it to open a new window giving you the controls people are generally familiar with.

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NOTES: The report presented at the meeting is available on the gabriolafire.ca site. Unless they touch on procedural matters, the auditor’s comments when reviewing the document are not transcribed. All questions asked of the auditor and of the board are transcribed.

CHAIR: A couple of points of order from past meetings, just to clear things up. The formal distinction between a meeting and a session is very nuanced. So over the last week, I've researched and consulted with an accomplished facilitator, and tonight's meeting is an adjourned meeting, or continuation of the annual general meeting, but as part of the same session. I mention this because I misspoke at the last general meeting, and there are procedural implications of the distinction. With respect to the voting rights of the chair, it is now my understanding that the chair has one vote and votes at the same time as the rest of the voters. This is based on BC government guidance from their website and the 1995 Letters Patent. If the vote results in a tie, the topic of the vote is defeated. Thanks to those with proficiency in parliamentary procedure who have taken the time to help me do better.

...continue reading "2025 GFPID AGM report – July 9th, audited financial statements"

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This continues the transcripts of proceedings at the regular general meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District was held on July 2nd, 2025.

This section transcribes the Question and Answer period at the end of the formal meeting; in general, recognition and closing comments/thank yous are not included. 

Chair Mercier asks the audience to consider the lateness of the hour when formulating questions and be concise.

...continue reading "2025-07-02 GFPID meeting – part 6 – Q+A"

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This continues the transcripts of proceedings at the regular general meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District was held on July 2nd, 2025.

...continue reading "2025-07-02 GFPID meeting – part 5"

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This continues the transcripts of proceedings at the regular general meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District was held on July 2nd, 2025.

(Item from VIII. Business Arising)

2. HIRING

Brief review of current status of hiring a permanent Corporate Officer. Other matters relating to hiring were moved to the in camera portion of the meeting.

3. AGM

2024 AUDIT

The Chair reports that the notice requirements for adjourning an AGM and reconvening on a later date have been met.

The Chair asked the Inspector of Municipalities for clarification on a number of questions.

...continue reading "2025-0702 GFPID meeting – part 4"

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This continues the transcripts of proceedings at the regular general meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District was held on July 2nd, 2025.

1. Privacy Commissioner - report by the chair

(Item from VIII. Business Arising) Two suggested motions were included in the Agenda as a starting point for discussions:

Suggested Motion: THAT the board establish a select committee to examine the handling of FOI requests and generate recommendations for the purpose of reducing future costs. That the committee be empowered to examine the practice of the GFPID, the policies of other improvement districts, and to seek consultation with subject matter experts. The committee will report to the board within 60 days.

Suggested Motion: THAT the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District initiate a formal review of its policies, procedures, and record-keeping practices with the goal of conforming to FIPPA and the Open Governance Standards recommended by the Office of the Ombudsperson for British Columbia, and that the Corporate Officer be specifically empowered to engage with the Public Authority Consultation and Training Team (PACT) of the BC Office of the Ombudsperson for the purpose of working towards administrative fairness in the work of the GFPID.

NOTES: The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act sets out the access and privacy rights of individuals as they relate to the public sector. The Information and Privacy Commissioner enforces the legislation. 

...continue reading "2025-07-02 GFPID meeting – part 3"

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This continues the transcripts of proceedings at the regular general meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District was held on July 2nd, 2025.

Q+A: Fire Chief’s Report

TRUSTEE DIANA MOHER asked if the chief could share something giving a sense of the effect on the community by being first responders and EMRs dealing with things like CPR calls. Chief Sprogis: “I think Gabriola has seen now about 11 saves,” and noted a recent cardiac arrest that off-duty firefighters were able to attend within a few seconds.

TRUSTEE OLIVER BUSSLER: On the call volume report section, I recall back in October last year, you had changed the response matrix, you were doing a pilot program where only the duty officer would respond to certain calls, and I think you would provide, routinely, updates in terms of the impact that was having. And I haven't heard that in a while, so I just wanted to confirm that that's still being used, and how long do you plan on running that [?] program?

...continue reading "2025-07-02 GFPID meeting – part 2"

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Part 1: dealing with process and points of order

A regular general meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District was held on July 2nd, 2025. This was the first meeting after the June 18th AGM and election, apart from a brief meeting held immediately following the AGM to conduct the business of electing a chair, set committee appointments, initiate changes to bank signing authorities, and assign mentors to new trustees.

With the establishment of three new trustees and election of one of those trustees as the new Chair, it appears that election commitments to initiate changes will be followed. An ambitious agenda was published in advance that included the text of “suggested motions” for discussion, and a great deal of business was covered in the 3 hour meeting. GFPIDchronicles will not describe everything that happened in detail, but will publish transcripts of some discussions. This initial post covers the first part of the meeting, the agenda items shown in the screenshot.

...continue reading "2025-07 GFPID meeting – part 1"

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The next general meeting of Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District trustees will be July 2nd at 4 pm at Fire Hall No. 1. The agenda (PDF) has been posted on the gabriolafire site.

Wayne Mercier, who was installed as the new Chair of the Board at the brief post-AGM board meeting on June 18th, ran for election on a platform of transparency and financial accountability. Agendas, according to the Improvement District Trustee’s Handbook, are generally set by the Chair in consultation with the Corporate Officer, and the agenda for the upcoming meeting reflects Chair Mercier’s commitments;  in addition to outlining procedural categories such as committee reports, business arising from the minutes and unfinished business, new business, and so on, the agenda includes an extensive list of specific items for discussion, explains their background, and provides draft motions. Included:

  • Establishing a select committee to examine the handling of FOI requests and generate recommendations
  • Initiating both general and specific policy reviews
  • Access to GFPID records (email)
  • Suspending discretionary spending, pending review and ratification of financial statements (audited 2024 statements plus first quarter 2025), and excepting spending necessary for essential fire protection services, pre-approved contractual obligations, and emergency expenditures
  • Establishing a subcommittee of the Finance Committee to undertake a comprehensive review of GFPID financial management practices
  • Renaming the Fire Department

Read the agenda for the full list of items for discussion. It also notes which items will be discussed in camera and why.

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The following are taken from transcripts of audio recordings, but note that the echoes in the room made interpreting some of the content very difficult.

This post includes: 

  • Information on FUS and Superior Tanker Accreditation
  • Motion on remuneration of trustees
  • Motion on appointment of the auditor

...continue reading "GFPID AGM report – Part 3"

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This post documents presentations, discussions, and questions relating the first three agenda items at the AGM. 

Please note that difficulties with echoes in the room and random loud noises made hearing very difficult, and the transcriptions that follow are in some places incomplete. Gaps resulting from editing out repetition or extraneous words are indicated by ... and gaps resulting from audio being unintelligible are indicated by [...] or [unintelligible]. Words which were not completely clear at are in square brackets.

Questions to the board, when not directed to the Auditor, were answered by Paul Giffin as Chair.

Agenda

There were some difficulties with distributing copies of the minutes of the previous year's AGM because the power outage that had lasted for much of the day had made it impossible to print copies until just before the meeting commenced. It was explained that the agenda for AGMs is set and does not deviate from year to year.

Based on previous year's minutes, the standard Agenda is:

  1. Land acknowledgement
  2. Presentation and acceptance of previous year's minutes
  3. Presentation of financial statements by the auditor
  4. Fire Chief's Report
  5. Training Officer's Report
  6. Report of Captain No. 1 Hall
  7. Report of Captain No. 2 Hall
  8. Trustee's Honorarium
  9. Election of Trustees

The land acknowledgement and presentation and acceptance of the previous year's minutes proceeded normally.

Financial Statements

The auditor from KMA Chartered Professional Accountants, Doug Parkhurst, explained that there were no financial statements to present.

...continue reading "GFPID AGM Report – Part 2"

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The Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District Annual General Meeting was held on June 18th.

The audited financial statements were not presented; the AGM was adjourned to be re-opened at a later date, likely in July, so that this requirement can be completed.

The election was held, and as reported by the Sounder Alert, three new trustees were elected. 1035 ballots were cast, 3 were spoiled and 2 were rejected.

  • Elected to a Three year term: Oliver Bussler (764 votes) and David Chorneyko (734 votes)
  • Elected to a Two year term: Wayne Mercier (690 votes)

At the Regular Meeting held after the Election, the Board elected Wayne Mercier as the Chair of the Board.

There were some contentious discussions during the meeting, and we will be posting content relating to that. However, the fire hall is very echoey and at one point there were a number of mysterious loud noises. Both factors make some audio illegible and other parts difficult to understand, so transcribing the audio is challenging. We'll get further details up as soon as we can.

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As we all know, people running for election often talk in general terms. This makes sense; you can’t address every detail, and if you focus in too tightly you are likely to leave something out that you didn’t want to. Or you might be worried that something you don’t know about will prevent you from fulfilling a promise.

However, general statements are not helpful when it comes to holding people to account for taking the actions they say they will take.  Apart from rarely being measurable, a big problem is that vague promises can be understood and interpreted in very different ways, and people can use exactly the same language to describe fundamentally different approaches to issues. So:

What concrete actions are the candidates for Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District Trustees committing to? We’ve gone through the Q+A published in the Sounder and the transcripts of the All Candidates Meeting (see earlier posts) and made a list of specific actions that have been mentioned by the candidates. The names of people who have committed to action are appended to each item on the list. Not everyone used the same language to describe what they plan to do, so some list items are paraphrased, but we have included names where we think their intent was clear.

...continue reading "But what exactly will you do?"

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On June 4th there was a well-attended All-Candidates Meeting for the 2025 Election of GFPID trustees. The meeting was held at the AGI Hall and facilitated by Gabriola Talks. The Sounder News will have a full report on the meeting, which we will link to as soon as it is published. This is the last of a series of blog posts documenting the eight questions and responses at the ACM.

QUESTION

I'm a trustee. I didn't run for re-election. I ran because people quit. People who quit a dysfunctional board. [unintelligible]. So this board has worked really well together. So enough of my advertising. But just so you know, where I come from.

The question to everyone is: how we can handle all the misinformation and the disinformation that people put on Facebook and social media? People have alluded that they can't talk about things, or say that they can't talk about things—there are provincial guidelines that they have; but people post what they want on social media, and I want to know how you're going to counteract that in the community, because I'd like to hear what you candidates think.

...continue reading "GFPID 2025 All Candidates Meeting – Question 8"

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On June 4th there was a well-attended All-Candidates Meeting for the 2025 Election of GFPID trustees. The meeting was held at the AGI Hall and facilitated by Gabriola Talks. The Sounder News will have a full report on the meeting, which we will link to as soon as it is published. This is part of a series of blog posts documenting the questions and responses at the ACM.

QUESTION 7

The past 20, 30 years or so, it seems to me there is a systems dysfunction. I've heard a lot of talk this evening about the exact ways in which the process is supposed to work, but I've heard nothing about some other form of coming to agreement, and that is through mediation. I heard none of that, except from Chris when she opened her comments, she alluded to that, and I'm really hoping that the board is open to trying to find a way of mediating their dysfunctional board. [Missed first part of question, updated after seeing Sounder News transcript]

...continue reading "GFPID 2025 All Candidates Meeting – Question 7"

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On June 4th there was a well-attended All-Candidates Meeting for the 2025 Election of GFPID trustees. The meeting was held at the AGI Hall and facilitated by Gabriola Talks. The Sounder News will have a full report on the meeting, which we will link to as soon as it is published. This is part of a series of blog posts documenting the questions and responses at the ACM.

QUESTION 6

Thank you. Just a response to a comment Mr Giffin made earlier with regard to firefighters always asking for additional services and [...] material items, that's not correct. We've got a number of members of the fire department who have left the fire department recently, and that wasn't the reason they left.

After reading numerous articles in the Gabriola Sounder over the past few years about the Fire Protection Board and the oft-used dysfunctional description of the board, not the fire department, but specific to the board, many Gabriola residents, and the fact that you, Mr. Giffin, have held the key position as the board chairman throughout the past six years. How can electing you to yet another term help resolve the extensive turmoil, lawsuits, staff dismissals and internal grievances?

...continue reading "GFPID 2025 All Candidates Meeting – Question 6"

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There have been statements recently about whether the Fire Board followed proper process with regard to a complaint: one side says they did, one side says they didn't. We looked at the policy to see who was correct.

...continue reading "Fact-checking – complaints policy"

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On June 4th there was a well-attended All-Candidates Meeting for the 2025 Election of GFPID trustees. The meeting was held at the AGI Hall and facilitated by Gabriola Talks. The Sounder News will have a full report on the meeting, which we will link to as soon as it is published. This is part of a series of blog posts documenting the questions and responses at the ACM.

[Ed. note: some answers below reference the complaints policy, which is not on the GVFD website but can be found here.]

QUESTION 5

Okay, my question is for Oliver, given that your wife is a named witness in a lawsuit for the plaintiffs against the Gabriola Fire District Board, the fire chief, the Chair, I just wonder how you propose to maintain an attitude of neutrality, or even camaraderie of any kind, with the rest of the fire Board who may still be here, or the fire chief, thank you.

...continue reading "GFPID 2025 All Candidates Meeting – Question 5"

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On June 4th there was a well-attended All-Candidates Meeting for the 2025 Election of GFPID trustees. The meeting was held at the AGI Hall and facilitated by Gabriola Talks. The Sounder News will have a full report on the meeting, which we will link to as soon as it is published. This is part of a series of blog posts documenting the questions and responses at the ACM.

QUESTION 4

[Recording missed first part of question] …over 20 years ago, I've observed a kind of contextual shifting of how we understand the fire departments as, as the fire improvement district. And so if a citizen says, "I have a concern about how the trustees are governing," what we hear back is, "You're criticizing our firefighters. You're not behind our firefighters." I would like to know what the candidates would do to remedy that situation so that as a citizen, I can be assured that the trustees are carrying out their role, and it's an appropriate role in relation to the firefighters who deserve to be supported by a board that understands that distinction.

...continue reading "GFPID 2025 All Candidates Meeting – Question 4"

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On June 4th there was a well-attended All-Candidates Meeting for the 2025 Election of GFPID trustees. The Q+A meeting was held at the AGI Hall and facilitated by Gabriola Talks. 

The Sounder News also published a Q+A with candidates on June 4th, 2025. The Sounder will have a full report on the meeting, which we will link to as soon as it is published.

The 2025 GFPID candidates introduce themselves

What follows are the introductory comments from each candidate, in which they introduce themselves and say what they stand for. Each candidate was allowed two minutes for their introduction.

...continue reading "GFPID 2025 All Candidates Meeting – Intros"

Published on

On June 4th there was a well-attended All-Candidates Meeting for the 2025 Election of GFPID trustees. The meeting was held at the AGI Hall and facilitated by Gabriola Talks. The Sounder News will have a full report on the meeting, which we will link to as soon as it is published. This is part of a series of blog posts documenting the questions and responses at the ACM.

QUESTION 3

You know, I'm very interested in the vote, and I find seven hours in the middle of the week, that disenfranchises too many people. It's in the middle of a work week and it's just one day, and if you [...] work in Nanaimo, if you miss the 5:20 ferry, you can't vote. I find this appalling. So my question is to all the candidates, will you work to provide advanced polling dates and a mail in ballot for next year's election?

...continue reading "GFPID 2025 All Candidates Meeting – Question 3"

Published on

On June 4th there was a well-attended All-Candidates Meeting for the 2025 Election of GFPID trustees. The meeting was held at the AGI Hall and facilitated by Gabriola Talks. The Sounder News will have a full report on the meeting, which we will link to as soon as it is published. This is part of a series of blog posts documenting the questions and responses at the ACM.

QUESTION 2

This is for Dave. In the interest of transparency, could you tell us about your intimidation of John Moeller. A text in the last couple of weeks that you sent to him was threatening and intimidating. You want, if you want to explain that to the voters?

...continue reading "GFPID 2025 All Candidates Meeting – Question 2"

Published on

On June 4th there was a well-attended All-Candidates Meeting for the 2025 Election of GFPID trustees. The meeting was held at the AGI Hall and facilitated by Gabriola Talks. The Sounder News will have a full report on the meeting, which we will link to as soon as it is published. This is the first of a series of blog posts documenting the questions and responses at the ACM.

QUESTION 1

In 2022 the GFPID’s own governance review made dozens of recommendations to improve transparency and accountability, including limiting trustees to two consecutive terms of three years. I served on that committee, and I can say that very few recommendations have been implemented. Yet the Chair, now seeking a third term, recently told the Sounder that all the recommendations have been dealt with. That is simply not true. The same trustee was also the subject of a non-confidence vote by the Firefighters Association, which I was a member of at the time. As elected officials, what will each of you do to ensure the recommendations are followed, and how will you keep the public informed of your progress?

...continue reading "All Candidates Meeting – Question 1"

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The Sounder has published a set of Q+As sent to the six candidates running for election as trustees of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District (GFPID). Three positions are open.

The six questions asked:

  1. What makes you an ideal candidate to be a Fire Board Trustee?
  2. What changes – if any – would you want to make to the current 10-year long-range plan?
  3. Are there any recommendations from the Brownlee and Governance reviews you think should be implemented by the Fire Board?
  4. What can local governments like Improvement Districts do to work towards the goals and recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Report?
  5. Should Fire Trustee elections have advance-voting options available?
  6. Any other statement you want to make with respect to this election and the GFPID?

If you read this on the day of publication—don't forget the All Candidates Meeting, hosted by Gabriola Talks on Wednesday, June 4th, at 7pm at the Agi Hall.