This post summarizes what happened at the November 5th, 2025 general meeting, and provides transcripts for some areas of discussion. Timestamps (which may not be precise) from the official video recording are provided so that you can fill yourself in on anything of interest.

Motions require a second in order for discussion to be opened. Our transcripts do not record the seconding of motions; if discussion continues seconding may be assumed. We do note explicitly if a motion is not seconded, and the matter is never opened for discussion.

Motions initially reported may not exactly match the final motions in the minutes. When possible we will update them from the official minutes and will note any substantive discrepancies. 

Meeting packages, videos and supplementary materials are linked from the Calendar on the Trustees CALENDAR page.

Key to the character of different segments: most of this meeting was reasonably efficient and collegial; some items that were more contentious or confusing are indicated by

🐌  took a while to get there

🌀 confusion

🔥 disagreements

GFPID OPEN BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING

Date: November 5, 2025

Present: all board members with the exception of Trustee Bussler, plus the Corporate officer, Fire Chief, and Deputy Chief. Past Returning Officer Cheryl Hannebauer, who made a presentation on revisions to election policy, joined the Corporate Officer at the board table.

This summary follows the outline in the Agenda. Timestamps indicate approximate locations of discussions in the meeting video. The meeting addressed all items on the agenda and lasted 2.5 hours.

ELECTION OF NEW CHAIR

The Corporate Officer called the meeting to order and presented a motion to accept the resignation of Wayne Mercier as Chair. Trustee Chorneyko thanked Trustee Mercier for his contributions and his efforts to move the organization toward proper protocols.

Trustee Johnson was nominated for the position of chair. There being no further nominations, Trustee Johnson was elected by acclamation and took over chairing the meeting.

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS

1. Call to order; Trustee Moher read the acknowledgement of the Snuneymuxw First Nation on whose traditional territory this meeting takes place.
2. Introduction of late agenda items (none) and adoption of agenda as amended (the CO had received a correction from Trustee Bussler)

• Trustee Chorneyko expressed concern that the published agendas and meeting packages disappear from the website after the meetings. The Corporate Officer stated that this is no longer the case.

3.    Adoption of October 1, 2025, General Meeting Minutes

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CORRESPONDENCE

[05:50]

MOTION to refer the correspondence (included in meeting package) to the Communications Committee. [CARRIED]

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FINANCIAL REPORT

[07:20]

August 2025 Financial Statement

Trustee Chorneyko noted that GFPID is on budget.

Trustee Mercier made a motion:

THAT the Financial Statement include reimbursements to staff [CARRIED]

Discussion of reports on reimbursements 🐌 🌀

TRUSTEE MERCIER: The audit of the 2024 financial statements noted that reimbursements to staff were extraordinary and more than would be expected. And I think that to address that, the board should receive regular reports about how much money is being reimbursed, just as a bulk statement, if it's 20 bucks or 20,000 bucks, or that seems like a pretty wide range.

CHAIR JOHNSON: Do you feel like it should be within the financial committee that's discussed?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I mean, I made the motion that I made, so someone feels that way then, I mean, that's done.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO (Finance Committee chair): It doesn't matter to me.

TRUSTEE MOHER: It's an interesting question. I do believe that it's something that the finance committee should take on and look at, because we would have to define staff.

CHAIR JOHNSON: Okay, are we doing that now? What are we defining as staff?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: If they get a T4 they’re staff, off the top of my head.

CHAIR JOHNSON, I would say so too, but that's not traditionally the way we do it.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: If they’re covered by WCB they’re staff? If they’re covered by WorkSafe?

TRUSTEE MOELLER: May I just ask the staff that we've got here, is there any reason not to? Is there anyone that gets reimbursements outside you three?

CORPORATE OFFICER: Yes. The firefighters. Any time they get their medical we pay it; anytime they go do their drivers training, we pay it. And that's the bulk of reimbursements.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: WITH that information, especially the medical stuff. Would that be something we even have in the agenda?

CORPORATE OFFICER: It would just have to be a number, and the number where we wouldn't tell you anything.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: It wouldn’t tell you who.

CORPORATE OFFICER: Yes.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Or why.

CORPORATE OFFICER: Or why.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Which is probably why [unclear]

CORPORATE OFFICER: I think it's a bigger discussion of what would be included in that, because we do pay for stuff that probably shouldn't be disclosed for personal reasons. So we would have to figure out and go through that, figure it all out.

CHAIR JOHNSON: Can we say that's going to be handled in camera, that's a personnel issue?

Considerable discussion about procedures, ultimately resulting that a motion to move the proposed motion to committee is CARRIED.

---

COMMITTEE REPORTS

1.    Finance Committee

[14:00]

Update to report in meeting package: the 2026 Budget/Levy has now been approved.

Upcoming open Finance Committee meeting: November 19, 2 pm. Agenda will largely deal with the balance sheet problem.

MOTION:

That the board accept the Finance Committee recommendation that a Jay Dearman Youth account for donations to the fire department youth program be opened at the Coast Capital Credit Union. [CARRIED]

[NOTE: There was an error in the original motion in that it stated that an account should be opened at Coast Capital. The GFPID accounts are with Coastal Community Credit Union, not Coast Capital, as was noted by an audience member during the Question period. A motion to correct this was passed at the end of the meeting.]

The Chief was asked to speak to the motion and stated that someone from the community wanted to donate towards the youth program that's been operating the summer camp. Suzanne Dearman approved calling it the Dearman Youth Camp, so the donation has been accepted and they now need a dedicated fund to put the money in. Moving forward, they also want to see fundraisers done to support the Jay Dearman Run, this would also support that.

2.    Communications Committee

[17:15] 🐌 🌀 🔥

[See meeting package for background documents: process flow charts, generic responses, process checklist.]

Recommended MOTION

THAT the Corporate Officer be authorized to acknowledge receipt of correspondence to incoming correspondence in collaboration with the Communications Committee, using response templates developed by that Committee;

AND

THAT the Communications Committee is responsible for forwarding all matters requiring further action to the appropriate Committee Chair and/or to the Board.

Motion to amend the proposed motion

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I'd like to propose an amendment to add the words “and that information identified in policy 24-11 as being available without special request, be provided immediately.”

[NOTE: the referenced policy does not appear to have been published anywhere.]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: So policy 24-11 is the Freedom of Information Policy, and the Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act requires the head of the public body to establish a category of records that are available without Freedom of Information Act request. So the improvement district has done that. This policy contains a schedule, Schedule A, which provides a list of documents that are routinely available on request. Those include annual reports, minutes of annual and special general meetings once approved, audited financial statements, minutes of committee meetings once approved, minutes of district board meetings once approved, bylaws, correspondence sent and received by the board, policies, district board and committee agendas, public notices, district board trust list, referendum and other voting results, election results and resolutions, and the Letters Patent. Some of these are available, like the Letters Patent, online. The Freedom of Information Office requests that all such documents be made available online so that landowners and stakeholders don't actually need to contact us to request them. But we don't have that in place, and so rather than information be referred to Committee and review, if someone requests information of this class as Mr. James Arends did in July, for instance, that information should be provided to them immediately and without delay.

TRUSTEE MOHER: I think we're conflating two areas. I think what we're trying to do is get something set up in order to respond to correspondence as it comes in right now. And that's conflating that to something else, which is under FOI. I think it's an interesting aspect and an interesting concept that should go back to the FOI committee and be developed as a motion on its own to have that set up properly and appropriately by the FOI committee.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Just for clarification, we're talking about correspondence, right, and you're just wanting correspondence added to that…

TRUSTEE MERCIER: […] So there's a motion on the floor, which is the Corporate Officer to be authorized to acknowledge received correspondence, incoming correspondence, in collaboration with Communications committee, using response templates. So that's like boilerplate responses. And the Communications Committee is responsible for forwarding all matters requiring further action to the appropriate committee chair and/or the board. That's also good, but there's a category of correspondence, which is requests for information that is routinely available, as identified by our policy, that shouldn't require referrals to the Communications committee or a boilerplate response, because it will be for specific information. So the motion that is on the floor now, the amendment is intended to make explicit that requests for information, which is identified by us as being freely available, will be just responded to by the provision of that information.

TRUSTEE MOHER: So my understanding would be that that would be something that she would have already made, or whoever is in that position, would already have made, when that, when they sat down with the information that came in, and it would either be something that could be sent out immediately, or it had to go to a committee in order for that material to be given, or it had to go to FOI. So again, I think that there's a complexity and a layer of complexity that's being added to something in a motion that's trying to get something to be moved forward, for the third month that we've been trying to get our Corporate Officer in a position to literally just respond to correspondence. And I'm not opposed to us to looking at something else. What I really want is our Corporate Officer to be able to open up her email, see correspondence, and deal with it, and it's not three or four months later because we keep stopping people from [unclear].

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: This is quite literally that.

TRUSTEE MOHER: No, it’s not. He’s [unclear]

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: My understanding is that […] if there’s requests for information that we're going to just give them anyways, this explicitly says, let's give it to them. So I think it's a good addition to this motion.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I’ll just reiterate my proposed amendment which is on the floor, which just adds to what's in the agenda package, the words “and that information identified in policy 24-11 as being available without special request, be provided immediately.”

CHAIR JOHNSON: Can I say something here? My fear with correspondence, having seen a fair amount of it over the last two and a half years, most of it's pretty nice. You know, people could get heated about issues, but the problem I have is I've seen some stuff that was libelous and slander. And they came in, and I don't think that we are under any obligation to retransmit libel and slander online or on our website. So I'm hoping that there must be some way we can filter out some of that stuff. Cause I think we’re going to put ourselves in a legal situation if you rebroadcast basically hate speech.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Amazing. And I'm addressing with this motion exclusively the list of information set up in Schedule A of policy 24-11, titled “Routinely available records.” Just requests for those records. If someone writes in requesting a bylaw, or the policy on some matter, or minutes of meetings, they should just be given those things, without delay, without consideration. […] They should just come in and they should go out. That hasn't happened, and here we are.

TRUSTEE MOHER: I just noticed that another topic on the agenda, number five, Freedom of Information response committee, was that the board, and this was a motion that was put forward, I believe, by the former chair,

THAT the board establish a select committee consisting of trustees Bussler, Appel, and Johnson 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 90 days.

It still strikes me that it is prudent for us to make sure that whatever we decide to do would meet within all aspects of that, rather than confounding a very simple motion on the floor to get correspondence handled immediately, without worrying about whether or not minutes that are already being posted online—and they can't be posted until they're approved—becomes an issue that is a non issue at this point. We have a committee that we struck to deal with this, and I think they can come up with a fulsome report on it.

CHAIR JOHNSON: If I may say, I think we need to do that, and I need to get with FOI again, tomorrow or Friday, to get this straightened out.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I would like to call the question. I would like to call the question, I have an amendment on the floor, it's been moved and seconded. Calling the question means I'm calling first to vote on the amendment. So now we need to vote on whether we can call the question or continue to talk.

Vote to call the question CARRIED.

There is a procedural argument about whether they voted to call the question or to amend the motion. Vote on accepting the amendment, to make sure they all agree on what they are voting on. Four votes in favour, motion to amend the initial motion is CARRIED.

Distribution of correspondence

Trustee Chorneyko asks for confirmation that all trustees will see all correspondence.

CORPORATE OFFICER: Yes. You're going to get all the correspondence. Then after the meeting, the Communications and I committee will go through and pick it out, and then we'll, like, “this is for finance committee,” so I respond to that person, and CC you as Finance chair. And then it’ll be in your court to answer, or to figure out how we’re going to answer it. You’ll see it twice.

After this digression the Chair is confused re what needs to happen next procedurally; it is confirmed that they need to vote on the amended motion.

MOTION:

THAT the Corporate Officer be authorized to acknowledge receipt of correspondence to incoming correspondence in collaboration with the Communications Committee, using response templates developed by that Committee;

AND

THAT the Communications Committee is responsible for forwarding all matters requiring further action to the appropriate Committee Chair and/or to the Board.

AND

THAT information identified in policy 24-11 as being available without special request be provided immediately. [CARRIED]

3.    Hiring Committee

[31:20]

Brief confusion with regard to what is next on the Agenda because the Chair’s papers got out of order.

Chair Johnson is also the chair of the Hiring Committee. He reports that a newspaper ad has been posted for the job of CO/AO, with a deadline of midnight November the 11th. An in camera meeting will be held on November 11th to review the applications. The three person hiring committee will make a recommendation to the board, who will vote on it. Trustee Mercier notes that there must be motions for meetings held in camera, and makes the motion.

MOTION: that we hold the hiring committee meeting on November 12 in camera and discuss personnel matters [CARRIED]

4.    Website Committee

[34:20]

See meeting package for Website Committee Report and “Working Paper: Screen Display at Public Meetings.”

TRUSTEE APPEL: The most important thing to note is that meeting packages, videos and supplementary materials are now all provided through links from the Calendar on the Upcoming Meetings webpage, and this will be the case going forward.

5.    Freedom of Information Response Committee

[35:00]

The Chair asks Trustee Appel to speak on the report.

TRUSTEE APPEL:  Trustee Bussler and I met the other day to brainstorm in our FOI meeting, we talked about doing a flow chart of what happens when we get FOIs or information requests, and how that works. And so I see policy 24-11, Special Requests, fitting into exactly what we worked on here. We’re still working that through it, it still has to go back to the board to take a look at to see what we need to do with it. But my goal eventually is to see this kind of thing on the website, so people can check it out before sending in an information request, and how that path travels in terms of possible Freedom Of Information.

Trustee Mercier notes that the FOI committee is a select committee commissioned to work only until the date of this meeting, and makes a procedural motion.

MOTION

THAT the term of the FOI Select Committee be extended to February 2026 general meeting. [CARRIED]

Referenced standing motion:

THAT the board establish a select committee consisting of trustees Bussler, Appel, and Johnson 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 90 days.

6.    Policy Review Committee

[37:30]

References a Standing Motion, previously passed, to extend the timeline for the select committee, involve community experts, and likewise examine the language of the Letters Patent, in addition to their original charge, passed at the September meeting; deadline set for December meeting.

The Policy Review committee had a “very profitable” meeting with Kees Langereis, who was a “policy wonk” for the BC Government and served as a Trustee for the Islands Trust. He has given extensive feedback, providing a “deep dive” into GFPID policy, and the committee is currently reviewing his recommendations.

MOTION

THAT Committee Reports be submitted in writing one week in advance of each general meeting for inclusion in the Agenda Package distributed before Board meetings. [CARRIED]

MOTION

THAT all Committee meetings be posted on the District’s website calendar on the Trustee page as soon as possible before the scheduled meeting, to ensure adequate public notice and transparency. [CARRIED]

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GUEST SPEAKERS

Cheryl Hannebauer – Updated Election Policy

[41:00]

Guest speaker Cheryl Hannebauer, Returning Officer for the last GFPID election, explains that she and the Corporate Officer reviewed the existing policy and updated it, providing a draft to all the board members and asking that they adopt it as presented.

Changes to election policy

The primary changes to the policy (highlighted in the meeting package) relate to advance voting; forms have been updated and:

• the prohibition on advance voting is removed
• the deadline for nominations is changed from 14 to 21 business days before the election, in order to accommodate potential advance voting
• the deadline for withdrawal as a candidate is set as any time up to 48 hours before advance polls start

The prohibition on mail-in voting has not been removed.

Trustee Mercier asked for clarification on the process for nominations with regard to witnesses.

C. HANNEBAUER: If you are running as a candidate and you come into the office, you have to come in at a set time that's sent out by the Corporate Officer and bring your witness with you. And it needs to be signed in front of the Corporate Officer or the Returning Officer so we have all the correct information, names, addresses, verification.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Does this policy allow for flexibility with that? I know from my experience with the last election, the window that was open, one of my scrutineers—

C. HANNEBAUER: I think that's open for discussion. Right now, there is no set date for your AGM. And in this past election, Marjorie and I, because of when we came on, we were basically off and on for six weeks to get everything in order to proceed, because she has other jobs that she takes care of. And if we go to an advanced vote, we would probably extend that to an eight week period, because then you've got to notify, we've got to get all the documentation, all the roll calls that we get from the other people, and verify everything. So instead of six weeks prior to the AGM, we might be looking at an eight week period once the board as a whole decides what dates are going to do the AGM, and then it comes into the discussion on what date you do an advanced vote, and for how long. That's all open for discussion.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO [thanks them for their good work] I would like to acknowledge that there's still some shortcomings with our elections, and we're not dealing with it here. The mail-in ballots is one thing. I even wonder if we can open up elections to a larger to all non-landowners too, to everybody that lives here. I wonder about that. I don't want this change to get bogged down by those issues, so I'm supporting this. I'm supporting this as is, but I just want to acknowledge that there still are other issues with the elections.

C. HANNEBAUER: Yes, there are, but there's also, when you look at when [the Corporate Officer] and I researched information, we've looked at the government, what's out there, we've looked at the RDN, what's out there. We've looked at the improvement district. So that's open for further discussion.

Trial period for advance voting

C. HANNEBAUER: The second, there's a part two to this. If we're looking at an advance vote, we would like to make a recommendation that we do this as a two year trial period in order to see how it goes and the costs of doing it, whether or not it's going to be worth it. So that's part two of it, whether or not you guys will look at having a two year trial period and then a review after the fact, so we can see where it falls.

Trustee Mercier suggests a 3 year trial period so that it allows one full cycle through all of the boards and Trustee Appel says that he worded a motion on this to say three elections (which would essentially be a 2 year period).

C. Hannebauer reminds the Trustees to consult with the CO when setting dates.

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REPORTS

CORPORATE OFFICER REPORT

[50:00]

See the meeting package. Trustee Chorneyko thanked the CO for including a report in the package.

[50:30]

FIRE CHIEF REPORT

Recommended MOTION: To approve one of the command vehicle choices

Recommended MOTION: To approve the purchase of a heat pump for Hall 2

Chief Sprogis read his report and answered questions. The base report is in the meeting package, updated info follows.

Call volume report update:

• 405 calls to date from January 1 – November 5
• 39 October calls: 3 burn complaints, 1 investigation, 1 alarms activated, 1 public assist, 2 motor vehicle incidents, 31 first responder
• 5 November calls so far, all medical responses.

RDN Fire Services Advisory Committee meeting:

• The meeting on Oct 29 was attended by the Chief and Trustee Chorneyko.
• CHIEF: One of the things that was brought up there I think is important, is the fire safety inspection. So the building inspection brought that meeting, and we do have one big project, Paisley Place, that will need to have that plan in place. So we followed up with Paisley Place to ensure that they have a fire safety plan while they're under construction.

Recruitment: ten applications submitted, eight candidates will be moving forward.

CAD system upgrades are reliant on cell service, so these will require installing StarLink devices on command vehicles.

Staffing: two firefighters who have served over 5 years have resigned in the past month.

TRAINING REPORT

[1:01:00]

DEPUTY CHIEF: This month, I've signed up three members for fire instructor 1, which will assist with their SOS training, and I'm currently taking a business operations course through JIBC.

MATTERS ARISING FROM REPORTS

Purchase of new command vehicle

[1:03:00]

Discussion re choice of new command vehicle. Budget has been set at $100,000 so the committee of 5 people has been working to optimizing what they can get in relation to that number. It will be difficult to get a truck for the budget unless they can get a 2025 model, because 2026 prices have gone up.

Many options have been reviewed, including EV options. The officers recommend going with gas because it is important that the vehicle have substantial towing ability, to haul a large type two SGU trailer, as well as possibly have a fire skid, and electric vehicles are currently unable to meet that requirement. Currently recommending 2500 or possibly 3500 level gas powered trucks.

Trustee Chorneyko asked about using vehicle 4 to tow and keeping the command vehicle on the island. This was not seen as practical.

DEPUTY CHIEF: We have another vehicle coming up next year, and we would be looking very closely at electric vehicle for that one. But for now, we need something.

CHIEF: … We have the replacement of Med 7 next year, and so at that time, it gives us some flexibility whether if we went for the 2500, that we park that down at Hall #2, and then we could look at the possible electric vehicle.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Why not the electric vehicle now?

CHIEF: There's a lot of there's a lot of question marks. Right off the bat, we don't have a large enough vehicle to tow type 2 SBU trailer—

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: What’s an SBU trailer weigh?

CHIEF:  Between 10 and 15,000 pounds. And it can’t accommodate the fire skid, which is around 250 gallons of water. So we're currently looking at something that can do both those duties, and it gives us the ability to really look at it next year.

Trustee Moeller asks what the Chief is asking the Trustees to do at this point.

CHIEF: We were asked to gather a bunch of information about it and to bring a proposal forward. We do have one truck currently here tonight, I think that could get us under the $100,000 threshold, which was the RAM gas 2500 … if it’s still available.

Trustee Mercier asks if they are confident that they can get a satisfactory truck within budget or if they require a buffer.

CHIEF: There's a number of factors that we're looking at. We're trying to find a truck under the, well with taxes coming in under $80,000, so we can purchase […] the additional light package, and then there'd be decaling and other needs. So the total with all of that would need to come around $100,000.

The Chief thinks an authorization that gives the FD the discretion to purchase without specifying a particular truck is a good idea. Discussion re how much is in the Capital Reserve account.

Trustee Chorneyko proposes a motion that the new vehicle be electric but the motion does not receive a second so it is not discussed.

MOTION:

THAT the Board approve the fire chief to spend up to $110,000 from the capital reserve fund trucks to purchase a replacement command vehicle and equip it as approved by the GVFD officer committee. [CARRIED]

It is noted that once the vehicle is purchased a bylaw will be required to authorize the expenditure of funds.

Facility upgrade – heat pump

[1:13:35]

Details of the proposal are in the meeting package. The Chief notes that any heat pump purchased can be repurposed in the future. This falls under the capital budget for maintenance. It was clarified that the estimate does include labour.

MOTION

To approve the purchase of a heat pump for Hall 2 and allocate $6000 from Capital Reserve Funds (Hall Maintenance). CARRIED.

Request for report on SOS training

[1:17:30]

Trustee Mercier moves a new motion arising from the Chief’s report re reporting on details of what resources are allocated to Safer Ocean Systems (SOS) training. Chief Sprogis says that they are happy to provide that information.

CHIEF: We've taught three courses so far [this year], and we brought three instructors to those sessions. We now use our backup number 5 that has moved into its tender role. … They supply the equipment, like nozzles and their own SCBAs, our instructors use our SCBAs for the course, because they're trained to use those very quick.

DEPUTY CHIEF: We have two more dates in December, and that rounds out the year.

CHIEF: … The first course ran with three people, but we have an agreement that they pay us for a minimum of eight people a course. So even if their courses aren't full, we're not gonna put up instructors unless they have a dedication of eight.

When questioned the Chief confirms that there is no commitment to a specific number of courses each year.

MOTION

THAT going forward, the Chief’s report include an accounting of staff and material resources allocated to work with SOS during each month, and that this report include an update on our agreements to “discuss how we can reasonably support the creation of additional training for the STCW advanced firefighting course and MED domestic vessel safety as set up in our contract with SOS.” [CARRIED]

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BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES and UNFINISHED BUSINESS

1.    Privacy Commissioner

[1:22:35]

One current FOI request. The contact trustees are John Moeller and Diana Moher. Due to the complex nature, the complaint is now being handled by Privacy Works.

Trustee Moeller indicates that redacted information has been sent to the applicant, so that “unless we hear back from the Privacy Commissioner, then that one is closed.” The work has not yet been invoiced.

2.    Privacy Management Update

[1:24:20]

No update.

3.    Bylaw XXX: Fire Department Establishing Bylaw

[1:24:30]

The item is being kept on the agenda to keep the item open, pending the outcome of union negotiations which will likely affect the final terms.

Trustee Mercier notes that there was a motion in the agenda package.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: My read of the motion based on the same standing item would be that the Corporate Officer would send out an inquiry to the Inspector, presumably, they'll respond before the next meeting, and then the report of that response would be part of the standing item of the next meeting.

MOTION

To consult with the Office of the Inspector of Municipalities about the best way to incorporate the sort of activity described by the SOS service agreement into the authority of the GVFD. [CARRIED]

4.    Need to formalize mutual aid agreements by bylaw

[1:27:40]

The Corporate Officer is working on this.

5.    Security of File Sharing- and OneDrive concerns

[1:27:50]  🐌  🔥

A meeting with Sleepdeprived Computer Techs will be scheduled in mid-November.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: When you talk to Sleepdeprived, could you also talk about our current practice of emailing files? Generally, we email files, right? And when you email a file, you lose care, custody and control of it, and when you share something, you can maintain care, custody and control of that file. So I think any discussion with Sleepdeprived needs to be done in that context.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: If I recall directly from correspondence, you've had some initial conversation with Sleepdeprived, and they gave you a rough ball park of like $2,000 for establishment of a server. So I would like to move […] that we authorize up to $2,000 spending at that meeting, based on their expertise. If there's something that Sleepdeprived suggests that can just be implemented, that we authorize that spending now so that it doesn't necessarily have to come back.

CHAIR JOHNSON: I’m a little reticent to have people on island dealing with that. I’ve talked to the FOI people and lawyers, who suggested that, in a different set of circumstances, but kinda the same thing, that we look at getting somebody from off island to do this kind of work for us. I’ve nothing against SleepDeprived, but we need a very very very very neutral person, something that everybody can agree is neutral, and I think that’s somebody in Nanaimo or Victoria, to handle this.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: I need to take a step back here. I don't really understand what the purpose of this is. I know there's concerns about OneDrive and the security. I myself don't really share that concern. I mean, Microsoft is a very big company, and I feel like the value of the information to a hacker that we would transmit on that is pretty low compared to the amount of data that's on OneDrive globally. And you have to factor that in when you're considering the amount of risk that you're at. And then if the solution that we're proposing is our own server, you also have to factor in the cost of maintaining the security yourself on that server, as opposed to letting one of the biggest companies in the world deal with that. We are now responsible for that security. And so that is my concern with doing this, not only the cost that we’d be getting, the inconvenience of not being able to share files via email any longer, and the burden of that. That is my concern with taking on our own server.

TRUSTEE MOHER: I hear you, John, I disagree. The reason I brought it up was because other functionaries were talking about the fact that they brought up the concern of the difficulties with OneDrive, and the shareability of information, and people were accidentally giving access to OneDrive. And because we're a government agency, we have a higher level of, we need to hold ourselves at a higher standard. And it's actually where OneDrive’s server is, not necessarily ours. We solved our server problem by having gone to our fire hall email. What we were doing before was, you had […]mail, he had Gmail, I had Shaw, and he had whatever, and everybody had stuff that was from somewhere we couldn’t guarantee where our emails are going from, stuff could go to the States and come back and things like this. What they're talking about is that we need to prove that OneDrive server is in Canada, because if our information isn’t in Canada, we are actually performing illegal actions. And that's where this stuff came, and that's what got flagged for me, and that's why I brought it forward. So if you can ascertain that our OneDrive, the server is in Canada, then we are not actually in breach of government standards, regardless of whether we think somebody is going to come after us and look for things or not. So that's where my concerns, that's where I'm coming from.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I think, given these concerns, it's probably best not to submit any money, so I'm going to withdraw the motion. […] My concern with electronic systems is that, at present, we have no way of sharing one of the trustees confidential information. The only way that as a trustee, I can access employment agreements or zoom camera meeting minutes or legal briefings or any of this kind of thing, is by coming into the office during a very limited amount of time that the office is available, which is roughly three days a week during business hours, during which I have other commitments. So for me, a good solution to this problem allows expanded access for trustees to confidential records outside of those very limited hours. I don't have a good solution to that. Maybe we can suggest one.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: This isn't what I thought it was, it's way further down the road, like we're talking about getting a server. So I share Trustee Moeller’s concern about security. If we think that we can do server security on the cheap, like DIY, we're nuts. The hackers are way, way better than we are. We need to go with somebody that knows what they're doing with like OneDrive, right? Trustee Moher’s concern about this being on these OneDrive servers, being in Canada, is not a hard thing to resolve. I mean, it's a check box. Yes, we need to do that, but it's a very easy thing to do. I'm very concerned about us thinking about running our own servers.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: If this meeting with Sleepdeprived is already scheduled, maybe they can make a proposal and bring it to the board, rather than the board pre-allocating money for something.

CORPORATE OFFICER: So putting all the files right now, they're currently on like five different computers, and so being in one location, so if something happens to one of those computers we have a backup. Right now a lot of the stuff is on the Corporate Officer’s computer. There's a backup done, but if it's done, like once a week, then—

TRUSTEE MOELLER: You can network all the computers through OneDrive in your local area network. Like having a server is typically something you access from outside, and if the problem is that trustees can accidentally give access to OneDrive, then the same problem exists for our own server. I don't know how we’d resolved that issue by controlling it. I'm not opposed to this meeting with Sleepdeprived, but I do have concerns about running our own server. I've run my own server. It is not as straightforward as—I just don’t want to saddle you with a bunch of burden and a bunch of cost […]

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO:  We need to go into a cloud solution. The world has gone onto the cloud, and we need to drink the juice and do that. It's doable. Everyone does this. There's solutions that are workable and appropriate.

CHAIR: Well, maybe that's a discussion that we should have. I don’t know if we can do it here tonight, but we should put that on our agenda, because that's right now. My concern, once again, is that the perception that when you have a computer expert that is in your neighbourhood, it raises questions, like, “He’s on that side,” or “He’s on that side.” That’s why I’m proposing that we look at somebody that’s at least on the other side of the water.

And the thing about if we're going to keep using OneDrive [is] that we make sure that it's a Canadian server, I think that's law. I don't think we can do that otherwise. Yeah, so that's my concern. And the other thing, I guess, is that's a fair whack of money for somebody to  sit there for a day and look at your computer system. … I think that's a little bit excessive. I was quoted, for something very much like this, $800 with a guy that does his work for the RCMP in Nanaimo. So just if that, comparison shopping, that's what I'm thinking. I mean, we don't have to spend all that money by the hour or by the contract.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I'm going to suggest that, since discussion doesn't seem to be leading towards taking a particular action on this item, that [the Corporate Officer] has a meeting and reports back to us on what she learns, and then we take action on that, and then we move on to the next item.

CHAIR: Maybe Dave Vincent can tell us whether we're on an American server or not.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: Before we do that, can we establish that we absolutely have to be on Canadian servers? We have to verify that.

TRUSTEE MOHER: I verified that. I'm sorry, I didn’t bring all the documentation that I had. It’s actually illegal. That was where the email stuff started, that it's illegal for government entities to have their servers and information passing out of Canada and back into Canada.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: It's a well established thing, and so places like Microsoft are well aware of this, and they have servers in our country.

TRUSTEE MOHER: And what they're saying online here, this is good for other people to know too, is that what happens is that certain configurations and errors allowed applications to view and download files that they did not officially have access to, even sensitive content, such as tax documents, project plans or confidential meeting minutes. Worse still, the affected applications did not even need to use an export. All they had to do was use a file picture correctly or indirectly. The problem was not a targeted hack but a design flaw in the system. Many users trust cloud providers such as Microsoft, Google and Apple to keep their data secure, but this incident shows that even large platforms make mistakes with far-reaching consequences. So these are people that deal with these problems saying, there is a problem with people putting everything up in the cloud and it's accessible there, but these things that make mistakes, and it lets all of your stuff. Anything you have on the cloud is accessible.

[A source was not cited; it appears to be reference the event described in this blog post by Cryptomator,a vendor of encryption services.]

Trustee Mercier notes that the Local Government Management Association Records and Information Management Manual may provide useful guidance on these matters. A member of the audience is recognized and notes that there have been changes to regulations around data residency in the past couple of years, and the details regarding specifics should be investigated. There is a decision to table the matter.

 

 

6.    Hiring Motion

[1:42:40]

The Corporate Officer Position has been posted.

7.    Purchase of LGMA Records and Information Management Manual

 

[1: 43:10]

Trustee Chorneyko explains that this is produced by a BC organization that creates manuals and helps train Corporate Officers and local governments. He and the Corporate Officer recommend purchasing both hardcopy and electronic versions of the manual.

MOTION

To approve the purchase of one 2024 Records and Information Management Manual for Local Government Organizations, Sixth Edition from the Local Government Management Association. CARRIED.

8.    Approval of ICBC payout to Capital Reserves

[1: 44:45]

From March 2024, a recommendation to amend Motion #24-G15

“Charleen Wells motioned the Fire Chief is allowed to use $19,000.00 insurance money to purchase a new truck with the idea it will be outfitted at a later date subject to financing.”

The Corporate Officer explains that this is moving that the $19,000 insurance payout for the ladder truck, which has not been replaced, be put back into Capital Reserves until it is decided what to do with it.

CHAIR: Are we still looking at getting a comparable vehicle?

CHIEF: I think that the motion now just moves it back into the capital reserve fund for you to determine the replacement.

TRUSTEE MERCIER:  I guess my question is that money was allocated like 18 months ago. Why hasn't it been spent?

TRUSTEE MOHER: Because it took a long time for it to come around. We only just got it, I think.

[multiple voices, unclear]

CHIEF: We just want to see it go back into the—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I get that, but the money came in 18 months ago. The board decided—

TRUSTEE MOELLER(?): We haven't decided, I don’t think.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Well, the board decided, in March 2024, to use it to purchase a new truck. But that new truck wasn't actually purchased over the course of last 18 months, so the money is still sitting in the account? I’m just trying to understand.

CHIEF: We're just looking to see if there's something used we could pick up and use as a wildland truck.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I’ll make the motion to nullify motion number 24-15 from March 2024, and place that money in the capital reserve fund, trucks. Is that an accurate reflection of what needs to happen? [seconded]

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: I'm of the opinion that this needs to be in the Operational Fund, a whole lot more than in the capital fund. So on the one hand, we have plenty of capital money. FUS requires us to replace front line engines every 20 years, and so if we're replacing front line engines in 22 or 24 years, that means that we don't have enough capital money, and we're stretching that. But this department just replaced [with a] brand new front line engine, and the engine it's replacing is only 16 years old, so to me, that's a clear indication that we have plenty of money in our capital reserves. So that's one hand. On the other hand, this department has just made its first operational advance on the tax levy so that we can stay liquid in May and June. We have a balance sheet problem and, so we don't have enough money in our operational accounts. So I say that we should leave this money in the operational account and not move it into the capital accounts.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: So my understanding is this money is not in the operational, is it in—

CO: It’s in [unclear]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: So prior to last November, the improvement district had only one reserve fund. It was sort of a general reserve fund, and this money was in that general reserve. The issue is that we can't move money from capital reserves into operations. We can move it from operations into the capital reserves. So if this money is currently in capital reserves that just hasn't been spent—

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: It's in the operations.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: So there's $19,000 sitting in an operational budget? and … it’s been allocated to the purchase of a new truck from the operations budget, and we're looking at canceling the purchase of that truck and putting money someplace, and that's what we're deciding now? So it could go into operations.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: It should stay in operations, is what I'm saying.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: My recollection is that this money was donated to the fire department specifically for the purchase of a ladder truck. Now that ladder truck was unfortunately destroyed, and the insurance company took a while and paid it out. That money should go back to buying a ladder truck. However, that ladder truck was a one time thing that we got second hand, and it's not easily replaceable for that $19,000. But because the person who donated the money donated it specifically for a ladder truck, it's kind of unethical to just throw that money into general funds and use it up. And it might actually be illegal. I think you do have some obligation to put donated money towards what the person donated it for. And so I think it needs to go back into the capital reserve for the trucks until we can find a suitable vehicle to spend on.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I just looked up the resolution from the meeting where it was made at, and this $19,000 is insurance money, not [unclear] money.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: No, but the original money for the ladder truck was donated. Because the ladder truck got destroyed, right? This insurance company reimbursed the department for the money that it spent on the ladder truck, so it's basically getting that money back. It's the donated money back to the fire department.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Through insurance.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: Through insurance.

TRUSTEE MOHER: So it was the whole choice that we replace that piece of equipment, but it was unfeasible with that small amount.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: Yeah, it's a pretty rare find.

TRUSTEE MOHER: And I’m sure that the person that donated that money would prefer that we still use that to go towards another vehicle.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: Well I think that ethically, we should do that.

TRUSTEE MOHER: I agree.

Trustee Mercier asks if there is a motion on the floor. Procedural discussions.

MOTION

to nullify motion number 24-G15, from March 2024, and place the $19,000 insurance money in Capital Reserve, Trucks [CARRIED]

---

NEW BUSINESS

1.    WorkSafe Order

[1:53:15] 🐌

Recommended Motions:

To appoint a trustee to deal with the order.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: WorkSafe did an investigation on the District and found that we were noncompliant on bullying and harassment policy and bullying and harassment training, based on what I provided. So they contacted me and just said that they've done this, and they wanted more information, and I gave it to them, and they said that that was not sufficient. So I don't actually know what the Fire Department has in terms of bullying and harassment policies and training. So that was actually something I'm gonna ask you guys.

CHIEF: Yeah, we have an operational guideline on bullying and harassment.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: So do you guys do annual training for all the members?

CHIEF: We do go over that policy in a training [unclear] and make sure people are aware of it.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: All they said was, all of our staff need it. What I provided was the one from the GFPID, basically just our complaints policy. And he said, that's fine, but we should have a specific bullying and harassment policy as well, plus we have to have annual training for all of our staff, that includes the Corporate Officer, Deputy and the Chief as well. We need to do that, I need to respond to them by December the 5th to say that we have done this. So it sounds like you're already doing it for the fire department. Who's training you guys? Is it okay for you to train yourself? I don't know, but I circulated some information that they sent me. It's basically a policy and a training guide. I don't know if you got sent that too. So I guess the GFPID needs to adopt policy as well, on bullying and harassment.

And he did tell me that WorkSafe can't compel the trustees to receive the training because we don't [unclear] WorkSafe, but he recommended that we do it anyways. So I was going to suggest that we asked the Corporate Officer to prepare a training and policy for the next meeting. And that's just something that's going to have to be part of our annual thing. It'll have to be the Corporate Officer, because the trustees change over. We can't really appoint a trustee to do this. I'm going to make a motion that we ask the Corporate Officer to prepare a policy and training guide for the next meeting.

CHAIR: If I can say this, I think really, realistically, there's a law, you know, on the books […] with WorkSafe BC. This is the law, as far as bullying and harassment is concerned. If you're going to write the policy, you can just take it wholesale from what their policy is, because theirs overrides everything else. […] We just use what WorkSafe BC says is what they want as policy, and that's it. And then we're covered on all fronts.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: And I provided that template, and the template training, it just needs to [unclear].

CHAIR: With the logo on the top, and signed off by the Corporate Officer, Bob's your uncle.

TRUSTEE MOHER: I think it would be part of the new trustee handbook, right? That [unclear] would be put in there, so anyone coming it, it would just be part of the Handbook. So then that's there, and then you can reference that.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: We'll need to add the policy.

CHAIR: We have been provided with basically a movie that we're going to, that everybody gets to watch. And as far as what's going on, what is bullying, what is harassment, what is not, I guess we're going to be, maybe not required to see to see it, but I think we should all look at it.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: This organization has maintained this hard line between the GVFD and the improvement district, and the GVFD has a bullying and harassment policy in your operational guidelines, and then it's like, the improvement district doesn't have it. […] We're a local government, think of the city of Nanaimo. Do you think the city of Nanaimo Fire Department has a bullying and harassment policy, and the garbage department has a bullying and harassment policy, and the parks department has a bullying and harassment policy, and then they have something different for the organization, that's not how it works in the city of Nanaimo. In the city of Nanaimo, I can tell you without even looking that the city of Nanaimo has a bullying and harassment policy, and that's for all of the departments. And so we should do the same thing here. This improvement district is a one department government. It has a fire department. And so the improvement district should have a bullying and harassment policy, and that is the bullying and harassment policy for the fire department, like this is how all these organizations [unclear].

CHAIR: I think that's what we just said.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: We have one, and then they follow us.

CHAIR: But these guys have got theirs. We need our own.

TRUSTEE MOHER: That did come up at the policy committee meeting.

CHAIR: Yeah, and it's the same policy that Workman’s Comp said that you do, it's as simple as that, no greater, no lesser. You know, we just basically take their policy and put our logo on it.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I'm going to propose a friendly amendment to your proposed thing, just for language and clarity. And so what I've got, based on the conversation that we just had, is a motion that the corporate officer liaise with trustee Moeller and WorkSafeBC, and develop a plan for bringing the GFPID and the GVFD into compliance with their directives about bullying and harassment, and present that plan to the board at the December general meeting for approval and implementation.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: Well, as long as we get a policy.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: My intention is that, rather than hashing this out now based on information, like, as you've had the conversation with the WorkSafe people, and have things in your head that aren't general. So if you and Marjorie work together to narrow that down, bring in any further information from WorkSafeBC, like, what exactly they need, so that at the next meeting it can be brought to us, and we can do whatever it is that they may—that's my intention with this rewording of your motion. I think that motion was seconded, so why don't we propose this as an amendment? that work?

TRUSTEE MOELLER: I just want to point out that I'm doing it this way because I want Marjorie to whoever's going to be Corporate Officer when done hiring, I want that to be the Corporate Officers input into them. So it's not just me telling you what we need.

MOTION

THAT the motion on the floor be amended to read that the Corporate Officer liaises with trustee Moeller and WorkSafe BC and develop a plan for bringing the GFPID and GFVD into compliance with the directives about bullying and harassment, and present that plan to the board as December general meeting for approval and implementation. [CARRIED]

The amendment is approved and the amended motion is CARRIED.

2.    Code of Conduct/Governance

[2:03:15]

TRUSTEE MOHER: I going to keep this very short and sweet. I asked this to be put on. I had gone to a workshop as part of being on the board of the Gabriola Community Hall, on governance, and it was aimed at non-profits, but it was extremely informative and interesting to sit there and listen to some things that overlap with us. I thought we should be, as we’ve talked about numerous times, talked about bringing more information in and talking to people that have some expertise around this. And it reflects back on our code of conduct, which sometimes does not get followed, and how we need to deal with that, and how we need to maybe tighten up how we look at our behavior. One of the things in governance was a questionnaire that somebody found and sent to me. Marjorie sent it out to everybody. It's not, like, for the fire department, so some of the questions were really non-relevant, but I still thought they were kind of interesting. And I would like to recommend that we as a board, actually kind of sit down, print it out and fill it out and hand it in, and we can use it as the beginning of looking at ourselves as a board and what we're doing and how we feel about what we're doing, and then use that to move forward on looking at some governance material that we might need. And I also, and I know David has it too, we got sent the slides from that workshop, and a lot of information in there might be relevant for us to sit down and have a learning session, and one day sit over lunch and watch the slides and take a look at things that are being said by people that teach people how to run boards. She had some really good insight into things.

The Chair asks about trying to schedule such a meeting informally and Trustee Moher agrees that this a good approach.

3.    Updated Election Policy

[2:06:10]

MOTION

To accept the revised policy as presented to the Board of Trustees [CARRIED]

Trustee Chorneyko notes some issues with formatting in the policy document.

AMENDED MOTION:

that the district implement advanced voting for a trial period of three election cycles. At the end of this period, the public shall be informed of the number of advanced votes cast, costs incurred, and other relevant data. At the conclusion of three election cycles, the Board will review the results and determine whether advanced voting should be continued, modified or discontinued. [CARRIED]

4.    Privacy Breach

[2:10:20]

Brief discussion of whether to go in camera. Trustee Moher references a motion, but apparently not all Trustees had the motion in their agenda package.

MOTION:

that the privacy breach item for New Business be moved to the in camera portion of the meeting taken up at that time, and that the public meeting now be moved to question period. [CARRIED]

---

QUESTION PERIOD

[2:12:35]

ITEM 1

LIZ CIOCEA: Bullying and Harassment

I'm sorry, some observations, so please bear with me. When I see here, when I see what I went through in the 90s as a woman doing a man's so-called job, the intimidation and bullshit that I had to deal with, even though I was in the union, I am shocked to think we still have to talk about this today, all these years later. I feel bad about that, right? I overcame it. Trust me, I'm a strong person. But I just can’t believe we’re still talking about a code of conduct and treating each other respectfully.

ITEM 2

FRANK MOHER:

Data residency requirements

Quickly, may I provide some information to corroborate what this person said? So it is true that the legislation was revised in recent years, such that you may have a server outside Canada if you undertake a particular audit and meet its requirements, right? So that is an option.

Correction to motion

Mr. Moher also clarified that accounts are held with Coastal Community Credit Union, not Coast Capital Savings and points out that a motion was passed referencing the incorrect institution. There is agreement that the motion needs to be amended.

ITEM 3

SEAN LEWIS:

Deadline for feedback on Letters Patent

I know the policy committee will be reviewing the wording of the Letters Patent. If I write some observations in this month, would that be considered by the December deadline? [Corporate Officer confirms that it will be.] Yeah, that's fine. I would say that because I wrote the letter a couple of months ago, and I know there's a delay on that.

Hiring ad

Secondly, I understand the board is hiring a Corporate Officer right? I saw the ad in the paper, which it incorrectly states that the fire department is hiring Corporate Officer. That is not correct.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: Well, I agree with you, and I apologize for the mistakes. There's only so many words you can put in the paper, and if you have to explain the difference between the GFPID and the GVFD to put it in the paper, you're getting too complicated. You just want to put an ad out, and you want to keep it simple so that people understand it's the fire department they're applying to.

SL: It didn't have to say the fire department is hiring a corporate officer. It's clearly incorrect, and it's nothing to do with word count. Just do what it says we're supposed to do, right?

Governance policy

Finally, on governance, been here before, looking for governance, and we have what they call the Advisory Select Committee [that] made a number of recommendations, which my knowledge have not been adopted. I'd be happy to supply the board with those recommendations for consideration, seeing that we’re once again looking at governance. We went down this road, spent a lot of time on it, and it seems to have vanished into a black hole.

CHAIR: I think we've all read it.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I don't think anyone would be surprised by me stating that I probably share many of your concerns about the distribution of reporting in the Corporate Officer role, be that as it may, the ad in the paper does direct potential applicants to the website. The job listing on the website was constructed by the board in such a way that it communicates to prospective applicants that Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department operates under the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District, a democratically elected local government on Gabriola Island. So in the longer job description that we have posted for the public, some of your concerns are addressed.

SL: I agree. All I'm saying is, why not be consistent and correct? I saw no reason to have something misleading put in there.

ITEM 4

CHIEF:

Emergency hosting agreement

I've got an item that Trustee Bussler brought to my attention that should come into the agenda. I don't know if it's too late and this needs to go in next month's agenda, but if we could talk about it was kind of an emergency situation we got put in last year. BCEHS had no power at their station in the cyclone bomb, and we had to kind of make a decision on the fly to invite them into the hall. We did charge them $1,000 per 24 hour period. It was supposed to create an initiative that BC Ambulance or BCEHS would buy their own generator in the future, if we weren't just going to make it work long term. And we're just wondering if we could continue this until they get a generator for this season. They've been asked by the Unit Chief.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I would like to make the motion that the Gabriola volunteer fire departments work with BCEHS to formalize the agreement. So it remains casual for now, they work with them before next meeting, and bring a formal agreement to the board for approval.

CHIEF: Yeah, in an emergency situation, let stand the passive agreement that we have in place.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Yeah, until it's formalized. I think that's within the your authority operationally. But I also think it's good to formalize it.

MOTION:

THAT the GVFD work with BCEHS to formalize the Emergency Hosting agreement and present it to the board at the December General Meeting. [CARRIED]

Correction to motion

MOTION:

to amend the Jay Dearborn motion to create the account in Coastal Community Credit Union. [CARRIED]

ITEM 5

NANCY HETHERINGTON-PEIRCE: advance voting trial

So I just want to say that I'm feeling disappointed in the board's decision to try the advance voting process for three elections ,to try it as an experiment with the stated purpose to say, is it worth it or not, considering finances as well as turn-out, and whatever else. I think it's the right thing to do to have advanced polling for elections, for local governments, and so I'm disappointed that the board made this motion. You do have opportunities to rescind [motions] at future meetings. So I just wanted to state my really strong disappointment in that decision the board meeting.

ITEM 6

NOLA JOHNSTON: SOS reporting

I do have a question or possibly a comment on the financial statement. When I read through it, I saw that the SOS expenses were itemized as a line item, but SOS income is not itemized as a line item. And it's my understanding that accounting principles suggest that expenses be matched with the revenues they help generate. So I would like to see a line item for the income from SOS training, so that we can see how they relate to each other.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: We'll look at that.

CHIEF: It might have just been because there hadn't been any courses yet that season, so we might have shown that there was some expense.

NJ: It would be useful even to see a zero.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: so the SOS instructor wages, and grants…

NJ: Yeah, it shows as instructor wages, but then I assume it gets rolled into other revenues.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: So you'd like to see that split out.

NJ: yeah, so that we can see the relationship between income and expenses.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Okay, can we do that, [Corporate Officer]?

CO: We'll see if… it'll take a while to [unclear]

ITEM 7

PENELOPE BAHR: election policy

I would just like to say that I agree with Nancy Hetherington Pierce, there should be no price on democracy. Everybody should be given the chance to vote, and if that means paying a little bit more because you have an alternative date, an advanced poll, you shouldn't even consider saying no to it in the future. And I would like you really to consider Trustee Chorneyko’s views on changing the Letters Patent to include renters. I'm not sure that's exactly what you mean, but I would like to see that change in the Letters Patent, and you can do that within the law. And so I would like to see renters given the chance to vote as well. Please consider it.

ITEM 8

DEREK KILBOURN (SOUNDER NEWS):

Notice of in camera meetings

Ray mentioned throwing up all the meetings to the calendar on the website. Is that going to include in camera meetings, recognizing you can't give details, but at least letting the public know they're happening?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: So over the past couple of months, we've put in camera meetings up in advance. And I believe what we've been doing with the recordings is recording the call to order, the land acknowledgement and the motion to move the meeting in camera, at which point the recording ends. So if everything is going smoothly, and please cut us some slack because it is still early days, that's how things should go, because an in camera meeting of the Board still requires the minimum seven days notice from our bylaws. It should be that a week in advance the notice goes up that a General, Special General Meeting will be held on whatever date, and an agenda package goes up. And all that agenda package should just look like is call to order, land acknowledgement, motion to move in camera, and then the three minute reporting should go up.

Request for call response data on website

DK: The second question is, and can I probably just ask the chief this? The previous iterations of the Gabriola Fire Department's website had the information for call volume broken down, and we used to be able to look that up. Clearly as a reporter, I find that interesting. But is that something that you'd be able to bring back to the website? Because, I mean, the data on that was fantastic, and the public can immediately see those trends.

CHIEF: We can work towards that.

ITEM 9

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I just wanted to follow up on what you were just talking about previously, about the in camera meetings. I just want to confirm that you do report out from them when a decision is made or there’s something comes back to—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Our practice over this past several months has been during the meeting, if the board reaches a decision that can be reported, we pass a motion to report those decisions. At the at the October public general meeting there were a number of resolutions that have been made in camera that were reported, and personally it would be my hope that Chair Johnson continues that practice.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: So it would come back to the next meeting.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Depending on the decision, some things can't be reported at all, because the decisions, even the discussion can’t be reported. I would hope that board would continue the practice of reporting what can be reported.

ITEM 10

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I have a question about the voting. Why is there a requirement that you are a Canadian citizen?

RETURNING OFFICER: That’s the Election Act law.

??: It’s also in the Letters Patent.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: So you could be a landowner but not a Canadian citizen, so therefore you now cannot vote,

AL: Even though you pay taxes to support—

RO: It’s the same as you can't vote in a provincial election or a federal election.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's a bit of the problem, isn’t it. [multiple voices]

Multiple voices. It is noted that federal legislation supercedes that of lower levels of government.

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ADJOURNMENT

MOTION

THAT the meeting be moved to an in camera session to consider confidential (legal/personnel) matters, per Bylaw 97 s.9.