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2025-12-03 GFPID meeting – Part 3

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This is the third post in our series about the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement meeting that took place on December 3rd, 2025.

The first post about the 2025-12-03 meeting provides an introduction, links, and useful background information. Our transcription of the meeting itself begins in the second post of this series.

For your convenience we are providing a Table of Contents.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COMMITTEE REPORTS

  1. Finance Committee
  2. Communications Committee
  3. Hiring Committee
  4. Website Committee
  5. Freedom of Information Response Committee
  6. Policy Review Committee

COMMITTEE REPORTS

FINANCIAL COMMITTEE

(APPROX 1:40)

CHAIR: So it's the hiring committee, hiring committee right now.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I think it’s the Finance Committee

[multiple voices, unclear]

CHAIR: I’m sorry what?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: No, it’s the Financial Report.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Yeah

CHAIR: Okay, well I thought we had that one before, did we not? Are we going to do it again?

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: No. It’s the Financial Report. And so I'll keep this short. Most of what we, um, we never had a quorum at the last finance meeting. So I put in, on page nine of the agenda package, is what I submitted. Also, and the portion that was missed… I'll read the whole thing about the balance sheet.

“We discussed the balance sheet problem. It has yet to get the traction that it deserves. Hopefully, at some point it will. I encourage the public to read the agenda package from the November 22 meeting on our website. Within that package is a 16-page paper that talks about the balance sheet problem that this organization faces.”

This part was omitted:

“With the way we budget, this organization is going to require larger and larger cash advances on the levy in order to stay solvent in June. It's significant. My best estimate is that we will need to advance $410,000 for 2027.”

And that's the finance committee report. Any questions or comments? [pause] Let’s move along.

TRUSTEE MOHER:That was a conversation that we did have, when we had that, about the increasing advance, and it was only you and I that were there.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Erik was there too.

CHAIR: Yeah.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Erik was there, yes, but of the “committee” committee people… And it was something that we discussed, about the fact that that we have no way of knowing—

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Actually we did  …

TRUSTEE MOHER: No, David, we had a really good conversation—

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: You don't understand, but—

CHAIR: If I could— [attempting to interrupt, Trustee Moher continues talking] Hey, hey. [clicks his fingers loudly to draw their attention]

TRUSTEE MOHER: I do understand. So please don't do that.

[unclear what “that” referred to, possibly stating that she didn’t understand?]

CHAIR: Please don’t do that ... [to Trustee Moher] Go ahead.

TRUSTEE MOHER: That is very unprofessional of you. I do understand, and I understand what you're trying to say. And it's alarmist if you start telling people we're going to be borrowing money from our levy, when what we have is a budgeting problem. We're looking at how we work the levy and how we increase what we need in order to increase the exigency money that we need to have. Not continually look for advances and advances and advances, which does cause a shortfall every single year. So that was where we started to get into the conversation. But it was only the two of us, and it's something that should be conversed with everybody in order to make sure that we were all understanding it. Because I know when Carol was trying to watch what you were doing, she also was like going “mmm”, so I was taking a lot of cues from her at the same time. So thank you. I just wanted to put that out there so that people weren't walking away and talking about the fact that we're going to have to have $425,000 being pulled out of the air somehow. So …

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: This is not, I'm not pulling this out of the air.

TRUSTEE MOHER: No, you are.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: No, the way they are budgeting, and this is explained in that 16-page report—

TRUSTEE MOHER: Mmm

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: —the way we are budgeting, we pull money off the balance sheet every time we increase the levy. And based on budget, we're going to need $410,000 in 2027, and it's, it's the math—like, that's what the math tells us. Anyways, well, time will tell.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: You have this fact that we need 50 percent of the increase as an advance.

TRUSTEE MOHER: [unclear]

TRUSTEE MOELLER: If you increase the budget by $100,000  that means you've got half the year that you've got $50,000 less than you had budgeted for the previous year. So you need to increase, or sorry, you need to borrow half of the amount that you budgeted for the calendar year.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: And it's cumulative.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: Not really.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: It's perpetual borrowing for one-time shortfalls. That's the math.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: Yes, but then next year you can budget to pay that back. You can budget to pay that back.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: No, we're not doing that. You—

TRUSTEE MOHER: Yeah, we did, actually, we did.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: We’re not, and that's, that's why this is important, is we need to understand the proper budgeting process. The way we're doing it, $410 grand in 2027, that's where we're headed.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: Well, that means you're going that means you're going to raise the budget by $820,000.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: That's—We're doubling the cost of this fire department in 25, 26, and 27.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: So you are suggesting $820,000 increase, because then, if that's the case, then I agree with you.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: But, if you read the paper, we were $150k short last year. We're going to be, and I forget the numbers …210? ...

TRUSTEE MOELLER: That’s because last year had a very large increase, and so did this year.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: And it's a perpetual borrowing or advance that's needed. Like, you don't pay it off. And so it just keeps on accumulating, and that's … Read the paper.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Sorry, I'm just, sort of, in terms of the general budgeting and stuff. I recently became aware that, I think it was in February/March this year, we had a bank balance of negative $10,000 or something like that. So there is a clear and critical pattern of, like, budgeting problems, like negative, giant negative bank balance, which is not, in my opinion, in a way that taxpayer funds should be [unclear].

CHAIR: I agree.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I'm also going to excuse myself briefly. [exits room]

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Anyways, it needs to get some traction, this issue, at some point. And at some point it will. I’m confident of that.

AUDIENCE MEMBER CHARLEEN WELLS (former trustee): May I make a comment? May I have permission to make a comment on this?

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Sure.

WELLS: What I think the audience doesn't realize, is that the budget is done in October for approval by the province in November, and that's the 2000—the next year's budget. But we do not get the money till the first week of July. So if you increase your budget year to year, which you have to do, because costs go up, you don't get that money til July. So you're always operating six months behind.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: You can budget for it.

WELLS: You can budget for it by increasing it, definitely. But the previous board, in the Long Range Plan really increased the budget. And again, this year, had to really increase it. It would be wonderful to have somebody donate half a million dollars to the fire department, but that's not going to happen. So it depends on how quickly you could increase that budget.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Well, and what I'm suggesting is that we actually budget for these shortfalls. We can actually budget for it—

WELLS: Oh, I know.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: —but you need to acknowledge that the shortfall is going to be there.  Like we're, this organization and people are not yet at the point acknowledging that this shortfall exists.

[background discussion as Wells and Chorneyko continue]

WELLS: But it was acknowledged in the long-range plan, it was discussed in meetings and board meetings, public board meetings—

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Then it needs to be budgeted for—

WELLS: That, it needs to be budgeted for, more, but the public did not want the budget to go up 1.5, no,150%.  It was already going up when—

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Either your budget for it, or you borrow the money.

WELLS: Well, then if you’re going to borrow the money, that's the [unclear] for the public to look at. So the board was working towards—

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: We don't need a referendum. We borrowed a hundred grand this year with no referendum. It's an advance on the levy.

WELLS: Because it was an advance on the levy. Okay.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Yeah.

WELLS: But anyhow, my understanding [unclear], I'm wrong. But if you're going to do that, then you have to be prepared, the taxpayers have to be prepared that the budget is not only going to go up with the general cost of living expenses, and new equipments needed, but it's all then also going to have to go up to fund that, and if you can sell that to the public, great.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: This, the cost of this fire department is doubling in three years, 25, 26 and 27. I don't know if the public understands that.

AUDIENCE MEMBER?: We do.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Well, that's not even accounting for the advances that we're getting.

WELLS: I mean, I can tell you, that the previous board was working really hard to get that levy down, that short-fall down.

CHAIR: Can I say something, can I say something?

[some background conversation continues]

CHAIR: I'd like to point out, to my knowledge, that we had this discussion in public. We've had this discussion. It's a big thing. It's the major thing that we do, here. And at that time, Chair Mercier suggested that we get an advance of $200,000. Am I correct on that?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I believe that was my initial suggestion.

CHAIR: I agreed to, and I thought everybody else did, agree to $100,000 advance—

[?]: That's the [unclear]

CHAIR: —is that right?

[sounds of assent]

CHAIR: And then I got caught in a crossfire. Did I know what I was talking about, or did I not; Did I change my mind? I'll admit I changed my mind. I am not in favor of shortfalls. I am not. But short of just, you know, some, it's not a magical mystery tour. You have to put them up. You have to basically increase, to get out behind this, this nonsense, I think you have to increase the levy—

TRUSTEE MOHER?: Which is what we’ve been doing—

CHAIR: —like for four years, you say, if you're going to be short $100,000 over four years with 25, you add $25,000 on, or what it is, because I think what we've been short, shortfall, [unclear], the cheapest thing was 50, it's obviously a problem. I'd like to see that fixed. Okay?

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: The way we resolve it is we bump up the levy six months prior to increasing the budget, and that way this shortfall disappears. That's how we manage this. And I know people don't get that, but that's the way to manage it.

CHAIR: So can I say something? I would like for our trustee here to speak also, but we could go on forever on this. Okay? And I think I'd like to, if possible, I'm not going to talk about tabling it because I don't think there’s a motion on the floor about this yet, but I don't mind if, personally, that we have another big discussion with the interested parties, because you know, because we're all landowners and taxpayers, let’s get over it. And we're all interested in this. And I don't want our taxes to go up. You don't want your taxes to go up. So we have to have perhaps another meeting and hash this out. But decisions have been made already.

TRUSTEE MOHER: That segues quite nicely into what I was going to say, and it falls back on what former trustee Charleen did, which is the work on the Long Range Plan, which we are committed to continuing to work on. We have not brought that back up. So I would recommend, in the new year that we re-establish that committee, and that can be where all this discussion happens as we look at going forward, and we can verify where we're going, and continuation in recovering from the 10 years of keeping the budget so low that we're now [unclear]. So that's the recommendation that I would make before we move on.

CHAIR: And—

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Could I just make a friendly suggestion? Can you help, maybe, in [unclear] that discussion, help the public understand why the […] 25, 26, 27 or whatever, are so big in terms of a challenge. You know—what's, you know, when you were talking about “we kept it so low for so long, and now we're having to deal with it.” But just communicating some more to us about how and what is happening.

TRUSTEE MOHER: That's a great idea, thank you.

WELLS: It was mentioned in the presentations on the Long Range Plan, and it was mentioned there, but if you couldn't attend that night—

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Right.

WELLS: —you might not have got it, if you missed the Board meeting that it was brought up— …

[There was overlapping talking, referencing the need to have been in attendence to hear about the issue caused by keeping taxes artificially low. More people chime in. ]

CHAIR: Could I just ask something please?

[overlapping voices]

CHAIR: Well, there’s going to be that issue too. Can I just, can I just ask the audience here a little bit, what are your thoughts on me having another discussion about finances, and we need to do that, encompassing whether we're borrowing money in advance or we're not, or how we're going to handle the shortfall here. Could we? Are you folks alright doing it in, say, January, rather than in the Christmas season?

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO:  We'll talk about this in the finance committee. I'm just, this is the Finance Committee Report.

CHAIR: Well, I fully, I am fully with that. But at this point the Finance Committee, unfortunately, had two or three people show up for it. It’s not, well, as far as trustees are concerned, and a couple of people, very wonderful people, showed up here. That's a whole five people showing up for something that is extremely important. So I don't know how we do that, but I guess, maybe put out to people, and rattle chains and say, “we need your input in this,” and we'll have a public meeting on it.

[background discussions]

AUDIENCE MEMBER: And could it be a meeting, [unclear] could it be a meeting where there’s, before the formal part where just you talk and make decisions, there's a bit of a presentation about what the reality is and why—

CHAIR: Yeah.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: —‚and then we can have question and answer—

CHAIR: Yeah.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: —and then you go into the formal decision making part.

CHAIR: Yeah. I keep saying yeah, and I’m just the chair, I don't speak for everybody here until they speak. But I think that it would be good idea. It's basically what we did with the Long Range Plan that was, you know, absolutely tied to budgetary concerns. And you can see that in the Long Range Plan that Char [ED: former Trustee Wells] was in charge of, and—

WELLS: And Carol, Carol was dynamite.

CHAIR: And I was just about to say Carol, Carol too. And they ran the play.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: And maybe do a bit of promo on Facebook or something, you know, places, rather than just the fire hall. [unclear] wanting to help people know this is an important discussion for us to understand.

CHAIR: And honestly, I think as long as we keep the conversation here light and breezy and talk about the facts, we're gonna get a lot more people showing up at these meetings. Mr. Mercier?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I have a resolution that might address some of those things. I move that the board instruct the Corporate Officer to reach out to Debbie Murphy at the Mill Bay Fire Protection District—who has been referred to us by the Office of the Inspector of Municipalities as being open to assisting other improvement district corporate officers—to investigate how that district handles budgeting, advances and shortfalls, and report back to the board.

CORPORATE OFFICER: You don't need a motion. I already talked to Debbie.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: And, the information does the board no good if it exists only in your head. Did you receive information about how they deal with budgeting advances?

CORPORATE OFFICER: No, not that part. Not that topic.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: So it is actually necessary. So that's my motion.

[Chair and Corporate Officer confer]

CHAIR: So, there are lots of people we could reach out to too, but we can do that without a motion. But if you want a motion on that—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Well, I've made the motion, and we’ve yet to receive a second.

[Background chat]

CHAIR: All right, got a seconder?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I don’t see one. So that’s fine.

CHAIR: We'll deal with that later. Okay, we will.

[Background chat]

CHAIR: [to audience] All right, we'll keep you in the loop, promise to do that, but I won't be emailing you individually. That's for sure.

CHAIR: Alright, how long have I been doing this? A month? Anyway. Yeah, exactly a month, exactly a month. Look at me.

COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

(APPROX 1:57:00)

[Corporate Officer tells the Chair that the Communications Committee report is next]

CHAIR: Communications Committee? We did… Financial Committee.

TRUSTEE MOHER: No, we did the finance committee, Communications Committee—

CHAIR:  Which is you.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Which is us. The last thing that happened was the fact that we finally got approval for the list of responses that the Corporate Officer has been given permission to use in order to respond to correspondence appropriately and quickly. And Trustee Moeller—I want to say that carefully, so it's not naming myself—has also put together a policy for us to review, and it will go in tandem with that correspondence, and I believe that the policy is  attached further on. So that's the, and Mr. Appel, Trustee Appel is not here, but he would have something to say about putting stuff up on the website and all those things, but he’s not [unclear].

CHAIR: Any questions?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Yeah, with respect, I'm glad that that work by the Communications Committee is proceeding. Has the information requested by landowner James Arends been provided to him? All that information was information designated under policy 24-11 as being available without special request, and so I'm curious if that information has been provided to him as we resolved, since he made his request, I believe four months ago.

CORPORATE OFFICER: No, because I thought you were doing that.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I have no authorization to communicate directly with landowners, nor have I received dispensation to do so by the Communications Committee. So, no, I have not.

CORPORATE OFFICER: I followed the motion and gave it to the trustee, which is you. So I don’t know, that’s [unclear].

NOTE: While the process for dealing with correspondence has taken a while to establish and is still being refined, in the last meeting the minutes recorded that the following motion and added amendment, were carried:

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

Based on this it appears that distributing the requested information is the responsibility of the Corporate Officer.

 

TRUSTEE MERCIER: It seems like a good time to bring up that the information that I provided in that motion was not provided to the trustees. I requested that we be provided with the Operational Guidelines of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District currently in use. That information was not distributed. We received only an obviously incomplete draft document, and I was going to ask later, as part of the Corporate Officer's report, if we could receive those operational guidelines, and when would that might take place.

CORPORATE OFFICER: The operational guidelines that I work off are hard copy in the office.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Okay…

CORPORATE OFFICER: You guys can come look at it.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Could they not be run through a scanner and—

CORPORATE OFFICER: We're waiting, we're rewriting them so [unclear]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I—

CORPORATE OFFICER: —it would be a waste of time to—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: It certainly would not be a waste of time to provide the trustees—

CORPORATE OFFICER: I would rather—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: —with the information that they have resolved—

CHAIR: You're not going to raise your voice anymore. Okay? You're going to talk; she's going to talk, and then you're going to talk. Alright? We're not having an argument in here.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Sure. This board resolved that the operational guidelines currently in use by the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District be provided to the trustees electronically. That has not taken place.

CORPORATE OFFICER: I gave him the copy that I have [unclear].

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Which is labeled as a draft copy, which is in many sections, wildly out of date or incomplete, and cannot possibly be the operational guidelines that we are responsible for having, so that in case anyone is injured or hurt, we can prove to WorkSafe BC that we train our staff to an appropriate, to an acceptable level. That is a legal requirement that we have. And since there is so much strong feeling on the board about fulfilling our requirements to WorkSafe BC, about providing a safe workplace for our employees, we should have the document that proves that we can do that readily available without fuss. And it's been many months and it has not been provided. That's just the facts.

CHAIR: I don't think there was a cost involved there anyway. Was there?

CORPORATE OFFICER: No

CHAIR: It just hasn't happened.

CORPORATE OFFICER: No, I just… [unclear]

CHAIR: So when asked, uh—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: This is a trivial request that should take maybe 15 minutes, like, it does not take long to run a couple of hundred pages through a scanner and attach it to an email. I know this because I did it at the library when I requested the previous Long Range Plan, and had to go through a whole bunch of stuff to get a hard copy of that. It’s, like, nonsensical, that this very foundational document is not easily—

CHAIR: Could you stop with the “nonsensical” on everything, and make a statement without the “nonsensical” or any other derogatory bullshit.

[multiple voices]

CHAIR: Here it is. Is this it?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: That’s the operational guidelines for the fire department?

TRUSTEE MOHER: No, that’s the workplace bullying—

CHAIR: Workplace bullying and harassment, anyway. Is that what you’re looking for?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: No, I’m looking for operational guidelines for the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement— for the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department, as required by resolution of the board several months ago.

CHAIR: Lemme see. I will make sure that happens. Okay, where's Mr. Arends?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Mr. Arends didn't request the operational guidelines. He requested other information, including—

CHAIR: So you’re requesting the operational guidelines.

TRUSTEE MERCIER:  The board passed a resolution requiring staff to provide the trustees with the operational guidelines.

CHAIR: Okay, so we'll make that happen, won’t we.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: So… it's been several months.

CHAIR: Well, then it's going to be, let me put it, I am not office staff, but what I'm going to say is, let's say… December 31st. [to Corporate Officer] Is it possible by December 31st, do you think?

CORPORATE OFFICER: [unclear]

CHAIR: Yeah, this—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Does the Corporate Officer not have access to the operational guidelines of the firedepartment? Is that what I've just heard?

CHAIR: Talk directly to me, you’re not talking—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I am talking to you. I'm asking, Did I just overhear that the corporate officer does not have access to the operational guidelines of the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department?

CORPORATE OFFICER: They’re in the hardcopy on my desk.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: So… okay.

CHAIR: I want you to stop badgering—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I deny that I'm badgering anyone.

CHAIR: Well, I think you are, so I want you to stop it, right?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I can’t stop what I don’t think I’m doing, Chair.

CHAIR. I think I’m in high school. Let's just be kind, will we? And just take it down a notch. We're going to move on from that. Are you done?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mr. Mercier is just simply asking. The board made a resolution in September to release information to Mr. Arends, and also this, and he's simply asking for that. It was—

CHAIR: Can I just add, Jacqui, I just said that by December 31 we would complete that task, all right?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I request that that commitment by the chair be reflected in the minutes.

CHAIR: You requested what?

TRUSTEE MERCIER:  I'm requesting that your commitment to provide that document to trust— to see that that document is provided by the trustees by December 31 be included in the minutes.

CHAIR: Okay, let's do that.

CORPORATE OFFICER: Okay, that’s done.

CHAIR: And if for some reason we have a snow storm—I don't know, but we're going to do it, okay. We're not hiding anything. Some things fall through the cracks, and maybe that did, okay? [to audience] Anybody else? Thank you. Appreciate it.

The reason I'm asking is because we let Char [Charleen Wells, former Trustee] speak, and I thought, since that's a little bit different than we normally do it, that that we would open it up to everyone, okay, but we'll move on.

HIRING COMMITTEE

(APPROX 2:05:00)

CHAIR: Hiring committee. Are we on that or not?

CORPORATE OFFICER: Yes.

CHAIR: We are on hiring committee. All right, so we got a squeeze play that went on here. When we went to hire a corporate officer who, and we’ve got a very fine one right here, but it's a temporary by definition, as [unclear] positions. So we have gone to the trouble of making that job, of letting people apply for that job over the last few months. We really couldn't complete much of anything until the lawsuit was settled. And I think people probably know about that, more than they should know. And so we're gonna squeeze play it right now, because Marjorie's contract as a temp is over in December, the 31st, and we have to have a corporate officer. What I'm going to propose here—I'll set this up.

We have meetings set up with applicants. We've shortlisted, to a certain extent, the applicants, and so we're setting up meetings with those people that have applied for the job, and that we think at this point, should be shortlisted. And we have meetings set up for some time this month?

TRUSTEE MOELLER:  Sorry, I didn't, I didn't actually do that yet.

CHAIR: All right, well, we might, we're going to do it this month.

TRUSTEE MOELLER: Yeah, I’ll do it right away.

CHAIR: Okay, so anyway, that's the situation. Is the one person that we were looking at? Are they still abroad?

TRUSTEE MOELLER: We picked three people, and I don’t think any of them were away, but [unclear].

CHAIR: Yes, you got enough, people apply for jobs, they don't necessarily want the job, but, you know, and they’ll make themselves available for job interviews, but hopefully this one will. So that's kind of where we're at right now.

And so what's happening right now is we've had a demand from Doane Thornton [ED: financial auditors] that we get as much information as they need for the audit, so we're not faced with the situation we were last year at the AGM, and they want it now. And there's two people involved in putting that information together. One is our corporate officer, who's been doing it for quite a while, and the other person is Carol Waldo. So it’s my, I’m proposing, if I may—[to ?] do you want to make the proposal, or do you want me to do it? I’ll make the proposal. I am proposing—I'm going to make a motion to recommend to the board “to extend Marjorie Colebrook’s contract to February 28th  2026, or until a permanent position has been filled, with a wage increase to $30 an hour, starting January the 1st 2026.” Anybody need an explanation on that?

CORPORATE OFFICER: [unclear] seconded.

TRUSTEE MOHER: I second it.

CHAIR: You second it? Any discussion?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I would just like to, if I may, make a friendly amendment, just to the wording of your motion, so that the motion reads “that the board extends Margaret Colebrooks's contract to February.” It’s a minor wording [unclear].

[multiple voices]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Yes, “that the board extends Marjorie Colebrook’s contract to February 28th,” the rest is as it appears [unclear]

CHAIR: All right, so we have a up and down vote on the amendment.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: Just to [unclear], I was a bit surprised to see us talk about wages in here in public. I would have thought that we'd talk about that in camera. But I mean, the cat’s out of the bag, so [unclear].

[multiple voices]

TRUSTEE MOHER: It reflects what was in the ad. Nowadays you have to post salaries. You're not illegally, [unclear]. You post an ad anywhere and you’ve got to post [unclear] on it. So because we've already posted the salary, we can post the salary.

[multiple voices]

CHAIR: We only put the put the salary out there because it's a legal responsibility that we have as employers, to tell people in advance how much money is involved, before they apply for the job. So anyway, discussion? All in favor? Carried. Well, thanks. [to Corporate Officer] Welcome forward.

MOTION

THAT the board extend Marjorie Colebrook’s contract to February 28 2026, or until a permanent position has been filled, with a wage increase to $30 an hour, starting January the 1st 2026. [CARRIED]

CHAIR: I have to say that Marjorie has been doing a marvelous job, and I am gobsmacked how much information she has at her fingertips, how quick she is to do her work, and how knowledgeable she is of the Local Government Act and all the addendum of handbooks of what's legal and what's not legal, and Robert’s Rules to a certain extent, that, to the extent anybody can carry that whole thing in their minds, and she has a pretty good network of people in government that can advise her on, in situations where there are problems, and that is something else. You know, I won't say what that network is, but we probably all know what it is. So anyway, welcome aboard, for now.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Welcome to stay aboard.

CHAIR: [to audience] But we will be continuing the job search, just so you know.

WEBSITE COMMITTEE

(APPROX 2:11:10)

CHAIR: So moving on here, Website Committee. Ray Appel is not here. I wonder if we couldn't just pass on that for right now.

[multiple voices]

TRUSTEE MOHER: There’s a package, people can read it. We don’t have to read it out loud. He put it in because he doesn't want things to be read out loud in the minutes. So he just said, If stuff is posted, so that people can read it for themselves, and that's why you're in the package. That was his dictation right from the beginning, so that we save time by not reading stuff that's already posted.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: So since I'm on the website committee, I'd like to thank Trustee Appel for the awesome work that he's doing on the website. I am on the on the committee, but it's all Ray.

[multiple voices]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Relevant to the Website Committee, I noticed that the September, October and November minutes are not available on the calendar, as our website says that there should be. I don't know if we need a resolution to get those up there, but I'm looking at the calendar now, and I'm clicking the September general meeting and there’s nothing there. And the October general meeting, the agenda and meeting package are there, but there are no minutes. Similarly, with the November—

TRUSTEE MOHER: November will go up when they’re approved.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: That's fair. All the same, October, November, which our meeting says September and October meeting minutes are on calendar and they're not, so that’s just...

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: I’m just wondering, is this available for you to do now, Marjorie? and Ray doesn't need to do it?

CORPORATE OFFICER: Ray doesn’t need to do that bit, no. I thought I had done it but maybe [unclear].

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: So is the process just updating the calendar?

CORPORATE OFFICER: No. The process is, I have to upload the link to Wix and then get the link, and then I have to go back and [unclear].

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Why aren't we using OneDrive and just having these things on OneDrive and then just linking to that?

CORPORATE OFFICER: Because [unclear], when I did it on OneDrive, I got a bunch of messages from the public that they were not allowed, they were not able to access it. So not everyone was able to access it on OneDrive for various reasons, like computer settings or whatever, like, I don't think it was anything on our end. It was just how Microsoft works. And since we have Wix and we have the space, that's where it was put.

CHAIR: Can I just say something about this whole thing. Ray has done a tremendous job. I don't think people understand how much work he’s put in. You know, we all, he's put in a tremendous hour after hour amount of work. And he's a freebie, he's a trustee. He's not getting paid a dime. And he has taken our website and everything that’s involved in it to a whole other level. He is taking a deserved little time off and and I think it's great. So the fact that perhaps he hasn’t got the latest up there, I think it's all right. I mean, we went for years and years and years without a website and lived through it.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: I’d just like to acknowledge Christine Hudson in the back there, who has worked on the website years ago, and she knows the work that, she had an excellent website for this fire department years ago.

TRUSTEE MOHER: And Chris Windess [ED: former trustee], who did a lot of work before that too.

CHAIR: Well, thank you for that.

[?]: Freedom of Information.

CHAIR: I never go on the website. I have to tell you I don’t go.

TRUSTEE MOHER(?): Erik. Freedom of Information.

CHAIR: What’s that?

[multiple voices]

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION RESPONSE COMMITTEE

(APPROX 2:14:45)

CHAIR: Alrighty. We have Freedom of Information Response Committee, which is me. Okay. What can I say about this? I have been in contact quite a bit, for many different reasons, with FOI, which is what we're talking about, FOIPPA, and we currently—until today, we had no outstanding FOIs coming in, which is marvelous, but—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Chair Johnson, if I can interrupt…  the subject you’re talking about is later on in the agenda, and this is just the FOI Response Committee.

CHAIR: Sure, sure, but I’m talking anyways.

[multiple voices]

TRUSTEE MOHER: We should do it later in the meeting.

CORPORATE OFFICER: [unclear]

CHAIR: Okay, okay, okay, we will.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: This is the committee that—

CHAIR: I don't know what I can say other than that, I've been in communication for two or three different reasons with the FOI people, and I will be speaking to them tomorrow. And, yeah. So we’ll talk about…

TRUSTEE MOHER: [unclear]

CHAIR: Because the Freedom of Information Act is, who you have to contact within 24 hours of a data breach being public, or, you know, a data breach. So we've had, we've had to do that, and that'll come up later again.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: Yeah, so, on this point, so I actually, I sit on this committee with Ray and yourself—

CHAIR: Yeah.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: —and that's what, I think this agenda item speaks to. So Ray has developed, similar to what trustee Chorneyko was saying, Ray’s developed a flow chart that we intend to put up on the website to facilitate access to information, to make it clear what people can access without actually having to go through a process of FOIs. And the objective of our committee was to [unclear]

CHAIR: Yeah, but I don't think it's up on the website yet, but it will be as soon as we get— is it up there now?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: It is a part of—yes—

CHAIR: We have it but it’s not on the website.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I’d just like to note that this flow chart has “collect and review records being the responsibility of the corporate officer with trustees slash committees”. Our present policy puts the responsibility for collecting and reviewing records in response to Freedom of Information Act requests on the chair of the board as the head of a public body, as defined by policy 24-11.

[?]: Can we [unclear] now?

CHAIR: Unless it's, unless the chair selects somebody else to do it.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: The chair can delegate that, but such delegation must be in writing, etc.

CHAIR: What we've done so far is, everything that I’ve got in the short time that I've been chair, I've been sharing with the Corporate Officer at the very least. So that's the way the process has gone so far. Because… anything else on that? No? move on? Okay, so we've got policy review review committee.

POLICY REVIEW COMMITTEE

(APPROX 2:18:00)

CHAIR: So we’ve got the Policy Review Committee—

POINT OF ORDER 4: committee exceeds mandate

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Chair, I have a point of order.

CHAIR: Yes, sir.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Chair, the Policy Review Select Committee has exceeded its mandate. The Select Committee was commissioned to engage in a review and audit of current policies, that committee to report to the board at September general meeting—that deadline was extended to this meeting—the report “to address Fire Protection Improvement District policies correctly adopted which should be continued, Improvement District policies which require revision and formal adoption, policies which should be done away with or revised entirely, and policy gaps.”

The report submitted by the committee addresses all of these matters and makes further recommendations, and suggests other work, which moves well beyond its mandate, including new policy development and a wholesale restructuring of our procedural bylaw. No justification is provided for this major undertaking. Bylaw 97, our existing procedural bylaw, specifies that “upon completion of its assignment, a select committee is dissolved, unless decided under by the board.”

I request that the Policy Review Select Committee be dissolved. Its mandate did not include development of new policy. If work is desired on the development of procurement policy or an examination of Bylaw 97, new select committees should be struck to address those specific matters. If the Policy Review Select Committee is extended, it essentially becomes a standing committee. Per Robert’s Rules of Order 50-8, that’s 50, subsection eight, a standing committee to manage all business of a certain class, like policy review and development, requires a two thirds vote of the board.

CHAIR: Are you making a motion?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I'm requesting that, as chair, you decide whether I am correct, as a point of order, that the policy has exceeded—that the committee has exceeded its mandate, and as a result of that, and in recognition of the fact that it has delivered a report which meets its mandate, fulfills its mandate, that that committee be dissolved.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Before we do that, I do want to thank the committee, because we would be dissolved today anyway, the policy committee, because we did some exceptional work going through the recommendations that we were approved to do, and the work that we did with Kees Langereis, and the 16 page document that he provided to us, outlining work and things that needed to be done, especially the work that required on Bylaw 97.

And I do know that Oliver wanted to work on the procurement policy, and that was something that he had felt was extremely important, and had been putting that to the side over and over and over again. And he still wants to work on that. So if we need to extend or revamp the standing, select, or the select committee into the standing committee so that we can continue the work that has been done, and the report that was put out here was exactly what we were asked to do. And from that, there were some things that were recommended for motions, their recommendations, and that came from the fact that certain things ended up in contracts. And therefore we were possibly in breach. So it was deemed important to bring that to the attention of the board at the first meeting that we were allowed to have, which was this one.

So I would like to commend the corporate officer for being on top of things that we were being contradictory in. So thank you again, Oliver, for all the work that you did in this committee, and we stand down. And thank you, Erik for being part of this as well.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: I thought we did good work as well. I also was aware that I was maybe sneaking outside of our mandate a little bit. So I agree with your assessment of that, and I think procurement policy probably sits better with Finance Committee anyway.

TRUSTEE MOHER: But it was a policy, and policy was part of, so I can thank your dedication to what you did, and the information that you brought, and what you looked at, and all the work that everybody did when we worked together. I thought it was fantastic. Thank you.

CHAIR: And what—

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Is there a motion on the table?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: There’s a point of order that’s on the table, yes.

[crossing voices]

CHAIR: [whistling and clapping for attention] Hey, hey, I’m speaking over here. All right? I’d like—

CORPORATE OFFICER: [to ?] A point of order is not really debatable.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: A point of order is explicitly not debatable.

 TRUSTEE MOHER: No, it’s not debatable, but it—

CHAIR: I’m not debating it, I’m speaking, you guys are having a private conversation. You need to stop it for a minute.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Points of order are usually called when somebody is doing something wrong in a meeting, not necessarily [unclear].

CHAIR: All I was trying to do is thank, publicly, Kees Langereis, for the work that he put out on our behalf. For no money, he went through this thing, you know, just, you know, every I dotted, every T crossed, it was amazing the amount of work, on a volunteer basis, that he did, so I’d just like to thank him. And you guys can go back to whatever you to whatever you—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: We’d like you to rule on a point of order.

CHAIR: Oh, okay.

TRUSTEE MOHER: I’d like you to explain what part of Robert's Rules you are using to call point of orders, please.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: The committee exceeded its mandate.

TRUSTEE MOHER: What part of the meeting is not being handled appropriately for you to call a point of order, which is what Robert’s Rules defines as a point of order.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: A point of order is raised with a breach of rule or policy. In this case—

TRUSTEE MOHER: A point of order is called when the meeting procedure has been called inappropriate, not something that you—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I disagree. We can—

TRUSTEE MOHER: Well, I looked it up—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Please quote the section, if you want, like we can, we can do this, that's fine.

TRUSTEE MOHER: It’ll be 6:17. It's all about what’s happening in the meeting, not something that you feel happened outside the meeting.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Well, no, I'm addressing something that's happening inside the meeting. Which is that the committee is, is, [Trustee Moher attempts to interrupt, unclear] which is the committee is reporting beyond its mandate. There is—

FACTCHECK: From the Robert’s Rules cheatsheet published by the University of Alberta:

A a point of order “Draws attention to a breach of rules, improper procedure, breaching of established practices, etc.”

TRUSTEE MOHER: On work which you just said was within our mandate.

[overlapping voices]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Hm? No, that report—

TRUSTEE MOHER: You said my report—you said—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: —that report exceeds the mandate

TRUSTEE MOHER: — my report [unclear].

TRUSTEE MERCIER: — meets and exceeds—

TRUSTEE MOHER: Thank you.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Because it meets your mandate, the committee should be dissolved. However, it also exceeds the mandate.

TRUSTEE MOHER: It’s not in my report that I exceeded the mandate.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Your, your report exceeds the mandate by making recommendations to—

TRUSTEE MOHER: [unclear]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: —update Bylaw 97, which is not a policy.

[unclear, but the Corporate Officer appears to address something to Trustee Moher]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Any address of Bylaw, of a Bylaw is beyond policy review. It makes recommendations about the—

TRUSTEE MOHER: That’s business arising from the minutes and unfinished business.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Your report—

TRUSTEE MOHER: It’s not in there. [continues talking, unclear] Oh I see, sorry, it’s—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Your report recommends an update to bylaws that’s in excess of the mandate of—

TRUSTEE MOHER:  Yes. I do call a point of order on the fact that you're stepping outside the boundaries of the meeting. Sorry through the chair—

CHAIR: Okay, through the Chair, I’ll just say this—

TRUSTEE MOHER: —so I think it needs to stop and we just move on.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: [attempts to speak]

CHAIR: You all need to just calm yourselves down. This is not how we’re going to—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Can you rule on the point of order?

CHAIR: Her point of order or your point of order?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: My point of order was, is the one that's in front of us, which is that the policy review select committee exceeded its mandate by, specifically, by addressing Bylaw 97, which is not a policy.

CHAIR: Well, I don't, I don't think it's an issue. I mean, can I, can I say this—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: You must rule whether—it’s not debatable.

CHAIR: Just stop for a minute, willya? Like—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I call the point of order on the chair for refusing to rule on a point of order. The remainder of the board must now elect from among themselves, per bylaw 97, someone to rule on the point of order. That's what the bylaw says. So either we have a ruling, or we decide amongst ourselves, someone who can make a ruling, and then they make a ruling. But there's not like, this is not share your opinion time. There's a point of order being put forward, and the chair must rule.

CHAIR: I will. But first I’m gonna—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: There is no “but first,” you are out of order. Yourself, as chair. It is a breach of propriety for you to speak to the question, other than ruling, that is incorrect.

CHAIR: I am going to say this, that if the chair, if the committee, is kaput, stand down. Whatever. Does that satisfy you?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: That would be a satisfy—satisfactory response, yes, but that doesn't answer the point of order. If the, did, the question is, did the committee exceed its mandate?

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO(?): Say yes, Erik, and you’re done.

CHAIR: I personally don't think so.

CORPORATE OFFICER: Well, just say yes.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Just say yes.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: So shall the chair be sustained?

TRUSTEE MOHER: Say yes. We did what we did. We did a darn good job. I'm, whatever. Just say yes. I don't care.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Shall the chair be sustained or, is, what is your rule?

CHAIR: Okay, but—just—hang fire till I finish speaking here. Let’s propose, let's propose that, that bylaw 97, that seems to be defending things, is that the offending thing?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: That is specifically in excess of the committee's mandate, yes.

CHAIR: Okay. If it’s removed—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: It's done. The committee's work is done.

TRUSTEE MOHER: We're done. We're finished. I don’t—It doesn't matter, everything is done. And he's just saying, so just accept it, and let's move on. It's 6:30.

CHAIR: So what do you—what are you saying there?

CORPORATE OFFICER: Say yes.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: Just say yes.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Just say yes.

CHAIR: Yes.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: I would like to make a motion.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Can I offer just a piece of information for you—

TRUSTEE MOHER: No.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: —which is just a correction to the report. The report notes that there's no adoption date available for the code of conduct, and the code of conduct was adopted at the general meeting of October 6, 2021, and that's reflected in the minutes for that meeting.

CHAIR: You got me on that one. I wasn't here.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: And I also have a motion, but Trustee Chorneyko was in line first.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: I’d like to make a motion

THAT the CO, the corporate officer, maintain a list of the current status of all improvement district policies, and that this list of those current policies in that list are maintained in the policy folder, within the trustees file folder within the GFPID corporate officer’s OneDrive folder, and that the trustees have the permission to download these files, but not edit them.

CORPORATE OFFICER: All the policies, if you read that website report, and communications, just as soon as Ray and I get organized, they're going to be up on the website for everyone to see.

CHAIR: Everyone, trustees included…

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: I would also like you to maintain a current list, like of the status of all the policies.

CORPORATE OFFICER: Yeah, and I have that on my computer.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: But it doesn't help me.

CHAIR: It does if you ask her for it.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Well, I'd like access to it so that I could look at it whenever.

CHAIR: What's that going to look like? Another one of those books up in the shelf?

TRUSTEE MOHER: Well, that's where all our [unclear] in the binder—

CHAIR: I would like—Personally, I'm not in favor of OneDrive. I'm not, okay.

TRUSTEE MOHER: [unclear, she and chair are speaking at the same time]

CHAIR: This is my personal—I’m a, for one thing, I’m a Mac person. But anyway, I don't really trust OneDrive, and we haven't had that discussion yet. But I would say that I want hard copies on everything, I think I’m entitled to that. So, that’s a file?

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: Do we have a seconder?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Can I just, before I consider seconding, there is a folder on OneDrive that is, has all the policy files and policies. It doesn't contain all of them, but it contains many of them.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO:  So that's what I'm asking, Is just that that file, file folder, is maintained with current policies.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: So your motion is essentially that the existing file folder, which is available to all trustees—

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO:  Be maintained.

TRUSTEE MERCIER:  Be maintained.

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: And that this, and that the current status, this, this, where is it, this is maintained on it too. So just it just [unclear] the current status of all the policies. Because, you know, some need changing and some are not renewed, and some need—they seem to all have different statuses. So it's one thing to have a policy, but it's important to know the status of it too.

CHAIR: Does it say the status on there?

CORPORATE OFFICER: Well, they’re all [unclear]. They’re all [unclear. Now it's up to the board if you want to take your recommendations to the Policy Committee and update policies.

[?]: We don’t have a Policy Committee anymore.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: My impression is that Trustee Chorneyko is just asking so that—

CORPORATE OFFICER: [unclear] to put that on there, but that’s [unclear]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I think that's what—

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: All I'm asking is to maintain that file folder.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: We can probably do that with(out?) a motion, right?

CORPORATE OFFICER: We don’t need a motion. We’re maybe missing one. We’re missing one.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: It's also missing, I think the Freedom of Information Policy, ‘cause I don’t—

CORPORATE OFFICER: Yeah.

[multiple voices]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Yeah, 24-11 is in there. We've got 23-01, -02, -03, 23-04 through 23-07 then we have—

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: We talked about 24-11 and I have never seen it.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Yeah, 24-11’s not on—

CORPORATE OFFICER: I haven’t seen that one either. That one got lost.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I can forward it to you. You can also find it through the wayback machine on the former trustees website. [ED: https://web.archive.org]

CORPORATE OFFICER: It seems to have got lost in the Corporate Officer transition.

CHAIR: So what are we doing here? Are we…

CORPORATE OFFICER: No motion, we’re good, we’re gonna do it—

[multiple voices]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: The request is that the corporate officer maintain the digital file available to trustees, containing all current policies and their status. So can we not do that by general consent rather than voting?

CHAIR: Well, yeah, but we're already doing that, so it's kind of weird don’t you think.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: But we're not, we’re not doing that. It doesn't—

[multiple voices]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: —it's not being a maintained record, and it doesn't contain the status. So, I mean, it's a minor thing, but if it's a decision the board has made then it’s worth recording. So with that said, is that accepted by general consent?

[multiple voices]

CHAIR: So it's general consent, folks.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I have a motion that I’d like to record, which is that the Purposes and Procedures Policy be annulled and declared void. [long pause] And I have reasons for that.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Is this a late item that you're suddenly putting forward?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: No, this is arising from the report.

CHAIR: Which… [multiple voices]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: The report that we just got from the Policy Review Committee addresses the Purposes and Procedures Policy, and for reasons which I would be happy to explain, if my motion receives a second…

TRUSTEE CHORNEYKO: I'll give you a second so we can talk about it.

The Purposes and Procedures Policy can be found on page 6-10 of the GFPID Handbook of Governing Policies.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Trustee Chorneyko has seconded. So if I may speak to the motion... The Purposes and Procedures Policy contradicts both the Local Government Act and Bylaw 97. The earliest version of this policy I have encountered dates from 1998 and was located on the computer recently returned to the Improvement District from the community. This policy appears to have been kept around out of habit rather than utility. Many of its provisions undermine the democratic process and are in conflict with the recommended standards for local governments. There is no record of the adoption of this policy.

CHAIR: From 1998.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Yes, that's the earliest record I've been able to find and I suspect, but I am not certain, that it was composed in 1995 with the revision of the Letters Patent, which predated many of the requirements in the existing Local Government Act. I believe it predates the requirement of the Local Government Act that a policy Bylaw be enacted by the improvement district, and so this is, er, that a procedural Bylaw be enacted by the improvement district. And so this is the policy that was in use by the board prior to that, it was superseded in fact, if not explicitly, by procedural Bylaw 74  which was passed in 2008, and superseded by our existing Bylaw 97

CHAIR: Where'd you get this information?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I believe I said that I encountered the earliest version of this policy on the computer recently returned to the district from the community.

CHAIR: When you did the search on it.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: That's correct.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: So we talked about this policy in our policy discussions, [unclear] underlined a couple of things.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Exactly.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: It's clearly outdated, and it talks about ads being placed in two different local newspapers, obviously we only have one now, and it talks also chairman—

TRUSTEE MOHER: It was something that Kees had pointed out quite clearly in his report.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Which is why it remains germane to this motion.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Yes, but as you said, we had outlined further work to do, but you've disbanded us. So you either have to put us back to work so that we can continue going through it—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: No! Respectfully—

TRUSTEE MOHER:—so that we can go back and re-look at all the ones that was recommended that we do this work for, so we can bring them all together at the same time, ‘cause—

TRUSTEE MERCIER: My motion, which is on the floor, is that the Purposes and Procedures Policy be annulled and declared void, that's been seconded by trustee Chorneyko.

CHAIR: Any more discussion? Show hands in the affirmative.

[side conversation]

CHAIR: Carried.

MOTION CARRIED

THAT the Purposes and Procedures Policy be annulled and declared void.

[side conversation]

CHAIR: So I would like to make a motion that we strike a select committee to look at—

TRUSTEE MOHER: To finish the work that we started.

CHAIR: —we can say that, but what, Bylaw 97 and other items that were started in the previous Select Committee, Policy Committee. Do I have a second.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: [typing] Sorry, that the board strike a select committee…

CHAIR: Yes.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Consisting of? we’ve established by practice that we name who is on the committee

CHAIR: Okay, so you want to know who the [unclear] are before you vote on it. Okay? Anybody interested?

TRUSTEE MOHER: I wouldn’t mind finishing what we started.

CHAIR: Anybody else? Okay, there's three.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Good that's Moher, Johnson and myself.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: Actually, I’ll do it too.

[multiple voices]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Chair Johnson, as chair, you are a member ex-officio of each committee, which means that you can turn up and vote, but you don't count towards quorum. Is it your desire to be a formal member of this committee or to remain a member ex officio in your capacity as chair?

CHAIR: I see, I see. What a conundrum. What am I gonna do, I think I’ll just keep it like it is.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Okay. So so far, I've got that the board strike a select committee consisting of Trustees Moher, Johnson, Bussler and Mercier. [unclear]

CHAIR: In the affirmative? Have we finished discussion?

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: [unclear] create a mandate.

CORPORATE OFFICER: We need a mandate.

CHAIR: Oh, we need a mandate.

CORPORATE OFFICER: Yeah.

CHAIR: To, I think that’s, is that not in the motion that I made?

CORPORATE OFFICER: No.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: That's what we're trying to figure out. So far, if I’m interpreting you correctly, I've expanded the text to read

THAT the board strike a select committee consisting of Trustees Moher, Johnson, Bussler, and Mercier, for the purpose of examining a replacement for Bylaw 97

CORPORATE OFFICER: And I would say, updating all the policies or unifying the policies.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: And unifying all the policies…

CORPORATE OFFICER: Yep. Like a template…

CHAIR: What she says.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: So… unifying the presentation of the policies?

CORPORATE OFFICER: The presentation, and the wording, to make sure they don’t have a conflict, and…

TRUSTEE MERCIER: The presentation, and the, words have left me—composition.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: Yeah, and even the numbering, we talked about that as well.

[multiple voices]

[?]: And date too, right?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Numbering and formatting… and to eliminate contradictions? The board, it is a select committee, so it needs a reporting date.

TRUSTEE MOHER: I think we need the three months again, because it sure took us a long time to sort through.

CHAIR: Three months?

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: Well we’ve got [unclear] work to base it off of.

[multiple voices, unclear]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: A little bit of a brief aside. So you mentioned a 16 page document provided by Mr. Langereis. Can that document be distributed to the board?

CORPORATE OFFICER: Yes. I thought I had.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: So great, that's just a question. So in an attempt to accurately reflect your intention, the motion that I have recorded here is, pardon me,

THAT the board strikes a select committee consisting of Trustees Moher, Johnson, Bussler, and Mercier for the purpose of examining a replacement for Bylaw 97 and unifying the presentation and composition of each policy to ensure consistent numbering, formatting and eliminate contradictions. That committee to report to the board at the March general meeting.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I would like to, even before seconding, just suggest that, because there's an even number of members of that committee, and all members of the committee are equal, that we select the chair for that committee now, rather than having the committee come together and figure it out.

CHAIR: I'd like to nominate Diana for that. She did it last time. Did a good job.

[unclear]

TRUSTEE MERCIER: So, the committee to be chaired by trustee Moher. Wonderful. So that was the motion was made by Chair Johnson. I will second it.

CHAIR: Any more discussion? Show of hands in the affirmative. Carried. All right.

MOTION CARRIED

THAT the board strikes a select committee consisting of Trustees Moher, Johnson, Bussler, and Mercier for the purpose of examining a replacement for Bylaw 97 and unifying the presentation and composition of each policy to ensure consistent numbering, formatting and eliminate contradictions. That committee to report to the board at the March general meeting.

TRUSTEE MOHER: I think we have to do these other two motions just to get them off the board. We were put together because we were in contravention of [unclear] financial, so one is to rescind the numbered vacation policy, because all the vacation information is contained in the employees’ contracts. So it is a policy that is as redundant as the one that Trustee Mercier pointed out. So I would put a motion forward

THAT we rescind the unnumbered vacation policy.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I’ll second that.
TRUSTEE BUSSLER: And I know we talked about this at the policy committee meeting.  We're in contravention to this policy, as you point out, Diana, so I'm in favor of, obviously removing it. But the other, the one thing that I didn't know, and I didn't get a chance to look back at the employment contracts… but an aspect of this policy is that it limits accrual of vacation days to 10 days. And I don't know if that's actually in the employment contracts.

CORPORATE OFFICER: It is. It’s five days in their contract.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: Okay, perfect.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Thank you for asking that.

CHAIR: Any more discussion? Hands up with the affirmative. Carried.

MOTION CARRIED:

THAT the board rescind the unnumbered vacation policy.

TRUSTEE MOHER: The second one is to approve the updated, extended health policy that was sent out to all of you in the package. [unclear] It had asked for a number of people to input [unclear] recommendations from people.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I will second that recommendation, but I want to talk about it. Okay, I guess I have some concerns that the policy disadvantages employees with families. A single, an unmarried employee with no children has access to $3,600, roughly, of coverage each year for themselves. Someone who's married with two kids gets like, $900 per person.

CORPORATE OFFICER: Well you can make a motion to increase it.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: Well, my concern is about why we're doing it this way and not just hiring an insurance company to administer employee insurance. I’m not arguing, I just—

TRUSTEE MOHER: No, no, no, I appreciate that, and that’s a really, really good question. And we went this route because the employees, so this went back to when Jessie was a corporate officer, a request came from them, because they were finding that it didn't work as well. And then this way, if they wanted to spend, rather than it being capped where I can only spend this much on this, or I can only spend this much on this. If they had, like, $2,000 worth of dental work that year, it all went to dental work, and it didn't matter. So the request had come actually from them, and they felt like it worked better for them, and so that was where the first draft kind of came from, and the way the money had settled and worked. [to chief]  And we didn't get anything back for you by saying this didn't turn out. And we actually lost money paying it into a plan, as opposed to all going straight to them. So we based it on what they would have been paying as a deductible, and then took the deductible and put it in.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I mean, I guess to me it seemed, especially because we're going through a process of hiring, and if I was someone, I mean, I am someone I mean, I am someone with a family, and if I was looking at a job, and it was a fixed sum for coverage that would influence my decision, and, but if it works, then, I mean, that's fine. I wasn't part of that decision making process.

CHIEF: So, yeah, the insurance company that we were with was really penalizing, especially the families, that sometimes it was only 30% of our child we get covered for dental, so it made more sense to just pay the 100% if I needed to spend it on a child, then its all for that child.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: And I know that there are substantial administrative demands generally on the Corporate Officer. So administering this kind of thing, with taking in receipts and assessing them, and...

CORPORATE OFFICER: Yeah. It’s not a problem.

[unclear]

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: And actually, just following up on that, that was a question that had come to mind after we talked about it in our policy discussion is, do we have control on those receipts? Because these are, this is all personnel medical. So the way I understand it is that a person, an employee, spends money in the receipt and then they're reimbursed.

CORPORATE OFFICER: Yes by me, I authorize them. [unclear] So like, usually, the Chief [unclear] I'm the only one who—

TRUSTEE MOHER: Sees the whole thing.

CORPORATE OFFICER: —briefly looks at them, adds up the totals, maked sure, and then that all goes into a sealed envelope.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: That is not accessible to anybody else?

CORPORATE OFFICER: So yes they are put away.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: And then stored, like, subject to our storage, should we need to keep it for a certain period of time, or the receipts are—

CORPORATE OFFICER: I think it would be the same, seven years.

TRUSTEE BUSSLER: But they’re all under lock and key?

CORPORATE OFFICER: Yes.

TRUSTEE MOHER: Thank you, those are good questions. Okay, any more or shall we call for a vote?

CHAIR: So we got a seconder?

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I seconded.

CHAIR: Any further discussion? Hands up in the affirmative. Carried.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I’m just going to excuse myself again, my apologies.

CHAIR: We will wait for you to get back and not vote while you’re gone.

TRUSTEE MERCIER: I appreciate that.

[general conversation]

MOTION CARRIED:

To approve the updated Extended Health Policy

Continue reading the transcript in part four of this series.

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