Note: these notes follow and expand on the published agenda but do not fully transcribe the general meeting. We include specific background or action items, and summaries or transcripts of some discussions. Some reports were updated during the meeting and we assume this information will be entered into the minutes; if that turns out to not be the case we may add content to this post in the future.
The Chair called the meeting to order and added a couple of late items to the agenda. The minutes of the previous meeting were adopted.
CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondence was noted and for the most part had been attached to the meeting agenda. One item was not included because it was providing information with regard to Roberts Rules rather than asking for any action. Two additional letters had been received but as there had not been time to distribute them to the board with the agenda package they will be dealt with by the next general meeting.
- Discussion followed as to whether it is appropriate to include correspondence as part of an agenda package.
- The position of Trustee Moher was that normally correspondence sent to a board of trustees is not posted publicly, and she was concerned that this is an infringement of privacy. Normally correspondence would be noted as received, but unless the writer specifically requested that their letter be read out in public at a meeting it would not be made public and should not be part of an agenda package. Because publishing correspondence would be a change, procedures related to this should be reviewed. (Later in the meeting Trustee Moher clarified that her primary concern was the publishing of email or other addresses of people submitting correspondence.)
- The position of the Chair was that publication complies with principles of open governance recommended by the Ombudsperson, and the RDN and Islands Trust and improvement districts such as Twin Lakes do publish correspondence from the public. There is generally no expectation of privacy when correspondence is sent to a public body.
- Trustee Moher felt that it is important to clarify that submissions from the public are opinion and not fact.
- Trustee Moeller stated that if any correspondence to the Board is published, it must be ensured that all such correspondence is published.
- Trustee Johnson asked about Communications policies regarding correspondence and the Chair responded that he was unaware of any such formal policy existing.
- During the Q+A period one of the people who submitted correspondence to the meeting said that he preferred that his letter be published with the agenda, with his name, and that he didn’t care if his email address was included.
The process for handling any correspondence written to the Board of Trustees shall be that
- correspondence sent to the Board as a whole, e.g. via the Corporate Officer, will be officially received at a general meeting
- correspondence once received will be referred to the Communications committee
- the Communications committee will acknowledge communications received, review them and formulate responses
- the Communications committee will include responses for Board approval in their report to the Board
- approved responses will then be sent to the writers of correspondence.
- responses not approved will be referred back to the Communications Committee for revision
- any correspondence sent to individual board members will be considered private and will not be published
MOTION CARRIED: to refer correspondence received at this meeting to the Communications Committee for formulation of a response.
FACTCHECKING: A quick review of agenda packages for Islands Trust, RDN and Twin Lakes improvement district meetings shows that they do include public correspondence, with the names of the writers, but email and physical addresses beyond their general location (e.g. “Gabriola, BC”) are excised.
FINANCIAL REPORT
The financial report was appended to the agenda; the agenda itself included a breakdown of “Professional Fees”. Items discussed in detail:
- Finance Committee chair Trustee Chorneyko indicated that the report was out of date because it was only to the end of June. At that time the levy had not been received so the records showed a deficit, but since then the money has been received, firefighters have received back pay, and finances are now in a position of surplus.
- Safer Ocean Systems is renting the upper floor of the old Fire Hall #1 for $2000/month, and is utilizing the live fire building for their own training scenarios. The Fire Department provides instructors for some of their courses; Fire Department personnel are paid by the Fire Department, but the costs are offset by the leasing income and overall there is a profit. This is not clear in the financial statements because while the wages are shown as a line item under expenses, the leasing income from SOS is bundled with other monies under “Other Revenue.”
- Professional fees: the breakdown in the agenda notes KMA accounting fees of $3521 for the audit. These are extra costs over the $10,000 base rate already paid.
- Legal fees (Stikeman Elliott, for FOIs, complaints, lawsuit and union certification) are one item under professional fees. Trustee Chorneyko: “My understanding is that about half of that is recoverable through insurance, potentially.”
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Communications Committee: Trustees Moher and Appel. The main focus of the committee in the near future will be on items relating to the development of the upcoming budget, and providing information to support and/or explain the budget items and why they are important. There will be interviews with the people doing the work “on the ground” as to their perspectives. Content will come to the board for approval.
The committee is also requesting a small budget to pay the costs of items such a mailbox flyers or hardcopies of the allowed industrial activities chart. They would also like to install a privacy wall in the fire department office to prevent distractions.
Finance Committee: chaired by Trustee Chorneyko, who is working on the Terms of Reference for the Finance Committee. The committee will be looking at dealing with recommendations from the 2024 audit (some things are already being worked on by staff) and Trustee Chorneyko is working on drafting a 2026 budget with Trustee Bussler for the board to review and discuss.
Hiring Committee (chair Erik Johnson): no report
Website Committee (Trustees Appel and Bussler) There is now a dedicated webmaster@gabriolafire.ca email: use it for matters pertaining to the Trustee portion of the website. A placeholder calendar has been added to the Upcoming Meetings page for testing. Work to be done includes making more information and documents available online.
Select committees: chairs have been named.
- Freedom of Information response committee: Trustee Johnson
- Policy review committee: Trustee Moher
FIRE CHIEF, DEPUTY CHIEF, ASSOCIATION REPORTS
Fire Chief’s report appended to Agenda. Updated information:
- July call volume: 284 calls for the year, 55 for July (13 burn complaints, 1 brush fire, 1 miscellaneous fire, 4 alarms activated, 2 public assists, 1 wires down, 1 motor vehicle incident, 29 first responder calls, 2 [?])
- The number 11 small tender has been deployed to Wesley Ridge fire above Cameron Lake with 2 members, to help protect structures and roadways.
- [43:32] Staffing report as of July 29th: 32 firefighters including 2 chiefs, 1 Corporate Officer, 3 recruits, 17 frontline certified NFPA 1001 firefighters, 2 uncertified firefighters, 14 Emergency Medical Responders, 5 First Responders. The Junior and Senior day firefighter roles are currently vacant, their tasks are currently being covered by members. There are 7 officers: 2 hall captains, 4 lieutenants (1 for each platoon), 1 Medical Training Lieutenant. Duty officer responsibilities are shared across these 7 officers.
- Optimum number of firefighters would be 40, 20 assigned to each hall.
- “There’s an increase in workload and administrative demands due to the growth of the administrative workload, putting fleet and equipment in inventory. Duty officer shifts are getting busier with burn complaints and fire prevention activities. The department has identified a need for a third position; it is recommended that this role be established as an Assistant Chief capable of providing operational and administrative support and enduring leadership in the absence of either Chief.”
- Recruitment: about 6 new candidate applications have been received. There will be a 2 year internship of a certified firefighter. Three resignations in the past 6 months.
Deputy Chief (Training) report - appended to agenda
Gabriola Volunteer Firefighters Association: no report. Correspondence included a letter from the Association requesting “that the trustees engage in consultation prior to reaching any decision regarding a potential name change for the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department.”
QUESTIONS
- Trustee Bussler asked for an update on FR program activity as per last month’s questions. Chief Sprogis replied that although the data is collected and the study is largely complete, deployment absences have delayed finalizing the report. With regard to how many times EMR skills were used, the answer was 30.3 percent of the time.
BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES + UNFINISHED BUSINESS
1. Privacy Commissioner (Report from the Chair)
2. Report from Trustee Chorneyko about FIPPA records policy (appended to agenda)
Trustee Chorneyko explained that public bodies such as GFPID are required by law to have a Privacy Management Program providing a framework for storing, using and dispersing personal information. He indicated that he had changed the wording of his original motion to:
MOTION: that the board accept the Privacy Management Program outline submitted by Trustee Chorneyko, and that the Corporate Officer be directed to establish a Privacy Management Program, and that the Corporate Officer report on progress towards the establishment of a Privacy Management Program to each regular general meeting of the Board until further notice.
There was some discussion clarifying the relationship between the requirements for privacy management vs freedom of information access and what committee might be responsible for drafting a Program. Trustee Johnson noted that the FOI people will be providing materials that will likely be helpful in developing such a program and associated policies. A motion was passed to table Trustee Chorneyko’s motion to the next meeting in order to allow Trustees to receive these supplementary materials and consider the implications of the motion fully.
3. Report on decisions made at the July 23 in camera meeting – see agenda package
4. Hiring - see agenda package
5. Amending Bylaws
Bylaw 109 and 110 were passed; these update the language in existing bylaws (66 and 97) to bring them up to date with current government legal document references.
There was some discussion of repealing and replacing bylaws rather than amending them by adding new bylaws, but the Corporate Officer noted that making amendments was the process recommended by the Ministry. Trustee Moher pointed out that much confusion can be avoided by good file management practices. Trustees Moher and Chorneyko noted the need for the policy committee to look at all the bylaws and the Letters Patent in order to identify any further necessary changes to language or references.
6. Bylaw XXX Fire department establishing bylaw
The most recent draft will be circulated to trustees and it will be an agenda item for the next meeting.
7. Tax Levy and Back Pay for Firefighters – levy received and back pay disbursed
8. Motion to nullify the resolution to pay the chair for FOI work – CARRIED
Trustees Moher and Johnson noted that although the resolution was in place, no chair had ever asked for or received payment for work done.
9. Review of the FR Study (Chief)
As stated in the response to questions regarding the Fire Chief’s report, a draft has been prepared and the Chief has requested further time to consult with officers, so the report will be made to the next meeting.
Still to come: New Business
