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

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

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

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

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

QUESTION

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

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

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

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

QUESTION 7

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

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

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

QUESTION 6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

QUESTION 5

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

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

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

QUESTION 4

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

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

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

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

The 2025 GFPID candidates introduce themselves

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

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

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

QUESTION 3

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

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

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

QUESTION 2

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

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

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

QUESTION 1

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

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

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

The six questions asked:

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

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

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We have noted that this site has been criticized for being "incomplete" and thus giving false impressions. We are happy to include any and all information related to GFPID that is publicly available! If you think we're missing something, please use the Contact form to send us links or other forms of published material. We point to info that is fully accessible and verifiable—our goal is to collate as much information as possible in one place, because much that is relevant is fragmented and hard to find.

Yes, this site may be missing older stuff that is in fact important to know, because it was only created recently, and we do not have the capacity to do full archaeological digs into Gabriola's history in order to find documentation for  every nuance of every issue. If you think there is something from the past that is relevant, please point us to it so that information can be added.

Our policy with regards to publishing is:

  • Information must include context. If any given instance of  information is incomplete or inaccurate or contradicts other information, our policy is to point the discrepancies out and provide links to additional resources or commentary. But we can only work with what we have, so again, please do point us to any relevant published materials.
  • Information must be fully accessible. As we say elsewhere, we do not link to content on Facebook or other social media sites. Apart from structural issues relating to privacy and inaccurate information, these platforms do not permit universal access, and intermittently and unpredictably block non-users from accessing even public pages, and therefore any content referenced would not be accessible by all readers.

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The Improvement District Manual states on page 19:

Voter Eligibility

Persons entitled to vote at an election must meet all of the following requirements:

    • A Canadian citizen.
    • Eighteen years of age, or older.
    • An owner of land in the improvement district.
    • A resident of the province for the prior six months, or legal representative of an owner of land in the improvement district who has died, become insolvent or insane.

One vote is also allowed for each board or corporation that owns land within the improvement district. The board or corporation must designate one person to act as an authorized agent to vote on its behalf. This should be done in writing so the returning officer can verify the vote.

If more than one person is registered on title as a landowner, each one can vote as long as they also meet the other qualifications.

However, no person can have two votes unless they meet the qualifications to be an elector and are also an agent authorized to vote on behalf of a board or corporation.

On p21 the Manual adds:

It should be noted that only persons attending the election, and meeting the eligibility requirements, are entitled to vote. Persons not attending the election in person cannot vote by proxy.

NOTES:

  • The use of supplementary voting procedures for GFPID elections has been under discussion for some time—the minutes from March 2023 state, "Absentee ballots: Trustees stated no change for this year; will require a lot more time to set up"—but no changes have been implemented.
  • Mail-in voting for RDN elections is mandated and regulated by the the RDN 2018 General Local Election Bylaw.

Election date:

The Annual General Meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District (GFPID) will be held on June 18th, 2025, at 7 pm at Fire Hall #1 on Church Street. Polls for the election of Trustees will be open from 12 noon to 7 pm at the Church Street Fire Hall.

The GFPID is an autonomous local government body responsible for providing fire protection services. As with all democratic government bodies, residents in a community express their opinions by voting for representatives—this is your opportunity to have your say. We encourage all Gabriola residents to attend the AGM and vote (if allowed by law to do so).

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The Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department (GVFD) website recently added a FAQ sub-page to its Trustees page, which consolidates information relating to the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District (GFPID) Board of Trustees. The new FAQ clarifies some important details around questions that have come up. One item is not fully fleshed out, however:

What are some important aspects of the role of Trustee?  

A community-minded Trustee puts the well-being and safety of our community first. This involves focusing on the long-term resilience and service quality of the fire hall, listening to community concerns and balancing diverse needs and working collaboratively, even when it means personal compromise.

Trustees provide for the needs of the firefighters ongoing training as provincial mandates change, provide updated equipment as required and mandated, looking ahead at large replacement items required by insurance and provincial regulations, along with upkeep and maintenance costs of equipment and buildings.  Trustees work to not only bring passion to this position, but also perspective.

The above describes general principles for approaching the job of Trustee in the context of a fire improvement district, but does not include mandated requirements relating to the position. The legal responsibilities of Trustees are laid out in legislation, as described in the Improvement District Trustee’s Handbook: “Generally, a board of trustees has all the powers necessary or useful for managing the improvement district’s services. Some of these powers include taxation, regulation, the acquisition and disposal of property, borrowing, expropriations, the hiring of employees and the ability to enter into contracts.” (p4)

The Handbook explains that there are 4 principle roles for Trustees (p6, paraphrased):

  • Acting as elected representative for their whole community: facilitating clear and transparent communication between the improvement district and the community. “Trustees are expected to act in the best interest of the community and strive to govern in the best interests of the residents.” (IDM sBp9)
  • Ensuring adequate and ongoing funding and administrative resources and capacities through responsible financial stewardship
  • Making policies to provide direction to both the board of trustees and improvement district employees
  • Making laws relating to borrowing, levying taxes, and entering into contracts.

Re the third point, the Improvement District Manual adds that although “Trustees should not be involved in the day-to-day improvement district administration” (IDM sBp12), Trustee statutory duties include “The appointment and dismissal of officers or employees and deciding the terms and conditions of their employment (Section 738.4).” (IDM sBp9)

Commentary on other items on the FAQ list:

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Yes, there will be an election.

There are three open positions for the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District Board of Trustees. As reported in the May 28th edition of the Sounder News, six candidates have filed to stand in the election on June 18th, which means that a vote will be held. The candidates are:

  • Chris Bowers
  • Oliver Bussler (former firefighter)
  • David Chorneyko (former firefighter)
  • Paul Giffin (standing for re-election)
  • Rick Jackson (former Fire Chief)
  • Wayne Mercier

Mark your calendar:

  • An All Candidates Meeting has been scheduled to be hosted by Gabriola Talks on Wednesday, June 4th, at 7pm at the Agi Hall.
  • Election polls are open: June 18th, 12 noon to 7 pm, at Fire Hall #1 on Church Street
  • Annual General Meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District: June 18th, 7 pm, at Fire Hall #1 on Church Street

We will post links and more information as we receive them.

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The annual general meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District (GFPID) will be held on June 18th, 2025, specific times TBA. There will be no advance poll or mail-in ballots for absentees.

Voter requirements (Letters Patent): "At any general meeting every person shall be qualified to vote who is a Canadian citizen, is eighteen years old or older and is an owner of land in the improvement district." (There are also provisions extending voting rights to agents of land-owning businesses and representatives of incapacitated individuals.)

The GFPID Letters Patent provide for seven (7) Trustees, elected for 3-year terms. As per information received at the time of writing, there will be 3 Trustee positions open for election at this AGM, and the Board will soon put out a Call for Nominations. If the number of nominations received match the number of open positions or are fewer, the candidates will be elected by acclamation. If more candidates than openings stand for office an election will be held at the AGM and the meeting will continue until results are tallied and announced.

We will post more info as we receive it; watch for GFPID Chronicles for news.

The GFPID is an autonomous local government body responsible for providing fire protection services. As with all democratic government bodies, residents in a community express their opinions by voting for representatives—this is your opportunity to have your say. We encourage all Gabriola residents to attend the AGM and vote (if allowed by law to do so).

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Updated week of May 18th:

  • Q+A: question about mail-in or advance poll voting, questions about the proposed addition of a third Fire Chief position (2025-07 Trustees meeting).
  • Info + Resources: added David Chorneyko's letter to the editor explaining why he recommends conversion to RDN management (and announcing that he will stand as a candidate for election to the Board of Trustees for the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District).

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Welcome to GFPID Chronicles. We hope that you will find its content helpful as you try to navigate the complexities of local governance relating to the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District.

You will find most of the content of this website on static pages; see the menu for links to those. We'll update those pages with new information when it is available.

How can I find updates?

We plan to make blog posts when something important happens that we can link to, and to post semi-regular notices when we add updates. You'll be able to find the most recent posts under Recent Posts in the sidebar. Looking for something specific? Try the search bar.

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How can I help?

Easy! Send links and verifiable information via our contact form.

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